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')
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 !
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