Where were you during the most important historical events of your lifetime?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

1999 earthquake - I was at home sleeping (this was near 2 AM), the quake shook hard, bookshelf fell onto my dad, our wall had a split outline (of where a patched-up door used to be; a weak structural point), and we drove out to a parking lot to avoid aftershocks.

9/11 - I was again in bed, about to sleep (since it was 9 PM local time,) my mom told me an airplane had hit the World Trade Center but I was picturing it being some small propeller type aircraft. Didn’t truly get the news until the following morning as to the nature of the incident.

22

I was a 2nd grader living in Central Florida, outside watching smoke contrails in the sky, when the Challenger exploded.

I was in college, on spring break, and laying on the couch watching TV, when the Oklahoma City bombing was reported.

I was finishing up my Copyrights class, in my 2nd year of law school, and on my way to Civil Procedure, when I learned that the twin towers were struck by planes.

23

Moon landing: my parents told me to watch it because it was important. I didn’t realize the significance at the time.
Challenger explosion: I went to the breakroom at work and there was a group of co-workers watching it on television. I saw the “replay”.
9/11. A co-worker called over the wall about a plane crashing into one of the towers. I assumed it was a pilot error. A little later she told me a plane hit the second one. It’s obviously not a pilot error. Most of the day was in the cafeteria watching TV.
Obviously not “most historical”. In 2010 I was flipping channels and someone was getting ready to bowl, Before I could flip to the next channel, she (Kelly Kulick) said “History has been made in sports today”. I had to see what it was about. She was the first woman to win a PBA tournament.

24

Sophomore year of high school for the Challenger explosion. We were on lunch, soon to go to science class when our teacher came and got us to watch footage.

9/11 I was standing on a chair painting the transom of a door on a stage set when the news came over the radio. We switched to NPR for a while, then I went across the street to the local bar to watch it on TV. I am still glad Bob Edwards was still doing the morning news on NPR when that happened, his was a comforting voice.

1/6 I was at my shop and idly surfed to CNN and saw that those morons had invaded the capitol.

25

I was in first grade when JFK was shot. It was announced over the PA system, and we were marched, each class separate, out into the sports field and stood for five minutes of silence before we were marched back.

I was twelve when RFK was shot. I walked in on my dad sitting in the livingroom in the dark with his face in his hands. He had been one of Bobby’s delegates to the convention.

I was fifteen the summer of the Watergate hearings. I was working in a newspaper office as a proofreader, and the radio was tuned to the hearings all day every day.

I saw the moon landing on television in a London airport, my parents and I had just landed for a European vacation.

I was on a backpacking trip in the Lost Coast in California when Princess Di died; we found out when we got into town (Ferndale). Mother Teresa had died within a day or two of her, she was relegated to beneath the fold, but to me, it was more important news as I had never seen the charm of Di, myself.

The Twin Towers, I was also out of the loop for hours, I found out when I was driving to the grocery store and heard it on the car radio. I had to pull over and just cry. Then I continued on to the hippie co op grocery store, and it seemed like no one was even talking about it, college students making jokes as usual. Then in the checkout line I was behind an old guy, my dad’s age. He turned to me somberly and just said, “everything’s changed now.” And how fucking right he was.

26

The first big even I remember was the Dallas tornado of 1957, because we were two blocks away and literally saw the tornado tearing up houses in its path.

The Mercury missions to space - I’m pretty sure I was in one or another school assembly for all of them. My memories of spaceflight are those of a black and white TV picture in the cafeteria/auditorium/gym/library.

Cuban Missile Crisis - My father was coming back from a trip through Arkansas, and he saw convoys of troops and equipment headed for deployment. I wouldn’t see my father look that scared again until the doctors told him my mother had cancer.

JFK assassination - 6th grade, after lunch. It was raining so we were all stuck inside. I don’t remember any words of warning from an adult. The PA simply came on playing whatever news bulletin was on the radio at that moment.

Moon landing - I’m one of the few people who admits I didn’t see or hear man’s first steps on the moon. I was on a student trip to Europe. The Eagle had landed, and the astronauts were supposed to have a several hour rest period. It was about 1:00 a.m. where I was, so I decided to sleep, as well. When I woke up it was all over.

After that I was more or less a grown up, and mostly found out about events when someone stuck their head in an office door and said X happened. When the O.J. verdict came in I had a tiny portable TV in my office, and there were at least a dozen people crammed in there watching with me. On 9/11 I was driving to work, and stuck in the car for a half hour before I got to the office and turned on that same TV about the time the Pentagon was hit.

27

I was at home, on the couch, when the Washington Nationals won the 2019 World Series. I assume that’s what you’re referring to.

28

Yus, so was I. I remember a lot of screaming, mostly from me.

29

I think the earliest major news event I can remember as it was happening was the OJ Simpson police chase. I was at a friend’s house and it was live on TV. I was 9 at the time and didn’t know who OJ Simpson was. I remember not understanding why he was driving so slowly.

When 9/11 happened I would’ve been a junior in high school. It was a nice day in SW Oregon and I stopped for gas on the way to school. I told the attendant it was a nice day and he seemed unusually gruff in his reply. It wasn’t until I entered the school and passed the wall-mounted television by the main office that I realized something had happened.

For the 1/6 insurrection I was working at my part-time student job and saw the news on a TV that was playing. By the time I learned of it they had already made their way in and were basically milling about.

30

Yes, but also, “most memorable moment” and “most important event” are related, but not the same. I agree with @Alessan that the fall of the Soviet union was one of the most important historical events of my lifetime, but i have no specific memory of “where i was” because it didn’t happen in a single moment. And i remember reading an article about SARS COVID 2, and even commented on both this and another chat site that it might be a really big deal, but i don’t know “where i was”.

In contrast, i remember exactly where i was when i learned Anwar Sadat was assassinated, even though that’s less important. And my sister was so shocked when the Challenger exploded that she drove off the road into a tree, but the historical significance of that was small.

31

9/11: Posting here.

32

I was born in 1968 in Germany, and the two “where were you when it happened” events in my lifetime were the fall of the Berlin wall on November 9th 1989, and 9/11 2001.

Berlin wall:

I was at home and watched the news as everybody at the time in Germany. I couldn’t believe what happened, as everybody in Germany, and continued to watch things unraveling with my mouth open. You could have asked me one day before the events, and I would have told you that such a thing would be impossible.

9/11:

I had a day off and had been shopping with a friend in the nearest big town. I remember that it was a beautiful late summer day when we hit the autobahn to ride back home. That was when the news on the radio came up with discomforting news from America. We had a ride back home of about 45 minutes, and when I got home and switched on the TV, the South tower was just collapsing. It was a big shock.

33

One day in June 1953, when I was seven, my mom let me stay home from school. She sat me down in front of our 12" B&W Zenith tv with a round screen, and said “Watch this. It’s something you’ll always remember.” And so I watched the Coronation of Elizabeth II, the first Coronation to be televised. I had no idea that she’d still be Queen when I was in my 70s.

I was getting ready for my freshman Architecture class in 1963, when a classmate ran in and announced that Kennedy had been shot, perhaps fatally. Now this guy was a practical joker, and his announcement was met with rolled eyes and “yeah, yeah.” But then the instructor came in and made the same announcement, and all classes were cancelled. I went back to my rooming house, where one of my housemates had a little portable tv. We watched the ensuing events on that little tv, including Oswald’s shooting.

I watched the moon landing with my then-bf, his mother and his younger siblings.

On 9/11, I had the day off, so was sleeping in. My mom, who was living with me, called up and said to come down. I came down right after the second tower was hit. I had only recently left NYC, where I could see the Twin Towers from my living room windows. We watched Peter Jennings for hours and hours.

34

Missile crisis: In kindergarten in WI, we practiced duck and cover under our desks.

JFK shot: In first grade in WI, announced over the loudspeaker. The teacher started crying, so I did too.

1967 race riots: 4th grade, Flint MI. General curfew after dark. My first awareness of civil unrest.

Moon landing. At grandma’s in WI with a friend of mine.

Nixon resigning: visiting grandma in WI with my girlfriend. Watched on TV.

Vietnam war over for the US: Sophomore in HS in IN, at home watching TV. Thinking “ok, so maybe I won’t have to worry about the draft”.

Lennon: walking to catch my ride to med school classes in MD, I saw the headline in a paper box, stood there stunned for a while. bought the paper.

Reagan shot: rounding in one of the old US Public Health Service hospitals in Baltimore, MD.

Challenger: Seeing patients in my residency clinic in WI. We all watched on the TV in the waiting room

9/11: Driving to work in WI. Spent the day in the office (private practice) reading headlines online until a co-worker brought a TV set in.

Jan 6. At work in WI, doing paperwork, and updating the news feed every 90 seconds or so.

35

9/11. I was asleep in bed in the fraternity house I lived in during med school. When I woke up and checked my email, there was an extremely non-specific e-mail from the university president sending “condolences to the people on the east coast” or something very similar. I recall there being a hurricane in the Atlantic at the time, and assumed it had to do with that. It was another few hours before I realized what happened.

Trump’s victory in 2016. I still remember this day like it was yesterday. The whole day I was fairly confident that Hillary would win, and I was in a celebratory mood. I had a late lunch / early dinner with my family at Luby’s. There were six of us there, and I sat in the middle seat on the right hand side of the table. I had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, corn, and a piece of cheesecake. My BIL and his fiance were preparing for their wedding which was set to happen several months later. After dinner we all went to the bridal shop to look at dresses for his fiancé. We went in separate vehicles because I wanted to be home by 7 PM (central time) to start watching the returns. Then, as we all know, the shit hit the fan. While the shit was still on it’s way toward the fan, I saw the writing on the wall, and decided to stop watching for a while. I put on my DVD of Beetlejuice to pass the time. That was a poor choice, as it has now ruined that movie for me. We all know the rest. No, I couldn’t tell you where I ate or what I had for dinner on the day they eventually declared Biden the winner or on election night of. 2020, and I don’t recall the exact number of days after Election Day when the final declaration was made, whether it was 3, 4, or 5, even though those events are four years more recent. Had Trump won, maybe I would remember them. Had Hillary won in 2016, maybe the details of my memory of that day would also be lost to the mists of time. Memory is a funny thing.

1/6/2021. Sitting outside an AL facility working on charts for patients I had finished visiting. I was listening to CNN on Sirius XM for the initial stages. I went home and watched the rest on CNN, staying up until they regained control of the Capitol and finished counting the EVs.

36

I was a baby and too young to remember any of the turbulent events at the end of the 60s.

I remember my father bringing me out to the porch and pointing up to the moon and saying there were men up there right now. It was probably the final Apollo mission.

I remember walking home from kindergarten and knowing Nixon would win because 3 out of 4 of the parents in my group were voting for Nixon.

I remember the Munich Olympics and seeing the masked heads looking over that wall.

I remember being pissed off because the boring Watergate hearings were on instead of monster movie week on the 4 o’clock movie on channel 7.

I watched Nixon resign with my parents.

I was in bed when my parents woke me up with the news that Elvis died. I few years later it was a repeat with John Lennon. Elvis didn’t mean much to me because he was ancient and his music was from a thousand years ago. Amazing to think now that he was only 42. The Beatles were not my generations music but they were played on the rock stations I listened to. I remember thinking while I was on school Scott Muny would do something special on the radio when I got home. Muny was a DJ on a NYC channel and a friend of Lennon. I listened to his show all afternoon.

I was I the gym at college with a friend when the radio had the announcement about the Challenger. I didn’t see the video until later.

I was stationed in Germany when the Wall came down. We had no idea what was going on. Just the week before we had a classified briefing on what Motorized Rifle Regiments we would face if the Russians came through the Fulda Gap. It’s seen strictly as a happy time now but at the time we didn’t know if the Soviets would intervene or if we were going to get involved, especially when Romania started getting dicey.

When my kids were little I would turn on the Today show in the morning and hear the news of the day. That’s a habit I broke. Now I almost strictly read the news and rarely watch. But then I had it on in the background when I heard them taking about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. That got my attention. I was watching when the second plane hit. I got up, put my gear in a duffle bag, put my uniform on and headed to my armory.

I was standing about 500 meters away when someone threw a shoe at GW. We were pulling route security for his motorcade. Didn’t find out what happened until we were eating pancakes at midnight chow after the mission.

37

I guess the first was the death of George XI in 52. We got a day off school for the funeral.

A year later we were in London for the Coronation of QE2 but stayed home and watched it on TV.

In 57, I was living near Southampton and remember columns of troops and equipment heading for the docks at the start of the Suez crisis.

63 I remember getting home from work to kind my kid brother in tears because they had cancelled his favourite TV programme. “Who cares if someone shot the President?”

In 66, although I was not a football fan, I, like just about everyone else in the country, watched England win the World Cup.

In 69, I was glued to the TV, watching Buzz and Neil on the moon.

In 73, I voted in favour of staying in what was then the EEC.

In 81, we watched the wedding of Charles and Diana.

April to June 83, we all watched the unfolding events in the Falklands, especially the sinking of HMS Sheffield (by a French missile).

In 97 we were on our way home from France, and when we turned the radio on to catch up with the news, it was a shock to hear of Diana’s death.

On 11/9/01 I was driving a truck on a motorway. The radio was interrupted by the news from New York, and I really thought for a while that it was a play, like Orson Welles’s “The War of the Worlds” in 1938.

In 05 I was in London, but thankfully nowhere near the incidents when fifty-two people were killed and more than 700 injured by terrorists in the London Underground and a bus.

38

Born in 1957. Guess I was at school when JFK was assassinated. Dad picked us up and we went to the high school to get my sister. I seem to remember doing homework, or at least sitting in my bedroom at my desk, when Nixon resigned. 9/11 I was at work and watched it on the tv in the radiology waiting room. The waiting room was packed so I stood in the hall. I really had no idea what was going on and frankly didn’t care. I was at work when the Challenger blew up. Walk on the moon occurred on the day of my sister’s wedding shower so we watched it at her soon to be in-laws. I was the student union cashing a check when I heard about Elvis.

39

I suspect that whatever historians a couple hundred years from now would identify as the most important historical events of our lifetimes will include things none of us now realize are important and probably things we don’t know are happening. So I think my genuine answer to the OP question is ‘I don’t know’; though some of what people have been listing I would expect to be on there – such as the first moon landing, during which I was at freshman orientation for college, and which I remember watching on a large TV they’d set up, probably at the student union; though I seem to remember watching it from outside the building through a window.

On this board full of political news junkies I’m surprised nobody else has yet said that on 1/6/21 they were watching online as the votes were formally acknowledged in the Capitol. Everything was proceeding more or less as expected; then there were people running around, and the sound cut out; then the picture disappeared also. I had to go look elsewhere for the explanation.

40

9/11 and the fall of the Iron Curtain.

9/11 I was working for a tech company in the UK, my friend in the next desk was on the phone to a client in a newsroom, he was like “things are going crazy here, you should turn on the TV”.

I was a school (secondary school, equivalent high/middle school in the US) when the Iron Curtain fell. You really had the feeling that the trend was the world was getting better: the iron curtain fell, Berlin wall came down, the cold war ended without everyone being nuked, apartheid ended, even the first gulf war had a feeling of the international community putting a line in the sand about respecting other nations borders (obviously it was a bit more complicated IRL, and had some “rough edges”, but it had that feeling).

Since 9/11 it seems to be the opposite, and things seem to be getting worse not better, culminating in the last few years. Obviously feelings are not rigorous geo-political historical analyses, but it really seems that way.