# Widely Reported Event You Somehow Missed For Years **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 27, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993 "2016-07-27T01:37:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/1 "2016-07-27T01:37:25Z")
I’m a football fan, college and pros. Not hardcore, but I watch it every weekend during the season. And I lived in Houston when QB Steve McNair, a huge star in college and an all-pro in the NFL, was drafted, so he was my home team QB for two years. Today, I learned that he was shot and killed by his jealous girlfriend in 2009. And that the Titans all wore a black “9” on their helmets that whole season, in memory of him. So even if I was camping or something when his murder happened, I had all season to hear somebody mention what the black “9” was for. And I’ve had 7 years to learn about it in some other way – it had to be mentioned many, many times on football broadcasts, or ESPN documentaries. But I never heard a word about it, until today. Can anyone top that obliviousness? A big news story that happened when you were an adult, that was widely covered, that would probably have been mentioned several times for years afterward in media that you watch or read, and that you somehow completely missed for several years? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/2 "2016-07-27T01:43:15Z")
Not quite the same thing…but last night I just realized why Philadelphia is is called the city of brotherly love.:smack: I always thought it a nickname like Windy City or Bean Town or Big Apple…but I wondered why “brotherly love?” My stat professor had a good story…he was working hard on his PHD at the time…at some point he hears about president Ford. He was like “was there a coup or something?” He totally missed the WHOLE Watergate thing. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/3 "2016-07-27T01:45:27Z")
Can’t top that, but I had no idea until a couple days ago that Michael (“Jurassic Park”) Crichton died in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/4 "2016-07-27T02:55:49Z")
Whenever I miss a famous person’s death and then find out later, I get angry at whoever happens to be around me and ask them, “why was I not informed that so-and-so died?!” ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/5 "2016-07-27T03:33:08Z")
Despite being a Math major for part of college,and a total nerd in general ,some how I missed that Fermat’s last theorem was solved for about 10 years after it happened. ---
**Author:** ![SuperAbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@SuperAbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuperAbe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/6 "2016-07-27T03:41:44Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Despite being a Math major for part of college,and a total nerd in general ,some how I missed that Fermat’s last theorem was solved for about 10 years after it happened. Please return your Nerd Card immediately or we shall be forced to send a sternly worded letter - with some pithy marginal notes. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/7 "2016-07-27T03:45:04Z")
I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan. I didn’t know they won a Super Bowl in the 1992 season…until years after the fact. And I didn’t find out that they won the Super Bowl in the 1995 season as well, until years after the fact - didn’t the score or opponent yet until then, either (it was Cowboys 27, Steelers 17.) ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/8 "2016-07-27T03:53:01Z")
Don’t know if this counts as “widely reported”, but when the singer Falco died from [getting hit by a bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falco_%28musician%29#Death) I didn’t learn about it until almost a decade later. My brother didn’t know until today, when I mentioned it in passing. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/9 "2016-07-27T04:25:04Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Don’t know if this counts as “widely reported”, but when the singer Falco died from [getting hit by a bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falco_%28musician%29#Death) I didn’t learn about it until almost a decade later. > > My brother didn’t know until today, when I mentioned it in passing. I’m just learning about it right now. WHY was I not informed Falco died???!!!?!??! _eyeballs everyone_ ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/10 "2016-07-27T04:26:56Z")
Same here, but I confused him with Taco (“Puttin’ On The Ritz”), who is still alive. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/11 "2016-07-27T04:45:04Z")
I never watch the news or read newspapers, so this happens to me all the time. Ignorance is bliss. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/12 "2016-07-27T12:13:15Z")
Edie Falco died? What? When? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/13 "2016-07-27T12:16:36Z")
Mrs. B. was working in a closed environment on 9/11, and after calling me in the early morning to say “something happened,” knew little else until that evening. She’s never seen most of the iconic footage of the towers burning, falling, people in the streets, etc. A reasonably good friend and noted sff author was a year dead before I heard the news. That one threw me. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/14 "2016-07-27T12:41:46Z")
Sad to think about McNair, he was one of the toughest and hardest-working QBs ever to play. ---
**Author:** ![newservice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@newservice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newservice)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/15 "2016-07-27T13:53:05Z")
I missed that Lenard Skynard’s plane crashed. Took me 3 years to hear Johnny was dead. ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/16 "2016-07-27T13:58:40Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Don’t know if this counts as “widely reported”, but when the singer Falco died from [getting hit by a bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falco_%28musician%29#Death) I didn’t learn about it until almost a decade later. > > My brother didn’t know until today, when I mentioned it in passing. First I’ve heard of him alive or dead. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/17 "2016-07-27T14:43:45Z")
> [@newservice](#): > > I missed that Lenard Skynard’s plane crashed. Took me 3 years to hear Johnny was dead. Do you mean Johnny Carson? Because I think he was dead 6 years or more before someone mentioned it (I think on this board) and I didn’t have a clue. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/18 "2016-07-27T15:29:47Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Don’t know if this counts as “widely reported”, but when the singer Falco died from [getting hit by a bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falco_%28musician%29#Death) I didn’t learn about it until almost a decade later. > > My brother didn’t know until today, when I mentioned it in passing. Thirded. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/19 "2016-07-27T15:51:25Z")
Most of these entries have been about missing that someone has died. But some of us hearing about a famous actor/actress dying in their 80s to 90s have the reaction: “I thought he/she died years ago”. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993/20 "2016-07-27T16:29:27Z")
Kind of in reverse - a few years back, I was riding into DC with a coworker and we crossed the 14th Street Bridge. I commented how I’d been at the far end of that bridge when Air Florida flt 90 crashed into it, then into the Potomac. He had no idea what I was talking about. But it happened years before he was born (did I ever feel ancient…) so it really doesn’t count, does it? 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/widely-reported-event-you-somehow-missed-for-years/760993.md?page=2)