80 Days That Changed the World

By Stephen Koepp, Deputy Managing Editor

When one world ended at 8:45 on Tuesday morning, another was born," wrote editor-at-large Nancy Gibbs in the issue we published less than 48 hours after Sept. 11, 2001. While history usually takes decades and life spans to unfold, on certain days the world seems to spin faster on its axis. Out of a clear blue sky comes a turn of events that changes everything by the time the sun goes down. Some of those days we remember by the numbers alone--not only 9/11 but also days like Nov. 22, 1963. Others we remember by a single dramatic step after years of preparation, as when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, or by thousands of simultaneous steps, as when Allied soldiers scrambled onto the beaches of Normandy on D-day.

What combination of fate, human impulse and pent-up forces triggered such pivotal moments? To observe TIME's 80th anniversary, we plan to offer some fascinating answers in a special issue the week of March 23 in which we'll profile 80 Days That Changed the World. Some had protagonists who would become famous, as in the case of James Watson and Francis Crick, who figured out the structure of DNA, an event celebrated in this issue, but we have identified some consequential days that may take you by surprise, like the Saturday in 1980 when accountant Ted Benna found an important opportunity in an obscure tax-code section called 401(k).

To make our selections, we have been poring over the timelines of history, beginning in 1923, the year Henry Luce and Briton Hadden started this magazine. One day that year, the obscure rabble-rouser Adolf Hitler grabbed his first headlines by staging his failed beer-hall putsch. One day the following year, Lenin died, making way for Stalin. It was clear that the 20th century was not moving on horseback. One evening just three years later, Charles Lindbergh landed his plane near Paris, and suddenly the world seemed a lot smaller.

Our own journalists were on the scene for many of these red-letter days. Contributor Hugh Sidey, who was riding 50 yards behind President Kennedy that fateful Friday in Dallas, heard three sharp noises, saw the panic on the grassy knoll and later stared into the limousine with the crushed red roses on the front seat. Executive editor Chris Porterfield was backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles made their first appearance on Feb. 9, 1964, and recalls the "piercing din of screaming. That noise level was something new in pop performances--beyond Frank Sinatra's, even beyond Elvis'." Retired correspondent Bruce van Voorst was on the chartered Air France 747 that carried Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini from his Parisian exile back to Tehran on Feb. 1, 1979. "At sunrise, somewhere over Turkey," remembers Van Voorst, "the Ayatullah said prayers, then wa* As served an omelet for breakfast."

We hope you'll take part in this journey by visiting our 80 Days website at TIME.com where you can make your selections of history's big days on an electronic ballot offering hundreds of choices ranging from Mickey Mouse's film premiere to George W. Bush's "axis of evil" speech. Our colleagues at CNN will offer their own vision of 80 Days with an hour-long special March 22 and 29.

TIME takes pride in bringing fresh approaches to covering history. Years ago, introducing a series of books called TIME Capsules, Henry Luce summed up the spirit of the enterprise. "The point," he wrote, "is to take a ride in the TIME-machine and have fun." Fasten your seat belts for a wondrous trip.

Stephen Koepp, Deputy Managing Editor