# What are the most important dates (years) in history? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 1, 2024, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101 "2024-08-01T12:21:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/41 "2024-08-01T19:52:06Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > 1066 Meh. Important to Britain, but not an earth-shaker But, would it not have had a pivotal role in the eventual conquest and population of North America, as well as varying possibilities for earlier British imperialism and thus whether or not (or the nature(s) of the world wars) and the various middle Eastern crap to follow? Respectfully, I personally believe that it was a huge earth shaker. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/42 "2024-08-01T20:02:37Z")
I disagree. I don’t think the failure of the Norman invasion would have significantly impacted the subsequent European technological/intellectual revolutions, which directly led into colonialism, world wars and its various consequences. Maybe someone else becomes the dominant 19th century European imperial power instead of Britain, but I’m not sure that matters much from a non-British point of view. ---
**Author:** ![bobsmom101](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobsmom101/32/2867_2.png) [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/43 "2024-08-01T20:06:22Z")
So far no one has mentioned 536 AD, the year Krakatoa’s eruption plunged the earth into a sulfurous cloud and contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire, the Arthurian Legend in England, the rise of the Mongols and of Islam, and world-wide droughts, plagues and famine. The effects lasted for decades and it has been described as the worst time to be alive in history. > **[Volcanic winter of 536](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter_of_536)** > > The volcanic winter of 536 was the most severe and protracted episode of climatic cooling in the Northern Hemisphere in the last 2,000 years. The volcanic winter was caused by at least three simultaneous eruptions of uncertain origin, with several possible locations proposed in various continents. Most contemporary accounts of the volcanic winter are from authors in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, although the impact of the cooler temperatures extended beyond Europe. M... There’s an excellect series on YouTube about David Keys’ research on the event (though some Wikipedia cites differ with Keys about the cause): [https://youtu.be/VbwyR5jLSUQ?si=0JXi6gTeUA-6M3z](https://youtu.be/VbwyR5jLSUQ?si=0JXi6gTeUA-6M3z) 6 [I had to break the link to the video. Remove the “space” in front of the last 6] ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/44 "2024-08-01T20:19:40Z")
Also I think the Trinity Nuclear test has be up there (if 1492 isn’t top then Trinity has to be) as well as the massive effect on history the nuclear age had, it literally changed the make up of the earths atmosphere. Long after humans are extinct, and all our records are gone, it will be possible to divide history into before and after the Trinity Test. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/45 "2024-08-01T20:28:36Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > I don’t think the failure of the Norman invasion would have significantly impacted the subsequent European technological/intellectual revolutions I completely agree with you there, to a point somewhere off in the future, perhaps in the 14th or 15th centuries. > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Maybe someone else becomes the dominant 19th century European imperial power instead of Britain, but I’m not sure that matters much from a non-British point of view. However from my POV as a Canuck, what if this had led to the prevailing of New France rather than British North America? I think the consequences could have ranged from relatively inconsequential (eg everything is more or less the same except that our modern English was just a more evolved version of old English, without the insertion of Norman French) or very consequential, with such things as several nation states occupying North America. Again, just my opinion, so who knows. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/46 "2024-08-01T20:33:29Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > However from my POV as a Canuck, what if this had led to the prevailing of New France rather than British North America? Well, there’s obviously no way to know for sure, but my guess is you’d presumably be a French-speaking person living in a liberal democracy with access to modern technology and medical care. IOW, your life would be in most important respects the same as it is. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/47 "2024-08-01T21:28:48Z")
Although the effects are not as well known to the majority of people, it occurs to me that 1950 CE would be the date of dates. For one thing, it was the year I was born, and that had earth-shaking consequences, at least in my household. But it’s also the, admittedly somewhat arbitrary, date of the start of the [Anthropocene Era](https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/anthropocene/). And that will affect every human being (and other living being) on earth for a great amount of time. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/48 "2024-08-01T22:51:02Z")
1096 - the First Crusade. The start of the longest war in European history, which not only altered the political status quo from England to the Persian gulf, but also had an incalculable cultural and technological impact on Europe, and to a lesser degree, on the Muslim world. Now for the two most important scientific texts ever written, which changed everything humanity knew about the universe: 1687 - the publishing of Isaac Newton’s _Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica_. 1859 - the publishing of Charles Darwin’s _On the Origin of Species_. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/49 "2024-08-01T23:21:23Z")
1957 - Dawning of the space age. There’s no going back; the universe awaits. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/50 "2024-08-01T23:28:32Z")
The lectern in my classroom was made for me by some of my AP European History students years ago. It has 4 dates on it. 1215, 1555, 1789 and 1848. Magna Carta, Peace of Augsburg, French Revolution, Everybody in Europe (almost) revolts. Apparently I emphasized those dates a bit. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/51 "2024-08-02T02:12:10Z")
2000, specifically May 1, 2000. President Clinton ends Selective Accessibility of the US GPS system, allowing free and accurate positioning across the world. It introduces a wide range of new businesses and capabilities, and with widespread cell and wifi services and the internet, the information age matured. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/52 "2024-08-02T02:28:05Z")
I remember a 1966 issue of the National Geographic magazine that featured an article on the 900th anniversary of this. And one of the books that NG published had a complete printout of the Bayeaux tapestry, ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/53 "2024-08-02T02:37:44Z")
Uh, you know your Wikipedia cite says that Keyes’ views are “not mainstream”? Offhand I find it hard to imagine that there was a direct connection between this mini-ice age and either the fall of the Roman Empire, which was pretty well fallen a century previously, or the rise of Islam a century later. Still, I’d never heard of this obviously significant event before, so thanks for bringing it up. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/54 "2024-08-02T03:28:49Z")
> [@Gordon\_G](#): > > > [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > > > [@Gordon\_G](#): > > > > > > 1177 BC - a huge turning-point in the Late Bronze Age. > > > > ?? The only “historical” event I can think of around that time was the alleged Exodus and revelation at Sinai, but I assume you’re thinking of something else? > > Pinning it to a specific year may be impossible and “circa 1200 BC” may be more common, but I guess the non-specificity of “circa 1200 BC” would disqualify it for this thread. OOOOPS! I wrote “circa 2000 BC” as a typo! “circa 1200 BC” was always intended. (Just now I looked for the Strike-out/Del option and couldn’t find it.) ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/55 "2024-08-02T04:58:37Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > BTW, the Biblical chronology is pretty clear that the Exodus would have occurred in the 13-14th century BCE, a little earlier than 1177 (and of course it makes sense that a people’s creation myth might imply that their history went back further than it actually did). The earliest Israelites and their “adventures” is an unsolved mystery. I think there may be a connection to Akhenaten’s monotheism. He died in about 1335 BC. This is about the time that the Amerna Letters mention “Habiru” people in Canaan. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/56 "2024-08-02T05:11:24Z")
On a similar note, aliens landing on Earth in one or two million years might not find any other traces of humanity, but they will know an advanced civilization once existed, because our plastics will still be around. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/57 "2024-08-02T05:29:07Z")
As thread starter, am I under some moral obligation to summarize? Here are about two dozen of the “best” candidates, with nine I especially like starred. - 1177 BC - I must insist on this, the single most significant turning-point in the Levantine Bronze Age. We can quibble about an exact year to use. The collapse is often blamed on _Climate Change_, with drought leading to famine in the high-population cities, so 1196 BC – the height of the drought? – might be an alternative year to use. 146 BCE - sack of Carthage and rise of Roman empire 70 AD - Destruction of Jerusalem, cementing Christianity as a new religion, rather than a branch of Judaism. - 313 AD - Constantine I permitting Christianity in the Roman Empire. 536 AD - Krakatoa’s eruption - 622 - Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina. 732 - Battle of Tours, stopping the Muslim advance in Western Europe. 1096 - the First Crusade. 1347 - arrival of Black Death pandemic in Europe 1390 - first paper mill in Germany: Paper is prerequisite for printing. 1453 - Fall of Constantinople. (Though by then it was already too inevitable to be important?) - 1455 - Gutenberg Bible printed. - 1492 - Discovery of the New World - 1529 - Failed Siege of Vienna, stopping the Ottoman advance in Central Europe. 1687 - publication of Newton’s Principia, basic text of modern science 1776 - American Revolution 1848 - See Elmer\_J.Fudd’s post 1859 - the publishing of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. 1905 - Einstein’s Miracle Year 1917 - Russian Revolution - 1938 - the Spanish Civil War and Kristallnacht 1939 - 1945 - 1969 - Moon Landing - (The editor gives me an empty line here, for free!) The Renaissance and Enlightenment belong on the list, but can we agree on a single date? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/58 "2024-08-02T05:41:42Z")
Interesting choice. It’s notable that GPS is AFAIK the only widely used technology that wouldn’t work if we didn’t know about relativity. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/59 "2024-08-02T05:56:55Z")
I think the birth of artificial intelligence should make the list. I believe AI will become one of the most profound paradigm shifts in human history (hopefully for good, but perhaps very bad). I predict future generations will refer to our time as the Age of AI. But which date should we choose to mark AI’s beginning? - 1950? Alan Turing published his seminal paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” which posed the question “Can machines think?” and introduced the Turing Test as a measure of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior. - 1951? The Ferranti Mark 1, an early commercial computer, ran a program called the “Checkers Program,” developed by Christopher Strachey. This program played a simple game of checkers and is one of the earliest examples of AI. - 1956? The Dartmouth Conference, widely considered the birth of AI as a field of study, introduced the term “artificial intelligence” and set the research agenda for the coming decades. - 1956? The Logic Theorist, developed by Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon, was one of the first AI programs. It proved theorems from “Principia Mathematica” and is often considered the first program to demonstrate aspects of human-like reasoning. Maybe we should have ChatGPT decide. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/60 "2024-08-02T06:31:28Z")
I can think “how would the world be different if the American Revolution had failed” or “if the Spanish Armada had won” or even “if Muhammad had never lived”. I honestly find it really hard to think about “what would my life be like if Ramses VI had successfully repelled the invasion of the Sea Peoples 3100 years ago?” So I’m going to arbitrarily restrict my choices to the Common Era, and consider anything after 2000 to be “too close to judge”. I like 313, as it marks both the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Roman Empire. Invention of the printing press. 1492, of course Invention of the steam engine 1776 1848 1928 1945 1969 1991 Some other candidates I don’t think have been mentioned: 800 (?) Charlemagne kneeling in the snow, reflecting the rise of the Church as the dominant power in Medieval Europe. On the other side of the Middle Ages: 1635, the founding of Rhode Island as the first modern State with no official religion. Note that 1969 was the birth of the modern Gay Rights movement, in addition to other highlights previously mentioned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101.md?page=4)