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 !  :P

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   :P

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 LOL)

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*. :P

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? :P

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!. * :P  :P

1944 !

Err, me Dad was born in Melbourne!  :P   ( 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 1938)..

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

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!*. . :P  :D  

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.  ;D

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.  :P

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

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

1899:  June 27 The paperclip was invented by English entrepreneur Roger Malcolm Taylor.

1898

Britain leases Hong Kong from China for 99 years, H.G. Wells publishes "War of the Worlds" and radium is discovered.

1897:   September 10 - In the Lattimer Massacre, a sheriff's posse killes more than nineteen unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.

Nothing has changed in 109 years............

1896: 31 March
Whitcomb Judson, of Chicago, Illinois, patents a 'hookless fastening' -  the zipper.

Without it, There's Something About Mary wouldn't have been quite the same...

:X

1895 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (measured as -17°F) was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled in 1982.

!894:  March 12 - For the first time Coca-Cola is sold in bottles.  ( what was it sold in before  ???)

1893: Terrorist explosion kills 237 U.S. Marines in Beirut

1892:  August 4 - The family of Lizzie Borden is found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.

1891: 16 May - George A Hormel & Company introduce Spam.


http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/

1890

The Eifel Tower was finally completed!

1889:  April 20 - Adolf Hitler is born

1888
George Eastman introduces the Kodak, a square box camera using roll film. Photography becomes a practical hobby overnight, and sales skyrocket.

1887:  The first house I ever owned in England was built this year, I know, coz it had a big brick in the front wall that said 1887

1886: John Stith Pemberton invented 'Coka-Cola'.

1885...March 26 - The Times reports that "A lady well-known in literary and scientific circles" has been cremated by the Cremation Society in Woking, Surrey. Jeannette C. Pickersgill was the first person to be officially cremated in the United Kingdom

1884

The very first May Day, or Labor Day is celebrated in America

1883 August 26 - 28 - Krakatau volcano eruption (local time)- 163 villages destroyed, 36380 dead.

1882

March 22 - Polygamy is outlawed by the U.S. Congress

1880:  November 11 - Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hanged in Melbourne.

1879

Albert Einstein was born

1877;  March 15 - The first Test cricket match, between England and Australia

1875: August 25 - Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.

On this day in 1874, after considering a challenge from his Democratic opponents, the Texas Senate confirmed the election of Walter Moses Burton.

1873

The Panic of 1873 was a serious downturn in the economy of the United States that touched off on September 18, 1873, when the Philadelphia banking firm Jay Cooke and Company closed its doors and declared bankruptcy. It was one of a series of economic crises in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

1872: December 12 - A meteorite struck earth near Banbury, England. (I read this with interest as I used to live there)

1871 - the foundation of modern Germany

1870......May 24 - The Port Adelaide Football Club play their first match of Australian rules football at Buck's Flat, Glanville, South Australia.

1869 -- May 26, Last public hanging in Britain

1868:  July 5 - Preacher William Booth establishes the Christian Mission, predecessor of the Salvation Army, in the East End of London

1867

Laura Ingalls Wilder, American children's author was born

1866 :. . Alfred Nobel invents 'Dynamite' . . and in a strange twist for that year . . the term 'Ecology' is used for the first time.  :)

1865

On April 16, 1865 Joseph Dumville was baptised.

His occupation? Molecatcher and later Village Street Cleaner

http://www.dumville.org/jd1865.html

1864:  First Geneva Convention

1863 Prince Wilhelm Georg of Denmark is chosen as King George I of Greece.   ??)

1862:  Donald McIntyre builds a property in northwest Queensland, which will later become the town of Julia Creek.

1860. Abe Lincoln is elected the 16th president of the united states and is one of only a few Republicans that actualy I like.

1858: United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty

1857: birth of Milton S. Hershy . . chocolate mogul . .( got to love him).  :P

1856: The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War

1855:  January 27 - The Panama Railway becomes the first railroad to connect the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean

1853, HMS Hercules is one of several ships to deliver a cargo of new settlers to Australia

HMS Hercules, 74 guns, Captain Baynton, Cork, Ireland 14th April 1853, arrived at Port Adelaide, South Australia 26th July 1853. (the following day, HMS Hercules sailed for Melbourne with the remaing 183 passengers, arriving 1st August 1853. On 11th August 1853, she sailed for Hong Kong, via Sydney)

1852 - The first public toilet in Britain opens

1851:  Gold discovered in Australia

1850: American Express is founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo.

1848: Bridge collapses in Yarmouth, England, leaving 250 dead

1848:  Rhodes College is founded.

1847: The United States issues its first postage stamps.

1845: The rubber band is invented in England

1843: First tunnel under Thames is finished

1842

THE TREATY OF NANKING

Peace Treaty between the Queen of Great Britain and the Emperor of China.

1841: The city of Dallas, Texas is founded by John Neely Bryan. The original town of few inhabitants and mud huts would later become a major city in the South, as well as the United States

1839: First recorded use of "OK" oll korrect

Ok... :P

1838: Friedrich Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star.

1837: Samuel Morse patents telegraph

1836: Francis Baily, during an eclipse of the sun, observes the phenomenon named after him as Baily's beads.

1835; December 1 - Hans Christian Andersen publishes first book of fairy tales

1834- # Hermann Helmholtz proposes gravitational contraction as the energy source for the Sun

1833: Britain invades the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

1831: Revolts in Modena, Parma and the Papal States are put down by Austrian troops

1830:  June 26 - William IV succeeds George IV as King of the UK.

1829: October 8 - Rail transport: The Rocket wins The Rainhill Trials.

1828: Russo-Turkish War, 1828-1829: Varna is taken by the Russian army.

1827: March 26 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (b. 1770) died.

1975 - Papua New Guinea gains its independence from Australia.

1826:  June - Photography: Nicéphore Niépce makes a true photograph.

1985 - Thomas Henry Huxley was born!

Mod Note: We go down one year per post, NF

1825 - Brisbane Founded

1824 - Joseph von Fraunhofer builds the first telescope to be mounted equatorially with a clock drive, the Dorpat refractor--named for the observatory of Dorpat (Tartu, Estonia), where it is installed.

July 15 - Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome almost completely destroyed by fire

1822 -  Last public whipping in Edinburgh

1821: July 19 - George IV is crowned king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the island of Melos.

1819.....May 22 - The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship will arrive at Liverpool, England on June 20.

1818 - April 4 - The U.S. Congress adopts the flag of the United States as having 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (20 stars) with additional stars to be added whenever a new state is added to the Union.

1817: May - The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founded General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City.