1900 |
Sigmund
Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams
1900
Paris Exposition
|
Jewish
population estimated at between 938,000 -1.058 million
(1.23-1.39 percent of total population)
Workmen's
Circle is established in New York to promote mutual aid,
Yiddish culture, and labor solidarity among Jewish workers
|
International
Ladies' Garment Workers' Union is founded
|
1901 |
|
The
Industrial Removal Office is established to help relocate
Jewish immigrants from the Lower East Side, New York,
to communities across the United States
|
President
William McKinley is assassinated; Vice-President Theodore
Roosevelt becomes the U.S. President
|
1902 |
|
Agudath
ha-Rabbanim, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, is founded
in New York
|
|
1903 |
Forty-nine
Jews are killed and 92 are severely wounded in the Kishinev
pogram
Settlers
of the Second Aliyah begin to arrive in Palestine
|
A
bronze tablet containing Emma Lazarus's poem, "The New Colossus" is affixed to the base of the Statue of Liberty
|
Orville
and Wilbur Wright make first sustained airplane flight
U.S.
gains control over the Panama Canal
Henry
Ford founds Ford Motor Company
|
1905 |
|
American
Jews celebrate the 250th anniversary of receiving the
right to settle in New Amsterdam
|
|
1906 |
|
In
response to the Kishinev pogroms, the American Jewish
Committee is founded to safeguard Jewish rights internationally
Oscar Straus is appointed Secretary of Labor and Commerce, the first Jew to hold
a U.S. Cabinet post
|
San
Francisco earthquake
Upton Sinclair writes The Jungle
|
1909 |
Robert
E. Peary reaches the North Pole
|
|
National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People is
founded
Protesting intolerable working conditions, 20,000 shirtwaist makers go on strike
|
1911 |
Roald
Amundsen reaches South Pole
|
|
One
hundred and forty-six women die tragically in the Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York
|
1912 |
Titanic sinks
on maiden voyage across Atlantic ocean
|
Henrietta
Szold founds Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization
of America
Financier
and philanthropist Jacob Schiff purchases large Hebrew
book collection for Library of Congress, leading to the
establishment of the Semitic Division in the following
year
|
|
1913 |
In
Kiev, Mendel Beilis, target of a blood libel, is acquitted
after a sensational trial
|
B'nai
B'rith founds the Anti-Defamation League to combat anti-Semitism
in the United States, in response to the Atlanta trial
of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager wrongly accused
of murder
|
|
1914 |
World
War I begins
During
First World War, Russian forces in retreat drive 600,000
Jews from their homes
|
American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is founded to provide
funds and assistance for Jewish war relief
First
boarding house for Jewish vacationers opens in the Catskills,
which will lead to the development of the area into a
major vacation destination of national reputation
|
Panama
Canal is opened
|
1915 |
|
A
mob kidnaps and lynches Leo Frank on learning that the
governor of Georgia had committed Frank's death sentence
to life in prison
|
|
1916 |
|
Louis
Brandeis becomes first Jewish Supreme Court justice
|
|
1917 |
Russian
Revolution brings Vladimir Lenin to power in Russia
Balfour Declaration declares that the British government favors the establishment
of a Jewish homeland in Palestine
|
|
United
States enters World War I
|
1918 |
|
American
Jewish Congress is founded to help secure Jewish rights
in post-War Europe and Palestine
|
Worldwide
influenza epidemic strikes, killing more than 25 million
people over two years
|
1919 |
Prohibition
begins
Anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to the Soviet Union
|
|
|
1920 |
League
of Nations is established in Geneva, Switzerland, and
the United States does not join
|
Jewish
population: between 3.3-3.6 million (3.12-3.41 percent
of total population)
|
Constitutional
amendment grants women the right to vote
Henry
Ford publishes anti-Semitic propaganda in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent
|
1921 |
|
|
Margaret
Sanger forms the America Birth Control League, the predecessor
to Planned Parenthood Clinics
|
1922 |
|
Mordecai
M. Kaplan founds the Society for the Advancement of Judaism,
the cradle of the Reconstructionist movement; Judith
Kaplan (Eisenstein), Kaplan's daughter, celebrates first
American Bat Mitzvah
|
|
1923 |
|
George
Gershwin composes "Rhapsody in Blue"
|
1924 |
|
|
Immigration
Act severely limits immigration
|
1925 |
Hebrew
University opens in Jerusalem with American rabbi Judah
L. Magnes as chancellor
First
volume of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf is published
|
Florence
Prag Kahn of San Francisco becomes the first Jewish woman
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
|
The
Scopes Trial puts the theory of evolution on trial
|
1927 |
Charles
Levine becomes the first transatlantic air passenger
|
Warner
Brothers produces drama of Jewish acculturation, The
Jazz Singer, the first film with sound
|
Charles
A. Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic
|
1928 |
Alexander
Fleming formulates penicillin
|
Yeshiva
College is dedicated in New York
The
first chair in Jewish history at a secular university
in the United States is endowed at Columbia University
|
First
scheduled television broadcast in New York
|
1929 |
|
|
U.S.
Stock market crashes on October 29th
|
1930 |
Mahatma
Gandhi leads the March to the Sea, where thousands gather
to protest a government tax on salt
|
Jewish
population: between 4.228–4.4 million (3.44–3.58 percent
of total population)
|
|
1931 |
|
|
Construction
of Empire State Building completed, making it the tallest
building in the world at the time
|
1932 |
|
|
Amelia
Earhart is the first female pilot to fly solo across
the Atlantic Ocean
|
1933 |
Albert
Einstein leaves his academic post in Nazi Germany to
reside in United States
Adolf
Hitler becomes German chancellor, and initiates a series
of anti-Jewish actions
|
The
American Jewish Congress declares a boycott of German
goods to protest the Nazi persecution of Jews
|
Franklin
D. Roosevelt is inaugurated President
|
1934 |
|
Hank
Greenberg, first baseman for the Detroit Tigers, refuses
to play on Yom Kippur
|
|
1935 |
Nuremberg
Laws deprive German Jews of their civil rights
|
|
|
1936 |
Spanish
Civil War begins
Edward VIII abdicates the British throne to wed American divorcee Wallis Simpson
|
|
|
1937 |
Pablo
Picasso paints Guernica
|
|
Golden
Gate Bridge is completed in San Francisco
|
1938 |
German
synagogues and Jewish businesses are destroyed on Kristallnacht,
or "The Night of Broken Glass"
Germany
annexes Austria
|
|
Father
Charles E. Coughlin launches a media campaign against
Jews on his popular radio program and in his widely-read
magazine, Social Justice
|
1939 |
Germany
invades Poland, World War II begins
|
|
America
refuses entry to the St. Louis carrying 907 Jewish refugees from Germany
Irving Berlin introduces his song "God Bless America"
|
1940 |
Winston
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
|
Jewish
population: between 4.77 and 4.83 million (3.63-3.68
percent of total population)
|
First
electron microscope is demonstrated in New Jersey
|
1941 |
|
|
Japan
attacks Pearl Harbor and the United States officially
enters World War II
|
1942 |
|
Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise receives the "Riegner Telegram" confirming the Nazi intention to murder the Jews of Europe and turns to the
State Department for help
|
War
Relocation Authority interns Japanese Americans
Electronic computer is developed in the U.S.
"Manhattan
Project" of atomic research begins
|
1944 |
D-Day.
Allied forces attack at the beaches of Normandy, France
|
Camp
for Jewish war refugees is opened at Oswego, New York
|
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt establishes the War Refugee Board
|
1945 |
World
War II ends
International tribunal for war crimes is established at Nuremberg
United
Nations is established
|
Bess
Myerson becomes the first Jewish woman to win the Miss
America Pageant
|
President
Franklin Roosevelt dies in office and Vice-President
Harry S Truman takes over
U.S.
drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World
War II
|
1946 |
Winston
Churchill gives his "Iron Curtain" speech in Missouri
|
|
Bernard
Baruch presents the U.S. policy statement for the control
of atomic energy to the United Nations
|
1947 |
Dead
Sea Scrolls are discovered in the Judean desert
The
U.N. General Assembly votes to partition Palestine into
two states, one Jewish and one Arab
|
|
Marshall
Plan for post-war recovery of European nations is introduced
|
1948 |
State
of Israel is established
Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in India
|
Brandeis
University is founded as first nonsectarian, Jewish-sponsored,
institution of higher education
|
President
Harry S Truman recognizes the State of Israel within
its first hour of existence
U.S.
Congress passes the Marshall Plan
|
1949 |
Chaim
Weizmann is elected first president of Israel
N.A.T.O.
treaty signed
|
|
|
1950 |
The
Korean War breaks out
|
Jewish
population: between 4.5 and 5 million (2.98-3.31 percent
of total population)
|
|
1951 |
|
|
Color
television is introduced
|
1952 |
Yiddish
writers and other Jewish cultural figures are executed
in the U.S.S.R. on "Night of the Murdered Poets"
Elizabeth II becomes Queen of England
|
|
|
1953 |
James
Watson and Francis Crick decipher the structure of DNA
|
|
Julius
and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted and executed for espionage
|
1954 |
|
American
Jewish community celebrates tercentenary of Jewish life
in America
Stern
College for Women is created as a branch of Yeshiva University
in New York City
|
Supreme
Court issues ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ending legal segregation in U.S. schools
The phrase "under God" is added to the Pledge of Allegiance
|
1955 |
|
|
Polio
vaccine is developed by Jonas Salk and is licensed for
use
Martin
Luther King Jr. initiates the bus boycott to end racial
segregation on public transportation in the South
|
1956 |
Suez
Canal Crisis
|
|
|
1957 |
The
Soviet Union launches Sputnik I into orbit and begins the "space race"
|
|
|
1958 |
|
Reform
Jewish Temple in Atlanta is dynamited by a group of extreme
segregationists
|
Leonard
Bernstein becomes first American-born musician to be
appointed Music Director and Conductor of the New York
Philharmonic Symphony
|
1959 |
Fidel
Castro takes power in Cuba
|
|
Alaska
and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states
|
1960 |
Adolf
Eichmann is captured and later stands trial in Israel
for World War II crimes against Jews and humanity
|
The
movie version of Leon Uris's novel Exodus is released
|
|
1961 |
Berlin
Wall goes up, dividing East and West Germany
|
|
|
1963 |
|
|
President
John F. Kennedy is assassinated
Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
|
1964 |
|
Student
Struggle for Soviet Jewry founded to protest Soviet anti-Jewish
policies
Fiddler on the Roof opens on Broadway
|
Thousands
of activists travel to Mississippi to register African-American
voters during Freedom Summer. Three, Michael Schwerner,
Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, are murdered
|
1965 |
|
|
Abraham
Joshua Heschel walks with Martin Luther King Jr. on civil
rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama
|
1967 |
"Six
Day War" between Israel and its neighbors
|
|
|
1968 |
Polish
government outlaws Jewish language and institutions
|
|
Martin
Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy are assassinated
|
1969 |
|
Association
for Jewish Studies founded
|
Vietnam
War protests take place across the country
Neil
Armstrong becomes first man on moon
|
1970 |
|
Jewish
population estimated at between 5.37 and 6 million (2.64-2.95
percent of total population)
|
|
1972 |
Eleven
Israeli Olympians in Munich are murdered in terrorist
attack
|
Hebrew
Union College ordains Sally J. Priesand, making her America's
first woman rabbi
|
|
1973 |
"Yom
Kippur War" between Israel and its neighbors
|
The
first National Jewish Women's Conference is held in New
York, attended by over 400 women
|
|
1974 |
|
|
Jackson-Vanick
amendment passes, linking free emigration from Russia
to "most favored nation" trade status
In the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal, President Richard M. Nixon resigns
|
1976 |
The
Concorde, a supersonic jet, takes flight and starts regular
service between London, Paris, and U.S.
|
Lilith,
the Jewish feminist magazine, begins publication
|
The
United States of America celebrates its bicentennial
|
1977 |
|
|
First
flight of space shuttle
|
1978 |
Camp
David Accords result in peace treaty between Israel and
Egypt
First "test-tube" baby is born in England
|
Yiddish
writer Isaac Bashevis Singer is awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature
|
American
Nazi party marches in Skokie, Illinois
|
1979 |
Margaret
Thatcher becomes first woman prime minister of Britain
Shah of Iran is ousted and Ayatollah Khomeini sets up an Islamic Republic
|
|
U.S.
hostages are taken in Iran
Three Mile Island nuclear accident
|
1980 |
|
First
Jewish film festival is held in San Francisco
|
Mount
St. Helens erupts in Washington state
|
1981 |
Anwar
Sadat is assassinated
|
|
Sandra
Day O'Connor becomes the first woman appointed to the
U.S. Supreme Court
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is identified
|
1983 |
|
Jewish
Theological Seminary votes to ordain women as Conservative
rabbis
|
Sally
Ride becomes the first American female astronaut
|
1984 |
Israel
launches "Operation Moses," the clandestine airlift of 25,000 Ethiopian Jews in Sudanese refugee camps to
Israel (through 1985)
|
Madeleine
M. Kunin is elected governor of Vermont, becoming the
first Jewish woman governor in the United States
Shoshana Cardin of Baltimore becomes the first woman president of the National
Council of Jewish Federations
|
Macintosh
computer with "mouse" is launched
15,000 Holocaust survivors gather in Washington, D.C
|
1986 |
Chernobyl
nuclear reactor disaster in Ukraine
|
Elie
Wiesel wins Nobel Peace Prize
|
Space
shuttle Challenger explodes
|
1989 |
Soviet
Union permits Jews to emigrate freely
The Berlin Wall falls
Tiananmen
Square Massacre
|
|
|
1990 |
Anti-apartheid
activist Nelson Mandela is freed in South Africa
|
|
|
1991 |
Republics
of the Soviet Union gain independence
|
|
U.S.
and allies begin Operation Desert Storm
|
1992 |
NAFTA
Trade Pact signed by U.S., Canada, and Mexico
|
The
first Jewish women senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara
Boxer, are elected to the U.S. Senate – representing
California
|
|
1993 |
Oslo
Accord between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are
signed in a ceremony on the White House lawn
|
|
Ruth
Bader Ginsburg becomes first Jewish woman Supreme Court
justice
The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opens in Washington,
D.C.
|
1995 |
Yitzhak
Rabin is assassinated
|
|
Oklahoma
City bombing of U.S. federal building
|