What do you think was the most important historical event you have witnessed in your own lifetime?

Question

Why do you think it was important? Is it something obvious or more subtle?

(your own birth does not count as an answer!)

I often wonder if the things that catch our attention the most really are the most important, or if we are missing imortant things? For example, it was the bombing of Somalia's only pharmaceutical plant (by mistake) that set the stage for that country's collapse, and its subsequent repercussions. Are the scientisits who expand our horizons having a greater impact than those who would destroy others? I hope so. Just how big of an impact does the assassination of one person have? What does it mean, long term, when a JFK is killed? What about the discovery of the short and long term effects of climate change? Could this possibly be the biggest event we are witnessing? Could the Iraq War be the event that allows India and China to catch up with America and Europe, and take a greater role as world leaders and policy makers. How will that change things? Was it helped along psychologically by the reactionary stance to 9/11? Yeah, I think too much.

Answer 1

My vote is when the Internet went public. There are numerous other events that have had huge impact on our world in my lifetime (like 9/11 or the fall of the Berlin Wall, for instance), but how many of those events changed the way we live like the advent of the Internet?

Imagine what life would be like if 9/11 never happened... now imagine life if the Internet would have never been invented (and of course, all the different things that spawned from the Internet... which just about everything in our modern world now touches in some way)

Which would change your day to day life more? (assuming of course that you don't have a loved one that lost his/her life in 9/11 or Iraq with that example... obviously a terrible and reprehensible tragedy, but much more personal than the example is hoping to warrant)

Answer 2

I think 9/11 is the most important historical event I have ever witnessed. Yup. I think it's important because it changed America and we are where we are today because of it.(Iraq) I don't remember any other event in history that I was alive for that changed so many peoples lives.If I were older and I lived through the 1930's and stuff I would say the Haulocaust and the wars. I'm not very educated on that stuff so I'll shut up.

Answer 3

Darn, I thought my birth was significant since it's marked every year as a holiday(March 17). What about the birth of my children?Grandchildren?(Which is the same as my son) No, well okay, man landing on the moon in 1969 It was very exciting as it was the first time man had walked on the surface of another body in space. It also proved we could do something only science fiction writers had dreamed about before. By the way, historical events on my birthday which I was around to witness:1958: The shape of the Earth is measured for the first time by satellite I was two.

Answer 4

9/11

Answer 5

For me its obvious--the liftoff of Apollo 8 (December, 1968)--the first time human beings broke entirely free of Earth's gravity.. And, though theat mission wansn't the one that landed on the moon, it was the first to reach another world.

Why was that so important? Step back for a moment from the current difficulties of NASA and look at the long term. 50--100 years from now humans will be living in space, on the moon--and probably on Mars as well. And the beginning of that exploration and expansion will be viewed--correctly--as being as important as the discovery of and colonization ofthe New World is. And next to the first landing (Apollo 11) Apollo 8 was the single most important step outward--those two missions marked the beginning of mankind's outwrd journey from our birthplace into space.

Answer 6

Lemme see the candidates:

JFK Assassination
Man Landing on the Moon
Fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the USSR
9/11 attack on continental USA
Land Rovers on Mars
Levy-Shoemaker impact

In my humble opinion, the largest destructive event ever witnessed by man was the comet Levy-Shoemaker hitting Jupitor, the resulting plume larger than the planet earth. To me, that was a wake up call on the risks our tiny planet faces in this here solar system....but that's just me.

Answer 7

The fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The "Iron Curtain" and "Cold War" were every day terms for us and the threat of the Russians as a super power were very real.

And of course, 9/11.

Answer 8

I think the resignation of Richard Nixon was the most historical event I witnessed in my lifetime. Never before in the history of the US did we have a President step down shamed and defeated after the Saturday night massacre firing Archibald Cox, the independent investigator. Politics were changed forever.

Answer 9

When they signed a piece of paper to take the Soviet Union out of existence on Dec. 25, 1991. I thought that day would literally never come, or if it ever did that it would only happen with vast bloodshed. But they just signed a simple piece of paper and it was all over. I think the death toll was 3 in the whole process.

Answer 10

The Challenger Explosion & 9/11