most significant single event in the 20th century

[Mike_Mabes]

@Cicero

there were many ways the Great War had to happen there were as many reasons why it did not need to happen.

I could say the same thing of the Russian Revolution.

I believe it was unusally warm in Russia when people took to the streets in February 1917. If it had been a typically cold Russian winter, maybe it would not have happened. So can we say weather was one of the most significant events?

[Mike_Mabes]

Could the Russian revolution have turned out differently? Lenin, one of the greatest tyrants of history, took control. Only he, in his great wisdom, knew what to do. Which included murdering or impromising anyone who disagreed with him.

But I guess this should be another thread - greatest asshole of the 20th century - Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or Hitler?

[Lumpy]

The unknowable number of people who died in World Wars One and Two, who if they’d lived would have changed the world?

[thorny_locust]

@Lumpy

The unknowable number of people who died in World Wars One and Two, who if they’d lived would have changed the world?

That’s a really good one; and very much in the category of ‘things that didn’t happen; and, because they didn’t happen, we don’t know about them.’

The peacemakers, the medical geniuses, the geniuses in fields we don’t even think about because they didn’t (or didn’t yet) get that spark of idea that would have made them matter? We’ll never know who they would have been, or what they would have done.

[JohnT]

@Baron_Greenback

Lots of things led to the Russian Revolution, including what is going to be my pick.

So a single event, one moment in time. An event that triggered consequences far beyond the scope of the event itself:

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

Of course many of the subsequent events would have happened anyway, at least in some form, but that particular episode did rather speed things up, and the after-effects are still being felt today.

Got it in one.