The Course Of Human History Was Forever Altered By These 30 Key Moments

We would be technologically 50 years in the future today and climate change would be more managable.

He spent so much money (in gold) that he altered the North African and Mediterranean economies for decades.

1982. The spiked Tylenol bottles that killed 7 people (cyanide). That had a major impact. All of our packaging today, for literally everything, was changed by that one moment.

Completely winded the Afghans, turned the Mughals into puppets and weakened the Marathas greatly. This turmoil was astonishingly good fortune to the lucky British who were then able to scrap their way to the top of India. Once the British had India, the history of Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa was set.

It centered in the U.S. and sparked the Great Recession, the worst downturn since the 1929 crash. It was caused by risky subprime mortgages, excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, and lack of regulation. The crisis began in 2007 with the collapse of mortgage-backed securities, leading to a global liquidity crisis and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Before that, popular music was basically sub 3 minute love songs. The Beatles’ increased time to make records let them explore and experiment which showed that good unformulaic music could sell well too. There’s no Stairway, Bohemian Rhapsody or even California Love (a little stretch) without the Beatles making the decision.

The radar operators in Hawaii saw the Japanese airplanes coming in on December 7th 1941, and called it in, and the warning was ignored.

He was called home early for business matters and rode the SS Amerika instead. Definitely changed the way that southern Pennsylvania and chocolate are today.

It lead to prevent knocking in fuel. Not only did it likely give the majority of the population minor brain damage but the alternative at the time was mixing some ethanol in with the fuel. So it likely also set biofuel technology nack decades.

If Obama hadn't roasted Trump at the White House correspondents dinner, we'd likely never had a President Trump.