What happened in my birth year? is a new website by Philipp Lenssen that tells you what events took place globally on a particular year, in an elegant manner.

Simply type in a year and watch as a reverse countdown from 2010 begins. The screen slowly dims to black as the number starts dropping giving you the impression of going back in time.
 
Then the information starts appearing, one character at a time as if someone is typing it out for you. It looks good. If you want it to appear quickly, refresh the page and select cancel from the dialog box that appears. All the data will then be available.

Try it out at http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/.