Friday, May 16, 2008

An Epoch-Making Event Per Year

Per my last post, I was searching for lists of important events in world history, and stumbled across (get this) Most Important Events In History, a website that aims to list the most important historical event in every year between 1 BCE and the present.

So, first disappointment: no Sumerians. But the method gives the site and the process some structure, and also leads to really wild cruxes, some of which are listed on the front page:

1215: Was the signing of the Magna Charta or the Mongol capture of Peking more important?

1789: Was the adoption of the U.S. Constitution or the storming of the Bastille more important ?

1905: Was the Treaty of Portsmouth which marked the ascendancy of Japan or Einstein's General Theory of Relativity more important?


Also, please note the entry for 1938:
In Europe, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), German Chancellor Adolph Hitler (1889-1945), French President Edouard Daladier (1884-1970) and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) agree in Munich to allow Germany to annex the Sudeteland portion of Czechoslovakia.


P.S.: Watch out, though; there are either a handful of egregious errors, or a jokester at work. Unless "The Great Fire sweeps Chicago and destroys two-thirds of the city" really did happen in 64 AD, just before Seneca and Lucan were killed for suspicion in a plot against Nero.

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