Exploration & Expansion in the 20th century

351 sourced entries, 1900 CE to 1999 CE, oldest first. Also see Exploration & Expansion across every century or everything else in the 20th century.

• 1900January 2 – U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote American trade with China.source
• 1900February 16 – The British-sponsored Southern Cross Expedition led by Carsten Borchgrevink achieves a new Farthest South of 78° 50'S, making the first landing at the Great Ice Barrier.source
• 1900March 5 – Two U.S. Navy cruisers are sent to Central America to protect American interests in a dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.source
• 1900March 16 – British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans purchases the land on Crete on which the ruins of the Palace of Knossos stand. He begins to unearth some of the palace three days later.source
• 1900May – American explorer Robert Peary is the first person to sight Kaffeklubben Island.source
• 1900July 12 – The new German cruise liner SS Deutschland breaks the record for the Blue Riband on her maiden transatlantic voyage with an average speed of 22.4 kn km/h.source
• 1901May 28 – D'Arcy Concession: Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar of Persia grants British businessman William Knox D'Arcy a concession giving him an exclusive right to prospect for oil.source
• 1901August 6 – Discovery Expedition: Robert Falcon Scott sets sail from Britain on the RRS Discovery to explore the Ross Sea in Antarctica.source
• 1901October 24 – Michigan schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives.source
• 1902July 14 – Agustín Lizárraga discovers Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas".source
• 1902November 15 – The Hanoi exhibition opens in French Indochina.source
• 1902December 30 – Discovery Expedition: British explorers Scott, Shackleton and Wilson reach the furthest southern point reached thus far by man, south of 82°S.source
• 1903May 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens.source
• 1903December 16 – The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai), India opens.source
• 1904March 6 – Scottish National Antarctic Expedition: Led by William Speirs Bruce, the Antarctic region of Coats Land is discovered from the Scotia.source
• 1904April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri (closes December 1).source
• 1904May 5 – British expedition to Tibet: Hundreds of Tibetans attack the British camp at Changlo, and hold the advantage for a while, before being defeated by superior weapons, and losing at least 200 men.source
• 1904August 3 – British expedition to Tibet: The British expedition under Colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa, Tibet.source
• 1904September 7 – British expedition to Tibet: The Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with Colonel Francis Younghusband.source
• 1904September – Stuyvesant High School opens in New York City as Manhattan's first manual trade school for boys.source
• 1904November 16 – The settlement at Grytviken, on the British South Atlantic island territory of South Georgia, is established by Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen, as a whaling station for his Compañía Argentina de Pesca.source
• 1905February 5 – The French ship Anjou is wrecked off of the coast of the uninhabited Auckland Island, located 290 mi from the nearest inhabited land in New Zealand. The castaways live on the isle for more than three months until being rescued on May 7.source
• 1905July 10 – A Japanese expedition takes control of the Russian island of Sakhalin after a short battle.source
• 1905August 26 – Near Point Barrow, Alaska, the crew of the Norwegian ship Gjoa, led by Roald Amundsen, make the breakthrough of finding the long-sought "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.source
• 1906November 1 – International Exhibition opens in Christchurch, New Zealand.source
• 1907April 24 – Al Ahly SC is founded in Cairo by Omar Lotfi, as a gathering place for Egyptian students' unions in the struggle against colonization; it is the first association football club officially founded in Egypt or Africa.source
• 1907September 7 – British Cunard Line passenger liner sets out on her maiden voyage, from Liverpool (England) to New York City.source
• 1907December 16 – The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.source
• 1908January 1 – The British Nimrod Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand for Antarctica on the Nimrod.source
• 1908March 27 – The first Scout troop outside the U.K. is formed in Gibraltar.source
• 1908A 40,000-year-old Neanderthal boy skeleton is found at Le Moustier in southwest France, by Otto Hauser.source
• 1908April 21 – Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this date.source
• 1908May 14–October 31 – The Franco-British Exhibition (1908) is held in London.source
• 1908May 26 – At Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.source
• 1908July 6 – Robert Peary sets sail for the North Pole.source
• 1908October 1 – Penny Post is established between the United Kingdom and United States.source
• 1909January 9 – The British Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, led by Ernest Shackleton, arrives at the farthest south reached by any prior expedition, at 88°23' S, prior to turning back due to diminishing supplies.source
• 1909January 16 – Members of the Nimrod Expedition claim to have found the magnetic South Pole (but the location recorded may be incorrect).source
• 1909April 6 – Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and four Inuit explorers – Ootah, Ooqueah, Seegloo and Egigingwah – come within a few miles of the North Pole.source
• 1910January 11 – Charcot Island is discovered by the Antarctic expedition led by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot on the ship Pourquoi Pas?source
• 1910February 12 – Chinese expedition to Tibet: A force of 2,000 Chinese troops march into Lhasa, the capital of Tibet; the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, is forced to flee to British India.source
• 1910June 3 – The Norwegian Antarctic Expedition, led by Roald Amundsen on the steamer Fram, departs from Christiania (modern-day Oslo). No announcement until later in the year of Amundsen's intention to reach the South Pole.source
• 1910June 15 – The British Antarctic Expedition, led by Robert Falcon Scott on the whaler Terra Nova, departs from Cardiff for the South Pole.source
• 1911January 4 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Robert Falcon Scott's British Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole arrives in the Antarctic and establishes a base camp at Cape Evans on Ross Island.source
• 1911January 14 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Roald Amundsen's Norwegian South Pole expedition arrives in the Antarctic and establishes a base camp at the Bay of Whales on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.source
• 1911June 21 – arrives in New York at the end of her maiden voyage.source
• 1911June 28 – departs New York for her maiden eastbound voyage home to Southampton, England.source
• 1911July 5 – arrives in Southampton ending her maiden eastbound voyage from New York.source
• 1911July 24 – Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu in Peru.source
• 1911July 28 – The Australasian Antarctic Expedition begins as the SY Aurora departs London.source
• 1911August 29 – Ishi, the last unassimilated Native American in the U.S. using stone tools, emerges from hiding near Oroville, California.source
• 1911October 20 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Amundsen's expedition sets out for the South Pole from his base camp.source
• 1911November 1 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Capt. Scott's Terra Nova Expedition sets out for the South Pole from his base camp.source
• 1911December 2 – Australasian Antarctic Expedition sets sail from Hobart.source
• 1911December 14 – Amundsen and Scott expeditions: Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition reaches the geographical South Pole, 34 days ahead of Capt. Scott. News of Amundsen's success will not reach the outside world until next March.source
• 1911December 18 – The first exhibition by Der Blaue Reiter group of painters opens in Munich.source
• 1912January 17 – British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four become the second expeditionary group to reach the South Pole.source
• 1912March 7 – Roald Amundsen, in Hobart, Tasmania, announces his success in reaching the South Pole the previous December.source
• 1912March 16 – Lawrence Oates, dying member of Scott's South Pole expedition, leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time."source
• 1912March 29 (probable date) – Robert Falcon Scott and the remaining members of his South Pole expedition die.source
• 1912April 16 – Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel.source
• 1913June 13 – The predecessor of the Aldi store chain opens in Essen, Germany.source
• 1913July 27 – The town of San Javier, Uruguay, is founded by Russian settlers.source
• 1913September 23 – French aviator Roland Garros crosses the Mediterranean in an airplane flying from Fréjus, France to Bizerte, Tunisia.source
• 1913Prada is established as a leather goods dealer in Milan, by Mario Prada and his brother.source
• 1914January 1 – The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line in the United States starts services between St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, becoming the first airline to provide scheduled regular commercial passenger services with heavier-than-air aircraft.source
• 1914March 29 – Katherine Routledge and her husband arrive on Easter Island, to make the first true study of it (they depart in August 1915).source
• 1914May 1–November 1 – The Exposition Internationale is held at Lyon, France.source
• 1914May 30 – Ocean liner makes her maiden voyage.source
• 1914June 29 – The International Exhibition opens at the "White City", Ashton Gate, Bristol. It closes on August 15, and the site is used as a military depot.source
• 1914July 18 – Mahatma Gandhi leaves South Africa for the last time, sailing out of Cape Town for England, on board the S.S. Kinfauns Castle.source
• 1914August 8 – Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition sets sail on the Endurance from Britain, in an attempt to cross Antarctica.source
• 1914December 5 – The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition begins its attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.source
• 1914December 19 – Mohandas Gandhi leaves England, sailing for India on this date (accompanied by his wife Kasturba). He begins to learn the Bengali language whilst on board.source
• 1915February 20 – In San Francisco, the Panama–Pacific International Exposition is opened.source
• 1915April 21 – On the orders of Talat Pasha, Haydar Bey organized an expedition against the Assyrians. He killed thousands of Assyrians along with Kurdish tribes.source
• 1915May 6 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: SY Auroras drift – The breaks loose from its anchorage during a gale, beginning a 312-day ordeal.source
• 1915November 21 – British polar exploration ship Endurance finally breaks apart from pressure of ice around it and sinks into the Weddell Sea, stranding Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition party in the Antarctic. The wreck is discovered at a depth of 3,008 metres (9,869 ft), 107 years later in 2022.source
• 1915December 4–18 – The 'Peace Ship' Oscar II chartered by industrialist Henry Ford sails from Hoboken, New Jersey to Oslo on an independent and eventually unsuccessful mission to broker a peace conference.source
• 1916April 24–May 10 – Voyage of the James Caird: An open boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean (800 nmi km mi) is undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions, to obtain rescue for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, following the loss of its ship Endurance.source
• 1916August 30 – The crew of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's is rescued from Elephant Island.source
• 1917January 10 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party are rescued after being stranded for several months.source
• 1917Raid on Nekhl: Units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force completely reoccupy the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.source
• 1917May 22 – The Commissioned Officer Corps of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is established.source
• 1918March 6 – The Finnish Army Corps of Aviation is founded as a forerunner of the Finnish Air Force (established on 4 May 1928). The blue swastika is adopted as its symbol, as a tribute to the Swedish explorer and aviator Eric von Rosen, who donated the first plane. Von Rosen had painted the Viking symbol on the plane as his personal lucky insignia.source
• 1919May 8–27 – United States Navy Curtiss flying boat NC-4, commanded by Albert Cushing Read, makes the first transatlantic flight, from Naval Air Station Rockaway to Lisbon via Trepassey, Newfoundland (departs May 16) and the Azores (arrives May 17). (On May 30–31 it flies on to Plymouth in England.)source
• 1919June 14–15 – A Vickers Vimy piloted by British aviator John Alcock, with navigator Arthur Whitten Brown, makes the first nonstop transatlantic flight, from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara, Ireland.source
• 1919September 6 – The U.S. Army expedition across North America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco.source
• 1919September 12 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, with his entourage, marches into Fiume and convinces Italian troops to join him.source
• 1921June 15 – Compagnie Générale Transatlantique's liner makes her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York.source
• 1922November 4 – Discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun: in Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to the pharaonic tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.source
• 1922Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, designs and makes rodeo's first hornless bronc saddle at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.source
• 1923July 13 – American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews discovers the first dinosaur eggs near Flaming Cliffs, Mongolia.source
• 1923August 13 – The first major seagoing ship arrives at Gdynia, the newly constructed Polish seaport.source
• 1923October 13 – The first recorded example of a storm crossing from the Eastern Pacific into the Atlantic occurs in Oaxaca.source
• 1924June 5 – Ernst Alexanderson sends the first facsimile across the Atlantic Ocean, which goes to his father in Sweden.source
• 1924June 8 – British mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are last seen "going strong for the top" of Mount Everest by teammate Noel Odell at 12:50 P.M. They are never seen alive again.source
• 1924September 28 – U.S. Army pilots John Harding and Erik Nelson complete the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. It has taken them 175 days and 74 stops before their return to Seattle.source
• 1924Spring – Francophone explorer, spiritualist and former operatic soprano Alexandra David-Néel, disguised as a male pilgrim, makes a 2-month stay in the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet.source
• 1925Frank Heath and his horse Gypsy Queen leave Washington, D.C. to begin a two-year journey to visit all 48 states.source
• 1925May 29 – English explorer Percy Fawcett sends a last telegram to his wife before he disappears in the Amazon.source
• 1925July 21 – English racing motorist Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph 0 on land when at Pendine Sands in Wales he drives a Sunbeam 350HP automobile at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph 0.source
• 1925August 31 – Anthropologist Margaret Mead lands in American Samoa to begin nine months of field work that will culminate in her 1928 book Coming of Age in Samoa. The bestselling book will become the first popular anthropological study and will change many attitudes towards tribal peoples.source
• 1925November 17 – The New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition, a world's fair, opens in Dunedin, New Zealand.source
• 1925December 12 – The first motel in the world, the Milestone Mo-Tel (later the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo), opens in San Luis Obispo, California.source
• 1926March 6 – The first commercial air route from the United Kingdom to South Africa is established by Alan Cobham.source
• 1926May 9 – Explorer Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett claim to be the first to fly over the North Pole in the Josephine Ford monoplane, taking off from Spitsbergen, Norway and returning 15 hours and 44 minutes later. Both men are immediately hailed as national heroes, though some experts have since been skeptical of the claim, believing that the plane was unlikely to have covered the entire distance and back in that short an amount of time. An entry in Byrd's diary, discovered in 1996, suggests that the plane actually turned back 150 miles short of the North Pole, due to an oil leak.source
• 1926July 1 – The Kuomintang begins the Northern Expedition, a military unification campaign in northern China.source
• 1926Stephen H. Langdon begins excavations in Jemdet Nasr, finding proto-cuneiform clay tablets (3100–2900 BCE).source
• 1927January 7 – The Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team play their first ever road game in Hinckley, Illinois.source
• 1927April 27 – João Ribeiro de Barros becomes the first non-European to make a transatlantic flight, flying from Genoa, Italy, to Fernando de Noronha, Brazil.source
• 1927June 29–July 1 – Commander Richard E. Byrd, Bernt Balchen, George Noville and Bert Acosta take off from Roosevelt Field, New York, in the Fokker Trimotor airplane America, and cross the Atlantic to the coast of France, having to ditch there because of bad weather; all four men survive the emergency landing.source
• 1927October 4 – Carving of the sculptures at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, begins.source
• 1928March 24 – Excavation work begins after the old Canaanite city of Ugarit is accidentally rediscovered.source
• 1928June 9 – Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew complete the first flight across the Pacific Ocean, from the mainland United States to Australia, in the Fokker F.VII aircraft Southern Cross. Having left Oakland, California on May 31, they reach Brisbane via Honolulu and Fiji.source
• 1928June 24 – A Swedish aeroplane rescues some survivors of the Italian North Pole expedition, including Umberto Nobile. The Soviet icebreaker Krasin saves the rest July 12.source
• 1929March 30 – Imperial Airways begins operating the first commercial flights between London and Karachi.source
• 1929August 8–29 – German rigid airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin makes a circumnavigation of the Northern Hemisphere eastabout out of Lakehurst, New Jersey, including the first nonstop flight of any kind across the Pacific Ocean (Tokyo–Los Angeles).source
• 1931October 5 – American aviators Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon Jr., complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, flying their plane, Miss Veedol, from Misawa, Japan, to East Wenatchee, Washington, in 41½ hours.source
• 1932April 5 – The first Alko stores are opened in Finland at 10 in the morning (local time) following the end of Prohibition in that country, resulting in a new mnemonic "543210".source
• 1932May 20–21 – Amelia Earhart flies from the United States to County Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours 54 minutes.source
• 1932June 20 – The Benelux customs union is negotiated.source
• 1932July 21 – The British Empire Economic Conference opens in Ottawa, Canada.source
• 1932August 18–19 – Scottish aviator Jim Mollison becomes the first pilot to make an East-to-West solo transatlantic flight, from Portmarnock, County Dublin, Ireland to RCAF Station Pennfield Ridge, New Brunswick, Canada, in his de Havilland Puss Moth high-wing monoplane The Heart's Content.source
• 1932November 27 – The Second Eastern Women's Congress opens in Tehran, Iran.source
• 1933January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand.source
• 1933April 3 – The first flight over Mount Everest is made by the British Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition, led by the Marquis of Clydesdale, and funded by Lucy, Lady Houston.source
• 1933April 11 – Aviator Bill Lancaster takes off from Lympne in England, in an attempt to make a speed record to the Cape of Good Hope, but vanishes (his body is not found in the Sahara Desert until 1962).source
• 1933May 27 – The Century of Progress World's Fair opens in Chicago.source
• 1933November 16 – American aviator Jimmie Angel becomes the first foreigner to see the Angel Falls in Venezuela (they are named after him).source
• 1934August 15 – The United States Marine Corps leaves Haiti.source
• 1934October 20–November 3 – Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first eastward crossing of the Pacific Ocean, from his native Brisbane, Australia, to San Francisco, in the Lockheed Altair Lady Southern Cross. The November 3 Hawaii–San Francisco leg is the first eastward flight from Hawaii to North America.source
• 1935May 29 – The French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique ocean liner sets out on her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York, which she will reach in 4 days, 3 hours and 14 minutes, taking the Blue Riband; she gains the eastbound record on her return passage.source
• 1935July 1 – sails from Southampton to Rosyth to be broken up.source
• 1935October 6 – The wreckage of the RMS Lusitania is discovered.source
• 1935November 22 – The flying boat China Clipper takes off from Alameda, California, United States, to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean; on November 29 the aircraft reaches its final destination, Manila, and delivers over 110,000 pieces of mail.source
• 1935December 12 – The De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea, designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, a pioneering example of International Style architecture, opens in England.source
• 1936September 4–5 – English-born aviator Beryl Markham becomes the first woman to make an east-to-west solo transatlantic flight, from Abingdon-on-Thames, England, to Baleine, Nova Scotia.source
• 1937May 21 – A Russian manned ice station becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.source
• 1937July 2 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear after taking off from New Guinea, during Earhart's attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world.source
• 1938March 27 – Italian mathematician Ettore Majorana disappears suddenly under mysterious circumstances, while travelling by ship from Palermo to Naples.source
• 1938July 24 – The north face of the Eiger in the Alps is first ascended.source
• 1938September 25 – British Royal Navy is ordered to sea.source
• 1939February 18 – The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco.source
• 1939March 28 – American adventurer Richard Halliburton delivers a last message from a Chinese junk, before he disappears on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean. In 1945, some wreckage identified as a rudder, and believed to belong to the junk, washes ashore in San Diego, California.source
• 1939July 8 – The Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service, between the United States (Port Washington, New York) and Britain.source
• 1939October 7 – WWII: British Royal Navy cruiser departs Plymouth in convoy for Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying £2M in gold bar to be used for purchase of military materiel in North America, a predecessor of Operation Fish.source
• 1940March 11 – Ed Ricketts, John Steinbeck and six others leave Monterey, California, United States, for the Gulf of California, on a marine invertebrate collecting expedition.source
• 1940June 24 – WWII: Operation Fish – British Royal Navy cruiser sails from Greenock (Scotland) in convoy for Halifax, Nova Scotia (arriving July 1), carrying a large part of the gold reserves of the United Kingdom and securities for safe keeping in Canada.source
• 1940July 5 – WWII: Operation Fish – A British convoy including HMS Batory sails from Greenock (Scotland) for Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying gold bar and other valuables worth $1.7 billion for safe keeping in Canada, the largest movement of wealth in history.source
• 1941Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu to study the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, in preparation for a future attack.source
• 1941April – The Valley of Geysers is discovered on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, by Tatyana Ustinova.source
• 1941October 31 – The last day of carving on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.source
• 1941British submarine is mined off Cephalonia.source
• 1941Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland, the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.source
• 1942June 12–15 – WWII: Operation Harpoon – An Allied convoy under Admiral Alban Curteis leaves from Gibraltar with 6 merchant ships escorted by the British battleship HMS Malaya, aircraft carriers HMS Argus and HMS Eagle, 4 cruisers and 17 destroyers to Malta. Two of the six merchant ships completes the journey, at the cost of several Allied warships.source
• 1942June 27 – WWII: Allied Convoy PQ 17 sails from Iceland, with 35 merchant ships and 3 passenger ships that have been refitted for rescuing the crews of torpedoed ships. There are also one tanker, 6 destroyers and 13 smaller ships for close escort. The convoy is destined for the Soviet port of Archangelsk.source
• 1942August 17 – WWII: Raid on Makin Island: US Marines of the 2nd Raider Battalion (211 men) under Lt. Col. Evans Carlson embark aboard the submarines Argonaut and Nautilus at Pearl Harbor. The aim is to destroy the Japanese installations and gather intelligence. Only the first of these objectives is achieved, but the raid does boost morale and provide a test for Raider tactics.source
• 1942November 21 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the "highway" is not usable by general vehicles until 1943).source
• 1942November 29 – The Blue Star Line cargo liner runs aground on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. Crew and passengers survive, following a 26-day overland trek to Windhoek.source
• 1943A fleet sets sail for the Allied invasion of Sicily.source
• 1943John F. Kennedy and crew are found by Solomon Islands coastwatchers Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, with their dugout canoe.source
• 1944The United States 36th Infantry Division in Italy attempts to cross the Rapido River.source
• 1944Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush ("Operation Lentil"): Forced deportation of Chechens and Ingush people from North Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia by the Soviet authorities begins.source
• 1944Landing on Emirau: 4,000 United States Marines land on Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago to develop an airbase, as part of Operation Cartwheel.source
• 1944June 1 – Two K-class blimps of the United States Navy complete the first transatlantic crossing by non-rigid airships, from the U.S. to French Morocco, with two stops.source
• 1944British Group Captain James Stagg correctly forecasts a brief improvement in weather conditions over the English Channel, which will permit the following day's Normandy landings to take place (having been deferred from today due to unfavourable weather).source
• 1944The German navy's Enigma messages are decoded in England almost in real time.source
• 1944A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the , marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the War of 1812. Some significant intelligence data is acquired.source
• 1944The first contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrives in Italy.source
• 1944October 12 – Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen returns to Vancouver, becoming the first person successfully to navigate the Northwest Passage in both directions, in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner . His westbound voyage is the first completed in a single season, and the first passage through the Prince of Wales Strait.source
• 1944Last known evidence of the existence of the Asiatic lion in the wild in Khuzestan Province, Persia.source
• 1945American official Alger Hiss is congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing the positions of the Western powers and the Soviet Union closer to each other at the Yalta Conference.source
• 1945The Australian government introduces an Assisted Passage Migration Scheme to encourage the immigration of British subjects, at a fare of £10, hence they become known as "Ten Pound Poms".source
• 1946January 28 – The Canadian schooner Bluenose founders on a Haitian reef.source
• 1946April 28 – Kinderdorf Pestalozzi (Pestalozzi Children's Village) is established at Trogen, Switzerland to accommodate and educate orphans of World War II, according to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's principles.source
• 1946July 5 – The bikini is first modeled in Paris.source
• 1946November 12 – In Chicago, a branch of the Exchange National Bank (later part of the Bank of America) opens the first 10 drive-up teller windows.source
• 1946December 14 – Aspen Skiing Company opens Aspen Mountain (ski area) in Colorado with Ski Lift No. 1, at 7980 ft km the world's longest chairlift at this time.source
• 1946Eva Perón tours Spain, Italy and France on behalf of Argentina, a circuit called the Rainbow Tour.source
• 1947February 5 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces the £25 million Tanganyika groundnut scheme, for cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory.source
• 1947April 18 – 'Mrs. Ples', an Australopithecus africanus skull, is discovered in the Sterkfontein area in Transvaal, South Africa.source
• 1947April – The previous discovery of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' in the Qumran Caves (above the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) by Bedouin shepherds, becomes known.source
• 1947August 7 – Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands, after a 101-day, 4,300 mile, voyage across the Eastern Pacific Ocean, demonstrating that prehistoric peoples could have traveled to the Central Pacific islands from South America.source
• 1947September 13 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suggests the exchange of four million Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan.source
• 1948August 17 – The HUAC holds a private session between Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers.source
• 1949July 11 – Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn, under sail alone.source
• 1949November 7 – Oil is discovered beneath the Caspian Sea, off the coast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.source
• 1950May 29 – St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.source
• 1950June 3 – Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, of the French Annapurna expedition, become the first climbers to reach the summit of an 8,000-metre peak.source
• 1950November 28 – The Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic Development in South and South-East Asia comes into effect.source
• 1952May 18 – Ann Davison becomes the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.source
• 1952July 3 - The SS United States Has Her maiden voyage en route from New York To Southampton And wins the Blue Ribandsource
• 1952October 19 – Alain Bombard begins to sail from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 65 days without using provisions; he reaches them December 23.source
• 1952The Nordic Council agrees to the unrestricted transport of people, goods and services throughout the Nordic Countries.source
• 1953January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.source
• 1953January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo.source
• 1953May 29 – 1953 British Mount Everest expedition: Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal become the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.source
• 1953July 3 – The first ascent of Nanga Parbat in the Pakistan Himalayas, the world's ninth highest mountain, is made by Austrian climber Hermann Buhl alone on a German–Austrian expedition.source
• 1953August – High Arctic relocation of Inuit families by the Government of Canada.source
• 1953November 21 – Puerto Williams is founded in Chile, as the southernmost settlement of the world.source
• 1954April 10 – The modern form of value-added tax is first implemented by Maurice Lauré, joint director of the French tax authority, in France's Ivory Coast colony.source
• 1954April 26 – An international conference on Korea and Indo-China opens in Geneva.source
• 1954July 31 – 1954 Italian expedition to K2: Italian mountaineers Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni become the first to reach the summit of the second highest mountain in the world, in the Karakoram range.source
• 1955April 15 – The first franchised McDonald's restaurant is opened by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.source
• 1955April 18–24 – The Asian-African Conference is held in Bandung, Indonesia.source
• 1955May 15 – Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy become the first people to reach the summit of Makalu, the fifth-highest mountain in the world, on the 1955 French Makalu expedition. The entire team of climbers reaches the summit over the next two days.source
• 1955May 18 – Free movement of residents between North and South Vietnam ends.source
• 1955May 25 – Joe Brown and George Band are the first to climb Kangchenjunga in the Himalayas, as part of the British Kangchenjunga expedition led by Charles Evans.source
• 1956April 19 – British diver Lionel (Buster) Crabb (working for MI6) dives into Portsmouth Harbour, to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser, and vanishes.source
• 1956May 18 – Lhotse main summit, the fourth highest mountain (on the Nepalese–Tibetan border) is first ascended, by Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss.source
• 1956June 29 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway System in the United States.source
• 1956July 8 – The mountain Gasherbrum II, on the border of Pakistan and China, is first ascended, by an Austrian expedition.source
• 1956November 14 – An eight-mile long stretch of highway is opened west of Topeka, Kansas, creating the first portion of the Interstate Highway System in the United States and the first highway to be completed with funds from the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956.source
• 1956November 25 – Fidel Castro and Che Guevara depart from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, en route to Santiago de Cuba aboard the yacht Granma, with 82 men.source
• 1957June 9 – Broad Peak, on the China-Pakistan border, is first ascended.source
• 1957The so-called 'mound of Midas', the Great Tumulus near Gordium, is excavated.source
• 1958January 4 – Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third overland journey to the South Pole, the first to use powered vehicles.source
• 1958March 2 – A British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition team, led by Sir Vivian Fuchs, completes the first overland crossing of the Antarctic, using snowcat caterpillar tractors and dogsled teams, in 99 days, via the South Pole.source
• 1958June 1 – Iceland extends its fishing limits to 12 miles (22.2 km).source
• 1958July 26 – Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched in the United States.source
• 1958September 18 – BankAmericard, the first credit card to be widely offered, is launched in Fresno, California in what becomes known as the "Fresno Drop".source
• 1958December 14 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first ever to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility.source
• 1958December 16 – Soviet polar pilot V. M. Perov on Li-2 rescues four Belgian polar explorers, led by Gaston de Gerlache, who have survived a plane crash in Antarctica 250 km from their base five days earlier.source
• 1958For the first time, the total of transatlantic passengers carried by air this year exceeds the total carried by sea.source
• 1959March 17 – Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama escapes Tibet and arrives in India.source
• 1959March 31 – The Dalai Lama is granted asylum in India.source
• 1959April 25 – The Saint Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.source
• 1959August 7 – Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.source
• 1959Nylon pantyhose, or sheer tights, are first sold on the open market as 'Panti-Legs' by Glen Raven Knitting Mills in the United States.source
• 1960January 10 – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech for the first time, to little publicity, in Accra, Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana).source
• 1960May 10 – The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine , under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach Jr., completes the first underwater circumnavigation of the Earth (codenamed Operation Sandblast).source
• 1960May 13 – A joint Swiss and Austrian expedition makes the first ascent of the Asian mountain Dhaulagiri, the world's 7th highest.source
• 1960June 15 – The BC Ferries company, later to become the second-largest ferry operator in the world, commences service between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay, British Columbia, Canada.source
• 1960July 21 – English navigator Francis Chichester wins the first Single-Handed Trans-Atlantic Race, arriving in New York aboard Gypsy Moth III having made a record solo Atlantic crossing in 40 days.source
• 1961March 8 – Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth by light plane in 8 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes, setting a new world record.source
• 1961March–April – Drilling for Project Mohole is undertaken off the coast of Guadalupe Island, Mexico.source
• 1961May 4 – U.S. Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides, to test the new U.S. Supreme Court integration decision.source
• 1962February 18 – 1962 NHRA Winternationals: Carol Cox becomes the first woman allowed to race at a National Hot Rod Association national event in the United States; she wins in the Super Stock class.source
• 1962March 15 – Katangan Prime Minister Moise Tshombe begins negotiations to rejoin the Congo.source
• 1962May 1 – Dayton Hudson Corporation opens the first of its Target discount stores, in Roseville, Minnesota.source
• 1962July 30 – Trans-Canada Highway officially opens throughout the 4645 mi between St. John's, Newfoundland, and Victoria, British Columbia, by completion of the Rogers Pass section, making it at this time the world's longest uninterrupted highway.source
• 1962November 17 – Dulles International Airport, in Washington, D.C., is dedicated by President John F. Kennedy.source
• 1963August 15- King of Prussia Mall opens to the public in the Philadelphia Metropolitan area and is one of the top ten largest malls in the U.S.source
• 1965October 10 – The first group of Cuban refugees travels to the U.S.source
• 1965December 15 – The Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) is formed.source
• 1966January 20 - The Radio Caroline ship Mi Amigo runs aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, UK.source
• 1966January 26 – Disappearance of the Beaumont children: Three children disappear on their way to Glenelg, South Australia, never to be seen again. Their fate remains unknown.source
• 1966December 19 – The Asian Development Bank begins operations.source
• 1967May 1 – GO Transit, Canada's first interregional public transit system, is established.source
• 1967July 20 – Chilean poet Pablo Neruda receives the first Viareggio-Versile prize.source
• 1967September 27 – The arrives in Southampton at the end of her last transatlantic crossing.source
• 1967Lonsdaleite (the rarest allotrope of carbon) is first discovered in the Barringer Crater, Arizona.source
• 1968May 1 – CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, is formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.source
• 1968July 4 – English yachtsman Alec Rose, 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth, after his 354-day solo round-the-world trip.source
• 1968July 25- Tysons Corner Center one of the largest malls in the U.S. opens to the public and the Washington DC area.source
• 1968An oil field is confirmed in Northern Alaska: the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field.source
• 1969March 22 – The landmark art exhibition When Attitudes become Form, curated by Harald Szeemann, opens at the Kunsthalle Bern in Bern, Switzerland.source
• 1969April 22 – English sailor Robin Knox-Johnston becomes the first person to sail around the world solo without stopping.source
• 1969June 8 – Francisco Franco orders the closing of the Gibraltar–Spain border and communications between Gibraltar and Spain in response to the 1967 Gibraltar sovereignty referendum. The border remains closed until a partial reopening on December 15, 1982.source
• 1969July 19 – John Fairfax lands in Hollywood Beach, Florida, United States and becomes the first person to row across an ocean solo, after 180 days spent at sea on board the 25' ocean rowboat Britannia (left Gran Canaria on January 20, 1969).source
• 1969November 19 – Richard Oakes returns with 90 followers to Alcatraz Island and begins a 19 month long occupation, lasting until June 1971.source
• 1969December 24 – The oil company Phillips Petroleum made the first oil discovery in the Norwegian sector of North Sea.source
• 1970March 15 – The Expo '70 World's Fair opens in Suita, Osaka, Japan.source
• 1970May 17 – Thor Heyerdahl sets sail from Morocco on the papyrus boat Ra II, to cross the South Atlantic.source
• 1970July 12 – Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus boat Ra II arrives in Barbados.source
• 1970September 27 – Richard Nixon begins a tour of Europe, visiting Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.source
• 1970Women's movement starts in Oman with the establishment of the Omani Women's Association.source
• 1970The Sweet Track is discovered in England. It is the world's oldest engineered roadway at the time of its discovery.source
• 1970The first Regional Technical Colleges open in Ireland.source
• 1971March 2 – All-Pakistan Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched the non-cooperation movement in East Pakistan.source
• 1971March 25 – The North East Mall opens in Hurst, Texassource
• 1971May 5 – FedEx, the logistics and delivery service, founded in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States.source
• 1971June 14 – Norway begins oil production in the North Sea.source
• 1971June 18 – Southwest Airlines, a low-cost carrier, begins its first flights between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.source
• 1971August 16 – Hastings Banda, President of Malawi, becomes the first black president to visit South Africa.source
• 1971September 27–October 11 – Japanese Emperor Hirohito travels abroad.source
• 1971December 8 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the 7th Fleet to move towards the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean.source
• 1971December 30 – The first McDonald's in Australia opens in Yagoona, Sydney.source
• 1972Colombian looters find the lost 1st millennium city of Ciudad Perdida; it is not reached by official archaeologists until 1976.source
• 1973May 5 – Shambu Tamang becomes the youngest person to climb to the summit of Mount Everest.source
• 1973May 18 – Second Cod War: Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navy frigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed 80 km mi limit around Iceland.source
• 1973A large Song dynasty trade ship of c. 1277 A.D. is dredged up from the waters near the southern coast of China with 12 compartments in its hull. It confirms the descriptions of bulkheaded hull compartments for junks in Zhu Yu's Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119.source
• 1974May 4 – The Expo '74 world's fair opens in Spokane, Washington.source
• 1974May 4 – An all-female Japanese team summits Manaslu in Nepal, becoming the first women to climb an 8000 m ft peak.source
• 1975May 16 – Junko Tabei from Japan becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.source
• 1975September–October – In New Zealand, Māori leader Whina Cooper leads a march of 5,000 people, in support of Maori claims to their land.source
• 1975November 6 – The Green March begins: 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara.source
• 1976November 15 – The first megamouth shark is discovered off Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi.source
• 1977September 18 – Courageous (U.S.), skippered by Ted Turner, sweeps the Australian challenger Australia in the 24th America's Cup yacht race at Newport, Rhode Island.source
• 1977December – The Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic and Social Development in Asia and the Pacific (CESDAP) is implemented.source
• 1978May 8 – Reinhold Messner (Italy) and Peter Habeler (Austria) make the first ascent of Mount Everest, without supplemental oxygen.source
• 1978May 20 – Mavis Hutchinson, 53, becomes the first woman to run across the U.S.; her trek took 69 days.source
• 1979The remains of Tsar Nicholas II and some of the Romanovs are discovered and exhumed near Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg).source
• 1980April 10 – In Lisbon, Portugal, the governments of Spain and the United Kingdom agree to reopen the border between Gibraltar and Spain (closed since 1969) in 1985.source
• 1980August 31 – Victory of the strike in Gdańsk Shipyard, Poland. The Gdańsk Agreement is signed, opening a way to start the first free (i.e. not state-controlled) trade union in the communist bloc, "Solidarity" (Solidarność).source
• 1980September 17 – After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the nationwide independent trade union Solidarity is established.source
• 1981July 19 – The 1981 Springbok Tour commences in New Zealand, amid controversy over the support of apartheid.source
• 1981July 21 – Panda Tohui is born in Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, the first panda to ever be born and survive in captivity outside of China.source
• 1981December 7 – Rotary International charters the Rotary Club of Grand Baie, Mauritius.source
• 1982May 1 – A crowd of over 100,000 attends the first day of the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, which is kicked off with an address by President Ronald Reagan. Over 11 million people attend during its six-month run.source
• 1983July 22 – Australian Dick Smith completes his solo circumnavigation of the world in a helicopter.source
• 1984February 22 – President of Bangladesh, H M Ershad upgrades South Sylhet's sub-division status to a district and renames it back to Moulvibazar.source
• 1984August 4 – reaches a record submergence depth of 1,020 meters.source
• 1984September 18 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic, solo, in a hot air balloon.source
• 1984October 4 – Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer become the first Australians to reach the summit of Mount Everest.source
• 1985February 4 – The border between Gibraltar and Spain reopens for the first time since Francisco Franco closed it in 1969.source
• 1985March 17 – Expo '85, an international exhibition, opens in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, running until September 16.source
• 1985March 21 – Canadian paraplegic athlete and activist Rick Hansen sets out on his 26-month, 40,000 km mi Man in Motion tour, which raises US$26 million for spinal cord research and quality-of-life initiatives.source
• 1985September 1 – The wreck of the RMS Titanic is located by a joint American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard (WHOI) and Jean-Louis Michel (IFREMER) using side-scan sonar from RV Knorr.source
• 1986May 2 – Expo 86, the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, a World's fair, opens in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.source
• 1986October 29 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher officially opens the M25 Motorway, which encircles Greater London, in a ceremony on the carriageway near Potters Bar. It became Europe's second longest orbital road upon completion, and provides the first and only full bypass of London.source
• 1986December 23 – Rutan Voyager completes the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling in 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.source
• 1986Cadbury Dairy Milk range adopts separate wrappers for different countries until 1992.source
• 1987June 19 – Teddy Seymour is officially designated the first black man to sail around the world, when he completes his solo sailing circumnavigation in Frederiksted, St. Croix, of the United States Virgin Islands.source
• 1987August 7 – American Lynne Cox becomes the first person to swim the Bering Strait, crossing from Little Diomede Island to Big Diomede in 2 hours and 5 minutes.source
• 1988January 26 – A re-enactment of the First Fleet arrives in Sydney Harbour to mark the bicentenary of the First Fleet arriving in Australia in 1788.source
• 1988April 30 – World Expo 88 opens in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.source
• 1988Zebra mussels, a species originally native to the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, are found in the Great Lakes of North America.source
• 1989May 14 – Mikhail Gorbachev visits China, the first Soviet leader to do so since Nikita Khrushchev in the 1960s, ending the Sino-Soviet split.source
• 1989July 9–12 – U.S. President George H. W. Bush travels to Poland and Hungary, pushing for U.S. economic aid and investment.source
• 1989September 10 – The Hungarian government opens the country's western border (with Austria) to refugees from East Germany.source
• 1989September 30 – Nearly 7,000 East Germans who had come to Prague are allowed to leave for the West on special refugee trains.source
• 1989October – Cold War: Perestroika – Nathan's Famous opens a hot dog stand in Moscow.source
• 1989November 1 – The border between East Germany and Czechoslovakia is reopened.source
• 1989November 3 – East German refugees arrive at the West German town of Hof after being allowed through Czechoslovakia.source
• 1989November 16 – The first American cosmetics shop in the Soviet Union, an Estée Lauder outlet, opens in Moscow.source
• 1989December 11 – The International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, a group of six explorers from six nations, reaches the South Pole.source
• 1990March 3 – The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition, a group of six explorers from six nations, completes the first dog sled crossing of Antarctica.source
• 1990June 17–30 – Nelson Mandela tours North America, visiting 3 Canadian and 8 U.S. cities.source
• 1990October 8 – Globalization: The first McDonald's restaurant is opened in Mainland China in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong. Since 1979, Shenzhen has been a Special economic zone.source
• 1990October 17 – A major financial service of Russia, VTB Bank is founded in Russia SSR, former part of Soviet Union, as predecessor name was Vneshtorg Bank.source
• 1991September 19 – Ötzi the Iceman is found in the Alps.source
• 1991September 22 – The Huntington Library makes the Dead Sea Scrolls available to the public for the first time.source
• 1992January 19 – Paramount Leader of China Deng Xiaoping speaks in Shenzhen during his southern tour, a move that would return China on its right-wing march towards free market economics.source
• 1992February 28 – Ownership of the port town of Walvis Bay is transferred from South Africa to Namibia.source
• 1993Backstreet Boys were formed in Orlando, Florida.source
• 1993July 26 – Miguel Indurain wins the 1993 Tour de France.source
• 1993October 13 – The fifth summit of the Francophonie opens in Mauritius.source
• 1993November 17 – The first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit opens in Seattle.source
• 1995February 21 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.source
• 1995March 26 – The Schengen Agreement, easing cross-border travel, goes into effect in several European countries.source
• 1995June 29 – English yachtswoman Lisa Clayton completes her 10-month solo circumnavigation from the Northern Hemisphere.source
• 1996August 16 – Brookfield Zoo, Chicago. After a 3-year-old boy falls into the 20 ft m deep gorilla enclosure, Binti Jua, a female lowland gorilla sits with the injured boy until his rescue.source
• 1998Bill Clinton makes the first visit to South Africa by a U.S. president.source
• 1998June 27 – Kuala Lumpur International Airport officially opens, becoming the new international gateway into Malaysia.source
• 1998September 25 – Benoit Lecomte finishes his 72-day swim across the Atlantic Ocean, but uncertainty over the exact route and distance covered prevent him from being recognized as the first person to swim across the Atlantic.source
• 1999February 27 – While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes.source
• 1999March 21 – Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.source
• 1999October 1 – Shanghai Pudong International Airport opens in China, becoming the primary international airport serving Shanghai and taking over all international flights from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.source
• 1999December 3 – After rowing for 81 days and 5,486 kilometers (2,962 nautical miles), Tori Murden becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone, when she reaches Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.source