# What historical events have you experienced firsthand? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 29, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-events-have-you-experienced-firsthand/587296 "2011-06-29T19:03:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kapri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kapri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kapri)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-events-have-you-experienced-firsthand/587296/1 "2011-06-29T19:03:23Z")
I don’t think I’ve seen a thread on this. If there’s been one and this is too close to that, I apologize. In another thread I recounted a time when I was on TV at the “Welcome Home” celebration for the Iranian hostages in the 80s. I have another one I’ll post when I get time, but I was wondering, has anyone else ever been a firsthand witness to something that is considered historical? This kind of stuff fascinates me–I love stories and even used to write history books–and I’d love to hear other peoples’ stories. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-events-have-you-experienced-firsthand/587296/2 "2011-06-29T19:21:03Z")
I witnessed some of the mass hysteria on 9/11, less than 20 miles away from the actual Pentagon crash site. I didn’t witness any of the planes or the actual crash, though. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-events-have-you-experienced-firsthand/587296/3 "2011-06-29T19:32:56Z")
A few because of my work: In 2000, I worked for the OSCE department of elections in administering the first elections in Kosovo after the Serbian withdrawal. I was at the ballot count center after the election working on tallying the votes when the database crashed minutes before a press conference at which we were to announce the results. I played a pivotal role that day by hovering over our programmer reminding him how little time we had before the conference started. Here is our historic exhchange: ME: 10 Minutes left! PROGRAMMER: Can you do me a favor? ME: Anything! PROGRAMMER: Can you get away from my desk? And I did, and the rest is history. I also was in Baghdad the summer of 2003 after the US invasion and witnessed some of the looting; later on April 1 2004, I was trying to drive back to Baghdad from the north when the Sadar uprising started and ended up driving to the border with Turkey to fly back to the states. I was also living in Baghdad in 2006 outside of the Green Zone when the fighting was at its worst. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-historical-events-have-you-experienced-firsthand/587296/4 "2011-06-29T19:38:47Z")
Beirut for (a) the car bomb that killed Rafik Hariri and (b) the massive demonstrations that drove out the Syrians.