How about this for a new "game". Starting from this year, counting back a year at a time and post an important event that year. See how far back we can get.
I will start us off this year.

2005: Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans

2004 : . .Tsunami . .*everywhere*.  

. . . fearing this will be renamed the 'Grim Reaper' thread.  

2003: The Nanny Aired On Network Ten at 6:30pm weeknights for the last time at that timeslot

2002

The first Bali bombing, October 12

202 die and hundreds more are wounded when a car bomb explodes in front of 2 nightclubs. The extremist Muslim group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has ties to al-Qaeda, was suspected.

A more notable 2003 entry might be the 7 American astronauts who died in Feburary when their shuttle broke up as it reentered earths atmosphere.

2001 - 9/11
Need I say more.

Yes, it does look like it is becoming the Grim Reaper thread.
But then again did anything else happen in 2001?

2000 : The Sydney Olympics . . or as Juan said so eloquently . .Syd-a-nee !  

You forgot the Columbine Massacre in 99

1998 - Geri left the Spice Girls, and an American military jet accidentially severed a ski tram in Italy killing 10

1997 - the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

1995 The Murrah federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed with 168 people killed.

1994: Channel tunnel opens between the UK and France

1993

Bill Clinton becomes President of the United States

1992:    West Coast Eagles win the AFL premiership.............the first non-Vic club to do so

1990; Nelson Mandela is set free in South Africa, signelling the end of Apartheid.

1989 - January 24 - Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair
(source = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989)

1988

My favourite story...long time American TV evangilist Jimmy Swaggart had to resign his "ministry" after getting caught consorting with a prostitute

The Jimmy Swaggart hour had run for many years on US TV, had raised millions of dollars (mostly for Swaggart to use on essentials like mercedes cars and things) and Swaggart was one of the "you are a sinner and you're going to hell" fire and brimstone kind of preachers.  He denounced gays and drug takers and fornicators and people who wore purple shoes and pretty much everyone but him and only a year earlier Swaggart denounced his fellow evangilist Jim Bakker as a sinner worthy of death for his sex scandal...all the while he'd been using prostitutes (i.e. engaging in the sin of fornication) over and over again.

It was nice to see a fundamentalist Christian get what he deserved

Apple built it's one-millionth Macintosh in 1987

1986

- Space Shuttle Challenger disintergrated on launch killing all 7 astronauts on board.

- Nuclear Reactor in Chernobyl melts down

1985 -  John Howard replaces Andrew Peacock as Australian Federal Opposition Leader

1984 Advance Australia Fair becomes Australias national athem, and Green and Gold become the national colours.

1982 ........Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, starting the Falklands War

1981 - John Hinckley, Jr. tries to impress Jodie Foster by attempting to assasinate President Ronald Reagan by shooting him in the chest (ala Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver)

1980
The 70's was over.

(my memory really is bad.)

Quoted from MeanDean

1980
The 70's was over.

(my memory really is bad.)

There was always the Azaria Chamberlain thing.

1979
1. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel sign a peace treaty
2. Skylab re-enters the Earth atmosphere; the wreckage lands in Australia
3. Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President Saddam Hussein replaces him

1978; "Test Tube Baby" born in England. this was the first human baby conceived outside the body of a woman.

1977

Elvis "The King" Presley dies

1976

keeping on the death theme...Agatha Christie and Mao Zedong both died

1975:  Malcolm Frazer becomes aussie prime Minister

i thought I would get off the doom and gloom thing, but then again.................

1974  ... Richard Nixon resigns as President of the United States

1973

The end of US involvment in the Vietnam war. The troops come home.

1971:  Charles Manson found guilty of Sharon Tate Murder.

1970 Speaking of doom and gloom...M*A*S*H the movie was released...the entree to all those M*A*S*H the series re-runs that we've all had to live with for the last 30 years or so

1968

what a year hey ...this brings me back *( has a think back & ..oh yeah ! thats right )

err umm, this was the year BEFORE the Woodstock Festival  

seriously though, in 1968 they were PLANNING the up & coming err, Woodstock Festival  

1966 England win world cup (soccer) for the first time and have been insufferable ever since!

1965

The Great Blackout

The Great Blackout of 1965 caused the power sytems throughout the Northeast to fail, thus plunging New York, Boston and other cities into darkess during the evening rush hour. The blackout originated at a power plant along the Canadian border, but the failure cascaded through the system.

1964:  Bob Dillon releases "Times they are A'changing"

         The first Mustang was manufactured.

1962:  Cuban Missile crisis nearly starts nuclear war.

1961 The Lady Diana Spencer was born.

(I did 1997, the year of her death, so I figure the year of birth is up to me too )

1960

John F Kennedy elected President of USA - Oh, and the 60's officially begin!

In 1959 Fidel Castro 'liberates' Cuba from the dictatorship of Fulgencio in Cuba which inevitably leads to the event of The Bay of Pigs.

1958 : Charles DeGaull becomes President of France. . and Michael Jackson was born . .*not a landmark year*.

1957:  The first "Sputnik" gets launched into space.

1956:. . the year TV came to Oz. . the very reason we are meeting here today . . where would we be without TV?

1955

Disneyland Anaheim opens! Yay! One of these days I'll get there...

1954
April 12 - Bill Haley and His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City for Decca Records.
May 10 - "Rock Around the Clock" released as the b-side to "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)". The song is only a moderate success until it is featured in the film Blackboard Jungle the next year.
July 5 - Elvis Presley has his first commercial recording session at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. He sang That's All Right (Mama) and Blue Moon of Kentucky.

1952
November 25 - Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London; as of 2004, it continues, next door at the St. Martin's Theatre, and remains the longest continuously running production of a play in history.

1950
Movies released in 1950 include:

All About Eve, starring Bette Davis and George Sanders
The Asphalt Jungle
The Blue Lamp, the film that introduced Jack Warner as "Dixon of Dock Green"
Born Yesterday
Bright Leaf
Cyrano de Bergerac starring Jose Ferrer
Destination Moon, screenplay partly by Robert A. Heinlein
Fancy Pants
The Happiest Days of Your Life starring Alastair Sim
Harvey starring James Stewart
Justice is Done
The Men, Marlon Brando's debut movie
John Ford's Rio Grande starring John Wayne
Seven Days to Noon
Sunset Boulevard

1949
My grandfather finally is allowed home after the war, and discharged from the army.
He had signed up in 1938 when it looked like we were going to war.
He had five kids, fought in Africa, New Guinea and Borneo.

1948

The nation of Israel proclaimed; British end Mandate at midnight

1946

Dolly Parton was born...but the real question is...what year were her breasts born?

1945:. . WW2 ended. .

*Dollys breasts arrived in the post in 1957!. *  

1944 !

Err, me Dad was born in Melbourne!     ( no please ! .....could everyone write that down )  

Nineteen Hundred and Forty Three

The Hospital Ship AHS Centaur is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off Stradbroke Island in Queensland, killing 268 persons.

1942

According to Bart Simpsons 4th grade history test, this was the year 'some guy' founded America, which has now been renamed 'Bonerland' to correspond with Bart Simpsons answers.

Another interesting fact was the first atom was split.

1940

The electron microscope was invented!

1939

Cuba, the US and Canada all refused entry to the refugee ship SS St Louis which was carrying over 900 Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.  The ship was forced to return to Europe and historians estimate that the majority of the refugees on board died in Nazi death camps.  

1937: The German airship "Hindenburg",bursts into flames whilst mooring in New Jersey.

1936

The BBC starts its television broadcast

1938

Elvis Presley is born in Tupelo, Mississippi

1937:  Coronation of King George vi and Queen Elizabeth.

1936 Alan Alda was born

1935: Elvis Presley was really born (not as previously quoted in 193..

Although looking at it I think it was a slip of the finger on the date...

1934 - Alcatraz becomes a federal prison.

1933:  Wiley Post becomes the first man to fly solo around the world.

1932 - Japan occupies Shanghai

1930  May 24 - Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Australia becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

1929

C
         R    
             A
                S
                      H

The Great Depression begins.

1928 - was a leap year starting on a Sunday and on Nov. 3 Mickey Mouse appeared in Steamboat Willie, by Walt Disney.

1927: March 6 - In Britain, a 1000 people a week die from influenza epidemic

1926: John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system.

1925 - July 18 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.

1924:  January 21 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.

[b]1923

Time Magazine hits newsstands for the first time!

1922:

First successful insulin treatment of diabetes.

1921: July 29 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chairman of the Nazi Party

1920

American women are allowed to vote

1919: April 25 - ANZAC day is celebrated for the first time in Australia.

WW1 ends in an 'Armistice'. . meaning weapons down . .it lasted only 20 years. . and it fired up all over again.  

1917: July 17 - King George V of the United Kingdom issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British royal family will bear the surname Windsor.

1916
The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled.

1915:  May 7 - World War I: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat killing 1,198.

1913: March 12 - Canberra becomes the federal capital of Australia

1912:. . Titanic . . .built by experts. . sank.  . .*the Ark . .built by a novice floated!*. .    

I love the history of New York. The following incident occured in 1911. A devestating fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, killing 146 women, many who were teenagers. The girls worked in terrible conditions, were not allowed bathroom breaks, and to make sure they didn't try to leave, the fire exits were locked and baracaded. So when the fire broke out, these poor girls couldn't escape. Some made it out windows and onto other floors of the building, others took their chances and threw themselves out the windows (this reminded me of 9/11). Ppl on the streets below thought the girls were throwing flaming garments out the windows. But when they landed with a sickening 'thud', the ppl realised they were not garments, but bodies of young girls.

Weeks later, the owner of this company started up again a few blocks down. It was noted that the fire exits were once again, blocked...

1910:  May 6 - George V becomes King of the United Kingdom

1908

The first time the ball dropped for New Year's in Times Square New York

1907:  March 22 - The first cabs with taxi meters began operating in London

1906: . . San Francisco Earthquake  

[b]1905[/]

Albert Einstein proposes the Theory of Relativity.

1904 : Longacre Square in New York became Times Square.  

1903: Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity"

Quoted from normangerman

1903: Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity"

and hasn't that worked out well?  a nice place for the yanks to torture people they don't like without dirtying their own back yard  

1902:  May 20 - Cuba gains independence from the United States

1901:. . something reallly important happened in Australia.  

I didnt come over hear till 1972, Gizmo.....

1900:  July 9 - Queen Victoria gives royal assent to Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act