. EMBRACING HISTORY'S LESSONS..
What Every College Graduate Should Know

Chapter 1   About the Author  TOC  Central Lessons  Appendix A B C

APPENDIX A  KEY AGES IN HISTORY

APPENDIX B SUMMARY OF TURN POINTS IN HISTORY 

APPENDIX A

KEY AGES IN HISTORY

Age                    Interval                    Duration        Periods

Classical           460 BC - 476 AD             935        Greek-Roman

Middle              476 AD - 1453 AD           977        Medieval

Renaissance     1453 AD - 1611 AD          157        Renaissance

Kings               1611 -  1775                  164        Reformation

Revolutions       1775  - 1848                   73        Reformation

Colonialism        1848  - 1912                   64        Modern Era

Industrial          1912  - 1986                   74        Modern Era

High Tech         1986  - (2056)                 70        Modern Era

Space                   (2056)

For details, see History’s Time Line, by Jeane Cooke and Anne Kramer.

APPENDIX B

SUMMARY OF TURN POINTS IN HISTORY

The following lists demonstrate different authorities ideas on what constitutes major turn points in history. All of the events cited were significant, which one constituted major turn-point is left to the judgment of the reader.

Snyder’s turn points:

Event                                 Character                           Date

Marathon                             battle                                  490 BC

Jesus crucifixion                    religion                                    1 BC

Muhammad flight                   religion                                622 AD

Battle of Tours                     battle                                  732 AD
    (Muslims stopped)

Charlemagne coronation        power                                  800 AD

Urban II tirade                     religion/conflict                    1095 AD

Magna Carta                        freedom                             1215 AD

Printing in Europe                  knowledge                          1415 AD

Discovery of America             wealth                               1492 AD

Luther’s proclamation             religion                              1521 AD

Spanish Armada                    battle                                1588 AD

Turkish defeat at Vienna         battle                                1683 AD

Newton’s Principia                 science                              1687 AD

Bastille fall                          revolution                           1789 AD

Napoleon’s defeat                 battle                                1812 AD

Communist Manifesto            power                                1847 AD

Opening of Japan                 economic                           1853 AD

Opening of Africa                 economic                           1871 AD

Wright brother’s flight           science                             1903 AD

Sarajevo assassination          power/war                         1914 AD

Lusitania sinking                  power/war                         1915 AD

Communist takeover             power                               1917 AD
    in Russia

Battle of Britain                    war                                 1940 AD

Battle for Stalingrad              war                                  1942 AD

Atomic bomb                       war                                  1945 AD

Silicon chip invention           science                             1948 AD

Toynbee identified turn points as: the political unification of China in 221 BC, Alexander’s crossing of the Hellespont in 334 BC, the Muslim eruption out of Arabia in 633 AD, and the Mongol’s raids from the North-East Asian steppes in the thirteenth century.

Cooke and Kramer considered the key events between the major periods as: (a) 460 BC, Pericles introducing democracy; (b) 476, AD Fall of the Roman Empire; (c) 1453, Fall of Constantinople, and the printing press; (d) 1611, completion of the King James Bible; (e) 1774, First American Continental Congress; (f) 1848, Year of Revolutions in Europe, and (h) 1914, beginning of World War I.

The TV Books, Inc. staff selected turn points as: Salamis Bay, uniting of China, Caesar’s defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, the Conquest of Spain by the Arabs, the Black Death, Mehmet’s conquest of Constantinople, the Spanish defeat of the Incas, saving of the English Colony in Virginia, the Zulu Battle of Isandlwana, the Battle of Tsushima, the Russian Revolution, and the atom bombing of Hiroshima.

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