Michael Seidel is a Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. His Top 10 list reflects a broad historical approach. He also discusses the impact of the great events on writers, artists, and humanity in general. 1. The Wright brothers' airplane flight (1903) 2. Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity (1916) 3. The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand (1914) 4. The Russian Revolution (1917) 5. The U.S. stock market crash of 1929 6. The development of the atomic bomb (1940's) 7. The birth of the Information Age (mid-1900's) 8. Adolf Hitler's "final solution to the Jewish problem" (1940's) 9. The formation of the United Nations (1946) 10. The first human beings land on the moon (July 20, 1969)