The world turns, but the only time we feel it move is when monumental moments such as these occur. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’re counting down our picks for times - in the history of humanity or the planet - where everything changed overnight.
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00:00Rome's power and glory have branded themselves on the Western imagination forever.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for times in the history of
00:10humanity or the planet where everything changed overnight.
00:14It goes well beyond what was needed in order to declare independence.
00:18It establishes a philosophical basis for a civil democracy.
00:25Number 20.
00:26COVID-19 outbreak.
00:28In the fall of 2019, rumors began to bubble up in the U.S. and Europe about a new flu-like
00:42virus in China.
00:44No one could have predicted the global devastation that followed.
00:47By early 2020, COVID-19 had spread across the planet, leading to widespread lockdowns,
00:53crippled economies, and disrupted daily life.
00:56In a further effort to contain the spread of the virus, the government also increased
01:00testing capacity.
01:01Germany didn't want to make the same mistakes as France or Italy.
01:05Businesses closed, millions lost jobs, and supply chains faltered.
01:09Worse was the human suffering.
01:11The pandemic claimed over 1 million lives in the U.S. and at least 7 million globally,
01:16with some citing 15 million deaths.
01:19The psychological impact was also profound.
01:21Fear, isolation, and uncertainty took a heavy toll on mental health.
01:26The world was forever changed as the virus reshaped how people work, connect, and view
01:31public health.
01:32Don't delude yourself into thinking only the old will die or will get it.
01:37They're all ages.
01:38Number 19.
01:39Newton publishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
01:44What makes this copy of the Principia unique is the handwritten notes of the famous scientist
01:50himself, as well as the notes of other scholars Newton shared the book with.
01:54Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica represents one of the greatest
01:59leaps forward in the history of human knowledge.
02:02The Principia is the foundation of classical mechanics.
02:05Newton revolutionized science, all but inventing modern physics, by introducing the laws of
02:10motion and universal gravitation.
02:13For the first time, we had a comprehensive mathematical framework to describe the natural
02:17world.
02:18He discovered differential calculus, universal theory of gravitation, and also the heterogeneity
02:24of light.
02:25Newton's work unified the heavens and earth under the same laws.
02:29He could explain planetary motion, tides, and the behavior of physical objects on earth.
02:34It fueled centuries of scientific inquiry in the pursuit of knowledge, from engineering
02:39to space exploration.
02:40Its impact can be found everywhere, even beyond science.
02:44Newton championed evidence-based empiricism, further influencing everything from philosophy
02:50to finance.
02:511687.
02:52This is… do you know how many of these still exist?
02:56A couple of hundred, maybe.
02:58Number 18.
02:59The Treaty of Versailles.
03:01The Great War started 1,797 days ago.
03:06In a few hours, it will be over.
03:09The Treaty of Versailles will be signed.
03:12The 20th century was the first that, from the very beginning, saw the rise of globalized
03:17international relations.
03:19The Treaty of Versailles ended World War I.
03:21Utterly re-sculpting the world order, that single document would have profound impacts
03:26for the next hundred years.
03:28The treaty dismantled entire empires, redrawing borders in Europe and the Middle East.
03:33It imposed punitively harsh reparations on Germany, leading to decades of economic hardship
03:38and political instability.
03:40In their desperation, resentment turned to rage and bigotry as they sought comfort in
03:44the arms of autocracy under Adolf Hitler.
03:48On the 30th of January 1933, Hitler became the head of the government.
03:54His aim?
03:55Establish a pan-German racial state and abolish the unjust diktat.
04:00While intended to secure lasting peace, the treaty instead laid the groundwork for a second,
04:06more costly world war.
04:07The treaty's lasting legacy profoundly reshaped the global political landscape well into the
04:1221st century.
04:14It would take another world war, another 40 million dead, for the world to start to learn
04:19how to make peace.
04:23Number 17.
04:24The Neolithic Revolution.
04:26Agriculture provided us with a surplus of grains, vegetables, and livestock.
04:32And the population of the planet went from 5 million people 10,000 years ago to more
04:38than 7 billion today.
04:40For thousands of years, the early progenitors of modern humanity were nomadic hunter-gatherers.
04:46They lived in small tribes, moving with the resources needed to sustain them.
04:51All that changed around 10,000 BCE in the Neolithic Revolution.
04:55Our ancestors discovered agriculture, settling for the first time into agrarian farming communities.
05:02We had to come up with better tools, better ways to build our houses, to protect our land,
05:08to make our clothing, and so forth.
05:11This change allowed for the domestication of plants and animals.
05:14Instead of desperate, hungry animals, humans had food surpluses.
05:18No longer struggling just to survive, the human population exploded, and people began
05:23to establish permanent settlements.
05:25Those were the first building blocks to creating systems of language, culture, commerce, and
05:30government.
05:31In other words, the Neolithic Revolution is what made civilization as we know it possible.
05:37It is the seed from which everything grows.
05:40From the first crop to the notion of property.
05:4416.
05:45A Possible Anthropocene
05:47Many scientists claim we're now living in a new geological epoch.
05:52Because long after we're extinct, the scar of our existence will be visible in the sedimentary
05:57rocks that form the foundations of a new world.
06:01Scientists in the late 20th century first began to discuss the possibility that human
06:05activity was changing the Earth's geology and ecosystems in empirically measurable ways.
06:11They proposed that the scientific community universally adopt that the Earth has entered
06:15a new geological era.
06:17In 2024, the International Commission on Stratigraphy shot down the idea.
06:30Still, its discussion has helped scientists around the world recognize human impact.
06:35From altering atmospheric composition through greenhouse gas emissions to widespread biodiversity
06:40loss, human actions have changed the planet in ways unprecedented in geological history.
06:46The Anthropocene's acknowledgment has also galvanized global efforts in environmental
06:50conservation, sustainability, and climate policy.
07:0215.
07:03The Invention of the Assembly Line
07:16The assembly line was arguably first invented in 1901, but most famously implemented by
07:21Henry Ford in 1913.
07:24It sparked a global revolution in manufacturing by streamlining production processes.
07:29This drastically reduced both the time and cost of making goods.
07:33By the middle of the 20th century, the assembly line was the cornerstone of the efficient
07:37mass production of standardized products.
07:40Prices plummeted, allowing a wider pool of consumers to access goods.
07:44In 1910, Ford opened the 60-acre Highland Park plant and set up the machinery on the
07:50shop floor in the actual sequence of automobile production.
07:53It reshaped labor practices, creating specialized roles and repetitive tasks.
07:58The assembly line played a crucial role in creating a global marketplace, enabling economies
08:03of scale.
08:04This shift in production laid the foundation for modern consumer culture.
08:08Today, virtually every consumer product, from cars to electronics, was likely created on
08:14an assembly line.
08:2314.
08:24The Black Death
08:25For six months, the Black Death had travelled rapidly through southern England.
08:31Thousands of people were infected with a deadly bacteria, spread by rat, fleas, and body lice.
08:37The Black Death was a devastating pandemic, laying low large swaths of Europe, Asia, and
08:43the Middle East.
08:44It began in Central Asia, spreading westward via trade routes and thanks to Mongol conquests.
08:50Rats and fleas spread the disease, decimating entire nations.
08:54The massive death toll led to severe labor shortages and, ultimately, the demise of the
08:59feudal system.
09:01Peasants now had leverage in negotiations with their lords, revolts spread, wages increased,
09:06and more people had access to land.
09:21Internationally, weakened states shifted power dynamics and realigned trade routes and alliances.
09:28The collapse of established orders created the conditions for future renaissance transformations.
09:34Globally, the Black Death is estimated to have killed 75 to 200 million people, leaving
09:40an indelible mark on history.
09:5213.
09:53The End of the Western Roman Empire
10:09By 476, Rome had been severely weakened by internal decay, economic troubles, and relentless
10:16invasions by Germanic tribes like the Visigoths and Vandals.
10:19Sustaining the empire's territory was impossible.
10:22It collapsed, marking the end of ancient Rome's centuries-long dominance over Europe.
10:41Rome's fall led to the fragmentation of Western Europe into smaller, warring kingdoms, plunging
10:46the region into what is often called the Dark Ages.
10:49This power vacuum also gave rise to the feudal system and the increasing influence of the
10:54Christian Church.
10:55Both were the primary engines driving medieval European politics.
10:59The fall of Rome reverberated for centuries, profoundly impacting law, culture, governance,
11:05trade, and warfare.
11:0612.
11:22The Fall of the Berlin Wall
11:31In retrospect, the collapse of the Soviet Union was likely all but inevitable after
11:36the death of Leonid Brezhnev.
11:37Still, the fall of the Berlin Wall seven years later was the symbol of that collapse.
11:42It represented an end to Cold War divisions between East and West.
11:46For nearly three decades, the Wall had stood as a physical and ideological barrier between
11:52communist East Berlin and capitalist West Berlin.
12:08Its demolition accelerated the inexorable dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse
12:13of communist regimes across Eastern Europe.
12:16In the wake of this change, a new world order was established, dominated by liberal democracies
12:21and free-market economies.
12:23But later, authoritarianism from China and Russia also gained footholds in developing
12:29nations and economies.
12:3311.
12:41The Asteroid That Changed Everything
12:55The multi-million-year reign of the dinosaurs came to a sudden and violent end around sixty-six
13:00million years ago.
13:01The consensus theory is that a catastrophic asteroid impacted near modern-day Yucatan,
13:07Mexico.
13:09wildfires, tsunamis, and a nuclear winter effect, blocking sunlight and drastically
13:14altering the climate.
13:15The resulting mass extinction is estimated to have wiped out nearly seventy-five percent
13:20of Earth's animal species.
13:31This completely changed the nature of life on Earth, triggering a new era of biodiversity.
13:36The end of the dinosaurs opened ecological niches that allowed mammals to flourish and
13:40eventually dominate.
13:42Primates would evolve from those early mammals.
13:44Human beings would then ultimately evolve from those early primates, becoming the dominant
13:48form of life on Earth.
13:5710.
13:58The September 11th Attacks
14:05The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon radically shifted geopolitics
14:10forever.
14:11In the wake of the end of the Cold War, the West had shifted into the complacency of a
14:14nineties boom.
14:16One renowned philosopher even called the era, quote, the end of history.
14:19Yeah, not so much.
14:21The U.S. and its allies soon invaded Afghanistan.
14:24By liberating Ghana, we free the local populace from the influence of the Taliban.
14:29They're able to go about their daily lives.
14:31A smaller coalition followed up with another invasion into Iraq, and decades of conflict
14:35and turmoil ensued and are still ongoing.
14:389-11 had so many repercussions on both individual lives and collective world history.
14:44The job of a president is to protect the American people from harm, and some presidents don't
14:50need to worry about that.
14:52And some do.
14:53And it turns out I was one that did.
14:559.
14:56The Holocaust
14:57Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
15:00I sold the word Auschwitz.
15:01The doors opened.
15:02Terror hit us immediately.
15:05In the modern era, where an estimated one in five young Americans don't believe the
15:09Holocaust happened, this statement still rings true.
15:12We've seen entertainers like Kanye West share anti-Semitic tropes.
15:16Even former President Trump had dinner with a prominent Holocaust denier.
15:20The Holocaust, during World War II, was Germany's monstrous, systematic, state-sponsored persecution
15:26and mass murder of millions of Jewish people, as well as other groups the Nazis targeted.
15:32Hitler ordered a rounding up of Jews, as well as other groups he hated, including gay people,
15:37Roma gypsies, and people with disabilities.
15:39It taught the world that turning a blind eye to human rights abuses has horrific consequences.
15:45The UN passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, after the war.
15:518.
15:52The Great Depression
15:53In 1929, a stock market crash on Wall Street spread economic contagion around the world.
16:00Wherever you looked, boys and girls, men and women, were wondering what was ever going
16:06to happen to them.
16:07The Great Depression was a moment of great change for the world.
16:10Widespread economic suffering and hunger led people to rethink the role of government
16:15in their lives.
16:16I remember looking behind the markets, the garbage cans, looking for, like, head of lettuce.
16:25Some, like the U.S., with the New Deal, turned to a variety of governmental social welfare systems.
16:31Governments were acknowledged to have responsibility to create a social safety net.
16:37Other countries turned to the lures of totalitarianism and fascism.
16:41They used force and terror to rebuild their empires.
16:44This tension between authoritarianism and egalitarianism still defines geopolitics in
16:50the 21st century.
16:527.
16:53The American Revolution
16:54All of a sudden you have this group of people who are going, no, we're not part of some
16:59great chain of being with the king at the top of it.
17:02We are free people.
17:03We can vote for who we want to have in charge.
17:05When Britain's colonies in the New World rebelled and achieved independence, it was
17:09one of the first instances of a colonial nation defeating their mother country.
17:14A new time for humankind, which is that we can be free and that we can make decisions
17:21for ourselves.
17:22More importantly, the newly formed United States brought an ancient form of governance
17:26back to life.
17:27As a democratic republic in a world of empires, the United States represented a major blow
17:33to the mystique of aristocrats, emperors, kings, and despots.
17:37Though America's democracy was and is deeply flawed, it was one of the first modern instances
17:43of government by and for the people.
17:46If you review our Declaration of Independence, it has those beautiful words about all men
17:50are created equal and governments are formed among men to represent the people.
17:55It was a good statement of what we were all about.
17:57It inspired a similar revolution in France and represented a beacon of hope for oppressed
18:03peoples.
18:04Today, civilizations around the world have turned to republican and parliamentary democracies.
18:096.
18:11Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand II
18:13It's hard to imagine that the death of a single man could reshape an entire century.
18:23That's exactly what happened, however, when Serbian nationalists assassinated the heir
18:28to their Austro-Hungarian throne.
18:30The killing triggered a series of alliances and dragged the world into war.
18:46The Great War changed the map of Europe and the world in innumerable ways.
18:50The aftermath of World War I over the decades also contributed enormously to World War II,
18:56which battered the planet and led to tens of millions of deaths.
19:00Exactly what happened is that you create such an unstable economy and so much animosity
19:05between nations that you're just seeding the field of war to rise and grow again.
19:11In the aftermath of the Second Great War, European empires fell.
19:15For the first time in centuries, the world entered a period of decolonization and self-rule.
19:205.
19:23Columbus discovers America
19:25August 1492
19:27Italian mariner Christopher Columbus prepares to sail west from southern Spain.
19:32The age of exploration began with the invention of ships that could traverse oceans and circumnavigate
19:37the globe.
19:38In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian commissioned by the Spanish, quote-unquote
19:43discovered the New World.
19:45There were already people living here for millennia.
19:48And he wasn't even the first European to visit.
19:51The Norse had settled Newfoundland almost 500 years before.
19:54The European discovery of two new western continents dramatically changed the course
19:59of human history.
20:00Dozens of indigenous civilizations eventually fell from European diseases, wars of conquest,
20:06and persecution.
20:07They were replaced by French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies.
20:12Wealth was extracted, and over the centuries, countries like Mexico, the United States,
20:17Canada, and Brazil formed and grew.
20:204.
20:21The launch of Sputnik
20:22A man-made celestial body, for the first time in history, overcame terrestrial gravity and
20:28flew into space.
20:29Less than half a century after the Wright brothers invented the airplane, humanity began
20:34ascending objects into space.
20:36When the Soviet Union launched their Sputnik satellite into orbit, the eyes of the world
20:41were lifted upwards to the stars.
20:43Sputnik's technology was primitive, a rudimentary sphere with a simple radio transmitter that
20:49beeped.
20:51The space race began, as the US and Russia competed to develop newer and better spacefaring
20:55technology.
20:57More importantly, Sputnik was just the first of thousands of satellites sent into orbit.
21:02Global positioning, cell phones, television, and the internet are just a few of the ways
21:06satellites are integrated into the 21st century.
21:10Satellite surveillance and positioning are key parts of intelligence gathering and military
21:14campaigns.
21:15Accurate weather forecasting relies on satellite surveillance.
21:19Data from satellites are even used for crop management.
21:22Today, the global satellite industry is a $208 billion business, but that relatively
21:28small number belies how rapidly our dependence on satellite technology continues to expand.
21:353.
21:36The Gutenberg Printing Press
21:37Everything that our culture and our civilization depends on starts with Gutenberg's invention.
21:44The printing press was a game-changer in the evolution of human technology and thought.
21:49For most of human history, the written word was a luxury for the elite.
21:53The printing press and mass production levelled the playing field.
22:02It spread the availability of knowledge, allowing commoners access to education.
22:06The bourgeoisie, a new class of educated tradesmen, came into being.
22:11Commerce, knowledge, and talent could, for the first time in human history, be as important
22:16as one's status at birth.
22:18It was a necessary precursor to the Age of Enlightenment, which sparked a transition
22:22to a modern, relatively more egalitarian world.
22:272.
22:36The Invention of the Internet
22:37The internet, and the information age it sparked, has created a seismic shift that
22:42completely changed how we live and communicate.
22:45Human civilization is now in its second generation of the internet age.
22:50Young people today may have difficulty fully understanding just how much the internet has
22:54changed the planet.
22:56People in India can video chat in real time with someone in London.
23:00Students in South Africa can connect with counterparts in China on social media.
23:05The world is smaller and faster than it was 50 years ago.
23:09International business now happens at the speed of thought.
23:12Political movements have become global.
23:14Though it has become completely ubiquitous, few saw the internet coming, and no one could
23:19have predicted its impact.
23:21Unfortunately, dangers have spread like wildfire, too.
23:24Misinformation, propaganda, and conspiracies can now circle the world before the truth
23:29wakes up in the morning.
23:30Love it, hate it, or both, there can be no doubt.
23:33The 21st century is the century of the internet.
23:36All while connection speeds ramp up exponentially.
23:40The question now becomes, what could possibly be next?
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24:00Number 1.
24:03After explaining the similarities he saw between electricity and lightning, including the color,
24:08crooked formation, and crackling sound, he was the first to suggest an experiment to
24:12prove a connection.
24:13As every American student learned as a kid, Ben Franklin was a scientist in addition to
24:19being a founding father.
24:20In 1752, he flew a kite during a storm and proved that lightning was made of electricity.
24:26The resulting electricity in the air charged the metal key that he had tied to the end
24:30of the string.
24:31Franklin touched his knuckles to the key and sparks jumped from the key to his hand.
24:35Despite common misconceptions, Franklin didn't actually technically discover electricity
24:40in 1752.
24:41It had already been a part of scientific experiments for thousands of years.
24:45His experiment, however, was central to understanding the nature of electricity and harnessing its
24:51power.
24:52News spread quickly of Franklin's electrical amusements, as he called his experiments,
24:56making him the most celebrated man of science in the world.
24:59By the end of the 19th century, the lightbulb and electric power spread throughout everyday
25:04life.
25:05Today, electricity is the driver of modern society.