The Chicago Cubs, Those "Lovable Losers": What Has Happened in the World Since the Cubs Won a World Series (Updated Nov. 2, 2016)

The Cubs Post Season Record since 1908 to 2016: 35 Wins and 62 Losses. A Sample of What Has Happened in the World Since the Cubs Won a World Series: the Following Is Only the First 100 Years! 1909 - Explorers Peary and Henson reach the North Pole. German bacteriologist, Paul Ehrlich, discovers a cure for syphilis. Theodore Roosevelt exits; William Howard Taft is president. 1910 - Union of South Africa is established. Mexican revolution begins. Boy Scouts of America is incorporated. Halley’s comet is observed for the first time. Cubs Lose to Athletics in World Series 1911 - First use of aircraft carrier in a war; U.S. Supreme Court finds Standard Oil Co. and American Tobacco Co. in violation of Sherman Antitrust Act. British physicist discovers structure of the atom. 1912 - The unsinkable Titanic sinks. Girl Scouts of America is founded. 1913 - Garment workers strike in New York and Boston. Sixteenth amendment (income tax) adopted. Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr describe atomic structure. William Howard Taft exits; Woodrow Wilson is president. 1914 - World War I begins in Europe. Panama Canal opens. First traffic lights are installed in Cleveland. 1915 - Lusitania is sunk by German submarine. Genocide of approximately 600,000 to 1,000,000 Armenians by Turkish soldiers. Georgia accepts charter for establishment of the Ku Klux Klan. 1916 - Battle of Verdun is fought. Einstein completes his formulation of a general theory of relativity. 1917 - U.S. enters World War I. World-wide influenza pandemic strikes. Chicago White Sox are in World Series and defeat the New York Giants. 1918 - World War I ends. Russian revolutionaries execute former czar and his family. Daylight Savings time goes into effect. Pulitzer Prizes in Poetry, Fiction and Drama debut. Cubs Lose to Red Sox in World Series. 1919 - Treaty of Versailles; 18th amendment (prohibition) adopted. Dial telephones are introduced. 1920 - 19th amendment (Woman’s suffrage) ratified. 1921 - First burial is held at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Woodrow Wilson exits; William G. Harding is president. 1922 - Mussolini marches on Rome; forms fascist government/ 1923 - Earthquake destroys 1/3 of Tokyo. William G. Harding exits; Calvin Coolidge is elected president. 1924 - Stalin gains power; rules as Soviet dictator until death in 1953. 1925 - John Logie Baird transmits human features by television. Tennessee schoolteacher John T. Scopes is arrested for teaching the theory of evolution, forbidden by state law. 1926 - Anti-freeze allows people to use cars year-around. 1927 - Charles Lindbergh makes first solo transatlantic flight. Physicist, Werner Heisenberg, introduces “Uncertainty Principle.” Georges Lemaitre proposes Big Bang Theory. 1928 - General Electric introduces a 3” X 4” television screen. 1929 - Stock Market crashes: U.S. securities plummet $26 billion. Depression begins. Calvin Coolidge exits; Herbert Hoover is president. Cubs Lose to Athletics in World Series. 1930 - Hitler’s Nazi Party gains majority in parliament. 1931 - Japan occupies Manchuria. Star Spangled Banner officially becomes anthem. 1932 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo over Atlantic. Physicists, Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, split the atom. Herbert Hoover exits; Franklin D. Roosevelt is president. Cubs Lose to Yankees in World Series. 1933 - Hindenburg appoints Hitler chancellor. Nazi terrorism begins. Prohibition repealed. Glass Steagall Act bans banks from dealing with stocks and bonds. 1934 - Hindenburg dies; Hitler appoints himself Fuehrer. Dust storms ruin about 100 million acres and damage another 200 million acres of cropland in Kansas, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma. 1935 - Mussolini invades Ethiopia. Nazis enact laws against the Jews. Cubs Lose to Tigers in World Series. 1936 - Germany and Italy sign Axis Treaty. War between Japan and China begin. First successful helicopter flight. 1937 - Hindenburg explodes. 1938 - British Prime Minister Chamberlain agrees that Hitler can have Czechoslovakia. Hitler marches into Austria. Cubs Lose to Yankees in World Series. 1939 - World War II starts in Europe; in just five weeks Poland surrenders to Germany. 1940 - Germany invades Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France. Selective Service Act signed. The First Social Security benefit checks are paid. 1941 - Germany invades Russia; Japanese attack Pearl Harbor – U.S. declares war on Japan. Germany declares war on U.S. 1942 - Nazi leaders plan the systematic genocide of the Jews. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans are sent to “relocation centers.” The U.S. government establishes the Manhattan Project, led by Robert Oppenheimer to build an atomic bomb. 1943 - Mussolini is disposed. U.S. government withholds taxes on wages. 1944 - Soviet troops now in Poland – Allies land in Italy at Anzio; Allies invade Europe – D-Day 1945 - Germany Surrenders; U.N. Charter Signed; atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders. Franklin D. Roosevelt exits; Harry S. Truman is president. Cubs Lose to Tigers in World Series. 1946 - First meeting of United Nations. Nuremberg Trials. First automatic electronic digital computer. 1947- Jackie Robinson becomes first African American major league baseball player. Communist Parties gain control of rest of Soviet occupied Europe. Truman Doctrine proposes containment of communist expansion. 1948 - Gandhi is assassinated. Israel proclaimed. Albert Camus publishes The Plague. 1949 - NATO established. The Soviet Union begin testing atomic weapons. 1950 - Korean War begins. McCarthy Hearings begin. Truman orders development of the Hydrogen Bomb. 1951- 22nd Amendment, prohibiting more than two presidential terms 1952 - U.S. explodes first thermonuclear bomb. 1953 - Korean armistice. U.S. provides military aid to France to suppress Vietnam freedom fighters. Harry S. Truman exits; Dwight D. Eisenhower is president. 1954 - Vietnam is divided at 17th parallel. Brown v. Board of Education bans racial discrimination. 1955 - U.S. begins economic aid to South Vietnam. Montgomery Bus Boycott; Martin Luther King becomes prominent. Rosa Parks refuses to sit at the back of a bus. 1956 - Anti-Communist revolution in Hungary brutally suppressed by Soviet troops. U.S. tests Hydrogen Bomb. 1957 - Gov. Faubus of Arkansas uses National Guard troops to prevent de-segregation of Little Rock High School.  Eisenhower federalizes troops and forces de-segregation. Congress passes Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination in public. 1958 - U.S. Supreme Court rules that schools must integrate. First Xerox machine. Soviets launch “Sputnik”; first trans-Atlantic jet passenger service. 1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become states. Castro comes to power in Cuba. Chicago White Sox are in the World Series but lose to the L.A. Dodgers. 1960 - Lunch counter sit ins begin in South (beginning of “Civil Rights Movement”). 1961 - US increase involvement in Vietnam. U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba. U.S. supports abortive “Bay of Pigs” invasion of Cuba. Berlin Wall constructed. Dwight D. Eisenhower exits; John F. Kennedy is president. 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis. Military coup (with U.S. approval) overthrows Diem in Vietnam.  1963 - Kennedy is assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson is president. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington D.C. 1964 - U.S. Destroyer allegedly attacked in Gulf of Tonkin.  Congress resolves that President Johnson given authority to use all power to repel attacks on U.S. forces. This resolution formed basis for massive escalation of U.S. military action in Vietnam without declaration of war. China detonates atomic bomb. Beatles come to America. 1965 - First combat troops in Vietnam: massive escalation of U.S. military effort, combined with nightly TV coverage of war and opposition of liberal news media. Anti-war demonstrations become wide spread. Six days of Race Riots in Watts area of L.A. 1966 - Medicare commences. Supreme Court protects right of accused, Miranda v. Arizona. 1967 - Vietnam war continues to escalate. Thurgood Marshall becomes first African American on U.S. Supreme Court. First heart transplant. Racial violence spreads. 1968 - North Vietnam launch the Tet Offensive. My Lai massacre, (Lt. Calley convicted in 1971). Martin Luther King is assassinated; Robert Kennedy is assassinated. 1969 - U.S./Vietnam peace talks start. 500,000+ people attend Woodstock (I didn’t). Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take a stroll on the moon. Lyndon B. Johnson exits; Richard Nixon is president. NY Mets dash Cubs' playoff hopes. 1970 - U.S. President Richard Nixon orders an invasion of Cambodia, widening the war in Vietnam. In protest, millions march across the U.S. University campuses are shut down by student strikes. Four protestors at Kent State University in Ohio are killed by National Guard troops. Four hundred and forty-eight universities and colleges closed or on strike in protest against war. The Beatles break up. 1971 - U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously that busing students may be ordered to achieve racial desegregation of schools. Anti-war militants attempt to shut down government in Washington. As many as 12,000 are arrested. Most are later released. The Pentagon Papers are published detailing the military's secret, negative assessment of the Vietnam War. War between India and Pakistan begins. Apollo 15 lands on the moon and uses the Lunar Rover vehicle for the first time. The microprocessor – the foundation of today's computers – is introduced. 1972 - Five men are caught breaking in to the Watergate Complex where the Democratic Party offices are – the start of the Watergate Scandal. Eleven Israeli athletes ae killed at the Munich Olympic Games. Five terrorists and one policeman are also killed. U.S. planes bomb North Vietnam on Christmas Day. 1973 - U.S. signs peace pact and troops pull out of Vietnam. Bombing of Cambodia stops, ending 12 years of U.S. combat in Southeast Asia. U.S. Supreme Court rules on Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion. The mobile phone is invented. 1974 - The House Judiciary Committee indicts President Richard Nixon for impeachment over the Watergate Scandal. In August, Nixon resigns his office, the first president to do so. Vice President Gerald Ford is president. 1975 - North Vietnamese enter Saigon. The last group of Americans are evacuated by helicopter at the last minute from the roof of the embassy. The War in Vietnam is over. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge take over in Cambodia and begin a blood bath. Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft link up in space, marking the cooperation between the U.S. and Soviets. Bill Gates and Paul Allen found the Microsoft corporation. The Altair becomes the first widely available personal computer running Microsoft's BASIC software. 1976 - The Supreme Court rules that the death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual punishment, so it's a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment. The Viking 2 spacecraft lands on Mars. Apple Computer is founded by Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak. (Glen Brown spends the summer traveling through 11 countries in Europe). Exit Ford; Carter is president. 1977 - Scientists report genetic engineering techniques to make insulin. Elvis Presley is found dead. Nuclear proliferation pact that curbs the spread of nuclear weapons is signed by 15 countries, including the U.S. and USSR. The movie Star Wars is released to great acclaim and box office. Gerald Ford exits; Jimmy Carter is president. 1978 - Egypt's president Anwar Sadat and Israeli premier Menachem Begin sign a "Framework for Peace" after meeting for 13 days with Jimmy Carter at Camp David. Later they win the Nobel Peace Prize. Cult leader Jim Jones' followers commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. The world's first test-tube baby is born. 1979 - In Iran, the Shah leaves the country after years of turmoil. Exiled Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini returns and declares an Islamic republic. Saddam Hussein becomes president of neighboring Iraq. At Three Mile Island, New York, a nuclear power plant comes close to melting down and releases some radiation into the atmosphere. In November, Iranian militants seize the U.S. embassy in Tehran and hold hostages. In December, Soviet troops invade Afghanistan to prop up a Communist leader. 1980 - In response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter imposes an embargo on grain shipments to the USSR and boycotts the Moscow Olympics. The Iranian hostage crisis deepens. The U.S. breaks diplomatic ties with Iran. Eight Americans are killed when helicopters collide in a rescue mission. Iraq invades Iran and an eight-year war ensues. John Lennon of the Beatles is shot dead in New York City. 1981 - An agreement frees 52 hostages held in Tehran since 1979. Anwar Sadat assassinated in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak becomes president. Exit Carter; Reagan is president. In the U.S., President Reagan is wounded by gunshots, and in Rome Pope John Paul II is wounded. President Reagan nominates Judge Sandra Day O'Connor as the first woman on the Supreme Court. The first cases of AIDS are identified. Xerox markets the first mouse as an integrated part of a personal computer. Jimmy Carter exits; Ronald Reagan is president. 1982 - Great Britain defeats Argentina in a war over the isolated Falkland Islands. Israel invades Lebanon to attach the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution fails to gain ratification. The Vietnam Memorial opens in Washington, designed by a young Maya Linn. Initially controversial, it becomes a beloved memorial. 1983 - Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. President Reagan announces his plans for a missile defense plan called Star Wars. A terrorist explosion in Beirut kills 237 U.S. Marines. The U.S. invades the tiny island of Grenada. 1984 - In protest of the Olympic boycott of four years before, the Soviets boycott the Los Angeles Olympics. The monopoly Bell Telephone System is broken up into smaller, regional companies. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards. A thousand Sikhs are killed in riots. Toxic gas leaks from a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000. Apple introduces the Macintosh personal computer with a graphical user interface. Cubs lose to Padres in playoffs. 1985 - Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko dies and is replaced by a young Mikhail Gorbachev. He calls for reforms in the Soviet Union. In October, Reagan and Gorbachev meet in a summit and agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts. There are a series of terrorist attacks on airplanes and a cruise ship. Scientists announce the discovery of hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctic. 1986 - An explosion in the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in the USSR spreads radiation over Russia and Europe, forcing the evacuation of 135,000 people. The space shuttle Challenger explodes after launch from Cape Canaveral killing all seven aboard. U.S. House kills Reagan's Star Wars anti-missile program. Secret initiative to send arms to Iran revealed. Reagan denies exchanging arms for hostages, but halts the arms sales. Later the diversion of funds to the conservative Nicaraguan Contras is revealed. Nintendo introduces the hand-held Game Boy. 1987 - The Iran-Contra scandal implicates aides close the President Reagan. Reagan accepts responsibility. The world's population hits 5 billion. DNA is used in a criminal court case for the first time. 1988 - An explosion on a plane kills Pakistani president Mohammad Zia ul-Haq. Benazir Bhutto is chosen to lead Pakistan, the first Islamic woman prime minister. A terrorist bomb destroys a Pan-Am 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 on board and 11 on the ground. First computer virus is reported. 1989 - In response to massive protests, the East German government allows their citizens to cross into West Berlin. The Berlin Wall is torn down. In Poland, the political party and union Solidarity wins a landslide victory over the Communists in the country's first free elections. In Hungary, the parliament enacts democratic reforms and pressures the Soviets to pull out their troops. Czech parliament ends Communist domination. Romanian demonstrators overthrow the Communist government. President Ceausescu and his wife are executed. In China, more than a million demonstrate in Tiananmen Square for more democracy. Chinese Army attacks and thousands are killed. The oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground and spills 11 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska. The Soviet Union withdraws its troops from Afghanistan. Ronald Reagan exits; George Bush is president. Cubs lose to Giants in playoffs. 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait and seizes oil assets, igniting the Persian Gulf War. East and West Germany are reunited. The Cold War is officially ended as the U.S. and USSR negotiate arms accords. Nelson Mandela is freed after 27 years as a political prisoner in South Africa. Leaders of 34 European nations proclaim a united Europe. Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal for the World Wide Web. The Hubble Space Telescope is launched. 1991 - The U.S. and allies win the Persian Gulf War against Iraq, but stop short of invading Baghdad. Communist hard-liners attempt to overthrow Gorbachev, but the coup fails. Gorbachev resigns as President. The USSR dissolves into 15 separate republics. The Warsaw Pact for military protection is dissolved. Boris Yeltsin is elected as the president of the Russian Republic. South African parliament overturns apartheid laws. 1992 - Presidents Bush and Yeltsin declare a formal end to the Cold War. President Bush pardons former Reagan administration officials involved in the Iran-Contra affair. Bill Clinton is elected president of the United States. Los Angeles erupts in riots after Rodney King is videotaped being beaten by police. 1993 - The European Union is ratified. American soldiers die in Mogadishu, Somalia. Rwandan genocide begins in Africa. The U.S. becomes involved in trying to stop the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. Fire kills 72 religious cult members outside of Waco Texas. President Boris Yeltsin's forces crush a revolt in the Russian Parliament. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Act, becomes law. South Africa adopts a majority rule constitution. Nokia sends text messages between mobile phones. George Bush exits; Bill Clinton is president. 1994 - Ethnic cleansing continues in the former Yugoslavia. In Rwanda, Hutu militias kill up to a million Tutsis in their campaign of genocide. South Africa holds their first interracial, one-man-one-vote election and Nelson Mandela is elected president. Russia attacks the republic of Chechnya after Muslims there attempt to secede. O. J. Simpson is arrested for the killings of his wife and her friend Ronald Goldman. Major league baseball players strike and the World Series is cancelled. The Hubble Space Telescope first finds evidence of black holes in the universe. The find is confirmed in 2001. 1995 - Timothy McVeigh bombs the Oklahoma City federal building in retaliation for the Branch Dividian standoff in 1993. He's caught and put on trial for murder. Fighting escalates in Bosnia and Croatia. At the end of the year, combatants sign the Bosnian peace treaty. O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of murdering his wife and friend. In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is killed at a peace rally. Sony demonstrates a flat screen TV. 1996 - Taliban Muslim fundamentalists capture Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Later al-Qaeda terrorist training camps are set up. Iraqi troops fire on Kurdish positions in the north of the country. The U.S. warns Iraq, attacks Iraq's air defenses and declares a "No Fly" zone in the north of the country. Refugees in Rwanda and Burundi are caught up in new fighting and killings. 1997 - Princess Diana is killed with two others in a Paris car crash. U.S. space shuttle docks with Russian space station. Another spacecraft begins sending back pictures from Mars. O. J. Simpson is found "liable" in a civil suit arising from the murder of his wife. Timothy McVeigh sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing. Scottish scientists clone a sheep named Dolly. 1998 - President Bill Clinton is accused of having sex with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. He denies the charges, then admits to the affair. An independent counsel brings charges against Clinton, and the House impeaches him for lying and obstructing justice. In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Accords promise peace and political power sharing. Violence in the former Yugoslavia continues until NATO reaches a settlement with President Milosevic in October. Google introduces their search engine to the Web. Though anti-impotence drug Viagra is introduced to the market, Cubs lose to Braves in playoffs. 1999 - The U. S. Senate acquits President Clinton of impeachment charges. NATO air strikes move to Kosovo. In May, Serbs agree to pull troops out of Kosovo. Two teenagers kill 15 students, including themselves, at Columbine Colorado High School. Israeli prime minister Ehub Barak and PLO leader Yasir Arafat announce peace accord. World population reaches 6 billion. Tobacco companies admit that their products harm smokers. The Y2K Scare raises the possibility that databases all over the world – including in U.S. military computers – would go haywire because they were designed to recognize only two digits in dates. 2000 - The Y2K Scare fizzles. Nothing blows up. Palestinian and Israeli violence explodes into the "intifada." In one of the closest, contested elections on record, George W. Bush defeats Al Gore for President. Before it's over, Florida begins a recount of ballots, but the Supreme Court halts the recount. The human genome sequence is deciphered opening up new possibilities in medicine. High prices for Internet company stocks tumble as the "Dot-Com Bubble" bursts. USS Cole bombing in Yemen. 2001 - Bill Clinton exits; George W. Bush is president. On September 11, terrorists attack the World Trade Center in New York. The twin towers are hit by two jet airliners and collapse. Over 3,000 are killed. Another plane hits the Pentagon, and a fourth crashes in Pennsylvania. President Bush declares a war on terror and begins bombing Afghanistan. Troops are deployed and the Taliban government collapses. Letters laced with the poison Anthrax are mailed to media and government offices. Several die after handling the letters. The epidemic of foot and mouth disease in British livestock reaches crisis proportions. The Kyoto Protocol global warming treaty is approved by 178 nations, but not by the U.S., one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Enron Corporation, one of the world's largest energy companies, files for bankruptcy. Half of all Americans now use the Internet. Apple's iPod becomes the best-selling MP3 player in the world. Invasion of Afghanistan Operation "Enduring Freedom." 2002 - Israeli tanks and warplanes attack West Bank towns in retaliation for 14 suicide bombing incidents. WorldCom admits it falsified profit statements and files for bankruptcy. A defrocked priest named John Geoghan in convicted of child molestation. The church's role in covering up the crime sparks outrage. U.S. bishops adopt a zero tolerance policy for priests who abuse children. Boston archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law resigns over the scandal. PC sales pass the one billion mark. Department of Homeland Security created. U.S. withdraws from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 2003 - In his State of the Union address, President Bush announces he is ready to attack Iraq even without UN agreements. He does. In March, the U.S. and Britain launch war against Iraq. Within a month, Baghdad falls. By July, the war is costing $3.9 billion a month. Saddam Hussein's sons are killed in a firefight, but their father remains at large. In December, Saddam Hussein himself is captured by American troops. In May, Bush signs a 10-year, $350 billion tax cut, the third largest tax cut in U.S. history. The space shuttle Columbia explodes killing all seven astronauts. Israel retaliates for suicide bombings by killing top members of Hamas. Other militant Palestinian groups formally withdraw from a cease fire. Bush's "road map" to peace collapses. Cubs lose to Marlins in playoffs; ignorant Cubs fans blame a young man for reaching for a foul ball. 2004 - Iraq weapons investigator David Kay resigns saying there is no evidence that Iraq ever had weapons of mass destruction – one of the main reasons Bush put forward for invading. U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. Protests erupt all over the world. In June, the U.S. hands over power to an Iraqi interim government led by Iyad Allawi. The Senate intelligence committee criticizes the intelligence reports used to justify the war. A special commission criticizes the government's handling of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In November, U.S. troops launch attacks on Falluja. Sudanese rebels and the government reach accord to end the 21-year-old civil war, but in a separate war in western Darfur region the killing continues. The UN Security Council demands the Sudanese government disarm militias in Darfur. Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan admits he sold nuclear weapons designs to other countries, including North Korea, Iran and Libya. UN weapons inspectors tell Iran to stop enriching uranium. Iran claims they are building only peaceful uses for nuclear power. Enormous tsunami devastates Asia. At least 225,000 are killed. Social networking Web site Facebook takes off. 2005 - Saddam Hussein goes on trial for the killing of 143 civilians in the town of Dujail. The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq reaches 2,000. Hurricane Katrina destroys much of the Gulf Coast, flooding New Orleans. More than 1,000 die and hundreds of thousands are left homeless. Americans are shaken not just by the magnitude of the damage but also by the ineptitude of government to alleviate the suffering. The European Union abandons plans to ratify the proposed European constitution by 2006 after both France and the Netherlands vote against it. Former Tehran mayor and hard-line conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected President of Iran. He defiantly pursues Iran's nuclear ambitions. London is hit by Islamic terrorist bombings, killing 52 people and wounding 700. The Irish Republican Army announces it is officially ending its violent campaign for a unified Ireland and will instead pursue its goals through the political process. President Bush signs CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. YouTube posts its first videos. Chicago White Sox win the World Series, winning 11 games out of 12 in the playoffs. White Sox final record: 110 wins, 64 losses! 2006 - In January, President Bush announces he will send a "surge" of 20,000 more troops to Iraq in addition to the 130,000 already there. In Iraq, violence between different sects increases. The UN estimates that more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians are killed in 2006 alone as a result of the fighting. There were also 300 U.S. soldiers killed in 2006. [By the end of 2009 the total is up over 4,000.] In November, Saddam Hussein is found guilty of crimes against humanity. He is hanged at the end of the year. Iran removes United Nations' seals from its uranium enrichment plant and production of the fuel is resumed. President Ahmadinejad insists the research is for peaceful purposes, but he also threatens to wipe Israel "off the map." Sanctions are strengthened. The Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus are set on fire in protest for a Danish newspaper's cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam. Images of Mohammad are forbidden under Islamic tradition. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore releases the documentary An Inconvenient Truth chronicling the science and potential damages of climate change and global warming. Later the film wins the Academy Award for best documentary. The Chinese government builds the "Great Firewall of China" to censor the Internet before it reaches its citizens. On May 28, major league baseball player Barry Bonds hits his 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth and closing in on Hank Aaron. But the record is tainted because, two months earlier, a book alleged that Bonds had used performance-enhancing drugs. 2007 - The subprime mortgage collapse begins as prices for homes collapse; banks try to foreclose and financial companies begin to file for bankruptcy. By November foreclosure filings are up 68 percent over the same month the previous year. Eventually the crisis will reach around the world. At a hearing at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed confesses to planning the September 11 Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center. He also claims responsibility for a number of other terrorist acts. China has become the world's biggest exporter, but a rash of defective products have hurt its reputation and business. Former Vice President Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change." At the end of June, Apple Computer releases the "iPhone." The device can surf the Web, take pictures, play back music using iTunes, send and receive e-mail and ... make calls. In just over two months, 1 million iPhones are sold. A student shoots and kills 32 other students and professors in the Virginia Tech massacre before shooting himself. It is the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history and spurs a series of debates on gun control and journalism ethics. Cubs lose to Diamondbacks in playoffs. 2008 - While American troops are concentrated in Iraq, violence in Afghanistan is on the rise with the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In May, the California State Supreme Court strikes down the state's ban on same-sex marriages as unconstitutional. A month later, the state begins issuing marriage licenses, the second state to do so, after Massachusetts. However, in November voters pass a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriages. Wall Street experiences what many experts label as the biggest economic disaster since the Great Depression. It's fueled by an ongoing, multi-billion-dollar mortgage crisis. Lehman Brothers collapses. AIG, American International Group, the country's largest insurance company, files for bankruptcy despite an $85 billion bailout. Washington Mutual is sold to JP Morgan Chase. In October, President Bush signs a $700 billion rescue plan for the banks. In December, Bush signs a $17.4 billion rescue package for ailing auto makers General Motors and Chrysler. The Big Three CEOs blame their problems on the growing global economic crisis, but critics charge they were too slow to produce fuel-efficient cars. On October 3 – exactly 13 years after he was acquitted of murder – O. J. Simpson is found guilty of 12 charges, including armed robbery and kidnapping. He is sentenced to nine years in prison. Activists in Egypt use Facebook to rally for democracy. Cubs lose to Dodgers in playoffs....  Cubs are swept by the NY Mets in 2015...   CUBS BEAT INDIANS 8-7 IN WORLD SERIES GAME 7 ON NOVEMBER 2, 2016: "The Cubs' championship drought lasted 39,466 days, spanning the terms of 19 U.S. presidents and generations of Cubs fans that endured decades of expecting the worst while cheering for a franchise tagged as lovable losers."   Sources: Cubs Post Season Results Living History Timeline of United States History from 1900 to present Top News Stories United States History: Timeline 1900 - 2000