Any list that does not include William Shatner performing "Rocket Man" at the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards is total crap.
BUt things here are important to the English, things in Mongolia are important the Mongolians and things in Egypt are important to Egyptions. If you asked 10 people from 10 different countries this questions you would get 100% different answers. Interesting to see that many of you are stating things like televisions & Cars which are just modern day conveniences. I would have thought Mandella being elected, the fall of the Khmer Rouge etc were far more important to the world than TV programmes. Almost seems like you guys thing nothing exists outside of America.......
Not to mention all that money and stinger missiles we gave to guys that became the Taliban + Al Qaeda (including Osama).
Nice thread. However, I'm not sure that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand could be called an event that changed the world, except as a catalyst for WWI. If it didn't lead to WWI, it would have no major significance. If if had not occurred, WWI would have occurred anyone with some other catalyst.
I like your choices. However, couldn't it be argued that the end of WWI/effect on Europe led to both (2) & (3)? Russian Revolution actually begins during WWI; economic effect of WWI includes Weimar Republic, US bubble of the Roaring 20s leading to the Depression.
I think you need to separate a list like this into two categories: political and scientific (with one particular event that could obviously fall into both categories, but fits more in the political realm). For while science is what changes our everyday way of life, geopolitics is was determines the overall climate the world lives in. As I have a much greater interest in geopolitics than science, I'll submit my list for that category. Geopolitics 5. Berlin Wall falls 4. Attacks of September 11, 2001 3. Assasination of Archduke Ferdinand 2. Hitler comes to power 1. Dawning of Nuclear Weapons Age (New Mexico test + Nagasaki/Hiroshima) Each of these events, in its own way, ushered in a new era. The fall of the Berlin Wall is the symbol that ended the Cold War. In reality, you could point to a number of different specific events, but it was the Berlin Wall that visually epitomized everything wrong with the USSR and the Iron Curtain. When it was opened, and eventually came down, it ended the political and financial segregations of West/East and ushered in a new, albeit brief, era of complaceny and security. One can only guess how long we will live in the age of the "War on Terror" and again, though it really started with the first WTC bombing or the USS Cole or Khobar, 9/11 is the symbolic event that began this new era. It ended the notion of an "end to history" that had begun to creep into people's minds during the 1990s. Yes, another event could have started WWI, but the fact is it didn't and this simple assassination prompted the War to End All Wars. The Archduke's assassination gives us WWI and WWI gives us the Treaty of Versailles and LoN Charter. To not count this event among the top 5 seems laughable to me. While you can't say WWII is an event, you need to recognize something from this era as it was the defining time period of the 20th century. Was it Pearl Harbor, which brought the US into the war? Was it the invasion of Poland? Of France? Was it his pact with Stalin? Or was it a battle, like Stalingrad or the invasion of Normandy? The fact is, the war would have never happened--at least not in Europe--if Hitler hadn't come to power. You can blame his ascension on the Treaty of Versailles or something else if you want, but the moment he gained control in Germany is the moment that an irreversible path towards war on the European continent was set in motion. Nuclear weapons not only killed hundreds of thousands in Japan and ended the war in the Pacific, but they also made the oncoming Cold War all the more serious and potentially deadly. Even with the conclusion of the USA/USSR rivalry, the nuclear nightmare coupled with the terrorist threat, makes the world all the more dangerous and helps define how the Western world acts now.
The way it's going pretty soon an American poster will come up with a list that will look like this: 5 - Jets beat Colts in Super Bowl 4 - OJ Simpson acquited 3 - Brittney reveals she is not a virgin 2 - Darth Vader reveals he is Luke's father 1 - Michael Jackson reveals the kid is not his son So, to counter this, here is a VALID ethnocentric top five: 5 - August 21, 1991 Boris Yeltsin proposes to shut down the communist party, and I quote, "just for sh!ts and giggles". The proposition passes unanimously in the Soviet Parliament. 4 - On a verge of stroke-induced senility V. I. Lenin appoints his temporary replacement as the head of the Bolshevik Party, the relatively non-threatanning placeholder named Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, a.k.a. Joseph Stalin. 3 - Yuri Gagarin... and yes, he is more famous than Armstrong, either Neil or Lance... logs on a hell of a lot frequent flyer miles. 2 - The Battle of Stalingrad saves the world's arses from like the evilest guy ever. Normandy my matryoshka doll! 1 - The Bolshevik Revolution gives the planet something to think about for 74 years.
The five most important events of the 20th century were: 1- Development of Nuclear Weapons 2- World War II 3- Creation of the State of Israel 4- Russian Revolution 5- Iranian Revolution Development of Nuclear Weapons It ranks on top of the list because the threat those weapons could produce, as well as its effects on international relations, endures. World War II It changed the balance of power in the world, setting the stage for the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as the world's two superpowers. State of Israel It sowed the seeds for a conflict that dominated international relations and does to this day, while bringing the West in direct conflict with the Islamic world. In the process, to reconcile the inconsistencies between the project and the reality that became Israel, it also sowed the seeds among its supporters of a counter movement (neoconservative movement) away from the essence of the liberal ideals that had begun taking hold in Western societies and more towards its mere symbols. Russian Revolution Besides its role in creating a superpower for several decades, it popularized an ideology of resistance to imperialism while helping many ask profound questions about the nature of social relations, albeit simulating some rather poor answers to those questions as well. Iranian Revolution It changed the entire dicourse and attiude in the Middle East on how to confront the West, rejecting Western answers while legitimizing those who looked at answers from within their own cultural sphere and tradition. While all the different answers that found legitimacy as a result aren't mutually compatible, and some are mutually hostile, the Iranian Revolution stands as the preeminent expression of resistence to Western domination, Israel, and the United States in the Islamic world. What I mentioned were more specifiable "events". Ranking up there with the development of nuclear weapons in terms of its importance in our lives is of course the technological revolution that began in the late 20th century. While its implications are still in its infancy, unless mankind blows itself away in nuclear armagadam, the technological revolution will make even the industrial revolution pale by comparison in its dramatic effects on how we live and how we interact with one another.