The OJ thing. I was getting read to leave for Summer camp. I was watching the chase on TV and I was worried the whole thing would be over when I got back a week later.
9/11. It was one of the odd days I just happened to turn on the TV before school. I watched it all unfold on Good Morning America or Live with Regis or one of those shows. I don’t remember which show it was (since I never watched them), but I did turn on the TV before anything had started.
My first BIG “I’ll always remember where I was” moment was hearing the local newscaster announce that Kurt Cobain had killed himself. Actually, I was flipping back and forth between the local news and MTV, so I may have heard Kurt Loder say it first. Either way, still remember where I was, who I was talking to, what I was saying etc…
When Bobby Kennedy was shot. My dad was one of his delegates to the convention. He told me.
When Secretariat won the Belmont by 31 lengths. I didn’t have a television but happened to be at someone’s house who did – I was in a remote part of Canada at the time.
When John Lennon was shot. About the saddest news I ever heard in my life. I still didn’t have a television and didn’t listen to radio either. I heard two people talking about it on a bus in Oakland CA.
The 1989 California earthquake. I was in North Carolina camping in a tent while my husband and I helped some friends build a house. They had a tv, and came and got us and said, “you guys better come watch this. San Francisco’s on fire and the bridge is broken.” The epicenter was two miles from our house, which had been flattened. Although it took us awhile to find that out.
Desert Storm. I pulled into the parking lot at Safeway and heard young men talking loudly about it, with approval and violence. Safeway had the news on over the P.A. system, only time I’d ever heard babyboomer rock and roll usurped there. I felt nauseated by a feeling of impending doom.
9-11. Once again, didn’t hear about it until I turned on the radio in my car hours after the event. I cried. What I really remember the most about that day was grocery shopping (pattern here?), and the young clerks were talking about any old thing, I was appalled. Then this old guy, old enough to be a WWII vet, in the checkout line, said to me quietly and sadly, “It’s all going to be different now. You’ll see. Everything’s going to change.”
How right he was. I did not watch the footage of the towers being flown into/imploded until ten years had passed.
Obama’s election. Well, people were dancing in the streets, and my friends called me from all across the country just to be happy with me. We stayed up most of the night, and in the morning it felt like Christmas. Oh well.
I have all the usual ones (the Kennedy assasination, the Challenger explosion, etc.), so I’ll add one that no one has mentioned yet:
In June of 1972, I was fifteen. I remember the network interrupting the TV show I was watching with a Special News Announcement (anyone remember those?). A group of men (associated with the Committee to Re-Elect the President) had been arrested breaking into the Democratic campaign headquarters in the Watergate hotel.
With my usual gift for understatement, I remarked to my father that, “Somebody’s head is going to roll for this”.
Chernobyl. I was at a science fiction convention, waiting for an elevator, when a passer-by said “I don’t know if you’re interested in the outside world, but a nuclear reactor in Russia just had a full-on, China Syndrome meltdown.”
Rodney king verdict. I watched in come in and I knew the shit was gonna hit the fan. Fire at the Great White concert in Rhode Island. I was awake as usual and watching CNN. The updated death count didn’t rise by one or two with each update. It rose by ten at a time. I remember sitting there horrified
9/11 – was up unusually early, and my then-wife and I watched the second plane hit on live TV while they were reporting on the news that a “small private plane” had struck the first tower.
Reginald Denny – I was home from school watching the news when the LA Riots erupted. I still get kind of sick thinking about how they beat that man.
Obama’s election – I was volunteering at the polls that day, and one of the late voters came in and mentioned that they’d called it for Obama.
The Japan earthquake/tsunami – I’d worked a 15-hour day and had to get up early the next morning for work (we were in the middle of trial at the time), but when I turned on the TV to drift off to sleep, I became so mesmerized by the coverage that I stayed up watching for a couple of hours and got about three hours of sleep that night.
I know I watched the OJ slow-chase live, but I don’t have any specific memory of where I was at the time other than “home.”
When the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles exploded/burned up in the atmosphere - I was at work when someone who had just arrived told me about Challenger; I had turned on the morning news when they were talking about Columbia.
When Michael Jackson died - I was actually at some event until about 11 PM (Eastern) that night, and had turned on CNN in my hotel room waiting for the expected Larry King “tribute”…to Farrah Fawcett, who had died a few hours before Jackson. Needless to say, the Fawcett tribute was cancelled, and the only time since then that they have mentioned her death was when King talked to Ryan O’Neal at her funeral, but that was only for about five minutes because then they had to talk to one of Michael Jackson’s gardener’s assistants or something.
When John Lennon was killed - I was walking the Monday Night Football game that night, but just before Cosell made the announcement, the local station ran a crawl first saying that Lennon had reportedly been shot, then one saying that he had been killed.
Except for 2000, when it wasn’t decided until the electoral votes were counted in Congress, I have “heard” every Presidential election “announcement” since 1972 on TV right when it happened.
Challenger Explosion: In school. We were all in the gym, watching it live. I was the one who broke the news to my mother later.
Columbia Explosion: On the freeway, driving to a doctor’s appointment. I was shocked, but not so much that I couldn’t keep driving.
9/11 Attack: At work. I had been in a part of the building where I couldn’t hear the radio. When I returned to my desk, a coworker told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. At this point, I assumed it was a freak accident. A few minutes later, word broke that another plane had hit the other tower. At this point, we all realized that it had to be a deliberate attack.
Challenger explosion - I say in the college dorm floor den, watching the explosion over and over.
9/11 - Driving into work, and at first believing that the plane reported as hitting the first tower must have been a small private plane.
Princess Diana/Prince Charles wedding - The next door neighbors had a girl from Ireland living with them that summer, and that wedding was a HUGE deal for her, so it was for me too.
Tiananmen Square military takeover - I remember saying to my dad that it was going to have big repurcusions. He responded that it must be a mistake in reporting. No government would be dumb enough to do that on worldwide TV. I remember thinking “Really, what about Kent State?”
When Elvis Presley died - I was at home (I was young and still living with my family then). I heard it on the radio. I went and told my brother and sister.
When John Lennon died - I heard it in my car on the radio. I was on my way to visit my sister and I told her.
When the Challenger exploded - Missed this one for several hours. I was working that day and didn’t know about it until I went in to work and people were talking about it.
When the Columbia exploded - I read about this one online when I got up that morning. I was visiting my aunt that day and she hadn’t heard about it until I told her.
9/11 attack - Another one I heard about online. Unusual because I don’t usually check the news before going to work but I did that day.
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait - I was at work and it was on the TV news. I don’t remember if it was a special report or just a regular news item. But I do remember everyone else was acting like it was no big deal and I was the only one that said it was a major event and we would probably end up going to war over this.
I also remember the people dancing in the streets the day that Nixon resigned. Not literally “dancing” I suppose, but a massive spontaneous street party and festival. This was in Berkeley, on the main street just south of the campus (Telegraph Av.)
Nixon’s resignation speech. I was at work, and we had the radio on. We all knew his resignation was inevitable, and I remember everyone saying “What the hell took him so long?”
JFK assassination: algebra class in high school
Nixon’s election in 1968: in shocked disbelief, on Armed Forces Radio in Vietnam.
Nixon ending the war in Vietnam: Moscow, Idaho
Princess Di’s death: outside the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, Uganda
George Bush being elected the first and second time: in shocked disbelief, the morning after
Sept 11, 2001: In my bedroom, getting ready for work in Anchorage, AK
The Rabin assassination - that was the big one for my generation. I was on leave from the army, had just come home from hanging out with friends, turned on the TV, caught about 30 seconds of a movie and then the announcement.
9/11 - a man wearing dreadlocks and a UPS uniform caught my eye on 21st Street and said, “World Trade Center, mon.” I didn’t understand what he meant until five minutes later, when I looked out my office window.
The Columbia crash - I was on my way home from a reunion with my wife, when the news came on the car radio. I said, “What? *What!? *” and slumped in my seat.