First Big news event .

I remember watching shuttle lift offs in school also, definitely not the Challenger though, because that happened when I was in Jr High. My memories are from elementary school.

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me too! but because I was all of 6 years old, it just looked like a boys bowl haircut :sweat_smile:

Yep. Returned to my apartment at UW from a bacteriology lecture that morning for a normal break before my other classes. My two roommates had the news on and filled me in on what was known at that point. We quickly got notice that classes were cancelled, and we were glued to the tv in disbelief the rest of the day. Has it really been 19 years? Wow.

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I was in college when the Challenger exploded, just driving in to the parking lot.

9/11 I was in my office at work, alone. Everyone from my region was out working with schools. I only had a radio, no TV, so I didn’t fully comprehend the situation. I was 7 months pregnant, and I remember that the director over the entire state agency called me to make sure I was okay.

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For me, when the first plan hit, we were in a meeting at work. One guy…not sure how he knew…maybe news on his Blackberry or something?..anyhow, he said a plane just hit the World Trade Center. We didn’t know much. Assumed it just meant a small Cessna or something. But then, when word came of the second plane, everyone left the meeting and headed back to our desks. From that point forward for the remainder of the work day, everyone had some news site open on their computer and streaming what was happening. The entire office was silent, other than the sounds of news casts coming through various computer speakers.

Not all powerful things are good things. Jingoism has not been a successful stratagem. It leads, as it has led, to extremism. The story of 9/11 is far from over. The arc of history is long.

Yes, that is both sad and beautiful.

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It wasn’t “big news”, but I remember being as angry as a six year old could be in 1976. We had the Winter Olympics, the Summer Olympics, the Bicentennial, and the Presidential debates.

What about all this caused such grade-school rage, you ask? Well, it meant that Wonder Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man were pre-empted almost every week! The unmitigated nerve of them!

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Wow! I hear you on that one. They clearly did not have their priorities straight back then!

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Faked! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Do Europeans call it that (as opposed to 11/9), and if so, is it just to placate Americans?

I was in college as well and saw the news while getting ready at home before heading to my Chemistry lab. They had a live TV stream on the projector, but then the professor made the TA stop it to go forward with the planned materials. I couldn’t focus and I think I skipped my other classes.

The first event mentioned here that I remember was the Challenger disaster, but I was only like 3 so I’m not sure if I learned about it at the time or later. The first event I for sure remember was the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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Okay, I was 10. And I totally fell in love with Franz Klammer. Who is Franz Klammer you ask? He won the downhill skiing gold medal in the Winter Olympics that year. I was so into the Olympics - both winter and summer!

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Wellesley…so not “in” Boston, but close enough!

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I’m not sure I classify a stadium full of people, mostly college students, who were just getting over the fear of gathering in large numbers again as jingoism. There was nothing extreme or aggressive about the situation. I’d equate it to something like a “Take Back the Night” event. We were claiming our power over the terror. We were uniting as one. We were relieved to feel a little bit safe again. And then we watched a football game.

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We call it 9/11 because that’s what you call it. I assume many people think it happened in November.

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I’m in the same boat with you. But I remember 9/11 most clear. My sister in-law called from GA and I let the machine pick up and I sat there thinking what is with her calling to check in on us. She asked if we were ok “with every thing going on up there”. I had no idea what she was talking about. I went and changed DD who was 11 months old at the time. I turned off HBO and put on the news and just froze in front of the TV holding DD and then the first tower fell.
Of ever thing I have lived through this is the one thing that is burned into my memory. I remember Elvis’s death, Jimmy Carter winning the election, plane crashes, NASA disasters, Regan getting shot, OJ, graduating high school, graduating college 5-26-95 my birthday, getting married 10-3-98, DD’s birth 10-20-00. But nothing is so burned into my memory as 9/11. A close second is 10-20-2000 DD being born most likely because I almost passed out.

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I was working for the then owner of the King of Prussia Mall. We used to walk across the road to the Mall at lunch and go to the food court. We all stopped in to the stores that sold televisions to see the news about the challenger.

Me too. But it was still cute! I was five at the time.

I would have sworn I remembered getting up early to watch Charles&Diana’s wedding, but I was born at the end of 78 so…I’m going with the Challenger as well, but it’s a fuzzy memory. The first thing where I remember where I was, what I was doing, etc was probably the OJ chase.

Anybody else waiting for @Jeff_AZ to say something about these dates?

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My grandson was 10 and I think in 4th grade. He absolutely knew airplanes were going to crash into the school. I can’t recall if his school had counseling - I hope they did.

It was awhile before he lost that fear.

I also remember seeing a contrail in the sky the first day planes began flying again. I wondered about those passengers. Were they timid or just that glad they didn’t have to ride the train any more.

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I was only 2 when Charles and Diana got married and I swear I remember it too. That’s why I think what I’m remembering might have been Andrew and Fergie…

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