AARoads Forum

Thread idea inspired by Jim's comment in the Challenger thread. I thought the sentence I've highlighted made for an interesting question but I didn't want to derail the thread.

Quote from: Jim on January 29, 2018, 11:56:45 AM
Similar story here to many others of my age.  I was off school because it was regents exam week in New York and I wasn't taking any January exams.  I was watching the launch and it happened while I was making myself some lunch.  I remember being glued to the television the rest of the day.  It was probably the first real "remember where you were when it happened" moment of my life.

Obviously I'm thinking more in terms of national or world events than personal things like buying your first car or when you got an acceptance letter from the university you attended. I guess we know Jim's answer already!  :-D

---

For me the answer is when Ronald Reagan was shot on Monday, March 30, 1981. I can still see in my mind exactly where I was when I heard the news and exactly what happened next. It was a Monday afternoon when I was in second grade. Fairfax County elementary schools closed two hours early every Monday back then to give teachers planning time (not an issue for junior high and high schools because their teachers don't teach every period). Our mom sent us to CCD (what Protestants call "Sunday school") on Monday afternoon after school, in part because our parish was right next to our school, and that day we had been over in the church for something and we walked back over to the parish center where CCD classes were held. Right as we entered the building, I heard the teacher gasp, "Oh my God, the President's been shot!" They hustled us back to the classroom to pray for the President and I can picture that too. My mom and a couple of the other moms in our neighborhood took turns driving several of us home afterwards and I remember whichever mom was driving that day had the news on the radio–absolutely silent ride home, which never happened with little kids.

9/11 is mine. My experience is probably a little different than most people my age, because my elementary school (I was in the fourth grade) just went on as usual that day. None of the teachers or staff said a single word about it. I only learned about it when my mom came and picked me up after school, and I heard about it on the radio. I also remember the day because my parents, who aren't usually news watchers, had CNN on all afternoon/evening.

Now that I've typed this out, I realize that this isn't strictly a "I remember exactly when/where/what I was doing when it actually happened" moment, but I think it counts in spirit. Oh well. ;-)

I was 7 when Reagan was shot.  I remember hearing about it but don't remember where I was when I first heard about it.

For me it would be the Challenger explosion.  I was in the school gym for after lunch recess and someone who was a special needs kid told me the space shuttle just blew up.  I didn't believe him.  My first class after that was math, where we had a computer lab back when TVs doubled as computer monitors.  As soon as I walked into the room and saw a bunch of teachers with the TVs on I realized the kid was telling the truth.

Mine is JFK's assassination.  I was in the 7th grade.  During math class, the principal came on the PA and called all the teachers to the office.  My teacher came back a few minutes later, white as a sheet, and told us the president was dead.  We got dismissed from school early.  When I got home, my mother asked my why I was so early, so I told her.  She got just about as white as my teacher did.  Two days later,  I watched Oswald get shot on live TV.

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on January 31, 2018, 09:06:20 AM
9/11 is mine. My experience is probably a little different than most people my age, because my elementary school (I was in the fourth grade) just went on as usual that day. None of the teachers or staff said a single word about it. I only learned about it when my mom came and picked me up after school, and I heard about it on the radio. I also remember the day because my parents, who aren't usually news watchers, had CNN on all afternoon/evening.

Now that I've typed this out, I realize that this isn't strictly a "I remember exactly when/where/what I was doing when it actually happened" moment, but I think it counts in spirit. Oh well. ;-)

Another check for 9/11. I was 8 and watching cyclism on TV, and they didn't switch it over channels as they would do back then because of that.

I would have to say for me it was the Challenger accident as well.

The 1984 Firecracker 400 at Daytona which was Richard Petty's last NASCAR win.  I was sitting in the living room with my Dad watching on TV on Canton, MI.  I remember watching the Tigers won the World Series also.  For what it's worth we watched the Challenger explosion live on TV also in 86. 

The Loma Prieta Earthquake.
I was thousands of miles away, but was heavy into baseball already so seeing earthquake damage instead of a game was extremely memorable.

For something that was planned, the moon landing and Neil Armstrong's steps on the lunar surface. Watched it on TV at home.

For something unplanned, Nixon's resignation. My family was in Louisville doing some back-to-school shopping and I saw the breaking news on TVs in a store in The Mall (now called Mall St. Matthews). We watched his speech from our hotel room in a Howard Johnson's on Shelbyville Road.

+1 on the Challenger disaster as my vote.  Was only 5 and in Kindergarten when Reagan was shot.  I also remember 9/11 like it was yesterday.  I'm pretty good with this when it comes to sports.  I can tell you that the whole night of the Buckner game in the 1986 World Series was a disaster for me.  My dad and I were supposed to go to the Whalers game that night.  We got to the turnstile, and he brought the tickets for the wrong game.  It wasn't like today where you could just pull it up on a smartphone.  We had to go back to his business 20 miles away, and by that time, we just said "forget it".  Went home, watched the ending in horror.  One of the three times in my life I cried over something bad in sports (though I did cry tears of joy when UConn won in '99 and the Red Sox broke the curse in '04, also because sadly my dad didn't live long enough to see either). 

Later, but probably the new Pope being voted in. 7th grade, in English class, taking a vocab quiz.

9/11. I was in 7th grade. We were changing classes and when I first walked into the classroom, the news was on TV. I was living in Fremont, NC at the time and going to Norwayne Middle School. My dad kept a copy of our local newspaper paper from the Goldsboro News-Argus that day with a single, huge headline "UNITED STATES UNDER ATTACK" with a big picture of the Twin Towers in flames under it. He gave it to me a few years ago, which I still have.

The Mount St. Helens volcanic eruption.

Apollo 11, Armstrong & Aldrin at Mare Tranquillitatis, July 20, 1969.

I was in college when Challenger happened. Someone called the prof to the door, she told everyone to come to a (big) lecture hall where several TVs on stands were tuned to the networks. The students and teachers just wandered from TV to TV and sat in small stunned groups. All classes stopped as far as I could tell. I remember I kept watching the footage over - intellectually I knew they were gone but I still kept hoping that somehow the crew might have survived.

On 9-11, I was just finishing my all night twelve-hour shift when someone came out of the break room to say that a plane had struck the WTC. I immediately thought of the bomber that had struck the Empire State bldg in the '40s and assumed that some small aircraft that had had some catastrophic failure. I watched live as WTC 2 was struck by the second plane and - everything I thought I knew changed. I don't think any of us going off-shift left work until after noon....

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on January 31, 2018, 11:20:55 AM
Later, but probably the new Pope being voted in. 7th grade, in English class, taking a vocab quiz.

Heh. Here's another example of generational thought differences. I assume, based on the age stated in your profile, you mean Pope Francis. If you didn't have an age stated, I'd probably think of Pope Benedict XVI, simply because John Paul II was the only pope I ever remembered (I was five when he became pope and I was unaware of such things back then) and I still automatically think of "the new pope" as being his successor.  :-D

My 9/11 story isn't interesting but my Dad's is:

He went golfing that morning.  According to the pro working at the clubhouse, his group was the last group to check in before ESPN broke in with coverage.  Normally they would have hit the clubhouse between nines for snacks and drinks, but they were stuck behind a really slow group that wasn't letting them play through so when that group was still in the clubhouse after the 9th hole, they headed straight for the 10th tee to get ahead of them. 

My Dad also decided not to go to the clubhouse but head straight home after finishing, and had a CD playing in the car instead of a radio, and he didn't have a cell phone for anyone to call him and tell him what was going on, so it wasn't until he got home from golfing, some 5+ hours after it happened, that my Dad found out about it, making him one of the last in America to hear about it.

Quote from: 1995hoo on January 31, 2018, 11:33:47 AM

Quote from: Hurricane Rex on January 31, 2018, 11:20:55 AM
Later, but probably the new Pope being voted in. 7th grade, in English class, taking a vocab quiz.

Heh. Here's another example of generational thought differences. I assume, based on the age stated in your profile, you mean Pope Francis. If you didn't have an age stated, I'd probably think of Pope Benedict XVI, simply because John Paul II was the only pope I ever remembered (I was five when he became pope and I was unaware of such things back then) and I still automatically think of "the new pope" as being his successor.  :-D

Yes, I mean Pope Francis, although I remember watching the Pope Benedict XVI although I don't know where it was.

Being only 18, I don't really remember 9/11. So, I guess I'll have to go with the 2016 presidential election  :eyebrow:

John Lennon's shooting and death.  We were still hoping for a reunion back then...

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on January 31, 2018, 09:06:20 AM
9/11 is mine. My experience is probably a little different than most people my age, because my elementary school (I was in the fourth grade) just went on as usual that day. None of the teachers or staff said a single word about it. I only learned about it when my mom came and picked me up after school, and I heard about it on the radio. I also remember the day because my parents, who aren't usually news watchers, had CNN on all afternoon/evening.

Similar for me. I was also in fourth grade and I didn't hear about it until after school. Side note: My classroom was in a portable building not connected to the rest of the school due to overcrowding.

The death of Princess Diana. Was with my mom at her friend's house in Duluth and was up way past bedtime for a 7-year old when the news broke. Mom and her friend were watching SNL.

The April 27th, 2011 tornadoes here in the Southeast, mostly because I had to survive through them!

I was at my house for the first part of the day, then we got into school (which had been delayed for a few hours) where I was there for a few hours as the weather worsened before they sent us home at about noon. I was at my house again until after the power went out, at which point my family waited for the weather to lighten up a bit before making the (fortunately somewhat short) trip to my grandparent's house where they had a back-up generator.

The Oklahoma City bombing was the first time I remember seeing something bad. I was 3 years old at my grandmother's house, who was watching daytime talk shows when the networks broke in.

Probably the first event I remember where I was when it happened was Princess Diana in 1997. It was late at night, and I remember the day after it seemed like the whole world was in mourning, which was strange to me as a 5 year old who didn't know who Princess Diana was.

On 9/11, I was in the 4th grade in SC, and we had a pre-scheduled early release day. I went to the bathroom and saw one of the other teachers showing a TV feed of the towers burning, probably 30 minutes after the second plane had hit. Not long after that, the principal came over the loudspeaker and mentioned what happened, and schools quietly dismissed for the day, in the most eerie day I have ever experienced.

I went to my mom's classroom (she was a HS teacher) and they had CNN piped in (which was rare at that time period). Nine year old me was shocked that literally every radio station, no matter the format, stopped running music to run all 9/11 coverage, and probably 85-90% of cable channels were running coverage.

President Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974.  I was 8 at the time.  A bunch of us were just hanging outside near the adjacent street intersection of the house I lived in; when my mother came out & mentioned that President Nixon was resigning from office.

I don't remember where I was for the Challenger disaster, but undoubtedly I saw it live on TV.  My first that I remember without a doubt, including the entire day, is August 28, 1990, the Plainfield Tornado.

It had been a Tuesday, the first day of eight grade.  It was a partial day, with classes letting out about 11 am or so.  It was very warm and very humid, and when I got home after a mile and a quarter bicycle ride (there was no bus - we lived too close at that distance), we filled up the kiddie pool.  My bother, I, and his friends relaxed in the pool for a bit after lunch.  About 2:30-3, we could see some potentially nasty weather to the northwest (in Illinois, it's fairly easy with no large hills or mountains in the way), and we got out of the pool and cleaned up inside.  Just before 3:30 pm, I turned on the TV to watch Jeopardy (pretty much a daily affair for us).  No sooner than the words "This is Jeopardy!" were said than the sirens turned on for a tornado warning.  I went to turn off the TV, but before I could get there, the power went out.  We basically said screw it at that point and went for the basement.  Must've spent the next 15-20 minutes down there.  Even the local radio station, WJOL (AM 1340) was off the air due to a lack of power.  Thus, we really had no idea what was going on beyond a tornado.  About 3:50, we got out of the basement and tried to get some news over a battery powered radio.  Learned that there has been a very large tornado in the area, and were not surprised due to the sky we had seen earlier.  That sky was a distinct shade of sickly green to the northwest.  Power finally came on about 6-6:15 pm after my father got home from Bolingbrook.

I just realized that I don't really have moments like that.  To me, the event is important, but where I am when I learn of something doesn't seem to be important enough to remember.  I do remember where I was when I learned that standoff at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco was ending, because where I was determined how I learned of it.  I was in history class and the teacher came into the room and turned on the television.  She told us that the people were coming out, but that wasn't exactly what was happening.

I remember first hearing about the 2010 Chile earthquake, for reasons that are unrelated to the event itself.  This is one of those weird stories that most people wouldn't believe.

I also remember that I heard about the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on the radio while driving to a hike.  Other than these examples that happened because of unusual circumstances, I don't have any memories that stand out regarding my own circumstances when learning of a big event.

I remember seeing coverage of the Northridge Earthquake (January 17, 1994) on TV that day. The image of the section of the Golden State Freeway totally collapsed onto the ground particularly sticks in my mind. As a kid who had just turned 6 I wasn't fully capable of processing that, it didn't seem real. But I was glad I lived far far away from California and didn't have to worry about earthquakes since they looked very scary.

Mine is kind of similar to Brandon, except mine is two years later and I live in Michigan.  A little background, I am on the autism spectrum so I am sensitive to certain things now, but was even more sensitive to certain things in 1992 when I was 6.  It was June 17, 1992 and it was a hot, humid, sunny day at my grandmothers house where myself and my cousins were playing.  At my grandmothers house, there was kind of a closed in porch off the living room.  I remember my cousins and I playing and I had to go to the bathroom.  When I was running through the living room, I just so happened to look over at the TV and saw the words "Tornado Watch" in yellow italicized letters on the corner of the TV.  I didn't quite understand what "Tornado Watch" meant, but the way the yellow letters were italicized on the TV stopped me in my tracks.  It is kind of stupid looking back on it now, but it really scared me.  I had to get out of that room immediately, it was as if the words were a direct barrier between me and the bathroom.  My aunt, who was staying with my grandmother, and who is one of those people who always has a smart aleck comment for everything asked me what was wrong.  All I could do was point at the TV.  It took my aunt a few seconds to figure out what I was pointing at, but she did and laughed and said, "you better be careful, a tornado will come and suck you up into sky."  We did not have a tornado in my immediate area, and I don't really remember anything else of that day other than the words "Tornado Watch" changing color.  I know that where my dad lived at the time, someones barn was leveled.  This was a life changing day because it was the day I became fascinated with weather but deathly afraid of thunderstorms for about 5 years after that.

The first time I was conscious of world events, though not an actual "when it happened" moment, was when my first grade teacher asked us "Does anyone know what happened in the world yesterday?"  and my hand went up and I answered "Mr. King died" (Martin Luther King).  Not bad for a little kid living in an all-white suburb with no real sense of what was hitting the fan in 1968.

The actual "when it happened" moment would have been the Apollo 11 landing (at home, watching on TV or trying to because Dad was cussing about the unreliable primitive cable TV service which had been out for a while that day).

Reagan being shot: 1st grade, announced by my teacher.

Challenger: 6th grade. The PA speakers in both girls restrooms (one upstairs, one downstairs) sounded like it was playing a radio. Couldn't make out what was being said because the rooms echoed so much. When we asked our teacher what the deal was, our teacher answered so non-chalantly, "Oh, the space shuttle blew up." What an absolute bitch!

The earliest major news story I remember is the Three Mile Island crisis.

But, when it comes to a "remember where you were" moment, nothing beats out 9/11 in my mind.  Not even the Challenger.

9/11

I was in 8th grade at a Catholic school and had served the 8:30 am Mass with a classmate. When he and I walked into our classroom around 9:15 we were somewhat puzzled to see everyone transfixed on the TV, and we were soon filled in on what was going on. We changed classes like normal the rest of that morning, but didn't do anything but watch the coverage, and I can still remember which classroom I was in when each of the two towers collapsed. Later on in the early afternoon when myself and the 3 other band kids did our daily walk to the public Jr. High 2 blocks away for band I couldn't help but notice what a clear and calm day it was....with absolutely no planes to be found in the sky.

The first major event I remember was the death of Elvis Presley; I was 7 that summer.

For a planned event, it would be the Apollo 11 moon landing.  My parents and I, along with two brothers and one sister who were still living at home at the time, were gathered in our den watching on our then brand-new color console TV.

For an unplanned event, it would be the crash of Delta Flight 723 at Logan Airport in July of 1973.  My friends and I were on their back porch when their mother called out the kitchen window "Hey, there's been a plane crash at Logan."  We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the WCVB Channel 5 (which was a brand new station at the time) coverage on their TV.  I particularly remember their chief meteorologist discussing the weather conditions at the time of the crash and how they might have contributed to it.

The assassination attempt of Reagan stands out as well, as I was riding a train to visit my sister in Washington DC on that day.  A couple of passengers who got on in Newark spread the news, and I managed to tune in a local news station on my radio to get additional details - which I relayed to both the conductor and other passengers.  For years afterwards, we used to joke about how, after my sister picked me up at Union Station, we drove by the White House to see if Al Haig was throwing furniture out onto the front lawn.

The Challenger disaster also stands out for a very personal reason.  It was the last major live news event that my father and I watched together before he died several months later.  And, in the interval between the explosion and NASA's initial response, I recall looking at my father and saying "I'm not sure, but I think it blew up."

h/t to PHLBOS for the number of the Delta flight.

Quote from: roadman on February 01, 2018, 12:41:06 PMFor an unplanned event, it would be the crash of the Delta flight at Logan Airport in July of 1973.  My friends and I were on their back porch when their mother called out the kitchen window "Hey, there's been a plane crash at Logan."  We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the WCVB Channel 5 (which was a brand new station at the time) coverage on their TV.  I particularly remember their chief meteorologist discussing the weather conditions at the time of the crash and how they might have contributed to it.

That was Flight 723.  Several years ago, Airliners magazine did a look-back story on that Delta DC-9 crash.  This aircraft (N975NE) was originally delivered to Northeast Airlines circa 1967 and later flew for Delta following the 1972 merger of the two carriers (Delta acquiring Northeast).  One issue that contributed to the crash was the modifications made to the DC-9's radio and flight instruments as a result of the Delta-Northeast merger; the two airlines used differently configured avionics systems despite using the same aircraft type.

Quote from: FAA CorrespondenceThese records show that numercus complaints about radio and flight instruments were recorded in the flight logs of N975NE after the aircraft was modified from the Northeast Airlines to the Delta Air Lines DC-9 avionics configuration in April 1973.  Many of these complaints were of a recurring or chronic nature, as evidenced "by the seven write-ups "between July 25 and 29, 1973, dealing with the functioning of the flight director, the DME, and one of the navigational receivers.

A total of 14 NEA. DC-9 aircraft were affected "by this modification plan. The records of the aircraft which immediately preceded and followed N975NE through the modification program also were examined. The records of "both these aircraft, N979NE and N978NE, contained recurring radio and flight instrument complaints similar to those reported on N975NE.

Source for the above

Vintage photo of N975NE months prior to the crash:

Vintage photo from Bob Garrard

N975NE in its original Northeast Yellowbird colors:

Vintage photo from Bill Armstrong

IIRC, the findings of this crash was one of the reasons why Delta unloaded every former-Northeast DC-9 they inherited shortly thereafter.  Many of the-then surviving former Yellowbird DC-9s either went to Eastern and/or Allegheny (predecessor to USAir & US Airways).

Side bar: while I do remember the Delta-Northeast merger (I remember the billboard along then-US 1/now MA 1A showing the Northeast Yellowbird mascot wearing a white sweater with a Delta widget on it); I don't recall hearing about this crash when it happened nor heard of it until several decades later while reading the fore-mentioned Airliners magazine.  When I asked my older brother about it; he remembered hearing of it.

Sandy Hook school shooting: I was getting picked up from school by my mom. It was the first thing she said to me when I got into the car. I was in 9th grade.

President Obama's 2009 inauguration: My school had all the kids in my grade (6th or 7th, I cant remember) go into the library to watch it live on TV.

The earliest well known event I can remember where I was when I heard was Nixon's resignation. I was in my usual spot at the counter that seperated our dining room from the kitchen eating ice cream while my mom was getting things ready for dinner when the news broke on that little 12 inch B/W TV my mom had there.

Regan's shooting I was in 5th grade and we were just putting our books away from one course and getting ready to line up to go to the bathroom when the assistant principal came in and whispered something to my teacher. My teacher sent the 2 "pets" to the library to go get a A/V cart while the rest of us went to the bathroom and when we came back the TV was already turned on and they were talking about it. I remember that they let us eat our lunches we brought with us early that day while we watched the TV coverage. We stayed in school until our normal time, but we didn't do anything else but watch the coverage until then.

Both space shuttle accidents are vivid in my mind (I posted my Challenger experience in the other thread) In that same general time frame it was the Bears winning the Super Bowl, and the death of Mayor Harold Washington in Chicago too.

But for all of that, the death of Dale Earnhardt, Sr and 9/11 are the only two things where I can remember exact conversations almost word for word right around the time I found out that each had happend. Even the the death of my own father in March 2011, though burned in my memory, doesn't leave the same level of detail that Big E's death or 9/11 does.

The first was the explosion of the Challenger in 1986.  I was in High School, and the principal came over the PA system to announce what happened.


To expand the premise, the most IMPACTFUL "remember where you were when it happened" moment was 9/11, as that's my birthday.

Quote from: inkyatari on February 02, 2018, 09:31:02 AM
The first was the explosion of the Challenger in 1986.  I was in High School, and the principal came over the PA system to announce what happened.


To expand the premise, the most IMPACTFUL "remember where you were when it happened" moment was 9/11, as that's my birthday.

9/11 happened the day after I turned 40.  When my brother asked me what I thought about what happened that evening, I quipped "Well, I sure didn't expect the world to fall apart so quickly after turning 40."

Quote from: PHLBOS on February 01, 2018, 04:22:04 PM

Quote from: roadman on February 01, 2018, 12:41:06 PMFor an unplanned event, it would be the crash of the Delta flight at Logan Airport in July of 1973.  My friends and I were on their back porch when their mother called out the kitchen window "Hey, there's been a plane crash at Logan."  We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the WCVB Channel 5 (which was a brand new station at the time) coverage on their TV.  I particularly remember their chief meteorologist discussing the weather conditions at the time of the crash and how they might have contributed to it.

That was Flight 723.  Several years ago, Airliners magazine did a look-back story on that Delta DC-9 crash.  This aircraft (N975NE) was originally delivered to Northeast Airlines circa 1967 and later flew for Delta following the 1972 merger of the two carriers (Delta acquiring Northeast).  One issue that contributed to the crash was the modifications made to the DC-9's radio and flight instruments as a result of the Delta-Northeast merger; the two airlines used differently configured avionics systems despite using the same aircraft type.

Quote from: FAA CorrespondenceThese records show that numercus complaints about radio and flight instruments were recorded in the flight logs of N975NE after the aircraft was modified from the Northeast Airlines to the Delta Air Lines DC-9 avionics configuration in April 1973.  Many of these complaints were of a recurring or chronic nature, as evidenced "by the seven write-ups "between July 25 and 29, 1973, dealing with the functioning of the flight director, the DME, and one of the navigational receivers.

A total of 14 NEA. DC-9 aircraft were affected "by this modification plan. The records of the aircraft which immediately preceded and followed N975NE through the modification program also were examined. The records of "both these aircraft, N979NE and N978NE, contained recurring radio and flight instrument complaints similar to those reported on N975NE.

Source for the above

Vintage photo of N975NE months prior to the crash:

Vintage photo from Bob Garrard

N975NE in its original Northeast Yellowbird colors:

Vintage photo from Bill Armstrong

IIRC, the findings of this crash was one of the reasons why Delta unloaded every former-Northeast DC-9 they inherited shortly thereafter.  Many of the-then surviving former Yellowbird DC-9s either went to Eastern and/or Allegheny (predecessor to USAir & US Airways).

Side bar: while I do remember the Delta-Northeast merger (I remember the billboard along then-US 1/now MA 1A showing the Northeast Yellowbird mascot wearing a white sweater with a Delta widget on it); I don't recall hearing about this crash when it happened nor heard of it until several decades later while reading the fore-mentioned Airliners magazine.  When I asked my older brother about it; he remembered hearing of it.

Thanks for this follow up info PHLBOS - very interesting.  I'll have to look up that back issue of Airliners.  Found a copy of the issue of Airliners with the article about Delta 723 on eBay - it's the September/October issue from 2002 for those who are interested.

I was coming home from 4th grade the day Reagan was shot. Mom had it on CBS News and Dan Rather. I was 10 years old.

I was home sick from high school in Old Orchard Beach, ME the morning the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded...Tuesday, January 28, 1986. I didn't have the TV on, since I felt awful. I only started hearing about it when my two brothers got home that afternoon. (Super Bowl XX in New Orleans was held two days earlier.)

Lastly...Tuesday, September 11, 2001. At 8:46 AM Eastern, I was at Union Station, the train and intercity bus terminal of Hartford, CT. I still made my day trip to and from Brattleboro, VT. Let's just say I was lucky to get past Springfield, MA coming back that evening. I did make it to Hartford, but had to cab it back home, as all city busses were cancelled by then.

Mine was 9/11.  I was in school and my third grade teacher came into the classroom at 8:45AM (just after the 1st plane hit the WTC) and explained the situation.  At night I usually put the radio on to listen to music to help sleep but it was all preempted by President Bush's nighttime address.

Other moments like this:
2003 NYC blackout: was on vacation at the Cape.
2004 funeral for Ronald Reagan.  Fifth grade teacher made us watch some of it.
2005 London bombings: also on vacation at the Cape
2009 death of Michael Jackson:  had been following the coverage all afternoon.  Saw Shepard Smith break the news live on FNC that he had passed.
2011 capture of Osama bin Laden:  I was at home watching TV when the news broke on my Facebook feed.
2011 Manassas, VA earthquake.  I was sitting on my bed and felt the tremors shake it.  A weather forum I was following online suddenly blew up with chatter about the quake.
2012 Sandy Hook Shooting:  God, what an awful day.  Had exams in the morning.  Heard about the shooting then but no details were yet out about casualties.  Later in the afternoon our prof. interrupts to tell us 27 kids had died.  Went to my dorm, called my mother (a teacher, she was still at her school) and nearly lost it when I asked, "are you OK?"

2003 blackout: I was in a supermarket in Berlin, CT that afternoon. Me and my mother were treated to one hell of a light show that lasted anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. Unlike much of the northeast, the power came back on after that. It's only when an old friend called from his home in Brooklyn that I even realized that something much bigger happened. We had gotten back from the supermarket and didn't have the TV on yet.

The death of President Reagan 2004: I was on a day trip to Scranton, PA that day. It was a Saturday. Dan Rather was on the air. I knew it had to be a major deal. I had an old Walkman with the VHF TV audio (analog channels 2 to 13). I was getting a weak signal of audio from WBNG-TV (CBS) channel 12 from Binghamton, NY.

Michael Jackson's death in 2009: I was work at Walmart in Newington, CT at the time.

Oddly enough mine was also the Challenger Explosion. Was in second grade, and my teacher had a TV in the room for us to watch it. Of course every teacher in the world was proud of what was to happen for obvious reasons. I had never seen a shuttle launch before, so really didn't know what I was watching, especially sitting 10 feet from a 15-ish inch black and white TV. My teacher just calmly walked over and turned it off without discussion. Her reaction was what I remember the most...

First US manned space flight (Alan Shepard) in May 1961; was in 6th grade, and they wheeled a TV into our classroom and brought the other 6th grade class from the next room over into our room to watch the splashdown.  That's the first actual event where I could more or less pinpoint the time and place (more followed in ensuing years -- the Cuban missile crisis the following year, the Kennedy assassination in '63, and so on.)  The year that brought the most of these was 1968 -- I can remember where I was at the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy assasinations as well as the Democratic convention/Chicago riots and the Nixon election.  Hardly the most outstanding year of that era!

I was interested in the space program, but we had no TV at home in 1969, so that was a "read about it the next day" sort of event for me.

Watching the helicopters evacuating Americans and selected Vietnamese from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, the helicopters arriving at aircraft carriers offshore and empty helicopters being pushed off into the sea because there wasn't enough space for them on the carriers.  A great microcosm of the war as a whole.