The 20th century began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000.
| Millennium: | 2nd millennium |
|---|---|
| Centuries: | |
| Timelines: | |
| State leaders: |
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| Decades: | |
| Categories: | Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments |
The 20th century saw two world wars and a Cold War, the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, the coming of the telephone, sound recording, movies and television, airplanes, atomic weapons, genetics and DNA, computers and electronics in general. Science and industrialization spread; medicine became more scientific. World population growth was greater during this century than any previous one.
World leaders
- Africa
- Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Côte d'Ivoire
- Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia
- Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya
- Idi Amin, Uganda
- Nelson Mandela, South Africa
- Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
- Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt
- Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana
- Julius Nyerere, Tanzania
- Muammar al-Gaddafi, Libya
- Cecil Rhodes, South Africa
- Haile Selassie I, Ethiopia
- Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal
- Americas
- William McKinley, USA
- Theodore Roosevelt, USA
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, USA
- Harry S. Truman, USA
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, USA
- John F. Kennedy, USA
- Richard Nixon, USA
- Ronald Reagan, USA
- George H. W. Bush, USA
- Bill Clinton, USA
- Wilfrid Laurier, Canada
- William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada
- Pierre Trudeau, Canada
- Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Argentina
- Fidel Castro, Cuba
- Raúl Castro, Cuba
- Juan Perón, Argentina
- Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentina
- Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentina
- Salvador Allende, Chile
- Augusto Pinochet, Chile
- Emiliano Zapata, Mexico
- Pancho Villa, Mexico
- José María Velasco Ibarra, Ecuador
- León Febres Cordero, Ecuador
- Sixto Durán Ballén, Ecuador
- Asia
- Mao Zedong, People's Republic of China
- Deng Xiaoping, People's Republic of China
- Pol Pot, Cambodia
- Subhas Chandra Bose, India
- Mahatma Gandhi, India
- Indira Gandhi, India
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan
- Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh
- Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia
- Jawaharlal Nehru, India
- Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, India
- Hirohito, Japan
- Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
- Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China
- Chiang Kai-shek, Republic of China
- Sukarno, Indonesia
- Europe
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey
- Neville Chamberlain, United Kingdom
- Winston Churchill, United Kingdom
- Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom
- Charles de Gaulle, France
- Éamon de Valera, Ireland
- Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Austria-Hungary
- Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany
- Václav Havel, Czech Republic
- Adolf Hitler, Germany
- Helmut Schmidt, Germany
- Helmut Kohl, Germany
- Gerhard Schröder, Germany
- Benito Mussolini, Italy
- Francisco Franco, Spain
- Adolfo Suárez, Spain
- Józef Piłsudski, Poland
- Josip Broz 'Tito', Yugoslavia
- Milan Kučan, Slovenia
- Slobodan Milošević, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
- Olof Palme, Sweden
- Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania
- Lech Wałęsa, Poland
- John Paul II, World
- Middle East
- Russia and Soviet Union
Scientists and physicians
- David Attenborough
- Niels Bohr
- Ernst Chain
- Francis Crick
- Albert Einstein
- Enrico Fermi
- Frederick Banting
- Howard Florey
- Sigmund Freud
- Kurt Gödel
- Werner Heisenberg
- Hans Krebs
- Jacques Monod
- Linus Pauling
- Frederick Sanger
- Erwin Schrödinger
- John von Neumann
- Nikola Tesla
- Alan Turing
- James D. Watson
- Claude Beck, first use of a defibrillator (heart) in 1947. The patient was a 14-year-old boy named Mickey.
Economics and business
Aerospace pioneers
Military leaders
Religious figures
- Grigori Rasputin
- Tobey Maguire
- Pope John XXIII
- Pope John Paul II
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta
- The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso
- The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
- The Rev. Billy Graham
- Mahatma Gandhi
Artists
Singers, actors, actresses and bands
- Aaliyah
- ABBA
- AC/DC
- Aerosmith
- Andy Griffith
- Ava Gardner
- Anthony Hopkins
- Alain Delon
- Audrey Hepburn
- Akira Kurosawa
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Al Pacino
- Buster Keaton
- Bud Spencer
- Barry White
- Bette Davis
- Brigitte Bardot
- Barbra Streisand
- Betty Grable
- Billie Holiday
- Black Sabbath
- Bob Dylan
- Bob Marley
- Bobby Darin
- Bruce Willis
- Burt Reynolds
- Bruce Lee
- Boney M.
- Bee Gees
- The Beach Boys
- Clark Gable
- Carole Landis
- Charlie Chaplin
- Clint Eastwood
- Chuck Berry
- Chuck Norris
- Cher
- Danny DeVito
- Donna Summer
- Duran Duran
- David Bowie
- Dennis Hopper
- Doris Day
- Dustin Hoffman
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Eric Clapton
- Elvis Presley
- Elton John
- Eddie Murphy
- Frank Sinatra
- George Lucas
- Greta Garbo
- Green Day
- Groucho Marx
- Genesis (band)
- Guns N' Roses
- Gene Hackman
- Gary Cooper
- Grace Kelly
- Heath Ledger
- Harrison Ford
- Harold Lloyd
- Humphrey Bogart
- Hedy Lamarr
- Ingrid Bergman
- Iggy Pop
- Iron Maiden
- Ian McShane
- Yul Brynner
- Jack Nicholson
- James Dean
- James Stewart
- James Cameron
- James Brown
- Jean-Paul Belmondo
- Janis Joplin
- Jim Morrison
- Jimi Hendrix
- Judas Priest
- John Hurt
- John Travolta
- John Wayne
- Johnny Depp
- Julie Andrews
- Junius Matthews
- Katharine Hepburn
- Kirk Douglas
- Kraftwerk
- Kurt Cobain
- Kiss (band)
- Led Zeppelin
- Lana Turner
- Lauren Bacall
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Louis Armstrong
- Lucille Ball
- Madonna
- Mae West
- Metallica
- Meryl Streep
- Marlon Brando
- Marilyn Monroe
- Marlene Dietrich
- Mary Pickford
- Michael Jackson
- Michael Dapaah
- P. Ramlee
- Paul Newman
- Phil Spector
- Pink Floyd
- Prince (musician)
- Public Enemy
- Queen (band)
- Robert De Niro
- Robert Redford
- Roger Moore
- Ray Charles
- Ron Howard
- Steven Spielberg
- Sylvester Stallone
- Sean Connery
- Sophia Loren
- Sigourney Weaver
- Simon & Garfunkel
- Sharon Stone
- Sandra Dee
- Sex Pistols
- Spike Milligan
- Sterling Holloway
- Stevie Wonder
- Tupac Shakur
- Tina Turner
- The Doors
- The Beatles
- The Ramones
- The Rolling Stones
- The Pointer Sisters
- The Velvet Underground
- U2
- Walt Disney
- Will Ferrell
Writers and Poets
- Albert Camus
- Anton Chekhov
- Jorge Luis Borges
- Samuel Beckett
- Noam Chomsky
- Charles Bukowski
- Cid Corman
- E. E. Cummings
- T. S. Eliot
- Gabriel García Márquez
- Allen Ginsberg
- Alamgir Hashmi
- Seamus Heaney
- Ernest Hemingway
- James Joyce
- Franz Kafka
- Jack Kerouac
- Philip Larkin
- Antonio Machado
- George Orwell
- Wilfred Owen
- Ezra Pound
- Marcel Proust
- Ayn Rand
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Gary Snyder
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Virginia Woolf
- W. B. Yeats
- Emma Goldman
- Rabindranath Tagore
Sports figures
- Ayrton Senna
- Muhammad Ali
- Chris Benoit
- Larry Bird
- Sir Donald Bradman
- Roberto Clemente
- Ty Cobb
- Franz Beckenbauer
- Fausto Coppi
- Wilfredo Gómez
- Wayne Gretzky
- Sir Edmund Hillary
- Magic Johnson
- Michael Jordan
- Martina Navratilova
- Diego Maradona
- George Best
- Sir Bobby Charlton
- Johan Cruyff
- René Higuita
- Sir Stanley Matthews
- Christy Mathewson
- Jesse Owens
- Jack Nicklaus
- Pelé
- Jackie Robinson
- Boris Becker
- Babe Ruth
- O. J. Simpson
- Tris Speaker
- Mike Tyson
- Hulk Hogan
- Ted Williams
People widely known for something bad
- Idi Amin
- Mohamed Atta
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Ted Bundy
- James Burke (gangster)
- Al Capone
- Mark David Chapman
- Leon Czolgosz
- Jeffrey Dahmer
- John Dillinger
- Pablo Escobar
- John Wayne Gacy
- Carlo Gambino
- Ed Gein
- Nathuram Godse
- Joseph Goebbels
- Emma Goldman
- John Gotti
- Heinrich Himmler
- Adolf Hitler
- Tom Horn
- Saddam Hussein
- Jim Jones
- Ted Kaczynski
- Osama Bin Laden
- Lucky Luciano
- Charles Manson
- Timothy McVeigh
- Benito Mussolini
- Lee Harvey Oswald
- Carl Panzram
- Gavrilo Princip
- Sacco and Vanzetti
- Jack Ruby
- James Earl Ray
- Harold Shipman
- Bugsy Siegel
- O. J. Simpson
- Sirhan Sirhan
- Josef Stalin
- Aileen Wuornos
- Mao Zedong
Note: movie years before or after the twentieth century are in italics.
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