The ten most important events in the 20th century?

in no particular order

* atom bomb (as someone said, it changed the distribution of power)
* numerous healthcare advances (prolonged life expectancy considerably, boom in world population)
* WWI, WWII (it taught europe to behave, and caused it to turn towards prosperity)
* 1973 oil embargo (the west's inflated ego was popped like bubble gum. it was reminded how vulnerable it really was)
* fall of USSR, and the end of the cold war (people stopped worrying about nuclear armageddon... at least for a short while)
* the development of Ford's mass production techniques (made cars affordable to everyone. owning a car became a normal thing for everyone, not just the stinken rich. the introduction of cars into American Life (and therefore Western life))
* decolonialization (created nationalist 3rd-world gov'ts all over the world, angry and bitter with their former colonizers)
* internet (e-commerce, online dating, new culture and ways to communicate, etc.)
* pearl harbour (the US changed its isolationist policy and from now took a more active role in influencing foreign governments - to put it mildly)
* the Balfour Declaration (which called for the creation of Israel, in 1917)
 
In order of most important:
1. Development of Aircraft+space exploration
2. World War II
3. World War I
4. Sufferage Movement
5. Modern Medicine
6. Rise and fall of Communism
7. Computers
8. New deseases (AIDS, super-bacteria)
9. USA's superpower
10. MTV


that last one is a joke!
 
world war two

world war two is the most important event of the 20th century hands down. the amount of progress that we went through over the second world war is amazing.
 
Three points:

(1) Considering the size and former importance of China, the revolution (1949) is not the most important Chinese event of the 20th century. Had Maoist systems been allowed to continue, China would be unbelievably less integral to the world economy than it is today and will be for the next however many decades or longer. The most important Chinese event of the 20th century was the gradual (though amazingly quick in retrospect) change towards Capitalism, internationalism and baby steps towards a modern sense of rights and law. In a centuries time, Deng XiaoPing and the class of the '80s will be regarded as the men who perhaps most shaped the future. Maybe the most amazing part is that Deng seemed to understand this at the time, and had very high expectations for China's future.

(2) For those considering Russia; though the Revolution and Fall are two extremely huge events, you might want to consider the death of Stalin. Like with Maoism, Stalinism extended past his death would have meant a grossly different world. The detente with Russia started the minute Stalin died.
 
And MTV may be a joke, but TV should be on the list. Television has changed all over lives and had a much larger impact on the 20th century than the internet.
 
in no particular order:
1. polio vaccine.
2. invention of the transistor.
3. atomic bombing of hiroshima.
4. moon landing.
5. dec. 7, 1941 (pearl harbor)
6. first nonrefueled nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air.
7. woodstock.
8. first commercial electronic computers.
9. voyager probes.
10 conquest of everest.
 
I suspect that in 500 or 1000 years people will look on things like the development of quantum theory, relativity, the internet, etc. as much more important than any particular war or revolution that occurred in the last century.

If you asked some guy in 3000 B.C. what the most important event of the last century was, he would probably tell you about some kingdom conquering some other kingdom. But if you asked a historian today, they would probably say the most important thing was people figuring out how to make bronze.
 
Nasor said:
I suspect that in 500 or 1000 years people will look on things like the development of quantum theory, relativity, the internet, etc. as much more important than any particular war or revolution that occurred in the last century.
Click to expand...


It comes down to how we are defining "importance", which seems likely to require a good dose of subjectivity. My difficulty with posting my own list is that I can't even decide how to measure it. Technologically, you get one set of answers, politically a very different set, and the two don't cross-compare well. Can I really say that the invention of the transistor was slightly more important than the destruction of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI? (There was a time when affluent parents sent their kids to learn Ottoman Turkish, as early 20th century eggheads thought it would be a major diplomatic and economic necessity that people know it....much as they say about Chinese today).

I can't possibly accurately guess at what the world would be like today if a single Muslim empire had occupied land from southeastern Europe down to Saudi Arabia (and half of Iraq) through the 20th century, or if the transistor hadn't been invented. That makes the two hard to weigh against one another.
 
1. Computer
2. Nuclear power
3. Space expansion begins
4. World War II
5. stem cell research begins
6. nanotechnology birth
7. Communism ideology challenges/success/demise
8. Internet, mass globalization share of information
9. Einstein discovery
10. Women/Black movement, race/sex revolution
 
More and less Obscure

RADIO - 1920's
also from the 20's
Prohibition
Prohibition Amended
"New woman" [The Flapper (clothing), smoking, the pill (free love)]
Jazz

1980's Olympic Hockey - America (Thought to be noobs) beats the Soviets [Supposedly Hockey's #1 (lol)]

...Sundays @ 7:00 AM - Japanese Kamakaze assaults, coming to a harbor near you! :runaway:

The invention of Rock And Roll (Elvis = Jazz, rock, and bluegrass, appealing to blacks and whites alike)

Speaking of blacks and whites... ("Can't we all just get along?")
BROWN vs. BOARD OF EDUCATION (regarding "separate but equal.")
Pretty much the entire civil rights movement
MLK assassination (previously stated)
(intergration and equality)
Malcom X asassination (suspected by Nation of Islam, which he left)
(black supremacy)

Other assassinations previously stated
John F Kennedy (assassin unknown?)
Robert Kennedy (assassin - Sirhan Sirhan)

Berlin wall :wallbang: - U.S. Containment policy
- "candy bombers" <nice guys who threw candy at isolated children from airplanes

The Crash
The Depression
The New Deal

And because I'm turning 17 tomorrow, I might as well throw in the invention of hip hop in the Bronx of New York, which spread out to be a world wide culture.


This is EXCLUSIVELY from the memory of a high school student.
NO notes, NO research. Just what I learned from my teacher. :itold:

My apologies if I gave false Information... I'm Human too.

hope this helped
 
1. Humanity didn't blow itself up with its own weapons of mass destruction.

2. Education was brought to more people around the world.

3. Medical research was pushed to new heights with untold new advances in the health and welfare field.

4. The destruction of the environment through pollution and other environmental disasters that beset humanity which humanity caused upon itself.

5. The achievement of understanding about the universe and what life started with through scientific research and space exploration.

6. The untold amout of human lives that were destroyed by wars everywhere around the world and the terrible things that those wars created.

7. Fewer people with more wealth.

8. Less honesty and more bullshit.

9. More greed.

10. I was born.:rolleyes:;)
 
Trying to reduce a century to 10 points is no easy task, but below is my stab at it recognizing that each of the events below incorporate a great number of events.

1) World Wars I and II
2) Creation of the United Nations (unprecidented international cooperation on world issues)
3) Invention of Nuclear Technology
4) Invention of the Transistor
5) Keynesian Economics
6) Banking Reform and Regulation(creation of Federal Reserve, Glass-Steagall, etc.)
7) The Marshall Plan
8) Near Universal Education in the Industrial World
9) Communism, the Rise and Fall
10) Proliferation of Computer, Communication and Transporation Technologies
 
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