We all know them. The day Kennedy was shot. The Challenger disaster. 9/11.
Apparently everyone always remembers what exactly they were doing.
Is this a modern phenomenon?
Did the Ancient people remember what they were doing the day Rome fell or Caesar was killed?
Did early Americans remember special days and what they were doing those days?
I feel like it might be part of our communication technology that exists that makes this happen.
Whatcha think?
news events weren’t defined by dates. Especially back before there was a universally recognized calendar.
The War of 1812 officially ended with the Treaty of Ghent signed the day before Christmas 1814. But two weeks later, they were still fighting the major battle at New Orleans.
I think that significant events in years past where based on death and birth. And the seasons. Harvest, winter or whatever. “That was the year of the bad harvest” And leads to suspicion.
I do remember where I was and what I was doing on 9/11. I was watching it unfold at work on my computer. Same with January 6. I distinctly remember my grand boss saying that he would see us at a meeting tomorrow, provided we are not in the middle of a civil war.
The point about modern dramatic events like the moon landing etc. is that they were instantly beamed around the world. In the UK, TV programmes were stopped when Kennedy was assassinated and not resumed until the following day.
Before “instant” news, even something like the death of a monarch might take weeks to disseminate through their own realm - never mind to other countries. How long would it have taken for news of the fall of Troy to reach Egypt? Would they have been all that interested?
Yeah, there is a big psychological difference between hearing about something and watching it happen. I assume it would have to affect how the memory is processed.
Uh, not you.
Well, I have no personal knowledge. But I can read.
I remember the Challenger.
9/11.
The very day the Pandemic really scared me, I don’t remember the date, but it was the day I first heard toilet paper would be hard to get. I was hospitalized at the time so life in the wild didn’t compute yet. But, no TP impressed on my mind.
I thought this thread was going to be about being questioned by a LEO, and needing an alibi for your whereabouts/activities on a day a year or more ago.
Like, “kambuckta, what were you doing between the hours of 7pm and 11pm on Tuesday the 8th of September, 2022?”. And honestly, I would have no idea. Sorry Officer.
I was too young to remember Kennedy’s assassination, but I DO recall waking at 11pm after falling asleep on the sofa with the telly going on Sept 11, and watching the coverage of the planes crashing into the WTC. I thought I was having a bad dream.
[quote=“kambuckta, post:8, topic:993374”] I
thought this thread was going to be about being questioned by a LEO, and needing an alibi for your whereabouts/activities on a day a year or more ago.
[/quote]
Don’t feel bad. I thought it was about disastrous first dates (“what am I doing on this date?!”)
One of the tales in the 1001 Nights series was about how Abu Hasan farted very loudly in the marketplace and was so humiliated by this event that he left town and went to sea where he could live his life in anonymity. One day, many years later he returned to his home town an old man. As he entered town he overheard a conversation where a young daughter asked her mother when she was born. The mother responded ‘you were born two years and six months after Abu Hasan farted in the marketplace.’ He immediately turned around, left town and went back to sea, never again to return.
So if the idea of ‘benchmark dates’ was in existence when the tales of the Arabian Nights was told, it must not be a particularly new concept.
I don’t know if they still do it, but every July 4th NPR used to have a reading of the Declaration of Independence by their hosts and reporters. Back in the Bob Edwards days, he would end the segment by reading an entry from Charles III’s diary for July 4 1776 where he wrote that nothing eventful happened that day.
Of course nowadays we find that ridiculous, but back in those days it probably took weeks for the news to get from here to there. So I would agree with Beck that our modern communications have a lot to do with the phenomenon.
I’ve thought about this, some more.
We have family events that are always brought up. “Oh, Ma that happened the same day Sis got her braces off” yada, yada.
I’m now thinking on a personal level it’s a memory device. Our brains are wired to put happenings together to organize thoughts.
I may be having some trouble doing this lately and this is why I’m thinking about it. Damn, if I can remember why.
I think you mean George III.
Hey, at least I got the III right! 
I was giving birth! What a wild year.
That may be my favorite ancient story. Is the rest of the book that funny?
I hadn’t heard that. I wonder if that’s the origin of the 17th century writer John Aubrey’s story of Elizabeth I and the Earl of Oxford, who bowed low to her and farted, and was so embarrassed he stayed away from court for seven years. When he came back the Queen spotted him and said “My lord, we had quite forgot the fart!”
Back to the OP, yes it must be something to do with interrupting the usual/expected daily round, accentuated by the universality/simultaneity of communication/awareness: the interruption of broadcasting would drive that home dramatically, but speed of the news might not be quite the same factor. The oldest such event I could guess at might be the relief of Mafeking in the Boer War, well before broadcasting. It might have been some time before news reached the UK, but once it hit the newspapers, it would have spread quickly, and it gave rise to massive street celebrations, such that “mafficking” became a word for spontaneous jollification for quite a while.
September 11, I was on the roof of Battery Creek High School replacing an air conditioner compressor. I remember hearing the principal address the student body but did not hear the details. Found out about it when I got off of the roof.
Not really. That was by far the funniest story.
I got my Aspergers diagnosis the day Michael Jackson died. I remember sitting at home that night processing things in my head while CNN showed endless helicopter footage of the Neverland Ranch.
My company was still doing COVID work-from-home days when the Capital was attacked, so despite it being a workday, I was at home glued to the teevee.
My 9/11’s a story that requires too much setup to be interesting, but I remember it well.
I actually don’t remember my parents ever talking about what they were doing when JFK was shot; my mom went to high school in the states, but if I have the dates right, she may have been back in Canada for uni by that point.
Is there a reason to assume the human brain worked differently back then? I mean, I suppose that remembering important moments is something people could do in the distant past, why wouldn’t they? If you care about Rome and if the event is spectacular enough, you are likely to remember it, and because you will have experienced it a certain way (determined by your location/position/perspective), you will most likely remember what you were doing at the time.
I remember what I was doing the mornings of Princess Diana crash and 9/11.