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  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