1939: World War II begins
1940: The Battle of Britain
1941: Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
1942: First Nazi extermination camp opens
1943: Dambuster Raid uses bouncing bombs
1944: Siege of Leningrad is lifted - Hitler survives assassination attempt
1945: Adolf Hitler commits suicide - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
1946: Bikinis on sale - Nazi's are executed - United Nations first meets
1947: Chuck Yeager breaks sound barrier - Roswell 'UFO' crash
1948: Gandhi assassinated - Hells Angels founded - State of Israel created
1949: Berlin Blockade lifted - People's Republic of China created
1950: Korean War begins - China invades Tibet - VW debut panel van
1951: Catcher in the Rye published - I Love Lucy debuts on CBS
1952: Eva Peron dies - Green Berets created - The Mousetrap opens
1953: Stalin dies - Hillary & Tenzing climb Everest - Korean War ends
1954: First Godzilla film - Marilyn Monroe marries Joe DiMaggio
1955: Albert Einstein dies - Disneyland opens - Rosa Parks arrested
1956: Khrushchev denounces Stalin - Elvis releases Heartbreak Hotel - Fidel Castro lands in Cuba
1957: Sputnik 1 orbits the Earth - Boeing 707 makes maiden flight - Elvis buys Graceland
1958: Treaty of Rome forms EEC - NASA is created - Demonstration of first microchip
1959: Barbie doll goes on sale - Buddy Holly dies in plane crash - The Mini is launched
1960: Ali wins Olympic Gold - Tiros 1 launched - Kittinger freefalls 16 miles
1961: Gagarin becomes the first man in space - Kennedy inaugurated as U.S. President
1962: Marilyn Monroe dies from overdose - Telstar launched - John Glenn orbits Earth
1963: Tereshkova first woman in space - US ZIP codes introduced - President Kennedy assassinated