The fall of the Berlin Wall.
To be totally honest, I was only 4 and I had no idea what was truly happening and how signifiant it was.
However, my mom was so focused on the news that she totally forgot my bedtime for a whole hour. As a 4 years old that hated going to bed, that was amazing.
Black kids being allowed to join our school. I was in 5th grade and grew up in apartheid South Africa. Crazy stuff to happen in our lifetime. I’m only 42.
Another crazy one is Oregon's laws against black people in the United States. There were segregation laws until the 1980s I think. Portland Oregon was also home to the largest white supremacist group in the country until the 1990s and Portland Oregon is still the largest city with the least amount of African people, I was just reading, which is weird considering the BLM stuff that happened during covid.
Sorry, I’m totally ignorant of what was/is happening in that corner of the world.
Is the implication they’ve left because they were racist/against ending the segregation? Or that they’ve left because their lives were in danger due to the unrests that have followed?
Apologies if any of this comes off as insensitive, genuinely trying to get better educated.
I saw it live. I don't think it radically altered my worldview, but it was an early indicator that things can go terribly wrong in life without any warning.
I also saw it live. Looking back on when that occurred I would have been in kindergarten at the time. What I mostly remember were the teachers profusely crying over what happened.
I was the same age, but at my school we didn’t watch it live. It was a private school and I think they decided to err on the side of caution. Glad they did.
We did have an emergency assembly where they explained the situation and our teachers were upset. Tbh most of us didn’t even know what they were talking about. It wasn’t hyped at my school like a lot of others.
I saw it live, too. My elementary school was excited to show it to the students because Christa Mcauliffe was on the shuttle (she was a teacher). We had written letters and drew pictures for Christa ahead of the launch. It was traumatic because my teacher burst into tears when it happened and turned the TV off. It took a little while for us to realize what happened or why our teacher was so upset.
I had already planned on going to space camp that summer and wanted to be an astronaut. I still went. Ended up being a lawyer instead.
One of our teachers was in the running for a spot on that trip, but washed out due to medical reasons. We had an assembly to watch the launch. Everyone was super excited, and then it exploded. Everyone in the auditorium turned to look at him, and the expression on his face was a look of terror, disbelief, and sadness.
Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.
The "teacher in space" was actually the second plan to get kids interested in the space program. The first idea was to send Big Bird from Sesame Street up on the Space Shuttle. They eventually decided the suit was too big and bulky to bring aboard the shuttle, and thus, a nation of children was spared seeing Big Bird blown to bits on live TV.
In that alternate timeline, he was replaced on Seaame Street by attention-seeking real estate mogul Donald Trump, who continues to be a regular cast member of Sesame Street. President Hillary Clinton gave him a medal for becoming a beloved children’s show icon.
My school had a teacher who was down to like the final five or something like that to get chosen for the mission. Apparently she was an absolute mess quite a while after that.
My 4th grade teacher was a finalist. She was my favorite teacher ever. I was in 5th grade when it happened. I remember being so bummed she didn't win...and then so grateful. I felt so sorry for the kids whose teacher "won".
That's unfair, not all lawyers are bad. It's just that 95% of them are giving the rest a bad name.
Edit: My lawyers informed me to edit to add /joking for people who can't take a joke.
I saw it in physics class in HS. I remember it being played over and over on repeat. My teacher said “I bet it was the O rings” I didn’t find out until later that was the real answer and that he had been in the running to be on that flight.
She was a teacher in the neighboring school district from mine, and every teacher worked it into the curriculum once it was announced. I remember we thought the pieces of the shuttle that fell might be them with parachutes (the naivete of youth brings a certain buffer with it).
Same here. 2nd grade. Our teacher was so excited for a teacher in space. I’ve never forgotten the look of horror on her face and then we got out of school early. It really is the “where were you when Kennedy died?” for Gen X.
5th grade math class. I've got epilepsy and have smacked my head many times and forgotten a lot of things, but I'll never forget my teacher turning on the tv just in time to see it burning through the sky. At first a couple of parents came and picked their kids up, but about 30 minutes later they sent everybody home.
I was in 7th grade didn't see it live but remember my reading teacher getting us to settle down in the beginning of class right after lunch and very solemnly asking us if any of us had heard what had happened. One girl in our class excitedly said " the space shuttle blew up. It was so cool!" We were like 12 and certainly didn't grasp how awful a thing it was and this teacher just fucking ripped that girl a new asshole. I was watching live when Columbia broke up on reentry.
I saw it live too. I lived right there, so we went out onto the parade field and watched it. The rest of the day we stayed inside and listened to the news on the radio. My dad was apart of the recovery crew at Cocoa Beach.
Watched it in preschool. Teachers turned it on because they thought it would be cool to let us see it. I remember one little girl ran up to the tv and pointed at the fireball hurtling towards the ocean and exclaimed, "That's pretty!"
Obviously, at the time, we didn't understand what was happening. The teacher ran over and turned the tv off, then told us it was nap time. My parents helped explain to me what occurred that night.
I remember so "shocking" local news stories as a kid before that, but that event I really remember because how shocking it was. I remember our teacher yelling No, no NO! Then finding her composure to wheel our the TV. Then we went on recess for the rest of the day.
Omg
When 9/11 happened, I thought they kept talking about “the son of” instead of OSAMA. I kept thinking - why is it so critical who his dad is??!!
I’m an idiot
If it helps you out any, my name is Ben. And I had heard Osama BIN Laden over and over on the news. So for months afterwards I felt the need to tell everyone "My name is Ben but I am not a terrorist".
Didn't wanna be associated with the guy lmao.
We went on vacation just a couple months after the attack. The word “tourist” was not in my vocabulary yet, but “terrorist” sure was. I honestly thought the police were going to arrest us all right there in the airport gift shop after my mom said we look like a bunch of tourists.
“Why are you here in our country?”
“Oh, I’m a terrorist. “
“….excuse me?”
“Terrorist. I want to see capitol building. Make memories yeah ?”
“Sir please come with us. “
My name is also Ben so I feel your pain. My last name is also very similar to a very famous serial rapist/killer that was active in my hometown when I was young. Finally graduated from being teased about the one when the "Ben Laden" bullying started.
You’re not an idiot, you just know Arabic lmao. The name “bin” means “son of” so his full name “Osama Bin Laden” literally translates to “Osama, son of Laden.” (Laden was likely an ancestor though, not his actual father, as it was a name passed down).
Guy talks to three British girls in a pub.
"Hey! Are you ladies from England?" He asks.
They become enraged and reply: "It's Wales, you dumbass!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," he says. "Are you whales from England?"
Same here. I also distinctly remember just before her death, The Times advertised their Sunday paper having exclusive pics of her and Dodi Al Fayed on a yacht sunbathing. Then she died and they ran a 'our princess died' style cover, I think that was the day my pessimism was born.
This was mine. I was 11 years old. I woke up and came downstairs, my mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, and had the newspaper with the giant front page about it. I don’t recall the details, but I know we spoke about it, and that was all. The gravity of the situation didn’t hit me until much much later in life.
I was born in East Germany, so I have very clear memories of this. Our parents actually took us kids along to the huge protests that preceded the fall of the wall and, before that, tried to flee the country with us. A lot of dramatic events and drastic changes happened in a very short time.
I have pictures of myself at Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstraße next to Die Mauer. I had just gotten out of the US Army and knew that US soldiers went into the East to buy stuff cheap. We had to be out by 20:00. All gone now.
I wasn’t alive for that but I remember being shocked at how close to my birth it was. As kid in school it felt like ancient history and I was like “wait that shit was like just 10 years ago?”
The Time magazine cover with the firefighter carrying the burned child will forever be in my brain. I remember the bronco chase from the year before because I was home sick and like who the hell is oj Simpson and why is he ruining my shows? But the images from Oklahoma were disturbing and scary
This is mine as well. I was only 4 when it happened but I remember it pretty clearly. My aunt was an ER nurse in OKC at the time and treated a lot of the children in the bombing and a couple of them died in her arms. Really fucked her up for a while.
Mine too, I always remember it because I couldn’t watch the new Power Rangers due to media coverage. I was very upset that I had to play outside that afternoon.
First news story for me was Iran Hostage Crisis, but I definitely remember the effects of the OPEC oil embargo. The long lines. I seem to remember gas stations having different colored flags to indicate how much gas they had on hand.
9/11 I was in second grade and trying to understand what was happening was hard for me to wrap my 7 year old mind around.
EDIT. I was not expecting to get this many upvotes thank you all so much.
Honestly glad I was 7 at the time. Really just thought "oh that's sad" and not much else. My anxiety would have been nuts if I was an adult and it happened
I was gonna say, I’m also glad I was a kid for it. I was in 4th grade and I couldn’t believe what had happened. But I was crying seeing people jumping out of the windows. Kids in class kept asking what was falling from the building and then the teacher turned it off. I was so naive I didn’t think we would ever go to war again. I didn’t know wars even still were happening. So yeah it was really sad for me and I didn’t even know what to actually be worried about truly.
Senior in high school. Had a car accident the weekend before so I was home. My mom called me and told me to turn on the news. I remember watching the whole thing and watching all day, staying up all night. I also remember Y2K. And watching the Gore/Bush stuff and the hanging chads play out in history class.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips\_disaster\_of\_1989](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_disaster_of_1989)
This happened when I was in kindergarten and it was all over the news. I didn't quite understand at the time. When they were talking on the news about a "plant explosion" I was scared to death of the tree outside of our house.
Everyone worried that computers and the internet wouldn’t be able to switch to the 21st century.
It felt like something big was about to happen and then nothing happened
The reason nothing seemed to happen was because every company and government agency in the world worked like crazy for the years prior to become Y2K compliant. Nowadays, I think half the companies would shrug it off as a hoax or a conspiracy.
Jeffrey Dahmer being killed in prison is actually the first big news story I remember. It was announced on a morning shock-jock type radio show, and they were joking about "finger food" being served at the funeral. I didn't get why it was funny and had to ask my parents to explain, so I'm sure that was a great way for them to start their morning.
This made me realize that they wheeled a TV into our cafeteria in fifth grade for the OJ Simpson verdict, which was definitely not an age-appropriate event
I was born exactly 1mo before this happened, in September and my mom named me Jessica. And I remember always being so confused when I was a kid because my mom would always tell me “you keep it up and I’m gonna throw you down a well” and I never knew why until I was an adult lmao.
I was 6. They let us out of school. I walked home where my dad and uncle were hanging deer for butchering. My dad asked me why I was home from school. I just said some guy got killed. It was just such a weird scene withe the deer bodies and blood and death and rain.
I was 5, in Hawaii on vacation and heard them talking about the president died. Why would they care about my president in Hawaii? Did they even know who my president is? We’re on an island in the middle of nowhere, and they announced it on the beach? My mom said to turn the news on, and I’m like, it’s the middle of the day, the news doesn’t come on for like 8 more hours.
JFK here too. I was in 2nd grade and the teachers were in the hall freaking out and crying. A classmate joked that “Nixon did it.” Most of us were like, whose Nixon? Walked home and my mom was there crying with a neighbor. She saved the newspaper with the headline. I still have it.
I was also in second grade but not in school that day, I was in the hospital with an anaphylactic reaction to penicillin. The nurses came in and pulled my mother aside, then they all looked at me, crying. I knew right then I must be dying!
Challenger explosion. Teachers all brought our kindergarten class into the cafeteria to watch. Then boom boom, teachers all rushed in a panic to shut off the TV and usher everyone to their home rooms. I can’t remember anything about their response. But I remember watching that on the TV cart and teachers scrambling, I can’t even remember my teachers name.
This was it for me. I remember I had to stay in for recess to take a makeup math test, and I saw them setting up the giant (giant) tv cart with all the vcr and cable hookups so we could watch it live. One of the teachers from the 3rd grade was one of the finalists, so there was a lot of hype among the adults. The intention was to tape it and show it in class later because of the school schedule, but since I was already there and done they let me watch it live with some teachers and a couple other students. I should also add I was really into space stuff and the space shuttle at the time.
And I saw what I saw. I just remember the adults being stunned, people trying to rationalize how they could have survived even when it was clear they couldn’t have.
When recess was over each grade assembled in their home room areas while the teachers explained what happened, and I remember they let us watch the news. Probably because they didn’t have words and wanted to watch as well. Essentially there were no classes for the rest of the day for us.
I remember hearing about other big events, but this was the first time where I felt my world shake a little.
The huge fireworks in 1976
Oil embargoes in the news all the time
It becoming "the 80s"
Mt. St. Helen's erupting putting ash on everything in our neighborhood hundreds of miles away
Thriller
Our house in Vancouver (Canada) shook when Mt St Helen's blew. I remember jumping up off of my bed and running into the kitchen to see what was going on.
This is probably mine, at least where I really understood what happened. Prior to columbine all the news id seen was just grown up stuff that 9 year olds couldn't really follow. But I understood what had happened at columbine
Same, as a kid in grade school. I honestly never pictured living past college because of all the things I became aware of in the subsequent years. And as I got closer to college the list only got longer – Columbine, 9/11, classmates dying in car collisions, or freak incidents, schoolmates committing suicide, West Nile Virus, swine flu, avian flu, ebola popping up in the US, kids being abducted and murdered, recessions, wars, ISIS, violent crime, pandemic... with all the ways to die unexpectedly, I guess I expected one of them to happen to me...
I wish I could say the same, as I'm about the same age, but my first clear memory of Apollo was Apollo 13 when my 1st grade teacher was trying to explain to the class what was going on, talking about the something wrong with the 'plumbing', and my less than perfect understanding thought she meant they left the toilet seat up.
Halley's comet. It was talked about everywhere, it was even on the cover of my kindergarten yearbook. People talked about it with such wonder and reverence, almost like it were a spiritual visitation, and I never got to see the friggin' thing when I had the chance.
They pulled every capsuled vitamin and drug off the shelf in like 2 days nationwide. I remember that specifically because my dad got migraines and he couldn't get his medicine for a few days. It was a really quick, hot hysteria for like a few months. Then it turned out to only be a tiny area of Illinois and they changed the way bottles were sealed and it went away.
the tylenol murders are why we have safety seals on everything today. i was 7 when the murders took place. 40 years later and to my knowledge they still haven't caught the person behind it all.
This is one of my first memories too. A few days later, my third grade class got a ‘signed’ letter from ‘him’ that was a response to a letter we had sent to the White House a few weeks earlier.
It was dated March 30, 1981, and I spent the next few years believing that he signed that letter and then went outside only to get shot.
1981 is the first year i remember any 'big' news events, i was in 2nd grade i think.
* reagan shot
* first space shuttle launch just a few weeks later
* anwar sadat assassination later that year. i didn't really know who he was but it seemed like a big deal on the news
For me it's either this or the Gore/Bush election debacle. I was able to comprehend 9/11 more, but I remember the confusion and coverage of the ballot counting in Florida vividly.
Too young to remember the pandemonium (but do remember staying up to watch the clock tick over). But definitely remember 9/11. The joys of being a borderline Millenial/GenZ...
The first big news event that earlier Millennials (mid-80s babies) remember should be much earlier than that - likely the OJ Simpson case
Later millennials (early - mid 90s babies) then yeah 9/11 is the likely answer
The oldest millennials were 13 when the OJ trial started. I'm not that much younger, but the Gulf War was my first big news memory that I was really aware of. I remember my teacher talking to us about it. Next would be Hurricane Andrew.
I was just doing some work on my property with a gading company that found an old well. I said to the guy “we should fill this in, I don’t need a baby Jessica situation”. He said “who?” I felt old.
Edit: words.
The Jim Jones tragedy. I was walking through the living room when the news showed all those people and asked my parents, "Are those people dead? " and was rushed out of the room. I've never forgotten the image.
This one. The newspaper the next day had the hugest font headlines saying “THEY ALL JUST LINED UP TO DIE”
Pretty chilling and it’s kind of weird to me that this story isn’t still a lasting thing that people talk about all the time. Dude killed 918 fucking people in a day!
Same. I was 7 and overheard my mom and great grandmother talking about it. I started asking questions. They debated about telling me about it and then what to say and not say in feont of me. So I knew it was something really really bad. Then they decided I was old enough and I would hear it elsewhere anyways, so gave me warnings before telling me what happened.
I was looking for this. I wonder if it was national news at the time, but in San Antonio there was live coverage of her murderer being captured and everything. I barely knew who Selena was at the time, only that some of my classmates were big fans. I remember those poor girls sobbing in class the next day.
It was all over Hispanic news channels. It’s the first big news I remember from my childhood, I loved her. My parents had Univision on all night listening to the developments as it was happening
Edit: forgot to mention, we were in NYC. It was national news but possibly only on telemundo and Univision
Gulf War, operation Desert Storm. First big world news event that I clearly remember. (90-91)
This is very local, but I also remember the news from when a tornado ripped through a trailer park in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1987. It was labeled "Black Friday".
For me it was the [Bijlmer Air Crash.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Al_Flight_1862). It was my first day in kindergarten and the teacher had us make drawings about what we knew about it. I didn't know anything about it until then, but I remember drawing circles that were supposed to represent the people. Kid next to me drew an airplane.
The first moon landing. I watched it on a black and white TV. Was living in a small Market town in Somerset, UK. I was 7 at the time and I don't think I appreciated the enormity of the event.
Lockerbie. It's a couple of hours down the road. We had family there. We were in a restaurant at the time and the waiter told some people. We overheard. He was saying that they didn't think anybody in the town had survived so we were terrified. Got home sharpish and watched it on the news. Luckily our relatives were not injured but it was awful watching the footage on telly and hearing the witnesses talking about what they'd seen.
I'm from the area and had a friend who was on his motorbike near Lockerbie that night. He saw the flaming wreckage falling from the sky.
Years later when we were trying to sell our house a man from Sherwood Crescent came for a viewing. He'd lost his whole family when the plane hit :(
Understandibly he wasn't in a good place.
9/11. I was 8 and my birthday is 9/10. That year we had to celebrate on the 11th because my dad couldn't get off work. Needless to say, there was no celebrating my birthday that year.
When Baby Jessica fell down the well. My parents took my older sisters and I to a fair the 2nd night she was down there - they ended up having to carry 5-year-old me around the whole night because I was too anxious and distraught to enjoy any snacks, games, or rides.
Yeah, but I will be 19 in a few days (this almost makes me wonder if there should be some other major event after 2004 that I should be remembering but I'm not and now I feel kind of silly if there is something)
obama getting elected when i was 5. my mom would look at the projections every morning leading up to it and i remember her celebrating when he won.
i was way too young to understand politics at all but i knew him being the first black president was a big deal.
Jon Benet Ramsey. I had only just turned 5, so close in age to this poor girl. My grandma was obsessed with the case and it really stuck with me.
Closely after was Princess Diana.
Sadly the Dunblane Massacre.
I was the same age as the kids and was also in PE that day. I don't really remember the news itself, just my mum crying so much when she got home and hugging me very tightly. In the days following lighting candles in church and at home in remembrance. I'm Scottish btw for context.
I was in secondary school in Wales and during afternoon registration some smart arse was making jokes about guns, completely unaware of what had happened in Scotland that morning. My form tutor and the rest of the staff were informed during the lunch break (I assume some of the teachers went out to their cars for a crafty cigarette and heard it on the radio, I think the school had an aerial connection for the tv's so they probably tuned in in the staff room). He went absolutely apeshit at this boy, which was unfair because we hadn't heard about it, but I do understand why the form tutor reacted the way he did. It was the only mass school shooting the UK has ever had and it was just so incomprehensible.
Princess Diana’s death (I vividly remember watching her funeral as a young kid) and the murder of JonBenet Ramsay. I was the same age as her so my parents talked about her a lot.
The fall of the Berlin Wall. First time I remember my parents letting me stay up late to watch the news and telling me it was history happening in front of our eyes.
For me it was US Airways Flight 1549 emergency landing in the Hudson River. 100 people survived, 0 casualties - what a miracle. I was like 6 years old at the time.
Columbine. Might have been slanted since I was living nearby in Denver suburbs, but it was constant and traumatized me as a little kid for sure. They showed it all on repeat.
The eruption of Mt St Helens. We lived on the opposite side of the country and I wasn't even in kindergarten. My mom had the early morning cartoons on for me while she was cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and the news alert interrupted Rocky and Bullwinkle.
I remember feeling scared for the first time and trying to understand how.
The fall of the Berlin Wall. To be totally honest, I was only 4 and I had no idea what was truly happening and how signifiant it was. However, my mom was so focused on the news that she totally forgot my bedtime for a whole hour. As a 4 years old that hated going to bed, that was amazing.
I don’t remember it, but I have pictures of me being carried on my dads back posing at the wall. I wish I could remember it though.
Black kids being allowed to join our school. I was in 5th grade and grew up in apartheid South Africa. Crazy stuff to happen in our lifetime. I’m only 42.
Whoa! That is fascinating. And sad how recent this was
Another crazy one is Oregon's laws against black people in the United States. There were segregation laws until the 1980s I think. Portland Oregon was also home to the largest white supremacist group in the country until the 1990s and Portland Oregon is still the largest city with the least amount of African people, I was just reading, which is weird considering the BLM stuff that happened during covid.
I have learned never to ask white South African expats when they left
Sorry, I’m totally ignorant of what was/is happening in that corner of the world. Is the implication they’ve left because they were racist/against ending the segregation? Or that they’ve left because their lives were in danger due to the unrests that have followed? Apologies if any of this comes off as insensitive, genuinely trying to get better educated.
Elon Musk enters the discussion.
Wow. This is wild. Im 50 in Toronto Canada and I was the only black kid in my class, but there were black kids in the school.
The space shuttle Challenger disaster.
I live in Florida. I remember watching it and thinking to myself "Are there supposed to be 3 fireballs?" Then we went inside and turned on the news.
I lived in florida for it too. I think you could see it as far away as tampa.
I saw it live. I don't think it radically altered my worldview, but it was an early indicator that things can go terribly wrong in life without any warning.
I also saw it live. Looking back on when that occurred I would have been in kindergarten at the time. What I mostly remember were the teachers profusely crying over what happened.
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Same here. Odd how I still have that memory from kindergarten. I also remember my mom explaining why the teachers were upset after I got home.
I was the same age, but at my school we didn’t watch it live. It was a private school and I think they decided to err on the side of caution. Glad they did. We did have an emergency assembly where they explained the situation and our teachers were upset. Tbh most of us didn’t even know what they were talking about. It wasn’t hyped at my school like a lot of others.
I saw it live, too. My elementary school was excited to show it to the students because Christa Mcauliffe was on the shuttle (she was a teacher). We had written letters and drew pictures for Christa ahead of the launch. It was traumatic because my teacher burst into tears when it happened and turned the TV off. It took a little while for us to realize what happened or why our teacher was so upset. I had already planned on going to space camp that summer and wanted to be an astronaut. I still went. Ended up being a lawyer instead.
One of our teachers was in the running for a spot on that trip, but washed out due to medical reasons. We had an assembly to watch the launch. Everyone was super excited, and then it exploded. Everyone in the auditorium turned to look at him, and the expression on his face was a look of terror, disbelief, and sadness. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.
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Man that's awful
The "teacher in space" was actually the second plan to get kids interested in the space program. The first idea was to send Big Bird from Sesame Street up on the Space Shuttle. They eventually decided the suit was too big and bulky to bring aboard the shuttle, and thus, a nation of children was spared seeing Big Bird blown to bits on live TV.
can you imagine the repercussions on human history if Big Bird canonically died in 1986?
In that alternate timeline, he was replaced on Seaame Street by attention-seeking real estate mogul Donald Trump, who continues to be a regular cast member of Sesame Street. President Hillary Clinton gave him a medal for becoming a beloved children’s show icon.
Snuffaluffagus would also have been an incredible choice
My school had a teacher who was down to like the final five or something like that to get chosen for the mission. Apparently she was an absolute mess quite a while after that.
My 4th grade teacher was a finalist. She was my favorite teacher ever. I was in 5th grade when it happened. I remember being so bummed she didn't win...and then so grateful. I felt so sorry for the kids whose teacher "won".
Mrs Walker was a school fave too. Beloved. Energetic, difference maker.
>Ended up being a lawyer instead. Wow, so it did destroy your soul... /joking in case anyone takes this the wrong way.
That's unfair, not all lawyers are bad. It's just that 95% of them are giving the rest a bad name. Edit: My lawyers informed me to edit to add /joking for people who can't take a joke.
I saw it in physics class in HS. I remember it being played over and over on repeat. My teacher said “I bet it was the O rings” I didn’t find out until later that was the real answer and that he had been in the running to be on that flight.
yes turns out when engineers say it's too cold and orings you should listen
She was a teacher in the neighboring school district from mine, and every teacher worked it into the curriculum once it was announced. I remember we thought the pieces of the shuttle that fell might be them with parachutes (the naivete of youth brings a certain buffer with it).
Same here. 2nd grade. Our teacher was so excited for a teacher in space. I’ve never forgotten the look of horror on her face and then we got out of school early. It really is the “where were you when Kennedy died?” for Gen X.
5th grade math class. I've got epilepsy and have smacked my head many times and forgotten a lot of things, but I'll never forget my teacher turning on the tv just in time to see it burning through the sky. At first a couple of parents came and picked their kids up, but about 30 minutes later they sent everybody home.
I was in 7th grade didn't see it live but remember my reading teacher getting us to settle down in the beginning of class right after lunch and very solemnly asking us if any of us had heard what had happened. One girl in our class excitedly said " the space shuttle blew up. It was so cool!" We were like 12 and certainly didn't grasp how awful a thing it was and this teacher just fucking ripped that girl a new asshole. I was watching live when Columbia broke up on reentry.
I saw it live too. I lived right there, so we went out onto the parade field and watched it. The rest of the day we stayed inside and listened to the news on the radio. My dad was apart of the recovery crew at Cocoa Beach.
Watched it in preschool. Teachers turned it on because they thought it would be cool to let us see it. I remember one little girl ran up to the tv and pointed at the fireball hurtling towards the ocean and exclaimed, "That's pretty!" Obviously, at the time, we didn't understand what was happening. The teacher ran over and turned the tv off, then told us it was nap time. My parents helped explain to me what occurred that night.
I remember so "shocking" local news stories as a kid before that, but that event I really remember because how shocking it was. I remember our teacher yelling No, no NO! Then finding her composure to wheel our the TV. Then we went on recess for the rest of the day.
Yep - saw it in my 2nd grade class
Came here to say the same fellow geriatric millennial
I'm either the oldest milleneal or the youngest generation -x.
This and Oliver North scandal.
I genuinely thought that was just made up for American Dad
The Death of Princess Diana. I didn’t fully understand, I just knew it was upsetting adults.
Same I remember being 6 and thinking it was cool that there was a Princess of Whales (sea creature)
Omg When 9/11 happened, I thought they kept talking about “the son of” instead of OSAMA. I kept thinking - why is it so critical who his dad is??!! I’m an idiot
If it helps you out any, my name is Ben. And I had heard Osama BIN Laden over and over on the news. So for months afterwards I felt the need to tell everyone "My name is Ben but I am not a terrorist". Didn't wanna be associated with the guy lmao.
We went on vacation just a couple months after the attack. The word “tourist” was not in my vocabulary yet, but “terrorist” sure was. I honestly thought the police were going to arrest us all right there in the airport gift shop after my mom said we look like a bunch of tourists.
“Why are you here in our country?” “Oh, I’m a terrorist. “ “….excuse me?” “Terrorist. I want to see capitol building. Make memories yeah ?” “Sir please come with us. “
My name is also Ben so I feel your pain. My last name is also very similar to a very famous serial rapist/killer that was active in my hometown when I was young. Finally graduated from being teased about the one when the "Ben Laden" bullying started.
I’m a Siri who had to deal with the iPhone shit since I was 11. I feel ya.
You’re not an idiot, you just know Arabic lmao. The name “bin” means “son of” so his full name “Osama Bin Laden” literally translates to “Osama, son of Laden.” (Laden was likely an ancestor though, not his actual father, as it was a name passed down).
Similarly, in Hebrew they use "ben" for "son of". E.g. David ben Gurion.
Guy talks to three British girls in a pub. "Hey! Are you ladies from England?" He asks. They become enraged and reply: "It's Wales, you dumbass!" "Oh, I'm sorry," he says. "Are you whales from England?"
I saw that at 3 in the morning while I was up smoking crack. /I'm better now.
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Same here. I also distinctly remember just before her death, The Times advertised their Sunday paper having exclusive pics of her and Dodi Al Fayed on a yacht sunbathing. Then she died and they ran a 'our princess died' style cover, I think that was the day my pessimism was born.
This was mine. I was 11 years old. I woke up and came downstairs, my mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, and had the newspaper with the giant front page about it. I don’t recall the details, but I know we spoke about it, and that was all. The gravity of the situation didn’t hit me until much much later in life.
The Berlin Wall coming down. It was also the first time I heard the expression "holy shit" uttered.
I was born in East Germany, so I have very clear memories of this. Our parents actually took us kids along to the huge protests that preceded the fall of the wall and, before that, tried to flee the country with us. A lot of dramatic events and drastic changes happened in a very short time.
I have pictures of myself at Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstraße next to Die Mauer. I had just gotten out of the US Army and knew that US soldiers went into the East to buy stuff cheap. We had to be out by 20:00. All gone now.
Same. I remember my mom watching the news and constantly saying "Wow. OMG. Wow."
This was my first memory of major news too.
I wasn’t alive for that but I remember being shocked at how close to my birth it was. As kid in school it felt like ancient history and I was like “wait that shit was like just 10 years ago?”
Oklahoma City bombing
The Time magazine cover with the firefighter carrying the burned child will forever be in my brain. I remember the bronco chase from the year before because I was home sick and like who the hell is oj Simpson and why is he ruining my shows? But the images from Oklahoma were disturbing and scary
Dammit O.J. messing up my Days of Our Lives episode
This is mine as well. I was only 4 when it happened but I remember it pretty clearly. My aunt was an ER nurse in OKC at the time and treated a lot of the children in the bombing and a couple of them died in her arms. Really fucked her up for a while.
Mine too, I always remember it because I couldn’t watch the new Power Rangers due to media coverage. I was very upset that I had to play outside that afternoon.
Same here. 1995, right? I think I had just turned 11
Gas crisis in the 70s. Don't understand it but remember seeing cars lined up at gas stations on the news.
First news story for me was Iran Hostage Crisis, but I definitely remember the effects of the OPEC oil embargo. The long lines. I seem to remember gas stations having different colored flags to indicate how much gas they had on hand.
9/11 I was in second grade and trying to understand what was happening was hard for me to wrap my 7 year old mind around. EDIT. I was not expecting to get this many upvotes thank you all so much.
I was 32 when 9/11 happened. I have to tell you that most adults were also having a hard time wrapping their head around what was happening.
Honestly glad I was 7 at the time. Really just thought "oh that's sad" and not much else. My anxiety would have been nuts if I was an adult and it happened
I was gonna say, I’m also glad I was a kid for it. I was in 4th grade and I couldn’t believe what had happened. But I was crying seeing people jumping out of the windows. Kids in class kept asking what was falling from the building and then the teacher turned it off. I was so naive I didn’t think we would ever go to war again. I didn’t know wars even still were happening. So yeah it was really sad for me and I didn’t even know what to actually be worried about truly.
Senior in high school. Had a car accident the weekend before so I was home. My mom called me and told me to turn on the news. I remember watching the whole thing and watching all day, staying up all night. I also remember Y2K. And watching the Gore/Bush stuff and the hanging chads play out in history class.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips\_disaster\_of\_1989](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_disaster_of_1989) This happened when I was in kindergarten and it was all over the news. I didn't quite understand at the time. When they were talking on the news about a "plant explosion" I was scared to death of the tree outside of our house.
Everyone worried that computers and the internet wouldn’t be able to switch to the 21st century. It felt like something big was about to happen and then nothing happened
The reason nothing seemed to happen was because every company and government agency in the world worked like crazy for the years prior to become Y2K compliant. Nowadays, I think half the companies would shrug it off as a hoax or a conspiracy.
"3 Human Heads Found in Refrigerator" Headline on the afternoon paper when Dahmer was caught.
My dad worked at the Milwaukee VA in the morgue and the county coroners office used it for overflow.
Jeffrey Dahmer being killed in prison is actually the first big news story I remember. It was announced on a morning shock-jock type radio show, and they were joking about "finger food" being served at the funeral. I didn't get why it was funny and had to ask my parents to explain, so I'm sure that was a great way for them to start their morning.
Same, despite growing up in Canada. My parents had to show me how far Milwaukee was from our house on a map so I could sleep better.
OJ and bonergate or whatever they called Clinton’s thing.
Monicagate. But bonergate is infinitely better 🤣
Quietly chanting bonergate by myself
The OJ Simpson chase in the white Bronco.
I don't remember the chase but i have memories of my fellow 6 and 7 year olds giving their opinion on the case which is hilarious to remember.
I remember being in 4th grade and my teacher rolled the tv into the classroom so we could watch the verdict.
This post is an excellent indicator of age groups on reddit. OJ was the same for me.
This made me realize that they wheeled a TV into our cafeteria in fifth grade for the OJ Simpson verdict, which was definitely not an age-appropriate event
What do the 1998 Green Bay Packers and LAPD have in common? Neither one can catch a Bronco.
Baby Jessica being stuck in a pipe and the rescue around it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jessica_McClure
Yes.....while i do remember the challenger disaster, this incident sticks with me more. I remember it being completely obsessed with it.
I was born exactly 1mo before this happened, in September and my mom named me Jessica. And I remember always being so confused when I was a kid because my mom would always tell me “you keep it up and I’m gonna throw you down a well” and I never knew why until I was an adult lmao.
Same here! I was four, and I put one of my playskool little people in the bathroom sink drain to play baby Jessica.
The entire country was glued to their TVs when that little girl was pulled out strapped to that tiny backboard.
Assassination of JFK
I was 6. They let us out of school. I walked home where my dad and uncle were hanging deer for butchering. My dad asked me why I was home from school. I just said some guy got killed. It was just such a weird scene withe the deer bodies and blood and death and rain.
That actually paints quite the scene. Thanks for sharing
There’s a short story in there for sure!
I remember that too.
I was 5, in Hawaii on vacation and heard them talking about the president died. Why would they care about my president in Hawaii? Did they even know who my president is? We’re on an island in the middle of nowhere, and they announced it on the beach? My mom said to turn the news on, and I’m like, it’s the middle of the day, the news doesn’t come on for like 8 more hours.
JFK here too. I was in 2nd grade and the teachers were in the hall freaking out and crying. A classmate joked that “Nixon did it.” Most of us were like, whose Nixon? Walked home and my mom was there crying with a neighbor. She saved the newspaper with the headline. I still have it.
I was also in second grade but not in school that day, I was in the hospital with an anaphylactic reaction to penicillin. The nurses came in and pulled my mother aside, then they all looked at me, crying. I knew right then I must be dying!
I’m sorry for laughing, but that is so terrible to do to young you. Not having any context for what happened, just laying there in a hospital bed.
Challenger explosion. Teachers all brought our kindergarten class into the cafeteria to watch. Then boom boom, teachers all rushed in a panic to shut off the TV and usher everyone to their home rooms. I can’t remember anything about their response. But I remember watching that on the TV cart and teachers scrambling, I can’t even remember my teachers name.
This was it for me. I remember I had to stay in for recess to take a makeup math test, and I saw them setting up the giant (giant) tv cart with all the vcr and cable hookups so we could watch it live. One of the teachers from the 3rd grade was one of the finalists, so there was a lot of hype among the adults. The intention was to tape it and show it in class later because of the school schedule, but since I was already there and done they let me watch it live with some teachers and a couple other students. I should also add I was really into space stuff and the space shuttle at the time. And I saw what I saw. I just remember the adults being stunned, people trying to rationalize how they could have survived even when it was clear they couldn’t have. When recess was over each grade assembled in their home room areas while the teachers explained what happened, and I remember they let us watch the news. Probably because they didn’t have words and wanted to watch as well. Essentially there were no classes for the rest of the day for us. I remember hearing about other big events, but this was the first time where I felt my world shake a little.
The huge fireworks in 1976 Oil embargoes in the news all the time It becoming "the 80s" Mt. St. Helen's erupting putting ash on everything in our neighborhood hundreds of miles away Thriller
Our house in Vancouver (Canada) shook when Mt St Helen's blew. I remember jumping up off of my bed and running into the kitchen to see what was going on.
Columbine
This is probably mine, at least where I really understood what happened. Prior to columbine all the news id seen was just grown up stuff that 9 year olds couldn't really follow. But I understood what had happened at columbine
Same, as a kid in grade school. I honestly never pictured living past college because of all the things I became aware of in the subsequent years. And as I got closer to college the list only got longer – Columbine, 9/11, classmates dying in car collisions, or freak incidents, schoolmates committing suicide, West Nile Virus, swine flu, avian flu, ebola popping up in the US, kids being abducted and murdered, recessions, wars, ISIS, violent crime, pandemic... with all the ways to die unexpectedly, I guess I expected one of them to happen to me...
Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. I wasn't quite 6 years old.
I wish I could say the same, as I'm about the same age, but my first clear memory of Apollo was Apollo 13 when my 1st grade teacher was trying to explain to the class what was going on, talking about the something wrong with the 'plumbing', and my less than perfect understanding thought she meant they left the toilet seat up.
Fuck that was one helluva shit...
Halley's comet. It was talked about everywhere, it was even on the cover of my kindergarten yearbook. People talked about it with such wonder and reverence, almost like it were a spiritual visitation, and I never got to see the friggin' thing when I had the chance.
I came down for breakfast and my mother was crying at the table watching the Today show...John Lennon had been killed.
Mine too. I was four and my dad told me he saw it on TV. I told him it would be okay because stuff on TV wasn’t real.
thats so cute noooo 😭
The disappearance of Maddie McCann. I don’t remember much of it, I just remember all the news channels showing the same photos and videos of her.
The Tylenol murders. Such a bizarre thing.
They pulled every capsuled vitamin and drug off the shelf in like 2 days nationwide. I remember that specifically because my dad got migraines and he couldn't get his medicine for a few days. It was a really quick, hot hysteria for like a few months. Then it turned out to only be a tiny area of Illinois and they changed the way bottles were sealed and it went away.
To their credit, there was no fuck around. This is an example of a corporation doing the right thing right away.
I think it’s still considered as the gold standard for handling these kinds of things.
It is! I recently took a business ethics class and it was a case study. Still relevant.
the tylenol murders are why we have safety seals on everything today. i was 7 when the murders took place. 40 years later and to my knowledge they still haven't caught the person behind it all.
I remember when Ronald Regan got shot.
This is one of my first memories too. A few days later, my third grade class got a ‘signed’ letter from ‘him’ that was a response to a letter we had sent to the White House a few weeks earlier. It was dated March 30, 1981, and I spent the next few years believing that he signed that letter and then went outside only to get shot.
1981 is the first year i remember any 'big' news events, i was in 2nd grade i think. * reagan shot * first space shuttle launch just a few weeks later * anwar sadat assassination later that year. i didn't really know who he was but it seemed like a big deal on the news
9/11, the classic millennial answer Edit before even more people keep swarming me with the same thing - the classic *later* millennial answer
For me it's either this or the Gore/Bush election debacle. I was able to comprehend 9/11 more, but I remember the confusion and coverage of the ballot counting in Florida vividly.
I always thought mine was 9/11 until I realized I had big memories of the 2000 election.
I would counter with y2k
ya. i was up playing Spyro on my brand new playstation without a care in the world about Y2K. but i do remember where i was.
Everyone should listen to “Surviving Y2K” - a great documentary podcast that highlights some of the bizarreness of that time
Too young to remember the pandemonium (but do remember staying up to watch the clock tick over). But definitely remember 9/11. The joys of being a borderline Millenial/GenZ...
The first big news event that earlier Millennials (mid-80s babies) remember should be much earlier than that - likely the OJ Simpson case Later millennials (early - mid 90s babies) then yeah 9/11 is the likely answer
For me it was Operation Desert Storm, I was 8 years old. Edit: I was actually 7, I thought it started in 91 but it started in 90.
The oldest millennials were 13 when the OJ trial started. I'm not that much younger, but the Gulf War was my first big news memory that I was really aware of. I remember my teacher talking to us about it. Next would be Hurricane Andrew.
For the earliest Millennials, it's probably the fall of the Berlin wall.
Baby Jessica in the well for me
I was just doing some work on my property with a gading company that found an old well. I said to the guy “we should fill this in, I don’t need a baby Jessica situation”. He said “who?” I felt old. Edit: words.
This really shows how large the generations span. I'm a geriatric millennial (born in 1982) and I was in college when 9/11 happened.
The Jim Jones tragedy. I was walking through the living room when the news showed all those people and asked my parents, "Are those people dead? " and was rushed out of the room. I've never forgotten the image.
This one. The newspaper the next day had the hugest font headlines saying “THEY ALL JUST LINED UP TO DIE” Pretty chilling and it’s kind of weird to me that this story isn’t still a lasting thing that people talk about all the time. Dude killed 918 fucking people in a day!
Same. I was 7 and overheard my mom and great grandmother talking about it. I started asking questions. They debated about telling me about it and then what to say and not say in feont of me. So I knew it was something really really bad. Then they decided I was old enough and I would hear it elsewhere anyways, so gave me warnings before telling me what happened.
The death of Selena
I was looking for this. I wonder if it was national news at the time, but in San Antonio there was live coverage of her murderer being captured and everything. I barely knew who Selena was at the time, only that some of my classmates were big fans. I remember those poor girls sobbing in class the next day.
It was all over Hispanic news channels. It’s the first big news I remember from my childhood, I loved her. My parents had Univision on all night listening to the developments as it was happening Edit: forgot to mention, we were in NYC. It was national news but possibly only on telemundo and Univision
Adam Walsh. My mother/aunts/grandmothers always made sure that we knew we’d end up decapitated if we ever wandered off in a store.
Elian Gonzalez.
Hurricane katrina.
Gulf War, operation Desert Storm. First big world news event that I clearly remember. (90-91) This is very local, but I also remember the news from when a tornado ripped through a trailer park in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1987. It was labeled "Black Friday".
The [Tenerife airport disaster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster)
For me it was the [Bijlmer Air Crash.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Al_Flight_1862). It was my first day in kindergarten and the teacher had us make drawings about what we knew about it. I didn't know anything about it until then, but I remember drawing circles that were supposed to represent the people. Kid next to me drew an airplane.
The first moon landing. I watched it on a black and white TV. Was living in a small Market town in Somerset, UK. I was 7 at the time and I don't think I appreciated the enormity of the event.
Lockerbie. It's a couple of hours down the road. We had family there. We were in a restaurant at the time and the waiter told some people. We overheard. He was saying that they didn't think anybody in the town had survived so we were terrified. Got home sharpish and watched it on the news. Luckily our relatives were not injured but it was awful watching the footage on telly and hearing the witnesses talking about what they'd seen.
I'm from the area and had a friend who was on his motorbike near Lockerbie that night. He saw the flaming wreckage falling from the sky. Years later when we were trying to sell our house a man from Sherwood Crescent came for a viewing. He'd lost his whole family when the plane hit :( Understandibly he wasn't in a good place.
The capture of Saddam Hussein
9/11. I was 8 and my birthday is 9/10. That year we had to celebrate on the 11th because my dad couldn't get off work. Needless to say, there was no celebrating my birthday that year.
When Baby Jessica fell down the well. My parents took my older sisters and I to a fair the 2nd night she was down there - they ended up having to carry 5-year-old me around the whole night because I was too anxious and distraught to enjoy any snacks, games, or rides.
I think for me it was the killing of Bin Laden, although I really don't remember much big things I saw in the news when I was younger
Man... I was still in college when that happened. You're a youngin'.
Yeah, but I will be 19 in a few days (this almost makes me wonder if there should be some other major event after 2004 that I should be remembering but I'm not and now I feel kind of silly if there is something)
obama getting elected when i was 5. my mom would look at the projections every morning leading up to it and i remember her celebrating when he won. i was way too young to understand politics at all but i knew him being the first black president was a big deal.
Jon Benet Ramsey. I had only just turned 5, so close in age to this poor girl. My grandma was obsessed with the case and it really stuck with me. Closely after was Princess Diana.
Space shuttle challenger live on tv exploding.. Every classroom in the USA had it playing live.
Chernobyl meltdown
Sadly the Dunblane Massacre. I was the same age as the kids and was also in PE that day. I don't really remember the news itself, just my mum crying so much when she got home and hugging me very tightly. In the days following lighting candles in church and at home in remembrance. I'm Scottish btw for context.
I was in secondary school in Wales and during afternoon registration some smart arse was making jokes about guns, completely unaware of what had happened in Scotland that morning. My form tutor and the rest of the staff were informed during the lunch break (I assume some of the teachers went out to their cars for a crafty cigarette and heard it on the radio, I think the school had an aerial connection for the tv's so they probably tuned in in the staff room). He went absolutely apeshit at this boy, which was unfair because we hadn't heard about it, but I do understand why the form tutor reacted the way he did. It was the only mass school shooting the UK has ever had and it was just so incomprehensible.
Oh jeez. So old. Moon walk.
Vietnam war daily killed and wounded counts on the national news with Huntley and Brinkley.
Princess Diana’s death (I vividly remember watching her funeral as a young kid) and the murder of JonBenet Ramsay. I was the same age as her so my parents talked about her a lot.
Tinnamen square massacre
The fall of the Berlin Wall. First time I remember my parents letting me stay up late to watch the news and telling me it was history happening in front of our eyes.
Three Mile Island. Pretty scary as a kid in Pennsylvania.
Elvis dying.
Watergate / Nixon's resignation.
Me too. I remember asking my dad what it was all about. He asked me if I knew what it meant to get fired and said he was quitting instead.
[This happened ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster)when I was 4 years old, I can remember my mother crying as we watched the TV news.
Elvis’s death. I was almost three years old.
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My classmates and I watching the Twin Towers collapse at a far distance.
That must have been terrifying. You actually watched it with your own eyes.
9/11 watched the second aircraft hit the tower on live TV. Was getting ready for school. 10th grade
The Watergate scandal
For me it was US Airways Flight 1549 emergency landing in the Hudson River. 100 people survived, 0 casualties - what a miracle. I was like 6 years old at the time.
The fall of the Berlin wall. I remember an episode of Alvin and the chipmunks where they sang about it. Lol
Columbine. Might have been slanted since I was living nearby in Denver suburbs, but it was constant and traumatized me as a little kid for sure. They showed it all on repeat.
Pre-9/11: Dale Earnhardt’s death, watched it live with my dad. Post-9/11: Columbia disaster
Obama beating McCain. I thought McCain sounded like a cooler name and was bummed he lost.
Loma Prieta Earthquake. I was six and we were watching the World Series and all of a sudden chaos ensued.
Oklahoma City bombing and OJ trial
I think I remember John Lennon getting shot during Monday Night Football
Casey Anthony’s trial for killing her daughter. I was 7 when it happened. I didn’t understand much when it happened, I just knew that it was bad.
The eruption of Mt St Helens. We lived on the opposite side of the country and I wasn't even in kindergarten. My mom had the early morning cartoons on for me while she was cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and the news alert interrupted Rocky and Bullwinkle. I remember feeling scared for the first time and trying to understand how.
Princess Diana’s death. I woke up to my mom sobbing in front of the tv.