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Easily the 20th, the century where the world went from essentially a largely agrarian economy with moderate industrialization to computers, flight, instant communications, the space age, and a host of other miracles. And I don't use the word 'miracle' lightly.
Literally everything changed in the 20th Century, from attitudes towards women, attitudes towards colonialism, attitudes towards different ethnicities, the grip religious faith had on daily life, philosophy, government, human sexuality, music, art, and just about anything else you care to name.
Let's put it this way. Had you magically teleported someone from the year 1 to the year 1800 and gave him appropriate language skills, there would be a great deal that would be familiar to our time traveler. Sure, the fashions might be different. The attitudes toward faith among some would be shockingly different. But a person from the ancient world would be able to quickly pick up what he needed to know in a relatively short period of time. Show him how to use a musket, show him how to use a spinning machine, and show him how to use a half-dozen other tools, and he'd be fine. He wouldn't have to be literate. He wouldn't need lots of technical skills. He would just be able to work.
Let's take the same person and transport him to 1900. There would be a lot that would be bewildering. The telephone would amaze. So would electricity and the train. But it would still be possible for him to navigate the world without literacy and technical knowhow. Advances in science would not have really affected day-to-day life all that much.
Finally, let's take that same person and transport him to 2000. Whoa. Huge difference. While a bright person would be able to pick up on the technology from 1900, the technology of 2000 would be indistinguishable from magic. He'd have to learn to drive a car to work or master public transportation. He'd have to learn to read and write in a hurry. He'd have to learn the basics of using a computer. And there would be a host of other things he'd need to learn to survive that we don't even think about. Our 1st Century visitor would likely wind up in a homeless shelter, whereas he'd likely be able to find basic employment a scant century earlier.
A close second would be 16th Century. The Renaissance was in full swing. The Reformation was getting underway. The New World had been discovered. The world balance of power was rapidly shifting from China and the Ottoman Turks to the Western Europeans. Gunpowder was coming into play. The printing press was disseminating knowledge. The first glimmerings of scientific inquiry were underway. New, transformative ideas were being tossed about. Mind you, to the average person, these advances had little effect in his daily life and work, nor would they until the late 18th Century. But they would prove foundational in altering the future.
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