1. Event or person (made a major impact on world history)
2. Modern period ( Late 1700s to the present )
3. World history topic (not exclusively U.S. related)
4. A “ do-able ” topic (not too narrow, nor too broad)
5. Topic of interest (ethnicity, gender, positive event or person, personal interest, etc.)
NOTE: More than one student may write a report on the same topic, although “group reports” are not allowed.
(Pre-approved list)
Mahatma Gandhi (non-violent resistance vs. British rule of India)
Prince William (heir to the British throne) & Princess Kate
Malala Yousafzai (Pakistani school girl shot by the Taliban, spoke to the United Nations)
Roger Bannister (British athlete who was the first human to officially break the 4 minute mile record)
Sir Edmond Hillary (New Zealand adventurer who was the first to scale Mount Everest)
Emperor Hirohito (Japanese emperor before, during and after WWII)
Mother Teresa (Catholic nun serving poor and destitute people in India)
Pele (Brazilian soccer star)
Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch artist, post-impressionism)
Frida Kahlo (Mexican female artist)
Salvador Dali (Spanish artist, surrealism)
Jean Claude Monet (French artist, impressionism)
Claude Manet (French artist)
Pablo Picasso (Spanish cubist artist)
Ludwig von Beethoven (classical music German composer)
Beatles (British rock group)
Yoko Ono (Japanese artist, musician and peace activist, married John Lennon)
Elton John (British singer)
Rolling Stones (British rock group from the 1960s to present)
Led Zeppelin (British rock group, considered to be first heavy metal band)
Bob Marley (Jamaican reggae musician)
Emmeline Pankhurst (British female activist for women’s rights)
Princess Diana (wife of Prince Charles, mother of possible future king of England, social activist)
Queen Victoria (longest reigning monarch of Great Britain, ruled during Brit ain’s “golden age”)
Margaret Thatcher (first female prime minister of Great Britain)
Agatha Christie (British mysteries author)
J.K. Rowling (British author of Harry Potter series)
Charles Dickens (British author & social activist)
Emilio Aguinaldo (Filipino rebel leader vs. Spanish and American colonial control of the Philippines)
Ferdinand Marcos (Long term Philippine president, imposed martial law, graft, corruption ousted by masses)
Corazon Aquino (defeated Marcos in presidential election, first female president of the Philippines)
Mao Zedong (leader of the Communist Revolution in China)
Meiji Emperor (Young Japanese emperor who led the modernization of Japan)
Chiang Kai-shek (leader of Chinese Nationalists, fled to Taiwan)
Simon Bolivar (Venezuela, Liberator of South America from Spanish rule)
Jose de San Martin (Argentina, Liberator of South America from Spanish rule)
Jose Marti (Cuban political activist, journalist and author, vs. Spanish colonial rule)
Fidel Castro (leader of guerrillas who deposed Bautista and transformed Cuba into a communist country)
Che Guavara (guerrilla leader under Castro, went to South America in failed attempt to spread communism)
Pancho Villa (Mexican revolutionary who gained the support of many peasants, led raids into southern U.S.)
Emiliano Zapata (Mexican Revolutionary)
Benito Juarez (first Native American president of Mexico, brought reforms to favor the peasants)
Anastasia (daughter of Czar Nicholas II, supposedly survived the murder of her family by the Communists)
Albert Einstein (German Jewish scientist, E = MC2 theory, helped U.S. development of nuclear weapons)
Carl Sagan (scientist)
Jose Rizal (Philippine leader)
Mikhail Gorbachev (progressive leader of the Soviet Union, last Communist leader)

T.E. Lawrence
(“Lawrence of Arabia,” British officer who organized the Arabs vs. the Turks during WWI)
Louis XVI (French king beheaded during French Revolution)
Marie Antoinette (Louis XVI’s wife)
Napoleon Bonaparte (emperor of France, reformed laws, conquered much of Europe)
Empress Dowager (female leader of China who opposed modernization)
Bhagat Singh (radical Indian nationalist)
Eva Peron (a.k.a. “Evita,” popular wife of Argentine president, Juan Peron)
Indira Gandhi (first female prime minister of India)
Sigmund Freud (German psychologist, developed theories and practices which became modern psychology)
David Livingstone (Scottish missionary and explorer of Africa)
Henry Stanley (American journalist who located Livingstone & worked for King Leopold II in the Congo)
Jomo Kenyatta (black activist vs. British rule of Kenya, became president)
Nelson Mandela (activist vs. the racist South African apartheid laws, became first black president)
Winnie Mandela (former wife of Nelson, controversial black activist)
Steven Biko ( black activist, arrested and killed by South African police, his story told in “Cry Freedom”)
Florence Nightingale (British nurse known for her compassion and medical skills during the Crimean War)
Karl Marx (German political activist, wrote the Communist Manifesto)
Fredreich Engels (French political activist, supported Marx financially, helped draft the Communist Manifesto)
Nicholas II (the last czar of imperial Russia)
Gregory Rasputin (Russian priest believed by Alexandria to have healing powers for her hemophiliac son)
V.I. Lenin (leader of the Bolshevik party, first communist leader of the Soviet Union)
Leon Trotsky (War Commissar of the Red Army, exiled and assassinated by Stalin)
Joseph Stalin (leader of the Soviet Union after Lenin, ordered the Great Purge, premier during WWII)
Heinrich Himmler (leader of Hitler’s S.S.)
General Erwin Rommel (“the Desert Fox”, commander of Nazi forces in N. Africa, plotted to kill Hitler)
Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese admiral who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor)
Hidiki Tojo (militarist leader of Japan during WWII, executed for war crimes after the war)
Winston Churchill (British military officer during Boer War, politician who became prime minister during WWII)
Charles DeGaulle (leader of the French resistance during WWII, became president after war)
Saddam Hussein (dictatorial leader of Iraq, forcibly removed from office by invading U.S. forces)
Charles Darwin (British scientist and world traveler, made observations of nature, wrote theory of evolution)
Shaka Zulu (warrior king of southeastern Africa)
Gregor Mendel (Austrian botanist)
Anne Frank (Dutch Jewish girl, hid from Nazis, wrote in her famous diary, later captured and killed)
Corrie ten Boom (Dutch woman who was sent to a concentration camp for helping Jews hide from Nazis)
Oskar Schindler (businessman who hired 1,200 Jews to work in his industries to save them from Nazis)
Juan Peron (military and political leader of Argentina)
Baron Von Richtoffen (a.k.a. “the Red Baron”, WWI German ace-pilot)
Osama Bin Laden (prior-leader of the al Quaeda terrorist organization)
Sun Yixian (considered “Father of Modern China”, brought end to imperial rule, created Nationalist Party)
Ho Chi Minh (Communist leader of North Vietnam who fought against the Japanese, French and Americans)
Dalai Lama (spiritual leader of the Tibetan independence movement)
Louis Pasteur (French scientist, discovered that high heat kills bacteria in food products such as milk)
Marie Curie (Polish female scientist, worked w. radioactive materials, won Nobel Prize)
Maximilien Robespierre (radical during the French Revolution)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (American general in North Africa and commander of D-Day invasion)
Douglas MacArthur (U.S. general of Allied forces in Pacific, led U.N. forces in Korea)
Golda Meir (first female prime minister of Israel)
Kim Jong Un (current dictator of North Korea)
Jim Jones & the Peoples’ Temple (Oakland cult leader who led followers to mass suicides in Guyana.)
Muammar Gaddafi (authoritarian leader of Libya, recently assassinated)
Jim Jones (leader of religious cult in Oakland who led his followers to Jonestown, Guyana & a mass suicide!)
Vladimir Putin, current president of Russia
Saddam Hussein (Iraqi dictator)
Osama bin Laden (deceased leader of al Qaeda terrorists)
Joseph Kony (Uganda warlord who uses African children as soldiers)
Pope Francis (first Latin American pope)
Carlos Santana (Mexican and American rock musician)

2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia
Invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia
2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami
2010 Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion, massive oil spills and ongoing environmental clean-up
2008 Mumbai, India terrorist attack by Pakistani terrorists
Pearl Harbor (Japanese reasons for attack, preparations, events and results)
442nd Regimental Combat Team (Japanese American fighting unit in Europe, most decorated of WWII)
D-Day (opening the western front vs. Axis powers)
Battle of Midway (turning point in the Pacific theater of WWII)
Battle of Stalingrad (turning point in the eastern front of WWII)
Battle of the Bulge (
Hitler’s last desperate offensive attacks vs. Allies)
Terrorists Attacks on U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001 (incl. where terrorists from, how and why they attacked)
Tet Offensive (Vietnam War)
Irelan d’s Potato Famine (causes, results)
Russo-Japanese War
Opium War
Sepoy Rebellion (against British rule of India)
Nuclear Proliferation (North Korea, Iran, etc.)
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki (purpose, immediate and long-term effects)
V-1 & V-2 Rockets (used against Britain during W.W.II)
Soviet espionage and scientific achievement in developing the atomic bomb
S.A.L.T. (Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty between the U.S. and Soviet Union)
Hindenburgh Disaster (German Zeppelin prior to WWII)
Cuban Missile Crisis (the U.S. and the Soviet Union on the brink of nuclear war)
Japan’s P.O.W. Camps (during WWII)
Irish Republican Army (Irish independence from Great Britain, including Northern Ireland)
Rape of Nanjing (by Japan at beginning of WWII)
Rape of Belgium (by Germany at beginning of WWI)
Apollo-Soyuz Mission (joint US & USSR space mission during Cold War!)
Sputnik (first man-made satellite)
International Space Station
Six Day War (Israelis vs. Arabs 1967)
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima (including why used and the controversy over its use)
Storming of the Bastille (Prison overrun by Parisian mobs at the beginning of the French Revolution)
Tennis Court Oath (French Revolution)
1936 Berlin Olympics (Jesse Owens ruins “Hitler’s Showcase” of Nazi superiority)
Terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics (Palestinian terrorists kill Israeli wrestling team)
Boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics (protest Soviet invasion of Afghanistan)
Declaration of the Rights of Man (French Revolution)
Mein Kampf (Adolf Hitler)
Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx)
United Nations Declaration of Rights
Reign of Terror (French Revolution gone radical)
Congress of Vienna (European monarchies united to stop popular revolutions)
Congress of Berlin (European nations carving up Africa for colonies)
Zimmerman Telegram (German note asking Mexico to declare war on the U.S.)
Bataan Death March (U.S. & Filipino surrendered soldiers forced to endure a murderous walk by Japanese)
Early railroads in England
HMS Queen Mary (ship)
Titanic (“unsinkable” British ship)
Lusitania (British ship with Americans on board, torpedoed by Germany)
Building of the Suez Canal
Building of the Panama Canal
The Statue of Liberty (gift from France to the U.S.)
Open-heart Surgery (first performed in S. Africa)
Berlin Blockade
Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

Development of radar technology (British invention)
Nuremberg Trials (Nazi war criminals brought to justice)
I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army, organ. which seeks unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland)
Red Guards (fanatic Chinese youth during the Cultural Revolution)
Marshall Plan (U.S. program to rebuild Europe after WWII)
Comintern (Communist International organization which seeks worldwide spread of communism)
Warsaw Pact (Soviet and E. European military alliance during the Cold War)
N.A.T.O. (North Atlantic Treaty Organ., the U.S., West Europe and recently East Europe military alliance)
European Economic Union
N.A.F.T.A. (North American Free Trade Agreement, economic union between Canada, the U.S. & Mexico)
Tiananman Square (Chinese youth uprising against Communist oppression, crushed by Chinese army)
Six Day War (Israel vs. Arab nations)
O.P.E.C. (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)
Camp David Treaty (first peace agreement between Israel and an Arab nation, Egypt)
Volkswagen (German car company, early history and role Hitler played!)
Mitsubishi (Japanese car company, role of using Allied soldiers as slave laborers during WWII)
Chunnel (the tunnel built under the English Channel between Britain and France)
Chernobyl (site of Soviet nuclear power plant disaster)
League of Nations (successes, failures)
United Nations (successes, failures)
Syrian Civil War (current, ongoing)
I.S.I.S. (Islamic State of Iraq & Syria, also known as I.S.I.L. or just I.S.) threat to peace in the Middle East.