9. The end of apartheid in South Africa (early 1990’s)

The repeal of the final laws that had enforced rigid racial segregation in South Africa was an event that few expected to occur in their lifetimes. It reopened cultural and political relations between South Africa and many other countries and ended a widespread international boycott protesting apartheid.

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Robert Wedgeworth is the University Librarian and Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. His choices for the most important events of the 1900's reflect a general approach. See why a British rock band and an American baseball player made it onto his list.

1.

Dropping the atomic bomb during World War II (1945)
2. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Nov. 22, 1963)
3. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
4.

The launch of Sputnik I by the Soviet Union (1957)
5. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
6. The first human being lands on the moon (July 20, 1969)
7. The first Beatles performances in the United States (1964)
8. The development of the Salk vaccine to fight polio (1953)
9. The end of apartheid in South Africa (early 1990's)
10. The debut of Jackie Robinson (1947)