1900 - German naval law introduces 20 year building programme for a high seas fleet to compete with the British navy
1901-05 - Separation of the Church from the state in France
1907 - Foundation of Russian Social Revolutionary Party (Bolsheviks)
1903 - Assassination of Alexander, King of Serbia
1903-05 - Scandal breaks in Belgium over Belgian rule in Zaire
1904 - “Enter Cordiale” between Britain and France
1904-05 - Russo-Japanese War
1905 - Revolution in Russia
1905 - Norway breaks away from Sweden; elects King Haakon VII
1906 - Liberal Government comes to power in Britain; many reforms
1906 - Navy arms race escalates
1908 - Young Turk revolution
1908 - Carlos I of Portugal assassinated
1908 - Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina
1908 - Ferdinand I proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria
1910 - Portuguese revolution brings about the end of the monarchy
1912-13 - Balkan Wars
1913 - Coup d’etat of Young Turks in Turkey
1914 - Assassination of heir to Austrian throne leads to outbreak of World War I
1914 - Battle of the Marne
1914 - Battle of Tannenberg between the Germans and the Russians; German victory
1915 - Dardanelles Campaign; British try to force passage to Constantinople
1915 - Germans start submarine campaign to blockade British Isles
1916 - Battle of Jutland between British and German fleets; stalemate
1916 - Easter Rising against British Government in Ireland
1917 - Russian Revolution; Liberal revolution (Frebruary); Bolshevik revolution (October)
1918 - Armistice ends World War I
1919 - Ernest Rutherford splits atom for first time
1921 - Lenin introduces New Economic Policy in Russia
1922 - Irish Free State founded
1922 - Mussolini becomes Italian Prime Minister; Dictator from 1925
1923-30 - Dictatorship of Prime de Rivera in Spain
1924 - First British Labour Party victory at a General Election
1924 - Death of Vladimir Lenin
1925 - Locarno Agreements between major European powers aim to maintain peace and stability
1926 - In Britain, John Logie Baird invents the television
1928 - French begin to build fortification, the Maginot Line, on German border
1928 - Stalin launches five year plan to expand Soviet industry
1931 - Republic declared in Spain after King Alfonso XIII abdicates
1931 - Statute of Westminster makes dominions of British Empire self-governing
1933 - Nazi leader Hitler appointed German Chancellor; Nazis begin organized persecution of Jews
1934 - Mussolini meets Hitler
1936 - Germany invades Rhineland region on French-Belgian border
1936-39 - Civil war in Spain
1937 - Eamonn de Valera becomes Prime Minister of Ireland (Eire)
1938 - Hitler compels Austria to form union with Germany (the “Anschluss”)
1938 - Munich crisis; France and Britain agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia
1939 - Stalin and Hitler agree to divide Poland between them
1939 - Germany invades Poland; this leads to World War II
1940 - British scientists develop radar
1940 - France surrenders to Germany
1941 - Jet aircraft developed in England and Germany
1943 - German Sixth Army fails to capture Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd) in Soviet Union, and surrenders
1944 - Allies invade France and begin to re-conquer Europe
1948-49 - The Berlin airlift
1949 - Britain recognizes the independence of Ireland
1951 - Sir Winston Churchill forms his first peacetime Government in England
1953 - Death of Stalin in Russia; Nikita Khrushchev takes power
1953 - DNA discovered
1955 - The Warsaw Pact is signed
1956 - Soviet troops invade Hungary and quash revolt
1957 - Russians launch Sputniks: Laika, a small dog, becomes the first living creature in space
1957 - The Treaty of Rome ushers in the EEC
1958 - Charles de Gaulle brings strong presidential rule to France
1951 - Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes first human in space
1961 - Berlin Wall built to stop East Germans fleeing to the West
1961 - Female oral contraceptive pill comes onto the market
1964 - Leonid Brezhnev takes over from Khrushchev as ruler in Russia
1968 - Paris erupts into student riots followed by general strike
1968 - Czechoslovakia tries to initiate internal reforms; Soviet troops enter Prague and end “Prague Spring”
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