First and/or most significant historical moment you recall

[OmerV]

Charles Manson followers outside his trial scared me as a child. Women with shaved heads and scratched swasitkas on their foreheads.

That’s interesting. I guess I’ve never had a good sense of how heavy the news coverage was outside of California. Where did you live at the time?

 

[Runwildboys]

That’s interesting. I guess I’ve never had a good sense of how heavy the news coverage was outside of California. Where did you live at the time?

I was in Jersey then, and yeah, coverage wasn't lacking. He was a horror film come to life.

 

[OmerV]

This is a little different than the kinds of tragic events we have written about in this thread, but Magic Johnson’s press conference about having HIV was a significant shock to me. That took the HIV/AIDS scare to a whole different level for me. It put a well known face to the disease, and the face of a guy that I had watched with admiration for years. I’m sure that moment hit for some with Rock Hudson, but that didn’t hit me nearly as hard as Magic.

 

[OmerV]

I was in Jersey then, and yeah, coverage wasn't lacking. He was a horror film come to life.

I was 7 at the time of the murders and I don’t have any recollection of it. Maybe I saw Cronkite talk about it, but I just don’t remember it.

 

[Runwildboys]

This is a little different than the kinds of tragic events we have written about in this thread, but Magic Johnson’s press conference about having HIV was a significant shock to me. That took the HIV/AIDS scare to a whole different level for me. It put a well known face to the disease, and the face of a guy that I had watched with admiration for years. I’m sure that moment hit for some with Rock Hudson, but that didn’t hit me nearly as hard as Magic.

Well, I think because you don't get much more masculine than Magic Johnson. (Though now that I read that to myself, it just looks wrong.) When Rock Hudson's sickness came to light, it was a surprise, but my first thought was, "I didn't know he was gay." (Sorry, but that was the mindset of America then.)
When Magic made his announcement, it was more of, "Wow, I guess it can happen to anyone!"

 

[Quickdraw]

Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.

 

[Cowpolk]

Friday, November 22, 1963, I was at school and all the teachers freaked

 

[Runwildboys]

Friday, November 22, 1963, I was at school and all the teachers freaked

I was in the womb, and even I freaked!

 

[Tabascocat]

Challenger explosion especially because it hit close to home. My mom worked at NASA as a RN and we lived just a few miles away from Nasa rd one

 

[Cowpolk]

I was in the womb, and even I freaked!

My school was less than a mile from where Oswald was captured we were under lock down or what ever they called it back then When it was time to go home we could not leave the school

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The RFK murder.

 

[Trouty]

JFK Jr death

Nixon death

9/11

 

[Ranching]

I remember a lot of the ones you all have mentioned, but the one I remember vividly was the Hail Mary catch. I was about 7 years old and it changed my life. Spent the next 40 years or so involved in football as a player or coach.

 

[OmerV]

A couple off dramatic and significant moments I don’t think have been mentioned yet ...

The violent kidnapping and massacre of the Israeli athletes at the Munich games.

The Jonestown mass suicide

The first Gulf War, which, aside from the motivations for the war, was also notable in that it was the first war in which TV audiences could watch things live as they happened. All those reports from CNN reporters hunkered down with bombs and rockets exploding all around was pretty dramatic.