Chiuba, great list.
Here are my offerings:
Writing, amending, voting & passing, by both US House & Senate, of the USA Patriot Act:
342 pages, that amended 11 acts, 10 Titles, 108 USC sections and created 8 USC sections.
Began 9/12/01,
passed into law Oct 24, 2001
Duration: 6 weeks
Of course, it’s much easier to pass this kind of “change our whole way of living” legislation if none of the Senators or Congressmen bother to READ it first.!
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The “Soccer War” between El Salvador & Honduras.
Start: 14 July 1969
End: 18 July 1969.
Total duration: 100 hours.
People killed (both sides): ~3,000.
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Apollo 13
Explosion: April 13, 1970, 3:08 UTC, 174,000 miles from earth, on the way to the moon.
... To The Moon!!
...
The FRIGGIN' MOON!!!
Travel to the friggin' moon, around it & back to earth, then
splashdown: April 17, 1970, 18:08 UTC
Total duration from explosion to splashdown: 87 hours.
Time allotted for University of Toronto engineers to figure out brand new, never before conceived method to separate Service Module from Command Module just before re-entry: 6 friggin’ HOURS.
Computational power available to Toronto engineers: 6 slide rules.
Consequences of a wrong calculation: Command Module burns up on re-entry. Everybody dies. Much sadness.
Result of their calculation: We've all seen the movie.
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Operation Desert Sabre (Ground operations of US & Coalition forces against Iraq’s forces in Kuwait).
Start: 24 Feb 1991
End: 28 Feb 1991
Duration: 100 hours.
Single largest, most lopsided military victory in history.
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Of course, none of these events have the PONDEROUS SIGNIFICANCE to human history carried by the non-mysterious reduction in pressure in an NFL football by 1.4 psi …
