A while ago, my mother unearthed some old news magazines for crossword-puzzles she hadn't yet solved.
I flipped around in one of those when I discovered an article I had read before, but not that extensively. It was an article about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, written for some background information on the release of the movie in summer 2001.
The article opened with some nice pictures from the film, including one of the explosion of the USS Arizona (IMHO, the only good sequence in the worst-wasted 18 DM of my life).
I suddenly held my breath and a shiver -I don't know of which nature- came on my back when I read the first line of the article (keep in mind, it was about Pear Harbor, written in August, I think, '01): "It must have been a day like this that changed the world..."

I don't know about other countries, but in Germany, the 11th of September is always treated as such a day.

The question that now arises in my mind is: which days really changed the world? Which events of history had such incredible impact that the entire world stood still and that became a horrible memory of the collective mind, as the 11th of September did? Or the beginning of WWII on 1st of September '39/7th of December '41?

Or can anyone remember dates and/or events that changed their view of the world forever?

December 6th 194(Dammit it's still stupid day!}

22nd of June, 1941.
That day shaped the world as we know it today, together with the 9th of November, 1989.

June 6, 1944.... July 4, 1776...... April 26, 1983- Two reasons, Cernobyl(sp?) and the worst tyrant known to man was born!!!... me.......

Chernobyl was in 1986, or did you mean April 26 in general?

0 BC. The birth of Christ. ;) :D

oBC never existed:pIt starts with 1AC:p!
21 july 1831
28 july 1987

Besides which he was born around 3 to 7BC anyway ;).

Change in the world is rarely if ever the result of a single day ; though these days may mark important event (the end of a conflict) world wide changes are usually a slow thing, taking years. Some changes have begun as the result of a single day, but beyond that...

Has the world changed much as a result of september 11, when you get right down to it? America didn'T approve of terrorism before 911, they just increased their answer to it after. America wanted Saddam's head before, they now have one more argument to try to convince others to join in the fun...

The world evolves slowly, over time. A single day may sometime initiate the beginning of such a period of change, but they rarely do so truely. It'S still too early to determine if 911 initiated such a period of change, but looking back, I don'T see the world as having changed much in the wake of Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor ended Western European domination of the world. Period.

I'm not sure of Sept. 11th's changes to the world, but I am not sure if it will have the same effect.

My choice would be the day Alexander the Great died. Runner up would be Hiroshima.

Originally posted by joespaniel
0 BC. The birth of Christ. ;) :D
Jesus was actually born around 3 or 4 b.c. on the Gregorian calendar. 0 a.d. would be correct if you were using the Julian calendar (which nobody does anymore).

Originally posted by napoleon526
Jesus was actually born around 3 or 4 b.c. on the Gregorian calendar. 0 a.d. would be correct if you were using the Julian calendar (which nobody does anymore). The point is 0 CE doesn't exist. Goes fr 1 BCE to 1 CE. ;)

There are a thousand days which have changed the world, way too many to list, but if I had to pick one, it's September 1, 1939.

I think it's too early to say what importance September 11th had.

In younger history I say 9th November 1989 bcause before the GDR was the most loyal state to the SU and now even he had (practically) fallen.Communism in Eastern Europe was doomed.

In history at all I say the death day of Alexander and the day in 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Osmans.

December 7, 1941 didn'T end Western domination.

You see, most of the time these days do not *CHANGE* the world ; they are the blazing trumpet announcement of a vast movement of change that's already underway. There have been a few days to change the world (IE, to cause major changes to happen), but Pearl Harbor was not one of them.

What major changes happened because of Pearl? None. Certainly, the colonial powers began their slow death in World War II - but after being bled dry by the war, they would have descended anyway, and Pearl Harbor was irrelevant to that descent.

Pearl Harbor can (vaguely) be said to have heralded those changes, and even then...

It may be that we have a different definition of a day that changed history. To some of you it seems to be a day where history took a drastic turn from what it could have been ; to me it is a day that initiated a vast change within mankind due to its aftereffects ; IE the fall of Constantinope triggering the age of exploration.

9 November 1989

Oda Nobunaga, you are right that no single day really alters the world so much as heralds a change, be it already underway or begun by the event of that day. For example, the Berlin Wall coming down was the the deathknell of communism in eastern europe, a process years in the making. But that is what symbolizes the whole process in one event, and is thus of enormous historical significance.

The dropping of nukes on Japan was just such an event - people everywhere suddenly had a new fear inserted into their conciousness, it changed how people lived and thought. :nuke:

Columbus landing in 1492 should not be overlooked! :nono: That day was no big deal in itself, but was the beginning of monstrous changes on both sides of the Atlantic.

June 6th, 1944
July 4th, 1776

The day Columbus landed.
The day Yuri G. got into space.

May 15th, 44 BC

The day Alexander died.

Dec. 7th, 1941

The day Martin Luther tacked a note to the door of that church in Wittenburg (I think).

The day Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated.



In defense of Dec. 7th 1941, without that event, the US entry into WWII would have been delayed even further. If say, it happened 6-12 months later, Hitler may not have been so eager to declare war on the US. No offense to the Brits and Canadians, but without the US, I seriously doubt there would have been a cross channel invasion in 1944. Without such an invasion, Europe would look much different than it does today. Either the Nazis would have beaten the Soviets and thus have been secure in Fortress Europe, or the Soviets would have won and parked their T-34's on the Bay of Biscay.

Of course, that is just my opinion. Please don't take it that I think the US was the sole reason for victory, but rather a key ingredient, whose delayed entry would have affected the eventual outcome.

Originally posted by Oda Nobunaga
December 7, 1941 didn'T end Western domination.

You see, most of the time these days do not *CHANGE* the world ; they are the blazing trumpet announcement of a vast movement of change that's already underway. There have been a few days to change the world (IE, to cause major changes to happen), but Pearl Harbor was not one of them.

What major changes happened because of Pearl? None. Certainly, the colonial powers began their slow death in World War II - but after being bled dry by the war, they would have descended anyway, and Pearl Harbor was irrelevant to that descent.

Pearl Harbor can (vaguely) be said to have heralded those changes, and even then...

It may be that we have a different definition of a day that changed history. To some of you it seems to be a day where history took a drastic turn from what it could have been ; to me it is a day that initiated a vast change within mankind due to its aftereffects ; IE the fall of Constantinope triggering the age of exploration.
In the case of Pearl Harbor, I think that December 7 1941 did have a significant affect on world history. The US battleship fleet was decimated, and the Americans were forced to use aircraft carriers as their primary striking force during the first years of the war. This turned out to be a winning strategy, as the age of battleship primacy was over. So the fact that the 3 American aircraft carriers were not in Peral Harbor on the day of the attack had a impact on the course of the war.

Dec. 7 1941:Pearl Harbor

5 billion BC: approximate time the earth was formed(don't even start you creationists)

The day Rome fell to the Germanic barbarians

August 6, 1945:first nuke dropped on Hiroshima

June 28, 1914:Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

Gagarin's first flight

December 25, 0-7AD(whatever year it was)

Originally posted by Globber


December 25, 0-7AD(whatever year it was)

Just to be picky, most historians don't think that Jesus was born on this day. No one knows for sure. Dec. 25th was chosen by a Roman emperor (Constantine, I think) because he wanted it to coincide with a celebration of Mystra (one of the pagan gods). This would allow people to keep the same party day, yet change religions.

Speaks volumes to me about people's faith.

well, I'm atheist anyway, just chose that 'cuz it affected the world so much, both for believers and non-believers

Napoleon526, the shift to carriers would have happened anyway -Japan had developed already its carrier-based strategy ; the british had realized the impact carriers could have at Taranto a year before, etc.

In fact, it already had begun, Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Yamato were just the blazing trumpets to announce it.

Top of my list, from a euro-centric point of view

First - death of Genghis Khan: his sons had conquered every major army in the world bar japan and were on the point of decimating Europe (camped on the Hungarian plain having just thrashed the best armies in Christendom) when news of his death caused the whole lot to turn around and go home. Ditrto the horde in the middel east that was close to wiping out the Muslim sultanates west of Iraq.

Second - battle of Vienna, where the muslims were turned around after 1000 years of continuous advance.

Third - Autumn 1066 - the battle of hastings established catholic supremacy in Europe and was the test for the concept of the pope as supreme prince and arbiter of monarchs rather than an appointee of the Holy Roman Emperor. Harold's victory would have meant, amongst other things: no crusades and greatly reduced contact with the arab nations, (less chance of arabic numerals, basic medicine, navigation, rediscovery of greek mathematical and philosophoical principles), greatly reduced influence of the papacy, and an English nation looking east (to Scandinavia) and west (to Ireland and Iceland) rather than perpetually south to France, and a viable alternative to primogeniture and absolute monarchy as a system of medieval government.

Fourth - 4 July 1776, established the concept that colonies could break away from their founding/controlling powers, the right of self-determination, etc. and set the US on the path to global domination.

Fifth - storming of the bastille - initiate a process of political analysis and change that led, through Napoleon's conquest of Europe, to the destruction of social and political structures in most countries in Europe.

Sixth - Ghandi's Indian salt protest; established the hard way that non-Europeans had rights.

That's enough for now...

Very interesting to read all this.
I must confess I can't really add anything to this list, though I have started it.
As a matter of fact, that's not quite true, but I think that any date that would spring into my mind would exceed the margins of this thread.

The day Rome fell to the Germanic barbarians

That happened quite often..

The day Alexander died.

June 10th 323 BC.

The day Martin Luther tacked a note to the door of that church in Wittenburg (I think).

This never happened. Another one of history's symbolic myths.

Hitler may not have been so eager to declare war on the US.

Sorry for rolling this up, but IIRC, it was the US who declared war on Germany.

Sorry,Stefan,you are wrong;Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11th 1941;different from Europe where Britain and France declared war on Germany

Some others:

14?? -- The Ming dynasty recalled and destroyed its
fleets of discovery.

1611(?) -- Ieyasu Tokugawa comes to power, and isolates Japan
for over 2 centuries.

1532 -- Pizzaro arrives in Peru at a time when the Incas a badly
divided amongst themselves.

Stefan, Hitler declared war on the US 10 Dec 1941. The US declaration was in response. Hitler's action was a godsend to Churchill, because US was not yet ready to declare war on Germany on its own.

5 billion BC: approximate time the earth was formed(don't even start you creationists) I was surprised no one brought this up earlier :D But well, that’s pre-history Man, or monkeys, Hell lets just say Mammals didn’t exist. Just some Bacteria, and we don’t know that for certain, the big bang caused it. Earth could have existed a lot longer and Bacteria came later, that’s the theory I go with anyway.

The day Rome fell to the Germanic barbarians
Well, I would not call them barbarians because they eventually formed the Holy Roman Empire, While The Constantine Broke away, to the shores of Dardanelles, Built Constantinople (Istanbul). When that fell, Rome had Finally fallen, they fled to the west, some Historians say they triggered the Renaissance, and as someone said, the age of exploration. And yes you could say Religion had something to do with it, but I wouldn’t agree. Also this Marks the Sad beginning of the Ottomans (what would you expect from a Greek ;) ) So all-in-all the Fall Of Constantinople in 1453, was, the biggest date in the world, while WWII was big, Imho, this was bigger.

Btw- Oda Nobunaga nice to see some Anti-Zouave is your sig:goodjob:

40,202 BC

Ug, The caveman discovers firemaking.

I forgot one, that is the 6(?) days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, for what DIDN'T happen.

Man that reminds me.

Ressurection day is an awesome book that dealt with a 'failed' Cuban missile crisis. It's really a great book, i could find what day it was there.

maybe not but it's a great book.

Sorry for rolling this up, but IIRC, it was the US who declared war on Germany.

sorry here too but Hitler declared war on us, i think in response to our war on japan following Pearl harbor (might be wrong but that's what i heard)

1. Germany declared war on the US, on the 10th of Dec., I beleive.

2. Oda, FFox said Western EUROPEAN domination, not WESTERN domination.

3. And the idea that the brits were tuned to carriers in a big way after Taranto is ridiculous; one need only look at their abject failure to attach a (second) carrier to Force Z (POW/Repulse) and Admiralty/Eastern fleet attitudes towards air cover to realize that Japan was pretty much alone in recognizing the preminence of air power at the time. And frankly, even the Japanese had internal issues with convincing its own fleet of the supreme value of naval aviation. If they hadn't, why would the Yamato class have been laid down in the first place? Don't let hindsight cloud your judgement...

EDIT: I refer to a second carrier because the original Force Z had a fleet carrier attached, but it ran aground long before the ships reached the Indian Ocean. A smaller carrier was available in Ceylon, but never detached to replace the larger one. Given that the whole purpose of the fleet was to deter Japan from launching an attack, the absence of a carrier in such a force should be a clear indication of just how peripheral the brits thought a carrier was.

R.III

I didn't say the british realized the importance of carriers quite yet, but that the shift had already begun.

It's not any specific victory that determined the end of the battleships, it's the constant streams of defeat of battleships to air power throughout world war II (Taranto, Pearl, Force Z, Yamato, etc) that determined the end of the battleships and the rise of carriers.

I must defend the status of December 7, 1941 as a world-changing day. Until that point, the United States was content to sit back and let the world fight it out. We'd arm the western allies, but not fight for them. Regardless of what the leaders of the government wanted, the majority of the people wanted no part of it. By striking without warning, and in such a devastating fashion, the Japanese instilled in the people of the United States a burning resolve. That resolve took America to victory and supremacy at the end of World War II, and that same resolve sustains American supremacy to this day.

If that isn't significant, then nothing in history is.

Sorry,Stefan,you are wrong;Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11th 1941;different from Europe where Britain and France declared war on Germany

Hmm... OK, I read this wrongly elsewhere I guess.

One more date to add:
Feb.28, 380AD: Rescript of Codex Theodosianus clears the path for christian take over of the state.

Wasn't battle of the Milvian bridge and thereby resulting reign of Constantine much more clearing the path for Christianity in the Empire?Although he didn't become a Christian till his end if Constantine's opponents would've won Christianity would have possibly been oppressed much longer and not have been adapted by the Germanic tribes impressed by Roman culture and religion.

Well, one can always find another important date for the breakthrough of Christianity. I chose Feb.28, 380 because it's the first political act of religious discrimination by Christians on grand scale

480 BC: Battle of Salamis, Greek navy smashes Persian navy.
49 BC: Caesar crosses Rubicon.
1066 AD: Battle of Hastings, last time anyone manage to invade England.
1492 AD: Columbus “discovers” America.
1532 and onward: Spaniards destroys the Incas.
1773: Boston tea party.
1789: French revolution.
1914-1918: WW1, some major social change in the western hemisphere after it´s end.
1945: First atomic bomb is dropped.
2002-07-16: Me having a beer tonight. :)

Ofcourse there are loads of important dates but I think these qualifies as being among the most important in history.

Sorry posted something identical to what someone said already.

Anyone who wants to read an absolutely brilliant book about the time of Marco Polo, and his journey east should definately read:

The Journeyer by Gary Jennings

It is a "fiction" based on fact I guess you could say about Marco Polo's journey, and is by and far the best book I have ever read in my life.

It is slow for the first 40 pages, but the next 1150 pages are pretty good.

As posted elswhere, 17 Sept 1632, the battle of Brightenfield. Truly significant advance requires at least 2 competing forces. The Catholic armies under Tilly had driven through most of Europe and driven almost a third of the Swedish army from the field, only to be shredded by Thorstnesen's brass cannon artillery. Gunpowder was the dominant force in warfare from that day forward. Politically it set the stage for the unification of the German/Prussian state and forever halted the reunification of the Christian church.

Other events.
the invention of movable type printing.
The Coronation of Elizabeth I
The Ressurection of the Jewish Messiah
The Death of Alexander in India
The division of the world between Spain and Portugal
The rise of the Kahn and the arrival of news of his death(as noted above)
The Diet at Worms
The discovery of the pepper by Columbus (the impact on trade in Asia is astounding)
The closing of Japan
The bombing of Pearl Harbor
The writing of the American Constitution

-Alexander died in Babylon,not in India
-what is the diet of Worms?
-I think people knew Pepper for a few hundred years in Europe,but it had to be transported via caravans instead of ships

True. Alexander died returning from India. My bad. The Diet at Worms is where Luther made his famous "Here I stand. I can do no other." statement. It marks the point of no return in the Reformation.

The peppers I refer to are chile peppers. He also brought back tomatoes, and I think sweet potatoes. Prior to Columbus, there was no red sause in Italian cooking and no heat in curry. Now that's important.

The " 0 BC " thing was a joke. :rolleyes:

:p ;) :lol: