10 Most Important Events Of Human History

the battle of Milvian Bridge was very important, though it would probably be better if it had gone the other way.

D-day was pretty big, though I don't know what effect a failure would have had on the outcome.

the cracking of the Japanese naval code during WWII, that made a huge impact on the war, which made in impact on the world.

the invention of the nuclear weapon changed the world pretty profoundly. hopefully they are done changing the world.

the death of Alexander the great. if he would have lived longer, there would be no telling how the world would be changed, perhaps Europe, the middle east, and east Asia would be much closer.

that's all I got right now
 
Those sound good, thanks.
Just to clarify though, by rise of civilizations I mean around 5000 BCE.
 
aren't my submissions within that time frame? or were you pointing that out for future posts?

that is the reason I didn't say domesticating animals, or inventing fire, or the wheel.
 
Rome; for no real reason

The edict of Milan; a series of threads has emerged on this forum based on this

Invention of writing by the Sumerians; too bad for IBM

First official series of laws by the Egyptians…I hate them for that

First moon landing…I wonder if the astronaut cares anymore

The renaissance… We realized how dumb we are for a while
 
Alexander's campaign stopped when his troops refused to follow him any further. His conquering days were over.
 
I think the farther you go back the more difficult it is to pick out the "most important" events, because the rate of change then was quite slow compared to the rate of change today. So, my list contains what I feel are more recent important technological events, which have triggered high rates of change.

1) Development of modern mathematics, especially algebra and calculus.
2) Development of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
3) Development of electronic computing and telecommunication technologies.
 
1.development of writing
2.newtons work
3. opening of trade routes, silk road
4. european settlement of the new world
5. the western acceptance of zero
6. the development of the concept of zero
7. industrial revolution
8. fall of rome
9. opening of east asia
10. china giving up on exploration

granted alot of these were not good things, and alot of people died.. but these are 10 that come to mind when I think about what shaped the work of today
 
1.euclid gathering allother peoples work into a single book and clarifying.
2.the invention of numbers
3.when people trading turned into communities utrned into cities.
4.napoleans death
5.the appeasement of hitler
6.invention of the atomic bomb
7.invention of capacitor/resistor
8.writing
9.i got a nasty cut on my leg.
 
Humans have been dispersed over the many lands since well before the rise of civilisation, and there have been few historical events that have impacted upon those living all over the planet. So maybe it is inventions and ideas that have really been critical to the path of human history.

I propose the following six inventions and four ideas (or "intellectual inventions"):

1: the invention of the loom
2: the mechanisation of milling
3: the invention of paper
4: the invention of the stirrup
5: the development of steam power
6: the invention of electrical power generation

7: the concept of redemption
8: the concept of human rights
9: the concept of scientific method
10: the concept of evolution

I omit the invention of the ox-drawn plough and of writing, since I regard these as the enablers of civilisation rather than events that have guided its path. I omit the invention of brewing/fermentation, also of the sail, since I believe these preceded civilisation.
 
1. Language

2. Written language

3. Sanitation

4. Antibiotics

5. Farming

6. Plough

7. Printing Press

8. Electricity

9. Anticeptics

10. Mathmatics
 
Since the Traveler listed at least three things that predate the dawn of civilization (which I believe is customarily dated more like 7,000BCE with the construction of the first true "city"), I'll toss in my usual remark about the formation of the first multi-species community when dogs domesticated themselves.

As I've said on other threads, at that time (around 11,000BCE) we were living in tribal groups of one or two hundred. Everybody was personally acquainted with everybody else and most were blood relatives. We were highly suspicious of the other tribes and cooperation was rare.

Suddenly we learned to love "people" who weren't even of our own species and couldn't speak to us at all. I believe that opened our minds and hearts to the idea that we were capable of getting along with strangers and that forming larger communities created greater prosperity and comfort.

If it weren't for dogs I wonder whether today we'd be able to feel a sense of kinship with a person on the other side of the planet who is a different color, prays to a different god, and is really nothing more to us than an abstraction.

So if your list can include language (guessing around 75,000BCE) and farming (ca 9,000BCE), mine can include the joining of humans with dogs to create something greater than either.

Just as with language and farming, without dogs there might be no such thing as civilization.
 
Hi everyone - here is my list.

1. Self awareness. I am a thing that can do things to other things.
2. Speech. I can describe things to other things, and even ask the things to do something.
3. Writing. I have a record of the things for which I've asked.
4. Religion. I can make other people do things, using the things I write and say. The things I do make me powerful. (This also makes war!)
5. Money. I can buy things to make me happy and keep my wife off my case. I also promise to pay God to love me and my neighbours not to attack me.
6. Steam Engine. People no longer have to use animals or their own legs to do things. Thank you Mr Trevithick. My ancestors can now work in a mine because they haven't been killed by carrying all their belongings wherever they were going. They can also go at 100 m.p.h. on a train from London to Cheltenham. Quite why they would want to go there is a mystery.
7. Electricity. Instant power. Now humans are really cooking without gas. We all feel enlightened. I'd like to thank Mr Rutherford at this point.
8. Personal transport. Mr Benz invented the Mercedes. Now we can all go where we want when we like. Well, for a while at least.
9. Uranium cascade. All done from the safe confine of a major US city. Thank God (point 4) for steady hands.
10. Jet engine. Only one piece moves? You've got to be joking. Now I can enjoy all the benefits of all of the above from anywhere on the planet.

I can't resist a final point - Alan Turing's Colossus. Absolute genius. Followed closely by 'Baby' in Manchester, UK. Having seen a working replica of Baby (Manchester Science and Industry Museum) operated by some of its designers, I am astonished that such utter genius leads to me trivially typing posts such as this.
 
gnasher said:
They can also go at 100 m.p.h. on a train from London to Cheltenham.
Click to expand...
Well, they can travel at 100mph on part of the journey to Swindon, whether proceeding to Cheltenham or anywhere else. Alas, the days when the Cheltenham Flyer was the World's Fastest Train are long gone.
Quite why they would want to go there is a mystery.
Click to expand...
Possibly because they work at GCHQ, are keen or horseracing, or like Regency architecture.

number57.jpg

River Ape's place in St George's Road.

However, I regard the chief purpose of the railway as facilitating travel to London by Cheltonians.
 
Saying that all of the 10 most important things in all of human history all occurred AFTER the rise of "civilization" is completely wrong, not to offend anybody. If you are going to talk about the 10 most important events in human history then I would say that most of them happened well before the rise of "civilization" (Sorry, I put that word in quotes because the definition of it is usually really silly and I don't want anybody to think that I hold with the old fashioned "cities = civilization" idea, even though the word does originate from the latin word for cities). Here are my picks, although some of them don't correspond to the 7000 b.c. and after mark.

1. Bipedal Locomotion: With this, Hominids were now able to use their hands exclusively for tasks other than walking.
2. Development of the apposable (sp?) Pinky. No, not the apposable thumb, the pinky. Pick up a cylindrical object or a spherical object and then you'll realize how important the pinky we have is to our toolmaking capabilities. I don't believe that any other Primate has the same pinky as we do, so it's really important to our history as a species. With this comes the making of tools. For instance, if you pick up a stick, because of the pinky you have being able to in effect wrap around the shaft ofthe stick, you can use your wrist for most of the power in swinging it, whereas most primates have to use their entire arms. Also, if you tried flint-knapping you'd probably master it within a few days, not because it is an easy skill, but because our hands have evolved to do it, and it's instinctual.
3. The transition from a species that mainly scavanges to a species that mainly hunts. Not only does the added protein from meat contribute to brain development, but in addition a predatory animal must be able to manipulate his/her prey, which encourages very abstract and sophisticated strategic thinking skills. The reason why many modern people aren't good at strategic or long-term thinking is because we don't have to be; everything is done for us by someone else (all of the things that maintain our basic survival). If you look at hunter-gatherers (the few that are left), or cultures with a very rich tradition of hunting from early childhood into adulthood, then you will find that most of these people have excellent strategic thinking skills.
4. The Ice Ages. Our species was litterally forged during the harsh conditions of the Ice Ages. Most of our major competition died off (including most of the other hominid species) and it gave us the durability as a species to survive in a variety of conditions outside of our native africa.
5. Our status as social animals. This should probably be at the top of the list because so much of what we have wouldn't be here in any form had we not been social animals. Heck, we are defined by the societies we create, but the reason why I didn't put it at the top of the list is because there are many other socially complex animal species. Furthermore, the reason why humans can think on such a high, abstract level isn't because we have a higher brain capacity than other animals, or because somehow they are better, it's because in addition to the large brain/body mass ratio we have millenia of social "software" implanted in each one of us. There are plenty of animals who can think abstractly, can create works of art (albeit simple ones) such as other primates, and who feel intense emotions just as we do, and we aren't the only animals on the planet with self-awareness. Show a dog or a cat a mirror and they will not bark or hiss because they can tell it is themselves, which is a sure sign of self-awareness. We aren't even the best at problem solving. There are bird species that can solve puzzles with such a level of complexity that I am sometimes tempted to wonder if some humans wouldn't be stumped by it.
6. We don't have a mating season. As silly as this one sounds, it confers on us a massive advantage, because we can mate and have children at ANY time of the year, whereas most animals only mate during the spring or summer.
7. We also pass on the knowledge of one generation onto the next. This is quite possible the only reason why we, and not Neanderthals for example, survived and became as complex as we did. Think about it for a moment. Think about the amount of knowledge that YOU, even if you think you don't know anything at all, have in comparison to your average stone age person. Think about how huge a gap that is. In fact, most people from this time period would appear as gods to stone age man if they had gone back in time. We aren't more intelligent than stone age man, we have the advantage of THOUSANDS of years of knowledge behind us because we teach our children actively, rather than relying on them to figure everything out for themselves.
8. Complex form of spoken communication. For obvious reasons, this is an advantage. Think about how difficult it is to work with someone with whom you have no common language and you'll understand why it's on this list.
9. Domestication of Plants and Animals. Increases population growth, and the ability to have specialists.
10. Written language. This is at the bottom of the list mostly because there have been some intensely sohpisticated societies which have existed without it at all. For example, the Incas of Peru. They had no written language at all. The reason why it is on the list is because it further facilitates the spread of knowledge from one generation to the next, which is why when it was invented, the pace of history seemed to increase to much, at least in Eurasia.
 
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