Days That Changed the World

The currents of history run deep and often unseen beneath the everyday ripple of events. But now and again the current rises to the surface, and the events of a single day shed an exceptional light on the meaning of the past. Such events are the subject of Days that Changed The World. Some of the 50 days described here mark the end of an era; others the start of something new. All are remembered as powerful symbols of their time. The book begins nearly 2500 years ago on 28 September 480 years before the Christian Era, when the Athenian navy destroyed the Persian invasion fleet in the Bay of Salamis. Had the Persians won we might never have heard the names of Plato, Aristotle or Alexander, nor recognize the word democracy. Charting 50 such defining moments, concluding with 11 September 2001 and the destruction of New York's Twin Towers, Days that Changed The World is a unique and fascinating way to portray the story of world history.Introduction The Battle of Salamis The Assassination of Julius Caesar The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ The Dedication of Constantinople A Confederacy of German Tribes Crosses the Rhine The Death of Muhammad The Battle of Tours The Coronation of Charlemagne Pope Urban II Preaches the First Crusade The Death of Genghis Khan The Fall of Constantinople Columbus Makes Landfall in the Bahamas Magellan Sets Sail for South America Luther Defies Charles V at the Diet of Worms The Defeat of the Spanish Armada Tokugawa Ieyasu Wins the Battle of Sekigahara The Foundation of Jamestown, Virginia The Defenestration of Prague Isaac Newton Matriculates at Cambridge University The Ottomans Abandon the Siege of Vienna The Peace of Utrecht The Endeavour Leaves Plymouth The US Declaration of Independence The Fall of the Bastille The Battle of Waterloo Simon Bolivar Named President of Gran Colombia Opening of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway Parliament Passes the Emancipation Act Commodore Perry Anchors in Tokyo Bay Robert E Lee Surrenders at Appomattox The Battle of Sedan Alexander Graham Bell Develops the Telephone The Boxer Rebellion E = MC2: The Special Theory of Relativity The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo The First Day on the Somme The Storming of the Winter Palace Operation Barbarossa The Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor The Bombing of Hiroshima The Treaties of Rome Krushchev Agrees to Remove Missiles from Cuba "I Have a Dream" "The Eagle has Landed" The Last US Troops Leave Vietnam Opec Raises the Price of Oil The Rise to Power of William Henry Gates III The Breaching of the Berlin Wall Nelson Mandela is Released from Prison Nine Eleven Index