freedomforum.org: Public's top 100 stories of the century

Public's top 100 stories of the century

12.21.99

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Public Results	Journalists Results	Story	Year
1	1	U.S. drops atomic bomb	1945
2	3	Japan bombs Pearl Harbor	1941
3	2	Men first walk on the moon	1969
4	4	Wrights fly first airplane	1903
5	6	JFK assassinated in Dallas	1963
6	11	Antibiotic penicillin discovered	1928
7	5	U.S. women win the right to vote	1920
8	10	U.S. stock market crashes	1929
9	21	New polio vaccine works	1953
10	12	DNA's structure discovered	1953
11	7	Nazi Holocaust exposed	1945
12	19	Einstein conceives relativity	1905
13	36	'Unsinkable' Titanic sinks	1912
14	17	Ford creates assembly line	1913
15	8	World War I begins	1914
16	27	Berlin Wall falls	1989
17	51	First computer chip patented	1959
18	25	Deadly AIDS disease identified	1981
19	30	Lindbergh flies Atlantic alone	1927
20	52	Radio signal spans Atlantic	1901
21	13	Soviet Union dissolves	1991
22	32	World Wide Web invented	1989
23	24	Allies invade France on D-Day	1944
24	37	U.S. celebrates V-E Day	1945
25	42	ENIAC accelerates computing	1946
26	38	Roe vs. Wade legalizes abortion	1973
27	28	Official U.S. debut of TV	1939
28	46	Plastic revolutionizes products	1909
29	20	Birth control pill OK'd by FDA	1960
30	9	Court ends 'separate but equal'	1954
31	53	President Clinton impeached	1998
32	33/font>	Scientists invent transistor	1948
33	23	M.L. King Jr. assassinated	1968
34	26	Congress OKs Civil Rights Act	1964
35	88	U.S. enters World War I	1917
36	16	Communists take over Russia	1917
37	40	U.S. radio broadcasts begin	1909
38	50	King delivers 'Dream' speech	1963
39	14	President Nixon resigns	1974
40	81	Panama Canal opens	1914
41	15	Germany invades Poland	1939
42	34	FDR's New Deal begins	1933
43	83	Shuttle Challenger explodes	1986
44	66	Shepard first American in space	1961
45	57	'Silent Spring' warns of eco-danger	1962
46	69	World's nations form U.N.	1945
47	79	Scientists clone sheep	1997
48	18	Soviets launch first satellite	1957
49	39	World War I ends	1918
50	60	Gagarin first man in space	1961
51	45	Israel achieves statehood	1948
52	43	U.S.-licensed TV begins	1941
53	48	U.S. tests atomic bomb	1945
54	55	Robert F. Kennedy slain	1968
55	22	Hitler named chancellor	1933
56	41	Flu epidemic kills 20 million	1918
57	90	Glenn first American in orbit	1962
58	97	Gates, Allen start Microsoft	1975
59	44	Robinson integrates baseball	1947
60	73	U.S. troops leave Vietnam	1973
61	78	Quantum mechanics proposed	1900
62	64	Secret project to make A-bomb	1942
63	80	Interstate highways approved	1956
64	65	GI Bill of Rights strengthened	1945
65	62	U.S. escalates Vietnam War	1965
66	71	Gandhi starts nonviolent reform	1920
67	95	First 'test-tube baby' born	1978
68	35	World crisis over Cuba missiles	1962
69	68	Quake, fire devastate S.F.	1906
70	49	Apartheid ends in South Africa	1993
71	31	Apple II first mass-market PC	1977
72	58	Beatles tour USA	1964
73	47	Alabama bus boycott begins	1955
74	99	Scopes: evolution vs creation	1925
75	61	First jet plane takes off	1939
76	93	Hitler launches 'Kristallnacht'	1938
77	76	FDR defeats President Hoover	1932
78	54	Marshall Plan unveiled	1947
79	92	Pathfinder sends Mars photos	1997
80	82	Friedan sparks women's rights	1963
81	89	Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs	1927
82	100	U.S. warns of smoking hazards	1964
83	94	Churchill leads Great Britain	1940
84	74	NATO established	1949
85	98	Chernobyl nuke plant explodes	1986
86	70	Berlin Wall goes up	1961
87	29	Mao starts communist China	1949
88	67	Watergate engulfs Nixon	1973
89	77	Gorbachev begins 'glasnost'	1985
90	86	Freud interprets dreams	1900
91	96	Airlift saves West Berlin	1948
92	84	U.S. defends South Korea	1950
93	75	Soviet famine to kill 25 million	1928
94	56	U.S. rejects League of Nations	1920
95	72	Standard Oil trust busted	1911
96	59	Congress passes voting act	1965
97	87	China's famine to kill 20 million	1958
98	85	Riots at Democratic convention	1968
99	63	North Vietnam takes Saigon	1975
100	91	Gulf of Tonkin Resolution OK'd	1964