• Medicine
• Antibiotics drastically reduced mortality from bacterial diseases
• Polio vaccine
• Eradication of the smallpox virus
• New psychiatric drugs were developed. This includes antipsychotics which are efficient in treating hallucinations and delusions, and antidepressants for treating depression.
• The invention and development of immunosuppressive drugs and tissue typing made organ and tissue transplantation a clinical reality.
• Imaging: X-Ray, MRIs for diagnosis of cancer, bone and joint problems, ...
• Heart bypass surgery
• Pacemakers
• The life expectancy at birth in the US has risen to 77 years in 2000 from 61 years in 1933 when comprehensive data first became available, and an estimated 47 years in 1900.
  However a 2008 Harvard study showed that life expectancy actually declined in a substantial number of counties from 1983 to 1999, particularly for women. Most of the declines are in the Deep South, along the Mississippi River, in Appalachia and the southern Plains and Texas.
• Agriculture
• The Green Revolution - technologies including pesticides, irrigation projects, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizer have increased yields for wheat and other crops have increased from 2.5 - 3.5 times in the 20th century.
• Agricultural Mechanization
• Science:
• Physics:
• Nuclear physics, Quantum theory, ...
• The discovery of the Big Bang has confirmed there was a "Creation".
• Micro-biology - DNA (gene therapy, criminals exonerated, ...),
• Engineering:
• Electricity - The light bulb, microwaves, air conditioning, telephone....
• Appliances - The washing machine, refrigerator, vacuum, ....
• Electronics/Communications - The transistor, Radio, TV, computers, fiber optics, The Internet, GPSs
• Transportation - Auto, Air,
• Material Science - Higher quality, lighter, stronger, and more adaptable materials.
• Warfare - Smart Bombs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV).

Atomic Warfare
United Nations
Nuclear proliferation treaties
Death from Wars and Democide (Genocide, Rebellions, ...):
18th century 3.9% of the population
19th century 4.1% of population
Current
- Disease and Starvation in the third world: 12 Million deaths per year
- Divorce rate has doubled since 1950. (See Marriage-Divorce)
- Income disparity between the rich and poor  has increased dramatically.
   In every region the per capita income of the richest 20% is naturally much
   higher than that of the poorest 20% - but by differing degrees. In the
   developing world it is 8 times as high, in industrialized countries 7 times
   as high. And in South Asia it is 5 times as high, in Latin America and the
   Carribean 9 times as high. The biggest range is 11 times  in
   South Asia. Source: Human Development Report 1997, UNDP

Ben Bernanke Speech--The level and distribution of economic well-being--February 6, 2007:
"Since 1947, the real (that is, inflation adjusted) hourly compensation of workers in the U.S. nonfarm business sector (a measure that includes both earnings and benefits) has increased more than 200 percent."
...
"Although average economic well-being has increased considerably over time, the degree of inequality in economic outcomes has increased as well. In real terms, the earnings at the 50th percentile of the distribution (which I will refer to as the median wage) rose about 11-1/2 percent between 1979 and 2006. Over the same period, the wage at the 10th percentile, near the bottom of the wage distribution, rose just 4 percent, while the wage at the 90th percentile, close to the top of the distribution, rose 34 percent." In 1979, a full-time worker at the 90th percentile of the wage distribution earned about 3.7 times as much as a full-time worker at the 10th percentile. Reflecting the relatively faster growth of wages of higher-paid workers, that ratio is 4.7 today."

LINKS:
Income Inequality at Wikipedia