A graph that is indeed worth a thousand words.

A few I can think of:

1949 was the year of India’s independence.
The 50’s and 60’s marked the height of the Chinese Cultural revolution.
Ths US grew steadily from the Market Revolution of the 1830’s all the way through WWII, then slowed. (Or the rest of the world began to catch up.)
The Opium wars began in 1830ish.
The Quing Dynasty collapsed in 1911.
Mao died 9 Sept, 1976.

There may be some presentational bias due to straight lines, but overall, wow.