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A timeline of the USA and Canada(revised in 2011 by Tyler Maxin)World News | Politics | History | Editor (Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi) |
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See also a timeline of Britain TM, ®, Copyright © 2011 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Oct 1492: the Italian explorer Cristoforo Colombo sails west on behalf of Spain looking for a way to reach Asia, and instead lands in a new continent May 1499: the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci sails to the new continent on behalf of Spain 1500: About seven million Native Americans live in North America 1502: Vespucci realizes that Colombo discovered a new continent Apr 1507: German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller's "Cosmographiae Introductio" names the new continent "America" Mar 1524: the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sails up the coast of north America and discovers Manhattan Sep 1542: Portuguese explorer Juan Cabrillo discovers California Sep 1565: the Spanish found the first permanent European settlement in North America at St Augustine (Florida) 1573: The first Chinese goods reach the Americas via Spanish ships coming from the Philippines 1583: Humphrey Gilbert founds an English colony in Newfoundland May 1607: Jamestown is the first English colony in the Americas Aug 1607: John Smith founds the colony of Virginia Jul 1608: The first French town is founded in North America, Quebec City, by Samuel de Champlain 1612: A tobacco plantation opens in Virginia Aug 1619: the Dutch begin the slave trade between Africa and North America (Virginia) Nov 1620: English pilgrims aboard the "Mayflower" land at Plymouth Rock on Cape Cod, Massachusetts Jun 1623: the Dutch West India Company founds the colony of Nieuw Nederland Jul 1625: the Dutch West India Company founds a trading post in America, Nieuwe Amsterdam (New York) Sep 1630: Boston is founded Jun 1632: Maryland is born as the private possession of an individual, Lord Baltimore 1634: The governor of Massachusetts reports that all the natives have died of smallpox 1635: Roger Williams founds Rhode Island 1635: Boston establishes the first public school in America, the Latin School Sep 1636: Harvard University is founded near Boston, the first American university 1637: English Puritan militias led by John Mason massacre 700 Pequos Native Americans ("Mystic Massacre") 1638: Virginia has become the major source of tobacco for Europe Sep 1638: John Harvard bequeaths half of his fortune to a newly-founded school near Boston, the first major act of philanthropy Jan 1639: settlers from Massachusetts Bay unite in the colony of Connecticut 1639: Roger Williams founds the first Baptist group 1639: Elizabeth Glover sets up the first printing press in North America in Boston 1650: the West Indies still attract more British immigrants than the mainland Sep 1654: the first Jewsish immigrants arrive in Nieuwe Amsterdam (New York) Mar 1663: eight noblemen are granted Carolina Sep 1664: Britain obtain Nieuwe Amsterdam and renames it New York Jul 1667: Britain captures Nieuw Nederland and renames it Delaware Mar 1681: Quakers led by William Penn found the colony of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia Apr 1682: Rene-Robert LaSalle conquers the Mississippi basin for France and renames it Louisiana 1690: Boston printer Benjamin Harris starts the Public Occurrences in Boston, the first newspaper of North America Oct 1691: several New England colonies unite in the Massachusetts Bay Colony 1692-3: 19 "witches" are burned at the stake near Boston Oct 1701: Yale University is founded Feb 1704: Elias Neau opens a school for enslaved African Americans in New York 1704: John Campbell's "Boston Newsletter" 1711: New York City officials decree that "all Negro and Indian slaves that are let out to hire ... be hired at the Market house at the Wall Street Slip" 1712: North Carolina is separated from South Carolina Apr 1713: Britain and France sign a peace treaty ("Treaty of Utrecht") that hands most of Canada to Britain and leaves Britain as the dominant force in north America 1717: Mennonites from Germany and Amish from Switzerland settle in Pennsylvania May 1718: French colonists found La Nouvelle-Orleans (New Orleans) 1721: Smallpox epidemic in Boston Dec 1729: The first orphanage in the USA is founded at the Ursuline Convent of New Orleans 1731: Benjamin Franklin founds the first lending library Jun 1732: the British found the colony of Georgia, the 13th English colony in north America 1735: the first Italian immigrants arrive in New York Jul 1741: the Russian explorer Vitus Bering "discovers" Alaska May 1743: Benjamin Franklin and others found the "American Philosophical Society" 1750: the population of the USA is 1,170,800 Jun 1752: Benjamin Franklin invents the lightening conductor 1758: The African Baptist Church is founded on the William Byrd plantation in Mecklenburg, Virginia, the first black church 1760: Britain conquers Montreal from France Oct 1762: France surrenders Louisiana to Spain, so that Spain controls all the Gulf Coast to Mexico and the region west of the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean Feb 1763: France surrenders Canada, Dominica, Grenada, and eastern Louisiana to Britain, Spain surrenders western Louisiana to France and Florida to Britain 1763: Britain bans colonial settlements in North America west of the Appalachians Dec 1763: The first Jewish synagogue opens in Newport, Rhode Island ("Touro Synagogue") Oct 1765: Nine colonies meet at the Stamp Act Congress in New York against a new British tax 1768: Gaspar de Portola is appointed governor of Las Californias 1769: Spanish captain Gaspar de Portola founds San Diego and discovers the San Francisco Bay 1769: Franciscan friar Junipero Serra builds the mission at San Diego, the first of 20 along the coast of California ("Sacred Expedition"), while Gaspar de Portola founds the first Spanish presidio, the Presidio of San Diego 1770: the population of the 13 colonies has almost doubled in 20 years to 2,131,000 1770: The Boston massacre 1771: Francis Asbury exports the Methodist movement to the American colonies Jan 1773: The Charleston Museum opens, the first museum in the USA Dec 1773: American colonists stage an uprising against British rule ("Boston Tea Party") Jun 1774: Britain enacts a constitution for Canada and divides Upper (English) Canada and Lower (French) Canada Apr 1775: the first abolitionist society is founded in Philadelphia 1775: There are about 50 printers in the British colonies of America 1775: North Carolina's land baron Richard Henderson, owner of the Transylvania Company, purchases lands in southwest Virginia and northeastern Tennessee and between the Kentucky River and Cumberland River (most of Kentucky and north Tennessee) from the Cherokee nation (the "Transylvania purchase") Jan 1776: Thomas Paine publishes the pamphlet "Common Sense" advocating independence from England 1776: Nueva Espana's explorer Juan Bautista de Anza reaches the site of future San Francisco 1776: The Chickamauga fight a war against the white settlers following the Transylvania purchase Jul 1776: the North American colonies of Britain ratifies the Declaration of Independence ("American revolution") Dec 1776: The honor society "Phi Beta Kappa" is founded by five students at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia Jul 1777: Vermont declares its independence from Britain and abolishes slavery Oct 1777: British general Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga 1778: James Cook is the first European to visit the Hawaii 1779: James Cook is killed by Hawaiians Nov 1780: The Free African Union Society is founded in Newport, Rhode Island, the first cultural organization established by blacks Oct 1781: Revolutionary troops led by general George Washington and French troops led by Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau defeat the British Army led by Charles Cornwallis at the battle of Yorktown, Britain surrenders, the independence war ends and Philadelphia (50,000 inhabitants) becomes the capital of the United States of America 1781: Spanish colonizers found El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles Jul 1783: Massachusetts abolishes slavery Sep 1783: Britain recognises the independence of the United States of America, and hands over the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley, thus doubling the size of the USA (population 3.5 million) Sep 1783: Britain surrenders Florida to Spain Apr 1784: Benjamin Franklin suggests the use of daylight saving time to save energy 1786: Thomas Jefferson in Virginia introduces a bill for religious liberty that embodies the separation of church and state Sep 1787: The USA adopts a constitution in Philadelphia and becomes a republic with a House of Representatives, a Senate, a supreme court and a president 1787: Ann Lee's Shakers emigrate from England and found Mount Lebanon near New York Apr 1789: In the first presidential election George Washington is elected first president of the USA (4 million inhabitants) 1789: the English Privy Council concludes that almost 50% of the slaves exported from Africa die before reaching the Americas Nov 1789: The USA institutes the holiday of Thanksgiving 1790: at the height of the British slave trade, one slave vessel leaves England for Africa every other day 1790: the first turnpike opens between Philadelphia and Lancaster 1790: Philadelphia, the largest city of the USA, has 42,000 people 1791: Britain divides French-speaking Canada into the colonies of Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario) Dec 1791: The USA adopts the Bill of Rights which contains ten amendments to the constitution, including one guaranteeing freedom of the press and one guaranteeing the right to bear arms 1792: Washington enacts a policy of "educating" the "Indians" 1792: British equestrian John Ricketts founds the first USA circus 1792: The Post Office Act sets low rates for delivery of newspapers Apr 1792: The US dollar is introduced May 1793: Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, thus enabling large-scale production of cotton 1794: The army decisively defeats the Western Confederacy of Native Americans at the battle of Fallen Timbers 1796: Philadelphia pioneers the use of gaslight to light streets 1796: Tennessee splits from North Carolina and joins the USA as its 16th state 1798: John Adams signs into law the Alien and Sedition Acts Jul 1799: The Russian-American company is chartered by Russia 1800: New York's population is 60,000 Oct 1800: Spain surrenders Louisiana to France Feb 1801: Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party win elections against John Adams' Federalists and the Alien and Sedition Act dies Feb 1801: president Thomas Jefferson wins the first universal male suffrage May 1801: Thomas Jefferson orders the bombing of the barbary states of Algiers, Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli after Yusuf Karamanli, the ruler of Tripoli, demands ransom from the USA Aug 1801: Robert Fulton builds the "Nautilus" submarine and invents the torpedo 1801: the USA's population is five million Mar 1802: the United States Military Academy is established at West Point 1802: Robert Fulton imports the steamboat to the USA Apr 1803: president Thomas Jefferson purchases Louisiana (which extended from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, from Montana to New Orleans) from Napoleon, thus essentially doubling the size of the USA 1803: Johann Rapp's Rappites emigrate from Germany and found Harmony in Pennsylvania 1804: Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel Sep 1806: The explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reach the Pacific Ocean after setting out two years earlier from St Louis in search of the "northwest passage" Aug 1807: Robert Fulton introduces steam-powered boats Mar 1807: Britain outlaws slavery Mar 1807: US Congress abolishes the slave trade 1808: Russia establishes the colony of Noviiy Rossiya in California 1810: Virginia is the most populous state of the USA 1810: There are 87,000 cotton spindles in the USA 1810: The missionary organization American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is founded in Boston 1811: New York adopts a grid plan for the streets above Houston Street Jun 1812: The USA declares war on Britain after Britain imposes trade restrictions and supports Native-American tribes 1812: The City Bank of New York (CitiBank) is founded 1813: Elizabeth Seton founds the Sisters of Charity of St Joseph's, a Catholic order Aug 1814: British troops storm Washington and burn the Capitol and the White House 1814: Andrew Jackson, a general, defeats the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horse Shoe Bend and forces them to surrender to the USA most of their traditional land (half of Alabama and one-fifth of Georgia) 1814: Francis Cabot Lowell builds an integrated cotton factory (spinning + weaving) in Massachusetts Jan 1815: Andrew Jackson, helped by the French pirate Jean Lafitte, defeats the British army at the battle of New Orleans Aug 1815: David Low Dodge organizes in New York the first peace society in history 1816: Baltimore becomes the first city in the USA to equip streets with gas lights, provided by Rembrandt Peale's Gas Light Company of Baltimore Oct 1817: first scheduled passenger ship from New York to Liverpool (Black Ball Line) Mar 1817: the New York Stock Exchange opens in Wall Street 1818: The USA and British sign a treaty to jointly control the Oregon Territory (Oregon, Washington, Idaho and southwestern Canada) 1819: an economic depression hits the farmers of the south and the west Feb 1819: the USA acquires Florida from Spain Jun 1819: the "Savannah" completes the first transatlantic crossing by a steamboat (18 days) 1820: the population of New York City is 123,700 1820: 72% of workers work in agriculture Mar 1820: The "Missouri compromise" allows the creation of the slave state of Missouri in exchange for the creation of the nonslave state of Maine and sets a line dividing slave states and non-slave states Jan 1821: The USA citizen Moses Austin obtains Spain's permission to establish a colony of Anglosaxons in Texas 1821: New Spain declares independence from Spain and changes its name to Mexican Empire (Mexico, California, Texas, Central America) 1821: Stephen Austin leads 300 families to Texas 1822: The Baptist preacher William Miller calculates the date of te Second Coming of Jesus as 1844 Dec 1823: James Monroe proclaims the doctrine that the USA will police the entire American continent against European interference (the "Monroe" doctrine) 1823: Jedediah Smith discovers the South Pass of Wyoming's Rocky Mountains into the future Utah 1824: only 5% of adult USA citizens vote in the presidential elections 1824: For the first time, the candidate who won the most votes (Andrew Jackson) did not become president Oct 1825: the Erie Canal is inaugurated Oct 1826: James Smithson bequeaths his fortune to founding the Smithsonian Institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men" Apr 1827: John Walker invents the matches 1827: Abraham Brower inaugurates the first horse-driven omnibus service in the USA (along Broadway in New York) 1828: The Democratic-Republican Party splits in two parties 1828: The USA has 74 post offices per 100,000 people compared with 17 in Britain and 4 in France Jul 1829: William Austin Burt invents the typewriter Apr 1830: Joseph Smith founds the Mormon Church May 1830: the USA Congress approves a law to resettle Indians further west Sep 1830: the first National Negro Convention meets in Philadelphia 1830: the USA is the sixth industrial power of the world 1830: An overland trail is opened to Los Angeles that brings Anglosaxon colonists to Mexico's California Aug 1831: The black slave Nat Turner leads a slave revolt that kills 60 white people in Virginia 1831: The USA produces about half the world's raw cotton crop Jul 1831: Cyrus McCormick invents the mechanical harvesting machine May 1832: Indians are massacred in Illinois for not abandoning their homeland 1832: Cholera reaches the USA from Europe 1832: Andrew Jackson ignores a Supreme Court decision in order to allow Georgia take Cherokee land 1832: Sam Houston arrives in Mexican Texas and begins scheming for independence 1832: John Stephenson builds the first horse-drawn streetcar (running on rails) in the USA (along Bowery Street in New York) 1833: Chicago has a population of 350 1835: Samuel Colt invents the revolver Mar 1836: Mexico's dictator Santa Anna crushes a Texan uprising at the battle of the Alamo (San Antonio), but general Sam Houston defeats the Spanish and Texas declares its independence with Houson as president 1836: Maria Monk's "Awful Disclosures", a hoax written by Protestant priests, and Samuel Smith's "Rosamond Culbertson" are published at the peak of the anti-Catholic movement 1837: An economic depression follows a wave of speculation on cotton 1837: John Deere invents the steel plow Apr 1837: Samuel Morse invents a code for the telegraph 1838: The Cherokee are massacred while being resettled in Oklahoma 1839: Yellow fever kills 12% of Houston's population 1839: Charles Goodyear develops a process to vulcanize rubber (to make it elastic) 1839: An expedition led by John Stephens and Frederick Catherwood rediscovers the Maya ruins 1840: Robert Hoe builds the first type-revolving press 1840: California's population is 15,000 1840: Chicago has a population of 5000 1841: Kentucky trapper William Wolfskill opens the first orange grove in California 1841: John Quincy Adams successfully defends the black slaves who revolted on the ship Amistad 1842: Richard Owen discovers the first fossils of dinosaurs 1842: New York builds the Croton Aqueduct Apr 1842: The New York Philharmonic symphony orchestra is founded 1843: Mass migration towards Oregon 1843: The USA has 1634 newspapers 1844: the USA has over 5,000 kms of railway (3,000 in Britain, 2,000 in Germany, 500 in France) May 1844: Samuel Morse builds the first public telegraph (Washington to Baltimore) Jul 1844: The Treaty of Wangxia between China and the USA opens five Chinese ports to the USA Oct 1844: The "Great Disappointment" as Miller's prophecy of the Second Advent does not come true Dec 1844: James Polk is elected president (with a margin of 38 thousand votes out of 2.7 million votes) on a platform to annex Texas Mar 1845: The first Jew ever is elected to the USA Congress and takes office (Lewis Charles Levin) May 1845: slave owners found the protestant denomination called "Southern Baptists" Sep 1845: Alexander Cartwright invents the sport of baseball Oct 1845: Texas is annexed by the USA Apr 1846: the USA provokes a war with Mexico 1846: The Oregon Territory is split between the USA and British Canada 1846: A wagon train of 81 pioneers (the "Donner Party") is decimated by bad weather 1846: the Marble Palace opens in New York, the first department store Jan 1846: Morse installs the first commercial telegraph line in the USA (Philadelphia-New York) 1846: Five daily newspapers in New York City organize the Associated Press to share the costs of collecting and broadcasting news 1847: the chocolate bar is introduced by Frys 1847: The US conquerors change the name of Yerba Buena (459 inhabitants) to San Francisco Sep 1847: US troops enter Mexico City 1848: the first Chinese immigrants arrive in the USA 1848: The Associated Press is founded Jan 1848: James Marshall, a worker of Johann Sutter's sawmill, discovers gold in California, a region whose population is 6,000, and the "gold rush" begins Feb 1848: at the end of the Mexican war, the USA acquires New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and California (almost half of Mexico) Jul 1848: the first woman's right convention is held near New York Aug 1848: Oregon Territory 1848: John Curtis invents chewing gum Aug 1849: Vanderbilt establishes a coach service from New Orleans to California via Nicaragua and Mexico 1849: 64% of Southern cotton is for export, mainly via Northern trading companies and Northern ports, and mainly to Britain 1850: Henry and Mayer Lehman found the brokerage house Lehman Brothers (for buyers and sellers of cotton) 1850: California's population is 165,000, Los Angeles' population is 8,329 1850: The first governor of California, Peter Hardeman Burnett, signs the Indian Indenture Act that launches the "California genocide" in which thousands of "Indians" are killed or enslaved by white colonists Sep 1850: California becomes the 31st state Aug 1851: Isaac Singer begins selling the sewing machine Sep 1851: the New York Times is founded 1851: The population of the USA is 20,067,720 free persons and 2,077,034 slaves 1852: Harriet Stowe publishes an anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" 1852: The first public bathhouse opens in New York 1852: Southern plantation owners derails the Homestead Bill in the Senate 1852: Elisha Graves Otis builds the first elevator in New York 1853: A railway between New York and CHicago is inaugurated 1853: Elisha Otis demonstrates the elevator at the New York World’s Fair 1853: Elisha Otis founds the Otis Elevator Company in Yonkers (New York) 1853: Levi Strauss invents "blue jeans" in San Francisco 1854: Congress creates the territories of Kansas and Nebraska 1854: The USA forces Japan to sign a trade agreement ("treaty of Kanagawa") which reopens Japan to foreigners after two centuries (Matthew Perry's expedition) 1854: Abraham Gesner invents kerosene, based on coal 1856: The New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company renames itself Western Union, the largest telegraph company in the country 1857: George Pullman invents the bus 1857: The magazine The Atlantic is founded in Boston 1857: Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux design Central Park in New York 1858: a telegraph wire is laid at the bottom of the ocean between Ireland and Canada 1858: Gold rush in Colorado 1858: the USA stock market crash spawns an international market crash 1858: William Parker Foulke discovers the world's first full dinosaur skeleton (in Haddonfield, New Jersey) 1858: in the elections for senator of Illinois, Lincoln challenges the incumbent to a series of face-to-face debates, widely publicized throughout the nation (Lincoln loses) 1859: Edwin Drake strikes oil in Pennsylvania and launches the first oil boom in the world 1859: John Brown leads an uprising against slavery but is captured and hanged 1859: The French Opera House opens in New Orleans, the first opera house in the USA 1859: the USA produces 2/3rds of the world cotton 1859: the Great Atlantic Tea Company (1859) is founded, the first chain-store system 1860: There are 5 million cotton spindles in the USA, Cotton represents three fifths of all United States exports, the Mississippi Valley alone is home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the USA, and New Orleans has a denser concentration of banking capital than New York 1860: The population of the USA (31 million) passes the population of Britain (29 million) 1860: President Buchanan vetoes the Homestead Bill despised by Southern plantation owners 1860: the population of New York City is 814,000 1860: Catholics have become the single largest religious group in the USA 1860: Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln is elected president although he gains only 40% of the popular vote 1860: Josiah Dwight Whitney founds the California Geological Survey 1860: eleven southern states secede from the Union on the grounds that Lincoln wants to abolish slavery, and form the Confederate States of America 1860: Chicago has 100 thousand people 1860: California's population is 380,000 of which 34,000 are Chinese, 34,000 are Irish and 20,000 are Germans Jan 1861: The southern states of South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas secede from the USA, later joined by Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, forming the Confederate States of America Apr 1861: Civil war erupts between the northern ("unionist") states and the southern ("confederate") states (26.2 million versus 8.1 million), and Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus between Washington and Philadelphia to give military authorities the power to silence dissenters 1861: The Bethlehem Iron Company builds its first blast furnace 1861: The territories of Nevada and Colorado are organized 1861: Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line across North America 1861: Yale University awards the first PhD west of the Atlantic 1861: The first oil tanker sails off from Philadelphia 1862: John Rockefeller founds a company to refine oil (later renamed Standard Oil) 1862: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is founded in Boston Dec 1862: 38 Dakota Indians are executed in Mankato (Minnesota), accused of killing 490 settlers Jan 1863: Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation and the Homestead Act (granting 0.6 square kms of land to anyone willing to develop the land for five years) Apr 1863: Lincoln issues the Lieber Code on how troops should behave in the Civil War 1863: The territories of Arizona and Idaho are organized 1863: Ellen White founds the Seventh-day Adventists 1863: Riots between Irish immigrants and blacks leaves more than 100 persons dead 1863: James Plimpton invents the rollerskates 1863: Henry Dunant founds the International Committee for Relief to the Wounded (later renamed the "Red Cross") Sep 1863: Abraham Lincoln suspends habeas corpus throughout the Union 1863: The Union wins the battle of Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) 1863: About 50 blacks are lynched in New York 1864: The Frontier is rapidly settled and new states enter the Union, starting with Nevada 1864: All the major powers agree at the Geneva convention on rules for the treatment of prisoners of war Nov 1864: John Chivington's Colorado volunteers massacre hundreds of Cheyennes and Arapahoes at Sand Creek, mostly women and children Jan 1865: Cheyennes and Sioux massacre whites in Julesburg in Colorado Apr 1865: The Union, led by general Ulysses Grant, defeats the Confederates (Lee surrenders at Appomattox), slavery is abolished (13th amendment of the constitution) and blacks are given the right to vote (370,000 Union citizens and soldiers and 258,000 Confederate citizens and soldiers have died) 1865: 15,000,000 Africans have been deported in the Americas since the slave trade began, and 30-40 million have died before reaching the Americas 1865: the first "minstrels" are formed in Georgia 1865: the population of the "indians" (native Americans) is 294,000 1865: the "Salvation Army" is founded 1865: Abraham Lincoln is assassinated 1865: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston 1866: "The Black Crook", combining drama, music and ballet, is the first musical Dec 1866: William Fetterman's troops are annihilated by Sioux and Cheyennes at Lodge Trail Ridge 1866: The "Ku Klux Klan" is founded in Tennessee by former Confederate army officers to persecute African-Americans 1867: the USA buys Alaska from Russia 1867: The price of oil drops to $2.40/barrel from the peak of $13.75 a barrel 1867: George Peabody establishes the Peabody Fund, the first foundation 1867: Britain creates the Dominion of Canada, a self-governing federation of provinces that formally recognize the British monarchy 1867: at Bright Hope, the first major coal-mine disaster catastrophe claims 69 lives 1867: The Pullman Palace Car Company is founded by George Pullman to manufacture railroad cars 1868: The 14th amendment to the constitution, supported by president Andrew Jackson, grants black citizens the same rights as whites 1868: The first campus of the University of California opens in Berkeley 1868: The USA and the Lakotas/Sioux sign a peace treaty at Fort Laramie that assigns Dakota to the Indians 1868: Christopher Latham Sholes invents a better kind of typewriter 1869: The Union and Central Pacific railroads meet in Ogden, Utah, and create the first transcontinental railroad (Western Pacific between Oakland and Sacramento, the Central Pacific between Sacramento and Utah and the Union Pacific between Utah and the Missouri River) 1869: Charles Eliot becomes president of Harvard University and turns it into a German-style university with emphasis on research and a graduate degree 1869: William Cameron Coup founds the first giant circus 1869: the first "football" game between colleges is held, which is actually a variant of rugby (real football will be renamed "soccer" in the USA) 1869: Goldman Sachs is founded by German immigrant Marcus Goldman and (in 1882) Goldman's son-in-law Samuel Sachs 1870: universal male suffrage 1870: The Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded in New York 1870: the 15th amendment of the constitution protects the right of blacks to vote (granted in 1865) 1870: the population of the USA is 38.5 million and the population west of the Mississippi is 6,877,000 (Los Angeles has 5,728 people) 1870: Victoria Woodhull advocates free love in her "Weekly" magazine 1870: Charles Dowd divides the USA into "time zones" 1871: the National Rifle Association is founded in New York 1871: Korea expels the ships sent by the USA to open up its ports 1871: More than 1,000 people die in the wildfire of Wisconsin's Peshtigo 1871: The Great Chicago Fire destroys 17,000 buildings and kills 300 people 1871: The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, expands from New York to Chicago, pioneering the "chain" approach 1871: Western Union introduces money transfer 1871: a white crowd kills 19 Chinese in Los Angeles 1872: Chicago's salesman Aaron Montgomery Ward sends out the first mail-order catalog 1872: Yellowstone National Park is established, the world's first national park 1872: Victoria Woodhull is the first woman to run for president of the USA 1872: Anthony Comstock founds the Society for the Suppression of Vice 1873: the first San Francisco cable car is inaugurated 1873: Eliza Thompson from Ohio leads a nationwide crusade against alcohol 1873: Christopher Latham Sholes invents the QWERTY keyboard (1873), which Remington begins to mass produce 1873: an economic depression causes rise in unemployment and bankrupcies 1873: The USA adopts the gold standard 1873: USA magnate Andrew Carnegie donates thousands of organs to churches 1874: Buchanan Eads builds a steel bridge across the Mississippi at St Louis 1874: the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is founded 1874: Gold rush in the Black Hills of Dakota that are supposed to be reserved for the Lakotas/Sioux 1875: Ottmar Mergenthaler builds the first linotype (in Baltimore) 1875: Helena Blavatsky founds the Theosophical Society 1876: Sioux chief Crazy Horse defeat the USA cavalry at Powder River 1876: Pico Canyon Oilfield, near Los Angeles, is the first major oil field in the Far West 1876: Western Union declares that "the wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value" 1876: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the Sioux and Cheyennes to victory against the USA cavalry at the Rosebud (Montana) 1876: Thomas Edison opens a research lab in Menlo Park, 80 kms from New York 1876: general Custer and his troops are massacred by Sioux Indians at Little Big Horn 1876: railroad magnate Leland Stanford purchases a ranch in California and renames it Palo Alto 1876: Alexander Bell demonstrates the telephone 1876: The first train reaches Los Angeles from San Francisco 1877: Thomas Edison invents the phonograph that uses cylinders 1877: Alexander Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service 1877: Rutherford Hayes is elected president after a disputed election, the "Reconstruction" is de facto over and a compromise between northern and southern states results in a withdrawal of troops from the southern states, which allows southern states to enact "Jim Crow laws" against the black population 1877: the Washington Post is founded 1877: Strikes spread nation-wide among railroad workes 1877: Edison develops a better telephone than Bell's for Western Union 1878: New Haven publishes the first telephone directory (with 50 names in it) 1878: The "Posse Comitatus Act" limits the power of hte president to end the army into individual states 1878: Theodore Vail is hired as general manager of the American Bell Telephone Company and files a lawsuit against Western Union over the patent of the telephone, obtaining Wester Union's technology (developed by Edison) 1879: Thomas Edison invents the light bulb 1879: Charles Taze Russell founds the Jehovah's Witness movement and calculates the Second Coming will take place in 1914 1879: Frank Woolworth founds a retail store in Lancaster 1880: men outnumber women by more than 2 to 1 in Colorado, Nevada and Arizona 1880: 100,000 male Chinese and only 3,000 female Chinese live in the western USA 1880: The population of the USA is 50 million 1880: California's population is 865,000 1880: The Salvation Army opens a chapter in the USA 1880: the median age is 21 1880: The Pullman Palace Car Company builds its own town, Pullman, near Chicago 1881: Sitting Bull surrenders Sep 1881: James Garfield, the president, dies after being shot by a disgruntled office seeker 1881: A wave of anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia causes mass migrations of eastern European Jews (2.5 million Jews settle in the United States, thousands settle in Palestine) 1881: Youstol Dispage Fromscaruffi dies 1881: Teddy Roosevelt is elected to the New York State Assembly and begins a campaign against corruption 1882: bandit Jesse James is assassinated 1882: Thomas Edison inaugurates the first electrical power plant (in New York) 1882: Chicago passes Philadelphia as the second largest city 1882: The USA bans Chinese immigrants for ten years and forbids existing Chinese immigrants from becoming USA citizens (the "Chinese Exclusion Act"), a law renewed and made permanent in 1902 1882: John Slater establishes the first philanthropy devoted to education for blacks Jan 1883: The USA enacts the "Pendleton Act" that institutes a meritocracy in the federal bureaucracy 1883: The first public library funded by Andrew Carnegie opens Nov 1883: the railroads divide the USA in four time zones to standardize their schedules 1883: the second transcontinental railroad is inaugurated by Northern Pacific Railroad 1883: Hiram Maxim invents the machine gun 1883: designed by John-Augustus Roebling, and completed by his son, the Brooklyn Bridge is inaugurated in New York City, the longest suspension bridge in the world 1884: LaMarcus Thompson builds the first USA rollercoaster in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York 1884: The first iron mine opens in the Gogebic Range (Michigan and Wisconsin) 1892: The first iron mine opens in the Mesabi Range (Minnesota) TM, ®, Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1884: James Ritty invents the cash register 1885: the Santa Fe Railroad reaches Los Angeles 1885: popcorn carts are introduced in fairs 1885: William Le Baron Jenney builds a ten-story building for the Home Insurance Company in Chicago, the first building to use a metal skeleton 1885: William Burroughs develops an adding machine 1885: white miners kill 28 Chinese workers in Wyoming 1885: Bell incorporates the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) to build and operate the long distance telephone network, and Theodore Vail becomes its president 1886: The American Federation of Labor (AFL) is founded in Columbus (Ohio) by Samuel Gompers 1886: Frederic Bartholdi's "Statue of Liberty" is dedicated in New York 1886: the Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton invents "Coca-Cola", a drink based on coca leaves 1886: The mob in Seattle expels the Chinese community 1886: A Santa Clara County court rules for the Southern Pacific railroad that corporations are persons and have rights like human beings 1886: Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher 1886: a bomb set off by anarchists kills 11 people in Chicago 1886: George Westinghouse founds the Westinghouse Electric Company 1887: Emile Berliner invents the platter/gramophone record to play music 1887: The Santa Fe railway reaches Los Angeles 1887: 34 Chinese gold miners are robbed and killed in Oregon 1888: Thomas Adams begins selling chewing gum in a vending machine in New York 1888: Frank Sprague installs electric streetcars in Richmond (Virginia) 1888: George Eastman introduces the first consumer camera, the "Kodak" 1888: Nikola Tesla invents the alternating-current motor 1888: The National Geographic Society is is established 1889: Apache chief Geronimo surrenders 1889: Thomas Edison's business empire is consolidated in the Edison General Electrical Company 1889: The first Conference of American States is held in Washington 1889: Andrew Carnegie writes "The Gospel of Wealth", encouraging philanthropy 1889: Columbia Phonograph is founded to manufacture dictaphones 1889: George Fuller builds the Tacoma Building in Chicago, the first skyscraper (steel structure, elevators) 1889: for the first time, the USA produces more steel than Britain 1889: the first "Oklahoma opening" to auction off frontier territory 1889: Adolphus and Arthur Caille invent the slot machine TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1890: Hermann Hollerith's tabulator is chosen for the national census 1890: Joseph Pulitzer’s “New York World” becomes the tallest building in New York Dec 1890: The army massacres the Lakotas/Sioux in South Dakota ("Wounded Knee Massacre"), the last battle of the "Indian wars" 1890: The USA enacts the Sherman Antitrust Act to limit the power of monopolies 1890: The population west of the Mississippi is 16,776,000 1890: female journalist Nellie Bly circles the world in 72 days 1890: The work week in the USA is 60 hours 1890: Congress passes the Anti-Trust Act to protect against monopolies 1890: USA soldiers massacre 200 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee (South Dakota), the last "Indian war" 1891: USA oil accounts for 78% of illuminating oil exports vs 29% of Russia 1891: A consumer league is created in New York to fight sweatshops 1891: The California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in Los Angeles 1891: Westinghouse builds the world's first commercial alternating-current system (based on Tesla's patent) in Colorado 1891: John Burgess founds the first graduate school at Columbia University 1891: eleven Italians are lynched in New Orleans 1891: Jesse Reno invents the escalator 1891: Leland Stanford establishes a new university in Palo Alto, the Stanford University 1892: Edward Doheny strikes oil in Los Angeles 1892: Thomas Edison's Edison General Electrical Company merges with Thompson-Houston and becomes General Electric 1892: popular music becomes big business and music publishers rent offices around 28th Street in New York City, "Tin Pan Alley" 1892: the "Great Northern Railroad" is completed 1892: John Muir founds the "Sierra Club", the first environmental organizations 1892: the Coca Cola company is founded in Atlanta 1893: Mafia boss Don Vito Cascio Ferro flees from Sicily to New York and exports the mafia to the USA 1893: US citizens are introduced to Buddhism by Zen Japanese Buddhist priests and Sri Lankan monks at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago 1893: Chicago's Columbian Exposition Sep 1893: The Parliament of the World's Religions opens at the Art Institute of Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition 1893: Chicago's Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck found a mail-order catalog 1893: The Chicago Columbian Exposition focuses on electricity and is the largest world fair ever 1893: George Ferris builds the first Ferris Wheel for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago 1893: an economic depression causes unemployment and bankrupcies TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1893: the first shopping center opens in Cleveland 1893: Interior minister Lorrin Thurston (son of USA missionaries) overthrows the monarchy of Hawaii and appoints Sanford Dole (also son of USA missionaries) as its first president 1894: the magazine "Billboard" is founded 1894: Jacob Coxey leads protesters on a march from Ohio to Washington 1894: the Society of Women in the Wilderness creates a utopian community in Pennsylvania 1894: the USA limits Japanese immigration 1895: the first professional "football" game is held (a different kind of football) 1895: Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal engage in "yellow journalism" (fake news) 1895: The Livermore company opens a 35 km hydroelectric power line to bring electricity from Folsom to Sacramento, with water powering four colossal electrical generators (dynamos), the first time that high-voltage alternating current had been successfully conducted over a long distance See also the timeline for cars 1896: Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse build a hydro-electric power plant to bring electricity from Niagara Falls to Buffalo 1896: Ford builds his first car 1896: Jesse Reno builds the first escalator at Coney Island 1896: The Republicans win elections and consolidate a huge majority 1896: the USA dominates the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, winning 9 of 15 events 1896: the first "ragtime" record is cut 1897: the first car is sold in Los Angeles 1897: the first movies to advertise products are shown in theaters 1897: Klondike gold rush in Alaska Feb 1898: An accidental explosion on a US warship anchored in Cuba kills 258 sailors and the US media led by Hearst present it as a Spanish attack Apr 1898: The USA declares war on Spain (345 soldiers of the USA die in battle, many more die of tropical diseases) Aug 1898: The USA defeats Spain and gains the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, ending Spanish rule in America 1898: Frederick Taylor at Bethlehem Steel pioneers "scientific management" 1898: New York is extended beyong Manhattan by annexing neighboring cities and reaches 3.5 million inhabitants, the second largest city in the world after London 1898: Caleb Bradham of North Carolina invents "Pepsi-Cola", another drink based on coca leaves 1898: the USA navy builds its first submarines 1898: The USA annexes Hawaii 1899: the coal output in Pennsylvania alone is more than 54,000,000 tons 1899: The Park Row Building in New York is the world’s tallest building Jan 1899: Emilio Aguinaldo leads a rebellion against the USA in the Philippines 1899: The MIT publishes the Technology Review, the first technology magazine 1899: 2 billion cigarettes are sold in the USA 1899: The USA obtains eastern Samoa from Australia Jan 1899: Emilio Aguinaldo leads a rebellion against the USA in the Philippines 1900: the first mass-market camera, the "Brownie" is introduced by Kodak 1900: The largest city in Texas is San Antonio with a population of 53 thousand 1900: A six-room house costs $3,000 to buy 1900: Los Angeles' population is 100,000 1900: 2,300 automobiles are registered in the USA, of which 1,170 are steam-powered, 800 are electric, and 400 are gasoline-powered 1900: Benjamin Holt invents the tractor 1900: the anti-western Boxer (Yihetuan) Rebellion in China is crushed by foreign troops (primarily USA marines) 1900: 5% of USA households own a telephone 1900: Life expectancy in the USA is 47.3 1900: the USA's population is 76 million or 89 million 1901: one million people emigrate from Europe to the USA in just one year 1901: Victor Talking Machine is founded 1901: Theodore Roosevelt is elected president and launches into an anti-trust campaign while upholding the principle that the president does not need approval from Congress to act 1901: Henry Huntington founds the Pacific Electric Railroad to create a network of trolley cars and a network of new suburbs around Los Angeles (and becomes one of the richest men in the USA thanks to land speculation) 1901: J. Pierpont Morgan acquires Carnegie Steel Company from Andrew Carnegie and Henry Phipps, merges it with Elbert Gary's Federal Steel Company and Judge Moore's National Steel Company, and founds U.S. Steel 1901: Melville Clark builds the first full 88-key player piano 1901: 16,000 patents are filed in just one year 1901: John Pierpont Morgan creates U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh 1901: George Cohan stages his first musical show 1901: the first record by an African-American musician is cut 1901: King Camp Gillette invents the razor 1901: oil is discovered near Beaumont, Texas, and in Oklahoma 1901: Andrew Mellon founds the Gulf Oil Company in Texas and Joseph Cullinan founds the Texas Fuel Company (later Texaco) 1901: Ransome Eli Olds introduces the Curved Dash Oldsmobile and thereby starts the Detroit automobile industry 1902: president William McKinley is assassinated by an anarchist Apr 1902: The Filipino rebels surrender to the USA in the Philippines after 220,000 Filipinos and more than 4,000 US soldiers have been killed 1902: Frank Hardart and Joseph Horn launch the first Horn & Hardart Automat in Philadelphia, which soon becomes the first chain of restaurants 1902: Caffeine replaces cocaine in the formula for Coca-Cola 1902: Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner 1902: oil is discovered in Texas 1902: Daniel Burnham's Flatiron Building in New York 1902: irrigation of the western lands begins 1902: a female journalist, Ida-Minerva Tarbell, exposes Standard Oil's dubious practices 1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first airplane at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina 1903: the USA produces 11,200 cars (1,700 from Ford) 1903: the first World Series of baseball are held 1904: Coca-Cola is the most recognized brand name in the USA 1904: Teddy Roosevelt adds a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, asserting the right of the USA to stabilize the economic affairs of small states in the Caribbean and Central America to prevent European intervention 1904: George Hale opens the observatory of Mt Wilson, near Los Angeles, with the largest telescope ever br>1904: Amadeo Giannini founds the Bank of Italy 1904: The New York subway opens 1904: Harvey Hubbell invents the electrical plug and socket 1904: A recording of Enrico Caruso is the first record to sell one million copies 1905: Ford leaves Cadillac and founds the Ford Motor Company 1905: The "San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad" from Salt Lake City to southern California is completed 1905: The city of Las Vegas is founded in Nevada 1905: a huge oil field is discovered in Oklahoma (the "Glenn Pool") 1905: the first gas station opens in St Louis 1905: the first Nickelodeon (movie theater) opens in Pennsylvania 1905: more than one million immigrants enter the USA in just one year 1905: Detroit is the main center for car manufacturing in the USA 1906: the San Francisco earthquake and fire 1906: San Francisco segregates all Oriental children in one Chinatown school 1906: US Steel opens the largest integrated steel mill in the world near Chicago, Gary Works 1906: a Stanley Steamer steam-powered car, built by Freelan and Francis Stanley, sets the world record for speed (205 km/h) 1907: Leo Baekeland invents the first plastic ("bakelite") 1907: 3,242 miners are killed in the USA, including a mine explosion that kills 361 miners in Monongah, West Virginia 1907: Detroit Electric begins manufacturing electric cars 1907: The USA sends its new navy on a tour around the world 1907: the Warner Brothers film company is founded 1907: George Freeth surfs from Hawaii to California 1907: in the USA there is a car every 800 people 1907: The first gasoline station is inaugurated in St Louis 1908: Ford introduces the Model T, the first mass vehicle 1908: Thor, by the Hurley Machine Company of Chicago, is the first electric-powered washing machine 1908: People in the USA mail 677,777,798 postcards out of a population of 88,700,000 1908: Texas builds a ship channel to connect Houston with the sea 1908: William D'Arcy discovers oil in Iran 1908: Durant founds General Motors in Detroit 1908: six cars race from NewYork to Parigi via Siberia in 5 months 1908: Harvard creates the Graduate School of Business Administration 1909: the average hourly salary in the USA is $0.19 1909: the Metlife tower in Madison Square is the tallest building in the world 1909: The USA forces the dissolution of Standard Oil, an event that creates Chevron, Mobil, Amoco, etc 1910: Los Angeles opens the first international airport in the USA 1910: Abraham Lefcourt builds the Brill Building in New York which begins his career as a real-estate developer 1910: Los Angeles' population reaches 300,000 1910: The Boy Scouts of America are established 1910: California produces 22% of the world's oil (more than any country in the world except the USA) 1910: 350,000 pianos are manufactured in the USA 1910: Nevada becomes the last western state to outlaw gaming 1910: the "Boy Scouts" are founded 1910: the success of Victor Herbert's "Naughty Marietta" (1910) imports "operetta" to the USA 1910: the NAACP is founded to protect the rights of African Americans 1910: the Wurlitzer company invents an organ with special sound effects to accompany silent films 1910: the first Nickelodeon (movie) theater opens in Los Angeles 1910: the first film is shot in Hollywood (by DW Griffith) 1910: The Bible Institute of Los Angeles begins publishing the "Fundamentals", the manifesto of Christian fundamenalism 1910: a bomb kill 20 people in Los Angeles 1910: Foreign-born residents are 14.7% of the population Jul 1910: The "Cloakmakers' Strike" or "Great Revolt", a large strike in the garment factories of Manhattan 1911: the antitrust law dissolves Rockefeller's financial empire (the Standard Oil Company) and creates 34 new companies 1911: Sales of gasoline exceed sales of kerosene 1911: Chevrolet is founded 1911: General Electric introduces the first commercial refrigerator 1911: A fire kills 146 workers in a New York factory 1911: Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company is acquired by a new company that will change name to International Bussiness Machines (IBM) in 1924 1912: New Mexico and Arizona become states May 1912: Suffragettes march in Manhattan 1912: All the stores affiliated with Woolworth merge, creating a retail chain of 596 stores 1912: A&P operates 400 stores and inaugurates the no-frill store 1912: the first blues record is cut 1912: the USA sends marines to protect the dictator of Nicaragua 1912: Carl Laemmle founds Universal, the first major film studio 1913: John Rockefeller is worth $212 billions, 1/44th of the USA economy, and establishes the Rockefeller Foundation "to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world" 1913: A law makes charitable contributions tax-deductible 1913: Conde Nast publishes the magazine Vanity Fair 1913: A reservoir is built in Yosemite to provide water for San Francisco 1913: The Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental highway, opens, linking New York and San Francisco 1913: William Mulholland completes the Los Angeles aqueduct 1913: the police and militia kill 14 strikers at Ludlow Oct 1913: Ford installs the first assembly line (at Highland Park) 1913: 2% of USA citizens control 60% of the national product (Morgan and Rockefeller alone control 20%) 1913: Grand Central Station is inaugurated in New York 1913: the Woolworth Building opens in New York, the tallest building in the world 1913: Bell sells Wester Union to avoid antitrust proceedings 1913: The Federal Reserve is created See the timeline for World War I 1914: the USA and Panama open the Panama Canal 1914: Because of the war in Europe, the USA suspends the gold standard 1914: For the first time senators are elected directly by the people instead of being appointed by state legislatures 1914: composer Jerome Kern invents the "musical" by integrating music, drama and ballet 1914: Robert Goddard invents the liquid-fuel rocket 1914: World War I begins 1914: Ford's market share of the car market is 48% 1914: Marcus Garvey founds the "Universal Negro Improvement Association" 1914: The Federal income tax is introduced 1914: The first scheduled passenger airline service is started in Florida by Percival Fansler, the St Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, using Thomas Benoist's "flying boat" piloted by Tony Jannus, flying between St Petersburg and Tampa (34 km) in 23 minutes instead of the two hours it took by steamship 1915: the "Ku Klux Klan" is refounded in Georgia as a racist organization by William Simmons, persecuting Catholics and Jews as well as Blacks 1915: The government forces the dissolution of Edison movie trust 1915: the USA has 100 million people, of which 13-15% are foreign-born 1915: AT&T's long-distance telephone service reaches San Francisco 1915: the USA sends marines to restore order in Haiti 1915: A German submarine sinks the USA ship Lusitania killing 120 people TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1916: the USA produces 1.5 million cars 1916: For the first time the GDP of the USA passes the GDP of Britain 1916: Coca Cola introduces the contour glass bottle 1916: Clarence Saunders opens his Piggly Wiggly store in Memphis (Tennessee), the first self-service shop 1916: Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker opens Nathan's Famous hot-dog stand in Coney Island that soon becomes the first fast-food chain 1916: Margaret Sanger and Ethel Byrne open the first birth control clinic in the USA 1916: Margaret Sanger founds the National Birth Control League (later renamed Planned Parenthood) 1916: for the first time a woman is elected to the USA COngress (Jeannette Rankin) 1916: Merrill Lynch is founded 1916: William Fox founds the Fox studios in Hollywood 1916: Adolph Zukor founds the Paramount studios 1916: Los Angeles has 1700 kms of trolley lines 1916: the USA signs a treaty with Nicaragua to build a canal 1916: the USA establishes a military government over the Dominican Republic 1916: There are 3.4 million cars in the USA 1916: William Boeing founds a company to manufacture airplanes 1917: 40% of USA households own a telephone 1917: The USA purchases the Danish West Indies and renames them US Virgin Islands April 1917: The USA enters World War I on the side of Britain and France against Germany Jun 1917: The first US soldiers arrive in France 1917: Columbia University establishes the Pulitzer Prize 1917: The USA accounts for 67% of the world's oil output 1917: the first jazz record is cut in New York 1917: Denmark sells the islands of St Thomas, St Croix and St John to the United States 1918: the USA post office inaugurates "air mail" (between New York and Washington) Jan 1918: The "Spanish" influenza pandemic originates from Kansas and is spread by US soldiers to Europe Oct 1918: Reimported from Europe by returning soldiers, the "Spanish" influenza kills 195,000 people in the USA in just one month 1918: Walter Jacobs in Chicago founds a car-rental business that becomes Hertz in 1923 Nov 1918: The first world war ends with the defeat of Germany and Austria (2 million Russians, 1.8 million Germans, 1.3 million French, 1.1 million Austro-Hungarians, 0.9 million Britons, 0.6 million Turks and 0.5 million Italians are dead) TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1919: the USA overtakes Europe as total industrial output 1919: Barnum and Bailey's circus merges with the Ringling Brothers to form the "Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus" 1919: Over the course of several months white suprematist attack black people, including the lynching and cremation of John Hartfield in Mississippi, the stoning of 17-year-old Eugene Williams in Chicago, the white riots in Washington and the "Elaine Massacre" in Arkansas 1920: KDKA (Pittsburgh) is the first commercial radio station in the USA 1920: The USA has one car for every 13 people and Los Angeles has one car for every 5 people (Britain: 1 for every 228, Germany 1 for every 1017) 1920: 43% of the population of Hawaii is Japanese 1920: the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded 1920: The population of the USA is 105 million 1920: the USA has more urban than rural dwellers 1920: eight million USA citizens own a car 1920: A law is enacted by parliament against the veto of the president that outlaws alcohol ("Prohibition") 1920: universal female suffrage 1920: Earle Dickson invents the band-aid 1920: a bomb kills 30 people in Manhattan 1920: attorney general Mitchell Palmer has 6,000 people arrested for communist activities ("red scare") 1920: The USA founds the Black Chamber to spy on telegrams Dec 1920: The "Spanish" flu pandemic ends, having infected about 500 million people worldwide and killed about 50 million 1921: the first wirephoto is sent by Western Union Jul 1921: David Sarnoff at RCA backs the nationwide broadcasting of a boxing match 1921: Rudolph Valentino becomes the first male sex symbol 1921: 43 billion cigarettes are sold in the USA 1921: General Motors introduces cars for every market bracket 1921: The film "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" turns Rudolph Valentino into a star and creates the stereotype of the "Latin lover" Nov 1921: The USA, Britain and Japan agree to reduce their navies at the Washington Conference Aug 1921: Tens of thousands of coal miners fight 3,000 hired guns (the Logan Defenders) in West Virginia ("Battle of Blair Mountain") 1921: The USA enacts the "Emergency Quota Act" that restricts foreign immigration May 1921: About 300 people are killed when a racist white mob attacks Tulsa's black neighborhood Greenwood 1922: the "Country Club Plaza" opens near Kansas City, the first shopping mall 1922: The Reader's Digest debuts Feb 1922: Britain, the USA, France, Japan and Italy sign the Washington Naval Treaty to limit the size of their navies 1922: Time Magazine is launched 1922: there are 60,000 radios in the USA 1922: The USA reaches naval parity with Britain 1923: Garrett Morgan invents a three-way traffic signal 1923: Ethyl (leaded) gasoline goes on sale in Ohio 1923: Kodak releases the 16-mm Cine-Kodak hand-held movie camera 1923: Unemployment is 2.4% 1923: The Springfield is the first car with a radio 1923: president Warren Harding dies and is replaced by Calvin Coolidge 1923: Roy Allen and Frank Wright's A&W Root Beer opens a drive-in branch in Sacramento, becoming the first drive-in chain 1923: Kodak releases the 16-mm Cine-Kodak hand-held movie camera 1924: the USA Congress passes the "Exclusion Act", that prohibits further immigration from Japan 1924: The Society for Human Rights is founded in Chicago to promote homosexual rights 1924: boom of the stock market 1924: Metro and Mayer merge into MGM 1924: three million USA citizens are members of the "Ku Klux Klan" 1924: 441,000 cars are registered in Los Angeles 1924: The USA passes the Immigration Act, which extends the exclusion of Asians, sets national quotas for Europeans and severely restricts immigration from eastern Europe 1924: The Indian Citizenship Act grants citizenship to all Native-Americans, although the right to vote is left to each state 1925: Wyoming' Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman governor in the history of the USA 1925: Cellophane is introduced 1925: Burroughs introduces a portable adding machine 1925: Alphonse Capone rules the Mafia Dec 1925: The Milestone Motel opens in San Luis Obispo (California), the first motel 1926: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket 1926: James McKinsey founds the management consulting firm McKinsey 1926: Atlanta opens the largest theater in the world, renamed "Roxy" in 1938 1926: A road connects Las Vegas to California (Highway 91) 1926: films with synchronized voice and music are introduced 1926: The second oil rush in Oklahoma 1926: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fueled rocket 1926: Hugo Gernsback founds the first science-fiction magazine, "Amazing Stories" 1926: Vitaphone introduces 16-inch acetate-coated shellac discs playing at 33 1/3 RPM (a size and speed calculated to be equivalent to a reel of film) 1926: the Atlanta airport opens 1927: the Scotch tape is introduced 1927: sales of "race records" reach $100 million 1927: General Motors sells more than one million cars and moves head of Ford 1927: the juke-box is introduced by Automatic Music Instrument 1927: Pan American World Airways is founded 1927: Philo Farnsworth invents the television in San Francisco 1927: The pipe-organ becomes the most popular instrument in the USA (2,400 sold in one year) 1927: anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti are sentenced to death, and protests on their behalf are held in many cities of the USA and Europe 1927: Lindberg flies from New York to Paris 1928: first daily passenger flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco 1928: Texas passes California as the main producer of oil 1928: William Randolph Hearst's news empire reaches a circulation and revenue peak 1928: the Philadelphia accountant Walter Diemer invents bubblegum 1928: seven gangsters are killed on San Valentine's day 1928: Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks create the animated character Mickey Mouse 1929: Herbert Hoover is elected president 1929: 78% of the world's cars are in the USA 1929: between may 1928 and september 1929 stock prices climb 40% 1929: the USA produces 4.5 million cars, compared with France's 211,000 and Britain's 182,000 1929: there are 10 million radios in the USA 1929: stock markets crash around the world ("great depression") 1929: the richest 1% owns 40% of the nation's wealth, while workers' productivity has increased 43% since 1919 1929: William Gericke invnts hydroponics, a way to grow food without soil Sep 1929: The Dow Jones index peaks at 381, double what it was two years earlier, eight times what it was eight years earlier 1930: Frank Whittle patents the first jet engine 1930: The population of the USA is 138 million 1930: The USA post office refuses to deliver any mail coming from Spain that bears a stamp depicting Goya's masterpiece "Maja Desnuda" 1930: Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the USA sign the London Naval Treaty, an agreement to reduce naval warfare 1930: Clyde William Tombaugh discovers a ninth planet, Pluto 1930: the Bank of Italy is renamed Bank of America 1930: TWA is founded to transport mail by plane 1930: five big studios (Fox, MGM, Paramount, RKO and Warner) control the majority of USA movies 1930: William Fard founds the "Nation of Islam" in Detroit 1930: Polystyrene is invented 1930: Ellen Church, a nurse, becomes the first airplane stewardess (for Boeing) 1930: the popularity of radios causes a decline in the sales of records 1930: the Chrysler Building in New York is completed, the tallest building in the world 1930: the population of the USA is 120 million 1930: most immigrants to the USA are Italians 1930: the GDP of the USA falls 9.4% from the year before and unemployment reaches 8.7% 1930: Second oil rush in Texas 1931: Alphonse Capone is imprisoned for life 1931: The USA deports 138,000 Mexicans (half a million between 1929 and 1935) 1931: The price of oil plunges to $0.15/barrel 1931: Last "tong" war between rival Chinese gangs 1931: Congress votes to make "The Star-Spangled Banner" the official anthem of the USA 1931: Canada declares its independence 1931: the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world of all time, opens in New York 1931: the Rockefeller Center is inaugurated in New York 1931: the GDP of the USA falls 8.5% from the year before and unemployment reaches 15.9% 1931: Gambling is legalized in Las Vegas 1932: between april 8 and july 8 stocks fall 34% 1932: Ford manufactures one third of the world's cars 1932: Thomas Dorsey's Precious Lord invents gospel music in Chicago 1932: the last steam-powered car is built 1932: 10,000 banks have failed since 1929, GDP has dropped 31% since 1929, the stock market has lost almost 90% of its value from boom to bust, and unemployment reaches 23.6% 1932: The USA enacts a tariff on foreign oil 1932: Howard Hughes founds Hughes Aircraft Company in Los Angeles 1933: president Franklin Roosevelt launches the "New Deal" Feb 1933: Michigan shuts down its banks and panic spreads around the nation 1933: Frigidaire exhibits the fully air-conditioned home at the World's Fair in Chicago 1933: The USA recognizes the Soviet Union and establishes diplomatic relations 1933: Roosevelt institutes the Tennessee Valley Authority to help poor regions of the USA 1933: the economy has shrunk 27% from 1929 to 1933 and unemployment has skyrocketed to 25% 1933: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is created to insure deposits in banks and thrift institutions 1933: the USA withdraws its last soldiers from Nicaragua 1933: Richard Hollingshead opens the first "drive-in" movie theater in New Jersey 1933: the Prohibition is repealed 1933: FM radio broadcasting is born (Edwin Armstrong) 1933: unemployment in the USA peaks at 25% 1933: the first stereo records are produced 1934: Wurlitzer introduces multiple-selection juke boxes 1934: The first lesbian nightclub opens in San Francisco, "Mona's" 1934: The USA leaves Haiti 1934: Youstol Dispage Fromscaruffi dies 1934: the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is created to protect investors 1934: Clock manufacturer Laurens Hammond invents the Hammond organ 1934: William Ward disappears mysteriously and Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Chicago mosque, becomes the new leader of the "Black Muslims" (or "Nation of Islam"), and advocates racial separation ("African-American nationalism") 1935: Wallace Carothers at DuPont invents nylon, the first totaly synthetic fibre, and the decline of cotton begins 1935: the drought of the Dust Bowl 1935: Carl Magee invents the parking meter 1935: Lucky Luciano rules the Mafia Aug 1935: The USA enacts a universal pension system, Social Security, and unemployment benefits Aug 1935: The US Congress passes a "neutrality act" that outlaws sales of arms to all parties in a war 1935: The USA grants the Philippines independence and Manuel Quezon becomes the first president 1935: Howard Johnson begins franchising his Massachusetts restaurant 1935: The "China Clipper" (a Pan American Airways airplane) delivers mail from California to the Philippines in seven days, the first transpacific airmail service 1936: The economic ideas of John Maynard Keynes are applied in the USA 1936: Life magazine debuts 1936: Henry Luce founds Life magazine 1936: San Francisco builds the longest bridge in the world 1936: Roosevelt sets up the Works Progress Administration to fund public works 1936: Sylvan Goldman invents the shopping cart 1936: The first major concrete dam, Hoover Dam, is inaugurated 1936: Pan American inaugurates air service in the Pacific, flying Clipper planes built by Martin and Boeing 1937: The first nylon stockings appear Jul 1937: The US senate kills an attempt by Franklin Roosevelt to reshape the Supreme Court 1937: The Pacific Coast Highway opens in California 1937: USA businessman Carl Crow, who operates out of Shanghai, publishes the book "400 Million Customers" about doing business in China 1937: General Motors is the largest privately owned manufacturing company in the world 1937: Chester Carlson invents the photocopier 1937: A zeppelin explodes in New Jersey and ends the zeppelin industry 1937: USA tycoon Howard Hughes sets a new transcontinental airspeed record by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours and a half Dec 1937: Japan sinks the "Panay" ship of the USA 1938: David Packard and William Hewlett found a company in Palo Alto to sell oscillators 1938: Unemployment is still 19% 1938: USA tycoon Howard Hughes sets a world record by completing a flight around the world in 91 hours (New York, Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutsk, Anchorage, Minneapolis, New York) 1938: John Atanasoff conceives an electronic digital computer 1938: Alfred Vischer invents the pressure cooker for home use 1939: Russian aviator Igor Sikorsky invents the helicopter See the timeline for World War II 1939: Pan American inaugurates the world's first transatlantic passenger service, flying between New York and Marseilles 1939: Boeing introduces a large airplane, the 314s, that can carry 74 passengers (the Douglas DC-2 carries 14 passengers) 1939: King George VI becomes the first British king to visit America 1940: The first freeway opens, the Pasadena freeway in Los Angeles 1940: James Fifield, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, founds Spiritual Mobilization to combat the New Deal and to promote the alliance of religion and capitalism ("The blessings of capitalism come from God") 1940: Unemployment is 15% 1940: the CBS radio quiz show, "Take It or Leave It" (later renamed "the $64 Question") airs for the first time 1940: New York has 7.45 million inhabitants, the largest city in the world 1940: Peter Goldmark invents color television TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1940: Karl Pabst invents the jeep Jul 1941: The USA begins an economic embargo on Japan, which imports 80% of its fuel, 90% of its gasoline, 60% of its machine tools and 70% of its scrap iron from the USA 1941: Japanese attack Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) killing more than 2,300 people (almost all military personnel) and the USA enters world war II against Italy, Germany and Japan 1941: Roosevelt authorizes a project to develop an atomic bomb (later renamed the Manhattan Project) 1941: The El Rancho Vegas is the first casino to open on on what would become the Las Vegas Strip 1942: Enrico Fermi achieves the first nuclear reaction 1942: The USA enacts the "bracero program" to import Mexican laborers, a form of indentured labor Feb 1942: The USA creates the propaganda radio program "Voice of America" 1943: Tommy Flowers and others build the Colossus Mark I, the world's first programmable digital electronic computer 1943: The first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world opens in Hanford (Washington state) 1943: The ban on Chinese immigrants is repealed 1943: Leo Kanner describes autism 1943: Thomas Watson of IBM declares that "there is a world market for maybe five computers" 1943: Albert Hofmann discovers the hallucinogenic effects of LSD 1943: the first disc-jockeys began performing for the USA troops overseas Jun 1943: Racial riots in Detroit kill 34 people 1944: USA oilman Everette DeGolyer announces that the Arabian peninsula, Iraq and Iran hold colossal reserves of oil, which prompts two USA companies (Socal and Texaco) to form Arabian American Oil Company (or Aramco) 1944: The USA passes the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (the "G.I. Bill") that funds education for millions of WWII soldiers, mostly in their 20s Jan 1944: the world's monetary system is anchored to the dollar and the dollar to gold, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are created ("Bretton Woods agreement") 1944: Howard Aiken unveils the first program-controlled computer, the Mark I 1945: Germany surrenders and is divided in a Western and a Soviet area, while Soviet troops occupy Eastern European countries Jul 1945: The USA explodes the first atomic bomb at Alamogordo (New Mexico), using plutonium transported from Hanson ("Trinity test") 1945: Hughes Aircraft is the single largest supplier of weapons systems to the Air Force and Navy, and Howard Hughes is one of the richest men in the country Aug 1945: The USA drops two atomic bombs on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and World War II ends 1945: the United Nations Organization is founded in New York 1946: Earl Tupper founds Tupperware to make polyethylene plastic containers for home use 1946: Churchill delivers in the USA the "Iron Curtain" speech, virtually opening the "Cold War" against the Soviet Union 1946: The gold standard is resumed 1946: Merile Key Guertin founds the Best Western chain of motels in California 1946: Restrictions on the manufacture of television sets are lifted (there are about ten thousand tv sets in the USA) 1946: The USA exports twice as much what it imports 1946: Malcom McLean introduces the shipping container 1946: While testing vaccines, the USA infects hundreds of mentally ill patients and prisoners in Guatemala with gonorrhoea and syphilis 1946: The USA founds the School of the Americas in Panama to train military officers to fight against leftist regimes and insurgency Jul 1946: The USA tests a nuclear bomb on the Bikini Atoll 1946: John Pastore becomes governor of Rhode Island, the first Italian-American governor in the USA 1946: the USA population is 133 million 1946: Percy Spencer invents the microwave oven 1946: George Marshall envisions a plan to promote the economic recovery of European democracies 1946: The first venture capital firms are founded in the USA, American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC) by former Harvard Business School's dean Georges Doriot, J.H. Whitney & Company by John Hay Whitney, Rockefeller Brothers by Laurance Rockefeller (later renamed Venrock) TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1946: the French bomb Vietnam 1946: RCA Victor releases the first vinyl record 1946: TWA and United begin transcontinental flights from New York to California 1946: A gangster, Bugsy Siegel, opens "The Flamingo" casino in Las Vegas 1946: the first non-military computer, Eniac, is unveiled, built by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert 1946: Percy Spencer invents the microwave oven Mar 1947: Truman proclaims the "Truman doctrine" about defending democracies (specifically Greece and Turkey against communism) 1947: George Kennan advocates a "containment" policy to curb Soviet expansionism ("It is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies") 1947: Charles Yeager pilots the first supersonic flight in an X-1 airplane 1947: New York opens the Fresh Kills Landfill, soon to become one of the biggest human-made structures of the planet 1947: two ships carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer explode in a Texas harbor killing about 576 people Apr 1947: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is created to eliminate trade bareers 1947: the first widely publicized sighting of a UFO 1947: The USA sets up the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 1947: William Shockley invents the transistor at Bell Labs 1947: Edwin Land invents Polaroid, the first instant camera 1947: Pan Am introduces the first round-the-world flight Nov 1947: The USA develops the first official war plan against the Soviet Union that consists on hitting 24 Soviet cities with 34 atomic bombs 1948: The Soviet Union blockades West Berlin 1948: The Long Playing (LP) record is introduced 1948: John Walson and Margaret Walson launch the first cable-television service 1948: The "American Society of Human Genetics" (ASHG) is established 1948: Bell Laboratories demonstrates the first prototype transistor radio 1948: Harry Stockman invents RFID 1948: Ed Sullivan begins his tv variety show 1948: Senator Joseph McCarthy launches a "witch hunt" against intellectuals suspected of being communist 1948: Leo Fender invents the electric guitar 1948: the Jews are granted their own country in Palestine: Israel 1948: Invention of "xerography" (copying machines) by Chester Carlson 1948: Columbia introduces the 12-inch 33-1/3 RPM long-playing vinyl record 1948: Cable TV is deployed in rural areas 1948: the Declaration of Human Rights 1948: John Rock fertilizes a human egg in a test tube 1948: Maurice and Richard McDonald start a chain of drive-in restaurants in San Bernardino 1949: Jean-Paul Getty buys a concession to drill for oil in the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia 1949: Willard Libby invents radiocarbon dating May 1949: The USA establishes the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) (later National Security Agency, NSA) to conduct communications and electronic intelligence surveillance 1949: There are one million tv sets in the USA Apr 1949: NATO is formed by western European countries and USA 1949: the first foreign car, the Volkswagen Beetle, is sold in the USA, which is also the first "compact" ever sold in the USA Aug 1949: The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb and the nuclear arm race begins 1949: RCA Victor introduces the 7" 45 RPM vinyl record Jul 1950: US general Hobart Gay orders to shoot Korean refugees and more than 250 civilians are killed at No Gun Ri Sep 1950: United Nations troops led by the USA push back North Korean troops from South Korea Oct 1950: China enters North Korea and pushes back the USA (33,000 US soldiers have died) 1950: The USA has 298 bombs 1950: Harry Hay and Chuck Rowland found the Mattachine Society in Los Angeles, the first gay political organization 1950: The USA has 40 million cars and gasoline consumption has increased 42% over 1945 1950: the USA's population is 152 million 1950: Remington purchases Eckert-Mauchly Computer Mar 1950: the first credit card (Diners Club) is introduced for traveling salesmen to buy food and fuel and rent hotel rooms from a network of participating outlets 1950: the first sperm bank is created at the University of Iowa 1950: Enrico Fermi wonders why, if advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist, we have never observed any of their artifacts 1950: the population of the USA is 151 million, with 64% living in cities 1950: The Northgate shopping center opens in Seattle Dec 1950: The USA has 400 atomic bombs 1951: first color TV transmissions 1951: William Levitt builds the first suburban Levittown 1951: Shopper's World opens in Framingham (Massachusetts) Sep 1951: Japan and the USA sign a military alliance 1951: Ed Teller and Stanislaw Ulam invent the theremonuclear fusion-based hydrogen bomb 1951: electricity is generated for the first time by a nuclear reactor (Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1 in Idaho) 1951: A senate investigation links Las Vegas gambling with organized crime 1951: The USA detonates the first of over a hundred atomic bombs at the Nevada Test Site 1951: Hannah Arendt publishes "The Origins of Totalitarianism" that compares the nazist and the communist regimes 1951: the first commercial computer is built, the Univac 1951: Fred Terman of Stanford University conceives an industrial park for high technology (the foundations of Silicon Valley) 1951: Carl Djerassi invents synthetic progesterone, "the birth-control pill", at Syntex of Mexico City 1951: 9% of USA citizens own stocks 1951: The sitcom "I Love Lucy" debuts on television Apr 1951: Truman fires general McArthur 1952: First sex change operation (George Jorgenson) 1952: Charlie Chaplin is banned from the USA for his political views Feb 1952: Greece and Turkey join NATO 1952: A polio epidemic affects 57,628 people, of which 3,145 die 1952: The first stereo magnetic tape 1952: Kemmons Wilson in Memphis (Tennessee) starts a chain of motels, Holiday Inn Nov 1952: The first hydrogen bomb (700 times stronger than Hiroshima's bomb) is tested on the Pacific island of Elugelab, that is vaporized 1952: African-American activist Malcom X joins the "Nation of Islam", becoming the head of the New York City mosque 1952: 73% of world cars are produced in the USA 1953: Francis Crick and James Watson discover the double helix of the DNA 1953: Eisenhower delivers the speech "Atoms for Peace" 1953: The USA launches Radio Free Europe 1953: The USA has 1161 bombs 1953: There are about 3 million Hispanics in the USA 1953: The USA launches the Atoms for Peace program to help developing countries such as Iran and Pakistan to build their first atomic reactors 1953: The CIA finances a project named "MkUltra" to study the effects of psychoactive drugs 1953: Jean-Paul Getty's company strikes oil in the neutral zone 1953: the USA's and the British secret services engineer a coup to remove Iran's prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh, and the USA replaces Britain as the main player in the Middle East 1953: Remington Rand introduces UNIVAC 1103, the first computer with Random Access Memory (RAM) 1953: Hugh Hefner starts the magazine "Playboy" 1953: Korea is permanently partitioned across the DMV (55,000 USA soldiers, one million south Koreans, one million Chinese soldiers, two million North Koreans have died) 1953: the first sperm-bank child is born 1953: the police raid a polygamist compound with hundreds of children in the twin communities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah, also known as "Short Creek", run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 1954: the USA deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Western Europe and threatens to use nuclear weapons to stop Soviet aggression 1954: The USA launches the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus 1954: The Howard Johnson restaurant chain opens its first motor lodge in Savannah, Georgia 1954: mutual defense treaty between the USA and Taiwan 1954: The first commercial transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, is introduced by IDEA, using circuits by Texas Instruments 1954: France leaves Vietnam 1954: a rebel force trained by the CIA invades Guatemala 1954: The USA Senate denounces Joseph McCarthy's "witch hunt" 1954: the USA explodes its largest bomb ever (15 megatons) at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands 1954: The Supreme Court desegregates schools so that a school must teach to both white and black children 1955: Rock and roll records climb the charts May 1955: West Germany joins NATO 1955: 65% of households own a TV set 1955: The USA introduces the first intercontinental bombers, the B-52 1955: The "Daughters of Bilitis" is founded in San Francisco, the first exclusively lesbian organization in the USA 1955: "The $64,000 Question" airs for the first time 1955: Roy Kepler founds the Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park 1955: Lawrence Ferlinghetti founds the City Lights bookstore in San Francisco 1955: Remington Rand merges with Sperry to form Sperry Rand 1955: William Shockley moves to Silicon Valley, founds his own company and hires Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and others 1955: Ray Kroc launches the first franchise of McDonald's restaurants from a town near Chicago 1955: Disneyland opens in Los Angeles 1955: Jack Gleason's sitcom "Honeymooners" airs on tv 1955: A black woman, Rosa Parks, refuses to give her seat to white folks on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and her arrest sparks non-violent protests led by Martin Luther King 1956: the first conference on Artificial Intelligence is held at Dartmouth College 1956: Britain's TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1) the first transatlantic telephone cable (between Scotland and Canada's Newfoundland) 1956: Thanks to the G.I. bill, more than 2 million veterans of WWII have attended college or university 1956: South Vietnam refuses the referendum on unification with North Vietnam and the Vietminh start a guerrilla war 1956: Harold Butler in Lakewood (California) opens a coffee shop, Danny's (later Denny's), that is open 24 hours 1956: Dwight Eisenhower signs the Federal Aid Highway Act to build a nation-wide network of freeways 1956: Fred and Pat Cody found the Cody's bookstore in Berkeley 1956: the first Japanese car is sold in the USA 1956: Malcom X becomes the spokesman of the "Nation of Islam" 1956: Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" heralds the "beat generation" 1956: telephone line between Europe and the United states laid at the bottom of the Atlantic 1956: Fidel Castro and Che Guevara land in Cuba to fight the US-sponsored dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista 1957: Little Rock, Arkansas is the site of a racial confrontation after black kids are forbidden to enter a high school 1957: "Perry Mason" debuts on television 1957: Martin Luther King and others establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to fight segregation 1957: The Asian flu kills more than one million people worldwide and 116,000 in the USA 1957: ARDC invests $70,000 in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 1957: Jean-Paul Getty is the richest man in the USA and its only billionaire 1957: the Soviet Union launches the Sputnik, the first artificial satellite 1957: Carlo Gambino rules the Mafia 1957: Albert Sabin develops the oral polio vaccine 1957: 4.5 million babies are born in the USA, the highest number in its history (the "baby boomers") 1957: Frederick Kohner's novel "Gidget" popularizes the Hawaian sport of surfing 1957: Jean-Paul Getty is the richest man in the USA and its only billionaire 1958: Arthus Melin and Richard Knerr invent the frisbee Jul 1958: The USA sends 19,000 soldiers to protect the regime of Lebanon's Christian president Camille Chamoun 1958: Robert Noyce (at Fairchild) and Jack Kilby (at Texas Instruments) invent the integrated circuit 1958: The USA government sets up the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) as well as the the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Sep 1958: Bank of America launches BankAmericard, the first general-purpose credit card Oct 1958: American Express launches its credit card 1958: Civilian jet service begins in the USA with a Pan Am flight from New York to Paris 1958: the telex service is introduced 1958: Jim Backus (at IBM) invents the FORTRAN programming language, the first machine-independent language 1958: the Boeing 707 1958: the USA's gross national product is 50% of the world's national product 1958: RCA introduces the first stereo long-playing records 1958: Alaska becomes a state of the USA 1958: Samuel Cohen invents the neutron bomb Nov 1958: The USA tests its first successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Dec 1958: The "American National Election Study" finds that 73% of US citizens trust the federal government 1959: Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the USA 1959: "Twilight Zone" debuts on television 1959: Mattel launches the Barbie doll 1959: A court law about Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley" overturns the USA's obscenity laws 1959: the first commercial Xerox machine is released 1959: Mattel introduces the doll "Barbie" 1959: Ornette Coleman introduces "free jazz" 1959: Fidel Castro leads to success the revolution against the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista 1959: The USA launches the first reconnaissance satellite, Corona, to take pictures from the sky of the Soviet Union 1960: Searle commercially introduces Gregory Pincus' birth control pill 1960: Delbert Webb founds the first retirement community, Sun City in Arizona 1960: NASA launches the first weather satellite, TIROS-1 1960: Timothy Leary begins a research program at Harvard Univ to study hallucinogenic drugs 1960: Almost 90% of households owns a tv set May 1960: The Soviet Union shoots down a U2 spy plane of the USA and captures its pilot May 1960: Theodore Maiman builds the first successful laser 1960: Frank Drake devises an equation to calculate the potential number of extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way ("Drake Equation"), a foundation of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) 1960: the population of the USA is 179 million, with 70% living in cities 1960: There are 50 million tv sets in the USA 1960: In retaliation for the USA's imposition of quotas on Venezuelan oil (to favor (Canada and Mexico), Venezuela joins Arab countries to found OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) 1960: Manhattan has 98 buildings which are taller than 100 meters 1960: Russ Solomon opens the first Tower Records in Sacramento (California), the first music megastore 1960: first laser (Theodore Maiman) 1960: Inspired by Gandhi, black students including Ella Baker and Stokely Carmichael found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to fight for civil rights 1960: The ratio of debt to personal disposable income is 55% 1961: John Kennedy is inaugurated as president, the first catholic and the youngest ever, and promises a "New Frontier" 1961: The first stereo FM radio 1961: Robert Schuller builds the first drive-in church (Garden Grove, Los Angeles) 1961: A B-52 plane carrying two nuclear bombs crashes over North Carolina 1961: Sargent Shriver founds the Peace Corps 1961: The MIT demonstrates the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), the first time-sharing operating system 1961: Los Angeles' surface is 1,175 square kms and its population passes Philadelphia, becoming the third largest city in the country 1961: Soviet troops build a wall to isolate West Berlin and discourage people from fleeing Eastern Germany Apr 1961: a Cuban rebel force trained by the CIA tries to invade Cuba ("Bay of Pigs" invasion) 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first astronaut 1961: first stereo radio broadcasting 1961: the Beach Boys launch surf-music 1961: Charles Bachman at General Electric develops the first database management system, IDS 1962: the USA intervenes in Vietnam to counter Soviet help to the Vietcong 1962: John Glenn is the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth Apr 1962: The USA installs nuclear-armed Jupiter missiles in Turkey Oct 1962: Krushev and Kennedy risk a nuclear war over Soviet missiles deployed in Cuba but the Soviet Union withdraws the missiles from Cuba and the USA from Turkey 1962: Sam Walton open the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas Aug 1962: A NASA spacecraft flies by Venus, the first successful mission to another planet 1962: Rachel Carson publishes "Silent Spring" warning of the danger of pesticides 1962: Franck Gerow performs the first silicon implant in a woman's breast 1962: The Johnney Carson show debuts on television Jul 1962: Sam Walton opens the first Wal-Mart in Arkansas 1962: Warren Buffett acquires Berkshire Hathaway, the beginning of his multibillion dollar empire 1962: the average price for gasoline is $0.31 per gallon 1962: Paul Baran proposes a distributed network as the form of communication least vulnerable to a nuclear strike Oct 1962: John Kennedy forces the Soviet Union to stop building missile bases in Cuba 1962: Tom Hayden and others found the "Student for Democratic Society" (SDS) 1962: Michael Murphy founds the "Esalen Institute" at Big Sur to promote spiritual healing 1962: 30,000 troops have to escort a young black student, James Meredith, to the University of Mississippi TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1962: Bob Dylan sings "Blowin' In The Wind" 1962: the audio cassette is introduced 1962: The USA lifts into orbit the first telecommunication satellite, the Telstar, that links the USA with Europe 1962: Helen Gurley Brown publishes "Sex and the single girl", defending a woman's right to have sex for pleasure 1963: president John Kennedy is assassinated 1963: Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc sets himself on fire 1963: The first quasar (170,000 light-years wide) is identified 1963: Syntex moves from Mexico City to the Stanford Industrial Park 1963: the first skateboarding contest is held in Los Angeles 1963: Bell Labs introduces the touch-tone phone 1963: Martin Luther King leads 200,000 blacks on a march to Washington and delivers the speech "I have a dream" 1963: a bomb blows up in a black church of Birmingham, Alabama 1963: Malcom X, considered too extremist, is expelled from the "Nation of Islam" 1963: The Arecibo Observatory is inaugurated in Puerto Rico, the largest single-aperture telescope in the world 1964: Cable TV is deployed in USA cities Mar 1964: Following an earthquake in Alaska, the second strongest on record, George Plafker's theory that earthquake are caused by plate tectonics is widely accepted 1964: The USA terminates the "bracero program" 1964: Phil Knight founds Blue Ribbon Sports, later renamed Nike 1964: The first reverse-osmosis plant (that purifies waste-water) is patented in San Diego 1964: The situation comedy "Bewitched" debuts on television 1964: Syntex introduces the birth-control pill 1964: Bear Stearns acquires Orkin Exterminating Company, the first major leveraged buyout transactions 1964: The USA sets up Itelsat to create a global communication system 1964: Mario Savio founds the "Free Speech Movement" and leads student riots at the Berkeley campus 1964: jazz musician John Coltrane cuts "A Love Supreme", possibly the greatest jazz album ever 1964: Smoking is proved to be dangerous 1964: IBM introduces the first "mainframe" computer (the 360) and the first "operating system" (the OS/360) 1964: president Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act 1964: The CIA fabricates the Gulf of Tonkin incident as a pretext for direct USA intervention in Vietnam 1964: John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz (at Dartmouth College) invent the BASIC programming language 1964: Michael Scott-Morton introduces the concept of a decision-support system Jan 1964: The USA issues a report that blames cigarettes as a cause of lung cancer 1965: Gordon Moore predicts that the processing power of computers will double every 18 months 1965: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi founds the Students' International Meditation Society Aug 1965: The Voting Rights Act, supported by president Lyndon Johnson, outlaws the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states against black citizens 1966: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founds the Hari Krishna movement Aug 1966: Charles Whitman kills 14 people besides hiw wife and his mother 1965: The USA enacts the "Immigration and Nationality Act" that reopens the doors to foreign immigration 1965: Half of USA households own a Polaroid Apr 1965: The USA dispatches the marines to restore order in the Dominican Republic after the communists try a coup 1965: civil-rights activist Stokely Carmichael delivers a speech on "Black Power" 1965: Fidel Castro allows one million Cubans over five years to leave Cuba and settle in the USA Feb 1965: The Vietcong attack the marines at Pleiku causing a rapid escalation of the war 1965: the Digital Equipment Corporation unveils the first mini-computer, the PDP-8, that uses integrated circuits 1965: 34 people die in racial riots in the Los Angeles ghetto of Watts 1965: African-American leader Malcolm X is assassinated at a rally by members of the "Nation of Islam" 1965: the SDS organizes the first pacifist march on Washington 1965: spacecraft Mariner 4 takes the first pictures of Mars' surface 1965: The National Endowment for the Arts is established by the USA government 1965: Abe Fortas becomes the first Jewish judge of the Supreme Court 1965: More than 42% of US adults smoke cigarettes 1966: Boxing champion Cassius Clay is jailed for refusing to serve in Vietnam 1966: Edward Brooke becomes the first black senator in the history of the USA 1966: The USA establishes Daylight Saving Time Sep 1966: Gene Rodenberry's Star Trek debuts on television 1966: William Buckley starts the tv show "Firing Line" that will run until 1999 and promote a convervative ideology 1966: there are 2,623 computers in the USA (1,967 work for the Defense Department) 1966: the first "Summer of Love" of the hippies in San Francisco 1966: Rock composer Frank Zappa debuts with "Freak Out", a double album 1966: Psychedelic rock comes out of of San Francisco's hippie culture 1966: Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Angela Davis and other African-American activists found the "Black Panther Party" at Oakland, California 1966: A university student, armed with multiple guns, kills 14 people in the Austin campus 1966: The Interbank Card Association (ICA) is formed with a credit card later rename Master Charge and later Mastercard 1967: Jack Kilby (at Texas Instruments) develops the first hand-held calculator Jul 1967: Riots in Detroit leave 43 people dead Jun 1967: Israel attacks a USA warship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 sailors 1967: Ray Browne founds the "Center for the Study of Popular Culture" at Bowling Green, that popularizes the term "pop culture" 1967: Darryl McCray, or "Cornbread", creates graffiti art in Philadelphia 1967: the USA has 200 million people, of which 9.7 million are foreign-born 1967: the first "Super Bowl" final of "football" (a USA version of rugby) is held 1967: Racial riots kill 26 people in Newark and 43 in Detroit 1967: Cuban liberation hero Che Guevara is killed by USA agents in Bolivia 1967: pacifists march on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam war 1967: the CIA supports a coup in Greece that installs a dictatorship of colonels 1967: sixteen states still refused to recognize mixed-race marriages 1967: ARCO discovers oil in Alaska 1967: Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black to serve on the Supreme Court 1967: The first Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held in New York Apr 1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King is assassinated Jun 1968: Bob Kennedy is assassinated by Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan in retaliation for the USA's support of Israel 1968: The hypertext system FRESS created by Andries van Dam at Brown University for the IBM 360 introduces the "undo" feature 1968: Tommie Smith protests the USA anthem at the Olympic games Jan 1968: The Vietcong and North Vietnam (the "Tet Offensive") begin a joint attack against the USA in South Vietnam 1968: reporter Seymour Hersh reveals that USA soldiers under the command of William Calley massacred more than 500 civilians at My Lai, Vietnam 1968: Philip Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove found Intel to build memory chips 1968: 520,000 USA troops are in Vietnam 1968: Stewart Brand publishes the first "Whole Earth Catalog" 1968: ARDC's investment in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is valued at $355 million 1969: the Unix operating system is born 1969: The Hong Kong flu kills about 750,000 people worldwide 1969: Princeton and Yale universities admit women 1969: Theodore Roszak's book "The Making of a Counter Culture" coins the term "counterculture" 1969: Stanley Milgram proves that we are all connected via "six degrees of separation" 1969: Homosexuals fight police in New York ("Stonewall riots"), the birth of the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement 1969: president Nixon characterizes drugs as "public enemy number one in the United States" 1969: the USA uses chemical weapons in Vietnam 1969: Charles Manson, leader of a satanic cult, and his followers kills seven people in a Bel Air mansion 1969: The USA begins a secret bombing campaign of Cambodia 1969: Captain Beefheart records "Trout Mask Replica", possibly the greatest rock album ever 1969: the first "automatic teller machines" 1969: the computer network ARPAnet is born in the USA (it will be renamed Internet in 1985) 1969: USA astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to set foot on the Moon 1969: Ted Codd invents the relational database 1969: USA president Richard Nixon approves carpet bombing and land invasion of Cambodia 1969: 300,000 young people attend the Woodstock festival of rock music 1969: A huge crowd marches on Washington to demand an end to the Vietnam war 1969: Sylvia Rivera founds the gay liberation movement out of New York 1969: an oil spill in California provokes a ban to offshore drilling 1969: Leo Laurence in San Francisco calls for the "Homosexual Revolution" 1969: After polls show that the majority of US citizens oppose the antiwar movement, Nixon talks about "the silent majority" 1970: Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies of an overdose Jan 1970: The "jumbo jet" Boeing 747 goes into service, flown by PanAm between New York and London 1970: 95% of households own a TV set 1970: American Express, American Airlines and IBM debut the first credit card with a magnetic stripe 1970: The USA passes the "Clean Air Act" that limits the pollution caused by cars 1970: 20 million USA citizens have experimented with illegal drugs 1970: The first Earth Day is celebrated 1970: the population of the USA is 203 million, with 73% living in cities 1970: the first Kinko's opens near the University of California at Santa Barbara 1970: The USA invades Cambodia 1970: The first practical optical fiber is developed by glass maker Corning Glass Works 1970: five of the seven largest USA semiconductor manufacturers are located in Santa Clara Valley, California 1970: there are more immigrants from Latin America (39%) than Europe (18%) 1970: The first "San Francisco Gay Pride Parade" is held 1971: during riots at the Attica prison, 33 convicts and 10 guards are killed 1971: Ed Sullivan retires from television 1971: The television documentary "An American Family" (1971) follows the Lourd family, a middle-class family (the first "reality" show). Mar 1971: Richard Nixon (USA) and Mao (China) support Pakistan's dictator Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan in his genocide of East Pakistani intellectuals, Hindus and assorted civilians 1971: A third of all working women in the USA are secretaries 1971: Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin publish "Blackmark", the first graphic novel 1971: Michael Tracy, or "Tracy 168", creates the "wild style" of graffiti art painting trains in the New York subway 1971: Michael Hart launches the "Project Gutenberg" to make digital versions of books available for free on the Internet 1971: Bob Hunter and others founds the environmental activist group Greenpeace in Canada 1971: the USA imports more oil than it exports 1971: Richard Nixon secretely helps Pakistan against India and Bangladesh 1971: Cetus, the first biotech company, is founded 1971: a journalist renames Santa Clara Valley the "Silicon Valley" 1971: Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin at Intel invent the micro-processor (a programmable set of integrated circuits) 1971: The USA pulls out of the Bretton Woods agreement of fixed exchange rates and forces foreign currencies to float, and de facto abandons the gold standard 1971: journalist Gloria Steinem founds the first feminist magazine, "Ms Magazine" Feb 1972: USA president Richard Nixon meets with Mao in China Apr 1972: Hamilton Watch introduces the Hamilton Pulsar P1, the first electronic digital watch and the first using a digital LED display May 1972: USA president Richard Nixon meets with Breznev in Russia 1972: Magnavox introduces the first videogame console 1972: Nolan Bushnell invents the first videogame (Pong) Nov 1972: Charles Dolan and Gerald Levin launched the first pay-television network, Home Box Office (HBO) 1972: Richard Nixon orders carpet bombing of civilian areas in North Vietnam during the Christmas holidays 1972: strategic parity between USA and Soviet Union 1972: the Dow Jones index reaches 1000 1972: a novel by David Gerrold coins the term "computer virus" 1972: Ray Tomlinson invents e-mail for sending messages between computer users, and invents a system to identify the user name and the computer name separated by a "@" 1972: the Global Positioning System (GPS) is invented by the USA military, using a constellation of 24 satellites for navigation and positioning purposes 1972: There are 112 million cars in the USA, almost half of all the cars in the world TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1973: Henry Kissinger becomes the first Jewish secretary of state 1973: The USA, defeated, leaves Vietnam after killing close to 2 million civilians and 1 million soldiers, and losing 58,000 men 1973: Robert Bernstein establishes the "Fund for Free Expression", later renamed "Human Rights Watch" 1973: Vinton Cerf first uses the term "Internet" (because it is now connecting networks) 1973: the Arpanet has 2,000 users 1973: The USA abolishes the military draft in favor of an all-volunteer army 1973: the CIA helps the Chilean army, led by general Augusto Pinochet, overthrow the socialist government of Salvador Allende (30,000 dissidents are imprisoned and tortured, and 2,000 "disappear") 1973: Martin Cooper at Motorola invents the first portable, wireless (cellular) telephone 1973: abortion is legalized 1973: members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) impose an oil embargo against the West and oil prices skyrocket (the first "oil crisis"), thus precipitating a world depression (october) 1973: the World Trade Center is inaugurated in New York, the world's tallest skyscraper 1973: Gary Kindall invents the first operating system for a microprocessor, the CP/M 1973: Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and Herbert Boyer of UC San Francisco create the first recombinant DNA organism, virtually inventing "biotechnology" 1973: Jack Bogle of Vanguard launches the first stock index fund for retail investors 1974: Ed Roberts invents the first personal computer, the Altair 8800 1974: George Mitchell develops the suburban Woodlands outside Houston 1974: The barcode, invented by George Laurer at IBM, debuts 1974: Scientists send a message from the Arecibo Observatory to the globular star cluster M13, which is 25,000 light years from Earth 1974: the Sears Towers open in Chicago, the world's tallest skyscraper 1974: president Richard Nixon is forced to resign after the Watergate scandal 1974: the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" is released 1974: Jim Bakker begins the "Praise The Lord" ministry 1974: The Universal Product Code, the standard for barcode, is used commercially for the first time 1975: MacDonald's opens the first drive-through restaurant in Arizona 1975: New York's murder rate has quadrupled since 1960 1975: The Group of Six (France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, USA) meets in Paris (later G7 with Canada) 1975: The government terminates Project Shamrock, a top-secret program to spy on communications Jul 1975: The first joint Soviet-US mission in space (spaceships Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 meet in space) 1975: Hugh Carey becomes governor of New York and enacts a program of spending and job cuts to rescue the state from financial disaster 1975: A senate committee presided by senator Frank Church reveals that the CIA tried to assassinate foreign leaders (notably Fidel Castro) and political activists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 1975: The Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation defines human rights in the Cold War 1975: Six economic powers meet in Paris (USA, Japan, Germany, France, Britain and Italy) forming the G6 1975: Unemployment peaks at 9% 1975: "Saturday Night Live" airs on tv 1975: the last USA personnel flee South Vietnam as the Vietcongs enter Saigon and terminate the Vietnam War 1975: Bill Gates and Paul Allen develop a version of BASIC for the Altair personal computer and found Microsoft 1975: The USA accounts for 26.3% of world GDP 1975: Syukuro Manabe publishes computer models relating carbon dioxide emissions to rising temperatures 1976: the supersonic airplane Concorde begins service between Paris and New York 1976: Jesse and Sonia Jacobs are arrested in Florida for murdering two police officers (they are innocent but Jesse will be executed and Sonia will spend 15 years in prison) 1976: BankAmericard, no longer owned by Bank of America, is renamed Visa 1976: The USA launches a campaign to immunize millions of people against swine flu (but the vaccine will cause health problems and spark an anti-vaxxer movement) 1976: Nevada is the only state in which slot machines are legal 1976: Marantz introduces the first boombox, the Superscope 1976: Kodak accounts for 90% of film and 85% of cameras in the USA 1976: Ted Turner created the first basic cable network (using a satellite), WTCG (later WTBS), based in Atlanta 1976: Richard Corben publishes the graphic novel "Bloodstar" 1976: anti-Castro terrorists (possibly led by Luis Posada Carriles and funded by the CIA) blow up a Cuban airliner 1976: the G6 is created to bring the leaders of the biggest national economies together (USA, Canada, Britain, Germany, Japan, France) 1976: the sitcom "Charlie's Angels" has three women as protagonists 1976: punk-rock and new-wave come out of New York's alternative music scene 1976: Rupert Murdoch buys the New York Post 1977: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak develop the Apple II 1977: Freeway serial killer Patrick Kearney is captured 1977: Visa launches its first credit card 1977: There are more university students from Iran than any other nationality in the USA 1977: San Francisco's city supervisor Harvey Milk becomes the first openly gay man to be elected to office in the USA 1977: George Coates founds his multimedia theater group, Performance Works 1977: the soundtrack of "Saturday Night Fever" inaugurates the age of disco-music 1977: the Voyager is launched to reach other galaxies TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1977: Atari introduces a videogame console 1977: Dennis Hayes invents the modem (a device that converts between analog and digital signals) 1977: Baseball players Glenn Burke and Dusty Baker exchange a "high five" on the field 1977: The Combahee River Collective introduces the "identity politics" 1978: religious guru Jim Jones and his believers commit a mass suicide at Jamestown, Guyana (917 dead) 1978: Roman Polanski flees the USA where he is wanted for having sex with a minor 1978: Bell Labs deploys the first cellular phone network in Chicago 1978: The rainbow flag debuts at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade 1978: the USA begins installation of the GPS 1978: First test-tube (in vitro) baby 1978: Louis Farrakhan seizes power of the "Nation of Islam", reasserting the principles of African-American nationalism 1978: journalist Myron Farber of the New York Times is sent to jail for refusing to reveal his confidential sources 1978: Lydia Villa-Komaroff clones a human gene, insulin Jan 1979: The USA recognizes mainland China as the sole legitimate government of China but Congress approves the Taiwan Relations Act that grants Taiwan virtually all the rights of an independent country 1979: the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan and the USA organizes an Islamic resistance led by Osama Bin Laden 1979: Saudi Arabia accounts for more than 50% of arms sold by the USA 1979: the spacecraft "Pioneer 11" reaches Saturn 1979: Kevin MacKenzie invents symbols such as :-) to mimic the cues of face-to-face communication 1979: an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant stops development of new nuclear power plants in the USA 1979: the Sandinistas seize power in Nicaragua overthrowing the US-sponsored dictatorship 1979: the shah Reza Pahlevi is overthrown by the Islamic Revolution and Iran becomes a theocratic republic led by the ayatollah Khomeini with a strong anti-American posture 1979: the Global Positioning System (GPS) is operational 1979: serial killer Ted Bundy (suspected of murdering up to 50 people) is convicted 1980: Ted Turner launches CNN, the first cable television service devoted to world news 1980: Freeway serial killer William Bonin is captured 1980: Walmart has 276 stores and reached $1 billion in annual sales, faster than any other company until then 1980: Chicago economist Milton Friedman publishes "Free to Choose" advocating a reduction in the role of government 1980: The USA grants mainland China most-favored-nation status, i.e. access to US investors, technology and market 1980: The private equity industry raises $2.4 billion 1980: the population of the USA is 226 million, with 73% living in cities 1980: Rick Warren founds the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest (California) 1980: the Arpanet has 430,000 users, who exchange almost 100 million e-mail messages a year 1980: the value of gold peaks at $850 an ounce 1980: integrated circuits incorporate 100,000 discrete components 1980: Fidel Castro allows 125,000 people to leave Cuba for the USA 1980: racial riots kill 18 people in Miami 1980: Ronald Reagan is elected president 1980: serial killer John Wayne Gacy is convicted of about 30 murders 1980: the Usenet is born, an Internet-based discussion system divided in "newsgroups" 1980: Inflation peaks at 13.5% 1980: The largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world are: Texas Instruments, National, Motorola, Philips (Europe), Intel, NEC (Japan), Fairchild, Hitachi (Japan) and Toshiba (Japan). 1981: newly elected president Reagan trades hostages for arms with Iran, helps Saddam Hussein's Iraq against Iran, and authorizes funding and training of Islamic terrorists led by Osama Bin Laden to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan 1981: Elizabeth Carr is born, the first US citizen conceived in a lab (via IVF) 1981: Under pressure from the USA, Japan sets a voluntary quota on car exports to the USA 1981: Reagan and Islamist dictator Zia of Pakistan sign a treaty of alliance that includes military aid to Pakistan 1981: The MacArthur Fellows Program awards its first "genius grants" 1981: the magazine "Thrasher" is founded as a reference point for the skateboarding subculture 1981: Wayne Williams is accused of killing twenty-seven young black boys in Atlanta that are probably victims of the KKK 1981: American Airlines introduces a "frequent flyer program" 1981: Techno music 1981: the West Edmonton Mall opens in Alberta (Canada), the largest shopping mall in the world (including more than 800 stores, a hotel, an amusement park, a miniature-golf course, a church, a water park, a zoo and a lake) 1981: USA and Libya fighters engage in combat off the coast of Libya 1981: MTV debuts on cable tv with the Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star" 1981: the USA launches the first space shuttle 1981: the IBM PC is launched, running an operating system developed by Bill Gates' Microsoft 1981: John Gotti rules the Mafia Jun 1981: Michael Gottlieb at UCLA writes the first report on a mysterious acquired immune deficiency that seems to target young gay men, later named AIDS 1981: the compact disc (CD) is introduced 1981: IBM introduces the PC ("Personal Computer"), that spreads world-wide 1981: Sister Angelica (Rita Rizzo) founds the Eternal World Television Network 1981: Chicago disc-jockeys organize the first "raves", or clandestine all-night parties May 1981: American Airlines launches the world's first mileage-based frequent flier program, AAdvantage 1981: Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first female judge of the Supreme Court 1982: the USA government breaks up the largest company in the world, AT&T, worth $60 billion, because it has become a monopoly May 1982: Spain joins NATO 1982: The David Letterman show debuts on television 1982: Pakistan recruits, trains and arms Islamic fighters from more than 40 countries with funds from the USA and Saudi Arabia to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the first "global jihad" 1982: Honda is the first Japanese company to manufacture cars in the USA 1982: Hubick invents aeroponics, a way to grow food in the air 1982: Robert Jarvik implants an artificial heart in a patient 1982: Reagan sends the marines to restore order in Lebanon 1982: Unemployment peaks at 10.8% Jun 1982: One million people meet in Central Park (New York) to protest against Reagan's nuclear build-up 1982: The USA approves the first genetically-engineered drug, a form of human insulin produced by bacteria Jan 1983: Reagan has the lowest approval rating in history 1983: the USA, under president Reagan, engages the Soviet Union in a nuclear-arms race 1983: Freeway serial killer Randy Kraft is captured (the third major freeway serial killer: the three together killed more than 100 people) 1983: Paul Mockapetris invents the Domain Name System for the Internet 1983: peak of the career of Jimmy Connors, who sets the record of tennis with 109 tournament victories 1983: suicide commandos directed by Imad Mughniyeh (Mugniyah) blow up the USA embassy, killing 63 people 1983: Hezbollah suicide commandos organized by Iran blow up the USA and French barracks killing 241 marines and 58 French soldiers 1983: at his trial, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confesses having killed more than 200 people 1983: Howard Rheingold founds the environmental magazine "Whole Earth Review" at Sausalito 1983: Reagan removes Iraq from the list of nations that support international terrorism 1983: Los Angeles passes Chicago as the second largest city in the country Oct 1983: Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud is appointed ambassador to the USA with the goal to create a military alliance 1983: William Inmon builds the first data warehousing system October 1983: The USA invades Grenada to depose its communist leader Hudson Austin Apr 1984: Robert Gallo isolates the virus (HIV) that causes AIDS 1984: The first TED conference is held 1984: A leak at the Union Carbide pesticides plant in India (Bhopal) causes 14,000 deaths 1984: Saudi Arabia becomes the financial arm of the CIA to bypass the USA parliament, selling arms to Nicaragua's rebels, to Angola's rebels and to Afghanistan's rebels fighting communist regimes in three continents 1984: The Getty Foundation is established in Los Angeles to support the visual arts 1984: The "Cirque du Soleil" is founded in Quebec by a group of street performers 1984: The "Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence" or SETI Institute is founded 1984: The The Santa Fe Institute is founded to carry out interdisciplinary research 1984: William Gibson's "Neuromancer" popularizes the "cyberpunks" 1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh, which revolutionizes desktop publishing 1984: the CDROM is introduced 1984: the Domain Name Server is introduced to classify Internet addresses with extensions such as .com 1984: Arab terrorists kill 241 USA marines in Lebanon, causing a hasty retreat by USA, French and Italian troops 1985: the Arpanet is renamed Internet 1985: Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation acquires Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation 1985: The USA forces the other Western economies to let the dollar devalue in order to rectify its trade deficit ("Plaza Accord") Feb 1985: King Fahd of Saudi Arabia meets with USA president Ronald Reagan in the USA, carrying a "gift" of $2 million in diamonds Mar 1985: US president Ronald Reagan relieves Japan of its "voluntary" restrictions on car exports and Japanese exports begin growing exponentially 1985: Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant create the "Whole Earth Lectronic Link" (or "WELL"), a virtual community 1985: between 1977 and 1985 consumption of oil in the USA drops 17%, imports drop 50%, and imports from the Middle East drop 87% 1985: the dollar declines against European and Japanese currencies (it will decline 50% in three years) 1985: Leonard Knight begins building "Salvation Mountain" in California 1985: there are more immigrants from Asia (48%) than Latin America (35%) 1985: Ronald Reagan announces a program of "star wars" (SDI) 1985: a hole in the Ozone Layer is discovered over Antartica 1985: Procter & Gamble builds the first business-intelligence system Sep 1985: Saudi Arabia announces an increase in oil production that causes a fall in the price of oil 1985: The USA signs a free-trade treaty with Israel, the first in its history Dec 1985: Every major country of the world has AIDS cases 1986: the USA bombs Libyan cities to deter colonel Qaddafi 1986: Leaded gasoline is banned in the USA 1986: Charles Hull invents 3D printing 1986: Larry Harvey starts the first "Burning Man" on Baker Beach in San Francisco 1986: Newspapers discover that the Reagan administration sold weapons to Iran to fund anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua ("Irangate") 1986: The space shuttle "Challenger" explodes during take off killing the whole crew 1986: Sperry and Burroughs merge to form Unisys 1986: The USA has 14,000 nuclear warheads and the Soviet Union has 11,000 1986: Reagan signs into law a bill that grants amnesty to an estimated 3 million illegal immigrants 1987: the Montreal Protocol limits the use of substances that damage the ozone layer 1987: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp buys Harper & Row (later renamed HarperCollins) 1987: Paul Farmer and others found the nonprofit health care organization Partners In Health in Boston 1987: The USA abolishes the "fairness doctrine" that requires radio and television stations to present political issues in a fair and balanced manner, thus laying the foundations for opinion-based programs 1987: The USA and the Soviet Union sign the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty which bans all nuclear and non-nuclear missiles with short and medium ranges 1987: Matt Groening's "The Simpsons" animated sitcom debuts on television 1987: Alan Greenspan is appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank 1987: USA warships destroy two Iranian patrol boats in the Persian Gulf 1987: Tele-evangelist and multi-millionaire Jim Bakker resigns from "Praise The Lord" due to a sex scandal 1987: Matt Groening launches the animated television sitcom "The Simpsons" 1987: The largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world are Japan's NEC, Japan's Toshiba and Japan's Hitachi 1988: Harvard University announces the first genetically engineered animal 1988: "The Wonder Years" airs on television 1988: The USA allows "Indian" territories to run casinos and casinos start spreading quickly in all states 1988: a member of the Japanese Red Army (Yu Kikumura) is arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike 1988: James Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies sounds the alarm on rising temperatures worldwide ("global warming") 1988: president Reagan creates the office of "Drug Czar" to fight the traffic of illicit drugs 1988: A person is convicted after a DNA test 1988: USA warships blow up two Iranian oil rigs, sink an Iranian frigate and destroy an Iranian missile boat 1988: A member of the Japanese Red Army (Yu Kikumura) is arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike 1988: "Morris", the first digital worm, infects most of the Internet 1988: Pat Robertson founds the Christian Coalition, an anti-abortionist movement 1988: A missile fired by a USA warship downs an Iranian civilian plane and kills all 290 passengers aboard 1988: First fiber optic cable across the Atlantic 1988: Terrorists backed by Libya blow up a Pan Am plane over Scotland killing 259 people probably on behalf of Iran 1988: Reagan's vice-president George Bush is elected president 1988: The circulation of the magazine "Time" is almost five million Sep 1989: George H Bush declares a "war on drugs" and the USA begins fighting the drug cartels of Colombia 1989: Japan's Mitsubishi purchases the Rockefeller Center in the USA 1989: The private equity industry raises $21.9 billion 1989: Magellan Corporation introduces the first hand-held GPS receiver 1989: The Berlin wall falls, thus ending the Cold War 1989: the USA invades Panama and remove dictator Manuel Noriega 1989: The Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan and Afghanistan plunges into chaos 1989: Congress declares sanctions against Iraq to protest Iraq's use of poison gas against the Kurds 1989: The Arsenio Hall show debuts on tv, the first major talk show hosted by an African-American 1989: The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is founded to bring together the USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, New Zealand, Philippines 1989: Gartner analyst Howard Dresner coins the term "business intelligence" 1989: Tele-evangelist Jim Bakker is convicted of fraud 1990: Jack Kevorkian performs the first assisted suicide 1990: The USA inroduces the H-1B visa program as part of a new Immigration Act to help companies hire higher-skilled college-educated foreigners 1990: David Lynch's and Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks" debut on television 1990: There are more than 14 million drug addicts in the USA 1990: After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the USA imposes sanctions on Pakistan as punishment for its nuclear program 1990: The population of the USA is 248 million, with 75% living in cities 1990: The Human Genome Project is launched to decipher human DNA 1990: Saddam Hussein's Iraq invades Kuwait and USA president Bush organizes an anti-Iraqi coalition 1990: the Hubble space telescope is launched 1990: San Luis Obispo is the first city in the world to ban smoking inside public buildings 1991: The USA leads the Gulf War against Iraq, the first war to use high-precision bombs guided by the GPS 1991: The USA withdraws nuclear weapons from South Korea 1991: Serial killer Dennis Rader kills ten people in Kansas between 1974 and 1991 1991: Serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute, is arrested for killing seven men who abused her 1991: The Soviet Union is dismantled 1991: serial killer Arthur Shawcross is sentenced to 250 years in jail for the murders of ten women and claims to have killed (and eaten) women and children since the Vietnam war 1991: Pan Am goes out of business 1991: MTV's "The Real World" launches the fad of "reality shows" 1991: The "Riot Grrrls!" movement is born at Olympia, Washington 1991: 2200 homicides are committed in New York, 1050 in Los Angeles 1991: The World-Wide Web (invented by Tim Berners-Lee in Geneve) debuts on the Internet 1991: The first economic recession ever strikes California 1991: John Gotti is arrested and the USA mafia declines 1992: Racial riots erupt in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, etc (48 dead) 1992: Johnny Carson retires from television 1992: John Mackey founds the food store "Whole Foods" 1992: Jeffrey Dahmer is convicted for killing and dismembering 17 young men 1992: One million USA citizens are in jail 1992: Street gangs terrorize entire areas of metropoles like Los Angeles TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. Dec 1992: Bush sends 25,000 troops to Somalia 1992: Bill Clinton is elected president of the USA, the youngest ever since John Kennedy 1993: Marc Andreessen develops the first browser for the World Wide Web (Mosaic) Feb 1993: Al Gore's plan for the construction of "information superhighways" 1993: Ruth Ginsburg becomes the second female judge and the second Jewish judge of the Supreme Court 1993: The USA adds Pakistan to the list of countries sponsoring terrorism 1993: 88 of the 100 most viewed films of the year around the world were made in the USA Oct 1993: 18 US soldiers and hundreds of Somali militia fighters led by warlord Muhammad Aideed/ Aydid and civilians are killed in Mogadishu and Clinton withdraws all US troops from Somalia 1993: Serial killer Joel David Rifkin is arrested for killing 17 prostitutes in the New York area 1993: The "Youth Day" in Colorado is the largest youth event since Woodstock 1993: Colin Ferguson opens fire on a train killing six commuters 1993: The USA, Canada, Japan, Russia, the European Space Agency and Brazil launch a project to build the International Space Station, the largest international scientific project in history 1993: Islamic terrorists try to blow up the World Trade Center 1994: the first genetically engineered vegetable (Flavr Savr tomato) is introduced 1994: AIDS is the leading case of death in the USA for people between 25 and 44 years old 1994: The USA, Canada and Mexico sign the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Oct 1994: Protesters waving Mexican flags march in Los Angeles to protest laws against illegal immigration 1994: DirecTV launches the first satellite-based television service 1994: Pizza Hut begins selling pizzas sia the WWW 1994: Fidel Castro allows 50,000 people to leave Cuba 1994: the USA invades Haiti to restore Aristide as president 1994: Netscape, the company founded by Marc Andreesen, goes public even before earning money and starts the "dot.com" craze and the boom of the Nasdaq 1994: Jerry Yang launches the first search engine, Yahoo 1994: University of North Carolina's college radio station WXYC becomes the first radio station in the world to broadcast its signal over the Internet 1994: The Democrats lose the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years 1995: A right-wing extremist blows up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 160 people in the worst terrorist incident in the history of the USA 1995: The AIDS epidemic peaks at about 50,000 yearly deaths worldwide 1995: 123 nations found the World Trade Organization, that replaces the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1995: Russia and the USA begin a program designed by Thomas Neff to decommission 20,000 Soviet nuclear warheads and convert them into fuel for the nuclear power plants of the USA ("Megatons to Megawatts") Oct 1995: Following the rape of a girl by US soldiers, that follows many similar incidents over the years, Japanese in Okinawa stage the largest protect rally since the end of the war 1995: The Internet is used by 16 million people 1995: Bill Gates becomes the richest man in the world 1995: John Lasseter's "Toy Story" is the first feature-length computer-animated film 1995: Craig Newmark starts craigslist.com on the Internet, a regional advertising community 1995: the GATT ( General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) evolves into the World Trade Organization 1995: 36 million cars are manufactured in the world, of which 7.6 million in Japan and 6.3 million in the USA, although 8.6 million cars are sold in the USA alone 1995: African-American Muslim Louis Farrakhan organizes the "million man march" on Washington 1995: David Koresh's Branch Davidian religious fanatics fight the FBI at Waco, Texas 1995: the DVD is introduced 1995: Ward Cunningham creates WikiWikiWeb, a manual on the internet maintained in a collaborative manner 1995: the first extrasolar planet is detected (orbiting 51 Pegasi, a star in the Pegasus constellation, 40 light years from the Sun) 1995: The Federal Reserve's chairman Alan Greenspan describes the stock market's behavior as "irrational exuberance" 1995: South Korean conglomerate LG acquires Zenith 1995: The US approves the painkiller OxyContin, an addictive opioid 1995: The US military adopts the remote-controlled unmanned MQ-1 Predator drone 1996: Walt Disney builds a dream town, Celebration, in Florida 1996: Rupert Murdoch launches the 24-hour right-wing cable-TV news channel Fox News 1996: Sabeer Bhatia launches Hotmail, a website to check email from anywhere in the world 1996: The computer "Deep Blue" by IBM beats the world champion of chess Jul 1996: Richard Jewell finds a bomb planted at the Olympic Park of Atlanta by Christian fundamentalist Eric Rudolph and saves lots of lives but is later accused of planting the bomb by police and media 1996: Gary Faye Locke becomes the first Chinese-American governor in the USA (governor of Washington state) 1996: Terry Jones founds Travelocity to sell air tickets on the Internet 1996: South Korean conglomerate Samsung builds a factory in Texas, one of the largest foreign investments in the history of the USA 1996: The USA enacts the Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman, excluding homosexual couples 1996: The 1996 Telecommunications Act deregulates the radio business, allowing big conglomerates to acquire unlimited small radio stations 1997: Newt Gingrich becomes the first House of Representatives Speaker to be censured for ethics violations Mar 1997: 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult, led by Marshall Applewhite, kill themselves convinced that a UFO is about to take them to another planet 1997: Amazon.com is launched on the web as the "world's largest bookstore", except that it is not a bookstore, it is a website 1997: Reed Hastings founds Netflix to rent videos via the Internet 1997: the USA signs a treaty banning chemical weapons 1997: Evite is founded by Al Lieb and Selina Tobaccowala 1997: Orville Lynn Majors is arrested for having willingly caused the death of over 100 patients at an Indian hospital 1997: there are 23,000 McDonald's restaurants in 109 countries, the biggest chain of restaurants in the world 1997: most countries of the world agree on reducing the level of greenhouse-gas emissions in order to avoid climate changes such as global warming, (Kyoto Protocol) 1997: The average yearly income of a USA citizen is $29,000 whereas the average income of a Mexican is $8,000 and the average income of a Nigerian is $900 1997: the AIDS epidemis peaks (50,000 people die) 1998: Pierre Omidyar founds Ebay, a website to trade second-hand goods 1998: Inequality has risen dramatically, as the richest 0.01% citizens earn 250 times more than average income compared with 1970 when the top 0.01% earned 50 times more than average income Feb 1998: 20 people are killed by a US military jet that accidentally hits an aerial tramway in northern Italy Jul 1998: 120 countries of the world agree to establish an international criminal court, opposed only by the USA, mainland China, Israel and a few Arab dictatorships 1998: The USA adopts legislation that extends copyright protections to 70 years after an author's death Nov 1998: 46 states and four of the largest tobacco companies agree to warn consumers about the risks of smoking 1998: "Sex and the City" airs on television 1998: Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history until then 1998: the average price for gasoline is $1.19 per gallon 1998: Adam Riess discovers that the expansion of the universe is accelerating (dark energy) 1998: Two truck bombs orchestrated by Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda destroy the USA embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 213 people in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania 1998: 38 million vehicles sold worldwide (4.5 million workers and revenues of 1.5 billion dollars) 1998: Yahoo, Amazon, Ebay and scores of Internet-related start-ups create overnight millionaires 1998: a pill to fight impotency, Viagra, is the best-seller of the year Jun 1998: The TV series "Sex and the City" premieres on HBO Aug 1998: Clinton authorizes a strike against Osama bin Laden's camp in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, wrongly claiming that it was used to manufacture nerve gas Dec 1998: Clinton is impeached for lying about his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky 1998: Jorn Barger coins the term "weblog" for webpages that simply contain links to other webpages 1998: Larry Page and Sergey Brin found Google to develop a search engine 1998: Bob Somerby starts "The Daily Howler", the first major political blog december 1998: Clinton lands at Gaza's new internatinal airport, the first USA president to visit Palestine december 1998: Clinton authorizes 70 hours of bombing against Iraqi infrastructure and a program to overthrow Saddam Hussein ("As long as Saddam remains in power, he will remain a threat to his people, his region and the world") 1998: George Mitchell employs hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" to extract natural gas from the shale rock of Texas' Barnett Shale 1999: the USA women's soccer team wins the world cup Jan 1999: The TV series "The Sopranos" premieres on HBO Mar 1999: Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland join NATO 1999: NATO admits Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, three former Soviet satellite countries May 1999: the USA sells missile and satellite technology to communist China 1999: Colombia replaces Turkey as the main recipient of USA military aid 1999: Sarah Knauss, oldest person in the world, dies at 119 1999: the first planetary system outside the Solar System is detected (Upsilon Andromedae, 44 light years from the solar system) 1999: 500 million people in the world take international flights 1999: Mickey Kaus starts the blog "Kausfiles", the second major political blog 1999: Blogger.com allows people to create their own "blogs" (personal journals) 1999: an outbreak of the West Nile virus kills nine people in New York 1999: the recording industry sues Shawn Fanning's Napster, a website that allows people to exchange music 1999: the world prepares for the new millennium amidst fears of computers glitches due to the change of date (Y2K) 1999: Microsoft is worth 450 billion dollars, the most valued company in the world, even if it is many times smaller than General Motors, and Bill Gates is the world's richest man at $85 billion (1/109th of the USA economy) 1999: NATO bombs Serbia to stop repression against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo 1999: Two teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, kill 13 people at a Colorado high school ("Columbine massacre") 1999: Internet fever: 100 new Internet companies in the USA stock market, and their stocks reap huge profits for investors 1999: artificial viruses spread through the Internet 1999: the USA has 250 billionaires, and thousands of new millionaires are created in just one year 1999: Clinton announces a second year of budget surplus, the first time since 1957 that the USA has had two consecutive years of budget surplus 1999: 125 billion galaxies have been discovered since Hubble discovered Andromeda in 1925 Dec 1999: Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian terrorist with links to Afghanistan, tries to enter the USA and bomb the Los Angeles airport 1999: Tiger Woods, a black, becomes the superstar of golf 1999: Deutsche Telekom introduces T-Mobile's five-note ring tone, created by Lance Massey 1999: Vancouver in Canada has the highest rate of AIDS in the world outside of Africa 2000: life expectancy in the USA is 77 2000: Walmart employs more than one million people in almost 4,000 stores worldwide 2000: About 750 thousand Mexicans cross illegally into the USA, the peak of the Mexican wave 2000: The Border Patrol arrests 1,600,000 illigal immigrants 2000: the population of the USA is 281 million, with 79% living nin cities 2000: More than 50% of USA citizens own stocks 2000: between 1970 and 2000 the percentage of the USA population living in suburbs grows from 38% to 50% Jan 2000: the Dow Jones reaches an all-time high of 11,723 Jan 2000: AOL buys Time Warner, the largest consumer tech acquisition ever 2000: the economic expansion in the USA is the longest in the history of the US 2000: 10 billion e-mail messages a day are exchanged over the Internet 2000: More than 500 billion dollars have been spent worldwide to prepare computers for the year 2000 (Y2K) 2000: the NASDAQ stock market crashes, wiping out trillions of dollars of wealth 2000: the population of the USA is 280 million and the most populated state is California with over 30 million people 2000: British and USA biologists decipher the entire human DNA 2000: Clinton announces a record budget surplus, the largest in USA history 2000: George W Bush becomes president on a technicality, even though Clinton's vice-president Al Gore wins the majority of votes 2000: the divorce rate in the USA is 57%, the highest ever in history 2000: the state of Texas executes 40 people in just one year, an all-time record for the USA 2000: the USA approves a law (AGOA) to eliminate tariffs on hundreds of items for African countries March 2000: Microsoft and Cisco together are worth $1 trillion (25 times their yearly revenues) April 2000: the USA stock market for high technology companies (NASDAQ) crashes TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. November 2000: the first astronauts enter the international space station orbiting the Earth 2001: Napster is forced to shut down, while Limewire is launched 2001: Jimmy Wales founds Wikipedia, a multilingual encyclopedia that is collaboratively edited by the Internet community 2001: the USA enters a recession, ending the longest economic expansion of its history 2001: the USA tests a missile defence shield Aug 2001: Counter-terrorism czar Dick Clarke writes a memo titled "Osama Bin Laden determined to strike USA" Sep 2001: Arab terrorists affiliated with Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization blow up the World Trade Center, killing 4,000 people Oct 2001: The USA begins a bombing campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan Oct 2001: A Hellfire missile fired from a CIA-piloted Predator drone carries out the first legal drone-based assassination (although it fails to kill the target, Taliban's leader Mullah Omar) 2001: the USA opens a special prison camp at Guantanamo to hold terrorist suspects and authorizes the use of torture 2001: several cases of the biological weapon anthrax are detected around the United States and five people die (a USA scientist, Bruce Ivins, would later be charged with the crime) 2001: Bush announces that the USA withdraws from the anti-ballistic treaty (ABM) 2001: 3% of the USA population is in jail 2001: satellite radio is introduced in the USA 2001: Enron collapses, unveiling the biggest corporate scandal in USA history 2001: there are five million Muslims living in the USA Dec 2001: The USA expels the last Taliban from Afghanistan and appoints Hamid Karzai as new president (12,000 Taliban have been killed and 4,000 Afghan civilians versus only 1 US casualty) 2001: The USA signs free-trade agreements with Jordan 2002: Russia becomes an ally of NATO 2002: The CIA begins torturing suspected Islamic terrorists Jun 2002: 812 Afghan civilians are killed in june alone by USA air strikes 2002: Rick Warren publishes "The Purpose-Driven Life", which sells one million copies a month for two years, becoming the bestselling nonfiction book in the history of publishing 2002: the trade deficit with China increases to a record $103 billion 2002: USA stock markets crash, following corporate scandals, the third consecutive year of decline 2002: Bush announces the first budget deficit since 1998, bringing the grand total to six million billion dollars (about $21,000 per USA citizen) 2002: USA scientists synthesize a live virus from chemicals 2002: the NASDAQ falls below its post-September 11's low 2002: Wal-Mart is the biggest company in the world with over 200 billion dollars in revenues (followed by Exxon and General Motors, also USA companies) 2002: the West Nile virus spreads from state to state and kills dozens of people Sep 2002: George W Bush enacts a doctrine of first strike against foes and of continued military supremacy by the USA 2002: a serial sniper (John Allen "MUhammad" Williams) shoots a dozen people at random in the Washington/Maryland area 2002: Texas executes more people (33) than all of the other 49 states (32) 2002: cardinal Bernard Law has to resign following a wave of sex-abuse scandals involving Catholic priests 2002: Bush coins to expression "axis of evil" to describe the totalitarian regimes of Iraq, Iran and North Korea Oct 2002: The Dow Jones falls to 7,286, 37.8% lower than its peak of january 2000 2002: Robert William Pickton is suspected of killing more than 50 drug-addicted prostitutes during the 1990s in Vancouver, Canada 2002: Corporate lobbyists bribe Republican leader Tom DeLay, who uses the money to fund the election of fellow Republicans so that the Republican Party takes control of Texas' Congress for the first time in modern history 2002: After four years of surpluses, the 2002 budget runs a $158 billion deficit, the beginning of a decade of budget deficits 2003: The space shuttle "Columbia" crashes during landing, killing the whole crew 2003: Serena Williams wins all four major tennis titles (each time over her sister Venus in the final) 2003: Airbus passes Boeing as the world's largest civilians aircraft manufacturer 2003: Texas executes the 300th inmate since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982 2003: George W Bush orders the invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein 2003: the USA has a record 2 million inmates 2003: Tom DeLay's Republicans in Texas change electoral districts to maximize their gains in national elections 2003: USA interest rates reach a 45-year-low TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 2003: the dollar falls 25% to the euro in just one year 2003: Austrian-born Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes governor of California 2003: serial killer Gary Ridgway confesses to be the "Green River Murderer" who killed at least 48 prostitutes and strippers in the Seattle area between 1982 and 1998 2003: the USA economy grows by 7% in the third quarter, the fastest rate in 20 years 2003: serial killer Gary Ridgway admits murdering 48 women (mostly prostitutes) 2003: the foreign-born populationof the USA reaches 33.5 million, out of 280 million people 2003: the USA dispatches 1,700 soldiers to the Philippines, to help fight the Abu Sayyaf terrorists 2003: scientists estimate the age of the universe is 13.7 billion years and 95% of the universe is invisible "dark matter" 2003: serial killer Charles Cullen, a hospital nurse, is arrested for causing the death of at least 40 patients with drug overdoses 2003: 15 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease 2003: 43,220 people die in traffic accidents in the USA, 2003: Skype is founded by Niklas Zennstroem and Janus Friis to offer voice over IP 2003: Calvin Willis is released from a Louisiana prison after serving more than 21 years for a crime he did not commit Oct 2003: Britain and the USA intercept a shipment from Pakistan's nuclear scientist Khan to Libya of equipment to build nuclear weapons 2004: the "Spirit" and the "Opportunity" spacecrafts land on Mars and send the first pictures of the planet's surface Mar 2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia join NATO 2004: The USA signs free-trade treaties with Chile, Singapore and Australia 2004: Dickson Despommier proposes to build vertical farms 2004: Google launches a project to digitize all the books ever printed 2004: Mark Zuckerberg founds Facebook 2004: the World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 million people are killed every year in car accidents 2004: A NASA plane sets a new speed record of Mach 7 (8000 km/h) 2004: abuses of Iraqi prisoners, revealed by reporter Seymour Hersh, cause international outcry 2004: Mikhail Gorbacev, Margaret Thatcher and other leaders of the past attend Ronald Reagan's funeral 2004: scientists transfer properties of one atom and to another atom by entangling their quantum waves 2004: the Bush administration admits that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction (which was the reason to invade Iraq) 2004: the dollar falls to an all-time low against the euro (1.30) 2004: Congress approves an $800 billion increase in the nation's debt limit, the third such increase since George W. Bush became president (the budget deficit exceeds $7 trillion) 2004: Ryan Matthews becomes the 115th prisoner in the USA since 1973 to be released from death row on the grounds of innocence 2004: Evidence of abuses surfaces at both Iraqi and Afghan prisons (Abu Ghraib and Bagram) run by the USA military, notably by Lynndie England who is sentenced to prison 2004: the number of millionaires jumps almost 10% in the USA 2004: Massachussetts legalizes gay marriage 2004: California approves $3 billion to human embryonic stem-cell research, resulting in the founding of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the biggest-ever public scientific program in the USA 2004: The first Major League Gaming for computer gaming is held in New York 2005: the monthly USA trade deficit reaches $69 billion of which about 25% with China, 12% with Canada and 12% with Japan 2005: Carlton Cuse's "Lost" (2005) and Tim Kring's Heroes (2006) pioneer interactive television programs 2005: Gnutella connects 1.81 million computers 2005: The Internet is used by one billion people 2005: the Kyoto protocol (to reduce the level of greenhouse-gas emissions in order to avoid climate changes such as global warming) is adopted by 141 countries of the world but not the USA, China, India and Australia 2005: a gunman kills seven people at a hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin 2005: a student kills nine people (and himself) at a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation of Minnesota 2005: Newsweek magazine reports that guards at Guantanamo desecrated the Quran, a news that sparks deadly riots in Afghanistan and anti-USA protests in many Islamic countries 2005: Los Angeles elects a Hispanic mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa 2005: the Six Flags amusement park in New Jersey debuts the fastest and tallest rollercoaster in the world, "Kingda Ka" 2005: Microsoft displays the error message "This item contains forbidden speech" whenever someone tries to write the word "democracy" on its Chinese blog 2005: sales of notebook computers account for 53% of the computer market 2005: the Planetary Society of Pasadena, California, launches an experimental solar-sail spacecraft from a Russian submarine 2005: Bernard Ebbers, former Worldcom's CEO, is sentenced to 25 years in jail, capping a string of corporate scandals 2005: Lance Armstrong, a USA citizen, wins a seventh tour de France, an all-time record 2005: the USA approves the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with Guatemala, Costarica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Dominican Republic 2005: the price of oil jumps from $35 at the beginning of the year to an all-time record of $67 a barrel 2005: USA television channel ABC interviews the most wanted terrorist in Russia, Shamil Basayev 2005: Google's market capitalization is $84 billion 2005: Yahoo, Google, America OnLine (AOL) and MSN (Microsoft's Network) are the four big Internet portals with a combined audience of over one billion people worldwide 2005: scientists map the genome of the chimpanzee 2005: the "Katrina" hurricane destroys New Orleans and other cities of Louisiana and Mississippi, displacing more than 500,000 people 2005: under pressure from the USA, North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons program 2005: the "Deep Impact" probe "lands" on a comet, Comet Tempel 1, and confirms that comets contain organic material 2005: members of the Bush administration are indicted for leaking to the press the name of a CIA agent in a vicious attempt to silence a critic of the Iraqi war 2005: agriculture accounts for 2% of all jobs, manufacturing for 10% (but manufacturing output expanded 4% yearly from 1991 to 2001) 2005: the state of Kansas decides to teach alternatives to Darwin's theory of evolution 2005: the USA carries out the 1,000th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976 2005: anti-USA sentiment brings to power leftist regimes throughout Latin America 2005: Hybrid cars represent only 1% of total cars sold 2005: the Atlanta airport, the busiest in the world, handles 88.4 million passengers from more than half a million flights 2005: Republican representative Tom DeLay of Texas is indicted of corruption (campaign finance violations) 2005: The largest solar plant in the world is inaugurated in the Mojave Desert of California, producing 354MW of electricity, which is more than all the rest of commercial production of solar energy in the world 2005: the USA and India sign a nuclear agreement 2005: China's Lenovo acquires IBM's personal computer business 2005: 15,000 people die of opioid overdose in 2005 Nov 2005: Frank Wuterich and other US soldiers kill 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha 2006: Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion 2006: Lyndon and Peter Rive found SolarCity 2006: Jack Dorsey creates the social networking service Twitter 2006: Alan Greenspan retires from chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank 2006: The USA signs free-trade agreements with Morocco, Oman and Bahrain 2006: a spacecraft ("New Horizons") is launched towards Pluto 2006: USA search engine Google accepts to cooperate with the government of mainland China in censoring the world-wide web 2006: both Ford and General Motors post huge losses and lay off thousands of workers 2006: after George W Bush appoints another Roman catholic to the Supreme Court, the majority of the Supreme Court judges are Catholics for the first time in the history of the USA 2006: Exxon Mobil posts the largest profit of any company in USA history 2006: the USA has 1,210 megachurches (churches for 2,000 or more people) that draw more than four million people a week 2006: Christian fundamentalist governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota bans abortion March 2006: Five US soldiers (Paul Cortez, James Barker, Jesse Spielman, Brian Howard and Steven Green) gang-rape and kill 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and then murder her and her entire family in Mahmudiyah 2006: the USA has 300 million people, of which 35 million are foreign-born, and it is the third most populous country in the world after China and India 2006: Warren Buffet donates $37 billion to charity, the largest donation ever 2006: Most immigrants to the USA are Mexicans 2006: Keith Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress 2006: after six years the Dow Jones index briefly trades above its record high close of 11,722 2006: Enron's CEO Jeffrey Skilling is sentenced to 24 years in prison 2006: the world-wide web has 100 million websites 2006: Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the USA ($35 billion) 2006: the first Muslim ever is elected to the USA Congress (Keith Ellison) 2006: The USA bombs Islamists in Somalia as Ethiopia help push them out of Somalia 2006: Tarana Burke begins using the phrase "Me Too" to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual harassment Jan 2007: Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female speaker of the House 2007: The USA and Peru sign a free-trade treaty 2007: 138 million USA citizens have experimented with illegal drugs 2007: Australia, India, Japan and the USA form the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) 2007: the USA trade deficit hits a record $764 bilion 2007: The "The Million Book Project" led by Carnegie Mellon University digitizes more than one million books worldwide 2007: Rupert Murdoch acquires the parent company of the Wall Street Journal 2007: South Korean student Cho Seung-Hui kills 32 people at Virginia Tech 2007: China overtakes the USA to become the world's second largest exporter and overtakes Canada to become the main exporter to the USA 2007: Toyota passes General Motors as the world's largest car manufacturer and Japanese car manufacturers pass USA car manufacturers even in the USA market 2007: There are 12.5 million Illegal immigrants in the USA, of which more than half are from Mexico 2007: Republican senator Larry Craig of Idaho resigns following his arrest for soliciting gay sex 2007: USA government agencies declare that Al Qaeda has regrouped in Pakistan and that the terrorist threat against the USA has increased 2007: after crashing due to the crisis of sub-prime mortgage lenders, the USA stock market sets a new record high 2007: Texas carries out its 400th death penalty 2007: the USA dollar falls to 1:2 to the British pound and to an all-time low of 1.50 to the euro and is worth less than a Canadian dollar for the first time in three decades 2007: a fund of the United Arab Emirates buys a 4.9% stake in Citigroup for $7.5 billion, making it the single largest shareholder, ahead of Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia Mar 2007: US soldiers massacre civilians in Jalalabad, Afghanistan Jun 2007: A USA strike kills more than 80 civilians in Chora, Afghanistan Sep 2007: USA mercenaries hired by the company Blackwater and including Nicholas Slatten open fire on a crowd in Baghdad and kill 14 people ("Nissour Square Massacre") 2007: home prices fall 5.1%, the sharpest drop in 20 years 2007: at the end of the economic expansion of the 2000s the median income of USA families has declined from $61,000 to $60,500 2007: Piyush "Bobby" Jindal becomes the first Indian-American governor in the history of the USA (governor of Louisiana) 2007: The number of Afghan civilian deaths caused by USA bombings triples between 2006 and 2007 2007: Serial killer Anthony Sowell murders 11 women and keeps their corpses in his house Sep 2007: Blackwater security guards shoot on a crowd in Baghdad, killing 17 people Oct 2007: The Dow Jones hits a record high of 14,164 on 9 october 2007 Oct 2007: The remote-controlled unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drone debuts in Afghanistan Dec 2007: The USA economy enters a recession 2007: 1.4 million violent crimes are committed in the USA, including 17,000 murders and 9.8 million property crimes, while 1.35 million high-school students report being either threatened or injured with a weapon 2007: the highest number of births in the history of the USA (4.3 million) 2007: The ratio of debt to personal disposable income is 133% 2007: The world's largest vendors of personal computers are HP, Dell, Taiwan's Acer, China's Lenovo and Japan's Toshiba Jun 2007: Apple launches the iPhone Sep 2007: The Canadian dollar rises above the USA dollar Sep 2007: Mercenaries from Blackwater hired by the USA as "guards" in Iraq massacre 17 unarmed civilians at Baghdad's Nisour Square Oct 2007: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at a record high of 14,164 2008: the average price for gasoline passes $4 per gallon Jul 2008: Oil prices peak at $147 per barrel 2008: Chi Mak is sentenced to 24 years in prison for sending to China information about several sensitive technologies, the first major case of Chinese industrial espionage Apr 2008: Germany opposes expanding NATO to Ukraine and Georgia at the NATO summit in Bucharest, but they are promised membership at some unspecified time in the future 2008: Detroit, that used to be 55.5% white in 1970, is now 11.1% white Feb 2008: The USA orders the destruction of thousands of documents about Pakistani nuclear scientist Khan's illegal dealings that have been discovered in Switzerland Oct 2008: Shirwa Ahmed, a Somali-American, blows himself up in Somalia killing 20 other people 2008: Rickey Johnson is released from a Louisiana prison after serving 25 years for a crime he did not commit Now 2008: For a few months San Francisco issues marriage license to same-sex couples 2008: Warren Buffett is the richest man in the world jan 2008: Gold reaches an all-time high of $880 jan 2008: the stock market collapses, triggering similar collapses around the world feb 2008: More than 1% of adult USA citizens are in prison mar 2008: The price of gold hits $1,000 for the first time ever and oil passes $110 a barrel, while the dollar sets another all-time low against the euro (1.56) and dips below 100 yen (a drop of 6.5% in less than three months), home prices plunge 9.1%, the Eurozone overtakes the USA as the world's largest economy mar 2008: Five years after the invasion, the USA has lost 4,000 soldiers in Iraq mar 2008: the police raid a polygamist compound with hundreds of children in Eldorado, Texas, run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints may 2008: USA's home prices drop by 15.8%, the steepest decline in 21 years june 2008: oil prices pass $140 a barrel june 2008: a USA air strike kills 11 Pakistani soldiers june 2008: President George W Bush's job approval falls to 23%, one of the lowest ever recorded june 2008: For the first time more USA soldiers die in the war in Afghanistan than in the war in Iraq july 2008: George W Bush's associate Karl Rove refuses to testify before a commission investigating whether the Justice Department prosecuted people for political reasons july 2008: The USA's inflation hits a 26-year High August 2008: A US airstrike in Azizabad (western Afghanistan) kills 92 civilians including 60 children august 2008: The USA and Libya restore diplomatic relationships that were broken after Reagan bombed Libya august 2008: Following Russia's invasion of Georgia, the USA and Poland sign a treaty for a missile defense sep 2008: NATO killed 3,200 civilians in Afghanistan from 2005 to mid 2008 sep 2008: Condoleezza Rice becomes the first USA secretary of state to visit Libya since 1953 sep 2008: The USA takes over the two largest mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the largest insurance company, American International Group sep 2008: USA missiles target Taliban inside Pakistan sep 2008: In a financial crisis, Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch is sold to Bank of America, the two remaining investment banks in the United States, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, decide to become traditional banks, and the government buys $700 billion of bad mortgages in the largest financial bailout since the Great Depression, and on September 29 the Dow Jones loses 778 points, the biggest single-day point loss ever sep 2008: A bomb against the USA embassy in Yemen kills 16 people oct 2008: the Dow Jones loses more 22% in a week of continuous losses, including the biggest single-day decline since 1987 oct 2008: Unemployment reaches 6.5%, the highest rate since march 1994. oct 2008: Blowing himself up in Somalia, Shirwa Ahmed is the first USA citizen to become a suicide bomber nov 2008: Barack Obama, a black man, is elected president of the USA nov 2008: the world's oldest person, Edna Parker, dies at the age of 115 Dec 2008: the price of oil plunges to $34 per barrel amid the world recession Dec 2008: The median home price falls 13.2% from a year before, down to $181,300, the largest drop since the Great Depression Dec 2008: The USA loses two million jobs in 2008 and the unemployment rate climbs to 6.7% Dec 2008: More USA workers lost jobs in 2008 than in any year since World War II, with employers laying off 2.6 million people. Dec 2008: The USA loses $3.6 trillion in the financial crisis Dec 2008: The GDP of the USA falls 6.2% in the last quarter of 2008, the worst decline since 1982, with exports falling 23.6% Dec 2008: Microsoft Windows owns almost 90% of the operating system market for personal computers, while Google owns almost 70% of the Internet search market Dec 2008: Bruce Jeffrey Pardo kills 9 people in Covina, near Los Angeles, during the Christmas holidays 2008: More than 10,000 people die of heroin overdose in the NATO countries in just one year, a number higher than all casualties from all NATO wars since 2001 2008: 1.6 million people are in federal prisons, an all-time high 2008: 41% of children are born to single mothers, about 25% to a Hispanic mother, and births to women over 40 account to 3% (triple the rate of the 1980s) 2008: Almost one in three Medicare recipients undergo surgery in their last year of life, a way for hospitals to maximize their profits 2008: Between 1985 and 2008 the federal taxes paid by the wealthiest 400 citizens have dropped from 29% to 18% of their income Jan 2009: The USA loses 741,000 jobs in january alone, the most since 1949 2009: Fiat buys Chrysler Jan 2009: Facebook has 140 million users and grows by about 500,000 users a day, the fastest product ever to reach that many users in five years Feb 2009: An unmarried woman, Nadya Suleman, gives birth to 14 children (eight at the same time) through in-vitro procedures Feb 2009: Car sales decline more than 40% from a year before Feb 2009: The price of oil plunges to $40/barrel Mar 2009: Ten people are killed by an armed man in Alabama Mar 2009: Bill O'Reilly's show is the number one news show on tv for the 100th consecutive month Mar 2009: A gunman kills eight people in a nursing home of Carthage (North Carolina) Mar 2009: A gunman kills 13 people in upstate New York Mar 2009: The first case of swine flu in the USA, probably spread from Mexico to southern California Apr 2009: Albania and Croatia join NATO May 2009: A USA air strike on Granai (in the western district of Bala Baluk) kills 147 Afghan civilians May 2009: Unemployment hits 9.2%, the highest rate in 25 years Jun 2009: The recession begun in 2007 ends in june 2009, the longest USA recession since World War II (18 months) Jul 2009: The USA budget deficit tops $1 trillion Aug 2009: Sonia Sotomayor becomes the first Hispanic to serve in the Supreme Court sep 2009: Yielding to Russian pressure, the USA cancels a missile defense system in Eastern Europe Oct 2009: The unemployment rate reaches 10.1%, a 26-year high 2009: China passes Germany as the world's top exporter and China passes Canada as the USA's top exporter 2009: LimeWire, the largest free file-sharing system, has over 70 million unique monthly users Oct 2009: There are more than 100,000 NATO troops (including about 68,000 USA soldiers) in Afghanistan alongside 200,000 Afghan soldiers fighting less than 25,000 Taliban Oct 2009: Luquman Ameen Abdullah, who was trying to establish an Islamic state in Michigan, is killed by the FBI Jul 2009: The "Great Recession" ends in the USA Nov 2009: The US dollar hits a 14-year low against the Japanese yen down to 86.5 yen Nov 2009: A Muslim in the USA army, Nidal Hasan, kills 13 people at the Fort Hood base in Texas Dec 2009: The Internet is used by more than two billion people Dec 2009: The USA accounts for 26.7% of world GDP Dec 2009: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian Muslim trained by Al Qaeda in Yemen, tries to bomb a USA airplane Dec 2009: Jordanian suicide bomber and Al Qaeda secret agent Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi kills seven CIA agent a Jordanian secret agent in Afghanistan Dec 2009: Facebook has 350 million users and grows by about one million users a day; Wikipedia has 350 million users per month and 14 million articles. Dec 2009: A US drone strike kills 14 women and 21 children in Yemen 2009: Between 2005 and 2009 the median wealth of white households fell by 16%, of Hispanics fell by 66%, of Asians by 54% and of blacks by 53% 2009: 10.8 million motor vehicle accidents result in 36,000 deaths Jan 2010: Three USA soldiers are killed in Pakistan by the Pakistani Taliban, the first USA casualties inside Pakistan 2010: The USA has become the largest producer of natural gas in the world 2010: The share of 30-year-olds who make more money than their parents did at that age has dropped from 92% in 1970 to 50% Jan 2010: The Supreme Court rules that corporations are persons, entitled to spend unlimited money to influence elections Jan 2010: USA missionaries, mostly belonging to a Baptist church in Idaho, try to kidnap 33 Haitian children after the country is devastated by an earthquake Feb 2010: Right-wing movements organize a "National Tea Party Convention" in Nashville Feb 2010: A US drone kills 23 civilians, including 7 women and two toddlers, in Afghanistan's Oruzgan Province Apr 2010: The USA discloses that it has a total of 5,113 nuclear warheads in its arsenal Apr 2010: The swine flu epidemics ends after 60 million people have been infected in the USA and 12,469 died, a death rate that is actually lower than the average of 41,400 deaths for the influenzas between 1979 and 2001 Apr 2010: An explosion on a BP rig causes a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the biggest environmental disaster in the history of the USA May 2010: Pakistani-born Faisal Shahzad tries to blow up a car bomb in Times Square, New York May 2010: A soldier stationed in Iraq, Bradley Manning, is arrested for passing classified information to WikiLeaks Jun 2010: A former employee kills five people and himself a business in New Mexico Jun 2010: The software Stuxnet, developed by USA and Israel, sabotage Iran's nuclear facilities Jun 2010: General Motors sells more cars in China than in the USA Jul 2010: A USA strike kills 52 civilians in Afghanistan including 17 children Jul 2010: More than 90,000 secret USA military records about the Afghanistan war are leaked to a website Jul 2010: 66 USA soldiers die in Afghanistan in july 2010, the deadliest month since the war began Jul 2010: WikiLeaks releases thousands of top-secret USA documents about the war in Afghanistan Aug 2010: Nine people are shot dead by a worker at a warehouse in Connecticut Aug 2010: Thirty-eight USA billionaires, led by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, pledge 50% of their wealth to charity Aug 2010: The USA declares a formal end to its combat mission in Iraq Sep 2010: After an argument with his wife, a man in eastern Kentucky kills five people with a shotgun before killing himself Sep 2010: The CIA launches more than 20 drone attacks against Pakistani territories, the highest number ever Oct 2010: The Australian dollar reaches parity with the USA dollar Nov 2010: WikiLeaks releases thousands of top-secret USA documents Dec 2010: Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charges former US vice-president Dick Cheney of bribing officials Dec 2010: Former Republican leader Tom DeLay is convicted of money laundering financing and sentenced to jail 2010: Asians overcome Hispanics as the largest group of immigrants to the USA Dec 2010: The SpaceX Falcon 9, the first private spaceship to orbit Earth, takes off 2010: A record 700,000 foreign students study in the USA, of which 128,000 are from China and 105,000 are from India 2010: The budget deficit reaches $14 trillion or almost 100% of annual GDP 2010: For the first time in history, the population of the West is gretare than the population of the Midwest 2010: The USA has become mainland China's second-largest export market and mainland China has become the USA's third-largest export market and the fastest-growing one 2010: Mainland China holds about $1.6 trillion in Treasury bonds of the USA 2010: Almost 2.9 million home owners foreclose on homes they cannot afford, an all-time record Dec 2010: Wikipedia has 17 million articles in 250 languages Dec 2010: For the first time since 2003 the USA spends more in the war in Afghanistan than in Iraq 2010: The USA exports over $400 billion of goods to the European Union, and its firms own $1 trillion of direct investment in the European Union 2010: Social media allow to raise millions for the victims of the Haiti earthquake 2010: Bob Wells founds the first Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in the desert of Arizona 2010: 38,364 commit suicide in 2010 2010: There are 38,350 suicides in 2010, more than people who die in car accidents 2010: About 40,000 people die from drug overdoses in one year (and only 10% are due to fentanyl) Jan 2011: A gunman kills six people and wounds a dozen during a political meeting in Tucson, Arizona 2011: 62% of women age 20 to 24 who gave birth in the previous 12 months are unmarried 2011: "Occupy Wall Street" protests spread around the country Mar 2011: A USA drone kills 40 people in Pakistan Mar 2011: Gibbs and other soldiers are photographed after allegedly killing three Afghan civilians and taking fingers off their bodies as war trophies Apr 2011: More than 320 people are killed by tornadoes Apr 2011: For the first time in decades ownership of television sets declines in the USA May 2011: The United Nations estimates that opiate use increased 35% worldwide from 1998 to 2008, cocaine by 27%, and cannabis by 8.5%. June 2011: New York becomes the sixth state to legalize gay marriage June 2011: Fewer than half of cohabiting couples are married 2011: The USA has 413 billionaires, China has 115 billionaires, Russia 101, India 55, Germany 52, Britain 32, Brazil 30, and Japan 26 Jul 2011: The USA withdraws the last space shuttle Aug 2011: A man kills seven people in Akron Aug 2011: World stock markets crash for fear of the national debt of the USA and of several European countries Aug 2011: The Taliban down a US helicopter killing 30 US soldiers Aug 2011: Apple passes ExxonMobil to become the most valuable company in the world based on market capitalization Aug 2011: Gold reaches an all-time high of $1900 per ounce Aug 2011: Anti-Qaddafi rebels helped by NATO reach Tripoli, end Qaddafi's dictatorship over Libya and install Mahmoud Jibril as head of the transitional government Aug 2011: 66 USA soldiers die in Afghanistan, making august 2011 the deadliest month yet since the invasion Sep 2011: Troy Davis is executed in Georgia despite the fact that most witnesses recanted Sep 2011: US-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is assassinated by a US drone strike in Yemen Sep 2011: Thousands of people stage protests against Wall Street firms in new York Oct 2011: The USA foils a plot by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the USA and to bomb the embassy of Saudi Arabia in the USA Oct 2011: A man kills eight people at a hair salon in Seal Beach (California) Oct 2011: The USA signs free-trade treaties with Colombia, Panama and South Korea Oct 2011: The world's population is 7 billion, up from 1 billion in 1850 and less than 3 billion in 1950. Dec 2011: Only 51% of adults in the USA are married compared with 72% in 1960 Dec 2011: The USA withdraws the last soldiers from Iraq, after more than 100,000 civilians have been killed in the occupation and civil war, with 15000 civilians killed directly by the USA or allies, plus about 50,000 non-civilian "insurgents" for a grand total of about 162,000 Dec 2011: Saudi billionaire prince Alwaleed bin Talal invests a huge sum in social media Twitter Dec 2011: Facebook has 800 million users worldwide Dec 2011: There are 327 million wireless-phone subscribers in the USA, more than its population Dec 2011: A man in Grapevine (Texas) kills six family members and himself on Christmas day Dec 2011: Azizolah "Bob" Yazdanpanah kills 6 family members at a Christmas party in Grapevine (Texas) 2011: Several states run by Republicans (Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin) pass voter restrictions measures 2011: The USA spends $739bn in defense while China spends $90bn 2011: In a decade the cost of tuition in universities has increased from 23% of median income to 38% Jan 2012: The USA shuts down one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, Megaupload, and arrests its chief Kim Schmitz 2012: Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, calls trade with China "the greatest transfer of wealth in history" because of all the ways that China cheats the USA 2012: Samuel Little is arrested for murder and will eventually confess to 90 murders Jan 2012: A USA drone kills 12 al Qaeda militants in southern Yemen Mar 2012: A USA soldier, Robert Bales, kills 16 Afghani civilians, including nine children and three women Apr 2012: One Goh kills seven people at a Oakland high school Apr 2012: The USA begins deploying soldiers in Australia Apr 2012: A gunmen kills five black men in Tulsa May 2012: The USA thwarts a plot to blow up an airplane and kills Fahd al-Quso, al-Qaeda's leader in Yemen May 2012: NATO activates a missile defence system in Europe despite strong Russian opposition, and in response Russia launches a program of rearmament May 2012: Ian Stawicki walks into a cafe and kills 5 people and himself in Seattle May 2012: A NATO strike kills 18 civilians in Afghanistan Jul 2012: An armed madman, James Holmes, kills 12 people in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado Aug 2012: Wade Michael Page shoots six people dead at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. Aug 2012: NASA's Curiosity rover lands on Mars Aug 2012: Lance Armstrong is stripped of his seven Tour de France titles because of doping Aug 2012: Badruddin Haqqani is killed in a US drone strike Aug 2012: the Voyager I is the first human-made object to leave the solar system 2012: Only 3% of chief executives of corporations are women Sep 2012: Dozens of people are killed in the Islamic world during violent protests against an anti-Islamic amateur video posted online in the USA, including the US ambassador in Libya Oct 2012: SpaceX's rocket takes off, the first commercial flight to the International Space Station Nov 2012: Mazie Hirono becomes the first Japanese-born senator (also the first Buddhist and the first Asian-American woman) Nov 2012: Puerto Rico votes to become a state of the USA Nov 2012: Kyrsten Sinema becomes the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress Dec 2012: Possession of marijuana becomes legal in the states of Washington (Seattle) and Colorado Dec 2012: 34080 people die in traffic accidents in 2012 in the USA, 14.7% motorcyclists Dec 2012: Adam Lanza kills 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown (Connecticut) including 20 children ("Sandy Hook massacre") 2012: 72 million people are overweight in the USA 2012: The number of patent lawsuits increased by nearly 50% between 2010 and 2012 2012: The wealth owned by the 0.1% richest US households has risen from 7% in 1979 to 22% 2012: Donald Trump claims that Obama's election was fraudolent (calling the election a "total sham and a travesty" and claiming that Obama "lost the popular vote by a lot") Dec 2012: The USA passes the Magnitsky Act to punish Russian politicians for the death of dissident Sergei Magnitsky Feb 2013: A report by US cyber-security firm Mandiant documents cyber-attacks by China's People's Liberation Army (Unit 61398) targeting US organizations Mar 2013: The Dow Jones returns to the high of 2007 2013: Oklahoma's senator James Inhofe threatens to sue the most influential climate scientists declaring human-made climate change "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people" Apr 2013: Two Chechen immigrants, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokar Tsarnaev, set off bombs that kill three people at the Boston Marathon May 2013: Three women (Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight) are freed after being held captive for about a decade in Cleveland by Ariel Castro Apr 2013: About 100 people are killed by a giant tornado in Oklahoma Jun 2013: The USA announces peace talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan Jun 2013: NSA employee Edward Snowden reveals details of a vast government operation to spy on citizens and on foreign allies and is then granted asylum in Russia Jun 2013: The supreme court condemns the Defense of Marriage Act that defines marriage as between a man and a woman only, while 30 states of the USA still ban same-sex marriages Jul 2013: The city of Detroit, whose population has declined from two million in 1950 to 700 thousand and whose murder rate hit a 40-year high, files the largest-ever municipal bankruptcy in the history of the USA Sep 2013: The USA and Russia agree on a plan to remove Syria's chemical weapons after the USA threatened military intervention Sep 2013: A former Navy serviceman, Aaron Alexis, kills 12 people and himself at a naval installation in Washington Sep 2013: For the first time since 1979 the president of the USA and the president of Iran speak on the phone Oct 2013: Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") rolls out against massive Republican complaints 2013: Income inequality in the USA is the highest since 1928, wwith the richest 1% of people taking 19% of the national income 2013: 8 of the 15 fastest-growing cities of the USA are in Texas Oct 2013: The USA captures al-Qaeda leader Anas al-Libi, accused of the 1998 bombings of the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and tries to kill the Kenyan-born terrorist Ikrima (Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir) in Somalia Oct 2013: Pakistan reveals that 317 US drone strikes since 2008 have killed 2,160 militants and 67 civilians Oct 2013: The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, is killed by a US drone Nov 2013: More than 2,000 wrongfully convicted people have been exonerated between 1989 and 2012 in the USA Dec 2013: Colorado becomes the first state in the USA to open recreational pot stores and regulate marijuana from seed to sale 2013: 48 million Americans, or about 1 in 7 of us, receive "food stamps" from the government 2013: Barack Obama has ordered more than 400 aerial drone assassinations since 2008 2013: The USA has carried out more than 80 attacks in Yemen, killing almost 500 people, since 2009 2013: TED talks have been watched more than 2 billion times 2013: The inflation-adjusted net worth for the median household fell 36 percent between 2003 and 2013 2013: The USA has become again the largest producer of oil in the world, but it is still the largest importer and consumer of oil 2013: Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi form the Black Lives Matter Network 2013: Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos acquires The Washington Post Dec 2013: The Dow Jones index sets a new all-time inflation-adjusted high for the first time since the end of 1999 Mar 2014: The USA arrests Ukrainian tycoon Dmitry Firtash for having paid bribes to the Indian government Apr 2014: A teenager, John LaDue, is arrested in Minnesota before he can carry out his plan to kill his family, set off bombs at school and shoot students Jun 2014: The USA captures Ahmed Abu Khattala, responsible for the 2012 attack on the Benghazi embassy Jul 2014: The Dow Jones stock market index hits 17,000 Jul 2014: Russia's president Putin visits Cuba and cancels $30 billion in Cuban debt Aug 2014: The USA launches air strike against the Islamic State in Iraq Aug 2014: Riots erupt after a white police officer kills a black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson (Missouri), the event that galvanizes the "Black Lives Matter" movement Sep 2014: The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria beheads two journalists from the USA and US president Barack Obama de facto declares war on ISIS with the support of ten Arab states Sep 2014: An air strike by the USA kills the leader of the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, Ahmed Abdi Godane Sep 2014: A grandfather, Don Charles Spirit, shoots dead his daughter and her six children before taking his own life in Florida Oct 2014: Two Muslims kill two soldiers in Canada Oct 2014: The USA and Britain withdraw from Afghanistan after the USA has lost more than 2,000 soldiers and Britain more than 400 Nov 2014: Ricky Jackson's innocence is proven after 39 years in prison, the longest-serving innocent man in US history Dec 2014: The USA (Barack Obama) and Cuba (Raul Castro) begin to normalize relations after 55 years 2014: The Senate issues a report admitting that the USA tortured suspected Islamic terrorists Dec 2014: Under threat from North Korean hackers, Sony Pictures cancels the release of a film on North Korea's dictatorship Dec 2014: A man kills eight people and then kills himself in the Canadian city of Edmonton Dec 2014: There are 57 million Hispanics in the USA 2014: 32,675 people are killed in traffic accidents 2014: On average 12 million people were arrested each year between 2010 and 2014 2014: 250,000 Americans have died of an opioid overdose since 1999 Jan 2015: The USA arrests Dominic Ongwen, deputy commander of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in Uganda 2015: Justin Trudeau is elected prime minister of Canada Apr 2015: Iran signs a nuclear deal with the world powers Apr 2015: Anthony Ray Hinton is freed after spending nearly 30 years on death row in Alabama Apr 2015: US president Barack Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro meet in person Apr 2015: Race riots in Baltimore following several cases of police killing unarmed black males May 2015: David Letterman retires from television May 2015: The Dow Jones index hits an all-time high of 18312 Jun 2015: A white suprematist, Dylan Roof, kills 9 people in a South Carolina church, causing most of the South to abandon icons of their pro-slavery Civil War Jun 2015: The Supreme Court rules that same-sex couples can marry nationwide, and the USA becomes the 21st country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage Jun 2015: Casino tycoon Donald Trump launches a presidential campaign, largely relying on Twitter for propaganda Jul 2015: The head of Vietnam's communist party, Nguyen Phu Trong, visits the USA Jul 2015: Iran signs a deal, mostly engineered by the USA, limiting its nuclear program in return for the United Nations (and the USA in particular) to remove economic sanctions Aug 2015: The number of people without health insurance in the USA declines to 9.2%, from 44.8 million in 2013 to 29 million Aug 2015: Oil prices fall below $40 a barrel for first time since 2009 Sep 2015: Chris Mercer kills nine people in Oregon Oct 2015: The US, Japan, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam sign a trade agreement that covers about 40% of the world economy, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Nov 2015: A US air strike kills the leader of ISIS in Libya, Abu Nabil, aka Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al-Zubaydi Dec 2015: Two ISIS supporters kill 14 people in San Bernardino Dec 2015: Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donate 99% of their shares of Facebook ($45 billion) to charity Dec 2015: The price of oil declines to $36/barrel, the lowest in 11 years Dec 2015: The unemployment rate falls below 5% for the first time since 2007 2015: there are 88.8 privately owned guns per 100 people in the USA while there are only 0.6 per 100 people in Japan where on average less than 10 people are murdered every year (compared with more than 10,000 in the USA) 2015: The murder rate in the USA increases by 11%, with 1 in 10 murders committed by gangs and 68% are blacks 2015: A record 149 exonerations in the USA for convicts who on average had served more than 14 years in prison, of which 20 are won by Brooklyn's district attorney Ken Thompson Dec 2015: The USA signs the Paris climate deal Dec 2015: The USA lifts the 40-year ban on exporting crude oil and starts shipping oil to South America, Europe and China Feb 2016: The USA begins bombing ISIS territory in Lybia, killing more than 40 people including Noureddine Chouchane, who masterminded the terrorist attacks in Tunisia Feb 2016: US oil production reaches a 43-year high Mar 2016: Barack Obama becomes the first president to visit Cuba since the Castro revolution Mar 2016: Russian nationalist Aleksandr Dugin endorses Donald Trump for president of the USA Mar 2016: More than 40 Al Qaeda suspects are killed by a US drone strike in Yemen May 2016: Dennis Hastert, a former Republican house speaker under George W Bush, is sentenced to jail for molesting children in the 1970s May 2016: The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung shares with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists the "Panama Papers", more than one million documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm in Panama that expose a global web of money laundering and tax evasion involving high-level political figures, business leaders and celebrities 2016: Paul Gatling is exonerated from a crime he did not commit after spending more than 50 years in jail May 2016: NASA's Kepler mission discovers 1,284 additional planets, thus doubling the number of known planets May 2016: A US drone kills Taliban's leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour in Pakistan May 2016: The USA lifts the arms trade embargo against Vietnam Jun 2016: Omar Mateen kills 49 people at a gay club in Orlando (Florida), pledging alliance to ISIS Jul 2016: Republican candidate Donald Trump praises the Arab dictators deposed by the West Jul 2016: An improvised sniper, Micah Johnson, kills 5 police officers in Dallas following the murder of two black men by white police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota, and a black nationalist kills 3 police officers in Baton Rouge Oct 2016: Since the first DNA exoneration took place in 1989, the Innocence Project has exonerated more than 345 people (149 exonerations just in 2015) Nov 2016: Hillary Clinton wins presidential elections by almost three million votes but Donald Trump becomes president on a technicality and with help from Russian hacking and an FBI investigation against Clinton Nov 2016: US employees of the US embassy in Cuba fall mysteriously sick Nov 2016: The first cases in the USA of the deadly fungal infection Candida auris Nov 2016: A man attacks the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria believing looney neofascist conspiracy theoriests ("Pizzagate") Nov 2016: Google launches a machine translation system based on A.I. Dec 2016: Russia and Cuba sign a sweeping pact on defense and technology cooperation. Dec 2016: President-elect Donald Trump, whose campaign was based on false news, racism and vulgar insults, continues insulting both foreign and domestic leaders, including the CIA, and appoints a radical right-wing cabinet while the CIA proves that Russia's secret services helped Trump get elected Dec 2016: The Dow Jones index hits an all-time high high of 19,911 2016: The US public spends more money on gambling ($47 billion) than on sports ($18b), cinema ($11b) and music ($7b) combined 2016: Chicago's murder rate spikes with 764 murders 2016: About 60,000 people die of drug overdose in 2016 in the USA 2016: Los Angeles has about 28,000 homeless residents 2016: 64,000 people die from drugs in one year 2016: Asian immigrants outnumber Europeans by nearly five to one Jan 2017: Donald Trump assumes the presidency of the USA with polls showing a historically low approval rating and millions of people demonstrating against him all over the world, but immediately repeals the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and signs executive orders to block the immigration of people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen Jan 2017: The Dow Jones index hits 20,000 Jan 2017: BuzzFeed publishes the Steele Dossier that details Trump's collusion with Russia to get elected Jan 2017: A white nationalist Trump fan kills six Muslims at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada Jan 2017: A US raid in Yemen kills a dozen al Qaeda fighters but also twice as many civilians Feb 2017: The national security adviser appointed by Trump, Michael Flynn, resigns after leaks reveal secret conversations with the Russian ambassador Mar 2017: Donald Trump fires New York's federal prosecutor Preet Bharara, famous for fighting corruption and cyberterrorism. Mar 2017: The USA bombs Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and bombs ISIS in Afghanistan Mar 2017: The USA resumes air drone strikes on Pakistani targets Apr 2017: In March and April the USA carries out 80 air attacks on Yemen with jets and drones May 2017: Trump fires FBI's director James Comey while the FBI is investigating the Trump-Russia collusion, and then reveals highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister and to the Russian ambassador May 2017: Robert Mueller is appointed special prosecutor to investigate Trump's collusion with Russia Jun 2017: Montenegro joins NATO Jul 2017: The Congress of the USA slaps sanctions on Russia bypassing pro-Russian president Trump Aug 2017: Trump decides to increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan, 16 years after the start of the longest war in US history Aug 2017: The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency warns that Chinese-made drones by DJI are "providing US critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government" Sep 2017: North Korea's Kim Jong-Un and the USA's Donald Trump trade insults, Trump calling Kim "rocket man" and Kim calling Trump a "dotard" Oct 2017: Stephen Paddock kills 59 people at a Las Vegas country music concert Oct 2017: Four US soldiers are killed in Niger Oct 2017: The QAnon pro-Trump conspiracy theory spreads on the Internet, accusing Trump opponents of being Satan-worshipping cannibalistic pedophiles Oct 2017: An Uzbek-born Islamic terrorist kills 8 people in New York Oct 2017: The USA and Israel leave Unesco Oct 2017: The defenestration of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein after reports of sexual harassment starts the "Me Too" movement of women denouncing the sexual assaults they experienced Oct 2017: The New York Times reveals sexual misconduct by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, and several actresses come forward to accuse him of discrimination, harassment and even rape (beginning of the #MeToo movement") Nov 2017: More than 13 million documents (the "Paradise Papers") by the Bermuda law firm Appleby are leaked to the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and provided to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, exposing secrets of corporations and billionaires Nov 2017: Devin Kelley kills 26 people at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs (Texas) Dec 2017: The Dow Jones index reaches 24,000 Dec 2017: Donald Trump endorses senate candidate Roy Moore who is accused of sexual misconduct against teenage girls Dec 2017: A Turkish-Iranian businessman, Reza Zarrab, testifies that he made a fortune helping Turkey evade sanctions on Iran smuggling gold for oil in 2012 Dec 2017: Donald Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but for the first time in history the whole world votes against the USA (and Israel) at the United Nations, including all the major European allies (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, etc). Dec 2017: The CIA helps Russia stop terror attacks by ISIS in St Petersburg Dec 2017: The dollar falls 9% against major currencies in 2017 Dec 2017: Government debt stands at almost $20 trillion 2017: Drug overdoses (mainly from synthetic opioids like fentanyl, a synthetic painkiller 50 times more powerful than heroin, followed by heroin and cocaine) killed 72,000 people in the USA in 2017, a record number that is higher than the peak yearly deaths from AIDS, car crashes and gun deaths 2017: Median household income reaches $61,372 in 2017, finally back to the value in 2007 before the financial crisis 2017: Foreign-born residents are 13.7% of the population (the highest since 1910) or 44.5 million Dec 2017: The "American National Election Study" finds that 18% of US citizens trust the federal government 2017: The percentage of high-school students who has had intercourse drops from 54% in 1991 to 40% in 2017 2017: A record 39,773 people died by guns in 2017 (12 per 100,000 people), of which 23,854 died from suicide by guns, and the rest from homicide, accidents, war or police 2017: Record number of deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide in 2017 (more than 150,000, including 47,173 suicides and 28,000 from drugs) Jan 2018: The Dow Jones index passes 25,000 Feb 2018: North Korea and South Korea march together at the Winter Olympics, while the USA snubs North Korea at the opening ceremony Feb 2018: Trump signs a massive government spending plan that, following a $1 trillion tax cut, is projected to cause a government debt of 105% by 2027 Feb 2018: Nikolas Cruz kills 17 people at a high school in Parkland (Florida) Mar 2018: Tens of thousands of kids rally in Washington demanding gun control Apr 2018: The USA, Britain and France bomb Syria in retaliation for Syria's use of chemical weapons Apr 2018: The USA introduces sanctions against ZTE, a $17 billion telecom firm that employs 75,000 workers and heavily depends on semiconductor components made in the USA (China still imports 90% of its semiconductor components) May 2018: Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student, kills 10 fellow students at Santa Fe High School in Texas May 2018: Television channel RT, owned by Russia, launches a campaign of disinformation in the USA about 5G technology, claiming that it causes brain cancer, infertility, autism, and Alzheimer's disease May 2018: The unemployment rate drops to 3.8% May 2018: The unemployment rate falls down to 3.8%, the lowest unemployment rate since 2000 and the same as in 1969, but the employed percentage of population still stands at 60.4%, well below the level of 2007 (62.9%) Jun 2018: US president Trump and North Korean dictator Jong-un Kim meet in Singapore, the first meeting ever between leaders of the two countries that are still formally at war Jun 2018: Trump slaps tariffs on imports from Europe, Canada, Japan and China, and both China and the European Union respond in kind thereby starting a trade war Jun 2018: The media discover that Trump's "zero tolerance" policies on illegal immigration cause the cruel separation of children and parents Jul 2018: Nasa's Curiosity rover discovers water on Mars Jul 2018: Claims of sexual harassment or misconduct have ended the political careers of 11 Republicans and 13 Democrats in one year (#MeToo movement) Aug 2018: Apple becomes the first company in the world to be valued $1 trillion on the stock market Aug 2018: A report reveals that Catholic priests in Pennsylvania sexually abused more than 1,000 children Aug 2018: Microwave weapons are suspected to have caused brain illnesses to US employees of the Cuban embassy Aug 2018: For the first time since 1973, the USA is the world's largest producer of crude oil, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia, producing more than 11 million barrels per day, mainly due to the Permian Basin in West Texas Sep 2018: Amazon becomes the second company in the world to be valued $1 trillion on the stock market Oct 2018: Unemployment falls to 3.7% for the first time since 1969, and the Dow Jones index hits an all-time record of 26,828 Oct 2018: White Christian right-wing terrorist Cesar Sayoc, a fanatic Donald Trump supporter and Fox News viewer, mails bombs to Democratic Party leaders (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, billionaire George Soros, actor Robert de Niro, etc) Oct 2018: Central American refugees start walking from Honduras towards Mexico and the USA, fleeing political turmoil in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, and Fox News refers to them as an "invasion" more than 100 times Oct 2018: White suprematist Robert Bowers kills 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest attack on Jews in the history of the USA Oct 2018: Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, is killed and dismembered in the the Saudi consulate in Istanbul; and, after two weeks of denials, Saudi Arabia fires general Ahmed Al-Assir Nov 2018: The USA reneges on the nuclear deal with Iran and reimposes sanctions on Iran, which has complied with the deal Nov 2018: Ian David Long kills 12 people in a bar of Thousand Oaks, California Nov 2018: US government agencies and departments issue the 4th National Climate Assessment Nov 2018: The CIA concludes that the Saudi crown prince, a Trump friend, ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination Dec 2018: The FBI reveals "China’s non-traditional espionage against the USA" Dec 2018: Donald Trump orders the withdrawal of the USA from Syria, sparking the resignations defense secretary Jim Mattis and other officials Dec 2018: Seven sets of prosecutors and investigators are pursuing at least 17 court cases against Donald Trump 2018: The number of combined cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia in the USA reaches a record high in 2018, 2.4 million cases 2018: Salesforce' founder Marc Benioff acquires Time magazine Jan 2019: The USA withdraws from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, accusing Russia of violating the treaty Jan 2019: Trump has the second-lowest approval rating in history Feb 2019: The USA is isolated at the annual Munich Security Conference where Germany's chancellor Merkel received a standing ovation Feb 2019: Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen testifies in Congress that Trump is a "cheat, a liar and a racist" Apr 2019: Two reports reveal that US forces and their allies killed more civilians than the Taliban in Afghanistan in the last 3 months and that the US-led bombing of Raqqa in 2017 killed 1,600 civilians May 2019: The jobless rate at 3.6% is the lowest since 1969 after 490,000 people left the labor force during April May 2019: A "trade war" between the USA and China escalates with restrictions on what technology China can buy from the USA, notably on Google's software for China's Huawei May 2019: San Francisco bans face recognition technology May 2019: A disgruntled employee, DeWayne Craddock, kills 11 people at a government office in Virginia Beach May 2019: China holds $1.11 trillion of US debt Jul 2019: Donald Trump insults four black female members of Congress, known as "The Squad": Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Jul 2019: Following the Saudi assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudi atrocities in Yemen, Congress blocks the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, but Donald Trump overrules Congress and still sells the weapons Jul 2019: Fortune magazine's Global 500 Companies includes 119 Chinese firms versus 121 US firms Jul 2019: The US intelligence chief Dan Coats resigns Aug 2019: Patrick Crusius kills 22 people at an El Paso Walmart store, mostly used by Hispanics, and Connor Betts kills 9 people at a Dayton nightclub, mostly used by African-Americans, two groups targeted by Donald Trump's racist tweets Aug 2019: Donald Trump offers to buy Greenland from Denmark Aug 2019: North Korea tests missiles capable of striking all of Japan and South Korea, including eight US military bases in those countries Sep 2019: San Francisco formally labels the pro-gun National Rifle Association (NRA) a "domestic terrorist organisation" Sep 2019: Rupert Murdoch sells Sky television to Comcast 2019: Disney acquires Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Sep 2019: Inspired by Greta Thunberg, worldwide protesters demand climate action Sep 2019: Impeachment proceedings begin against Donald Trump after it emerges that he urged Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky to revive discredited corruption allegations against his potential election rival Joe Biden Sep 2019: The unemployment rate falls down to 3.5%, the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years Sep 2019: Despite Trump's multiple trade wars, the trade deficit of the USA balloons to $481 billion in the first nine months of 2019 Oct 2019: Trump orders the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, leaving the USA's allies, the Kurdish militias, undefended, Turkey launches an invasion on Syria's Kurdish area, and, within days, Russian troops replace US troops Oct 2019: Trump sends 3,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia, just days after withdrawing troops from Syria Oct 2019: ISIS' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself rather than surrender to the US during a raid on his hideout in Syria, and ISIS replaces him with Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi Nov 2019: Trump pulls the USA out of the Paris climate agreement Dec 2019: Kentucky's departing governor Matt Bevin issues 428 pardons, including a record number of rapists and killers Dec 2019: The Dow Jones index hits a new record, 28,235, having gained 10,000 points since Trump became president Dec 2019: Donald Trump is impeached for blackmailing Ukraine to help him with his reelection campaign 2019: The USA records 1,282 cases of measles among children in one year, a record in recent decades 2019: The Asian-American population has increased by 80% in 20 years 2019: The FBI reports 16,425 murders for the year but a total of 39,707 "gun-related deaths from preventable, intentional, and undetermined causes" 2019: The USA has conducted 93 air strikes in Somalia, the highest number yet Jan 2020: A US drone kills Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, while he is in Iraq, and an Iranian defense missile by mistake downs a passenger airplane killing 176 people Jan 2020: The Dow Jones index passes the 29,000 mark for the first time Jan 2020: The national debt of the USA reaches $23 billion Jan 2020: The first case in the USA of covid-19 is registered on January 19 ( the official report) but Trump downplays the danger of an epidemic Feb 2020: The USA charges four military officers of China for a 2017 cyber-attack on credit rating firm Equifax Feb 2020: Donald Trump signs a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban after 19 years of war in Afghanistan which is basically an unconditional surrender Feb 2020: The USA and the Taliban sign a deal for the USA to withdraw its troops Feb 2020: Three white men kill a black jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, in Georgia, but they are left free for 74 days until the video goes viral Mar 2020: The Covid-19 epidemic and an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia cause a collapse of international stock markets, while entire regions of the USA adopt a lock-down to limit the spread of the virus (the Dow Jones index posts the worst first quarter in history after suffering its biggest point slide ever on March 16, -13%, while oil prices collapse 54% in one month, and 6.6 million people file for unemployment benefits) Mar 2020: A drone strike by the USA against Al-Shahab kills only Somali civilians Mar 2020: North Macedonia joins NATO, leaving only Serbia out of NATO in the Balkans Apr 2020: Gabriel Wortman kills 22 people in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, the worst mass shooting in Canada's modern history Apr 2020: Unemployment in the USA is the highest since the Great Depression Apr 2020: Downloads of apps like Zoom and Skype increase dramatically during the Covid-19 epidemic as video conferencing and chats replace face-to-face meetings Apr 2020: More than 60,000 people have died of covid-19 in the USA, and the USA is the country with the highest number of cases May 2020: Canada bans assault-style weapons after its worst ever mass murder May 2020: In just 4 months, more than 100,000 people have died of covid-19 in the USA May 2020: The USA has launched 40 airstrikes in Somalia in five months compared with a total of 41 airstrikes in the previous 10 years) May 2020: The police killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in Minneapolis causes protests nationwide and curfew is imposed in more than 40 cities May 2020: NASA sends astronauts from US soil in space for the first time in nine years, using a SpaceX capsule Jun 2020: The Nasdaq index of high-tech firms tops 10,000 for the first time ever Jun 2020: The USA slaps economic sanctions against any official of the International Criminal Court who dares investigating US personnel Jun 2020: Iran issues an arrest warrant for Trump over the murder of general Soleimani Jun 2020: Trump blocks the entry of foreign-born professionals and encourages them to depart the country by preventing the entry of their family members Jun 2020: The US budget deficit grows to a record $864 billion Jul 2020: Protests are held around the USA after weeks of violent clashes between federal agents and protesters in Oregon's Portland Jul 2020: The USA reaffirms that most of China's claims in the South China Sea are illegal and dispatches military units Jul 2020: Between April and July, the total wealth of tech billionaires has increased 41% Aug 2020: Saad al-Jabri, living in exile in Canada, accuses Mohammed bin Salman of sending a hit squad to try and assassinate him Aug 2020: Donald Trump's adviser Steve Bannon is arrested for fraud Aug 2020: A three-year investigation by a Republican-controlled Senate panel concludes that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 elections Aug 2020: Death Valley National Park in California reports the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, 54.4C Sep 2020: Wildfires burn a record number of forests in California for a total size larger than the state of Delaware Sep 2020: The early US budget deficit (October to September) hits a new record high of more than $3 trillion, more than double the previous record of 2008-09 Sep 2020: Trump tries to ban China's app Wechat Sep 2020: Documents from the Financial Crimes Investigation Network (FinCEN) of the USA, leaked to Buzzfeed News and distributed to 108 news organisations in 88 countries, reveal that banks such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank helped criminals launder their money Sep 2020: The New York Times discovers that Trump has debts for hundreds of millions of dollars Sep 2020: The trade deficit of the USA reaches a 14-year-high at $67.1 billion Oct 2020: Trump and his wife test positive for covid Oct 2020: The USA arrests members of a neofascist militia that were planning to kidnap and overthrow Michigan's governor Gretchen Whitmer. Oct 2020: Between May and October home prices in the USA have climbed by 15% and the median price of existing homes passes $300,000 for the first time Oct 2020: Fox News sets the highest-rated month in cable news history Nov 2020: Joe Biden wins presidential elections with a record 80 million votes and by a margin of six million votes over Donald Trump, but Trump attempts a coup in the middle of a pandemic that has already killed 240,000 people in the USA Nov 2020: In the middle of the covid pandemic, the Dow Jones index sets a new record, passing 30,000 for the first time Nov 2020: Due to booming business during the covid pandemic, Amazon hires more than 400,000 workers, pushing its global workforce over one million Nov 2020: 37,000 people died in the USA of covid-19 in November Nov 2020: A guest on Maria Bartiromo's show on Fox News, Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell, launches the conspiracy theory that Dominion's vote-counting machines falsified the election results, and a guest on Lou Dobbs' show, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, claims that Hugo Chávez (who is dead) fixed the Smartmatic software (which was used only by Los Angeles) so that votes can be tampered with Dec 2020: Trump orders the withdrawal of US troops from Somalia Dec 2020: Morocco recognizes Israel in return for the USA to recognize its annexation of Western Sahara Dec 2020: Russian hackers working for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service breach multiple US government agencies (the "SolarWind" hack) Dec 2020: Trump pardons the Blackwater security guards who shot on a crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 17 people Dec 2020: Despite Covid-19 and stay-at-home orders, the USA records a 29% increase in homicides, including sharp increases in Phoenix (+59%), Chicago (+55%), Houston (+43%), New York (+41%), Los Angeles (30%). Dec 2020: Since Trump became president, the USA has carried out 196 air strikes in Somalia, using both drones and manned aircraft 2020: The city of New York records 447 homicides in one year, a 41% increase over 2019 2020: The murder rate in the USA jumps almost 30% to a total of 21,570 murders 2020: The US trade deficit rises to a 12-year record of $679 billion, but the trade deficit with China falls 10% to $311 billion 2020: The GDP of the USA contracts by 3.5% in 2020, the biggest drop since 1946 2020: A study by the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism shows that incidents of white supremacist propaganda, energized by Donald Trump, hit an all-time high in 2020, 2020: California's population declines for the first time in its history 2020: Homicide rates in large US cities increased 30% in 2020 2020: 93,331 Americans died of overdoses in 2020 in the USA, an all-time record 2020: The population of the USA has grown by 7.4% over a decade to reach 331 million, with the Hispanic population reaching 62.1 million (18.7%, compared with 16.4% in 2010 and 12.6% in 2000), the Asian-American population reaching 24 million (a 35% increase over 2010), and the black population reaching 46.9 million (12.1% of the total). 2020: The largest cities of the USA (with more than one million residents) are: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Grand Rapids, Tucson, Honolulu, Tulsa, and Fresno 2020: The median household income of ethnic Indians in the USA is $124,000 (of Taiwanese $97,000 and of chinese $85,000) whereas the median household income of a white family is $65,902 2020: China produces 140,000 tonnes of rare earths, the USA produces 38,000 tonnes, Myanmar 30,000 tonnes and Madagascar 8,000 tonnes 2020: Electricity production in the USA comes from gas (40%), nuclear (20%), renewables (20%) and coal (19%) 2020: The leading causes of death among children and teenagers in the USA are 1. guns and 2. car accidents 2020: Church membership drops below 50% for the first time ever 2020: The median income of middle-class households in 2020 is $90,131 up 50% from $59,934 in 1970 (as measured in 2020 dollars) 2020: US universities graduate 34,000 PhDs, of which 15,000 are foreign students, mostly Chinese (37% of all foreign students) and Indians 2021: Due to the covid pandemic that closed movie theaters, Warner Brothers streams all 2021 films 2021: Only 12% of US adults smoke cigarettes Jan 2021: A recording surfaces of Donald Trump threatening the governor of Georgia to "find" votes to overturn Biden's election win Jan 2021: Trump withdraws all troops from Somalia Jan 2021: Trump incites violence against Congress and neofascist Trump supporters try to storm the Congress of the USA while senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz support Trump's claim that the election was stolen by Biden Jan 2021: Twitter bands Donald Trump, who has 89 million followers Jan 2021: Kamala Harris becomes the first female vicepresident of the USA and Joe Biden the second Catholic president after Kennedy Jan 2021: At the peak of the covid pandemic more than 4,000 people die in one day in the USA, more than anywhere else in the world Jan 2021: An Iraqi judge issues an arrest warrant for Donald Trump over the killing of Iran's general Soleimani Jan 2021: Congress impeaches Trump a second time Feb 2021: Power outages caused by cold weather leave millions of people without heating for several days, mostly in Texas Feb 2021: The USA rejoins the Paris climate deal Feb 2021: NASA lands the Perseverance rover on Mars Feb 2021: The USA bombs an Iranian-backed Iraqi group in Syria, the Kataeb Hezbollah militia Feb 2021: The USA reveals that it determined (already under Trump) that Saudi Arabia's crown prince Muhammad bin Salman approved the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi Mar 2021: Robert Long kills 8 people in Atlanta (Georgia) and Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa kills ten people at a supermarket in Boulder (Colorado) Mar 2021: The state of Georgia passes a law that restricts voting Apr 2021: Brandon Hole kills 8 people in Indianapolis Apr 2021: Joe Biden announces a plan to halve the carbon emissions of the USA by 2030 Apr 2021: A leaked tape by Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reveals that Iran entered the Syrian civil war at the behest of Russia and that Russia maneuvered to make sure that Iran would not make peace with the West Apr 2021: The population of the USA is 331 million Apr 2021: The state of Florida passes a law that restricts voting May 2021: Florida's governor Ron DeSantis ends all covid-related restrictions and bans vaccine passports May 2021: Henry Chardack kills six people in Boulder (Colorado) and himself May 2021: Sam Cassidy kills eight people in Santa Clara (California) and himself Jun 2021: Canada records its highest temperature ever, about 50 degrees, at Lytton, 250 km east of Vancouver Jun 2021: About 150 people die when the Champlain Towers south block collapses in Surfside, north of Miami Jul 2021: 150 people are killed by gun violence in the USA on a single day, the national holiday of the 4th of July Jul 2021: Facebook removes more than 600 accounts created by China that spread covid disinformation on behalf of a non-existent Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards Aug 2021: New Yorks' governor Andrew Cuomo resigns after being accused by several women of sexual harassment, one of the most prominent victims of the #metoo movement Aug 2021: China sentences Canadian citizen Michael Spavor to 11 years in jail on spying charges Aug 2021: The USA withdraws from Afghanistan after 20 years, ending its longest war, and the Taliban rapidly seize power again with little or no resistance from the Afghan government, and ISIS stages a twin bomb attack on people fleeing to the Kabul airport killing 180 including 13 US citizens Aug 2021: A US drone kills 10 innocent people (an aid worker and nine members of his family) in Afghanistan instead of terrorists Aug 2021: US-Mexico border migrant detention levels reach 21-year high Aug 2021: Amazon passes Walmart as the biggest retail seller outside China (Alibaba's sales are almost double Amazon's). Aug 2021: The Dow Jones sets a new record at 35625 Sep 2021: The USA, Britain and Australia sign a security pact and Australia receives the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines Sep 2021: The USA drops the extradiction request of Huawei's Meng Wanzhou, Canada releases her, and China returns the two Canadians who had been imprisoned, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig Nov 2021: US inflation hits 6% Nov 2021: Apple sues the Israeli company NSO whose state-sponsored spyware and surveillance technology spies on iPhone users Nov 2021: Inflation rises 6.8% in 2021, the highest increase since 1982 Dec 2021: Ethan Crumbley, a white 15-year-old, armed with his father's gun, kills four fellow students and injurs several people at Oxford High School in Michigan's Oakland County Dec 2021: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope takes off Dec 2021: Fox News is the most-watched network not just in cable news but in all of cable television Dec 2021: The median sale price of a single-family home in California is $798,440, more than twice the national median sale price of $353,900 Dec 2021: Toyota passes General Motors as the top car seller in the USA and for the first time since 1931 General Motors loses that position Dec 2021: The USA economy grows 5.7% in one year, the highest yearly growth rate since 1984 2021: More than 850,000 people have died of covid in the USA 2021: During the covid pandemic, US life expectancy fell to 76.1 as it was 25 years earlier 2021: Los Angeles has about 42,000 homeless residents 2021: About 30% of the revenues of US semiconductor companies come from sales to China, which imports more than $400 billion worth of chips in 2021 2021: 47,000 people are killed by guns in the USA in 2021 (20,966 homicides and 26,320 suicides) 2021: Californians move to Texas (107,000 people), Nevada (62,000 people), Florida (37,000 people) and Arizona (69,000 people) and New Yorkers to Florida (92,000 people) 2021: China’s share of the world's GDP is 155 compared with 3% in 1961, while the USA’s share decreased from 39% to 24% 2021: Life expectancy in the USA has declined to 76.4 years, down from the peak of 78.8 years in 2019, with heart disease, cancer and covid being the main causes of death, and drug overdose deaths increasing by 16% from 2020 2021: Drug overdoses kills more than 100,000 people in one year, mainly because of fentanyl, a substance 30 times more potent than heroin which is imported from Mexico where it is made from chemicals imported from China Jan 2022: 12 people die in an apartment fire in Philadelphia and 20 in an apartment fire in New York's Bronx Jan 2022: Inflation hits 7.5%, the highest since 1982 Jan 2022: The Dow Jones index peaks at 36,800 Jan 2022: The yearly anti-abortion "March for Life" rally is attended by both evangelical sects and white suprematist groups (such as Patriot Front, Aryan Nations and Traditionalist Worker Party) Feb 2022: ISIS' leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi kills himself rather than surrender to the USA during a raid on his compound in Syria Feb 2022: Threats from neofascist conspiracy theorists forces the National Butterfly Center to shut down Feb 2022: The USA carries out a drone strike on Al Shahab Mar 2022: The USA supports Ukraine, invaded by Russia, with weapons and intelligence Mar 2022: A 13-year-old boy driving a pickup truck causes a car accident that kills nine people in Texas including himself May 2022: A white suprematist, Payton Gendron, kills ten people in a supermarket of Buffalo's black community May 2022: The USA signs the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) with India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, a trading bloc competing with the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership that links 15 Asia-Pacific economies May 2022: Salvador Ramos, 18 year old, kills 21 people, including 19 children, at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas May 2022: The USA sends back troops into Somalia to fight al-Shabab Jun 2022: US inflation reaches 9.1%, the highest since 1981 Jun 2022: A House panel shows that the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol was in fact an attempted coup by Donald Trump Jun 2022: The Republican Party of Texas declares Biden an illegitimate president Jun 2022: The Supreme Court overturns the law that grants women the right to an abortion and allows any state to ban abortion Jun 2022: 51 illegal immigrants die locked in a truck in San Antonio Jul 2022: Robert Crimo kills 8 people at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park near Chicago Jul 2022: The heads of British and US security services jointly warn against Chinese cyber espionage aimed at stealing Western technology Jul 2022: NASA releases the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope Jul 2022: For the first time in 20 years the US dollar reaches parity with the euro Jul 2022: A US drone kills al Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan Jul 2022: Tony Earls in Texas is acquitted of any crime despite killing a nine-year old girl while shooting at a robber Aug 2022: Nancy Pelosi, house speaker of the USA, visits Taiwan, the highest-ranking US official in 25 years to visit Taiwan Aug 2022: A US airstrike in Somalia kills 13 members of al-Shabaab Aug 2022: The FBI searches Donald Trump's Florida residence Mar-a-Lago and discovers entire boxes of top-secret documents stolen by Trump from the White House Aug 2022: The unemployment rate falls to 3.5%, the lowest level in 50 years, Sep 2022: Record temperatures are recorded in all western states, with a peak electricity demand hit 52,061 megawatts in California Sep 2022: Despite investigations in potential treason and lawsuits about tax fraud, polls show that 44% of voters still view Trump favorably and 38% do not believe that he did commit any serious crime Sep 2022: Myles Sanderson stabs 11 people to death, mostly from his own James Smith Cree Nation, including his own brother, in Canada's Saskatchewan province Sep 2022: Between 1987 and 2021, at least 162 Chinese scientists who had received scientific training at Los Alamos National Laboratory returned to China to work on Chinese research projects Sep 2022: NASA's Dart probe smashes into a 160m-wide asteroid, Dimorphos Oct 2022: The US national debt surpasses $31 trillion, increasing by $3.37 trillion since Joe Biden became president Oct 2022: The USA kills three top ISIS leaders in two military operations inside Syria Oct 2022: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claimed that the Sandy Hook massacre never happened, is sentenced to pay $965m damages to the families of the victims Nov 2022: Several mass shootings take place in different states, including Anderson Lee Aldrich killing five people in a Colorado Springs gay club, Andre Bing killing six in a Chesapeake department store, four students killed at the University of Idaho, and three students killed by Christopher Jones at the University of Virginia Dec 2022: The Trump Organization is found guilty of tax fraud 2022: Half of the states don't require a license to carry a handgun 2022: NATO singles out China as its strategic challenge Jan 2023: Michael Haight in Utah massacres seven members of his family including his five children and kills himself, the 72-year-old Huu Can Tran kills 11 people and himself in Monterey Park (near Los Angeles) and Chunli Zhao kills seven people in Half Moon Bay (near San Francisco) Jan 2023: Unemployment falls to 3.4%, the lowest in 53 years Jan 2023: The media discover that Republican politician George Santos has lied nonstop about his life's story Aug 2022: Donald Trump, accused of financial fraud, pleads the fifth amendment more than 400 times 2022: Household debt in Canada is the highest of any G7 country, and the total amount owed by Canadian households is higher than the country's entire GDP. 2022: Household debt in Canada is the highest of any G7 country, and the total amount owed by Canadian households is higher than the country's entire GDP. 2022: More than 2.2 million migrants enter the USA from the Mexican border Feb 2023: An investigation by company Dominion reveals that Fox News hosts propagated Donald Trump's lie about massive vote fraud even though internally they knew it was false Feb 2023: Richard Crum kills six people in Arkabutla (Mississippi) Feb 2023: Florida's governor Ron DeSantis takes action to prevent state colleges from having diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as well as programs on critical race theory, as well as discussions of sexuality and gender identity in public schools Mar 2023: Donald Trump is under investigation for hush money paid to a stripper, for raping and defaming a woman, for tax fraud, for pressuring officials to overturn the election that he lost, for inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol in 2021, and for mishandling thousands of top-secret documents, and nonetheless polls show him as the favorite to win presidential elections in 2024 Mar 2023: Audrey Hale, a transgender woman, kills six people at a Nashville school including three children Apr 2023: It transpires that Clarence Thomas, a judge of the Supreme Court, and his wife, who lobbied to overturn the 2020 election, accepted gifts from worth millions of dollars a right-wing billionaire Apr 2023: A lawsuit by Dominion, maker of voting machines, reveals that Fox News hosts (Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo) knew they were lying when they claimed that the machines were rigged during the 2020 elections, and results in the largest public settlements ever in a defamation case, and days later Fox News fires Tucker Carlson, whose show pushed conspiracy theories and pro-Russian narratives but was also the most-watched show on cable television Apr 2023: Florida's governor Ron DeSantis feuds over gay rights with Disney World, one of Florida's largest employers Apr 2023: Francisco Oropeza kills five people in Texas May 2023: Mauricio Garcia shoots dead 8 people at a shopping mall in Allen (Texas) and George Alvarez drives his car into a crowd killing 8 people (mostly Venezuelan immigrants) waiting for a bus in Brownsville (Texas) May 2023: Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for ages 18 to 49 in the USA Jun 2023: Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, wanted by India as a terrorist, is assassinated in Canada Jul 2023: Kimbrady Carriker kills five people in Philadelphia Jul 2023: Record-setting heat waves hit simultaneously North America, southern Europe and China Aug 2023: Serial rapist Zhi Alan Cheng is arrested after raping dozens of women Aug 2023: Almost 100 people die in Maui in the deadliest wildfires in a century Aug 2023: The USA, Japan and South Korea forge a defense pact aimed at deterring Chinese and North Korean aggression Sep 2023: The USA signs a "comprehensive strategic partnership" with Vietnam 2023: Several states, including Florida and Texas, ban Chinese citizens from purchasing land or buildings Sep 2023: Joe Biden allows hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan refugees to live and work in the USA Sep 2023: The national debt reaches $33 trillion Sep 2023: As the number of illegal immigrants reaches 50,000 in one month, Joe Biden resumes building Trump's wall along the Mexican border As the 2023: The Middle East accounts for 36% of world oil production. 46% of oil exports, 22% of natural gas production and 30% of liquefied gas exports, and it has 52% of the world's total reserves of oil and 43% of gas 2023: The USA has detained more than 2 million migrants along the US-Mexico border in one year 2023: California is home to more than 171,000 homeless people — about 30% of the nation’s homeless population Oct 2023: Microsoft buys videogame developer Activision Blizzard, the largest consumer tech acquisition ever Oct 2023: Robert Card kills 18 people in the town of Lewiston in Maine Nov 2023: A Pew poll finds that 32% of people aged 18-29 get their news from TikTok Dec 2023: The Dow Jones hits a record high of 37,000 Dec 2023: Glynn Simmons is found innocent after spending 48 years in an Oklahoma prison 2023: 69% of Republicans still believe that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election and Donald Trump won 2023: More than 2.5 million migrants enter the USA from the Mexican border 2023: The stockmarket ends the year with nine consecutive weeks of gains, the longest winning streak since 2004 2023: The top five richest people in the world (Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg) are worth to $869 billion 2023: San Francisco’s overdose death rate is more than double the national level 2023: Voyager 1 has traveled 24 billion kms from Earth (22 light-hours) and Voyager 2 has traveled 20 billion kms 2023: Mexico overtakes China to becomes the number-one exporter to the USA 2023: A record 50,000 suicides are registered in the US 2023: South Carolina is the fastest growing state in the USA Jan 2024: The Dow Jones index hits a new record of 37863 Jan 2024: Romeo Nance kills 8 people in Joliet (Illinois) before killing himself Jan 2024: Portland declares a 90-day state of emergency because of the fentanyl epidemic Jan 2024: The USA is the largest oil producer in the world, with 13.3 million barrels per day, ahead of Russia (9.5 million barrels per day) and Saudi Arabia (9.1 million) Feb 2024: The USA strikes Iranian-affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria after they a drone killed 3 US soldiers in Jordan, including the assassination in Baghdad of a senior commander of the pro-Iranian militia Kataib Hezbollah Feb 2024: Jennifer Crumbley becomes the first parent convicted of manslaughter over a mass shooting carried out by her child Feb 2024: Donald Trump lobbies Republican lawmakers in Congress to vote against bills protecting the border from illegal immigrants and providing military aid to Ukraine Feb 2024: The S&P 500 index passes 5,000 for the first time ever Feb 2024: A private company, Intuitive Machines, lands a robot on the Moon, the first spacecraft from the USA to land on the Moon since 1972 Feb 2024: Far-right state Alabama rules that frozen embryos (used for in-vitro fertilisation) are children Mar 2024: The S&P 500 index hits a new record of 5,224 and the Dow Jones index hits a new record of 39,511. Apr 2024: Pro-Palestinian demonstrations spread from Columbia University to other US campuses Apr 2024: Florida under governor Ron DeSantis bans lab-grown meat |
USA presidents(In parenthesis how much i like them. In bold those who lasted two terms. In brackets those who became president even if they lost the election)George Washington (1789-96) ++ John Adams (1797-1800) - Thomas Jefferson (1801-08) ++ James Madison (1809-16) - James Monroe (1817-24) + John Quincy Adams (1825-28) -- [lost the election] Andrew Jackson (1829-36) ++ Martin Van Buren (1837-40) - William Henry Harrison (1841) John Tyler (1841-44) - James Knox Polk (1845-48) + Zachary Taylor (1849-50) - Millard Fillmore (1850-53) - Franklin Pierce (1853-56) - James Buchanan (1857-60) - Abraham Lincoln (1861-65) ++ Andrew Johnson (1865-68) - Ulysses Grant (1869-76) Rutherford Hayes (1877-80) - [lost the election] James Garfield (1881) Chester Arthur (1881-84) - Grover Cleveland (1885-88) + Benjamin Harrison (1889-92) - [lost the election] Grover Cleveland (1893-97) William McKinley (1897-1900) - Theodore Roosevelt (1901-08) ++ William Taft (1909-12) - Woodrow Wilson (1913-20) + Warren Harding (1921-23) -- Calvin Coolidge (1923-28) - Herbert Clark Hoover (1929-32) - Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-45) ++ Harry Truman (1945-52) + Dwight Eisenhower (1953-60) + John Kennedy (1961-63) + Lyndon Johnson (1963-68) - Richard M. Nixon (1969-74) -- Gerald Ford (1974-76) -- Jimmy Carter (1977-80) + Ronald Reagan (1981-88) - George H. Bush (1989-93) + Bill Clinton (1993-2000) + George W. Bush (2001-2008) -- [lost the election by 100,000 votes to Al Gore] Barack Obama (2009-2016) Donald Trump (2017-2020) ---- [lost the election by 3 million votes to Hillary Clinton] Joe Biden (2021-) |
| (Copyright © 2008 Piero Scaruffi) |