History of the world

The Middle East

History of Australia

The 17th century

The 18th century

The 19th century

the 20th century - 2nd quarter

the 20th century - 3rd quarter

the 20th century - 4th quarter

The 21st century

History of religion

History of Western Philosophy

History of Music

cooking with electricity

peanut butter; Dr Pepper (invented 1885 in Texas but promoted 1904); fairy floss (invented c1850);

invented at the fair: the ice cream cone;  the hot dog;  iced tea; 

the concept of walking whilst eating became socially acceptable.

Australians born 1901-24

civic-minded, nation builders, can-do. 

not a lot of social graces 

having started on improving public health in the late 19thC, and with the new germ theory of infectious diseases established, aseptic technique allowing new surgical techniques to be developed, and the new X-rays to aid diagnosis, the 20thC, was ready to develop its scientific method of medicine & develop Paul Ehrlich's “magic bullets” to kill organisms without killing the patient, starting with 'salvarsan' for Rx of syphilis in 1910.

re-housing projects in the 1st decade of the 20thC, together with the now publicly owned water supplies, improved sewerage disposal, further helped improve the squalid living conditions for the working class in England & by 1910, the annual death rate per thousand had fallen from 23 in 1838, 20.8 in 1875, 17.7 in 1900, 14.7 by 1910 and 12.3 by 1920. This change is mainly attributable to steady decline in deaths from TB & epidemic diseases, and from 1900, the infant mortality.

the new developments in physics as great as they were, had not quite readied the world for Einstein's theory of relativity in 1905 and Rutherford's atom which would change our perspective of matter, space & time, and soon our ideas of the origin of the universe.

whilst internal combustion engines were invented in 1832, no practical, convenient & economical engine was invented until Otto's in 1876 which used gas as a fuel. In the 1880's, engines were developed to use diesel or petrol, with Daimler's petrol engine making cars a possibility due to its high power to weight ratio, weighing only 88 pounds per hp (cw steam locomotive at 300lb/hp). The first meeting of automobiles took place in 1894, but these had many problems, the high cost of specially made pneumatic tyres forced owners to use solid tyres which allowed a max. speed of 12mph, whilst their low horse-power of only 2.5hp for a half a ton car, meant that they could not ascend any but the gentlest hill, whilst it was felt that only a highly skilled driver should be entrusted to drive the newer 12hp cars of 1904.

these problems, along with inadequate road surfaces meant that cars were a rich man's luxury & were taxed as such.

as motor transport became important, the road system was reformed at astonishing speed once the local authorities became owners of motor cars!

cars did not become a middle-class possession until 1919-1921 when annual production in England increased from 50,000 to 250,000, it was at this time too, that returning soldiers started little concerns that ran one or two motor buses over short routes.

the cars then allowed people to drive to the countryside, villagers to come to town & the better paid working class to live a distance from work rather than just alongside factories or near train stations.

cars and trucks were soon to replace horses as a means of transport as well as on the farm. The resulting drop in horse dung and its attendant flies in London itself was dramatic.

Zeppelin in 1900, in his 1st airship, which was the largest ballon ever made & the 1st rigid one, attained a speed of 20mph.

the aeroplane, whilst theorised & flown as a model in 1848, really did not come to be until the Wright Brothers in 1903 flew the world's 1st aeroplane 284 yards.

by 1913, an aeroplane had stayed in the air for over 8hrs & a non-stop flight of 630 miles had been accomplished.

WWI spurred its development such that in 1914 a Farman seaplane had 100hp, flying at 62mph with load of 880lb, whilst by 1920, a Fairey type III had 450hp, flying at 118mph with load of 1479lb.

the 1st commercial aeroplane service commenced in 1919 & flew between London & Paris & started the concept of air-mail.

Kodak Brownie camera released in 1905.

Kipling; Joseph Conrad; A.Conan Doyle;  Beatrix Potter; G.Bernard Shaw; Thomas Hardy; Hermann Hesse; H.G. Wells; Ian Fleming; D.H.Lawrence; Somerset Maugham; Albert Camus; Maxim Gorki; Bertrand Russell; Aldous Huxley; Agatha Christie; F.Scott Fitzgerald; A.A. Milne; Virginia Woolf;

1900: Frank Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; Joseph Conrad Lord Jim; 

1901: Henry James The Sacred Fount; Rudyard Kipling Kim; Miles Franklin My Brilliant Career; 

1902: Henry James The Wings of the Dove; Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles; James Barrie The Admirable Chrichton; Beatrix Potter Tale of Peter Rabbit; 

1903: Henry James The Ambassadors, The Beast in the Jungle 

1904: William Hudson Green Mansions; Henry James The Golden Bowl; Joseph Conrad Nostromo; 

1906: William De Morgan Joseph Vance 

1907: Henry Adams Education; Joel Harris Uncle Remus; Edmund Gosse Father and Son; 

1908: Thomas Hardy The Dynasts; Edward-Morgan Forster A Room with a View;

1910: Edward-Morgan Forster Howard's End; Henry Richardson The Getting of Wisdom; 

1911: Edith Wharton Ethan Frome; 

1913: D.H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers;

1914: Thomas Hardy Satires of Circumstance; George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion; 

1915: Joseph Conrad Victory; 

1917: James Joyce A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man;

1920: Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence; 

1921: George Moore Heloise and Abelard; 

1922: James Joyce Ulysses; 

1924: Edward-Morgan Forster A Passage to India;

1925: Francis-Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby; 

Picasso; Renoir; Matisse; Salvador Dali; Cubism;

“classical music” - Elgar; Copland; R. Strauss; Puccini; Ravel; Mahler; Vaughan Williams; Rachmaninoff; Shostakovich; Bartok; Dame Nellie Melba; Stravinsky; Holst;

musicals - Hammerstein; Irving Berlin;

ragtime, jazz - Gershwin; “Jelly Roll” Morton;

dance - modern dance; Isadora Duncan; Sth American & calypso styles

Charlie Chaplin;

Polish republic proclaimed; Revolution in Berlin, William II abdicates; Austria becomes a republic; 

Montenegro united with Serbia; Serbo-Croatian-Slovene Kingdom of Yugoslavia proclaimed; Iceland becomes a sovereign state;

1900: Boxer risings against the Europeans, resolved by Peace of Peking in 1901;

1905: Sun Yat-sen founds union of secret societies to expel Manchus from China

1906: China & Britain agree to reduction of opium production;

1910: China abolishes slavery;

1911: revolution in Central China; China Republic proclaimed; pigtails abolished; calendar reformed; Manchu dynasty falls (in power since 1644); Sun Yat-sen elected president;

1920: earthquake in Kansu province claims 200,000 victims;

1913: Mahatma Ghandhi, leader of Indian Passive Resistance Movement, arrested

1914: Gandhi returns to India & supports govt.

1919: war b/n British, Indian & Afghan forces;

1920: Gandhi emerges as Indian leader in its struggle for independence;

1921: 1st Indian parliament meets;

1922: Gandhi sentenced to 6 yrs imprisonment for civil disobedience;

1924: Gandhi fasts for 21 days in protest against feuding b/n Hindus & Moslems in India;

1900: Shintoism reinstated against Buddhist influence

1902: Anglo-Jap treaty recognizes independence of China & Korea

1904: Russo-Japanese war breaks out; 1st trenches used in war;

1910: Japan annexes Korea;

1911: US-Jap. & Anglo-Jap. commercial treaties signed

1923: earthquake hits Tokyo & Yokohama killing 120,000;

1907: England & France agree on Siamese independence; Emperor of Korea abdicates & Japan granted protectorate over Korea; Dutch complete occupation of Sumatra with defeat of Achinese tribe;

1908: Dutch establish rule in Bali; Sven Hedin explores Persia & Tibet;

 

city pop: London 4.5m; NY 4m; Paris 2.7m; Berlin 2m; Tokyo 1.9m; Vienna 1.3m;

armies: Russia 13m; Germany 7.9m; Austria-Hungary 7.4m; France 4.8m; Italy 3m;

Jewish world pop: Russia 5.2m; Austria-Hungary 2m; USA 1.7m; Germany 0.6m; Turkey 0.4m; UK 0.2m; France 0.1m;

pop: world: 1,811m; US: 118m; NY 5.6m; LA 0.6m; USSR 136m; Japan 78m; Germany 60m; GrBritain 43m;