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With tonight being the 40th anniversary of one of the most historical events ever, feel free to share what you were doing when you found out or experienced some of these events.
To name a few:
1929 Stock Market Crash
Pearl Harbor Bombing
Atomic Bombs 1945
JFK Assassination
RFK Assassination
Man walks on moon
Space Shuttle Challenger
Reagan Shot
9/11 Terrorist Attacks
Others? Please share.
I'll start.
Man walks on Moon: I was 8 in Canoga Park, watching it on a old TV (B&W). The TV case was teal and white. I was wearing a blue bathing suit. The TV was in the NW corner of our living room in Canoga Park. I walked outside and looked up at the moon. (I verified my memory by checking with planetary software installed on my PC "Skyglobe".)
Shuttle Challenger: I was in a PE softball class at CSUN, warming up, tossing the ball back and forth with another guy (who always wore a yamaka). He asked me if I had heard about the shuttle.
Reagan Shot: I was studying for a physics test at CSUN, sitting on the floor outside the classroom prior to the test.
9/11: I was driving north on Canoga towards work a couple minutes before 6AM, listening to KNX 1070 when the newscaster said something like "We've just had reports of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York..."
John Lennon shot: I was a driver for an escrow company driving all over LA County. I normally listened to cassettes (remember those? they came after 8 tracks which came after 4 tracks) while I drove. I noticed many cars with their headlights on. As I recall, KLOS was encouraging everyone to turn on their headlights for John Lennon.
Sylmar Quake: Living in Canoga Park. Very scary.
Northridge Quake: Living in Moorpark. Very scary.
Columbia Explosion: I was home in Thousand Oaks and my pager went off. I was subscribed to a free NASA service which sent out text pages whenever something significant happened. The text read something like "Mission Control in Houston has lost communication with the space shuttle..." I knew instantly this was bad as loss of comm with the orbiter just doesn't happen. No way. I flipped on CNN to see the debris in the sky.
OJ not guilty verdict: I was watching from my apartment at UCSB in Isla Vista. I couldn't believe it. I think I shouted out the F word.
1929 Stock Market Crash - wasn't born yet.
Pearl Harbor Bombing - wasn't born yet.
Atomic Bombs 1945 - wasn't born yet.
JFK Assassination - wasn't born yet.
RFK Assassination - wasn't born yet.
Man walks on moon - wasn't born yet.
Space Shuttle Challenger - Hmm. grade school probably.
Reagan Shot - Was alive but cant remember what/where.
John Lennon shot - really young. Didnt even know who he was.
9/11 Terrorist Attacks - About to leave my Sherman Oaks condo to go to work when turned on KROQ radio and heard "New Guy Ralph" talking about Towers were gone.
JFK: Coming out of class in the 4th grade in Capistrano Beach. Some older kid yelled "Hey, did you hear the good news? They shot Kennedy." Republicans.
RFK: I was home sick from school, Capistrano Beach. I saw the breaking news on TV.
Apollo 1: Had just gotten home from school. Heard it on KABC radio.
Moon: Sitting in front of my grandparents' big black and white Zenith in their living room in, you guessed it, Capistrano Beach. I was days away from turning 14.
Sylmar: Barely felt it in you-know-where.
Reagan: Was at work.
Challenger: Was at work.
OJ slow speed chase: My mom died during this. That's what I remember most about it.
Northridge: Was at my night job in San Juan Capistrano, ass in the air on all fours installing a two-way radio antenna on the roof of a new cable van. I was violently thrown to the ground, where I landed on a tool box. My arm still shows that scar.
Landers earthquake: Asleep in bed in Capistrano Beach until tossed out on my ass by this quake. Both the solid core double doors opening onto the alley were blown open by the quake.
Shuttle Columbia: At home in CB, just happened to be watching the news.
911: Was at home listening to Howard Stern on KLSX when they broke in with the news. Watched TV non-stop for the next two days.
JFK shot: Barely remember, I think I was in First Grade.
RFK shot: I had stayed up the night before (we lived in Monterey) and I was a huge RFK fan. Found out the next day. I was devastated.
Man walks on the moon: We had just moved to Florida and that was the first space shot I ever saw. They got to be so routine after awhile I barely noticed anything involving the space program. Everybody joked about space shots in school -- how our parents would make us get up to watch the space shots. People used to pull off the road and line the roads which seemed dumb to most of us.
Challenger mission: I remember thinking "Damn! There go half the jobs in Brevard County."
Northridge: Home in bed thinking "Yeehaw! This isn't as bad as Landers! Now people will know what that one felt like!"
John Lennon shot: OMG! I was a supervisor where I worked. One of my coworkers was a HUGE Beatles fan who knew everything about them. She was devastated and couldn't work that night! (Which I kind of figured would be the situation before I even arrived at work.) It meant the Beatles would never ever reunite.
Bill Clinton Impeachment: Experienced my first foray into bulletin boards on the Internet! What fun!
Reagan shot: Don't even remember.
9/11: Woke up to alarm clock radio saying that the World Trade Center was being attacked. (I worked nights.) Totally scary because no one seemed to know what was going on. Kind of reminded me of that movie about the space invaders.
Man walks on moon - I was five years old, and mad because my cartoons weren't on! The historical significance of this event was completely lost on me. "Why is this dumb man on the moon on EVERY channel?!"
Space Shuttle Challenger - I burned two English muffins in a row; for some reason I wasn't at work that day (forget why not now).
Sylmar earthquake - 7 years old. Lived in La Canada. Lots of rockin' and rollin', but I was mad that only one thing fell over in my room.
Reagan Shot - Can't remember. I had to be 16 by then, but it's a blank.
John Lennon Shot/Killed - I was 16; it was a Monday night and I was starting to do my homework. The radio was on, and that's how I heard it. I flipped through all of the stations, and by then KMET and KLOS announcers were crying, and then there was nothing but Beatles music on the radio for the next few days.
Landers earthquake - I was visiting a friend in Joshua Tree. When I woke up, I was already sitting up in bed, and everything was shaking around me. Again, I leaped into the doorway, and felt the door frame shaking like crazy.
L.A. riots after R.K. verdict - I sat home in Glendale with my two roommates watching TV in complete disbelief. Where were the police?! I was stunned that Fedco was being raided; I had shopped there several times! (There were other, more profound thoughts, but I'm keeping those to myself.)
Northridge earthquake - Living in Glendale. I leaped out of bed into the doorway. We lost power until 11:00 a.m., and then I watched the news all day. I was amazed that the exact same overpasses collapsed in both the '71 Sylmar quake and '94 Northridge quake.
9/11 Terrorist Attacks - I was getting ready for work, and switched on the TV news like I always did. The magnitude of what was happening only hit home when the second tower was hit. I was in tears as I got dressed, thinking of all the worker bees who had perished (this is before the towers fell, of course!). As I was leaving to go to work, I heard about The Pentagon and thought the world was coming to an end!
JFK Assassination- Was 4 yrs old and living in Dallas. Dad worked downtown and saw the motorcade drive by and later heard the shots. I still have the following day's Dallas Morning News.
Man walks on moon- In Dallas again and I remember the family sitting around the 19" (or whatever size it was) black and white tv.
Space Shuttle Challenger- Was just driving into the parking lot at work when the news bulletin came on. Went in and mentioned it to co-workers. We found a TV and sat for hours watching.
Reagan Shot- In LA. Like most, at the time, it didn't seem like such a big deal since they downplayed the severity of his injuries.
L.A. riots after R.K. verdict- In Dallas on a business trip with wife and infant daughter in Westchester. I was stuck in Dallas for 3-days as LAX was closed. Wife spent the week with neighbors.
9/11 Terrorist Attacks- Woke up at 6am (9am ET) and flipped on the Today show, as usual. At 6:02, the second plane impacted and I thought they were showing a rerun of something that had happened earlier. I was scheduled to fly up to NorCal for some meetings and immediately canceled. Probably didn't turn off the TV for 2-days.
1929 Stock Market Crash-- I was not born yet but my Dad was two years old and lived in Ontario, CA! My mom was not born till the next year but her family lived on a bean ranch in Canoga Park, CA in the valley which was then called "Owensmouth." They were already very poor with 7 children (6 more were to come!)
Pearl Harbor Bombing-- My Dad said he was playing in an orange grove when he found out
Atomic Bombs 1945-- unknown?
JFK Assassination-- I was in 2nd grade and we watched the funeral on TV
RFK Assassination- saw the news on the TV, another funeral (it seemed in those days that there were funerals on TV all the time)
Man walks on moon-- I was in 7th grad with my family in Alaska at the (then called Mt. McKinley National park) , now Denali Nat. Park. We were camping and I remember my parents were listening to the report of the moon landing on the radio of the car. I went out and looked up at the moon. It seemed amazing to me as I stood in the wilderness that we had a man on that big old moon way up there in the night sky.
Space Shuttle Challenger-- I saw it at Savons just after it happened on TV. My oldest son was in kindergarten. So sad.
Reagan Shot-- I was living in Utah and heard it on the radio. We were young married kids and did not have a TV.
9/11 Terrorist Attacks-- My sister called us to turn on the TV after the first tower was hit. I turned it on to see the 2nd tower hit. We were at home. I watched it the rest of the day. It will never leave me, that scene.
JFK Shot...1963 I was 4, everything was black and white, because, we had a RCA black and white TV. Remembered the news and all the women crying. Remember the burial, remembering little John saluting...But somehow I think this was later. I do remember the New 1964 Impala we got, white with cool blue interior.
RFK Shot...1968 Only small memory of this for some reason. I think we were getting back from Berlin, Germany at the time…Traveling across the U.S. in our 1964 Chevrolet Impala.
Apollo 11....1969 I had been following every launch from the Redstone through Gemini, both on TV and in Life magazine. I was 10 and I was not going to miss this for anything. I even built a Saturn V model that came apart in stages and each time a stage would separate, I would do the same....Thrilling to be 10 at that time. I was glued to the same RCA Black and White TV.
John Lennon shot…Dec 8th 1980 I had just got back to dropping a girl off from work…It was late and I turn on the radio, and they were playing John Lennon music over and over, then the announcer came on, and asked for people’s thoughts on what happened. I sat in the car for an hour at least and listened…parked in front of my parent’s house…and couldn’t believe it…
President Regan shot…1981 Saw the replay over and over…how did he get so close…
Challenger...Jan 1986 I was in Basic Training at Lackland AFB. Yes I know, I joined late. (I went in on Christmas Day.) I was 25, and we were just about to be escorted to the M-16 shooting range for the first time. All the T.I.'s disappeared, and left us standing there in formation for 10 minutes. They came back, and told us what happened, then they escorted us to the shooting range. That night when I received on base “Liberty" I went to the Base Exchange and bought a small radio with headphones to listen to at night. Quite illegal, but I didn't care. I became a news junkie that night...
Loma Prieta earthquake…Oct 17, 1989 The World Series. I was on the east coast watching the game in the Military dorm at McGuire AFB when the TV screen went black, and the announcer came on and said there was an earthquake. I called my dad to see if he was o.k. and hung up to watch the news. Then I tried to call back about 10 min’s into the coverage and could not get through…
First Bombs being dropped in Iraq…(The first time)…Jan 17th, 1991…I was in a Stereo store and all the stereo’s were turned up…an announcer broke in with the bombs bursting in the background…I turned to the store owner…(third world looking)…and said, ”the world just changed today” and his eyes were big, worried, and he just looked at me and shook his head…
North Ridge Quake Jan 17, 1994…Monday…Not a good day. Not there, which was a good thing…then was amazed at how fast everything was rebuilt…in months…not years…
OJ Simpson…Oct 3rd, 1995…Not Guilty verdict…I pulled my FedEx van over to listen…other people stopped too…total shock, and anger that he was not convicted…
[SIZE=3]9/11…Working as a part time Golf Course Mechanic…Listening to the radio in the shop, while working on mowers…heard the initial report about a plane crashing into one of the towers and thinking about a B-25 that did the same thing to the Empire State Building in the 40’s I think…Then turning the TV on in the break room, and watching the deliberate turning and plunging of the plane into the building…the news people commenting on it…and then the second one hit…and they played it all that day, and the next…[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]…I started pulling double shifts working on planes that night…became a permanent employee 2 months later…[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Columbia falling out of the sky…Jan 16th, 2003…before it happened, I kept thinking “look over the spacecraft, LOOK over the spacecraft”…to nobody. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, NASA had no provisions to fix holes in the tiles, no Canadian robot arm to look, no mission planning to get close to the space station, it was total failure from the word “Launch…” Sad vindication for Sally Ride…[/SIZE]
I'm still fairly young (I'm 24) so I was unable to experience what many of you have. But here's what I can remember, starting with:
'92 Riots - Living in Oxnard, CA at the time. Watched our old house in Long Beach on TV and saw the liquor store next to it burned up and raided.
OJ Simpson Chase - Living in Oxnard, CA at the time. Was about to hook the Nintendo up to the TV until my dad told me not to and we sat there watching the entire chase the entire time. I never even knew who OJ was and thought it was dumb to watch a police chase.
Northridge Quake - Asleep in Oxnard, CA. The quake obviously woke all of us up and my parents took me and my brother out of bed and took us outside. I don't know if anyone else noticed but if you saw the sky at the time you could see a lot of stars in the sky...
9/11 Terrorist Attacks - San Bernardino, CA. I was attempting to ditch school that day by pretending I was sick and I stayed in bed until my little brother came into my room and said that the WTC was gone.
'03 Iraq Invasion - San Bernardino, CA. Relaxing at home until it made breaking news.
Obama nomination - Jobless in San Bernardino, CA. Relaxing at home then saw the election results on TV.
Michael Jackson's death - On our way to Little Ethiopia in L.A. My family (mom, dad, brother) were in the car on the freeway until we hear back to back Michael Jackson songs and didn't think anything of it until we hear amongst our chattering ".....will forever be missed." The car got silent and then my little brother checked the news on his cell phone and saw the headline "Michael Jackson dead at 50."
Man walks on Moon: I was 4 and living in Port Hueneme also watching it on a old black and white TV. I kept looking out the window hoping to see what ever it was that my parents were trying to see on the TV.
Shuttle Challenger: I was in Iowa. Remember listening to this guy tell us about the plane that had blown up and me in my infinite wisdom informed him that in most cases when a plane wrecks it is for the most part pilot error. That is when he told us this plane was the Challenger.
Reagan Shot: Was a sophmore in High School. Remember it well. We all loved Reagan in Ventura County. Most of the nation loved him. Name me a President other than Reagan that when elected has won 49 of 50 states?
9/11: On my way to the Hospital where I work. My wife called and told me. I flipped to KFI in a second to listen to the news.
John Lennon shot: Was inmy first year in High School. My brother was in a band and most of his friends came over to talk and hang out. Very sad day. Remember all the Beatles Music and John's own stuff.
Sylmar Quake: Remeber my bunk bed rolling. I woke up from a dream where I thought someone had hooked up our home to a big truck and was pulling the home like a trailor.
Northridge Quake: Woke me up. Said to my wife another earthquake and we went back to bed.
OJ not guilty verdict: Working in Ojai. Stopped to hear the news and mentioned to our main office I hope we don't have any one in LA right now.
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