1890s: Numerous countries are at war over disputed territory, including China and Japan, the United States and Spain, Turkey and Greece.

Today: Numerous countries and people feud over disputed territory, including the Palestinians and Israelis and the Pakistanis, and Indians.

Today: In 2002, Stephen Jay Gould, perhaps the twentieth century's most prominent proponent of evolutionary theory, dies.

1890s: Wilhelm Roentgen discovers x-rays and Marconi invents radio telegraphy, both of which dramatically change the way people live in the twentieth century.