1. That you need to know to be a
functioning member of this planet.

2. 406 AD

Visigoths move west and sack Rome
-- first in a series of invasions by Germanic tribes
-- beginning of the end of Roman Empire

3. 

4. 1066 
Battle of Hastings
-- Norman conquest of England
-- William the Conqueror becomes first Norman King of
England

5. 1215 
Signing of the Magna Carta
-- King John of England signs
-- first real limits of the power
of monarchy
-- influences the New England
settlers in the 1600s

6. 1492 
Christopher Columbus first of
four trips to the Americas
-- Italian; sails for Spain after
securing funding
-- looking for an westward
passage to Asia
-- calls where he lands San
Salvador (The Bahamas &
Hispaniola)

7. 

8. 1776 
American colonies
declare independence
from Britain
-- Fighting starts at
Lexington & Concord in
April, 1775
-- Declaration signed in
Philadelphia
-- “If we don’t hang
together, we will surely
hang separately.” -- Ben
Franklin

9. 1789 
French Revolution – Storming of the Bastille
-- Overthrowing Louis XVI
-- Ten year reign of violence
-- Rise of Napoleon

10. 1865 
 End of the American Civil War
 750,000 soldiers dead
 10% of all Northern males 20-45
 30% of all Southern white males
18-40
 Can American democracy
survive?

11. 1917 
 Bolshevik Revolution
 Vladimir Lenin leads
Communist revolution
 Beginning of Soviet
Union (lasts into early
90s)
 Begins the international
paradigm for the next
70 years.

12. 1939 
 Germany invades
Poland
 Start of WW II
 Effort by Nazi
Germany to establish
European hegemony

13. 

14. 1941 
 Bombing of Pearl Harbor
 Japanese forces attack US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
 Next day, US enters WW II for allies
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv1niwxQgoY

15. 1945 
 US drops Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan
 End of WW II
 Ushers in the “nuclear age”
 Was this just?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF4LQaWJRDg

16. 1949 
 Mao Zedong takes control of China
 Communist China established
 Great Leap Forward; Cultural Revolution
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUCEeC4f6ts

17. 

18. 1969 
 America lands a man on the moon
 Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin
 Goal laid out by JFK in 1961
 Space Race vs. Soviets
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMINSD7MmT4

19. 1989 
 Fall of the Berlin Wall
 Ending of the Cold War
 Cold War: Decades long struggle
between USSR v. USA
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snsdDb7KDkg
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HjvHZfCUI

20. 

21. 2001 
 Terrorist Attacks on US on Sept. 11
 Largest attack on US soil
 War on Terror begins
 US invades Afghanistan and Iraq