This is going to sound really weird, but I'm not kidding and it could help you. They sell birthday cards that are little books about what happened the year you were born. These go back to about 1920, because most people born before then have passed on. If you google "what happened in....." you may come up with a list for the year. These include social, political , scientific and cultural events. You need to use strategy here. If you choose a year like 1945, it was the end of WWII, the atom bomb was dropped, and all sorts of other things went on. That will mean a really long paper, and you might leave something out. But if you do a little research and find a fairly boring year, you'll only have to focus on a couple of things. You could choose the year that man landed on the moon. Or you could go back to the beginning of the century. It's up to you and your interests.