Defining events in the life of the Lost Generation¶

Events grouped by the life stage the Lost Generation cohort (born 1883–1900) was in when they happened.

Teenage years (ages 13–20)¶

• 1908 — Ford launches the Model T

Adulthood (ages 21–60)¶

• 1914 — Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated - start of World War 1
• 1919 — Treaty of Versailles: end of World War 1
• 1929 — Black Thursday: Wall Street Crash of 1929
• 1933 — Hitler becomes Germany's dictator
• 1939 — Gone with the Wind hits the screens
• 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

Later life (ages 61–80)¶

• 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

Last updated: 2026-06-04