Battle of Hastings 1066 (Changed England & Europe),
Battle of Agincourt 1415 (End of Chivalry),
Harpers Ferry (Alerted the South to Arm themselves)
Thomas Fleming’s “A Disease in the Public Mind” has an excellent section on John Brown and the role he played in igniting the Civil War.
http://www.thomasflemingwriter.com/publicmind.html
“By the time John Brown hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harper’s Ferry, Northern abolitionists had made him a “holy martyr” in their campaign against Southern slave owners.
“This Northern hatred for Southerners long predated their objections to slavery. They were convinced that New England, whose spokesmen had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern “slavocrats” like Thomas Jefferson.
“This malevolent envy exacerbated the South’s greatest fear: a race war. Jefferson’s cry, “We are truly to be pitied,” summed up their dread. For decades, extremists in both regions flung insults and threats, creating intractable enmities.
“By 1861, only a civil war that would kill a million men could save the Union. “
Often overlooked, wealthy industrialists funded John Brown’s murder raid. When exposed, they were protected from extradition by sanctuary northern states.
This violation of the Constitution helped the South to realize that the North intended to openly break the compact, deny the South the benefit of the bargain, and continue to violently attack the South in addition to imposition of confiscatory taxation.
“Lincoln at the time was tall and shaven on that day, we sat close and he grabbed my upper thigh and squeezed. After reading the paper...he looked into my eyes and said John Brown is going down, but is a hero.” -RGB