How long is a decade? This word was transmitted through the Romans, who commonly used the prefix dec- to describe collections of 10 items, such as a decathlon, a collection of 10 athletic challenges, or a decagon, a regular 10-sided polygon. Other divisions of time that derive from Latin include the century (100 years) and the millennium (1000 years).
Technically, any group of 10 years is its own decade. The term “decade” is generally used to refer to periods of time based on the tens digit of the calendar year. So the “1980s” refers to the decade of time between 1980–1989.
Since the Gregorian calendar begins on 1 AD (there is no year 0 in the Gregorian calendar), the first decade of the Gregorian calendar refers to the period of time between 1–10 AD, the second decade refers to 11–20 AD, etc. So, even though “the nineties” refers to the years between 1990-1999 AD, the 200th decade refers to the time between 1991–2000 AD.
An event that recurs every decade is called decennial. Similarly, an event that recurs every 100 years is a centennial event and every 1000 years is a millennial event. For example, the U.S. government administers a census decennially; every 10 years. Many high school and college reunions occur every 10 years as well.
Decades have come to culturally symbolize a kind of rebirth; a clean slate from which people can start again. The identification of a decade as a distinct period of time that divides our experience has given the concept of “decade” a lot of symbolic meaning. Decades throughout U.S. history are often referred to by a nickname that encapsulates major cultural events or symbolizes the general cultural ethos during that time. For example, “the Roaring Twenties” refers to the 1920s, a time of great economic growth and sociocultural change. The 1940s are sometimes referred to as “The Fighting Forties” as a reference to the United States’ involvement in both the European and Pacific theatres of WWII. In some ways, the decade is the historical unit of time; history is often divided into events that occurred in their respective decades.
Important Events Of 20th Century By Decade
The 1900s
- 1903 – The first manned flight by the Orville brothers.
- 1905 – Albert Einstien publishes his paper On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, introducing the Special Theory of Relativity.
- 1906 – The 1906 earthquake of San Francisco kills 3000 people.
- 1907 – Guglielmo Marconi establishes the first trans-Atlantic radio communications system.
- 1908 – The Tunguska event occurs. An explosion in Siberia decimates 770 square miles of surrounding forest. The explosion is generally attributed to a meteor impact.
