15 Times the World Held its Breath
Some news is so big that it stops the entire world in its tracks. Nowadays, it can feel like this kind of news happens pretty much daily, but looking back, you'll realise that there were far bigger moments that shook the world.
Political scandals, economic crises, natural disasters, wars, and much more made everyone hold their breath, not knowing what was going to happen next. It was probably going to be bad, like we've never seen before, and that made the entire world panic for days, weeks, and even months.
Now that we have access to all information in mere seconds, we're desensitized to big news that appear when we're scrolling TikTok, so no news is big enough to create an effect like that. No matter how terrible it is, you might not even hear about it, and that's scary.
But, to keep our feet on the ground, here are 15 times the world held its breath and prepared for the worst.
Cuban Missile Crisis
In the middle of the Cold War, the USA and the Soviet Union were playing with fire, or more specifically, with missiles. The US sent nuclear missiles to its allied nations of the UK, Italy, and Turkey, while the USSR sent theirs to Cuba. This lasted 13 days and kept the world on hold due to the fear of a possible World War III that would destroy the entire planet.
Iraq War
After 9/11, then President George W. Bush declared the “war on terror” that would go on for years in Iraq and Afghanistan. The world was shaken by the terrible series of events that led to the armed conflict that lasted until 2011.
Y2K
The arrival of the new millennium wasn't all fun and games. There was a fear that the “Y2K bug,” a coding error on early computers, was going to bring society down. People thought bank systems and other technologies were going to implode on January 1st, 2000, so manufacturers had to assure the public that everything was going to be okay.
2004 Tsunami
The Sumatra–Andaman earthquake in 2004 generated a series of tsunamis that devastated Asian coasts and killed more than 200,000 people in 14 countries, includin Indonesia, India, and Thailand.
The Great Recession
The US housing market collapse brought the biggest economic crisis the country had seen since the Great Depression, and the consequences affected the entire world economy.
Covid-19 Pandemic
We had to almost literally hold our breaths on this one, and the consequences of it are still taking new forms years later.
WikiLeaks
Julian Assange disrupted the world when he leaked extremely sensitive documentation involving powerful figures all around the world. The world held its breath for months, expecting some kind of consequence from all this. Assange is still in prison, with different governments of the world providing asylum to escape from the US justice.
Katrina Hurricane
Hurricane Katrina left 80% of New Orleans underwater and killed more than 1800 people. Hurricanes Sandy and Irma had fewer casualties, but the damage was as big as Katrina's.
MeToo Movement
Women initiated conversations about sexual assault and harassment from powerful figures, with Harvey Weinstein and Fox News' Roger Ailes being the biggest cases at that time.
Boston Marathon bombing
Three people died, and hundreds were injured in this domestic terrorist attack caused by two bombs during the celebration of the 117th annual Boston Marathon in 2013. This caused security to tighten on massive events around the world, among other consequences.
Man on the Moon
The Apollo 11 mission was watched all over the world. Most people were amazed that the man was finally landing on the moon, but others were thinking about the political consequences of yet another victory for the US during the Cold War.
End of the Apartheid
Negotiations in the 1990s ended the Apartheid and gave the people of South Africa the chance to vote for their future. In 1993, Nelson Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Frederik Willem de Klerk for their mission.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Aside from the actual wall, this event meant the end of an era. Everybody thought it was going to be way better than what they had just lived, but no one really knew what the future was holding.
Chernobyl Disaster
To this day, it remains the worst nuclear disaster and the most expensive disaster in history. It is said that the explosion of the nuclear reactor released more radioactive material than the combined atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Watergate Scandal
The corruption scandal that ended Nixon's presidency involved a campaign of political espionage funded by private parties. Two journalists uncovered the truth by following leads from the source named Deep Throat. And whatever shakes the US politics, usually shakes the entire world.
