Technology & Infrastructure in the 20th century

1,117 sourced entries, 1900 CE to 1999 CE, oldest first. Also see Technology & Infrastructure across every century or everything else in the 20th century.

• 1900March 20 — Thomas Lambert received a patent for the first indestructible type of cylinder records.source
• 1900July 2 – The first zeppelin airship flight, by Zeppelin LZ 1, is carried out over Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen, Germany.source
• 1900July 19 – The first line of the Paris Metro opens.source
• 1900December 23 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first use of amplitude modulation (the basis for AM radio) for wireless transmission of the human voice, from Cobb Island (Maryland).source
• 1900December 28 – The first steel produced by electrometallurgy (from an electric furnace) is delivered.source
• 1901March 31 – The United Kingdom Census 1901 is taken. The number of people employed in manufacturing is at its highest-ever level.source
• 1901June 15 – is the first Cunard Line ship to receive a wireless radio set.source
• 1901July 4 – The 1,282 foot (390 m) covered bridge crossing the Saint John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada opens. It is the longest covered bridge in the world.source
• 1901July 10 – The world's first passenger-carrying trolleybus in regular service operates on the Biela Valley Trolleybus route at Königstein, Germany.source
• 1901August 14 – The first claimed powered flight is made, by German-born American aviator Gustave Whitehead, in his Number 21, in Connecticut.source
• 1901August 30 – Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner, in the United Kingdom.source
• 1901October 2 – The British Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, is launched at Barrow-in-Furness.source
• 1901November 18 – The Hay–Pauncefote Treaty is signed by the United Kingdom and United States, allowing the U.S. to build the Panama Canal under its sole control.source
• 1901December 12 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu, England, to St. John's, Newfoundland; it is the letter "S" in Morse code.source
• 1901December 20 – The final spike is driven into the Mombasa–Victoria–Uganda Railway, in modern-day Kisumu, Kenya.source
• 1901American businessman William S. Harley draws up plans for his first prototype motorcycle.source
• 1901German engineer Richard Fiedler invents the modern flamethrower, the Kleinflammenwerfer.source
• 1902January 1 – Nathan Stubblefield demonstrates his wireless telephone device in the U.S. state of Kentucky.source
• 1902February 15 – The Berlin U-Bahn underground is opened.source
• 1902April 11 – Tenor Enrico Caruso makes the first million-selling recording, for the Gramophone Company in Milan.source
• 1902April 13 – A new land speed record of 74 mph km/h is set in Nice, France, by Léon Serpollet driving a steam car.source
• 1902June 15 – The New York Central Railroad inaugurates the 20th Century Limited passenger train between Chicago and New York City.source
• 1902August 22 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American President to ride in an automobile, a Columbia Electric Victoria through Hartford, Connecticut.source
• 1902October 17 – First Cadillac completed, sold and sent to Buffalo, New Yorksource
• 1902December 10 – The first Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed.source
• 1902December 17 – The Commercial Telegraph Agency (TTA, Torgovo-Telegrafnue Agenstvo), predecessor of TASS, is officially established under the Ministry of Finance at Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire.source
• 1902December 21 – Newfoundland - Guglielmo Marconi sends wireless messages across the Atlantic.source
• 1902Construction of the Paul Doumer Bridge, linking both sections of Hanoi, is completed.source
• 1903January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been made in 1901).source
• 1903March 3 – The British Admiralty announces plans to build the Rosyth Dockyard as a naval base at Rosyth in Scotland.source
• 1903March 5 – The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople–Baghdad Railway.source
• 1903March 14 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian senate later rejects the treaty.source
• 1903June 16 – The Ford Motor Company is founded.source
• 1903July 1–19 – The first Tour de France is held; Maurice Garin wins it.source
• 1903September 11 – The first stock-car event is held at the Milwaukee Mile.source
• 1903November 6 – The English-language South China Morning Post newspaper is first published in Hong Kong.source
• 1903November 18 – The Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the U.S. exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.source
• 1903December 17 – Orville Wright flies an aircraft with a petrol engine, the Wright Flyer, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in the first documented and successful powered and controlled heavier-than-air flight.source
• 1903Compression Rheostat, the predecessor of industrial automation and industrial equipment parts brand Rockwell Automation, is founded in Wisconsin.source
• 1903American motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson is founded in Wisconsin.source
• 1903The first box of Crayola crayons is made and sold for five cents. It contains eight colors; brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet and black.source
• 1904January 7 – The distress signal CQD is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by SOS.source
• 1904February 23 – For $10 million, the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.source
• 1904March 3 – Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.source
• 1904May 4 – United States Army engineers begin work on the Panama Canal.source
• 1904May 4 – Charles Rolls and Henry Royce meet for the first time, in Manchester England to agree production of Rolls-Royce motor cars; the first produced under their joint names are launched in December.source
• 1904May 5 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.source
• 1904May 9 – Great Western Railway of England 3700 Class 3440 City of Truro possibly becomes the first railway locomotive to exceed 100 mph.source
• 1904July 22 – The first 2,000 of 62,000 contracted Chinese coolies arrive at Durban in South Africa from Qinhuangdao to relieve the shortage of unskilled labourers in the Transvaal Colony gold mines, recruited and shipped by the Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation (CEMC), of which Herbert Hoover is a director.source
• 1904July 23 – A continuous track tractor is patented by David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons of Grantham in England.source
• 1904September 1 – Griffin Park football ground, home of Brentford F.C., opens in London.source
• 1904September 2 – John Voss sails the rigged dugout canoe Tilikum into the River Thames in England after a 3-year voyage from Victoria, British Columbia, westabout.source
• 1904October 11 – Loftus Road football stadium opens in London.source
• 1904October 27 – The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens.source
• 1904November 16 – English engineer John Ambrose Fleming patents the first thermionic vacuum tube, the two-electrode diode ("oscillation valve" or Fleming valve).source
• 1904November 24 – A continuous track tractor is successfully demonstrated by the Holt Manufacturing Company in the United States. The "caterpillar track" will come to revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare.source
• 1905January 4 – The city of Bend, Oregon, plotted out in 1900 by Alexander Drake, is incorporated as a town for local logging companies, and will have a population of 536 in 1910. By the year 2020, it will have almost 100,000 residents.source
• 1905April 2 – The Simplon Tunnel through the Alps is opened to railway traffic.source
• 1905April 8 – Hundreds of people are killed in Spain in the collapse of a dam holding back a reservoir near Madrid.source
• 1905May 15 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acre of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks are auctioned to form what becomes Downtown Las Vegas.source
• 1905August 12 – The first running takes place of the Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb in England, the world's oldest motorsport event to be staged continuously on its original course.source
• 1905October 2 – is laid down in the United Kingdom, revolutionizing battleship design and triggering a naval arms race.source
• 1905October 5 – The Wright brothers' third aeroplane (Wright Flyer III) stays in the air for 39 minutes with Wilbur piloting, the first aeroplane flight lasting over half an hour.source
• 1905The Circum-Baikal Railway is brought into permanent operation, completing through rail communication on the Trans-Siberian Railway.source
• 1905November 28 – The Mataafa Storm buffets the Great Lakes region. Named after the ', a boat sunk outside of the Duluth Ship Canal, the storm ultimately destroys 29 vessels, leading to 29 deaths and shipping losses of US$3.567 million (1905 dollars).source
• 1905December 2 – Norsk Hydro, predecessor of Equinor, a state-run energy product and grid brand in Scandinavia, is founded in Norway.source
• 1906March 18 – In France, Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a heavier-than-air powered monoplane, but it is incapable of sustained flight.source
• 1906June 26 – The first autombile racing Grand Prix is the 1906 French Grand Prix held at Le Mans.source
• 1906August 4 – The first Imperial German Navy submarine, U-1, is launched.source
• 1906October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France, and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe.source
• 1906November 3 – becomes adopted internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy) on inclusion in the service regulations of the first International Radiotelegraph Convention signed in Berlin and coming into effect on 1 July 1908.source
• 1906December 15 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.source
• 1906December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.source
• 1907February 16 – SKF, a worldwide mechanical parts manufacturing brand is founded in Gothenburg, Sweden.source
• 1907March 22 – The first taxicabs with taximeters begin operating in London.source
• 1907April 7 – Hershey Park opens in Hershey, Pennsylvania.source
• 1907April 17 – The first Minas Geraes-class battleship is laid down for Brazil, by Armstrong Whitworth on the River Tyne, in England, triggering the South American dreadnought race.source
• 1907June 10–August 10 – The Peking to Paris motor race is won by Prince Scipione Borghese, driving a 7-litre 35/45 hp Itala.source
• 1907June 22 – The London Underground's Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.source
• 1907July 15 – The London Electrobus Company starts running the first ever service of battery-electric buses between London's Victoria Station and Liverpool Street.source
• 1907October 17 – Guglielmo Marconi initiates commercial transatlantic radio communications between his high power longwave wireless telegraphy stations in Clifden, Ireland, and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.source
• 1907James M. Spangler invents the first Hoover vacuum cleaner.source
• 1907The Autochrome Lumière is the first commercial color photography process.source
• 1907The triode thermionic amplifier invented by Lee de Forest, starting the development of electronics as a practical technology.source
• 1908February 12 – The first around-the-world car race, the 1908 New York to Paris Race, begins.source
• 1908March 4 – Bank of Communications, a major financial services provider in China, is founded in Beijing.source
• 1908June 29 – Kohlerer-Bahn by Bleichert opens in Bolzano, South Tyrol, the first modern aerial enclosed cable car solely for passenger service.source
• 1908July 1 – comes into force internationally as a distress signal (originally for ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy).source
• 1908August 8 – Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time, demonstrating controlled powered flight in Europe.source
• 1908August 8 – The Hoover Company of Canton, Ohio, acquires manufacturing rights to the upright portable vacuum cleaner patented on June 22 by James M. Spangler.source
• 1908August 17 – “Fantasmagorie”, an animated short film by Émile Cohl, which is widely regarded as the first animated cartoon is officially released.source
• 1908September 10 – The first Minas Geraes-class Dreadnought battleship for Brazil, Minas Geraes, is launched at Armstrong Whitworth's yard on the River Tyne in England, catalysing the "South American dreadnought race".source
• 1908October 1 – Official launch of Henry Ford's Ford Model T automobile, the first having left the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Michigan, on September 27. The initial price is set at US$850.source
• 1908October 29 – Olivetti, the well-known typewriter and business equipment company, is founded in Italy.source
• 1908December 16 – Construction begins on the , at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.source
• 1909March 18 – Einar Dessau uses a shortwave radio transmitter in Denmark.source
• 1909March 31 – Construction begins on the RMS Titanic, at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast.source
• 1909July 25 – Louis Blériot is the first man to fly across the English Channel (thus a large open body of water) in a heavier-than-air craft.source
• 1909August 2 – The United States Army Signal Corp Division purchases the world's first military airplane, a Wright Military Flyer, from the Wright brothers.source
• 1909September 4 – Japan and China sign the Gando Convention, which gives Japan a way to receive railroad concessions in Manchuria.source
• 1909October 13 – An agreement by Germany, Italy and Switzerland gives the Germans and Italians access to the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.source
• 1909October – Suzuki Weaving Machine Manufacturing, predecessor of the Suzuki motorbike and compact car brand in Japan, is founded in Shizuoka Prefecture.source
• 1909December 28 – The first manned heavier-than-air powered flight in South Africa is made at East London, by French aviator Albert Kimmerling, in a Voisin 1907 biplane.source
• 1910January 22 – Completion of construction of New York City's Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, at 700 ft the world's tallest building at this time, is celebrated.source
• 1910March 4 – The Rogers Pass avalanche buries a group of Canadian Pacific Railway workers clearing tracks in the Selkirk Mountains at Rogers Pass (British Columbia), making it the worst snowslide accident in Canadian history.source
• 1910March 8 – In France, Raymonde de Laroche is awarded Pilot's license No. 36 by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, becoming the first woman authorized to fly an airplane.source
• 1910March 10 – Release of In Old California, the first film made in Hollywood, California, directed by D. W. Griffith.source
• 1910April 5 – The Transandine Railway connecting Chile and Argentina is inaugurated.source
• 1910June 2 – Charles Rolls became the first person to fly across the English Channel and back without stopping.source
• 1910June 22 – DELAG Zeppelin dirigible Deutschland makes the first commercial passenger flight, from Friedrichshafen to Düsseldorf in Germany; the flight takes 9 hours.source
• 1910July 22 – A wireless telegraph sent from the results in the identification, arrest and execution of murderer Dr. Crippen.source
• 1910November 7 – The first air flight for the purpose of delivering commercial freight takes place in the United States. The flight, made by Wright brothers pilot Philip Parmalee, is between Dayton and Columbus, Ohio.source
• 1910November 14 – In the first takeoff from a ship by a fixed-wing aircraft, Eugene Ely takes off from a temporary platform erected over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham in Hampton Roads, Virginia.source
• 1910December 3 – Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.source
• 1910Henry Ford sells 10,000 automobiles.source
• 1910Hitachi, an electromechanics company, is founded as a mining machine repair factory in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.source
• 1911January 18 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, the first time an aircraft has landed on a ship.source
• 1911January 21 – First Monte Carlo Rally inaugurated.source
• 1911May 30 – The first Indianapolis 500 automobile race is held in the United States, won by Ray Harroun at an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour.source
• 1911August 17–20 – Britain's National Railway strike of 1911, its first national strike of railway workers; on August 19 it leads to the Llanelli riots in Wales which result in 6 deaths.source
• 1911November 3 – Chevrolet officially enters the automobile market in the United States, in competition with the Ford Model T.source
• 1911December 24 – Lackawanna Cut-Off railway line opens in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.source
• 1912January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens.source
• 1912January 22 – The Overseas Railroad officially opens on the Florida Keys.source
• 1912March 1 – Albert Berry is reported to have made the first parachute jump from a flying airplane.source
• 1912French aviator Henri Salmet makes the first nonstop flight from Paris to London, in three hours. ##claim retracted see Flight, 23 March 1912, p. 264 M. Salmet's London-Paris Flight ##source
• 1912April 20 – Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts opens.source
• 1912May 13 – In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.source
• 1912August 1 – The Jungfrau Railway is inaugurated with the opening of the subterranean Jungfraujoch railway station in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, Europe's highest at 3450 m ft above sea level.source
• 1912October 16 – Bulgarian pilots Radul Minkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the second bombing with an airplane in history, at the railway station of Karaagac near Edirne, against Turkey.source
• 1912October 17 – Krupp engineers Benno Strauss and Eduard Maurer patent austenitic stainless steel.source
• 1912December 24 – Merck files patent applications in Germany for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA (Ecstasy), developed by Anton Köllisch.source
• 1912Articulated trams are invented and first used by the Boston Elevated Railway.source
• 1913February 1 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, having been rebuilt, reopens as the world's largest railroad station.source
• 1913March 17 – The Military Aviation Academy (Escuela de Aviación Militar) is founded in Uruguay, to become the Military Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Militar) on 4 December 1952 (the Uruguayan Air Force (FAU) will grow from this foundation).source
• 1913April 21 – Cunard ocean liner , built by John Brown & Company, is launched on the River Clyde.source
• 1913April 24 – The Woolworth Building opens in New York City. Designed by Cass Gilbert, it is the tallest building in the world on this date, and for more than a decade after.source
• 1913May 26 (May 13 O.S.) – Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a 4-engine fixed-wing aircraft.source
• 1913August 13 – Harry Brearley invents stainless steel in Sheffield.source
• 1913September 9 – Imperial Russian Army pilot Pyotr Nesterov becomes the first person to loop an airplane, flying a Nieuport IV monoplane over Syretzk Aerodrome near Kiev.source
• 1913September 9 – In Germany, BASF starts the world's first plant for the production of fertilizer based on the Haber-Bosch process.source
• 1913October 7–December 1 – The Ford Motor Company adopts a moving assembly line for chassis production, reducing assembly time from 12½ hours to 2 hours 40 minutes, a landmark in mass production.source
• 1913October 10 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.source
• 1913October 16 – The British Royal Navy's is launched at Portsmouth Dockyard as the first oil-fired battleship.source
• 1913October 31 – The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.source
• 1913December 1 – Buenos Aires Underground, the first in South America, opens.source
• 1913Camel cigarettes are introduced by R. J. Reynolds in the United States (the first packaged cigarettes).source
• 1913The State Security Investigations Service, the Middle East's first internal security service, is established in Egypt.source
• 1914May 9 – J. T. Hearne in England becomes the first bowler to take 3,000 first-class wickets.source
• 1914June 9 – Pittsburgh Pirate Honus Wagner becomes the first baseball player in the twentieth century with 3,000 career hits.source
• 1914June 23 – After it had been closed so that it could be deepened, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kanal is reopened by the Kaiser; the British Fleet under Sir George Warrender visits; the Kaiser inspects the Dreadnought HMS King George V.source
• 1914July 1 – The Royal Naval Air Service, a forerunner of the Royal Air Force, is established in the United Kingdom.source
• 1914July 18 – The Signal Corps of the United States Army establishes an Aviation Section, giving definite status to its air service for the first time.source
• 1914August 5 – The first electric traffic light is installed between Euclid Avenue and East 105 Street, in Cleveland, Ohio.source
• 1914August 15 – The Panama Canal is inaugurated with the passage of the .source
• 1914November 16 – A year after being created by passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business.source
• 1914December 20 – Tokyo Station officially opens in Japan, replacing Shinbashi Station as Tokyo's main terminal.source
• 1914The first everyday items made of stainless steel come into public circulation.source
• 1914The Port of Orange, Texas, is dredged for the fabrication of vessels for the United States Navy.source
• 1915January 19 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.source
• 1915January 25 – The first United States coast-to-coast long-distance telephone call is facilitated by a newly invented vacuum tube amplifier, ceremonially inaugurated by Alexander Graham Bell in New York City and his former assistant Thomas A. Watson, in San Francisco, California.source
• 1915January 26 – WWI: The Ottoman Army begins the Raid on the Suez Canal.source
• 1915July 1 – WWI: In aerial warfare, German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens becomes the first person to shoot down another plane, using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear.source
• 1915September 6 – The prototype military tank is first tested by the British Army.source
• 1915September 7 – Cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.source
• 1915September 11 – The Pennsylvania Railroad begins electrified commuter rail service between Paoli and Philadelphia, using overhead AC trolley wires for power. This type of system is later used in long-distance passenger trains between New York City, Washington, D.C., and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.source
• 1915September 30 – WWI: Serbian Army private Radoje Ljutovac becomes the first soldier in history to shoot down an enemy aircraft, with ground-to-air fire.source
• 1915November 23 – The Triangle Film Corporation opens its new motion picture theater in Massillon, Ohio.source
• 1915December 10 – The 1 millionth Ford car rolls off the assembly line at the River Rouge Plant in Detroit, Michigan.source
• 1916Korea Tungsten is founded in Daegu, predecessor of leading steel producer in Asia, POSCO (Pohang Steel Company).source
• 1916June 24 – Mary Pickford becomes the first movie star to sign a million-dollar contract, making her one of the highest-paid people in the world.source
• 1916July 15 – In Seattle, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).source
• 1916September 6 – The first true self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, is founded in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders, opening 5 days later.source
• 1916November 1 – The first 40-hour work week officially begins, in the Endicott-Johnson factories of Western New York.source
• 1916November 7 – Radio station 2XG, located in the Highbridge section of New York City, makes the first audio broadcast of presidential election returns.source
• 1916December 22 – The British Sopwith Camel aircraft makes its maiden flight. It is designed to counter the German Fokker aircraft.source
• 1916The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is founded in the United States as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers.source
• 1916Bray Studios begins the Farmer Al Falfa series, the first of the Terrytoons.source
• 1916Rodeo's first side-delivery bucking chute is designed and made by the Bascom brothers (Raymond, Mel, and Earl) and their father, John W. Bascom, at Welling, Alberta, Canada.source
• 1917March 1 – WWI: The U.S. government releases the text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.source
• 1917April 16 – (N.S.) (April 3, O.S.) – Vladimir Lenin arrives at the Finland Station in Petrograd after a German-sponsored voyage in a sealed train from his exile in Switzerland through Germany and Scandinavia.source
• 1917April – Imokawa Mukuzo Genkanban no Maki, the first anime, is released in Japan.source
• 1917May 23 – WWI: During the Stalemate in Southern Palestine, the Raid on the Beersheba to Hafir el Auja railway by the British Desert Column takes place: large sections of the railway line linking Beersheba to the main Ottoman desert base are destroyed.source
• 1917October 19 – Dallas Love Field Airport is opened in Texas.source
• 1917November 22 – In Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the National Hockey Association suspends operations.source
• 1917December 3 – After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic (the bridge partially collapsed on August 29, 1907 and September 11, 1916).source
• 1917December 26 – United States President Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to place most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration, hoping to transport troops and materials for the war effort more efficiently.source
• 1918January 15 – The keel of is laid in Britain, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be laid down.source
• 1918March 6 – The first pilotless drone, the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane developed by Elmer Ambrose Sperry and Peter Cooper Hewitt, is test-flown in Long Island, New York, but development is scrapped in 1925, after its guidance system proves unreliable.source
• 1918April 1 – The Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service in Britain are merged to form the Royal Air Force, the first autonomous Air Force in the world.source
• 1918May 15 – The United States Post Office Department begins the world's third regular airmail service, between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.source
• 1918May 21 – The United States Army Aviation Section is separated from the Signal Corps, and divided into the Division of Military Aeronautics and the Bureau of Aircraft Production.source
• 1918June 29 – Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries opens in New York; Brazil is the only international exhibitor and the exposition closes at the end of the season.source
• 1918November 30 – Ernest Ansermet conducts the first concert by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.source
• 1919April 20 – The French Army blows up the bridge over the Dniester at Bender, Moldova, to protect the city from the Bolsheviks.source
• 1919June – Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, along with his father John W. Bascom at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, designs and makes rodeo's first reverse-opening side-delivery bucking chute, which becomes the world standard.source
• 1919October 7 – The Dutch airline KLM is founded (as of 2025, it is the world's oldest airline still flying under its original name).source
• 1919October 16 – In Germany, Adolf Hitler gives his first speech for the German Workers' Party (DAP).source
• 1919December 25 – Cliftonhill Stadium in Coatbridge, Scotland, opens as the home of Albion Rovers F.C. They lose the opening match 2–0 to St Mirren.source
• 1920February 1 – The South African Air Force (SAAF) is established, the second autonomous Air Force in the world, after the British Royal Air Force (RAF).source
• 1920March 1 – The United States Railroad Administration returns control of American railroads to its constituent railroad companies.source
• 1920May 17 – The first flight of Dutch air company KLM, from Amsterdam to London, takes place.source
• 1920June 15 – Australian soprano Nellie Melba becomes history's first well-known performer to make a radio broadcast when she sings two arias as part of an experimental series of broadcasts from a studio at the Marconi Company's factory at Chelmsford in England.source
• 1920July 29 – The United States Bureau of Reclamation begins construction of the Link River Dam, as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.source
• 1920August 20 – The first commercial radio station in the United States, 8MK (WWJ), begins operations in Detroit. It is owned by the Detroit News, the first U.S. radio station owned by a newspaper.source
• 1920September 29 – The first domestic radio sets come to stores in the United States; a Westinghouse radio costs $10.source
• 1920November 2 – In the United States, KDKA AM of Pittsburgh (owned by Westinghouse) starts broadcasting as a commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the results of the presidential election.source
• 1921June 15 – 29-year-old African American Bessie Coleman obtains her pilot's licence in France and becomes the first black woman to have a pilot's licence.source
• 1921July 21 – Edward Harper, the "father of broadcasting" in Ceylon, arrives in Colombo to take up his post as Chief Engineer of the Ceylon Telegraph Department.source
• 1921August 5 – The first radio baseball game is broadcast: Harold Arlin announces the Pirates-Phillies game from Forbes Field over Westinghouse KDKA in Pittsburgh.source
• 1921Construction of the Link River Dam, a part of the Klamath Project in Oregon, is completed.source
• 1922February 8 – President of the United States Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.source
• 1922March 2 – An ice mass breaks the Oder Dam in Breslau.source
• 1922March 2 – The British Civil Aviation Authority is established.source
• 1922March 20 – The USS Langley is commissioned as the first United States Navy aircraft carrier.source
• 1922March 22 – Radio station WLW in Cincinnati begins broadcasting.source
• 1922April 1 – South African Railways takes control of all railway operations in South West Africa.source
• 1922April 24 – The first portion of the Imperial Wireless Chain, a strategic international wireless telegraphy network created to link the British Empire, is opened, from the UK to Egypt.source
• 1922June 14 – President of the United States Warren G. Harding makes his first speech on the radio.source
• 1922September 13 – The Gdynia Seaport Construction Act is passed by the Polish Parliament.source
• 1922October 18 – The British Broadcasting Company is formed.source
• 1922November 1 – A broadcast receiving licence with a fee of ten shillings is introduced in the United Kingdom.source
• 1922November 14 – The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom, broadcasting from station 2LO in London.source
• 1922November 26 – Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to see inside KV62, the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, in over 3,000 years.source
• 1922December 27 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier to be commissioned.source
• 1923January 17 (or 9) – First flight of the first rotorcraft, Juan de la Cierva's Cierva C.4 autogyro, in Spain. (It is first demonstrated to the military on January 31.)source
• 1923March 1 – Eskom, the largest electricity producer in Africa, is established in South Africa.source
• 1923March 17 – Dobrolyot is formed as the first Soviet civil aviation service; it will become part of flag carrier Aeroflot.source
• 1923March 28 – Regia Aeronautica, the air force of Fascist Italy, is founded.source
• 1923April 28 – The original Wembley Stadium in London, England, opens its doors to the public for the first time, staging the FA Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United.source
• 1923May 26 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race is held, and is won by André Lagache and René Léonard.source
• 1923September 4 – The United States Navy's first home-built rigid airship makes her first flight at Naval Air Station Lakehurst (New Jersey); she contains most of the world's extracted reserves of helium at this time.source
• 1923October 1 – The Johor–Singapore Causeway opens to public traffic.source
• 1923November 1 – The Finnish flag carrier airline Finnair is started, as Aero oy.source
• 1923December 1 – In Italy, the Gleno Dam on the Gleno River, in the Valle di Scalve in the northern province of Bergamo, bursts, killing at least 356 people.source
• 1923December 6 – Calvin Coolidge addresses the United States Congress in the first radio broadcast from a President of the U.S.source
• 1923December 29 – Vladimir K. Zworykin files his first patent (in the United States) for "television systems".source
• 1924February 5 – GMT: A radio time signal is broadcast for the first time, from the Royal Greenwich Observatory.source
• 1924February 22 – Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.source
• 1924October 6 – 1-RO begins regular radio broadcasting services in Italy.source
• 1925February 25 – Art Gillham records (for Columbia Records) the first Western Electric masters to be commercially released.source
• 1925April 1 – In the United States:source
• 1925The Patent and Trademark Office is transferred to the Department of Commerce.source
• 1925June 6 – The Chrysler Corporation is founded as an automobile manufacturer by Walter Chrysler in the United States.source
• 1925June 13 – American engineer Charles Francis Jenkins achieves the first synchronized transmission of pictures and sound, using 48 lines and a mechanical system in "the first public demonstration of radiovision".source
• 1925July 10 – Meher Baba begins his 44-year silence.source
• 1925July 25 – The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.source
• 1925August 1 – The New Cape Central Railway between Worcester and Voorbaai is incorporated into the South African Railways.source
• 1925August 14 – The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse in California is completed and goes on line.source
• 1925October 2 – In London, UK, John Logie Baird successfully transmits the first television pictures with a greyscale image.source
• 1925November 28 – The weekly country music-variety radio programme Grand Ole Opry is first broadcast on WSM radio in Nashville, Tennessee, as the "WSM Barn Dance".source
• 1926January 16 – A British Broadcasting Company radio play by Ronald Knox about workers' revolution in London causes a panic among those who have not heard the preliminary announcement that it is a satire on broadcasting.source
• 1926January 26 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system at his London laboratory for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times.source
• 1926June 12 – Lithuanian Radio launches its service from Kauno radiofonas.source
• 1926July 15 – Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Company in India introduces motor buses.source
• 1926August 5 – In New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system is experienced by audiences for the first time, in the movie Don Juan, starring John Barrymore.source
• 1926August 6 – American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, from France to England.source
• 1926August 18 – In the United States, a weather map is televised for the first time, sent from NAA Arlington to the Weather Bureau office in Washington, D.C.source
• 1926November 11 – The United States Numbered Highway System, including U.S. Route 66, is established.source
• 1926November 15 – The NBC Radio Network opens in the United States with 24 stations (formed by Westinghouse, General Electric and RCA).source
• 1926Phencyclidine (PCP, angel dust) is first synthesized.source
• 1926Industrial output surpasses the level of 1913 in the USSR after a period of economic downturn.source
• 1927January 1 – The British Broadcasting Company becomes the British Broadcasting Corporation, when its royal charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General.source
• 1927January 7 – The first transatlantic telephone call is made via radio from New York City, United States, to London, United Kingdom.source
• 1927February 23 – The U.S. Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.source
• 1927March 14 – Pan American World Airways is founded by Juan T. Trippe.source
• 1927April 7 – Bell Telephone Co. transmits an image of Herbert Hoover (then the Secretary of Commerce), which becomes the first successful long distance demonstration of television.source
• 1927May 23 – Nearly 600 members of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers view a live demonstration of television at the Bell Telephone Building in New York City, just over a year after John Logie Baird of Scotland had first demonstrated an electromechanical system to members of the Royal Society in London.source
• 1927May – Philo Farnsworth of the United States transmits his first experimental electronic television motion pictures, as opposed to the electromechanical TV systems that others have used before.source
• 1927August 2 – American electrical engineer Harold Stephen Black invents the negative-feedback amplifier.source
• 1927August 7 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York.source
• 1927September 7 – The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Farnsworth.source
• 1927September 18 – The Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (later known as CBS) is formed in the United States, and goes on the air with 47 radio stations.source
• 1927November 12 – The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic, as the first vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River, linking New Jersey with New York City.source
• 1927December 30 – The first Asian commuter metro line, the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, opens in Japan.source
• 1928February 8 – Scottish-born inventor John Logie Baird broadcasts a transatlantic television signal from London to Hartsdale, New York.source
• 1928February 25 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories of Washington, D.C., becomes the first holder of a television license from the Federal Radio Commission.source
• 1928February – The Ford River Rouge Complex at Dearborn, Michigan, an automobile plant begun in 1917, is completed as the world's largest integrated factory.source
• 1928April 12 – 14 – The first east–west transatlantic flight by aeroplane takes place from Dublin, Ireland, to Greenly Island, Canada, using the German Junkers W 33 Bremen.source
• 1928May 10 – The first regular schedule of television programming begins in Schenectady, New York, by General Electric's television station W2XB (the station is popularly known as WGY Television, after its sister radio station WGY).source
• 1928May 30 – Rookie driver Louis Meyer wins his first Indianapolis 500 (he will win that race again, in 1933 and 1936).source
• 1928June 28 – The keel of the first 1,000 ft (300 m)-long ocean liner, Oceanic, for the British White Star Line, is laid by Harland and Wolff in Belfast; construction is delayed, and cancelled on 23 July 1929.source
• 1928June 28 – The International Railway (New York–Ontario) switches to one-man crews for its trolleys in Canada.source
• 1928July 2 – Charles Jenkins Laboratories' W3XK station begins broadcasting on 6.42 MHz, using 48 lines.source
• 1928July 3 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates the world's first colour television transmission in Glasgow.source
• 1928July 7 – The first machine-sliced and machine-wrapped loaf of bread is sold in Chillicothe, Missouri, United States, using Otto Frederick Rohwedder's technology.source
• 1928August 22 – Al Smith accepts the Democratic nomination for the US presidential election, with WGY/W2XB simulcasting the event on radio and television.source
• 1928September 3 – Philo Farnsworth demonstrates to the press in San Francisco the world's first working all-electronic television system, employing electronic scanning in both the pickup and display devices.source
• 1928September 11 – The first broadcast of a play by television, melodrama The Queen's Messenger, on General Electric's W2XAD from Schenectady, New York, utilising techniques created by Ernst Alexanderson. WMAK (Kenmore) begins broadcasting in Buffalo, New York.source
• 1928September 25 – Paul and Joseph Galvin incorporate the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation (later known as Motorola and Freescale).source
• 1928November 17 – Boston Garden opens in Boston, Massachusetts.source
• 1928December 21 – The United States Congress approves the construction of Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam.source
• 1929January 10 – The first appearance of Hergé's Belgian comic book hero Tintin, as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter..., au pays des Soviets), begins serialization in the children's newspaper supplement, Le Petit Vingtième.source
• 1929March 2 – The longest bridge in the world at this time, the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opens.source
• 1929April 14 – The first edition of the Monaco Grand Prix is held.source
• 1929June 27 – The first public demonstration of color TV is held, by H. E. Ives and his colleagues at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. The first images are a bouquet of roses and an American flag. A mechanical system is used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington.source
• 1929August 20 – John Logie Baird's experimental 30-line television system is first transmitted, by the British Broadcasting Corporation in London.source
• 1929September 30 – Fritz von Opel pilots the first rocket-powered aircraft, the Opel RAK.1, in front of a large crowd in Frankfurt am Main.source
• 1929October 8 – Cubana de Aviación is founded.source
• 1929November – Vladimir Zworykin takes out the first patent for color television.source
• 1930January 28 – The first patent for a field-effect transistor is granted in the United States, to Julius Edgar Lilienfeld.source
• 1930January 30 – Pavel Molchanov launches a radiosonde from Slutsk in the Soviet Union.source
• 1930April 21 – The Turkestan–Siberia Railway is completed.source
• 1930May 15 – Nurse Ellen Church becomes the world's first flight attendant, working on a Boeing Air Transport trimotor.source
• 1930July 7 – Building of the Boulder Dam (later known as the Hoover Dam) is started on the Colorado River, in the United States.source
• 1930September 8 – Scotch Tape, invented by Richard Gurley Drew, is sold by the 3M company in the United States for the first time.source
• 1931March 11 – The Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.source
• 1931April 25 – The automobile manufacturer Porsche is founded by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart.source
• 1931May 1 – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.source
• 1931June 23–July 1 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane, flying eastabout from Roosevelt Field, New York, in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes.source
• 1931July 1 – The rebuilt Milano Centrale railway station officially opens in Italy.source
• 1931July 9 – Irish racing driver Kaye Don breaks the world water speed record at Lake Garda, Italy.source
• 1931October 24 – The George Washington Bridge across the Hudson River in the United States is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day. At 3500 ft m, it nearly doubles the previous record for the longest main span in the world.source
• 1931November 7 – Red China News Agency (a predecessor of the Xinhua News Agency) is officially founded, and news wire service start in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province, China.source
• 1932March 19 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens in Australia.source
• 1932August 1 – Forrest Mars produces the first Mars bar in his Slough factory in the UK.source
• 1932August 6 – In Germany, the world's first Autobahn is opened by Konrad Adenauer (Bundesautobahn 555).source
• 1932September 10 – The IND Eighth Avenue Line, at this time the world's longest subway line (31 mi km), begins operation in Manhattan.source
• 1932September 11 – Canadian operations end on the International Railway (New York–Ontario).source
• 1932October 15 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.source
• 1932December 19 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service using a shortwave radio facility at its Daventry transmitting station in England.source
• 1932December 25 – IG Farben files a patent application in Germany for the medical application of the first sulfonamide oral antibiotic, which will be marketed as Prontosil, following Gerhard Domagk's laboratory demonstration of its properties as an antibiotic.source
• 1932December 25 – King George V delivers the first Royal Christmas Message on the new BBC Empire Service radio from Sandringham House; the text has been written by Rudyard Kipling.source
• 1932December 27 – The Radio City Music Hall is opened in New York City.source
• 1933February 10 – The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduces the first singing telegram.source
• 1933June 6 – The first drive-in movie theater is opened in Pennsauken Township, near Camden, New Jersey, by Richard Hollingshead, according to his patent granted May 16.source
• 1933July 1 – The London Passenger Transport Board begins operation.source
• 1933August 2 – The White Sea–Baltic Canal, Stalin's 227 km ship canal constructed using forced labour in the Soviet Union, opens, connecting the White Sea with Lake Onega and the Baltic.source
• 1933October 7 – Air France is formed by the merger of five French airline companies, beginning operations with 250 planes.source
• 1933November 8 – New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed.source
• 1933December 26 – FM radio is patented.source
• 1934January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.source
• 1934July 1 – The Hays Code begins to be strictly enforced in the Hollywood film industry, lasting until 1968.source
• 1935February 6 – Parker Brothers begins selling the board game Monopoly in the United States.source
• 1935March 22 – The world's first regular television program (by Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow) is transmitted from the Funkturm in Berlin, Germany.source
• 1935April 29 – The first edition of the Vuelta a España is raced, and goes on to become one of the 3 Grand Tours of road bicycle racing.source
• 1935May 15 – Joseph Stalin opens the Moscow Metro to the public.source
• 1935July 22 – Inauguration of the Brazilian radiophonic program A Voz do Brasil.source
• 1935August 13 – An estimated 250 people are killed when a dam bursts near Ovada, Italy.source
• 1935September 3 – English driver Sir Malcolm Campbell becomes the first person to drive an automobile at 300 miles per hour in Blue Bird, establishing a new absolute land speed record of 301.337 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.source
• 1935September 13 – American aviator Howard Hughes, flying the Hughes H-1 Racer, sets an airspeed record of 352 mph (566 km/h).source
• 1935September 24 – Earl W. Bascom and his brother Weldon produce the first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights, at Columbia, Mississippi.source
• 1935September 29 – The London and North Eastern Railway's first A4 Class streamlined steam locomotive A4 2509 Silver Link makes her inaugural journey, from London King's Cross.source
• 1935September 30 – The London and North Eastern Railway commences the Silver Jubilee, Britain's first streamline train service.source
• 1935September 30 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Hoover Dam.source
• 1935December 17 – The Douglas DST, prototype of the Douglas DC-3 airliner, first flies in the United States. More than 16,000 of the model will eventually be produced.source
• 1936March 1 – Construction of Hoover Dam is completed in the United States.source
• 1936June 26 – Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable helicopter, makes its maiden flight.source
• 1936November 2 – The BBC launches the world's first regular television service in high-definition (according to contemporary standards).source
• 1936November 2 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) begins radio in Canada.source
• 1936November 12 – In California, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.source
• 1937February 16 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon in the United States.source
• 1937April 9 – The Kamikaze arrives at Croydon Airport in London; it is the first Japanese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.source
• 1937April 12 – Frank Whittle ground-tests the world's first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England.source
• 1937July 7 – In the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japanese and Chinese forces exchange fire near Beijing, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War.source
• 1937July 20 – The Geibeltbad Pirna water sports facility is opened in Dresden, Germany.source
• 1937September 7 – CBS broadcasts a two-and-a-half hour memorial concert nationwide on radio in memory of George Gershwin, live from the Hollywood Bowl. Many celebrities appear, including Oscar Levant, Fred Astaire, Otto Klemperer, Lily Pons and members of the original cast of Porgy and Bess. The concert is recorded and released complete years later in what is excellent sound for its time, on CD. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is the featured orchestra.source
• 1937December 12 – Mae West makes a risqué guest appearance on NBC's Chase and Sanborn Hour, which eventually results in her being banned from radio.source
• 1937The Allen Organ Company, builder of church, home and theatre organs, is founded in Macungie, Pennsylvania.source
• 1937Switzerland begins construction of its Border Line defences.source
• 1937Soviet industry produces about four times as much as it had in 1928.source
• 1938January 1 – State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS).source
• 1938January 27 – The Honeymoon Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York, collapses as a result of an ice jam.source
• 1938February 24 – A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.source
• 1938March 1 – Lee Byung-chul establishes a trucking business in Daegu, South Korea, which he names Samsung Trading Co, the forerunner to Samsung.source
• 1938June 15 – László Bíró patents the ballpoint pen in Britain.source
• 1938July 3 – The steam locomotive Mallard sets the world speed record for steam, by reaching 125.88 mph on the London and North Eastern Railway.source
• 1938July – The Mauthausen concentration camp is built in Austria.source
• 1938September 12 – Hitler makes his much-anticipated closing address at Nuremberg, in which he vehemently attacks the Czech people and President Beneš. American news commentator H. V. Kaltenborn begins his famous marathon of broadcast bulletins over the CBS Radio Network, with a summation of Hitler's address.source
• 1938December 13 – The Neuengamme concentration camp opens near Hamburg.source
• 1939January 1 – With his traditional call to the New Year in Nazi Germany, Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler addresses the members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).source
• 1939January 1 – The Hewlett-Packard technology and scientific instruments manufacturing company is founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, in a garage in Palo Alto, California, considered the birthplace of Silicon Valley.source
• 1939January 27 – Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the British Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.source
• 1939April 30 – The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.source
• 1939May 20 – Pan American Airways begins transatlantic mail service with the inaugural flight of its Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper from Port Washington, New York, to Marseille.source
• 1939June 29 – The Ford 9N tractor, with the Ferguson hydraulic three-point hitch, is first demonstrated at Dearborn, Michigan.source
• 1939August 26 – The first televised Major League Baseball games are shown on experimental station W2XBS in the United States: a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.source
• 1939August 27 – A Heinkel He 178, the first turbojet-powered aircraft, flies for the first time, with Captain Erich Warsitz in command.source
• 1939The first bombing of Wilhelmshaven in World War II is carried out, by the British Royal Air Force (RAF).source
• 1939United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt advocates neutrality, in a nationwide radio address.source
• 1939November 8 – CBS television station W2XAB resumes test transmission, with an all-electronic system broadcast from the top of the Chrysler Building in New York City.source
• 1939Enzo Ferrari founds Auto Avio Construzioni, the company that becomes Ferrari in 1947.source
• 1940April 12 – Opening day at Jamaica Race Course features the use of parimutuel betting equipment, a departure from bookmaking heretofore used exclusively throughout New York. Other tracks in the state follow suit later in 1940.source
• 1940May 15 – Women's stockings made of nylon are first placed on sale across the United States. Almost five million pairs are bought on this day.source
• 1940May 16 – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, asks for an extraordinary credit of approximately $900,000,000 to finance construction of at least 50,000 airplanes per year.source
• 1940May 25 – The Crypt of Civilization time capsule at Oglethorpe University, Brookhaven, Georgia in the United States, is sealed shut, with a projected opening date of 8113 CE.source
• 1940May 26 – The first free flight of Igor Sikorsky's Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 helicopter is made in the United States.source
• 1940May 29 – The Vought XF4U-1, prototype of the F4U Corsair U.S. fighter later used in WWII, makes its first flight.source
• 1940Winston Churchill, in his first address as Prime Minister, tells the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat."source
• 1940June 16 – The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held for the first time, in Sturgis, South Dakota.source
• 1940June 30 – The Civil Aeronautics Administration is placed under the Department of Commerce.source
• 1940Appeal of 18 June: General Charles de Gaulle, de facto leader of the Free French Forces, makes his first broadcast appeal over Radio Londres from London, rallying the French Resistance, calling on all French people to continue the fight against Nazi Germany: "France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war."source
• 1940July 1 – The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens for business, built with an 8 ft m girder and 190 ft m above the water, as the third-longest suspension bridge in the world.source
• 1940July 21 – The Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft enters service, so named as 1940 roughly corresponds to the year 2600 on the Japanese Imperial calendar.source
• 1940September 9 – George Stibitz first demonstrates the remote operation of a computer, in the United States.source
• 1940October 1 – The first section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the United States' first long-distance controlled-access highway, is opened.source
• 1940October 16 – The draft registration of approximately 16 million men begins in the United States.source
• 1940November 2 – German submarine U-69 is commissioned, the first Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, which will become its most numerous class, with 568 commissioned during the War.source
• 1940November 7 – In Tacoma, Washington, the 600 ft m-long center span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (known as Galloping Gertie) collapses.source
• 1940November 25 – The de Havilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder military aircraft both make their first flights.source
• 1940December 17 – President Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, first sets forth the outline of his plan to send aid to Great Britain, which will become known as Lend-Lease.source
• 1940December – Timely Comics' Captain America Comics #1 (cover dated March 1941), first appearance of Captain America and Bucky, hits newsstands in the United States.source
• 1940Walter Knott begins construction of a California ghost town replica, which soon evolves into Knott's Berry Farm.source
• 1941January 6 – The keel of battleship is laid at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn.source
• 1941January 14 – In a BBC radio broadcast from London, Victor de Laveleye asks all Belgians to use the letter "V" as a rallying sign, being the first letter of victoire (victory) in French and of vrijheid (freedom) in Dutch. This is the beginning of the "V campaign" which sees "V" graffities on the walls of Belgium and later all of Europe and introduces the use of the "V sign" for victory and freedom. Winston Churchill adopts the sign soon afterwards, though he sometimes gets it the wrong way around and uses the common insult gesture.source
• 1941January 15 – John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry describe the workings of the Atanasoff–Berry computer in print.source
• 1941February 5 – The Air Training Corps is formed in the United Kingdom.source
• 1941March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.source
• 1941A German Lorenz cipher machine operator sends a 4,000-character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.source
• 1941May 1 – The first Defense Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps go on sale in the United States, to help fund the greatly increased production of military equipment.source
• 1941May 12 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.source
• 1941May 15 – The first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown.source
• 1941June 13 – TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union.source
• 1941June 24 – The Soviet Information Bureau, predecessor of RIA Novosti, is founded.source
• 1941July 1 – Commercial television is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.source
• 1941July 1 – CBS Television begins commercial operation on New York station WCBW (modern-day WCBS-TV), on Channel 2.source
• 1941July – The British Army's Special Air Service is formed.source
• 1941August 1 – The Willys MB U.S. Army Jeep is first produced.source
• 1941August 16 – Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.source
• 1941September 11 – Construction on the Pentagon begins in Washington, D.C.source
• 1941September 27 – The first liberty ship, the , is launched at Baltimore.source
• 1941Mid-October – The first P-38E Lightning fighter is produced by Lockheed in the United States.source
• 1941November 21 – The live blues radio program King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas; it will attain its 17,000th broadcast in 2014 making it the longest-running daily American radio broadcast.source
• 1941December 8 – WWII: President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his "Infamy Speech" to a Joint session of the United States Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT). Transmitted live over all four major national networks, it attracts the largest audience ever for an American radio broadcast, over 81% of homes. Within an hour, Congress agrees to the President's request for a United States declaration of war upon Japan, and he signs it at 4:10 p.m.source
• 1941Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her first propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.source
• 1941Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol under the authority of the United States Army Air Forces.source
• 1942January 13 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile that would be 30% lighter than a conventional car.source
• 1942January 14 – The Sikorsky R-4 first flies in the United States; it will become the first mass-produced helicopter.source
• 1942February 1 – WWII: The Kriegsmarine introduces the M4 (German Navy 4-rotor) Enigma machine for U-boat traffic, blinding Allied cryptanalysts to their radio signals for most of the year.source
• 1942February 20 – Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first U.S. Navy flying ace of the war.source
• 1942February 24 – Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.source
• 1942March 8 – NIROM, the Dutch East Indies' privately funded broadcaster, closes.source
• 1942March 17 – The Holocaust: Operation Reinhard – The Nazi German Bełżec extermination camp opens in occupied Poland, about 1 km south of the railroad station at Bełżec in the Lublin district of the General Government. At least 434,508 people are killed here up to December 1942.source
• 1942April 13 – The United States Federal Communications Commission's minimum programming time required of television stations is cut from 15 hours to 4 hours a week during the war.source
• 1942May 20 – The first African-American seamen are taken into the United States Navy.source
• 1942May – Operation Pluto: The plan to construct oil pipelines under the English Channel, between England and France, is tested in the River Medway.source
• 1942June 1 – The Grand Coulee Dam is finished on the Columbia River in the United States.source
• 1942The United States opens its Office of War Information, a propaganda center.source
• 1942July 18 – WWII: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 (using only its jet engines) for the first time.source
• 1942August 11 – Hedy Lamarr's and her friend George Antheil's frequency-hopping system for radio-controlled torpedoes is granted a patent under . In 1962 (at the time of the Cuban missile crisis), an updated version of their design will at last appear on Navy ships.source
• 1942October 2 – The first American-built turbojet aircraft, the Bell P-59 Airacomet fighter prototype, makes its first official flight.source
• 1942December 1 – Gasoline rationing begins in the United States.source
• 1942DDT is first used as a pesticide.source
• 1943January 29 – The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR) is created.source
• 1943March 5 – The Gloster Meteor, the first Allied jet fighter, makes its first flight, in England.source
• 1943March–December – History of computing hardware: British prototype Mark I Colossus computer is constructed (the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device) to assist in cryptanalysis of German signals at Bletchley Park.source
• 1943The first German Tiger I tank is captured in North Africa by British forces.source
• 1943May 16–17 – WWII: Operation Chastise (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place: No. 617 Squadron RAF use bouncing bombs to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley.source
• 1943May 23 – WWII: The battleship is commissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.source
• 1943The 358th Bombardment Squadron, 303d Bombardment Group B-17F Hell's Angels is the first USAAF bomber to complete 25 missions.source
• 1943The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the computer ENIAC.source
• 1943The Memphis Belle's crew becomes the first aircrew in the 8th Air Force to complete its 25-mission tour of duty. The aircraft and crew are the first to return to the U.S. intact for a War Bond drive.source
• 1943The Burma Railway is completed between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma (modern-day Myanmar) (415 km mi) by the Empire of Japan, to support its forces in the Burma campaign, using the forced labour of Asian civilians and Allied Prisoners of war.source
• 1943November 14 – Leonard Bernstein, substituting at the last minute for ailing principal conductor Bruno Walter, directs the New York Philharmonic in its regular Sunday afternoon broadcast concert, over CBS Radio. The event receives front-page coverage in The New York Times the following day.source
• 1943After flying from Britain, 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.source
• 1943First Bombing of the Vatican – Four bombs are dropped on the neutral Vatican City; the aircraft responsible is never certainly identified.source
• 1943Jacques-Yves Cousteau co-invents, with Émile Gagnan, the first commercially successful open circuit type of scuba diving equipment, the Aqua-lung.source
• 1943The accident of two steam locomotives in the south of Elo river bridge Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. They came from Mertoyudan train station and Yogyakarta.source
• 1944March 3 – Italy: in one of the deadliest railway disasters in history, over 500 clandestine passengers die of carbon monoxide poisoning when a steam freight train stops in a railway tunnel near Balvano, Basilicata, Southern Italy.source
• 1944March 27 – In Sweden, Ruben Rausing patents Erik Wallenberg's method of packaging milk in paper, origin of the international company Tetra Pak.source
• 1944July 26 – WWII: A Messerschmitt Me 262 becomes the first jet fighter aircraft to have an operational victory.source
• 1944August 7 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).source
• 1944The Red Ball Express convoy system begins operation, supplying tons of materiel to Allied forces in France.source
• 1944Operation Pluto: The world's first undersea oil pipeline is laid between England and France.source
• 1944The Holocaust: Diarist Anne Frank and her family are placed on the last transport train from Westerbork to Auschwitz concentration camp, arriving 3 days later.source
• 1945Adolf Hitler makes his last public speech, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph.source
• 1945March 4 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a truck driver/mechanic in London.source
• 1945March 7 – WWII: At the end of Operation Lumberjack, American troops seize the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross; in the next 10 days, 25,000 troops with equipment are able to cross.source
• 1945March 15 – The 17th Academy Awards ceremony is held, broadcast via radio in the United States for the first time. Best Picture goes to Going My Way.source
• 1945March 24 – WWII: Operation Varsity – Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the river Rhine to aid the Allied advance.source
• 1945Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the Adige in Verona, including the historic Ponte di Castelvecchio and Ponte Pietra.source
• 1945May 6 – Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (the first was on December 11, 1941).source
• 1945May 12 – Rev. W. V. Awdry's children's book The Three Railway Engines, first of The Railway Series, is published in England.source
• 1945June 30 – John von Neumann's First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC is distributed, containing the first published description of the logical design of a computer, with stored-program and instruction data stored in the same address space within the memory (von Neumann architecture).source
• 1945July 29 – The BBC Light Programme radio station is launched in the United Kingdom, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.source
• 1945August 15 – The Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization is founded as a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
• 1945September 11 – Radio Republik Indonesia starts broadcasting.source
• 1945November 1 – Telechron introduces the model 8H59 Musalarm, the first clock radio.source
• 1945November 29 – Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer (ENIAC), is completed in the United States, covering 1800 sqft m2 of floor space, and the first set of calculations is run on it.source
• 1945The first geothermal milk pasteurization is done in Klamath Falls, Oregon, United States.source
• 1946January 19 – The Bell XS-1 is test flown for the first time (unpowered), with Bell's chief test pilot Jack Woolams at the controls.source
• 1946February 14 – ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), an early general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania; it weighs 60,000 pounds (over 27 tons), and occupies a big room.source
• 1946March 8 – The Bell 47 becomes the first helicopter certified for civilian use in the United Statessource
• 1946June 3 – Interpol is re-founded; the telegraphic address "Interpol" is adopted.source
• 1946June 25 – The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (World Bank) begins operations.source
• 1946July 25 – In the last mass lynching in the United States, a mob of white men shoot and kill two African-American couples, near Moore's Ford Bridge in Georgia.source
• 1946July 25 – Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, when the United States detonates the Baker device during Operation Crossroads.source
• 1946September 1 – 1946 Turin Grand Prix, the first official Formula One Grand Prix, is held in Italy.source
• 1946October 14 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.source
• 1946October 16 – The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.source
• 1946December 25 – The first artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in Europe is initiated, within the Soviet (Russian) nuclear reactor F-1.source
• 1946The Casio company is founded by engineer Tadao Kashio in Japan.source
• 1947January–February — Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in the 20th century causes extensive disruption of travel. Given the low ratio of private vehicle ownership at the time, it is mainly remembered in terms of its effects on the railway network.source
• 1947February 3 – P.L. Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries.source
• 1947February 17 – Cold War: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Unionsource
• 1947February 25 – John C. Hennessy Jr. brings the first Volkswagen Beetle to the United States. He purchased the 1946 automobile from the U.S. Army Post Exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, while serving in the U.S. Army. The Beetle is shipped from Bremerhaven, arriving in New York this day.source
• 1947March 1 – The International Monetary Fund begins to operate.source
• 1947April 4 – The International Civil Aviation Organization begins operations.source
• 1947April 16 – The first public demonstration of a TV camera zoom lens, the Jerry Fairbanks Zoomar, is held at NBC studios in New York.source
• 1947May 25 – Hyundai Togun, the initial name of the Hyundai Group, is founded by Chung Ju-young.source
• 1947June 10 – SAAB in Sweden produces its first automobile.source
• 1947July 6 – The first prototype AK-47 assault rifles are built to the design of Mikhail Kalashnikov.source
• 1947July 27–28 – English endurance swimmer Tom Blower becomes the first person to swim the North Channel, from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland.source
• 1947July 29 – After being shut down on November 9, 1946, for a refurbishment, the ENIAC computer in the United States is turned back on again, and remains in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.source
• 1947August 1 – Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia is established.source
• 1947August 7 – The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).source
• 1947September 9 – A moth lodged in a relay is found to be the cause of a malfunction in the Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer, logged as the "First actual case of bug being found."source
• 1947The National Security Act of 1947 becomes effective on this day, creating the United States Air Force, National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.source
• 1947October 1 – The North American F-86 Sabre jet fighter aircraft makes its first flight.source
• 1947October 5 – President Harry S. Truman delivers the first televised White House address, speaking on the world food crises.source
• 1947October 14 – United States Air Force test pilot Captain Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than the speed of sound, the first time it has been accomplished.source
• 1947October – First recorded use of the word computer in its modern sense, referring to an electronic digital machine.source
• 1947November 15 – The International Telecommunication Union becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.source
• 1947November 17–December 23 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain working under William Shockley at AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States demonstrate the transistor effect, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.source
• 1947December 3 – The Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando in his first great role, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway in New York City; Jessica Tandy also stars as Blanche Du Bois.source
• 1947December 30 – The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighter aircraft (NATO reporting name Fagot) makes its first flight in the Soviet Union.source
• 1948January 1 – The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British Railways.source
• 1948Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game).source
• 1948February 1 – The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.source
• 1948April 19 – The American Broadcasting Company (otherwise known as ABC) begins television services, on WFIL-TV in Philadelphia (later WPVI-TV).source
• 1948April 22 – WTVR begins television services. WTVR is the first TV station south of Washington D.C., giving it the nickname "The South's First Television station".source
• 1948April 30 – The English-built Land Rover is unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show.source
• 1948May 15 – Australian cricket team in England in 1948: The touring Australians set an all-time first-class record, by scoring 721 runs in a day against Essex.source
• 1948June 18 – Columbia Records introduces its rpm long playing phonograph format.source
• 1948June 21 – The Manchester Baby in England becomes the first stored-program computer to successfully execute a program.source
• 1948June 22 – The ship brings more than 800 Afro-Caribbean immigrants to Tilbury near London, the start of a large wave of immigration to Britain.source
• 1948June 26 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.source
• 1948June 28 – The Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia and the Soviet/Yugoslav split.source
• 1948July 5 – The National Health Service in the United Kingdom begins functioning, giving the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use.source
• 1948July 6 – The world's first Air Car-ferry service is flown by a Bristol Freighter of Silver City Airways, from Lympne to Le Touquet across the English Channel.source
• 1948July 31 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.source
• 1948August 25 – The HUAC holds its first-ever televised congressional hearing, featuring "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.source
• 1948September 18 – An inaugural motor race is held at Goodwood Circuit, West Sussex, England.source
• 1948September 27 – Alger Hiss files a slander suit against Whittaker Chambers, for his August 27 radio statement in the United States.source
• 1948Inspired by World War II fighter planes, Cadillac introduces the first automobile to sport tailfins.source
• 1948The Oakridge Transit Centre opens in Vancouver, British Columbia.source
• 1948The Fresh Kills Landfill, the world's largest, opens on Staten Island, New York.source
• 1948The Vielha Tunnel is opened, giving access to the Val d'Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees; at this time it is the longest road tunnel in the world.source
• 1949January 11 – The first "networked" television broadcasts take place, as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, goes on the air, connecting east coast and mid-west programming in the United States.source
• 1949January 17 – The first VW Type 1 to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models are sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff the car has no future in the U.S. (The Type 1 goes on to become an automotive phenomenon.)source
• 1949March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Denver and Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long-distance train to feature Vistadome cars as regular equipment.source
• 1949May 6 – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at Cambridge University.source
• 1949May 12 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade.source
• 1949May 20 – The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.source
• 1949June 19 – Glenn Dunaway wins the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner.source
• 1949June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC in the United States.source
• 1949August 10 – the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner makes its first flight; it is the first jet airliner to fly in North America.source
• 1949August 29 – The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, RDS-1 ("Joe 1"). Its design imitates the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.source
• 1949November 24 – The ski resort in Squaw Valley, Placer County, California officially opens.source
• 1949December 29 – KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut, becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.source
• 1950February 8 – A payment is first made by Diners Club card, in New York, United States (the first use of a charge card).source
• 1950February 12 – The European Broadcasting Union is founded.source
• 1950February 21 – Cunard liner Aquitania arrives at the scrapyard in Faslane at the end of a 36-year career, the longest of any in the 20th Century.source
• 1950March 8 – The first Volkswagen Type 2 (also known as the Microbus) rolls off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany.source
• 1950March 22 – Egypt demands that Britain remove all its troops from the Suez Canal zone.source
• 1950May 1 – UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, begins operations.source
• 1950May 25 – The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic in New York City.source
• 1950Hangang Bridge bombing: The South Korean army, in an attempt to defend Seoul, blows up the Hangang Bridge while it is crowded with refugees.source
• 1950August 8 – American Florence Chadwick swims the English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes, beating the women's record for the crossing.source
• 1950September 18 – Rede Tupi, the first television broadcast network in South America, is founded in Brazil.source
• 1950October 7 – The Agate Pass Bridge opens for traffic in Washington State.source
• 1950October 11 – The Federal Communications Commission in the United States issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).source
• 1950IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv.source
• 1951March 31 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.source
• 1951May 8 – Operation Greenhouse: The first thermonuclear weapon is tested in the "George" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the United States.source
• 1951May 24 – Operation Greenhouse: The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of tritium is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the United States.source
• 1951July 4 – William Shockley of Bell Labs in the United States announces the invention jointly with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of the grown-junction transistor. Also this year, General Electric and RCA develop the alloy-junction transistor.source
• 1951July 13 – Vuoristorata, one of the oldest still-operating wooden roller coasters in Europe, is opened at the Linnanmäki amusement park in Helsinki, Finland.source
• 1951August 31 – The first Volkswagen Type 1 rolls off the production line in Uitenhage, South Africa.source
• 1951October 2 – Television in the Netherlands commences with the first broadcast from NTS; also television in Denmark from DR1.source
• 1951October 15 – On television, the situation comedy I Love Lucy airs its first episode on CBS in the U.S.source
• 1951November 2 – 6,000 British troops are flown into Egypt to quell unrest in the Suez Canal zone.source
• 1951November 10 – Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States.source
• 1951November 29 – LEO runs the world's first commercial computer program, bakery valuations, for J. Lyons and Co.'s tea shops in the U.K.source
• 1951December 20 – Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-1), the world's first (experimental) nuclear power plant, opens in Idaho, United States.source
• 1952April 7 – The I Love Lucy episode "The Marriage License", aired this evening in the United States, is the first television show in history to be seen in around 10,000,000 homes, according to the American Research Bureau.source
• 1952June 1 – Navigation opens on the Volga–Don Canal, connecting the Caspian Sea basin with that of the Black Sea.source
• 1952September 6 – The CBC in Montreal, Quebec, goes on air launching television in Canada.source
• 1952November 1 – Nuclear testing and Operation Ivy: The United States successfully detonates the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, with a yield of 10.4 megatons.source
• 1953January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy, to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day.source
• 1953March 13 – The United Nations Security Council nominates Dag Hammarskjöld from Sweden as United Nations Secretary General.source
• 1953March 17 – The first nuclear test of Operation Upshot–Knothole is conducted in Nevada, with 1,620 spectators at 3.4 km mi.source
• 1953March 19 – The 25th Academy Awards Ceremony is held (the first one broadcast on television).source
• 1953April 16 – President Eisenhower delivers his "Chance for Peace" speech, to the National Association of Newspaper Editors.source
• 1953May 15 – The Standards And Recommended Practices (SARPS) for Aeronautical Information Service (AIS) are adopted by the ICAO Council. These SARPS are in Annex 15 to the Chicago Convention, and 15 May is celebrated by the AIS community as "World AIS Day".source
• 1953May 18 – At Rogers Dry Lake, Californian Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to exceed Mach 1, in a North American F-86 Sabre at 652.337 mph kn km/h.source
• 1953June 30 – The first roll-on/roll-off ferry crossing of the English Channel, Dover–Boulogne, takes place.source
• 1953July 9 – Inauguration of the south lane of the Rodovia Anchieta.source
• 1953August 12 – Soviet atomic bomb project: "Joe 4", the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon, is detonated at Semipalatinsk Test Site, Kazakh SSR.source
• 1953October 23 – Alto Broadcasting System (ABS) in the Philippines makes the first television broadcast in southeast Asia, through DZAQ-TV. Alto Broadcasting System is the predecessor of what will later become ABS-CBN Corporation.source
• 1953October – The UNIVAC 1103 is the first commercial computer to use random-access memory.source
• 1953November 20 – The Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, piloted by Scott Crossfield, becomes the first manned aircraft to reach Mach 2.source
• 1953December 17 – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approves color television (using the NTSC standard).source
• 1953China First Building Corporation, a partial predecessor of China State Construction Engineering, is founded in Beijing.source
• 1954January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.source
• 1954January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head office of IBM.source
• 1954January 20 – The US-based National Negro Network is established, with 46 member radio stations.source
• 1954March 28 – Puerto Rico's first television station, WKAQ-TV, commences broadcasting.source
• 1954March 30 – The first operational subway line in Canada opens in Toronto.source
• 1954May 14 – The Boeing 367-80, prototype for the later Boeing 707 jetliner, is rolled out in the United States, after about 2 years of development.source
• 1954May 29 – Creation and first meeting of the Bilderberg Group.source
• 1954June 27 – The world's first atomic power station opens at Obninsk, near Moscow.source
• 1954July 15 – The Boeing 367-80 (or Dash 80), prototype of the Boeing 707 series, makes its maiden flight.source
• 1954July 29 – The construction of Yad Vashem started in Jerusalem. It is an official memorial center to commemorate the victims of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices in Europe.source
• 1954August 23 – A United States Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules makes its first flight at Burbank, California, manufactured by Lockheed Martin.source
• 1954September 11 – The Miss America Pageant is broadcast on television for the first time.source
• 1954September 27 – The Tonight Show first airs on live television on NBC in the United States being the first late night talk show.source
• 1954September 30 – The , the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world, is commissioned into the United States Navy.source
• 1954October 18 – Texas Instruments announces the development of the first commercial transistor radio. The Regency TR-1 goes on sale the following month.source
• 1954November 2 – The radio program Hancock's Half Hour, a pioneer in situation comedy, is first broadcast on BBC Radio (a television version will follow in 1956).source
• 1954November 2 – The dock workers' strike in the UK comes to an end.source
• 1954December 1 – The first Hyatt Hotel, The Hyatt House Los Angeles, opens on the grounds of Los Angeles International Airport. It is the first hotel in the world built on an airport property.source
• 1954December 4 – The first Burger King opens in Miami, Florida.source
• 1954The first electric drip brew coffeemaker is patented in Germany and named the Wigomat after its inventor Gottlob Widmann.source
• 1954The TV dinner is introduced, by American entrepreneur Gerry Thomas.source
• 1954New Zealand engineer Sir William Hamilton develops the first pump-jet engine (the "Hamilton Jet") capable of propelling a jetboat.source
• 1955January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.source
• 1955July 17 – The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering Arco, Idaho, from the U.S. National Reactor Testing Station; on July 18, Schenectady, New York, receives power from a prototype nuclear submarine reactor at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.source
• 1955July 17 – The Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California, an event broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network.source
• 1955August 1 – The prototype Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft first flies, in Nevada.source
• 1955September 22 – Commercial television starts in the United Kingdom with the Independent Television Authority's first ITV franchises beginning broadcasting in London, ending the BBC monopoly.source
• 1955October 5 – Disneyland Hotel opens to the public in Anaheim, California.source
• 1955November 3 – The Rimutaka Tunnel opens on the New Zealand Railways, at 5.46 mi (8.79 km), the longest in the Southern Hemisphere at this time.source
• 1955December 14 – The Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, in New York State, opens to traffic.source
• 1956March 1 – The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the radiotelephony spelling alphabet, for the International Civil Aviation Organization.source
• 1956March 10 – The Fairey Delta 2 breaks the World Air Speed Record, raising it to 1132 mph km/h or Mach 1.73, an increase of some 300 mph km/h over the previous record, and thus becoming the first aircraft to exceed 1000 mph km/h in level flight.source
• 1956June 8 – General Electric/Telechron introduces model 7H241 "The Snooz Alarm", the first snooze alarm clock ever.source
• 1956July 2 – A laboratory experiment involving scrap thorium at Sylvania Electric Products in Bayside, New York, results in an explosion.source
• 1956July 13 – John McCarthy (Dartmouth), Marvin Minsky (MIT), Claude Shannon (Bell Labs) and Nathaniel Rochester (IBM) assemble the first coordinated research meeting on the topic of artificial intelligence, at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States.source
• 1956July 26 – Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation.source
• 1956September 13 – The hard disk drive is invented by an IBM team, led by Reynold B. Johnson.source
• 1956September 13 – The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.source
• 1956September 16 – Television broadcasting in Australia commences.source
• 1956September 25 – The submarine transatlantic telephone cable opens.source
• 1956September 27 – The Bell X-2 becomes the first crewed aircraft to reach Mach 3.source
• 1956October 10 – The prototype Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the final Lockheed Constellation model, makes its first flight.source
• 1956October 17 – The world's first industrial-scale commercial nuclear power plant is opened at Calder Hall in the UK.source
• 1956October 31 – Suez Crisis: The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal.source
• 1956December 23 – British and French troops leave the Suez Canal region.source
• 1957January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.source
• 1957January 16 – Global hotel brand Marriott opens its first hotel, the Marriott Motor Hotel in Arlington, Virginia.source
• 1957February 2 – President Iskander Mirza of Pakistan lays the foundation-stone of the Guddu Barrage across the Indus River, near Sukkur.source
• 1957March 8 – Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal.source
• 1957April 1 – The first new conscripts join the Bundeswehr.source
• 1957April 9 – Egypt reopens the Suez Canal to all shipping.source
• 1957April 15 – The Distant Early Warning Line is handed over by contractors to the U.S. and Canadian military.source
• 1957June 1 – Launch of the first Ayanami-class destroyer warship by the JMSDF.source
• 1957July 1 – Production of the Citroën Traction Avant automobile, begun in 1934, ceases.source
• 1957October 4 – The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow delta wing interceptor aircraft is unveiled.source
• 1957November 1 – The Mackinac Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages at this time, opens in the United States, to connect Michigan's two peninsulas.source
• 1957December 20 – The Boeing 707 airliner flies for the first time.source
• 1958February 24 – In Cuba, Fidel Castro's Radio Rebelde begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.source
• 1958February 25 – Bertrand Russell launches the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom, initiated at a meeting called by Canon John Collins on January 15. The campaign peace symbol has been launched on 21 February by Gerald Holtom. Protests will focus on the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston.source
• 1958March 26 – The 30th Academy Awards Ceremony takes place in Hollywood; The Bridge on the River Kwai wins 7 awards, including Academy Award for Best Picture.source
• 1958April 17 – King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the world's fair in Brussels, also known as Expo 58. The Atomium forms the centrepiece.source
• 1958April 20 – The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup in ice hockey, after defeating the Boston Bruins in 6 games.source
• 1958August 3 – The nuclear-powered submarine becomes the first vessel to cross the North Pole under water.source
• 1958August 18 – Brojen Das from East Pakistan swims across the English Channel in a competition, the first Bangali as well as the first Asian to ever do it. He is first among 39 competitors.source
• 1958September 2 – China's first television broadcasts start at Beijing Television Station, a predecessor of China Central Television.source
• 1958September 12 – Jack Kilby invents the first integrated circuit, while working at Texas Instruments.source
• 1958September 14 – Two rockets designed by German engineer Ernst Mohr (the first German post-war rockets) reach the upper atmosphere.source
• 1958October 17 – An Evening with Fred Astaire, the first television show recorded on color videotape, is broadcast on NBC in the United States.source
• 1958October 18 – Tennis for Two, a game invented by William Higinbotham and considered to be the first pure entertainment computer game, is introduced at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Visitors' Day Exhibit in the United States.source
• 1958October 26 – A Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 makes its first transatlantic flight.source
• 1958November 22 – 1958 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a slightly increased majority, defeating the Labor Party led by H.V. Evatt. This is the first election where television is used as a medium for communicating with voters. Evatt will eventually resign as Labor leader and will be replaced by his deputy Arthur Calwell.source
• 1959January 15 – The Soviet Union conducts its first census after World War II.source
• 1959January 25 – American Airlines begins the first U.S. domestic jet service with a Boeing 707 airliner flight between New York and Los Angeles.source
• 1959February 13 – TAT-2, AT&T's second transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation between Newfoundland and France.source
• 1959June 8 – The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.source
• 1959June 26 – Elizabeth II (as monarch of Canada) and United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower open the Saint Lawrence Seaway.source
• 1959July 9 – Wing Commander Michael Beetham flying a British Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant sets a record of 11 hours 27 minutes for a non-stop London-Cape Town flight.source
• 1959August 26 – The original Mini car, designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, is launched in England.source
• 1959September 16 – The Xerox 914, the first plain paper copier, is introduced to the public.source
• 1959September 17 – The hypersonic North American X-15 research aircraft, piloted by Scott Crossfield, makes its first powered flight at Edwards Air Force Base, California.source
• 1959November 2 – At a ceremony near Toddington, British Minister of Transport Ernest Marples opens the first section of the M1 Motorway, between Watford and Crick, along with two spur motorways, the M45 and M10. Three decades of large scale motorway construction follow, leading to the rapid expansion of the UK motorway network.source
• 1959November – The MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor, is invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in the United States. It revolutionizes the electronics industry, becomes the fundamental building block of the Information Age and goes on to become the most widely manufactured device in history.source
• 1959December 2 – Malpasset Dam in southern France collapses and water flows over the town of Fréjus, killing 412.source
• 1959The Henney Kilowatt goes on sale in the United States, becoming the first production electric car in almost three decades, but only 47 models will be sold in its 2-year production run.source
• 1959Sprite was created in West Germany by The Coca-Cola Company .source
• 1960January 9 – Construction of the Aswan Dam begins in Egypt.source
• 1960February 5 – The first CERN particle accelerator becomes operational in Geneva, Switzerland.source
• 1960March 22 – Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser, in the United States.source
• 1960May 16 – Theodore Maiman operates the first laser.source
• 1960June 1 – New Zealand's first television station begins broadcasting, in the city of Auckland.source
• 1960July 3 – The French Grand Prix is won by Australian Jack Brabham driving a Cooper T53.source
• 1960August 7 – The world's first standard gauge passenger preserved railway, the Bluebell Railway, opens to the public in southern England.source
• 1960September 1 – Disgruntled railroad workers effectively halt operations of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the United States, marking the first shutdown in the company's history (the event lasts two days).source
• 1960September 14 – The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.source
• 1960September 21 – Mexican President Adolfo López Mateos nationalizes the country's electricity supply system.source
• 1960September 26 – 1960 United States presidential debates: The two leading candidates in the 1960 United States presidential election, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, participate in the first live televised presidential debate.source
• 1960October 14 – The Premier of New South Wales officially opens Warragamba Dam, one of the world's largest domestic water supply dams.source
• 1960December 8 – For the first time, Mary Martin's Peter Pan is presented as a stand-alone 2-hour special on NBC television in the United States, instead of as part of an anthology series. This version, rather than being presented live, is shown on videotape, enabling NBC to repeat it as often as they wish without having to restage it. Although nearly all of the adult actors repeat their original Broadway roles, all of the original children have, ironically, outgrown their roles and are replaced by new actors.source
• 1961March 13 – 1961 Kurenivka mudslide: A dam bursts in Kiev, USSR, killing 145.source
• 1961May 9 – In a speech on "Television and the Public Interest" to the National Association of Broadcasters in the United States, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow describes commercial television programming as a "vast wasteland".source
• 1961June 12 – A patent for the body electrode invented by Richard M. Berman and Bernard Schwartz is applied for.source
• 1961August 1 – The Six Flags Over Texas theme park officially opens to the public.source
• 1961August 13 – Berlin Crisis of 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin, and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and East Germany, Western Europe and Eastern Europe (until 1989, when Berlin and Germany both reunified in 1990, following the Fall of the Berlin Wall). On August 22 Ida Siekmann jumps from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to the West, becoming the first of at least 138 deaths at the Wall.source
• 1961October 29 – Devrim, the first ever car designed and produced in Turkey, is released. The project has been completed in only 130 days almost from scratch, a period including decision on the project, research, design, development and production of four vehicles.source
• 1961October 29 – DZBB-TV Channel 7, the Philippines' third TV station, is launched.source
• 1961November 2 – Kean opens at Broadway Theater in New York City for 92 performances.source
• 1961December 5 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana.source
• 1961December 31 – Ireland's first national television station, Telefís Éireann (later Raidió Teilifís Éireann), begins broadcasting.source
• 1962February 14 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.source
• 1962May 5 – Twelve East Germans escape to the West via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.source
• 1962July 23 – Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.source
• 1962July 25 – The first attack helicopter company, Utility Tactical Transport Helicopter Company, of the United States Army is formed on Okinawa Island, Japan.source
• 1962August 24 – Indonesia officially launches television with the establishment of TVRI television network or Televisi Republik Indonesia (Indonesian National Channel), broadcasting the opening of the 1962 Asian Games.source
• 1962September 12 – The first Kohl's department store chain is opened in Brookfield, Wisconsin.source
• 1962Johnny Carson takes over as permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show on television, a post he will hold for 30 years.source
• 1962November 3 – Earliest recorded use of the term "personal computer", in the report of a speech by computing pioneer John Mauchly in The New York Times.source
• 1962November 24 – The first episode of That Was the Week That Was, the groundbreaking satirical comedy program hosted by David Frost, is broadcast on BBC Television in the United Kingdom.source
• 1962November 26 – Mies Bouwman starts presenting the first live TV-marathon fundraising show (Open Het Dorp in the Netherlands), which lasts 23 hours non-stop.source
• 1962December 15 – Storm over the North Sea: Belgian pirate radio station Radio Uylenspiegel is knocked off the airwaves, never to operate again.source
• 1963April 29 – Buddy Rogers becomes the first WWWF Champion.source
• 1963June 4 – President of the United States John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 11110, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to continue issuing silver certificates.source
• 1963June 13 – The New York Commodity Exchange begins trading silver futures contracts.source
• 1963June 15 – The AC Cobra makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It will go on to win its class the following year.source
• 1963June 20 – Establishment of the Moscow–Washington hotline (officially, the Direct Communications Link or DCL; unofficially, the "red telephone"; and in fact a teleprinter link) is authorized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Geneva by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.source
• 1963July 1 – ZIP codes are introduced by the United States Postal Service.source
• 1963August 28 – Philips introduces the Compact Cassette primarily for dictation and voice recording purposes. By 1965, hardware improvements eventually allow for it to reliably function as a music format.source
• 1963October 1 – Construction company GK Međimurje, one of the largest Croatian construction and civil engineering companies (with more than 8,000 employees in 1980s), founded in Čakovec.source
• 1963October 30 – The car manufacturing firm Lamborghini is founded in Italy.source
• 1963December 7 – The first instant replay system to use videotape instead of film is used by Tony Verna, a CBS-TV director, during a live televised sporting event, the Army–Navy Game of college football played in Philadelphia, United States.source
• 1963December 20 – The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials begin.source
• 1963The TAT-3 transatlantic communications cable goes into operation.source
• 1963The classic Porsche 911 is first produced.source
• 1963Ivan Sutherland writes the revolutionary Sketchpad program and runs it on the Lincoln TX-2 computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.source
• 1964February 27 – The Italian government asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.source
• 1964April 20 – In the UK, BBC Two television starts broadcasting for the first time.source
• 1964May 1 – At 4:00 a.m., John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz run the first computer program written in BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), an easy to learn high level programming language which they have created. BASIC is eventually included on many computers and even some games consoles.source
• 1964June 20 – The Ford GT40 makes its first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its first victory will come 2 years later in 1966.source
• 1964September 4 – The Forth Road Bridge opens over the Firth of Forth in Scotland.source
• 1964October 5 – Twenty-three men and thirty-one women escape to West Berlin through a narrow tunnel under the Berlin Wall.source
• 1964October 22 – A 5.3 kiloton nuclear device is detonated at the Tatum Salt Dome, 21 mi km from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as part of the Vela Uniform program. This test is the Salmon phase of the Atomic Energy Commission's Project Dribble.source
• 1964October – Robert Moog demonstrates the prototype Moog synthesizer.source
• 1964November 21 – The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge across New York Bay opens to traffic (the world's longest suspension bridge at this time).source
• 1964December 21 – The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark supersonic attack aircraft, developed for the U.S. Air Force, makes its first flight, at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.source
• 1964December 22 – The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird makes its first flight at Palmdale, California.source
• 1965April 23 – The Pennine Way officially opens.source
• 1965April 26 – Rede Globo is founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.source
• 1965July 16 – The Mont Blanc Tunnel, a highway tunnel between France and Italy, is inaugurated by presidents Charles de Gaulle and Giuseppe Saragat.source
• 1965August 30 – An avalanche buries a dam construction site at Saas-Fee, Switzerland, killing 90 workers.source
• 1965November 13 – British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan says "fuck" during a discussion on BBC satirical programme BBC-3 for what many believed was the first time on British television. The corporation later issues a public apology.source
• 1966April 21 – The opening of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is televised for the first time.source
• 1966April 24 – Uniform daylight saving time is first observed in most parts of North America.source
• 1966May 4 – Fiat signs a contract with the Soviet government to build a car factory in the Soviet Union.source
• 1966August 5 – The Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas, United States.source
• 1966August 6 – The Salazar Bridge (later the 25 de Abril Bridge) opens in Lisbon, Portugal.source
• 1966October 5 – Spain closes its Gibraltar border to vehicular traffic.source
• 1966October 14 – The city of Montreal inaugurates the Montreal Metro system.source
• 1966October 27 – Walt Disney records his final filmed appearance prior to his death, detailing his plans for EPCOT, a utopian planned city to be built in Florida.source
• 1966November 26 – In the Canadian Football League, the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders to win the 54th Grey Cup at Vancouver's Empire Stadium 29–14. Saskatchewan are led by quarterback Ron Lancaster.source
• 1966December 18 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas, narrated by Boris Karloff, is shown for the first time on CBS in the United States. It becomes a Christmas tradition.source
• 1967March 4 – The first North Sea gas is pumped ashore at Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire, UK.source
• 1967April 9 – The first Boeing 737 (A-100 series) takes its maiden flight.source
• 1967April 28 – Expo 67 opens to the public, with over 310,000 people attending. Al Carter from Chicago is the first visitor as noted by Expo officials.source
• 1967April 28 – The U.S. aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas is formed through a merger of McDonnell Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft (it becomes part of The Boeing Company three decades later).source
• 1967April 30 – Moscow's 537 m tall TV tower is finished.source
• 1967May 23 – A significant worldwide geomagnetic flare unfolded. Radio emissions coming from the Sun jammed military surveillance radars.source
• 1967June 17 – Project 639: The People's Republic of China tests its first hydrogen bomb.source
• 1967June 27 – The first automatic cash machine (voucher-based) is installed, in the office of Barclays Bank in Enfield, UK.source
• 1967July 1 – Seaboard Air Line Railroad merges with Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to become Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, first step to today's CSX Transportation.source
• 1967August 1 – The UAC TurboTrain makes its first journey.source
• 1967August 15 – The United Kingdom Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal. Radio Caroline defies the act and continues broadcasting.source
• 1967September 30 – In the United Kingdom, BBC Radio completely restructures its national programming: the Light Programme is split between new national pop station Radio 1 (modelled on the successful pirate station Radio London) and Radio 2; the cultural Third Programme is rebranded as Radio 3; and the primarily-talk Home Service becomes Radio 4.source
• 1967October 3 – An X-15 research aircraft with test pilot William J. Knight establishes an unofficial world fixed-wing speed record of Mach 6.7.source
• 1967November 4–5 – In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mercenaries of Jean Schramme and Jerry Puren withdraw from Bukavu, over the Shangugu Bridge, to Rwanda.source
• 1967November 7 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.source
• 1967November 19 – The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.source
• 1967December 15 – The Silver Bridge over the Ohio River in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapses, killing 46 people.source
• 1967PAL is first introduced in Germany.source
• 1968February 1 – The Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merge to form Penn Central, the largest ever corporate merger up to this date.source
• 1968March 11 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson mandates that all computers purchased by the federal government support the ASCII character encoding.source
• 1968March 13 – The first Rotaract club is chartered in North Charlotte, North Carolina.source
• 1968April 18 – London Bridge is sold to U.S. entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch for reconstruction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona.source
• 1968May 2 – The Israel Broadcasting Authority commences television broadcasts.source
• 1968May 18 – Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars are introduced in the United States.source
• 1968May 30 – Bobby Unser wins the Indianapolis 500 automobile race.source
• 1968June 7 – Ford sewing machinists strike for equal pay starts at the Ford Dagenham plant in London.source
• 1968July 18 – The semiconductor company Intel is founded in what becomes known as the Silicon Valley of California.source
• 1968November 8 – The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals is signed and ratified.source
• 1968November 17 – British European Airways introduces the BAC One-Eleven into commercial service.source
• 1968Drainage of the Flevopolder in the Netherlands is completed, creating by some definitions the largest artificial island in the world.source
• 1969February 9 – The Boeing 747 "jumbo jet" is flown for the first time, taking off from the Boeing airfield at Everett, Washington.source
• 1969April 7 – RFC series begins with Network Working Group RFC 1 on ARPANET host software.source
• 1969July 19 – Chappaquiddick incident: US Senator Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge into a tidal pond after leaving a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy does not report the accident for nine or ten hours.source
• 1969July 20 – 1969 Tour de France: Belgian Eddy Merckx wins the cycle race for the first time.source
• 1969October 1 – The Beijing Subway begins operation.source
• 1969October 2 – A 1.2 megaton thermonuclear device is tested at Amchitka Island, Alaska. This test is code-named Project Milrow, the 11th test of the Operation Mandrel 1969–1970 underground nuclear test series. This test is known as a "calibration shot" to test if the island is fit for larger underground nuclear detonations.source
• 1969October 5 – Sazae-san first airs on Fuji Television.source
• 1969October 15 – DZKB-TV Channel 9, the Philippines' sixth TV station, is launched.source
• 1969October 29 – The first electronic message is sent between two computers connected via ARPANET between University of California, Los Angeles and SRI International in California at around 10:30pm local time, the initial forerunning technology to the Internet.source
• 1969November 21 – The first ARPANET link is established (the progenitor of the global Internet).source
• 1969Summer – Invention of Unix under the potential name "Unics" (after Multics).source
• 1970March 12 – Citroën introduces the Citroën SM, the world's fastest front-wheel drive auto at this time, at the annual Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland.source
• 1970June 19 – The Patent Cooperation Treaty is signed into international law, providing a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions.source
• 1970July 1 – Xerox PARC computer laboratory opens in Palo Alto, California, United States.source
• 1970July 16 - Three Rivers Stadium opens in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, home to NFL Steelers and MLB Pirates.source
• 1970July 21 – The Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.source
• 1970October 4 – Jochen Rindt becomes Formula One World Driving Champion, the first to earn the honor posthumously.source
• 1970October 14 – A Chinese nuclear test is conducted in Lop Nor.source
• 1970October 15 – A section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses into the river below, killing 35 construction workers.source
• 1970October 28 – Gary Gabelich drives the rocket-powered Blue Flame (part fuelled by LNG) to an official land speed record of 622.407 mph km/h on the dry lake bed of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The record, the first above 1,000 km/h, stands for nearly 13 years.source
• 1970November 14 – The Soviet Union enters the International Civil Aviation Organization, after having resisted joining the UN Agency for more than 25 years. Russian becomes the fourth official language of the ICAO.source
• 1970November 16 – The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar flies for the first time.source
• 1970December 21 – The Grumman F-14 Tomcat makes its first flight.source
• 1971January 15 – The Aswan High Dam officially opens in Egypt.source
• 1971January 25 – Intelsat IV (F2) is launched; it enters commercial service over the Atlantic Ocean March 26.source
• 1971February 20 – The U.S. Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning across the nation's radio and television stations, meant to be a standard weekly test conducted by NORAD in Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. Some stations cease broadcasting until the message is rescinded, as required by federal rules, while most ignore it.source
• 1971March 7 – The British postal workers' strike, led by UPW General Secretary Tom Jackson, ends after 47 days.source
• 1971March 7 – Die Sendung mit der Maus airs its first episode on Das Erste.source
• 1971April 20 – National Public Radio (NPR) airs its first broadcast.source
• 1971May 1 – Amtrak begins intercity rail passenger service in the United States.source
• 1971June 13 – Racing drivers Gijs van Lennep of the Netherlands and Helmut Marko of Austria win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Martini Racing Porsche 917K.source
• 1971July 4 – The first plane lands at Seychelles International Airport in Victoria, Seychelles (Mahe).source
• 1971July 10 – Gloria Steinem makes her Address to the Women of America.source
• 1971July 19 – The South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City tops out at 1,362 ft m, making it the second-tallest building in the world after the North Tower that had topped out in December 1970.source
• 1971August 5 – The McDonnell Douglas DC-10 enters service with American Airlines.source
• 1971August 10 – Mr. Tickle, the first book in the Mr. Men series is first published, in the U.K.source
• 1971August 11 – Construction begins on the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.source
• 1971August 15 – Jackie Stewart becomes Formula One World Drivers' Champion in the Tyrrell 003-Cosworth.source
• 1971September 30 - U.S Steel Tower opens in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.source
• 1971November 15 – Intel releases the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004.source
• 1971November 20 – A bridge still under construction, called Elevado Engenheiro Freyssinet, falls over the Paulo de Frontin Avenue, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 48 people are killed and several injured. Reconstructed, the bridge is a part of the Linha Vermelha elevate.source
• 1971December 18 – The world's largest hydroelectric plant in Krasnoyarsk, Soviet Union, begins operations.source
• 1971December 19 – Intelsat IV (F3) is launched; it enters commercial service over the Atlantic Ocean February 18, 1972.source
• 1971Bulanti motorcar built in Australia.source
• 1971Ray Tomlinson sends the first ARPANET e-mail between host computers, in late 1971.source
• 1972January 1 – Kurt Waldheim becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations.source
• 1972February 17 – Volkswagen Beetle sales exceed those of the Ford Model T when the 15,007,034th Beetle is produced.source
• 1972April 26 – The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar enters service with Eastern Airlines.source
• 1972May 27 – Mark Donohue wins the Indianapolis 500 in a Penske Racing McLaren–Offenhauser.source
• 1972June 11 – Henri Pescarolo (France) and co-driver former World Drivers' Champion Graham Hill (Britain) win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Equipe Matra MS670.source
• 1972June 16 – 108 die as two passenger trains hit the debris of a collapsed railway tunnel near Soissons, France.source
• 1972June 30 – The International Time Bureau adds the first leap second (23:59:60) of this year to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).source
• 1972July 27 – The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft makes its first flight in the United States.source
• 1972August 4 – August 1972 solar storms: A huge solar flare (one of the largest ever recorded) knocks out cable lines in the U.S. It begins with the appearance of sunspots on August 2; an August 4 flare kicks off high levels of activity until August 10.source
• 1972August 19 – The first daytime episode of the second incarnation of the American game show The Price Is Right is taped at CBS Television City, to be aired on September 4.source
• 1972September 10 – Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi wins the Italian Grand Prix at Monza and becomes the youngest Formula One World Champion at the age of 25.source
• 1972October 28 – The Airbus A300 flies for the first time.source
• 1972November 29 – The "tea house" Mellow Yellow opens on the river Amstel in Amsterdam, pioneering the legal sale of cannabis in the Netherlands.source
• 1972November 29 – Atari in the United States release the production version of Pong, one of the first video games to achieve widespread popularity in both the arcade and home console markets, devised by Nolan Bushnell and Allan Alcorn.source
• 1972November – The Nishitetsu Lions baseball club, part of the NPB's Pacific League, is sold to the Fukuoka Baseball Corporation, a subsidiary of Nishi-Nippon Railroad. The team is renamed the Taiheiyo Club Lions.source
• 1973April 3 – The first handheld mobile phone call is made by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City.source
• 1973May 3 – The Sears Tower in Chicago, United States, is topped-out, becoming the world's tallest building at 1451 ft m.source
• 1973May 11 – The Data Act (Sw. Datalagen) − the world's first national data protection law − is enacted in Sweden.source
• 1973June 10 – Henri Pescarolo and co-driver Gérard Larrousse (both France) win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Equipe Matra MS670B.source
• 1973June 24 – Leonid Brezhnev addresses the American people on television, the first Soviet leader to do so.source
• 1973July 5 – A catastrophic BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion) occurs in Kingman, Arizona, United States, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, killing 11 firefighters. This explosion becomes a classic incident, studied in fire department training programs worldwide.source
• 1973September 9 – Scottish racing driver Jackie Stewart becomes World Drivers' Champion when his Tyrrell 003-Cosworth finishes fourth in the 1973 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.source
• 1973October 30 – The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus Strait for the first time in history.source
• 1973November 16 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline.source
• 1974March 29 – Launch of the Volkswagen Golf in West Germany, a modern front-wheel drive hatchback which is expected to replace the iconic Volkswagen Beetle, holder of the world record for the car with the most units produced.source
• 1974May 18 – Nuclear weapons testing: Under Project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon, becoming the 6th nation to do so.source
• 1975January 2 – A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways.source
• 1975January 5 – Tasman Bridge disaster: The Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier , causing a partial collapse resulting in 12 deaths.source
• 1975March 1 – Australian television switches to full-time colour.source
• 1975March 9 – Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System begins.source
• 1975March 10 – An extended portion of Sanyō Shinkansen between Okayama Station and Hakata Station opens, giving the Japanese Shinkansen high speed rail network access to the country's second island, Kyushu.source
• 1975April 20 – Taman Mini Indonesia Indah opens to the public in Jakarta, Indonesia.source
• 1975June 5 – The Suez Canal opens for the first time since the Six-Day War.source
• 1975July 1 – The Postmaster-General's Department is disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post).source
• 1975August 25 – The Victoria Falls Conference between Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and the United African National Council is held in a South African Railways coach on the Victoria Falls Bridge, officiated by Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and South African Prime Minister John Vorster.source
• 1975September 30 – The Hughes Helicopters (later McDonnell-Douglas and Boeing IDS) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.source
• 1975December 3 – Wreck of (sunk by mine 1916) is found in the Kea Channel by Jacques Cousteau.source
• 1976March 27 – The first 7.4 km mi of the Washington Metro subway system opens.source
• 1976March – The Cray-1, the first commercially developed supercomputer, is released by Seymour Cray's Cray Research, with the first purchaser being the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) in Los Alamos, New Mexico.source
• 1976April 1 – Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in California.source
• 1976May 24 – Washington, D.C. Concorde service begins.source
• 1976May 30 – Indianapolis 500 automobile race: Johnny Rutherford wins the (rain-shortened) shortest race in event history to date, at 102 laps or 408 km mi.source
• 1976June 11 - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh gathers 126 of the UK's leading engineers at Buckingham Palace to form the Fellowship of Engineering, later to be known as the Royal Academy of Engineering.source
• 1976June 26 – The CN Tower is opened in Toronto, the tallest free-standing land structure opens to the public.source
• 1976July 6 – The first class of women is inducted at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.source
• 1976September 1 – Cigarette and tobacco advertising is banned on Australian television and radio.source
• 1976September 15 – Darryl Sittler scores the winning goal in the 1976 Canada Cup for Canada to win over Czechoslovakia in overtime, to win the first Canada Cup in ice hockey.source
• 1976October 4 – The InterCity 125 high-speed train is introduced in the United Kingdom.source
• 1976The first laser printer is introduced by IBM (the IBM 3800).source
• 1977January 11 – The first episode of Finnish children's TV show Pikku Kakkonen ("Little Number Two") is aired on Yle TV2.source
• 1977January 18 – Australia's worst railway disaster at Granville, a suburb of Sydney, leaves 83 people dead.source
• 1977April 11 – London Transport's Silver Jubilee AEC Routemaster buses are launched.source
• 1977May 29 – Indianapolis 500: A. J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win the race four times.source
• 1977September 15 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic, as an Italian company in Turin, Centro Studi e Laboratori Telecomunicazioni (CSELT) begins operation of two telephone exchanges.source
• 1977October 21 – The European Patent Institute is founded.source
• 1977November 6 – The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia, United States, fails, killing 39 people.source
• 1977November 22 – British Airways inaugurates regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.source
• 1977November 22 – The TCP/IP test succeeds, connecting 3 ARPANET nodes (of 111), in what eventually becomes the Internet protocol. See Packet Radio Vansource
• 1978February 2 - the Reunion Tower opens in Dallas Texas.source
• 1978February 8 – United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.source
• 1978February 9 – The Budd Company unveils its first SPV-2000 self-propelled railcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.source
• 1978March 8 – The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.source
• 1978April 1 – Dick Smith of Dick Smith Foods tows a fake iceberg to Sydney Harbour.source
• 1978April 18 – The U.S. Senate votes, 68–32, to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.source
• 1978April 27 – Willow Island disaster – In the deadliest construction accident in United States history, 51 construction workers are killed when a cooling tower under construction collapses at the Pleasants Power Station in Willow Island, West Virginia.source
• 1978May 8 – Norway opens a natural gas field, in the Polar Sea.source
• 1978May 15 – First Timezone Opens in Perth, Western Australiasource
• 1978May 28 – Indianapolis 500: Al Unser wins his third race, and the first for car owner Jim Hall.source
• 1978October 8 – Australia's Ken Warby sets the current world water speed record of 317.6 mph (511.13 km/h) at Blowering Dam, Australia.source
• 1978October 31 – The South African Railways sets a still unbeaten world rail speed record on Cape gauge.source
• 1978November 2: 8:00 pm – The Republic of Ireland's second television channel RTÉ 2 goes on air (renamed Network 2, 1988; RTÉ Network Two, 1995; N2, 1997; and RTÉ Two in 2004).source
• 1978In Seoul, South Korea, construction begins on Seoul Subway Line 2.source
• 1979January 1 – United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the International Year of the Child. Many musicians donate to the Music for UNICEF Concert fund, among them ABBA, who write the song Chiquitita to commemorate the event.source
• 1979February 13 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1.3 km mi long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.source
• 1979February 18 – The 1979 Daytona 500 is televised on CBS, the first ever full airing of a 500-mile race on US television, Richard Petty wins after Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison battle for first place on the final lap and crash out, leading to a fist fight. This race brought NASCAR to a wider audience.source
• 1979February 26 – The Superliner railcar enters revenue service with Amtrak.source
• 1979March 1 – Philips publicly demonstrate a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands.source
• 1979March 8 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.source
• 1979March 17 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel in the UK collapses, killing two workers.source
• 1979March 19 – C-SPAN, an American television channel focusing on government and public affairs, is launched.source
• 1979April 1 – Nickelodeon launches from QUBE's Pinwheel experiment and begins airing on various Warner Cable systems beginning in Buffalo, New York, expanding its audience reach.source
• 1979April 7 – In Japan, Yoshiyuki Tomino directs Mobile Suit Gundam, the first series of the metaseries of the same name.source
• 1979May 24 – Thorpe Park: Opens its doors having attractions such as Phantom Fantasia also next door had a farm called Thorpe Farmsource
• 1979May 27 – Indianapolis 500: Rick Mears wins the race for the first time, and car owner Roger Penske for the second time.source
• 1979June 23 – New South Wales Premier Neville Wran officially opens the Eastern Suburbs Railway in Sydney. It operates as a shuttle between Central and Bondi Junction until full integration with the Illawarra Line in 1980.source
• 1979July 1 – The Sony Walkman goes on sale for the first time in Japan.source
• 1979August 11 – The Machchu-2 dam in Morbi, India, collapses, killing between 1800 and 25000 people in one of the worst ever dam failures.source
• 1979September 7 – The first cable sports channel, the Entertainment Sports Programming Network (better known as ESPN), is launched in the United States.source
• 1979September 30 – The MTR in Hong Kong begins service with the opening of its Modified Initial System, the Kwun Tong Line.source
• 1979October 1 – The MTR, the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong, opens.source
• 1979October 9 – Peter Brock wins the Bathurst 1000 by a record six laps, with a lap record on the last lap.source
• 1979October 20 – The first McDonald's in Singapore opens at Liat Towers in Orchard Road.source
• 1979November 16 – Bucharest Metro Line One is opened, in Bucharest, Romania (from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea stations, 8.63 km mi).source
• 1979November 29 – After 12 years of environmental controversy and legal action, the Tennessee Valley Authority's Tellico Dam project is completed. It remains the last dam to be built by the agency as of 2023.source
• 1979December 23 – The highest aerial tramway in Europe, the Klein Matterhorn, opens.source
• 1979The first usenet experiments are conducted by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis of Duke University.source
• 1980January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.source
• 1980March 28 – The Talpiot Tomb is discovered by construction workers in Jerusalem.source
• 1980June 1 – The first 24-hour news channel, Cable News Network (CNN), is launched.source
• 1980June 23 – Tim Berners-Lee begins work on ENQUIRE, the system that will eventually lead to the creation of the World Wide Web in autumn 1990.source
• 1980August 2 – Strage di Bologna: A terrorist bombing at the Bologna Centrale railway station in Italy kills 85 people and wounds more than 200.source
• 1980August 7–31 – Lech Wałęsa leads the first of many strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard in the Polish People's Republic.source
• 1980September 5 – The Gotthard Road Tunnel opens in Switzerland as the world's longest highway tunnel, at 16.3 km mi, stretching from Göschenen to Airolo beneath the Gotthard Pass.source
• 1980September 30 – Digital Equipment Corporation, Intel and Xerox introduce the DIX standard for Ethernet, which is the first implementation outside of Xerox and the first to support 10 Mbit/s speeds.source
• 1980October 14 – The Staggers Rail Act is enacted, deregulating American railroads.source
• 1980October 20 – In continuous production since 1962, the last MG MGB roadster rolls off the assembly line at the Abingdon-on-Thames (England) factory, ending production for the MG Cars marque.source
• 1981January 21 – The first DeLorean automobile, a stainless steel sports car with gull-wing doors, rolls off the production line in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.source
• 1981April 15 – The first Coca-Cola bottling plant in China is opened.source
• 1981May – Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon basin.source
• 1981June 18 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk Stealth Fighter makes its first flight at Groom Lake (Area 51), Nevada.source
• 1981June 27 – The first game of paintball is played, in Henniker, New Hampshire, United States.source
• 1981July 9 – Donkey Kong is released in Japan by Nintendo, marking the first release in both the Donkey Kong and Mario series of games. The arcade game proves to be Nintendo's first major hit.source
• 1981August 1 – The first 24-hour video music channel MTV (Music Television) is launched in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.source
• 1981August 9 – 1981 Major League Baseball strike ends in the United States, and Major League Baseball resumes with the All-Star Game in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.source
• 1981August 12 – The original Model 5150 IBM PC (with a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor) is released in the United States at a base price of $1,565.source
• 1981September 15 – The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, at 150 years old, when it operates under its own power outside Washington, D.C.source
• 1981September 26 – The Boeing 767 airliner makes its first flight.source
• 1981September 26 – The Sydney Tower opens to the public in Australia.source
• 1981September 27 – TGV high-speed rail service between Paris and Lyon, France, begins.source
• 1981Luxor AB presents the ABC 800 computer.source
• 1982January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).source
• 1982January 30 – The first computer virus, the Elk Cloner, written by 15-year old Rich Skrenta, is found. It infects Apple II computers via floppy disk.source
• 1982February 19 - The Boeing 757 is flown for the first time.source
• 1982May 2 – The Weather Channel airs on cable television in the United States as the first 24-hour all-weather network.source
• 1982May 21 – The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is established.source
• 1982May 30 – Indianapolis 500: 1973 winner Gordon Johncock wins his second race over 1979 winner Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds. Leading to the closest finish to this date, Mears draws alongside Johncock with a lap remaining, after erasing a seemingly insurmountable advantage of more than 11 seconds in the final 10 laps, in what Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian Donald Davidson and Speedway public address announcer Tom Carnegie later call the greatest moment in the track's history.source
• 1982July 23 – Torrential rain and mudslides in Nagasaki, Japan, destroy bridges and kill 299.source
• 1982August 2 – The Helsinki Metro, the first rapid transit system in Finland, opens to the general public.source
• 1982August 17 – The first compact discs (CDs) are produced in Germany.source
• 1982October 1 – Sony launches the first consumer compact disc (CD) player (model CDP-101).source
• 1982November 3 – A gasoline (petrol) tanker explodes in the Salang Tunnel in Afghanistan, killing at least 176 people.source
• 1982December 11 – Swedish pop group ABBA make their final public performance on the British TV programme The Late, Late Breakfast Show.source
• 1982December 26 – Time magazine's Man of the Year is given, for the first time to a non-human, the computer.source
• 1983January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the true Internet).source
• 1983January 27 – The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) in Japan, breaks through.source
• 1983February 5–6 – The team of A. J. Foyt, Preston Henn, Bob Wollek and Claude Ballot-Léna win the 24 Hours of Daytona automobile race in a Porsche 935.source
• 1983February 28 – The final episode of the TV series M*A*S*H, entitled Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, airs on CBS, to a total audience of 121.6 million.source
• 1983March 9 – The 3D printer is invented by Chuck Hull.source
• 1983April 15 – Tokyo Disneyland opens to the public.source
• 1983April 18 – The Disney Channel launches in the United States.source
• 1983April 21 – John Glenn announces a presidential run.source
• 1983June 13 – The first worldwide mobile telephone, the Motorola DynaTAC, enters the market.source
• 1983June 30 – A total loss of coolant occurs at the Embalse Nuclear Power Station, Argentina. It is classified as an "Accident With Local Consequences" – level 4 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.source
• 1983July 15 – Nintendo's Family Computer, also known as the Famicom, goes on sale in Japan.source
• 1983October 13 – The world's first commercial mobile cellular telephone call is made, in Chicago, United States.source
• 1983October 25 – Word processor software Multi-Tool Word, soon to become Microsoft Word, is released in the United States. It is primarily the work of programmers Richard Brodie and Charles Simonyi. Free demonstration copies on disk are distributed with the November issue of PC World magazine.source
• 1984January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh personal computer in the United States.source
• 1984April 15 – Pittsburgh Light Rail opens to the public.source
• 1984May 2 – South Africa, Mozambique and Portugal sign an agreement on electricity supply from the Cahora Bassa dam.source
• 1984May 5 – The Itaipu Dam, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay after nine years of construction, begins generating power; it is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world at the time.source
• 1984May 14 – The one-dollar coin is introduced in Australia.source
• 1984June 22 – Virgin Atlantic makes its inaugural flight.source
• 1984October 9 – Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends by Britt Allcroft broadcasts its first two episodes in the United Kingdom.source
• 1984October 20 – Monterey Bay Aquarium is opened to the public after seven years of development and construction.source
• 1984November 9–11 – The first Hackers Conference is held.source
• 1984December 1 – The Light Rail Transit in Manila begins service with the opening of its southern segment, as the first rapid transit service in Southeast Asia.source
• 1984The Chrysler Corporation introduces the first vehicles to be officially labeled as "minivans". They are branded as the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, and Plymouth Voyager.source
• 1985January 1 – The Internet's Domain Name System is created.source
• 1985April 1 – Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation, and Japan Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation, are privatized and change their names to Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, and Japan Tobacco, respectively.source
• 1985September 13 – Super Mario Bros by Nintendo, the start of the Mario series, officially comes out.source
• 1985September 22 – Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrap the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, for two weeks (22 Sep. – 5 Oct. 1985). The Pont Neuf Wrapped attracts three million visitors.source
• 1985October 18 – The Nintendo Entertainment System is released in North America, helping revitalize the home video game industry after the video game crash of 1983.source
• 1985October 19 - The first Blockbuster store opened in Dallas, Texas.source
• 1985October 25 – The airline Emirates is established in Dubai and makes its first flight, to Karachi, Pakistan.source
• 1985November 6 – The Argentine tourist village of Villa Epecuén is permanently flooded through the collapse of a dam and dyke.source
• 1985November 20 – Microsoft Corporation releases the first U.S. release of Windows 1.0, as version 1.01. International support comes with the release of Windows 1.02 in Europe in May 1986.source
• 1985The fullerene Buckminsterfullerene (C 60 ) is first intentionally prepared by Harold Kroto, James R. Heath, Sean O'Brien, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley at Rice University in the US.source
• 1986January 11 – The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, at this time the world's longest prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge, is opened.source
• 1986January 20 – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.source
• 1986February 25 – The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union opens in Moscow. The General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev introduces the keywords of his mandate to the audience: Glasnost and Perestroika.source
• 1986April 21 – Lorimar-Telepictures launches as a mass media company.source
• 1986May 16 – Paramount Pictures releases Top Gun.source
• 1986June 7 - Washington DC metro opens Falls Church, Vienna, and Dunn Loring train stations on the Orange line.source
• 1986June 23 – Eric Thomas develops LISTSERV, the first email list management software.source
• 1986August 6 – A low-pressure system moving from South Australia and redeveloping off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 mm in of rain in a day on Sydney.source
• 1986October 3 – TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron, officially opens at Chalk River Laboratories.source
• 1986October 9 – News Corporation completes its acquisition of the Metromedia group of companies, thereby launching the Fox Broadcasting Company.source
• 1986October 30 – The National Park Passport Stamps program begins in the United States.source
• 1986The first commercially available 3D printer is sold.source
• 1987January 4 – Televangelist Oral Roberts announces to his viewers that unless they donate $8 million to his ministry by March 31, God will "call [him] home."source
• 1987March 31 – Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, conducts a 45-minute interview on Soviet television.source
• 1987April 19 – The Simpsons cartoon first appears as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show.source
• 1987May 27 – In one of the densest concentrations of humanity in history, a crowd of 800,000+ packed shoulder-to-shoulder onto the Golden Gate Bridge and its approaches for its 50th Anniversary celebration.source
• 1987June 13 – At the Paris Air Show, Boeing announces the sale of their 1,842nd Boeing 737, making the 737 the best-selling airliner of all time.source
• 1987July 25 – The East Lancashire Railway, a heritage railway in the North West of England, is opened between Bury and Ramsbottom.source
• 1987July 31 – Docklands Light Railway in London, the first driverless railway in Great Britain, is formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II.source
• 1987August 4 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine, which had required radio and television stations to present alternative views on controversial issues.source
• 1987August 11 – Apple introduces Hypercard, a precursor to the World Wide Web.source
• 1987August 15 – Great Basin National Park is dedicated; it is the 49th national park in the United States and the first in the state of Nevada.source
• 1987September 1 – Honda announces plans to build a second U.S. assembly plant, the East Liberty Auto Plant.source
• 1987November 1 – The InterCity 125 breaks the world speed record for a diesel-powered train, reaching 238 km/h (147.88 mph).source
• 1987November 7 – Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Singapore opens for passenger service.source
• 1987November 22 – Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion – unknown perpetrators hijack the signal of WGN-TV for about 20 seconds, and WTTW for about 90 seconds, and displays a video of a man in a Max Headroom mask.source
• 1987December 1 – NASA announces the names of 4 companies awarded contracts to help build Space Station Freedom: Boeing Aerospace, General Electric's Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas, and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell.source
• 1988January 1 – The Soviet Union begins its program of economic restructuring (perestroika) with legislation initiated by Premier Mikhail Gorbachev (though Gorbachev had begun minor restructuring in 1985).source
• 1988July 3 – The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus.source
• 1988July 31 – Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim Ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.source
• 1988November – TAT-8, the first transatlantic telephone cable to use optical fibers, is completed. This led to more robust connections between the American and European Internet.source
• 1988Near the end of the year, the first proper and official intercontinental Internet connection between North America (through the National Science Foundation Network) and Europe (through NORDUnet) is permanently established between Princeton, New Jersey, United States, and Stockholm, Sweden.source
• 1989January 1 – The New York Times discloses involvement of West German company Imhausen and Salzgitter AG in building a chemical weapon plant in Rabta, Libya.source
• 1989January 11 – The Lexus and Infiniti luxury car brands are launched at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit with the unveiling of the 1990 Lexus LS and Infiniti Q45 sedans.source
• 1989February 5 – Eurosport, a multiple-language sports broadcasting station in Europe, begins broadcasting, from Issy-les-Moulineaux, Île-de-France, France.source
• 1989April 21 – The Nintendo Game Boy has its first official release in Japansource
• 1989April 25 – Motorola introduces the Motorola MicroTAC personal cellular telephone, the world's smallest mobile phone at this time.source
• 1989May 2 – The first crack in the Iron Curtain: Hungary dismantles 240 km mi of barbed wire fencing along the border with Austria.source
• 1989May 3 – Cold War: Perestroika – The first McDonald's restaurant in the USSR begins construction in Moscow. It will open on January 31, 1990.source
• 1989May 25 – The Calgary Flames defeat the Montreal Canadiens four games to two to win the franchise's first Stanley Cup in ice hockey.source
• 1989The Soviet Union issues its first Visa card in a step to digitalise its banking system.source
• 1989June 3 – The world's first high-definition television (test) broadcasts commence in Japan, in analogue.source
• 1989June 4 – Ufa train disaster: A natural gas explosion near Ufa, Russia kills 575 as two trains passing each other throw sparks near a leaky pipeline.source
• 1989July 17 – The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber makes its first flight, in the United States.source
• 1989August 24 – Indonesia's first commercial television network, RCTI (stands for Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia), is established, and went on air for the first time.source
• 1989August – Gazprom, an energy production and sales organization in Russia, becomes state-run enterprise, changing from the Soviet Ministry of Gas Industry.source
• 1989November 9 – Cold War and Fall of the Berlin Wall: East German official Günter Schabowski accidentally states in a live broadcast press conference that new rules for traveling from East Germany to West Germany will be put in effect "immediately". Late this evening, East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing its citizens to travel freely to West Germany for the first time in decades. In the first week, travel visas will be issued to around 25% of the East German population. One of several significant events on 9 November in German history.source
• 1989November – The first commercial dial-up Internet connection in North America is made, by The World STD.source
• 1989December 22 – The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is reopened.source
• 1990January 1 – The first Internet companies catering to commercial users, PSINet and EUnet begin selling Internet access to commercial customers in the United States and Netherlands respectively.source
• 1990January 10 – McDonnell Douglas MD-11 wide-body trijet airliner takes its first flight, in the US.source
• 1990January 15 – Martin Luther King Day Crash: Telephone service in Atlanta, St. Louis and Detroit, including 9-1-1 service, goes down for nine hours, due to an AT&T software bug.source
• 1990March 27 – The United States begins broadcasting Radio y Televisión Martí to Cuba.source
• 1990June 1 – Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army shoot and kill Major Michael Dillon-Lee and Private William Robert Davies of the British Army. Dillon-Lee is killed outside his home in Dortmund, Germany and Davies is killed at a railway station in Lichfield, England.source
• 1990On June 7 Universal Studios Florida opens to the public along with Nickelodeon Studios.source
• 1990August 1 – RELCOM is created in the Soviet Union by combining several computer networks. Later in August, the Soviet Union got its first connection to the Internet.source
• 1990August 24 – Indonesian commercial television network SCTV was established as the nation's third television station after RCTI, and also debuted as local television channel in Surabaya. During its earlier days, SCTV was the rival for RCTI, the first commercial television network. SCTV began broadcasting nationwide from Jakarta by January 29, 1991.source
• 1990September 10 – The first Pizza Hut opens up in the Soviet Union.source
• 1990September 11 – First Pizza Hut opens in the People's Republic of China, nearly 3 years after the first KFC opened there in 1987.source
• 1990October 15 – South Africa ends segregation of libraries, trains, buses, toilets, swimming pools, and other public facilities.source
• 1990October 15 – United Airlines announces a purchase order of 128 wide-body aircraft from Boeing, including several Boeing 777s, in an order totaling $22 billion, the largest order in aviation history to that point.source
• 1990October 30 – The first transatlantic fiber optic cable TAT-8 fails, causing a slowdown of Internet traffic between the United States and Europe.source
• 1990Tim Berners-Lee begins his work on the World Wide Web, 19 months after his seminal 1989 outline of what would become the Web concept.source
• 1990November 13 – The first known web page is written.source
• 1990November – The earliest known portable digital camera sold in the United States ships.source
• 1990December 1 – Channel Tunnel workers from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the English Channel seabed, establishing the first land connection between Great Britain and the mainland of Europe for around 8,000 years.source
• 1991February 20 – Python, a programming language created by Guido van Rossum, Is released.source
• 1991April 17 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 3,000 for the first time in history, at 3,004.46.source
• 1991July 1 – The world's first GSM telephone call is made in Finland.source
• 1991July 1 – In the U.S., telephone services go down in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco as a result of a software bug, affecting nearly 12 million customers.source
• 1991August 6 – Tim Berners-Lee, an English computer scientist working at CERN, announces the World Wide Web project and software on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. The first website, "info.cern.ch", is created.source
• 1991August 25 – Linus Torvalds posts messages to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix, regarding the new operating system kernel he has developed, called Linux.source
• 1991November 9 – The British JET fusion reactor generates 1.5 MW output power.source
• 1991December 19 – Skarnsund Bridge opens in Norway, becoming the world's longest cable-stayed bridge for two years with a span of 530 m ft.source
• 1992April 6 – Windows 3.1 is released to manufacturers by Microsoft.source
• 1992April 30 – Brčko bridge massacre: around 100 Croat and Bosniak civilians are blown up while crossing the bridge across the Sava in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina.source
• 1993January 11 – WWE introduce their television program, Monday Night Raw.source
• 1993January 30 – The Red Line (later known as the B Line) officially begins service in Los Angeles, becoming the first underground rapid transit line to open in almost 70 years.source
• 1993June 29 – The first mobile phone call was made in Greece, marking the launch of mobile telephony services in the country by Telestet (now NOVA).source
• 1993September 25 – The Nipah Dam incident: Indonesian security forces shoot and kill four protesters opposing the construction of a dam.source
• 1993November 5 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Railways Act 1993, setting out the procedures for privatisation of British Rail.source
• 1993November 9 – Bosnian Croat forces destroy the Stari Most, or Old Bridge of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, by tank fire.source
• 1994January 11 – The Irish government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the Provisional Irish Republican Army and its political arm Sinn Féin.source
• 1994March – China gets its first connection to the Internet.source
• 1994May 6 – The Channel Tunnel, which took 15,000 workers more than seven years to complete, officially opens between England and France; it will enable passengers to travel by rail between the two countries in 35 minutes.source
• 1994June 23 – NASA's Space Station Processing Facility, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing building for the International Space Station, officially opens at Kennedy Space Center.source
• 1994c. August – Pizza Hut becomes the first restaurant to offer online food ordering, in California.source
• 1994September 16 – Britain lifts the broadcasting ban imposed on Sinn Féin and paramilitary groups from Northern Ireland.source
• 1994November 6 – Bražuolė bridge bombing in Lithuania damages a railway bridge but trains are stopped in time to avoid casualties.source
• 1994November 7 – WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, provides the world's first internet radio broadcast.source
• 1994November 14 – The first Eurostar train passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel.source
• 1994December 14 – Construction commences on the Three Gorges Dam, at Sandouping, China.source
• 1994December 31 – This date is skipped by the Phoenix Islands to switch from the UTC−11 time zone to UTC+13, and by the Line Islands to switch from UTC−10 to UTC+14. The latter becomes the earliest time zone in the world, one full day ahead of Hawaii.source
• 1995April 30 – The United States government stops funding the NSFNET, making the Internet a wholly privatized system.source
• 1995August 24 – Microsoft releases Windows 95 to the public.source
• 1995The first SampTA conference for mathematicians, engineers and applied scientists is held in Riga, Latvia.source
• 1996April 1 – The Halifax Regional Municipality encompassing the City of Halifax, the City of Dartmouth, the Town of Bedford, and the Municipality of the County of Halifax is formed in Nova Scotia, Canada.source
• 1996July 5 – Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland, UK.source
• 1996August 21 – In the UK, Queen Elizabeth II issues letters patent on divorced former wives of British princes, taking away from the ex-wives the attribute and style of Royal Highness. With that Sarah, Duchess of York as well as Diana, Princess of Wales legally cease to be Royals, but they remain as non-royal Duchess and Princess.source
• 1996August 28 – Their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, are formally divorced at the High Court of Justice in London. Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales is restyled Diana, Princess of Wales, due to the Queen's letters patent issued a week earlier.source
• 1997January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States.source
• 1997May 11 – IBM's Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, the first time a computer beats a chess World champion in a match.source
• 1997May 21 – Radiohead releases OK Computersource
• 1997May 31 – The 13-kilometer Confederation Bridge, the world's longest bridge spanning ice-covered waters, opens between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, Canada.source
• 1997August 13 – Trey Parker and Matt Stone's animated television comedy series, South Park, started broadcasting with the first episode, Cartman Gets an Anal Probe, on Comedy Central.source
• 1997August 29 – Netflix, Inc. is founded as a DVD-by-mail rental service.source
• 1997October 16 – The first color photograph appears on the front page of The New York Times.source
• 1997November 11 – Telecom companies WorldCom and MCI Communications announce a US$37 billion merger to form MCI WorldCom, the largest merger in U.S. history.source
• 1998February 20 – The Nashville Banner publishes its last issue; the newspaper ceases operation after 122 years.source
• 1998April 5 – In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about US$3.6 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.source
• 1998May 11 – The first euro coins are minted in Pessac, France. Because the final specifications for the coins are not finished, they will have to be melted and minted again in 1999.source
• 1998May 11 – Pokhran-II (Operation Shakti): India conducts three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran, including one thermonuclear device.source
• 1998May 15 – The Windows 98 operating system is released to manufacturing.source
• 1998June 12 – The 1995 Stock is used on the Northern line in London.source
• 1998July 21–September 5 – 1998 Sydney water crisis: suspected contamination by the microscopic pathogens cryptosporidium and giardia of the water supply system of Greater Metropolitan Sydney, Australia.source
• 1998October 17 – 1998 Jesse pipeline explosion: An oil pipeline explosion in Jesse, Nigeria results in 1,082 deaths.source
• 1998November 19 – Valve Corporation releases their first-person shooter video game Half-Life to critical acclaim. The game would be deemed one of the most influential titles of its genre, and one of the greatest video games of all time.source
• 1999March 24 – A fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly three years.source
• 1999June 1 – Napster, a music downloading service, is created; it would later inspire other file-sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay, LimeWire, Gnutella, Kazaa, Morpheus, BearShare, and ΜTorrent 1999–2010 period which some called the "Second Golden Age of Piracy".source
• 1999June 2 – The King of Bhutan allows television transmissions to commence in the Kingdom for the first time, coinciding with the King's Silver Jubilee.source
• 1999July 15 – T-Mobile Park (formerly known as Safeco Field) opens for the first time.source
• 1999August 26 – WWE introduce their secondary program, SmackDown, which started its broadcast on UPN.source