Write one word histories of the centuries
Submitted by brad on Fri, 2007-10-12 23:08Listening recently to Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" I thought about expressing history in single words. One of my favourite conversation starters is to ask people who the most remembered person of the 20th century will be in the 25th. (For the 15th century, the clear winners are Columbus, Leonardo, and Gutenberg, with Columbus the stand-out in the Americas.) When I ask, people will pick names like Hitler or Einstein. Based on Columbus' example, I think Neil Armstrong is a good contender, even though he can walk down the street today without being recognized.