Where were you/what were you doing when...

[x-g.o.p.er]

I was born before JFK was shot, and was only about a year old when RFK and MLK were shot, so the three seminal "where were you and what were you doing" events in my life were:

1. President Reagan was shot: I was in Junior High, 7th period. Our teacher announced it, we finished school, and I ran over to my friend's house who lived across the street from the school to watch the coverage. Frank Reynolds, ABC News, unforgettable.

2. The Challenger Disaster: I was a freshman in college, sleeping one off from a major night of drinking. I rolled over, flipped on the TV just as the shuttle was at T minus 1:38 seconds. Thought I was dreaming.

3. 9/11: Had worked the operations desk and din't get home until after 2 the previous morning. The first plane had already hit the tower when I flipped on the TV, and they said a small plane had apparently hit the tower. Being a military pilot, I thought that seemed odd, because it was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. What a dipshit to hit a building--either had a mechanical failure at the worst possible moment or was so overcome situationally in the cockpit you didn't see the frickin' WTC?!?! I also thought if he was in a Cessna, he might have killed two dozen people. I grabbed a cup of coffee, I watched the second plane hit, and I knew we were at war. I showered, got into work, and the Pentagon had been hit while I was on my way in. We deployed 10 days later for Afghanistan. Landed at our initial base of operations on my anniversaty. Needless tosay, it was a lame-ass anniversaty.

[flvegan]

1. For me

1. Reagan. Honestly don't remember. I was 9, and I remember seeing it on the news that night.

2. Challenger. I was in grade school, and we were watching the launch on tv in the classroom.

3. 9/11. I was working from home. I had the television on in the background when the news cut in that the first plane had hit. I called my boss and asked if they were listening to it. While I was on the phone, the second plane hit. We were both speechless. We also both realized that it was no coincidence, and thought we were under some kind of attack. He mentioned the Middle East. I asked if we were looking at the start of World War III.

[two gun sid]

2. Ok, For reagan I was at my parents house in MI...

getting ready to leave for boot camp. Challenger I was onboard a USNavy frigate in Mayport, FL and watched it fall back to earth from the main deck. 9-11 I was at a hospital waiting for my dad to come out of the operating room after brain surgery.

[seemunkee]

3. ..

I was 6 when JFK was assassinated. I have some vague memories of it but can't pinpoint anythings.

Reagan, I don't know. It didn't really have an impact on me.

Challenger. I was working in my shop with the radio on listening. My mom was in Florida visiting her brother. They were watching the take off from his backyard and saw it happen. My uncle had seen several launches before and knew something was wrong

9-11
My mother had just passed away and I was on my way to her house to help my brother take care of paper work. I heard about it on the radio and he had the TV on when I walked in the door. He works in midtown Manhatten and was on the phone to people he works with. My mother's body was at National airport to be flown to Illinois for the burial when they shutdown the airports.

[femmocrat]

4. Great question! My answers...

1. Reagan... can't remember, but I was a SAHM at the time.

2. Challenger....I was in the dr. office with my son, who was really, really sick. The stupid doctor made some stupid comment, which I have erased forever from my memory.

3. 9/11. I was at home on the computer. I had the TV on in the background, and like many others, thought a small plane accidently flew into a building. I think Katie Couric was on talking about it.

[CBHagman]

5. Oh...

I was in kindergarten when JFK was assassinated. I don't remember when I heard the news, but I can still hear the voice of the WOR radio newsman -- I don't remember his name, but his spot appeared on John A. Gambling's show -- discussing the assassination the next morning. I was very troubled by the description and even more troubled by the televised funeral, plus the knowledge that JFK had left a widow and children.

1. I was a university student when Reagan was shot. I remember that I was walking past a men's dorm when some guy stuck his head out the window and shouted, "Someone's taken a shot at Reagan!" I walked right over to the student union to see whether they were broadcasting radio reports.

2. I was in graduate school when the Challenger exploded. An undergraduate student told me about it when we were both riding in an elevator in the humanities building.

3. I had gone out for a morning walk on September 11th and was in an extraordinarily optimistic mood. It was such a beautiful day. Before I went to catch the Metro to work, I heard something on NPR about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Strangely, I didn't really register how serious that was or the loss of life involved.

Then I got to work and the enormity of the attacks became clear, and rumors were flying about: that BWI (the Baltimore airport) was under attack, that there was a fire on the Mall in DC, etc. People were not only evacuating government buildings but also simply leaving the city; I could see a line of cars, bumper to bumper outside my office window.

That night I went home on a nearly deserted Metro and in an eerily silent city.

[LeftyMom]

6. 1. too young 2. too young 3. on my sofa watching TV and nursing leftykid

[GaYellowDawg]

7. For me:

1. I don't remember where/when. I do remember seeing it replayed. I think I was in 9th grade.

2. I was at lunch, eating with a good friend. She said, "did you hear that the space shuttle blew up?" I laughed and told her to quit teasing me. She half-convinced me and then we went to a student lounge where I saw replays of the shuttle exploding. I could hardly believe it even with it replaying. I'd always thought of NASA as somewhat infallible.

3. I was at home. It was my first semester in a PhD program. I had a late morning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and since I didn't have cable or Internet at the time, I just studied before class on those days, so I didn't know a thing. I turned on the radio on the way in and couldn't understand the talk about airplanes (no one mentioned they'd been hitting buildings). Then I got to class and the university had just let classes out for the day. I finally corralled a friend and she told me what happened. I was in complete shock. She wanted to go to Sam's and get bottled water, etc. (it was her first instinct), and I watched in horror on all those big screens as the towers came down.

[DarkTirade]

8. For me

the two big 'where were you' moments were when George Harrison died and when the towers fell. Coincidentally I'd put on one of my Beatles t-shirts that morning and I found out about George at school that day. The first I heard on 9/11 was me muzzily waking up and hearing my roommates talking about the plane hitting the first tower outside my door. I didn't hear about the second plane until I got to campus that morning.

The really weird thing about 9/11 though... I started working on a hippie anti-war type song two days before that. Only one I've ever written.

[Cabcere]

44. I found out about both of those events in the same classroom

French - it was a terrible class anyway, and first learning of George Harrison's death and 9/11 when I was in there didn't make things any better. x(

[laylah]

9. #1, don't recall

Challenger disaster I was home with my kiddos, heard it on the teevee.

9/11: Getting the family, and myself, ready for school and work. Saw the 2nd plane hit. Kaghime was downstairs and saw it on her tv and let out the most bloodcurdling, primal scream I have EVER, before or since, heard. She had just been in NY visiting her grandparents about 2 weeks prior and had visited the WTC while there. Since her dad's folks lived there, she and her sister had visited many times. As for her dad, well, he was in complete disbelief and shock.

[1gobluedem]

10. I was three when JFK was shot

I don't remember it but I was 8 when MLK and RFK were killed and remember both well.

1. Reagan: I was a junior in college and was most annoyed at the soaps being prempted all day. I remember thinking the media were making too big a deal about it.

2. Challenger: I had just gotten into my car to either go to lunch or run an errand for work when I heard. I remember most that it was a clear sunny day and the image of Christa McAullife waving as she went down the ramp kept going through my head.

3. 9-11: I was at my desk and online when a member of my internet book club posted that she had heard a plane crashed into the WTC. I thought it must have been a small, private plane; then NPR broke into programming :30 seconds later. Again, what I remember most was what a beautiful, sunny morning it was.

The same thing after Katrina; it was a gorgeous day in Michigan and all I could think of was how our serenity and intact landscape could be that way still when there was so much devastation in New Orleans and Mississippi.

[krispos42]

11. For me:

Reagan: don't remember. I was like 7.

Challenger: I was sitting in 4th grade. Mrs. Cousins from across the hallway came in and spoke quickly to Mrs. Fontaine, my teacher. Then Mrs. Fontaine said from in front of the chalkboard "The space shuttle just blew up."

Then we tried to get a picture on the TV in the room, but all we got was snow.

Oklahoma City: I was at the (now defunct, I believe; they moved it downtown) Stamford branch of UConn getting a meatball sandwich in the cafeteria. There was a TV on the wall in there, with cable. It was all over the news. I remember not realizing how big of a deal it was until later. I guess because the intitial reports were sketchy and I wasn't too much into national news or politics.

Sept. 11th: I was at work at a factory in South Dakota. The unofficial boss of the area I was working at asked me how old I was, out of the blue. "25", I said. "Why?" "Looks like were at war." he responded. Then he said something about terrorism. I didn't quite get what he was talking about; he was pretty laconic. And at the time there was a "no radios" restriction. I think he was wondering if I was draftable.

As it happens I had to go out for lunch that day, so at 11am I got in my car and drove down to Taco Johns (it was Taco Tuesday, 59-cent tacos all day) and it was on all the radio stations.

I got home at 4 to the full media blitz.

[x-g.o.p.er]

16. Oklahoma City...

was one that will stick with me forever as well. I was staioned in South Korea, and we were all out back on the smoking deck at work when someone told us. A guy I was stioned with was an OK City native, he was pretty upset. No family or friends affected, thankfully, but when you're a long way from home and something tragic happens to your hometown, you just want to be with your family.

[fizzgig]

12. let's see

1) i still had another five weeks in the womb when reagan was shot

2) all i remember is seeing the footage played over and over on television. i remember columbia very clearly, though. it was a saturday and i was on my way into work when i heard the news on npr. i was stunned. i sat in my car and cried for a bit before going into work.

3) i came upstairs to get my coffee when my mom told me a plane had hit one of the towers. i thought it was some sort of small private plane or something until i saw the tv footage...and then the second plane hit...and then the towers came down. disbelief does not even begin to describe how i felt that day...neither does surreal.

i went to school and work as normal, but the campus was so quiet, so muted...it was eerie. my first class of the day was poli sci, taught by professor who is internationally considered an expert on local politics. we talked about what had happened and what it could mean, i still remember that bin laden was the focus of that conversation.

[Reverend_Smitty]

13. My answers:

1. Reagan was shot almost 3 years before I was born...so I was doing nothing really :)

2. When Challenger happened I was not quite 2 years old, so it was quite possible that I was taking a nap or eating lunch without really taking notice of the news

3. 9/11, that I remember clearly. I was a senior in high school sitting in my second period music class when the teacher got a phone call from his wife saying that planes had crashed into the WTC and we should turn on a TV. Well since I went to a public school, we had about 5 TVs in the whole school and only learned about the events in dribs and drabs throughout the day. I remember having to take a test in English and I got a "C", somehow my heart wasn't really into poetry of the Romantic Era that day. I didn't actually see any of the footage until I got home from school that day around 3 o'clock.

[johnnie]

14. You were born before JFK got shot and only a year old when MLK was shot?

That's 5 years? You stayed 1 for 5 years? :toast:

I was born 9 months to the day that JFK was killed. I told my parents that they must have been really sad or really happy that day..LOL JFK shot 11-22-63, Johnnie born 8-22-64.

Now to the question:

#1 - I cut school that day and when I got home my sister and brother were talking about them announcing it at school and I was like "oh, yeah..uh huh..yeah, they announced it at school." LOL So the answer is, I was cutting school and probably getting stoned that day, so I don't know specifically where I was.

#2 - Funny, my mom kept on about that before it went up. She kept saying "I wouldn't gp up in that thing", it had many problems before it finally launched. On the day it blew up I was sleeping in because I was out the night before getting wasted..lol. My mother yelled down the stairs (I slept in the basement at the time) "I knew it! The thing blew up, come up here and watch this!" I remember Tom Snyder (I think it was) playing with a model of the shuttle and getting carried away and looking like an idiot. My father worked for NASA for years and when he came home he was really bummed out. He took it personally.

#3 - I went out to have a smoke at work and when I stepped back in the controller in the office had the radio on and said that a plane had hit the WTC. We listened to the news and then they said another plane hit. People started talking about it in the office and I finally said "Let's put the fucking TV on..duh". While we watched, one of the bosses said "I bet it's Bin Laden" and I said "I bet it's George Bush" and everyone looked at me like I was an ass. I knew at that point that our government did it and that Bin Laden would never be caught because he didn't do it. It was a surreal day.


Now, about John Lennon, that is the one that affected me the most (9-11 was beyond Lennon's assassination, but not in the same category). My sister was standing at the foot of my bed that morning and she looked like our whole family had died. She said "John's dead" and at he same time my clock radio went off and I heard The Beatles. I also had "Shaved Fish" on the turntable from the night before and I was freaked out. I went to school, dropped a hit of acid and bummed out the whole day in the smoking lounge. One of the saddest days of my life.

[x-g.o.p.er]

17. Horrible typo, sorry about that

I wasn't born until 4 years after JFK was shot. 1967.

Hey, I understood what I meant, lol.

[Flaxbee]

15. hmm. OK

1. Reagan, I was in the 5th grade; I remember hearing about it at school and then watching the endless replay on television that night with my parents.

2. Junior in high school, was in Chemistry (my favorite class then; favorite teacher). One of the big school doofuses was already joking about it; hadn't even happened 20 minutes ago and this guy Matt was already cracking jokes. He was an ass.

3. Driving on I-66 toward DC when the first plane hit in NY. Went on to work (in Bethesda); grabbed some files, watched the towers collapse on tv and then drove home. My husband was panicking the entire time - he wanted me to turn around immediately, as soon as the planes hit in NY, and come home but I was pigheaded and went on into work anyway.

[JoePhilly]

19. OK ... in the womb for JFK ...

1. Reagan ... senior in high school ... I was in one of the first computer classes ... 12 students, and 3 Apple computers. Our teacher was a great guy ... he was taking computer classes at night, and then teaching the same stuff to us the next week. He grabbed a radio and we listened to the coverage in class.

2. Graduate school, psychology department lounge. I saw it live. We also had a jackass there ... his exact quote was "So much for the first teacher in space." I nearly punched his lights out.

Tienanmen Square, June 1989 (not on original list). In London on my first Business trip.

California Earthquake of Oct 1989 (not on original list) ... was in Denver at a conference, had defended my PH.D the week before.

3. 911. I was at work, in a large corporation where they had TVs in common areas. Within in minutes, those areas were packed. We saw the second plane hit live. Then folks went back to their offices and started to IM and call friends and family all over the place.

Columbia disaster (not on the original list)... on a winter vacation with my wife in Tennessee Mountains.

[bluethruandthru]

18. I remember them well

1. Reagan: I was having lunch with friends celebrating getting my first full time on-air radio news job. I remember thinking how glad I was that I hadn't yet started the job or I'd be working for 20 hours straight!

2. Challenger: I was doing radio news and had just finished my shift when the news broke. I was back on the air for 8 hours.

3. 9/11: Working in DC at a media outlet. Couldn't wait to get home and get my kids from school. Everyone had the same idea and the streets near the schools were jammed as people just left their cars to get to the school.

[Pacifist Patriot]

20. I was...

1. President Reagan was shot: I was in Junior High as well. We were already in the gym for a pep rally when the news was announced. They dismissed school a little early and I remember watching coverage on television.

2. The Challenger Disaster: I was a senior in high school. We were home because of mid-term exams. I was upstairs playing solitaire when I heard my sister scream downstairs. She saw it happen on live television. I thought a mass murderer had broken in our home. All she could do was stand there and point at the television.

3. 9/11: I was living in New Jersey. My husband called to tell me a Cessna had hit one of the trade towers. I went to watch the smoke and saw the second plane hit. I called my husband screaming that another tower had been hit. He said, "no, you're probably just seeing smoke from the other tower." I went and looked at the replay on the television and said in an eerily calm voice, "Honey, that wasn't a cessna...that's an airliner." It was a surreal day. My dad worked one week a month in the pentagon in the section that was hit. It took me almost two hours to reach my mom to verify that it was not his week in DC. We got shut out of our neighborhood because of the blockades of the bridges and I had a compassionate NJ cop let us through the barricades to get home from grocery shopping. I have an eerie picture of my son with the second tower collapsing behind him. Don't ask me why I took the picture. I have no clue. Other than residing on my computer and printed in our photo album I've not distributed it.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. How?

How were you born before JFK was shot in 1963, and only a year old when RFK was shot in 1968?

[x-g.o.p.er]

22. See post #17

[EstimatedProphet]

24. OK. Didn't notice that the first go round.

[EstimatedProphet]

25. OK. Didn't notice that the first go round.

[chknltl]

23. I was in third grade when JFK was shot

the announcement was made by our principal over the loudspeaker then we were released from school early. With hindsight I do not understand why they let us out early like that...I suppose back then most of us kids had a parent at home keeping things real as opposed to both parents having to work 50+ hr weeks in order to keep us with 3 squares.

I can not remember the RFK shooting and now I am truly saddened by the fact that I can not recall where I was when MLK got shot.

As to President Reagan getting shot...frankly I had forgotten that this had even taken place and I have no clue where I may have been.

The Challenger incident though happened as I was waiting at a bus stop. Someone on the street told me about it so I walked over to a nearby tavern and watched the breaking news about it.

9-11, I watched this on TV in my living room with my step-kids and my boss prior to our going off to work that morning. I was then working as the foreman for a general contractor. Our latest contracted job had us working a few miles away from Sea-Tac airport. It was VERY eerie seeing/hearing NO jets overhead when generally one would fly by heading in to land about every 2-3 minutes or so. Then two F-15s from nearby McChord AFB flew by low and slow...that was truly surreal!

In my area, another collectively memorable moment comes to mind: May 18th 1980, mid morning, (between 7-8AM I think).
I was with my ex, camped out on the side of Mt. Rainier and we were just rolling up our gear when Mt. St. Hellens clobbered us. We ended up hiking back to Longmire Lodge in a dense fog of falling ash.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. Yes indeedy

1. I was in junior high German class when the principal made the announcement over the intercom. No one really seemed to care very much - I certainly didn't - and the lesson went on. I don't remember that we had any discussion, or crying, or anything else, though I do think our teacher mentioned that she remembered where she was when Kennedy was shot. Our teacher was pretty intelligent all-around and an overly exceptionally decent human being, so I can only imagine she was thinking "Good", and so felt no need to "process our feelings" or any crap like that.

2. I was at work, and someone heard about it over the radio. Then I watched it on the news that night.

3. I was in World Financial Center 3, across Liberty St. from WTC North Tower.

[WinkyDink]

27. People remember where they were for Reagan? What about Ford and his TWO escapes?

[Inchworm]

28. I remember mine

1. President Reagan was shot: I was like 12 and skipping school. I slipped back in the house after my mom went to work and was watching something on TV when it happened.

2. The Challenger Disaster: I was 16ish? Again with the skipping school. I may have even layed out that day just to be able to watch the whole process of the launch. I knew they wouldnt let me in school and of course I was smarter then all the teachers anyhow.

3. 9/11: I was old. Don't really want to go there. I was already in a dark depression. Laying in bed watching the news to feed my anger and hate. Then it happened. I got phone calls all day from people who I hadn't heard from in years. They all knew I was a news freak, patriot, progressive, hellraising, fighter. Each was shocked to hear where I was at the time. Bittersweet reunions indeed.

:hug:

[FunkyLeprechaun]

29. I was born after Reagan was shot

I was still incubating in my mummy's tummy when it happened (I was born in May of that year).

The Challenger disaster, my parents attempted to take me and my sister to see the launch of the Challenger but it was canceled. We watched it take off at Walt Disney World. My parents didn't know what happened until someone said, "Oh my god..." Only then did they realise something was wrong. I wouldn't have cared less.... I only wanted to see Mickey Mouse (I was only 4 when it happened). My sister who had just turned 7 remembers a line then a puff of smoke.

9/11, I was asleep and my mum came in and shook me awake (I was at home for college that semester). I was like what? Huh? (blinks). She said, "The World Trade Center has been hit!"

I was like WHAT? (and immediatly jolted awake). She turned on the tv and I said, "Holy f***!"(It was only the first tower on fire). Then we both watched the 2nd plane hit the other tower. We literally screamed at the tv. Then a 3rd plane hitting the Pentagon, and I wondered then are there more? Then we heard about the 4th plane. I actually thought there would be more.

January of 2002, I went back to Boston with my mum (to help me move back in). Flying into Boston Logan Airport felt so surreal at the time... knowing that's where the hijackers had flown out from there.

We had found out our friend's son had a meeting in one of the towers and was late to work. He actually saw the plane hit the towers. Sadly, a few weeks later, the same friend lost one of his other sons to a climbing accident. It was so sad, one son survived and the other died. I have a friend who has a friend who lost her sister in one of the towers. She was still pretty grief-stricken over it when I last heard.

I had only just been in the towers for the first (and last time) in April of 2001. And seeing them while on the Staten Island Ferry was so awesome...

So sad.

[mikeytherat]

30. You and I must be about the same age!

1. Junior High: Found out right as the buses were heading towards home.

2. Freshman Year in college, right before lunch. My roomie says, "Let's watch the shuttle launch before we go to lunch."

3. Heading toward a client site in Northern Virginia, heading North on I-95. Driving an old '72 BMW with no radio, and I cannot fathom why everyone is driving so slowly (the "95" in I-95 indicates the average speed on the road). I guess everyone around me was listening to their radios in shock.

mikey_the_rat

[Burma Jones]

31. Lemme See

JFK - Don't really remember, I was barely 4. Kinda remember my parents being upset.

John Lennon - Was coming back from a rehearsal of a play I was in at College, Buried Child by Sam Shepherd and sat down in the living room of the Frat House I was staying in over the Winter Break. I had just heard "shot and killed in New York before Channel 9 in Chicago went to commercial. One of my friends came in and asked "what's up in the world?" I said "some big shot just got killed in New York." After the commercials, the photo of John Lennon from the White Album inserts appeared on the screen and then I knew.

Reagan - Heard about it between classes. Didn't really give it much thought besides wondering what sort of President Bush I might make.

Challenger - Was at work when someone came into the office I shared with three other analysts and said the shuttle blew up. We went over to the bar next door to drink and watch TV the rest of the day. My Mom was the Secretary for the chief if Shuttle Operations and knew some of the Astronauts socially, I had a long phone conversation with her that evening.....

9/11 - was living up in Bedford, NY, my Wife had the kids down in Rye for my son's speech therapist. I was going to the grocery store on that sparkling beautiful morning and had the radio tuned to the "Sports Guys" on WNEW. They were going on and on about a plane crashing into the WTC and that they could see smoke etc. I thought it was a hoax, so I tuned to 1010 WINS and heard the same story. I turned around, went back home tuned into CNN and watched. I tried to reach my Wife, but you could forget any and all cell phone service. My little brother was at NYU and watched most of it happen from Washington Square. We had friends who lived and/or worked in lower Manhattan. Wife got back from Speech and we all hugged and freaked out some and started monitoring our Emails for word of friends and family. Finally, at about 2 in the afternoon, the emails started to appear saying people were OK. We did not lose any friends or family, we lost a couple people we knew professionally and friends of ours did lose good friends that day. At about 5 that afternoon, I went to the grocery store in Scott's Corners and it was dark for some reason and the only sound you heard was the cash registers and squeaky grocery cart wheels. Everyone whispered for days and days afterwards. I was supposed to be at Pace University to start my Doctoral Program the next day with 4 intense 12 hour days. As some of our class were coming up from DC, and the Delaware Memorial Bridge was closed - although I believe they still attempted to collect tolls - we skipped the first day. It was surreal though, we were all in class trying to concentrate while some of us were getting calls about going back in and re-wiring the communications infrastructure and one of our classmates, an Indian, was going on about how the Hindus and the Christians should get together and kill all the Muslims and one of our professors telling us it was all our own fault that this happened.....

It's funny, when we started into Afghanistan, I was at the Giants Redskins game at Giants Stadium. Planes landing at Newark were flying close enough for us to see the windows and airline name. That was unsettling. Then, before halftime, air traffic stopped and people started to say we had attacked Afghanistan. Now, there wasn't any acknowledgment from the PA guy or the Jumbotron, but the info was coming from all the radios and tiny TVs people had. The rest of the game was odd, you were sort of paying attention, but you were really trying to find out what the hell was going on.

[Deep13]

32. home, high school, local tax office

I was home from school sick the day Reagan was shot. I saw it live on TV.

In high school someone intercepted me in the hall and said the Challenger exploded. My first reaction was to try to remember who I knew drove a Dodge Challenger, but she clarified that it was the space shuttle.

I saw a blurb about a plane hitting the WTC on line, but it was just a blurb and I assumed it was some little plane. I did not realize how bad it was until I saw it on TV at the local tax office where I had some business.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

33. My recollections

I've included a few other milestones that some other non-US DU'ers like myself may remember as well

REAGAN'S ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
I don't remember this. I was born in January 1981 so I would have been a very young baby

CHALLENGER
I was 5 and living in SE Asia. I don't think it was as a big deal there as it was in the US -though I could be wrong

RAJIV GANDHI'S ASSASSINATION
I had just woken up and was having breakfast before going to school. Our family always tuned into BBC radio news in the morning and it was the leading news item. I was devastated. Rajiv Gandhi was one of my first political heroes and his death impacted me greatly. I still grieve for him

CLINTON'S ELECTION
I remember this. In the country where I lived at the time, it was in the afternoon. This was the first presidential election that I had followed closely and I remember coming home from school and watching a live news feed from the US with Tom Brokaw doing the election coverage

OKLAHOMA BOMBING
My dad had just gone to work and I was alone with my visiting grandmother and my sister and a family friend. I got up early in the morning and turned on the television to watch the news and of course it had all the latest news and coverage of the event. It also had news of another bombing in Spain on the same day (presumably by ETA). I looked at those two incidences and just thought the world had gone mad. I remember how everyone assumed that Middle Eastern terrorists were responsible until they were discovered not to have been

ISRAELI PM YITZHAK RABIN'S ASSASSINATION
This tragic event occurred while I was studying for school exams. I turned on a Sunday morning news show and heard the news that he had been injured in an assassination attempt. I couldn't believe it -I was stunned. I didn't concentrate at all while studying that day. I later learned that Prime Minister Rabin had died and I was devastated. Prime Minister Rabin was another of my political heroes and I mourned his loss greatly

PRINCESS DIANA'S PASSING
Was studying for another round of exams (these things always seemed to happen when I was studying for exams) and my mother had just come home from shopping. I think it was she who mentioned that she'd heard that Princess Diana had been injured in a car crash. We subsequently turned the television on and learned the tragic news. I was devastated by that -Princess Diana was someone whose career and life I had followed closely and whom I had absolutely adored. I remember having problems sleeping that night

BORIS YELTSIN RESIGNS AS PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA
I was at a New Year's Eve Party while on a visit to SE Asia. Someone told me the news and I rushed in to watch it on a TV in one of our host's rooms.

9/11
It was late in the evening when it happened here. I was at university and had just concluded a long and exhausting day at university. I had returned to the university college where I was staying and was trying to complete some study notes on -coincidentally enough-American history. It was around midnight and I decided to give up and go to bed because I was too exhausted. But I decided to have one last check to see whether my favorite online paper had changed put tomorrow's edition of the paper online yet and that's when I heard the news. At that time there were still rumors flying around of bombs going off and the like and it was very uncertain. I turned on the television and all of our national channels had crossed live to the US. I stayed up the whole night watching the latest updates come in. The next day I went to my American history tutorial and of course it was the main topic of discussion

[RFKHumphreyObama]

34. Dupe

Dupe

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HamdenRice]

36. Uh, how could you be born before JFK was shot but be only 1 when RFK was shot???

I know what you meant. I'm being a nit picking asshole.

Anyhoo, OK:

JFK -- I was about 3, but remember the day very clearly. My great aunt, who was some kind of live in nursing assistant on Long Island always spent the weekend with us in Queens, and she always arrived on Friday afternoon. I remember running down the driveway to tell Aunt Ella that President Kennedy has been shot.

MLK -- It was a big coincidence that I had just really come to understand who he was. My parents had purchased an LP, "March on Washington" which was a recording of all the speeches that day, including the "I Have a Dream" speech, and would play it frequently. I had just finished a book report on a book -- I remember the title to this day -- "Martin Luther King: Peaceful Warrior." I was doing my homework in my bedroom when I heard about it on the evening news. I went out to walk my dog and actually expected riots to begin any minute.

RFK -- I don't remember.

Reagan shot -- I was a recent college grad working on Wall Street as a paralegal. All of us paralegals in the "paralegal department" crowded around a tv and watched the coverage. There was one right wing young woman from the south transplanted to NYC, who had been bragging about how great it was that the Repugs had taken over, and she was really shaken by the assassination attempt. Just a few weeks later, the same scenario played out in the office when the Pope was shot.

Challenger -- I was in law school. Launches were a big deal back then and we crowded around in a tiny student lounge to watch it and saw the disaster in real time.

9/11 -- Ugggh. I was in lower Manhattan. I had come into Manhattan by train right under the towers early that morning and was preparing in my office by about 7:30. I always listened to the radio early in the morning while I worked. My office faced West, just a block east of Avenue of the Americas. I was startled to hear a plane screeching low over the building and then heard a loud explosion. My first reaction was that a military jet had just done a bombing run over the city. Then the radio news said that a plane had hit the WTC. I went down to the street and watched the north tower burning. A homeless type guy standing next to me said he saw it and that the plane was so low he thought it was going to hit my building. I went back upstairs and heard about the second plane on the radio, and a few others had arrived at the office and we discussed how this was obviously terrorism. I went downstairs again and watched, went back upstairs and friends and family started calling me telling me to get out of Manhattan. After the towers collapsed, the thing that I remember most clearly is the size of the smoke plume. The only thing I had ever seen comparable was the smoke plume coming out of the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

I walked east to First Ave, and then downtown to get to Brooklyn. As I started to cross the Williamsburg Bridge with thousands of others, the police suddenly stopped us and said that the bridge was wired with explosives and had to be closed. I walked to the Manhattan Bridge and saw thousands and thousands of people covered in white dust walking up town, as I walked downtown. As I crossed the bridge with thousands of others, we heard a plane screeching above us and everyone groaned because there were rumors that planes were crashing into bridges, but someone identified it as a military jet protecting us.

At the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, the nurses, doctors and staff of Long Island College Hospital (right there) were handing out bottled water and helping however they could. I must have stopped at three or four bars to down beers and listen to the tv on the way home. A lot of people were getting blasted to calm their nerves and were all saying this is pearl harbor, this is world war III.

One really creepy aspect was that the next day the military was all over, even way out in Brooklyn, and we had soldiers on our subways for about a year.

[calico1]

37. I was 5 when JFK was assasinated.

Though I have tried over the years I really don't remember anything about him being President. I only vaguely remember that he had a little girl about my age and she had a pony named Macaroni. I don't remember the day he was shot. I do remember the day of his funeral. Mostly the horses and the sound of drums beating. My dad owned a 3 apt. building. We lived in the middle one. That day I was in the upstairs apt. with the boy that lived there who was a little older than me. I clearly remember that we were sitting on the floor leaning against the sofa watching the "parade." Every so often Billy would get up and change channels to see if he could get "Tom & Jerry" or some other cartoon that I don't remember now. We didn't know why there were a bunch of grownups in the kitchen crying...

I honestly don't remember where I was or what I was doing when Reagan was shot.

When the Challenger exploded I was at work. A coworker of mine came busting in, all excited and blurted out "The Challenger exploded. Everyone is dead!" The rest of the day was totally surreal. I remember taking the bus home and there was a strange quietness in the air. Like everyone was stunned.

I was also at work on 9/11. The mother of one of my coworkers called her to tell her that a small plane seemed to have crashed into the WTC. She would call my coworker anytime there was anything newsworthy going on. So we went and pulled up the CNC site and saw a picture of what looked to be a small plane. I remember commenting to her how strange that was that a plane could crash into a building this tall and how could it miss where it was going with all those tall buildings in NYC? I thought it so odd. Then several minutes later the ex girlfriend of another coworker called and told him about the second plane. All the sites by then were impossible to get into. We finally got into the BBC site to find out more. Also, people at home kept us informed, as did some e-mail buddies I had from AOL. Talk about surreal. I drove home crying, and saw other people crying too.

[LiberalEsto]

38. 1. Seventh grade gym class

We heard about the Kennedy shooting over the PA system when we were changing in the locker room. Some girls started crying.

2. Visiting my soon-to-be-ex-husband in Phoenix, AZ.

3. Grocery shopping with one of my toddlers. There was a tv on in the store so people could watch the launch.

3. At my doctor's office. He walked into the exam room in a state of total shock and told me he had just heard about it over the radio. We were both speechless. I went home and turned on the tv just in time to see the second plane hit.

[applegrove]

39. I was on a city bus on the way home from school with a group of

friends when people started talking about Regan being shot. Challenger disaster I was in Ardmour Hall my college residence when it was playing in the TV room. 911 I was at home getting ready for work and watching CNN. I turned the TV on just after the first plane had hit and thought if was a little plane. I called my dad and we were talking on the phone as the second plane hit. I knew it was terrorism but thought it was the Palestinians at that time. Then I went to work where it was playing all day in the call centre. What a sad day.

[Lil Missy]

40. A couple other honorable mentions:

The day Elvis Presley died. I was working the 3 - 11 shift and was on my way to work when I heard it on the news. I recall it was a very HOT day.

The riots in LA after the verdict in the Rodney King beatings. I recall hearing the not guilty verdicts, and besides being absolutely shocked, I immediately felt there was going to be hell to pay for this injustice.

The night of the 2000 election when Gore was projected the winner. I was ecstatic and literally did a victory dance in front of the TV. And you know what happened after that.

[sarge43]

41. I was

1. at Offutt AFB working in the personnel shop, 544RTGp. Just got back from lunch and my boss told me. Everything was at a standstill in the office. We all gathered around someone's portable radio in disbelief. When it was announced that Kennedy was dead, I looked at another airman and saw my horror mirrored in his face.

2. probably at home. We were living in Tampa at the time, but frankly didn't care that much and I don't remember any details.

3. driving to college in Tampa and listening to the classical station on the car radio. After the announcement, they played Barber's Adagio and I lost it. Had to pull over and get a grip.

4. driving to visit my mother in hospital and again listening to the car radio. I remember two thoughts, "Those poor souls" and "Christ, here we go again."

[RedStateProgressive]

42. Wow, I feel really young...

I was born after Reagan was shot, and my mother would have been fifteen when that happened.

I do remember 9/11 though, I was in fifth grade. We'd just gotten back from lunch, and my teacher turned on the TV and was talking about Osama bin Laden and explaining who he was to us and all, and I was under the misconception it was a bombing or something, some other kid in class who came in late was talking about it as well.

[GOPisEvil]

43. My answer to your interesting question.

1. I was in 7th grade English class when Reagan was shot. We kids joked that it must be Carter exacting his revenge, but our teachers, who had lived through Kennedy's assassination, put a stop to that. It got really serious after that.

2. I was a senior in high school when the Challenger exploded. I had just returned to class after an off-campus lunch. I don't remember how we found out, but we knew. We didn't discuss Spanish after that.

3. I took a sick day and woke up at about 11:00 to the news on the radio. I immediately got up, turned on the TV and figured out what had happened. By the time the "talking heads" were on, I had had enough of the news and found the one station that was still broadcasting normally. It was AMC. I watched "The Searrchers" and some other movies. AMC kept me sane that day.

[DS1]

45. I don't remember the first one

I was in middle school, and heard the school nurse get a phone call. Then it came over the intercomm.

I was unemployed and asleep for the first impact, made it down to see the second plane strike. Spent most of the day in front of the tv, wondering "wtf" like most of the rest of the country.

[Rhythm]

46. So many bad days...

JFK: That happened before i was a twinkle in my dad's eye... indeed, before he and my mom even met. I have, however, been to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, and stood on that balcony. Creepy does not even describe.

Reagan: I was sitting in 'Bible class' at the church-run school i attended. The headmaster came over the intercom and asked everyone to stop what they were doing and pray. My friend Roger (who sat beside me) made jokes under his breath, and we both had to struggle not to laugh inappropriately. Earlier that year, it was in that same class with Roger when we heard about the assassination of John Lennon... glad Roj was there, because he was the only one who understood the hurt, when all of those self-righteous fucktards were almost rejoicing.

Challenger: I was in the student lounge at my community college, getting ready to go to my much-dreaded psychology class. The launch was on the TV in the corner, and everyone was sort of paying non-attention to it, when the worst possible happened. The room fell silent. No one could think of anything to say. Even my normally snobbish, too cool for the room psych prof was stunned.

9/11: I worked in a factory that made pre-fab cabinet systems for new homes, and had been on the job that morning for about 2 hours. My co-worker on that particular day was a guy named Gary, who every day wore a different proselytizing t-shirt, and punctuated every sentence with 'praise jesus'. I wasn't enjoying my morning.

Just before 9am (right before break), Gary told me that he had heard that a plane had hit 'one of them big buildin's in New York City'. I assumed that there had been some air-traffic control mishap, or something of that nature, said that i was 'sorry to hear that', and went to shut off the Jenkins saw that we were running. We walked into the break room (which always had the big-screen TV on CNN), grabbed something to snack on, and sat down to watch the news.

Right then, the second plane hit...

I jumped up from my chair, rushed over to the payphone, and called Oktoberain, telling her what i'd seen, and telling her to check the news online (since we didn't have a TV at the time). The rest of the workday was silent, except for the hum of the machines themselves. Well, and Gary asking me stupid questions about my belief (or lack thereof) in Heaven and Hell. I couldn't wait to get home.

[fudge stripe cookays]

47. Let's see...

born in 1966, so missed Kennedy.

1. I was a freshman in high school. I had social studies right after lunch, and our teacher had the TV on and was watching and narrating.

2. I barely remember this. I was about a sophomore in college, and didn't watch much TV in the dorm, so it wasn't until I walked by the big TV room and saw people clustered around all concerned that I realized hours and hours later (possibly even a day or so) that something had happened. Didn't really affect me much.

3. Was working remotely from home that day. When I logged in, I saw something on the front page about "plane hitting World Trade Center", but I figured it was something small, like when the plane hit the Empire State Building in fog during the 1940s. We all had Yahoo Messenger to keep in touch, so my friend Jessica wrote and said, "Are you watching TV??!!" And I said no. She told me I needed to turn it on. I said, "Is this about the WTC?" She said "YES!!!!" So I did, and of course, got no work done all day. reprehensor was at work, and called me after the 2nd plane hit. He called me a couple times during the day to make sure I wasn't freaking out too bad since I was home alone.

[Thirtieschild]

48. I was 10 when FDR died. Remember people standing on porches crying

Otherwise...

Kennedy and MLK - telephone calls for husband, one telling him to get ready to go to Dallas (as it turned out he wasn't needed), the second telling him to get to the UPI Atlanta office because MLK had been killed. It was raining, he was in the garage packing the station wagon for a weekend vacation in Florida, I didn't see him again for three days. What little sleep he got was on a couch at the office. I was left without a car - we only had one. I took the two oldest children and marched in MLK's funeral march. Husband wrote the assassination and funeral stories, barely able to see the typewriter through his tears. As I look back, most events came to me through telephone calls for husband to come in - Selma, Birmingham, Philadelphia MS. Challenger - I learned about it on tv, husband was at the office writing it

[Cabcere]

49. 1 - not born yet; 2 - in the process of being born

(yes, I was born the day the Challenger exploded, and my mom has a funny story about how my dad heard the news on the radio and told her to "wait" before driving her to the hospital). :eyes: :P

3 - I was in tenth grade, and I remember that in my first block class (English) we finished reading Julius Caesar...then in my next class (French), I heard one of my friends saying something about an airplane crashing into the World Trade Center. That was the first I heard of it, and then I remember that I had biology third block and a bunch of the kids in my class were really scared, and one guy was crying because he thought we were all going to die. Our teacher told us to calm down and that there was little to no chance that the terrorists were going to attack our little town, and I think we just went on with the lesson. Fourth block was band class, and our band director took the first part of class to talk to us about what had happened. Then we went outside to practice our marching band show (it was a warm day and I remember the ground was dusty - for one part of our show we were all supposed to set down our instruments and drop down to the ground in a line like dominoes) for a little while, and when we came back in we went into the choir room to watch the news on their TV. Then I rode the bus home, and when we got off at our stop my little brother was complaining about something, and I snapped at him...then felt bad because it turns out he didn't know anything about what had happened. (He was in fifth grade at the time, and the principal of the elementary school decided not to unnecessarily scare the young kids by telling them about it.) I explained it to him and we went inside and turned on the TV I think, and then our mom came home (early, I think) and talked to us about it. I was scheduled to babysit that afternoon, so I ate a sandwich before going up the street to the twins' house (even though I wasn't really hungry, I knew I should eat something before going over there), and then when I got to their house the mom told me that the twins (a boy and a girl, age 4) didn't know about what had happened, and that their dad would explain it to them later. That's about all I remember - I babysat the twins for a few hours, and then went home and I guess watched TV w/my family for a while. :shrug: I wrote about it in my journal that night, too...it was a crazy, scary day. :(

(4) Since I wasn't born yet when Reagan was shot, the other big event that I remember was the Columbia disaster. :( I had just turned 17, and I was headed to the Academic Challenge regional tournament in a van with my teammates. I remember the heat was turned up high because it was really cold outside, and we were all chatting away or listening to mp3 or CD players when my friend's mom, who was driving us, turned up the radio and told us to listen. Being a "Challenger baby," my first thought was: "Oh no, not again!" :( We all just listened in kind of stunned silence for a while, and I remember idly wondering if I was some kind of curse to NASA or something. :crazy:

[Broken_Hero]

50. ...........

1. President Reagan was shot: I was playing with toys, and pretending to be Superman....busy days.

2. The Challenger Disaster: In school, say it live on tv....

3. 9/11: Dropped my brother off at Seminary(mormon thing), and on the drive to work, some guy on the radio was talking about a plane hitting a building, I didn't catch the name...then he went on a tangent about Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy...I didn't pay attention to the radio much, I was zombiefied(it was around 5-5:30 am Alaska time).

I got to work(which was basically a break room for the cold storage workers), got the coffee going, got the biscuits/gravy going, also the sausage muffins. I got the cash out of the safe, and got the register up and running, and I decided to turn the tv on. On tv...it was...chaos, news people talking about the Twin Towers, the Pentagon getting hit....I had to snap myself out of it, to make sure I didn't burn anything(food wise)...I noticed some early birds walking to the front of the store, I kicked opened/propped the door open and said "Look at this shit" while pointing to the tv...and thats, basically all I said for the rest of the day....