Post-modernity spans 1945 to 2016 C.E., an era defined by rapid technological acceleration, decolonization, the rise of the internet, and expanding civil rights. This archive collects milestones in science, medicine, governance, and culture from those seven decades of sweeping human progress.
CO2-to-ethanol conversion arrived by accident in 2016, when researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee applied voltage to a copper-and-carbon nano-spike catalyst and watched ethanol emerge as the dominant product. About 63% of the output was ethanol — unusually clean for a single-step reaction. A quiet reminder that science often stumbles into its better answers.
Oregon’s recreational cannabis market launched in early 2016, and tax revenue poured in so quickly that the state’s Department of Revenue couldn’t keep up. Because federal law blocked most cannabis businesses from using banks, owners hauled physical cash to scheduled appointments in Salem. By 2022, Oregon had collected over $1 billion.
Renewable energy quietly crossed a threshold in 2015, when solar, wind, and other renewables made up roughly two-thirds of all new power capacity added worldwide, according to an IEA report released the following year. China led the wave, installing more solar and wind than any other country. It was the moment the energy transition stopped feeling hypothetical.
In autumn 2016, Germany’s Bundesrat did something no national legislative body had done before: it urged the EU to stop registering new gasoline and diesel cars after 2030. The vote was non-binding, but coming from the home of Volkswagen and BMW, it moved a once-fringe idea into serious policy — language the EU would echo in binding law years later.
Wind-hydro turbines are rising in Germany’s Swabian-Franconian forest, where four towers double as gravity batteries by pumping water up inside themselves when the wind blows and releasing it downhill when it stops. At 809 feet, they’re the world’s tallest, and they hint at a cleaner way to solve wind power’s oldest problem: timing.
In September 2016, Guatemala was declared free of river blindness, ending a parasitic disease that had threatened sight and livelihoods in rural communities along fast-flowing rivers. The victory came after more than 20 years of twice-yearly Mectizan treatments reaching at least 85% of eligible people. It’s a reminder that patient, community-rooted public health work can undo old harms.
Maricopa County, Arizona, 2016: federal prosecutors announced criminal contempt charges against Sheriff Joe Arpaio for defying a judge’s order to halt immigration patrols that had been ruled racially discriminatory against Latino drivers. By then, taxpayers had already spent $48 million on the case. For a community that had documented the harm for years, it was a rare moment of formal accountability.
Washington state voters approved Initiative 1433 on Election Night 2016, raising the minimum wage from $9.47 to $13.50 over four years and guaranteeing paid sick leave for the first time statewide. Roughly 60 percent backed the measure, tying future wages to inflation so their value wouldn’t quietly erode over time.
Constitutional water rights arrived in Slovenia in November 2016, when parliament amended the national constitution to declare drinking water a fundamental right and barred its sale as a market commodity. It was the first European Union member state to do so, passed with rare cross-party support in a country of just over two million people.
The right to disconnect became French law in 2016, giving workers at companies with more than 50 employees formal protection to ignore emails after hours. It followed a government report on “info-obesity” and a survey finding a third of French workers were using devices for work every single day. A quiet but meaningful reframing of rest.
