On the contrary, I think most of them are very important.
It may not seem so now, and it may be easy to dismiss the importance of certain events because they are things we take for granted now, but the majority of things listed thus far were markable turning points in the United States’ history, or events that directly led to great change; societally, economically, or politically and therefore helped to shape the country we now know.
I think the best way to determine if an event had any significance is to imagine yourself as a history teacher. Putting aside what you’ve grown up with and what seems unimportant due to it having happened 200 years ago, what events and dates would you teach your pupils?
Based on my own meager public school education, I can only wish my teachers would have taught half of this stuff. What we didn’t skip over entirely, we skimmed through to get from war to war and never really even delved very deeply into the reasons the wars were fought or what significance they held to our nation and the rest of the world.
But then, maybe I just enjoy history more than most and think it’s all important.
IMO, Eternal is absolutely right. So many of the mentioned events are of very little real importance.
The events that matter most to the long view of American history involve the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Hardly anything else compares because if those two conflicts turned out differently the landscape of history would be very unlike it is today.
As as proud NYer let me give you a date to show you what I mean: August 27-28, 1776 (hey, you can celebrate it in a few days). That’s the date of the Battle of Brooklyn, the first formal engagement of the British and Continental forces in the Revolution.
To make a long story short, the Americans – who were grossly outnumbered – got creamed. But, thanks to some British footdragging, some fortunate weather conditions, some energetic rowing by Marblehead, Massachusetts fishermen and an ambitious escape plan, Washington’s army slipped away in the middle of the night avoiding the inevitable British coup de grace and surviving to fight on.
Historians generally agree that if the British had pressed their victory to completion that day and vanquished the American army for good, the American Revolution would have ended in a stroke. Over and done. Finished. No Revolution. No United States of America. No dollar bills with GW’s face on 'em.
To those dates, I would add Setember 17, 1862. The Battle of Antietam remains the single bloodiest day in American historty. 23,000 people killed or wounded that day. 6,500 dead. That’s four times the number of US casualties on D-Day. It was more death than had occurred in all the battles up to that point in American history combined. It helps to put into perspective just how horrific the Civil War was.
“Had the potential” is the key phrase. It didn’t happen, so it is of lesser importance.
The same is true of listing Kennedy’s death. Most people believed that he had the potential to do great things. The problem is that he was killed and so we will never know. He cannot be considered a great president, especially with “the Bay of Pigs” on his record.
I agree with Eternal that only some of the dates mentioned deserve to be on the list. I am willing to defend my date of July 20, 1969. as being worthy.
I can’t believe you all are forgetting December 29, 1845.
James K Polk annexes Texas!
Or, as some down here still say, Texas and the United States merge. :rolleyes:
Also, 1797 was the first time in history that one political party gave power willingly to another political party anywhere. Quite important in the world scene, if you ask me.
September 13 2013 After widespread political violence when oppents are rounded up and summarily executed, MC Master of Ceremonies suspends democratic elections and proclaims himself ‘King of America’.
There should be some Civil Rights Era dates in this list, too. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination and the day of his “I Have a Dream” speech come to mind.
I read through this thread and moved on but I was summoned back by the straight dope call of duty. The last half of this statement is just plain wrong and reeks of the easy feel good answer to this question.
The reality of this was that the country was split between agriculture and manufacturing regions. The north heavily industrialized wanted high protective tarrifs to protect industry and the South wanted cheap manufactured goods from abroad. The only reason the North had for freeing slaves was to increase their cheap labor supply and Lincolns main goal was to preserve the Union which he would have done, the Emancipation Proclamation was to garner moral support and prevent Europe from intervening on the side of the South.
That’s a pretty narrow view of the complexity that is the United States of America today.
Surely those two wars, and the many events and battles that comprised them, helped to shape the developing nation but so too did many non-wartime events.
If women never received the right to vote, the nation would be a very different place; everything from the role of women in society to how a politician campaigns would be vastly different.
If slaves had never been freed, or there had never been a Civil Rights movement, the country would be a very different place, socially and economically.
Events leading up to and including WWII helped to shape not only the U.S. but the entire world. The advent of the atom bomb changed the face of warfare forever and made the entire human race stop and realize just what we were capable of.
And on and on. Restricting a list of historic American dates to only the Revolutionary and Civil wars is just not enough as every event helped to shape our history. If the criteria is that if events had turned out differently, or not happened at all, the country would be a different place than it is now, than I argue that every event mentioned so far should be included as well as many that haven’t been for they all have their significance in making the U.S. what it is today.
At the risk of hijacking the thread, the abolishment of slavery was a means to the end of preserving the Union. Be that as it may, it does not contradict my original statement that the EP demonstrated the Union’s resolve to end slavery.
Summing it up that way gives it that “minty fresh feeling” when the reality was much darker and politically motivated, but the OP asked for a brief summary, not an in-depth description.
Regardless, I maintain that it is a date that all educated Americans should study, and that would include the reality of it rather than the sugar-coated version most kids are given in school.
Soulmurk, I appreciate your criticism, and of course you are right that many non-wartime events have shaped the nation.
But, I contend, none of those non-wartime episodes had stakes as high as at those during the RW or the CW. Had they gone differently this would be a hugely different country. If the non-wartime events gone differently I doubt things would really be that different; either the events themselves (like the JFK assasination) were of little real importance, or the changes they created were inevitable anyway (like women getting the vote).
The point I’m trying to make – and I admit it’s a semantic one, not really what the OP needs – is that I could easily stack a list of, say, ten RW events against the same number of non-wartime events and prove that every item on my list trumps every item on the other list. The stakes of the RW were so high that hardly anything else compares. Like I said, not really the point of the OP but true nonetheless.
No question the most important date in our history.
The day the revolutionary war started. The day it all began.
The day “the shot heard round the world”.
The day General Gage went to Concord and Lexington to take the guns, arms, and powder away from the people in the Boston suburbs. The day the americans absolutely refused to lay down their arms.
August 18, 1920, ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment that allowed women to vote in all American elections on all levels. (I think we were already voting for some offices in some states, esp. in the West).
July 2, 1964, after ratification by both houses of Congress, President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.
I agree with you in that case. In reality, nothing would be the same now had the RW gone differently. It is essentially the beginning of the U.S. becoming the U.S.
However, I disagree that everything else was either of little importance (although I fully agree on the Kennedy assassination) or a foregone eventuality. The Women’s Suffrage movement was closely tied to the issue of slavery and if slavery had not been abolished or treated differently than it were, who knows what would have happened or if women would have gotten the right to vote at all. At this point it becomes purest speculation, to which no one is any righter than another in their guesses.
While it be true that none of the rest might have happened had, for instance, GW fallen overboard and frozen to death or drowned while crossing the Delaware, it can also be argued that had the market not crashed in the 20s the entire distribution of wealth right now could be very different. Perhaps a poor example, but the point being that being first doesn’t make it the greatest.
All of history is intertwined and given enough study and background information I think almost any event could be argued as the most important date because this and that couldn’t have happened without it. It all leads up to where we are now, for better or for worse, and giving one date or another more significance over any other takes away from the whole picture that has shaped us into who and what we are now.
Of course, that’s my opinion and you’re welcome to disagree thanks to a document that was written and put into efffect after the RW
The days we sign laws into action that will govern us as a whole should be considered of upmost importance.
July 4, 1776: The Continental Congress approves the Declaration of Independence.
August 18, 1920, ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.
July 2, 1964, after ratification by both houses of Congress, President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act
Prohibition and repel of prohibition
Marihuana Tax Act of 1937
These last 2 laws affect everyone directly because they are laws controlling, influencing and legislating for a person’s individual morality. And, that is slippery slope indeed.
