Just read this article about the following:

Pole wakes from 19-year coma in democratic countrySo he was in his coma from 1988 to 2007, and as the story discusses he's amazed at the changes in his society since he went under.  It got me to thinking - what 19-year time period would have endured the most dramatic changes if you were under a coma during that time?  Perhaps the period of 1927-1946 in Germany...although I suppose Germany hadn't really begun to experience its rise under Hitler until the 1930s.  What about France, 1788-1807?  A person would have gone unconscious as the monarchy still ruled before the French RevolutionRevolution [/wiki]and woken up under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_French_EmpireNapoleon[/wiki].  Anything else you can think of that would have been dramatic?  Kind of neat to think about.