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Harry S Truman
(1884 - 1972)

1884

M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Manon
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, Princess Ida
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Le villi
M : Gustav Mahler : Song-cycle, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ('Songs of a Wayfarer')
M : Edvard Grieg : 'Butterfly' and 'To the Spring' from Lyric Pieces, Book 3
M : Edvard Grieg : Holberg Suite
M : Anton Bruckner : Te Deum for chorus and orchestra
VA : Georges Seurat : Bathing at Asnieres
DL : Le Matin, Paris, issued
PH : Berlin Conference of 14 nations on African affairs
DL : Divorce re-established in France
ST : Electrical precipitation discovered
DL : First deep tube (underground railroad), London
ST : First practical steam turbine engine invented
PH : Fr. Law excludes members of former dynasties from presidency
DL : Gold discovered in the Transvaal, rise of Johannesburg
RP : Herbert Spencer: The Man versus the State
ST : Ilya Mechinikov: Theory of Phagocytes
RP : Kropotkin: Paroles du'un revolte
PH : London Convention on Transvaal
ED : Oxford English Dictionary begins publication
ST : Tetanus bacillus discovered
M : Bedrich Smetana dies 12 May
LT : Gerard Manley Hopkins born 28 July
LT : Sara Teasdale born 8 August

1885

LT : Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Tiresias and Other Poems
LT : Christina Rossetti: Time Flies
VA : Mary Cassatt : The Sisters
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Le Cid
M : Max Christian Friedrich Bruch : Cantata, Achilleus for solo voices, chorus and orchestra
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Manfred Symphony
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, The Mikado
M : Johann Strauss II : Operetta, Der Zigeunerbaron ('The Gypsy Baron')
M : Charles-François Gounod : Petite Symphonie for wind instruments
M : Charles-François Gounod : Oratorio, Mors et Vita
M : Antonin Dvorák : Symphony No.7
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Opera, Gwendoline
M : Johannes Brahms : Symphony No.4
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : A Tale from Homer
ED : Albert Sorel: Europe and the French Revolution
DL : First Leipzig Fair
PH : Grover Cleveland inaugurated as President of the U.S.    GO !
RP : Henry Maine: Popular Government
DL : John M. Fox introduces golf to America
RP : Karl Marx: Das Kapital, vol 2 (posth.)
PH : King Alfonso XII of Spain dies; Queen Maria Christina becomes regent
ST : Pasteur devises a rabies vaccine to cure hydrophobia
ST : Sir Francis Galton prove the individuality of fingerprints
RP : The Mormons split into polygamous and monogamous sections
RP : Tolstoi: My Religion
M : Alban Berg born 9 February
M : Domenico Scarlatti born 26 October

1886

LT : Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Locksley Hall Sixty Years After
LT : Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge
VA : Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas : The Tub
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau : Child at Bath
M : Giuseppe Verdi : Opera, Otello
M : Arthur Sullivan : Cantata, The Golden Legend
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Wedding Cake Caprice caprice for piano and strings
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Carnival of the Animals
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Symphony No.3, 'Organ Symphony'
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Piano Quartet No.2
M : Antonin Dvorák : Slavonic Dances, second series
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Souvenirs de Munich for piano duet
M : Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin : Symphony No.3 (completed by Glazunov)
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Suite española for piano
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Gladiator
VA : Sir John Everett Millais : Bubbles
VA : Georges Seurat : Sunday Afternoon in the
Park of the Island Grand Jatte
RP : Adolf von Harnack: History of Dogma
PH : Alexander of Bulgaria abdicates after coup d'état; Stefan Stambulov becomes regent
ST : Aluminum produced by electrolysis
DL : American Federation of Labor founded
ST : Aminopyrine and acitanelide discovered
RP : Andrew Carnagie: Triumphant Democracy
ED : Auguste Fournier: Napoleon I (3 vols)
ED : British School of Archaeology opens at Athens
M : Charles Mustel of Paris invents the celesta
DL : English Lawn Tennis Association founded
PH : First Indian National Congress meets
RP : Fluorine produced
ST : Germanium discovered
PH : Gladstone introduces bill for Home Rule in Ireland
ST : Hydroelectric installations are begun at Niagara Falls
PH : King Louis II of Bavaria dies; succeeded by Otto I; his uncle Luitpold becomes regent
ED : Pasteur Institute, Paris, founded
RP : Richard von Krafft-Ebing: Psychopathia Sexualis
ST : Steam first used to sterilise surgical instruments
VA : Last Impressionist Exhibition
LT : Emily Dickinson dies 15 May
M : Franz Liszt dies 31 July
LT : Joyce Kilmer born 6 December

1887

LT : Thomas Hardy: The Woodlanders
VA : Alexandre Cabanel : Cleopatra Testing Poisons
on Condemned Prisoners
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones : The Depths
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, Ruddigore
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Spanish Capriccio
M : Anton Bruckner : Symphony No.8
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song, Claire de lune ('Moonlight')
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Pavane for orchestra (and optional chorus)
M : Antonin Dvorák : Piano Quintet
M : Frederick Delius : Florida Suite
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Opera, Le Roi malgré lui ('The Reluctant King')
M : Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin : Opera, Prince Igor (completed by Korsakov and Glazunov)
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Rapsodia española for piano and orchestra (later arranged for piano)
M : Johannes Brahms : Double Concerto for violin and cello
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Women of Amphissa
M : Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry : Cantata, Blest Pair of Sirens
VA : John William Waterhouse : Merriamne Leaving the
Judgement Seat of Herod
LT : Antoine founds the Théâtre Libre in Paris
DL : Edison and Swan combine to produce Ediswan electrical lamps
PH : First Colonial Conference opens in London
VA : H.W. Goodwin invents celluloid film
LT : I. Donnelly: The Great Cryptogram, Francis Bacon's Cypher in the So-called Shakespeare Play
ST : Joseph Lockyer: The Chemistry of the Sun
ST : Phenacetin, an analgesic drug, discovered
PH : Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg elected King of Bulgaria
DL : Queen Victoria celebrates her Golden Jubilee
PH : Union Indo-Chinoise organised by France
M : Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin dies 27 February
VA : Juan Gris born
VA : Marc Chagall born 7 July
VA : Marcel Duchamp born
LT : Rupert Brooke born 3 August
M : Christoph Willibald Gluck dies 15 November
LT : Marianne Moore born 15 November
VA : Georgia O'Keeffe born
M : Ernst Toch born 7 December

1888

LT : Walt Whitman: November Boughs
LT : Thomas Hardy: Wessex Tales
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Overture fantasy, Hamlet
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Symphony No.5
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, The Yeoman of the Guard
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Don Juan
M : Erik Satie : Trois gymnopédies, for piano
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Russian Easter Festival Overture
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Symphonic Suite, Scheherazade
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, Cavalleria rusticana ('Rustic Chivalry')
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.1
M : Edward Elgar : Salut d'amour
M : Emmanuel Chabrier : Marche Joyeuse for orchestra
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, Semper fidelis
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Roses of Heliogabalus
VA : Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin : The Vision after the Sermon
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : The Call to Arms
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Night Cafe
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Sunflowers
VA : John William Waterhouse : The Lady of Shalott
DL : "Jack the Ripper" murders six women in London
DL : The Financial Times, London, first published
RP : Bernard Bosanquet: Logic, or the Morphology of Knowledge
DL : Cecil Rhodes amalgamates Kimberley diamond companies
DL : Dunlop invents pneumatic tire
VA : Eastman perfects "Kodak" box camera
DL : First of all beauty contests held in Spa, Belgium
RP : G.J. Romanes: Mental Evolution in Man
PH : Ger. Emperor William I dies in May; succeeded by his son Frederick III, who dies in June and is succeeded by his son William II, the "Kaiser"
ED : James Bryce: The American Commonwealth
RP : James Martineau: The Study of Religion
ST : Nikola Tesla constructs electric motor
ST : Radio waves are identified as belonging to same family as light waves
LT : Mathew Arnold dies 15 April
LT : T S Eliot born 26 September

1889

VA : Alexandre Cabanel dies

1899

LT : W.B. Yeats: The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems

1889

LT : Robert Browning: Asolando
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Esclarmonde
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty
M : Arthur Sullivan : Operetta, The Gondoliers
M : Johann Strauss II : Waltz, Emperor
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Death and Transfiguration
M : Charles-François Gounod : Méditation sur le prélude de Bach for soprano and instrumental accompaniment (popularly known as the 'Ave Maria')
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Orchestral suite, Shylock
M : Antonin Dvorák : Symphony No.8
M : Claude Debussy : Petite suite (including 'En bateau')
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Washington Post March
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Thunderer
VA : Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin : The Yellow Christ
VA : Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec : Toilette
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Self-Portrait
with Bandaged Head
VA : Vincent van Gogh : The Starry Night
VA : Alexander Gustave Eiffel designs the Eiffel Tower for the Paris World Exhibition
DL : Barnum and Bailey's Circus at Olympia, London
PH : Benjamin Harrison inaugurated as 23rd President of the U.S.    GO !
ED : Catholic University, Washington D.C., opens
ST : Cordite invented
RP : Henri Bergson: Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience
PH : Johannes IV, Emperor of Abyssinia dies; succeeded by Menelik II
PH : London County Council formed
DL : London Dock Strike
PH : Milan Obrenovich abdicates from Serbian throne in favour of his son
PH : Pedro II abdicates; Brazil proclaimed a republic
DL : Punch card system created
ST : Schiaparelli discovers synchronous rotations of planets Mercury and Venus
RP : T.H. Huxley: Agnosticism
PH : The Aust. Crown Prince, Archduke Rudolf, commits suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling
DL : The first May Day celebration, Paris
ST : Von Mehring and Minkowski prove that the pancreas secretes insulin, preventing diabetes
LT : Gerard Manley Hopkins dies 8 June
LT : Robert Browning dies 12 December

1890

VA : Paul Cézanne : The Card Players
VA : Paul Cézanne : Still Life with Basket of Apples
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Opera, The Queen of Spades
M : Erik Satie : Trois gnossiennes, for piano
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, Mlada
M : Edward Elgar : Concert overture 'Froissart'
M : Claude Debussy : Rêverie, for piano
M : Claude Debussy : Suite bergamasque for piano (including 'Clair de lune')
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Piano Suite, España
VA : Jean Léon Gérôme : Pygmalian and Galatea
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton : The Bath of Psyche
VA : Vincent van Gogh : Crows in the Wheatfields
PH : Accession of Queen Wilhelmina; Luxembourg separated from the Netherlands
RP : Alfred Marshall: Principles of Economics
ST : Azoimide produced from organic sources
PH : Cecil Rhodes- Premier of Cape Colony
DL : Daughters of the American Revolution founded
ST : Emil von Behring announces the discovery of antitoxins
ST : First Eng. electrical power station, Deptford
PH : First general election in Japan
PH : Ger. Social Democrats adopt Marxist program at Erfurt Congress
DL : Global influenza epidemics ("Russian Flu")
RP : J.G. Frazer: The Golden Bough
ST : Rubber gloves used for the first time in surgery
DL : Swiss government introduces social insurance
ST : The first entirely steel -framed building erected in Chicago
RP : William Booth: In the Darkest England and the Way Out
RP : William James: The Principles of Psychology
VA : Vincent van Gogh dies 29 July

1891

LT : Walt Whitman: Goodbye My Fancy
LT : Thomas Hardy: A Group of Noble Dames and Tess of the d'Urbervilles
M : Charles Ives : Variations on America (organ)
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones : Star of Bethlehem
M : Max Christian Friedrich Bruch : Violin Concerto No.3
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau : Work Interrupted
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Opera, Yolanta
M : Arthur Sullivan : 'Romantic Opera', Ivanhoe
M : Camille Saint-Saëns : Africa fantasy for piano and orchestra
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, L'amico Fritz ('Friend Fritz')
M : Antonin Dvorák : Overture, Carnival
M : Antonin Dvorák : Dumky Piano Trio
M : Johannes Brahms : Clarinet Quintet
M : Clara Wieck Schumann : Cadenzas for Mozart: Piano Concerto in D Minor
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Kiss
VA : Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin : We hail the Mary
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton : The Return of Persephone
RP : Rerum novarum, papal encyclical on the condition of the working classes
DL : All-Deutschland Verband founded
ST : Beginnings of wireless telegraphy
DL : Earthquake in Japan kills as many as 10,000 people
PH : Franco-Russ. entente
RP : Goldwin Smith: The Canadian Question
ED : In Java Dutch anthropologist Eugène Dubois discovers Pithecanthropus erectus (Java Man)
LT : J.T. Grein founds Independent Theatre Society, London
RP : R.W. Church: History of the Oxford Movement (posth.)
ST : Samuel P. Langley: Experiments in Aerodynamics
ST : Trans-Siberian railroad construction begins
PH : Triple Alliance - Germany, Austria, Italy - renewed for 12 years
DL : W.L. Judson invents clothing zipper
DL : Widespread famine in Russia
PH : Young Turk Movement, hoping to secure liberal reforms, is formed in Geneva
M : Léo Delibes dies 16 January
VA : Ernest Meissonier dies 31 January
VA : Georges Seurat dies 29 March
M : Sergei Prokofiev born 23 April

1892

LT : Thomas Hardy: The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved
M : Giuseppe Verdi : Opera, Falstaff
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Ballet, The Nutcracker
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic Poem, En Saga
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.1
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Morceaux de Fantasie for piano (including Prelude in C-sharp Minor)
M : Edward Elgar : Serenade for Strings
VA : Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin : Spirit of the Dead Watching
VA : John William Godward : The Betrothed
VA : Edvard Munch : Melancholy
ST : Diesel patents his internal-combustion engine
RP : Emile Fagguet: Politiques et moralistes du six-neuvième siècle
ST : First automatic telephone switchboard introduced
DL : First cans of pineapples
PH : Giolitti becomes Premier of Italy
PH : Grover Cleveland elected U.S. President    GO !
DL : Iron and steel workers strike in U.S.
PH : Prince Ito becomes premier of Japan
PH : Tewfik, Khedive of Egypt, dies; succeeded by Abbas II
ST : Viscose discovered (manufacture of rayon)
M : Arthur Honegger born 10 March
LT : Archibald MacLeish born 7 May
M : Darius Milhaud born 4 September
LT : Alfred, Lord Tennyson dies 6 October

1893

LT : W.B. Yeats: The Celtic Twilight
VA : Mary Cassatt : The Bath
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky : Symphony No.6, 'Pathétique'
M : Jean Sibelius : Karelia Suite
M : Erik Satie : Danses gothiques, for piano
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Manon Lescaut
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Song-cycle, La Bonne Chanson ('The Good Song')
M : Antonin Dvorák : String Quartet 'American'
M : Antonin Dvorák : Symphony No.9 'From the New World'
M : Claude Debussy : String Quartet in G-Minor
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, Manhattan Beach
VA : Edvard Munch : Death in the Sick-Room
VA : Edvard Munch : The Scream
VA : "Art Nouveau" appears in Europe
RP : F.H. Bradley: Appearance and Reality
PH : Franco-Russ. alliance signed
DL : Henry Ford builds his first car
ED : Imperial Institute, South Kensington, London, founded
DL : Karl Benz constructs his four-wheel car
PH : Second Irish Home Rule bill passed by Commons but rejected by Lords
RP : W.T. Stead: If Christ Came to Chicago
DL : World Exhibition in Chicago
M : Charles-François Gounod dies 18 October
M : Pyotr Tchaikovsky dies 6 November

1894

LT : Thomas Hardy: Life's Little Ironies
M : Charles Ives : 67th Psalm
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Thaïs
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.2 'Resurrection'
M : Anton Bruckner : Symphony No.9 (Finale unfinished at his death)
M : Claude Debussy : Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune for orchestra
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : Spring
VA : Sir Frank Bernard Dicksee : The Magic Crystal
VA : Edvard Munch : Ashes
VA : Edvard Munch : Despair
ST : Argon discovered
DL : Baron de Boubertin founds committee to organise modern Olympic Games
RP : Benjamin Kidd: Social Revolution
ST : Berliner uses a horizontal gramophone disc instead of a cylinder as a record for sound reproduction
ST : Cinematograph invented
PH : Czar Alexander III dies; succeeded by his son Nicholas II
DL : Death duties introduced in Britain
DL : Edison opens his Kinetoscope Parlor, New York
ST : Flagstaff Observatory erected, Arizona, U.S.
PH : Korea and Japan declare war on China
DL : New York Jockey Club founded
ED : Pollock and Maitland: History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I
ED : Sidney and Beatrice Webb: History of Trade Unionism
ST : Swed. explorer Sven Hedin travels in Tibet
ST : The Plague bacillus discovered
VA : Norman Rockwell born
M : Hans von Bülow dies 12 February
VA : Gustave Caillebotte dies 21 February
M : Emmanuel Chabrier dies 13 September
LT : ee cummings born 14 October
M : Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein dies 20 November
LT : Christina Rossetti dies 29 December

1895

VA : Paul Cézanne : Still Life with Apples
PH : American pressure leads to arbitration of the British boundary dispute with Venezuela
PH : A revolt against Spanish rule breaks out in Cuba
LT : W.B. Yeats: Poems
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau : The Abduction of Psyche
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Til Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
M : Jean Sibelius : Four Lemminkäinen Legends including The Swan of Tuonela
M : Erik Satie : Messe des pauvres, a Latin Mass with psalms, for voices and organ or piano
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, Christmas Eve
M : Antonin Dvorák : Cello Concerto
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton : Flaming June
VA : Edvard Munch : Madonna
VA : Edvard Munch : Puberty
VA : Edvard Munch : Self-Portrait with a Burning Cigarette
VA : Gustav Klimt : Love
ST : Auguste and Louis Lumière invent a motion-picture camera
RP : Cardinal Vaughan lays foundation stone of Westminster Cathedral
PH : End of Chin.-Jap war
DL : First public film show in Paris, at the Hôtel Scribe
RP : Karl Marx: Das Kapital, vol. 3 (posth.)
DL : King C. Gillette invents the safety razor
ST : Konstantin Isiolkovski formulates the principle of rocket reaction propulsion
ED : London School of Economics and Political Science founded
ST : Machine constructed for the liquefaction of air
ST : Marconi invents radio telegraphy
LT : Oscar Wilde's unsuccessful libel action against the Marquis of Queensberry
M : Robert Newman arranges the first Promenade Concerts at Queen's Hall, London
RP : Sigmund Freud: Studien über Hysterie
RP : Thomas Masaryk: The Czech Question
ST : Wilhelm Röntgen discovers x-rays
VA : Berthe Morisot dies 2 March
M : Franz von Suppé dies 21 May
M : Carl Orff born 10 July
LT : Robert Graves born 24 July
M : Paul Hindemith born 16 November

1896

LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Torrent and the Night Before
LT : A E Housman: A Shropshire Lad
M : Charles Ives : String Quartet, No.1 "Revival Service"
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones : Hope
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Also sprach Zarathustra ('Thus Spake Zoroaster')
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, La Bohème ('Bohemian Life')
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.3
M : Frederick Delius : Opera, Koanga (including 'La Calinda')
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Opera, Pepita Jiménez
M : John Phillip Sousa : Comic Opera, El capitan
VA : John William Waterhouse : Hylas and the Nymphs
DL : Daily Mail issued
VA : Die Jugend and Simplicissimus, two important Ger. art magazines, appear in Munich
DL : Beginning of Klondike gold rush
ST : Ernest Rutherford: magnetic detection of electrical waves
DL : First modern Olympics held in Athens
RP : Five annual Nobel Prizes established
PH : Further massacres of Armenians in Constantinople
ST : Helium discovered
RP : Henri Bergson: Matière et mémoire
PH : Nasr-ed-Din, Shah of Persia, assassinated
VA : National Portrait Gallery, London, moved from Bethnal Green to Westminster
ST : Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant opens
ST : Radioactivity discovered
DL : Royal Victorian Order founded
PH : Russia and China sign Manchuria Convention
RP : Theodor Herzl: Der Judenstaat, foundation of Zionism
VA : Lord Frederic Leighton dies 25 January
M : Clara Wieck Schumann dies 20 May
VA : Sir John Everett Millais dies 13 August
VA : William Morris dies 3 October
M : Anton Bruckner dies 11 October
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson born 25 November
VA : David Alfaro Siqueiros born

1897

LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Children of the Night
LT : Thomas Hardy: The Well-Beloved
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Don Quixote
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphony No.1
M : Edvard Grieg : Lyric Pieces Book 9
M : Edvard Grieg : Symphonic Dances for orchestra
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Dolly Suite for piano duet (later orchestrated)
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, The Stars and Stripes Forever
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : Her eyes are with her thoughts...
VA : Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin : Where do we come from?
DL : Katzenjammer Kids, first Amer. comic strip, begun
PH : Crete proclaims union with Greece; Turkey declares war on Greece; Peace of Constantinople
DL : Founding of Royal Automobile Club, London
RP : Havelock Ellis: Studies in the Psychology of Sex
ST : J.J. Thomson discovers electron
ST : Julius Hann: Handbook of Climatology
PH : King of Korea proclaims himself emperor
DL : Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
ST : Ronal Ross discovers malaria bacillus
DL : Severe famine in India
RP : Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Industrial Democracy
VA : Sir Henry Tate donates Tate Gallery, London, to the Brit. people
DL : The Sultan of Zanzibar abolishes slavery
PH : William McKinley inaugurated as President of the U.S.    GO !
DL : World Exhibition at Brussels
RP : Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland
M : Johannes Brahms dies 3 April

1898

LT : Thomas Hardy: Wessex Poems
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.1
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonic Poem, Ein Heldenleben ('A Hero's Life')
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, The Tsar's Bride
M : Pietro Mascagni : Opera, Iris
M : John Phillip Sousa : Comic Opera, The Bride Elect
VA : John William Waterhouse : Ariadne
VA : Gustav Klimt : Pallas Athene
PH : "The Boxers", an anti-foreign, anti-Western organisation formed in China
RP : Bismarck: Reflections and Memoirs
ST : Dysentery bacillus discovered
PH : Empress Elizabeth of Austria murdered by Ital. anarchist in Geneva
ST : Ger. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin builds his airship
DL : Paris Métro opened
PH : Paul Kruger re-elected President of Transvaal
ST : Photographs first taken utilising artificial light
ST : Radium and polonium discovered
ST : Ramsay discovered the inert atmospheric gases zenon, crypton, and neon
VA : The Mackintosh School of Art in Glasgow
PH : U.S. declares war on Spain over Cuba; Treaty of Paris    GO !
LT : Lewis Carroll dies 14 January
VA : Aubrey Beardsley dies
LT : Walt Whitman dies 26 March
M : Ernst Bacon born 26 May
VA : Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones dies 17 June
VA : Maurits Cornelis Escher born
M : George Gershwin born 26 September
VA : René Magritte born

1899

LT : W.B. Yeats: The Wind Among the Reeds
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Cendrillon ('Cinderella')
M : Jean Sibelius : Finlandia
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.1
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Verklärte Nacht ('Transfigured Night'), for string sextet (arranged later for string orchestra)
M : Erik Satie : Ballet, Jack-in-the-box
M : Maurice Ravel : Pavane pour une infante défunte for piano (later orchestrated)
M : Edward Elgar : Enigma Variations, Sea Pictures
M : Frederick Delius : Paris: the Song of a Great City nocturne for orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Nocturnes for orchestra
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Catalonia, suite populaire for orchestra
M : John Phillip Sousa : March, Hands across the Sea
VA : Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema : The Baths of Caraculla
VA : Edvard Munch : The Dance of Life
VA : Edvard Munch : The Dead Mother
RP : Alexander Bain: The Realisation of the Possible
ST : Alpha and beta rays discovered in radioactive atoms
PH : Boer War between Britain and the Boers
RP : Ernst Haeckel: Die Welträtsel
PH : First Peace Conference at The Hague
ST : First magnetic recording of sound
RP : H.S. Chamberlain: The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century
RP : James Ward: Naturalism and Agnosticism
RP : John Dewey: School and Society
PH : London borough councils established
RP : Pope Leo XIII's bull Testem Benevolentiae condemns the "Americanism" of Isaac Thomas Hecker
M : Francis Poulenc born 7 January
VA : Alfred Sisley dies 29 January
M : Johann Strauss II dies 3 June

1900

VA : Paul Cézanne : Chateau Noir
PH : The Foraker Act establishes a government for Puerto Rico
PH : Boxer risings in China against Europeans
PH : Commonwealth of Australia created
DL : First Nobel Prizes awarded
ED : Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams
DL : World Exhibition in Paris
VA : Wallace Collection, London, opens
VA : Gaugin : Noa Noa, report on his travels through Tahiti
ST : F.E. Dorn discovers radon
ST : Arthur Evan's excavations in Crete
RP : Shintoism reinstated in Japan against Buddhist influence
RP : Bertrand Russell : A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz
VA : Paul Cézanne : Mont Sainte-Victoire
above the Tholonet Road
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, The Legend of Tsar Saltan (including 'The Flight of the Bumblebee' and 'The Tsar's Departure and Farewell')
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Tosca
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.4
M : Gabriel Urbain Fauré : Requiem Mass (final version)
M : Edward Elgar : Oratorio 'The Dream of Gerontius'
M : Antonin Dvorák : Opera, Rusalka
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Godspeed
PH : King Umberto I, king of Italy, assassinated; succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III
VA : Fauvist movement in painting begins, led by Henri Matisse
ST : Max Planck Formulates Quantum Theory
M : Aaron Copland born 14 November
M : Arthur Sullivan dies 22 November

1901

ST : First Trans-Atlantic radio signal
PH : Queen Victoria dies, succeeded by her son, Edward VII
PH : U.S. President McKinley assassinated, Theodore Roosevelt sworn in as successor    GO !
PH : Queen Victoria dies, succeeded by Edward (VII)
PH : Peace of Peking ends Boxer uprising
RP : Rudolf Steiner founds anthroposophy
VA : Picasso's blue period
VA : The Siegesallee in Berlin : 32 marble statues of members of the House of Hohenzollern
M : Ragtime jazz develops in the U.S.
ST : Marconi transmits telegraphic radio messages from Cornwall to Newfoundland
M : Charles Ives : Three Harvest Home Chorales
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Le Jongleur de Notre Dame ('The Juggler of Notre Dame')
M : Maurice Ravel : Jeux d'eau ('Fountains'), for piano
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.2
M : Edward Elgar : Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 ('Land of Hope and Glory')
M : Edward Elgar : Concert overture 'Cockaigne'
M : Frederick Delius : Opera, A Village Romeo and Juliet ('Walk to the Paradise Garden' added later)
VA : John William Godward : The Tease
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Accolade
VA : Gustav Klimt : Judith I
M : Giuseppe Verdi dies 27 January
VA : Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec dies 9 September
M : Joaquín Rodrigo born 22 November

1902

VA : Paul Cézanne : Still Life with Apples,
a Bottle, and a Milk Pot
PH : Boer War ends
DL : The Teddy Bear is introduced
PH : Anglo-Japanese treaty recognises the independence of China and Korea
PH : Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy renewed for another six years
RP : William James The Varieties of Religious Experience
RP : Benedetto Croce : Philosophy of the Spirit
M : Enrico Caruso makes his first phonograph recording
DL : King Edward VII establishes Order of Merit
DL : Martinique volcanic fire destroys the town of St. Pierre
LT : Edwin A Robinson: Captain Craig
LT : John Masefield: Salt-Water Ballads
LT : Walter de la Mare: Songs of Childhood
LT : Thomas Hardy: Poems of the Past and Present
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.2
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.2
M : Gustav Mahler : Des Knaben Wunderhorn completed
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.5
M : Franz Lehár : Concert waltz, Gold und Silber ('Gold and Silver')
M : Frederick Delius : Appalachia for voices and orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Opera, Pelléas et Mélisande
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Triston and Isolde
VA : Gustav Klimt : Portrait of Emilie Floge
M : William Turner Walton born 29 March

1903

ST : First flight at Kitty Hawk
VA : First silent movie, The Great Train Robbery
PH : Entente Cordiale established
PH : King Alexander I of Serbia and Queen Draga murdered ; Peter Karageorgevich accedes to the throne as Peter I
PH : Coronation durbar for Edward Vi, King-emperor, at Delhi
RP : G.E. Moore : Principia Ethica
RP : Cardinal Guiseppe Sarto installed - Pope Pius X
M : Oscar Hammerstein builds the Manhattan Opera House, New York
M : First recording of an opera : Verdi's Ernani
ED : Universities of Liverpool and Manchester founded
ST : Electrocardiograph invented
VA : Deutsches Museum, Munich, opens
DL : First Tour de France
DL : Ford Motor Company founded
LT : Thomas Traherne: Poems published
M : Manuel de Falla : Piano Pieces, Allegro de concierto
M : Richard Strauss : Symphonia Domestica
M : Jean Sibelius : Incidental music to the play Kuolema ('Death')
M : Jean Sibelius : Violin Concerto
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Symphonic Poem, Pelleas und Melisande
M : Erik Satie : (Trois) morceaux en forme de poire
M : Maurice Ravel : Shéhérazade for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Ten Piano Preludes
M : Leoš Janácek : Opera, Jenûfa (later revised)
M : Claude Debussy : Estampes ('Engravings'), for piano (including 'Jardins sous la pluie')
VA : John William Waterhouse : Windflowers
VA : Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin dies 9 May
VA : Camille Pissarro dies 13 November

1904

PH : Russo-Japanese War begins
PH : Theodore Roosevelt elected president    GO !
PH : Hereros and Hottentots revolt in German South-west Africa
LT : Abbey Theatre, Dublin, founded
RP : Church and state separated in France
ED : Freud : The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
RP : Max Weber : The Protestant Ethic and the Birth of Capitalism
M : First radio transmission of music at Graz, Austria
M : London Symphony Orchestra gives its first concert
ST : First telegraphic transmission of photographs - Munich to Nuremburg
DL : Ten-hour work day established in France
DL : Carl Lindstrom Company founded in Berlin for the production of phonographs and phonograph records
VA : Anthony Frederick Sandys dies
LT : Walter de la Mare: Henry Brocken
M : Charles Ives : Thanksgiving
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, Madame Butterfly
M : Gustav Mahler : Kindertotenlieder ('Songs of the Death of Children')
M : Edvard Grieg : Lyric Suite for orchestra
M : Edward Elgar : Overture 'In the South'
M : Frederick Delius : Sea Drift for baritone and orchestra
VA : John William Godward : Dolce Far Niente
VA : John William Waterhouse : Psyche Entering Cupid's Garden
PH : Entente Cordiale: Britain and France settle their international differences
ST : General theory of radioactivity by Rutherford and Soddy
DL : New York City subway opens
VA : Jean Léon Gérôme dies 10 January
M : Antonin Dvorák dies 1 May
VA : Salvador Dali born

1905

PH : "Bloody Sunday" - Russian Revolution of 1905
ST : Einstein proposes his theory of relativity
PH : Norwegian parliament decides on separation from Sweden; Prince Charles of Denmark elected King Haakon VII of Norway
PH : Sinn Fein Party founded in Dublin
DL : William Haywood and others found the International Workers of the World (Wobblies)
LT : Police censure closes Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession after one performance
RP : George Santayana : The Life of Reason
VA : Picasso begins his "Pink Period"
DL : First motor buses in London
DL : First neon lights appear
M : Manuel de Falla : Opera, La Vida Breve ('The Short Life')
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Salome
M : Jean Sibelius : Incidental music to the play Pelléas et Mélisande
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh
M : Maurice Ravel : Introduction and Allegro for flute, clarinet, harp, and string quartet
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphonies No.6 and No.7
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Die lustige Witwe ('The Merry Widow')
M : Edward Elgar : Introduction and Allegro for Strings
M : Frederick Delius : A Mass of Life for soloists, chorus and orchestra
M : Claude Debussy : Images, Book I for piano
M : Claude Debussy : La mer ('The sea'), for orchestra
M : Franz Strauss dies 31 May
VA : Sir Adolph William Bouguereau dies 19 August

1906

DL : Finland is the first European country to give women the right to vote
M : The English Hymnal, edited by Percy Dearmer and Ralph Vaughan Williams
RP : Franz X. Wernz, the Jesuit general, reforms the order's plan for studies
RP : Albert Schweitzer : The Quest of the Historical Jesus
M : Mozart Festival in Salzburg
ST : The term "allergy" introduced to medicine
DL : Simplon Tunnel between Italy and Switzerland opens
M : Anton von Webern : Rondo
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphonic fantasy, Pohjola's Daughter
M : Zoltán Kodály : Symphonic Poem, Summer Evening (later revised)
M : John Phillip Sousa : Comic Opera, The Free Lance
DL : San Francisco earthquake and three-day fire; more than 500 dead
ST : Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer, fixes magnetic North Pole
M : Dmitry Shostakovich born 25 September
VA : Paul Cézanne dies 22 October

1907

PH : Ten Rules of War established at the second Hague Peace Conference
VA : Picasso introduces Cubism
DL : Typhoid Mary captured for the first time
DL : First completely synthetic man-made substance (plastic)
PH : English and French agree on Siamese independence
RP : Henri Bergson : L'Evolution créatrice
RP : William James : Pragmatism
RP : Alfred Adler : Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation
RP : United methodist Church established in Britain
RP : Papal encyclical Pascendi gregis condemns modernism
VA : First Cubist exhibition in Paris
DL : Boy Scouts founded
LT : Sara Teasdale: Sonnets to Duse, and Other Poems
VA : Frank Cadogan Cowper : Vanity
M : Anton von Webern : Quintet for strings and piano
M : Charles Ives : Central Park in the Dark
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.3
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov : Opera, The Golden Cockerel
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphony No.2
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.8 'Symphony of a Thousand'
M : Frederick Delius : Brigg Fair: An English Rhapsody
M : Claude Debussy : Images, Book II for piano
VA : Gustav Klimt : Danae
VA : Gustav Klimt : The Kiss
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden born 21 February
M : Edvard Grieg dies 4 September

1908

DL : Ford introduces the Model-T
PH : Three year-old Pu Yi becomes Emperor of China
PH : Turks revolt in the Ottoman Empire
PH : King Carlos I of Portugal and the crown prince both assassinated; Manuel II becomes king
PH : Leopold II transfers the Congo to Belgium
PH : Ferdinand I of Bulgaria assumes the title czar and declares his country's independence
PH : Crete proclaims union with Greece
PH : Union of South Africa established
VA : "Ashcan School" established by Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, George Bellows, Everett Shinn
VA : Matisse coins the term "Cubism"
DL : London hosts the Olympic Games
ED : Cairo University opened
DL : First Model T produced
LT : Thomas Traherne: Centuries of Meditations
LT : John Masefield: Captain Margaret
LT : Thomas Hardy: the last of three parts of The Dynasts published
M : Anton von Webern : Passacaglia for Orchestra
M : Charles Ives : The Unanswered Question
M : Franz Schreker : Ballet, Der Geburtstag der Infantin ('The Infant's Birthday')
M : Maurice Ravel : Rapsodie espagnole for orchestra
M : Maurice Ravel : Gaspard de la nuit ('Phantoms of the Night'), for piano
M : Leoš Janácek : Along an Overgrown Path 15 pieces for piano
M : Gustav Holst : Opera, Savitri
M : Edward Elgar : Symphony No.1 (Adagio)
M : Frederick Delius : Rhapsody, In a Summer Garden
M : Claude Debussy : Children's Corner for piano (including 'Jimbo's Lullaby' and 'Golliwogg's Cake-walk')
M : Béla Bartók : String Quartet No.1
M : Igor Stravinsky : Opera, The Nightingale
DL : Earthquake kills 150,000 in southern Italy and Sicily
LT : Theodore Roethke born 25 May
M : Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov dies 21 June
M : Olivier Messiaen born 10 December
M : Elliott Cook Carter born 11 December

1909

PH : Japan's Prince Ito is assassinated
LT : Edwin A Robinson: The Town down the River
LT : John Masefield: Multitude and Solitude and The Tragedy of Nan
LT : Thomas Hardy: Time's Laughingstocks
M : Anton von Webern : Five movements for String Quartet
M : Anton von Webern : Six Pieces for Large Orchestra
M : Charles Ives : Piano Sonata No.1
M : Charles Ives : Washington's Birthday
M : Jules Massenet : Opera, Don Quichotte ('Don Quixote')
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Symphony No.1, 'A Sea Symphony'
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Song-cycle, On Wenlock Edge
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Elektra
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Erwartung ('Expectation'), for soprano and orchestra
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Five Orchestral Pieces
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Symphonic Poem, Isle of the Dead
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.3
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.9
M : Gustav Mahler : Song-symphony Das Lied von der Erde
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Der Graf von Luxemburg ('The Count of Luxemburg')
M : Gustav Holst : Suite No.1, for military band
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz : Suite Iberia for piano
ST : North Pole reportedly reached by American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson
M : Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz dies 18 May
VA : Francis Bacon born

1910

ST : Halley's comet makes an appearance
LT : John Masefield: The Tragedy of Pompey the Great
LT : Walter de la Mare: The Return and The Three Mulla Mulgars
M : Anton von Webern : Four Pieces for violin and piano
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams : Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for strings
M : Maurice Ravel : Ma mère l'oye ('Mother Goose'), for two pianos (later orchestrated)
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for choir
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Thirteen Piano Preludes
M : Giacomo Puccini : Opera, La fanciulla del West ('The Girl of the Golden West')
M : Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.10, unfinished
M : Franz Lehár : Operetta, Zigeunerliebe ('Gypsy Love')
M : Gustav Holst : Hymns from the Rig Veda for chorus and orchestra (one of several sets)
M : Edward Elgar : Violin Concerto
M : Frederick Delius : Opera, Fennimore and Gerda
M : Claude Debussy : Préludes, Book I for piano (including 'Viole')
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, The Firebird
M : Samuel Barber born 9 March
M : Frank Loesser born 29 June
VA : Henri Rousseau dies in Paris
VA : William Holman Hunt dies 7 September
VA : Winslow Homer dies

1911

PH : The Chinese Revolution
ST : Structure of an atom discovered
DL : Greenwich Mean Time adopted
VA : Mona Lisa is stolen
LT : Sara Teasdale: Helen of Troy, and Other Poems
LT : John Masefield: The Everlasting Mercy
LT : Rupert Brooke: Poems
M : Charles Ives : String Quartet No.2
M : Charles Ives : Symphony No.3
M : Richard Strauss : Opera, Der Rosenkavalier
M : Jean Sibelius : Symphony No.4
M : Arnold Schoenberg : Gurrelieder ('Songs of Gurra'), for voices and orchestra
M : Sergei Rachmaninov : Études-tableux Opus 33 for piano
M : Gustav Holst : Suite No.2, for military band
M : Edward Elgar : Symphony No.2
M : Frederick Delius : Summer Night on the River for small orchestra
M : Frederick Delius : Song of the High Hills for chorus and orchestra
M : Béla Bartók : Allegro barbaro for piano
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Petrushka
VA : Edmund Blair Leighton : Stiching the Standard
DL : Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York; 146 killed
PH : Mexican Revolution: Porfirio Diaz, president since 1877, replaced by Francisco Madero
ST : First use of aircraft as offensive weapon in Turkish-Italian War
PH : Chinese Republic proclaimed after revolution overthrows Manchu dynasty; Sun Yat-sen named president
ST : Amundsen reaches South Pole
PH : Italy defeats Turks and annexes Tripoli and Libya
M : Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band
M : Gustav Mahler dies 18 May
VA : Edwin Austin Abbey
VA : Howard Pyle dies

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 España ('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 nègre 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 pièces montées
M : Igor Stravinsky : Symphonies of Wind Instruments
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Pulcinella
PH : Treaty of Sèvres 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 Varèse : 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 Varèse : 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 Varèse : Octandre
M : Edgard Varèse : 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 Varèse : 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 sortilèges ('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 Varèse : 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 musagète
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 Varèse : 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 Varèse : 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 bûcher ('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 Varèse : 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, Poèmes 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, Moïse
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 Varèse : 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 Varèse : 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

1957

PH : European Economic Community established
ST : Soviet satellite Sputnik launches "Space Age"
LT : Theodore Roethke: The Exorcism
LT : Howard Nemerov: Homecoming Game
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Gruppen
M : Pierre Boulez : Sonata No.3
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Refrains and Choruses for wind quintet
M : Paul Hindemith : Opera, Die Harmonie der Welt
M : Ernst Bacon : Elegy
M : Ernst Bacon : Great River Symphony
M : Ernst Bacon : Concerto Grosso
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : All Set for jazz ensemble
M : William Turner Walton : Partita for orchestra
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Piano Concerto No.2
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.11, 'The Year 1905'
M : Samuel Barber : Opera, Vanessa
M : Leonard Bernstein : Musical, West Side Story
M : Benjamin Britten : Opera, Noye's Fludde
M : Igor Stravinsky : Ballet, Agon
M : Stephen Sondheim : Lyrics, West Side Story
PH : Eisenhower Doctrine calls for aid to Mideast countries which resist armed aggression from Communist-controlled nations
DL : Little Rock, Arkansas, school integration crisis
PH : Ghana and Malaysia admitted to the United Nations
M : Jean Sibelius dies 20 September

1958

ST : NASA founded
VA : Frank Cadogan Cowper dies
LT : Theodore Roethke: Words for the Wind
LT : Archibald MacLeish: J.B.
LT : T S Eliot: The Elder Statesman
LT : ee cummings: 95 Poems
M : John Cage : Aria for solo voice
M : Pierre Boulez : Figure-Double-Prisme
M : Edgard Varèse : Poème électronique
M : Olivier Messiaen : Catalogue d'oiseaux for piano
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Funeral Music for strings
PH : Egypt and Syria merge into United Arab Republic
PH : Khrushchev becomes premier of Soviet Union as Bulganin resigns
PH : Eisenhower orders U.S. Marines into Lebanon at request of President Chamoun, who fears overthrow
PH : New French constitution adopted 28 Sept., de Gaulle elected president of 5th Republic
PH : Guinea admitted to the United Nations
M : Ralph Vaughan Williams dies 26 August

1959

PH : Cuban President Batista resigns and flees — Castro becomes dictator of Cuba
LT : The Sound of Music opens on Broadway
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Zyklys
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Refrain
M : John Cage : Fontana Mix
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Monody for Corpus Christi for soprano, flute, horn and violin
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Song cycle, Mostly About Love
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki : Symphony No.1
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Cello Concerto No.1
M : Francis Poulenc : Gloria for soprano, choir, and orchestra
M : Carl Orff : Opera, Oedipus der Tyrann
M : Aaron Copland : Ballet, Dance Panels
M : Stephen Sondheim : Lyrics, Gypsy
PH : Alaska and Hawaii become states
ST : Leakeys discover hominid fossils
ST : St. Lawrence Seaway opens, allowing ocean ships to reach Midwest

1960

ST : Lasers invented
LT : Howard Nemerov: A Commodity of Dreams
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Kontakte (electronic work)
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Carré
M : John Cage : Theater Piece :, from guidelines 8 performers create their own actions and sounds
M : John Cage : Cartridge Music
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Precis a piano solo
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Three Sonatas for Nine Instruments
M : Lukas Foss : Time Cycle
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Missa pro defunctis
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki : Scontri ('Collisions'), for orchestra
M : William Turner Walton : Symphony No.2
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : String Quartet No.8
M : Carl Orff : Christmas play, Ludus de Nato Infante Mirificus
M : Benjamin Britten : Opera, A Midsummer Night's Dream
PH : American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, shot down over Russia ; Khrushchev kills Paris summit conference as a result
PH : Communist China and Soviet Union split in conflict over Communist ideology
PH : Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar, and Zaire (Belgian Congo) gain independence
PH : Cuba begins confiscation of $770 million of U.S. property
PH : Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia and Togo admitted to the United Nations

1961

PH : Berlin Wall built
ST : Soviets launch first man in space
LT : Richard Wilbur: Advice to a Prophet and Other Poems
LT : Theodore Roethke: I Am! Says the Lamb
M : Pierre Boulez : Structures for 2 pianos Book II
M : Harrison Birtwistle : The World Discovered
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with 2 Chamber Orchestra
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Venetian Games for chamber orchestra
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Composition for synthesizer
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Vision and Prayer
M : Darius Milhaud : Symphony No.12, 'Rurale'
M : Zoltán Kodály : Symphony in C-Major
M : Benjamin Britten : War Requiem
PH : Robert Frost recites The Gift Outright at John F. Kennedy's inauguration as president of U.S.
PH : U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba 3 Jan.; Cuba invaded at Bay of Pigs by an estimated 1,200 anti-Castro exiles aided by U.S.; invasion crushed 17 April
PH : Mauritania, Mongolia, Sierra Leone and United Republic of Tanzania admitted to the United Nations

1962

VA : Marc Chagall : Dance
VA : Andy Warhol exhibits his Campbell's Soup Can
PH : Cuban Missile Crisis
LT : Robert Frost: In the Clearing
LT : ee cummings: Adventures in Value
M : John Cage : 4'33" No.2 or 0'0" : solo to be performed in any way by anyone
M : Pierre Boulez : Pli selon pli (includes soprano)
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Entr'acts for flute, viola and harp
M : Paul Hindemith : Organ Concerto
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki : Genesis I, Elementi ('The Elements') for string trio
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki : Genesis II, Canti strumentali ('Instrumental Songs') for orchestra
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.13, 'Babi-Yar'
M : Francis Poulenc : Clarinet Sonata
M : Francis Poulenc : Oboe Sonata
M : Samuel Barber : Piano Concerto
M : Aaron Copland : Connotations for orchestra
M : Stephen Sondheim : Music and Lyrics, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
PH : France agrees to Algeria's independence
PH : Burundi, Jamaica, Western Samoa, Uganda, and Trinidad and Tobago become independent
RP : Pope John XXIII opens Second Vatican Council — Council holds four sessions, finally closing 8 Dec., 1965
ST : Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
ST : Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., is first American to orbit Earth—three times in 4 hr 55 min
PH : Algeria, Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda, Trinidad and Tobago and Uganda admitted to the United Nations
LT : ee cummings dies 3 September

1963

LT : Theodore Roethke: Party at the Zoo and Sequence, Sometimes Metaphysical published (posth.)
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Music for Sleep (a child-performed lullabye)
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Narration: a description of the passing of the year" for acapella chorus
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Chorales for Orchestra
M : Paul Hindemith : Mass
M : Lukas Foss : Echoi
M : Olivier Messiaen : Couleurs de la cité céleste
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Three Poems of Henri Michaux
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Philomel
M : Leonard Bernstein : Symphony No.3, 'Kaddish'
M : Benjamin Britten : Cello Symphony
ST : Artificial heart implanted in human for first time; patient lives for four days
RP : Pope John XXIII dies; succeeded by Cardinal Montini, who becomes Paul VI
PH : U.K.'s Profumo scandal
PH : Civil rights rally held by 200,000 blacks and whites in Washington, D.C.; Martin Luther King delivers "I have a dream" speech
PH : Washington-to-Moscow "hot line" communications link opens, designed to reduce risk of accidental war
PH : President Kennedy shot and killed by sniper in Dallas, Tex. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president same day
PH : Kenya achieves independence
PH : Kenya and Kuwait admitted to the United Nations
LT : Robert Frost dies 29 January
M : Francis Poulenc dies 30 January
LT : Theodore Roethke dies 1 August
VA : Georges Braque dies
M : Paul Hindemith dies 28 December

1964

PH : Civil Rights Act passes in U.S.
LT : Theodore Roethke: The Far Field published (posth.)
LT : Howard Nemerov: The Next Room of the Dream
LT : Robert Graves: The Hebrew Myths
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Mixtur (electronic work)
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Momente
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Ring a Dumb Carillon for soprano,clarinet and percussion
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Entr'acts and Sappho Fragments for soprano,flute,oboe,violin,viola,harp and percussion
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Three Movements for Fanfares, for chamber orchestra
M : Virgil Garnett Thomson : Feast of Love
M : Olivier Messiaen : Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum for wind and percussion
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Ensemble for synthesizer
M : Benjamin Britten : Church Parable, Curlew River
M : Stephen Sondheim : Music and Lyrics, Anyone Can Whistle
DL : The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show
PH : Congress approves Gulf of Tonkin resolution
DL : Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and more than 2,600 other blacks arrested in Selma, Ala., during three-day demonstrations against voter-registration rules
PH : Malawi, Malta and Zambia admitted to the United Nations
M : Sir George Dyson dies 28 September
M : Ernst Toch dies 1 October

1965

PH : U.S. sends troops to Vietnam
LT : Theodore Roethke: On the Poet and His Craft published (posth.)
LT : Wystan Hugh Auden: About the House
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Mikrophonie I-II (electronic works)
M : Pierre Boulez : Éclats
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Tragoedia
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Concerto for Piano
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Paroles tissees
M : Leonard Bernstein : Chichester Psalms
PH : U.S. Marines land in Dominican Republic as fighting persists between rebels and Dominican army
DL : Medicare, senior citizens' government medical assistance program, begins
PH : Gambia, Maldives and Singapore admitted to the United Nations
LT : T S Eliot dies 4 January
M : Edgard Varèse dies 8 November

1966

LT : Theodore Roethke: The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke published (posth.)
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Telemusik (electronic work)
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Adieu
M : Steve Reich : Melodica for tape
M : Steve Reich : Come Out for tape
M : Harrison Birtwistle : The Visions of Francesco Petrarca
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Post-Partitions for Piano
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : String Quartet No.11
M : Samuel Barber : Opera, Antony and Cleopatra
M : Igor Stravinsky : Requiem Canticles for voices and orchestra
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Opera, Punch and Judy
PH : Barbados, Botswana, Guyana and Lesotho admitted to the United Nations
VA : Frederick Maxfield Parrish dies 10 March

1967

LT : Archibald MacLeish: Herakles
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Prozession (electronic work)
M : Steve Reich : Violin Phase for 4 violins or violin and tape
M : Steve Reich : My Name Is for 3 or more tape recorders, performers, and audience
M : Lukas Foss : Baroque Variations
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Second Symphony
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto andaluz for four guitars and orchestra
M : Samuel Barber : Agnus Dei for choir
ST : Dr. Christiaan N. Barnard and team of South African surgeons perform world's first successful human heart transplant — patient dies 18 days later
PH : Israeli and Arab forces battle; six-day war ends with Israel occupying Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and east bank of Suez Canal
PH : Biafra secedes from Nigeria
PH : Democratic Yemen admitted to the United Nations
M : Zoltán Kodály dies 6 March
LT : John Masefield dies 12 May
VA : Edward Hopper dies
VA : René Magritte dies

1968

M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Kurzwellen (electronic work)
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Stimmung
M : Steve Reich : Pendulum Music for 3 or more microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and performers
M : Pierre Boulez : e. e. cummings is der Dichter
M : Pierre Boulez : Domaines
M : Pierre Boulez : Livre pour cordes
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Relata II for orchestra
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Down by the Greenwood Side
PH : Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader, is slain in Memphis
PH : Czechoslovakia is invaded by Russians and Warsaw Pact forces to crush liberal regime
PH : Equatorial Guinea, Mauritius and Swaziland admitted to the United Nations
VA : Marcel Duchamp dies

1969

ST : ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet, created
PH : Yasser Arafat becomes leader of the PLO
LT : Richard Wilbur: Walking to Sleep: New Poems and Translations
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Hymnen (includes tape)
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Fresco
M : John Cage : HPSCHD (with Lejaren Hiller)
M : Olivier Messiaen : Meditations sur le mystere de la Sainte Trinité
M : Olivier Messiaen : La transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jesus Christ
M : Elliott Cook Carter : Concerto, for Orchestra
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki : Muzyka staropolska ('Old Polish Music'), for brass and strings
M : William Turner Walton : Film Score, Battle of Britain
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.14
M : Joaquín Rodrigo : Concierto madrigal for two guitars and orchestra
PH : Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated 37th president of the U.S.
ST : Apollo 11 astronauts—Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins—take man's first walk on moon
DL : Woodstock Festival
M : Frank Loesser dies 28 June

1970

PH : Rhodesia severs last tie with British crown and declares itself a racially segregated republic
PH : Biafra surrenders after 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Mantra (electronic work)
M : Pierre Boulez : Éclats/Multiples an extension of Éclats
M : Harrison Birtwistle : Signals
M : Witold Lutoslawski : Concerto for cello
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : String Quartet No.3
M : Milton Byron Babbitt : Phonemena
M : Stephen Sondheim : Music and Lyrics, Company
PH : Senate repeals Gulf of Tonkin resolution
PH : U.S. troops invade Cambodia
PH : Fiji admitted to the United Nations

1971

M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Trans
M : Pierre Boulez : ....explosante-fixe
M : Dmitry Shostakovich : Symphony No.15
M : Leonard Bernstein : Mass for singers, players and dancers
M : Stephen Sondheim : Music and Lyrics, Follies
PH : UN seats Communist China and expels Nationalist China
PH : Twenty-sixth Amendment to U.S. Constitution lowers voting age to 18
PH : Bahrain, Bhutan, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates admitted to the United Nations
M : Igor Stravinsky dies 6 April

1972

LT : Theodore Roethke: Straw for the Fire, From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke published (posth.)
LT : Howard Nemerov: Reflections on Poetry and Poetics
M : Karlheinz Stockhausen : Ylem (electronic work)
M : Steve Reich : Clapping Music, for 2 musicians clapping
M : Harrison Birtwistle : The Triumph of Time
M : Henryk Mikolaj Górecki : Symphony No.2, 'Copernican'
PH : President Nixon makes unprecedented eight-day visit to Communist China and meets with Mao Zedong
PH : Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland in bid for peace
PH : Start of the Watergate scandal
PH : Eleven Israeli athletes at Olympic Games in Munich are killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist group invade Olympic Village; five guerrillas and one policeman are also killed
PH : "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam
VA : Frank E. Schoonover dies
LT : Marianne Moore dies 5 February
VA : Maurits Cornelis Escher dies
Personae

Terms Defined

Referenced Works