# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/121 "2009-04-20T03:32:41Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’d just turned 5 when JFK was shot. I don’t remember anything about it except the funeral pre-empted all the standard Saturday AM cartoons. We must be of an age, **LSLGuy** , because I’d just turned 5, too. I was confused by your Saturday cartoon reference, though. My memory of the funeral was that it was unusual because my older sibs had a day off from school, and we all watched it on TV. The funeral was on Monday, Nov. 25. But the assassination was on Friday, Nov. 22, and news coverage no doubt screwed up the Saturday morning cartoon line-up. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/122 "2009-04-20T04:18:03Z")
I remember the television being on before school one day. (I wasn’t old enough to go, but my sister and brother did.) I didn’t quite understand the significance of what I saw, but there was a rocket involved. I think it was probably Allen Shepard in there. We also had a TV brought in to our classroom once, I believe that was for John Glenn. For that I was in first grade. The other earliest ones? There was an announcement on the classroom that Pope John XXIII had died. One of the girls in my class cried. There was also an announcement, the next school year, that President Kennedy had died. Too young to really understand the significance, but I knew it was a big thing. That was third grade. November must have been warm that year, because I remember being out on the porch with my little brother, while the grownups were watching the interminable TV coverage of the funeral stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/123 "2009-04-20T05:31:33Z")
I remember watching the Berlin Wall coming down on tv in 1989, and not getting it. I was like so what, I’ve got walls in my house. I was 4 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/124 "2009-04-20T05:46:48Z")
The fall of the Berlin Wall. I had just turned nine, and my family had recently moved to West Germany with the US military. I woke up early and found my mother sitting still watching TV - an unusual event - and she told me what had happened, but I didn’t care because I hated stupid Germany and just wanted to move back to the US. I’m surprised how many people my age remember the Challenger explosion. I’m of a good age to have remembered it, but I don’t remember a single thing about it. I guess my school at the time didn’t participate in the Christa McAuliffe hype. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/125 "2009-04-20T05:53:42Z")
The eruption of Mount St. Helens, May 18, 1980. My family lived in about 90 miles east of the volcano, and pretty much the entire eastern half of Washington State got several inches of ashfall. For whatever reason, our reaction when ash started falling was to go to our grandparents’ home across town. I remember having to wrap ourselves in coats and scarves as if we were in a snowstorm, except what fell from the sky was gray. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/126 "2009-04-20T06:20:09Z")
RFK’s assassination. I brought the paper in that morning for my parents. I don’t recall MLK, Jr.'s, which seems odd. I’m sure it was a huge deal at the time, and just a few months earlier. I was 6 in the spring/summer of 1968. I recall Eisenhower’s funeral in 1969. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/127 "2009-04-20T06:36:25Z")
The O.J. Simpson chase. It was on my 7th birthday, and I remember everyone huddled around the T.V. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/128 "2009-04-20T13:55:15Z")
> [@SandyHook](#): > > Dwight Eisenhower’s election in 1952. I was 5. And I was 4. I remember my parents being happy about it more than the election itself. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/129 "2009-04-20T20:15:43Z")
Sputnik 1, when I was 7. ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/130 "2009-04-20T20:46:04Z")
Geraldine Ferraro being on the Democratic ticket for the presidential election; I remember thinking it was really cool that a woman might be the Vice-President. I was 5 years old. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/131 "2009-04-20T22:46:36Z")
The Swedish PM, Olof Palme, being shot in 1986. I was 6 at the time and still haven’t forgiven Swedish Television for messing with my morning cartoons _hmpfr_ ---
**Author:** ![EdwardLost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@EdwardLost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwardLost)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/132 "2009-04-21T01:16:58Z")
Apollo 11. All memories before that are from my personal life. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/133 "2009-04-21T01:17:35Z")
I remember watching _ **a** _ moon landing, but I honestly don’t know if it was the first one or not. I just remember being told to “shhhh!” by the family as we were all on the sofa. (More than that I remember loving the moon landing toys I had, none of which I saved of course.) The first event I can definitely date is Watergate (summer 1974). I remember being p.o.d that cartoons and _I Love Lucy_ were pre-empted for the most boring possible reason, and I remember Nixon resigning (August 8, 1974) though of course I didn’t really understand what was going on (I was 7). I have very clear memories of the Bicentennial (July 4, 1976) and of actually being interested in news coverage of the Raid on Entebbe. The first national news story I can remember really being engrossed by was Jonestown (a month before I turned 12). To this day it’s still the worst Bible Camp experience of my life (trust my father to try and save money- “they’ll take kids for free! And he’ll learn something about farming while he’s there…”). ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/134 "2009-04-21T07:41:21Z")
My first memory ever was of an historical event – V-J Day. I was two years old. My mother and my aunt were shooting off firecrackers. I asked them why they were doing this and my mother told me that the war was over. In my mind I was reasoning that the war must be like a party. I’m glad to know that _party_ was part of my vocabulary before _war_ was. Do any of you remember awakening on a New Year’s Day to find that Rick Nelson’s plane had crashed on the way from Guntersville, Alabama to Texas? That was my wedding day. > [@](#): > > **ghardester** : Years later when I talked about this day with my parents and other older people, I came to realize that the fear the adults had that day was that the assassination could be the start of nuclear war with Russia. It was a big fear at the time and the information coming out of Dallas that day, with Oswald and his Russian connections, fed that fear. Did we learn of Oswald’s Russian connections that quickly? I don’t remember people being afraid of the start of a nuclear war on that day at all. (We certainly were afraid of it in October 1962.) But on the day President Kennedy was shot, we were struck with a horrible grief. Of course, maybe the experiences of others elsewhere differed., but I heard no talk about the Russians bombing. ---
**Author:** ![SomeUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/135 "2009-04-21T10:23:04Z")
The Bicentennial. I was 7. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/136 "2009-04-21T10:27:42Z")
The 1973 June 30th Total solar eclipse. But I wasn’t allowed outside to see it - we sat inside and watched it on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/137 "2009-04-21T18:48:46Z")
the Robert Kennedy assassination. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/138 "2009-04-21T18:52:08Z")
JFK’s assassination. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/139 "2009-04-22T03:02:08Z")
I saw JFK in San Antonio the day before he was shot in Dallas. I was four and remember it vividly. I even got my picture in the paper waving a small US flag. The next day in the house was mayhem. Mom and sis crying their eyes out. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378/140 "2009-04-22T03:14:35Z")
Bill Haley and the Comets inventing Rock and Roll in 1954 was an early memory. Before that the Ed Sullivan Show with Frankie Laine, Gordon MacCrae ,Frank Sinatra ,Peggy Lee, Teresa Brewer, Debbie Reynolds and others singing the music of the day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-earliest-historical-event-you-can-personally-remember/493378.md?page=8)