What is the most important event of the 20^th century? Historians may ponder that question for years to come, but from the perspective of the people of the United States, it is World War II. In a recent Gallup poll, Americans nominated the war in general, the Nazi Holocaust that occurred during the war, and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan that helped end it, as three of the top five events of the century. Rounding out the top five are two events that signaled major changes in human rights and equality: the granting of the right to vote to women in 1920, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

A Gallup poll conducted earlier this fall first asked the American public to name the most important event of the century off the top of their head, without prompting. Gallup Poll analysts then took this list, deleted the "events" that in reality are more like sweeping advances (such as the computer), added additional events that have appeared on other lists, and created a new list of 18 events for the public to rate. These events were then read to a new random sample of Americans in November, and the respondents were asked to rate each of the events on the following scale: