Timeline 1900-2021

By Dianne L. Durante

Few of us are completely happy with the world as it is. But to change the future, you have to know the past. What actually happened? What ideas drove those events? The ideas are revealed not only in political slogans, but in such things as how business is regarded, what areas science is exploring, and wha

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dianne L. Durante
• Release date: Feb 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088095423

Dianne L. Durante

At age five, I won my first writing award: a three-foot-long fire truck with an ear-splitting siren. I've been addicted to writing ever since. Today I'm an independent researcher, freelance writer, and lecturer. The challenge of figuring out how ideas and facts fit together, and then sharing what I know with others, clearly and concisely - that's what makes me leap out of bed in the morning. Janson's *History of Art*, lent to me by a high-school art teacher, was my first clue that art was more than the rock-star posters and garden gnomes that I saw in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, and that history wasn't just a series of names, dates, and statistics. Soon afterwards I read Ayn Rand's fiction and nonfiction works, and discovered that art and history - as well as politics, ethics, science, and all fields of human knowledge - are integrated by philosophy. My approach to studying art is based on Rand's *The Romantic Manifesto*. (See my review of it on Amazon.) As an art historian I'm a passionate amateur, and I write for other passionate amateurs. I love looking at art, and thinking about art, and helping other people have a blast looking at it, too. *Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide* (New York University Press, 2007), which includes 54 sculptures, was described by Sam Roberts in the *New York Times* as "a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure" (1/28/2007). Every week I issue four art-related recommendations to my supporters, which have been collected in *Starry Solitudes* (poetry) and *Sunny Sundays* (painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, and more). For more of my works, see https://diannedurantewriter.com/books-essays .

Book preview

Timeline 1900-2021

Events Worldwide,

U.S. Politics & Culture,

Economics, Science & Technology,

Books, Visual Arts, Architecture,

Film & TV, and Music

by Dianne L. Durante

Copyright

Text and cover design copyright © 2022 Dianne L. Durante. All rights reserved. For permission to publish lengthy excerpts, contact [e-mail].

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the following members of my mailing list, who suggested additions and corrections: Brian Lessing, David Berry, Ray Niles, Eric Kalin, Baron Greystone, Todd Goldberg, Marian Calabro, Phillip Schearer, and Tedd Potts. To sign up for the mailing list, visit https://diannedurantewriter.com/sunday-recommendations/.

For their financial support of the publication of this book, many thanks to Todd Goldberg, Godfrey Joseph, Marian Calabro, Raymond Niles, David W. Sanderson, Brian Lessing, and Bruce Van Horne.

Special thanks to those who have supported my work at the highest level on Patreon, and now via the Tip Jar on DianneDuranteWriter.com: Adam Reed, Dan Sullivan, Duncan Curry, E.M. Allison, and Eric Kalin.

As always, thanks to my sister Jan Robinson for her meticulous proofreading. Any errors that remain are my own responsibility.

This book owes its existence partly to my daughter, Allegra. Homeschooling her gave me a reason to review history and find creative ways to make all those names and dates stick. Grazie mille!

And finally, thanks to my husband, Sal, who’s always there when I need a sounding board, a beta reader, a delicious meal, or ... other stuff.

This work was first published in print via Amazon on 8/15/2022.

Kindle version 9/4/2022.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1900-1909

1910-1919

1920-1929

1930-1939

1940-1949

1950-1959

1960-1969

1970-1979

1980-1989

1990-1999

2000-2009

2010-2021

Photo Credits

Index

About the Author

Introduction

Want to change the world?

Few of us are completely happy with the world as it is. But to change the future, we have to know the past. What actually happened? What ideas drove those events?

If we want peace rather than thousands dying in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or the Twin Towers, it’s not enough to know that those deaths happened. We must know the thinking that brought them about.

If we want prosperity, it’s not enough to know when the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose and fell. We have to know what economic policies the government was promoting in times of prosperity, and what principles businesses were operating by. The list goes on and on, for any moral and political issue one might name.

The point of knowing the past is to understand the causes and effects, the ideas and consequences, that can help us make intelligent decisions now and in the future. Unfortunately, history is usually taught without this practical purpose in mind. We memorize a list of names and dates, and then forget them as soon as the test is over.

I did that, too, until the summer after I graduated high school, when I read H.W. Janson’s History of Art*. Janson’s synoptic tables cover some 6,000 years, with columns for Political History, Religion & Literature, Science & Technology, Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting. From reading Janson, I learned that yes, writers, artists, scientists, politicians, and others do express their own ideas—but they also reveal ideas common to their time regarding what’s important and what’s right.

Studying history lets us see the consequences of those common ideas playing out on a wide scale. We can learn what works and what doesn’t. To get metaphorical: we need to see the trees and the forest, plus the reasons the forest grew right there, and what’s likely to happen if we plant another forest in similar conditions.

So my goal in this book is not just to list events in the United States from 1900 to 2021, but to give a sense of the ideas that dominated in a particular decade. To keep the book a reasonable length, I decided to include a substantial quote from each president of the United States. Winning politicians generally have the most widely shared ideas: after all, that’s why they were elected.

I hope that when you see the juxtaposition of politics and science, economics and the arts, you’ll be inspired to think more about how they’re related: that is, what ideas drove Americans over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This timeline is meant as a scaffolding on which you can build a better understanding of the past and the present, and increase your ability to change the future—whatever you want that future to be.

Incidentally, it’s also rather soothing to know that today’s crises are not unique. Our predecessors figured out how to deal with horrendous calamities. We can, too.

What’s included

Again for the sake of keeping the timeline to manageable length, I’ve included only events and people that have the broadest interconnections and greatest impact on politics and culture in the United States. Certain events, such as World Wars 1 and 2, would be included on anyone’s list. But in terms of twentieth-century history, the McCarthy Hearings had far more significance than Princess Diana’s life and death—even though more has probably been published on the Princess than on the Hearings. Civil wars in Africa and Asia are seldom mentioned, because their effect in the US was generally minor. Nor have I included natural disasters, which are not driven by ideas.

Some items (especially in the arts) are included because they recall certain periods to my mind: for example, Barry McGuire’s The Eve of Destruction, The Scarlet Pimpernel musical, and late twentieth-century architecture in New York City. Because your context is different from mine, I’ve left space on most facing pages for you to add items that you feel are worthy of inclusion. A handful of illustrations is included for each decade, to help bring events and artworks more vividly to mind.

Although I have very strong opinions on many of the items that appear on this timeline, I’ve deliberately used neutral language rather than terms that reflect my own values. Why? Because it would not be fair to impose my emotional reactions on you if I’m not willing to explain why I feel so strongly. (No, I did not thrive on Twitter!)

Organization

The timeline is broken down into ten-year periods: 1900-1909, 1910-1919, and so on. Each decade is divided into the following subjects (color-coded in the printed text: samples here). Feel free to read the book decade by decade, or subject by subject.

Major events & trends

An attempt to summarize what’s important about a given decade. We look at questions such as how the government is changing, the state of the economy, and major shifts in opinion among the American public.

For the arts, new genres and subjects are noted—the earliest horror movies and spy thrillers, for example. As a summary for music (and for the sense of life of a given decade), I’ve filled in the blank of I love you and I want to ... from one of the most popular love songs of that decade.

Politics worldwide

Limited to events that the US was involved with in an important way, or that had significant effects on the US. For example, given the long-term effects of the energy crisis caused by the OPEC embargo in 1973-1974, it’s worth knowing that the oil fields in the Middle East were explored and developed by the British beginning in 1901, and also that after Iran’s parliament nationalized the British oil fields, Britain and the US orchestrated a coup in 1953 to reverse the nationalization. America’s subsequent support of the Shah of Iran helps explain why, in 1979, Iranian revolutionaries detested the US so much that they held American diplomats hostage for more than a year. And the hatred of militant Islamists for the US explains the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001.

For the years 2000-2021, it’s more difficult to discern which events will have long-term impact. I’ve included more items for those years, and more space for you to add your own items.

US presidents, politics & culture

For each president, a representative quotation is included that reveals his priorities and to some extent the spirit of his time. Reading these in order makes the change in dominant ideas from 1900 to 2021 quite startling.

Politics in this section includes major legislation, important court cases, and the creation of cabinet departments. Under culture, I’ve noted movements such as the Jazz Age and the counterculture of the 1960s.

Again, for 2000 and later, it’s more difficult to discern what will have long-term impact, so more events are included, and more space is allowed for your own items.

Economics

Includes information on inflation, recessions, growth of GDP, taxation, unemployment, and leading sectors of the economy.

Science, technology, & health

Divided into sections on transportation, communication, energy, medicine, food, military, genetics, environmentalism, theoretical science, and inventions. Not all of these appear in every decade.

Books

Divided into bestsellers (as rated by Publishers Weekly and the New York Times) and cutting-edge works. The bestsellers give a good idea of what the majority of the American public considered entertaining enough to spend money on. Cutting-edge works (by authors such as Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Alice Walker) were not bestsellers when issued, but were praised by critics and eventually came to be considered important.

Visual arts

Separate sections for painting and sculpture, with each divided into traditional (representational or figurative) and cutting-edge. Traditional works  represent American popular taste. Cutting-edge paintings and sculptures represent the critics’ taste; these are usually the works that appear in art-history texts.

Architecture

Popular architecture is the style that most individuals and institutions expect when they commission buildings. Cutting-edge is what avant garde architects are building and critics are praising.

Film

Includes top-grossing movies, and (eventually) popular TV and video games.

Music

Each decade begins with a list of the most popular songs year by year, usually based on sales according to Billboard Magazine. A playlist of those songs is available on YouTube: the URL is given near the top of the Music section. For the playlist, I’ve chosen the earliest performance possible.

Other sections under Music include bestselling albums (once albums start to be sold), styles, dance, musical theater, technology, traditional orchestral works, and cutting-edge orchestral works.

Photo credits

I believe all images in this book are small enough to be considered fair use. To be doubly safe, I’ve mostly used illustrations from Wikipedia: if the artist or his heirs haven’t challenged Wikipedia, they probably won’t bother with me. Photo credits are at the end of the book.

Two history-related quotes worth remembering

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  —George Santayana in The Life of Reason, vol. 1 (Reason in Common Sense), 1905

***

In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today. We need to know what kind of firm ground other men, belonging to generations before us, have found to stand on.

In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking. —John Dos Passos, The Use of the Past, 1941

1900-1909

Major events & trends

US becomes one of the world’s major industrial and military powers.

Labor, government, Progressives, and muckraking journalists are all anti-business.

Government involved in anti-trust, immigration, food safety, and commerce.

Economy stable with occasional brief corrections.

Companies in Dow Jones Industrial Average are mostly heavy industry.

Cars offer personal transportation at 20 mph.

Telephones offer instant one-on-one communication of spoken word.

Book genres incl. uplifting biographies, mysteries, Westerns, fantasy.

Visual arts incl. historical & mythological heroes, portraits, memorials, everyday scenes, naturalism (everyday people). Elegance and high technical ability.

Architecture: numerous revivals, plus Sullivan and Wright.

Film genres: sci-fi/fantasy, action-adventure.

Music: energetic, upbeat. I love you and I want to ... take you out to the ball game.

Politics worldwide

1899-1901 Boxer Rebellion in China, under Qing dynasty: foreign-owned property destroyed, foreign legations besieged, Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians murdered. Ended by an invasion of US, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian troops.

1900 Summer Olympics in Paris: women participate for first time.

1901 With the D’Arcy Concession in Persia (modern Iran), oil drilling begins in the Middle East; but the US remains the world’s leading producer of oil through WW2.

1901 Death of Queen Victoria (Great Britain) after 63-year reign.

1904 Panama declares independence from Colombia and sells the Panama Canal Zone to US. Canal construction (begun by French 1881-1899) resumes.

1904 Roosevelt Corollary: adds to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine (which states that European intervention in political affairs of Americas will be considered a hostile act) that the US may exercise international police power to end chronic unrest or wrongdoing in Western Hemisphere.

1906 Launch of British HMS Dreadnought (heavy-caliber guns, torpedo tubes, steam turbine engines) is another step in arms race that helps bring on World War 1.

US presidents

William McKinley, 1897-1901 (R): Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century. —Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, NY, 9/5/1901.

Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 (R): The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them wherever need of such control is shown... [Applause] The immediate necessity in dealing with trusts is to place them under the real, not the nominal, control of some sovereign to which, as its creatures, the trusts owe allegiance, and in whose courts the sovereign’s orders may be enforced. In my opinion, this sovereign must be the National Government. —Address at Providence, Rhode Island, 8/23/1902

William Howard Taft, 1909-1913 (R): "Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race. ... Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor