Major world events YOU have lived

In My Humble Opinion
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Here is my list:

Iranian Hostage Crisis: I was 10 years old at the time this was going on. I didn’t understand why people from our country were being detained. I didn’t even know of Iran’s existence at the time. All I remember is seeing the news report the increasing number of days the hostages had been held.

Reagan’s Assassination Attempt: I was in the sixth grade. The teacher from the room next door came over to tell us that this had happened. At the time I was shocked, uncertain whether the President had been killed. It was quite a dose of reality for an 11-year-old to deal with.

Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion: I was a sophomore in high school, headed to my first class. A friend of mine who was notorious for telling bullsh!t stories to test people’s gullibility told me that the Space Shuttle had exploded. At first I didn’t believe him, thinking he was just pulling my leg again, but I soon found out he wasn’t kidding that time.

Oklahoma City Bombing: I was at work (a retail store). I went into the break room and the TV news was showing live coverage of the incident. My sense of security by living in the U.S. was shattered. Even though it was domestic terrorism, as it turned out, it still changed my perception about how safe we are. I thought I had seen the worst until…

Sepember 11, 2001: I came into work at about 7:00 AM my time (about 9:00 eastern time) and, as I usually, I checked the local news web site before getting to work. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary reported at the time, so I went about my usual business. An hour later a co-worker whom I was training came in and asked me if I had seen the news. I told him that I had, but didn’t see anything major reported. He then told me about the planes hitting the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. I went back to the news web site, which took forever to load as it was jammed by everyone else trying to keep up on the latest. Throughout the day I kept checking several news sites to get updates. I was hardly in any mood to work. A somber mood fell over the entire office. Our weekly Tuesday morning meeting was even cancelled.

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[ul]
[li]The Oklahoma City Bombing: I was in middle school at the time, and I first heard about it from a kid whose father worked in the Murrah building. Don’t remember actually seeing what happened until I got home that afternoon. They cancelled my school field trip to the OKC Zoo, which seemed to me a greater loss at the time.[/li][li]1989 San Francisco Earthquake: Was up late that evening (I was 7 years old) and was watching the World Series with my mother in Norfolk, VA. Then the earthquake struck as we were watching.[/li][li]John Glenn’s 2nd Spaceflight: I watched it on TV while buying a snadwich at a deli in Pasadena during a high school field trip.[/li][li]September 11: I woke up just in time to hear the first reports of the Pennsylvania crash and the first tower collapsing. Nice way to start the day.[/li][li]Tiananmen Square: CBS interrupted Garfield and Friends* to report on this. I had no clue what was going on, and was annoyed that I was missing my favorite cartoon show.[/li][/ul]

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D’oh! I meant sandwich!

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As I described in the brush with history thread, I was in the streets of Manila during the People Power Revolution of 1986 that threw Marcos out of the country. This is what I posted in that thread:

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Well no offense, but didn’t we all “live through” these things, at least as long as we had TV? The only difference is what year you were born. Older Dopers can list more things.

I’d be more interested in hearing HOW things affected you (as some are doing) or the fact that you experienced it in some way other than having the news on. I’m not saying that watching it on TV isn’t moving; I’m just saying that this thread as the OP is written simply invites a laundry list of newsworthy events over the past 20, 30, 40, 50 years.

I’m a little surprised that no one has mentioned China in the summer of 1989.

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Well, I lived through a 7.4 magnitude earthquake that killed 25,000 people.
Quite a morbid mempru indeed, but the way you shake along with the earth is a memory that will never leave you all your life.

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I, uh, went to the 98 NHL All-star game. I still have the neat little radio they gave you when you walked in the door, still in its package. Batteries came with it!

Yeah.

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I remember when the first Sputnik went into orbit. I was a big science fiction fan, so the only surprise to me was that the Russians had done it first. For some reason, this led to a lot of fuss over the state of the American educational system.

I remember my tremendous disappointment when the first Vanguard launches blew up on the launch pad, and my joy when the first successful Explorer launch put the first US satellite into orbit.

I remember watching the Echo satellites go over. (They were basically enormous shiney balloons.)

When John F. Kennedy was shot, I was a student at the University of Arizona, in Tucson. I heard about it as I was leaving the cafeteria in the Student Union Building.

I went on to my 1:00 PM (more or less) English class. The teacher asked if we were up to having class, someone said no, and class was dismissed.

I don’t remember what I did for the next hour. When I went to my next class, which was Engineering Graphics (drafting, more or less), the teacher said that she remembered when President Franklin Roosevelt died, and that life went on anyhow. Class was not dismissed.

(Later, all classes were canceled for about three days.)

I was in my dorm room when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot, doing homework, I think. Some of the guys were in the TV room, and saw him shot on live TV.

I watched Armstrong and Aldrin land on the moon. I jumped from channel to channel, looking for the clearest picture. As Armstong prepared to step out, Walter Cronkite on CBS was going on and on about the importance of the moment. I switched to ABC or NBC, where the newscasters had the sense to let the moment speak for itself.

My job involves computer systems that are used to run batch jobs on our corporate computer network on the right days, at the right times, and in the right order. The company where I work had spent a lot of time and money getting the programs I support and everything else ready for Y2K. I was in the office all morning on 12/31/99, watching to see how our data centers in Japan, Taiwan, and elsewhere in the Far East would handle the date crossover. When that went okay, I went home and took a nap while others watched our European sites. I came back at 11 PM and watched fireworks on TV and ate snack food as midnight came and went. While we had a few minor problems, and we still have to work around small glitches in non-critical systems which no one could fix, nothing major happened. But don’t let anyone tell you the time and money we spent preparing was wasted. A lot of major problems were identified and fixed, preventing a real mess.

On 9/11/01, I came downstairs in the morning to find my wife had a morning talk show on, and that they were talking about a plane that had crashed into one of the WTC towers. I wondered how anyone could do anything that stupid in clear weather. As we were fixing breakfast, I saw the explosion of the second plane hitting the second tower out of the corner of my eye. At that point, I knew that it was no accident.

I got ready to go to work more quickly than usual, thinking (heaven knows why) that I might be needed there right away. (I wasn’t.) But instead of taking the freeway to work as usual, I took back roads, because I was afraid the bridges on the freeway might get blown up. This was probably not too rational, considering the bridges are in Richardson and Plano, Texas. However, I am a firm believer that paranoia is its own reward.

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Ditto those, MSK, and BTW I was TOTALLY flipped out when Desert Storm started (I was in college). I was working as a fundraiser for the Atlanta Symphony (calling people to ask for donations–BLEH) and was getting hung up on (without so much as a “Fuck You!”) more than usual. Finally, one man I called said, “Do you know what’s going ON???”

I said I didn’t. He was kind enough, then, to tell me the scoop and then put the phone to his television so that I could hear! Meantime, I’d frantically motioned my boss over to give him the news. He sent us all home early. I was very sad and scared.

In addition to the ones you listed, I might also add that I remember to a T where I was when:

The Rodney King Verdict came out. Honey, I was going to a Black college. You think there wasn’t some shit going down? That was very scary, too, because I had to drive home (I lived off-campus) from class in the midst of rioting and looting. My car actually OVERHEATED in downtown Atlanta and there I sat, in front of the shattered windows of a Macy’s store, watching people run by with armfuls of loot.

**The OJ Simpson Verdict ** came out. I was at work at a little pseudo-Caribbean joint in Atlanta… Funny, though–that’s really ALL I remember. Not my own emotions, not the emotions of those around me…

Princess Diana died. Was out to dinner with my Nana, who’d come to visit me in San Francisco. Our waitress came over, all freaked out and crying, and told us.

**JFK Junior **(and his wife) died. Was visiting friends (trishdish, as a matter of fact) in New Jersey and watching all of the news coverage. I held out hope for much longer than anyone else…

I have to say, though, that September 11 just rocked my little world. I’d say it’s because I’m old enough now to realize that I’m not invincible, but if that’s the case, then you’d think it’d have had a more profound effect on my mother!

When we got the news here in my office (a coworker’s mother called), I received a call from my own mother. Thinking she must be calling about the attacks, I picked up…

… she wanted to know if I wanted spaghetti or salmon croquettes for dinner (I had plans to go over there after work).

I figured she must not know what was happening, so I started blurting out the whole thing,

“Oh, yeah, I saw that,” she said, and added, “People are just crazy.” Then she returned to the subject of dinner. :eek:

I ended up going home early that day, not because of the attacks (my boss said anyone who felt they needed to leave would have to take vacation time :eek: ), but because a standing sewer pipe broke above my office shortly thereafter, causing black goo to rain down upon everything in my workspace.

That was the proverbial back-breakin’ straw.

So I went home, and a few minutes into my first viewing of the video coverage, my pseudo-kid called my cell to give me the news, and when he found out I was at home, he asked if he could come over. He’d been with his mom–who was very freaked out about the whole thing–all morning, and was (I think) seeking respite from all of that emotion.

Poor thing picked the wrong house. :frowning:

By the way, Wisest, you are such a good dad that I’m about to cry over here.

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more or less in order of importance to me…
WTC I was laying in bed listening to the local (Omaha) morning radio jockeys. They reported that a plain had hit one of the towers so I turned on the TV and turned off the radio. I was watching when the 2nd plane hit. I fell asleep before they fell (does that make me a bad person). When I woke up and my SO told me that they had fallen and I was in shock. I ran over a raccoon on my way to work that night. My car was making a funny noise when my car got searched on the way onto Offutt AFB….as a civilian….at 11pm at night. They let me through eventually. My coworker actually had to call “very important base personnel” to get on base and his car wasn’t making funny noise. The things you see on an important military base when real stuff happens are interesting/disturbing.
Kurt Cobain suicide (homicide?) Sitting in “my” spot in the Subway I worked at getting ready to start my shift. I didn’t believe my boss when she told me. That hit me hard. 100 times more so than any of the Kennedy’s or Princess or Nun.
**Gulf War ** There was a special “church” service that night (Wednesday?). I was about to turn 18 and graduate from High School. I wasn’t scared. I was ready to join the Air Force. Everybody was crying. So was I.
**LA Riots ** I was fishing just off the Mississippi River with my preacher that was about to get fired for lying on his resume to our church. It was my first “real” discussion as an adult with someone that wasn’t related to me.
**Challenger ** Middle school. English class (I think). It really wasn’t that big of deal to us then. Probably should have been.
dead0man

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Your suggestion can lead to an exceptionally long, and boring, account.

I’ll give you an example, When I was growing up the solo transAtlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh was all the rage. This led me and many other little boys, and girls, to an intense interest in flying. We (small town of Cherokee, IA; pop 6500) even had a local pilot who had a Travelair biplane and later a Curtis Robin and we used to gather there to “help” him in order to get an occasional ride.

Fast forward to 7 Dec. 1941. I’m now 20 years old and Pearl Harbor is attacked. I volunteer for the Army as an Aviation Cadet, pass the test and go off to Sheppard Field, TX. for basic training. I managed to make it through and finally ended up as a Martin B-26 pilot in the ETO.

All because I was a flying enthusiast because of Charles Lindbergh.

Of course, it could have turned out worse. I could have fallen for his line that Naziism was the wave of the future. Which, by the way, he later recanted.

Now, do you see how deadly dull it would have been if I had done this with even a small fraction of the world events that have affected me?

Somebody just did, and what about China in the summer of 1989 and how did that affect you?

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All these things are important, tis true, but where were you when ELVIS DIED???

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Sure, sure, everything on TV since … let’s say 1984.

Living on Kilauea I got to watch the major eruptions from by bedroom window. The ones that consumed Kalapana Seaview Estates. Also got to stand between Mauna Loa and Kilauea when they were both erupting in the middle of night. Quite the sight, molten red rock to the left, molten red rock to the right.

I’ve also been inside the Keck telescope before it was finished.

Ooh, ooh. I was at 11,000 feet for the 1992 eclipse on Mauna Loa. Above the cloud, perfectly clear view of one of the best eclipses ever. It was something watching the shadow race across the ground right at you.

Ok, they’re minor majors but all something.

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Me too…though I was watching “The Flintstone Kids.” I think I scared my parents pretty well that morning: “Mommy? The news just cut in over the cartoons, and Dan Rather said to go get your parents.”

I remember wondering A) Why they couldn’t re-start the cartoons from where the pre-empted them, and B) Why the people in China had to protest on a Saturday morning. Couldn’t they wait till tomorrow, when nothing good was on?

And I felt the San Francisco Earthquake of '89. I was at a friend’s birthday party, in a park, we had just blown out the cake, when it felt like someone was starting to shake the table, as a gag or something. A second or two later, I realized that EVERYTHING was shaking…And completely forgot (Along with everyone else) to duck under the table for cover, as we had been taught for years in school.

Ranchoth

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The biggest thing I’ve been through is Hurricane Georges. That bitch was headed for New Orleans, and at 2:00AM it spun on its heel and headed right into my frigging living room, flooding my house with 42" of swampwater, raw sewage and fuel oil from nearby shipyards. It took 2 days to pass and the waters to recede, and 2 years to totally rebuild and sell the house and escape to Seattle, where, 4 days after my arrival, I was in the middle of a 6.8 earthquake.
So the whole goddam planet is against me…

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I apologize for boring you, however you may recall these words:

Also I remember a dude named Rod Laver and since tennis is played world-wide, would I be wrong in mentioning him? And then there is the fact that the U.S. dominated the America’s Cup until some country beat them in an out-of-the-way town named Perth. But then someone from Australia wouldn’t care about those either.

I was unaware that we were supposed to change the OP if we didn’t like it’s proposition. Dave gave a good example of why “how it effected me” is not good. Or do you want to hear how the Senate hearings of Senator Kefauver effected my life of crime?

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My memories include many already mentioned but for me the first big "remember where you were"event was the death of President Kennedy. I was in third grade. We knew he had been shot, then the principal came around to each classroom and told us he was dead. I had only recently, at the funeral of my great-grandmother, learned that grownups cry. But to me it looked like the principal and my teacher wanted to. His funeral procession was where I learned about some military traditions, like the riderless horse with the boots turned backwards in the stirrups.

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I live in Alexandria, VA now, but at the time of the San Francisco earthquake, I lived in Hayward CA, which is about 50 miles from San Francisco. I worked at the Shasta Beverage Co. and had gotten off work at 5:00pm. The quake struck at 5:04pm while I was waiting at the stoplight. It felt like 4 men were jumping up and down on the car bumpers. At that moment, I thought it was a small quake, something to laugh about with my friends. When I got on the freeway, I realized it was a lot bigger. There were several car crashes, none of the radio stations would work, and there just seemed to be an air of foreboding. When I got back to my house, my roommates were all outside, waiting for me to come home. We stayed up all night watching the TV, which looked like a war zone. I can’t say that being involved in a big event is always pleasant, but that was quite a thought provoking experience that I’ll never forget.

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I remember…

Very vaguely the Berlin Wall falling and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Too young then, didn’t mean much to me at the time; I was more interested in my Barbie dolls.

I was sitting on the floor of my house (we then lived in Georgia) and turning on the television and seeing the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Desert Storm. My cousin Chris got sent to fight, and I cried because I was scared for him. I made him a care package and sent it to him in Saudi.

The high school shooting in Mississippi I remember very clearly, because one of my classmates used to live across the street from one of the boys who shot up the school. She said he was very quiet, very lonesome.

9-11-2001. What a time. My mom had just gotten arrested and jailed for drugs, Aaliyah got killed, and then I turned on the TV one bright September morning and got to see the plane hit the second tower LIVE.

I remember skorts being popular shudder.

More as they happen.

.:Nichol:.

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I remember the day Gerald Ford took office. I heard it on my moms car radio. I was 4. My mom was a wreck the day **Elvis **died. I remember the launch of the Columbia when I was in fifth grade. It was a big thing then you know.