FROM
THE FOUNDATIONS
TO CURRENT EVENTS

25 February Khrushchev denounces Stalin’s crimes at the 20^th Congress of the CPSU

12 July construction work starts on the Pirelli Skyscraper, the company’s new headquarters

25 July sinking of the Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria

26 July Egyptian President Nasser announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. The first war breaks out in the Middle East

23 October in Hungary, the anti-Soviet rising begins on 23 October and is put down by Warsaw Pact troops a few weeks later

3 February first transmission of Carosello (TV commercials)

25 March signing of the Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community and Euratom

April work begins on the first line of the Milan Metro and the first supermarket in Italy opens in Milan

3 November the Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into space

20 February approval of the Merlin Law, which closes all brothels in Italy

9 October death of Pope Pius XII. The new pope is Angelo Roncalli, who takes the name John XXIII. He remains on the papal throne until 1963

8 December official opening of the first section of the Autostrada del Sole between Milan and Parma

foundation of Intersind, the independent trade union of the state-owned companies that emerged from Confindustria

the revolt of French military leaders and colonists breaks out in Algiers.
Algeria eventually wins its independence in 1962

1 January in Cuba, Fidel Castro enters the capital Havana toppling Fulgencio Batista’s

28 March China ends Tibetanin dependence

11 December Salvatore Quasimodo receives the Nobel Prize for Literature

5 February Federico Fellini’s “La dolce vita” is released. The film wins the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival

4 April the Pirelli Skyscraper is inaugurated

25 August opening of the 18th Olympic Games in in Rome. A few days earlier, in Fiumicino, the new Leonardo da Vinci international airport is inaugurated

September foundation of OPEC, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries

8 November John Fitzgerald Kennedy is elected President of the United States. He will be assassinated in Dallas in 1963

the “Financial Times”awards an“Oscar” to the lira as the world’s most stable currency

12 April Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space. A month later, the American Alan Shepard also goes into orbit with the Mercury Program. Kennedy announces the Apollo Mission to attempt a moon landing

A May Amnesty International is founded

13 August the regime in the German Democratic Republic starts building the Berlin Wall

September the WWF is founded

11 October the Second Vatican Council opens in Rome. It will close in 1965

14 October start of the Cuban missile crisis

27 October death of Enrico Mattei, President of ENI. His plane crashes at Bascapè, between Milan and Pavia. The cause of his death remains a mystery

27 November foundation of ENEL, the National Electric Energy Company

9 October a huge landslide on Monte Toc causes the Vajont dam to overflow and causes 2000 deaths

4 December the first centre-left government led by Aldo Moro is installed

12 December Giulio Natta receives the Nobel Prize for the invention of plastic

the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia is founded with Josip Broz (Tito) as President for life

4 May the sixth session of the Kennedy Round will significantly reduce tariffs on industrial products

29 May the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) is founded in Jerusalem

2 August the Tonkin incident is the pretext for the outbreak of the Vietnam War

1 November inauguration of the Milan Metro’s red line, from Lotto to Sesto Marellli

the Great St. Bernard tunnel linking Italy andSwitzerland is opened to traffic

24 January death of Winston Churchill, prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955

21 February the Black Muslim leader Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem

24 June a historic Beatles concert is held at the Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan

16 July presidents Saragat and De Gaulle officially open the Mont Blanc Tunnel between Italy and France.

16 May start of the Cultural Revolution in China

4 November the Arno breaks its banks and floods Florence. Young people from around the world flock to help recover the damaged artworks

Summer time is introduced in Italy

21 April coup d’état by the Colonels in Greece

5 June the Six Day War breaks out between Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan

27 July the 1966-70 National Economic Plan is approved and the CIPE (Inter-ministerial Committee for Economic Planning) established

3 December in South Africa, the world’s first heart transplant performed by Professor Christian Barnard

5 January the Prague Spring breaks out. Alexander Dubček takes office and continues in power until 20 August, when Warsaw Pact tanks invade the city

14 January the Belice earthquake with 370 victims is the first in a series of violent earthquakes that devastate Italy during the following decade

4 April Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis

3 May the student revolt breaks out in Paris: it is the French May

5 June Democratic Senator Robert Kennedy, John’s brother, is assassinated in Los Angeles

November Richard Nixon wins the US presidential elections. He will take office on 1 January 1969

20 July the Apollo 11 space mission with US astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins land the first man on the moon

15 August Woodstock Festival opens, three days of rock and hippie culture

12 December a bomb explodes at the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana in Milan leaving 16 dead and over 90 injured, the start of the “years of lead” terrorism and the strategy of tension with terrorist bombs and killings

20 May law no.300 is enacted, better known as the Statute of Workers, implementing the basic principles of the Constitution

6 July the first Regional Council of Lombardy takes office

29 July Piero Bassetti (Christian Democrats) is elected President of the Lombardy Regional Council

1 December a law introducing divorce is approved in Italy

5 May in Palermo, the public prosecutor Pietro Scaglione and his driver Antonio Lo Russo are killed by the mafia

15 August Richard Nixon announces the end of the Bretton Woods system, which ensured the dollar’s convertibility into gold. The currency is now allowed to float freely

Intel makes the 4004, the first-ever commercial microprocessor

30 January in Derry in Northern Ireland, British paratroopers open fire on Catholic demonstrators: 13 die on Bloody Sunday

17 June the Watergate scandal breaks, revealing the failed attempt at political espionage against the Democratic Party during the presidential election campaign

5 September the Palestinian organization Black September attacks Israeli athletes during the 20th Olympics in Munich leaving a tragic toll of 17 dead

26 October launch of the Tax Reform replacing general tax on goods and services (IGE) with a value added tax (VAT)

27 January January: the peace agreement in Paris brings the Vietnam War to an end

11 September coup in Chile.President Salvador Allende is assassinated and the military dictatorship of General Pinochet takes power

6 October the Yom Kippur War breaks out between Egypt and Israel.It ends with the Kilometre 101 truce. A policy of austerity is adopted to deal with a period of crisis and high inflation with restriction son petrol consumption

12 May the referendum on divorce defeats an attempt to repeal the law recently passed by Parliament

28 May a terrorist bomb in Piazza della Loggia in Brescia brings a resurgence of the strategy of tension in Italy

7 June company law is reformed and the stock exchange regulated with the establishment of the Consob, the authority responsible for overseeing the stock market

the economic crisis becomes more acute in all industrialised countries, with high inflation accompanied by recession, termed stagflation

January signing of the agreement between the trade unions and Confindustria on single index-linked wage rises for all employees

22 July approval of Law no.382 on the transfer of powers to the Regions

1 November the TV station Telealtomilanese starts broadcasts, marking the start of commercial TV in Italy

20 November death of General Francisco Franco, bringing to an end a dictatorial regime that lasted over 30 years

12 December Eugenio Montale receives the Nobel Prize for Literature

GDP declines for the first time since 1945 (-2.7 per cent)

the Lombardy Region adopts a coat of arms. It features the Camunian rose, designed by Bob Noorda, Roberto Sambonet, Bruno Munari and Pino Tovaglia

12 January the Palestine Liberation Organisation is admitted to the United Nations Security Council

14 January the first issue of the newspaper “la Repubblica” edited by Eugenio Scalfari and owned by L’Espresso and Mondadori

1 April in California, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer

6 May a violent earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale devastates a large area of northern Friuli

9 September death of Mao Zedong, President of the People’s Republic of China since 1949

1 February the RAI officially begins colour TV broadcasting after some years of experiments, lagging some ten years behind other European countries

2 March in Libya, Colonel Gaddafi announces the establishment of theGreat Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

2 June in Milan, the editor of “Il Giornale Nuovo ”Indro Montanelli is kneecapped by the Red Brigades

16 March Aldo Moro is kidnapped by the Red Brigades in Rome and found dead in Via Caetani on 9 May

22 May law no.194 is passed, decriminalising abortion

6 August death of Pope Paul VI. John Paul I is elected pope and dies a month later. On his death John Paul II is elected

the Pirelli Skyscraper is bought by the Lombardy Region, which moves in on 2 June 1980

13 March the EMS (European Monetary System) comes into force

9 December the world is freed from smallpox: it is confirmed that the disease has been eradicated

15 December RAI’s third regional television network starts broadcasts

25 December the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan

27 June an Itavia airliner explodes in the sky over Ustica causing 81 deaths

2 August a bomb explodes at Bologna railway station leaving 85 dead and more than 200 injured

September tensions between Iran and Iraq over control of border oil fields degenerates into open war

14 October the March of the 40,000 in Turin, a demonstration by FIAT employees and executives to reopen the factories blocked by the unions

23 November the Irpinia earthquake leaves over 3,000 dead in Campania and Basilicata

17 March the scandal of the secret P2 Masonic Lodge breaks

10 May in France, the Socialist François Mitterrand becomes President of the Republic

13 May Pope John Paul II is shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca in St. Peter’s Square

17 May a referendum attempting to repeal the abortion law fails

the first case of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is reported in the United States

2 April Argentina sends an army to occupy the Falkland Islands.The short war is won by Great Britain

6 June Israel invades Lebanon and occupies its southern part. Along civil war follows

18 June the President of the Banco Ambrosiano Roberto Calvi is found hanged under the Blackfriars Bridge in London

5 July the Italian football team managed by Enzo Bearzot wins the FIFA World Cup in Spain

3 September general Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa is murdered by the mafia in Palermo, together with his wife Emanuela Setti Carraro and police bodyguard Domenico Russo

1 January the US Defence Department’s arpanet research project officially changes protocol: the birth of the Internet

4 August Bettino Craxi is the President of the Council becomes Prime Minister, the first member of the Italian Socialist Party to hold this office

Polish trade unionist Lech Wałęsa receives the Nobel Peace Prize

Motorola markets the first mobile phone

1 June release of the movie Once Upon a Time in America directed by Sergio Leone with score by Ennio Morricone

11 June death of Enrico Berlinguer, Secretary of the Italian Communist Party

the 23rd Olympic Games are held in Los Angeles. Carl Lewis is the star in athletics

11 March in the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev is elected secretary of the CPSU and relaunches detente with the United States under Ronald Reagan. The two leaders meet for the first time in history

26 April the Pirelli company, the Lombardy Region, the Province of Milan and the Municipality of Milan sign a memorandum of understanding for the creation of an integrated and multifunctional technological centre in the company’s former industrial complex: the Bicocca Project

14 June five EEC member states, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands sign the Schengen Agreements. Italy will also join in 1990

7 October the cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked by a Palestinian guerrilla group. There is one victim: the American Leon Klinghoffer

the public debt rises to almost 120,000 billion lire, its highest post-war level

10 February the trial of numerous mafia bosses opens in Palermo. It will close in 1992 with the final sentence of the First Section of the Supreme Court of Appeal. It hands down 19 life sentences, with prison terms totalling 2,665 years

21 April Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, accuses Libya of supporting Palestinian terrorists. The US fleet stationed in the Mediterranean is mobilised off the Libyan coast

26 April a nuclear reactor explodes in Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. The disaster causes thousands of death sin its surroundings

6 November FIAT buys Alfa Romeo for 1,050 billion lire from IRI (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale)

5 February the Soviet Union launches the Soyuz TM-2 with 2 astronauts on board. It is the second space flight to the Soviet space station Mir

1 July the Single European Act enters into force with the aim of completing the formation of the Internal Market leading to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty

Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo officer known as the “Butcher of Lyon”, goes on trial for crimes against humanity

16 March Iraq under Saddam Hussein uses chemical weapons to exterminate 5,000 Kurds in the city of Halabja

the Soviet Union with draws from Afghanistan after eight years of war

the war between Iran and Iraq ends after nine years with over a million victims

the President of Chile Augusto Pinochet is defeated in a referendum, but retains the post of President of the Republic until 1990

Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor wins 9 Oscars

4 May peaceful protests in Tiananmen Square are repressed in Beijing

9 November the Berlin Wall, seen as a symbol of the Cold War, is demolished

20 December the United States invades Panama and topples the dictator Manuel Noriega

2 August Iraqi troops led by Saddam Hussein invade Kuwait. Following the UN ultimatum, George H. W. Bush launches Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. The war ends on 28 February

3 October reunification of the GDR and the German Federal Republic

10 October institution of the Antitrust, the Authority that acts as guarantor of the market and competition

Giuseppe Tornatore’s Nuovo Cinema Paradiso wins the Oscar for Best Language Film

1 February the South African government definitively abolishes the last race laws and brings an end to Apartheid

25 August a promising young German driver, Michael Schumacher, makes his Formula 1 debut at the Belgian Grand Prix

26 December the Supreme Soviet formally dissolves the Soviet Union. The new Commonwealth of Independent States is founded

between 1991 and 2001, a series of secessionist conflicts between the various Federal Republics in Yugoslavia leads to civil war and the breakup of the state

7 February the Maastricht Treaty is signed between the EEC states

17 February Mario Chiesa, director of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio, is arrested for bribery. This marks the start of the “Clean Hands” operation

23 May the judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo and three officers of his bodyguard are murdered at Capaci

11 July the privatisation of state-owned companies begins, leading to the transformation of IRI, Eni, Enel and Ina into joint-stock companies

19 July the judge Paolo Borsellino and five agents of his bodyguard are killed in the massacre in Via d’Amelio in Palermo

13 September following the currency crisis, the lira leaves the EMS

Mediterraneo by Gabriele Salvatores wins the Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film

1 January following the “Velvet Revolution”, Czechoslovakia splits into the Czech Republic and Slovakia

3 January the American President George H.W.Bush and the Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the START II agreement for nuclear disarmament

23 July the European Single Market comes into force, based on four fundamental freedoms: circulation of goods, services, people, and capital

14 January US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords: a new step towards denuclearisation

26 January with a video message, Silvio Berlusconi officially announces his entry intoItalian political life

27 July Telecom Italia is founded from the merger of the various companies involved in telecommunications (Sip, Italcable, Iritel, Telespazio and Sirm)

1 January the GATT is replaced by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with the Italian Renato Ruggiero as director-general

27 March the film maker Michelangelo Antonioni receives the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement

1 May Jacques Chirac is elected President of France

1 November the Dayton Agreement officially brings an end to the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina

21 March outbreak of “mad cow disease” in Britain

5 July Dolly the sheep is born: the first cloning of a mammal from adult cells

27 July the 26th Olympic Games in Atlanta are marred by a terrorist attack that leaves two dead and over a hundred injured

13 December Kofi Annan of Ghana is chosen as the new UN Secretary General

1 July the sovereignty of Hong Kong is transferred from the UK to the People’s Republic of China. The 156 years of British colonial rule officially end

5 September death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

9 October the actor and writer Dario Fo wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

1 December foundation of the State University of Milano-Bicocca

February the war in former Yugoslavia continues with the Kosovo War

1 June the ECB, European Central Bank, is established in Frankfurt. The European Commission in Brussels proposes that 11 countries, including Italy, join the single currency starting on 1 January 1999

The cyclist Marco Pantani wins the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France in the same year. Before him only one other Italian had performed this feat: Fausto Coppi in 1949 and 1952

1 January creation of the Euro, the official currency of the EU member states, which will enter into circulation in 2002. One euro is worth 1936.27 lire

21 March in Los Angeles, Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful wins multiple awards at the 71st edition of the Oscars

4 September Israel and the PLO sign the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum, which envisages recognition of the state of Israel and the right to an independent Palestinian state

24 December Pope John Paul II opens the Holy Door marking the start of the Jubilee

10 February the Italian Parliament approves the school reform with education structured in three cycles of studies

14 March FIAT announces an alliance with General Motors, the first step in closer cooperation between the two automotive giants

26 March Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia

The Lombardy Region and the Milan Trade Fair seal an accord with the municipalities of Rho and Pero for the construction of a new exhibition centre in the Milan area

21 July protests in Genoa during the G8 leave one dead and several wounded in clashes with the police

28 July Pirelli acquires shares in Olivetti and so gains control of Telecom Italia

11 September two hijacked airliners crash into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, destroying them and causing thousands of deaths

2 January Argentina defaults on its debts: the country enters bankruptcy

18 April shortly before 6 p.m.a light aircraft crashes into the facade of the Pirelli Skyscraper on the level of floors 26 and 27, killing the pilot and two employees of the Region who are in the building

Riccardo Giacconi wins the Nobel Prize for Physics

11 February the Beijing government officially announces an epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

20 March accusing Saddam Hussein’s regime of possessing weapons of mass destruction the United States invades Iraq

12 November at Nasiriya in Iraq an attack on the Italian military base causes 19 deaths

4 February Mark Zuckerberg launches the social networking site Facebook

11 March a series of coordinated attack son Madrid’s local train system leaves 191 dead and 2057 injured

26 December a violent tsunami devastates the coasts of Asia causing billions of dollars worth dollars’ worth of damages and more than 200,000 deaths. The following year, Hurricane Katrina overwhelms the southern United States and wreaks havoc on New Orleans

restoration work completed on the Pirelli Skyscraper

16 February the Kyoto Protocol on the emission of green house gases enters into force. It is supported by 141 countries, but not the United States

2 April death of John Paul II after 27 years as pope. On 19 April his successor is elected: the German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who takes the name Benedict XVI

the 25 heads of state of the European Union sign the new EU Constitution on the Capitoline Hill in Rome

10 February the 20th Olympic Winter Games open in Turin

9 July the Italian national team wins the World Cup in Germany, its fourth world title

15 July the social networking site Twitter is launched

30 December Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death for crimes against humanity and executed

9 January Apple presents the first version of the iPhone and smartphones, invented more than 10 years earlier, become common

Doris Lessing wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States causes a financial crisis and cripples banks around the world for years

17 February Balkan crisis: Kosovo declares its independence from Serbia

4 November Democratic Senator Barack Obama is elected President of the United States. He is the first African-American to hold the office

a military crisis between Russia and Georgia causes tensions on the status of the Georgian autonomous territories

18 January following the peace conference at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt, Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip

6 April a violent earthquake hits Abruzzo: 309 victims

5 December two Frecciarossa trains starting from Turin and Salerno meet at Milan’s Central Station, so inaugurating Italy’s high-speed rail service

12 January a disastrous earthquake strikes the island of Haiti. According to UN estimates it causes 3 million deaths

22 May Jose Mourinho’s Inter achieves the “treble”by winning the Champion’sLeague as well as the Scudetto and Coppa Italia

outbreak of the economic and financial crisis in Greece. The countries of the UnionEuropean adopt emergency measures to deal with it

10 March an agreement is ratified between Trenitalia and Le Nord with the foundation of Trenord, a new transport company in Lombardy

11 March in Japan a terrible tsunami caused by an earthquake leads to the Fukushima nuclear disaster

15 March the Syrian civil war breaks out against the government of Bashar al-Assad. In 2019 US and Syrian forces conquer Islamic State’s last stronghold causing its collapse after four years of dominance in Syria

27 March at the Australian Grand Prix, Pirelli returns to Formula 1 as sole tyre supplier for all teams

2 May the US government reports the killing of Osama Bin Laden, who masterminded the attack on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001

13 January the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia is wrecked off the island of Giglio. There are 32 deaths and 64 injured

20 - 29 May two earthquakes strike the Emilian Po Valley causing 27 deaths

4 July CERN scientists, following experiments conducted in the LHC accelerator, confirm the existence of the Higgs boson

30 December death of Rita Levi Montalcini, neurologist, academic and life senator, Nobel laureate in Medicine in 1986

11 February Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation as pope. He is succeeded by the Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who takes the name of Francis

15 April during the Boston Marathon two bombs explode causing 3 deaths and over 150 injured

20 April Giorgio Napolitano is elected to his second term as President of the Italian Republic: it is the first time in the country’s history

5 December death of Nelson Mandela, a leading figure in the fight against Apartheid

20 February Russia occupies the Crimean peninsula. Outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict

2 March The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino wins the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film

29 June the existence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is proclaimed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

24 November Samantha Cristoforetti is the first Italian woman astronaut to enter the International Space Station (ISS)

7 January a terrorist attack on the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris leaves 12 dead. It is one of the first attacks organised by Islamic extremists

1 May Italy, with Milan, the capital of Lombardy, is at the centre of the world for six months: the Expo Milano 2015 Universal Exposition opens at the Rho Exhibition Centre

18 June Pope Francis issues the encyclical Laudato si’

8 December start of the 30th Universal Jubilee of the Catholic Church

23 June in a consultative referendum, the UK votes to leave the European Union: “Brexit”

24 August an earthquake with its epicentre at Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto devastates Central Italy

8 November the Republican Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States

May Emmanuel Macron is elected President of France

14 December the Living Will law is approved in Italy

a series of terrorist attacks spread terror in Manchester, London, Barcelona and Egypt

27 July the longest lunar eclipse of the century occurs

14 August due to a structural failure the Morandi bridge in Genoa collapses causing 43 deaths

August the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg launches the Fridays for Future Movement. Time magazine will name her 2019 Person of the Year. She is the youngest person to receive the title

17 November the Gilets Jaunes movement is responsible for a series of protests in France

5 April a fire breaks out in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, causing extensive damage to the building

24 June the International Olympic Committee awardsthe 2026 Winter Olympics to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Italian candidates

the Nobel Prize in Economics is awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to reducing global poverty

31 January Brexit becomes effective

February the Covid-19 global pandemic causes death sin countries around the world

25 May the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis triggers the Black Lives Matter protest movement across the United States

21 July the Recovery Fund assigned by the European Council for economic revival is approved

November the struggle against Covid-19 continues

December Launch of the vaccination campaign against Covid-19

20 January Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America

6 March Pope Francis meets Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq. It is the first ever meeting between a Pope and a Grand Ayatollah

23 March The Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, runs aground in the Suez Canal, blocking it and holding up more than 280 ships for six days