Easy, JFK’s assassination. I was 4, came in from the yard and found my mom and a neighbor were sitting at the kitchen table, crying. I asked what was wrong, and she said someone had shot the president.
After that, I remember being irritated that all my favorite TV shows were blocked by news coverage for days.
and then a few months later:
86 was a big year
Princess Diana’s death, for sure. I remember my mother being absolutely distraught, and I didn’t understand why. We’re not British and I’d literally never hear of her (from my mother or otherwise) before her passing and funeral were news. The funeral took place in the middle of the night and I remember her being up super early to watch (and I eventually woke up and joined her).
I’m surprised it was 1997, I would have figured it was '95ish. Can’t believe that’s the first news story I can remember. But we definitely were NOT a news household. Nobody reading the newspaper, no local news on at night or cable TV news on TV all day.
Mine was Desert Storm, but somehow this post unlocked a core memory for me. I remember exactly what I was doing when it was announced she died - I was playing Quake, E2M1 near the start of the level when my mum tapped me on the shoulder.
I wish I could remember other things this easily, lol
A lot of American women really admired her, my wife included. She was heartbroken at her death. We stayed up all night watching it.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Desert Storm, in small part because my dad was in the AF and deployed to Saudi Arabia. It was pretty much all the news for the short amount of time that actual hostilities were occurring.
The first moon landing
The Collapse. All the news agencies were calling it the “Resentment” for some reason. They were arguing about if some of the lower order dimensions would survive or not when all the aerovets went dark.
I looked out to see it approaching our crecheworld.
Space collapsing in fifteen dimensions is terrifyingly beautiful in its own way.
Olof Palme getting killed or the USSR attack submarine getting stuck on a mititary beach whichever came first.
It was a weird childhood, I was 8 when Obama was installed as president. I remember people talking about George Bush Jr and the wars he started in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda. Big gap in between Obama’s presidency and then 2012 shooting of Sandy Hook. And abt every school shooting of the 2010s after that sadly. Also I really want to vote for Mitt Romney but I was 12 and brainwashed by my parents. Now that I’m on a form of obamacare I don’t remember any issues with him. I would re-elect for a third term
Watched the Challenger explosion live in kindergarten.
Wild choice for a rocket launchpad.
Core memory for a whole generation
yup. we were going to watch the teacher (McCaullif?) and they wheeled the TVs in for the launch. Then they didn’t know what to do until the principal went from class to class telling the teachers to unplug and we all got free time!
Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths. All over the news.
9-11 coverage and the second plane live on TV in elementary school
The destruction of the Berlin wall, and uniting of west- and east Germany.
the “wir sind das volk” chants still sending chills down my spine. what a great moment for humanity.
9/11. I was in school and my teacher wheeled the TV cart in. She was an absolute wreck doing so because her husband left that morning for an interview in tower 1. Due to the phone traffic being so busy she couldnt reach him. Luckily he was running late because of traffic and had to drive far enough away before he could call her.
The husband’s delay in calling in might also have been caused by Verizon’s telephone network being temporarily overloaded. I remember trying to call my family that morning and only getting a message saying “all circuits are busy now”.
Where did you grow up? I was in 4th grade in Fairfield county and we had soooo many stories like that, both tragic and miraculous. Missed trains, traffic, sick kids, but also people that otherwise wouldn’t have been there but for a thing that day, interview, meeting. Thankfully our elementary school did an amazing job with a media blackout, teachers that couldn’t remain composed were swapped for those that could, we were all given a sheet to bring home explaining that we hadn’t been told anything yet. But it really quickly became obvious that something terrible had happened, kids getting picked up for no reason, every fire truck in town screaming down the highway, the fucking jets flying over. Apparently the highschool didn’t do a good job containing things and tons of kids just left, some to try to get to the city where their parents worked. Didn’t learn about that until years later. I remember standing on the beach the next day watching the smoke rise over Long Island Sound
JFK assassination.
User name checks out. Greetings old friend!
