What is your first (real) memory of a world event?

[Whitegloves]

So many things have happened in my lifetime. I remember things here and there but doubt the accuracy of some of the memories. One thing I remember for sure... not a major catastrophy but rather a liberation for the women's movement...the day in 5th grade when girls in school were finally permitted to wear pants to school. I can even describe the ones I wore that first day...bell bottoms with a wild white/red print. =0)

 

[dianeschlicht]

Mine would be JFK being shot. I was a junior in high school. Oh yeah, I forgot about the Cuban missle crisis! That was when I really got interested in watching the news!

 

[Jeff in BigD]

The 2 ones that first come to mind are:

Reagan's landslide victory in '84 & the Challenger explosion in '86.

 

[Kitty 34]

JFK being shot....I was in 4th grade.

 

[becka]

I would also have to say the Challenger explosion. I was in 5th grade at the time.

Now that it has been mentioned I do remember the class project I was assigned to do the night of the '84 presidential election. We were given a US map and we had to color in which states the candidates won. The map looked a little lopsided. What I remember the most is my Mom complaining about the project because she didn't think 4th graders should have to stay up late to get the results of the election in states on the West Coast, etc. because we should be in bed. She did send me to bed at my normal time and finished the coloring for me.

 

[Boo'sMom]

I remember exactly where I was when Reagan was shot...

 

[WDWLVR]

I remember all the assisnations of the '60's. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy. I think Martin Luther King's is the most clear because when it happened their were major riots in Chicago and my old neighborhood (which we had moved from only 3-4 years before) was pretty much destroyed. Very sad.

Nixon's resignation was while I was in high school.

I watched all the footage of the hostages being released in Iran on the same day Regan took office. I was home with a broken ankle at the time and that was on every station (we didn't have cable yet).

I think the one that hit me the hardest was Princess Di's death. I had always been a royal fan, but it was more than that. At the same time that happened by mother was in the hospital dying of cancer. Just a year before we had gone to the corner by my house to watch Princess Di drive by to an event at Northwestern University. Now one was dead and the other dying. That one really hit me like a ton of bricks.

 

[scarlett873]

i remember reagan getting shot, but i don't remember details. the very first thing that i can remember vividly was the challenger accident. i was in 7th grade at the time. i remember that day cuz i stayed home from school. i think i was sick or something. mom and dad were both at work and i was by myself laying on the couch watching tv when they broke in with the news.

 

[jx3smom]

I remember a little of the Kennedy assasination and not having school for 3 days. I was in third grade. I remember more about Martin Luther King and also the moon landing.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Maybe not a world event, but I can recall watching the Democratic and Republican conventions on a tiny b/w TV (actually big TV, little screen) in '48. I would have been 4 at the time. Next thing I recall of a big nature were all the military planes flying overhead after the end of the Korean War, in '53.

 

[piratesmate]

I remember the entire elementary school sitting in the lunchroom/gym watching a regular sized TV on the stage for each of the the launch of the Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard in 1961. (We did that for every space launch - I find it sad that today the kids don't even know when a launch occurs.) I can remember all of the hype of the space race & feeling so disappointed that the Russians "beat us" into space.

Before that, though, I remember having "air raid drills" to prepare us for the possibility of attack during the Cold War. As early as 1959 I can remember our 2nd grade teacher taking us into the hall to crouch along the wall & cover our heads. The one that was weirdest (even to 2nd graders) was when they made us climb under our desks in case of an atomic bomb.

No wonder I grew up so warped!

Deb

 

[kdibattista]

I believe mine would have been the spaceshuttle Challenger exploding. I was in the fourth grade.

 

[TiggerPiglet]

The first major event I remember, is when Ronald Regan was shot. I was about 12 years old and I remember coming home from school and seeing it on TV.

 

[Saffron]

I remember Kennedy's funeral. I don't remember the assasination, but I remember the funeral. We were at my grandmother's and everyone was crying, ringing their hands. I remember feeling sad when I saw the riderless horse and Mrs. Kennedy. I thought she was so sad that she was in a trance. Those two things are real clear in my mind, but the entire event is not.

I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when Bobby Kennedy was killed and when they walked on the moon for the first time. I remember a lot of the stuff from the 60's, 70's and 90's, but I have a hard time remembering what happened during the 80's.

The event that made me stop and think about the world we were living in and really made me think about politics for the first time was the shooting of the students at Kent State. I remember the newspaper laying on the kitchen table that morning and seeing the headlines screaming about what happened and thinking, "If that could happen there, it could happen anywhere!!!" I wondered if all protests and neighborhoods were going to see that sort of "police state". It was just sickening! I wondered if I could be shot at the school bus stop! Even though the Vietnam War had been going on for years, that was the first time I really began to take a look at what was going on and I took a stance and thought that the war needed to end, immediately!

 

[binny]

I remember the Iran hostages because one of the hostages was the son of a friend of my dad's. I remember LOTS of prayer vigils for him.


The one that stands out the most though is President Reagan being shot Iwas home sick that day and was watching TV while my mom visited with a lady from Church. I remember them breaking through my cartoons and showing it and the reaction from my mom and this lady.

 

[Tess]

Since it wasn't a huge thing at the time, but for some reason it always stuck in my head--the Kennedy/Nixon debate and campaign in general.

I, like so many Americans, had a real fascination with Kennedy and the extended family. I've never understood why--perhaps it was his youth, young family (daughter my age and son a bit younger), the tragedy surrounding the extended family. . .not sure, I just know I spent a good many hours doing Kennedy reports during my pre-collegiate school years. Seems I always gravitated toward that family when I had to do a biographical/historical event report.

The remainder of the turbulent 60s and early 70s--Beatles, Johnson's decision not to run, Viet Nam, RFK, MLK, Apollo missions, Civil Rights struggles, the music, flower children/hippies, drug subculture, Manson--so much history in such a brief time.

While I didn't come of age until the 70s, I have a strong memory of the events of the 60s and 70s--mature before my time I guess.

 

[Towncrier]

I was in a the Greyhound Bus terminal in Chicago when I heard that Nixon resigned. I watched Neil Armstrongs first steps on the moon from my bedroom on an old black and white TV set. I vaguely remember John Kennedy's funeral. I think that I was miffed that morning because cartoons were pre-empted. I was in a taxicab in Zephyrhills (Florida) when I heard the news of Elvis' death.

And not to focus on strictly "bad" things, I remember when the Berlin Wall came down. I remember the Apollo 13 astronauts returning safely to Earth after nearly having perished in space. And I remember the pomp and circumstance of Prince Charles and Lady Di's wedding.

But I guess (getting back to the original question) that my first memory is of JFK's funeral.

 

[janette]

I vaguely remember watching the first Man on the Moon, the only thing from Vietnam I remember is watching the draft lottery. My oldest brother was draft age and ended up not being drafted as a result of his placement in the lottery.

I did a school report in 8th grade on the Nixon / McGovern election. I was a Nixon supporter. In HS during the scandel and his resignation I never understood the whole thing. There was no way he was going to lose that election, couldn't understand why they felt the need to try to cheat.

I'm more familiar with things that happened during my HS years than the 80's. Between working, school and having a good time I knew very little about what was going on in the world. I did see the Challenger explosion and remember the shock and disbelief in what happened.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

<font color=navy>I remember when I was 8. My parents had gone to vote in the primary elections, and it came on tv that Bobby Kennedy had been shot. I was so worried that my parents had been hurt, too (not realizing that there was more than one place to vote).

 

[Jeff in BigD]

I also vaguely remember the Miracle On Ice, but obviously I had no idea why it was a big deal, now I marvel at the situation.