The
Twentieth Century
- Who was
the most important person of the 20th century?
- Who is
the most overrated person of the century?
- Who is
the most underrated person of the century?
- What development
had the greatest impact on the 20th century?
What Were
the Ten Worst Predictions of the 20th Century?
1. Charles
Duell, Director of the U.S. Patent Office: "Everything that can be
invented, has been invented." (1898)
2. Harper's
Weekly: "The actual building of roads devoted to motor cars is not
for the near future, in spite of rumors to that effect."(1902)
3. Simon
Newcomb, U.S. astronomer: "The construction of an aerial vehicle
which could carry even a single man from place to place at pleasure requires
the discovery of some new metal or some new force." 1903
4. "A
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a strategic impossibility." American
Mercury, 1938
5. Thomas
Watson, CEO of IBM: "I think there is a world market for maybe five
computers." (1943)
6. Admiral
William Leahy to President Truman: "This is the biggest fool thing
we have ever done....The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert
in explosives." 1945.
7. Movie
mogul Darryl Zanuck: "People will soon get tired of staring at a
plywood box every night." (1946)
8. Nikita
Krushchev: "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We
will bury you. Your grandchildren will live under Communism."
9. President
Lyndon B. Johnson: "We are not about to send American boys 9,000
or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing
for themselves." October 21, 1964.
10. Paul
Ehrlich: "It seems certain that before 1985, mankind will enter a
genuine age of scarcity." (1974)
Who Was the Most Important Person of the 20th Century?
My
List: |
|
Media
Consensus: |
1. Gavrilo
Princip
2. Margaret Sanger
3. Emmeline Pankhurst
4. Henry Ford
5. Leo Baekeland
6. Alexander Fleming
7. D.W. Griffith
8. Adolph Hitler
9. Vladimir Lenin
10. Franklin Roosevelt |
vvv |
1. Albert
Einstein
2. Adolph Hitler
3. Franklin Roosevelt
4. Mahatma Gandhi
5. Winston Churchill
6. Martin Luther King
7. Richard Nixon
8. Marilyn Monroe
9. Elvis Presley
10. Nelson Mandella |
Top 10
News Stories of the Twentieth Century:
My
List: |
|
Journalists: |
1.
WWI erupts
2. Russian Revolution
3. Chinese Revolution
4. Indian Independence
5. Moon landing
6. Birth control
7. Stock market crash
8. Collapse of Communism
9. Black migration from South
10. End of WWII |
vvv |
1.
U.S. drops atomic bombs (1945)
2. Armstrong walks on Moon (1969)
3. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor (1941)
4. Wright bros. 1st airplane flight (1903)
5. Women win vote (1920)
6. JFK assassinated (1963)
7. Nazi death camps exposed (1945)
8. WWI begins in Europe (1914)
9. Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
10. Stock market crash (1929) |
The 5
Most Overrated People and Events of the 20th Century
My List:
1. Charles
Lindbergh
2. Cuban Missile Crisis
3. Every U.S. President except Roosevelt, Truman, and Johnson
4. Iranian Hostage Crisis
5. Marilyn Monroe
The 10
Most Underrated People and Events of the 20th Century
My List:
1. Margaret
Sanger
2. Emmeline Pankhurst
3. Philo Farnsworth
4. Willis Carrier
5. J.P. Morgan
6. John D. Rockefeller
7. Thurgood Marshall
8. Any Supreme Court Justice
9. Leo Baekeland
10. Alexander Fleming
American
Life in 1900
1 in 7
homes had a bathtub
1 in 13 homes had a telephone
8,000 automobiles in the United States
Standard & Poors 500 Index: 6.2 (1998: 1,085)
Percentage of Americans dying
without any property: 939 per 100,000
Lynchings: 106 African Americans, 9 others
Mass Deaths
55 million
WWII including Sino Japanese War 1937-45
48 million China under Mao 1949-76
20 million Stalin 1924-53
15 million WWI 1914-18
15 million Russian Civil War 1918-21
4 million Chinese Civil War 1945-49
4 million China Warlord and Nationalist Era 1917-37
3 million Korean War 1950-53
2.4 million Vietnam War 1965-73
2.1 million Germans expelled from E. Europe 1945-47
2 million Congo 1900-08
Comparisons
1900 - 2000
1900
|
|
2000
|
Demography |
World
Population: |
|
|
1.6
billion
|
|
6
billion |
Life
Expectancy (US): |
|
|
47
|
|
76 |
Median
Age (US): |
|
|
23
|
|
35 |
Cities |
Largest
Cities: |
|
|
London:
6 million
|
|
Tokyo:27
million |
New
York: 3.4 million
|
|
Mexico
City: 17 million |
Tallest
Building: |
|
|
Eiffel
Tower: 984 ft
|
|
Petronas
Towers (Thai.) 1,484 ft. |
Economy |
Cars
sold worldwide: |
|
|
4,000
|
|
54
million |
Work
week (US): |
|
|
52
hours
|
|
37.9
hours |
Md
Women Working: |
|
|
759,000
|
|
34
million |
Oil
production: |
|
|
150
million barrels
|
|
24
billion barrels |
Weekly
Wage (US):
|
|
|
$9.70
|
|
$435 |
Farms
(US): |
|
|
5.7
million
|
|
2
million |
Energy
Supply: |
|
|
Coal:
74%
|
|
Oil:
40% |
Wood:
23%
|
|
Gas:
24% |
Oil:
3%
|
|
Coal:
21% |
|
|
Nuclear:
7 |
Family |
Age
1st Marriage (US): |
|
|
men:
26
|
|
men:
26 |
women:
22
|
|
women:
24 |
Divorces
(US): |
|
|
55,751
|
|
1.2
million |
Infant
Mortality (US): |
|
|
140
per 100,000
|
|
6.3
per 100,000 |
Government |
Taxes: |
|
|
$567
million
|
|
$1.7
trillion |
Govt
Spending/GDP U.S.: |
|
|
1.8
percent
|
|
34
percent |
Famous
Firsts
1900
Quantum
physics
Kodak Brownie camera
Escalator
Hamburger
|
1901
Blood
groups discovered
First trans-Atlantic radio signals
Instant coffee
|
1902
Chromosomal
theory of heredity
Air conditioner
Vacuum cleaner
|
|
1903
Safety
razor
Ice cream cone
|
1905
First
pizzeria in U.S.
|
1906
Permanent
wave
|
|
1907
Plastic
|
1908
Concrete
pavement
|
1910
Neon
light
|
|
1912
Cellophane
|
1913
Gas
station
Crossword puzzle
Zipper
|
1914
1st
movie star: Florence Lawrence
|
|
1928
Penicillin
Sliced bread
|
1929
Frozen
food
|
1936
Loafers
|
|
1938
Nuclear
fission
Photocopy
|
1943
Ballpoint
pen
|
1949
Carbon
14 dating
|
|
1953
Structure
of DNA decoded
|
1974
VCR
|
|
20th Century Words
Concentration
Camp 1900
Phony 1900
Allergy 1906
Highbrow, Lowbrow 1906
Psychoanalysis 1906
Jazz 1909
Electronics 1910
Feminism 1910
Collage 1919
White Collar 1920
Wimp 1920
Gigolo 1922
Teenager 1943
Psychedelic
1956
|