It’s hard to believe that four short years ago the terms retweet, hashtag, hootsuite, tweetdeck, Twitter as a noun, Klout with a k”, DM’s and the @ symbol before names had never been uttered, much less tweeted, on the face of this earth.

And now…

Twitter has forever changed the world as we know it.

Careers and even countries are made and destroyed in 140 characters or less.

From the landmark Tweets screaming from the unrest in revolutionary countries such as Egypt and Libya to the first news update about ice on Mars, Twitter has dramatically shortened our lives, or at the very least, the way we communicate them.

Don’t believe it?

Read the 10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates via @Mashable.

Consider this:

On April 10th, 2008, James Karl Buck and his translator were arrested by the Egyptian police while covering an anti-government protest. James, a grad student from Berkeley, was able to tweet one word while being taken away by Egyptian authorities: Arrested. This one update sparked his friends and followers into action, eventually leading to his university hiring a lawyer on his behalf and his release a day later.

This is proof that one update, even if it’s a single word, can mobilize people to action and change the course of events.

With status updates, it takes only 140 characters.

Plane crash: When a Continental Airlines 737 crashed into the ground in Denver, Colorado, the news media weren’t the first to break it – passenger Mike Wilson was the first to tell the tale.

Earthquake in China: On May 12th, 2008, China was rocked by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. Who broke the story first? Users on Twitter.

Terrorism in Mumbai: When horrendous terrorist attacks gripped the city of Mumbai in India, Tweeters were once again the first to break the news. Some of the tweets were heart-wrenching, but ensured we all knew what was happening.

Here is the first Twitter status update ever sent on March 21st, 2006 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Question: What is the most extraordinary Twitter update you have witnessed or Tweeted? 

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