The History Channel's "10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America"

[Goodsport]

      Who else here watched this recent ten-part series? I recorded it on my DVR and just recently finished watching it all.

      As the title suggests, the series illustrated ten days in American history that were newsworthy in their own right, but had even greater unforseen (by most, anyway) consequences on American history, and in some cases on world history.

      Listed in chronological order (as opposed to broadcast order):

• Massacre at Mystic (May 26, 1637)

• Shay's Rebellion: America's First Civil War (January 25, 1787)

• Gold Rush (January 24, 1848)

• Antietam (September 17, 1862)

• The Homestead Strike (July 6, 1892)

• Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinnley (September 6, 1901)

• Scopes: The Battle over America's Soul (July 21, 1925)

• Einstein's Letter (July 16, 1939)

• When America Was Rocked (September 9, 1956)

• Freedom Summer (June 21, 1964)

      How differently would America have evolved had any or all of these events ended differently or hadn't occured at all?


-G

 

[Jay R. Zay]

this is very naive. these final incidents are the results of long ranging processes and developments. skipping these days wouldn't change a thing and skipping the web of coincidences and consequences that eventually lead to these points would be a very unserious approach. you can't skip ten years of history and then call it a surprising incident.

as a local example, many people believe that the day the berlin wall was torn down was a sudden revolution. it wasn't. it was a "lucky" day but it would have happened anyway, just a couple of years sooner or later. the history of the world doesn't "change" in a single day, it's just that there are famous public actions that are made to look like a turning point. east germany and its soviet reign was dead long before they tore down the wall. and if you look closely at the ten incidents, you will notice, that they all are just consequences, no initial actions.

 

[Goodsport]

and if you look closely at the ten incidents, you will notice, that they all are just consequences, no initial actions.

      Well, yes and no.

      It's true that historical events don't live in a vacuum and these events certainly had things that built up to them. However, at least some of them certainly did launch events that either wouldn't have otherwise taken place or would've taken place a lot later than they did.

      For example, the discovery of gold in California shortly after the U.S. won the territory from Mexico was the excuse and catalyst that eventually grew San Francisco from a small encampment to a major port city in only four years and granted California U.S. statehood only two years after the first gold was discovered there in 1848, which was in itself unusual as basically all U.S. land between Missouri and the U.S. west coast was still officially only comprised of Territories by that point.

      Another example is the assassination of President McKinnley, who by all accounts was a very conservative president both economically and in foreign affairs. Once his similar-in-temperament Vice-President had died in office, the New York industry bosses/McKinnley financial supporters made sure that reformist New York governor Theodore Roosevelt became the interim Vice-President (just to get him out of their way in New York ). Once McKinnley died, though, Roosevelt suddenly became the President and immediately set sweeping economic reforms and began America's more involved foreign policy that, for better or for worse, continues to this day to one extent or another.


-G

 

[roundshort]

Nice threads and a very interesting chocie of events. I am not sure they are what I would have choosen. but I did not get to see the show, to hear the explanations.
Scopes is the most interesting as it was a totally for show trial, I would rather have seen Roe vs. Wade about the battle for our soul. But i could probably list 100 events. Nice thread, and dang Jay, that might have been your kindest response ever! You going soft on us?