Most defining event during our lifetimes

skywalker

Was listening to the radio yesterday & they were talking about Obama's election. The reporter casually mentioned that this was THE defining historic event of our lifetime. Id disagree.

It did get me thinking though & I came up with my own little list, with one clearly standing out above the others. I asked a couple people for their opinions & the first person actually gave me back the exact same top 3 id come up with. Other folks threw a few different ones into the mix. So Im curious to see what the concensus is.

So I put it to you boardsies, in 100 years time, when people look back on the last 25 or so years. What one event will stick out in that period?

Danbo!

USA '94
The death of Joe Dolan
September 11th
Terry at the Spire
Jordan and Peter Andre's Wedding

gino85

end of comunisim
twin towers attack
and the boyzone reunion

HashSlinging

Berlin wall
Twin Towers
Obama

4zn76tysfajdxp

September 11th.

Edit: And the whole financial crisis thing, supposedly the whole world is collapsing around us. Shít.

walshb

The single biggest event and tragedy or news worthy event in my time has been 9/11.

Photi

Berlin Wall.
Belfast Agreement
Euro
September 11
Banking Crash
Obama

OldGoat

skywalker wrote: »

So I put it to you boardsies, in 100 years time, when people look back on the last 25 or so years. What one event will stick out in that period?

Agest! Some of us go back further then that.:)
First man on the moon.

Mint Sauce

9/11
good friday agreement
african american voted president (still think its one of them)
berlin wall

skywalker

OldGoat wrote: »

Agest! Some of us go back further then that.:)
First man on the moon.

Hehe, yeah id considered that one alright. Reckon that one becomes the default if you were around for it.

Nodin

walshb wrote: »

The single biggest event and tragedy or news worthy event in my time has been 9/11.

And not the Tsunami that killed somewhere between 190 - 290,000 thousand people.

4zn76tysfajdxp

Nodin wrote: »

And not the Tsunami that killed somewhere between 190 - 290,000 thousand people.

No, that was a natural disaster. 9/11 is much more important becuase of the murderous intent behind it and the impact it has had on many millions of lives since. By that I mean in America, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. It literally did change the world, the tsunami didn't.

OldGoat

Nodin wrote: »

And not the Tsunami that killed somewhere between 190 - 290,000 thousand people.

It's all down to the amount of TV coverage it gets. Now if the Asians hadda used waterproof digicams and photophones this would have made a much more impressive disaster.

OldGoat

Sloan Nervous Elf wrote: »

No, that was a natural disaster. 9/11 is much more important becuase of the murderous intent behind it and the impact it has had on many millions of lives since. By that I mean in America, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. It literally did change the world, the tsunami didn't.

:eek:

An Fear Aniar

Nodin wrote: »

And not the Tsunami that killed somewhere between 190 - 290,000 thousand people.

Very few of them were English speakers though.


.

4zn76tysfajdxp

OldGoat wrote: »

:eek:

Well I don't think so. I don't think it made as big an impact on the world as pretty much everything alse posted.*

Look, before everyone gets all angry and starts a-flamin', it's probably just best to ignore me. I don't know anything.




Edit: *Except for the post directly below me.

wyndham

25 June 1990, 1700h, Genoa, Stadio Luigi Ferraris.

PENALTIES Goal 0-1 Gheorghe Hagi (ROM)
Goal 1-1 Kevin Sheedy (IRE)
Goal 1-2 Danut Lupu (ROM)
Goal 2-2 Ray Houghton (IRE)
Goal 2-3 Iosif Rotariu (ROM)
Goal 3-3 Andy Townsend (IRE)
Goal 3-4 Ioan Lupescu (ROM)
Goal 4-4 Tony Cascarino (IRE)
Miss 4-4 Daniel Timofte (ROM)
Goal 5-4 David O'Leary (IRE)

Nodin

Sloan Nervous Elf wrote: »

No, that was a natural disaster. 9/11 is much more important becuase of the murderous intent behind it and the impact it has had on many millions of lives since. By that I mean in America, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. It literally did change the world, the tsunami didn't.

Thats a valid point. However if you look at the phrasing of the original statement, that doesn't appear to be what he was getting at. "Tragedy".

minidazzler

September 11th.
Start of WWIII
Berlin Wall.

(Yes the start of WWIII is going on at the moment. It will last a long time.)

javaboy

wyndham wrote: »

Saved 4-4 Daniel Timofte (ROM)

FYP

Nodin

An Fear Aniar wrote: »

Very few of them were English speakers though.

Very true. Or that wealthy. Rumour has it they feel pain and mourn much as we do, but this could be a left wing rumour.....

OldGoat

Sloan Nervous Elf wrote: »

it's probably just best to ignore me. I don't know anything.

[Tries to ignore Sloan Nervous Elf but the Batman costume tends to catch the eye]
I must not stalk.
I must not stalk.
I must no........

An Fear Aniar

A big event I'm hoping won't happen, but could, is the bursting of the derivatives bubble.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/a-163516-trillion-derivatives-timebomb-958699.html

Most markets have something behind them. Central banks require reserves – something that backs up the transaction. But derivatives don't have anything – because they are not real money, but paper money. It is also impossible to establish their worth – the $516 trillion number is actually only a notional one. In the mid-Nineties, Nick Leeson lost Barings £1.3bn trading in derivatives, and the bank went bust. In 1998 hedge fund LTCM's $5bn loss nearly brought down the entire system. In fragile times like this, another LTCM could have catastrophic results.


.

4zn76tysfajdxp

OldGoat wrote: »

[Tries to ignore Frada but the Batman costume tends to catch the eye]

It's not a costume, it's a uniform.

Quazzie

9/11 was a bigger event on the world stage than the tsunami because simply put it changed everything. While the tsunami was a terrible event that lots of people will remember, 9/11 changed the world we live in. The financial implications were massive, and tbh it affected Irish life a lot more than the tsunami because of all the American influences in our lives.

My top three are:
9/11 - A global change for most.
Arsene Wenger - transformed english football forever
Italia 90 - signalled the turnaround of most things in Ireland

giddybootz

skywalker wrote: »

THE defining historic event of our lifetime.

9/11 for sure. the tsunami was a much more tragic loss of life but i agree with Frada, 9/11 was a more defining historic event because of the intent behind it and the chain of reaction it set off.

i do think that Obama becoming president is a monumental event but i also think that if 9/11 never happened and if the resulting war/s had never happened then President Obama may never have happened.

asdasd

Berlin Wall.
Belfast Agreement
Euro
September 11
Banking Crash
Obama

I would agree with that list except for Obama. I am a sorta-fan of America who defends the country from the Guardian liberals, and Channel 4 lovers, who detest it.

Except, as it turns out, they don't.

They love it but it rejected them. Now they can love the US once again. Jon Snow was having a wet dream for the last two days. The guardian needs so much more space to eulogise Obama ( the Messiah!) the world will run our of paper tomorrow.

This new pathological "love" of a declining world power because they have rectified internal mistakes with regards to discrimination ( something which should be irrelevant to the rest of the world) is as nonsensical as the pathological hate of the country.

We have no idea what Obama will do. I think he will be an America first protectionist, since his sympathies are not with global capital, can't be.

But that is not a world historical moment. Neither I suppose was the good friday agreement, however there is no doubt that the Berlin Wall, September 11, and the present crash are world historical.

Of them all the collapse of Communism the is biggest, not least because it affected the others.

The Obama presidency. Not that important.

Biggins

Martin Luther King
Man on the moon
Berlin wall
Mandela
Twin Towers
Afganistan/Iraq frak up
Obama

asdasd

Martin Luther King
Man on the moon

25 years from today starts in 1984. The man on the moon is not a world defining event because nothing else happened, and King is a local poltical even in America.

mike65

"our lifetime" is a bit flexible as it depends on your age and how long you have till you die.

The biggest event so far in mine - collapse of Soviet communism but the biggest yet to come is end of oil

m83

My birth.

Quazzie

mike65 wrote: »

"our lifetime" is a bit flexible as it depends on your age and how long you have till you die.

The biggest event so far in mine - collapse of Soviet communism but the biggest yet to come is end of oil

I dont think you'll be alive for that Mike.

plus its of this generation not specific to individual lifetimes

mike65

hey! we're all living much longer these days!

/feels for zimmer frame

Quazzie

Oil is going to last at least another 70-100 years, for two reasons.
1. We are/will become less dependant on it.
2. There are oil fields belonging to China that aren't even developed yet.

4zn76tysfajdxp

m83 wrote: »

My birth.

Yeah, it's one of those questions:

• Where were you when the Titanic sank?
• Where were you when Kennedy was shot?
• Where were you when Lennon was shot?
• Where were you on 9/11?
• Where were you when m83 was born?

All pivotal moments in our world's young lifetime.

mike65

mike65 wrote: »

The biggest event so far in mine - collapse of Soviet communism but the biggest yet to come is end of oil

Sad but true.

September 11th 2001 for me.

asdasd

Actually I thought of one other historical even which is far more important than Obama's election and it is Tim Berners Lee's new fangled mark-up language from 1992.

EDIT:

Without which we wouldnt be here.

prendy

i think september 11th is the defining moment, i dont think another world event has changed the way we live as much as that single day.

i think in 10 years time the current banking collapse will be included but as we dont know when it will end and what the long term ramifications will be it's too early to put this in yet.

Biggins

asdasd wrote: »

25 years from today starts in 1984. The man on the moon is not a world defining event because nothing else happened, and King is a local poltical even in America.

Strange, I thought the title of the thread was "Most defining event during our lifetimes"

Sorry, didn't see the hidden clauses saying it was only for the last 25 years, a non-local (King a local event!!!) political event and had to be continuous!

:rolleyes:

asdasd

King a local event!!!

I meant it was local to America. I think people over-estimate the impact of America on the world, which is why the election of Obama - the reason for this thread - is not that important. In mu opinion, of course. YOu may argue it had effects across the globe.

kevpants

The 9/11 vs Tsunami thing reminds me of some comedian who I can't rememebr talking about how he was touring around South America in September 2001 and was in some little shop with a crappy portable TV behind the counter.

He saw what was happening and thought "Wow, these south american countries are fukced up", and kind of shook his head and went to leave.

Then he realised where this was happening, New York! And that the people in the buildings spoke english! And that this was THE GREATEST CATASTROPHE THE WORLD HAS EVER WITNESSED!!!!11!!eleven!!!1

Latchy

John Lennons Death (3 years out )
The Berlin wall
9/11
Obama

asdasd

Sorry, didn't see the hidden clauses saying it was only for the last 25 years, a non-local(King a local event!!!) political event and had to be continuous!

Well the 25 years was mentioned in the original post, and as for conintuous - if man getting the moon were to lead to something it would be, in retrospect, a defining moment.

1492 was a defining moment because of what Columbus did next. if hothing else happened, and Europeans stayed away it would be a side story. Some chap got lost.

OldGoat

Biggins wrote: »

Strange, I thought the title of the thread was "Most defining event during our lifetimes"

Sorry, didn't see the hidden clauses saying it was only for the last 25 years, a non-local (King a local event!!!) political event and had to be continuous!

:rolleyes:

I blame the OP. Danged young'ns can't even phrase a question proper.

Earthhorse

mike65 wrote: »

"our lifetime" is a bit flexible as it depends on your age and how long you have till you die.

Yeah, not entirely sure what the scope of the thread is. The Berlin Wall collapsing and September 11 to me seem like the biggest individual moments that led to huge changes on a large scale or at least were symbolic of them.

asdasd wrote: »

Actually I thought of one other historical even which is far more important than Obama's election and it is Tim Berners Lee's new fangled mark-up language from 1992.

Surprised it took so long for this to be mentioned. The internet has changed how we, as human beings, interact with the world and each other. We've yet to see the first internet from infant generation come of age too and it will be interesting to see how it shapes them and their social interactions.

Mint Sauce

OldGoat wrote: »

Agest! Some of us go back further then that.:)
First man on the moon.

but does it count if it was done in a TV studio

4zn76tysfajdxp

Earthhorse wrote: »

We've yet to see the first internet from infant generation come of age too and it will be interesting to see how it shapes them and their social interactions.

I don't know about their social interactions, but I'd say they'll be shaped like eggs.

IvyTheTerrible

Collapse of communism
9/11
The tsunami (yes)
The collapse of the world banking system.

I am waiting for:
The last of the oil
Wars over food supply

Earthhorse

Sloan Nervous Elf wrote: »

I don't know about their social interactions.

Maybe someday Sloan Nervous Elf, eh? Maybe someday.

Mc Love

of my lifetime, i think it has to be the 9/11 attacks. Nothing has shocked or scared me as much

pallepille

didnt they bring the Wispa back