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Jackson Pollock
(1912 - 1956)

1912

DL : Oreo cookies first introduced
DL : The Titanic sinks
LT : Walter de la Mare: The Listeners and Other Poems
VA : Marc Chagall : Adam and Eve
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Der ferne Klang ('The Distant Sound')
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Song-cycle, Pierrot lunaire ('Moonstruck Pierrot')
M : Maurice Ravel : Ballet, Daphnis and Chloë
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Fourteen Songs
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Concerto No.1
M : Leoš Janácek : In the Mists for piano
M : Gustav Holst : Oriental Suite, Beni Mora
M : Frederick Delius : On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring for small orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Images for orchestra (including 'Gigue')
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Seven Choral Preludes for Organ Set I
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : Sleeping Beauty
PH : Balkan Wars begin
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema dies 25 June
M : Jules Massenet dies 13 August
M : John Cage born 5 September

1913

DL : First crossword puzzle
DL : Personal income tax introduced in U.S.
LT : John Masefield: Dauber
LT : Walter de la Mare: Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes
LT : Thomas Hardy: A Changed Man
LT : Robert Frost: A Boy's Will
M : Anton von Webern : Five Pieces for Orchestra
M : Anton von Webern : Six Bagatelles for String Quartet
M : Charles Ives : Fourth of July
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.2, 'A London Symphony'
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin ('The Music Box and the Princess')
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Die Glückliche Hand, ('The Lucky Hand'), drama for orchestra and chorus
M : Erik Satie : Trois embryons desséchés ('Three dried-up embryos')
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Choral Symphony, The Bells
M : Gustav Holst : St. Paul's Suite for strings
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Opera, Pénélope
M : Edward Elgar : Falstaff (Symphonic Study)
M : Claude Debussy : Préludes, Book II for piano
M : Claude Debussy : Ballet, Jeux
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, The Rite of Spring
PH : Balkan Wars end with London peace treaty
ST : Henry Ford develops first moving assembly line
PH : Bill creating U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes law    GO !
PH : Woodrow Wilson becomes 28th U.S. president    GO !
VA : Armory Show introduces modern art to U.S.; Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase shocks public
DL : Suffragists demonstrate in London
DL : Garment workers strike in New York and Boston; win pay raise and shorter hours
M : Witold Lutoslawski born 25 January
M : Benjamin Britten born 22 November

1914

PH : World War I begins     GO !
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Van Zorn
LT : Thomas Hardy: Satires of Circumstance
LT : Robert Frost: North of Boston
M : Anton von Webern : Three Little Pieces for Violincello and Piano
M : Charles Ives : Three Places in New England
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : A Lark Ascending for violin and orchestra
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic Poem, The Oceanides
M : Ottorino Respighi : Sinfonia drammatica
M : Maurice Ravel : Trio for piano, violin, cello
DL : Panama Canal officially opened
PH : U.S. Marines occupy Veracruz, Mexico, intervening in civil war to protect American interests

1915

LT : Sara Teasdale: Rivers to the Sea
LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Porcupine
LT : Rupert Brooke: 1914 and Other Poems
M : Charles Ives : Piano Sonata No.2 "Concord Mass. 1840-60"
M : Manuel de Falla : Noches en los jardines de Espańa ('Nights in the Gardens of Spain')
M : Manuel de Falla : Ballet, El Amor Brujo ('Love, the Magician')
M : Richard Strauss : An Alpine Symphony
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.5
M : Zoltán Kodály : Cello Sonata
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song-cycle, Le Jardin clos ('The Enclosed Garden')
M : Claude Debussy : 12 Etudes ('Studies'), for piano
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : The Wanderer
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Chorale Fantasia based on an old English tune When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Chorale Fantasia, O God, Our Help
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Chorale Fantasia, The Old Hundredth
PH : Genocide of estimated 600,000 to 1 million Armenians by Turkish soldiers
ST : Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity
VA : D. W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation
VA : Walter Crane dies
LT : Rupert Brooke dies 23 April
VA : Arthur Hughes dies 23 December

1916

LT : W.B. Yeats: Reveries over Childhood and Youth
LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Man against the Sky
LT : Robert Frost: Mountain Interval
LT : Rupert Brooke: Letters From America (posth.)
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.4
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Second Chamber Symphony
M : Ottorino Respighi : Symphonic Poem, The Fountains of Rome
M : Gustav Holst : Orchestral suite, The Planets
M : Frederick Delius : Violin Concerto
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Seven Choral Preludes for Organ Set II
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Jerusalem
VA : John William Waterhouse : I am Half Sick of Shadows
VA : John William Waterhouse : Miranda
VA : John William Waterhouse : A Tale from Decameron
PH : U.S. buys Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million
PH : President Wilson re-elected with “he kept us out of war” slogan.     GO !
PH : Easter Rebellion in Ireland put down by British troops
ST : Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic
PH : 24 April - Irish nationalists launch the Easter rebellion in Dublin, Republic declared and Patrick Pearse announced as first President
M : Milton Byron Babbitt born 10 May
PH : 22 November - Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, dies; he is succeeded by Charles I

1917

LT : First Pulitzer Prizes awarded
PH : Russian Revolution
PH : U.S. enters World War I
LT : W.B. Yeats: The Wild Swans at Coole
LT : Sara Teasdale: Love Songs
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Merlin
LT : Thomas Hardy: Moments of Vision
LT : Robert Graves: Over the Brazier
LT : T S Eliot: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Parade
M : Ottorino Respighi : Ancient Airs and Dances first series
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, La rondine ('The Swallow')
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Violin Concerto No.1
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Symphony No.1 'Classical'
M : Francis Poulenc : Rapsodie nčgre for baritone and instrumental ensemble
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, The Excursions of Mr. Broucek
M : Gustav Holst : The Hymn of Jesus for chorus and orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.2
M : Béla Bartók : Ballet, The Wooden Prince
M : Igor Stravinsky : Les Noces ('The Wedding'), for voices, percussion and four pianos
PH : Balfour Declaration promises Jewish homeland in Palestine.
RP : Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis
VA : John William Waterhouse dies 10 February

1918

DL : Daylight Saving Time introduced
PH : Russian Czar Nicholas II and his family are killed
LT : Robert Graves: Fairies and Fusiliers
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Die Gezeichneten ('The Stigma Bearers')
M : Erik Satie : Socrate, for voices and instruments
M : Giacomo Puccini : Il trittico ('The Triptych'), three one-act operas
M : Francis Poulenc : Trois mouvements perpétuels for piano
M : Leoš Janácek : Orchestral rhapsody, Taras Bulba
M : Edward Elgar : String Quartet
M : Béla Bartók : Opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle
M : Igor Stravinsky : The Soldier's Tale, for speaker, chamber ensemble, dancers
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Elégie
DL : Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million will be dead ("Spanish Flu")
PH : Russian Civil War between Reds (Bolsheviks) and Whites (anti-Bolsheviks)
PH : German Kaiser abdicates (Nov.); hostilities cease on the Western Front
VA : Gustav Klimt dies 6 February
M : Claude Debussy dies 25 March
LT : Joyce Kilmer dies 30 July
M : Leonard Bernstein born 25 August
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry dies 7 October

1919

DL : Prohibition begins in the U.S.
LT : John Masefield: Reynard the Fox
M : Manuel de Falla : Ballet, El sombrero de tres picos ('The Three-Cornered Hat')
M : Ottorino Respighi : Ballet, La Boutique fantastique ('The Fantastic Toy Shop') - based on music by Rossini
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Opera, The Love for Three Oranges
M : Francis Poulenc : Song-cycle, Le Bestiaire
M : Darius Milhaud : Symphonic Suite 'Protée'
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, Le Boeuf sur le toit ('The Ox on the Roof')
M : Leoš Janácek : Song-cycle, The Diary of One Who Disappeared
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Orchestral suite, Masques et Bergamasques
M : Edward Elgar : Cello Concerto, Piano Quintet
M : Béla Bartók : Ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin
PH : Third International (Comintern) establishes Soviet control over international Communist movements
PH : Versailles Treaty, incorporating Woodrow Wilson's draft Covenant of League of Nations, signed by Allies and Germany; rejected by U.S. Senate    GO !
PH : Mahatma Gandhi initiates satyagraha (“truth force”) campaigns, beginning his nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India
ST : Alcock and Brown make first trans-Atlantic nonstop flight
VA : Pierre-Auguste Renoir dies 3 December

1920

PH : U.S. Dept. of Justice "red hunt" nets thousands of radicals; aliens deported
ST : First commercial radio broadcast aired
LT : Harlem Renaissance begins
PH : League of Nations established
DL : Women granted the right to vote in U.S.
LT : Sara Teasdale: Flame and Shadow
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Lancelot
LT : T S Eliot: The Sacred Wood
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Der Schatzgräber ('The Treasure Digger')
M : Erik Satie : Musique d'ameublement ('Furniture music')
M : Erik Satie : Trois petites pičces montées
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphonies of Wind Instruments
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Pulcinella
PH : Treaty of Sčvres dissolves Ottoman Empire
PH : Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Finland, Luxembourg are admitted to the League of Nations
LT : Howard Nemerov born 1 March
M : Max Christian Friedrich Bruch dies 20 October

1921

PH : Irish Free State proclaimed
VA : John William Godward dies
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Avon's Harvest
LT : Marianne Moore: Poems published without her knowledge
LT : Walter de la Mare: Memoirs of a Midget
M : Edgard Varčse : Offrandes
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, King David
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.3, 'Pastoral'
M : William Turner Walton : Façade settings of poems by Edith Sitwell
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Concerto No.3
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite for orchestra, Saudades do Brasil ('Memories of Brazil')
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel ('The Newlyweds of the Eiffel Tower'), written with "Les Six"
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, Katya Kabanová
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song-cycle, L'Horizon chimerique ('The Elusive Horizon')
PH : Reparations Commission fixes German liability at 132 billion gold marks; German inflation begins
PH : Major treaties signed at Washington Disarmament Conference limit naval tonnage and pledge to respect territorial integrity of China
PH : Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania are admitted to the League of Nations
LT : Richard Wilbur born 1 March
M : Camille Saint-Saëns dies 16 December

1922

PH : Kemal Atatürk founds modern Turkey
ST : King Tut's tomb found
PH : Mussolini marches on Rome
LT : The Reader's Digest first published
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton dies
LT : A E Housman: Last Poems
LT : Thomas Hardy: Late Lyrics and Earlier
LT : T S Eliot: The Waste Land
LT : ee cummings: The Enormous Room
M : Edgard Varčse : Amériques
M : Paul Hindemith : Suite, 1922
M : Arthur Honegger : Ballet, Skating Rink
M : Manuel de Falla : Chamber opera, El Retablo de Maese Pedro ('Master Peter's Puppet Show')
M : Ottorino Respighi : Opera, Belfagor
M : Gustav Holst : A Fugal Overture
M : Gustav Holst : Opera, The Perfect Fool
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : Morning
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : Daybreak
PH : Hungary is admitted to the League of Nations
M : Lukas Foss born 15 August
VA : Lucien Freud born

1923

DL : Talking movies invented
LT : Wallace Stevens: Harmonium
LT : Walter de la Mare: Come Hither and The Riddle, and Other Stories
LT : Thomas Hardy: The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall
LT : Robert Frost: New Hampshire
LT : ee cummings: Tulips and Chimneys
M : Edgard Varčse : Octandre
M : Edgard Varčse : Hyperprism
M : Paul Hindemith : Das Marienleben
M : Arthur Honegger : Pacific 231
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.6
M : Ottorino Respighi : Ancient Airs and Dances second series
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, La Création du monde ('The Creation of the World')
M : Zoltán Kodály : Psalmus hungaricus for voices and orchestra
M : Leoš Janácek : String Quartet No.1, 'The Kreutzer Sonata'
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, The Cunning Little Vixen
M : Béla Bartók : Dance Suite for orchestra
M : Igor Stravinsky : Octet for Wind Instruments
PH : Adolf Hitler's "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich fails
PH : Occupation of Ruhr by French and Belgian troops to enforce reparations payments
DL : Widespread Ku Klux Klan violence in U.S.
DL : Earthquake destroys third of Tokyo
M : George Gershwin : Rhapsody in Blue
M : Bessie Smith, known as "the Empress of the Blues", makes her first record
LT : William Butler Yeats wins Nobel Prize in Literature
PH : Ethiopia, Ireland are admitted to the League of Nations
PH : Dominican Republic is admitted to the League of Nations
VA : Roy Lichtenstein born

1924

DL : First Olympic winter games
LT : Marianne Moore: Observations
LT : John Masefield: Sard Harker
LT : Archibald MacLeish: The Happy Marriage
LT : Robert Graves: Poems: 1914-26
VA : Frank Cadogan Cowper : The Damsel of the Lake,
Called Nimue the Enchantress
M : Edgard Varčse : Intégrales
M : Paul Hindemith : String Trio
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.7
M : Franz Schreker : Opera, Irrelohe ('Flames of Madness')
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Relâche
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Mercure
M : Ottorino Respighi : Symphonic Poem, The Pines of Rome
M : Maurice Ravel : Tzigane ('Gypsy'), for violin plus orchestra or piano
M : Francis Poulenc : Ballet, Les Biches ('The Little Darlings')
M : Leoš Janácek : Wind sextet, Mládi ('Youth')
M : Gustav Holst : Choral Symphony
M : Gustav Holst : Opera, At the Boar's Head
M : George Gershwin : Rhapsody in Blue for piano and jazz band
M : Aaron Copland : Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (later arranged without organ)
PH : Adolf Hitler is sentenced to five years in prison where he writes Mein Kampf; released after eight months
PH : Death of Lenin; Stalin wins power struggle, rules as Soviet dictator until death in 1953
LT : Robert Frost wins first of four Pulitzers
PH : Italian Fascists murder Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti
PH : Teapot Dome scandal
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré dies 4 November

1925

PH : Hitler's Mein Kampf published
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Roman Bartholow and Dionysus in Doubt
LT : Walter de la Mare: Broomsticks and Other Tales
LT : Archibald MacLeish: The Pot of Earth
LT : Thomas Hardy: Human Shows
LT : ee cummings: & and XLI Poems
M : Paul Hindemith : Concerto for Orchestra
M : Ernst Bacon : Prelude and Fugue
M : Sir George Dyson : Children's Suite After Walter De La Mare
M : William Turner Walton : Overture, Portsmouth Point
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.1
M : Maurice Ravel : Opera, L'Enfant et les sortilčges ('The Child and the Magic Spells')
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Ballet, The Steel Step
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, The Makropulos Affair
M : George Gershwin : Concerto in F, for piano and orchestra
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish : The Knave
PH : Locarno conferences seek to secure European peace by mutual guarantees
ST : John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor, transmits human features by television
ST : John T. Scopes convicted and fined for teaching evolution in a public school in Tennessee "Monkey Trial"; sentence set aside
VA : Robert Rauschenberg born
PH : Costa Rica withdraws from the League of Nations
M : Pierre Boulez born 26 March
VA : John Singer Sargent dies
M : Erik Satie dies 1 July

1926

LT : Sara Teasdale: Dark of the Moon
LT : John Masefield: Odtaa
LT : Archibald MacLeish: Streets on the Moon
VA : Frank Cadogan Cowper : La Belle Dame Sans Merci
M : Paul Hindemith : Opera, Cardillac
M : Arthur Honegger : Opera, Judith
M : Manuel de Falla : Concerto for harpsichord and chamber ensemble
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic Poem, Tapiola
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.4
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Turandot (the final scene completed by Franco Alfano after Puccini's death)
M : Zoltán Kodály : Opera, Háry János
M : Leoš Janácek : Sinfonietta for orchestra
M : Leoš Janácek : Glagolitic Mass for soloists, choir and orchestra
M : George Gershwin : Three Piano Preludes
M : George Gershwin : Musical, O, Kay!
M : Aaron Copland : Piano Concerto
M : Béla Bartók : Out of Doors for piano
M : Béla Bartók : Piano Concerto No.1
DL : General strike in Britain brings nation's activities to standstill
PH : U.S. marines dispatched to Nicaragua during revolt; they remain until 1933
PH : Germany is admitted to the League of Nations, Brazil withdraws
VA : Mary Cassatt dies 14 June
VA : Claude Monet dies 5 December

1927

DL : BBC founded
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Tristram
VA : Marc Chagall : Lovers with Flowers
M : Edgard Varčse : Arcana
M : Arthur Honegger : Opera, Antigone
M : Ottorino Respighi : Three Botticelli Pictures
M : Ottorino Respighi : The Birds suite for small orchestra (based on 17th and 18th century pieces about birds)
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Opera, The Fiery Angel
M : Zoltán Kodály : Dances of Marosszék for piano (later orchestrated)
M : Gustav Holst : Tone poem, Egdon Heath
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Funny Face
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Strike Up the Band
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.3
M : Igor Stravinsky : Opera-oratorio, Oedipus Rex
M : Franz Schreker : Christophorus
PH : German economy collapses - Socialists riot in Vienna; general strike follows acquittal of Nazis for political murder
PH : Trotsky expelled from Russian Communist Party
ST : Charles A. Lindbergh flies first successful solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris
ST : Philo T. Farnsworth demonstrates working television model
ST : Georges Lemaître proposes Big Bang Theory
DL : Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in the season; record stands for next 34 years
VA : The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson, first part-talking motion picture
LT : Galway Kinnell born 1 February
VA : Juan Gris dies

1928

LT : First Oxford English Dictionary published
ST : Penicillin discovered
LT : W.B. Yeats: The Tower
VA : Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee dies
LT : Archibald MacLeish: The Hamlet of A. MacLeish
M : Anton von Webern : Symphony
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Symphony on a Hymn Tune
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Opera, Four Saints in Three Acts
M : Olivier Messiaen : Le banquet céleste for organ
M : Olivier Messiaen : Trois petites liturgies de la Presence Divine
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Opera, Sir John in Love (including 'Greensleeves')
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Opera, The Nose
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Variations for Orchestra
M : Ottorino Respighi : Symphonic Poem, Roman Festivals
M : Maurice Ravel : Boléro for orchestra
M : Darius Milhaud : Opera, Christopher Columbus
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Das Land des Lächelns ('The Land of Smiles')
M : Leoš Janácek : String Quartet No.2, 'Intimate Letters'
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, From the House of the Dead
M : Gustav Holst : A Moorside Suite for brass band
M : George Gershwin : Symphonic Poem, An American in Paris
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.4
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Apollon musagčte
M : Franz Schreker : Der singende Teufel
PH : Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed in Paris by 65 nations    GO !
RP : Anthropologist Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa
LT : Thomas Hardy dies 11 January
VA : Andy Warhol born
M : Leoš Janácek dies 12 August
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen born 22 August
VA : Helen Frankenthaler born in New York City

1929

LT : Edwin A Robinson: Cavender's House
LT : Robert Graves: Goodbye to All That
M : Ernst Toch : Bunte Suite
M : William Turner Walton : Viola Concerto
PH : Trotsky expelled from U.S.S.R.
PH : Lateran Treaty establishes independent Vatican City
DL : In U.S., stock market prices collapse, with U.S. securities losing $26 billion—first phase of Depression and world economic crisis
ST : Edwin Powell Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe
M : Andre Previn born 6 April

1930

ST : Pluto discovered
LT : Sara Teasdale: Stars To-night
LT : Sara Teasdale: Stars To-night
LT : Walter de la Mare: On the Edge
LT : Archibald MacLeish: New Found Land
LT : Robert Frost: Selected Poems
LT : T S Eliot: Ash-Wednesday
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Paid on Both Sides and Poems
M : Anton von Webern : Quartet for Violin, Clarinet, Tenor Saxaphone, Piano
M : Olivier Messiaen : Diptyque for organ
M : Ernst Toch : Gesprochene Musik
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Ballet, Job, a Masque for Dancing
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Ballet, The Age of Gold
M : Gustav Holst : Prelude and scherzo for military band, Hammersmith
M : Gustav Holst : Choral Fantasia
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Girl Crazy
M : Aaron Copland : Piano Variations (later orchestrated)
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphony of Psalms
PH : Britain, U.S., Japan, France, and Italy sign naval disarmament treaty
ST : Cyclotron developed
M : Stephen Sondheim born 22 March

1931

LT : Edwin A Robinson: Matthias at the Door
LT : Robert Graves: Poems: 1926-1930
LT : T S Eliot: Thoughts After Lambeth
LT : ee cummings: CIOPW and ViVa
M : Edgard Varčse : Ionisation
M : Paul Hindemith : Das Unaufhörliche
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, Cris du monde
M : Arthur Honegger : Opera, Amphion
M : Sir George Dyson : The Canterbury Pilgrims
M : William Turner Walton : Cantata, Belshazzar's Feast
M : Maurice Ravel : Piano Concerto in G
M : Gustav Holst : Hammersmith for orchestra
M : Samuel Barber : Overture, The School for Scandal
M : Samuel Barber : Dover Beach for solo baritone and string quartet
M : Vincenzo Bellini : Opera, Norma
M : Béla Bartók : Piano Concerto No.2
M : Igor Stravinsky : Violin Concerto
PH : Spain becomes a republic with overthrow of King Alfonso XIII
PH : German industrialists finance 800,000-strong Nazi party
PH : Mukden Incident begins Japanese occupation of Manchuria
ST : Harold C. Urey discovers heavy hydrogen
DL : The Star Spangled Banner officially becomes U.S. national anthem
DL : Notorious Scottsboro trial begins, exposing depth of Southern racism in U.S.
PH : Mexico is admitted to the League of Nations

1932

LT : Edwin A Robinson: Nicodemus
LT : Archibald MacLeish: Conquistador
M : Ernst Bacon : Symphony No.1
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Arabella
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Opera, The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (later revised as Katerina Izmaylova)
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Opera, Moses and Aaron
M : Francis Poulenc : Concerto in D-minor, for two pianos and orchestra
M : George Gershwin : Musical, Of Thee I Sing
M : George Gershwin : Cuban Overture
M : Benjamin Britten : Sinfonietta
M : Franz Schreker : Der Schmied von Gent
PH : Nazis lead in German elections with 230 Reichstag seats
DL : Famine in U.S.S.R.
DL : In U.S., Congress sets up Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate economy.
DL : Veterans march on Washington—most leave after Senate rejects payment of cash bonuses; others removed by troops under Douglas MacArthur
PH : Iraq, Turkey are admitted to the League of Nations
M : John Phillip Sousa dies 6 March

1933

PH : Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
LT : W.B. Yeats: The Winding Stair and Other Poems
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Talifer
LT : Archibald MacLeish: Conquistador
LT : A E Housman: The Name and Nature of Poetry
LT : T S Eliot: The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
LT : ee cummings: Eimi
VA : Marc Chagall : Solitude
M : Paul Hindemith : String Trio
M : Olivier Messiaen : L'Ascension (for orchestra, later for organ)
M : Sir George Dyson : St Paul's Voyage to Melita
M : Ottorino Respighi : Opera, La Fiamma
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Film Score, Lieutenant Kijé
M : Zoltán Kodály : Dances of Galánta for orchestra
M : Gustav Holst : Brook Green Suite for strings
M : Vincenzo Bellini : Opera, Beatrice di Tenda
PH : Reichstag fire in Berlin; Nazi terror begins
PH : Germany and Japan withdraw from League of Nations
PH : Roosevelt inaugurated; launches New Deal    GO !
DL : In U.S. Prohibition repealed
PH : U.S.S.R. recognised by U.S.
PH : Germany, Japan withdraw from the League of Nations
LT : Sara Teasdale dies 29 January
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki born 6 December

1934

VA : Marc Chagall : Bouquet with Flying Lovers
PH : Mao Zedong begins the Long March
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Amaranth
LT : Robert Graves: I, Claudius and Claudius the God
LT : T S Eliot: After Strange Gods
M : Edgard Varčse : Ecuatorial
M : Paul Hindemith : Symphony, Mathis der Maler
M : Arthur Honegger : Ballet, Sémiramis
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.4
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (including '18th Variation'), for piano and orchestra
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, Nerone ('Nero')
M : Franz Lehár : Opera, Giuditta
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.5
PH : Hitler becomes führer.
PH : U.S.S.R. admitted to League of Nations
PH : Afghanistan, Ecuador, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics are admitted to the League of Nations
M : Edward Elgar dies 23 February
M : Franz Schreker dies 21 March
M : Gustav Holst dies 25 May
M : Frederick Delius dies 10 June
M : Harrison Birtwistle born 15 July

1935

PH : Germany issues the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws
VA : Jessie Willcox Smith dies
LT : Wallace Stevens: Ideas of Order
LT : T S Eliot: Murder in the Cathedral
LT : ee cummings: No Thanks and Tom
M : Paul Hindemith : Viola concerto, Der Schwanendreher
M : Paul Hindemith : Opera, Mathis der Maler
M : Olivier Messiaen : La nativite de Seigneur for organ
M : Arthur Honegger : Film music, Mayerling
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, Jeanne d’Arc au bűcher ('Joan of Arc at the Stake')
M : Sir George Dyson : Nebuchadnezzar
M : William Turner Walton : Symphony No.1
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Violin Concerto No.2
M : George Gershwin : Opera, Porgy and Bess
PH : Nazis repudiate Versailles Treaty, introduce compulsory military service
DL : Roosevelt opens second phase of New Deal in U.S., calling for social security, better housing, equitable taxation, and farm assistance
PH : Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations invokes sanctions
PH : Paraguay withdraws from the League of Nations of Nations
LT : Edwin A Robinson dies 6 April
VA : Malevich dies
VA : Paul Signac dies
M : Alban Berg dies 24 December

1936

PH : Spanish Civil War begins
PH : King George V dies; succeeded by son, Edward VIII, who soon abdicates to marry an American-born divorcée, and is succeeded by brother, George VI
M : Steve Reich dies
LT : Marianne Moore: The Pangolin and other verse
LT : Robert Frost: A Further Range
LT : ee cummings: 1/20
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Look Stranger!
M : Edgard Varčse : Density 21.5 for flute solo
M : Ernst Bacon : Twilight
M : Ernst Bacon : Songs of Eternity
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Film score, The Plow that Broke the Plains
M : Olivier Messiaen : Song-cycles, Počmes pour Mi
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Tarantella for Male Chorus and Orchestra
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Violin Concerto
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphony No.3
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Peter and the Wolf for narrator and orchestra
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Ballet, Romeo and Juliet
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite provençale
M : Mikhail Glinka : Opera, Zhizn'za tsarya ('A Life for the Tzar')
M : George Gershwin : Film music, Shall We Dance
M : Samuel Barber : Symphony No.1
M : Samuel Barber : String Quartet
M : Aaron Copland : El Salón México for orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
PH : Germans occupy Rhineland, Italy annexes Ethiopia, Rome-Berlin Axis proclaimed (Japan will join in 1940)
PH : War between China and Japan begins, to continue through World War II
PH : Japan and Germany sign anti-Comintern pact; joined by Italy in 1937
PH : Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua withdraw from the League of Nations
M : Ottorino Respighi dies 18 April
LT : A E Housman dies 30 April

1937

PH : Japan invades China
LT : Wallace Stevens: The Man With the Blue Guitar
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: On This Island
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Film score, The River
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Ballet, Filling Station
M : Olivier Messiaen : O sacrum convivum!
M : William Turner Walton : Coronation march, Crown Imperial
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.5
M : Francis Poulenc : Mass in G-Major
M : Francis Poulenc : Song-cycle, Tel jour, telle nuit
M : Carl Orff : Cantata, Carmina Burana
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite for 2 pianos, Scaramouche
M : George Gershwin : Film music, A Damsel in Distress
M : Béla Bartók : Sonata for 2 pianos and percussion (later orchestrated)
M : Benjamin Britten : Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
VA : Picasso's Guernica mural
PH : Hitler repudiates war guilt clause of Versailles Treaty; continues to build German power
PH : Egypt is admitted to the League of Nations,El Salvador and Italy withdraw
VA : David Hockney born
M : George Gershwin dies 11 July
M : Maurice Ravel dies 28 December

1938

VA : Marc Chagall : The Three Candles
VA : Marc Chagall : Madonna of the Village
LT : Broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" causes panic
LT : Robert Graves: Collected Poems
LT : Robert Graves: Count Belisarius
M : Paul Hindemith : Ballet, Nobilissima visione
M : Arthur Honegger : Oratorio, Cantique des cantiques
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Cantata, Alexander Nevsky (based on the film score)
M : Francis Poulenc : Concerto for organ, strings, and timpani
M : Carl Orff : Opera, Der Mond ('The Moon')
M : Samuel Barber : Adagio for Strings
M : Aaron Copland : Ballet, Billy the Kid
M : Béla Bartók : Violin Concerto No.2
M : Igor Stravinsky : Concerto 'Dumbarton Oaks'
PH : Hitler marches into Austria; political and geographical union of Germany and Austria proclaimed
PH : Munich Pact—Britain, France, and Italy agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia
DL : In U.S. the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage
PH : Chile, Venezuela withdraw from the League of Nations

1939

LT : Archibald MacLeish: America Was Promises
LT : T S Eliot: The Family Reunion and The Idea of a Christian Society
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Journey to a War
M : Paul Hindemith : Violin Concerto
M : Olivier Messiaen : Les corps glorieux
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Ballet, Pocahontas
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Serenade to Music for voices and orchestra
M : William Turner Walton : Violin Concerto
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra
M : Zoltán Kodály : Variations on a Hungarian Folksong ('The Peacock'), for orchestra
M : Aaron Copland : Film Score, Of Mice and Men
M : Aaron Copland : Quiet City, for orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : Mikrokosmos for piano
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.6
M : Benjamin Britten : Song cycle, Les Illuminations
M : Benjamin Britten : Violin concerto
PH : Russo-Finnish War begins
DL : New York World's Fair opens
DL : Gone with the Wind premieres
PH : In U.S., Roosevelt submits $1,319-million defence budget, proclaims U.S. neutrality, and declares limited emergency
ST : Einstein writes FDR about feasibility of atomic bomb
PH : Hungary, Peru, Spain withdraw from the League of Nations, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is expelled from the League
PH : Germany invades Poland; occupies Bohemia and Moravia; renounces pact with England and concludes 10-year non-aggression pact with U.S.S.R
LT : William Butler Yeats dies 18 January
PH : World War II begins
VA : Arthur Rackham dies

1940

PH : Rumania withdraws from the League of Nations
VA : Stone Age cave paintings found in France
LT : John Masefield: Basilissa
LT : T S Eliot: Notes Towards the Definition of Culture
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Another Time
M : John Cage : Bacchanale for prepared piano
M : Paul Hindemith : Cello Concerto
M : Paul Hindemith : Ballet, The Four Temperaments
M : Ernst Bacon : Symphony No.2 (Americana)
M : Anton von Webern : Variations for Orchestra
M : Anton von Webern : Cantatas No.1 and No.2
M : Arthur Honegger : Solo Violin Sonata
M : William Turner Walton : Overture, Scapino
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Piano Quintet
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphonic Dances
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Sonata No.6
M : Darius Milhaud : Ballet, Moďse
M : Zoltán Kodály : Concerto for orchestra
M : Samuel Barber : Violin Concerto
M : Aaron Copland : Film Score, Our Town
M : Benjamin Britten : Sinfonia da Requiem
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphony in C
PH : Russo-Finnish War ends; Finns lose one-tenth of territory in peace treaty
PH : Hitler invades Norway, Denmark (April 9), the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (May 10), and France (May 12)
PH : Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister
PH : Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by U.S.S.R.
DL : The first official network television broadcast is put out by NBC
PH : June - Canadian National Resources Mobilisation Act
VA : Paul Klee dies

1941

LT : Theodore Roethke: Open House
LT : Marianne Moore: What Are Years?
LT : John Masefield: In the Mill
LT : Robert Graves: The Long Weekend
LT : ee cummings: Fifty Poems
M : Olivier Messiaen : Quatour pour la fin du temps
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Paganini Variations for two pianos
M : Sir George Dyson : Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E flat
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.7, 'Leningrad'
PH : Germany attacks the Balkans and Russia
ST : Manhattan Project (atomic bomb research) begins
PH : Roosevelt enunciates "four freedoms"    GO !

1942

DL : T-shirt introduced
LT : Wallace Stevens: Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction
LT : Robert Frost: A Witness Tree
M : John Cage : Credo in Us
M : Paul Hindemith : Ludus tonalis
M : Lukas Foss : Oratorio, The Prairie
M : William Turner Walton : Film Score, The First of the Few
M : Richard Strauss : Horn Concerto No.2
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Ode to Napoleon, for speaker and chamber ensemble
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Piano Concerto
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Sonata No.7
M : Carl Orff : Opera, Die Kluge ('The Clever Woman')
M : Aaron Copland : A Lincoln Portrait for speaker and orchestra
M : Aaron Copland : Ballet, Rodeo
M : Leonard Bernstein : Symphony No.1, 'Jeremiah'
M : Benjamin Britten : A Ceremony of Carols
PH : Declaration of United Nations signed in Washington on 1 January     GO !
PH : Nazi leaders attend Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "final solution to the Jewish question", the systematic genocide of Jews known as the Holocaust
ST : Enrico Fermi achieves nuclear chain reaction
DL : More than 120,000 Japanese and persons of Japanese ancestry living in western U.S. moved to "relocation centers", some for the duration of the war
PH : Haiti withdraws from the League of Nations

1943

LT : Robert Graves: Wife to Mr Milton
LT : T S Eliot: Four Quartets
M : John Cage : Tosses as it Is Untroubled for prepared piano
M : Paul Hindemith : Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.5
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto heroíco for piano and orchestra
M : Carl Orff : Cantata, Catulli Carmina ('Songs of Catullus')
M : Leonard Bernstein : Ballet, Fancy Free
M : Béla Bartók : Concerto for Orchestra
M : Benjamin Britten : Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
PH : Mussolini deposed
PH : U.S. President freezes prices, salaries, and wages to prevent inflation
DL : Income tax withholding introduced in U.S.
PH : 14-24 January - Casablanca Conference: Churchill and Roosevelt meet, Stalin declines
M : Sergei Rachmaninov dies 28 March

1944

LT : Marianne Moore: Nevertheless
LT : ee cummings: 1 x 1
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: For the Time Being and The Sea and the Mirror
M : John Cage : A Book of Music for two prepared pianos
M : John Cage : Perilous Night for prepared piano
M : Elliott Cook Carter : The Harmony of Morning for Female Chorus and Small Orchestra
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Symphony No.1
M : William Turner Walton : Film Score, Henry V
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Violin Sonata No.2
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Ballet, Cinderella
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Piano Sonata No.8
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Symphony No.5
M : Darius Milhaud : Symphony No.2
M : Aaron Copland : Ballet, Appalachian Spring
M : Leonard Bernstein : Musical, On The Town
PH : Bretton Woods Conference creates International Monetary Fund and World Bank
PH : Dumbarton Oaks Conference—U.S., British Commonwealth, and U.S.S.R. propose establishment of United Nations
VA : Edvard Munch dies 23 January
VA : Wassily Kandinsky dies

1945

ST : First electronic computer (ENIAC) built
LT : Robert Frost: A Masque of Reason
M : John Cage : Three Dances for two prepared pianos
M : Pierre Boulez : Douze Notations
M : Paul Hindemith : Piano Concerto
M : Richard Strauss : Metamorphosen, for strings
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.9
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Film Score, Ivan the Terrible
M : Francis Poulenc : L'histoire de Babar for narrator and piano
M : Carl Orff : Die Bernauerin ('Bernauer's Wife'), for voices and orchestra
M : Darius Milhaud : Suite française
M : Samuel Barber : Cello Concerto
M : Béla Bartók : Piano Concerto No.3
M : Benjamin Britten : Opera, Peter Grimes
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ebony Concerto
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphony in Three Movements
M : Tomaso Albinoni : Adagio in G minor (arranged by Remo Giazotto)
PH : FDR dies on 12 April; Harry Truman becomes president    GO !
PH : Hitler commits suicide 30 April
PH : Germany surrenders 7 May; V-E Day declared 8 May
PH : U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima (6 Aug. ) and Nagasaki (9 Aug.)
M : Pietro Mascagni dies 24 August
PH : Japan signs official surrender on 2 September : V-J Day     GO !
M : Anton von Webern dies 15 September
M : Béla Bartók dies 26 September
VA : Newell Convers Wyeth dies
PH : United Nations founded 24 October    GO !

1946

PH : Juan Perón becomes President of Argentina
LT : Robert Graves: King Jesus
M : Pierre Boulez : Sonatina for flute and piano
M : Pierre Boulez : Sonata No.1
M : Ernst Bacon : Piano Quintet
M : Ernst Bacon : Cello Sonata
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Opera, The Mother of Us All
M : Manuel de Falla : Cantata, Atlántida ('Atlantis') unfinished, later completed by Ernesto Halffter
M : Richard Strauss : Oboe Concerto
M : Samuel Barber : Ballet, Medea
M : Aaron Copland : Symphony No.3 (including Fanfare for the Common Man')
M : Benjamin Britten : Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
DL : Benjamin Spock's childcare classic published
PH : League of Nations dissolved in April
PH : First meeting of UN General Assembly opens in London in January
PH : Italy abolishes monarchy in June
PH : Verdict in Nuremberg war trial: 12 Nazi leaders (including 1 tried in absentia) sentenced to hang; 7 imprisoned; 3 acquitted
PH : Afghanistan, Iceland, Sweden, Thailand admitted to the United Nations
M : Manuel de Falla dies 14 November

1947

LT : Richard Wilbur: The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems
LT : Howard Nemerov: The Image and the Law
LT : Robert Frost: A Masque of Mercy and Bush
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: The Age of Anxiety
M : John Cage : Seasons for piano or orchestra
M : Paul Hindemith : Clarinet Concerto
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Ballet, The Minotaur
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Three Compositions for piano
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.6
M : William Turner Walton : String Quartet in A-minor
M : William Turner Walton : Film Score, Hamlet
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Opera, War and Peace (final version)
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Symphony No.6
M : Darius Milhaud : Concerto for marimba and vibraphone
M : Samuel Barber : Knoxville: Summer of 1915 for soprano and orchestra
M : Benjamin Britten : Opera, Albert Herring
M : Benjamin Britten : Cantata, Saint Nicholas
PH : Pakistan and Yemen admitted to the United Nations
PH : Peace treaties for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland signed in Paris
PH : Soviet Union rejects U.S. plan for UN atomic-energy control
PH : Truman proposes Truman Doctrine, which was to aid Greece and Turkey in resisting communist expansion    GO !
PH : Marshall Plan for European recovery proposed—a coordinated program to help European nations recover from ravages of war    GO !
ST : U.S. Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager becomes first person to break the sound barrier
PH : India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain
LT : Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl published

1948

DL : Policy of Apartheid begun
PH : State of Israel founded
LT : Theodore Roethke: The Lost Son and Other Poems
LT : Archibald MacLeish: Actfive and Other Poems
LT : T S Eliot: The Cocktail Party
M : John Cage : Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano
M : Pierre Boulez : Le soleil des eaux (includes voices)
M : Pierre Boulez : Sonata No.2
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Acadian Airs and Dances
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Film score, Louisiana Story
M : Olivier Messiaen : Turangalila-Symphonie
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Composition for 4 Instruments
M : Richard Strauss : Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Violin Concerto No.1
PH : Gandhi assassinated in New Delhi by Hindu fanatic
PH : Burma (4 Jan.) and Ceylon (4 Feb.) granted independence by Britain
PH : Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia
PH : Organization of American States (OAS) Charter signed at Bogotá, Colombia
PH : Independent Republic of Korea is proclaimed, following election supervised by UN
PH : United States of Indonesia established as Dutch and Indonesians settle conflict
DL : Truman ends racial segregation in military
M : Franz Lehár dies 24 October

1949

PH : Communist People's Republic of China formally proclaimed by Chairman Mao Zedong
LT : Howard Nemerov: The Melodramatists
LT : Robert Graves: Seven Days in New Crete
M : Paul Hindemith : Horn Concerto
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto en modo galante ('Concerto in the Galant Style'), for cello and orchestra
M : Francis Poulenc : Piano Concerto
M : Samuel Barber : Piano Sonata
M : Aaron Copland : Film Score, The Heiress
M : Leonard Bernstein : Symphony No.2, 'The Age of Anxiety'
M : Benjamin Britten : Spring Symphony
PH : Israel admitted to the United Nations
DL : South Africa institutionalizes apartheid
PH : Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) established 23 May, German Democratic Republic (East Germany) established under Soviet rule 7 Oct.
PH : Start of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—treaty signed by 12 nations    GO !
M : Richard Strauss dies 8 September

1950

DL : First modern credit card introduced
ST : First organ transplant
PH : Korean War begins     GO !
ST : U.S. President Truman orders construction of hydrogen bomb
LT : Richard Wilbur: Ceremony and Other Poems
LT : T S Eliot: The Cocktail Party
LT : ee cummings: Xaipe
M : John Cage : String Quartet in Four Parts
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Cello Concerto
M : Olivier Messiaen : Messe de la Pentecote
PH : Indonesia admitted to the United Nations
PH : McCarthyism begins in U.S.
PH : Truman orders development of hydrogen bomb

1951

DL : Colour television introduced
PH : Truman signs peace treaty with Japan, officially ending WWII
LT : Wallace Stevens: The Necessary Angel
LT : Theodore Roethke: Praise to the End!
LT : Marianne Moore: Collected Poems
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: Writes libretto for Stravinsky's Rake's Progress
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Kreuzspiel
M : John Cage : Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra
M : John Cage : Music of Changes
M : Paul Hindemith : Symphony for Concert Band
M : Ernst Bacon : String Quintet
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : 5 Songs from William Blake
M : Olivier Messiaen : Livre d'orgue
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Little Suite for orchestra
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Opera, The Pilgrim's Progress
M : Leonard Bernstein : Opera, Trouble in Tahiti
M : Benjamin Britten : Opera, Billy Budd
M : Igor Stravinsky : Opera, The Rake's Progress
ST : European Coal and Steel Community formed
PH : Libya gains independence
M : Arnold Schoenberg dies 13 July

1952

ST : Polio Vaccine Created
PH : George VI dies; his daughter Princess Elizabeth becomes queen at age 25
LT : John Masefield: So Long to Learn
LT : Archibald MacLeish: The Trojan Horse
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Spiel (revised, 1973)
M : John Cage : 4'33"
M : John Cage : Music for Carillon No.1
M : John Cage : Williams Mix
M : John Cage : Piano Solo, Waiting (1952)
M : Pierre Boulez : Structures for 2 pianos Book I
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.7 'Sinfonnia antartica' (based on film score, Scott of the Antarctic)
M : Sergei Prokofiev : Symphony No.7
M : Aaron Copland : Ten Old American Songs
ST : AEC announces "satisfactory" experiments in hydrogen-weapons research; eyewitnesses tell of blasts near Enewetak

1953

ST : DNA discovered
LT : Theodore Roethke: The Waking, Poems
LT : Robert Graves: The Nazarene Gospel Restored
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Kontra-Punkte
M : William Turner Walton : Coronation march, Orb and Sceptre
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.10
M : Carl Orff : Trionfo di Afrodite for voices and orchestra
M : Darius Milhaud : Ouverture méditerranéenne
PH : Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurated president of United States    GO !
PH : Stalin dies 5 March: Malenkov becomes Soviet premier; Beria, minister of interior; Molotov, foreign minister
PH : East Berliners rise against Communist rule; quelled by tanks
PH : Dag Hammarskjöld begins term as UN secretary-general
PH : Egypt becomes republic ruled by military junta
PH : Korean armistice signed 27 July    GO !
PH : Tito becomes president of Yugoslavia
M : Sergei Prokofiev dies 5 March
VA : Raoul Dufy dies

1954

ST : First atomic submarine launched
LT : Wallace Stevens: Collected Poems
LT : T S Eliot: The Confidential Clerk
M : Pierre Boulez : Le marteau sans maitre with voice
M : Edgard Varčse : Déserts
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Opera, Lord Byron
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Dance Preludes for clarinet and piano
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Concerto for orchestra
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : String Quartets No.1 and No.2
M : William Turner Walton : Opera, Troilus and Cressida
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Fantasía para un gentilhombre ('Fantasia for a Gentleman'), for guitar and orchestra
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto serenata for harp and orchestra
M : Aaron Copland : Opera, The Tender Land
M : Leonard Bernstein : Film music, On the Waterfront
M : Benjamin Britten : Opera, The Turn of the Screw
PH : Soviet Union grants sovereignty to East Germany
PH : Dien Bien Phu, French military outpost in Vietnam, falls to Vietminh army
DL : U.S. Supreme Court (in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka) unanimously bans racial segregation in public schools     GO !
PH : Eisenhower launches world atomic pool without Soviet Union
PH : Eight-nation Southeast Asia defence treaty (SEATO) signed at Manila    GO !
DL : Dr. Jonas Salk starts inoculating children against polio
PH : Algerian War of Independence against France begins
M : Charles Ives dies 19 May
VA : Henri Matisse dies

1955

DL : Disneyland opens
PH : Warsaw Pact signed
DL : McDonald's corporation founded
LT : Walter de la Mare: A Beginning, and Other Stories
LT : Robert Graves: The Greek Myths
M : Olivier Messiaen : Oiseaux exotiques for piano, wind and percussion
M : William Turner Walton : Film Score, Richard III
PH : Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sri Lanka admitted to the United Nations
PH : Nikolai A. Bulganin becomes Soviet premier, replacing Malenkov
PH : Churchill resigns; Anthony Eden succeeds him
PH : West Germany becomes a sovereign state
PH : Western European Union (WEU) comes into being
PH : Argentina ousts Perón
DL : Rosa Parks refuses to sit at the back of the bus : Martin Luther King, Jr., leads black boycott of Montgomery, Ala., bus system (1 Dec.); desegregated service begins 21 Dec. 1956
LT : Wallace Stevens dies 2 August
M : Arthur Honegger dies 27 November

1956

PH : Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
PH : Workers' uprising against Communist rule in Poznan, Poland, is crushed in June; rebellion inspires Hungarian students to stage a protest against Communism in Budapest in Oct. Hungarian rebellion forces Soviet troops to withdraw from Budapest in Oct.
DL : T.V. remote control invented
LT : Richard Wilbur: Things of This World
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Gesang der Junglinge (electronic work)
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Zeitmasse
M : John Cage : Music for Piano (nos 1-84)
M : Edgard Varčse : Good Friday Procession in Verges
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Variations for Orchestra
M : Ernst Toch : Third Symphony
M : William Turner Walton : Cello Concerto
M : Francis Poulenc : Flute Sonata
M : Francis Poulenc : Opera, Dialogues des carmélites
M : Leonard Bernstein : Opera, Candide
PH : Japan, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia admitted to the United Nations
PH : Egypt takes control of Suez Canal in July, Israel launches attack on Egypt's Sinai peninsula and drives toward Suez Canal in Oct., British and French invade Port Said on the Suez Canal on 5 Nov., Cease-fire forced by U.S. pressure stops British, French, and Israeli advance 6 Nov.
PH : Imre Nagy announces Hungary's withdrawal from Warsaw Pact; Soviet troops enter and reclaim Budapest in Nov.
PH : Morocco gains independence
LT : Walter de la Mare dies 22 June
Personae

Terms Defined

Referenced Works