# What's the Earliest Historical Event You Can Personally Remember? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378 "2009-04-17T03:49:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/61 "2009-04-17T14:45:39Z")
News coverage of Vietnam that wasn’t yet critical of the war. Riots. Marin Luther King and Robert Kennedy being assassinated. More riots. The 1969 moon landing. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/62 "2009-04-17T14:51:05Z")
> [@bobo t](#): > > The Iranian hostage crisis…The death of Elvis. > I just turned 40. You don’t remember anything before you were 40? Wow. Oh, wait. Never mind. > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Krakatoa. > > I was pretty shook up. Thanks. I was beginning to feel old, with all these kids talking about things that happened the day before yesterday as their earliest memories. ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/63 "2009-04-17T14:53:14Z")
The Challenger explosion. I missed the actual event, though; I was in 2nd grade at the time, and was out of class for my biweekly GT enrichment session. My GT teacher sent us all back to our regular class so we could watch the launch. By the time I walked in the door, my classroom teacher had already turned it off and was talking to the class about what they’d just seen. The class looked astonished, a few weepy, Mrs. McKammet looked flustered, and I was left wondering what the hell just happened. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/64 "2009-04-17T15:03:27Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > FDR dying (1945) and walking to school the next day talking about it with my friends. I was 6. I just read my earlier post and to make things perfectly clear, it wasn’t FDR walking to school and talking about it with my friends, it was me. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/65 "2009-04-17T15:04:36Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > I remember watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981, two months before I turned 5. This. It happened almost exactly two months before my fifth birthday, too. The Challenger explosion also stands out for me. I remember everyone talking about it on the bus and all the bad jokes the kids were telling. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/66 "2009-04-17T15:08:44Z")
A televised bomb test in 1952 or thereabouts. It must have been the H bomb. Nothing stands out after that until 1959, the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly (if that can be considered a historical event). ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/67 "2009-04-17T15:13:27Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > The moon landing. I was three. My parents made me watch it. I remember it pretty well. I didn’t see what the big deal was. I saw spaceships landing on other planets all the time on Star Trek and Lost In Space. Mine is the moon landing about the same age. But I don’t really remember the moon landing, I remember getting told (very excitedly) not to stand in front of the TV and turning around to see what was so darn important…that is the only reason the image sticks with me. I have better memories of Nixon leaving office. And strong memories of my parents giving a “hippie” a ride as Watergate was breaking and this guy talking about it. ---
**Author:** ![Alienhand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/68 "2009-04-17T15:16:39Z")
Hurricane Gloria and the Challenger explosion. For the Challenger explosion I remember my parents reaction of total silence for a very long time. For Hurricane Gloria I remember huddling in the basement with some bags of snacks and after we came out seeing a very large tree that had fallen through the middle of the house two doors down. I turned four between the two events. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/69 "2009-04-17T15:42:21Z")
The Mt. St. Helen’s eruption in 1980. I was 5, and a week or so afterward, we went hiking in the area and collected ash in little film cannisters, which I brough to school for Show and Tell. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@Black\_Sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Sunshine)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/70 "2009-04-17T15:46:19Z")
My class was walking back from lunch when they announced on the intercom that the Challenger had exploded. Then they herded us all into the gym and we watched the news coverage where they showed it over and over and over again. The next day, a kid in my class said he’d found pieces of it all over his yard. We lived in Illinois. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/71 "2009-04-17T16:48:20Z")
Probably the Challenger. I was 6, home sick with bronchitis - remember it like it was yesterday. When I was little, when you were sick you got to watch TV in mom and dad’s room (because of course you didn’t have a TV in your room) and obviously everybody watched the launches then. ---
**Author:** ![Marienee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Marienee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marienee)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/72 "2009-04-17T17:18:33Z")
> [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](#): > > One of my earliest memories ever is riding with my dad onto the UGA campus and passing a big group of Vietnam war protesters. Dad had taught me how to make the peace sign and he told me to show the people as we drove past. I flashed the sign and was rewarded with lots of appreciative cheers. I think I was not quite four at the time. Born in '68. Oh, man, you remind me of the tale (though I do not recall it) about our babysitter taking us “to the park” on a lovely May day. My father came home because the building he worked in had been closed and my mother told him where we were. He turned white and rushed out the door. It was allegedly [this park, this May day](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Park_(Berkeley)). Dad was home because half the campus had been closed off due to the protests. He had had some difficulty getting off campus. My older brother claims to remember it; I do not. You would think I would remember getting tear gassed. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/73 "2009-04-17T17:21:45Z")
Long lines for gasoline due to the oil crisis around 1974. I was 4. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/74 "2009-04-17T17:22:04Z")
I have a _very_ vague memory of the Gulf War beginning - I remember seeing something on TV with big tanks rolling through the desert, and Bush making some manner of speech about something. I’m not sure exactly when this was, but I do recall my cousin getting this _awesome_ new video game system, but I don’t know that the release of the SNES really counts as a historically significant event. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/75 "2009-04-17T17:27:41Z")
> [@Ronald\_C.Semone](#): > > I just read my earlier post and to make things perfectly clear, it wasn’t FDR walking to school and talking about it with my friends, it was me. I’m disappointed. Talking with a dead president, now _that_ would be memorable.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/76 "2009-04-17T17:46:30Z")
The Falklands war, I was 4. I remember giving food as donatives to the soldiers in the islands, some years later we learned that all those donations had never reached them and were missapropiated by their superior officers… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/77 "2009-04-17T17:49:01Z")
The Iran hostage crisis, when I was nine. I remember thinking that I hadn’t seen my dad for a while and wondering how we would know if he was one of the hostages. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/78 "2009-04-17T18:00:46Z")
Bill Clinton being impeached. I didn’t really understand what was going on, just that the president might not get to be president anymore because he cheated on his wife. I do understand now that it was more complicated than that, but at the time cheating=bad guy=punishment sounded reasonable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Find\_Friends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/79 "2009-04-17T18:01:47Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > What was the first historical event you can remember living through? What specifically do you remember about it? > > I’ll go first. I was five years old. It was the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. The specific thing I remember is driving in Chicago with our headlights on in the daytime. I asked my dad why we were doing that. He told me we were honoring a good man who had just died. For some reason that small exchange with my dad in the car always stuck with me. > > Well that, and his funeral pre-empting my cartoon shows. I was quite upset about that. > > Anyone else? Well, I am sure I saw, with my father, (can’t recall if my one brother or either sister was also present) the motorcade with one Mr. Kennedy, Senator and Presidential-hopeful coming through [Rochester, New York](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_ny). No doubt some time in 1960. I may have been all of 9 if it was already July 5th. If not, the calendar said I was 8. (Although I may have been “figuring ahead” even that far back. I found out later that my mother’s father also figured from 6 months ahead.) Not that the Rochester presence of a Presidential Candidate would be considered an “Historical Event” but certainly Campaign '60 as a whole would count! _ **- Jack** _ ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/80 "2009-04-17T18:06:12Z")
I remember watching a space capsule splashdown on TV with my father. This was probably the return of the Skylab 4 mission on Feb 8, 1974. The next event after that I definitely remember is Nixon’s resignation speech, later that same year. I was six years old. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378.md?page=5)