Be prepared to defend your answer. really, me and my friend were having a lively discussion on the matter. he held one position, i held the other. we didnt come to any conclusions but we had some very interesting viewpoints raised (which was the real point).

now im curious if a similar good discussion can be had here.

so anyway, restatement of question:

Which event in the 20th Century had the most impact on the most people?
the suggestions so far: a) The assassination of Ferdinand [precipitating World War 1]; or b) The election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912; or c) none of the aforementioned events [please supply your own]

probably not #1, but a major one that comes to mind is the introduction of the car to mass populations.. it allows us to go farther much faster and cheaper than was ever possible, and is a major part of all our lives.

ok so we covered the obvious ones. the PC and the car, on an internet car forum.

without computers, cars would not be near as advanced as they are. computers are used to make the cars, as well as the car actually containing computers.

BUT. what if someone had invented computers, and not cars? there would be no way to distribute them...

i see this thread NOT coming to a conclusion.

its not supposed to come to a conclusion. its supposed to provoke thought.

thats all well and good, just as long as it doesn't turn personal

Battle of Normandy.
If the allies hadn't pulled that off, it'* likely we'd all be speaking German or Japanese.

It takes a lot more force to stop a boulder rolling down a hill than to tip it over.

Nah, it would just have taken a little longer. Japan didn't have the industrial production capacity to win the war. Germany was going to lose to the Soviets sooner or later as well.

My vote would be the invention of television.

iffy vote, as its up for debate if that was even a 20th Century event. it can be argued that was a late 19th century event.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand has a few points to it, the first of which is that it did start the first world war, after which, the allies left germany a mess, in a huge depression, worse by far than that suffered in the united states, which is how Hitler came to power in the first place. Thus, one event indirectly caused two world wars. In addition, technology advances much faster in a state of war than it does in a state of peace. Without the two world wars, we would likely be in a technological state similar to the 60'* or 70'* at this point. Despite this, I think the answer is more the invention of rapid, safe air travel more than anything else. The invention of rapid air transit is the invention that puts the human race back in the state where an outbreak of disease improperly handled could cause near-obliteration of our species.