History Channel's 10 Most Important Days in American History (Unexpected Days)

[Dreadnought]

Has anyone seen this? If you did, do you agree with the choices?

 

[madviking]

I only saw two minutes of the riot one, can't remember name ATM.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I didnt see it. What were they, in order?

 

[Irish Caesar]

I saw a few of them; there were some good ones in the mix. Although I think it would be pushing it a bit to say that British settlers killing Pequots in Connecticut was very unexpected.

Can you post a full list?

 

[El Justo]

i saw a few of them...and one of them was wrt my thesis topic in college; ie - the transition from McKinley to TR and America's entry onto the world stage.

iirc, the show highlighted McK's assasination and TR's ascension.

 

[Rambuchan]

Sounds great. But what were the days they came up with please? This thread tells us nothing really, so far.

 

[El Justo]

here's the exact list:

in order:
- Pequot Indian massacre of 1637: claims to have been the first case of land grabbing/extermination of native americans.
- Shay's Rebellion: specifically, the testing of the authority of the feds in 1786
- the California gold rush of 1848 and 1849; ie expansion
- the Battle of Antietam; a bloody, bloody day in US history
- The Homestead Strike; revolting & striking workers square off vs federal agents in 1892
- Murder at the Fair; President McKinley is assasinated at the Pan American Expo in 1901 in Buffalo & Teddy Roosevelt takes over and re-shapes American foreign policy (as well as somedomestic policies)
- Scopes; this covers a landmark court case which paved the way for the argument for and against the role of science and religion in govt.
- Einstein's Letter; a letter written to FDR in 1939 declaring that Hitler was seeking 'The Bomb'
- When America Was Rocked; Elvis Presley's appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956
- Freedom Summer; the 3 murdered civil rights activists in Mississippi

this list is sort of subjective. i mean, i agree w/ some of them but there are probably others that could be put onto this list as well...

 

[Rambuchan]

And they left out the day that Independence was declared (amidst fighting) in that square in Philly you took me to?

Subjective alright

Thanks for the list btw.

 

[joycem10]

I think the list was supposed to avoid the well known and important dates in american history and concentrate on lesser know but equally important items in terms of influence.

 

[El Justo]

And they left out the day that Independence was declared (amidst fighting) in that square in Philly you took me to?

Subjective alright

Thanks for the list btw.

no problem mate

and yeah, that could probably rank up there.

one event that i think should be on the list is FDR's response to the great depression. few realize how close the US was to an agrarian revolution. not since the US Civil War had the US been so close.

FDR's response crystalized the federal govt's authority and responsibility to aid her peoples by enacting a series of social welfare systems that are the foundation of today's federal safety nets (ie the New Deal programs & Keynesian economic philosophies [deficit spending]).

 

[7ronin]

Some of these "days" are stretching it a bit. The History Channel is owned by A&E Television Network which is partially owned by ABC Television. ABC Television is wholly owned by the Walt Disney Company. So please disabuse yourselves of the notion that the History Channel has anything to do with history. It is all about entertainment. End of rant; thankyou.

Anyway,

I have read the Einstein letter and all it says (among other things) is that Germany halted the export of uranium from its recently acquired Czechoslovakian mines. FDR and Einstein had a long correspondence so it's not as if a worried Einstein wakes up in the middle of the night to suddenly pen a dire warning to the President.

I watched Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show; but I would hardly consider it to be one of the more memorable days in my life. My parents hated Elvis so of course to me, whatever else he was, he was cool.

 

[greekguy]

I saw the Pequot one and the Einstein Letter one. I thought they were both well done, but the one on Einstein was more interesting, IMO. I also still have Scopes Trial and McKinley Assasination to watch...I'll get around to it eventually.

 

[Andu Indorin]

Only saw the Einstein episode. But I'm wondering whether or not the Scopes Trial is of equal importance to the others. My impression was that that trial changed very little; or perhaps more correctly stated, that the trial demonstrated how some things in history are difficult to change ...

 

[El Justo]

Some of these "days" are stretching it a bit. The History Channel is owned by A&E Television Network which is partially owned by ABC Television. ABC Television is wholly owned by the Walt Disney Company. So please disabuse yourselves of the notion that the History Channel has anything to do with history. It is all about entertainment. End of rant; thankyou.

Anyway,

I have read the Einstein letter and all it says (among other things) is that Germany halted the export of uranium from its recently acquired Czechoslovakian mines. FDR and Einstein had a long correspondence so it's not as if a worried Einstein wakes up in the middle of the night to suddenly pen a dire warning to the President.

I watched Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show; but I would hardly consider it to be one of the more memorable days in my life. My parents hated Elvis so of course to me, whatever else he was, he was cool.

heh...i often find History Channel programing to be from the "Dept of Redundancy Dept" as they repeat, repeat, repeat until they finally get to the dang point.

i prefer the Military Channel programming actually as it offers some more sophisticated and lesser known stuff in comparison to the History Channel. however, i think that the "10 Days" special is sort of neat despite some obvious ommissions.

i would think that Nagasaki and Hiroshima would rate higher on my own list rather than Einstein's letter.

Elvis was (still is actually) one cool dude but i don't know if he deserves to be on this list.

what about December 7, 1941? that was, in the words of our beloved FDR, a "day which will live in infamy".

how about January 30, 1969? the Tet Offensive forever changed the way in which Americans viewed war...

and in the modern sense, September 11, 2001 represented a collosus shift from the post-cold war era to this new age 'War on Terrorism'

and finally, to a lesser extent, i would suggest Spring 1918 when John "Blackjack" Pershing snubbed the french and British high commands and insisted that American troops in Europe be under American command and not under that of a supreme allied commander. this, imo, solidified the US as an independently acting world power.

 

[onejayhawk]

Odd to bizarre.

Einstein's letter I might agree with. If that had not been written, then the whole subject of nuclear power would be vastly different. The war compressed the research and the bomb polarized the politics.

The McKinley assassination is also good. Roosevelt was wildly different from a whole generation of Presidents after the Civil War. Its also hard to argue with the discovery of California gold.

But,

Antietem as a summary of the whole Civil War? NOT. The day Lee refused command of the Federal Army would be better.

Where are the significant documents? The opening of the Constituional Convention, for example.

How about the Louisianna Purchase?

No love for Marbury v Madison? Scopes is FAR from the most significant courtroom case in history. If you must be political, why not Brown v BOard of Education?

7 December 1941?

4 July 1776?

J

 

[7ronin]

i prefer the Military Channel programming actually as it offers some more sophisticated and lesser known stuff in comparison to the History Channel.

The Military Channel has yet to make it out to our neck of the woods yet. They are owned by the Discovery Channel who have also received a good deal of criticism recently about "infotainment" - think Monster Garage and American Chopper.

however, i think that the "10 Days" special is sort of neat despite some obvious ommissions.

i would think that Nagasaki and Hiroshima would rate higher on my own list rather than Einstein's letter.

Elvis was (still is actually) one cool dude but i don't know if he deserves to be on this list.

what about December 7, 1941? that was, in the words of our beloved FDR, a "day which will live in infamy".

how about January 30, 1969? the Tet Offensive forever changed the way in which Americans viewed war...

and in the modern sense, September 11, 2001 represented a collosus shift from the post-cold war era to this new age 'War on Terrorism'

and finally, to a lesser extent, i would suggest Spring 1918 when John "Blackjack" Pershing snubbed the french and British high commands and insisted that American troops in Europe be under American command and not under that of a supreme allied commander. this, imo, solidified the US as an independently acting world power.

I would add the Boston Massacre (March 5, 1770). It is rightly considered to be the spark that ignited the War of Independence.

I would not add the Tet Offensive (which started in 1968, by the way). If I had to pick something from Vietnam I would go for The Tonkin Gulf Incident (July 31, 1964) which propelled us into war, a moment which I think is more important than Tet which was just one more station of the cross on America's long Vietnam Via Dolorosa.

As we agreed, junk Elvis. But what about the launching of Beatlemania (February 6, 1964) with their arrival at JFK.

December 7, 1941. A defining date and moment.

November 22, 1963. One of the few times in my life that I can actually remember what I was doing for the entire day. Unless you lived that day, I don't think you can understand what an impact it had on the nation.

The list seems to have ignored anything to do with civil rights.

September 11, 2001. Perhaps too obvious and too recently painful.

Cuban Missile Crisis (October 16, 1962). Perhaps the only time in my life I ever really worried about nuclear war and the balance of power.

I can't see why they chose Antietam. Unless of course it's because Gettysburg has been done to death. Why not the firing on Fort Sumter?

The Battle of the Little Bighorn (July 25, 1876). Militarily insignificant but a stunning wound to the national psyche.

 

[privatehudson]

I can't see why they chose Antietam. Unless of course it's because Gettysburg has been done to death. Why not the firing on Fort Sumter?

Antietam was the bloodiest single day battle was it not?

I'd probably would have picked Shiloh (although it was over two days unfortunately) also since it introduced the two sides to warfare on a completely different scale than had been seen before in the US.

 

[7ronin]

Antietam was the bloodiest single day battle was it not?

I think the significance of a battle, at least within the context of the Discovery Channel list, is not in its bloodiness (certainly a yardstick) but in its political and military effect on the war.

 

[privatehudson]

You would have to assume so yes

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

What about the sinking of the Lusitania? That put us further out of isolationism than did the Roosevelt Corollary