On the day that former Pentagon aide Larry Franklin pled guilty to passing classified documents to an Israeli official and two AIPAC employees, U.S. government officials made public the investigation into a Filipino immigrant for spying inside the White House. ABC News reports, "Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history." Did Franklin Roosevelt's presidency occur "in modern history"?

Does modern history officially begin when presidents stop wearing facial hair or when they stopped being bald? Certainly those are both significant steps forward in the maturation of our culture.

Hats Webster. It's when they stopped wearing hats.

Its when they stopped smoking guys. Smoking and swearing.

In response to Flynn, there is actually a school of history that lists our modern history beginning at the end of WW2.

That's not where I would place the beginning of modern history, but apparently someone does.

Run-DMC. Modern history (at least musical) begins with Run-DMC and Rap music.

So I would say about 1984. Or is it Grand-Master Flash in '81???