The invention of the Printing Press in 1439 is currently beating Jesus’ birth in an Intelligent Life online poll on the most important year in history.

With 34 per cent of the votes so far Gutenberg’s press is leading the birth of Jesus (24 per cent), the discovery of DNA (8 per cent), the fall of Nazism (8 per cent) and the beginning of the United States of America (6 per cent).

The poll of more than 2,600 people run by the Economist title, was sparked by an article by Andrew Marr. He and five Economist journalists came up with a rough shortlist for what they believed to be the most important years of all time.

Readers have been asked to write in with their own suggestions, which have included the year photography was invented, the French Revolution in 1789 and the birth of the World Wide Web. You can vote for an existing topic or suggest your own at this link.

Others have a slightly more egotistical angle, a fair number saw the year they were born as the most important…