A 20th century lasted from either 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar. Most common usage occasionally regards it when lasting from either 1900 to 1999, but this is typically considered wrong imputable the nonentity of a "Year Zero" before AD 1. A 20th century is as well for instance referred to as a 19 100s (1900s), referring to the latter usage. Decades come most universally considered when starting by having a "0" month & known as accordingly ("1960s", etc.), and then a number 1 decade of a century technically overlaps back into the retiring a single.

Still, a total of arguments develop been utilized to justify the most common usage. 1 was advanced per man of science Stephen Jay Gould, that the foremost decade (AD One-9) got simply nine years. A second was that a astronomical year numbering system for years does have a month zero, a year ordinarily called One BC. Around 2000 a International Organization for Standardization clarified ISO 8601 to use a astronomical season enumeration models, and then retrospectively endorsing all a humans world health organization got celebrated the fresh century two or three months earliest.

A term is likewise wont to describe various periods that overlap by owning a calendar definition, virtually all notably a Short twentieth century and the Modern period. It likewise experienced the place within popular culture shown by its apply in name only like 20th Century Fox and the Twentieth Century Limited.

Overview

the twentieth century saw a remarkable shift in the way that brobdingnagian many humans lived, following of technical, medical, social, ideologic, & political innovations. Terms rather ideology, world war, genocide, and nuclear war entered common usage & became an influence on the experiences of everyday humans. War reached an unprecedented scale & level of sophistication; in the Second World War (1939-1945) alone, approximately 57 million people died, mainly due to massive improvements within arms. A trends of mechanization of goods & services & networks of spherical communication, which were begun in the 19th century, continued at an ever-increasing pace in the 20th. Around spite of a terror & chaos, the 20th century saw numbers of tries at globe peace. When a 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy said:

Virtually each aspect of life witharound virtually each mortal society changed in a few fundamental way or even a second in a period of a twentieth century & first, any human may influence the course of history disregarding their background. Arguably, a 20th century re-shaped a face of the planet around additional ways than any former century.

Death rates Infant mortality Infectious disease Life expectancy Maternal death rates Battles

Scientific discoveries like relativity and quantum physics radically changed a worldview of man of science, stimulating a two to underst& that a universe was very much extra complex than it experienced antecedently believed, and dashing a hopes at the prevent of the retiring century that the go couple details of noesis were astir to become filled around.

For the further logical overview of the historical cases of the century, understand The 20th century in review.

A 20th century has for instance been known as, two inside & outside a United States, the American Century, though this is a controversial term.

Important developments, events and achievements
Science and technology
A assembly line and mass production of motor vehicles & extra goods allowed manufacturers to make more & inexpensive products. This allowed a automobile to become the first means of transport. A invention of heavier-than-air flying machines and the jet engine allowed for the world to turn into "smaller". Space flight increased knowledge of the rest of the universe & provide spherical real-period communications via geosynchronous satellites. Mass media technologies such as film, radio, and television allow the communication of political messages & amusement sustaining unprecedented impact Mass accessibility of the telephone and later, a computer, especially through the Internet, provides humans by owning fresh chance for touching-instantaneous communication Applied electronics, notably in its miniaturized form when integrated circuits, made conceivable a above mentioned rise of mass media, telecommunications, ubiquitous computing, and a lot kinda "intelligent" appliances; likewise when numbers of advances around natural sciences like natural philosophy, per apply of exponentially growing calculation power (see supercomputer). A development of Nitrogen fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides resulted in significantly higher agrarian yield. Advances around fundamental physics through the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics led to the development of nuclear weapons (known informally as "the Bomb" & dropped on the industrial town of Hiroshima and the historic one of Nagasaki), the nuclear reactor, and a laser. Fusion power was studied extensively however remained an experimental technology at a prevent of the century. A Big Bang model of cosmology was developed. The scientifically depending choice to the creation of the Universe when declared within Genesis, scientists currently say that a Universe was created inside a fraction of another, & the timescales for the development of planets and life on earth was realised to be hundreds to thousands of years like than a literal 7 years. Inventions like the washing machine and air conditioning led to an increase in two a quantity & quality of leisure time for the middle class in Western societies. Virtually all influential inventions in the 20th century: Antibiotics, Internet More...

Wars and politics
Popular nations began to extend voting privileges to all adults. Rising nationalism and increasing national awareness were among the induces of World War I, the number 1 of deuce wars to require all the major major power including Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and the British Commonwealth. Globe War I personally led to the creation of numbers of freshly countries, especially inside Eastern Europe. A economic & political aftermath of Globe War We led to the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe, and shortly to World War II. This war likewise taking part Asia & a Pacific, in the form of Japanese aggression against China and the United States. When a 1st Globe War principally numbers experiences among soldiers, civilians suffered greatly in a 2nd -- from either the bombing of cities in two sides, & in the unprecedented German genocide of the Jews and others, called the Holocaust. When you took World War I, in Russia the Bolshevik putsch led to the Russian Revolution (of October/November 1917). Fallowing a Soviet Union's involvement inside Globe War II, Communism became the major click in spherical politics, spreading 100% above the world: notably, to Eastern Europe, China, Indochina and Cuba. This led to the Cold War and proxy wars with the western world, including wars in Korea (1950-53) and Vietnam (1957 - 75). A "fall of Communism" in the late 1980s freed Eastern and Central Europe from either Soviet domination. It likewise led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia into successor states, many rife using ethnic nationalism, and left a United States as the world's superpower. Through the League of Nations and, after World War II, the United Nations, international cooperation increased. More efforts involved a formation of the European Union, leading to a most common currency around lot of Western Europe, the euro around the turn of the millennium. A prevent of colonialism led to the independence of many African and Asian countries. In a period of a Cold War, numbers of one aligned sustaining a America, the USSR, or even China for defense. A creation of Israel, a Jewish state in the mostly Arab region of the world, fueled numerous conflicts in the region, which were as well influenced per brobdingnagian oil fields in numerous of the Arab countries. Term "Southeast Asia coined.

Culture and entertainment
Movies, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many movies and music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world. After gaining political rights in the United States and much of Europe in the first part of the century, and with the advent of new birth control techniques women became more independent throughout the century. Modern art developed new styles such as expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. The automobile provided vastly increased transportation capabilities for the average member of Western societies in the early to mid-century, spreading even further later on. City design throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car. The car became a leading symbol of modern society, with styles of car suited to and symbolic of particular lifestyles. Sports became an important part of society, becoming an activity not only for the privileged. Watching sports, later also on television, became a popular activity.

Disease and medicine
Although the availability and quality of medicine continued to improve, epidemic diseases continued to spread, aided by modern transportation. An influenza pandemic, the Spanish Flu, killed 25 million between 1918 and 1919, while AIDS is yet uncured and treatments remain too expensive for wide use in developing countries. Advances in medicine, such as the invention of antibiotics, decreased the number of people dying from diseases. Contraceptive drugs and organ transplantation were developed. The discovery of DNA molecules and the advent of molecular biology allowed for cloning and genetic engineering.

Natural resources and the environment
The widespread use of petroleum in industry -- both as a chemical precursor to plastics and as a fuel for the automobile and airplane -- led to the vital geopolitical importance of petroleum resources. The Middle East, home to many of the world's oil deposits, became a center of geopolitical and military tension throughout the latter half of the century. (For example, oil was a factor in Japan's decision to go to war against the United States in 1941, and the oil cartel, OPEC, used an oil embargo of sorts in the wake of the Yom Kippur War in the 1970s). A vast increase in fossil fuel consumption leads to depletion of natural resources, while air pollution has led to the develoment of an ozone hole and, many believe, global warming and both local and global climate change. The problem is increased by world-wide deforestation, also causing a loss of biodiversity. The problem of a depletion of natural resources is decreased by advances in drilling technology which led to a net increase in the amount of fossil fuel that is readily obtainable at the end of the century, as compared with the amount considered obtainable at the beginning of the century.

Significant people
World leaders
Africa Gnassingbe Eyadema, Togo Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d'Ivoire Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya Idi Amin, Uganda Nelson Mandela, South Africa Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe Gamal Abdal Nasser, Egypt Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana Julius Nyerere, Tanzania Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia Muammar al-Qaddafi, Libya Haile Selassie, Ethiopia Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal Ahmed Sékou Touré, Guinea

Americas Juan Perón, Argentina Eva Perón, Argentina Getúlio Vargas, Brazil Luis Carlos Prestes, Brazil Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazil Wilfrid Laurier, Canada William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada Pierre Trudeau, Canada Salvador Allende, Chile Augusto Pinochet, Chile Fidel Castro, Cuba Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Argentina/Cuba Emiliano Zápata, Mexico Pancho Villa, Mexico Augusto César Sandino, Nicaragua Alberto Kenya Fujimori, Peru Theodore Roosevelt, USA Woodrow Wilson,USA Franklin D. Roosevelt, USA Dwight Eisenhower, USA John F. Kennedy, USA Richard Nixon, USA Ronald Reagan, USA Bill Clinton, USA George H. W. Bush, USA José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguay Romulo Betancourt, Venezuela

Asia Mao Zedong, People's Republic of China Deng Xiaoping, People's Republic of China Pol Pot, Cambodia Mahatma Gandhi, India Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan Indira Gandhi, India Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia Jawaharlal Nehru, India Emperor Hirohito, Japan Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek, Republic of China Achmad Sukarno, Indonesia Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore Corazon Aquino, the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines

Australia and Oceania Edmund Barton, Australia Sir Robert Menzies, Australia Peter Fraser, New Zealand Michael Joseph Savage, New Zealand David Lange, New Zealand

Europe Franz Joseph of Austria, Austria-Hungary Václav Havel, Czech Republic Franjo Tuđman, Croatia Archbishop Makarios III, Cyprus Josip Broz Tito,Yugoslavia Urho Kekkonen, Finland Philippe Pétain, France Charles de Gaulle, France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, France François Mitterrand, France Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany Friedrich Ebert, Germany Adolf Hitler, Germany Konrad Adenauer, West Germany Walter Ulbricht, East Germany Erich Honnecker, East Germany Willy Brandt, West Germany Helmut Kohl, Germany Gerhard Schröder, Germany Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greece Giorgos Papadopoulos, Greece Andreas Papandreou, Greece Benito Mussolini, Italy Aldo Moro, Italy Eamon de Valera, Ireland Einar Gerhardsen, Norway Józef Piłsudski, Poland Lech Wałęsa, Poland António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal Mário Soares, Portugal Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romania Milan Kučan, Slovenia Francisco Franco, Spain Felipe González, Spain Adolfo Suárez, Spain Olof Palme, Sweden Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey Neville Chamberlain, United Kingdom Winston Churchill, United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom Tony Blair, United Kingdom

Russia and Soviet Union Czar Nicholas II Vladimir Lenin Joseph Stalin Leon Trotsky Nikita Khrushchev Leonid Brezhnev Mikhail Gorbachev Boris Yeltsin

Middle East Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran Mohammad Mosaddeq, Iran Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran Mohammad Khatami, Iran Abdul Nasser, Egypt or United Arab Republic Anwar Sadat, Egypt or United Arab Republic David Ben-Gurion, Israel Golda Meir, Israel Menachem Begin, Israel Yitzhak Rabin, Israel Hafez el Assad, Syria Saddam Hussein, Iraq King Hussein, Jordan

Scientists

; Biology and Anthropology Norman Borlaug Francis Crick Theodosius Dobzhansky Paul Ehrlich Jane Goodall Stephen Jay Gould Hans Adolf Krebs Ernst Mayr John Maynard Smith James Watson

; Chemistry Elias Corey Maria Skłodowska-Curie Pierre Curie Fritz Haber Stanley Miller Linus Pauling Ernest Rutherford J.J. Thomson Harold Urey

; Computer Science John Backus Edsger Dijkstra Linus Torvalds Grace Murray Hopper John von Neumann Claude Shannon Alan Turing William Gates III

; Mathematics Paul Erdős Kurt Gödel David Hilbert Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov Benoit Mandelbrot John Nash John von Neumann

; Medicine and Pharmacy Carl Djerassi Alexander Fleming Howard Walter Florey Ma Haide (George Hatem) Jonas Salk

; Physics and Astronomy Abdus Salam Niels Bohr Paul Dirac Freeman Dyson Albert Einstein Enrico Fermi Richard Feynman Stephen Hawking Werner Karl Heisenberg Edwin Hubble Wolfgang Pauli Max Planck Carl Sagan Erwin Schrödinger

; Psychology Aaron T. Beck Mary Whiton Calkins Albert Ellis Sigmund Freud Carl Jung Alfred Kinsey Stanley Milgram Ivan Pavlov Jean Piaget B.F. Skinner John B. Watson

Humanities

Art and Literary Theory Clive Bell Pauline Kael

Civil Rights Martin Luther King Jr.

Economics John Maynard Keynes John Kenneth Galbraith Milton Friedman Ludwig von Mises

History Stephen Ambrose Charles A. Beard

Philosophy Hannah Arendt Jürgen Habermas Martin Heidegger W. V. Quine John Rawls Bertrand Russell Jean-Paul Sartre Alfred North Whitehead Ludwig Wittgenstein

Political Science Robert A. Dahl Maurice Duverger Francis Fukuyama Arend Lijphart C. Wright Mills

Business

Paul Allen Warren Buffett Walt Disney Henry Ford Bill Gates Howard Hughes Steve Jobs Linus Torvalds Donald Trump Sam Walton Thomas J. Watson

Aerospace pioneers

Alberto Santos-Dumont Robert Goddard Wernher von Braun Neil Armstrong Louis Bleriot Yuri Gagarin Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov Freddie Laker Charles Lindbergh Ron McNair Ellison Onizuka Herman Potočnik Noordung Alan Shepard Valentina Tereshkova Wright Brothers

Military leaders
Bernard Montgomery Charles de Gaulle Chester Nimitz Douglas Haig Douglas MacArthur Dwight Eisenhower Erich Ludendorff Erwin Rommel Franc Rozman Stane George Patton Georgy Zhukov Leon Trotsky Mao Zedong Moshe Dayan Paul von Hindenburg Rudolf Maister Vo Nguyen Giap Sir Bernard Freyberg

Religious figures
Pope Pius X Pope Pius XII Pope John XXIII Pope John Paul II Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi Mother Teresa of Calcutta The 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Thubten Gyatso The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The Rev. Billy Graham Mahatma Gandhi Aurobindo Ghosh Ramana Maharshi Ayatollah Khomeini Ayatollah Khamenei Rasputin

Artists
Amedeo Modigliani Anselm Kiefer Andy Warhol Auguste Rodin Constantin Brancusi Edvard Munch Emil Nolde Enzo Cucchi Erich Heckel Ernst Barlach Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Frida Kahlo Frank Lloyd Wright George Braque Giorgio de Chirico Gustav Klimt Monika Krystowczyk Henri Matisse Henri Rousseau Henry Moore Sebastian Pawczynski Jackson Pollock Jacob Epstein Jannis Kounellis Joseph Beuys John Cage Joan Miró Juan Gris Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Käthe Kollwitz Kurt Schwitters Le Corbusier Lyonel Feininger Marc Chagall Marcel Duchamp Marino Marini Mark Rothko Max Pechstein Max Ernst Max Beckmann Oskar Kokoschka Otto Dix Pablo Picasso Paul Klee Piet Mondrian Pino Pascali René Magritte Salvador Dalí Walter Gropius Wassily Kandinsky Yves Klein

Music
Aaron Copland ABBA Amy Grant Annie Lennox Aram Khachaturian Billy Idol Bob Dylan Bob Marley Carlos Gardel Caetano Veloso Charlie Parker Chuck Berry Cliff Richard Dalida David Bowie Dmitri Shostakovich Elvis Presley Eurythmics Frank Sinatra Frank Zappa Gary Davis George Gershwin Gustav Holst Igor Stravinsky Janis Joplin Jean Sibelius Jimi Hendrix John Cage John Coltrane John Williams Kraftwerk Led Zeppelin Louis Armstrong Madonna Metallica Michael Jackson Miles Davis Motörhead Nazia Hassan Nirvana Olivier Messiaen Philip Glass Phil Spector Pink Floyd Queen Ray Charles The Beach Boys The Beatles The Clash The Doors The Grateful Dead The Ramones Steve Reich The Rolling Stones The Smashing Pumpkins The Velvet Underground Van Morrison

Film
Gianni Bongioanni Frank Capra Charlie Chaplin Francis Ford Coppola Sergei Eisenstein Jean-Luc Godard D.W. Griffith Alfred Hitchcock Elia Kazan Andrei Tarkovsky Stanley Kubrick Fritz Lang Sergio Leone George Lucas Roman Polanski Steven Spielberg Quentin Tarantino Orson Welles

Writers and poets
Alamgir Hashmi Alan Moore Albert Camus Aldous Huxley Allen Ginsberg Amy Tan André Breton Andre Malraux Anna Seghers Anne Frank Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antonio Machado Arthur Miller Ayn Rand Basil Bunting Bertolt Brecht C.S. Lewis Carlos Fuentes Charles Olson Charles Reznikoff Cid Corman Dorothy Richardson Douglas Adams E. E. Cummings Ernest Hemingway Ezra Pound Fernando Pessoa F. Scott Fitzgerald Franz Kafka Gabriel García Márquez Gary Snyder George Orwell Gerina Dunwich Gertrude Stein H.D. Halldór Laxness Harper Lee Harry Turtledove Hart Crane Hermann Hesse Hugh MacDiarmid Ilja Ehrenburg Isaac Asimov Isabel Allende Italo Calvino J. D. Salinger J.K. Rowling Jean Paul Sartre J.R.R. Tolkien Jack Kerouac James Joyce John Millington Synge John Steinbeck John Updike Jorge Luis Borges Julio Cortázar Kurt Vonnegut Louis Aragon Louis Zukofsky Marcel Proust Marianne Moore Mikhail Bulgakov Mina Loy Muhammad Iqbal Nazim Hikmet Orrick Johns Paul Eluard Grazyna Miller Pablo Neruda Philip Larkin Ray Bradbury Richard Wright Robert Creeley Ruben Darío Samuel Beckett Seamus Heaney Sean O'Casey S.M. Stirling Stephen King T.S. Eliot Thomas Pynchon Thomas Mann Truman Capote Umberto Eco Upton Sinclair Virginia Woolf Vladimir Nabokov W. B. Yeats W.H. Auden Wallace Stevens William Carlos Williams William Faulkner

Sports figures

;American Football ;Athletics ;Baseball ;Boxing ;Cricket ;Cycling ;Equestrian ;Football (soccer) ;Golf ;Ice Hockey ;Motor Sport ;Mountaineering ;Racing ;Rugby Football ;Skiing ; Squash ;Swimming ;Tennis Decades and years

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