Clone of Ebb and flow of political anxiety

We trawled through our archives to discover what threats The World Today deemed worthy of coverage. The bars show how the fear levels were reflected in the number of articles on each topic

The World Today Published 12 June 2015 Updated 7 December 2018 1 minute READ

1945 - 54

1945 Food shortage and refugee crisis
1946 Terrorism in Palestine and Greece
1948 700,000 Palestinians refugees
1950 Korean War

1955-64

1956 Hungarian uprising crushed
1957 Soviet Sputnik 1 launched
1960 France detonates nuclear device in Algeria
1962 Cuban missile crisis
1964 Chinese nuclear test

1965-74

1965 US bombs North Vietnam
1968 USSR crushes Prague Spring
1973 OPEC forces oil price rise
1974 Socialist revolution in Portugal
1974 Pro-Soviet Derg in Ethiopia

1975-84

1975 Tripling of oil prices causes ‘stagflation’
1975 Fall of Saigon
1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
1979 Accident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant

1985-94

1985 Chernobyl nuclear accident
1985 Ethiopian famine
1985 First mention of HIV/AIDS
1988 Pan Am 103 downed over Lockerbie
1990 First Gulf war against Iraq

1995-2004

1996 Exodus of refugees from Sri Lankan civil war
2001 9/11 attacks, start of war on terror, and anthrax used as a biological weapon
2002 SARS outbreak

2005-14

2005 Bird flu in Asia
2006 North Korean nuclear test
2008 Financial crisis. Oil price collapses from $145 to $32 a barrel
2011 Japan hit by tsunami