# What unexpected event had the most witnesses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250 "2009-01-21T02:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/41 "2009-01-21T19:55:31Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Unfortunately, there are senses other than sight. Yeah, you got that right. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/42 "2009-01-21T20:14:38Z")
Halley’s Comet! ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/43 "2009-01-21T20:20:37Z")
Hey, I know! Krakatoa! It threw a tremendous pile of debris and dust into the atmosphere. Everybody in the _world_ probably saw that for the next generation or so. Or maybe … yeah … the _Ice Age._ We look at the aftermath of that every day! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Superhero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Superhero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Superhero)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/44 "2009-01-21T21:42:40Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > For those of us on the West Coast who were just waking up, stumbling around for coffee and turning on the TV while we get dressed, the second plane was completely unexpected. > > I remember seeing the WTC on TV with smoke coming out, and thinking “must be a pretty big fire in New York to be on the San Francisco news” and then seeing the second airplane. We had a few moments of “What was that? Did I just see what I think I saw?” and then realizing that we knew people that worked in those buildings. And that’s just the earlier risers on the West Coast. The second plane hit at ~7:00 a.m. Pacific, and both towers had collapsed by ~8:30 a.m. Pacific, so I’d say a pretty large chunk of the Western U.S. was asleep or otherwise occupied while the events were actually happening. Still, I’d guess that the entire East Coast and Midwest was pretty well awake and mostly tuned in to TV news coverage by the time of the collapse, if not the second plane, not to mention the Pentagon strike and the Pennsylvania crash. What that really means as far as who witnessed what live as it happened, I can’t really say. I think that the difficulty in determining just what represents a distinct and separate event and just what it means to “witness” it means that you can’t really say that any one of these many choices is “clearly” or “hands down” the one, correct answer. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/45 "2009-01-21T21:57:27Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > 9.11 wins hands down in terms of people who saw the first plane strike in person also. I don’t see how this is possible. How many people do you think were looking in just the right direction at that exact time? A few thousand? Even that sounds like a generous number. It’s not like all of Manhattan was staring at the towers \*before \*anything had already happened. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/46 "2009-01-21T22:24:19Z")
I’m thinking a complete solar eclipse would hardly have been expected in the days before modern astronomy, and it would be very hard to miss for anyone living in the hemisphere facing the sun, so that would potentially make the number of direct witnesses about a quarter billion people or so. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/47 "2009-01-21T22:38:17Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > I’m thinking a complete solar eclipse would hardly have been expected in the days before modern astronomy, and it would be very hard to miss for anyone living in the hemisphere facing the sun, so that would potentially make the number of direct witnesses about a quarter billion people or so. _Total_ solar eclipses are [quite narrow](http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/eclipsemap.jpg). Make it partial and you’ve got a better case. Make it a total _Lunar_ eclipse, and I’ll accept that. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/48 "2009-01-21T22:56:39Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > WRT 9/11, I’d say the initial tower collapse was unexpected, too. I saw the tops of the towers leaning early on and knew they were coming down which is why I turned off the TV. I didn’t want to see that. (Earlier, I had just turned on the TV when the local AM show threw to the network. I had it on in the background when I heard someone say there was another plane and regrettably turned just in time…) I also remember hearing a family member say “Come in here, they’re bringing out the guy that show JFK.” And I went in just in time. In terms of % of US viewers, that has to be up there. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/49 "2009-01-21T22:57:11Z")
Does the unexpected event have to be real? Because _everybody_ knows somebody who knows somebody who put a alligator sewer baby in a microwave hitchhiker ghost in the rain with bathtub full of ice… ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/50 "2009-01-22T00:46:18Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > Halley’s Comet! How is that unexpected? I came in to say the '89 San Francisco earthquake during the World Series. I very clearly remember that one. And “the Spanish Inquisition” is the funniest thing I’ve read all week. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250/51 "2009-01-22T00:57:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I thought about the 9/11 attack but I figured that people who turned on their TVs knew the tower had been struck by a plane so the second attack was not completely unexpected. It was to me, but not to Ivylad. I was pooh-poohing him, saying the pilot of the first plane must have had engine trouble, because who in the world would deliberately fly a plane into a skyscraper? Then I saw the second plane hit. That whole day was a series of unexpected events. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-unexpected-event-had-the-most-witnesses/482250.md?page=2)