A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

The Italian Federation of the International Workers' Association is established in Italy, the first organised group affiliated to the Italian anarchic socialist movement; Yellowstone National Park is founded in the United States, the oldest national park in the world; excavation work on the Saint Gotthard tunnel begins.

Start of the “Long Depression”, which from Europe reaches the United States; scientist Camillo Golgi discovers neurons; the 11th Conference of Italian Scientists is held in Rome, during which occasion the Italian Society for the Advancement of Sciences is established.

In Italy, draft legislation on free compulsory elementary education is rejected; French rule over Indochina begins with the Treaty of Saigon; Paris hosts the first official exhibition of the Impressionist movement.

Construction of the Teatro Massimo begins in Palermo, to be concluded in 1891; the first performance of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen is held at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 3 March, three months before the composer's death.

The first issue of newspaper "Corriere della Sera", edited by Eugenio Torelli Viollier, hits the news-stands; the first “Historical Left” government is established in Italy, led by Agostino Depretis; General Custer's troops are defeated by the Sioux tribes led by Sitting Bull in the Battle of Big Horn; Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

Thomas Alva Edison invents the phonograph; the first electric lighting and telephone experiments take place in Milan; the Coppino Law is introduced in Italy, making elementary education free and compulsory for children aged from 6 to 9 years.

The War of the Pacific, between Chile, Bolivia and Peru, breaks out in 1882; the great physicist and philosopher Albert Einstein is born in Ulm, Germany; in Italy, one of the most intense eruptions of Mount Etna occurs; the first electric railway opens in Berlin.

People from Italy and Europe start migrating to America and South America; the first vaccines are developed, thanks to Louis Pasteur's experiments; Edison founds the Edison Illuminating Company, the first company in the world to generate and distribute electricity; works on the Panama Canal begin.

The Brooklyn Bridge is inaugurated in New York; in Indonesia, the catastrophic volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, followed by a tsunami, registers the loudest explosion in the world, heard as far as Madagascar, and causes thousands of victims.

The Greenwich Meridian is established; the first linotype, a machine that allows for automatic typesetting, is invented; “La France”, the first airship, completes a flight covering 8 km in 23 minutes.

John Stith Pemberton invents Coca-Cola; Ernesto Breda founds the Ernesto Breda & Co. company, a mechanics and cast iron smelting plant.

Emile Berliner invents the gramophone; first performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello at the Teatro alla Scala opera house; Italy and Great Britain sign an agreement recognising the status quo of the Mediterranean Sea, which will also later be signed by Austria-Hungary (24 March) and Spain (4 May).

Social and political upheaval in Brazil lead to the establishment of the Republic of the United States of Brazil; China builds its first railroad; John Boyd Dunlop invents the first modern pneumatic tyre; a suspension in the negotiations to agree customs rates between the Italian and French governments engenders the first “commercial war” between the two countries, which will heavily hurt the agricultural economy of Southern Italy; the mining and chemical company Montecatini Società Generale per l'Industria Mineraria e Chimica opens its first plant in the Lombardy region.

On the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, Paris hosts the “Exposition Universelle”, for which occasion the Eiffel Tower is built; Viennese archaeologist Emanuel Löwy establishes the first professorship in Archaeology at the Sapienza University of Rome.

American President Benjamin Harrison signs the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first antitrust law in the world; Labour Day, on 1 May, becomes a public holiday in Italy, to commemorate the fight for workers' rights and the reduction of the working day.

The first Sino-Japanese War breaks out (1894-98); in France, the Dreyfus Affair, a miscarriage of justice in connection to military espionage (concluded in 1906), creates controversy; The Yellow Kid, the first comic strip that gave rise to the modern comics industry, is published in the United States.

The Lumière brothers hold their first cinema screening; establishment of the Nobel Prize; Guglielmo Marconi carries out the first experiments in radio transmission.

The Philippines declare their independence from Spain; Enzo Ferrari is born; the United States occupies Cuba for the first time.

Suppression of the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising against foreign colonial rule, in China; in Canada, Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic message.

The Liberty style is officially established; end of the Second Boer War; the Saint Mark's Bell tower collapses in Venice; Cadillac is founded in Detroit.

The Russo-Japanese War, fought by the Russian Empire to gain control of Manchuria and Korea, begins (1904-1905); in 1905, the New York subway is inaugurated; works on the railway line between Saint Petersburg and Vladivostok end, completing the Trans-Siberian railroad, which crosses Eastern Europe and North Asia over Russian territory.

A major earthquake, followed by a fire, strikes San Francisco, causing thousands of victims; in Chile, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake causes the death of 20,000 people; second occupation of Cuba by the United States.

The Peasants' Revolt breaks out in Romania; Russia and Britain sign the Anglo-Russian Convention, an agreement stipulating the apportionment of Persia's areas of interest, the territorial integrity of Tibet and the British protectorate in Afghanistan; for the first time in the world, women can vote and stand in parliament elections in Finland.

Poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti publishes, in Paris, “The Futurist Manifesto”; American troops leave Cuba; the Bosnian crisis ends with the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina into Austria-Hungary; the first Giro d’Italia is launched.

In Albania, uprisings against the government's new centralisation policies break out; George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India; the Portugal revolution leads to the proclamation of the First Portuguese Republic; Japan annexes Korea; the Mexican Revolution, fought to end the military dictatorship of general and president Porfirio Diaz, begins; the works of Kandinsky and Mondrian lead to the establishment of Abstract art.

Explorer Roald Amundsen is the first to reach the South Pole; the Italo-Turkish war begins, which will see Italy conquering Libya; New Delhi becomes the capital of British India; chemist Ernest Rutherford describes the atomic model.

End of the Chinese Empire and beginning of the Republic of China; the Titanic, the largest transatlantic ship ever built, sinks during its inaugural journey, resulting in 1,500 casualties; Morocco becomes a French protectorate; the First Balkan War begins; Alfred Lothar Wegener develops the theory of continental drift.

The Treaty of Bucharest marks the end of the Second Balkan War; the first women's rights events begin to attract people's attention; in Detroit, Ford Motor Company introduces the first assembly line.

Italy officially joins France and Great Britain as an ally in World War I; a 7 Richter scale earthquake hits the Abruzzo region, destroying several areas and causing 30,000 casualties; the German submarine U-20 sinks the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania.

The Battle of the Somme starts, a series of French and British offensive actions attempting to breach the German lines; Albert Einstein publishes the “Theory of general relativity”.

The United States enters World War I, joining the Allies; start of the Bolshevik Revolution, which overthrows the Russian Empire and establishes, at first, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic; Finland declares its independence from the Russian Empire.

The Treaty of Versailles is signed, which officially marks the end of World War I; in Europe, the workers' uprising termed “Biennio Rosso” (Two red years) begins; in Milan, Benito Mussolini founds the political movement named "Fasci Italiani di Combattimento" (Italian fighting bands); the Weimar Constitution is established, the first democratic statute in German history, which governs Germany from the end of World War I to the rise of Hitler in 1933; in India, Gandhi leads a campaign in civil disobedience; in the United States, the Volstead Act is enforced, better known as the Prohibition Act, which prohibits the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

The Panama Canal is inaugurated; start of the Depression of 1920-1921, a sharp deflationary recession taking place in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries, including Italy; beginning of reformist government in Chile; in India, Gandhi begins a passive resistance and non-violent campaign, aimed at gaining India's independence from the British Empire.

Ireland starts its fight for independence, which will lead to the foundation of an Irish Free State; the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic is established, the first official communist country in the world.

Stalin becomes president of the USSR; Giacomo Matteotti is kidnapped and killed by a fascist squad led by Amerigo Dumini, probably at the order of Benito Mussolini; the “Unione Radiofonica italiana” (Italian Radiophonic Union, the future RAI) is established in Italy.

Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf; Benito Mussolini delivers the speech that marks the beginning of fascist dictatorship in Italy, and the Istituto Luce, the Regime's powerful propaganda tool and the oldest public institutions for the dissemination of films for educational and informative purposes in the world, is established.

Arturo Toscanini conducts the first performance of the Turandot opera at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; ISTAT activity begins thanks to law no. 1162, aimed at collecting, processing and propagating data that was previously managed by separate departments; in London, engineer John Logie Baird introduces the first television set prototype; Italian Umberto Nobile and Norwegian Roald Amundsen land the airship Norge, made with Pirelli's waterproof rubber, after flying over the North Pole, having left Rome two days before.

Pilot Charles Lindbergh completes the first non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, starting a veritable revolution; “talkies” (films with sound) are launched in the United States; in Russia, Stalin gains an overall win and Trotsky, after being expelled from the party, is banished from the country.

Walt Disney creates Mickey Mouse, who appears in the short film Steamboat Willie; British physician Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin; Kodak launches colour film for motion pictures; the Italia airship takes off, designed and operated by admiral Umberto Nobile.

Start of the Great Depression, a major economic and financial crisis that disrupts the world's economy at the end of the 1920s, with significant repercussions over the first years of the following decade.

The Empire State Building is inaugurated in New York; flooding in China kills 2.5 million people; Mao Zedong establishes the Chinese Soviet Republic; physicist Ernst Ruska finalises the electron microscope; Canada leaves the British Commonwealth.

The first edition of the Venice Film Festival is held; in Italy, the De Filippo brothers' theatre company is founded; the American Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly over the Atlantic; the first technicolour film is produced.

Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany, gaining absolute power; Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States for the first of four consecutive terms; the Prohibition Era ends in the United States; Japan leaves the League of Nations.

In Germany, the Nuremberg Laws for the protection of “the purity of German blood” are introduced; the Second Italo-Abyssinian War begins, during which the fascist army aims to encourage Italian migration to new colonies; Italian troops enter Ethiopia, starting a war that prompts the League of Nations to impose economic sanctions; in Italy, Luigi Sacco and Ugo Tiberio develop a radar system based on electromagnetic waves.

Italy annexes Ethiopia; Civil War breaks out in Spain; in the United Kingdom, King Edward VIII abdicates in order to marry Wallis Simpson and is succeeded by his brother George VI; at the Berlin Olympics, African American athlete Jesse Owens wins four gold medals.

The Golden Gate Bridge is inaugurated in San Francisco; Japan invades China, starting the Second World War in the Far East; Japanese troops kill tens of thousands of people in the Nanjing Massacre; the automotive company Toyota Motor Corporation is founded in Japan while Volkswagen is established in Germany, under National Socialist rule and by order of Adolf Hitler; the Guggenheim Museum is inaugurated in New York; Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first animated feature film in the history of cinema.

Italy wins the World Cup for the second time in a row; in Germany, persecution against Jewish people leads to the Kristallnacht massacre in November; the great Purge starts in the USSR.

On 1 September, Germany invades Poland, starting the Second World War; in Spain, the Civil War that began in 1936 ends with the victory of general Francisco Franco and the establishment of his dictatorial regime; Gone with the Wind is released in the United States, and wins ten Oscars.

Germany scales down occupation in Poland, starts using blitzkrieg tactics and within a few months invades Denmark and Norway, Benelux and France; on 10 June, Italy declares war on France and the British Empire; in the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister; McDonald’s opens its first fast-food restaurant in California.

27 countries sign the Atlantic Charter, which states various goals for the world after the end of the war: no territorial expansion, internal and external self-determination, right to democracy and self-government, freedom from fear and want, abandonment of the use of force, a general safety system based on disarmament; in Chicago, Enrico Fermi's team creates the first nuclear reactor; the Soviet army forces the Axis power to a dramatic retreat in the snow, followed by the second defensive battle on the Don.

ENIAC, the first general-purpose computer in history, is developed in the United States, at the University of Pennsylvania; in February, the Allies start bombing Milan, followed by four more major bombardments in August; in April, Germany begins the barbaric annihilation of the Warsaw Ghetto; on 10 July the Allies land in Sicily; on 8 September the armistice between Italy and the Allies is signed.

On 6 June, on D-Day, the Allied troops land on the coast of Normandy; Paris is freed from Nazi rule in August; on 20 October, the Crispi di Gorla elementary school in Milan is hit during a bombing raid, resulting in 200 victims, mostly children.

Thanks to help from the Allies, on 25 April 1945 Italy is liberated from Nazi-fascist occupation; admiral Karl Dönitz, Hitler's successor, signs Germany's unconditional surrender, ending a war that saw the genocide of 6 million Jewish people and 12 million dead among soldiers and civilians; on 6 and 9 August, the United States drops two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forcing Japan to surrender and ending the Second World War for good; the UN is constituted in San Francisco and the Arab League is formed in Cairo; the neorealist genre asserts itself in Italian cinema, thanks to film-makers such as Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, Germi, Lattuada and many others.

After years of war and the incredibly quick reconstruction of the opera house, the Teatro alla Scala di Milano reopens to the public with a performance conducted by maestro Arturo Toscanini, especially returned from the United States, where he had sought refuge during the conflict; on 2 June, after a referendum, Italy becomes a Republic; the first computer is built in the United States; Juan Domingo Perón becomes President of Argentina.

American Secretary of State George Marshall announces his financial aid scheme (known as the Marshall Plan) to support the reconstruction of Europe; pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager is the first human to break the sound barrier; the first transistor, a predecessor of the microchip, is invented in the United States; the Hyundai Group is founded in South Korea, still active today in the naval, railway, automotive, electronic, financial sectors, among many others; thanks to action by the Indian National Congress party, led by Gandhi, India and Pakistan proclaim their independence​.

On 1 January 1948, the Italian Constitution comes into force and the first general election is won by the Christian Democratic party; the Berlin Blockade starts in June, and Italy joins the Marshall Plan; Antonio Pallante shoots Palmiro Togliatti, leading the country to the brink of civil war; the Monza racing track, the third largest circuit in the world, is renovated; United Nations member countries sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Comecon, the pact of mutual economic assistance between Eastern European countries, is established, while Western countries, including Italy, found NATO in March; Enrico Mattei is appointed as liquidator of AGIP and the challenge to the “Seven Sisters”, international oil giants that financially dominate world's production until the 1973 crisis, gets underway; the People’s Republic of China and the DDR, the German Democratic Republic, are proclaimed.

McCarthyism spreads in the United States, a political and administrative approach characterised by opposition towards pro-Communist people, groups and behaviours that are considered “subversive”; Walt Disney’s Cinderella is released in cinemas; in Italy, the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (Southern Development Fund) is established, protests take place in the industrial areas of Genoa and Venice, and the national trade union CGIL dissolves, giving rise to CISL, the Italian Confederation of Trade Unions, and UIL, the Italian Labour Union; on 13 May 1950, the Formula 1 championship starts at Silverstone and is won by Nino Farina for the Alfa Romeo team; the Korean War begins; shipbuilding production exceeds 1938 levels; in Italy, the post-war Reconstruction period comes to an end.

Tax reforms take place in Italy, making tax returns compulsory; Italy, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg sign the Treaty of Paris, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC); the river Po bursts its banks causing the Polesine Flood, and the subsequent evacuation of 180,000 people and over 100 casualties.

The Italian Parliament approves Law no. 136/53, which establishes the national hydrocarbon corporation Eni (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, as well as the so-called “Legge truffa” (“fraud law”) promoted by De Gasperi and soon repealed, which assigned 65% of seats in the lower house of the bicameral Parliament to those who gained 50% of the votes during the elections; James Watson and Francis Crick describe the double helix structure of DNA in the journal Nature; in Cuba, Fidel Castro and a group of rebels attack the Moncada Barracks, marking the start of the Revolution; after the death of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev comes to power as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; Trieste is returned to Italy; the United States and the United Kingdom decree the end of the Allied Military Government.

On 3 January, in Italy, RAI begins broadcasting with TV announcer Fulvia Colombo; in Pittsburgh (USA), the first mass vaccination for polio takes place; in Europe, CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) is founded; in Italy, the “Compasso d'Oro” award for industrial design is established, the brainchild of Gio Ponti; Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli, led by Ardito Desio and with the help of Walter Bonatti, are the first to reach the summit of K2; in Vietnam, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu breaks out, which will lead to the French defeat; the First Indochina War ends, but the Algerian War begins.

Eight Eastern European states establish the Warsaw Pact, a defensive military alliance opposed to NATO; the ECSC makes plans for the creation of the European Single Market and the EAEC (European Atomic Energy Community); thanks to a motion by Canada, Italy becomes a member of the United Nations and signs a bilateral agreement with Germany for the recruitment of Italian labourers, leading to mass migration to Germany.

The 7th Olympic Winter Games are held in Cortina d’Ampezzo; at the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Khrushchev denounces Stalin’s crimes; in Marcinelle, Belgium, a coal mining accidents causes the death of 262 miners, including 136 Italian miners; in Hungary, anti-Soviet uprisings begin, and are suppressed by the USSR within a few weeks.

In Cuba, Fulgencio Batista leaves Havana and Fidel Castro enters the capital; the first Italian nuclear reactor is inaugurated in Ispra, province of Varese; in the United States, the American President and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union meet for the first time, initiating the first “period of détente” in international relations.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy wins the presidential election, becoming the 35th President of the United States; the Italian lira is recognised as the most stable currency in the world; Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita is released and wins the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival; the 17th Summer Olympics open in Rome, soon after the inauguration of the “Leonardo da Vinci” airport in Fiumicino; Benin, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon and Somalia gain independence.

The United States and Cuba break diplomatic relations and the attempted invasion by Cuban exiles trained by the CIA is repelled; Bob Dylan makes his New York debut; Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human being to journey into outer space while, a month later, Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into space as part of the crewed Project Mercury flight; Kennedy announces the Apollo Program, with the aim of landing on the moon; Leonard Kleinrock, MIT graduate, publishes the first paper on packet switching, the technology on which the Internet is based; Kennedy and Khrushchev hold discussions about Berlin and the ban on nuclear experiments; the Communist regime starts building the Berlin Wall; the United States launches its first military operation in Vietnam.

On 18 March, an agreement between France and the National Liberation Front is signed, recognising the independence of Algeria; the Second Vatican Council is held in Rome; the Cuban Missile Crisis breaks out, leading the world to the brink of another world war; Watson, Crick and Wilkins are awarded the Nobel in Medicine for discovering the double helix structure of DNA.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is established, with Josip Broz Tito named president for life; at the Vatican, Pope John XXIII publishes his last encyclical, Pacem in Terris (Peace on earth), a message of hope counteracting the worries about the future – he is succeeded by Pope Paul VI; Martin Luther King delivers his “I have a dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington; a landslide falls from Monte Toc, Northern Italy, into the reservoir created by the Vajont Dam, causing the death of 1,917 people; Lee Harvey Oswald assassinates John Fitzgerald Kennedy in Dallas, Texas; Giulio Natta is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, following his discovery of the polymerisation of propylene and the production of isotactic polypropylene.

The Great St Bernard Tunnel opens to traffic, connecting Italy and Switzerland; the United States and the USSR reach an agreement for nuclear disarmament; during the first Moro government, Giovanni De Lorenzo plans the Piano Solo (Plan Solo), an aborted coup d'état; North Vietnamese patrol boats attack two American destroyers, providing the United States with a pretext to start the Vietnam War; on 4 October, the Italian motorway Autostrada del Sole (Sun Motorway) is inaugurated, as well as the first Milan Metro line; the first Italian satellite, San Marco 1, is sent into orbit.

The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) is founded; Mariner 4, an American space probe, is the first spacecraft to reach Mars, from where it sends back 21 photographs; Saragat and De Gaulle inaugurate the Mont Blanc Tunnel between Italy and France; Italian ocean liners Michelangelo and Raffaello begin carrying passengers: they are the last two great ocean liners to be built in Italy; Pope Paul VI intervenes into the historical and political spheres by addressing the United Nations with a memorable speech for world peace.

Pope Paul VI publishes the social encyclical Populorum Progressio (The development of peoples), on the cooperation between peoples and the issue posed by developing countries; the Vietnam War continues with the United States's failed offensive in the Mekong Delta; the Six-Day War breaks out between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan, with Israel capturing the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria; in Cape Town, surgeon Christian Barnard performs the world’s first heart transplant.

On 5 January, the “Prague Spring” begins with the election of Alexander Dubček, a period of political freedom that leads to the granting of new rights, a partial decentralisation of the economy and democratisation, until Warsaw Pact tanks invade Prague; in Vietnam, General Vo Nguyen Giap launches the Tet Offensive, to which the United States respond by killing 450 civilians in Mỹ Lai; in Italian universities, clashes between students and the police take place; in the Latin Quarter of Paris, riots between the police and students lead to the May 68 events; in Memphis, Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray, and Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy's brother, is assassinated in Los Angeles.

Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States, starting peace talks on the Vietnam War; Yasser Arafat is elected as leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization; in Libya, colonel Muammar Gaddafi seizes power in a military coup; Concorde takes off for the first time in Toulouse, France. Italy introduces old-age pensions, paid by the INPS, the National Institute of Social Security, to citizens with an insufficient income; on 21 July, two human beings land on the Moon: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, part of the Apollo 11 space mission, while in November it's the turn of the astronauts from the Apollo 12 mission; ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet, is launched; a bomb goes off in Piazza Fontana, Milan, killing 17 people and marking the beginning of Italy's “Years of Lead”.

Richard Nixon suspends the convertibility of the US dollar into gold and brings to an end the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement and the International Monetary Fund; in Palermo, chief prosecutor Pietro Scaglione and his driver Antonio Lo Russo are killed by the Corleonesi mafia clan led by Totò Riina: this is the first of many massacres that will lead to the Capaci and the Via d'Amelio bombings in Sicily; in Italy, the VAT (value added tax) regime replaces the General Agreement on tax revenue (IGE); the People’s Republic of China is admitted into the UN; Intel develops the very first commercial microprocessor.

On 30 January, the Bloody Sunday massacre takes place in Northern Ireland, when British soldiers from the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, start shooting civilians during a protest march, wounding 26 people and killing 14 people; Richard Nixon goes on an official visit to China, paving the way for the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries; the Watergate scandal breaks out during the presidential election campaign, engendered by the discovery of illegal wiretapping carried out at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee by people connected with Nixon's Republican party; in 1972, Philips launches the first video recorder for home use, and the first email is sent; in Milan, Giorgio Strehler becomes director of the Piccolo Teatro.

The Paris Peace Accords mark the end of the Vietnam War; in Chile, a military coup leads to the death of Salvador Allende and the start of Pinochet's military dictatorship; the Yom Kippur War breaks out between Egypt and Israel, which will end with the “Kilometer 101” cease-fire agreement; an austerity policy is adopted, to deal with crises and inflation, which includes restrictions on petrol consumption.

The Italian Referendum on divorce defeats the attempt to repeal the related law recently voted in by Parliament; the Piazza della Loggia bombing in Brescia marks the resumption of the strategy of tension in Italy; Consob, the Italian public authority responsible for regulating the Italian financial markets is established; a stagflation period begins in all industrialised countries.

The Palestine Liberation Organization is admitted to the United Nations Security Council; the first issue of newspaper "la Repubblica", edited by Eugenio Scalfari, is published; in California, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer; in Italy, a major earthquake, measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale destroys a large area of northern Friuli; death of Mao Zedong, President of the People’s Republic of China since 1949.

After some years spent experimenting, and much later than other European countries, RAI launches its first colour broadcasting service; in Libya, colonel Gaddafi announces the establishment of the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya; in Milan, the editor of newspaper "Il Giornale Nuovo", Indro Montanelli, is shot in the legs by the Red Brigades.

MP Aldo Moro is kidnapped by the Red Brigades and, two months later, is found dead in Via Caetani in Rome; Parliament approves law no. 194/78 , which legalises abortion; it's the “year of three popes”: Pope Paul VI dies and is succeeded by John Paul I, who passes away a little over a month later and is replaced by John Paul II.

An Itavia passenger jet breaks apart in mid-air above Ustica (Sicily), causing 81 deaths; a bomb explodes at Bologna railway station, leaving 85 people dead and over 200 injured; in Turin, the “March of the 40,000” takes place, a protest by FIAT employees and executives demanding the reopening of the factories shut down by the trade unions; the Irpinia earthquake causes over 3,000 deaths in the Campania and Basilicata regions; tension between Iran and Iraq over control of oil fields on their shared border escalates into war.

Scandal breaks out over the secretive and subversive P2 Masonic lodge revived by Licio Gelli; François Mitterrand is elected President of the French Republic; Pope John Paul II survives an assassination attempt by Mehmet Ali Ağca; in Italy, a referendum to repeal the abortion law is rejected; the first case of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is officially reported in the United States.

Argentina attempts to occupy the Falkland Islands, but the ensuing war is quickly won by Great Britain; Israel invades Lebanon and occupies its southern region, starting a long period of civil war; the President of the Italian bank Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi, is found dead under Blackfriars Bridge in London; the Italian football team, managed by Enzo Bearzot, wins the World Cup in Spain; general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, his wife Emanuela Setti Carraro and personal protection police officer Domenico Russo are murdered by the mafia in Palermo.

ARPANET, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network developed by the United States Department of Defense, officially changes protocol and the Internet is born; Bettino Craxi becomes Prime Minister, the first member of the Italian Socialist Party to hold this office; Polish trade unionist and activist Lech Wałęsa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; Motorola launches the first mobile phone.

The film Once Upon a Time in America, directed by Sergio Leone with score by Ennio Morricone, is released; death of Enrico Berlinguer, Secretary of the Italian Communist Party; the 23rd Olympic Games are held in Los Angeles, establishing Carl Lewis as a star athlete.

In the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev is elected General Secretary of the CPSU and restores the period of détente with the United States led by Ronald Reagan – the two leaders meet for the first time in history; five member states of the EEC – Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands – sign the Schengen Agreement, which Italy will also sign in 1990; a Palestinian guerrilla group hijacks the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and kills American Leon Klinghoffer; the Italian public debt rises to almost 120,000 billion Italian lira, the highest growth since the post-war period.

The “Maxiprocesso” (“Maxi Trial”) begins in Palermo, a trial for mafia crimes involving over 475 defendants (it will end in 1992, with 19 life sentences and prison sentences amounting to 2,665 years of imprisonment in total); President of the United States Ronald Reagan accuses Libya of supporting Palestinian terrorists and mobilises a fleet off its coast; a nuclear reactor explodes in Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, causing thousands of deaths in the surrounding areas; FIAT acquires Alfa Romeo for 1,050 billion Italian lira from IRI (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale, the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction).

The Soviet Union launches its second space flight with two cosmonauts on board Soyuz TM-2; the Single European Act becomes effective, aimed at fully establishing a single market and leading to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty; Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo officer known as the “Butcher of Lyon”, goes on trial for crimes against humanity.

Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, kills approximately 5,000 Kurdish people in the city of Halabja using chemical weapons; the Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan after eight years of war; the war between Iran and Iraq ends after nine years and over a million victims; the President of Chile Augusto Pinochet is defeated in a referendum, but retains the post of President of the Republic until 1990; Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor wins nine Oscars.

Peaceful protests in Tiananmen Square are suppressed in Beijing; the Berlin Wall, seen as a symbol of the Cold War, is demolished; the United States invades Panama and deposes dictator Manuel Noriega.

Saddam Hussein's Iraqi troops invade Kuwait and, following an ultimatum by the UN, in January 1991 George H. W. Bush begins operation “Desert Storm”, ending the conflict on 28 February; Germany is reunited; the Antitrust Authority is established, to enforce the rules of the competitive marketplace; Giuseppe Tornatore’s Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso) wins the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Maastricht Treaty is signed; in Italy, Mario Chiesa, director of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio retirement home and hospital, is arrested and the “Mani Pulite” (“Clean Hands”) operation, a nationwide judicial investigation into political and business corruption, begins; judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three personal protection officers are assassinated in the Capaci bombing, on the motorway near the town of Capaci, Sicily; the privatisation of Italian state-owned companies begins, leading to the transformation of IRI, Eni, INA and Enel into joint-stock companies; judge Paolo Borsellino and five personal protection officers are assassinated in the Via d’Amelio bombing, in Palermo; following the currency crisis, the Italian lira leaves the EMS.

Gabriele Salvatores's Mediterraneo wins the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film; following the Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia splits into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia; American President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the STARTS II treaty for nuclear disarmament; the European Single Market is established, based on four fundamental freedoms: free movement of goods, services, people and capital.

American President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords, a new step towards denuclearisation; Silvio Berlusconi officially announces his entry into Italian political life via a video message; the merger of several companies involved in telecommunications (Sip, Italcable, Iritel, Telespazio and Sirm) gives rise to Telecom Italia.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is replaced by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with Italian politician Renato Ruggiero as director-general; film maker Michelangelo Antonioni receives an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement; Jacques Chirac is elected President of France; the Dayton Agreement officially brings an end to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the United Kingdom, the first case of “mad cow disease”, a progressive, degenerative and fatal neurological disease affecting cattle, is recorded; Dolly the sheep is born, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned; a terrorist attack disrupts the 26th Olympic Games in Atlanta; Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The sovereignty over Hong Kong is transferred from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China, officially ending 156 years of British colonial rule; death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta; Italian actor and writer Dario Fo wins the Nobel Prize in Literature; foundation of the Milan public university Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca; conflict in former Yugoslavia continues with the Kosovo War; the ECB, European Central Bank, is established in Frankfurt; in Brussels, the European Commission proposes to introduce a common currency in 11 countries, including Italy, starting from 1 January 1999; Italian cyclist Marco Pantani is the first cyclist, after Fausto Coppi, to win the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same year.

Creation of the euro, the official currency of the European Union member states, which will enter circulation in 2002 – in Italy, one euro is worth 1936.27 Italian lira; in Los Angeles, Roberto Benigni’s La vita è bella (Life is beautiful) wins three Oscars; Israel and the PLO sign the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum, which includes recognition of the state of Israel and the right to an independent Palestinian state; Pope John Paul II opens the Holy Door, marking the start of the Jubilee.

The Italian Parliament approves the school reform that will restructure education into three cycles of study; FIAT announces an alliance with General Motors, the first step towards a closer cooperation between the two automotive giants; Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.

G8 protests in Genoa result in violent clashes with the police and a great scandal of abuse of power by the police on civilians; on 11 September 2001, two hijacked airplanes crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, destroying them and leaving thousands dead and wounded.

Argentina defaults on its debt and declares bankruptcy; a light aircraft crashes into the 26th and 27th floors of the Pirelli Tower in Milan, killing the pilot and two employees of the Regione Lombardia government authority; Riccardo Giacconi wins the Nobel Prize in Physics, “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources”.

The Beijing government officially announces an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS); the United States invades Iraq, accusing Saddam Hussein’s regime of possessing weapons of mass destruction; in Nasiriyah, Iraq, an attack on the Italian army causes 19 deaths.

Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook, the first social networking site; a series of coordinated attacks on Madrid’s local train system leaves 191 dead and 2,057 injured; a violent tsunami devastates the coasts of Asia, causing billions in damages and over 200,000 deaths.

Hurricane Katrina strikes the south-eastern coast of the United States and wreaks havoc on New Orleans; 141 countries, except the United States, adhere to the “Kyoto Protocol” on reducing the emission of greenhouse gases; death of John Paul II, after 27 years as pope; he is succeeded by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who takes the name of Benedict XVI; the 25 heads of state of the European Union sign the new European Union Constitution in Rome.

The 20th Olympic Winter Games open in Turin; the Italian national team wins the World Cup in Germany; the social networking site Twitter is launched; Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death and executed for crimes against humanity.

Apple presents the first version of the iPhone, ushering in the mass adoption of smartphones; Doris Lessing is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature as “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”; a financial crisis marked by a lack of liquidity and insolvency by both banks and countries, and by scarcity of credit for companies, erupts.

The “Balkan crisis” begins, with Kosovo declaring its independence from Serbia; Democratic senator Barack Obama is elected, becoming the first African-American President of the United States; a military crisis erupts between Russia and Georgia, caused by tensions over the status of Georgian autonomous territories.

Following the peace conference at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip; a violent earthquake hits Abruzzo, causing over 310 deaths.

A disastrous earthquake strikes the island of Haiti, leaving over 3 million dead; José Mourinho’s Inter-Milan football team completes a “treble” by winning the Champion’s League, as well as the Italian league championship and the Coppa Italia; the economic and financial crisis hits Greece and European Union countries adopt emergency recovery measures to deal with it.

In Japan, a dreadful tsunami caused by an earthquake leads to the Fukushima nuclear disaster; Syrian civil war breaks out against the government of Bashar al-Assad and, in 2019, it will lead to the fall of the Islamic State’s last stronghold after four years of dominance over Syria; the American government reports the death of Osama Bin Laden, who masterminded the attack on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001; Pirelli returns to Formula 1 as the sole tyre supplier for all teams at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia is shipwrecked off the island of Giglio, Tuscany, leaving 32 dead and 64 injured; two earthquakes strike the Po Valley, causing 27 deaths; following experiments conducted in the LHC accelerator, CERN scientists confirm the existence of the Higgs boson; death of Rita Levi Montalcini (neurologist, academic and Senator for Life in Italy, as well as Nobel laureate in Medicine in 1987).

Russia occupies Crimea and the Russia-Ukrainian conflict begins; La Grande Bellezza (The great beauty) by Paolo Sorrentino wins the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film; Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaims the foundation of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria; Samantha Cristoforetti is the first Italian woman astronaut to enter the International Space Station (ISS).

In Paris, a terrorist attack on the offices of satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" leaves 12 dead; Milan hosts the 2015 Expo Milano at the Rho Exhibition Centre; Pope Francis issues the encyclical Laudato si’ (Praise be) on integral ecology and launches the 30th Universal Jubilee of the Catholic Church.

In a consultative referendum, the people of the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union: it's “Brexit”; an earthquake with its epicentre at Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto wreaks havoc in Central Italy; Republican Donald Trump is elected 45th President of the United States.

British people vote in favour of Brexit, i.e. for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union; Emmanuel Macron is elected President of France; the Living Will law is approved in Italy; a series of terrorist attacks spread terror in Manchester, London, Barcelona and Egypt.

The longest lunar eclipse of the century takes place; in Italy, due to a structural failure, the Morandi bridge in Genoa collapses, causing 43 deaths; young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg launches the “Fridays for Future” movement, thanks to which she will be nominated Person of the Year by Time Magazine in 2019, the youngest person to be awarded the title; the "Gilets Jaunes" movement engenders a series of violent protests against the rise in fuel price and cost of living in France.

A fire breaks out in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, causing extensive damage to the building; the International Olympic Committee chooses the Italian candidate sites Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo for the 2026 Winter Olympics; the Nobel Prize in Economics is awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to reducing global poverty.

Brexit becomes effective; the whole world is struck by a pandemic caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19); the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis triggers the Black Lives Matter protest movement across the United States; the European Council approves the Recovery Fund in support of economic revival.

Joe Biden, who was Barack Obama's vice president, is elected 46th President of the United States; Pope Francis meets Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq, the very first meeting between a Pope and a Grand Ayatollah; the Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, runs aground in the Suez Canal, blocking it and holding up more than 280 ships for six days.

In Italy, Sergio Mattarella's term as President of the Republic comes to an end; Italy celebrates the 570th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's birth, and the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the euro; India celebrates 75 years of independence, and Brazil its 200 years of independence; the USSR is 100 years old.