I used ChatGPT to make a short list of major world events that have occurred since the decade I was born. The list is obviously incomplete (there’s so much happening right now), but it paints a pretty decent picture of how fucked this world has been.

Also worth noting that DeepSeek stopped at 1989, cleared the list, and said, “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.” Imagine that.

•	1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts in the U.S.
•	1981 – Assassination attempt on U.S. President Ronald Reagan
•	1982 – Falklands War between the UK and Argentina
•	1983 – U.S. invasion of Grenada
•	1984 – Assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
•	1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
•	1986 – Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the USSR
•	1987 – Black Monday stock market crash
•	1989 – Tiananmen Square Massacre in China
•	1990–1991 – Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)
•	1993 – World Trade Center bombing in New York
•	1994 – Rwandan genocide
•	1995 – Oklahoma City bombing
•	1999 – NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
•	1999 – Columbine High School shooting in the U.S.
•	2000 – Y2K scare
•	2001 – 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
•	2001 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
•	2003 – U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
•	2004 – Indian Ocean tsunami kills over 230,000
•	2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates the U.S. Gulf Coast
•	2008 – Global financial crisis begins
•	2009 – H1N1 (Swine flu) pandemic
•	2011 – Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan
•	2014 – Rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria
•	2014 – Russian annexation of Crimea
•	2016 – Brexit referendum in the UK
•	2016 – Donald Trump elected U.S. President
•	2019 – COVID-19 pandemic begins in China
•	2020 – COVID-19 pandemic spreads worldwide
•	2021 – U.S. Capitol riot on January 6
•	2021 – Taliban retakes Afghanistan
•	2022 – Russia invades Ukraine
•	2023 – Turkey-Syria earthquake kills over 50,000
•	2024 – Ongoing geopolitical conflicts (Ukraine, Israel-Gaza)