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Discussion » Questions » History » In your opinion what is the single most significant event or person of the 20th century?
Benedict Arnold

In your opinion what is the single most significant event or person of the 20th century?

In asking for a "single" event I've probably eliminated all the major wars. It still leaves tons of scope.

Posted - February 25, 2017
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Responses


  • 7792
    The moon landing on July 20, 1969.
      February 25, 2017 6:18 PM MST
    7

  • One of the greats. I also have several others in mind. I guess somebody will get to them. 
      February 25, 2017 6:25 PM MST
    3

  • Not as dramatic as Zack's but pretty close. The first man in space! 
      February 25, 2017 6:27 PM MST
    9

  • 7792
    That was my second choice. This post was edited by Zack at February 25, 2017 7:16 PM MST
      February 25, 2017 6:29 PM MST
    3

  • Yuri Gagarin
      February 25, 2017 8:17 PM MST
    3

  • A Pokémon?
      February 26, 2017 4:39 AM MST
    1

  • You're kidding me, right? 
      February 26, 2017 6:03 AM MST
    0

  • I didn't count the Russkie! LOL. Knowing them at the time? It was probably just a propaganda stunt!
      February 26, 2017 6:11 AM MST
    3

  • The defeat of the invading Martians, October 30 1938.
      February 25, 2017 7:05 PM MST
    2

  • Orson Welles...THAT is an interesting nomination, Whistle6!
      February 25, 2017 7:20 PM MST
    1

  • That caused a bit of a ruckus at the time. I don't remember it well -- I was only 18 months old so the panic passed me by. 
      February 25, 2017 8:10 PM MST
    1

  • I'm glad you were not zapped by a death ray.
      March 2, 2017 6:46 PM MST
    0

  • While economists and historians are split on the exact cause, I would submit the financial collapse of 1929-30; which spurred the subsequent decade-long, worldwide malaise known as "The Great Depression", was the single most significant event of the 20th century, IMO. 
     
    That period of tribulation then set the stage for the rise of the century's most impactful person: Adolf Hitler. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 8, 2017 11:12 PM MST
      February 25, 2017 7:19 PM MST
    5

  • I had a couple of other events in mind but yours may have been the underlying catalyst that provoked them.Good pick, Mr Zee. 
      February 25, 2017 8:11 PM MST
    2

  • Excellent pick...in the memory of us older ones, from stories of our parents.
      February 25, 2017 8:25 PM MST
    1

  • October Revolution

    Not sure if your description means besides major wars but if it doesn't..   WW1. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 8, 2017 11:12 PM MST
      February 25, 2017 7:19 PM MST
    6

  • The sinking of the Lusitania. 
      February 25, 2017 7:31 PM MST
    3

  • Glis and Zee, as I was pondering this question I considered THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM.
      February 25, 2017 7:44 PM MST
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  • A very astute observation, Virginia. I don't elevate the ZT as highly in my own view because, A) WW1 had already begun in Europe, and B) Mexico saw no scenarios in which it could expect to overcome the US militarily. It was indeed a very provocative move by the Germans though, although perhaps not on the scale of Japan at Pearl Harbor in '41; which I had also considered as a response to Didge's Question. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at February 25, 2017 8:09 PM MST
      February 25, 2017 8:01 PM MST
    1

  • Hi Zee, I think partly the Zimmermann telegram was a real cliff-hanger for me...I read Barbara Tuchman's book recently...
    She suggests it was the telegram which broke down the US isolationism, thus to override the magnificent, prescient pacifism of President Woodrow Wilson...what if the US had never entered WWI (let Europe solve its own problems!), or entered a lot later...we will never know...the bloodiest century ever! Didge's interesting question...you could come up with a whole long list.

    Same book, I learned it was Kaiser Wilhelm who coined the term Yellow Peril.
      February 25, 2017 8:19 PM MST
    1

  • I'm sure the exposure of the ambitions of Germany to escalate its sub warfare in the Atlantic really shook the American Pols of that day into some serious soul searching. Ms Tuchman's point is well taken. 

    To think without WWI there wouldn't have been a Geneva Convention, but to that point, there also wouldn't have been such a punitive exercise as the ill-fated Treaty of Versailles, which of course, helped fuel the Rise of the Third Reich. 
      February 25, 2017 8:35 PM MST
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  • ...the punitive Treaty of Versailles...yes...we cannot help but wonder, was Wilson at some level correct, might the 20th century have actually gone better if the US had not entered WWI after the telegram?

    You have looked into this Zee, quite deeply I can tell...so poignant, tragic in human history...
      February 25, 2017 8:41 PM MST
    0

  • I have long been a student of history, it was a minor in college. I once did a paper on "WWI, the Volstead Act and their implications on the 1920's and beyond". I still study history as an ancillary to my research of certain "larger questions", that merit no mention here. 
      February 25, 2017 8:59 PM MST
    2

  • Zee, whole 'nother topic...but the idea of correlation in your *larger questions*...

    I have begun reading history only recently, and starting to wonder about things like...  might The Black Death REALLY have had a massive psychological impact on Western Civilization?

    Such as, might that decimation of the population of Europe be responsible for some of our more bizarre beliefs about religion? I.e., "God will punish us"...
    Why, really, do we act like we do...?
      February 25, 2017 9:12 PM MST
    1