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Dang, dang, dang, dang, dang!   Which one!  One of these is the fall of the Berlin Wall, I believe.  I'll go with 1990.

No, no...  I take that back.  I'll go with 1989.  I remember seeing a poster of it in my German class.  I think it said November...  1989, final answer.

Da, gospodin...

The world's first astronaut was a 27-year-old Soviet aviator named Yuri Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, the 43/4-ton spacecraft Vostok 1 was launched at 9:07 in the morning, Moscow time, from a location in Baikonur, a wasteland in the south-central region of the Soviet Union. The spacecraft orbited the Earth once in 1 hour and 29 minutes at a maximum speed of 27,000 kilometers per hour. It followed an elliptical orbit that carried Gagarin as far as 301 kilometers from Earth. Vostok I landed at 10:55 AM and made the young Soviet cosmonaut a worldwide celebrity. Gagarin's flight in Vostok 1 was an astounding achievement that began mankind's entry into space. It was recognized that the Soviet Union had a definite advantage in space technology over the United States. Gagarin was celebrated as a hero in the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him and streets named in his honor. He never went into space again.



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AH yes, but I am unpokeable.......and warped too    8)

The Franco-Prussian War "not important at all"? (note I'm conveniently ignoring the ..) at the end).

This led directly to the consolidation of power of Bismarck and the proclamation of Empire under the Kaiser (the grandfather of the WW1 Kaiser).  From there, an "arms race" started as Germany wanted to rush into the colonial race (hence colonies in Africa, participation in the suppression of the Boxer rebellion in China) AND the building of capital ships.  England stayed out of coalitions that Germany wanted to make (considering the royal families were related) and the common "enemy" was France - until the French and english divided up their African interests (which pissed off Willly to no end) ... Germany looked to other nations to secure its borders against Russia, France, and was aligned with Austria-Hungary who had their own design in the Balkans ... then a little incident in Sarajevo provoked the Austrians to flex their muscle, make unreasonable demands on the Serbs (which, by the way, were met completely in the hopes of avoiding conflict but the Austrians were hell bent on getting their aims...)  Russia came to the Serbs aid, Germany came in behind Austria, France came to the Russian/Serb cause, then when germany moved into Belgium, England honored its agreements....

No, it really wasn't that big a deal...

(By the way, the book "Dreadnought" makes for interesting reading...  goes from the end of the Franco-Prussian War to August 1914...



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okay,it was a big event and maybe one cause for WW1, but it wasn't an IMPORTANT event for german history...

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Actually, I tend to think of the Franco-Prussian War as one of the most important events in German history because it started a very critical chain of events.  Following the war, the peace treaty said that Germany got to take over part of France-an area known as Alsace-Lorraine-they also had to pay harsh war reparations.  This caused the German and French relations to be even worse than before and can be contributed as a major reason that France was so quick to enter WWI-they wanted "revanchism" (punish a past enemy and regain lost terriroty).  WWI was fought and France and her allies won.  Following the war, at the Paris Peace conference the Treaty of Versailles was created and Germany forced to sign (the harshness of the treaty was partially caused by France's desire for revenge-this included the return of Alsace-Lorraine).  Now, years later there was a man who managed to rise to power in Germany because he hated how is country had been treated following WWI.  That man's name was Adolf Hitler.  Hitler, as everyone knows, was the sole cause of WWII.  After WWII, Germany was devided into four parts (as was the capitol city of Berlin)-one for each of the victorious natins (U.S., France, Britain, & USSR).  The plan was to reunite in 1949 after each part had been rebuilt by the nation-in 1949 one counrty refused to allow their part to be united with the rest of Germany (the USSR's sector), thus East Germany was born and so was all that followed (specifically the Berlin Airlift and Wall).

Had the Franco-Prussian War not occured the rivalery between France and Germany would never had been as bad WWI may have been avoided (unlikely).  What is more likely is that the treaty following the war would not have been as harsh and Hitler would not have had the fuel he needed to cease control of the country and try and create an empire (and cause WWII).  Therefore WWII and all the followed probably wouldn't have happened.  The Franco-Pussian War, though less than a year in length, was a very critical part of German history.