TIMELINE OF THE WORLD

1952 Elizabeth II becomes Queen of England

1957 Sputnik I is launched into space

1963 The Beatles have their first number-one song in England

1965 US ground troops arrive to fight in Vietnam

1968 Students across Europe and the United States protest the Vietnam War

1969 Apollo 11 lands the first humans on the moon

1974 Richard Nixon resigns as president of the United States

1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft

1979 Margaret Thatcher is the first woman elected prime minister of Great Britain

1982 Great Britain defeats Argentina in war to control the Falkland Islands Michael Jackson releases Thriller, which becomes the best-selling album of all time

1991 The World Wide Web is launched

1994 South Africa has its first free elections

2001 Terrorists launch several attacks in the United States, killing almost three thousand people

2006 Spaceport America, the future home of Virgin Galactic, launches its first commercial flight outside Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

2008 Barack Obama is elected the first African American president of the United States

2013 Nelson Mandela dies