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Humanist Events that Changed the World

"Over the last thousand-odd years, humanist ideals have flourished as secular ideas arise, science and reason expand human knowledge, and democracy is nourished." Big-time thanks go out to the past, present, and future editors of FREE INQUIRY magazine for this compilation. Rate as to significance (5 stars being high, 1 star being low).

Star Rating Scale: 1 = Hardly a movement / 2 = / 3 = Gently rocked the world / 4 = / 5 = Turned the world upside down

Listed in:

History > Historical Headlines

List added by traderboy on 8/30/2005

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100 List Items

1

Johann Gutenberg invents movable-type printing press (1450)

4.17 Stars | 12 ratings

2

Signing of the Magna Carta (1215)

4.25 Stars | 8 ratings

3

Abolition of the slave trade by the U.K. (1807)

4.11 Stars | 9 ratings

4

Abolition of slavery in America (1863)

3.64 Stars | 11 ratings

5

Worldwide woman's suffrage movement (early 1900s)

4.17 Stars | 6 ratings

6

Roe v. Wade (1973)

4.00 Stars | 8 ratings

7

U.S. Civil Rights Movement (mid-1950s)

4.60 Stars | 5 ratings

8

Collapse of communism in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1980-1990)

4.00 Stars | 6 ratings

9

Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic (1916)

4.00 Stars | 7 ratings

10

Adoption of the U.S. Constitution (1789)

4.67 Stars | 3 ratings

11

Publication of Copernicus's "On The Revolution of The Heavenly Spheres" (1543)

4.67 Stars | 3 ratings

12

Scopes "Monkey Trial" (1925)

3.83 Stars | 6 ratings

13

Publication of Einstein's theories of "Special and General Relativity" (1905, 1916)

3.75 Stars | 4 ratings

14

Institution of public education (late-1800s)

3.40 Stars | 5 ratings

15

Malthus introduces modern notion of overpopulation (1798)

3.17 Stars | 6 ratings

16

Discovery of DNA (1953)

5.00 Stars | 2 ratings

17

Gay Rights Movement (mid-1970s)

5.00 Stars | 2 ratings

18

Ratification of the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791)

5.00 Stars | 2 ratings

19

Revolutions of 1848

5.00 Stars | 2 ratings

20

Advent of genetic engineering (1973)

4.50 Stars | 2 ratings

21

Publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species" (1859)

4.50 Stars | 2 ratings

22

Rosetta Stone found (1799)

4.33 Stars | 3 ratings

23

Averroes (1126-1198) applies skepticism to study of Islam

4.00 Stars | 2 ratings

24

Machiavelli's "The Prince" (1513)

4.00 Stars | 2 ratings

25

Publication of Bertrand Russell's "Why I Am Not A Christian" (1927)

3.75 Stars | 4 ratings

26

1960s Women's Rights Movement

3.67 Stars | 3 ratings

27

First commission of a work of art by a secular patron (1434)

3.50 Stars | 4 ratings

28

French Revolution (1789)

3.20 Stars | 5 ratings

29

Legalization of euthanasia in The Netherlands (1993)

2.80 Stars | 5 ratings

30

Activity of French philosophes (mid-1700s)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

31

Amino acids produced in test tube (1953)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

32

Founding of the Council for Secular Humanism (1980)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

33

Invention of the computer (ENIAC, 1946)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

34

Literary and philosophical contributions of Voltaire (1694-1798)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

35

Locke's "Letter On Toleration" (1689)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

36

Passage of the Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty (1786)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

37

Publication of first volume of the French "Encyclopedie" (1751)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

38

Publishing of Edward Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" (1776-1788)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

39

Voting Rights Act (1964)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

40

Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls (1848)

5.00 Stars | 1 ratings

41

Animal Rights Movement (1970s)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

42

Dewey's "Experience and Nature" (1925) and "Reconstruction in Philosophy" (1948)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

43

Elizabeth Cady Stanton published "Woman's Bible", vol. I (1895)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

44

Environmentalist movement (late-1960s)

4.00 Stars | 2 ratings

45

First major utopian text, by Charles Fourier, published (1808)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

46

Frederick Douglass's abolitionism (1841-1865)

4.00 Stars | 2 ratings

47

J.S. Mill's "On Liberty" (1859)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

48

Marx's "Das Kapital" (1867-1894)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

49

Publication of DuBois' "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

50

Publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's "Vindication Of The Rights Of Women" (1792)

4.00 Stars | 1 ratings

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