Defining events in the life of the Greatest Generation¶
Events grouped by the life stage the Greatest Generation cohort (born 1914–1924) was in when they happened.
Childhood (ages 6–12)¶
Teenage years (ages 13–20)¶
Adulthood (ages 21–60)¶
- 1941 — The movie "Citizen Kane" is released
- 1941 — Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
- 1944 — D-Day: Allied Forces land in Normandy
- 1945 — Hitler commits suicide
- 1945 — The first atomic bomb falls on Hiroshima
- 1954 — NBC made the first coast-to-coast color TV broadcast
- 1960 — Berry Gordy Jr launches Motown Records
- 1960 — The movie "Psycho" was released
- 1960 — In Japan, NHK and NTV introduces color television
- 1962 — Marilyn Monroe dies
- 1963 — John F Kennedy is assassinated
- 1964 — First performance of the Beatles on the US Ed Sullivan show
- 1966 — Color television in Canada was launched on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) English language TV service
- 1967 — BBC2 starts transmittin TV in color
- 1972 — Brazil began TV broadcasting in color using PAL-M
- 1972 — Francis For Coppola release the first Godfather movie
- 1973 — Roe vs Wade: the right to have an abortion
- 1974 — Nixon resigns over Watergate scandal
- 1977 — The first Star Wars movie is released
- 1977 — Elvis Presley dies
Later life (ages 61–80)¶
- 1980 — CNN is launched
- 1980 — John Lennon is killed on the streets of NYC
- 1981 — First news story on AIDS
- 1981 — MTV is launched
- 1982 — Michael Jackson releases the album "Thriller"
- 1983 — Nena releases "99 Luftballons"
- 1984 — The first Terminator movie is released
- 1984 — The Bhopal disaster exposes 500000 people to highly toxic gas
- 1985 — Live Aid concert
- 1985 — Rock Hudson dies of AIDS
- 1986 — Chernobyl nuclear disaster
- 1988 — The movie Die Hard is a surprise hit and becomes an even bigger surprise Christmas classic
- 1989 — The tanker Exxon Valdez spills its oil in the ocean
- 1989 — Fall of the Berlin Wall
- 1990 — The movie Home Alone hits the screens
- 1994 — Genocide in Rwanda kills more than 500000 people
- 1994 — Pulp Fiction wins Palme D'Or at Canne Film festival
- 1994 — The TV series "Friends" launches
- 1995 — Microsoft launches the Windows95 OS
- 1996 — Los Del Rio & Bayside Boys release "Macarena" - english version
- 1997 — The book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is published, the first of a very successful series
- 1997 — "Titanic" launches and will grow to the biggest boxoffice ever
- 1998 — Bill Clinton denies affair with Monica Lewinsky
Last updated: 2026-06-04