The 20th century was a century that began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000. It was the final century of the 2nd millennium. Speaking, it is distinct from the century known as the 1900s which began on January 1, 1900, ended on December 31, 1999; the 20th century was dominated by a chain of events that heralded significant changes in world history as to redefine the era: flu pandemic, World War I and World War II, nuclear power and space exploration and decolonization, the Cold War and post-Cold War conflicts. It saw great advances in power generation and medical technology that by the late 1980s allowed for near-instantaneous worldwide computer communication and genetic modification of life; the 20th century saw the largest transformation of the world order since the Fall of Rome: global total fertility rates, sea level rise and ecological collapses increased. The average global temperature on Earth has increased by about 0.8° Celsius since 1880. The repercussions of the World Wars, Cold War and Globalization crafted a world where people are more united than any previous time in human history, as exemplified by the establishment of international law, international aid, the United Nations.

The Marshall Plan—which spent $13 billion to rebuild the economies of post-war nations—launched "Pax Americana". Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union created enormous tensions around the world which manifested in various armed conflicts and the omnipresent danger of nuclear proliferation; the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 after the collapse of its European alliance was heralded by the West as the end of communism, though by the century's end one in six people on Earth lived under communist rule in China, rising as an economic and geopolitical power. It took over two-hundred thousand years of human history up to 1804 for the world's population to reach 1 billion. Global literacy averaged 80%. Global campaigns for the eradication of smallpox and other diseases responsible for more human deaths than all wars and natural disasters combined yielded unprecedented results. Trade improvements reversed the limited set of food-producing techniques used since the Neolithic period enhancing the diversity of foods available, resulting in an upturn in the quality of human nutrition.

Up until a couple hundred years ago, life expectancy was about thirty in most populations. 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, related regional conflicts; the century saw a major shift in the way that many people lived, with changes in politics, economics, culture, science and medicine. The 20th century may have seen more technological and scientific progress than all the other centuries combined since the dawn of civilization. Terms like nationalism, environmentalism, world war and nuclear war entered common usage. Scientific discoveries, such as the theory of relativity and quantum physics, profoundly changed the foundational models of physical science, forcing scientists to realize that the universe was more complex than believed, dashing the hopes at the end of the 19th century that the last few details of scientific knowledge were about to be filled in.

It was a century that started with horses, simple automobiles, freighters but ended with high-speed rail, cruise ships, global commercial air travel and the Space Shuttle. Horses and other pack animals, every society's basic form of personal transportation for thousands of years, were replaced by automobiles and buses within a few decades; these developments were made possible by the exploitation of fossil fuel resources, which offered energy in an portable form, but caused concern about pollution and long-term impact on the environment. Humans explored space for the first time. Mass media, telecommunications, information technology made the world's knowledge more available. Advancements in medical technology improved the health of many people: the global life expectancy increased from 35 years to 65 years. Rapid technological advancements, however allowed warfare to reach unprecedented levels of destruction. World War II alone killed over 60 million people, while nuclear weapons gave humankind

Ponette is a 1996 French film directed by Jacques Doillon. The film centers on four-year-old Ponette, coming to terms with the death of her mother in a car crash; the film received acclaim for Thivisol's performance, only four at the time of filming. Before the film begins, Ponette's mother dies in a car crash, which Ponette herself survives with only a broken arm. Following her mother's death, Ponette's father leaves the young girl with her Aunt Claire, her cousins Matiaz and Delphine. Ponette and her cousins are sent to a boarding school. There the loss of her mother becomes more harsh and painful when she is mocked on the playground for being motherless. Not yet having come to terms with her mother's death, Ponette searches for her. Ponette becomes withdrawn, spends most of her time waiting for her mother to come back; when waiting alone fails, Ponette enlists the help of her school friend Ada to help her become a "child of God" to convince God to return her mother, in vain. In the end, Ponette visits a cemetery and cries for her mother, who appears to comfort her and ask her to live her life and not be sad all the time.

Her mother says she cannot keep coming back, so Ponette must move on and go be happy with her father. It appears that her mother gives her a sweater that she did not bring to the cemetery, her father comments when he sees her that "I haven't seen that sweater in a while". Victoire Thivisol as Ponette Delphine Schiltz as Delphine Matiaz Bureau Caton as Matiaz Léopoldine Serre as Ada Marie Trintignant as Mother Xavier Beauvois as Father Claire Nebout as Aunt Claire On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91%, based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. Ponette on IMDb

Ashang Khullen is a Tangkhul village in Kamjong District, Manipur state, India. The village falls under Kasom sub division; the village is connected by National Highway 102 that connects Yairipok. Ashang Khullen is flanked by Chongdan Village in the west, Nambashi in the south and Sorde in the east and Kangoi in the north. Locally, the inhabitants speak Ashang Khullen dialect that belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family. According to 2011 census, the village altogether comprises 26 households with the total of 123 people; the average sex ratio of the village is 922 female to 1000 male, lower than Manipur state average of 985. Literacy rate of Ashang Khullen is 81.19% with male literacy rate at 82.35% and female leteracy rate at 80.80%. The village is home to people of Tangkhul Naga tribe. Majority of the inhabitants are Christians. Agriculture is the primary occupation of the inhabitants; the village is known in the district for its reserve natural environment and fauna. In the run up to the 11 Manipur Assembly Constituency 2017, a school teacher on election duty died in a bomblast near Ashang Khullen