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Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated and the nation is again in shock;
Lyndon Johnson announces that he would not seek a second term;
That is a lot of historically seminal events to take place in a single year, and provide a life time of "what ifs?" But was so important because it was the most shocking year that I personally lived through or was it in fact as important as I remember?
I would think 1941 and 1861 were more important. In 1941, we were attacked at Pearl Harbor and Hitler declared war on us. We became actively involved in world affairs and became a superpower. In 1861, the Civil War started and that was the beginning of the end of American slavery and the old South. I would to also mention 1803 when we had the Louisiana Purchase and 1848, the year we got California and 5 other states from Mexico.
I would think 1941 and 1861 were more important. In 1941, we were attacked at Pearl Harbor and Hitler declared war on us. We became actively involved in world affairs and became a superpower. In 1861, the Civil War started and that was the beginning of the end of American slavery and the old South. I would to also mention 1803 when we had the Louisiana Purchase and 1848, the year we got California and 5 other states from Mexico.
I thought of that along with 1787 (the drafting of the Constitution) but with regards to 1861 that was the beginning of a sustained four years of constant historical moments than can't be separated, and the same with 1941. I was thinking of a single year with so many divergent moments each of which in their own right altered history in just as many different ways. But I'm open to any arguments.
Pivotal so the revolutionary period is out. Nothing to pivot on so that's that. 1861. Has to be. It was the beginning of a war that would cost 625,000 lives. Give or take. More than WWII. Hundreds of thousands more wounded and I think the US population was what? 32,000,000?
Said another way, if that same percentage applied today, we would have to lose TEN TIMES that in a war today (there are roughly 320,000,000 in the US today) or roughly 6,250,000 killed including one of the most loved and important Presidents we ever had. Does that put it in perspective?
I thought of that along with 1787 (the drafting of the Constitution) but with regards to 1861 that was the beginning of a sustained four years of constant historical moments than can't be separated, and the same with 1941. I was thinking of a single year with so many divergent moments each of which in their own right altered history in just as many different ways. But I'm open to any arguments.
RFK I don't think would have gotten the nomination. The establishment would have stopped him at the convention and gave it to Humphrey. MLK' s influence was waning and he was getting more involved in the labor movement. So I don't think in the short term at least things would have changed.
Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated and the nation is again in shock;
Lyndon Johnson announces that he would not seek a second term;
That is a lot of historically seminal events to take place in a single year, and provide a life time of "what ifs?" But was so important because it was the most shocking year that I personally lived through or was it in fact as important as I remember?
You left out:
(1) The Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the Days of Rage that helped put the Chicago 8 on trial!
(2) The seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korea
(3) The invasion of Czechoslovakia by the USSR to put an end to the Prague Spring
(4) The NH Democratic Primary and the surprising showing (McCarthy won 42 % of the vote vs LBJ) of Sen. Gene McCarthy (D-MN) . This more than Vietnam lead the LBJ withdrawing from the 1968 Presidential campaign.
(5) The resignation of French President Charles De Gaulle after student riots in the streets of Paris.
(6) The event over the Christmas Holliday 1968 that saved 1968 and showed us we could still do wonderful amazing things and that our World was a beautiful fragile lonely abode in the blackness of space. The flight of Apollo 8 from the Earth to within 60 miles of the lunar surface. The first flight taking men into deep space and to reach escape velocity from the Earth.
(7) The first flight of a SST the USSR's Tu144.
(8) The first episodes of Julia (1st TV series to have a black principal character) and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-in (one had to have been there planted in front of the TV on that September night so long ago),
Nothing pivotal in 1968. Nothing pivotal in 1861. After, those years the country went on much as before. Pivotal means a sharp change in direction. There has been none in the USA. Wars, internal and external, have not changed the country's direction. The country has expanded but the internal system has remained reasonably intact.
I can only think of two that may be pivotal. 1941, which eventually led to the USA being an economic and military superpower. Maybe 2008, which may be the fall from the prior. Maybe 1980, with Reagan who started to off-shore US industry, which was the preluded to 2008.
Nothing pivotal in 1968. Nothing pivotal in 1861. After, those years the country went on much as before. Pivotal means a sharp change in direction. There has been none in the USA. Wars, internal and external, have not changed the country's direction. The country has expanded but the internal system has remained reasonably intact.
I can only think of two that may be pivotal. 1941, which eventually led to the USA being an economic and military superpower. Maybe 2008, which may be the fall from the prior. Maybe 1980, with Reagan who started to off-shore US industry, which was the preluded to 2008.
This list might include 1898 when the US went from being self contained to being an imperial power.
These sorts of threads might be better if the OP did not express the question in extreme terms. "Most" pivotal year will inevitably wind up as an argument about the meaning of "pivotal."
It's hard to single out one year, but 1941, 1783 and 1865 loom large.
Pearl Harbor jolted us out of isolationism (although FDR had already taken steps to do so with Lend-Lease and as offering much support for Great Britain in their fight against Nazi Germany as he could) and it launched the rise of an industrial, military and cultural superpower.
Except for notable adventures and misadventures here and there, for the most part America had kept to itself before 1941.
Afterward, we were committed to involvement in world affairs in a major way.
If you go back to the early years, I'd consider 1783 and the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War and which recognized the United States as a free and sovereign nation, and ended Britain's claim to what had been the 13 colonies.
For the 19th century, 1865 and the surrender of the Confederate army officially determined that the United States would not be split into multiple nations and resulted in the freeing of the slaves (although the Emancipation Proclamation had come years earlier, it wasn't enforced until Reconstruction).
Unfortunately, that was also the year Lincoln was assassinated. His policy was to show charity to the defeated rebel states. His murder would help prolong animosity, result in a backlash and put American leadership into the hands of an ineffective president (Andrew Johnson) and a radical and vengeful Congress.
Reconstruction would have been difficult anyway, but without Lincoln's tempering influence, it was even more harsh. But the harshness did nothing to offset the shameful racist policies that would dominate our nation for another century.
1968 saw no strategic changes in US direction, and is insignificant in the total track of US history.
Really the pivotal moment in US history is when the US became a world power. However that exact date is hard to define - maybe in the 1890s, maybe after WW1, maybe after WW2. Perhaps 1945 is a good answer - the defeat of Germany and Japan and the end of a war which left the old European powers in ruins, the Yalta conference which pretty much devided up Europe into spheres of influence, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb.
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