50 Defining Events in World History

[Iolanthe]

I was going to suggest the plague (the 1348/9 one now called the black death) as it affected most of the known world at the time. However, labourers didn't have it their own way for long. In 1349 Edward III brought in the Statutes of Labour. I have a reference to one of my people being fined a shilling for breaking the statute in 1349. He was a shoemaker, probably fined for selling his shoes at too high a price. One result of the plague though was the rise of "sturdy beggars" - that is people who could work but chose to beg instead. Because of the rise of these people the great Poor Law Act of 1601 was passed and this had repercussions that are still with us in the present day if you follow through to the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (when the Poor Law Unions were created and workhouses built) which in its turn led to the National Health Service. There's a string for you.

The dissolution of the monestaries by Henry VIII was also part of the reason for the poor law act of 1601. Monks had traditionally been the carers of the poor and sick, and the giving of alms to the poor was one way of shortening the time spent in pergatory. With the dissolution and the eventual change to Church of England and puritanism all this went by the wayside and nothing replaced it until 1601.

[peter]

Good suggestions Iolanthe. Many thanks.

[peter]

WATERLOO !!!! {Did Wellingtons victory stifle the cause of republicanism in Europe and entrench the anciem regime across the continent such that it still in large part exists to this day?}

[Iolanthe]

Well, it certainly enhanced the work of Tchaikovsky (and Abba).

How about Charlemaine and Francia (following on from Charles Martel)?

And the Code of Hammurabi?

Did you mention the Magna Carta? Can't remember.

[Edited to add] George Boole (born right here in Lincoln). Boolean logic, father of computers. [ we had a talk about him at a family history meeting earlier in the year

[JIkj fjds j]

WATERLOO !!!! {Did Wellingtons victory stifle the cause of republicanism in Europe and entrench the anciem regime across the continent such that it still in large part exists to this day?}

peter, that's disgusting.

[Avatar]

And the Code of Hammurabi?

Good one.

--A

[peter]

WATERLOO !!!! {Did Wellingtons victory stifle the cause of republicanism in Europe and entrench the anciem regime across the continent such that it still in large part exists to this day?}

peter, that's disgusting.

Joy is in the ears that hear Viz.

[peter]

Another one whose 70th Aniversary happens to be today; The first use of a thermonuclear device against an enemy nation.

[Ur Dead]

When Prometheus brought fire to human. Thus the arsonist was born.
How many towns, cities and villages were burnt down over the ages during conflicts?
How many careless cookouts cause untold forest fires. Which burnt down the nearest village, town, city?
How many young boys fascination with fire cause them to start a hut fire and burnt down their village, town, or city?

Definitely a Defining Event.

[Savor Dam]

At the risk of furthering my reputation as a pedant, the bombs used 70 years ago last month were atomic, but not thermonuclear.

Both are too mighty to be unleashed on civilian populations (yes, I understand the choice Truman made!), but the magnitude of the destructive capacity difference between the two kinds of weapons is too easily glossed-over.

[peter]

Pedantry accepted SD. Could you give a brief layman's explanation of the difference?

The absolutely most defining event in world history which ocurred 40,000ish years ago was the development of symbolic expression by the first artists. More important than the use of fire or tool making as a milestone in our journey up from the brutes, I'm not however including it because it does not sit easily in the context of the project.

[Mighara Sovmadhi]

From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on the doctrine of divine illumination in theological epistemology:

The theory of divine illumination is generally conceived of as distinctively Christian, distinctively medieval, and distinctively Augustinian. There is some justification for this, of course, inasmuch as Christian medieval philosophers gave the theory serious and sustained discussion, and inasmuch as Augustine gave illumination a very prominent role in his theory of knowledge. Still, it is better to think of the theory in a wider context. Divine illumination played a prominent part in ancient Greek philosophy, in the later Greek commentary tradition, in neo-Platonism, and in medieval Islamic philosophy. Moreover, it was Christian medieval philosophers, near the end of the thirteenth century, who were ultimately responsible for decisively refuting the theory. I will suggest that we view this last development as the first great turning point in the history of cognitive theory. [emphasis added by M. Sovmadhi]

Another thing to consider is all the effort that went into CERN. Might make one rethink knocking globalization so much but I jest, not sure that's the right concept for the thing as such.

EDIT: Not sure if I saw Socrates' trial mentioned, so just in case...

Other thoughts... hmm... uh, well... the dispute over Euclid's fifth postulate or whatever, paved the way for Einstein's appropriation of non-Euclidean geometry, among other things. The dispute over the existence of unicorns was central to the metanarrative of the Scientific Revolution, a debate that included such things as an early example of sheer deference to the Bible in support of the non-scientific belief in question.

[DrPaul]

The invention of the printing press for the reason given above. [Holy Roman Empire 1440]

The first printing presses were invented in China and Korea some time before then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... .281040.29

[Avatar]

Sneaky buggers.

--A

[peter]

Yes, but then they only used them to print kids party invitations!

[Avatar]

--A

[Ur Dead]

A little known event.

When they were able to manufacture a Darlington Pair.
(2 transistors on the same substrate wafer)

It leads to IC's.

Which further leads to circuit miniaturization.
Which allows computer to become smaller,portable and ever more powerful.

So with the computers a huge amount of technologies emerge that impact
our society today.

Within 60 years of it conception more knowledge has been found and stored
than the previous 1000's of years..

[peter]

Apparently Moore's Law is reaching it's limit though, pretty much as we speak; something to do with chip circuitry being as small as its physically possible for it to get thus hitting the upper limit of processing power that can be crammed onto one.

[Avatar]

Is ok, this quantum computing stuff will probably allow us to circumvent it.

--A

[peter]

I wonder what the successful completion of a quantum computer would tell us about the quantum theory? It's bound to be predicated upon one or other of the various interpretations of the theory thus confirming this one (or more than one) to the cost of the others - isn't it?