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