What are Your Top 3?

[SweetErika]

A local radio program was talking about this yesterday (which was the anniversary of the Challenger shuttle disaster), and I thought it might make an interesting topic, so here are two questions:

1) How old are you?

2) What are the top three most important historical events of your life thus far? Feel free to explain why or add details.

 

[Mazuri]

I'm 42 and the 3 most important historical events thus far (in no order):

The OKC bombing - This is the first major world event that I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing at the time it occurred (working as a subcontractor inside the former SouthTrust bank handing UPS CoD deposits; there was a TV set up in a meeting room for a conference later and it was showing the news). It was a reminder that not all acts of terrorism happens elsewhere nor do they come from outside forces.

The stand-off of that one guy against a line of tanks on Tiananmen Square in China. I was still in high school at the time but it was probably the most popular topic of discussion amongst those my age. It was the first time I saw something that affected people so deeply that the typical 'class' distinctions were blurred.

And, of course, the events of 09/11. My hubby is military and it was the first time we'd seen military bases inside the US on ThreatCon Delta. It was also my daughter's 10th birthday and we had to explain to her why her b'day party had to be postponed because some of her guests would be unable to get on base. The amazing (but unsurprising) thing was the number of complaints from military spouses and GS and contract civilians about how long clearing the gate was taking during the incredibly short time the base remained on Delta. To use my daughter's phrase..."I mean...really?"

During the Khobar Towers bombings, the European bases were on Delta (we were in Germany at the time) but that happened so often over there that no one really thought much of how long it took to pass through the gates. I'm sure there were complaints there but, unlike here in the states, they could easily tell folks to shut up and color or lose their command sponsorship. You learned not to piss and moan about the petty things there. lol

 

[Eilan]

Great topic!

How old are you?

I'm 37.

What are the top three most important historical events of your life thus far? Feel free to explain why or add details.

1. John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. I was in second grade, but I remember it very clearly because my parents always watched the evening news.


2. The Challenger Disaster. I was in seventh grade at the time, and I remember how this shuttle mission got so much attention because of Christa McAuliffe. That previous fall, our science teacher had brought in one of the finalists for the Teacher in Space Project as a guest speaker at our school, and we were planning to watch the shuttle launch in class.

We ended up having a snow day, so my brother and I were watching the launch at home. My mom was puttering about in the kitchen when the shuttle exploded, and my brother and I ran to her to tell her what had happened. She didn't believe us at first.


3. 9/11. I was teaching at the time. My first class met from 8:30 to 9:45, so I had no idea what had happened until I dismissed them. On my way back up to my office, I heard a student say that the World Trade Center had been bombed, and when I went past one of the conference rooms, several faculty members were watching events unfold on TV.

When I got to my 10:00 class, the TV was on. I tried to conduct class, but we mostly just watched TV; after the towers collapsed, I let them leave, and the university closed for the day shortly thereafter.

 

[NomadLady]

I am 47, and in no particular order..

President Reagan getting shot, I was in high school and I remember clearly word flying around the school very fast.

9/11, I was at work and we all wound up in the bosses office most of that morning watching it unfold on TV or sitting at our desk listening to the radio broadcasts. After work getting home and being glued to the television just in shock at the devasation and senseless lost of life.

1969, the first lunar landing...I remember watching that on television. Then going outside that night looking at the moon and trying to put "two and two" together that a man had really just walked on the moon's surface.

 

[DarkBee]

How old are you?
I'll be 28 in 2 weeks

What are the most important historical events in your life?

- Tearing down the Berlin wall. I was a too young to really remember or notice at the time, but it was a major step towards the unification of Europe.

- The assassination of Pim Fortuyn. A flamboyant politician whose murder and subsequent massive victory for his party caused a major landslide in Dutch politics.

- Even for Europeans 11-9-2001 (although even we call it 9-11) was a major event, and I clearly remember the next day going to college and one of my fellow students showed us the paper with a 2-page spread of pictures. That day and for probably a week many programs were dedicated to or talking about it.

 

[blueberree]

My top 3 historical events

I'm 50

1968 the whole year

1968 was the year of assassinations (MLK and RK), Vietnam war escalation, Chicago Democratic Convenion, and riots. I remember the gruesome body counts on the news. All of that during that year really had an impact on me. I was only 7, but the memory of these events feels vivid.

Watergate
Changed the way a lot of people viewed those who are in political office. It changed the assumptions that people have about the people who are in it. Granted, every presidency had its fans and disgruntled masses, but Watergate was the seminal event in public cynicism and first time broad understanding of the role sheer, ugly ambition plays in politics.

9/11

 

[MarvelGuy]

I'm 22

Top three things that have happened to me are....graduating from college with my Chef papers, Winning the Canadian 125GP motorcycle championship, and then meeting my lovely wife to be at the tender age of 14

 

[bailadora]

I'm 40.

The events that most stick out in my mind are:

9/11 - I was home with a two year old and a newborn, so I didn't catch on until much later in the day as we were all sleeping and I'd turned off the phone. When I finally tuned in and found out what was happening, I remember trying to frantically reach my mother as she was supposed to be flying on business that day. Later, my sister came to stay with me until my husband got home and I remember holding on to her for dear life when she arrived. She was supposed to have been at the Pentagon that week for business, but for some reason the trip had gotten cancelled.

The Challenger tragedy - I was in school, taking a Spanish exam when the principle came on to announce that there was a "problem" with the mission and asking everyone to pray for the astronauts. And then getting to homeroom class, only to find out the shuttle had blown up.

The Iran Hostage Crisis - I was really too young to understand all the implications, but I remember this dominating the news for well over a year.

 

[fire_breeze]

What a wonderfully thought-provoking thread, SweetE

Early 30s.


~ Berlin Wall and the Collapse of the Soviet Union, 1989/90 While I was young, and didn't understand the implications of it, we had family living in the Eastern Block and those two years were filled with anticipation. When we found out that the Soviet soldiers left, my father almost broke down into tears.

~ The Election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. It showed to me that people can change, and an entire system can fundamentally change for the better. It also made me realise that race is a stupid concept, and that with determination, understanding can be found. Later, I've come to understand the impact this had on the rest of the world.

~ I'd lie if I didn't say 9/11. It was a cataclysmic change in the modern world, and it has changed the way we live today. It was then that I realised that we are on a brink and the next 15 years will be critical on whether we can change that brink or fall over it completely and into a catastrophic, world-wide Dark Ages. The jury is still out.

I'll add the Gulf War 1990/91. It was my first encounter and first realisation of what war can do. Before, war was a mythic thing, not real. This became real to me.

 

[ArchLady03]

I'm 21...

1. 9/11: I can still remember sitting in biology class in 7th grade, hearing the Principal come over the PA system and announce that "an airplane's crashed into the WTC". It was only after I got home from school (we'd been let out early) to find my mom crying in front of the TV that I realized how serious it was. Changed the direction of this country for good (I mean 'for good' as in we can't go back, not 'for good' as in for the better).

2. The 2008 Presidential Election: it was the first time I was able to vote and I remember walking down the hall of my dorm and everyone had their tvs on counting the down the states. I remember when it was officially announced that Obama won, my entire floor exploded. I remember being so happy, feeling so optimistic, so a part of things, thinking I had helped change occur. Looking back I can only chuckle at my naivety.

I know this might seem a little odd but...
3. Student Protests in London 2010: Although I was no where near the protests / riots I got calls from every family member and friend (I don't know how they got my UK number) asking if I was ok. It made me realize how the media can truly ramp up a story... things in London seemed pretty much business as usual, but my family in the US thought it was cataclysmic.

 

[glynndah]

I'm 54.

1. November 22, 1963 The Kennedy assassination. I was in second grade. I can still picture the hallway and the teachers crying.

2. April 4, 1968 and June 5, 1968 The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.

3. May 4, 1970 Kent State.

 

[favoritesgoddess]

I'm almost 42.

9/11. It felt like the world was ending. In some ways, I think it did.

The day the hostages were released from the Iranian embassy. I was in either fifth or sixth grade and the principal came on the PA to tell us that they had been released, and someone went up to the "old" school building with the real bell tower and rang the old school bell 444 times, one for every day they had been held captive.

And I don't know if it's considered historical or not, but Live Aid and USA for Africa. It's the first time I remembered seeing global hunger brought into the forefront of consciousness in that big a way.

 

[The Gimp]

I'm 36.

9-11 is in first place by far. I clearly remember waking up a few hours early for my second shift job and turning on the television, which was a rare occurrence. The first World Trade Center tower had just been hit. As I was glued to the television, the second tower was struck.

Second place would be the start of Operation Desert Shield. I was in high school at the time. I remember thinking that the country was about to repeat the Vietnam era, and was wondering how long it would be until there would be a draft.

I'm stretching to come up with a third incident. I remember being in elementary school when the Challenger exploded, but it didn't impact me on a personal level.

The Columbine massacre was a big deal, it earns third place. That was the first mass shooting that I was aware of, and it was pulled of by a couple of dorky outcast kind of kids who reminded me of myself.

 

[toshiskitten]

I'm 21


1. 9/11: I was in seventh grade and one of my teachers had told us what happened. We watched the news and everyone was silent. I was crying because my aunt worked there but I found out later from my mom that she was ok. I was only 12 and I just couldn't believe something like that could happen.

2. The 2007 shooting at Von Maur: I remember turning on the news and then telling my dad that there was a shooting at Westroads mall. I never understood how someone can just open fire on innocent people. My best friend and I went there a week after to make snowflakes in memory of the people that were killed.

3. The 2008 election: I was finally about to vote in a presidental election. I remember watching the news with my parents and freaking out when Obama had won. Now I feel indifferent and would prefer to stay out of politics. It's too much of a headache.

 

[NippleMuncher]

I'm in my 40's

As for major world changing events, 9/11 would be the top, second would be when Princess Diana died. Like 9/11, Diana's death was palpable worldwide, second to Diana would be Mother Teresa.

As for personal, well, 9/11 also marks a catastrophic financial event that I'm still trying to recover from.

 

[culloden]

49

Iranian Revolution in 1979 - The first time radical Islam showed its power, this was the harbinger of 9/11 and all that came with it.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and attendant demise of the Warsaw Pact - This was huge. We lived in fear of the USSR, and dealing with communism dominated our foreign policy.

The crash of '08 - This was brought on by a long trend of poor government and destructive societal paradigms whose origins date back probably close to a century. I'm sorry to say that I think it's only the first benchmark of American economic decline relative to the Asian economy.

 

[newlegz]

23

1. 9/11
2. Princess Diana's Death/Funeral
3. Watching the bombs over Iraq as the US declared war.

But really, the 3rd one barely registers in comparison to the other two.

 

[midwestyankee]

Just short of 60.

The three most important historical events I've witnessed have been:

The assassination of President John Kennedy.

Man lands on the moon.

The fall of the Berlin Wall.

 

[Experiencedguy]

Great thread -- I'm 66.

#1: President Truman dropping the bomb on Japan.

#2: Death of President Kennedy.

#3: Tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

 

[lauren26f]

A local radio program was talking about this yesterday (which was the anniversary of the Challenger shuttle disaster), and I thought it might make an interesting topic, so here are two questions:

1) How old are you?

2) What are the top three most important historical events of your life thus far? Feel free to explain why or add details.

Lot to think about since only 26.

1. 9-11. I was 16 and it has changed everything. Civil Liberties are going away.
2. Think 2008 was the start of the trade war to come. I was 24.
3. My PhD. I'll still be 26 when done this semester.

 

[SweetErika]

Interesting replies so far. I find the lack of natural disasters curious; I'd imagine if Mount St. Helens was in my memory (I was but a four-month-old fetus at the time), it'd be on my list.

I'm 30 and here are my three:
1) The "War on Terror," in large part for the reason Lauren mentioned. I include 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq in this primarily.

On 9/11, I woke up, turned on the news, and watched the whole thing unfold. My husband and I went to an International Business class, where we watched more news and had a fascinating discussion on what would likely happen next (the consensus was we would bomb the shit out of the people/countries Bush believed responsible). Part of what made it so interesting was that about half of the class were Vietnamese students, so we talked about how they still viewed "The American War" and our government, culture, etc. Our discussion that day had a hand in how I saw the tragedy.

Then Bush Jr. was kind enough to invade Iraq right before my wedding, so that sticks out as particularly memorable and disappointing.

2) Obama's election. I'm not thrilled with a lot of what he's done since, but I don't recall ever being so proud of this country.

3) I remember Challenger vividly, but I'm going to say Katrina for this one. I don't have any connections to the Gulf Coast apart from visiting NOLA once, but what a terribly sad, generally upsetting clusterfuck.

 

[culloden]

Interesting replies so far. I find the lack of natural disasters curious; I'd imagine if Mount St. Helens was in my memory (I was but a four-month-old fetus at the time), it'd be on my list.

I'm 30 and here are my three:
1) The "War on Terror," in large part for the reason Lauren mentioned. I include 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq in this primarily.

On 9/11, I woke up, turned on the news, and watched the whole thing unfold. My husband and I went to an International Business class, where we watched more news and had a fascinating discussion on what would likely happen next (the consensus was we would bomb the shit out of the people/countries Bush believed responsible). Part of what made it so interesting was that about half of the class were Vietnamese students, so we talked about how they still viewed "The American War" and our government, culture, etc. Our discussion that day had a hand in how I saw the tragedy.

Then Bush Jr. was kind enough to invade Iraq right before my wedding, so that sticks out as particularly memorable and disappointing.

2) Obama's election. I'm not thrilled with a lot of what he's done since, but I don't recall ever being so proud of this country.

3) I remember Challenger vividly, but I'm going to say Katrina for this one. I don't have any connections to the Gulf Coast apart from visiting NOLA once, but what a terribly sad, generally upsetting clusterfuck.

I remember Mt. St. Helens vividly, but for the most part natural disasters don't have lingering effects on humanity as a whole, no matter how bad they are for the affected individuals. Same with disasters like the Challenger.

I chose the events I did because they're important in a gross geopolitical sense, not because of their imagery.

 

[BrazenFellow]

Early twenties. (Two and one score, if I remember correctly what a score is.)

A lot of things happened for me but I've only been world conscious for the smaller part of them. A complete list would be something like 20 items long and include things I don't actually remember, starting with the Soviet withdrawl from Afghanistan and the subsequent fall of the USSR, Ops DESERT SHIELD and STORM, the fighting in the Balkans, the concurrent '93 "Blackhawk Down" incident where the US took a bloody nose at the hands of Somali mobs, the Balkans again, our PM at the time (Chretain; I've never learned how to spell that correctly consistently) strangling a protestor on a rail siding, our PM taking a pie in the face some time after that, our PM finally stepping down from office after establishing what I thought was going to be a dynasty that would outlive me, and so on. The top three though are more recent and below:

11-09-01 or 9/11. I was in social studies (at the time our concept of a "history" class, appropriately enough) and watched it on TV, from just after the first jet to the last. I decided it "must have been the Afghans," having just read about the Afghan resistance to the USSR and the US involvement with that, with some mention of how the Afghans had been abandoned after 1989 by the US. At the time I had no concept of the Islamist-Jihadist/Takfiri movement. The subsequent Patriot Act and so on had a deep and lasting impression on me.

Canadian troops being deployed to Afghanistan in 2003. This was significant because Canada was finally fulfilling her obligations under NATO, though I didn't think of it that way at the time. Still too young. Canada hadn't seen its young men off to war since Korea.

US invasion of Iraq. At this point anti-Americanism was at an all time high, that retard Chomsky was selling really well, and I remember thinking that I hoped the Iraqis would turn Baghdad and other major cities into "Stalingrad with sand," to teach the Americans a lesson. I now know much better but that war was still a mistake, and is still ongoing, and what's more is that it precipitated a lot of rot in the US. Things like Katrina, Lockheed Martin clusterfucks with the F-35 program, etc.

I'd like to say that the Dubrovka Theatre and Beslan Islamist-Jihadist terrorist attacks in Russia had the same effect on me that 9/11 did, but because Russia is so far removed and so often vilified we've been ignoring the wealth of experience they have dealing with the Chechens. The 2008 summer war rivals the US invasion of Iraq, when Georgia decided to attack South Ossetia and lost and retarded American politicians were making noise about taking on the Russians. Fucking imbeciles - for me, the 2008 Summer War rivals the invasion of Iraq in monumental scale, simply because I was politically and militarily aware enough to be genuinely scared at the prospect of committing NATO force to help Georgia.

 

[Luna_Bella]

I am 25

1- 9/11, I was At home sick from school and watched on the news...

2-Obama's election, although I live in Canada I can say that at that point I felt maybe the world was finally getting over a lot of prejudices and gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe racism will be someday a thing of the past.

3- January 1998, Quebec was hit with a major freezing rain Storm, in some places 105 millimiters of ice covered everything, bringing down electrical installations and putting us in the dark (a fwew days in my area, but for some for up to a month) the roads were closed needless to say schools and businesses alike. it was terrifing but absolutely beautiful as it seem everything had been covered in crystal.

 

[sircumvent]

1. I'm 54

2. I remember we were walking on the sidewalk heading for the buses to go home from school and Miss Ann was coming up the sidewalk just a bawling saying that President Kennedy had just been shot and killed.

3. I was watching Monday Night Football when Howard Cosell announced that John Lennon had been shot and killed.

4. I was on the elevator at work and one of our nurses got on and said that she had heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into a building in NY.