Historic events that you have actual memories of

[THUNDERBIRDS]

The Gulf war when Bush Sr. came on the TV. We were all in the waiting room at St Luke's East waiting for my now wife to get out of emergency surgery after a horrible accident she sustained to her arm while at Cheer practice. I really couldn't believe the reaction of some of the people that night.....

[mcpapa]

My first distinct memory is 1967, Apollo 1 and the death of Gus Grissom and crew. My dad was fascinated by the space program, we watched every Apollo launch.

 

Same year, Ali stripped of title for refusing to enter military and Thurgood Marshall becomes a Supreme Court Justice.

 

My family has always been very political, so just about every major (and a lot of minor) political events since then are part of my memory.

 

Same here. Great-grandfather was a 1-term mayor of Annapolis (capital city of Maryland). My grandfather was going to be named to the Maryland state Racing Commission in 1964, but a funny thing happened - for the first time in forever the state elected a Republican governor - Spiro Agnew. I can remember my parents getting a special discount phone rate so they could campaign for George McGovern (fat lot of good that did).

 

So things like the 1968 DNC riots, Kent State and the like will always stand out.

 

I guess I'm one of those idealists that will always wonder where we would be had the Kennedys not been gunned down, and I guess I got it honest. For several years there was an entrance to our game room that had newspapers from what I suppose were the two defining moments in my parents' lifetime.

 

WWII ends

Nixon resigns

[kypride]

Space shuttle Challenger was the first historic event that I have full memory of. I was watching it live on TV.

[BengalBob]

Just vague memories of the Kennedy funeral on our black and white tv. Remember the riots at Reading and Rockdale in Cincinnati and watching Watts go up in flames on tv. Remember distinctly watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I remember the nightly "death counts" on the evening news during the Viet Nam" police action." Saw Hammerin' Hank tie The Babe' s home run record.

[PurpleHaze]

I am not going to mention the things you all mentioned....even though I do remember some of the events.....The one thing that sticks out in my mind that has not been mentioned is the Mount Saint Helen's volcano eruption. I was living in Washington State at the time. Every one thought the world was coming to an end. Outside was the blackest black that afternoon....you could not even see your hands in front of your face. The air was completely still and ash was coming out of the sky. About a week later, I placed ash in baggies and took them to another part of Washington where my grandparents lived and sold the ash. I was a smart kid!!! We had ash for years and everyone was SICK of it. It came up to your knees in some places where I lived and a special air filter had to be placed in the cars....when outside it was suggested that face masks were to be worn. It was a horrible couple of years!!!

[Wireman]

9/11, shuttle crashes , gulf wars, OKC bombing, O.J. chase, Columbine, VaTech, Boston Marathon, Hussein, Bin Laden

 

There's more but those come to mind first