This week was the 30th anniversary both of Super Bowl XX (Bears whipping the buttocks of New England) on the 26th and of the Challenger space shuttle disaster on the 28th. Both were obviously huge stories in central Illinois when I was growing up (I was 9 at the time). I had no recollection that the events occurred two days apart until just this week.
What other events DURING YOUR LIFETIME surprised you when you learned they were so close together?
July 18, 1969: Teddy Kennedy drives off the Chappaquiddick bridge; Mary Jo Kopechne drowns
July 20, 1969: Apollo 11 lands on the moon
I saw it in the news at the time, so no surprise for me, but many people are surprised to learn Mother Teresa died just five days after Princess Di. The latter’s death all but buried the former’s in the news. I know one person who even expressed surprise just in the past couple of months that Mother Teresa was even dead.
Jan 14, 1973
Elvis Presley’s concert in Hawaii. The first worldwide telecast by an entertainer.
Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins Perfect Season
Both occurred same day, but in my defense for now realizing it, the concert was televised in the USA a few months later actually . Reason being not wanting to go up against Super Bowl,… but 3 months later??
Most people are aware that El Alamein, Guadalcanal, and Stalingrad were major WWII battles. But many don’t realize they were all being fought at the same time.
Heh, these two were what popped to mind upon reading the thread title and the recent attention from their anniversaries. We are similar demographics.
Not quite what you are asking, but David Berkowitz was active in the summer of 1977, while the Atlanta child murders were in 1979-1981. For some reason, I always “remember” the murders in Atlanta happening first.
Considering that WWII battles typically took place over periods of weeks or months rather than days, it is hardly surprising that some of the better known ones would overlap. What I hadn’t realized until just now, though, was that Guadalcanal and Stalingrad both started and ended in the same month (August 1942-February 1943.)
Not during my lifetime, but…
JFK, Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis died on the same day (Nov. 22, 1963).
I heard about Mother Teresa dying, but yeah it was almost totally lost in the media masturbation frenzy that followed Princess Diana’s death, and I’m sure tons of people never heard about it.
I, for one, had no idea.