Five turning points
Five things that ended an era — and one thing that started one.
5 questions. Pick an answer to see the explanation. Share your result at the end.
What did Martin Luther do on 31 October 1517 that triggered the Reformation?
Luther's 95 Theses — a list of objections to the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences — were (by tradition) posted on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31 October 1517. He did later translate the New Testament into German (published 1522) and marry the former nun Katharina von Bora (1525), but those events are not the symbolic starting point of the Reformation.
On what date was the Bastille stormed, marking the symbolic start of the French Revolution?
The Bastille — a medieval fortress in eastern Paris being used as a state prison — was stormed by a Parisian crowd on 14 July 1789, six weeks after the Estates-General had convened. The date became France's national holiday in 1880. 5 May 1789 was the opening of the Estates-General; 21 January 1793 the execution of Louis XVI; 9 November 1799 Napoleon's coup that ended the Revolution.
Whose assassination triggered the start of World War I?
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was shot in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 by the Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia, and the alliance system turned the Balkan crisis into a continental war within five weeks. The Tsar, the Kaiser, and President Wilson all survived 1914 unharmed (although Nicholas II was eventually executed in 1918, after the Russian Revolution).
What event is conventionally regarded as the start of World War II in Europe?
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939; France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany two days later. Pearl Harbor (December 1941) brought the United States in; Operation Barbarossa (June 1941) opened the Eastern Front; Munich (1938) was the failed appeasement agreement that preceded the war. The Asian theatre had begun earlier, with Japan's invasion of China in July 1937.
Where did the Industrial Revolution begin?
Britain in the late 18th century combined cheap coal, colonial markets, scientific culture, property rights, and high labour costs — together creating the conditions for industrialisation. The textile, steam, and iron industries transformed first. Germany, the United States, and Japan industrialised in the second half of the 19th century; Italy and Russia followed.