# 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:** 4
**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, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/61 "2024-08-02T06:40:22Z")
Also consider 1364, the height of the Black Death. Many historians feel the sudden reduction in the European population drove up the value of labor, undermining the feudal system and creating the conditions for the Renaissance and the development of capitalism. ---
**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, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/62 "2024-08-02T06:46:03Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > 800 (?) Charlemagne kneeling in the snow, reflecting the rise of the Church as the dominant power in Medieval Europe. Nitpick: Are you thinking of Emperor Henry IV (1050-1106)? (He stood in a snow blizzard in 1077.) ---
**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, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/63 "2024-08-02T06:50:18Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Also consider 1364, the height of the Black Death. Many historians feel the sudden reduction in the European population drove up the value of labor, undermining the feudal system and creating the conditions for the Renaissance and the development of capitalism. Yes. Very important, for the reasons you state. And already mentioned: “1347 - arrival of Black Death pandemic in Europe” BTW, some think the Black Death was a double-whammy: Both bubonic plague and (at least in England) anthrax. ---
**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, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/64 "2024-08-02T06:51:30Z")
Yes, you’re right. D’oh. What happened in 800 was that Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope, which is significant insofar as it marks the merger of secular and religious authority in Catholic Europe. ---
**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, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/65 "2024-08-02T06:56:41Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > What happened in 800 was that Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope, which is significant insofar as it marks the merger of secular and religious authority in Catholic Europe. Yes. I accidentally left 800 AD off my summary list and it’s too late to edit it back in. And 800 is an easy date to memorize! 🙂 It was about that year that the Anno Domini calendar was adopted. I’ve wondered if Charlemagne imposed the new calendar because of the elegance of his 800 coronation year! ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/66 "2024-08-02T10:59:58Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > 1917 Russian Revolution Actually, I think it’s 28 June 1914 - the assasination of Franz Ferdinand. Everything from WW1 to the Russian Revolution, WW11 and the cold war can be traced back to this. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/67 "2024-08-02T11:12:44Z")
But it goes back further. That set off something that had been building for years. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/68 "2024-08-02T11:14:24Z")
According to a history textbook I read once, there are only two memorable dates in History, 55BC and 1066. ---
**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 2, 2024, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/69 "2024-08-02T11:47:43Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > But it goes back further. That set off something that had been building for years. Everything is always building for years. The dates we’re listing here are when things reach a peak. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/70 "2024-08-02T11:59:15Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > But it goes back further. That set off something that had been building for years. Had it though? Europe had always be a tangled web of shaky alliances, unstable borders, political assasinations and conflict. This event is significant because it, pretty accidentally, set off a world war that no one saw coming or wanted. Germans included. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/71 "2024-08-02T12:04:39Z")
WWI was narrowly avoided around 1908 among other times. If that bullet didn’t strike on 28 June 1914, something else would have. I feel like it was a step on the way to what did change the world in 1945. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/72 "2024-08-02T12:05:01Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > 1776: Not only the American Revolution, but also the first commercially profitable use of a steam engine, marking the beginning of the Industrial Revolution! I grew up a mile or so from the site where Newcomen built his first engine more than 60 years before that upstart Watt. It may not have been profitable, but it did the job. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/73 "2024-08-02T12:10:10Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > WWI was narrowly avoided around 1908 among other times. If that bullet didn’t strike on 28 June 1914, something else would have. I feel like it was a step on the way to what did change the world in 1945. The western world was utterly changed by the end of WW1. Russian had a revolution, the Austro Hungarian and Ottoman empires had entirely vanished, the map of Europe had been redrawn and the tide had turned on the British and French empires. I feel this focus on 1945 as more significant is a rather US centric view. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/74 "2024-08-02T12:15:50Z")
WWI, the Great Depression and WWII were all part of one major event is what I’m looking at, and the colonialism race that led up to it was also part of it. That horrific era ended in 1945 and kicked off the next era. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/75 "2024-08-02T13:13:31Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > 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 If a Turing paper gets included then it has to be 1936 On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem where he came up with the concept of a Turing machine (a programmable computer) and the “paradox” of the halting problem. Though if there is one computing paper on the list it’s got to be von Neumann’s First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC in 1945 where he basically created modern computing ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/76 "2024-08-02T13:19:10Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > I feel this focus on 1945 as more significant is a rather US centric view. I’d actually say the end of WW1 was only a pivotal date for Europe (and the Middle East due to the collapse of the Ottoman empire) whereas the end of WW2 was pivotal for all of the world. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2024, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/77 "2024-08-02T13:35:55Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > 1066 Meh. Important to Britain, but not an earth-shaker I’m with you on this. Particularly as it’s pretty much coincidence with the 1071 Battle of Manzikert which was a truly momentous turning point. Marking the rise of the Ottoman empire and dooming the Byzantines (once they lost Anatolia they were doomed, if anything it was surprising they lasted as long as they did after that) ---
**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 2, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/78 "2024-08-02T16:22:13Z")
Not a hill I’m particularly interested in dying upon, but I did mention that the Wikipedia cites dispute Keys’ claim that it was (only) Krakatoa that was responsible for the catastrophe. There is consensus that globally it was a very _dark_ time with profound changes in many civilizations. I inserted this date into the discussion largely because most of the other events mentioned have been relatively recent (within ca 500 years) and Euro- and American- centric. Even if you disagree with Keys, the videos are very entertaining and informative. And I hadn’t heard of it either – it certainly didn’t make the standard high school history books 60 years ago! ---
**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 2, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/79 "2024-08-02T16:33:00Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Marking the rise of the Ottoman empire Seljuk. Both Turks, but different empires. ---
**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 2, 2024, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101/80 "2024-08-02T18:24:02Z")
> [@Gordon\_G](#): > > 1455 - Gutenberg Bible printed. Remarkably, we don’t know the exact date it was printed. 1455 is used because the future Pope Pius II wrote about pages displayed at the Frankfort Book Fair. (An entity that is still the largest in the world.) Almost certainly, some copies were completed by 1454 and preparations for printing started around 1450. > [@Gordon\_G](#): > > 1776 - American Revolution Yes, this is the year of the Declaration of Independence, but not of the Revolution War. Concord and Lexington were in 1775. I’m of the opinion that the DoI, symbolic though it was, meant little without a working government to copy. The colonies did not truly unite until 1789, when the representatives and President Washington met in New York. (Some modern scholars argue that the War was actually two, or three, or four separate wars, fought for their own interests.) Countries that looked back to the U.S. for inspiration always seem to mention the Constitution and the democratic form of government rather than the DoI. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-important-dates-years-in-history/1005101.md?page=5)