Most Significant Event

[AzPaul]

Just a little exercise on the different ways people view society and history.

What would you say is the most significant world event that has happened during your lifetime? Feel free to define "significant event" any way you wish. But if you would, please leave a few lines explaining why you chose the event you did.

[huncho]

9/11

don't think that one needs much explanation but i'm from nyc and my mom worked across the street at the time as well

[superdog]

I too would have to say 9/11.

[Blansky]

Tough call.

9/11 was obviously huge but so was the internet/social media/smartphone revolution that happened as well.

Both events had massive repercussions on world affairs.

[brandrea]

I love these thought provoking questions … great topic.

I’m 55 years old, so I’d have to say the most significant event in my lifetime has been covid. I know we are all sick of talking about it, but in all honesty it’s impacted more people en masse than anything I can think of.

[HHIslander]

Berlin Wall falling and end of Cold War. We never really thought we would grow old until that happened.

9/11 too.

Personally, watching the ball roll between Buckner’s legs ranks up there too.

[TheVTCGuy]

Landing on the moon


(I was very young)

[TheVTCGuy]

Meeting Jocke

[Stan Cooper]

Discovery of DNA and subsequent revolution in disease therapies.

Not really in my lifetime, but close: Hubble's 1924 discovery that there are galaxies (billions, it turns out) in the universe besides our own Milky Way.
December 30, 1924: Hubble Reveals We Are Not Alone

[MrGoat]

I can’t pick just one. All of those mentioned thus far are relevant and life changing and significant in their own way (good or bad).

I wish we could ask this question to people 200 yrs ago.


Sent from my Apple privacy invasion product

[ltmgeller]

9/11 would be mine. As a New Yorker and first responder, I'll never forget. I'm a few weeks away from my 2nd 9/11 related surgery. I'm fortunate though, because my conditions are relatively minor and the fact that I'm still here to comment on it. Prayers for all those who have perished and who continue to suffer from that day.

[GradyPhilpott]

The Sixties.

I can't expound on that without running afoul of the rules and regulations.

[rushca01]

9/11

[RichM]

Living in NJ but working in NYC, it would no doubt be 9/11.

[Chewbacca]

Free insulin.

[daveathall]

For me, it’s Covid. The night after night of reports of people dying in the hundreds and thousands. It affected me deeply. As a child of 7 or 8, the Aberfan disaster shocked me that so many children could perish, I remember to this day, seeing my Grand mother cry as the reports came in on the TV.

[enjoythemusic]

It hasn't happened yet.

[winst]

Brexit

[AzPaul]

Not so much its creation, but instead, the proliferation of the internet.
It really has changed everything.

[1st amg]

911 without a doubt....maybe the first Space Shuttle as well.

[Zartan]

The internet by far…brought to you by the us government moved us from Dos to:
Google search
Email
Social media
Amazon or eBay
Free news
Instant Global communication
Excellent forums like TRF where you can share ideas with like minded people

[77T]

So many people across the World will have different events that impacted them or their Region. Other events have global impact

In sequence for me in my lifetime:
DNA Discovered (see CRISPR)
Moonshot (Scientific impacts for all)
US - China Thaw (US loses mfg.)
PCs Created (You decide - good/bad?)
Berlin Wall Falls (Soviet dismembered)
Internet Deregulated (dot com for all)
Human DNA Genome (see CRISPR)
9|11 (can’t say per TRF rules)
Smartphones (ditto - j/k - FB mobile)
Higgs Boson (unknown future for us)
CRISPR (successful genome editing)
Covid Pandemic (mass misery)
Covid Vaccines (pandemic slowed)

If I had to choose - 1st place: Smartphones would be my current choice because they democratized communication globally, changed the paradigm, made mobile meaningful, and will change the next generations in ways we can only imagine.

But as a 2nd place: Higgs Boson. My mind boggles at its capture. It also fills me with wonder contemplating an understanding of dark matter (80% of the Universe’s matter) and the implications. But it’s an event that has yet to produce its impact…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Cru Jones]

Fall of the Berlin Wall.

[Calatrava r]

Kennedy assassination.

[DLRIDES]

9/11

[Trailboss516]

When I moved to a new country, it was a world event for me.

[TNT009]

Parachuting into combat (1989) !!

Killing of Bin Laden!

[pickettt]

Widespread use of the "smartphone." The biggest menace to society in AT LEAST the last 100 years.

[White Collar Boy]

2004 Boxing Day tsunami, in terms of how shocked I was. I still struggle to comprehend that one. There have been worse natural disasters, like the Haiti earthquake in 2010, but the tsunami felt more unreal and weird to me than anything, if that reflects significance.

I like reading about the significant innovations like discovery of DNA, which Stan and Paul G. mentioned. Fascinating.

The democratisation of global communication by the Internet and smart phones is a good call, but I am also in the camp that thinks this has made people more inattentive, dysphoric, and vulnerable to developing clinical narcissism. Er, personally speaking! (JK by half.)

[fujisan]

The "COVID" world Narrative by Far.