Fifty Years Ago Today

[mongers]

I remember running home from school to the catch the afternoon news about the historic events in Vietnam.

What other comparable news events do you remember in a big way?

Or indeed 'smaller' events happening that have stuck with you?

[grumbler]

[mongers]

 

Coolest event of the 20th century?

It annoys me that as a small child I have no clear memories of the moon landing.

[grumbler]

Coolest event of the 20th century?

It annoys me that as a small child I have no clear memories of the moon landing.

As a kid, I was extremely frustrated by the 6-hour delay between the landing and the moon walk. I had expected that the walk would follow only a few minutes after the landing, like we would be, getting out of the car after arriving at our destination.  I couldn't believe that they were making me wait for any good reason.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

The iron curtain coming down. The big thing of the age.
I remember my dad becoming a bit more relaxed after it since the chances of him (and I guess my mum, since they were both army) going of to war dropped to near zero.
Good times.

Two years later he was of to Yugoslavia as an observer though... 

[dist]

First vague memories would be the Challenger explosion shortly followed by Chernobyl. Then the First Gulf War and its greenish night footage as I didn't have access to a TV at the time the Berlin Wall came down. I was also too young to understand what the collapse of the Eastern Bloc meant.

The world-shattering event that I will never forget is 9/11. I wasn't that young anymore, but that day, everything stood still. The images and their implications were chillingly hypnotizing.

[crazy canuck]

I remember seeing the moon landing on TV and then running out the front door and looking up at the moon which was visible in the morning orafternoon sky (I can't remember which). I couldn't believe that somebody was on the moon. I kept running back-and-forth from the TV to outside to stare up at it.

My dad became frustrated with me and said I can stare at the moon anytime. It was the first and last time my dad said come indoors and watch TV. 

[Zanza]

I remember the Berlin Wall coming down a bit as I lived in a city right on the border then and all of sudden East Germans could come and we could go. I actually even remember Chernobyl: we were not allowed outside for days and then the playgrounds were all closed.

9/11, the COVID lockdown, ...

By the way, eighty years ago:

[Valmy]

What other comparable news events do you remember in a big way?

I was born in 1977 so the first big historical event I remember that kept me glued to my screen that I will always remember is the Berlin Wall coming down.

That was shocking and changed the world. Especially as Cold War brained we all were in the 1980s.

I just remember seeing how huge the Soviet Union seemed on maps and wondering, in my childish way, how the United States could beat them. We looked a lot smaller on the globe in my Kindergarten.

[The Minsky Moment]

First event with a clear recollection: Bicentennial celebrations
First news event with a clear recollection: Reggie's 3 HR in one World Series game
Most notable news event(s):  Fall of the Wall, Tiananmen square
News event where a have the clearest recollection of exactly what I was doing: 9-11.

[Jacob]

I remember running home from school to the catch the afternoon news about the historic events in Vietnam.

What other comparable news events do you remember in a big way?

Or indeed 'smaller' events happening that have stuck with you?

The events that have stuck with me:

• The Berlin wall coming down
• Solidarność strikes in Poland
• The massacres in Sabra and Shatila
• 9/11
• Tiananmen Square massacre.

More recently, I think the lead-up to and start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine will stick with me in a similar way.

Also, less seriously but still imprinted on my memories: Denmark winning the Euro.

[Grey Fox]

My earliest international news memory is the start of the 1st gulf war.

The first one, only a couple of weeks earlier, is the Oka Crisis.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

My earliest international news memory is the start of the 1st gulf war.

if that is the criterium (rather than earliest big event) it's something like Challenger exploding. Not I'll forget soon either since I still have some memorabilia from that flight (obviously gifted to me before the event took place).
Chernobyl is there too. Herald of Free Enterprise sinking just after exiting the port of Zeebrugge and, oddly enough, the gassing of Kurds by Saddam somewhere in those same years.
But none of them are as big as the Curtain coming down. Gulf War, Tienanmen and the dissolution of the USSR are all in those few years too iirc.

[HVC]

I was 4 but I distinctly remember watching the news about the Berlin wall falling. I remember because I was annoyed and wanted to watch something else on the TV.

[crazy canuck]

Coolest event of the 20th century?

It annoys me that as a small child I have no clear memories of the moon landing.

As a kid, I was extremely frustrated by the 6-hour delay between the landing and the moon walk. I had expected that the walk would follow only a few minutes after the landing, like we would be, getting out of the car after arriving at our destination.  I couldn't believe that they were making me wait for any good reason.

You are not fooling anyone.  We know it was the battle of Salamis for you.