what cultural events marked the end or beginning of a decade?

[freepcrusher]

50s
Beginning: election of Ike maybe
End: popularity of surf music

60s
Beginning: see above. No one event but I think the 60s came into being from late 1961 through early 1963 with surf music and what not
End: Rural Purge on TV.

70s
Beginning: Rural Purge on TV
End: Not sure. I would probably put it sometime in 1982 or 1983. Compare Van Halen's first four or five albums. By the time of there sixth album (1984) the 80s had totally taken over with synth and what not.

80s
Beginning: see above
end: recession of 92 and election of clinton. But I would say guns and roses "November Rain" hitting #1 on the charts in February 92 was a good demarcation point

90s
end: the 2001-2002 school year. 9/11 and if I remember right that's when boy band music started to fade.

00s
beginning: late 2001 and 2002.
end:

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

end:

Tunisian Revolution?

[Crumpets]

I'd pick Kent State as the transition from 60s to 70s, and maybe the Day the Music Died for 50s to 60s.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Pearl Harbor
Soviet bomb
Cuban missile crisis
Kent state shootings
Reagan elected
Soviet Union collapse
9/11
Arab spring

[Blue3]

Pearl Harbor
Soviet bomb
Cuban missile crisis
Kent state shootings
Reagan elected
Soviet Union collapse
9/11
Arab spring

That's actually a pretty good list.

And you know, I never really thought of the moment that started and defined the 2010's before (like 9/11 clearly shaped the 2000's) because it always seemed too early to say. But I guess we are in 2017 now, and the Arab "Spring" is probably the best indicator we have yet. Though it probably needs a new name by this point.

Not 100% sold on these 3:
-Soviet bomb
-Cuban missile crisis
-Kent state shootings
but I haven't seen better alternatives presented yet
(sorry, OP, but your choices seem really bizarre to me and I don't know what most of that stuff even is)

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

'Arab spring' isn't an event, it's a process.

They made the event:

Just like the collapse of Soviet Union isn't an event either...

[progressive85]

tough one.

start of 30s: Stock market crash (1929)
40s: Pearl Harbor (1941)
50s: when majority of Americans have TV
60s: JFK's assassination
70s: Stonewall riots
80s: AIDS
90s: when majority of Americans have Internet
00s: 9/11
10s: when majority of Americans have smartphones

[JGibson]

NOTE: Some of these events that happened were/are in a different decade listed in a calendar year context. Example: Although Carter's defeat to Reagan happened in 1980, the event is seen as the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980's from a cultural standpoint.
1920s:
Begin: The 18th Amendment which started Prohibition, Ottoman Empire gives way to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's Turkey, Treaty of Versailles, October Revolution and Vladimir Lenin takes over as USSR leader, Ireland breaking away from Britain, the prevalence of the KKK, Benito Mussolini's rise to power in Italy, The Scopes Trial, Black Sox scandal.
End: Black Tuesday (which triggered the Great Depression), the rise of the Nazis, the end of Prohibition via the repeal of the 18th Amendment with the 21st Amendment, The end of the Cristero War in Mexico, The Turkish language switches from Arabic-based alphabet to Latin-based alphabet.

1930s:
Begin: Hitler takes over in Germany, Great Depression, Dust Bowl, FDR's election as President, establishment/unification of Saudi Arabia, establishment of the FIFA World Cup, Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act became law.
End: WWII begins.

1940s:
Begin: US joins WWII efforts due to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust, the end of WWII.
End: The modern-day nation of Israel's establishment, the ending of the Baseball Color Line with Jackie Robinson's MLB debut, Apartheid's beginnings in South Africa, India and Pakistan's independence, Mao Zedong's victory in China, NATO's establishment.

1950s:
Begin: Eisenhower elected as President, The start of the Cold War, Cuban Revolution, more people moving to the suburbs, Korean War, Elvis Presley's prominence, Stalin's death, Papa and Baby Doc's tyrannical rule over Haiti, the introduction of TV. This decade can also be seen as a continuation of the post-WWII 1940s culturally.
End: LBJ taking office, JFK's assassination, the establishment of the European Economic Community (which later became the European Union) the Brazilian coup of 1964, Fidel Castro taking power in Cuba, Washington NFL Team finally signing a Black player, Dodgers and Giants relocate from New York/Brooklyn to LA (Dodgers) and San Francisco (Giants)

1960s:
Begin: Rosa Parks's arrest in Montgomery that catapulted the Civil Rights Movement, JFK taking office, introduction of colorized TV, The Beatles becoming popular, the establishment of the AFL, Bay of Pigs invasion, MLK and Malcolm X's rises in fame.
End: The US joining the Vietnam War, Stonewall Riots, assassination of MLK Jr., Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, the Rural Purge on TV, 1968 DNC Riots, Nixon taking office, Mao-led Cultural Revolution, the beginning of The Troubles, the Original Six era of the NHL ends, the establishment of the ABA, the dismantling of the White Australia policy.

1970s:
Begin: The Rural Purge on TV, Roe v. Wade SCOTUS decision allowing access to abortion across the USA, Watergate, NFL/AFL Merger Stonewall Riots, Kent State University shootings, Ferdinand Marcos putting the Philippines under Martial Law, Chilean coup that put Pinochet in power, the establishment of the WHA, the dismantling of the White Australia policy.
End: Shah overthrown in Iran, Carter's defeat to Reagan, USSR invades Afghanistan, Thatcher elected PM of the UK, anti-disco backlash (Disco Demolition Night), NHL/WHA Merger, ABA/NBA Merger.

1980s:
Begin: Reagan and Thatcher taking office, AIDS/HIV crisis, the launch of MTV, cable television's increase in distribution (esp. MTV and ESPN), rise of the Religious Right, pro-US nations boycotting the USSR-hosted Summer Olympics in 1980 and pro-USSR nations boycotting the US-hosted Summer Olympics in 1984, Mt. St. Helens eruption, the launch of Fox, PMRC and Tipper Gore's war on musical expression.
End: Berlin Wall comes down, USSR breaking up into 15 separate countries, the Gulf War, the escalating WCW v. WWF war, Johnny Carson stepping down as host of The Tonight Show, breakup of Yugoslavia into several different countries, Tiananmen Square protests and revolution, Latin America's military juntas ending, the People Power Revolution that brought down Ferdinand Marcos, Loma Prieta Earthquake that caused the delay of the 1989 World Series between the two Bay Area clubs (A's and Giants), MLB Strike that causes the cancellation of the World Series in 1994.

1990s:
Begin: The end of the Cold War, the rise of Nirvana and grunge music, USSR breaking up into 15 separate countries, Bill Clinton's election, the OJ Simpson Trial, establishment of the EU (supplanting the EEC), Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa and Apartheid's end, Quayle v. Murphy Brown saga, Rwanda's genocide, 1992 LA Riots, Québec independence referendum, breakup of Yugoslavia into several different countries, increase in acceptance of LGBTQ people, personal computers, Fox gaining the NFL rights from CBS (NFC to be precise), the increase of talk shows in syndication, the launch of MSNBC and Fox News Channel, establishment of NAFTA.
End: Bush v. Gore recount case, Enron scandal, 9/11 attacks, the end of the WCW v. WWF (now WWE) Monday Night Wars, Good Friday Agreement that ended The Troubles, Columbine High School shooting, NHL's season-cancelling lockout in 2004.

2000s:
Begin: Bush v. Gore recount case, 9/11 attacks, the start of the War On Terror (Afghanistan, Iraq), Fox News Channel's rise to prominence in the cable news wars, Patriots winning the Super Bowl over the Rams, marriage equality being legalized in The Netherlands, Belgium, the Canadian province of Ontario, and the state of Massachusetts, American Idol, the nearly every episode killings of Kenny on South Park ceasing, the exponential rise of "reality" TV, Carson Daly stepping down as host of TRL, the end of weekday afternoon kid's show blocks on broadcast TV, Mexican Drug War, Erdoğan's rise to power in Turkey, Arsenal's Invincibles season (2003-04), Hugo Chávez's rise to power in Venezuela, Taliban's defeat in Afghanistan.
End: Great Recession, Obamacare's passage, Tea Party Movement, Arab Spring, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga's rise, Cubs games and WGN newscasts no longer being televised on WGN America, Brexit, California Prop 8 and its overturning at SCOTUS, the election of Donald Trump, the death of Osama Bin Laden, Gabby Giffords getting shot, Ferguson and the rise of #BlackLivesMatter, Stephen Harper's defeat to Justin Trudeau.

2010s:
Begin: Arab Spring, the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the subsequent rise of #BlackLivesMatter in the wake of Ferguson, the rise of ISIS/ISIL, marijuana legalization, Sandy Hook shooting, Obamacare's passage, Obergefell v. Hodges SCOTUS decision allowing marriage equality across the USA, social media and smartphones, Citizens United v. FEC SCOTUS ruling that made campaign finance reform a major issue, the increasing visibility of the trans community and other gender non-conforming/non-binary peoples, Brexit, the demise of the traditional Saturday Morning cartoon block on broadcast TV, the demise of most music video countdown shows (106 and Park, VH1 Top 20, TRL). This decade can also be seen as a continuation of the 2000's culturally.
End: Still in this decade.

Bold = Main event(s) that defined the decade

[parochial boy]

I would have thought the 2008 banking crisis would be the obvious end point for the 2000s.

In the west, it has basically been the single determining point for the way politics and society hae gone in the last 8-9 years.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Ill Do since the 1940s


1940s:

Began: Battle of France 1940
End : Fall of China to Communists 1949


1950s:

Began: US intervenes in the Korean War
Ends: When Castro takes power in Cuba

1960s:

Began: Failed Bay of Pigs
End: Armstrong lands on Moon

1970s:
Began:Release of Pentagon Papers
End: Iranian Revolution

1980s:
Began: Reagan Elected
End: Fall of Berlin Wall

1990s:
Began: Collapse of Soviet Union
End: Tech Bubble bursts

2000s:
Began: 9/11
End: Lehman Brothers Collapse

2010s:

Began: End of War in Iraq

[Beet]

Pearl Harbor
Soviet bomb
Cuban missile crisis
Kent state shootings
Reagan elected
Soviet Union collapse
9/11
Arab spring

That's actually a pretty good list.

Yes, pretty good list. You could put Lehman Brothers' collapse on 9/15/08 as the end of the 2000's also.

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The Fifties were twice as long because there are two postwar cultural decades chronologically bifurcarted due to WWII ending in the middle of a decade. Culturally, the first one starts with Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech on 3/5/46 and ends with the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott on 12/5/55. This is an era of austerity and consolidation.

The second decade begins and continues with a series of tumultous events (1954-57) such as: the end of McCarthyism, the start of the civil rights movement, the Soviet invasion of Hungary, Khruschev's Secret Speech, Elvis Presley appearing on the Ed Sullivan show, Sputnik, the French Fifth Republic, the Treaty of Rome, and the launch of the Great Leap Forward. Compared to the first decade, it is more optimistic as an economic boom is apparent.

The third decade begins in 1964-66 with the Berkeley Free Speech movement, the Watts Riots, the Vietnam War, etc. This marks when the cautious optimism and rising expectations of the second decade becomes an uncontrollable convulsion that explodes in 1968 and melts away in the 1970s. The third decade ends with the Oil Crisis in 1973 (the end of the "trente glorieuses").

The Seventies are a short decade, lasting only from 1973 to 1980. After that we return to cultural decades being synced with chronological ones (fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11, financial crisis), as it was before 1939 (Wall Street crash, end of WWI, being the obvious ones).

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I Ctrl+F'd "Altamont" and got nothing in this thread. Fail.

[freepcrusher]

you could also argue that there is sort of a core and a crossover era:

Core 1940s: Pearl Harbor to Korea
Transition 40s-50s: Korean War
Core 1950s: end of Korea-1960 election
Transition 60s: JFK presidency
Core 60s: assassination of JFK to 1967 or so
Fringe 60s-70s: premier of smothers brothers/laugh-in in 67 or 68 to rural purge in 1971
Core 70s: rural purge in 1971 to 77/78 (i.e. new wave like talking heads, blondie, clash)
fringe 70s/80s - 77/78 to 1982 or so (i.e. van halen's first five albums)
Core 80s: 82 or 83 up until 89 or so
fringe 80s/90s (basically whenever REM was popular)
Core 90s - somewhere in the 91-92 school year up to 97 or 98 (when backstreet boys, nsync, usher come onto the scene)
Fringe 90s/00s - first through fifth grades more or less for me (I graduated from hs in 09 so do the math)
Core 00s - 01/02 up until the crash of 08
Fringe 90s/00s - Obama's first term more or less.

[Crumpets]

My list:

20s-30s: Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929)
30s-40s: German invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939)
40s-50s: Soviets get the bomb (August 29, 1949)
50s-60s: The Day the Music Died (February 3, 1959)
60s-70s: Kent State Massacre (May 4, 1970)
70s-80s: Iranian Hostage Crisis (November 4, 1979 - January 20, 1981)
80s-90s: Fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 1989)
90s-2000s: 9/11 (September 11, 2001)
2000s-10s: Arab Spring (fall of Mubarak - February 11, 2011)

[Antonio the Sixth]

1918 - 1929 - 1939 - 1947 - 1962 - 1968 - 1979 - 1991 - 2001 - 2011

[Oldiesfreak1854]

1900s: St. Louis World's Fair to WWI
1910s: WWI to election of Harding
1920s: Election of Harding to 1929 Wall Street crash
1930s: 1929 Wall Street crash to attack on Pearl Harbor
1940s: Attack on Pearl Harbor to election of Eisenhower
1950s: Election of Eisenhower to British Invasion
1960s: British Invasion to withdrawal from Vietnam
1970s: Withdrawal from Vietnam to election of Reagan
1980s: Election of Reagan to election of Clinton
1990s: Election of Clinton to 9/11
2000s: 9/11 to election of Obama
2010s: Election of Obama to present

[Reaganfan]

This is fun but tough to make some decisions.

1900s
Begin: Spanish–American War, McKinley assassination, Teddy Roosevelt Era
End: Titanic sinking, Wilson elected

1910s
Begin: WW1
End: Harding Elected, Return to "Normalcy"

1920s
Begin: Roaring 20s, Harding dies, Coolidge Presidency
End: Crash of '29

1930s
Begin: Great Depression, Roosevelt elected
End: Hitler invades Poland '39, WW2 begins

1940s
Begin: WW2, Pearl Harbor
End: Korean War begins

1950s
Begins: IKE elected
Ends: Castro revolution, Kennedy elected

1960s
Begins: JFK, Cuban Missile Crisis
Ends: Woodstock, Nixon elected

1970s
Begins: Kent State, Vietnam
Ends: End of Carter Presidency, Economic downturn, "Crisis of Confidence"

1980s
Begins: Reagan elected
Ends: Berlin Wall falls

1990s
Begins: Clinton elected, 1992 culture change (End of 80s sitcoms, 80s music, Reagan/Bush era)
Ends: Y2K

2000s
Begins: September 11, 2001
Ends: Election of Obama

2010s
Begins: Bin laden killed, tech age
Ends: TBD (Trump Era?)

[Agonized-Statism]

Bump, now that the 2020s are here. Here's some very broad guesses.

1920s: End of World War I (Dadaism, Jazz Age, Russian Revolution, March on Rome as a realization of Spengler's predictions; modernism ascendant)
1930s: Black Tuesday
1940s: Attack on Pearl Harbor
1950s: Fall of Joe McCarthy, dismissal of Douglas MacArthur, death of Stalin (signifies the end of a very dynamic decade and the beginning of a don't-rock-the-boat mentality)
1960s: Birth control, assassination of Kennedy
1970s: Literally everything that happened in 1968
1980s: Reagan Revolution (Détente ends definitively, facilitates IMF silent revolution, Moral Majority)
1990s: Fall of the Eastern Bloc, The Simpsons (popularization of postmodernism)
2000s: 9/11
2010s: US-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement, Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, Obama elected, Adventure Time (the birth of progressive 2010s culture IMO)
2020s: Hong Kong protests, COVID-19, Storming of the capitol (fall of Trump and populism)

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

End of WWI
20s
Black Thursday
30s
Pearl Harbor
40s
Premiere of Ed Sullivan Show
50s
Premier of The Twilight Zone
60s
Altamont Free Concert
70s
Disco Demolition Night
80s
Fall of the Soviet Union
90s
9/11
00s
Death of Osama bin Laden
10s
Beginning of Covid lockdowns
20s

[Samof94]

Covid is the obvious split between the last decade and this one.

[Agonized-Statism]

Covid is the obvious split between the last decade and this one.

I don't know if everything can be attributed to the pandemic. 2020 was more of the same when it came to crises and progressive vs. populist culture warring. From what I've noticed, the transition came from a combination of the mask fights, the George Floyd protests, escalating tensions with China since the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and finally the storming of the capitol. It took all that to discredit the anti-establishment trend that started with the collapse of the 2000s post-9/11 consensus. Sanders' 2020 campaign was the last hoorah for the progressives and the purge of Trump and Trumpists online post-January 2021 (plus the failure of the QAnon predictions) seems to have killed the populist wave.

Maybe it's a little presumptuous to say this so soon, but we won't get another Trump or Sanders this decade. We're back to "don't rock the boat" and that abstraction will manifest more clearly in culture soon. The 2020s will be a decade of new consensus. The left can be silenced with the specter of "another Trump" and the right dropped the ball ("how can you say you're a nationalist when you stormed the capitol and let China get ahead?").

[Samof94]

Covid is the obvious split between the last decade and this one.

I don't know if everything can be attributed to the pandemic. 2020 was more of the same when it came to crises and progressive vs. populist culture warring. From what I've noticed, the transition came from a combination of the mask fights, the George Floyd protests, escalating tensions with China since the 2019 Hong Kong protests, and finally the storming of the capitol. It took all that to discredit the anti-establishment trend that started with the collapse of the 2000s post-9/11 consensus. Sanders' 2020 campaign was the last hoorah for the progressives and the purge of Trump and Trumpists online post-January 2021 (plus the failure of the QAnon predictions) seems to have killed the populist wave.

Maybe it's a little presumptuous to say this so soon, but we won't get another Trump or Sanders this decade. We're back to "don't rock the boat" and that abstraction will manifest more clearly in culture soon. The 2020s will be a decade of new consensus.

A more left leaning one than before. A bit like the 00’s but more left leaning.  The end of a bunch of tv shows and eras of movie franchises also makes it obvious. Disney plus shows weren’t a thing in the 10’s. A list actors on the small screen was a novelty until late in the 10’s.

[Agonized-Statism]

A more left leaning one than before. A bit like the 00’s but more left leaning.  The end of a bunch of tv shows and eras of movie franchises also makes it obvious. Disney plus shows weren’t a thing in the 10’s. A list actors on the small screen was a novelty until late in the 10’s.

Basically. Cosmopolitan millennials took the reins of society from religious right boomers over the course of the 2010s, so the powers that be jumped the sinking Republican ship. Hence why we're seeing pro-LGBT ads for the CIA and military. They have to make sure the house always wins, and sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. aren't a winning formula anymore.

It's a lot like when the counterculture of the 1960s got absorbed into the mainstream and became inert as a revolutionary movement (that's when we got, for example, the harmless New Age movement of the 1970s, focused only on personal development rather than bettering society or threatening the power of elites). Like the "end" of the civil rights movement in 1968, we as a society have decided that overt discrimination against LGB and more or less T (see J. K. Rowling) isn't right, but that pushing any further on that is "too woke" and will only get us "another Trump". We want to utter a lot of platitudes about police reform in the wake of George Floyd, but more substantial action like police abolition is "too far". On economics, as per Joe Biden earlier this month in Louisiana, "you're entitled to be a millionaire, be a billionaire, just pay your fair share. [...] I'm not looking to punish anyone. I'm sick and tired of corporate America not doing their fair share." We're still hesitant to get bogged down in wars or make free trade deals that harm American workers, but we're turning outward again and trying to revive the Quad to contain muh evil and perilous China. And like the segregationists of the 1960s, the alt-right will be forced to find more subtle ways of getting their agenda past.

One aspect of 2020s life you definitely got right is streaming culture, but that was already on its way with Netflix being such a huge thing. COVID just expedited it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The alt-right is basically a dead movement, almost all of their major figures have either renounced it, are now completely deplatformed or in jail. The only exception is Nick Fuentes and he was never one if the biggest names. They actually started declining after Charlottesville Trump's defeat will only expedite that. In a decade they'll be seen as a weird movement emblematic of the mid-10s.

[Agonized-Statism]

The alt-right is basically a dead movement, almost all of their major figures have either renounced it, are now completely deplatformed or in jail. The only exception is Nick Fuentes and he was never one if the biggest names. They actually started declining after Charlottesville Trump's defeat will only expedite that. In a decade they'll be seen as a weird movement emblematic of the mid-10s.

Right. Starting from Charlottesville in 2017 all the way to the storming in January, the alt-right's strategy of trying to bring white nationalism into the Overton Window through a coalition including mainstream conservatives and libertarians failed because the latter groups dropped off or became Democrats. Their hopes of electoral chaos-driven "day of the rope" didn't materialize. The defeat of 2010s radicalism after the storming in particular should be looked at as a transitional moment toward this new consensus culture.

However, I caution against the notion that the far-right is dead, which is why I mentioned that the alt-right will inevitably try to regroup somehow. When the paradigm shift of the 2030s comes (probably 2000s-style via unpopular war, economic collapse, and breakneck technology-driven societal change), that's a neo-alt-right's opportunity. Like the former Southern segregationists' newfound influence in the GOP after the 1960s, which saw some of their hopes realized in the Reagan era, I expect some of their ideas to influence conservatives for years to come.