I’ve got it.
The greatest moment and the greatest invention of all time both center around one event in the 1920’s. Toiling by himself in a small lab in Minnesotta, Richard Drew, employed at that time by the Minnesotta Mining and Manufacturing Company(3M), stumbled upon the greatest discovery of mankind, a promethean accomplishment far outshining any other human achievement. It was here, a time and place largely forgotten by historians, that Richard Drew invented duct tape.
Greatest invention in history: agriculture
Greatest invention of the last millenium: the printing press
I cast my greatest invention vote for the birth control pill.
In reply to some who said the battle of hastings was a non-event i would like to say that both (a) i was thinking more from a modern perspective, but opinions like the big bang are just as sutiable and (B) i would ssy the battle of hastings had a profound effect on Britain and therefore the following world, you may accuse me of living on past glories but im really not. As for the debate of predating i certainly am in the frame of mind that i am looking for the most useful, world changing invention, and so just because one predates another does not neccessaliry (cant SP that word) mean that it is better, but overall this is a thread about opinons, on reflection i would change my moment in history to the moment when apes evolved to homosapians and invention the wheel. However i find it hard to accept writing as an ‘invention’ as it was more an evolution process rather than something man yearned to make possible.
Homer J, while not discounting the effects that Hastings had on Britain and thus Britain’s influence on the rest of the world over the following millenium, why not look even further back to Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC?
Had he conquered the city and eliminated the nascent Jewish religion, it raises the question of whether Christianity or Islam would have existed. Those three religions, I think, have had a greater effect on the world than any single country, past or present.
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
The Big Bang
Of course it had some effect on the future of Britain, and hence had some effect on the future world. But so had any event in the history of any country who played some role in world history at somepoint. Even minor events.
What was Hastings? In an essentially irrelevant and half-barbaric part of the world, some rulers of a little kingdom were replaced after a little battle by other people who shared essentially the same culture, the same religion, etc…This sort of things happened every other year somewhere in the world. Who outside England cared about that? The french king because one of its vassal suddenly became more powerful? The danes? The scots?
I’m going to give you a similar event in french history : the Battle where Clovis crushed Syagrius, hence establishing the rule of the franks over the galo-romans. How many people have heard outside france (or even in France) about this “earth-shattering” event? And actually it was a more important event than Hastings, since it created a new entity (the frankish kingdom) while in the case of Hastings, it just meant a change of ruler in an already existing entity. If Hastings is a major event in world history, so is this battle, and I could pick dozens of events in french history and state that since they changed the history of france, they changed the history of the world. And so could anybody in any country.
Hastings was essentially a non-event at the world scale except for the people directly concerned and to a lesser extent to their immediate neighbors (and it’s not like any of them were of major importance on the world stage at this time). Even if we restrict our view to europe, how important is Hastings compared to, say, the Turks being eventually defeated in Austria? To the apparition of protestantism? To the fall of the roman empire? To the reconquista and the unification of Spain?
And on a larger scale , could you compare, even very remotely, William the conqueror with Gengis Khan?
Nope, as much important it could be (or considered to be) in the history of England, it’s an anglo-english event with essentially no bearing on world history. Of course, you could say that the consequences of the consequences of the consequences of the consequences of this event eventually had some importance. But it’s probably true also for something like a minister accidentaly stepping on the foot of the emperor of Persia. I assume that for an event to be considered “important” (let alone the most important in history), it must have some clearly direct consequences of global importance. A warlord replacing another one in some unpopulated island of the uncivilized western edge of Eurasia definitely doesn’t qualify at such.
But the Babylonians didconquer the Jews and had a number of them deported to destroy the nation’s identity.
That was exactly the reason why they started to write stuff down.
Those in exile wanted to keep their identity.
Had they let them be, monotheism might never have reared it’s head.
Yes, ** Clair**, we all know France is ‘The Crossroad of Europe’
Greatest invention: Two-ply toilet paper. Ahhhhh… wiping is fun now!
Latro wrote:
Zoroastrianism.
I still say the Resurrection was more important than the Big Bang. Just like the cook is more important than the pot.
Greatest invention: Math (heh heh - or is it discovered . . .)
Greatest Moment: Man steps on the moon
DaLovin’ Dj
Brewing beer or fermenting wine.
Duct tape
WD-40
Post-it Notes
'Nuff said.
Minnesotta is, of course, the Mirror Universe Evil Twin[sup]TM[/sup] of Minnesota, complete with black goatee.
Greatest moment: Definitely man’s first step onto the moon. As the years go by, I think that one moment may be seen as being the birth of ‘modern’ man.
Why?
Greatest invention: Drugs and medicine
Worst invention: Religion and politics
Greatest acheivement: to concour the religious and the politicians and take back our human rights to survival…
worst acheivement: failing to concour the religious and the politicians to take back our human rights to survival
Taboo
Taboo wrote:
That’s redundant, isn’t it?
Best invention: Mathematics/Language/Trade
Best moment: One ameoba turn to the another and says “You know, this asexual reproduction business is OK, but there’s got to be a better way”