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Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
The spark which ignited the powder keg. When Serbian Black Hand member Gavrilo Princip shot the Austrio-Hungarian heir, a domino chain of international treaties was set off and World War I soon began. This was a massive war which changed warfare and changed the entire culture of international relations in the world, took the lives of 9 million soldiers and almost an entire generation of young men, and from the ashes would rise the even larger conflict of WWII. All because this one man was shot. -
The October Revolution
In the midst of the Great War, Lenin and his Bolsheviks led their revolution with the ideas of Marxist communism behind them. They took over the government and captured the Winter Palace, an action which would lead to the demise of the royal family and the birth of the USSR. this new, powerful ideological force which implanted itself in Russia would dominate the world scene throughout the century. The war of Democracy and Communism took seed that day drew the whole world into their conflict. -
Discovery of Penicillin
London England
Its discovery occurred through a lab accident by scientist Alexander Fleming. Sure, development of the drug came afterward, but it was this unexpected event, which kicked it off. The impact that penicillin had upon medicine was profound as once devastating bacterial diseases could now be fought off with the new advent of antibiotics. This realization of using naturally formed fungal drugs may have been a mishap, but one of the most prosperous mishaps in recent history. -
Stock Market Crash of 1929
New York City, USA
Also known as Black Tuesday, the Wall Street market crash at the end of the 20′s sunk the world into the Great Depression which dominated the 30s. Life became hard as jobs were few and far between and the prosperity of the 1920′s seemed to stop altogether and it would take a full-scale war to pull the world out of its funk.
The United States and all of the countries who felt the ripple effects learned just how important economic health was. Since then depression comes and goes -
D-Day
Normandy, France
June 6th, 1944 when the allied forces left the shores of Britain and invaded Nazi-occupied Europe. This was the beginning of the end of the biggest conflict in world history as well as the hinge between these two distinct periods. D-Day was a massive undertaking which changed the course of history. -
The Bombing of Hiroshima
Hiroshima, Japan
The cold war was the direct descendant of this event as the United States had declared the power they now held for the Russians to see. Fear gripped the world as the ultimate method of destruction was now a looming threat.only twice have atomic bombs been used against people, but 65 years later that threat is still a constant presence. -
Operation Crossroads
Operation Crossroads was a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. It was the first test of a nuclear weapon since the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945, and the first detonation of a nuclear device since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Its purpose was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval ships. this lead to the first tested undrwater Nuclear bombing -
Creation of Israel as a Jewish state
UN General Assembly The UN approved a partition plan to divide Palestine and provide Jewish people with their own sate. This declaration created an immediate war of independence with Palestine and the fighting has continued ever since. Political unrest in the Middle East has since become a mainstay on the world stage and the presence of Israel has caused a lot of fear and instability in the region, making governments all over the world anxious. -
Moon Landing
For thousands of years, man had looked to the heavens and dreamed of walking on the moon. In 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, Neil Armstrong became the very first to accomplish that dream, followed only minutes later by Buzz Aldrin. Their accomplishment placed the United States ahead of the Soviets in the Space Race and gave people around the world the hope of future space exploration. -
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin, Grmeny
The tearing down of this physical and symbolic barrier between the democratic and communist worlds was a massive media event. The fall of the wall was a very concrete symbol of the fall of soviet communism itself. this would lead to the dissolution of the cold war which dominated the globe for half of a century and reduced one of the most powerful countries in the world.
