April 10, 2006, - 9:31 am
Do You Agree?: “Ten Days That Shaped America”
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Last night, the History Channel debuted its “10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America.”
Not among them: 9/11 and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Or the invention of the computer. But what is among them is even more startling: Sept. 9, 1956–the date of Elvis Presley’s debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Huh?
Here are the rest of “The Ten” (do you agree with these choices?):
* Sept. 17, 1862: Antietam
* May 26, 1637: Massacre at Mystic
* July 16, 1939: Einstein’s Letter
* Sept. 6, 1901: McKinley’s Assassination
[DS: Did this really change America? What about Lincoln’s assassination? Or even, Alexander Hamilton’s?]
* Jan. 24, 1848: California Gold Rush
[DS: Agree with this in the larger context of Manifest Destiny.]
* July 21, 1925: Scopes Trial
* July 6, 1892: Homestead Strike
* June 21, 1964: Freedom Summer
* Jan. 25, 1787: Shays’ Rebellion
Tags: Alexander Hamilton, America, Debbie Schlussel Last, History Channel, Lincoln, Pearl Harbor
I guess if you don’t look at this as a top ten list, then I sort of see how they could consider all of these days as changing America. But, yeah, there are way more important events that changed America. These might be in the top 50 somewhere, but they are nowhere near the top ten.
Concerned Conservative on April 10, 2006 at 9:58 am