What is the most interesting historical event in your country?

@Jonny_Anonymous: My mistake, we would be RETAINING our army.

The second world war in which our second-largest city was bombed by the Nazis and we were occupied for five years by Nazi Germany. Many people died by violence, illness, or starvation and roughly 85% of our entire Jewish population was killed.

The American Mafia or any war we have been involved in. On a state basis PA has a lot of history.

The jews invading the land and making it their own in 1948 by murdering the natives or kicking them out then proceeding to enter their homes mopping their blood off the floors and inhabiting those homes.

World War II.

EDIT: More specifically, Pearl Harbor, and our escapades in the Pacific theater.

The magna carta?

WW2, the winter war. Soviet Union invading Finland expecting to rollover the country in a few weeks only to suffer huge casualties and only succeeded in capturing 11% of territories.

@TobbRobb: Well yes, we all know the plague was brought over by the colonists but it was hardly intentional.

@WickedFather said:

@mandude said:

@NlGHTCRAWLER said:

@MariachiMacabre said:

@NlGHTCRAWLER said:

@mandude said:

@NlGHTCRAWLER said:

@Demoskinos said:

The time Jesus rode a T-Rex into Germany and killed hitler.

Stop being ignorant, it was a velociraptor.

Look who's talking about ignorance. Velociraptors are far too small. The idea of Jesus mounting one is silly, to say the least. He rode a utahraptor.

Et tut brute?

You have to remember that Hitler's downfall was in the mid 40's. This obviously isn't flesh and bone Jesus from the New Testament seeing as it's been 1,945 years since his death. This is zombie Jesus, friend. That means that his weight and density is far lower than that of his original form when taking decomposition into account, making it highly likely that he rode a velociraptor. Utahraptors are not only incapable of performing the slightest of tasks, they also take frequent breaks and die fairly easy in mid to hot weather.

Actually, it was 1,945 years after his birth. A.D. doesn't mean After Death, it means Anno Domini or "In The Year of Our Lord". Jesus died when he was 33 so it would have been 1,912 years, roughly, after his death. Don't make him feel like an old fart. He's very sensitive about his old age.

Oh great, now I feel like a dick.

Don't worry. It happens to the best of us. That's why he gave us alcohol, that we may use it to forget our sorrows and wash away our sins.

This is what I hate about modern education - it's just parrot fashion regurgitating of facts without any research. Jesus was living on Mars during that period (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_on_Mars) and it was Mumm Ra riding Godzilla that fought Hitler after being thrown sideways in time by an atomic bomb. Ffffkin amateur historian filth peddlers.

Fuck you and Mars.

Civil War is an interesting period. More so because of all the ignorance and misconceptions surrounding it and Abraham Lincoln.

no idea properly all the way back when we were vikings

@foggel said:

Vikings I guess. The drama between the Scandinavian royal families at the time is quite interesting actually.

im guessing your Swedish since you focused on that specific point of being vikings. i as a Dane would focus on when we ruled the sea a good amount of Europe and Greenland.

but your point is better

Robot Wars

I still wake up screaming sometimes...

Don't even mention the storming of Takeshi's Castle

So much death...

@Still_I_Cry said:

Civil War is an interesting period. More so because of all the ignorance and misconceptions surrounding it and Abraham Lincoln.

I know! I never knew Abraham Lincoln killed Vampires with an axe.

The British Empire.

@CaLe said:

Titanic was built here. Yeah... sorry about that.

This i guess, and maybe the troubles, very interesting.

The battle at Vimy Ridge during WW1 was pretty cool. The French forces couldn't take the ridge in three attempts so the British took over. They failed so the Canadians took over and captured it. Basically what the allies couldn't do in 19 months the Canadians did in 3 days.

Louis Riel is also really interesting. Without his forces defeating the Canadians at Fort Gary everything west of Ontario would be Territories instead of Provinces. His forces in the Red River Rebellion wanted Manitoba to have the same rights as the other provinces and for the Metis people to have the same rights as other Canadians. He was later elected as a Member of Parliament and made it to the steps of the Parliament buildings before fleeing as a refugee to the states in fear of assassination. He returned to Canada and lead a second rebellion, this time in Saskatchewan where he was defeated and executed for treason. So ultimately, depending on what part of the country you are from or what your ancestry is, he is either considered a national hero or an enemy of the state.

@BoG said:

Well, so much United States has already happened, so I'll try and think of something from Utah. Uh... Ken Jennings?

He is definitely my new favourite person on twitter.

@TobbRobb: Well yes, we all know the plague was brought over by the colonists but it was hardly intentional.

Historical New Zealand events apart from the New Zealand Wars and Chief Hone Heke efforts were :

Allowed women the right to vote before any other country in 1893.

First to introduce the 8hr working day in 1899 - not that its followed now ashamedly but still created labour day.

First to split the atom by Sir Ernest Rutherford

Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mt. Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

And a nugget most probably don't know but may have debated about:

Richard Pearse first human flight on March 31st 1903 eight months before the Wright Brothers. He flew a distance of 150yds.

We punch above our weight that is for sure.

• 1950-1970's Space Exploration, with the Apollo and Mercury missions and the space race with the soviets. Really a great feat in American science and physics.
• American Civil Rights Movement
• Manhattan Project
• WWII's pacific theater
• I would say the discover of the Watson and Crick molecular model of DNA, but more of the work was done over in England. Watson was American though, so we have a little credit in it.

I live in Canada. One time someone's shoe got stuck on some old maple syrup, and the gravy boat they were holding in their hands landed on some fries soaked in cheese, and thus poutine was born. This is the most historically significant thing that has ever happened in this country. Also one time the Queen came, but it turns out she took a wrong turn at the interstate and promptly left. 

that time when lots of people died

The Last Metalocalypse concert

@Turambar said:

@SathingtonWaltz said:

@TobbRobb: Well yes, we all know the plague was brought over by the colonists but it was hardly intentional.

The giving of small pox infected blankets to native populations by Europeans was done often and intentionally for the exact purpose of killing them off.

As far as I can remember this only happened once during Pontiac's Rebellion, any other instances have either been disproven or are just hearsay. The only reason I know is that one of my students brought this up years ago and I decided to look into it (I used to teach social studies). Funny how you can just remember stuff like that. Anyway, there are no recorded instances of Colonists giving infected blankets to the Americans. The instance I mentioned above, Pontiac's Rebellion, was committed by British Officers.

I always found it kind of funny that the Roman Empire got as far as Britain and then never bothered with Ireland. I suppose gaining independence from England was also a big deal.

@Turambar said:

@SathingtonWaltz said:

@TobbRobb: Well yes, we all know the plague was brought over by the colonists but it was hardly intentional.

The giving of small pox infected blankets to native populations by Europeans was done often and intentionally for the exact purpose of killing them off.

As far as I can remember this only happened once during Pontiac's Rebellion, any other instances have either been disproven or are just hearsay. The only reason I know is that one of my students brought this up years ago and I decided to look into it (I used to teach social studies). Funny how you can just remember stuff like that. Anyway, there are no recorded instances of Colonists giving infected blankets to the Americans. The instance I mentioned above, Pontiac's Rebellion, was committed by British Officers.

@Turambar said:

@SathingtonWaltz said:

@Turambar said:

@SathingtonWaltz said:

@TobbRobb: Well yes, we all know the plague was brought over by the colonists but it was hardly intentional.

The giving of small pox infected blankets to native populations by Europeans was done often and intentionally for the exact purpose of killing them off.

As far as I can remember this only happened once during Pontiac's Rebellion, any other instances have either been disproven or are just hearsay. The only reason I know is that one of my students brought this up years ago and I decided to look into it (I used to teach social studies). Funny how you can just remember stuff like that. Anyway, there are no recorded instances of Colonists giving infected blankets to the Americans. The instance I mentioned above, Pontiac's Rebellion, was committed by British Officers.

Yes, that particular example is the one I was thinking specifically of as well. While I never looked into it further than that (colonial American history isn't really my field of interest), when all other factors are equal, I have a hard time believing the absence of evidence is the evidence of absence. That said, the history of small pox indicates that it was during the mid 1800s when the US began carrying more comprehensive small pox vaccination plans. And given the forced assimilation of Native American youth into western boarding schools (a different form of cultural extermination to be sure), the usage of the above example would not have lasted long into the 19th century.

Most assuredly some asshole somewhere, sometime did in fact give Americans infected blankets with small pox, but to say that it happened often is just wrong. If we want to talk about legitimately fucked up things that the United States government did to Americans then we need to be discussing things you just mentioned (Trail of Tears, forced cultural assimilation, etc.) and not myths.

That time Abe Lincoln killed all those vampires.

@AhmadMetallic said:

The jews invading the land and making it their own in 1948 by murdering the natives or kicking them out then proceeding to enter their homes mopping their blood off the floors and inhabiting those homes.

Really Ahmad? Out of some 5000 years of history that is the single most interesting event.....what you just wrote happened in every corner of the world already multiple times by 1948.

@Geno said:

I live in Canada. One time someone's shoe got stuck on some old maple syrup, and the gravy boat they were holding in their hands landed on some fries soaked in cheese, and thus poutine was born. This is the most historically significant thing that has ever happened in this country. Also one time the Queen came, but it turns out she took a wrong turn at the interstate and promptly left.

I love you.

The time my country didn't exist for a 100 years, then came back for 20 years, then it was occupied by nazis for a couple of years, then it was occupied by communists for 40 years. Crazy stuff.

I think the Darien Scheme is pretty interesting. Before the Acts of Union of 1707, William Paterson raised something like 1/4 of the national wealth of Scotland in the name of setting up a colony at the Isthmus of Panama.

Considering that tiny little gap between North and South America basically provided a shortcut for the worlds shipping vessels, it was prime real estate. The aim was to effectively set up a toll booth of sorts.

What they didn't bank on was the difficulty in trade with the locals, they struggled to grow anything and the population of the expedition was decimated by disease.

They ran home with their tails between their legs and it was a major factor in the ultimate union we have today. England promised to subsidise a portion of the debt, which would alleviate some of the stress on the economy. Coincidentally, there is a referendum being held on Scottish Independence in the next couple of years.

@MooseyMcMan said:

It's always been the Cold War for me. All the spying and the threat of nuclear war between the US and USSR! It was crazy!

I know this post is a week old, but if you haven't seen it, you should check out Three Days of the Condor. It's not so much about the USSR, but some internal espionage within the CIA more or less spying on their own agents, without spoiling anything. It's one of my favorite old school spy thrillers, and still relevant. The Spy That Came In From the Cold is a good one too.

And Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway are both in their 70's hotness prime.

@AhmadMetallic said:

The jews invading the land and making it their own in 1948 by murdering the natives or kicking them out then proceeding to enter their homes mopping their blood off the floors and inhabiting those homes.

I thought it was the Brits that did the kicking.

@Vodun said:

@AhmadMetallic said:

The jews invading the land and making it their own in 1948 by murdering the natives or kicking them out then proceeding to enter their homes mopping their blood off the floors and inhabiting those homes.

I thought it was the Brits that did the kicking.

Yeah, they were instrumental. Lord Balfour, I'm sure, drafted the initial support that was integral to the creation of Israel.

The McRib sandwich returning to the menu.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company

Us swedes finding that big-ass Vasa ship and putting it in a museum -- at least that's the only remarkable one I can think of.

That time when Alexander the Great almost conquered the whole world I guess.

Here are some things that have happened in the past, from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Charles Darwin

1859 - 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life' was published.

Alexander Parkes

1862 - World's first public demonstration of Parkesine, the first man-made plastic.

Ernest Rutherford

1917 - Spilt the first ever atom (by humans), and discovered the proton.

John Logie Baird

1926 - World's first demonstration of true television before 50 scientists in central London. Also invented the first fully electronic colour television tube.

Frank Whittle

1930 - Invented and patented the world's first ever turbojet engine.

Alan Turing

1940 - Designed the first bombe, an electromechanical device used to crack Germany's Enigma codes.

Tommy Flowers

1943 - Along with his team at Dollis Hill, built the world's first working prototype of an electronic, digital, programmable computer...Colossus.

Tim Berners-Lee

1991 - Invented and launched the World Wide Web, although he was physcially in France when he did it.

no idea properly all the way back when we were vikings

@foggel said:

Vikings I guess. The drama between the Scandinavian royal families at the time is quite interesting actually.

im guessing your Swedish since you focused on that specific point of being vikings. i as a Dane would focus on when we ruled the sea a good amount of Europe and Greenland.

but your point is better

The day we beat the yanks in that war and burnt down the white house was a pretty sweet day.

The day we beat the yanks in that war and burnt down the white house was a pretty sweet day.

The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, 1215, better known as the Magna Carta. It is a historical document of immense significance, and laid the foundation for much of Western law up to the 19th century, including in the American colonies, and it also influenced the creation of the Bill of Rights - that's the English Bill of Rights mind you, codified in 1689, which greatly influenced the American Bill of Rights which was adopted by Congress in 1789, becoming part of law two years later.

Not many moments in Scottish history that changed the course of the world, but many of which are still very interesting to me at least. Lots of interesting stuff already mentioned by others such as the Highland Clearances, the numerous wars with England, but what I would say was the most interesting to me personally is the mystery of the Picts. The Picts being the name for the people native to north & eastern Scotland, predating the Roman's first coming to the island of Britannia. A Celtic group of people, but we know so little of them: very few thing they wrote down have survived, & basically the Picts vanish from the records after about the 10th century CE, as what became the Kingdom of Scotland was taken over by the Irish Gaels from the kingdom of Dal Riada, based in Argyll & the Hebrides.

So yeah, I'd say Scottish history from after the end of the last ice age (or at least the recession of the ice sheet from the British Isles) until about the founding of the Kingdom of Scotland in around 900CE is the most interesting moment to me. But honestly, there's lots of great moments to choose from

Unsurprisingly, some of the most interesting stories from Australian history are of a criminal nature. So often, these tales also bring to light the corruption, by the few, infested in authority and governance. One particular story of mythological proportions from the 1870s is of the Victorian bushranger, Ned Kelly. Simple cop killer? Possibly the failed hero of the non-Anglo-Saxon underclass of the (roughly at the time) richest colony of Britain? The Kelly Gang's story is one of crime, rebellion, corruption.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly

However you judge the man, he had bitchin' armour.

Well, there was a big fucking explosion in our harbour. That was pretty awesome.

The separation movement is also very interesting, if only because the situation is so absurd.

If you go further back than that, our history is kind of about fish.

It's not MY country, but it still involved my country.

11/9/89 - The fall of the Berlin wall.

I always tell people that 11/9 is a more important date to me than 9/11 and they look at me dumbfounded.

Civil War's pretty interesting.

dikpix Tuesday.