It planted the seeds for World War II as well as for many of the Middle East problems we face today. Lisa Randall, professor of physics, Harvardĭespite being the year after World War I ended, 1919 wasn’t so great. It’s possible that influenza killed more people in September, October, and November of 1918 than AIDS has killed in all the years since it entered the human population. Credible estimates of the death toll range from nearly 2 percent to well over 5 percent of the entire world population. The year 1918 saw not only the butchery of World War I but a worldwide influenza pandemic. John Barry, author, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History There’s a direct connection between 1914-which saw the outbreak of World War I and the initial embrace of modern warfare-and World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, and even today’s drones. Mark Kurlansky, author, Ready for a Brand New Beat: How "Dancing in the Street" Became the Anthem for a Changing America By that December, hundreds of thousands of men lay dead across the Continent and, although the world did not know it, Europe faced another four years of a conflict that would cast a long and poisonous shadow over the future. Until the end of July 1914, Europe was rich, prosperous and peaceful. The housing market here has been a living hell ever since. Until then, you could find a nice piece of land in California, pitch your tent, and call it home. Peter Segal, director, Anger Management, 50 First Dates, and Grudge Match (out December 25)ĭefinitely 1848, the year gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill. On a per capita basis, King Philip’s War was the bloodiest conflict ever fought on American soil. In 1675, the considerable promise of the First Thanksgiving in 1621 was destroyed by a devastating Native American–English clash. Nathaniel Philbrick, author, Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution Self-righteousness, plots, and spies were everywhere. The same year saw the rise of the Holy League in France. The Sack of Antwerp in 1576 not only destroyed thousands of lives and a great city, but created economic chaos in Europe. Harold Cook, professor of history, Brown University So depending on where you stood, the year was a tragedy or a triumph. At the same time, the epidemic was key to the beginning of Europe’s colonial empires. ![]() ![]() In 1520, smallpox hit the Americas, eventually killing between 60 and 90 percent of the continents’ original inhabitants. Mann, author, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Thanks, 1100s, for enabling genocidal levels of violence for centuries.Ĭharles C. We would have been better off sticking with fists and knives. Sometime in the 1100s, the Chinese invented firearms. And that was just the first day of a very bad year-it got worse.īaratunde Thurston, CEO and co-founder, Cultivated Wit author, How to Be Black It ended up incinerating all life for hundreds to thousands of miles and causing a perhaps mile-high tsunami that wiped the East Coast of North America as clean as a billiard ball. Some 65.5 million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid struck what would one day be Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Peter Ward, paleontologist, University of Washington
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