What has been the greatest historical event in your life?

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?

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

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

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

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.

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.

The greatest historical event in anybody's life must be their birth. After that, their death - compared with which all else is wallpaper.

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.

There can only be one conclusion - America was not yet ready for the Kennedys.

Back to topic

Assisting in the birth of my first Son.

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.

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

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.

" 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.

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.

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

Your past is my history ...

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

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. 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.

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?

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????

Yeah! We can confuse them with spelling.