0
Hub and spokes

The worldPolitical Timelines

The United States is the hub; every other region is a spoke with a political history of its own. Pick a region.

The world stage

Shared institutions

  1. 1919Versailles

    The League of Nations

    Created by the peace settlement after the First World War, the League first met in 1920; the United States never joined.

  2. 1945San Francisco

    The United Nations Charter

    Fifty nations signed the Charter on June 26, 1945; the United Nations came into being that October.

  3. 1948December 10

    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

    The UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration in Paris, the first global statement of rights.

  4. 1991December

    The Soviet Union dissolves

    The USSR formally ceased to exist at the end of 1991, leaving fifteen independent states and ending the Cold War order.