20th century

The 20th century was a century that began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000. It was the tenth and final century of the 2nd millennium. It is distinct from the century known as the 1900s (sometimes written as 19XX), which began on January 1, 1900 and ended on December 31, 1999.

Dubbed the "short twentieth century", this century in human history was dominated by chain of events that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era: World War I and World War II, nationalism and decolonization, the Cold War and Post-Cold War conflicts, cultural homogenization through developments in transportation and communications technology, world population growth, awareness of environmental degradation, ecological extinction and the birth of the Digital Revolution. It saw great advances in communication and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication and genetic modification of life.

Overview

The century had the first global-scale total wars between world powers across continents and oceans in World War I and World War II. Nationalism became a major political issue in the world in the 20th century, acknowledged in international law along with the right of nations to self-determination, official decolonization in the mid-century, and nationalist-influenced armed regional-conflicts.

20th Century Fox

The Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (spelled as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation with hyphen used from its inception until 1985, stylized as 20th Century Fox and also known as 20th Century Fox Pictures, TCF, Fox 2000 Pictures or simply Fox) is an American film studio, distributor and one of the six major American film studios. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio is currently owned by 21st Century Fox and is formerly owned by News Corporation.

20th Century Fox has distributed famous film series, including the first two Star Wars trilogies, Ice Age, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Maze Runner, X-Men, Die Hard, Home Alone, Planet of the Apes, Independence Day, Night at the Museum, Power Rangers, Percy Jackson, Taken, Fantastic Four, The Omen, Alien, Predator, Rio, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. The studio is also credited for distributing James Cameron's Avatar and Titanic, the highest and second highest grossing films respectively at the box-office not adjusted for inflation (though Paramount Pictures owns the US rights to the latter). Television series produced by Fox include The Simpsons, Family Guy, M*A*S*H, The X-Files, Bob's Burgers, Bones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Futurama, American Dad!, How I Met Your Mother, Archer, Glee, Modern Family, Empire, Malcolm in the Middle, New Girl, King of the Hill, and 24. Among the most famous actresses to come out of this studio were Shirley Temple, who was 20th Century Fox's first film star, Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield. The studio also contracted the first African-American cinema star, Dorothy Dandridge.

20 (number)

20 (twenty) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score.

In mathematics

Century

A century (from the Latin centum, meaning one hundred; abbreviated c.) is 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages (e.g. "the 7th century AD/CE"). A centenary is a hundredth anniversary or a celebration of this, typically remembrance of an event which took place a hundred years earlier; and its adjectival form is centennial.

Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar

According to the Gregorian calendar, the 1st century AD/CE started on January 1, 1, and ended on December 31, 100. The 2nd century started at year 101, the 3rd at 201, etc. The n-th century started/will start on the year (100 × n) − 99 and ends in 100 × n. A century will only include one year, the centennial year, that starts with the century's number (e.g. 1900 is the final year in the 19th century).

1st century BCE and AD

There is no "zeroth century" in between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century AD. Also, there is no year 0 AD. The Julian calendar "jumps" from 1 BCE to 1 AD. The first century BCE includes the years 100 BCE to 1 BCE. Other centuries BCE follow the same pattern.

Orient Express

The Orient Express was the name of a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL).

The route and rolling stock of the Orient Express changed many times. Several routes in the past concurrently used the Orient Express name, or slight variants thereof. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most prominently associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Constantinople (Istanbul), the original endpoints of the timetabled service.

The Orient Express was a showcase of luxury and comfort at a time when travelling was still rough and dangerous. CIWL soon developed a dense network of luxury trains all over Europe, whose names are still remembered today and associated with the art of luxury travel – the Blue Train, the Golden Arrow, North Express and many more.

In 1977, the Orient Express stopped serving Istanbul. Its immediate successor, a through overnight service from Paris to Vienna, ran for the last time from Paris on Friday, June 8, 2007. After this, the route, still called the "Orient Express", was shortened to start from Strasbourg instead, occasioned by the inauguration of the LGV Est which affords much shorter travel times from Paris to Strasbourg. The new curtailed service left Strasbourg at 22:20 daily, shortly after the arrival of a TGV from Paris, and was attached at Karlsruhe to the overnight sleeper service from Amsterdam to Vienna.