In 1980 Robert Mugabe becomes the first black Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe gained independence from the United Kingdom on the basis that it would be ruled by the black majority but Ian Smith refused to give up power of the country and tried to claim independence to keep control. After fighting from the black majority, Ian Smith finally gave up power allowing fair elections to be held. The United Kingdom granted legal independence to Zimbabwe which was internationally recognised on the 18^th of April 1980 and these elections gave control back to the Zimbabwean people. This didn’t last for long as in 1987 Mugabe changed the constitution and made himself ‘Executive President. He has been in power ever since under suspicion of a rigged elections and oppression of opposition parties.

In 1966 In an Interview with the London Evening Standard John Lennon remarked that the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus. The interview by his friend and reporter, Maureen Cleave, was about his thoughts on various subjects which included his thoughts on the current state of religion. He said that he believed "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." The comment about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus didn’t have much impact initially in England but when the comment was picked up on by the media in America it caused outrage. His remark on how he believed religion was shrinking had been taken out of context by American ‘Datebook’ magazine, shortly before the Beatles 1966 US tour. Soon rumours began to start and the media had begun reporting that John had said that the Beatles were Bigger than Jesus. This caused outrage in Christians across America. This comment would follow Lennon, with many reporters asking about the comment repeatedly, in an attempt to phase him into saying something more inflammatory, but they were unsuccessful.

In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (also referred to as FDR) was sworn in as the 32^nd President of the United States. He became the longest running president of the US ending his presidency on the 4^th of April 1945 after 12 years. He was also their President during World War II as well as starting his presidency at the height of ‘the Great Depression’. His legislation “The First New Deal” and other reforms drastically improved the US economy but the programme was deemed unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court who scrapped it in 1935 and by 1937 recession returned to the country and unemployment levels dropped to the same levels of 1933. The Outbreak of War in Europe in 1939 had an almost immediate effect on the US economy bringing it out of depression and sharply increasing its GDP to all time high levels.