I was recently asked by someone in the
Czech Republic what I thought were the ten greatest moments in white history.
This required some thought, because there are,
of course, so many great moments. But after thinking about it a lot, I set up a
basic guideline to determine the most significant moments, and the list is
below.
The guideline I used is that the event (“moment”) must have been significant enough to have affected the present-day world, and
not merely be of historical importance.
So for example, really great events, such
as the Battle of Thermopylae, where the Spartans held off the Persians, while
being incredible in themselves, did not directly affect the creation of the
modern world, and therefore, they didn’t make it onto this list.
Having said that, here is my list of the
ten greatest moments in white history, sorted by date, from earliest to most
recent.
Anybody who can think of any others, feel
free to add them in the comments.
1.
The Battle of Nedao, 454 AD. The Germans—and other Europeans—who had
survived nearly 70 years of Hun rule, finally defeated the Huns and drove them
back into the East. The Germans, as victors over the Huns, became famous among
their racial cousins, with the Icelandic word for German, “Thodthverdthur” still
translating literally as “peoples’ defender.”
2. The Battle of Lechfeld 955 A.D. An
Asiatic army organized by the Magyars (NOT to be confused with present-day
Hungarians!) is halted in its attempt to invade Europe by a German army under
Saxon King Otto I.
 |
| King Otto I. |
3. The Battle of Kulikovo, 8 September
1380. White Russians under Prince Dmitri of Moscow defeat the Asiatic
armies of the Golden Horde under the command of Mamai. This
battle effectively broke the Mongol invasion and occupation of southern Russia,
and prepared the way for the European reconquest of all those lands.
 |
| Prince Dmitry Donskoy. |
4. 1436.
The German Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press, making
the first breakthrough in mass communications upon which almost all inventions
since then have relied upon.
 |
| Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press. |
5. The Fall of Granada, January 2, 1492:
The last Moorish stronghold in Spain surrenders to the victorious Spanish army,
led personally by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It was the first time in
770 years that all of Spain was once again under European control.
 |
| The Fall of Granada. |
6. Christopher Columbus sights land in the
Americas, October 12, 1492. Although looking for India, Columbus discovered the
Americas, sparking off the settlement of North America which became the USA.
 |
| Christopher Columbus. |
7. The Siege of Vienna, September 1683. The
Turkish Ottoman invasion is defeated and prevented from overrunning all of
Europe. The Turks are then pushed back south down the Balkans in an extended
war involving almost all European nations, only ending in the early 19th
Century when they are finally expelled from their last strongholds.
 |
| The Hero of Vienna, Jan Sobieski. |
8. The Battle of Navarino, October 20,
1827, was a great European naval victory which gave birth to present-day Greece.
This victory spurred on further victories for the European forces on land which
culminated in the independence of Greece under European protection in 1830.
 |
| The Battle of Navarino. |
9. 1948. American physicists Walter Houser
Brattain, John Bardeen, and William Bradford Shockley invent the transistor, a
device which laid the basis for the electronic device revolution—including
computers—of the 20th and 21st centuries.
 |
| William Bradford Shockley. |
10. The Apollo 11 Moon Landing in 1969. No
technological feat has ever been greater, or more daring.
 |
| The Apollo II crew. |
