Millions of moments have shaped the world as we know it today. Some were major turning points, like certain wars, inventions and discoveries. Others might seem less important... But even the events we perceive as slightly insignificant have played a big part in history.
Of course, so much has happened throughout the years that it could be easy to forget a lot of it. That's where photography, writing, documenting and archiving come in. They preserve the memories of people, places and things so that future generations can look back and see how far humanity has come, and how far we have yet to go.
If you dig taking a deep dive into the past, you might want to join an online community called Archive of Humanity. It has close to 100,000 weekly visitors, and is a "curated space dedicated to preserving the visual legacy of our species." From pivotal moments in human history to major breakthroughs in space exploration, science, and technology, the page is a beautiful, bottomless virtual archive.
Bored Panda has put together a compilation of its most interesting posts for you to scroll through while even more history is made today.
"For the oldest Americans, the Silent and Greatest generations, that unifying event is World War II. For Baby Boomers, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War are defining moments," reads the site. "For Millennials and Gen Xers, 9/11 and the Obama election leads the list by a greater margin than for other generations."
What are the five most significant historical events on your opinion? Let us know in the comments section below…
#22 Algeria Is Home To Seven Unesco World Heritage Sites And Is The Second Country In The World With The Most Roman Ruins After Italy
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36points
#23 A Bedouin Woman From Tunisia In 1907
35points
#24 Cueva De Las Manos (Cave Of The Hands) In The Río Pinturas Canyon In Southern Argentina, The Handprints Were Placed In Waves From 7,300 Bc All The Way To Ad 700
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34points
#25 Norwegian Storyteller Eiliv Braatene Spent Much Of His Life As A Wandering Vagabond, Carrying All His Possessions In A Tin Can And A Small Bundle, 1897
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32points
#26 This Is What Mount Saint Helens Looked Like Before And After Its 1980 Eruption
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32points
#28 Nagasaki, 20 Minutes After The Atomic Bombing In Japan, 1945
31points
#29 Aloha Airlines Flight 243 Lost Its Fuselage Midair And Landed Safely On 28th April 1988
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31points
#30 A Migratory Mexican Field Worker Stands Beside His Makeshift Home Near A Pea Field In Imperial Valley, California, 1937
Photographed By Dorothea Lange During The Great Depression, Capturing The Stark Realities Of Agricultural Labor And Displacement.
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30points
#31 An Ottoman Supply Train Still Resting Where It Was Ambushed By Lawrence Of Arabia Over 100 Years Ago On The Hejaz Railway
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29points
#32 Soviet Northern Explorer Nikolai Machulyak Feeds Polar Bears With Condensed Milk. Chukchi Sea, 1976
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29points
#33 The First Ever Underwater Photograph Taken In The South Of France At A Depth Of 164 Feet By Louis Boutan In 1899
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29points
#34 The Stadium At Aphrodisias In Modern Turkey, Built During The 1st Century Ad, Is Among The Best-Preserved Examples Of Ancient Greek Stadiums
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29points
#35 Norwegian Ethnologist Thor Heyerdahl And His Raft 'Kon-Tiki' Crossing The Pacific Ocean
Heyerdahl Built The Boat And Sailed It From Peru To Polynesia In 101 Days, Thus Demonstrating That Trips Of That Magnitude Were Within The Realm Of Possibility For Prehistoric Peoples (1947)
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29points
#36 A Page From The Voynich Manuscript Written Sometime In The 1400s. The Book Has Unknown Plants And Is Written In A Language That Has Yet To Be Deciphered
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28points
#37 Astronaut Frank Culbertson, Aboard The Iss, Was The Only American To Witness The 9/11 Events From Space; His Historic Photograph Captures A Visible Plume Of Smoke Rising Over Manhattan
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27points
#38 The Only Surviving War Elephant Armour In The World From 17th Century India Displayed At The Royal Armouries Museum In Leeds, England
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27points
#39 The Cosquer Cave Is A Palaeolithic Decorated Cave, Located In France, That Contains Numerous Cave Drawings Dating Back As Far As 27,000 Years Bp
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27points
#40 Woman Kneeling Next To Bed Of Child, In An Underground Tunnel During The Bombing Of London, World War II, January 1945
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27points