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What has been the greatest historical event in your life?

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Post by Stox 16 Fri Dec 30, 2011 5:17 am

I have often wondered what was the greatest historical event in my life?

was its seeing man landing on the moon in 1969?

Was its to achieve nuclear fusion at room temperature in 1989?

was its the mapping of complete sequence of DNA in 1988?

was it cellphones going into service in 1985?

was it the election of Thatcher in 1979?

was it the election of Blair in 1997?

was it the fall of the old USSR in the 1990s?

Was the birth of your children?

what if you was asked to name the greatest historical event in your life? What would you pick and why?
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Post by Guest Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:24 am


What was the greats Historical event in your life?

Vietnam. It tore through and restructured the social and political fabric of America USV.
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Post by oftenwrong Fri Dec 30, 2011 10:30 am

World events must pale into insignificance to anyone who finds themselves a victim of serious illness.
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Post by Penderyn Fri Dec 30, 2011 1:35 pm

Gwynfor Evans winning Carmarthen: first signs of our rising above colonised self-contempt.


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Post by True Blue Fri Dec 30, 2011 2:08 pm

The Technological Revolution... which is yet to fully unfold.

Wikileaks

The sacking of the Whitlam Gov. by the Governor General.

Space Exploration

Nuclear Power and Disasters

Social Networking... the maths and social phenomenon

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Post by Guest Fri Dec 30, 2011 3:35 pm

True Blue wrote:
The sacking of the Whitlam Gov. by the Governor General.

Sounds interesting. Please elaborate.
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Post by Shirina Fri Dec 30, 2011 9:08 pm

World events must pale into insignificance to anyone who finds themselves a victim of serious illness.
Very true, OW.

In that sense, the greatest "historical" event for me was when I was laying around on the couch talking to a friend when I felt the first twinges in my feet. Within a month, I could barely walk. It wrecked my life; I had to shorten my masters' program by a semester (I was working on two masters' degrees, both required an internship. I managed to complete one, but I didn't have the stamina to complete the second). I had to cancel a trip to Germany where I was going to do some research on my masters' thesis which left my paper far less thorough than I wanted it to be. I had to cancel my plans to get my doctorate. I had to spend the next year on welfare in order to get medical treatment, I had to take a "lesser" job that reduced the demands on my body and feet, and there's a better than average chance I'll eventually end up on disability.

Yeah, I would say that pretty much effed up my life, getting neuropathy.

As for truly historical events, I would say, of course, 9/11 and the invention of the internet. With me being unable to get around like I used to and not being able to do the things I used to enjoy (I was very much an outdoors person), the internet has become a Godsend. Without my computer and the internet, I would be very isolated and reduced to staring at a television all day for my entertainment - instead of exercising my brain matter a bit by talking to folks like yourself.

And it was 9/11 that propelled me into the world of politics and solidified my political leanings. I really didn't care overmuch about politics as I was still pretty young, but when I saw the towers come down, I wanted to know what it was all about beyond what the news said, and the more I dug, the more outraged I became. Not at the Taliban (though I was mad at them too) but at how the world - specifically the US - was run.
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Post by wyouser Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:53 pm

November 22, 1963, the Kennedy assasination, is one. I remember exactly where I was and the expression on every classmate in the classroom when it was announced. The other is Sept 11,2001.
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Post by oftenwrong Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:17 pm

The greatest historical event in anybody's life must be their birth. After that, their death - compared with which all else is wallpaper.
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Post by Shirina Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:37 pm

The greatest historical event in anybody's life must be their birth. After that, their death - compared with which all else is wallpaper.
I suppose that's not really an historical event unless you turn out to be an historical figure. But ... since personal events have been mentioned (myself included), I guess we can count our births.
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Post by Guest Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:53 pm


John Fitzgerald Kennedy: We were in trig class, the only non-calc math course to ever have me singing the blues, when word came by note from the office that JFK had been shot. I remember that no more instruction took place that day. No entertainment TV programs that night or for several nights.

Robert Francis Kennedy, The Greatest President Who Never Was: Almost forty-four years later, I still can't say, hear, think, or type Bobby's name without crying like a baby. I was in Eastern Pennsylvania, a short time after working as a volunteer in his campaign in Portland, Oregon. And yeah, he was all that and a whole lot more.




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Post by oftenwrong Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:06 pm

There can only be one conclusion - America was not yet ready for the Kennedys.
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Post by bobby Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:08 am

Roc wrote. Robert Francis Kennedy, The Greatest President Who Never Was: Almost forty-four years later, I still can't say, hear, think, or type Bobby's name without crying like a baby. I was in Eastern Pennsylvania, a short time after working as a volunteer in his campaign in Portland, Oregon. And yeah, he was all that and a whole lot more.

Perhaps he shouldn't have picked a fight with the very people who made his family rich or richer, as I dont know how much cash Joe Kennedy had before his envolvement with the Mob during that ridiculous Prohibition era.

Then you had the bare faced cheek to send him over here as the British Ambasador.

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Post by bobby Sun Feb 12, 2012 11:12 am

Back to topic

Assisting in the birth of my first Son.
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Post by Guest Mon Feb 13, 2012 4:42 pm

bobby wrote:
Roc wrote. Robert Francis Kennedy, The Greatest President Who Never Was: Almost forty-four years later, I still can't say, hear, think, or type Bobby's name without crying like a baby. I was in Eastern Pennsylvania, a short time after working as a volunteer in his campaign in Portland, Oregon. And yeah, he was all that and a whole lot more.[/color]

Perhaps he shouldn't have picked a fight with the very people who made his family rich or richer, as I dont know how much cash Joe Kennedy had before his envolvement with the Mob during that ridiculous Prohibition era.

Then you had the bare faced cheek to send him over here as the British Ambasador. [/color]

Perhaps you don't understand the principle of not visiting the father's sins on the son. Bobby's older brother, Joe Kennedy, Jr., was killed over the channel on a mission to help liberate Europe from Hitler.

Robert Francis Kennedy was murdered before he could get there, perhaps because he was fearless before those who rule thought fear. There are tears in my eyes now.
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Post by bobby Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:06 pm

Roc wrote Perhaps you don't understand the principle of not visiting the father's sins on the son.

Perhaps he was simply trying to distance himself and his family's ill gotten gains, from Joseph Kennedy snrs Nefarious dealings, only it backfired on him. I bet young Bobby didn’t mind the lifestyle he had due to those ill gotten gains. Or did he think twice for the lives lost through either gang warfare or rotten booze. No his only thought as I see it was that of self preservation, and ridding the USA of the very people who knew more about the Kennedy’s than anyone else.

The Kennedy's rise to power was on the back of bootleg cash.

If my memory serves, one of the Mobsters Joe Kennedy was in league with was a certain Owney Madden, who incidentally was born in Yorkshire.
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Post by oftenwrong Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:41 pm

What has been the greatest historical event in your life?

Several of the above responses correctly refer to personal experience, because that's the way the question is phrased. However our lives are shaped by events over which we have absolutely no personal control whatever, which makes we individuals pretty puny in the cosmic stream we call Time.

The ones hinging on Political events are firmly in the "helpless" zone along with global warming and nuclear warfare coupled with the machinations of Global Commerce which have little to do with our individual well-being and everything to do with the interests of shareholders.

The majority of us are, realistically, Spectators at our own life.
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Post by Guest Mon Feb 13, 2012 7:51 pm


I remember Joe Kennedy Jr. being burned to an extent that no parts of his body were ever found while on a volunteer mission aboard a certain vehicle that, had it been successful, might have significantly shortened the war in Europe and, by so doing, might have significantly reduced the death toll in the United Kingdom.

I suspect that many British people who now know of Joe Kennedy Jr.'s courage say a prayer of thanksgiving for men like him.

Tears are in my eyes as I think of Bobby, who died at the hands of a murderer while attempting to serve his country. A little known fact is hat John Fitzgerald Kennedy donated his entire presidential salary to charity. A better known fact is that Bobby's older brother inspired a generation of freedom lovers by these few words:



Robert Francis Kennedy was a leader of men who should have been the leader of my country.
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Post by astradt1 Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:16 pm

From these records of Aphrodite and Anvil missions, it seems more damage was done to mainland Britain than Occupied Europe.......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Aphrodite
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Post by Shirina Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:13 pm

From these records of Aphrodite and Anvil missions, it seems more damage was done to mainland Britain than Occupied Europe......
Admittedly, I feel the US was a bit lazy when it came to the European theater. I don't think the American people felt the same animosity toward the Germans as they did for the Japanese both because Germany never attacked America and because Germany and most Americans were the same race. America built the largest and most powerful navy ever assembled - on the attack on Saipan, the US brought along 50(!) aircraft carriers and 19(!) battleships. It was larger than all the rest of the world's navies combined. Yet the navy was fairly irrelevant in the European theater, which was mostly a land war (save for the Battle of the Atlantic).

Meanwhile, the best American tank was the M4 Sherman, which NEVER held up to German armor except in Tunisia. To this day, despite all that I know about this war, I haven't the foggiest idea why America never fielded a supertank capable of taking on Panther, Tiger, and King Tiger tanks. Even the Germans couldn't figure out why. I've heard interviews with German tankers, and even they expected a very powerful US tank to hit the beaches of Morocco ... but instead it was the thinly armored, undergunned Sherman, and the US continued using them even through the Korean war!

Or the P-38 Lightning, which was excellent in the Pacific theater but mediocre against the German 109s and 190s. The US never really equipped its soldiers with SMGs either like the Germans did - and even the Russians. Some companies had Thomsons (Tommy Guns) but most used the standard issue bolt action M1 Carbine.

The P-38 Lightning, the M4 Sherman, and the M1 Carbine were fine and jim-dandy against the Japanese - who thought their Samurai spirit was more important than technology (big mistake!), but didn't fare as well against the technologically advanced Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht.

Aphrodite and Anvil were stupid projects, a product of laziness. Instead of developing a ballistic missile (which the US could have done), the idea of flying planes into bunkers was considered more cost effective.

It didn't make a lot of sense, and the US ended up developing ballistic missiles anyway - with the help of von Braun and others from Operation Paperclip.
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Post by Guest Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:39 pm


Meanwhile, Joe Kennedy Jr. gave the last full measure of devotion, everything he had, his life.
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Post by oftenwrong Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:38 pm

" the best American tank was the M4 Sherman, which NEVER held up to German armor except in Tunisia."

For reasons of Geography. Halfway down Tunisie is a salt-water depression which runs from the (Western) border with the Algerian Sahara almost all the way to the Mediterranean coast in the East. The German tanks found themselves on the wrong side of that impassable inland sea, and were knocked off like a row of ducks at a fairground when they tried to funnel Northwards. German sappers began to mark a "safe route" which can still be seen as a double row of poles running into the Chotte for about 200 metres before they gave up.

An Allied monument can still be visited.
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Post by Beth fph Wed Sep 12, 2012 11:55 pm


The positive and negative events of the 60s when I was a child, they changed everything.

The events of 9/11/01, they changed everything once again.

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Post by Guest Thu Sep 13, 2012 1:49 am

Beth fph wrote:
The positive and negative events of the 60s when I was a child, they changed everything.

My God yes!

Mom and Dad nixed my plans to help register Black voters in Mississippi during the summers of 1963 and 1964. They feared for their son’s life. The dead bodies of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner substantiated their fear.

Initially, I supported deployment of US combat troops to Vietnam. Then I read a book, something like “A Comprehensive History of Vietnam”, which changed my view. From that point on, maybe the summer of 1966, I opposed US troops being sent to die in that hellhole. Anger still boils over at the sorry sunavab****s who literally and figuratively spit upon returning Vietnam vets who just wanted to get back to the world alive and with all of their body parts still attached.

Today, we as a people still do not remember, honor and support Vietnam veterans as we should. Back in 1975, I came in third out of six hundred and something applicants on a competitive exam for a more than decent professional job. My scores placed me second; I was bumped down by a Vietnam vet who received bonus points for his service to our country. He got the job; I did not. A colleague had the nerve to tell me that it was unfair that I had been bumped in favor of a man that survived hell. That colleague and I almost came to blows, but I finally calmed down enough to let him know that a Vietnam vet could bump me with my blessings anytime.

In the late 1960s, I heard and saw a pompous buffoon allege that there was not enough Black history “extant” to justify even one Black History class, let alone a Black Studies program/course of study. The clown held five degrees, all in history (various concentrations), a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a master’s degree from Yale, a master’s degree from one of the Oxford colleges, a doctorate degree from Columbia, and a doctorate degree from one of the Cambridge colleges. Anyone who might gather that my respect for those five “prestigious” institutions was diminished by Bozo’s performance that Day might gather correctly.

“Power to the People.” Got my afro securely in place inside my head.
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Post by Shirina Thu Sep 13, 2012 5:11 am

The positive and negative events of the 60s when I was a child, they changed everything.

Your past is my history ...
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Post by sickchip Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:37 pm

The internet/associated technologies, and it's effect/impact on the way we communicate, work, and live.
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Post by Beth fph Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:13 am

The '60s turned most of the world upside down in a decade; 9-11 did it in a day and computer communication .. probably the most overwhelming change of all ... is doing it still, minute by minute.

In the 90s, my 2 older children (teens) were very annoyed with me for playing around with this little machine. Smile Now, their careers and many other areas of their lives depend on PCs, iPads and similar equipment. This is not only our history but our future.

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Post by oftenwrong Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:15 pm

sickchip wrote:The internet/associated technologies, and it's effect/impact on the way we communicate, work, and live.

The major impact of electronic communication will be on Archeologists and Historians.

Most of what we know of our Past has been gleaned from rock carvings, parchment rolls and of course BOOKS. What are researchers in 2512 going to learn about us from a One Terabyte hard-drive found buried in the mud?
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Post by wyouser Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:45 pm

oftenwrong wrote:
sickchip wrote:The internet/associated technologies, and it's effect/impact on the way we communicate, work, and live.

The major impact of electronic communication will be on Archeologists and Historians.

Most of what we know of our Past has been gleaned from rock carvings, parchment rolls and of course BOOKS. What are researchers in 2512 going to learn about us from a One Terabyte hard-drive found buried in the mud?
That these ancestors knew who to construct cool coasters????
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Post by oftenwrong Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:18 pm

Yeah! We can confuse them with spelling.
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Post by ROB Fri Oct 12, 2012 12:55 pm

Beth fph wrote:
Now, their careers and many other areas of their lives depend on PCs, iPads and similar equipment.  This is not only our history but our future.

The integrated chip-driven communications revolution has and continues to have profound effects on our lives. That being said, if the lights were to go out, would the core nature of ma n, ha adama, change? The series “Revolution” (which I hope comes to a conclusion rather than jumping the shark) explores this scenario. It appears that the core of man remains unchanged by this forced return to older patterns.

Perhaps this is the underlying reason that I see Vietnam as the greatest “humanity-life-changing” event of my lifetime, and WWII as the single greatest such event in modern history. Both changed mankind’s core ideas and concepts in ways nondependent upon technological advances. Of folks alive today, everyone alive in the US from 1965 remains affected by Vietnam, and everyone alive in the known world from September 1939 through September 1945 remains affected by the war that changed the world.
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