| 1950s | 1997 |
| Beginning of green revolution | Chemical Weapons Convention goes into effect, banning the production of chemical weapons; Kyoto Protocol on global warming |
| 1969–1979 | 2000–2010 |
| Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) between the Soviet Union and United States | Warmest decade in recorded history |
| 1970 | 2001 |
| Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons | Al-Qaeda attacks on World Trade Center and U.S. Pentagon |
| 1981 | 2001 |
| UN World Health Organization International Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes | U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan |
| 1989 | 2003 |
| United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child | U.S.-led coalition invades Iraq; Human Genome Project completes sequencing of human genome |
| 1994 | |
| Zapatista Army for National Liberation insurrection in Chiapas, Mexico | |