Independence of East Timor
The 21st century's first new state, after 24 years of occupation
On 20 May 2002 East Timor became an independent state. Indonesia had invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975; an estimated 100,000 to 180,000 people died during the occupation. After a 1999 referendum in which nearly 80% voted for independence, the UN ran the country for two and a half years.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 21st century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Whole world
- 1980 Smallpox declared eradicated — 22 years earlier
- 1981 AIDS first described — 21 years earlier
- 1997 Kyoto Protocol — 5 years earlier
- 2008 Global financial crisis — 6 years later
Europe
- 1989 Invention of the World Wide Web — 13 years earlier
- 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall — 13 years earlier
- 1992 Maastricht Treaty — 10 years earlier
- 2002 Euro notes and coins — same year
- 2010 Eurozone debt crisis — 8 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1980 Solidarity — 22 years earlier
- 1985–1991 Perestroika — 17 years earlier
- 1986 Chernobyl disaster — 16 years earlier
- 1989 Revolutions of 1989 — 13 years earlier
- 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union — 11 years earlier
Middle East
- 1979 Iranian Revolution — 23 years earlier
- 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War — 22 years earlier
- 1990–1991 Gulf War — 12 years earlier
- 1993 Oslo Accords — 9 years earlier
- 2011–2024 Syrian civil war — 9 years later
Africa
- 1983–1985 The Ethiopian famine — 19 years earlier
- 1994 End of apartheid in South Africa — 8 years earlier
- 1998–2003 Second Congo War — 4 years earlier
- 2011 Independence of South Sudan — 9 years later
Americas
- 1983 Birth of the Internet: ARPANET adopts TCP/IP — 19 years earlier
- 2001 September 11 attacks — 1 year earlier
- 2003 Human genome sequenced — 1 year later
- 2007 Apple unveils the iPhone — 5 years later
- 2010 Haiti earthquake — 8 years later
Oceania
- 1992 The Mabo decision — 10 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Nelson Mandela (aged 84)
- Neil Armstrong (aged 72)
- Ronald Reagan (aged 91)
- Edmund Hillary (aged 83)
- Jimmy Carter (aged 78)
- Fidel Castro (aged 76)
- Elizabeth II (aged 76)
- Gabriel García Márquez (aged 75)
- Mikhail Gorbachev (aged 71)
- Boris Yeltsin (aged 71)