According to the history books, these are the important events that happened in my lifetime. Some were close to us, others were far away. I don't even recall some of these, but others have been mentioned throughout my life. It is interesting how world events like these influence your life.
With the way news spreads now, anything that happens in the world can become common knowledge in a matter of minutes. It'll be interesting to see how that changes in the future. Along with that, it is interesting how instead of it being local news that impacts a person, now world news impacts a person. Things that happen around the world are now everyone's business instead of a person only knowing about things that happen in their little world.
I often find myself in the conundrum of whether it is important to keep up on current events. I believe there are definite lessons we can try to learn from current events. I also think there is a benefit to being a little ignorant of the natural state of the world. One the one hand, you could follow what the Prophet is doing. I would have a hard time believing that he isn't very close to current events. I'm sure the organization of the church has folks all around the world that are keeping the Prophet and the Brethren up on what is really happening around the world - not just media speak. On the other hand, if you look at a principle taught in the Book of Mormon with Lehi's vision of the Iron Rod. He spoke about a river of water. Later in the story, his son Nephi after seeing the vision for himself spoke about the filthy water that represents the filth of the world. One could assume that Lehi just didn't mention it, but I would also suggest that Lehi may not have noticed it because he was focused so much on the good things that were happening. Either way, the conundrum goes on and I avoid television as much as I can, but listen to the news every morning on the way to work.
Here is the list of events that have happened in my lifetime according to the books. I could probably only pull out a handful of these on my own.
November 4, 1980 – Ronald Reagan elected president
December 8, 1980 - John Lennon Assassinated
June 6, 1982 - Israel invades Lebanon
January 28, 1986 - The Challenger Disaster
April 26, 1986 - The Chernobyl Disaster
November 9, 1989 - The Fall of the Berlin Wall
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union
1991 - Operation Desert Storm
1992 - Riots in Los Angeles After the Rodney King Verdict
1993 - World Trade Center Bombed
1994 - Nelson Mandela Elected President of South Africa
1994 - O.J. Simpson Arrested for Double Murder
1994 - Rwandan Genocide
1995 - Oklahoma City Bombing
1998 - U.S. President Clinton Impeached
1999 - The Euro the New European Currency
1999 - Fear of Y2K Bug
1999 - Killing Spree at Columbine High School
2000 - Unclear Winner in U.S. Presidential Election
April 8, 2001 - Tiger Woods becomes the first golfer to hold
all four major golf titles simulteneously by winning the Master's tournament in
Augusta, Georgia.
September 11, 2001 - Islamic fundamentalist terrorists
hijack four U.S. airliners and crash them into the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center in New York City.
September 18, 2001 - Anthrax attacks by mail from Princeton,
New Jersey against news and government targets begin.
2001- Enron Bankruptcy
February 8, 2002 - Amid tight security due to terrorism
concerns, the Winter Olympic Games are opened by President George W. Bush in
Salt Lake City, Utah.
February 1, 2003 - A tragedy at NASA occurs when the Space
Shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry over Texas. All seven astronauts inside are killed.
March 19, 2003 - The War in Iraq begins with the bombing of
Baghdad after additional measures and mandates from the United Nations and the
United States coalition fail to gain concessions or the removal of Saddam
Hussein from power.
December 13, 2003 - Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq,
is captured in a small bunker in Tikrit by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division.
December 26, 2004 - The southeast Asian tsunami occurs
following a 9.3 Richter scale earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Two hundred and ninety thousand people
die from Sri Lanka to Indonesia, creating one of the greatest humanitarian
tragedies in history. A worldwide
relief effort, led by the United States and many other nations, is mobilized to
assist.
July 24, 2005 - American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins his
record 7th straight Tour de France.
July 26, 2005 - In the first Space Shuttle flight since the
tragedy of 2003, Discovery goes into orbit on a mission that returns to earth
safely on August 9.
August 29, 2005 - Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast,
inundating the city of New Orleans with water from Lake Pontchartrain when the
levees that maintain the below sea level city break.
February 22, 2006 - In a continuing shift of the retail
industry to new platforms, the one billionth song is downloaded from the
internet music store, Apple iTunes.
August 17, 2008 - Michael Phelps, the United States swimmer
from Baltimore, wins his 8th Gold Medal of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games,
surpassing the record of seven won by Mark Spitz.
January 20, 2009 - Barack Obama takes the oath of office for
President of the United States, becoming the first African-American president
in the history of the nation.
June 1, 2009 - The H1N1 virus, named the Swine Flu, is
deemed a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.
October 31, 2009 - The economic recession continues to
deepen as jobless claims climb above 10.0%, reaching 10.2% with October's
monthly figures – despite a $780 billion economic stimulus package from
Congress.
2009 - General Motors Declares Bankruptcy
2011 - Osama Bin Laden Killed by US Forces
No comments:
Post a Comment