The Live Archive. Photo by Benoit Palley.

The Live Archive is a resource center presented on the fifth floor of the New Museum in conjunction with “Younger Than Jesus.” One of its features is a selective historical timeline—the multicolored grid seen in the photo at right—that lists historical and cultural events from 1976 to 2009. The participating artists selected some of these for the importance the events had in their own lives. The timeline also includes a suggestion box in which visitors can write in events or cultural creations of importance to them. Here is a sampling of the suggestions submitted since April 23.

August 19, 1987 – In Hungerford, England, a twenty-seven-year-old unemployed man, Michael Robert Ryan, shoots and kills sixteen people (including his mother), wounds fifteen others, then takes his own life. The massacre led to the Firearms (Amendment) Act of 1988, which banned the ownership of semi-automatic rifles and restricted the use of shotguns with a magazine capacity of more than two rounds.

July 2001 – During the 27th Summit Meeting of the Group of Eight countries, thousands of antiglobalization protesters turn the city of Genoa, Italy, into a virtual theater of war as they battle 19,000 police troops. One protester, twenty-three-year-old Carlo Giuliani, is killed. The reported number of persons injured in the mayhem amounted to more than 200, and about 280 arrests were made.

Summer 2001 – The first Lollapalooza festival, conceived and created by Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell as a farewell tour for his band, debuts. The music festival features alternative rock, hip hop, and punk rock bands, performances, and craft booths. It would run annually until 1997, and then be revived in 2003.

March 8, 1993 – The animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head premieres on the MTV network. The show centers on a pair of teenagers who live in the fictional town of Highland, Texas, and spend their time making sarcastic conversation and fantasizing about sex. During each episode, Beavis and Butt-Head make fun of several music videos.

March 2009–present – The first major outbreak of swine flu—also known as A(H1N1)—in thirty years begins in March in Mexico City. By the end of April, more than 2,000 cases of an influenza-like illness had been reported throughout Mexico. On April 25, Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, declares the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. On April 29, the New York Times reports the first death in the United States related to the A(H1N1) virus.

December 6, 2008 – Athens police fatally shoot a fifteen-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, leading to weeks of protests throughout Greece that, by December 17, were reported to have caused $1.3 billion in damage.

February 13, 2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offers a comprehensive apology to the country’s indigenous peoples for past wrongs and calls for bipartisan action to improve the lives of Australia’s Aborigines and Torres Strait islanders.

April 30, 2009 – Six people are killed and a dozen wounded when a thirty-eight-year-old Dutchman drives his car into a crowd in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, in an attempt to crash into an open-topped bus carrying Queen Beatrix and members of her family. Shortly afterwards, the man, who has not been identified by name, admitted that he had aimed the car at the royal family. He died the next evening.

Be sure to stop by the fifth-floor Live Archive to see if the events of great importance in your own life are on our timeline. If not, please place them in the suggestion box and check back here.