1900s - Definition and Overview

Events and Trends

Technology

• Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft
• Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first documented flight in a powered heavier-than-air aircraft
• Mass production of automobile
• Wide popularity of home phonograph
• Panama Canal is built by the United States

Science

• Planck's law of black body radiation
• Einstein's theory of special relativity
• Einstein explains Brownian motion and the photoelectric effect

War, peace and politics

• The New Imperialism
• Demand for Home Rule for Ireland
• Second Boer War ends
• British colonies in Australia federate, forming the Commonwealth of Australia
• Russo-Japanese War establishes Japan as a world power
• UK and France sign Entente Cordiale

Culture, religion

• Emergence of Cubist and Futurist art

People

World Leaders

• Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
• Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier (Canada)
• Emperor Wilhelm II (Germany)
• King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
• Pope Leo XIII
• Pope Pius X
• Emperor Nicholas II (Russia)
• Queen Victoria (United Kingdom)
• King Edward VII (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Lord Salisbury (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (United Kingdom)
• President William McKinley (United States)
• President Theodore Roosevelt (United States)

Important Personalities

• Sigmund Freud