It is American

Thanksgiving - not something we celebrate here in Australia, or not yet. We may end up doing it. We seem to be headed towards being another state in the United States.

But that, as they say, is another story. If you are also following Holly over at Proseknitic you will have read her post from Afghanistan on key historical events. I am going to do as she requests and add a few of mine.

(1) The day I was able to read independently. Okay, for most people this is not likely to be a key historical event but it is probably the most important day in my life and it has affected the lives of a lot of other people. I do not know the exact date but it was long before I spent my first day at school. It was the first step on the road to something further down the list.

(2) Yes JF Kennedy's assassination on 22nd November. (It is also the date of the death of CS Lewis.) My brother reported the event early in the morning having heard of it on his crystal set.

(3) The 27th May 1967 referendum which gave Australia's indigenous population the right to vote, something which helped move the anti-apartheid issue forward.

(4) 8th July 1987 - UN resolution to have 1990 as International Literacy Year. The end of my personal campaign to have such a year - but not the end of the work.

(5) 9th November 1989 - fall of the Berlin Wall - a symbolic power shift in Europe

(6) The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on 4th November 1995 -another power shift in the Middle East

(7) 2 August 1990 - Iraq invasion of Kuwait - as the forerunner to the war in Iraq and the dramatic rise in tension between all major faiths

(8) 11 September 2001 - and the agonising wait to hear if the people I knew in New York were safe.

So, as Holly asked, what are yours?