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Biggest "where were you when" moments
Billy Hicks
Posts: 475 Forum Member
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There's been a lot of pretty huge moments in our lifetimes where most of us remember where we were when we heard the news. What for you are the biggest ones? You don't have to have been born at the time, but if you were then feel free to share your memory of the event/s.
Most of them are sadly tragic events, but from the top of my head I'd go for these in the last 60 years:
JFK assassination (1963)
Man on the moon (1969)
Death of Elvis (1977)
Death of John Lennon (1980)
Live Aid (1985)
Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) (just about born but too young to remember this one)
Tony Blair becomes prime minister (1997) (I was eight. My mum sat me in front of the TV and told me what an incredible day this was and how the smiling dude on the screen was about to finally change everything, at which point my Dad grumbled in the corner that he'll probably end up being a bigger Tory than John Major
)
Death of Diana (1997) (Still eight, mum woke me up and told me and I didn't understand what the fuss was about - my grandparents had died, my hamster had died, Mufasa had died, what made this different? Didn't realise the significance until I was much older)
9/11 (2001) (Already many threads about this, especially today - I watched it on TV when I was 12)
The London transport bombings (2005) (Sixteen, in the Wikipedia IRC chatroom and watching the madness unfold as lots of editors hurriedly write/constantly update an ever-changing article)
Death of Michael Jackson (2009) (Twenty, slightly drunkenly coming back from a night out, logging onto Facebook and immediately seeing a ton of posts about it)
There's been a lot of potentials since then but time seems too recent to know for sure. Any others?
Most of them are sadly tragic events, but from the top of my head I'd go for these in the last 60 years:
JFK assassination (1963)
Man on the moon (1969)
Death of Elvis (1977)
Death of John Lennon (1980)
Live Aid (1985)
Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) (just about born but too young to remember this one)
Tony Blair becomes prime minister (1997) (I was eight. My mum sat me in front of the TV and told me what an incredible day this was and how the smiling dude on the screen was about to finally change everything, at which point my Dad grumbled in the corner that he'll probably end up being a bigger Tory than John Major
)Death of Diana (1997) (Still eight, mum woke me up and told me and I didn't understand what the fuss was about - my grandparents had died, my hamster had died, Mufasa had died, what made this different? Didn't realise the significance until I was much older)
9/11 (2001) (Already many threads about this, especially today - I watched it on TV when I was 12)
The London transport bombings (2005) (Sixteen, in the Wikipedia IRC chatroom and watching the madness unfold as lots of editors hurriedly write/constantly update an ever-changing article)
Death of Michael Jackson (2009) (Twenty, slightly drunkenly coming back from a night out, logging onto Facebook and immediately seeing a ton of posts about it)
There's been a lot of potentials since then but time seems too recent to know for sure. Any others?
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9/11 (2001) - I was at school when it happened and didn't know until I got home. But on my way home one of the older girls who lived up the road told us that "you're all going to die, every single one of you" which was nice of her. I then sat with my family - my grandparents were visiting that day as it was a Tuesday - and watched it on the news.
The London transport bombings (2005) - I saw it on the news.
Death of Michael Jackson (2009) - I was watching Big Brother (
IRA bomb in Manchester, 1996. I had intended to go shopping in Manchester that day but changed my mind at the last minute and went to Bolton. Don't remember when I first heard what had happened but remember driving home quickly in case my Mum was worried.
9/11 - I worked in the CIS tower in Manchester at the time and remember hearing that some people on other floors were crying and saying they wanted to go home in case we were next.
And on a lighter note - for the 100m Men's final at the London Olympics I was on my settee really looking forward to it, the starter calls them to the blocks, 'On Your Marks, Set,..' and at that point my Freeview Box conked out! Legged it upstairs to the other tv but amazingly Usain Bolt has run 100m quicker that I could run upsatirs!
Of the ones you've mentioned, I'm too young to recall JFK, but Elvis, Diana, Lennon and Jackson were no more significant to me than the death of any 'celeb'.
The one I do recall in detail was the death of Ayrton Senna. I was watching at a friend's house as I didn't have a TV at the time, but he got a phone call from his mother just as the race was about to start so had to go out with the result that he missed the whole thing. When he returned home, I was sitting in his back garden contemplating life, the universe and everything. He must have been able to tell that things weren't quite right as, rather than asking who'd won, he asked what had happened.
I remember saying "They've killed another one". The 'other one' related to Roland Ratzenberger who'd died the previous day, but I have absolutely no idea why I said "They've killed another one".
When I didn't elaborate further or give a name, a look of shock crept across his face and he simply said "Not Senna! It can't have been Senna!"
Tony Blair - I remember my dad and I watching the news and they kept talking about the seats won. I didn't understand the fuss, my dad said that the seats won was a huge thing. I suppose as I got older I realised the importance of the election and the landslide
Diana I remember the Sunday morning. My dad coming in and told me to put the TV and and check teletext and there it was.
9/11 hadn't heard anything during the day at school. Got home and was reading a magazine. My dad come home and told me to stick the TV in and there it was on the BBC. The day after in school we spent our whole first lesson talking about it.
London bombing. I was at work, heard bits on the radio. I rang my gran and she turned the TV on to watch it.
Michael Jackson. Saw it pop up on my sky news app notifications.
Not born.
Don't remember, didn't consider it notable as a child.
I was in Wales with my grandparents. Didn't really care at the time.
Was in school. Found out when I got home and the kids TV shows were canceled.
Was at home (I was in Year 11 and I think I'd taken my last GCSE exam a few days beforehand). Woke up at midday and logged onto MSN Messenger to be greeted by a plethora of panicked and emotive statuses.
I think I was just at home watching TV. To be honest I don't remember this one strongly as I was never that fussed on him.
Moon Landing. I'd like to say in front of the tv with my dad and mum and brother, all of us rapt in cosmic wonder. Unfortunately I've no idea what I was doing. Asleep?
Elvis. Don't remember.
John Lennon. In the bathroom on a dark December morning getting ready for college. I heard the news from the radio downstairs.
Live Aid. Very hot sunny day in Harlesden. We got a small black and white tv connected up with extensions and put it on a chair out in the back garden. We were not too far from Wembley so could hear the distant roars and music when Queen performed.
Berlin Wall. Watched it on tv. Young Germans climbing all over the wall and hitting it with hammers. Hang on a minute. Who said Germany could reunite? This could lead to trouble...
Diana. Nice sunny morning. Turned on the tv news at breakfast and noticed as I chomped on my Jordans™ that people were talking about Diana as if she were dead. It took quite a while before there was another definite news announcement that she had died.
9/11. On Oxford Street, 5th Floor. We watched events unfold on an office tv. I remember looking out into all the other offices across the road and seeing the people from different companies also gathered round tvs.
Michael Jackson. Don't remember.
9/11 happened when I was on a school trip to Germany. This I remember very well. I had just turned 12, it was my first time being so far away from home and we were all staying with local families so language barrier was also an issue. I was scared somebody would attack Germany as well (I figured my home country was too irrelevant to be the target of terrorist attacks
When Jackson died I was a bit puzzled, because I thought he had died years ago.
I also remember Usain Bolt's 100m run in 2012, because I was at the movies (to see Django) with a few friends and some random guy sitting in front of me was trying to secretly watch a stream on his phone. I had been a bit sad I wouldn't be able to see the (what I expected to be an) historic event so I was glad to be able to look over his shoulder - only for his date to hiss at him just as the athletes were lining up. So I missed witnessing the run live
After the movies I raced home, avoiding radio and all other news outlets (I didn't have a smartphone back then), so that I could watch a re-run of the event online without knowing who had won. It almost felt like watching the real thing
that one is diana's death, i had just arived back in the UK after spending a month in the US, was looking forward to trying to catch up with everything that i had been missing only to discover the TV was wall-to-wall coverage of the crash
the other two were ;
live aid - i had been playing golf in the morning, rushed home to get in for the start and recorded the whole thing on video. back then it was just 3 hour long VHS tapes so i had to time everything to make sure i was ready to do a switch at one of the breaks between acts so i didn't miss anything
the biggest one is 9/11 - i was at work and on the phone to a guy i worked with who was working from home that day, we were talking about something and i was waiting for him to answer a question and was getting just silence from his end, and all i heard was a "wtf a plane has just crashed into the world trade centre", thought at first he was just talking about a little one man thing. we had fairly sucky internet in our office back then and it was almost impossible to get any of the big news sites up as they were all over-loaded so this guy was giving us a running commentary on what was going on. by this point the office had just ground to a standstill and our boss ended up just sending everyone home as he realised no-one was going to be doing much work for the rest of the day. hurried home and just sat watching the coverage for the rest of the day.
The turn of the Millennium. I watched online to feeds of it around the World, then watched the fireworks here when it was our turn.
What about where were you when Lockerbie happend or Dunblane? ... Why is Hillsborough seen as the worst?
I watched some Live Aid so I guess I was at home for that one.
I remember Hasslehoff and his flashing jacket when the wall came down!
I took my daughter to the park the day Diana died as the weather was nice.
9/11 was my mum's birthday. I was on the telephone talking to her when I heard my dad in the background telling her to look at the TV, I think she said something along the lines of Jesus Christ and I couldn't quite believe what she was telling me.
I think with Hillsborough a lot of the fuss was over the Sun's article and later on how poorly the police/organisers/officials managed the situation and the aftermath.
In that respect it was the response which was scandalous, not the tragedy itself.
It's not seen as worse, it's not tragedy top trumps. Some things will stick out in memories more than others. Dunblane for me resonated more than the others, probably because I had little kids at the time, which of course doesn't make it a worse tragedy.
Where? Passed out on the floor, but I hear it went very well.
Because it was live on TV? Like 9/11?
I can still remember the expression on my dad's face watching the images on the TV screen - it was one of absolute wonderment and awe!:)
My older brother who was into astronomy and all things space was so excited he couldn't keep still:D
Death of Diana - Working a night shift. Saw it breaking on the telly. First reports saying she had survived.
Berlin Wall - sat up all night and watched while caring for sleepless 6 months old baby, felt full of hope
Diana - on holiday with family, sister was a bit hysterical about it all
9/11 - working from home, had telly on in background for pretend 'office noise' was gobsmacked when screen switched live to NY, called parents and told them to put TV on
I thought it happened during the Steve Wright show? Wasnt Moyles early morning?
Absolutely.
I particularly remember the Aberfan disaster because I was around the same age as many of the children who died.
Yes, I remember this too for same reason. Strangely, only last week I was talking to someone moving very close to the site of the disaster there. I looked it up on Street View and there was a big wall and remembrance park with swings etc where the school used to stand. To be honest I couldn't live with that view.
No it wasnt, unless you were in Ireland. No channel was covering the semi final live
I was just thinking about Dunblane as I was reading through the thread. That one has always stuck with me for some reason, maybe because I was in France the day it happened so didn't hear anything about it until I was back in the UK later in the evening when I heard about it on the radio in my dad's car. The Zeebrugge ferry disaster is another one that sticks in my mind - I remember being at home and seeing the footage of the ferry on it's side and hearing the horrific stories from some of the survivors. I was 10 at the time and it planted a fear in my mind of being on a boat or ship and the same kind of thing happening. I've still got that fear today. The Bradford City fire is another one I remember well. Weirdly, I don't remember anything from when Lockerbie happened.