The shot that changed the world

**Farnan** · July 31, 2007, 09:48 AM

What shots changed the course of battle and the world the most in your opinion?

I am going with Timothy Murphy's sniper shot that killed the British General Frasier at the Battle of Saratoga. General Frasier's death changed the course of the battle which resulted in General Burgounnye's entire Army being surrendered to the Americans. This battle led to the French openly joining the side of the Americans, and the destruction of political opinion at home.

**~~The Super Pope~~** · July 31, 2007, 09:52 AM

The shot that kiled Kennedy, the shot that killed Lincoln. The shot that killed Charles XII of Sweden

**Woad-Warrier** · July 31, 2007, 10:19 AM

The sniper shot that killed Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar.

**Primvs Sextvs Loverlord** · July 31, 2007, 10:19 AM

Had Gandhi not been shot, there wouldn't have been an India-Pakistan was in 1948.

**Cluny the Scourge** · July 31, 2007, 11:53 AM

How did killing Nelson 'change the world'? The British still won the battle, and there were no more major naval actions for him to fight after Trafalgar.

**pannonian** · July 31, 2007, 12:07 PM

It didn't happen in a battle, but the shot(s) that changed the world the most was undoubtedly Gavrilo Princip's assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. No other shot was remotely on the same scale of significance.

**hellheaven1987** · July 31, 2007, 12:11 PM

Agree, which causes several chain effect, such as the mobilization of Russian Empire, then the mobilization of Second Reich, and finally the insane mobilization of Allies, and finally the Gun of August.

**Rush Limbaugh** · July 31, 2007, 12:12 PM

And it also led to the following war WW2.

**Cúchulainn** · July 31, 2007, 12:15 PM

If William of Orange had died of his gun shot wound at the Boyne.
The Jacobite forces would have won, and who knows how the face of the British Isles and even Europe might have changed.

**Chaigidel** · July 31, 2007, 12:18 PM

pannonian has it right that is the most single powerful shot ever.

**MaximiIian** · July 31, 2007, 12:26 PM

The first shot at the Battle on Lexington Green, 1775. The first British soldier firing at the Massachusetts Militia marked the beginning of the Revolutionary War, which catapulted into American independence, which led to the development of an economy and military superpower over the ensuing centuries.

**Wautd** · July 31, 2007, 01:52 PM

Wasn't there some important guy who got headshotted by a freak arrow during the battle of Hastings?

**Atterdag** · July 31, 2007, 04:33 PM

The last Saxon king Harold was hit in the eye by an arrow during the battle against the Normans at Hastings in 1066, yes.

**Serious Spamurai** · July 31, 2007, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Rush Limbaugh

And it also led to the following war WW2.

And it's continuation, the cold war, the cultural revolution, the Vietnam war, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (and the subsequent American support for the more extreme factions in Afghanistan, who destroyed the less extreme ones and set the foundation for the current wave of extremism) it also caused the death of imperialism, which led to conflicts in various countries across the world, most notably in former colonial African countries. It must've changed the world more than any other in history because it is the root from which almost all conflict today derived from.

**HorseArcher** · July 31, 2007, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by pannonian

It didn't happen in a battle, but the shot(s) that changed the world the most was undoubtedly Gavrilo Princip's assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. No other shot was remotely on the same scale of significance.

Significance in a meaning of re-arrangement/dismemberment of the Eastern-Central European power and the newly redrawn borderlines, which is still the core of many confrontations and clashes as well as economical struggle and powergames and identity crisis and nationalism, which eventually led to WWII and still the major contributor to current problems within the effected regions.

Similar crisises will still arise soon, just wait and see how artificially drawn borderlines do not work.

**king-nord** · July 31, 2007, 08:34 PM

What shots changed the course of battle and the world the most in your opinion?

I am going with Timothy Murphy's sniper shot that killed the British General Frasier at the Battle of Saratoga. General Frasier's death changed the course of the battle which resulted in General Burgounnye's entire Army being surrendered to the Americans. This battle led to the French openly joining the side of the Americans, and the destruction of political opinion at home.

I agree we were out numbered though.

All our best soldiers were in the american army.