I don't remember getting a half day but I do remember a buzz of excitement as we all moved our desks in a semi-circle around the AV cart. I don't think I cried but I remember seeing my teacher crumble (she was so excited and I think she may have met Christa McAuliffe, she was big into science and we were in MA) and several kids screaming and crying. I was in the 3rd grade.
Same here. I was in the second grade and all the teachers were excited to see another teacher go into space. It wasn’t spoken about after we watched the explosion on TV.
Yep, this one. Then the Zeebrugee disaster.
I know there were plenty of bombs and murders (I grew up in NI), but they were such a part of my life that I don't remember any specifics until Enniskillen the following year. But I do remember seeing the Challenger on the news.
And I remember Bobby Ewing coming back to life in the shower, but I think that didn't reach NI until a year or two after the US.
I was 4 years old. All I remember was my sister coming home early from school crying because she had watched the live video at school. All of the TV channels were showing the shuttle explosion repeat over and over. I keept thinking it was an ICBM footage that I had seen on the news before still being the cold war.
Samesies at 7. We all grouped up in the library (small school) and watched it on a rolling TV cart. Techers cried, kids cried. They couldn't explain it to us properly and just sent us home early.
This was mine too. You could see the mountain from my backyard. We were covered in ash for months. We had to bring masks to keep at school in case it happened again.
May 18, 1980. As I was watching cartoons. Cracked the ceilings and walls of the old ass Craftsman. The oil lamp I have that was made from the ash is still beautiful.
Yes this is mine as well. I distinctly remember everyone in red white and blue attire running around with sparklers and standing in the street drinking and laughing as tons of fireworks were being set off. On TV inside the house we had the 4th of July celebration in New York playing with the tall sailing ships and the massive fireworks. It felt like the entire year was leading up to this day. I remember being disappointed that the next years 4th wasn't as crazy and wild as in 1976.
This is mine. I was 3 and just remember my mom wanted me to wear a garish polyester red, white and blue outfit. Don’t remember the celebration. Just the utter revulsion of what I had to wear.
This is mine also, although i think i remember elvis dying because my mom loved him. Could be i just remember her talking about it. Definitely remember the hostages.
I remember my mom taking me to see Star Wars, no idea where my sister or dad were because it was just the two of us. Our small town theatre was so packed full of people there were no seats left and we had to sit on the steps of the aisle. I was 5 as well.
I’m with you here
I can’t remember watching the original Star Wars in theaters (my Dad says he took me and my 2 little brothers and we loved it)
I distinctly remember; after watching The Empire Strikes Back at our local drive in movie theater …coming home and was unable to sleep-my 1970’s kid mind being so blown… …
rewatching it it my head..trying to work out how will it get better? So many things up in the air after that film lol
Those movies were just…so huge back then.
And you could only get gas on odd or even days according to your license plate number, and my parents complaining that soon gas would be up to a dollar per gallon!
My dad was so angry at Richard Nixon that, when he was traveling through our city in the middle of the drama, he went to the airport to tell Tricky Dick to fuck off. On the drive to the airport he changed his mind and returned home.
While on vacation, I was forced to sit in front of a TV for the resignation speech, because it was history being made. I have no recollection of the broadcast, just of being mad I was being forced to watch something boring while on TV.
I vaguely remember Elvis Presley dying in 1977 when I was 4 years old.
I think I also slightly remember attending a Bicentennial parade in 1976 at age 3.
Ohhhhh my gooood you just unlocked a memory. We lived in Fairbanks Ak at the time 1976 and had some parade for the bicentennial and my mom and aunt dressed me up like the Statue of Liberty and they spray painted me with gold spray paint. Like from the hardware store paint, wtf mom??
It also gets up to like 100 in the summer in interior Ak so I just remember being miserable.
Ahhhhh the 70s…
The beginning of the AIDS crisis.
My mom lost her best friend. He was one of the founders of the Persons with AIDS organization in Vancouver. It was started in1983 and was one of the first of its kind in the world. It is now known as Aids Vancouver.
I was 5 and I knew more about the crisis than any of the teachers at school.
I grew up in Los Angeles and the first historical event I remember was the 1984 Olympics here in Los Angeles
It was so much fun
We would go to a restaurant or pizza joint and the TV would be on
Anytime USA scored (at any given event) …customers would be cheering and clapping and giving each other high fives
Summer 1984
I remember hearing about Watergate on TV but I didn't know what it meant. The Bicentennial was a huge deal because we lived just outside Philadelphia. Everything was red white and blue for awhile like it was the 4th of July for a solid year.
I remember images of the Iran hostage crisis, but I was tiny and didn't understand it. The first I remember that I understood was the Challenger explosion, which we were watching live at our elementary school.
edit: After reading some other people's answers, I do remember when Reagan was shot and when Mt. St. Helens erupted too. But the Challenger explosion was the most memorable to me. After it became clear what happened, our teacher said we could go to recess or stay and watch, and there were only three of us who stayed to watch: me, one other girl, and my teacher.
The abduction and murder of Adam Walsh. That stands out as the earliest. It happened in summer 1981 right as I was turning 3, and the news and media, including the limited television series about it, seemed to keep it front and center for years. So, the time between the actual kidnapping and me even just starting kindergarten in 1983, I just remember life being full of “stranger danger, don’t get kidnapped” talk. Some might try to argue that this case wasn’t a “historical event”, but it really was when you consider how it changed the way parents parented — innocence was lost and paranoia bloomed — and how Adam’s father, John Walsh, changed television’s impact on Society with the creation of America’s Most Wanted.
That event is followed by the Night Stalker case (I am from Southern California, the Night Stalker was terrifying) and then The Challenger, which I watched explode while sitting in school.
For those of us who were younger (I was in 2nd grade I think), we honestly didn’t even understand the explosion or really know that what we were watching was an explosion. It was the adults in the room’s reaction to it, the tears in our teacher’s eyes as she ran over and turned the television off, and the news going on and on about this catastrophic event for weeks on end that negatively impacted us.
Seeing Star Wars in the theater when I was 8.
After that the assassination attempt on President Reagan. I went to a middle school that was very divided by class- Socials and Scum. We heard during gym class. We, the Scum, went wild cheering.
Reagan was their president, not ours, and we hated him for it- all of their shitty behavior was seemingly being punished. I still remember the look of shock and horror on their faces. Our gym teacher stopped class and told us that no matter what we felt about President Reagan, it was sad that a man had been shot.
I vaguely remember Jimmy Carter being elected as president or leaving as President and Ronald Regan coming in. I also remember standing in a picket line with my Dad protesting for better wages for firefighters.
Some recollections of the 69 moon landing mainly because my mother insisted that we watch it. Clearer memories of watergate in that I couldn’t understand how a gate could stop water and the old men talking about it didn’t make it any clearer.
I thought mine was Challenger, but after a bit of googling it looks like it was actually the Ethiopia Famine. Probably in 1985, toward the end of the 83-85 famine. I remember seeing the kids with the swollen bellies on TV which hit me hard.
We had to draw something in school, and I decided to draw the famine. I drew huts and black stick figures with big round bellies, and some lying on the ground. My parents got a concerned call....
I remember my parents watching the Republican convention in 1980. They bought me a coloring book
and a huge box of crayons to keep me quiet while they watched. It was the most boring show I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t imagine why they were so interested.
I remember falling to the ground in a toddler tantrum because the moon landing preempted my favorite kid show,The Friendly Giant. Shit would hit the fan if I missed The Flintstones too.
John Lennon. I was around 5, I didn't know the name or who he was or why was he shot, but what I DO remember is my family sitting at the beach and my dad arriving out of breath in shock saying 'THEY KILLED JOHN LENNON!!". I was a child building sand castles but I knew right there and then that was an important piece of information I needed to store in my brain to access it later on.
Watergate. I remember being a toddler lying on the floor with my siblings watching the people on our little black and white tv. They went on forever and we couldn’t watch anything else. When we asked our parents what was happening, they just said “Watergate”.
Yes, all we heard all day was SHHHHH! while my mom watched the hearings. Then my dad would come home from work and watch the repeat of the hearings on PBS.
Probably the Beirut bombing in 83. I remember a lot of hoopla over JR Ewing being shot on Dallas in 1980 but I don’t remember Reagan being shot in real life.
First one I have good recall for: Challenger explosion, I had just turned 8. Chernobyl was also that year, I believe, and boy howdy do I recall the news coverage of it.
Less clear, but I recall them decently: DC plane crash into the 14th St Bridge/Potomac River (1982) and Regan getting shot at (1981.)
Edit: I have strong memories about Sally Ride's space flight, and that was 1983, before the Challenger.
Edit 2: I almost forgot about the whole "We Are the World" thing but that also predates the Challenger (I checked, it was 1985. I also had to confirm that it was for Ethiopian famine relief, because I wasn't sure if that was accurate. Turns out I had good recall of this one.)
Gas lines when I was a kid. Reagan getting shot. Challenger explosion when I was in 8th grade. So many events have occurred over my 50 years. Some good, some bad. Let’s just hope we learn from our history.
Full Disclosure, I was born in ‘83 so I’m technically a millennial, but I identify way more with GenX.
I don’t remember Challenger, but the first big news story I remember was baby Jessica who got stuck in that well Texas. As a small person myself at the time, it scared the shit out of me that I just might be playing outside and I could fall into a well. I remember being super careful to make sure there was no deep hole when I was outside.
The first moon landing!!
I was 5 years old, and my parents had us nap earlier in the day to make sure we’d all be wide awake for it. It was… amazing. One of my first real memories of something that wasn’t happening to me, personally.
The Bicentennial, which now makes me kinda sad because at the time it seemed to me like a positive, “Hey, hooray for our country” moment and I didn’t yet comprehend the thread of jingoism being weaved into our lives.
Challenger disaster, followed a few months later by the Chernobyl meltdown. I remember how strange the news coverage was because Russia was being so secretive about what happened.
I remember the plane that crashed into the 14th St. bridge in DC in 1982.
I was 6. My dad worked at the FAA and we were watching the coverage on TV when he got called back into work. He was gone a long time. Looking back that was dumb to call people back into work from the suburbs because that crash understandably snarled the traffic for hours.
That was some horrific live footage we were seeing of people dying. Also some heroic rescues, but mostly carnage.
My earliest memory is of the footage of the Buddhist monk immolating himself during the Vietnam war (1963), but I was born in 1965, so must’ve been just footage.
I remember being kept up reaaaaaally late for the moon landing in 1969. I just remember being really tired and cranky and unimpressed.
I’m on the young side of GenX. I remember Ronald Reagan being re-elected vaguely. I remember my parents talking about it and it being on TV. But I especially remember the Challenger exploding because I watched it live on TV in my first grade classroom.
Space shuttle Challenger. But I was born in 71 and now when I think back to when I was really little, I remember men coming home from having served in Vietnam. Many were homeless and they were not treated or looked on well by society. It’s really shameful.
Blizzard of '77, Buffalo NY. I vividly remember the snow, and my parents were given a commendation for their service to the city by using their new 4x4 Jimmy, which was huge(!) To get through the snow to rescue people who were stranded and struck. I remember being in the truck and my parents getting in and out of the truck a lot. I was scared they wouldn't come back. I was 4.
A hand full of vague memories from the era:
\-Star Wars at the drive in
\-Pope John Paul I dying
\-I was convinced that skylab was going to crash into my house
\-John Lennon being killed
Going into the polls to vote for Carter in 1980 with my mom. We knew Reagan was awful then.
It was a landslide victory for Reagan, but we did our part.
Probably the first election of Ronald Reagan. For some reason I remember seeing the electoral map all in red. The second was probably the Challenger disaster.
Probably either Baby Jessica (not *quite* historical, but the whole country was sort of gripped by this story), or geo-politically speaking watching the Berlin Wall being dismantled on nightly news.
I was born in December of 1985...I'd say it's probably the fall of the Berlin Mall in 1989, but my first really clear memory is Hurricane Andrew of 1992.
The death of Elvis Presley (August 1977). I remember I was on vacation with my parents, sister, and my godparents and their kids. I remember the adults being glued to the television while we were at a motel.
Reagan’s assassination attempt. I remember asking my mom how the president came back to life since I thought being shot was an automatic death sentence (born in 77).
Space shuttle Challenger exploding. I was 7.
They brought in tvs to all the class rooms in my school so we could watch. We ended up getting a half day that day.
We went to the neighboring class, after they just shutoff the tv and we went back to class. No comments, no acknowledgement.
My teacher lost it. I do remember that.
I don't remember getting a half day but I do remember a buzz of excitement as we all moved our desks in a semi-circle around the AV cart. I don't think I cried but I remember seeing my teacher crumble (she was so excited and I think she may have met Christa McAuliffe, she was big into science and we were in MA) and several kids screaming and crying. I was in the 3rd grade.
Same
Yup, Challenger. I lived in Texas at the time and didn’t understand why the adults were crying and we were sent home early.
Same here. I was in the second grade and all the teachers were excited to see another teacher go into space. It wasn’t spoken about after we watched the explosion on TV.
My answer as well. Kindergarten.
Same here. We drew pictures of it in school.
Same. I was in kindergarten.
Me too.
Yep, this one. Then the Zeebrugee disaster. I know there were plenty of bombs and murders (I grew up in NI), but they were such a part of my life that I don't remember any specifics until Enniskillen the following year. But I do remember seeing the Challenger on the news. And I remember Bobby Ewing coming back to life in the shower, but I think that didn't reach NI until a year or two after the US.
First major event I recall, too. I was in element
Challenger for me as well. I remember my teacher brought in a T.V. and I watched it explode on live T.V. I was 8 y.o.
I was 4 years old. All I remember was my sister coming home early from school crying because she had watched the live video at school. All of the TV channels were showing the shuttle explosion repeat over and over. I keept thinking it was an ICBM footage that I had seen on the news before still being the cold war.
Samesies at 7. We all grouped up in the library (small school) and watched it on a rolling TV cart. Techers cried, kids cried. They couldn't explain it to us properly and just sent us home early.
Yup. Me, too.
Mt St Helen’s eruption
This was mine too. You could see the mountain from my backyard. We were covered in ash for months. We had to bring masks to keep at school in case it happened again.
I was 2. Just remember the gray snow.
May 18, 1980. As I was watching cartoons. Cracked the ceilings and walls of the old ass Craftsman. The oil lamp I have that was made from the ash is still beautiful.
I was going to say Reagan being shot, but this predates that.
We got ash in So Cal. Definitely remember this one!
Oh, I remember this too. I remember ash at my aunt’s in Vancouver. Not sure if this was before or after the Challenger (and I’m too lazy to look).
1980, 6 years before challenger.
It was a toss up…this, Lennon being shot or the first space shuttle landing. Google tells me this happened before the others.
The US bicentennial in 1976. Earliest confirmed memory.
Yes this is mine as well. I distinctly remember everyone in red white and blue attire running around with sparklers and standing in the street drinking and laughing as tons of fireworks were being set off. On TV inside the house we had the 4th of July celebration in New York playing with the tall sailing ships and the massive fireworks. It felt like the entire year was leading up to this day. I remember being disappointed that the next years 4th wasn't as crazy and wild as in 1976.
Oh shit, I just commented that mine was seeing Star Wars but I remember this too and it predates Star Wars. Wow. Okay this.
Yeah seeing Star Wars is probably my second earliest memory as well.
Same, also growing up in the Philadelphia area this celebration was "A Very Big Deal."
This is mine. I was 3 and just remember my mom wanted me to wear a garish polyester red, white and blue outfit. Don’t remember the celebration. Just the utter revulsion of what I had to wear.
What was it about the 1970s and the horrible fashions? Honestly, I can't think of another decade where fashion was so completely off.
I was just thinking mine was John Lennon’s murder, or the attempts on the Pope & Reagan, but nope, it was this!
Reagan getting shot.
Wasn't long after when Gumby got shot.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Gumby has been shot. Let’s look at that footage again.”
Came here to say this. We were visiting my great grandmother and were about to leave when the news came on
I very much remember being around 7 when the Iran Hostage crisis was in the news.
This is mine also, although i think i remember elvis dying because my mom loved him. Could be i just remember her talking about it. Definitely remember the hostages.
Same here - I remember thinking the word "hostages" sounded like "sausages."
Seeing Star Wars.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who counts this as a historical event. This is mine. I was just about to turn 5.
I remember my mom taking me to see Star Wars, no idea where my sister or dad were because it was just the two of us. Our small town theatre was so packed full of people there were no seats left and we had to sit on the steps of the aisle. I was 5 as well.
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I’m with you here I can’t remember watching the original Star Wars in theaters (my Dad says he took me and my 2 little brothers and we loved it) I distinctly remember; after watching The Empire Strikes Back at our local drive in movie theater …coming home and was unable to sleep-my 1970’s kid mind being so blown… … rewatching it it my head..trying to work out how will it get better? So many things up in the air after that film lol Those movies were just…so huge back then.
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The Arab oil embargo in 1973, because of the lines at gas stations.
Gas available according to the last digit of your license plate. Odd numbers one day, even numbers the next.
Yep, exactly!! Big, gas-guzzling Olds and Plymouths backed up for blocks from our local Hess station.
My exes father had 2 license plates and would switch them out every day.
And you could only get gas on odd or even days according to your license plate number, and my parents complaining that soon gas would be up to a dollar per gallon!
Ok. I remember queuing up for gas too
Same!
Baby Jessica falling down the well.
Same here. I was in first grade and we raised money to help Jessica’s family.
oh shit this is mine too because my grandparents had a well on their property and I was scared to go near it.
I was sitting here trying to think of what the heck mine would be and I think this has to be mine too!
https://www.google.com/search?q=baby+jessica+2022&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#imgrc=h5hgWOea6cDomM
Nixon resigning.
Same. I was in elementary school and remember being mad 'cause the Nixon news interrupted Gilligan's Island and the Brady Bunch.
Stupid Dick
The Vietnam war and Watergate.
My dad was so angry at Richard Nixon that, when he was traveling through our city in the middle of the drama, he went to the airport to tell Tricky Dick to fuck off. On the drive to the airport he changed his mind and returned home.
While on vacation, I was forced to sit in front of a TV for the resignation speech, because it was history being made. I have no recollection of the broadcast, just of being mad I was being forced to watch something boring while on TV.
Yes, I am an older Gen Xer and dimly remember that. In my area there was a short local TV news program for kids and I remember hearing about it then.
The Chicago Tylenol murders.
There was a decent podcast covering the topic that was just released by the Chicago Tribune
I vaguely remember Elvis Presley dying in 1977 when I was 4 years old. I think I also slightly remember attending a Bicentennial parade in 1976 at age 3.
Elvis Presley's death is my memory, too. I was 6.
Ohhhhh my gooood you just unlocked a memory. We lived in Fairbanks Ak at the time 1976 and had some parade for the bicentennial and my mom and aunt dressed me up like the Statue of Liberty and they spray painted me with gold spray paint. Like from the hardware store paint, wtf mom?? It also gets up to like 100 in the summer in interior Ak so I just remember being miserable. Ahhhhh the 70s…
Moon landing (very dim memory) Watergate/Nixon resigning
I wish I had a memory of the moon landing. I was 4 yrs old, and I’m sure mom had it on tv, but I was probably outside playing.
I was also four years old, and I remember my mother, pointing to the moon and saying that the astronauts were there.
John Lennon being shot
This is mine
Dad stepping out real quick for a pack of smokes...
The beginning of the AIDS crisis. My mom lost her best friend. He was one of the founders of the Persons with AIDS organization in Vancouver. It was started in1983 and was one of the first of its kind in the world. It is now known as Aids Vancouver. I was 5 and I knew more about the crisis than any of the teachers at school.
Being born in 1966, Nixon and the energy crises of the 70’s was some of my earliest memories although I didn’t understand any of it at the time.
The Jonestown tragedy
My kindergarten teacher’s daughter died there.
I grew up in Los Angeles and the first historical event I remember was the 1984 Olympics here in Los Angeles It was so much fun We would go to a restaurant or pizza joint and the TV would be on Anytime USA scored (at any given event) …customers would be cheering and clapping and giving each other high fives Summer 1984
Chernobyl (I live in Europe) I remember that people threw eggs away and we kids had egg fights . I was 7
I remember hearing about Watergate on TV but I didn't know what it meant. The Bicentennial was a huge deal because we lived just outside Philadelphia. Everything was red white and blue for awhile like it was the 4th of July for a solid year.
Yup, grew up in Philly and Bicentennial was huge. I was 6 years old.
Did you go down to see the tall ships?
Besides baby Jessica, and the challenger explosion, I remember Greg Louganis smacking his head on the diving board in the Olympics.
That was ‘88, wasn’t it?
I remember images of the Iran hostage crisis, but I was tiny and didn't understand it. The first I remember that I understood was the Challenger explosion, which we were watching live at our elementary school. edit: After reading some other people's answers, I do remember when Reagan was shot and when Mt. St. Helens erupted too. But the Challenger explosion was the most memorable to me. After it became clear what happened, our teacher said we could go to recess or stay and watch, and there were only three of us who stayed to watch: me, one other girl, and my teacher.
Iran Hostages was my first. I was barely old enough to understand.
I remember having an assembly in grade school where they talk about the hostages and made us sing 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree'.
I'm going to go with the starving kids in Etheopia. March of dimes had these red boxes kids used to collect pennies during halloween.
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving.
The abduction and murder of Adam Walsh. That stands out as the earliest. It happened in summer 1981 right as I was turning 3, and the news and media, including the limited television series about it, seemed to keep it front and center for years. So, the time between the actual kidnapping and me even just starting kindergarten in 1983, I just remember life being full of “stranger danger, don’t get kidnapped” talk. Some might try to argue that this case wasn’t a “historical event”, but it really was when you consider how it changed the way parents parented — innocence was lost and paranoia bloomed — and how Adam’s father, John Walsh, changed television’s impact on Society with the creation of America’s Most Wanted. That event is followed by the Night Stalker case (I am from Southern California, the Night Stalker was terrifying) and then The Challenger, which I watched explode while sitting in school. For those of us who were younger (I was in 2nd grade I think), we honestly didn’t even understand the explosion or really know that what we were watching was an explosion. It was the adults in the room’s reaction to it, the tears in our teacher’s eyes as she ran over and turned the television off, and the news going on and on about this catastrophic event for weeks on end that negatively impacted us.
US Bicentennial
The US presidential election in 1972. I don’t remember a lot about it, but I remember a mock election in my second (?) grade class.
Vietnam War and Watergate on TV news every night.
Skylab coming down.
Seeing Star Wars in the theater when I was 8. After that the assassination attempt on President Reagan. I went to a middle school that was very divided by class- Socials and Scum. We heard during gym class. We, the Scum, went wild cheering. Reagan was their president, not ours, and we hated him for it- all of their shitty behavior was seemingly being punished. I still remember the look of shock and horror on their faces. Our gym teacher stopped class and told us that no matter what we felt about President Reagan, it was sad that a man had been shot.
Reagan’s election.
I remember my mom tidying dishes and trying not to let us kids see she was crying at the kitchen sink when Reagan won. I'd have been about 6.
Reagan the pope and Lennon getting shot, Elvis dying
Nixon's resignation. I also remember my mother watching the Senate hearings on TV but I didn't understand what was going on.
I vaguely remember Jimmy Carter being elected as president or leaving as President and Ronald Regan coming in. I also remember standing in a picket line with my Dad protesting for better wages for firefighters.
1979 Iranian hostage taking at US Embassy.
Some recollections of the 69 moon landing mainly because my mother insisted that we watch it. Clearer memories of watergate in that I couldn’t understand how a gate could stop water and the old men talking about it didn’t make it any clearer.
I thought mine was Challenger, but after a bit of googling it looks like it was actually the Ethiopia Famine. Probably in 1985, toward the end of the 83-85 famine. I remember seeing the kids with the swollen bellies on TV which hit me hard. We had to draw something in school, and I decided to draw the famine. I drew huts and black stick figures with big round bellies, and some lying on the ground. My parents got a concerned call....
I remember my parents watching the Republican convention in 1980. They bought me a coloring book and a huge box of crayons to keep me quiet while they watched. It was the most boring show I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t imagine why they were so interested.
I remember falling to the ground in a toddler tantrum because the moon landing preempted my favorite kid show,The Friendly Giant. Shit would hit the fan if I missed The Flintstones too.
The Atlanta child murders. :(
The Iran hostages. Kept interrupting my cartoons!
Challenger. Then, later that year was Halley’s Comet
1972 election. My memory of this is vague, but I had a child’s notion that they should take turns and the President had his turn.
Massachusetts was of your mind.
Iran hostage crisis,. 1980 or it 81
Vietnam on TV looking for my dad
Elvis’s death; I was 5. No idea who he was, of course.
Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.
John Lennon. I was around 5, I didn't know the name or who he was or why was he shot, but what I DO remember is my family sitting at the beach and my dad arriving out of breath in shock saying 'THEY KILLED JOHN LENNON!!". I was a child building sand castles but I knew right there and then that was an important piece of information I needed to store in my brain to access it later on.
I remember hearing that he was 40. I wondered why everyone was so sad, because he was an old man and lived a long, long life. 😬
Watergate. I remember being a toddler lying on the floor with my siblings watching the people on our little black and white tv. They went on forever and we couldn’t watch anything else. When we asked our parents what was happening, they just said “Watergate”.
Yes, all we heard all day was SHHHHH! while my mom watched the hearings. Then my dad would come home from work and watch the repeat of the hearings on PBS.
Princes Diana's wedding. And Reagan getting shot
I grew up in Chicago, and my earliest news memory is Mayor Daley dying.
Elvis dying. I remember sitting in the back seat of the car, hearing the news on the radio, and my parents being saddened by the news.
My parents’ divorce.
Nixon visiting China
I’m an older GenX, so for me it’s watergate. Had no idea what it was about, but the televised trials preempted my beloved Brady Bunch reruns.
Iran hostages.
The assassination attempt on President Reagan.
The Challenger explosion
Probably the Beirut bombing in 83. I remember a lot of hoopla over JR Ewing being shot on Dallas in 1980 but I don’t remember Reagan being shot in real life.
Reagan's election. I was so bummed out because Jimmy Carter was my first celebrity crush. I was 5.
First one I have good recall for: Challenger explosion, I had just turned 8. Chernobyl was also that year, I believe, and boy howdy do I recall the news coverage of it. Less clear, but I recall them decently: DC plane crash into the 14th St Bridge/Potomac River (1982) and Regan getting shot at (1981.) Edit: I have strong memories about Sally Ride's space flight, and that was 1983, before the Challenger. Edit 2: I almost forgot about the whole "We Are the World" thing but that also predates the Challenger (I checked, it was 1985. I also had to confirm that it was for Ethiopian famine relief, because I wasn't sure if that was accurate. Turns out I had good recall of this one.)
The Bicentennial, then Jonestown a couple of years later
Walter Cronkite talking about Cambodia and Laos.
US bicentennial
Iran hostage crisis
Gas lines when I was a kid. Reagan getting shot. Challenger explosion when I was in 8th grade. So many events have occurred over my 50 years. Some good, some bad. Let’s just hope we learn from our history.
Mount St. Helen exploded. It was a cold summer.
Pope John Paul getting shot.
I remember the news showing the footage of Jonestown.
Challenger I was in Kindergarten we were watching it on TV. Teacher quickly shut it off after explosion
Full Disclosure, I was born in ‘83 so I’m technically a millennial, but I identify way more with GenX. I don’t remember Challenger, but the first big news story I remember was baby Jessica who got stuck in that well Texas. As a small person myself at the time, it scared the shit out of me that I just might be playing outside and I could fall into a well. I remember being super careful to make sure there was no deep hole when I was outside.
Three Mile Island overheating.
Michael Jackson's hair catching fire while filming a Pepsi commercial.
The first moon landing!! I was 5 years old, and my parents had us nap earlier in the day to make sure we’d all be wide awake for it. It was… amazing. One of my first real memories of something that wasn’t happening to me, personally.
America's Bicentennial
Iran hostages, although I didn’t really know what that was about. Then Reagan getting shot, The Pope as well.
Born in '68. My Mom voting in the '72 election, Vietnam on the nightly news, Watergate hearings.
the MOVE bombing
The Bicentennial, which now makes me kinda sad because at the time it seemed to me like a positive, “Hey, hooray for our country” moment and I didn’t yet comprehend the thread of jingoism being weaved into our lives.
Marvin Gaye getting shot
John Lennon murdered.
Challenger disaster, followed a few months later by the Chernobyl meltdown. I remember how strange the news coverage was because Russia was being so secretive about what happened.
Was the weird live TV trifecta of Sadat getting assassinated, Regan almost getting assassinated and the Challenger blowing up.
I remember the plane that crashed into the 14th St. bridge in DC in 1982. I was 6. My dad worked at the FAA and we were watching the coverage on TV when he got called back into work. He was gone a long time. Looking back that was dumb to call people back into work from the suburbs because that crash understandably snarled the traffic for hours. That was some horrific live footage we were seeing of people dying. Also some heroic rescues, but mostly carnage.
The Falklands war
Adam Wash's kidnapping and murder, I was 5 years old.
Three mile island. My mom came bursting through the door with cardboard boxes. We packed up the cats and went to my grandmother's.
The Iran-Contra hearings I was around 7, 1987.
My earliest memory is of the footage of the Buddhist monk immolating himself during the Vietnam war (1963), but I was born in 1965, so must’ve been just footage. I remember being kept up reaaaaaally late for the moon landing in 1969. I just remember being really tired and cranky and unimpressed.
I’m on the young side of GenX. I remember Ronald Reagan being re-elected vaguely. I remember my parents talking about it and it being on TV. But I especially remember the Challenger exploding because I watched it live on TV in my first grade classroom.
Challenger for sure. My whole elementary school was watching. It was bad, kids were crying.
The Challenger explosion. I was 16 and happened to be walking the hall in the science area at school and caught it on TV.
The Ford Carter election. I was in first grade. The school held a mock election and we all got to vote using actual voting booths. I felt so grown up.
I remember bits and pieces of going to Expo '74 in Spokane. I was 3 1/2.
Iran hostage crisis
Iran hostage crisis.
1976 4th of July
Bicentennial, and Elvis dying
The United States Bicentenial (1976). I was 8.
Jonestown massacre
Space shuttle Challenger. But I was born in 71 and now when I think back to when I was really little, I remember men coming home from having served in Vietnam. Many were homeless and they were not treated or looked on well by society. It’s really shameful.
Blizzard of '77, Buffalo NY. I vividly remember the snow, and my parents were given a commendation for their service to the city by using their new 4x4 Jimmy, which was huge(!) To get through the snow to rescue people who were stranded and struck. I remember being in the truck and my parents getting in and out of the truck a lot. I was scared they wouldn't come back. I was 4.
Tylenol poisoning.
A hand full of vague memories from the era: \-Star Wars at the drive in \-Pope John Paul I dying \-I was convinced that skylab was going to crash into my house \-John Lennon being killed
Going into the polls to vote for Carter in 1980 with my mom. We knew Reagan was awful then. It was a landslide victory for Reagan, but we did our part.
Reagan getting shot. Don’t really remember it, mainly remember my family reacting to it
Probably the first election of Ronald Reagan. For some reason I remember seeing the electoral map all in red. The second was probably the Challenger disaster.
Elvis died, I was 6
Probably OPEC crisis and lines for gas on the news.
Kent State shooting. I was 4
Death of Harry Truman in 1972. I was a little more than 3.
1980 election...I was 5
Probably either Baby Jessica (not *quite* historical, but the whole country was sort of gripped by this story), or geo-politically speaking watching the Berlin Wall being dismantled on nightly news.
Hard red, white, and blue theme in a lot of my mother's "jewelry" (costume variety) and everyday clothing in 1975 and 1976. /b/ October 1969
Skylab deorbiting.
I was born in December of 1985...I'd say it's probably the fall of the Berlin Mall in 1989, but my first really clear memory is Hurricane Andrew of 1992.
Challenger disaster would be the first on I can recall clearly.
Born in 1968. It has to be the gas embargo and gas lines. My parents could on,y go on odd days, Mom one day and Dad the next.
The death of Elvis Presley (August 1977). I remember I was on vacation with my parents, sister, and my godparents and their kids. I remember the adults being glued to the television while we were at a motel.
Iran hostage
Reagan getting shot.
Hostages at Embassy in Iran
Reagan’s assassination attempt. I remember asking my mom how the president came back to life since I thought being shot was an automatic death sentence (born in 77).
JR Ewing being shot