Punch away, MASH didn’t come anywhere near, and the people were riveted for months afterwards, guess you missed it.
Well, the Pentagon is a military installation and the attacks were labed as an “act of war” so that makes it borderline.
I do agree that it was, perhaps by far, on of the most spectacular event in history. By virtue of having been so unpredictable, so unthinkable and having been witnessed, via electronic media, in real time by countless people. I live half a world away, and a year later I still had nightmares; I don’t think I was the only one.
The Yucatan meteor strike that brought the Mesozoic era to an end.
Well I was going to say the ressurection of Christ but I’d have too much trouble getting most of you to accept my sites from M, M, L & J 
His crucifixion was less important but may be considered an act of the Roman army.
Next choice would be the protestant reformation in conjunction with the printing press. Translating the bible into common languages and printing it not only had an enourmous impact on religion and politics but brought literacy to a vast part of the population.
I would go with the technological innovations of the 1870s-1890s: telephones, moving pictures, sound recordings, electric light, computerized calculators, etc., which would combine to change every single facet of education, cognition, world power, etc… If it had to be a single event I’d go for the Wright Brothers’ flight since, while not military itself, it immediately was adapted into warfare and changed the world.
I am somewhat amazed by what appears to me confusion among some dopers with the meaning ofthe word “dramatic” suggesting importance or impact. For example, I imagine that there was far more drama associated with the recovery of those 9 miners earlier this year or the rescue of baby Jessica than any of the major inventions of history. Perhaps even the OJ trial. These examples have no impact on my life. I agree with Vic Ferrari that we most likely will only find good examples in recent history.
But perhaps the advent/return of Columbus might have set the world abuzz yearning for more info.
dramatic:
- Of or relating to drama or the theater.
- Characterized by or expressive of the action or emotion associated with drama or the theatre.
- Arresting or forceful in effect.
- Having a powerful, expressive singing voice: a dramatic tenor.
The rescue of the miners would qualify for the 2nd definition. The advent of Columbus meets the criteria for the 3rd. Perhaps if you had said “what is the most emotionally moving moment” or “what single military news story most impacted your life”, the point would have been clearers.
It’s awful when somebody like grienspace asks a perfectly cogent and concise question to which there’s only one possible mode of interpretation and yet everybody who reads the post is stupid. Mea noxema culpa.
BTW, as far as Definition 2 dramatic moments, I would opt for the explosion of Challenger.
Framing the question this way rules out pretty much anything prior to the 20th century, since instantaneous worldwide communication was not possible until then, and the phrasing of the OP pretty much necessitates instaneous communication of some kind. With that in mind, I think the top 3 non-military events would be:
- Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon
- The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- The assassination of JFK
I would have a hard time choosing which of these were more “riveting” (it leaves a sour taste in my mouth to apply that word to these landmark events). I’ll just say that those are three very big ones.
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 would also rank very highly, except for the fact that I do consider those military in nature. They were a planned attack by a foreign entity directly against the United States. Just because it wasn’t done by men in uniform on a battlefield with weapons of war doesn’t mean it wasn’t military in my book. Our military response suggests that it was indeed military in nature. I realize this is a broad definition of “military,” but I think it an appropriate one. Anyway.
I have to agree with Sampiro:
The Challenger explosion was to my generation what the assassination of JFK was to my mother’s generation.
(not saying that they are the SAME, just saying they are both equally dramatic)
Avalonian, perhaps I missed that day in school, but I was always taught that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were dropped by the US military.
:eek:
:smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:
I can’t believe I did that. I even read it back, and I didn’t catch it. Idiot. :smack:
I had meant to put the Challenger explosion there, but for some reason put Hiroshima. I guess we no where my heads at today. Up in the effing clouds.
:smack:
Well, yeah. You have to normalize for the media variable. How could the world be riveted by the drama of Hannibal’s occupation of the Latin peninsula when they couldn’t learn about it? Clearly, it was far more dramatic and far more important that Di’s death or any Apollo mission. Oops! Same sentence.
With Hannibal’s opening of the Second Punic war the fate of the world was literally in the balance–can you imagine how world history would be different if Carthage had won? Plus the inherent drama of the story line; no writer could come up with a better plot. A world power virtually brought to its knees by an enemy who has struck at its heart, defeated again and again, and then an unknown leader cuts off the enemy’s supply line–meanwhile, a slave army is offered its freedom for victory, and succeeds! yet none go, staying loyal to the leader until he dies in battle–and the unknown takes the battle to the heart of enemy, what a turn of events! ::gasping for breath:: and the young unknown leader crushes the heretofore greatest general in the world (except Sun Tsu maybe, but that’s another thread) to become victor! He tops it off with a just peace, which is made more vindictive and cruel by the very people he saved. ::narrator collapses exhausted::
No, “quantity of drama” shouldn’t be defined by how many people can follow the story, but on the quality of the story itself.
The event itself was non-military, but it lead to directly to military events. Yes, it was done under the control of the military, but the test was not a direct military action.
I would nominate the testing of the first nuclear bomb in New Mexico in July, 1945.
It was the test itself that was dramatic and I think no one quite knew what to expect.
Ah, but AHunter3 that was in the prehistory of the world…
Since I’m an idiot, I used a military event for my example. But the point is the same. The discovery of European porcelain and Pythagoras’s efforts to keep the irrational hypenenous a secret are both pretty dramatic.
Please, people:
The plague makes 9/11 look like a stubbed toe. (1/3 of Europe died)
Other candidates:
Irrigation of the American west (increased world arable land by about 10%)
The Reformation (massive wealth transfer,restructuring of society)
The Holocaust (it didn’t serve any military purpose)
Constantine’s conversion (perhaps less dramatic than formative)
I’d probably still go with the plague.
P.S. If you consider 9/11 to be more dramatic than the Apollo 13 mission, you take yourself and our country too seriously.
breaking in to the 4 second range in the 1/4 mile at over 300mph!
I really wanted to take issue with you on the 9/11 thing. Everyone on Earth with access to any kind of media both knew of the attack quickly and was shocked/stunned/amazed by the images portrayed. The WTC, NY City, and America are such huge icons (whether inspiring or reviling) to the human race that in my mind there can have been no event in history that had such an immediate dramatic event on such a large proportion of the world’s population.
However…having re-read definitions for ‘military’ and ‘war’ I find myself begrudgingly agreeing with you that it has to be excluded from the frame of reference in the OP (humph!).
Discounting the A-bombs (Lemur866’s post must have hurt!), I think you are spot on with the other two of the top three. Stepping foot on another world is monumental for the human race and may well be remembered as the most important event to date. Likewise the visually recorded assassination of the most powerful man on the planet is hard to beat for dramatic effect….
What rounds out the top 3? Non-military revolutions (everything from written word, agriculture and industrialisation, to the Internet) are too protracted to fall under my definition or impression of ‘dramatic event’. Similarly technological advances (printing press, flight, electronics) don’t quite sum it up. The Plague is a fair call, narrowly beating out AIDS (I understand recent research suggests these may be related) but are they events?
Hmm…struggling a bit, but looking for a threshold event that stirred up the general public and encapsulates humanity’s move into the modern age I’d plump for #3 as Darwin’s publication of ‘The Origin of Species…’
I’m amazed by how many posts seem to think that America = The World.