# When do you think the 20th century really ended? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646 "2015-05-09T19:58:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646/1 "2015-05-09T19:58:18Z")
I know it ended on January 1, 2001, but historians often talk about a “Short Twentieth Century” that started in 1914 and ended either in 1989 or 1991 with the fall of the Soviet sphere. Personally I think you could pick a lot of dates for the “short” 20th century’s end. 1979 would be the earliest possible date, I would say. That was the year the first cell phones were sold in Japan and also the beginning of modern Islamism. It’s also about the earliest time that the average person could buy a home computer, if they wanted to shell out the money. 1979 also represented the noontide of the American middle class and, I would argue, the high point of world socialism as it was just before Solidarity formed in Poland, Tito died, Reagan won the presidency and was right at the beginning of China’s renouncement of communism. Tim Berners Lee also started writing ENQUIRE around then which would eventually become the World Wide Web. Another possible date would be January 1, 1983, the date that the ARPANET officially adopted TCP/IP, hence creating the Internet. 1983 also marks the first cell phone service in the United States as well as the war in Grenada which paved the way for Desert Storm and the current wars. 1989 is a good date too being that the World Wide Web was fully conceived of at this point, the first commercial ISPs went online and Al-Qaeda started. 1989 is also when the first digital cameras became available to buy. And obviously you had the opening up of the Berlin Wall and German border. 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union and India’s “opening up” to the world as well as the rise of Grunge music and the official release of the Web, which was invented on paper in 1989 and tested for the first time in late 1990. 1994 is the date I would choose, though. This was not only the last year that was generally “pre-Internet” but it also marked the last Red Army and American troops leaving Germany. Coincidentally, if the Gospels are to be believed the 2,000th anniversary of Christ’s birth likely took place in or very close to 1994. 2001 and 2007 are both good dates too, for obvious reasons of 9/11 and the beginning of the Great Recession. What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646/2 "2015-05-09T20:00:25Z")
I think that January 1, 2001 is the only factual answer to this question. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646/3 "2015-05-09T20:16:52Z")
People speak of pre and post 9/11, that’s a pretty big watershed. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646/4 "2015-05-09T20:21:50Z")
> **[Ramstein Air Base](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramstein_Air_Base)** > > Ramstein Air Base or Ramstein AB (IATA: RMS, ICAO: ETAR) is a United States Air Force base in Rhineland-Palatinate, a state in southwestern Germany. It serves as headquarters for the United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA) and also for NATO Allied Air Command (AIRCOM). Ramstein is located near the town of Ramstein-Miesenbach, which stands outside the base's west gate, in the rural district of Kaiserslautern. > The east gate of Ramstein Air Base is approximately 1... There are still American troops in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![desertmonk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@desertmonk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desertmonk)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646/5 "2015-05-09T20:25:28Z")
The end of a non-literal century needs to be a big event, not something big in retrospect. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646/6 "2015-05-09T20:27:37Z")
You could easily say there was an early 20th century starting in 1901 and ending with the fall of Japan at the end of WWII, followed by the late 20th century that ended in 2000. Or you could pick other start and ending dates. It doesn’t matter though, like any century world events aren’t coordinated around the starting and ending calendar dates. There was so much change across the 100 year span of the 20th century that there’s no point to consider late starts or early ends. In the examples in the OP there is little that ties together the time period between 1914 and 1989 to consider them a short century. The end of the communist era was far different than it’s beginnings, and despite it’s political focus the technology boom that started sometime in the latter quarter of the century (prefaced by a steep increase in technology development starting in the 1950s) will be more remembered as a unique portion of the century than the fall of the Soviet Union. There were different eras in the 20th century, perhaps more distinct eras than other centuries preceding because of the great changes in the world across that time, but IMHO nothing that distinguishes some subset of years as a short century. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2015, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-think-the-20th-century-really-ended/719646/7 "2015-05-09T20:36:22Z")
**Moderator Action** Please take the time to choose the correct forum. Questions seeking opinions belong in the In My Humble Opinion forum. Since I have had to move too many of your threads, I am closing this. Feel free to start the topic again in the correct forum. Thread closed.