Past events still shaping today.

The rest of the ladder

1. 604

   

   Sinking of RMS Lusitania 1915

   score 16

   The Lusitania's sinking became a pivotal moment in shifting American sentiment toward the war.

2. 605

   

   Reformation Begins 1517

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

3. 606

   

   First Telegraph Message Sent 1844

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

4. 607

   

   Chinese Civil War Begins 1927

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

5. 608

   

   Ottoman Sultanate Abolished 1922

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

6. 609

   

   Bolshevik Red Army Defeats White Forces 1922

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

7. 610

   

   Indo-Pakistani War 1947

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

8. 611

   

   Jet Engine First Flight 1939

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

9. 612

   

   German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact 1939

   score 16

   Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

10. 613

    

    Fidel Castro Takes Power 1959

    score 16

    Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

11. 614

    

    Concorde's First Supersonic Flight 1969

    score 16

    Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

12. 615

    

    Introduction of Decimal Currency 1971

    score 16

    Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

13. 616

    

    Argentina Wins 1978 World Cup 1978

    score 16

    Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

14. 617

    

    Sony Walkman Released to Market 1979

    score 16

    Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

15. 618

    

    1992 Los Angeles Riots 1992

    score 16

    Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

16. 619

    

    Marconi's first wireless telegraph transmission 1895

    score 16

    Marconi's 1895 experiments demonstrated that radio waves could carry signals without wires, eliminating the physical infrastructure requirements of telegraph systems.

    • evolved intoFirst Transatlantic Radio Broadcast1906
    • evolved intoFirst Transatlantic Telegraph Cable1866
17. 620

    

    Bandung Conference 1955

    score 16

    The Bandung Conference of April 1955 assembled 29 Asian and African nations to assert their collective voice in a Cold War divided by superpowers.

    • made possibleSuez Crisis1956
18. 621

    

    Treaty of Paris (Crimean War) 1856

    score 16

    The Treaty of Paris in March 1856 ended the Crimean War and redrew the map of European power.

    • anticipatedUnification of Italy1861
    • evolved intoSuez Crisis1956
19. 622

    

    The Great Leap Forward Famine 1958

    score 16

    The famine remains one of the deadliest man-made disasters in recorded history, demonstrating how centralized economic policy divorced from ground-level reality can produce catastrophic humanitarian collapse.

20. 623

    

    Nativity of Jesus Christ 4

    score 16

    Sits upstream of multiple events in this archive; the present still inherits its choices.

21. 624

    

    Women's Suffrage in Britain 1928

    score 16

    The 1928 Equal Franchise Act completed Britain's transition to near-universal adult suffrage and removed one of the last formal legal barriers to women's political participation.

22. 625

    

    First Radio Broadcast of Music 1906

    score 16

    Fessenden's 1906 broadcast didn't just prove radio could transmit music—it demonstrated the commercial and cultural potential of wireless technology.

23. 626

    

    1900 Paris Exposition Universelle 1900

    score 16

    The 1900 Paris Exposition crystallized the optimism and contradictions of the Industrial Age, showcasing everything from electricity and automobiles to ethnographic exhibits that reinforced colonial hierarchies.

24. 627

    

    First Moon Landing by Soviet Union 1966

    score 16

    Luna 9's successful soft landing demonstrated that the Moon was reachable and survivable for spacecraft, removing a major technical unknown that had haunted space planners.