Well… excepting those conducted by the Mossad, right?
My answer is Rabin, too, by the way.
I had to vote “you forgot . . . none of the above.” Anyone born in the late 70s / early 80s doesn’t remember any of these.
The first one that I remember were the Ford ones but I was just a kid. Coincidentally, my Mom and Step-dad were within a mile or so of each one when they happened.
The first one that I really understood was Reagan. I was in High School chemistry class and the principal announced it over the speaker system. His voice was all emotional and shaky like he was telling us something that was of Major Historical Importance. I clearly remember the teacher, who was a college student in the late 60’s, visibly not giving a shit and continuing with the lesson.
Giffords. It’s the only one in my lifetime.
I’ll never understand the JFK thing. It’s not like anybody here actually knew the guy. And it’s just one person! That happens all the time. It’s not like 9/11 when the entire country felt endangered and we geared up for war. What in the world was the big deal?
I put down Reagan. I was born in 1963, and I really wasn’t aware of the first five on that list as human beings; I became aware of politicians amid a backdrop of shootings and Watergate. Ford, Ryan, Moscone, and Milk were just more of the same --faraway strangers and politicians – who, to me, were people who rather often got shot. Gifford really doesn’t affect me at all, either. Reagan was shot during my senior year in high school, and frankly I was far from shocked, but at least it seemed to matter.
The most emotionally affecting experience of my life was not a shooting; it was the Challenger explosion
I was born in 1966 and the first one on that list that I was really aware of at the time was Reagan, but I can remember a couple of significant political assassinations in other countries that got my attention - Anwar Sadat, for one (in an attack that killed or injured dozens of others as well), and Yitzhak Rabin. Ironically, both of them were killed by extremists for being seen as too moderate.
Anwar Sadat for me as well. I wasn’t particularly politically aware at the time, but I remember being so shocked that someone as important as he was could be killed like that.
I do remember Reagan getting shot, but the most shocking part of that for me was Brady and that visual of him lying on the sidewalk with that man holding his head. That was very upsetting.
I was born in 1976, so I vaguely remember the coverage of Reagan, but, as a 5 year old, I didn’t care.
Sadly, the recent shooting of Gifford didn’t really shock me. It saddens me that we have come to this, but the trend in violence and vitriol has been increasing for a while.
I voted other.
JFK - announced at school and, without any phone calls, parents just started showing up at school and picking up their kids - shops were closing up as we drove home from school and for the next three days, that was all you saw on television. Granted, few television stations back then, but that was it.
RFK - I was sleeping and heard police cars all over the place in my small town in Illinois - half awake, I said to my mother walking by in the hallway, “What’s going on?” She said, “Robert Kennedy was assassinated.” I went back to sleep for a few minutes and thought, “What was RFK doing in our hometown?!” I woke up to find that the police cars were searching from some bank robber and had nothing to do with the far more important news of the day.
Martin Luther King Jr. - I got to meet him briefly as a kid, so was very shocked and upset when I heard that news.
Reagan - the odd thing I remember is that a few weeks prior to that, my parents had to go to a meeting in Washington DC and I was able to join them for a weekend. They stayed at that same hotel where Reagan was shot. At the exact same location where he was shot was where we stood waiting for a taxi that weekend.
Sadat - I taught in Europe, and met another ex-pat American teacher. Her father was in the American Embassy. I believe he had been in the military and was friends with Sadat. He was sitting a few seats down from Sadat when he was assassinated.
So I guess all of those kind of affected me in varying degrees.
Think Obama, with other factors (not all):
Plus: Irish charm of the whole huge family; fought and injured in combat in WWII; substantial government experience; truly cultured, stylish and elegant wife.
Minus: the messianic memes, extremely controversial associates and church attendance.
Even though I’m an adult now and realize JFK was not as great as he was presented (and as I thought he was when he became president when I was 9), I still react emotionally to his speeches. This is actually similar to the way I react to Obama’s speeches, even though I am opposed to everything Obama really stands for.
Kennedy, certainly.
But the Reagan assassination attempt was noteworthy because I was working in an office where there were many black and white employees, and the way we heard was one of the black employees walking in hooting and hollering “Hey! They shot your white president!” My first reaction was thinking he wasn’t my president…
I lived through all of them. Not a one moved me in the least.
Actually, the one I remember the most was the attempt on George Wallace, because right after the announcement of the shooting, the DJ on KMET played the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
John Lennon
I was six and in first grade when Kennedy was shot. While I don’t remember the hoopla at the time, I remember cutting out the picture of John-John saluting during the funeral procession and keeping it in my bottom drawer…the first thing I ever cut out of the paper. And I knew Caroline was my age, and felt bad her daddy was dead.
I didn’t include judges in the poll because I didn’t think many people would remember their killings. I didn’t recall any of these either until I found this Wiki article.
remember Woody from Cheers? Played by Woody Harrelson. His estranged father is responsible for the first murder of a Federal judge in the 20th century. He finally died in a Supermax prison in 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Wood,_Jr.
List of murdered US Federal Judges (there’s four now, including John Roll who died Saturday, when House Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot)
None of the above, but rather the Vice President of Georgian (as in Soviet) Airlines who was gunned down in Tbilisi in late 2002 about a block from where my wife was hanging out with friends.
The only one that I actually remember (other than the one the other day) was Reagan’s - I was in 6th grade at the time. It didn’t affect me that much.
However, I for some reason have developed a really strong interest in RFK, so I put that one down even though it was before I was born.
It’s not the one that affected me the most emotionally speaking (I was too small for any of it to make much sense), but the first one I remember was the murder of Admiral Carrero Blanco. I realized recently that part of the reason Dad and his family were so angry about the endangerment of children (the car fell on a spot where, if the Admiral had gone to the day’s second Mass instead of the first one, there would have been preschool kids lining up before class) was that the endangered kids were the same age as my cousins and I: it did not affect me much, but it sure affected our parents and grandparents - it went straight to their greatest fear.
The one that affected me the most emotionally speaking was probably Indira Gandhi.
JFK had a huge affect on people, simply because it was impossible to escape from it; it was everywhere and relentless. But for more personal reasons, Harvey Milk affected me much more.
I was born in 1975, and the first one I really remember wasn’t on your list - Indira Gandhi who was shot in 1984. I was living in the UK at the time, which may be why it had more impact than any US politicians. I was in the US for Regan’s inauguration, but don’t seem to remember the assassination attempt, since we had moved to the Philippines by then.