Rank The Top 5 Most Important Events In The History of the World

1997 -- "Sister Christian" resurges as the backbone of an otherwise-forgotten film, Boogie Nights

 

Intereting question FHB

In no particuliar order

1 Birth of Jesus Christ
2 invention of the wheel
3 invention of electricity
4 creation of the alpahbet and written word
5 invention of computer / silcon chip / windows software

 

I'll take a serious stab at this:

1. The life and death of Christ. Regardless of whether or not you believe he is the Son of God, the religion his followers created completely changed the world.

2. The invention of the wheel. Circular technology is so much a part of man's lives in big ways and small ways that we often can't grasp its importance.

3. The invention of the printing press. Until Gutenburg, literacy was a skill few were able to master and books were a rare and precious thing. All mass communications flows out of the movable type.

4. The conquests of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. The first created a bridge that spread Western culture through the known world, the second created a bridge that spread Eastern culture in the opposite direction.

5. The development of satellite communications. So much of how we communicate today would have been unthinkable just 50 years ago.

 

Worth the price of admission, right there.

 

And that's just one of four spelling errors - in a post that has only 32 words.



EDIT: Henry beat me to it.

 

Dools took all the good ones - though when you think about it, many people were involved in the development of different technologies. And religion is a no-brainer. No matter the faith - many of humanity's greatest leaps forward (and backward) have been inspired by by various religions.

I'll try with most momentous "coin flip" events in my lifetime.

- Soviets invade Afghanistan (leading to demise of the Soviet bloc and spread of mid-east terrorism)
- Security guard discovers Watergate break-in (helped define U.S. politics and gave rise to conservative mistrust of news media.
- Cable television (probably not a coin-flip) splintered the media market, lead to loss of a collective national consciousness.
- The internet (see above).
- Roe v. Wade (though since its a 7-2 decision it hardly qualifies as a coin-flip) re-set the political landscape.

 

Tebow's birth
Creation of the world/big bang
Creation of fire
Creation of the wheel
Creation of the printing press

Was tempted to put United States' independence from the British

 

Big Bang
First creature walks on land
Death of the dinosaurs
Man develops agriculture
Industrial Revolution

(Feel good about the first four. The fifth was a struggle. Thought long and hard about movable type and iron working before going Industrial Revolution. Fire/wheel also got some consideration.)

 

That was the original Latin spelling. There was a whole big war about it, the Greeks wanted that 'ph' thing to catch on. Very resentful of the simpler 'F'.

Leading to the 6th Most Important Event in the History of the World....

....Spellcheck.

 

In the physical history of the planet:

1. The Big Bang
2. Planetary accretion from the solar gas/debris cloud
3. Collision of earth with the protoplanet Orpheus, resulting in the formation of the moon, probably polar tilt and the relatively fast rotation of the earth on its axis, all likely vital factors in the formation of life;
4. Cooling of the surface of the planet under 373K, allowing the accumulation of liquid water;
5. Actual development of life.


In the developmental history of the human race:

1. Meteor impact resulting in extinction of the dinosaurs, allowing the evolution of mammals as the dominant life form on the planet
2. Discovery of fire technology (how to light it, how to control it)
3. Transition from a hunter/scavenger society to an agricultural civilization, allowing people to do other things than hunt for food 24/7/365
4. Development of written language, thus allowing the accurate preservation and cross-generational transmission of information.
5. Invention of the wheel.


In the recorded history of the human race:

1. Development of the printing press, making accurately-reproduced written information available to a geometrically larger number of people. Before Gutenberg, books were written by hand with whatever errors each individual author happened to introduce.
2. The Magna Carta, the foundation for the concept of individual liberties in law.
3. Development of the steam engine, which led to trains, then to automobiles, later to airplanes.
4. July 16, 1945.
5. July 20, 1969.

 

It's hard to imagine the last 60 years if World War II never occurred. The political and social after-effects of the Holocaust, the Nuclear Age, Soviet/US rivalry, the Space Race, partitioning of the Middle East...