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Historians, much like X (formerly Twitter) users, love to argue. They constantly unearth new evidence, challenge established narratives, and reevaluate the past with fresh perspectives.
So, Reddit user SleepDeprivedCultist asked everyone on the platform to share what they believe are the largely forgotten moments that actually contributed a lot to shaping the world we live in — the so-called "losers" of the discourse, if you will.
Immediately, people started showing off their knowledge, and the thread, paradoxically, turned into yet another fight for the spotlight.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Trump's win this election. This was the most important election in over a hundred years, and almost no one realized it. I feel sorry for this nation's future. We had one chance to stop it, and no one even recognized the danger. It's f*****g stupid, and I really hate mass ignorance. It's so...so harmful. It'll take 50 to 100 years to fix what's happening now and what may happen over the next few years. Nothing will be the same. Everything will be worse than it should have been for very literally every single person alive right now. Your future is now worse, period, forever, until the day you die. Most folks will never comprehend this reality, and that's...disheartening. It means many will never even learn from it and simply assume this is normal. It is not. This is worse, vastly worse. And there's nothing I personally can do about it.
Limey 7 months ago
To the maga lurkers on this thread. WAKE THE F**K UP. This guy is destroying your country. Nothing he is doing is helping any of us. Revenge is not a policy platform. It’s a personal vendetta that has no place in the White House. If you can’t see that, you deserve him and his circus. Unfortunately the rest of us are along for the ride.
Rafael 7 months ago
This is only partially true. A LOT of people warned about this, this was plastered on the news non stop, and people voted for that thing anyway. You people chose this knowing what you were doing, and us from the rest of the world can only look in horror from the outside.
DragonofMordor 7 months ago
Yup. NOt to mention, we saw what he did last time even when there were some restraints in place. And he told us what he was going to do this time. But somehow, we decided a black woman who wasn't quite liberal enough was a worse choice than the one we'd already seen be one of the worst presidents in history.
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UnicornSnotRules 7 months ago
I think those of us that were smart enough to NOT vote for him realized it - I think it was the people who didn't bother to vote were the ones that didn't really realize it. If those voters that were either pro-Democrat or on the fence had realized it, and what another Trump win meant, maybe they would've come out and voted for Harris, and we might not be in this mess.
Marnie 7 months ago (edited)
I agree except the part about "no one even recognized the danger". I certainly did, when he won the primaries in 2016. The grief I felt when he won that election was infinitely worse than when my parents died, not because of the reasons you stated, though you are 100% correct. But because it meant ZERO chance of halting climate change enough to prevent unimaginable suffering. The 50-100 years it will take to undo the most immediate effects are nothing compared to the permanent effects on life on this planet. But all the other stuff you mention is what keeps me up now, since after 6 years, I finally learned how to turn off the biggest grief.
marianne eliza 7 months ago
What got me most the first time around was just how many really stoop/id people there are in this country. Really depressed me. The second time? Jeez.
Jon Steensen 7 months ago
A lot of people realised the danger. However they were treated like Casandras
Peter Bear 7 months ago
He did not win. You mark my words, it's going to come out that he cheated. Just like he cheated last time, and the time before that. It's been proven that both of the other elections he participated in were full of voter fraud in his favor. History will show this, hopefully sooner rather than later.
RELATED:
#2
Stanislav Petrov choosing to ignore an alarm that indicated that the US had fired 5 missiles towards Moscow. He disobeyed military orders and saved the world from nuclear war in 1983.
JB 7 months ago
Nuclear weapons are an expensive waste. You’d have to be suicidally stupid to ever use them. Ooh look, I have a planet destroying weapon, so don’t come at me! Guys, because it is mostly guys, could you stop threatening to burn the world so you can feel safe?
Rick Eller 7 months ago
Actually, they do it so YOU can feel safe. Without nuclear deterrence, there would be so many more wars.
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Sven Horlemann 7 months ago
I read about this a million times and it still deeply moves me. I mean, 1983 I was 15 years old. I cannot imagine how different my - and all our - life(s) would have been.
Cpt. Christan "Panda Bombero" 7 months ago (edited)
He did not receive his first honor for this, until 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
Jon Steensen 7 months ago
We can only hope that there are equally reasonable people around nowadays, since the man holding the red button certainly isn't up for the task.
The fact that even seemingly important historical details remain in the background can partially be explained by looking at the sources from which people get their information.
A survey conducted by the American Historical Association revealed that the top three choices were documentary film/TV (69%), fictional film/TV (66%), and TV news (62%), many of which prioritize engaging narratives over accuracy.
#3
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet sub near Cuba was being depth-charged by the U.S. Navy. Cut off from communication and overheating, the captain thought WWIII had started and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo. Protocol required agreement from three officers. Two said yes. One man—Vasili Arkhipov—said no. He stopped the launch, surfaced the sub, and likely prevented nuclear war. The guy literally saved the world—and most people have never heard of him.
Sweet_Dee 7 months ago
Vasili Arkhipov) was a senior Soviet Naval officer who prevented a Soviet submarine from launching a nuclear torpedo against ships of the United States Navy at a crucial moment in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The course of events that would have followed such an action cannot be known, but speculations have been advanced, up to and including global thermonuclear war. He also received the first ever "Future Life Award" that was awarded to his family posthumously in 2017. I believe there is/was also a movie in the works about him
Kay Barber 7 months ago
He manages to ooze charisma through an old photograph! I'm lucky if I even look human in photos.
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Chrissie Anit 7 months ago
I make sure to teach about him and Stanislav Petrov in my history classes. They are my personal heroes.
Tom De Paul 7 months ago
I studied nuclear arms control at Stanford between '84-'87 with professors like Condoleeza Rice and I am just hearing about these 2 incidents. One class was called Accidental and Inadvertent Nuclear War, taught by a man who shared a Nobel. Still nothing!
Cpt. Christan "Panda Bombero" 7 months ago
He, unfortunately, was not recognized and honored for this, until after he had passed away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Arkhipov
#4
While studying Staphylococcus bacteria, Dr. Alexander Fleming noticed that a mold contaminating one of his Petri dishes had created a bacteria-free zone around itself. He identified a substance in the mold that he called “penicillin,” which inhibited bacterial growth. Penicillin’s introduction likely prevented perhaps as many as **half a billion deaths**, making it one of the most life-saving medical advances in history.
David Paterson 7 months ago
THAT'S not the underrated moment that changed world history. The underrated moment that actually changed world history was when Mary Hunt found the strain of penicillin from which all subsequent penicillin is derived. In a mouldy cantaloupe in Peoria markets. Without Mary Hunt, we wouldn't have penicillin today.
youareinmyspot 7 months ago
He is highly respected in the Life Sciences! we had a lab named after him in university.
Cathy Jo Baker 7 months ago
Outside the bullring in Madrid, Las Ventas, there is a statue of Alexander Fleming and a plaque that says, To Dr. Fleming, with gratitude from bullifithers of the world. Before penicillin, many bullfighters died from infection, not a fatal goring. By the way, before you say the bullfighting is heinous, and the bullfighters deserved it, I'd just like to remind you that that is NOT what this post is about.
pipboo 7 months ago
He was a sloppy scientist who left his agar plates open. His moment of genius was to realise that something interesting was happening instead of sweeping it all away as an embarrassing mistake. There was also a huge team involved in the development of technology to mass produce, extract and purify the d**g. It took decades. I think we often ignore the minor, but essential players in human breakthroughs.
AsylumWalker 7 months ago
And within 5 years, resistance had already developed, which is unfortunate 🫤😞
Researchers also decided to gather data on the public's experiences with the subject at both the high school and college levels.
In high school, more than three-fourths of respondents reported that history courses were more about names, dates, and other facts than about asking broader questions about the past. However, 68 percent still said that their high school experiences made them want to learn more history.
Even for college courses, 44 percent of respondents indicated a continued emphasis on factual material over inquiry, but this was a turnoff for about one-fifth of them.
#5
The broad Street cholera outbreak of 1854. The local doctor was convinced the disease was in the water. He had the handle of the water pump removed. Cases dropped dramatically.
This started 2 things scientific investigation of disease outbreaks and microbiology.
Something like that anyway.
Bezulba
And the map drawn to figure out what well was the problem is still used today as an example of visually presenting data.
Emma London 7 months ago
Nowadays it would be "PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT TO USE THE PUMP THEY WANT! Do your own research! America! Freedom! Ca caaw!"
Deborah B 7 months ago
They had the equivalent then, too. That's why they removed the handle of the pump.
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Tom De Paul 7 months ago
Can you imagine how many lives were saved by inventions as simple as soap and toilet paper?
#6
The Victoria Hall Disaster in Sunderland, England 1883.
A kids variety show was on at the Victoria Hall in Sunderland and was available to rich and poor. One of the big sellers of the show was that presents would be handed out. Problem is the shows actors were only capable of throwing them into the crowd directly in front of the stage.
The kids up in the higher tier seats realised they were going to miss out so they surged down to the lower level. Other major problem is the door to the lower level was stuck so that only one person could pass through to manage ticket dodgers.
The doors could only be pulled open from the children's side, which caused a massive crush resulting in the deaths of 183 children.
The news of the tragedy spread worldwide and it is the reason why we have very specific laws on emergency exits and doors pushing outwards of buildings instead of inwards to this day.
Trisec Tebeakesse 7 months ago
Cocoanut Grove reinforced that in the United States. My Grandpa was a survivor.
minnieslave0 7 months ago
Yes, I always wondered why revolving doors are flanked by at least one ordinary door. Then I saw a YouTube video on the Cocoanut Grove disaster. Revolving doors have same arrangement in the UK and I like to think we leatned from that terrible loss.
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Roxy222uk 7 months ago
When people whine about 'health and safety gone mad' and having to a risk assessment for passing presents out to the audience, this is a stark reminder that what seems obvious and common sense when you are forced to do a RA is not obvious and common sense when you are allowed to plough on and do 'something nice for the kids' without it.
Emma London 7 months ago
There is supposedly orher, older incident, where people in a church tried to rush out bacause of a false fire, and were crushed because the doors opened invards. After that the king ordered that all the doors in public buildings should open outward.
BK BigFish 7 months ago
This is a public service announcement reminding everyone that almost every safety regulation is written in someone else's blood. Deregulation for its own sake is a dirty word.
Jon Steensen 7 months ago
It also lead to the invention of the crash bar, which is a big "handle" that goes all the way across the door and opens it when someone is pressed against it.
Some much-welcome news is that, according to the aforementioned survey, the public sees clear value in the study of history, even relative to other fields.
Rather than asking whether respondents thought learning history was important—a costless choice—the researchers asked how essential history education is, relative to other fields, such as engineering and business. The results were promising: 84 percent felt history was just as valuable as those more professional areas.
Moreover, the numbers were pretty much constant across age groups, genders, education levels, races and ethnicities, political-party affiliations, and regions of the country. And the popularity of this Reddit thread is proof of that!
#7
When Lucille Ball saved Star Trek. It was set to be canceled after the very first season but she bought the rights and started shooting at DesiLou studios. Star Trek gave us automatic doors and cell phones and the first televised interracial kiss and that franchise is still busting down barriers to this day and inspiring the new science minds of tomorrow. I am a Jedi, like my mother before me, but those Federation nerds got my respect.
Bored Seagull 7 months ago
Unfortunately that is not quite true. Lucille Ball did indeed save Star Trek, but not from a cancellation after the first season (because it wasn't set to be cancelled). Also, she didn't save it by buying the rights. In reality, Desilu had already bought Star Trek due to them wanting to expand their television series portfolio. However, Desilu was a small studio, and they were *too* succesful in expanding their portfolio: not only was Star Trek ordered by NBC, two other series had also been ordered by other networks. The board of directors of Desilu was afraid they'd financially overstretch the studio, and voted to cancel Star Trek. However, as chairwoman, Lucille Ball had the right to override the decisions of the board, and decided to produce Star Trek anyway.
Don Adams 7 months ago
Money was tight, so many sets were "earth similar". The Andy Griffith Show was also a Desilu production. Watch the Star Trek episode "The City of the Edge of Forever"- Kirk and Edith Keeler walk past Floyd's Barbershop (from the AGS Mayberry set).
Load More Replies... RameSton 7 months ago
Interracial kisses were shown on television before. The OP may be surprised to learn they are countries other than the US.
Lady Eowyn 7 months ago
For the US, it was a big deal. Or to some people. I was young, my first thought was that kissing Kirk was ick. Because Kirk.
Load More Replies... El Dee 7 months ago
These days people accuse shows like Doctor Who of 'being too woke' when, in fact, sci fi has always been progressive - hence the 'interracial kiss'
JP Doyle 7 months ago
One of the things which enraged me was when the toxic Star Trek fans denounced Star Trek Discovery because their cast was "too diverse." Star Trek has been an extremely diverse cast since the 1960s.
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El Cucuy 7 months ago
Nope The episode is often cited—incorrectly—as the first interracial kiss on television.It was, however, the first instance in which a kiss between a black and a white on U.S. television was scripted, as an earlier kiss on Movin' with Nancy was unscripted. I Love Lucy had interracial kissing before Star Trek as well. People forget Desi Arnaz was Cuban and Lucille Ball was white. That's an interracial relationship right there.
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#8
There was a day in deep dark history when someone had the idea of turning our spoken words into drawn symbols on, possibly, clay or rock.
We don't know who or when this happened, but it was the day that literacy was born.
Norm Gilmore 7 months ago
And pedants. "That's not how you draw a buffalo..."
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#9
The Bretton Woods Conference. In 1944 some 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations came together at a large hotel in New Hampshire to outlaw practices which are agreed to be harmful to the world prosperity. And so the international banking system was established, IMF was created, all currencies were required to be convertible for trade, and exchange rates were modified so that one nation would not be favored over another. All these actions led to the development of the World Bank.
Downside: The whole world's economy got teetered together forever, whereby one lunatic President's tit for tat tariff war, or to be more precise ego war, can lead to the whole world's economy going down the drain.
Peter Bear 7 months ago
Worst part is, what's happening now is exactly what happened a hundred years ago, and kicked off the Great Depression. So the problem well predates this specific example.
Tom De Paul 7 months ago
Except that one nation was favored. It was the dollar (US) that became the world's reserve currency.
HardBoiledBlonde 7 months ago
You are clearly a 12 year old short bus rider.
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The Darkest Timeline 7 months ago (edited)
By “inspire,” don’t you mean, “force”? And isn’t that antithetical to free markets? And why should we pay higher prices? Let’s play your little delusion out: tariffs somehow create the conditions for repatriation of manufacturing to the US but factories take time to build; years, in fact. So, in the meantime, Americans are paying a lot more for goods they need and want or doing without. Those new factories finally come online but are still paying tariff prices for raw materials so, no savings there. But they’re staffed by American workers with good paying jobs! Wait, no they aren’t. 90% of the work is being done by robots. So, the factories are pumping out higher-priced goods people still can’t pay for plus we now have the pollution that comes along with factories. Tired of the winning yet? “Stupid” doesn’t even begin to describe MAGA.
Load More Replies... #10
I think a lot about how Hilary Clinton possibly could have won the 2016 election if an investigation into her Emails wasn't opened up again because someone named Weiner couldn't stop sending sick pics.
Marnie 7 months ago
Not enough of one. She wasn't going to drive taking necessary measures to combat climate change, so we were sunk regardless. She shouldn't have sabotaged Sanders.
Load More Replies... Peter Bear 7 months ago
She did win. The problem is that our system is stupid and does not actually represent the will of the people. If we ban the Electoral College and move to a straightforward and simple popular vote, one vote one person, all our problems are solved.
Bananaramamama 7 months ago (edited)
The use of the electoral college in our elections is an absurd policy and significantly outdated. It is literally the reason so many younger and frustrated citizens don't vote. They literally don't see that it matters. There are only 29 states that have legislation on the requirement of electors to vote with the popular vote and no constitutional obligation on any to do so. Even those individual states with legislation, not all include voiding the casted vote
Load More Replies... BK BigFish 7 months ago
FBI director James Comey publicly announcing an investigation into Clinton's emails, just days before the election, and against all FBI policy, is probably more to blame than Weiners weiner itself.
E Menendez 7 months ago (edited)
She stole the nomination from the actual elected candidate, Bernie Sanders. "Super delegates" mean more than the actual voters. If he had not had the nomination stolen from him, he would have won.
The Abe 7 months ago
From the independent who temporarily registered as a democrat because he knew he couldn't make the final ballot as an independent? And then immediately went back to independent when he lost the primary? That Bernie Sanders? Gee I wonder why the DNC didn't trust him to represent their party...
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#11
RFK assassination back in 1968, he might have beaten Nixon and Nixon was a POS.
Trisec Tebeakesse 7 months ago
The only slack I give to RFK junior. He saw his father shot before his own eyes at the age of 14. I would presume he's been f****d up ever since then.
Gingersnap In Iowa 7 months ago
I wonder if RFK jr. would have grown up to be a different person if he'd not seen his father die.
Load More Replies... Tom De Paul 7 months ago
Niixon's achievements in foreign policy negate his "POS" reputation. His domestic policy, too. It was his Presidency that brought us OSHA and the EPA!
Kate 7 months ago
And he got us out of Vietnam, the 'war' JFK had supported since he was a minor politician.
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Lotekguy 7 months ago
Harsh, dude. I'm embarrassed that I still saw the humor in it.
Load More Replies... RameSton 7 months ago
He nearly caused WWIII (Cuban Missile Crisis) and he initiated US military actions in Vietnam that led to the deaths of millions of people
Load More Replies... N8 7 months ago
Nixon was the most popular president elected at the time. He just wasn't cool with the deep state
Tamra 7 months ago
He also wasn't popular with people who aren't cool with criminals.
Load More Replies... #12
Women’s suffrage. The movement helped lay the foundation for the civil rights movement.
#13
The Chicago Tylenol m*rders, 1982.
Someone was switching the medicine inside the capsules with poison, and putting it back on the shelf for people to purchase and use. 7 deaths. A few copycat instances as well.
This completely changed world culture, package safety, and anti-tampering measures regarding medicine, food and practically any substance you put in or on your body.
T'Mar of Vulcan 7 months ago
There's an episode of History's Greatest Mysteries about the case. It's never been solved.
Beth Wheeler 7 months ago
Guy did it to k**l his wife and ended up killing some other people too. It's why they started the tamper resistant packaging.
Karen Langley 7 months ago
It was never solved so this statement isn’t true
Load More Replies... #14
The discovery of the potato in Peru.
Emma London 7 months ago
The only food during many famines and currently one of the big four: Rice, Wheat, Corn and Potato.
#15
Magna Carta and all the subsequent treaties that recognised human rights...... the amount of ignorant people that don't realise how important those rights and principals are is astonishing. Also the way they are willing to renounce of deny this rights because it gets in the way of their beliefs.....
Emma London 7 months ago
You can't ever just presume that people will do the right thing, you'll have to make it a global agreement, to make it a law in countries, to make people do what good for all and not just them.
Roxy222uk 7 months ago
We have a copy of the Magna Carta in my city (just to be clear - four copies were made **at the time** with King John's seal on, this isn't a reproduction, there was never one, and King John never signed any of them) and it really isn't what people who haven't read it claim it is. It was mostly setting rules amongst the barons. There's a whole bit about who can and can't marry one specific woman - this hardly set up world wide equality for anyone, least of all women. It definitely did not recognise human rights, just curtailed some of a monarch's powers.
Sven Horlemann 7 months ago
Beliefs resist all rational thought. Or knowledge. So what do we expect?
Claudiu Arghir 7 months ago (edited)
we like rights, we just hate the jerks that enthrone themselves over them for maximum profit and consolidation of their power. it starts with "you can't have freedom without sx orgies", then the orgies stay but they take your freedom. "freedomists" are simply the jerks that almost lost the fight for power and came back riding and exploiting peoples' needs. it's like in star wars: jedi became ossified, then sith offered hope; you know what came next.
#16
The Citizens United SCOTUS ruling.
El Dee 7 months ago
For non US people - The landmark 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruled that corporations and unions have the right to independent political spending, as this is protected under the First Amendment's freedom of speech. This ruling effectively overturned previous restrictions on independent expenditures by corporations and unions, allowing them to finance political ads and other forms of political advocacy without disclosing the source of funding.
Nimitz 7 months ago (edited)
In the 2008 election it was considered INSANE that $700 million was spent by both campaigns combined. Then Citizens United happened and rich people were no longer held back by the $2000 legal maximum donation limit. PACs and Super PACs flourished. By 2012 each campaign spent over a billion. In the election 2016 over $4 billion was spent. $7 billion in 2020, over $9 billion in the 2024 election. Regular citizens are now outspent over 10 to 1 by the wealthy. Considering the trillion dollar tax cuts it has bought them, buying the US government was cheap
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John Dilligaf 7 months ago
yes, but we call it Dark Money campaign donations
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Missy VanWinkle 7 months ago
This too should be a LOT higher since it directly relates to what is going on now and in the last 15 years (and helped get Trump to where he is now). It MUST be overturned.
Sweet_Dee 7 months ago
The Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is a controversial decision that reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections. See also why some of the largest political donors this past election were Meta, Amazon, and several Insurance companies.
#17
The Suez Crisis of 1956. It doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves outside of history nerd circles, but it was basically the moment the UK and France officially lost their status as global superpowers, and the U.S. cemented itself as the dominant Western force.
Quick recap: Egypt’s President Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, which had been controlled by British and French interests. In response, the UK, France, and Israel launched a secret military operation to take it back. They figured the U.S. would back them or at least look the other way.
Spoiler: the U.S. did not. Eisenhower was furious—they acted without consulting him, and he saw it as colonial overreach during the Cold War. So he used the full weight of American economic power to shut them down. Threatened to tank the British pound if they didn’t back off.
Why it’s significant: this was the geopolitical gut punch that showed the old European empires their time was up. From that point on, the U.S. and the USSR were the only true superpowers. It also pushed a lot of former colonies further toward independence and gave a big boost to non-aligned movements.
It wasn’t a huge bloody war like WWII or Vietnam, but in terms of long-term impact on global power structures? Absolutely massive. Most people have no idea.
Claire Collymore 7 months ago
I note that this report has been written by the United States Heritage & Education Centre. I’m guessing that other countries have a more impartial view of events.
Woof Yo 6 months ago
I'd be interested to see what they have written! I appreciate that Germany requires its youth to learn about the Nazis, "full disclosure", so as never to repeat such heinous behavior and crimes. I wish the US would take a page out of their book - we need to know our history now more than ever.
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#18
I don't know if I'd call it a moment but the year 536 AD. Otherwise known as the worst year in history.
Three volcanic events happened around the same time that caused a volcanic winter. Tempuratures dropped, crops failed, livestock died and people starved to death across a large portion of the world. It had devestating consequences that lasted for years. It was one of the causes of the Plaugue of Justinian and the fall of the Roman Empire. Millions of people were killed across the world, in a time when populations are nowhere near what they are today.
David Paterson 7 months ago
The bacteria that caused the Plague of Justinian is still with us, and still killing people.
nm 7 months ago
There was also the Year Without a Summer (1816). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer
supertall 7 months ago
Rasputina, a goth-y cello girl group, recorded a song called 1816: The Year Without a Summer. I recommend it if you're into quirky music or a fan of Chappell Roan, etc.
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CP 7 months ago
Looks like someone is making a bad faith argument. Do you often resort to lying when your point is indefensible?
Load More Replies... #19
The destruction of the Institute of Sexual Research by the N*zis in Berlin in 1933.
Magnus Hirschfeld (one of the earliest sexologists) was doing pioneering work there, including the first successful gender affirmation surgeries for trans women. When his Institute was sacked by the N*zis, all his books and research were systematically burned. It set transgender healthcare back about a century according to some estimates.
Nimitz 7 months ago
This is one of the first things they did. The Trump administration did the same thing. Deleted all research they didn't agree with, wiped websites, fired everyone. Nazis always start with queer people first, then immigrants, then people of other races. The playbook remains the same, almost 100 years later
Carrie B 7 months ago
Luckily they can't burn it. The research is still out there.
Load More Replies... #20
Behind the Bastards made a compelling argument that Oprah's coverage of Satanic Panic may have laid the groundwork for Qanon and Trump's presidency.
liam newton-harding 7 months ago
The amount of dangerous information…and people…this woman has promoted in the name of entertainment is disturbing…the fact that people still listen to her disgusting.
Pencil 7 months ago
She brought us Drs Phil and Oz. She also once said: "I have my own avocado orchard, I think it’s ridiculous to pay for avocados." Which, even if meant as a joke, is pretty ruthless. She's one of the most self-aggrandizing people in the public eye and far too people seem to see it. Her endorsement and promotion of "The Secret" was no different than the toxic positivity of "The Lucky Girl" trend on TikTok today.
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Max Fox 7 months ago
I believe that, though QAnon conspiracies have even deeper roots in antisemitic conspiracy theories. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are the backbone of many of the QAnon conspiracies. It's not surprising since QAnon was taken over and controlled by Russian military intelligence, and Antisemitism (especially of the "Jews Control the World" kind) is a bedrock of Russian culture, both Imperial Russia and Soviet after Stalin took control.
#21
People seem to forget the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 when listing the most significant events of the 21st century. It's right up there with 9/11, Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Huddo's sister 7 months ago
Agreed. Maybe it depends where you live though. It was so close to Australia and there were many Australians killed, so it is widely remembered here. There have been numerous Australian documentaries about it, especially round the recent anniversary.
Load More Replies... Mario Clouâtre 7 months ago
I remember that morning. Watching the news. It was surreal. So sad.
#22
When Rupert Murdoch launched Fox News in the USA, diminishing the value of truth and cementing the rise of fascism.
Tango Wox 7 months ago
As much as we can legitimately despise Rupert, he wasn't the first or last to engage in Yellow Journalism. There have always been media outlets who valued the $ over the truth, our job is to hold them to the fire over it.
nm 7 months ago
William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were the fathers of Yellow Journalism. The latter established the Pulitzer Prize. What an irony!
Load More Replies... Multa Nocte 7 months ago
Dante needs to come back and make a 10th level of hell just for Rupert Murdoch.
Bigbad Wolfe 7 months ago
There wouldn't be Faux News if the Fairness Doctrine had not been killed by Reagan.
Tom De Paul 7 months ago
Yeah, it's just too bad we have that pesky First Amendment.
Load More Replies... Tamra 7 months ago
You think launching Faux "News" is an accomplishment? 🤣🤣
Load More Replies... #23
Diego de Landa's burning of Mayan libraries.
liam newton-harding 7 months ago
The Spanish did the same with the Andean Quipu’s…a language written in knotted threads…though it looks like there may be a breakthrough in retrieving this language, and records as enough have survived that they are starting to compare them to other records, and re-invent the language.
Pencil 7 months ago
Here's some more information about the quipu for anyone interested: https://www.machupicchutrek.net/inca-knots/
Load More Replies... #24
Henry VIII separating from the Roman Catholic church and having government rule over religion. It put power into the secular authority.
Chewie Baron 7 months ago
Henry wasn’t even meant to be king. He only became king because his elder brother died. Charles I also had an elder brother who died before his father. There have been many instances in British history where an heir to the throne died before they sat on it.
#25
Jeri Ryan getting cast as Seven Of Nine on *Star Trek Voyager*.
Her character is popular, her role is extended, she has to live in Los Angeles, straining her marriage with the up-and-coming Republican politician Jack Ryan in Illinois. They divorce in 1999.
In 2004, Jack Ryan is running for the Illinois senate seat(already held by a retiring Republican, Peter Fitzgerald). A judge decides to release the records of Ryan's divorce, which reveal that he'd repeatedly asked his then-wife Jeri Ryan to perform public s*x acts with him at B**M clubs in multiple cities in the mid-90s.
Ryan withdraws his candidacy for Senate over the scandal(because optics mattered back then), and his opponent, a little-known Democrat named Barack Obama is waved into the Senate unopposed.
The rest is history - Obama goes on a meteoric rise as the Senator from Illinois, culminating in being elected President just four years later; not only becoming the first black President in U.S. history, but defeating the very popular Republican John McCain who almost certainly would've defeated any other opponent whatsoever.
So the reason that Obama was President from 2008-2016 is because Jeri Ryan was cast as the cool Borg lady in a leotard on *Star Trek Voyager* in the '90s.
BackToWorkEdward
And it gets even more interesting the longer history dominoes onward from there too - without Obama, McCain's opponent almost certainly would've been Hillary Clinton(whom Obama defeated in the 2008 primary). If McCain had indeed defeated her, there's a good chance the Dems would've run a different candidate in 2016, and potentially beaten Trump. More likely, Trump doesn't run at all, because Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin have been waiting their turns to run in 2016 instead of the entire Republican base having become a witch's brew of racial hatred and conspiracy under Obama for eight years.
Alternately, without Obama, Hillary wins in 2008 and serves two terms, and a different D candiate runs in 2016 and actually defeats Trump(or whoever runs as the R instead).
The entire thing makes the mind boggle and like, it's literally all just down to the fulcrum of Jack and Jeri Ryan's marriage not falling apart in the late 1990s due to Star Trek commitments and sexual antics.
Sven Horlemann 7 months ago
Interesting. I did not know that. First time I (a German) heard of Barack Obama was when reading the (English) Rolling Stone article about him. Which impressed me tremendously.
T'Mar of Vulcan 7 months ago
And Jeri Ryan was hired because they wrote Kes off the show. It was between Kes and Harry Kim, and one producer thought Garrett W**g was cute. So Obama became president because someone preferred Harry Kim over Kes. Now, Bill Shatner, tell us again how Star Trek is just a TV show.
Michael Largey 7 months ago
Given how the GOP had devastated the economy, I don't thing McCain could have beaten any Democrat in 2008. He was about as electable as Herbert Hoover.
General Anaesthesia 7 months ago
Sarah Palin, his running mate, read all the newspapers but couldn't name one. But, she could see Russia from her house. The "mother" of many of today's Republikkkan congress members.
Load More Replies... #26
Kid falling into a gorilla enclosure in 2016.
Iamfabulous1735285
Fly high, Harambe
Upstaged75 7 months ago
Pretty sure that kid jumped in there because he wanted to see the gorillas. And his mother wasn't watching him in order to prevent it. Poor animal. :(
Roxy222uk 7 months ago
It shouldn't have been possible for a child to enter the enclosure, end of discussion. And we won't shame the poor parents who have to live with this for the rest of their lives. If you have ever loved a child like a parent then you know that if they could turn back time and be looking one way rather than the other, they would literally give their own lives to do it.
Load More Replies... MoBeLa 7 months ago
180 different outcome from when the Gorilla Binti Jua saved a boy who fell into HER enclosure in 1996. She was hailed as a hero and helped people feel more empathy for gorillas.
Max Fox 7 months ago
Because she was a female, and was treating the kid as though he was a baby gorilla- she was sitting over that kid protectively, grooming them and shooing away other gorillas. Harambe was acting aggressively towards the kid and a full grown silverback can k**l a three year old in a second.
Load More Replies... Chewie Baron 7 months ago
There was a boy who fell into a gorilla enclosure at Jersey Zoo, the Channel Islands in the mid 80s. That was more significant that the above suggestion as the kid injured his head falling, and the big male, cradled the boy and kept every other gorilla away from him until he was rescued by keepers.
Jorge Gonzalez 7 months ago
There is an ongoing joke in the internet that the current timeline with the COVID pandemic, trump president, accelerated climate change, etc, diverged at that specific event.
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Leigh Pierce 7 months ago
Poor Harambe. how do negligent parents keep winning lawsuits? I would have sued her if I were the zoo.
#27
I feel like the internal combustion engine does not get enough love. It actually shapes the infrastructure of modern cities or what academics like to call the built environment.
It also helped lift a lot of people from poverty back in the day in the western world because it was linked to many industries that provided much needed jobs. Even today its doing the same in some African and Asian countries.
Taibhse Sealgair 7 months ago (edited)
It's actually a Lenior internal combustion engine. The first. Not a steam engine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_Lenoir
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RameSton 7 months ago
The start of the industrial revolution predated the invention of the internal combustion engine by nearly 100 years.
Load More Replies... #28
Chinese loom and spinning wheel caused a chain reaction that lead to an abundance of paper and books. -connections with james burke.
Auntriarch 7 months ago (edited)
Goodness I haven't thought about that series for years. It was bloody brilliant though
Tom De Paul 7 months ago (edited)
I thought it was the big rug looms leading to punch cards and computers. And the black death leading to an abundance of used underclothes leading to cheap cotton leading to the spread of books. There used to be a great PBS series that explored these fascinating historical connections. Was this, "Connections"?
#29
I'm guessing Adobe Flash shutting down, it got rid of all the childhood media we had...
Not to mention, **Adobe Flash itself**, it played an *extremely important* role in the early days of the internet, it was used for interactive webpages, advertising, animated videos (e.g Homestar Runner, Happy Tree Friends) and video games! (e.g Club Penguin, The World's Hardest Game).
Beak Hookage 7 months ago
I actually learned how to use Flash to make animations during my Bachelor's. I am old.
Auntriarch 7 months ago
I guess it shaped OPs personal world but yeah, no.
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#30
The 99 day reign of Frederick III of Prussia. WWI and everything after may never have happened if he'd not been fatally ill when he ascended the throne.
FreeTheUnicorn 7 months ago
The trigger may have been something else but Europe went to war because it was ready for war, the death of a random royal isn't actualy a big deal it was just the excuse. Another excuse would have been found.
Bored Seagull 7 months ago
(1) While this is basically true, it is a bit more complex than that. The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, was aware that the other Great Powers were wary of the recently unified German Empire. This was why he worked on establishing a balance of power in Europe, both by entering into treaties with other Great Powers and by mediating between them, with the goal of deterring wars in Europe. This worked fine during the reigns of Wilhelm I. and Frederick III. Frederick's successor, Wilhelm II., however, didn't like von Bismarck - a sentiment reciprocated by von Bismarck - and In March 1890 forced von Bismarck to resign as Chancellor. Wilhelm II. and von Bismarcks' successors were less afraid of posing a threat to other Great Powers, and preferred a policy of not being bound by a large amount of treaties, thinking they would hamper the empire. The system of treaties von Bismarck had established, rapidly decayed.
Load More Replies... Chrissie Anit 7 months ago
I agree with FreeTheUnicorn, WWI was not William's II fault. He contributed heavily, definitely, but the European nations were just ready to go to war.
Chewie Baron 7 months ago
Plus there was that hungry ostrich that got killed.
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#31
The downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007 by the USSR in 1983.
A passenger airliner that flew over restricted Soviet airspace due to a navigational error and was shot down. Afterwards, among many other things Reagan ordered the GPS system be released to the civilian world as a common good. Before then GPS was a US military technology and it being released to the public was intended to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
So a couple pilots in a cockpit f*****g up is why we have the ability to look up directions on our phone.
Emma London 7 months ago
GPS is still used as planes' back-up system. If you're ever on a plane that's about to land and the is an order to shut down all mobile devises, like actually shut them down and not just put them on aeoroplane mode, and harrowed-looking personnel comes and supervises that people really do this, then the visibility is so bad that they have had to revert using GPS to land.
Tom De Paul 7 months ago
The Soviet pilot F'ed up. It added fuel to Reagan's "evil empire" stance and hastened the fall of the Soviet Union, and the liberation of Eastern Europe. If it happened under Trump he would have excused it as just a mistake.
Manos 7 months ago
I remember the incident . So sad. Your phone does not use GPS. It measures the distance to cell towers.
RameSton 7 months ago
Please read https://www.lifewire.com/assisted-gps-1683306#:~:text=All%20modern%20phones%20have%20an,offer%20only%20limited%20A%2DGPS.
Load More Replies... #32
When the mitochondria stop being symbiotic bacteria in living bodies and became a naturally occurring organelle in the cells of living creatures.
Ineke Pronk 7 months ago
Mitochondria used to be a free bacteria. It was a time where most life was single cell. As mitochondria became part of the cells that adopted/toke it hostage, it allowed those cells to produce more energy, which kickstarted the ability of the cells to clump together into simple to more complex multicellular organisms. Or in shorter, no mitochondria in the cell, no life as we know it.
Load More Replies... #33
The siege of Szigetvár. Basically Suleiman the Magnificent was on the war path into Europe with an army of 50-100k Ottomans. They had to deal with the fortress of Szigetvár first to make sure they didn’t get flanked later. The fortress only had around 2-3k soldiers manning it. They managed to cause 20-30k casaulties over the span of a month holding out against the Ottomans, during which Suleiman died and the fortress was lost but it knocked the wind out of the Ottomans sails and they went back East. This battle and the 3000 Hungarians and Croatians are considered by some historians to have saved Western civilization.
Mari 7 months ago
Saved Western civilization? The time of Suleiman The Magnificent was a golden period for the Ottomans, a time of arts, architecture and science.
liam newton-harding 7 months ago (edited)
Yes, “West” vs. “East”. Thus the above article.
Load More Replies... #34
In Ancient Greece the Pythagoreans were a secret religious society who kept their discoveries (mathematical and otherwise) to themselves. Then one of their members publicized their teachings, earning their wrath (I think he got expelled or sentenced to death or something.)
This was a huge, momentous thing, because unlike in Egypt or Persia where the astronomers and "scientists" closely guarded their secrets, it ushered in a new age where people shared their scientific or mathematical findings with the world, accelerating intellectual progress.
(I read this in a book years ago, so it may not be completely accurate, but that's what I remember.)
**Edit:** it was Hippasus, the man credited with the discovery of irrational numbers. As [legend says]
> Despite his many contributions, Hippasus is also remembered for his death. According to legend, he was cast into the sea by the Pythagoreans because he revealed their secret teachings to the outside world. This was seen as a betrayal of the Pythagorean way of life and was considered a serious offense.
Savannah Newman 7 months ago
That is interesting. The ownership culture that accompanies a so-called discovery always rubbed me the wrong way. Knowledge, resources, education, science, medicine, water, land, animals, people, etc etc. Discover it Own it Sell it Hoard it Withhold it Hide or destroy it We were not always like this. We can be a different way.
liam newton-harding 7 months ago
This is wonderfully touched on in, ‘Reign: The Conquerer” by the same creator of, “Aeon Flux”, Peter Chung. It deals will the secrecy, and religious tendencies of different Schools of Mathematics.
#35
Facebook creating the share button. It created the whirlwind of misinformation that we have today.
Pencil 7 months ago
The one really positive thing I can see language model AIs being used for is as a filter through which all social media posts must pass. I don't think it should prohibit misinformation (that's too much power for an algorithm) but it could, in real time, post a caveat preceding and refuting falsehoods with links to reputable sources. [I know there are a million "buts" to this and it wouldn't be perfect, it's just an idea I had that I think could be helpful.]
Beak Hookage 7 months ago
If only people would stop using AI for evil instead, sigh.
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#36
Eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. It Caused volcanic winter in parts of Europe with food shortages and famine. Scared aristocrats were barred in their manors and were entertaining each other with stories. Thanks to them we have Frankenstein and Dracula. Horses moved from transport to food category, and people were forced to find other means of transportation and invented velocipede. People who starved in that time invented fertilizers that allow food to grow in horrible conditions.
Savannah Newman 7 months ago
What is velocipede? Is that why horse is still considered a food source there today? Not as taboo to consume there compared to other parts of the world. Interesting!
Nils Skirnir 7 months ago
Only the Anglosphere has proscriptions against horsemeat.
Load More Replies... #37
How close the 2008 crash came to actually fully crashing the market, like full on worse than the crash of the Great Depression. If I remember it came down to several hours.
Michael Largey 7 months ago
The 2008 crash and its aftermath was called the Great Recession because politicians' lips are incapable of forming the word "depression".
Matt Blakeley 7 months ago
The main reason it wasn't a total disaster is that after Lehman Brothers failed, they realised EVERYTHING was about to fail, so they suspended the rules and cheated their way out of the disaster. Please also note that almost all the rules to stop another such disaster have been repealed, so it will happen again.
Tom De Paul 7 months ago
And the willingness of both Bush and Obama to support a $700+ BILLION stimulus package. Bush: miss him yet? I do.
Melissa Childers 7 months ago
The market is now designed to automatically shut down if it crashes by a certain percentage: 7% (10 minute stoppage); 13% (15 minute stoppage); and 20% (the rest of the day). That system was put in place after the crash of 1987.
Cpt. Christan "Panda Bombero" 7 months ago
'Margin Call', 'Too Big To Fail', and 'The Big Short', though dramatized, are pretty good at explaining it from various viewpoints/positions. And each one pisses you off, in its own way, mostly because of the lack of corporate accountability / responsibility in prelude and theaftermath of the crash. IMO Many Wall Street CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CCOs, etc., should have been at least investigated, possibly charged, and preferably been sentenced to imprisonment.
#38
A wrong turn, ultimately started The Great War (WWI).
Sweet_Dee 7 months ago
My son told me about this the other day! On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. The Archduke's car was supposed to continue on a broad street along the river, but the driver made a wrong turn onto a narrow street, stopping directly in front of Princip.
Auntriarch 7 months ago
And you can see the duke's uniform and the car in the military museum in Vienna
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Jan Olsen 7 months ago
No - the situation was insanely complicated - the cause was not a single event
Huddo's sister 7 months ago
And there had already been failed assassination attempts, so chances are they would have tried again anyway
Load More Replies... #39
The Spanish-American War. It's a footnote for most people, but it set the US on the path it's on today.
Michael Largey 7 months ago
No, the path to being an imperialist world power.
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#40
The "White Ship Disaster" had a big impact on England. November 1120 on a trip from France to England, from the harbour of Barfleur the ship sank. Many members of English/Norman nobility died, approximately 300 people, including the Heir to the English Throne. This then caused a succession crisis in England, with Empress Matilda being named Heir. However on Henry I death his Nephew Stephen seized the throne causing a civil war known as "The Anarchy" (1135-1153). Big part of early English History, just a generation after William the Conqueror, had a large political impact on the country and its not widely known about.
Melissa Childers 7 months ago
Pillars of the Earth by Richard Follett covers this time period. Fantastic book.
#41
Facebook started the events feature in 2005 and groups feature in October 2010. In December 2010, Tunisia overthrew its government and revolution spread through the Arab world. Egypt, Libya, Syria…all organized through two features on Facebook.
Nils Skirnir 7 months ago
How did all those workout? Libya is a basket case, Egypt is a dictatorship, Syria is fundamentalist Muslim authoritarian, and Tunisia, while intitially a democracy, has backslid.
Tom De Paul 7 months ago
I had such hope for the Arab Spring. I guess they weren't ready, so they remain the sh*thole they are today.
#42
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. It was a pivotal event resulting in the end of Roman expansion into northern Europe, ending at the Rhine. Thus leading to the culture clash that continues between Southern and Northern Europe that continues to this day, and has led to so many other conflicts such as the Reformation and the Thirty Years War.
#43
One of Herman Cortés’s rival conquistadors was a guy called Pánfilo de Narvaez. He turned up in Veracruz in 1520 with an African slave on board his ship, named Francisco Eguía. Eguía had smallpox and seems to be the first recorded case of the disease in the Americas.
The entire history of the Colombian exchange, colonialism, and the New World would have been drastically different if that infection had never taken hold.
I guess it was inevitable that *someone* would have brought smallpox to the Americas, but the people who did are mostly forgotten to history.
Stephanie Did It 7 months ago
It would have still happened when Europeans decided to colonize New England. Smallpox and other diseases ravaged the indigenous people.
#44
The invention of the humble shipping container. Maybe not a 'moment' per se but definitely an event. Nothing flashy but its impact is immense. Just try to imagine global trade today without standardized shipping containers. They completely revolutionized trade, making it faster, safer, and cheaper. Every item you see around you - chances are it arrived in your country in a shipping container. It's easy to take for granted now, but this system increased the efficiency of transport and reduced costs dramatically, effectively enabling globalization as we know it today.
Emma London 7 months ago
Also the invention of pallet, the cheap and easily transportable wooden base for everything.
Geoffrey Scott 7 months ago
Please use the term 'intermodal container'. Goes from the ship, to a semi trailer frame, out the gate, and to your store.
#45
The invention of the mechanical clock and the invention of the pendulumclock 350~ years later.
Seeing how much a lot od our systens now rely on accurate timekeeping and all the discoveries and inventions that were made because we kept creating more and more accurate timekeepers, this was massive breakthrough.
nm 7 months ago
Before the GPS the mariners for many centuries had no problem to plot their Latitude, sail to the Latitude of their destination and ride on it until stumbling on land. But it needed a time-keeping instrument for them to find their Longitude and their position on the chart.
Zaach 7 months ago
The man who invented a time-piece that was accurate while at sea - the British Crown offered a reward but refused to give it to the inventor
RameSton 7 months ago
No. George III supported the inventor, John Harrison, and this ultimately led him to receiving his due reward following unhanded and conflict of interest machinations by some of the Longitude Board.
Load More Replies... #46
The Battle of the Metaurus (207 BC)
Hasdrubal Barca, brother of Hannibal, was on his way to reinforce him in Italy. He was defeated in this battle, which led to the decline of Carthage and secured the ascendancy of Rome.
#48
Stalingrad. The beginning of the end for the third R*ich
CP 7 months ago (edited)
Nah, it is hard to imagine a scenario where the Nazis win after England honors it's pledge to Poland. There are some plausible scenarios that might cause England to want peace, but in the end England is the lynchpin to it all and not Germany. Oh and Chamberlain was integral to that happening when he appeased Hitler.
RameSton 7 months ago
If commenting with such certainty about important historical events at least understand the difference between England and the UK.
Load More Replies... #49
Aquinas making Aristotle's The Rhetoric important again.
#50
The Tampa Crisis in Australia.
John Howard’s “We will decide who comes to this country and the way in which they come!” has impacted Australian politics for the last 20+ years, and has influenced immigration policy all over the world (and not in a good way).
F**k John Howard and his cruel policies.
Geoffrey Scott 7 months ago
While I disagree, but am sympathetic, with those who come to America under dark of night thinking it's ok, there are WAY too many that seek to do us harm in this manner. You don't destroy the US by invading and taking land, China and the former head of the E German KGB are doing it the hard, but most successful way...destroying it from within. Making us distrust one another, bringing distrust into our systems and framework. And the "Orange God' is an unwitting b**b, using it to amass more power while disregarding the threats right in front of him.
AmazingUsername2008 7 months ago
Russia has used this exact technique against Poland. They send prospective immigrants to the Polish border and send them across
Load More Replies... nm 7 months ago
The story is quite different. "About half an hour after Tampa had set sail toward Indonesia, a delegation of five asylum seekers visited the bridge to demand passage to Australian territory, specifically Christmas Island, or any western country. The group was quite aggressive and agitated" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_affair
Huddo's sister 7 months ago
I completely agree with this (though John Howard did some good things too).
#51
WWI, which led to WWII, which led to the Cold War, which led to basically the modern world as we know it. One bullet set off a chain reaction that reshaped the entire 20th century.
michael reid 7 months ago
There were a multitude of wars, assassinations and other events that led to WW1. It not something that's started recently.
#52
In San Francisco in 1906 they had a massive Earthquake, probably one of the most devastating to occur in the United states. In the immediate Aftermath the president of a small regional bank known as the bank of Italy immediately took all of the money out of its vaults and walked down the streets handing out loans to people so that they could rebuild. They were one of the first banks to start lending money during the reconstruction
This bank was founded specifically on the principle of handing out personal loans to workers, the low and middle class rather than simply the upper class, most notably to Italian immigrants and settlers hence the name.
The bank of Italy would later merge with a smaller bank known as Bank of America, Los Angeles. The two banks would become what is today Bank Of America.
Don Adams 7 months ago
Probably have a collection agency hounding the descendants.....
Load More Replies... #53
Pascal and Fermat discovering probability theory in the 17th century. Without it you don't have risk-based insurance* and without that you don't have capitalism (for good or ill).
*A mathematical model for probabilities that made insurance a reasonable financial proposition instead of the guessing game it had been, thereby making it possible to underwrite larger and more complex ventures. (h/t u/prasiatko).
#54
At some point in her life, Queen Victoria of England spontaneously mutated one of her genes on her X chromosome. As a woman, she had a redundant copy in the other gene and so she had no physical effects. However, she passed this mutation on to her descendants all across European royal families. Males who received the mutation suffered from hemophilia. Her grandson Alexei, the son of the Czar of Russia, was one of these. In despair, her mother turned to the monk Rasputin who seemed to be able to help his symptoms. Over time, he gained more and more influence over the royal family, ultimately becoming the power behind the throne. This enraged the Russian people and led to the communists successfully leading a revolution and establishing the USSR. All through the 20th century, the US and USSR waged a Cold War, with many proxy wars being waged in their behalf. One of these was in Afghanistan, where the US armed and propped up the Taliban, who were fighting the soviets. Later, the Taliban were patrons to Al Quada, providing a base from which they plotted and carried out the attacks of 9/11.
Easily the most consequential single genetic mutation in history.
Lyone Fein 7 months ago
Rasputin’s influence was not the cause of the Russian revolution. As with the French Revolution, the cause was the immense disparity between the wealth of the ruling class and the desperate poverty of the huge majority of the population.
#55
The Compromise of 1877. Rich white male politicians played with the newly-given rights of black citizens in the US in a political game. Minorities have always been pawns to them but this event showed just how little white men in positions of power care about the rights of people of color.
We fought the Civil War, many died to free the slaves. Once the war was over, the Reconstruction era began in the South. For the first time in American history, black citizens began to be able to exercise their newly-given rights, but were only able to do so freely under the careful watch and safety of the National Guard, due to hateful white people still wanting to harm black people post-Civil War.
At the time, presidential elections used to be a candidate from the North and a candidate from the South. The North lost the presidential election and in a political game, the South bargained to give the presidency to the North in exchange for the withdrawal of the National Guard and effectively, the end of black citizens' ability to exist freely and fairly in the South.
The North accepted, gaining the presidency but handing over black citizens' freedoms right back to the enemy we had just fought a Civil War against. The Reconstruction era ended.
Many lives were lost to give black people freedom, many fights were fought, and yet less than 13 years later, all that was gained was given back so quickly in a political game. You can see how this theme echoes throughout history before and after: this disregard for the rights of black citizens in the face of a political game continues to this day. This would directly lead to the rise of the K*K and other terrorist hate groups, would lead to segregation, the war on d***s, and so much more that still goes on today.
Most rich white male politicians do not care about the lives of others if they are able to profit off their misery somehow. We are all pawns, especially the people without privellege, and the system is inherently against minorities.
edit: Knowing all this, you can see why some hateful white people want to ban critical race theory. A lot of hateful white people don't want you to know s**t like this, that the system that they built is inherently against anyone non-white, non-cishet, non-male, and it still is.
Savannah Newman 7 months ago
Very interesting! Thank you for the insights! How very unfortunate that the truth causes some people to fight the very thoughts and feelings it brings up inside of them. All we are is what we are to them. No more! All we are is the very mirror of their own fears and insecurities. It can be hard to take a hard look at yourself. But how can we grow without that. All we are is everything, and we are changing the world. They can join us or get out of our way! 🤍✨️
Kurt Ramsey 7 months ago
This. There is a myth that the North had less racism and was more acceptance of blacks. That is because prior to WWI there were no blacks anywhere outside of the South. Once blacks began to emmigrate from the South following industrial jobs, they found just as much racism as they had experienced in the south.
Michael Largey 7 months ago (edited)
While WWI did trigger a large black migration, there were a significant number of blacks living outside the South prior to 1917. And they experienced the bigotry you describe.
Load More Replies... #56
The failure of Reconstruction and capitulation by Andrew Johnson to the Dixiecrats after Lincoln's assassination. When I think about what could have been in this country, it makes me want to scream.
Michael Largey 7 months ago
Johnson was more or less a Dixiecrat. (He was a Democrat from Tennessee.) The capitulation to white southerners came 1876, when the GOP traded Reconstruction in exchange for the Democrats accepting a disputed presidential election result.
#57
When America separated children from their parents at the border. That is some horrible karma that we can never make right.
#58
Repeal of the fairness doctrine in 1987.
- cleared the way for partisan doctrine
- amplified ideological echo chambers
- contributed to political polarization
- birth of “infotainment”.
Sweet_Dee 7 months ago
The fairness doctrine of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, was a policy that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that fairly reflected differing viewpoints. The fairness doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. In 1987, the FCC abolished the fairness doctrine. And less than 10 years later, Fox News was born. Not a coincidence.
Savannah Newman 7 months ago
Well dang, how about that. Bring back the fairness doctrine!!
Load More Replies... kansasmagic 7 months ago
The Fairness Doctrine only applied to broadcast licenses, e.g. NBC, CBS, etc. It did not apply to cable and would not have affected Fox News in any way.
Pencil 7 months ago
It also didn't apply to radio or print news. And if brought back today, would not have any impact on social media which is where most people (horrifyingly) get their news now.
Load More Replies... #59
Bush v. Gore.
Savannah Newman 7 months ago
Looks like we are gonna have to guess. If Gore had won perhaps we would have stronger protections for the environment and actual action curtailment our contributions to global environmental destruction?
Nils Skirnir 7 months ago
There are those who say the US Republic died in January, 2001 and that the US Imperial State began then. I’m less sure, but think that is simplistic. But, no matter as the Republic is truly gone
Load More Replies... Ron Man 7 months ago
What about it? Can't just toss something up there without having your explanation.
Michael Largey 7 months ago
The GOP not accepting a clear election loss. Sound familiar these days?
Load More Replies... #60
The Battle of Jumonville Glen in 1754, where a 22-year-old George Washington first tasted battle leading ~50 colonials and allied natives against ~30 French soldiers in a backwoods part of Pennsylvania beyond the Appalachian mountains that were the nominal border between British and French colonial territory in the new world.
This small engagement kicked off the French and Indian War, which immediately led to the Seven Years’ War, which later led to the American War of Independence, which seriously influenced the French Revolution, which gave rise to Napoleon, who broke Germany (among other feats), making way for the later unification of Germany, which set most of the groundwork for WWI, which directly led to WWI and the Cold War that later followed it, which directly leads us to the modern state of the world.
Washington’s actions on that day have had direct effects that continue on to the present day. All because of a 15-minute fight between less than 90 men in an empty corner of southwestern Pennsylvania, the world today is the way it is.
#61
The commercialisation of the internet.
Ron Man 7 months ago
Unless you were a govt worker or a college student or employee, the internet has always been commercialized.
T'Mar of Vulcan 7 months ago
Not at the beginning it wasn't. "I was there at the dawn of the third age of mankind..."
Load More Replies... #62
The battle of milvian bridge in Anciet Rome 312AD solidified Constantine's faith in Christianity and lead to his death bed conversion that sparked a Christian revolution that led to the world as we know it today.
Interesting battle actually - Maxentius had essentially taken over Rome, so good.old Constantine led an army back there to retake it.
Maxentius had the milvian bridge rigged with some removable bolts that were to be yanked at the right time, causing Constantines army to plunge into the Tiber.
Meanwhile, Constantine was being advised on the down low by some bishops, which was a bit of a controversial thing in Pagan Roman times, and they convinced him to have the first two letters of Christ's name painted on his army's shields (equivalent to have a cross painted on it)
Midway through the clash, some numpty on Maxentius' side pulled the bolts too early, and most of Maxentius' army fell into the river, gifting Constantine the win. Of course, this was clearly a sign from God himself and led to a softening of the anti-Christian laws and the eventual conversion of Rome's fabled emperor on his death bed.
So those bolts in that bridge? Well, those relatively small items caused the surge one of the biggest religions the globe has ever seen and sparked an entire religious and cultural revolution that still has a huge part to play in everyone's lives (one way or another!).
And it's really not a battle that many people talk about
(The bolts in the bridge story is, as a lot of ancient history, just one interpretation of how the events unfolded, but it's one I personally like as a cool story).
#64
How lucky America was that the USS Vestal survived Pearl Harbor. The Vestal was a repair ship that went on to repair major ships during the Pacific War; such as the Saratoga, South Dakota and the Enterprise.
Michael Largey 7 months ago
The Japanese for some reason chose not to target repair facilities and fuel depots. But the US's real luck was that all four of its Pacific aircraft carrier task forces were away from port on that day. There were usually two in Pearl Harbor at any one time. When Admiral Yamamoto, the planner of the attack, heard that no American carriers were destroyed, he turned to his staff and said "We've just lost the war."
Sweet_Dee 7 months ago
There's also significant evidence that points to America intercepting radio transmissions that made them aware of the attack on Pearl Harbor a full 48 hours before it occurred. Which means many of these "coincidences" aren't coincidences at all, and instead all a plotted excuse (is that the right word?) for America to enter the war.
Load More Replies... #65
The assassination of Tsar Alexander II.
Alex III (who is a radical conservative) succeeds him, blames the Jews for the death, and enacts the May Laws in the early 1880s.
2-3 million Jews emigrate from the Pale of the Settlement due to oppression. Most go to the US. But hundreds of thousands go to Germany. This influx of migrants upsets Germans, setting the stage for the H*******t.
It's also the beginning of applied Zionism and the earnest movement of Jews to Israel giving us what we have today.
No assassination, no H*******t, no Israel/Palestine conflict.
Michael Largey 7 months ago
Nonsense. (1) Anti-semitism was rampant in Western civilization long before 1880. (2) Hitler used minorities - Jews, gays, gypsies, etc - as whipping boys regardless of their numbers. (3) The Jews didn't need a Czar to tell them they needed their own homeland.
Lyone Fein 7 months ago
To build on what MLargey said….(1) Muslims have been persecuting Jews since the beginning of Islam (read the Quran) (2) Though small, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Israel ever since the Romans expulsion. (3) Jews were also persecuted throughout Europe for over 1700 years before the H o l o c a u s t.
#66
The 4th c*****e. The Byzantine Empire was still moderately strong back then, able to hold its own against the turks, but rife with internal struggle. If the betrayal at Constantinople and the sack of the city never happened, the empire might have survived for far longer, perhaps even until modern days. The Ottomans would never have risen, and their empire never would have existed. The Balkan nations, Hungary and Romania would have remained independent (or at least under the control of other christians), The Habsburgs and the Polish would have had far different interests. The Armenian and Greek genocides would never have happened, and the border between Europe and Asia, christianity and islam would be somewhere in Anatolia, not at the modern Greek - Turkish border.
AnnaB 7 months ago (edited)
What's the censored word? C r u s a d e? If so, why is it censored???
Serena Myers 7 months ago
It is, indeed, c*****e. C r u s a d e. And why in all the flying frogs BP censor that I have no idea! BP, explain please!
Load More Replies... nm 7 months ago
Actually it's Near East and the Holy Lands are holy for Jews, Christians and Muslims. But this is irrelevant with 4th crousade
Load More Replies... #67
Henry Ford mass producing cars with internal combustion engines. Cars have dramatically changed the physical landscape. Replaced rail as the primary means of mass travel. Led to proliferation of the paved streets and highways, parking lots, gas stations, motels and fast food outlets. Contributed to congestion, urban sprawl, air pollution and climate change. Demand for oil influenced geopolitics for 100+ years.
#68
Maybe not wildly significant, but pretty significant. When a search plane on a Japanese aircraft carrier had a mechanical problem during the Battle of Midway. That search plane ended up being the one that found an American carrier. But because of the mechanical failure it launched late. Because it launched late it found the Americans late. Because it found the Americans late a decision made by Japanese leaders some minutes earlier had to be reversed. Because that decision had to be reversed and in information came late, the Japanese carriers weren’t able to launch an attack on the Americans but. Were instead caught completely unprepared when American planes attacked.
For want of a working search plane, the Japanese suffered a huge loss and never had a reasonable chance of winning the war afterwards. .
CP 7 months ago
Japan was caught between rearming for an attack on Midway vs an attack on ships. They had fueled up planes inside the carrier. They had to make a quick decision to launch or ditch the planes coming back from Midway. Japan sailed into a well laid trap and got throttled. The US knew their plan ahead of time.
nm 7 months ago
Correct. And discovered that the target of the Japanese was Midway with the trick of "water problem".
Load More Replies... #69
Winston Churchill, before WW2, was head of the British Navy. At the time by far the largest admiralty in the world, and spread over the Empire. He took the decision to change all the ships from coal powered to oil powered, which meant there was suddenly a need for oil and stations all over the world, starting a ball rolling that’s knock on effect is obvious today.
#70
Money and Politics:
- Citizens United vs FEC (2010). The Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited money on political advocacy, as long as it is independent of campaigns (i.e., not directly coordinated with candidates).
- SpeechNow.org v. FEC (2010, same year). In a lower court case (U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C.), this ruling established that contributions to independent political action committees (PACs) can be unlimited.
Cap'n Rickster 7 months ago
You can thank judge Anthony Scalia Citizens United. The worst SCOTUS ruling lever.
#71
When Obama made fun of Trump never being president.
kansasmagic 7 months ago
Trump had plans to run for President long before 2016, and actually did run in 2000 with the Reform Party.
Pencil 7 months ago
Trump didn't run for President in 2000. He ran in the Reform Party primaries in CA and MI and then withdrew from the race citing conflicts with the party. Pat Buchanan ran as their nominee in the 2000 election and received less than 1% of the popular vote.
Load More Replies... #72
Obama deciding to request only $800B in stimulus from Congress in Jan/Feb 2009. He was over 70% approval, a large electoral mandate, and the economy was cratering, the actual economic math said it needed at least $1.2 trillion in stimulus but Rahm Emmanuel just decided Congress wouldn't go for something in the "trillion" range so they trimmed back the ask for the most trivial reasons. Apparently they wouldn't even let any of his economic advisors even present the $1.2T option to Obama, Rahm and Summers made the $800B option the bigger of what they offered Obama, but then, Obama picked these people so it's still on him.
Too Small Stimulus->Anemic recovery->2010 midterm blowout->Republican gerrymander numerous states like WI, MI and PA->Obama's Congressional agenda is dead->Dems Lose Senate in 2014->Obama Can't Replace Scalia->Roe overturned [....]
The cascade from this one terrible decision at the start of his presidency at a historic hingepoint moment continues to this day.
#73
Len Bias dying. Changed the course of professional sports.
What do you think ?
Lyone Fein 7 months ago
The invention of the birth control pill. But also making birth control accessible in general. This has given women so much more say in their own bodies and lives.
Pencil 7 months ago
How is the printing press not on this list?! https://magazine.machinedalal.com/the-printing-press-how-one-invention-changed-the-world/
Sapna Sarfare 7 months ago
Indian here. The 3rd Battle of Panipat changed things for Maratha Empire. It was on the rise and one of the last major empires that had it in it to stop the British. The battle kind of hit us bad. We did try to rise again and succeeded to some extent. But the 3rd Anglo Maratha war in which the British defeated the Marathas paved the way for the British to easily take control of India. FYI, the Mughal empire was weak and limited to more or less Delhi. The Marathas literally kept them alive. Another moment that could have changed Indian history was the 1857 revolt that could have helped us but we lost and East India Company was demolished to make way for the British Rule in India. The rest is horrendous history..
Auntriarch 7 months ago
Wasn't there a satirical couplet in Delhi at the time to the effect that the last moghul was the ruler of the whole world from Delhi to Palam
Load More Replies... Lyone Fein 7 months ago
The invention of the birth control pill. But also making birth control accessible in general. This has given women so much more say in their own bodies and lives.
Pencil 7 months ago
How is the printing press not on this list?! https://magazine.machinedalal.com/the-printing-press-how-one-invention-changed-the-world/
Sapna Sarfare 7 months ago
Indian here. The 3rd Battle of Panipat changed things for Maratha Empire. It was on the rise and one of the last major empires that had it in it to stop the British. The battle kind of hit us bad. We did try to rise again and succeeded to some extent. But the 3rd Anglo Maratha war in which the British defeated the Marathas paved the way for the British to easily take control of India. FYI, the Mughal empire was weak and limited to more or less Delhi. The Marathas literally kept them alive. Another moment that could have changed Indian history was the 1857 revolt that could have helped us but we lost and East India Company was demolished to make way for the British Rule in India. The rest is horrendous history..
Auntriarch 7 months ago
Wasn't there a satirical couplet in Delhi at the time to the effect that the last moghul was the ruler of the whole world from Delhi to Palam
Load More Replies...
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