# What cities will forever be known for one specific thing/event? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 30, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759 "2002-12-30T22:15:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/1 "2002-12-30T22:15:34Z")
As in, whenever I see **Waco** , Texas mentioned, I think of… well, I’m sure you know. Same goes for **Brentwood** , CA. “…blood found at Simpson’s Brentwood estate…” **Columbine** , CO Pretty much any town named **Springfield** Locally, I always think of **Watsonville** , CA as being the epicenter of the 1989 Loma Prieta (SF) earthquake, but I think that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/2 "2002-12-30T22:32:06Z")
Dresden. Coventry. Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Many others; I’m sleepy today. ---
**Author:** ![yola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/48db29/32.png) [@yola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yola)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/3 "2002-12-30T22:43:50Z")
Valdez, Alaska will forever be connected with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Ironic that the Exxon tanker that went aground on a chartered reef (Bligh Reef named after Captain Cook’s navigator) was named the Exxon Valdez. Since Valdez was the closest town and the terminus of the pipeline, the base of clean-up operations were in Valdez. So when you hear Valdez, you think of the largest oil spill off America’s shoreline. ---
**Author:** ![Lure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@Lure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lure)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/4 "2002-12-30T22:44:38Z")
Johnstown for the flood Philly for the cheese steak Chicago for World Series futility and the fart thread 🙂 Which brings to mind Boston for the baked bean ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/5 "2002-12-30T22:51:27Z")
Niagara Falls, NY. Manassas, VA (or Bull Run if you prefer) Independence, MO. ---
**Author:** ![mudcrutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@mudcrutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mudcrutch)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/6 "2002-12-30T22:52:50Z")
New York City - World Trade Center attacks Dallas - JFK assassination ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/7 "2002-12-30T22:53:15Z")
Oklahoma City ☹ ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/8 "2002-12-30T22:55:17Z")
Jonestown, Guyana for the mass kool-aid suicide. Chernobyl for the nuclear reactor disaster. ---
**Author:** ![jlsmith57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@jlsmith57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlsmith57)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/9 "2002-12-30T22:59:47Z")
Columbine High School was in Littleton, CO. I don’t know if there is a Columbine, CO. ---
**Author:** ![Scotticher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Scotticher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scotticher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/10 "2002-12-30T23:14:04Z")
I live in Bellingham, WA. For a sleepy, quirky little town in the sleepy, quirky little part of my state north of Seattle, we seem to have garnered some pretty gruesome things to be “known” for. Kenneth Bianchi moved north from LA after he and his cousin killed lots of women in the LA area…the “Hillside Strangler” thing? He then killed his last two victims HERE, which led to his eventual incarceration. I think he got caught HERE because in THIS town, it would be difficult to NOT be caught if you caused two women to disappear…it was pretty stupid for him to assume that the two women he set up wouldn’t have told someone they were going to house sit for someone…even though he told them to keep it confidential that he had set up this “house sitting” deal. Around THESE parts, you should realize that a person is going to tell SOMEONE what they are doing. It is only neighborly to “share,” you know? 🙂 Then the recent snipers in the Northeast lived here for a time, interacted on a pretty public basis with people in a coffeehouse, the young man went to the High School I graduated from, and they were a part of the community in many ways. Sure, lots of people here WERE suspicious of the older man, and reported it, but since he hadn’t DONE anything, the authorities couldn’t do anything aBOUT it. The _young_ man was welcomed into the homes of TWO people I know…because he knew their kids at school. He seemed like a really good and polite young man, too…very grateful to them for opening their home to him. So…I picked up Time magazine one day and to my great shock I saw that my town was mentioned in the very FIRST paragraph of the article about them. Weird. Then, of course, Seattle is known for the Space Needle, Ted Bundy and (South Seattle) the Green River Killer. Once again, that is two things out of three that are gruesome. This whole thing feels VERY weird if you live here. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/11 "2002-12-30T23:46:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jlsmith57 \* > \*\*Columbine High School was in Littleton, CO. I don’t know if there is a Columbine, CO. \*\* You’re totally right… brain fart. **mudcrutch** Not so much those (well, definitely not NYC) because while there are some huge things that happened there in history, they won;t be explicitly _known for_ those events. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/12 "2002-12-30T23:46:31Z")
I don’t think that NYC will be known only for the WTC attacks. The suggestion of Coventry (in the list with Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki) is interesting as this maybe highlights a different international perspective. I suspect that if you asked people in the UK to say something abut Coventry, you’d get Coventry Cathedral and Coventry City football team as the most common answers. To the OP, I would add Lockerbie, Hungerford, Dunblane and Aberfan. The OP seems to be answered almost exclusively by disaster sites. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/13 "2002-12-30T23:48:53Z")
Heidelberg Selma Little Rock Alamagordo ---
**Author:** ![WillSantini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@WillSantini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillSantini)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/14 "2002-12-30T23:51:17Z")
San Antonio, TX - Remember the Alamo San Diego, CA & Perris Island, SC - Where Marines are born ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/15 "2002-12-31T00:02:59Z")
I think the best candidates would be very small towns that had a worldwide famous event occur. I propose: Pompei - famous eruption, and nothing else will ever happen there. Wittenberg, for Martin Luther’s theses - perhaps too obscure to qualify Hameln (Hamlin) - pied piper I disagree with some of the previous proposals: Many of the cities have other associations or can potentially have something in the future. For example Brentwood has other associations for me (I live in the area) and how many people would really remember that Nicole Simpsons and Ron Goldman were killed in Brentwood? When I hear Heidelberg, I think of college students (Somerset Maugham’s ‘Of Human Bondage’). What should I be thinking of? Dresden - I think of porcelain dishes first and the fire-bombing of Dresden second. etc… I agree with this proposal: Hiroshima would definitely qualify in my book. Of course I’m not Japanese, but I imagine that even for a Japanese person the name Hiroshima immediately brings up the idea “atom bomb explosion.” ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/16 "2002-12-31T00:12:00Z")
Lakehurst, New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![FunLvnCriminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@FunLvnCriminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FunLvnCriminal)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/17 "2002-12-31T00:54:10Z")
Living in Alabama, Id Have to say Selma. And I am sure I don’t have to say why. ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/18 "2002-12-31T00:57:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skammer \* > \*\*Oklahoma City ☹ \*\* Ditto. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/19 "2002-12-31T01:00:08Z")
Delft (unless you follow art or early modern science). Ghent (as in Treaty of). Nuremberg. Fort Lauderdale. Casablanca. New Orleans, more or less. ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759/20 "2002-12-31T01:01:49Z")
Nashville.twang! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-cities-will-forever-be-known-for-one-specific-thing-event/145759.md?page=2)