by As 2025 begins, its time for our annual look back at the top stories and events of 20, 50 and 100 years ago.
The Trial of Michael Jackson
In February, pop star Michael Jackson went on trial for child sexual assault offences. Allegations against the singer had been swirling for years: in 1993 his sister La Toya had claimed that Jackson’s parents had paid off victims to keep them quiet.
Police had opened an investigation of Jackson in 2003 when a documentary by Martin Bashir, ‘Living with Michael Jackson’, highlighted the singer’s close relationship with several children. Jackson was shown cuddling a young cancer survivor, Gavin Arvizo, and admitted in the film he and the boy sometimes shared a bed.
He was arrested in November 2003, and charged with ten counts. At the trial Arvizo and another victim alleged that Jackson had masturbated them, plied them with alcohol and shown them pornography.
In his defence, Jackson called celebrity character witnesses, including child star Macauley Culkin. His legal team also highlighted inconsistencies in the testimony of his accusers, and suggested the claims were an attempt at blackmail.
The trial ran for several months, before Jackson was acquitted in June. The singer died in 2009, always maintaining his innocence; new sexual abuse allegations would surface a decade later in 2019, with the release of the documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’.
The Wedding of Charles and Camilla
On April 9, Prince Charles, widowed heir to the British throne, married his long-time paramour, Camilla Parker-Bowles. While a royal wedding is normally a time of celebration in Great Britain, this event stirred up significant controversy.
The pair had become friends, then lovers, in the early 1970s, but had not pursued a serious relationship; Camilla subsequently wed Andrew Parker-Bowles, and Charles, Diana Spencer. Their relationship then continued in secret, which put a strain on both marriages.
Diana would later quip: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
Diana’s death in a car accident in 1997 would cement her status as a beloved public icon, which cast Camilla as something of a villain. When she and Charles rekindled their relationship, after Camilla’s divorce, she was initially very unpopular.
Reflecting this, the ceremony was small: a civil service held at Guildhall in Windsor, far removed from the lavish, televised event at Westminster Abbey, held for Charles and Diana. The Queen did not even attend; although she was present at the reception afterwards, and publicly wished the couple well.
The First Video on YouTube
On April 23, the world of today took a step closer, with the posting of the first video on YouTube. The internet’s premier video sharing site started simply: titled ‘Me at the Zoo’, the first clip showed a nondescript young man in front of the San Diego Zoo’s elephant enclosure.
It ran for 19 seconds.
The star of the video was Jawed Karim, one of the site’s founders. Karim had met Steve Chen and Chad Hurley when they were all working at Paypal; an inability to easily share video content led to the trio hatching the idea for a dedicated platform.
The site caught on quickly. By the end of the year it was generating millions of page views a day; the founders sold it to Google the following year for $1.65 billion.
Karim’s zoo video is the only one posted from his account (to see the current all time record holder for most viewed video, click here. Note: you were warned).
London Bombings
On July 7, London was rocked by a coordinated terror attack on its public transport network. During morning rush hour, four suicide bombers detonated homemade explosives on three underground railway stations, and one double decker bus; 52 people were killed, and 700 injured.
The ringleader of the attack was Mohammed Sidique Khan, a teacher’s assistant from Leeds. Originally from Pakistan, Khan was a naturalised citizen who became radicalised by Great Britain’s involvement in the war in Iraq.
In videotapes the bombers left behind, they claimed to have acted independently, ‘inspired’ by Al Qaeda.
The bombings brought upheaval to Britain’s intelligence and security organisations, which had largely been focussed on foreign threats. It also stirred up tension between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in England, and boosted the popularity of far right, anti-immigration political parties.
Hurricane Katrina
In late August, Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm, made landfall on the Gulf Coast of the United States. Devastation followed.
Winds up to 280 km per hour wreaked havoc across the southern states, with the worst damage in Louisiana and Mississippi. New Orleans was particularly impacted: a storm surge overwhelmed the levees protecting the low-lying city, causing widespread flooding.
Many homes and buildings were destroyed, entire neighbourhoods were completely submerged. The hurricane would claim 1 800 lives and cause $125 billion of damage, making it the costliest disaster in American history.
The Federal government’s response was also heavily criticised, with lengthy delays in rescue operations and disaster relief. Twenty thousand people sought shelter in New Orleans’ football stadium, the Superdome, many became stuck long term with no other accommodation available.
Conditions in the dome quickly worsened – there were food and electricity shortages, petty crime and several deaths – which became a public relations disaster for FEMA, the government’s main aid agency.
Vietnam War Ends
After twenty years of continuous conflict, in April the Vietnam War ended.
The war found its roots in the 1950s, when Vietnam was a French colonial possession known as Indochina. When the French left in 1954, the country split in two: communist forces controlled the north, while a pro-democracy movement held sway in the south. The two shortly fell into civil conflict.
As the Cold War heated up, the USSR and the United States backed their preferred sides. America, in particular, was deeply committed, with Presidents from Eisenhower to Johnson steadily escalating their engagement; by 1969, the US had more than 500 000 troops in the country.
But as the war dragged on it became very unpopular, leading to demonstrations and civil unrest. Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 on a promise to end the war, and a cease fire was signed in Paris in 1973.
This envisioned the two sides retaining control of their respective territories, but once the US began withdrawing the south quickly collapsed. A famous photos shows a huge line of people hoping to board the last American helicopter leaving Saigon, ahead of the advancing communist army.
The communist takeover was quickly completed. A unified country, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, was proclaimed the following year.
Microsoft Founded
Also in April, an event with far reaching consequences was the launch of tech company Microsoft. Founded by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and originally called Micro-Soft, the new company looked to develop software for the rapidly expanding personal computer market.
Gates had met Allen in high school, and the pair bonded over their shared love of computer games and coding. He later enrolled to study computer science at Harvard but, like later tech mogul Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out to go into business for himself.
Based originally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gates and Allen developed software using the coding language BASIC, one of the first standardised computing languages. Their breakthrough came in the early 1980s, when they launched MS-DOS; a user friendly operating system that was adopted by hardware giant IBM.
In the 1990s they would find even bigger success with the launch of Windows, which remains the world’s most utilised operating system. For many years the world’s richest man, in the 21st century Gates would transfer much of his fortune into charitable trusts and shift his focus to humanitarian work.
Gerald Ford Survives Two Assassination Attempts
In September, US President Gerald Ford survived two different assassination attempts, 17 days apart. Ford had assumed the presidency the year before, after Richard Nixon had resigned during the investigation of the Watergate break in.
His first would-be assassin was Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, a follower of imprisoned cult leader Charles Manson. Fromme was an environmentalist, concerned that California’s famous redwoods were being damaged by pollution; unable to get traction with local government, she turned to extremes to raise awareness of the issue.
On the morning of September 5, Ford was walking to the California State Legislature through a public park, when he stopped to shake hands with a crowd gathered to see him. Fromme was among them, with a pistol strapped to her leg (pictured above, showing her holster).
When she drew the weapon she was set on by Ford’s secret service detail before she could fire; it was later determined that the gun did not have a bullet in the chamber, which slowed the shooting time.
Fromme would receive 34 years in prison for the attempt.
17 days later, on September 22, Ford was in San Francisco to address the World Affairs Council. His assailant this time was Sarah Jane Moore, a bookkeeper who had become obsessed with radical politics.
Moore felt that revolution was required in America, which she hoped killing the President would trigger.
Like Fromme, she simply concealed a gun on her person, and waited in a crowd of onlookers outside the venue. When the President emerged, she took aim from 12 metres away and got off two shots, before she was wrestled to the ground.
Both missed. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Moore was jailed for 32 years, before being paroled in 2007.
The two attempts on Gerald Ford are the only assassination attempts in US history perpetrated by women.
Jaws Invents the Modern Blockbuster
Cinema going entered the modern era in September, with the release of the movie ‘Jaws’. Directed by Steven Spielberg, then only 26, the film caused a sensation; grossing $260 million in the US alone, it was the highest grossing film released to that time.
Based on a bestselling book by Peter Benchley, Jaws concerns a small New England coastal town, terrorised by a killer shark. As the casualties mount the authorities turn to an unlikely trio to save them: the local sheriff, a bookish shark expert, and a renegade fisherman, traumatised by his WWII experiences.
While the film was a huge hit, making it was extremely difficult.
Spielberg insisted on shooting on open water, which is notoriously problematic; delays occurred and costs mounted, the film was eventually finished months behind schedule and at three times its budget. Two of his leading men, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, also did not get along, and nearly came to blows.
The success of the movie paved the way for Spielberg’s career: hailed as a wunderkind, he would be given big budgets and creative freedom, which led to further hits like ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and ‘E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial’.
The film changed the movie business as well. Part of its huge financial success came from its release strategy, which involved intense marketing prior to opening day, then a massive release on thousands of cinema screens simultaneously.
Both novelties at the time, these have become standard practice, as Jaws helped create the modern blockbuster.
The Dismissal of Gough Whitlam
In November, a political crisis engulfed Australia, with the removal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Whitlam, the leader of the Labor Party, had been re-elected the year before, but with a narrow Parliamentary majority; in the upper house, the Senate, it was only one seat.
The dramatic events were triggered by a Senate vacancy: a NSW Labor Senator departed, and was replaced not with another Labor representative, as was the convention, but by a member of the opposition Liberal Party. The state government in NSW, which made the appointment, was then in Liberal hands.
This meant the federal Liberal Party could block Labor legislation.
This they did, including ‘supply’ bills, which cut off the government’s money. With the country plunging into economic crisis, Governor General John Kerr, the Queen’s representative, staged a dramatic intervention.
Rather than hold new elections, as Whitlam was calling for, on November 11 he sacked Gough Whitlam as Prime Minster and replaced him with the Liberal leader, Malcolm Fraser. While technically within the Governor General’s power, this action was unprecedented, and hugely controversial.
In a famous press conference on the steps of Parliament House, Whitlam bellowed his objection: ‘Well may we say God save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor General!’
He was to be disappointed.
Before the dismissal, Whitlam’s government had become unpopular; mired in economic and personal scandals, it was trailing badly in the opinion polls. When Fraser did schedule new elections later in 1975, the public delivered a resounding victory to his successor.
Mussolini Becomes ‘Il Duce’
On January 26, Benito Mussolini, the elected leader of Italy, bestowed full dictatorial powers on himself, and became supreme leader of the country. It was the culmination of the rise of his ‘Fascist’ movement.
Mussolini had begun his political career as a socialist, but embraced far-right ideology after World War I. Italy’s economy was badly damaged by the war, afterwards the country was plagued by strikes and civil unrest.
Founded in 1919, Mussolini’s Fascist movement promised to restore order.
In October 1922, he orchestrated a mass ‘march on Rome’, where tens of thousands of his supporters descended on the capital; intimidated, King Victor Emmanual installed Mussolini as Prime Minster. In subsequent elections, in 1924, the Fascists won a majority in Parliament, although they relied on their militia, the ‘Blackshirts’, to intimidate their political opponents.
Mussolini then set about weakening the institutions of democratic government. This accelerated after he declared himself dictator, with other political parties outlawed, opponents jailed, and press freedoms restricted.
Adolf Hitler, by then the leader of an obscure far right party in Germany, drew direct inspiration from Mussolini’s actions.
Publication of the Great Gatsby
On April 10, one of the most acclaimed novels of the 20th century was published: ‘The Great Gatsby’, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which would come to be seen as one of the defining works of the 1920s, a vivid snapshot of life in ‘The Jazz Age’.
Fitzgerald was born in St Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, and showed precocious talent as a writer from a young age. Studying literature at Princeton, he dropped out before graduating, and published his first novel, ‘This Side of Paradise’, in 1920.
The book was an immediate critical and commercial success, and instantly made Fitzgerald’s name.
‘Gatsby’ centres on the titular character, a wealthy mystery man who cuts a dashing figure in east coast society. The book captures the opulence of the era, Gatsby is known for his elaborate parties, but indicates that American excess has a hollow centre; we learn Gatsby made his money through immoral means, and he pines for a woman who rejects him repeatedly.
On release (a first edition copy is shown above), the book found a lukewarm reception. Despite celebrity endorsements from T.S. Elliot and Edith Wharton, critical reaction was muted, and sales were modest: only 25 000 copies were shifted in its first run.
Fitzgerald took the result hard, which exacerbated his burgeoning alcoholism. He died in 1940, aged only 44, never having regained his earlier success.
After World War II, Gatsby would be re-discovered by academics and championed as a modern classic. It is now considered one of the finest American novels ever written.
Footscray, North Melbourne and Hawthorn Join the VFL
In Victoria, the new VFL season kicked off in May in a dramatically expanded format. Three new teams were added to the competition – bringing the total to 12 – with Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne all making their debut.
The expansion indicated the growing popularity of Australian Rules Football, and also the ongoing competition between the VFL and rival league, the VFA.
Founded in 1877, the VFA was Melbourne’s first football league. They were the only game in town for 20 years, until eight sides split off in 1896, and formed the VFL.
The reasons were largely financial; the new VFL clubs were the city’s largest, and wanted greater control over the game’s growing revenue. There were a few other changes as well, with the VFL reducing the number of players on field, to make the game more free flowing, and introducing a finals series.
The two leagues operated in parallel for a time, but the greater commercial and professional focus of the VFL saw it strengthen, while the VFA steadily weakened. The three new VFL clubs in 1925 were all former VFA members, that decided to switch competitions.
The change did not come easily: in their first season, Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne occupied the bottom three spots on the VFL ladder. The VFA would struggle on, largely as an amateur league, for many decades, before ceasing operation in 1995.
Scopes Monkey Trial
In July, one of the most extraordinary cases in legal history was heard, when the ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’ began in Tennessee.
The defendant was John Scopes, a high school teacher from Dayton, who was accused of violating the state’s Butler Act. The act prohibited the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools as it contradicted the Bible; Scopes had done so on purpose, to challenge the law’s legality.
For this clash of religion versus science, each side brought in a celebrity attorney. Scopes was defended by Clarence Darrow, an agnostic and the most famous lawyer in America, the prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, a renowned orator and devout Christian, who had run three times for President (the pair are oictured in court together, above).
Darrow sought to challenge the law by presenting evidence of inconsistencies in the Bible, therefore indicating it was unsuitable for educational purposes. But he was frustrated by the judge, who excluded any evidence not directly related to the case.
Darrow then called Bryan to the stand as a ‘Bible expert’, and on the seventh day of the case the pair sparred for several hours in front of a large crowd. There was so much interest in proceedings, they eventually had to be moved outdoors to accommodate more onlookers.
But the result of the case was never really in doubt: Scopes was found guilty, and fined $100. His conviction was later overturned on a technicality, by the Tennessee Supreme Court.
The Butler Act would stay on the books until 1967.
The Invention of Television
In October, one of the most far-reaching inventions of the 20th century was made, with the development of the first working television. The inventor was John Logie Baird (pictured), a Scottish electronics engineer, who had been pursuing the device for several years.
Working with limited resources, Baird built the first television in his London workshop, largely using second-hand and repurposed materials; the prototype would include an old hatbox, some bicycle lights, a used tea chest, and several darning needles.
Unlike a modern television, Baird’s device was mechanical: it utilised spinning, circular disks, one at each end of the process, to split images into a broadcast-able form, and reassemble them into pictures again.
On October 2, Baird succeeded in transmitting his first image: a ventriloquist dummy, he had bought for the purpose. In his excitement, he ran downstairs and found a local office worker, William Edward Taynton, who he convinced to participate in a second test; Tayton so became the first person to have their image broadcast.
In January 1926, Baird gave his first public demonstration of television, at the Royal Academy. The new technology caused a sensation, and subsequently would advance rapidly: by 1928, the first television broadcasts would commence, on the east coast of the United States.
