What were you doing when...

[CharlieB]

I know a lot of people who are a little older than me can tell you exactly what they were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was only a year old (born literally in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis) so I don't.

What was the first big new event you can remember?

For me, it was the first moon landing, July 20, 1969. I can remember watching on our old black and white TV with the rounded picture tube!

What about the rest of you?

[ortega76]

The first big event I can remember is probably the Reagan shooting. The one I clearly remember is the Challenger explosion. I was born in 1976.

[n11pilot]

I guess it was the Kennedy assassination. I was in fourth grade at the time and the school principal made an announcement over the intercom.

[DanielJones]

I clearly recall the Watergate hearings. I also remember on one particular day after the news coverage of the hearings, some coverage about the floods in Tennessee during that rainy season. I can clearly see in my minds eye the flood waters in amongst trees on the TV screen.
I think my earliest memory though is the kidnaping of the 11 Israeli wrestlers at the Munich Olympics. That is a very crystal clear image in my mind. I can close my eyes and picture what was shown. I had to be about three then.
Sometimes it is freaky what I remember from back then.

Cheers!

Dan

[DLFerguson]

I remember watching the funeral for JFK on TV.

[Doug Palumbo]

John Lennon getting killed, the Reagan shooting and the Challenger disaster are the big three that stand out. For Challenger, I was home sick from school that day watching The Price Is Right when it was suddenly interrupted by the live shot of the explosion. Quite a shock to a youngster watching the astronauts die in such a graphic and public way. For Reagan, I was eating dinner at my uncles house in Carneys Point, NJ when the news of the shooting was delivered by Walter Cronkite.

[Cousi]

The earliest was probably Evlis' death. I also remember quite clearly the Iranian hostage crisis and that was really the beginning of my political awareness, followed up by the attempted assassination of President Regan.

The biggest impact was probably the Challenger explosion; we were watching the launch live in science class my sophomore year of high school. There was about thirty of us that saw it as it happened and we were just shocked. I don't remember anything else that happened that day. I remember seeing that one rocket just shoot off from the explosion and some girl said "do you think they survived?" For just the barest instant, I hoped they had but reality set in pretty quickly; there was no surviving that.

I also remember hearing Regan's speech that night and being roused by it. The most quoted part that I've seen was:

The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave... We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God.'

25 years ago today. It still chokes me up.

[DanielJones]

I remember the the Challenger tragedy quite clearly. I was walking into my 5th period Biology class with Mr. Zachary. He looked totally devastated. He had the news on on the classroom tv, a new thing for teaching back then. Not much got done in any class for the rest of the day.

Also, I recall the Beirut bombing of the Marine Barracks in 1983. That stuck with me for a long time and it was instrumental in me becoming a Marine.

Cheers!

Dan

[Blackthorn]

I guess it was the Kennedy assassination. I was in fourth grade at the time and the school principal made an announcement over the intercom.

Yeah, that was probably it for me, too. I was in fifth grade when our teacher told us what had happened. It was one of the big shocks of my life.

Earlier, I remember when Sputnik was launched (do I win a prize for the oldest event? ). I only remember it because my dad and his buddy (and me) stood outside for a long time trying to see it come over.

[DanielJones]

Challenger.
A quarter-century later, images of the exploding space shuttle still signify all that can go wrong with technology and the sharpest minds. The accident on Jan. 28, 1986 — a scant 73 seconds into flight, nine miles above the Atlantic for all to see — remains NASA's most visible failure.
It was the world's first high-tech catastrophe to unfold on live TV. Adding to the anguish was the young audience: Schoolchildren everywhere tuned in that morning to watch the launch of the first schoolteacher and ordinary citizen bound for space, Christa McAuliffe.
She never made it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41296542?GT1=43001

Cheers!

Dan

[CharlieB]

I was working nights when the Challenger event ocurred,so I slept through it. I can remember, though, that it was the first thing I heard when I woke up...almost thought I was still dreaming.

[Super Ordinary Guy]

I remember the Sputnik launch but I think I was in the 9th grade and the full impact of what it actually was didn't get through to me..... I was more worried about who I could take the Friday night dance........

JFK Assassination was an entirely different story...

I was in the military and stationed in Germany at that time. It was my birthday and I was downtown with a bunch of friends (both GI's and Germans) and already half drunk when we got the news....

Needless to say all celebrations stopped. I still recall that time on my Birthday every year since...

The Germans took it just as hard as we Americans they really cared for JFK.....

The next most memorable item that still is with my today was the Cuban Missile Crisis .

Again downtown when the word came out and everyone was immediately called back to base, all leave canceled and a mandatory formation where the POTUS speech was read to us all.

Everyone was restricted to base. All Germans were removed from the base and since they were our guards we all had to pull guard duty.

The big impact on me was even through we all took turns with guard duty,the very first night the fence around the motor pool was cut open, and holes punched into the gas tanks of all vehicles.

It was then that I truly realized what it meant to be in the service and that it wasn't just a game to play and get paid for. We were the front line of America and after that night It was a realization that we were vulnerable to an attack, even in a friendly country like Germany.... Before that I always felt safe and secure but quote the raven, NEVER MORE.....

Also as an interesting side note, two days later we were called into another formation and everyone was given a pin to wear that said "Prepare For Combat"..

The military mind has never ceased to amaze me,,, like wearing a pin that says "prepare for combat" will fire me up to go to war...

[AeroDillo]

Desert Storm. I don't remember much, though.

[RetroRebel]

9/11. I was six years old. I remember my dad and sister had gone on a errand. My mom turned on the TV just as the news reports started. Then my dad returned and my mom asked him if he had heard. He said he had heard on the radio and that's why he was back so quick. I remember praying for the people and watching those two planes slam into the buildings.