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| 1799 |
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Robert Owen purchases a cotton mill in New Lanark, Scotland. He begins to reshape working and living conditions for his employees.
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New Lanark, LOC
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| 1824 |
New Harmony, Corbis
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Owen travels to America to found an experimental community in New Harmony, Indiana. He attempts to eliminate private property.
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| 1828 |
Although some settlers continue to live in New Harmony, the experiment effectively falls apart due to arguments. Owen returns to London. Owen and his supporters begin using the term, "socialism."
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| 1844 |
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| 1848 |
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Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto. Click on the image to view a larger version.
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Communist Manifesto, Marx Memorial Library
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| 1848 |
Revolutions erupt in France, Germany, Italy and Poland.
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| 1863 |
Samuel Gompers, age 13, moves with his family from London to New York City.
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| 1867 |
Das Kapital or Capital, Marx Memorial Library
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Marx publishes the first volume of Das Kapital Click on the image to view a larger version.
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| 1883 |
Marx Dies.
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| 1885 |
Engels publishes the second volume of Das Kapital, edited by Engels from an earlier draft by Marx.
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| 1886 |
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Samuel Gompers founds the American Federation of Labor. Click on the image to view a larger version.
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Samuel Gompers, LOC
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| 1894 |
Engels publishes the third volume of Das Kapital.
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| 1895 |
Engels dies.
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| 1899 |
Eduard Bernstein, IISH
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Eduard Bernstein publishes Evolutionary Socialism, a critique of Marxism. This marks a major split in the socialist movement between communists who believe in revolution as a necessary transformative step and social democrats who believe in the possibility of a gradual transformation of capitalism into socialism through democratic means.
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| 1900 |
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin founds Iskra, or The Spark, an underground newspaper published in Germany to organize a Russian Marxist revolutionary party.
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| 1912 |
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Eugene V. Debs wins 6% of the popular vote as the Socialist Party candidate for President of the United States.
Click on the image to view a larger version.
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Eugene V. Debs, LOC
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| 1912 |
Benito Mussolini becomes the editor of Italy's Socialist Party newspaper, Avanti.
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| 1917 |
Lenin overthrows the provisional Russian government and establishes The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
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| 1945 |
Clement Attlee, National Archives
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In a landslide defeat of Winston Churchill, the Labour Party's Clement Attlee becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain. Labour begins nationalizing industries.
Click on the image to view a larger version.
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Click on the image to view a larger version.
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Labour Party campaign poster, NMLH
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| 1949 |
The Chinese Communist Army defeats the Nationalist Kuomintang. Mao Zedong establishes the People's Republic of China as a Marxist-Leninist state.
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| 1955 |
Attlee loses to Winston Churchill.
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| 1957 |
Mao Zedong, National Archives
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Mao launches the "great leap forward," an attempt to force China 's labor force to increase industrial and agricultural production. It is an economic disaster leading to several years of famine.
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| 1961 |
The British African colony of Tanganyika gains its independence and merges with Zanzibar to become Tanzania. Julius "Mwalimu" Nyerere becomes its first President.
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| 1966 |
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Mao sets off the "cultural revolution" in China. Thousands are executed, millions are imprisoned. Deng Xiaoping, a longtime supporter of Mao's, is purged from the Chinese Communist Party.
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Chinese demonstration with banners of Mao Zedong, National Archives
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| 1967 |
Nyerere issues the Arusha Declaration, outlining his concept of "ujamaa" or African-style socialism.
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| 1973 |
Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, TVT
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Nyerere begins re-villagization program, forcing Tanzanians to move into ujamaa villages. Crops are severely disrupted. In the following years, harvests fail and the economy collapses.
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| 1976 |
Mao Zedong dies.
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| 1978 |
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Deng Xiaoping becomes the leader of the Chinese Communist Party and embarks on "modernizing" socialism in China.
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Deng Xiaoping, Corbis
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| 1979 |
The Conservative Party's Margaret Thatcher is elected Prime Minister of Great Britain. She begins to undo many of Labour's socialist oriented policies.
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| 1985 |
Julius Nyerere retires as President of Tanzania.
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| 1985 |
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.
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| 1989 |
Tiananmen Square demonstration, ITN
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Massacre of protestors in Tiananmen Square, China.
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| 1989 |
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First free parliamentary elections in the Soviet Union's history.
Click on the image to view a larger version.
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Lech Walesa, Corbis
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| 1989 |
Solidarity, a Polish trade union, defeats the Communist Party with a coalition government led by Lech Walesa.
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| 1990 |
John Major is elected Prime Minister of Great Britain, continuing the Conservative Party's majority in parliament.
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| 1990 |
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During a Russian coup attempt in August, Mikhail Gorbachev held hostage then released. Boris Yeltsin takes control. By December, Gorbachev resigns.
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Mikhail Gorbachev, Videopressa
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| 1993 |
Chinese National People's Congress enshrines the phrase "socialist market economy" in the constitution.
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| 1994 |
Tony Blair, ITN
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Tony Blair elected the leader of the British Labour Party. He advocates a move away from socialist principles of common ownership and nationalized economy, refashioning the party as "New Labour," friendly to private enterprise and market economy policies.
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| 1997 |
Blair defeats John Major to become Prime Minister of Great Britain.
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| 1997 |
Deng Xiaoping dies.
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| 2005 |
Blair wins his third term, becoming the Labour Party's longest serving Prime Minister.
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