Events

By Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com Guides to 20th Century History

Some of the most important events in the twentieth century took years to accomplish, while others took only minutes. Twentieth century history is made up of both the large and the small events that shaped it.

1. Crimes & Scandals
2. Disasters & Tragedy
3. Medical Advances & Issues

4. Vietnam War
5. World War I
6. World War II

Crimes & Scandals

The 20th century was filled with stories of gangsters, bombings, massacres, and genocide. Find out more about these sordid escapades.

• Columbine Massacre
• Murder of Rasputin
• Oklahoma City Bombing
• Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated

• Munich Olympics Massacre
• Fatty Arbuckle Scandal
• Mona Lisa Stolen!
• St. Valentine's Day Massacre

Disasters & Tragedy

Natural or man-made, disasters are destructive. They can wreak havoc and cause fear. Find out what horrible disasters occurred within the 20th century.

• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
• Hindenburg Explodes
• 1906 San Francisco Earthquake & Fire
• Tangshan Earthquake
• Chernobyl

• First Airplane Crash
• Mt. St. Helens Erupts
• Huge Poison Gas Leak in Bhopal, India
• Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

Medical Advances & Issues

From the discovery of penicillin to the AIDS epidemic, learn more about the medical advances and deadly diseases that occurred throughout the 20th century.

• Alexander Fleming Discovers Penicillin
• History of the American Red Cross
• Mengele's Medical Experiments on Twins at Auschwitz
• Typhoid Mary
• World's First Test-Tube Baby

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was the struggle over Vietnam from 1959 to 1975 between the communist Vietnamese forces in North Vietnam who wanted an end to all foreign occupation of their country and the United States (allied with South Vietnam) who wanted to prohibit any expansion of communism. The prolonged war left many Americans bitter about U.S. involvement in a war they could not win.

• Vietnam War: A History
• Glossary of the Vieetnam War
• Pictures of the Vietnam War
• Timeline of the Vietnam War

World War I

The First World War, originally called the Great War, raged from 1914 to 1918. Mostly fought in western Europe in muddy, bloody trenches, WWI saw the introduction of the machine gun and poison gas into battle.

• Christmas Truce of 1914
• Pictures of World War I
• Sinking of the Lusitania

World War II

A truly world war which lasted from 1939 to 1945. The countries of the world aligned with either the Axis powers or the Allies and battled in a total war.

• Major Battles of WWII
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Navajo Code Talkers
• Pictures of D-Day
• Posters of WWII