• 1869: Mahatma Gandhi is born
• 1876: Jim Crow laws enacted, enforcing racial discrimination
• 1897: Dorothy Day is born
• 1907: The Black Act enacted in South Africa
• 1909: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded
• 1929: Martin Luther King, Jr., is born
• 1930: The Great Depression begins
• 1931: Desmond Tutu is born
• 1933: 13th Dalai Lama dies
• 1935: 14th Dalai Lama, or Tenzin Gyatso, is born
• 1938: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is born
• 1947: India gains its independence from Britain
• 1947: Cold War begins
• 1948: Apartheid formalized by South Africa’s National Party
• 1948: Mahatma Gandhi dies
• 1950: Tenzin is enthroned as the Dalai Lama
• 1951: China officially declared sovereign over Tibet
• 1953: Bantu Education Act passed in South Africa, enforcing racial segregation in schools
• 1955: Montgomery Bus Boycott begins in Alabama
• 1956: U.S. Supreme Court rules that bus segregation is unconstitutional
• 1962: Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison
• 1963: King writes “The Birmingham Manifesto” and “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
• 1963: King delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C.
• 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act
• 1964: King receives the Nobel Peace Prize at thirty-five years old
• 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated
• 1976: The Soweto Uprising protests lead to riots in South Africa
• 1980: Dorothy Day dies
• 1984: Tutu receives the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1989: Civil war erupts in Liberia
• 1989: Dalai Lama receives the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1990: Nelson Mandela released from prison
• 1991: Cold War ends
• 1993: South African apartheid comes to an official end
• 1994: Universal voting in elections takes place for the first time in South Africa and Mandela is elected president
• 1996: Civil war in Liberia ends
• 2005: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected as the first woman president of Liberia
• 2011: Sirleaf awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and re-elected as president
• 2011: Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial dedicated in Washington, D.C.