The Newseum in Arlington, Va., asked journalists and scholars to select the 20th Century's top 100 stories. The results were released Feb. 24.
| 1. | United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki: Japan surrenders to end World War II. | 1945 |
| 2. | American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the
moon. | 1969 |
| 3. | Japan bombs Pearl Harbor: United States enters World War II. | 1941 |
| 4. | Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first powered airplane. | 1903 |
| 5. | Women win the vote. | 1920 |
| 6. | President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas. | 1963 |
| 7. | Horrors of Nazi Holocaust, concentration camps exposed. | 1945 |
| 8. | World War I begins in Europe. | 1914 |
| 9. | Brown v. Board of Education ends "separate but equal" school
segregation. | 1954 |
| 10. | U.S. stock market crashes: The Great Depression sets in. | 1929 |
| 11. | Alexander Fleming discovers the first antibiotic, penicillin. | 1928 |
| 12. | Structure of DNA discovered. | 1953 |
| 13. | U.S.S.R dissolves, Mikhail Gorbachev resigns: Boris Yeltsin takes over. | 1991 |
| 14. | President Richard M. Nixon resigns after Watergate scandal. | 1974 |
| 15. | Germany invades Poland: World War II begins in Europe. | 1939 |
| 16. | Russian revolution ends: Communists take over. | 1917 |
| 17. | Henry Ford organizes the first major U.S. assembly line to produce Model
T cars. | 1913 |
| 18. | Soviets launch Sputnik, first space satellite: space race begins. | 1957 |
| 19. | Albert Einstein presents special theory of relativity: general
relativity theory to follow. | 1905 |
| 20. | FDA approves birth-control pill. | 1960 |
| 21. | Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine proven effective in University of
Pittsburgh tests. | 1953 |
| 22. | Adolf Hitler named Chancellor of Germany: Nazi Party begins to seize
power. | 1933 |
| 23. | Civil rights leader Martin Luther King assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. | 1968 |
| 24. | D-Day invasion marks the beginning of the end of World War II in Europe. | 1944 |
| 25. | Deadly AIDS disease identified. | 1981 |
| 26. | Congress passes landmark Civil Rights Act outlawing segregation. | 1964 |
| 27. | Berlin Wall falls as East Germany lifts travel restrictions. | 1989 |
| 28. | Television debuts in America at New York World's Fair. | 1939 |
| 29. | Mao Tse-tung establishes Peoples Republic of China: Nationalists flee to Formosa (Taiwan). | 1949 |
| 30. | Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic in first solo flight. | 1927 |
| 31. | First mass market personal computers launched. | 1977 |
| 32. | World Wide Web revolutionizes the Internet. | 1989 |
| 33. | Scientists at Bell Labs invent the transistor. | 1948 |
| 34. | FDR launches "New Deal:" sweeping federal economic, public works
legislation to combat depression. | 1933 |
| 35. | Cuban Missile Crisis threatens World War III. | 1962 |
| 36. | "Unsinkable" Titanic, largest man-made structure, sinks. | 1912 |
| 37. | Germany surrenders: V.E. Day celebrated. | 1945 |
| 38. | Roe v. Wade decision legalizes abortion. | 1973 |
| 39. | World War I ends with Germany's defeat. | 1918 |
| 40. | First regular radio broadcasts begin in America. | 1909 |
| 41. | Worldwide flu epidemic kills 20 million. | 1918 |
| 42. | 'ENIAC' becomes world's first computer. | 1946 |
| 43. | Regular TV broadcasting begins in the United States. | 1941 |
| 44. | Jackie Robinson breaks baseball's color barrier. | 1947 |
| 45. | Israel achieves statehood. | 1948 |
| 46. | Plastic invented: revolutionizes products, packaging. | 1909 |
| 47. | Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott begins after Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white person. | 1955 |
| 48. | Atomic bomb tested in New Mexico. | 1945 |
| 49. | Apartheid ends in South Africa: law to treat races equally. | 1993 |
| 50. | Civil rights march converges on Washington, D.C.: Martin Luther King gives "I Have A Dream" speech. | 1963 |
| 51. | American scientists patent the computer chip. | 1959 |
| 52. | Marconi transmits radio signal across the Atlantic. | 1901 |
| 53. | White House sex scandal leads to impeachment of President William
Jefferson Clinton. | 1998 |
| 54. | Sec. of State George Marshall proposes European recovery program (The
Marshall Plan). | 1947 |
| 55. | Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in California. | 1968 |
| 56. | U.S. Senate rejects Versailles Treaty: dooms League of Nations. | 1920 |
| 57. | Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" stimulates environmental protection movement. | 1962 |
| 58. | British rock group The Beatles takes the United States by storm after
debut on the Ed Sullivan show. | 1964 |
| 59. | Congress passes Voting Rights Act, outlawing measures used to suppress minority votes. | 1965 |
| 60. | Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space. | 1961 |
| 61. | First jet airplane takes flight. | 1939 |
| 62. | U.S. combat troops arrive in South Vietnam: U.S. planes bomb North
Vietnam. | 1965 |
| 63. | North Vietnamese forces take over Saigon. | 1975 |
| 64. | Manhattan Project begins secret work on atomic bomb: Fermi triggers
first atomic chain reaction. | 1942 |
| 65. | Congress strengthens "GI Bill of Rights" to help veterans. | 1945 |
| 66. | Alan Shepard becomes first American in space. | 1961 |
| 67. | Watergate scandal engulfs Nixon administration. | 1973 |
| 68. | Earthquake hits San Francisco: "Paris of the West" burns. | 1906 |
| 69. | United Nations is officially established. | 1945 |
| 70. | Communists build wall to divide East and West Berlin. | 1961 |
| 71. | Mohandas Gandhi begins leading nonviolent reform movement in India. | 1920 |
| 72. | Standard Oil loses Supreme Court antitrust suit: monopolies suffer blow. | 1911 |
| 73. | United States withdraws last ground troops from Vietnam. | 1973 |
| 74. | North Atlantic Treaty Organization established. | 1949 |
| 75. | Joseph Stalin begins forced modernization of the Soviet Union: resulting famines claim 25 million. | 1928 |
| 76. | Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt beats incumbent President Herbert Hoover. | 1932 |
| 77. | Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet Premier: begins era of "Glasnost." | 1985 |
| 78. | Max Planck proposes quantum theory of energy. | 1900 |
| 79. | Scientists clone sheep, dubbed Dolly, in Scotland. | 1997 |
| 80. | Congress passes interstate highway bill. | 1956 |
| 81. | Panama Canal opens, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. | 1914 |
| 82. | Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" inaugurates modern women's
rights movement. | 1963 |
| 83. | The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes killing crew including school
teacher Christa McAuliffe. | 1986 |
| 84. | United States sends troops to defend South Korea. | 1950 |
| 85. | Violence erupts at Democratic National Convention in Chicago. | 1968 |
| 86. | Sigmund Freud publishes "The Interpretation of Dreams." | 1900 |
| 87. | China begins "Great Leap Forward" modernization program: estimated 20 million die in ensuing famine. | 1958 |
| 88. | United States enters World War I.' | 1917 |
| 89. | Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs — a single-season record that would last
for 34 years. | 1927 |
| 90. | John Glenn becomes first American to orbit the earth. | 1962 |
| 91. | North Vietnamese boats reportedly attack U.S. ships: Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin resolution. | 1964 |
| 92. | Pathfinder lands on Mars, sending back astonishing photos. | 1997 |
| 93. | Hitler launches "Kristallnacht," ordering Nazis to commit acts of violence against German Jews. | 1938 |
| 94. | Winston Churchill designated Prime Minister of Great Britain. | 1940 |
| 95. | Louise Brown, first "test-tube baby," born healthy. | 1978 |
| 96. | Soviets blockade West Berlin: Western allies respond with massive airlift. | 1948 |
| 97. | Bill Gates and Paul Allen start Microsoft Corp. to develop software for Altair computer. | 1975 |
| 98. | Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion results in deaths of an estimated 7,000. | 1986 |
| 99. | Teacher John Scopes' trial pits creation against evolution in Tennessee. | 1925 |
| 100. | The U.S. Surgeon General warns about smoking-related health hazards. | 1964 |
