# What was the earliest national/international event that you remember? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450 "2019-03-24T14:33:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/61 "2019-03-25T03:37:19Z")
I have some rather vague memories of the Shepherd and Glenn space flights, but the first really vivid memory I have of an international event was the Cuban Missile Crisis. I distinctly recall a strong personal fear that we were all about to disappear in a nuclear fireball. I would have been 7 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/62 "2019-03-25T04:36:35Z")
Kennedy-Nixon debate live on TV. I was with my parents in our neighbor’s living room, all the adults watching. I was ten, too young to care or pay much attention, but remember Kennedy’s and especially Nixon’s faces in grainy\* black and white. - Rabbit ears picture quality ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/63 "2019-03-25T04:50:35Z")
The 6pm news coverage of the fall/liberation of Saigon, with the helicopter lifting off from the embassy, and aircraft getting tipped overboard to make space for another landing on US aircraft carriers. I was almost 6. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/64 "2019-03-25T05:02:28Z")
I’m going with Sputnik, October 1957. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/65 "2019-03-25T05:02:44Z")
Hank Aaron hitting a home run in the World Series. I think it was the '57 Series, in which case I was 3, but it may have been the '58 Series. If that’s not sufficiently notable event (and I don’t know why it wouldn’t be), I remember listening to the 1960 election returns in the morning before school. Everyone in the family was for Kennedy, so I decided to be contrarian and be for Nixon. Obviously at 6 years old, I had no clue about politics. > [@installLSC](#): > > The eruption of Mt. St. Helens: May 18, 1980. We were in the ashfall zone (about an inch). I remember putting on our winter clothes and going to our grandmother’s house. I was in Spokane for that and we had half an inch or so where I lived. Everything was whitish out, so there was an reflex to put on an overcoat before going out. But it wasn’t cold at all; it’d been a nice sunny day before the ash. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/66 "2019-03-25T06:03:12Z")
I find myself trying to calculate the age of all the Dopers in this thread, based on the memories they are reporting. I think I am in the upper percentile of age, at 64, although certainly not the oldest. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/67 "2019-03-25T06:06:35Z")
The earliest clear memory I have of an national/international event that I remember was watching the space shuttle _Challenger_ explode on on January 28, 1986 and the speech Reagan gave later that night. Unless you count watching Hulk Hogan beating the Iron Sheik to win his first WWF championship in 1984 because I remember watching that match repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/68 "2019-03-25T06:45:02Z")
The fall of the Berlin Wall, or the Loma Prieta Quake, if that counts as a “national” event. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/69 "2019-03-25T07:08:44Z")
Nixon’s first election. We had a mock election in my first grade class, and Nixon handily won it, although Johnson would have done well in that particularly ballot since one of the boys in the class shared his last name. The next would have been Apollo 11. We don’t have a TV, and went to a neighbor’s house to watch, but it was later than our bedtime so we didn’t see the actual moon landing. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/70 "2019-03-25T07:57:53Z")
Kennedy-Nixon campaign of 1960. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/71 "2019-03-25T08:05:56Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I find myself trying to calculate the age of all the Dopers in this thread, based on the memories they are reporting. I think I am in the upper percentile of age, at 64, although certainly not the oldest. Roughly 1/4 of the people who’ve posted in this thread so far remember either the 1960 election, or some earlier event. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/72 "2019-03-25T08:17:01Z")
Launch of first Space Shuttle just pips Wedding of Charles and Diana. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/73 "2019-03-25T12:13:23Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I find myself trying to calculate the age of all the Dopers in this thread, based on the memories they are reporting. I think I am in the upper percentile of age, at 64, although certainly not the oldest. With only a couple of earlier exceptions, I remember every event mentioned in this thread. The joy of being old. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/74 "2019-03-25T12:31:29Z")
And I’m glad we skew older. I was afraid of getting some “Diana’s death” responses. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/75 "2019-03-25T13:10:34Z")
The presidential campaign of 1960, because much noise was made about Kennedy being Catholic. I was only 6 at the time but as a good Catholic child, I knew that we were right and all the rest of the people were wrong, so why would they be upset about having a president who was on the right side??? 😕 No, I wasn’t a particularly political child. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/76 "2019-03-25T13:27:16Z")
Martin Luther King’s murder. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/77 "2019-03-25T13:28:27Z")
The 1960 Presidential election; specifically, the Kennedy-Nixon debates. I grew up in Boston, where the whole thing was huge. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/78 "2019-03-25T14:11:47Z")
I remember the JFK assassination, and also being shown how to hide under our desks or go into a fallout shelter during the Cuban missile crisis. I also have a vague memory of the ceremony where we got a new flag when Hawaii became a state, but my impression was that it was after 1959. I believe I started attending half-day kindergarten when I was five, so probably 1960 or thereafter. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/79 "2019-03-25T14:23:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I also have a vague memory of the ceremony where we got a new flag when Hawaii became a state, but my impression was that it was after 1959. I believe I started attending half-day kindergarten when I was five, so probably 1960 or thereafter. I have vague memories of the talk of a 49 star flag that never became official after Alaska got statehood but I can’t put a date on it. It wasn’t necessarily before Hawaii entered the Union. Definitely in the first grade the teacher showed us one but that would have been 1961. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/80 "2019-03-25T14:32:51Z")
The JFK assassination is probably stuck the minds of everyone old enough to remember. It was like a death in the family. The curtains were drawn, people came over, food was shared, and everyone talked in hushed tones while sitting around the TV. Oddly, the first time I was aware of an “international story” was the Congo Crisis of 1960, when Katanga seceded. I remember hearing about it on the radio and suddenly realizing that there were people very far away and that very bad things were happening to them, some of them little kids like me. I started reading my parent’s newspapers for articles and paying attention when the news segments came on radio and TV. I never really talked about it with my parents and I don’t think it registered with them like it did with me. I was eight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450.md?page=5)