Most Significant Events of the Century

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just came across this article which says in part,

I thought it was rather incredible, not just because she was mentioned, but that she topped the list. So out of curiousity, what do you think are the top 10, or even 5, most significant events of the last 100 years?

In no particular order, for me:

  1. Man’s first flight.

  2. WWI.

  3. WWII.

  4. Korea.

  5. Vietnam.

  6. Sputnik.

  7. Cuban Missile Crisis.

  8. The Atomic Bomb.

  9. Ford Model T.

  10. The Computer.

2

The Cold War.

The development of the Corrugated Box (think about it).

Discovery of Penicillin.

The video camera.

3

OK, 10, in somewhat particular order:

  1. WWII (this includes the A-bomb for me)
  2. Man on the moon
  3. WWI
  4. Russian revolution of 1917
  5. Cuban Missile Crisis
  6. Decline of Communism in Eastern Europe and the USSR (late 80’s/early 90’s)
  7. First flight of the Wright Brothers
  8. The Netherlands winning the 1988 European Football Championships. :slight_smile:
  9. Invention of the transistor
  10. Invention of the microchip
4

Not in any particular order.

The changes in transportation - airplanes and cars. I can walk outside, get in my car and drive to places that my great-grandparents may only have been able to imagine.

The growth of information - in a century we’ve have radio, television and the internet. Think about someone born in 1900 who lived 80, 90, 100 years and the changes they had to see.

Frozen food.

Modern Medicine, and the diseases that we can’t cure or cure easily, such as AIDS and cancer

Global wars - WWI and WWII, and the Cold War.

The rise and fall of the Soviet Union

I’m sure I’ll think of more, but I really have to go do some reading for class.

5

See, if I was a good student I’d have learned to read the directions well before I started, since Turbo Dog obviously asked for the most significant events.
Or maybe I just like to look at the big picture.

6

The First World War was really when the 19th century ended and the 20th century began. Three empires which had endured for centuries were destroyed.

The Bolshevik revolution provided the framework for most of what happened in the 20th century, including World War II and the Cold War, both of which were fundamentally attempts by the Imperialist powers to destroy socialism.

The dismantling of the USSR closed the books on the 20th century. It signaled the beginning of a new epoch in human history.

The greatest scientific advance of the 20th century was the discovery of the laws of quantum mechanics. The profound understanding of how matter and energy behave at the atomic and sub-atomic level is what made possible the development of electronics, material science, and even atomic power. It is truly the difference between 19th and 20th century technology.

7

I tend to look at these things from a “how do they effect the life of the average person” perspective, so I’m not too likely to put Einstein or anything too related to pure science on my list. Having said that:

  1. The World Wars (the cause/effect relationship between the two is so critical that I consider them one thing)
  2. Invention of television
  3. Mass production of the automobile
  4. The Cold War
  5. The Great Depression
  6. Wright Bros. first flight
  7. Apollo 11
  8. Decolonialization (sorry if I butchered that word)
  9. The cultural changes of the 1960s
  10. All that Middle East crap
8

Top three for me (not particulary well-thought of, and in no particular order) :

-1917 Russian revolution

-WWII

-Mass production