Q&A Friday #34: What Were America’s Greatest Moments?
Question: “What was/were America’s greatest moment(s)?” — covok48
Answer: Believe it or not, I thought about asking this as a poll question for bloggers several months ago. Unfortunately, this would be impossible to poll on for a number of reasons.
Not only would the response be very skewed towards the events of the last 30-40 years (since that’s the history we’re most familiar with), but picking a particular moment out of the stream of history can sometimes be very difficult, especially if you’re talking about events that lasted for years.
Still, I love this topic. So much so, that next week, I’m going to actually try to do a piece ranking America’s greatest (and worst) moments. So, how about adding your thoughts in the comments section? Then, next week, I can go back to your comments, do a little more research and try to put together a more comprehensive piece.
But, in the interim, here are some of what I believe were America’s greatest moments:
1776: The Declaration of Independence is signed. Americans begin their fight for freedom.
1781: Washington’s victory at Yorktown, with the help of the French, seals the victory for America over the Brits.
1791: The cherry was put on top of the Constitution when the Bill of Rights was ratified.
1803: The Louisiana Purchase: Roughly 1/5 of modern day America was purchased by Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon for about 15 million dollars.
1814: Andrew Jackson defeats the British forces at the Battle of New Orleans in a fight that took place after the war had already ended. Had the British controlled New Orleans, which was a vital American port at the time, they might have wrung more concessions out of America or even taken a large swath of what is today American territory for Canada.
1836: Sam Houston and a group of Texans, outnumbered 2 to 1 by the Mexican Army, got revenge for the Alamo in the Battle of San Jacinto. Their victory and the capture soon after of Santa Anna secured the freedom of Texas and led to their eventually joining the United States.
1863: Abraham Lincoln frees the slaves in the South, technically at least, with the Emancipation Proclamation.
1898: America crushes the Spanish fleet in the Philippines, which cemented our position as a world power.
1918: WW1 ends in victory for the Allied forces after the Germans surrender.
1945: WW2 ends in victory for the Allied forces after the Japanese surrender.
1950: In one of the most brilliant military maneuvers in American history, Douglas MacArthur lands behind the North Korean lines at Inchon. The subsequent strikes against the Norks broke their army and only the entry of the Chinese into the war kept Korea from being reunited.
1969: Neil Armstrong is the first man to walk on the moon. An amazing feat that showcased American ingenuity and technology.
1989: The Berlin Wall came tumbling down and that symbolized the break-up of the Soviet Union and the victory of the United States in the Cold War, thanks to Ronald Reagan.