Defining Moments in North America

For the next few weeks we'll be looking at events in North America that proved decisive not only for a continent but for the world. Some are already be known, though their full significance may not be. Others are more obscure, though of equal impact.

Some of these events affected both countries simultaneously. Others occurred in only one, and had a secondary effect in the other. Others can be seen as parallel events that occurred separately and had parallel and at times divergent impacts.

Our coverage of these events will not be in any set order, topical or chronological. Rather, we'll leapfrog in time and topic. We begin with a part of the Seven Years War (1756-63) that played out here before either Canada or the United States existed as countries.