The excellent series on the History Channel, 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America, continues to be very educational and quite entertaining. Watching these 10 events, I feel compelled to add and question if perhaps other unexpected events would be in my top 10. Their events are:
- Massacre at Mystic
- Shays’ Rebellion: America’s First Civil War
- Gold Rush
- Antietam
- The Homestead Strike
- Murder at the Fair: The Assassination of President McKinley
- Scopes: The Battle over America’s Soul
- Einstein’s Letter
- When America Was Rocked
- Freedom Summer
After reading the list, I could not help notice the lack of inclusion of events drawing the US into a war. The sinking of the Lusitania, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin. While all of these lead to war and perhaps one could predict it, the total cost and impact to the country could not have been known by anyone.
Nothing on this list leads to the US declaring its independence from England. I’m not sure I can point to a single day that led the founding fathers to make that decision and the country to make the required sacrifice. The events that come to mind fill today’s elementary school books. The Shot Heard Round the World, seems to fit the bill. However, this was in volatile New England and may have meant little to a New Yorker or Georgian. Bunker Hill (Breed’s Hill) is another event following the Boston Massacre that could have set the country on a direction of succession.
Economic events include The Federal Reserve, going off the gold starndard and, my favorite, the invention of the semiconductor which has to rank very high in terms of impact to the US and the world.