Surviving the Centuries

Events that dominate the world stage today have only a slight chance of being considered significant 500 years from now.

Imagine that it’s the year 2505 — 500 years from today — and you are browsing about in a library (if such places even exist in 2505) and you come to the ancient history section.

As you scroll through the titles, you come across “The Most Important Events of the 20th and 21st Centuries,” which is not too catchy but, hey, we’re being hypothetical here. You open the book and there’s a list of the top 10 events that shaped the world way back then and still matter in 2505.

Here’s the question to ponder: What are the top two events listed in the book? What events that have occurred in your lifetime will be remembered for 500 years from now?

In order for us to understand the question more fully, it might be helpful for us to go in reverse. What do you think were the two most important events that occurred within the last 500 years — all the way back to 1505 or so?

Chances are that list was a lot harder to generate! Perhaps that’s...