Major Events in My Lifetime: Part I Quiz

Answer: 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United Sates of American in October 1962. The face-off lasted from Oct 16-28 regarding Soviet Union ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. The Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed with Fidel Castro to deploy the missiles in Cuba after the Bay of Pigs disaster by the USA and also the USA had missiles strategically placed in Italy and Turkey. Luckily common sense prevailed, as this was the closest that the world came to another war, during the Cold War period (1947-1991).

Answer: 1979

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) was the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom when appointed in 1979. She remained in this position until 1990, making her the longest-serving PM in the UK during the 20th century. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady" and during her time as Prime Minister many of the policies she implemented became known as Thatcherism.

Answer: 1989

The Berlin Wall divided the German city of Berlin from 1961-1989. The wall opened in November 1989 and was finally demolished in 1992. During the period 1961-1989 there were over 5,000 attempts to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin resulting in fatalities close to 200. The opening of the wall paved the way for the unification of Germany which was concluded in October 1990.

Answer: 1948

On May 14, 1948 Israel declared its independence, as the British Palestine Mandate expired. Although this followed an earlier UN resolution, not all countries recognised the new State. The Soviet Union were the first to recognise Israel as "de jure". This means "a state of affairs that is in accordance with law".

The opposite, which was supported by the USA is "de facto", meaning "a state of affairs is true, but not officially sanctioned". The Arab League opposed the establishment of Israel which resulted in the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 which lasted from May 1948-March 1949. Israel was only admitted to the United Nations in May 1949.

Answer: 1956

For the first time since 1896, when the modern Olympics began, the Games were held in the Southern Hemisphere. Melbourne, Australia was chosen as the host city. There were a number of countries that pulled out of the games due to various military conflicts - Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, People's Republic of China, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. East and West Germany competed as a combined team and through the inspiration of an Australian teenager (John Wing) all athletes matched together as "one nation" at the closing ceremony. At previous Olympic Games the athletes had marched at the closing ceremony in their respective nations.

This "one nation" idea is still performed today at Summer and Winter Olympic closing ceremonies.

Answer: 2001

The September 11th attacks (also known as "9/11") was a series of attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11,2001. It was four co-ordinated attacks with the hijacking of four passenger airliners in the north-eastern USA bound for California. Two of the aircraft crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Centre, another crashed into the Pentagon and the fourth, which was on its way to Washington DC, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

The attacks killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000.

Answer: 1964

The Act was signed by the President of the United States, Lyndon B.Johnson, in the White House on July 2, 1964. The act outlawed discrimination based on race, religion, sex, colour or national origin. The Senate debate on the Bill took place on March 26, 1964 and it was the only time that Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X met each other.

They came to hear the debate and their meeting lasted only one minute.

Answer: 1950

The Korean War started on June 25, 1950 when troops from North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations (with the USA as the major force) came to the aid of South Korea and the Soviet Union and China supported North Korea. An armistice was signed on July 27, 1953 to bring the fighting to a close.

However, no peace treaty was signed between North or South Korea, so technically, they are still at war.

Answer: 2009

Barack Obama took the oath of President of the United States on January 20, 2009, thus becoming the 44th President and the first African-American to hold the post. He was also the first President to be born outside of continental USA as he was born in Hawaii.

He served in the Illinois Senate (1997-2004) and the US Senate from 2005-2008. He was voted into a 2nd Term of the Presidency in 2013.

Answer: 1974

On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the first US President to resign. He was the 37th President and was facing impeachment from the House of Representatives and possible removal by the Senate. All the charges on Nixon stemmed from the Watergate scandal. Nixon realised he was facing an uphill battle to maintain his Presidency, so he went out on his own terms by resigning.

Answer: 1946

Although the Nuremberg Trial commenced in November 1945, they were concluded on October 1, 1946. This was the trial of 24 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels were not included as they had committed suicide and also Reinhard Heydrich, as he had been assassinated in 1942. The Soviet Union wanted the trial to be held in Berlin but Nuremberg was chosen due the spacious and large Palace of Justice (which also had a large prison). Nuremberg was also the place where the annual Nazi Party Rallies had been held, so it felt only fitting that this was the place to end the terror that had reigned during the Third Reich.

Answer: 1991

Tim Berners-Lee, an English computer scientist working at CERN (Switzerland) invented the World Wide Web in 1989. However, it was not until August 6, 1991 the the World Wide Web went live to the world. Even in those days few people around the world knew anything about the internet.

The WWW is an information medium that computer users around the globe can write via computers connected to the internet. Berners-Lee wrote three technologies that remain the basis of today's web, being HTML, URI and HTTP.

Answer: 1969

On July 20, 1969 the United States' Apollo 11 landed on the moon. It was the first manned mission to land on the moon. In 1959 the Soviet Union were the first to land a man-made object on the surface of the moon. Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin were the first and second men to set foot on the moon, which took place on July 21, 1969 (6 hours after the landing). Mike Collins was the pilot of the command module (Columbia) that orbited the moon while the two astronauts spend just under a day on the surface of the moon before rendezvousing with Collins in lunar orbit.

Answer: 1982

The Falklands War was a 10 week conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom over British territories in the South Atlantic. The conflict started on April 2, 1982 and ended with the Argentine surrender on June 14, 1982.The military fatalities were 649 from Argentina, 255 from Britain and three local Falkland islanders. Over 11,000 Argentinian soldiers were taken prisoner compared to 115 from Britain.

The heads of both countries at the time of the conflict were the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and the leader of the Argentine Junta, Lieutenant General Leopoldo Galtieri.

Answer: 1963

On November 22, 1963 the 35th President of the United States was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was driving in a presidential motorcade in downtown Dallas with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie. The American Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson took the Presidential oath on board Air Force One, thus becoming the 36th President.

The Warren Commission concluded that the shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby (who killed Oswald before a trial) had both acted alone and independently of each other. Since the findings of the commission were published, there have been numerous theories as to who was behind the assassination.