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"Nope, the twentieth century ended in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin
Wall. From then it was less than two years before the US was at war in the
middle east. The end of the USSR was an anti-climax."
The exercise can be used for the decades too. For example:
The 20th Century began with the flight at Kitty Hawk (December 17, 1903 and its first decade lasted until the assassination of the Archduke at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The "teens" encompassed the period of WWI. The twenties began with Armistice of November 11,1918 and lasted until the Stock Market collapse of October 28, 1929. The thirties then began and lasted until the invasion of Poland by Hitler on September 1, 1939, which began the forties. The forties comprised the WWII years and the immediate aftermath. The fifties began with Churchill's Iron curtain speech (March 1946) and ended with with the appearance of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show (Feb 9,1964), when the sixties began. The sixties ended with the assassination of Robert Kennedy (June 5, 1968). There was a no-name era that began with the Democratic convention in Chicago (July, 1968) and ended with the resignation of Richard Nixon (August 8, 1974). The seventies began with the resignation of Richard Nixon, and ended with the breaking of the PATCO strike by Ronald Reagan (August 5, 1981). This began the 80's, which ended with the collapse of the savings & loan banks in 1987. The 90s lasted until the election of Presdient Bush in 2000. It is arguable that the events of Spetember 11, 2001, and their aftermath are essentially 20th century in character, and that we are still in the 20th century. If there is a defining change, I would see it in the reaction to the September 11th attacks, not in the attacks themselves.
Ed Pollack