1901 | Europe - Great Britain
| Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) transmits radio messages from England to Canada. |
1902 | Europe - France
 Georges Mèliès, 1902, Le voyage dans la Lune #2, Gelatin silver print, AnamorFose, LL/8775 | Georges Méliès shows his film A Trip to the Moon in Paris. |
1903 | North America - USA
| The first flight of a Wright brothers powered airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. |
1905 | North America - USA
| The first cinema, the Nickelodeon, opens in Pittsburgh. |
1906 | North America - USA
 W.C. Mendenhall, 1906, Apr 20, San Francisco, California, Earthquake April 18, 1906. Phelan Building, United States Geological Service, LL/6619 | An earthquake destroys San Francisco and the resulting fires devastate the city. It is photographed by Edward Rodgers (San Francisco Morning Call), George Parmenter (San Francisco Examiner), George Haley (Chronicle) and a number of commercial photographers including Arnold Genthe take memorable pictures. |
1908 | North America - USA
| The Ford Model T motor car is sold. |
1909 | Europe
| Louis Blériot (1872-1936) flies across the English Channel in his plane. |
1911 | North America - USA
 Brown Brothers, 1911, Triangle Fire Victims Awaiting Identification, Gelatin silver print, Swann Galleries - New York, LL/35578 | Fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York kills 145 employees. |
1913 | North America - USA
 Unidentified photographer, 1913, Armory Show, View, Gelatin silver print, Source requested, LL/1939 | The International Exhibition of Modern Art is held in New York and becomes known as the Armory Show taking the name from the Armory building. The exhibition introduces the American public to European trends in painting and sculpture. It is a revelation to those that see it and it impacts on photography by showing that copying the stylistic techniques and conventions of painting, as many of the pictorialists do, is no longer valid. |
1914 | Europe - Great Britain
 1914, 20 June, Magazine cover for "Blast - Review Of the Great English Vortex", No. 1, Magazine cover, P4 Photography (formerly Potássio Quatro), LL/25204 | The Vorticist Manifesto is published in their journal Blast. |
1916 | Europe - Germany
 Ruth Orkin, n.d., Einstein, Gelatin silver print, Fay Gold Gallery, LL/5349 | Albert Einstein proposes the General Theory of Relativity. |
1917 | Europe - France
 Alfred Stieglitz, 1917, Fountain by R. Mutt, Book page, Creative Commons - Wikipedia, LL/47495 | Marcel Duchamp exhibits his surrealist work The Fountain using a upturned urinal. |
1919 | Europe - Germany
 Lucia Moholy, n.d., Walter Gropius, Musée de l'Elysée, LL/7918 | Walter Gropius founds the Bauhaus school of design. |
1919 | Europe - France
| The French film director Abel Gance (1889-1981) releases the anti-war film J'accuse!. In it he uses wounded actors to portray the ghosts of fallen men. In 1924 John Heartfield created the photomontage After ten years: fathers and sons in which he uses skeletons and marching soldiers to depict the futility of war. |