World War I. 9. The 1929 stock market crash. The public agreed with seven of those 10 choices. The Holocaust, World War I and school desegregation didn't rank in the public's top 10. The public made it No. 31, while journalists ranked it 22 places lower, at No. 53.
Journalists look for stories that symbolize trends or turning points.
The debate over the most influential stories itself is illuminating. What is considered momentous today may not necessarily land in the history books. Even historians today disagree. For example, Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, concurs with the overall vote naming the dropping of the atomic bomb as the top story. The nuclear bomb was new.