15 Letters That Changed the Course of History
A set of 15 letters, covering almost 2,000 years, illustrates the impact of personal correspondence on historical events. Notable examples include Paul of Tarsus's letter to the Romans (c. 57 CE), Bill Gates's 1976 grievance regarding software piracy, Columbus's account of his 1493 journey, Luther's 1517 objection to indulgences, Galileo's 1615 defense of scientific exploration, Wallace's 1858 essay that inspired Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," Lincoln's 1862 response to Greeley about emancipation, Zola's 1898 "J'Accuse...!", the Zimmermann Telegram from 1917, the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Gandhi's 1930 correspondence with Lord Irwin, Szilard and Einstein's 1939 alert to Roosevelt, Kennan's 1946 Long Telegram, Khrushchev's letters from 1962, and King's 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
Key facts
- 15 letters collected span nearly 2,000 years
- Paul's letter to the Romans (c. 57 CE) defined Western religious thought
- Columbus's 1493 letter was the first news of lands across the Atlantic
- Luther's 1517 letter to Albrecht of Brandenburg sparked the Reformation
- Galileo's 1615 letter argued for independence of science from scripture
- Wallace's 1858 essay forced Darwin to publish 'On the Origin of Species'
- Lincoln's 1862 letter to Greeley prepared public for Emancipation Proclamation
- Zola's 1898 'J'Accuse...!' established the modern public intellectual
- Zimmermann Telegram (1917) pulled U.S. into World War I
- Balfour Declaration (1917) promised a Jewish national home in Palestine
- Gandhi's 1930 letter announced the salt march against British salt tax
- Einstein-Szilard letter (1939) led to the Manhattan Project
- Kennan's Long Telegram (1946) formulated containment policy
- Khrushchev's 1962 letters resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis
- King's 1963 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' justified civil disobedience
- Gates's 1976 letter asserted software as a commercial product
Entities
Artists
- Paul of Tarsus
- Augustine of Hippo
- Martin Luther
- John Wesley
- Karl Barth
- Christopher Columbus
- Albrecht of Brandenburg
- Johann Tetzel
- Galileo Galilei
- Christina of Lorraine
- Cosimo II de' Medici
- Cardinal Cesare Baronio
- Charles Darwin
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- Charles Lyell
- Joseph Hooker
- Abraham Lincoln
- Horace Greeley
- Émile Zola
- Félix Faure
- Georges Clemenceau
- Alfred Dreyfus
- Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy
- Arthur Zimmermann
- Heinrich von Eckardt
- Woodrow Wilson
- Arthur James Balfour
- Lionel Walter Rothschild
- Mohandas Gandhi
- Lord Irwin
- Leo Szilard
- Albert Einstein
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Alexander Sachs
- George Kennan
- James Forrestal
- Nikita Khrushchev
- John F. Kennedy
- Robert Kennedy
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Bill Gates
- Paul Allen
- Richard Stallman
Institutions
- Linnean Society of London
- New York Tribune
- National Intelligencer
- L'Aurore
- British Admiralty's Room 40
- Zionist Federation
- League of Nations
- U.S. Treasury
- American embassy in Moscow
- State Department
- Foreign Affairs
- NATO
- Homebrew Computer Club
- Micro-Soft
- Microsoft
- IBM
Locations
- Rome
- Corinth
- Spain
- Caribbean
- Hispaniola
- Cuba
- Barcelona
- Atlantic
- Wittenberg
- Mainz
- Holy Roman Empire
- Diet of Worms
- Tuscan court
- Strasbourg
- Ternate
- Dutch East Indies
- Indonesia
- Kent
- London
- Birmingham
- Alabama
- Paris
- Devil's Island
- Mexico
- Texas
- New Mexico
- Arizona
- Palestine
- India
- Ahmedabad
- Dandi
- Moscow
- Turkey
- Silicon Valley
- United States
- Germany
- Soviet Union
- Israel
Sources
- Quartz —