World war II 20th century - Book Report/Review Example

Many important events occurred during the 20th Century that greatly affected the world, particularly people’s lives. These important events include the areas of politics, society, science, travel and other equally significant fields. There are many events that had transpired during the last 100 years that it is a difficult task to be able to choose only one or two from among the rest. Almost all areas would have at least one radical moment that qualifies to be included in the list. The categorization of what makes it momentous for the century is how it has affected the lives of people from the moment it happened and transcended from a fleeting instant to one that would ultimately change the course of history and human life as we know it.

The effects that it has brought and continues to bring would be the ultimate criterion. Besides the wars that broke out which shook and involved the whole world in the 1940s and the plethora of innovative technology that has only evolved since its early days, it would not be amiss to highlight medicine and travel. In these fields which have seen tremendous development in the 20th century, the discovery of penicillin and landing of the first man on the moon would be the most pivotal events. These events were not only groundbreaking during their time, they have continued to be meaningful in how their respective fields has developed and caused hope and uplifted the quality of lives of all people.

I consider Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin as the more important of the two events. Being that they belong in totally different categories I maintain that the introduction of penicillin is more valuable because this has saved millions of lives and has saved even more ever since. Prior to the customary use of antibiotics for illnesses, it was commonplace for people to just as easily die for diseases that are cured today without much effort. This drug has lengthened the life span of people.

Scientists had since then formulated more effective and efficient drugs that would be able to cure people. It has transformed medical cure into an industry that partakes of drugs as its most viable resource.Bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, who discovered the antibiotic accidentally in 1928 recognized on his Nobel Prize lecture how his discovery developed into a wide-scale industry from something that had seemed so dispensable from the beginning. This had led into a magnified effect due to the need for a cure for common infections.

At the time he had already envisioned the route his discovery will take, “We are in a chemical age and penicillin may be changed by the chemists so that all its disadvantages may be removed and a newer and a better derivative may be produced” (1945, p.92). True enough, medicine has only prospered through the pharmaceutical drugs that had been developed to cure various kinds of diseases. The next pivotal event is Apollo 11 and the landing of man on the moon. Who could forget Neil Armstrong uttering the famous line, “one small step for man one giant leap for mankind” (1969, n.p.).

It was on July 20, 1969 that the United States had beat all other states from being the first country to be able to successfully send a crew of astronauts to land on the moon and to plant a U.S. flag right on its surface. It has been 42 years since then but the memory of what they have accomplished continues to reverberate today. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins set the bar for space travel with the first two having the honors of being the first people to walk in the moon (Rawlings, 2011, par.1). Since then the nature of sending a man in outer space has only become routine and established the science of space that the satellites that orbit the earth are necessary in the intricate details of communication.

These events are the most pivotal not only because of the fame and the clamor that they have brought in each of their respective fields but especially because they have affected each and every one of us. One would only need to imagine a scenario that these events did not occur and what things that we value today would have be lost as they are essentially byproducts to realize how important they truly are. Without penicillin common infections would still remain incurable and fatal. In the same way that space travel would stagnate and human beings would remain ignorant of the vastness of the universe as well as impede global communications.

BibliographyCBS News. (1969, July 20). Apollo 11 Moon Landing, July 1969. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8rlwp_cbs-news-apollo-11-moon-landing-jul_shortfilms#from=embedFleming, A. (1945). Penicillin. Nobel Lecture (pp. 83-93). Nobel Prize.Rawlings , N. (2011, July 20). The Eagle Has Landed: Happy Anniversary, Apollo 11. Retrieved July 30, 2011, from Time Magazine:http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/07/20/the-eagle-has-landed-happy-anniversary-apollo-11/