Australia

History of the world

History of Australia

The 17th century

The 18th century

The 19th century

The 20th century - 1st quarter

The 20th century - 2nd quarter

The 20th century - 4th quarter

The 21st century

History of religion

History of Western Philosophy

History of Music

a history of the Middle East

car ownership, high levels of road trauma, better roads, rising oil prices

urban sprawl due to the self-reinforcing rise in car ownership and the resultant rise of supermarkets and the suburban shopping mall targeting bored middle class 30-50yr old women with cars

television, 35mm photography, home movie cameras, tape recorders

the Cold War, Korean & Vietnam wars and ongoing conflicts particularly in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.

computerisation, air and space travel

rock & roll, the sexual revolution, rise of feminism, and substance abuse

genetics

pharmaceutics - corticosteroids, antihistamines, sedatives, new antibiotics

the rise of the global third world charity institutions to tackle famines, etc.

Western people born after WWII from 1946 - 1961 (some say 1943-1960)

Beatlemania, Woodstock, recreational drugs, free love & peace protests marked the coming of age of a highly opinionated group named after the post-WWII spike in the birth-rate

stereotypically selfish, they've had it the easiest, enjoying a housing boom, free education & an era of unprecedented prosperity, but caused their children much pain, with their high divorce rates & their refusal to grow up.

spoilt-rotten idealists

generally did not save money & when they retire, they won't like discovering what its like to live on a pension

accused of selling out their youthful idealism, many became what they used to call “breadheads”, with corporate jobs & large suburban houses

defining movie: The Big Chill

icons: Mick Jagger; The Beatles; Julie Christie

motto: “Viagra's a great invention, baby”

fashion faux pas: hippie facial hair

Western people born 1961-1976

the tag was taken from the Douglas Coupland book Generation X: Tales for an accelerated culture

slightly too young to profit from the materialistic frenzy of the 1980's

the first generation to experience broken homes, job insecurity & user-pays higher education - they've done it tough

stereotypically a cynical group, having lived through unemployment, and know what it's like not to get a job straight after uni.

might have had parents who only cared about themselves

their taxes will need to fund the retiring baby boomers

generally developed a reputation as malcontents & embraced gloomy grunge music in the 1990's

the high divorce rates of their parents has made them reluctant to marry or settle down until much later in life

many are unable to enter the housing market and many still struggle with the financial burden of HECS debts

more likely to have had a string of short term jobs & relationships

the experience of impermance has taught them to be more resourceful & adaptable than the baby boomers as well as empowering women in particular to take control of their lives

defining movie: The Breakfast Club

icons: Tom Cruise; Demi Moore; Duran Duran;

motto: trust no-one

fashion faux pas: Bananarama-style

Ernest Hemingway; Nicholas Monsarrat; Agatha Christie; Ian Fleming; Grahame Greene; Arthur Miller; John Steinbeck; Leon Uris; Peter Ustinov; William Golding; J.R.R. Tolkien; Dr Seuss; Robert Bolt; Harper Lee; Solzhenitsyn;

1950: Leslie-Poles Hartley The Go-Between;

1951: Anthony Powell A Question of Upbringing; Jerome Salinger The Catcher in the Rye; John Wyndham The Day of the Triffids;

1952: Agatha Christie Mousetrap; John Steinbeck East of Eden;

1953: Ian Fleming Casino Royale; Arthur Miller The Crucible;

1954: William Golding Lord of the Flies;

1955: John Tolkien Lord of the Rings; William Gaddis The Recognitions; Patricia Highsmith The Talented Mr Ripley; Vladimir Nabokov Lolita; John Wyndham Chrysalids; Graham Greene The Quiet American;

1956: Clive-Staples Lewis The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof;

1957: John Wyndham Midwich Cuckoo; Ian Fleming From Russia with Love;

1959: Kurt Vonnegut The Siren's of Titan; Keith Waterhouse Billy Liar;

1960: Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird; William Harris Palace of the Peacock;

1962: Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange; Ken Kesey One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest;

1963: Thomas Pynchon V;

1964: Charles-Percy Snow Corridors of Power; Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory;

1966: John Barth Giles Goat Boy;

1967: Andrew Sinclair Gog;

1968: Arthur Clarke 2001: A Space Odyssey;

1969: John Fowles The French Lieutenant's Woman; Vladimir Nabokov Ada;

1972: Thomas Keneally The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith; Frederick Forsythe The Day of the Jackal; Chaim Potok The Name is Asher Lev;

1973: Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow;

Salvador Dali; Picasso; art noveau; Andy Warhol; 

“classical music” - Stravinsky; Vaughan Williams; Shostakovich;

musicals - Rodgers & Hammerstein; Leonard Bernstein; Jesus Christ Superstar; Hair;

rock & roll - Elvis Presley; The Beatles; Rolling Stones; Pink Floyd; etc.

dance - cool jazz (1950); rock & roll (1956); cha cha cha (1958);

James Bond films;

actors: Gene Kelly; Marlon Brando; Richard Burton; Ernest Borgnine; Billy Wilder; Laurence Olivier; Henry Fonda; Elvis Presley; Jack Lemmon; Walter Matthau; Woody Allen;

actresses: Grace Kelly; Audrey Hepburn; Marilyn Monroe; Elizabeth Taylor; Julie Andrews; Barbara Streisand; Jane Fonda; Vanessa Redgrave; Liza Minelli;

Egypt: anti-British riots erupt; Gen. Naguib seizes power, King Farouk abdicates in favour of his son. 1923 constitution abolished;

16,000 people escape from E. to W. Germany in August alone; Israel & Germany agree on restitution for damages done to Jews by Nazis; Germany becomes member of World Bank; Christian Dior gains influence in Paris haute couture;

soviet troops march into Hungary; martial law & mass arrests in Hungary;

Albee's “Whose afraid of Virginia Woolf?”; Kesey's “One flew over the cuckoo's nest”; films: “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Cleopatra”

Marilyn Monroe dies; songs: “Blowin' in the wind”;

1950: Britain recognises Communist China; USSR & Communist China sign 30yr pact; Chiang Kai-shek resumes presidency of Nationalist China; Communist China's forces occupy Tibet; Tibet appeals to UN, but China rejects UN appeal for ceasefire;

1952: Chow En-Lai visits Moscow; China & Mongolia sign 10yr agreement;

1954: US signs pact with Nationalist China;

1957: Chow En-Lai visits Moscow;

1966: Red Guard demonstrates against Western influences;

1967: China explodes its 1st hydrogen bomb;

1971: new era of China-US detente;

1964: Pandit Nehru dies;

1966: Mrs Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, becomes PM of India;

1971: India, fighting on side of Bengali rebels go to war against Pakistan; Bengal cyclone kills 10,000;

1973: India begins to release 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war held since 1971;

1974: India becomes 6th nation to explode a nuclear device; smallpox epidemic kills 10,000-20,000;

1956: Pakistan becomes Islamic republic;

1963: hurricane & resulting tsunamis leave 22,000 dead in E.Pakistan;

1965: cyclones ravage E. Pakistan killing 12,000-20,000;

1970: cyclones & floods kill 500,000 E. Pakistan;

1971: W. Pakistan military regime massacre the Bengali people in Bangladesh with its President Yahya Khan advising to “kill 3 million of them then the rest will eat out of your hands”. Within a week, 30,000 were killed in Dacca by death squads roaming the streets, half its population fled and 10 million refugees (of a pop. of 75 million) from E. Pakistan swamped India.

1972: Bangladesh (E. Pakistan) established as sovereign state;

1974: Bangladesh floods kill 2,500;

1954: US-Jap. defence agreement; Burma & Japan sign treaty;

1956: Japan admitted to UN;

1950: Korean war; N. Korean forces invade S. Korea & capture Seoul; Douglas MacArthur appointed commander of UN forces in Korea; UN forces land in S. Korea & recapture Seoul; S. Korean forces cross 38th parallel but UN troops forced to withdraw creating state of emergency in US; Chinese forces cross 38th parallel;

1951: N.Korean forces break through 38th parallel & take Seoul, rejecting US truce offers; Seoul retaken; Gen. MacArthur relieved of Far East command; new N. Korean offensive; UN forces capture “Heartbreak Ridge”;

1952: N.Korean hydroelectric plants bombed by US;

1953: Korean armistice signed; US & S. Korea sign mutual defence treaty;

1950: US recognise Vietnam & supply arms; US signs military pact with France, Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam; 

1953: Viet. rebels attack Laos;

1954: death knell for French colonialism as French defeated when Dien Bien Phu taken by Viet. Communists led by Ho Chi Minh - 1300 French killed, 10,000 taken prisoner - most dying in captivity; 8,000 Vietnamese killed;  Communists occupy Hanoi;

1962: US military council est. in S. Vietnam;

1963: Buddhist-led military coup overthrows govt of S. Vietnam;

1964: Vietnam war: US destroyer is allegedly attacked off N. Vietnam, US aircraft attack N. Vietnam bases in reprisal leading to escalation of war & heavy fighting;

1965: N. Viet. MIG aircraft shoot down US jets; USSR admits to supplying arms to N. Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh rejects peace talks with US;

1967: Hanoi attacked by US bombers;

1969: US troops hit peak numbers in Vietnam of 543,000; 1st US troops withdrawn; Ho Chi Minh dies; 

1970: US troops in Vietnam reduced to 400,000;

1971: US planes bomb Vietcong supply routes in Cambodia; fighting in Indochina spreads to Laos & Cambodia;

1972: US mines N. Viet. ports; US troops reduced to 24,000;

1973: US-Viet. ceasefire signed; US losses 46,000 dead, 304,000 wounded, 10,000 deaths from non-combat causes; S.Viet deaths 185,000, 496,000 wounded; Vietcong combat deaths 937,000, civilian deaths 415,000, civilians wounded 935,000; total US expenditures $110b;

1949: Sukarno, a Nationalist who led Indonesia's independence movement, becomes President of the now independent Indonesia, the 4th most populous country in the world and the highest muslim population, aiming to keep all religious factions placated and hoping to maintain a political neutral policy, maintaining friendship with both Communist east & the capitalist west, in an attempt to build & unite a multi-lingual & multi-cultural nation, but the Cold War was to interfere with his plans.

1950:  Indonesia admitted to UN;

1953, Nixon in the US outlines fears that Communism will advance over Thailand, Malay then Indonesia with the result that Japan will be forced to closer ties to those countries rather than the US.

1956, Sukarno flies to US Congress and delivers speech of his friendship with US, but 3 months later, meets with China & USSR in an attempt to maintain policy of neutrality, but creating fears in the west that he is leaning towards Communism.

1957: success of PKI Communist party in elections fuels more fears in the west. US Pres. Eisenhower backs a covert US military operation to support Indonesian rebels in outer islands of Indonesia, but was forced to withdraw when a US pilot was shot down exposing it, causing it to backfire against the US. Sukarno is angry at this outside influence in his country.

1958: Britain establishes an independent state of Malaysia on Indonesia's border without consulting Indonesia resulting in Indonesia starting a war against them to crush Malaysia. Britain & US tries to remove Sukarno by falsely showing him in pornographic films & attempting assassination 6 times.

1960: PKI becomes largest Communist party outside USSR & China with over 3million members. Sukarno uses the PKI to his advantage & protects it by banning anti-Communist propaganda as well as restraining his army which acted like a political party it inself.

1964: US now in Vietnam War becomes an enemy of many Indonesian people with many protests resulting. When UN backs Malaysia's independence, Sukarno declares he will form an axis with China, pushing the west too far.

1965: At the height of the Cold War, the West hoping that PKI would try a coup, & its failure would form an excuse for Indonesia's army to overthrow Sukarno. On Sept 30,  6 top communist generals are killed by junior army officers resulting in Sukarno making Suharto the leader of the army and to investigate the murders, and US and British backed propaganda falsely blaming the PKI for the brutal killings and accusing PKI women of bestiality and brutality. The army starts long campaign which killed 600,000 to 3 million and arrested without trial some 600,000 PKI members and sympathisers, the scale of which was prevented from reaching western media until late 1990's after the end of Suharto's regime. 80,000 were butchered in Bali alone in 2wks. Sukarno starts to lose control as army-encouraged students protest against him. 

1966: Sukarno is overthrown by military coup by its army & replaced by the US-backed tyrant, President Suharto

1969: incorporates Iran Jaya.

1953: Hillary & Tenzing 1st to climb Mt Everest;

1954: SEATO established;

1972: Lon Nol takes control of Cambodia govt; Ceylon becomes a republic & changes its name to Sri Lanka; Phillipine President Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law in response to what he called a “Communist rebellion”, Marcos assumes near-dictatorial powers;

 

Gambia becomes independent; Algerian revolution; Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration Independence; Brit. imposes oil embargo on Rhodesia; 

Congo/Zaire: Joseph Mobutu leads a coup to overthrow Pres. Kasavubu & becomes an authoritarian president until 1993

Idi Amin overthrows the Obote presidency in Uganda

Pres. Mobutu renames his country from Congo to Zaire, changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko, banned European names & dress & promoted use of African languages. He allegedly stole billions of Western aid & earnings from mineral wealth, and following the Belgian tradition, amassed a vast personal fortune while his nation suffered economic ruin.

largest diamond ever discovered - the Star of Sierra Leone (969.8 carats)

Burundi conflict with mass murder of Hutu

pop: world 2.3b; US 151m; London 8.3m; NY 7.8m; Tokyo 5.3m; Moscow 4.1m; 1.5m Germans still missing;

71 cities now have pop. > 1m (cw 16 in 1914); 

pop: China 660m; India 435m; USSR 209m; US 179m; Japan 95m; Pakistan 94m; Brazil 66m; W. Germ. 54m; Gr.Brit. 53m; Sabin's oral live attenuated polio vaccine starts to replace the injected Salk vaccine.

nuclear reactors: US 200; Britain 39; USSR 39;

religions: Christians 890m; Buddhists 200m; Hindus 365m; Jews 13m;

TV sets: US 78m; USSR 25m; Japan 20.5m; Gr.Brit. 19m; W. Germ. 13.5m; France 10m;

pop: Peoples Rep. China 760m; India 550m; USSR 243m; US 205m;

pop: world 3.782b