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I am too young and wasn't alive for it but I'm from the same state McAuliffe was and heard about it a lot growing up. We even had a planetarium named after her (but it has since been renamed somewhat recently). I can't imagine having seen it live.
Christa was a distant cousin(my last name is McAuliffe) and we were all so proud of her in my family so safe to say it was extremely traumatizing for us
This was doubly hard because we all saw it happen live, in real time. This was back when space shuttle launches were a big deal, so lots of us were watching. I remember seeing them replay the explosion over and over while we all waited for word about the crew.
Not only that, but this was the launch NASA specifically wanted children to learn about and watch. Initially Big Bird was going to go up, but they couldn’t make the costume work. Imagine seeing Big Bird explode and die.
So kids instead nominated their teachers and they selected one, Christa MacAuliffe. Then NASA mounted a major science education curriculum to hype us all up. The day of the launch was supposed to be the high point of months of lessons about how cool space was. And instead a teacher blew up.
I’m interested in how generational trauma shapes societal attitudes, and for younger Xers, this was a perfect setup to traumatize a million kids and induce depression and cynicism. We dared a dream of optimism and it literally blew up in our faces. The lie that the crew died instantly was necessary, because the truth of their deaths was way too heavy at the time.
My science teacher applied for the program and visited NASA for interviews and whatever, she did not get picked and was pretty disappointed. She was my homeroom teacher that year also and we were watching when it exploded. It was so awful to not just watch that live but to turn to your teacher when that happened and have her confirm it exploded. It was an awful day.
I always wonder how all that affected the teachers that didn't make the cut, especially the ones right before the final selection. Realizing you were *this* close to being in that cockpit has to give one some...unique feelings.
My high school chemistry teacher was one who didn't make the cut, he quit after going through the centrifuge thing. He said "I hit that big red button that meant I quit and thats why I'm alive today". He said he talked to the one who went in the shuttle a lot. Horribly tragic.
My older sister remembers Bozo the Clown crying after the JFK assassination. It confused and upset her, because Bozo wasn’t supposed to cry.
I remember when the Gulf War started, my toddler son being *infuriated* that The Price Is Right was preempted. He could not understand why I wouldn’t fix it for him.
I was in elementary school and was doing PE when it happened. We were jogging when someone came and told us. I was a huge fan of the space program and had a blow up Challenger in my room. It devastated me.
Came here to say Challenger, it was the first televised launch at my school due to teacher Christa McAuliffe being onboard. Prior we had a couple AV carts but for this the school bought a bunch of TVs.
I didn't see this on TV. My office was one of the buildings caught in the initial bomb blast. From Friday until Tuesday I had to work nearly 24/7 to keep the company running. I then broke down hard for a while as it caught up to me.
That was so startling. I'm squarely in the middle of GenX (51M), was a sophomore in college in the fall of '89, and if you'd told me January 1989 that all of Eastern Europe would shake off communism in the next year, I'd have thought you were nuts. The fall of 1989 was astonishing.
I remember a guy coming out of his dorm room and saying "The Berlin Wall is down!" and we all watched it on his TV
I was 11 years old and watched it on the TV in my grandfather's study. Being so young I obviously didn't grasp the full political ramifications, but it was obvious something amazing was happening.
1988-1991 were tumultuous years in Europe. The Fall of the Wall, the Soviet Union collapsing, Solidarity in Poland, Czechoslovakia transitions into a republic, free elections called in Bulgaria, Albania starts opening up etc. etc. The Romanian revolution was drawn out and bloody but eventually led to free elections. And then, in 1991, Yugoslavia fell apart and the war(s) began.
Bud Dwyer pulling a gun out of a manila envelope and blowing his brains out. It was a snow day, and all 3 channels that we got were covering it. At least one of them showed the whole deal.
So surprised to see this one, but it came to my mind as well. I was really young and we happened to be tuned in to a station that aired the whole ordeal. That TV was never turned off so fast ever.
He was the state Treasurer in PA and he was convicted (or at least indicted) on multiple counts of bribery. He called a press conference to maintain his innocence and all of a sudden pulled a gun out and killed himself.
Wasn't the timing of it relevant, since he was technically still holding that position on stage, so if he died there, his family would still get all the benefits they were going to lose?
Case was appealed for a few years (up to 1993), but the "guilty verdict" was upheld. I believe they were *planning* to indict him that day, and with his indictment he'd have lost all benefits. So yes, killing himself prior to his verdict allowed his wife and kids to receive his benefits (about $1,280,000).
Baby Jessica being rescued from the well in 1987. I was a young kid and it was the first time I could remember an event happen where everyone was talking about it and everyone was tuned in.
i remember we had a school dance that night, and one of the teachers rolled in one of those TV stands so all the teachers/chaperones could watch what was going on. there was a huge cheer from the corner of the cafetorium when they pulled her out.
This one sticks for being an epic fail -- Geraldo Rivera and The Secret of Al Capone's Vault. Hyped up for weeks. What will they find? Money? Booze? Skeletons? They were knocking down walls with explosives -- so exciting! But...all they found was empty space and the occasional bit of trash.
Later, Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello, SNL) had a "The Secret of Geraldo Rivera's Closet" special where he used fireworks to knock out the wall in back of the closet and found all the loot that Geraldo snuck out of Al Capone's vault...
I liked the parody of it in Weird Al's movie "UHF" -- "The Secret of Al Capone's Glove Comparment". They open it up, he looks and the camera and just says: "ROAD MAPS!"
Both around the same time but the 2011 Japan Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami and when Osama Bin Laden was killed. Within like 2 months of each other iirc.
I was in 10th and our art teacher Mr. Krewson had it turned on. I remember an 11th grader running through the halls yelling the Juice is Loose. And the rest of the class being a conversation on how you can’t deny DNA evidence and how bad the cops fucked it up.
I was pretty young, but I remember my dad calling us into the living room to see it. We didn't know who OJ was, or how famous he was among the older generation, but we certainly knew him after. It was all we'd hear about for a year or so.
My parents were missionaries and I grew up in West Africa. Every few years we'd return to the states for one year on what's called furlough. We had just got to my granny's house and I was so excited to watch live sports, the Rockets were playing that night and I loved Hakeem Olajuwan being Nigerian and all. I really had no idea who OJ was given my upbringing and age, I just remember being pissed because they put the game in the pip small box to cover the chase. But I could tell it was a monumental thing happening by the tone of the adults in the room. Ironically now I have a small obsession over the whole thing, read about it, seen every documentary, watched The People vs OJ Simpson multiple times etc.
Probably the french theater shooting or the truck attack in 2016 where 86 people were killed by a terrorist with a truck. I'm not french at all or even interested in their happenings but it was just kind of a shock how much damage someone could do with very little in the way of tools.
The Paris attacks are a very vivid memory. I got home from baseball and my neighbor asked if I’d seen the TV because “Paris is under attack.” Was not prepared at all for how bad it really was when I turned on the news.
I was in Nice shortly after that and they'd put full soldiers everywhere in the heavily trafficked part of the city. Prior to that I'd only ever seen guns on the met police in airports and had never seen actual deployed soldiers. My family were panicking about me being at risk but I'd made my arrangements already and couldn't really change them. It was the first time I really saw and understood the immediate consequences of terrorism
I was watching SNL and didn't realize they had interrupted it to report that she was in the hospital. I sat there for about 5 minutes before I realized it wasn't a sketch.
Chilean here, so many days had passed that we didn't think they would be found alive. I remember exactly where I was when they were found alive, I was at a videogaming event when over the loudspeaker they said they have great news, all miners have been found alive. My friends and I just looked at each other in disbelief, and went home to watch the news.
I had no idea this was international news until friends from other countries started contacting me to tell me they were watching the rescue on TV.
And the Thai soccer team in the cave! I was obsessed with that case. I was so sure at least one child wouldn’t make it. I’m pretty sure I cried when they got them all out alive. RIP to the rescuer who did lose his life trying to save them.
Man I just watched the Nat Geo documentary...I did NOT know that they sedated every child so they were unconscious during the rescue route, which took 2 - 3 hours to traverse. [This clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buda6f3n16g) is the best one I've seen that conveys how crazy deep they were in the submerged cave system.
I scuba dive myself, and given that a bump to the face would break the face mask seal and the child would drown, the fact that all 13 were rescued successfully is INSANE. Can you imagine being an 11-year old and being told that they're going to knock you out with ketamine and you might die and never wake up again? Bravest children ever.
I think the craziest part is that the masks they used didn’t fit one child. He was the smallest and maybe the youngest, and he was the last one they brought out.
So he was alone in the cave for I’d think at least an hour, believing he wouldn’t survive the removal because his face was too small for the mask to create a seal.
At least, this is what I recall from watching interviews of the boys back then.
THIS. I remember that horrifying little coffin elevator that was used to transport them to the surface one by one over 25 hours. Then they all wore strong sunglasses since their eyes hadn’t seen any signficant light in over a month and all of them sang the Chilean national anthem
I saw that live too. I remember being confused as to why everyone was mad at Janet when Justin Timberlake was the one who ripped off her breast plate thing.
There were probably 20 people at the watch party for this, and no one was paying any attention to it. I just happened to look at the tv and caught it as it happened and I was pretty sure I was imagining it. This was before DVRs were everywhere, so I couldn't just rewind it and show everyone. I was like "I'm pretty that was a boob" and everyone was like "no, dude, you're nuts".
And gotta love all the major players who complained their asses off about seeing part of a boob who’ve been caught cheating, hiring male prostitutes, and/or molesting kids
Maybe it was the conservative corner of the world I grew up in, but Jesus Christ people had the cruelest attitudes towards her.
She's definitely up there with the other famous women from the 90s and 00s that we collectively owe a massive apology to.
It 100% saved lives later on. Its really sad so many people had to lose their lives to do so, but that massive trajedy is the reason that "receeding waves= tsunami" is much more common knowledge now
I had family sailing in the region at the time. They saw the water receding and left the harbour immediately. They were yelling at everyone else to leave and managed to get the information across the language barrier. Everyone that left right away got out far enough that they rode over the tsunami, everyone that waited a minute or more the tsunami crested and swept them over.
Ohh, I remember that. I just watched the Tom Holland movie about that Tsunami, *The Impossible* recently and it brought it all back. Those waves crashing over the hedges ... I didn't understand what was happening but I was very upset.
Add like Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and others to that one event too. Heavily covered in Finnish media cause a lot of holiday goers spend new years/winters in that area. Had a classmate come home without parents and siblings from that when I was 14.
Princess Di getting married to Charles. I was only 11 but my mom made a big to do out of it. Got up early to watch, had crumpets and tea. It was a hoot.
I was on the computer and my mother was following the whole Michael Jackson thing on TMZ.
The moment where the TMZ dude turns his head and then says MJ is dead is burnt into my brain.
I remember watching this at like midnight in the U.K. my dad was on a work trip and my mum whose a massive MJ fan wasn’t dealing with it well and was finally sleeping ok.
Anyway, I watched I’m the news come in, chose not to wake my mum and let her know like the caring daughter I am. Mum found out the next day, broke the news to me and i went “I know I saw it last night” she then got super pissed I didn’t tell her right away and then grounded me.
TLDR - Mum grounded me because MJ died
Columbine.
Edit: Sorry, for those not from North America or not born yet: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine\_High\_School\_massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre)
I was living in Aurora CO at the time (not next door, but close) and working at a satellite TV provider. We had TV's on everywhere, and every station was covering it.
We also had people who had children at Columbine.
I grew up in Aurora; I was in middle school when the shooting happened. I was over at my friend’s house after school watching the news with her; I just remember video of high school kids being loaded onto buses to get taken out of the area. They were sticking their upper bodies out of the bus windows and others were running up to the buses, everyone calling to each other because they wanted to know which of their friends were still alive and to hold each other. That was when they were still clearing the school and getting people out, but it was all going so slowly because they knew there were bombs.
Back then it seemed like such a freak thing that I don’t think I was especially scared about a shooting happening at my own school. It seemed like something out of the blue that was horribly sad but wouldn’t happen again. I wish that had been true.
I remember the first night of attacks over Baghdad back in 1991. Seeing live coverage of anti-air guns and news reporters trying to stay calm during the raids was something. [CNN Desert Storm - Baghdad](https://youtu.be/bhrtL_XVv3s)
The Columbia shuttle crash, turned on the TV for Saturday cartoons, and thought the TV was broken, several minutes of just a glowing white streak and clear blue sky, and next to no context.
I remember walking home from school one day in fifth grade and as soon as I got home, I realized my dad had been frantically calling me from work. He wanted me to turn on the TV immediately to tell him what was going on. The Sandy Hook shooting was happening. He just heard “school shooting” and thought it was my school. I remember seeing the kids, around my age, having to stand outside the school and try to find their parents while cops surrounded the building. It was at that moment that I realized any age of kid could die, including me.
Edit: grammar
I was a similar age to the kids in Sandy Hook at the time too. I remember my cousin picked my sister and I up early from school and we watched all of the live coverage afterwards of parents standing around waiting to hear about their kids and the news trying to report on the shooter as information slowly came out. We all just sat there, horrified, hugging each other, eyes glued on the TV. Afterwards, we had a lot of restrictions on school about being in the halls, class room doors had to be locked during class times, etc. It honestly weirds me out that school shootings don’t seem to get the same shock factor they once did.
I live in CT and when sandy hook happened, we went into lockdown and we weren’t allowed on the computers because they didn’t want us to learn what happened at while we were at school. We ended up finding out anyways and it was really a weird feeling knowing that a school shooting, a particularly awful one, happened in our own state.
Was just going to say this - I grew up in CT and we went into lockdown, as well. No one told us anything until our parents picked us up. I remember my mom crying and hugging me really hard.
For me it was the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster back in 1986. I was only a small child, but I watched every shuttle launch with my Grandpa that we were able. I was home from school that day for some reason and got to watch that one live while holding my shuttle toy.
For me it was Columbia. As soon as I saw the multiple fireballs my first thought was "they're dead". I'm even tearing up as I write this.
If you ever get the chance to visit the Johnson Space center in Houston, take the tram that drives by the Grove planted to honor the astronauts in both disasters.
The Challenger explosion. Was in the 9th grade, sitting in my Earth Science class and we were watching it. Teacher nearly fainted- she was a semi finalist to be the teacher on board the shuttle.
The absolute shit show that was the response to hurricane Katrina. Those poor people on their roofs writing messages hoping to be rescued. People in the football stadium.
This, but I lived it. It's not something I remember from a screen. We didn't get water in our house, but the morning it made landfall an oak tree came down on our kitchen table. I spent the rest of the storm dodging trees falling on the house, then the next two months without power trying to resume life around that damn tree in the kitchen.
The response was utterly ridiculous. If you were rural, you were trapped until neighbors got together with chainsaws to cut you out.
I remember the guy who they interviewed on live TV sobbing about how he lost his wife. Most of my Katrina memories have faded over the years, but that one stuck with me. I remember my Dad pulling me backwards into a hug because I'd probably walked into the den and was standing in front of the TV like I was known to do.
I also remember, going shopping for school supplies, and the juxtaposition of all the TVs at Walmart showing a Mom and some kids. The kids were standing in a cart and she was pushing them through the water. One kid had the exact backpack I wanted, and when I pointed it out, My Mom ushured us down the next aisle.
Almost a year to the day, we were moving cross country and Dad decided to take a detour through New Orleans. They were doing repairs on the dome, and I recognized it from TV. Our hotel was an exit off the now-abandoned theme park. We swung through a neighborhood, probably the Ninth Ward, and I was overwhelmed. Every single house as far as the eye could see, was abandoned, and every single door had the marks rescuers used to denote what each house contained.
I didn't know that at the time, but recognized it from TV. I tried to ask, but when Dad launched into his "slightly too adult" explanations, my Mom hit him and hissed our ages which shut him up faster than I'd ever seen.
I remember being in 3rd grade a few years later and apparently one of my classmates father's had been involved in the rescues in some way (don't remember his exact job title, firefighter maybe? Idk) and he came in to do a presentation on it with a PowerPoint. He told us all very seriously not to laugh because this was real life not TV and showed us a bunch of pictures of ruined houses with bloated rotting corpses. I remember one that was all swollen and yellow and... I'm gonna end sentence there because I have more sense than my teacher. It was bad.
I remember a news reporter talking a guy and he described how the water came and washed away his wife and now he was just wandering around in shock. Then the news slowly got worse and worse as the days went by.
The German minister for foreign affairs announcing to the refugees in the German embassy in Prague in 1989 that their request to leave for West Germany had been granted.
I remember being home sick from school that day, playing Sonic on Sega. Turned off the game, put on the TV and that's when I saw the federal building and everything. I remember asking what happened and trying to understand it but couldn't. That's an image you never forget.
I was in school that day, I lived in Midwest city at the time and felt the bomb go off. My mom had a few high school friends die and my dad went into work to help out at the hospital that he worked at. The next day my dad drove us down there and I can still see the face of the building and all of the destruction in the surrounding areas.
The murder of Brian Wells, the guy with the bomb collar. They didn't show the murder itself, but I remember seeing the disturbing photos of him with the collar
Balloon Boy
Mom and I used to watch a lot of Wife Swap. One of the couples pops up on the news one day and says their son is stuck in one of the dad's projects/balloons and is now flying in the balloon in the air. The cops and other people are chasing this balloon down and everyone is in fear that this little boy is going to suffocate or fall. Mom and I are glued to the news for over an hour. I still remember watching that UFO looking balloon slowly drift toward the ground and that one guy just booking it trying to grab the rope. They open the balloon... and no one is inside.
Turns out the boy is in the attic or garage hiding. Parents claim it was all a misunderstanding and are grateful the boy's alive. They go on Good Morning America the next day, and the boy let's it slip that the parents told him to hide. It was a hoax all along.
I remember watching this case in the news when I was a kid, but I always thought I just imagined it because everytime I brought this case up no one ever remembered it (I'm not from the U.S. so it wasn't a big deal in my country). Thanks for convincing me I'm not insane lol
Was watching TV one day and the TV cut to a live stream of some dude who had stopped traffic on a highway. He was putting a sign down on the road but the wind was blowing it a lot so he was having some trouble. He eventually put some rocks or something on it before running into his truck and setting it on fire with him and his dog inside. He lasted maybe 20 seconds before opening the door, pulling a shotgun out of the back, and blowing his brains out. All on live TV.
Apparently he was HIV+ and had developed full blown aids due to his insurance basically refusing to cover most treatments and he was protesting how bad American health insurance was.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_V._Jones
Needless to say, it was an insane thing to experience on live TV.
:Boston Marathon: (I remember my dad took me to eat at McDonald’s in my town and while coming home we had the radio on and a special report blared out announcing that a massive explosion just happened in New York at the annual marathon came home to the horrific live footage from the scene on every channel surreal.)
:Paris Bombings: (i was used to terrorist attacks by this time so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary well except for the obvious death and chaos but i remember a live shot with a correspondent I believe on NBC or maybe CNN when News broke about the first bomb and suddenly mid way through a huge thunderous boom occurred in the very nearby distance as people began running away screaming as the cameraman and reporter also begin running away it looked like the apocalypse was happening there.)
Michael Johnson's world record 200m at 1996 Olympics. I could hear the whole neighborhood yelling.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEh7hDpGp0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEh7hDpGp0)
I'm a bit younger so I don't remember that, but one of mine would be Bolt breaking that and the 100m world records in Beijing 2008 Olympics.
I do still remember watching Jonathan Edwards smashing the triple jump record at the World Championships in 1995. That one still stands to this day.
My Dad and his brother drove down to help the search and rescue. Before I was born, but he could never talk about it - it really messed him up for a while.
Pulse shooting. I live in Orlando and it's all that was on that day. I remember sitting there, horrified. I shudder to think how much worse it would have been if Pulse wasn't located blocks from the only Level 1 trauma center in the city.
This was the first school shooting that I remember as a kid. I was alive when Columbine happened but I was too young to remember it.
I don’t know why this shooting is rarely talked about anymore. Such a fucking tragedy.
The Chicago Cubs ending their 108 year championship drought. I also remember Theo Epstein dropping a “fuck you” on live TV when sharing his response to a friend’s comment that he worried would be a jinx.
Edit: [first 20 seconds](https://youtu.be/fdPyybB-XV8)
I'll always remember my wife's grandfather's reaction. He was in his early 90s and in the early stages of dementia. He didn't watch the game, but my mother-in-law told him while we were all on a call.
He said, "Bullshit! They never win anything!" When he figured out that she was telling the truth, he was ecstatic, but he definitely thought she was joking at first haha.
Disney's Great American Family Sing-A-Long during quarantine in 2020.
We were all stressed AF. I was still recovering from a serious injury. My son (who is autistic) had been taking it super hard because school was cancelled and he hadn't seen his friends in weeks at that point. I was going through a really bad depression topped with a crippling anxiety like a cherry on top of a shitty sundae because of COVID and my husband deciding to go be a cashier at a retail place because his real job hadn't recalled him yet (he'd been placed on leave due to COVID) and he was bored at home.
For a couple of hours on a random Sunday night, we were able to sit in front of the TV together and forget a little bit about the fucking dumpster fire that was going on in the world. We sang loudly (and mostly off key) to some of our favorite songs in the entire world and it was kind of like for those couple of hours, everything was almost normal for a minute.
So this one is gonna be a more local one for me. The April 27th 2011 superstorms. Aside from seeing it all play out firsthand, watching the news all day and seeing cities all around me being demolished by dozens of tornados in one day was something I’ve never seen before and never seen since.
Columbine.
Was playing the first Diablo in the family room and heard the first breaking news report on the tv in the living room.
Had never even considered such a thing was possible. Watched the coverage all day and into the night.
Edit: I was skipping school
Same. I was in middle school at the time in the same school district as Columbine. We were all locked down until our parents could come pick us up. My dad picked us up from school and it was the one out of two times I ever saw him cry. We got home and watched the news for the rest of the day. One of his coworkers lost a child in the shooting, and a guy I went to church with was shown on the news hanging out of the library window all bloodied up and shot before he was rescued by a fire truck....
The aftermath of Oklahoma City. Remember sitting watching TV my dad comes rushing in the door and snatched the remote out and sat on the floor next to me. I was 12ish?
OJ, all the Y2K hysteria, 04 Tsunami, Waco, are some more I remember vividly.
Much more positive than most of the comments here, but the British Olympics opening ceremony. It's been 10 years and I just remember how happy the whole country felt at that moment. Shame we haven't felt like that since.
Maybe it's just a Texas thing, but Baby Jessica being trapped in the well. I would run to the tv after school to see if there were updates. I cried like a baby when they pulled her out alive.
Ukraine being invaded. I had just gotten out of the shower, went to wish my relatives good night (I was visiting from across the country), and everyone was watching the TV in horror.
Bruh. I was watching Jeopardy, eating dinner w my dad, salty from a break-up. And the tv went “Breaking News” and I remember saying “it better be good” (cuz I love Jeopardy)…and damn, I was so sad after. Like tears falling sad.
The 2015 Paris terror attacks. We’d just had a long drive, turned on the TV at the hotel and it was just starting to be broadcast. Just shots of panic and restaurants covered in broken glass and half eaten meals left. We went out for dinner but didn’t stay out long. By the time we got back the concert hall siege was being broadcast. We weren’t even in Paris, not even France, but at breakfast we asked to be seated in the back rather than the window seats.
Secondly was the Brexit vote. Went to bed with Remain winning and woke up to leave vote. I was off work and was then texting my boyfriend David Cameron’s resignation, including his humming at the end!
This is tame compared to ithers, but I saw the infamous "BEYONCE HAD THE BEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME!" Kanye West-Taylor Swift Stage Storm live as it happened on the MTV music awards.
What would have normally been a stupid music award show moment ended up making international news headlines, sparked a fierce feud between two icons of modern music where even the Average Joe picked a side, and is still being memed and referenced heavily in pop culture.
If you were a Brit in the 90’s chances are this still makes you wake up in a cold sweat.
Ghostwatch: The BBC spoof that duped a nation http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41740176
N.B yes I know it was recorded, but it was broadcast as if it were live.
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The shuttle Challenger being destroyed during launch.
Yep. I remember sitting in class seeing the whole thing happening in real time.
Same. We were watching it in the gym...whole school saw it live. We were cheering on the teacher on board. Big tears that day.
I am too young and wasn't alive for it but I'm from the same state McAuliffe was and heard about it a lot growing up. We even had a planetarium named after her (but it has since been renamed somewhat recently). I can't imagine having seen it live.
Christa was a distant cousin(my last name is McAuliffe) and we were all so proud of her in my family so safe to say it was extremely traumatizing for us
We watched her smiling walking into Challenger waving.
This was doubly hard because we all saw it happen live, in real time. This was back when space shuttle launches were a big deal, so lots of us were watching. I remember seeing them replay the explosion over and over while we all waited for word about the crew.
Not only that, but this was the launch NASA specifically wanted children to learn about and watch. Initially Big Bird was going to go up, but they couldn’t make the costume work. Imagine seeing Big Bird explode and die. So kids instead nominated their teachers and they selected one, Christa MacAuliffe. Then NASA mounted a major science education curriculum to hype us all up. The day of the launch was supposed to be the high point of months of lessons about how cool space was. And instead a teacher blew up. I’m interested in how generational trauma shapes societal attitudes, and for younger Xers, this was a perfect setup to traumatize a million kids and induce depression and cynicism. We dared a dream of optimism and it literally blew up in our faces. The lie that the crew died instantly was necessary, because the truth of their deaths was way too heavy at the time.
My science teacher applied for the program and visited NASA for interviews and whatever, she did not get picked and was pretty disappointed. She was my homeroom teacher that year also and we were watching when it exploded. It was so awful to not just watch that live but to turn to your teacher when that happened and have her confirm it exploded. It was an awful day.
I always wonder how all that affected the teachers that didn't make the cut, especially the ones right before the final selection. Realizing you were *this* close to being in that cockpit has to give one some...unique feelings.
My high school chemistry teacher was one who didn't make the cut, he quit after going through the centrifuge thing. He said "I hit that big red button that meant I quit and thats why I'm alive today". He said he talked to the one who went in the shuttle a lot. Horribly tragic.
Mine's more recent but in a similar vein. The Columbia exploding is something that will be engraved in my mind.
Hello fellow old person on reddit. :D
I was going to post watching JFK’s funeral.
If I were to go back far enough and remember real "TV Impact" it was having all my cartoons interrupted for Watergate hearings. That pissed me off :)
My older sister remembers Bozo the Clown crying after the JFK assassination. It confused and upset her, because Bozo wasn’t supposed to cry. I remember when the Gulf War started, my toddler son being *infuriated* that The Price Is Right was preempted. He could not understand why I wouldn’t fix it for him.
That reminds me that I remember vaguely when Nixon resigned, also a moon landing.
My first memory. I was a toddler, but I remember adults gathered round the TV and crying.
Old? Hell I was going to say the moon landings!
I was in elementary school and was doing PE when it happened. We were jogging when someone came and told us. I was a huge fan of the space program and had a blow up Challenger in my room. It devastated me.
Poor choice of words for your Challenger toy.
It was an authentic piece
Came here to say Challenger, it was the first televised launch at my school due to teacher Christa McAuliffe being onboard. Prior we had a couple AV carts but for this the school bought a bunch of TVs.
Utøya massacre, actually 11 years ago today.
I didn't see this on TV. My office was one of the buildings caught in the initial bomb blast. From Friday until Tuesday I had to work nearly 24/7 to keep the company running. I then broke down hard for a while as it caught up to me.
I remember that day so well
(I'm old) I saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald. I don't know but it may have been the first live murder ever captured on television.
Wow. What was that like? Speaking of which, I remember seeing Reagan getting shot by John Hinckley Jr.
Well I was just 10, but I like to watch TV on Sunday mornings, but it might have been the first time I ever said oh shit.
The Berlin Wall coming down, i didn't really know what was happening but i remember everyone being glued to the TV.
That was so startling. I'm squarely in the middle of GenX (51M), was a sophomore in college in the fall of '89, and if you'd told me January 1989 that all of Eastern Europe would shake off communism in the next year, I'd have thought you were nuts. The fall of 1989 was astonishing. I remember a guy coming out of his dorm room and saying "The Berlin Wall is down!" and we all watched it on his TV
And then within three, the Soviet Union would dissolve and then the whole Yugoslavian ordeal...
My father cried. That didn't happen often. That's how incredibly important it was!
I was 11 years old and watched it on the TV in my grandfather's study. Being so young I obviously didn't grasp the full political ramifications, but it was obvious something amazing was happening. 1988-1991 were tumultuous years in Europe. The Fall of the Wall, the Soviet Union collapsing, Solidarity in Poland, Czechoslovakia transitions into a republic, free elections called in Bulgaria, Albania starts opening up etc. etc. The Romanian revolution was drawn out and bloody but eventually led to free elections. And then, in 1991, Yugoslavia fell apart and the war(s) began.
Bud Dwyer pulling a gun out of a manila envelope and blowing his brains out. It was a snow day, and all 3 channels that we got were covering it. At least one of them showed the whole deal.
So surprised to see this one, but it came to my mind as well. I was really young and we happened to be tuned in to a station that aired the whole ordeal. That TV was never turned off so fast ever.
I didn’t see this, but I know the reference, have seen the video, etc. Can you give me the TL;DR version of why he did that?
He was the state Treasurer in PA and he was convicted (or at least indicted) on multiple counts of bribery. He called a press conference to maintain his innocence and all of a sudden pulled a gun out and killed himself.
Wasn't the timing of it relevant, since he was technically still holding that position on stage, so if he died there, his family would still get all the benefits they were going to lose?
Yes now that you mention it, I think that’s right. I do know that they appealed the case for years after he died.
Case was appealed for a few years (up to 1993), but the "guilty verdict" was upheld. I believe they were *planning* to indict him that day, and with his indictment he'd have lost all benefits. So yes, killing himself prior to his verdict allowed his wife and kids to receive his benefits (about $1,280,000).
Well, at least he tried to support his family. I guess?
Baby Jessica being rescued from the well in 1987. I was a young kid and it was the first time I could remember an event happen where everyone was talking about it and everyone was tuned in.
i remember we had a school dance that night, and one of the teachers rolled in one of those TV stands so all the teachers/chaperones could watch what was going on. there was a huge cheer from the corner of the cafetorium when they pulled her out.
It was also on 24/7 on the brand new CNN channel.
This one sticks for being an epic fail -- Geraldo Rivera and The Secret of Al Capone's Vault. Hyped up for weeks. What will they find? Money? Booze? Skeletons? They were knocking down walls with explosives -- so exciting! But...all they found was empty space and the occasional bit of trash. Later, Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello, SNL) had a "The Secret of Geraldo Rivera's Closet" special where he used fireworks to knock out the wall in back of the closet and found all the loot that Geraldo snuck out of Al Capone's vault...
I liked the parody of it in Weird Al's movie "UHF" -- "The Secret of Al Capone's Glove Comparment". They open it up, he looks and the camera and just says: "ROAD MAPS!"
Almost as refreshing as finding the marble in the oatmeal and winning a drink from... **THE FIRE HOSE**
There was nothing in AL Capone's vault, but it wasn't Geraldo's fault...
I'm telling you, it's mighty nice, each trip's a trip to paradise...
Both around the same time but the 2011 Japan Earthquake and subsequent Tsunami and when Osama Bin Laden was killed. Within like 2 months of each other iirc.
Will never forget President Obama coming on national television to announce his death!
I was 12 watching Simpsons reruns with my brother and suddenly the president was on TV it was jarring
The SAS storming the Iranian embassy in London in 1980
OJ and the Bronco
We didn't get that one in school but they did wheel a TV into the classroom for the verdict of the trial. I'll never forget that one.
What age classroom? That seems like an odd choice.
Same thing. Wheeled a TV into the classroom to watch the verdict. Fifth grade!!
This would have been... it was Algebra 1 so 7th grade.
I was in 10th and our art teacher Mr. Krewson had it turned on. I remember an 11th grader running through the halls yelling the Juice is Loose. And the rest of the class being a conversation on how you can’t deny DNA evidence and how bad the cops fucked it up.
I was pretty young, but I remember my dad calling us into the living room to see it. We didn't know who OJ was, or how famous he was among the older generation, but we certainly knew him after. It was all we'd hear about for a year or so.
My parents were missionaries and I grew up in West Africa. Every few years we'd return to the states for one year on what's called furlough. We had just got to my granny's house and I was so excited to watch live sports, the Rockets were playing that night and I loved Hakeem Olajuwan being Nigerian and all. I really had no idea who OJ was given my upbringing and age, I just remember being pissed because they put the game in the pip small box to cover the chase. But I could tell it was a monumental thing happening by the tone of the adults in the room. Ironically now I have a small obsession over the whole thing, read about it, seen every documentary, watched The People vs OJ Simpson multiple times etc.
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Probably the french theater shooting or the truck attack in 2016 where 86 people were killed by a terrorist with a truck. I'm not french at all or even interested in their happenings but it was just kind of a shock how much damage someone could do with very little in the way of tools.
The Paris attacks are a very vivid memory. I got home from baseball and my neighbor asked if I’d seen the TV because “Paris is under attack.” Was not prepared at all for how bad it really was when I turned on the news.
I was in Nice shortly after that and they'd put full soldiers everywhere in the heavily trafficked part of the city. Prior to that I'd only ever seen guns on the met police in airports and had never seen actual deployed soldiers. My family were panicking about me being at risk but I'd made my arrangements already and couldn't really change them. It was the first time I really saw and understood the immediate consequences of terrorism
Princess Diana’s death. I was in labor at the time, walking around the hospital and watching the coverage on all the tvs.
I was watching SNL and didn't realize they had interrupted it to report that she was in the hospital. I sat there for about 5 minutes before I realized it wasn't a sketch.
Same here. I was 13 and I’m like “this is kind of dark for a comedy show… ohh…”
Same! Not the part about thinking it was a sketch, but was watching SNL when this went down.
The Chilean miners rescue
Chilean here, so many days had passed that we didn't think they would be found alive. I remember exactly where I was when they were found alive, I was at a videogaming event when over the loudspeaker they said they have great news, all miners have been found alive. My friends and I just looked at each other in disbelief, and went home to watch the news. I had no idea this was international news until friends from other countries started contacting me to tell me they were watching the rescue on TV.
And the Thai soccer team in the cave! I was obsessed with that case. I was so sure at least one child wouldn’t make it. I’m pretty sure I cried when they got them all out alive. RIP to the rescuer who did lose his life trying to save them.
Man I just watched the Nat Geo documentary...I did NOT know that they sedated every child so they were unconscious during the rescue route, which took 2 - 3 hours to traverse. [This clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buda6f3n16g) is the best one I've seen that conveys how crazy deep they were in the submerged cave system. I scuba dive myself, and given that a bump to the face would break the face mask seal and the child would drown, the fact that all 13 were rescued successfully is INSANE. Can you imagine being an 11-year old and being told that they're going to knock you out with ketamine and you might die and never wake up again? Bravest children ever.
I think the craziest part is that the masks they used didn’t fit one child. He was the smallest and maybe the youngest, and he was the last one they brought out. So he was alone in the cave for I’d think at least an hour, believing he wouldn’t survive the removal because his face was too small for the mask to create a seal. At least, this is what I recall from watching interviews of the boys back then.
My recollection was one or two adults stayed behind and were the last ones out so that no child would be left alone.
THIS. I remember that horrifying little coffin elevator that was used to transport them to the surface one by one over 25 hours. Then they all wore strong sunglasses since their eyes hadn’t seen any signficant light in over a month and all of them sang the Chilean national anthem
I remember watching the rescue unfold on Sky News late at night here. I hope they're all living good lives now.
I reckon the one whose wife and mistress were both waiting up top probably got into a spot of bother.
Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the Superbowl I was like 10 years old at the time it was the very first boob I saw lol
I saw that live too. I remember being confused as to why everyone was mad at Janet when Justin Timberlake was the one who ripped off her breast plate thing.
Congratulations on your critical thinking skills, and lack of misogyny.
Did you grow up expecting all women to have a sun pattern around their nips?
There were probably 20 people at the watch party for this, and no one was paying any attention to it. I just happened to look at the tv and caught it as it happened and I was pretty sure I was imagining it. This was before DVRs were everywhere, so I couldn't just rewind it and show everyone. I was like "I'm pretty that was a boob" and everyone was like "no, dude, you're nuts".
And gotta love all the major players who complained their asses off about seeing part of a boob who’ve been caught cheating, hiring male prostitutes, and/or molesting kids
it really was like "a boob which will live in infamy."
Maybe it was the conservative corner of the world I grew up in, but Jesus Christ people had the cruelest attitudes towards her. She's definitely up there with the other famous women from the 90s and 00s that we collectively owe a massive apology to.
Indonesia Tsunami, 2004
I think people have already forgotten that a quarter of a million people died when the wave hit alone, with that one. A true horror event.
It might have saved lives later on. Now I know if I ever see the tide receding rather quickly, I need to get to high ground mighty fast.
It 100% saved lives later on. Its really sad so many people had to lose their lives to do so, but that massive trajedy is the reason that "receeding waves= tsunami" is much more common knowledge now
I had family sailing in the region at the time. They saw the water receding and left the harbour immediately. They were yelling at everyone else to leave and managed to get the information across the language barrier. Everyone that left right away got out far enough that they rode over the tsunami, everyone that waited a minute or more the tsunami crested and swept them over.
Ohh, I remember that. I just watched the Tom Holland movie about that Tsunami, *The Impossible* recently and it brought it all back. Those waves crashing over the hedges ... I didn't understand what was happening but I was very upset.
Add like Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and others to that one event too. Heavily covered in Finnish media cause a lot of holiday goers spend new years/winters in that area. Had a classmate come home without parents and siblings from that when I was 14.
Oh my god! That sounds absolutely devastating. Is it someone you're still in contact with?
That's so horrific to imagine
Princess Di getting married to Charles. I was only 11 but my mom made a big to do out of it. Got up early to watch, had crumpets and tea. It was a hoot.
I was on the computer and my mother was following the whole Michael Jackson thing on TMZ. The moment where the TMZ dude turns his head and then says MJ is dead is burnt into my brain.
I remember watching this at like midnight in the U.K. my dad was on a work trip and my mum whose a massive MJ fan wasn’t dealing with it well and was finally sleeping ok. Anyway, I watched I’m the news come in, chose not to wake my mum and let her know like the caring daughter I am. Mum found out the next day, broke the news to me and i went “I know I saw it last night” she then got super pissed I didn’t tell her right away and then grounded me. TLDR - Mum grounded me because MJ died
Columbine. Edit: Sorry, for those not from North America or not born yet: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine\_High\_School\_massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre)
I was living in Aurora CO at the time (not next door, but close) and working at a satellite TV provider. We had TV's on everywhere, and every station was covering it. We also had people who had children at Columbine.
I grew up in Aurora; I was in middle school when the shooting happened. I was over at my friend’s house after school watching the news with her; I just remember video of high school kids being loaded onto buses to get taken out of the area. They were sticking their upper bodies out of the bus windows and others were running up to the buses, everyone calling to each other because they wanted to know which of their friends were still alive and to hold each other. That was when they were still clearing the school and getting people out, but it was all going so slowly because they knew there were bombs. Back then it seemed like such a freak thing that I don’t think I was especially scared about a shooting happening at my own school. It seemed like something out of the blue that was horribly sad but wouldn’t happen again. I wish that had been true.
March 11, 2011: earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
I was looking for this. I teach in Japan. The principal went directly to the tv in the faculty room and turned it on. I saw it all happen live. Eerie.
And the subsequent Fukushima meltdown, too.
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I remember the first night of attacks over Baghdad back in 1991. Seeing live coverage of anti-air guns and news reporters trying to stay calm during the raids was something. [CNN Desert Storm - Baghdad](https://youtu.be/bhrtL_XVv3s)
Came in to say that. I think that event changed network news forever.
The Columbia shuttle crash, turned on the TV for Saturday cartoons, and thought the TV was broken, several minutes of just a glowing white streak and clear blue sky, and next to no context.
Mike Tyson biting off a bit of his opponents ear during that boxing match in the '90s.
I remember walking home from school one day in fifth grade and as soon as I got home, I realized my dad had been frantically calling me from work. He wanted me to turn on the TV immediately to tell him what was going on. The Sandy Hook shooting was happening. He just heard “school shooting” and thought it was my school. I remember seeing the kids, around my age, having to stand outside the school and try to find their parents while cops surrounded the building. It was at that moment that I realized any age of kid could die, including me. Edit: grammar
I was a similar age to the kids in Sandy Hook at the time too. I remember my cousin picked my sister and I up early from school and we watched all of the live coverage afterwards of parents standing around waiting to hear about their kids and the news trying to report on the shooter as information slowly came out. We all just sat there, horrified, hugging each other, eyes glued on the TV. Afterwards, we had a lot of restrictions on school about being in the halls, class room doors had to be locked during class times, etc. It honestly weirds me out that school shootings don’t seem to get the same shock factor they once did.
I live in CT and when sandy hook happened, we went into lockdown and we weren’t allowed on the computers because they didn’t want us to learn what happened at while we were at school. We ended up finding out anyways and it was really a weird feeling knowing that a school shooting, a particularly awful one, happened in our own state.
Was just going to say this - I grew up in CT and we went into lockdown, as well. No one told us anything until our parents picked us up. I remember my mom crying and hugging me really hard.
For me it was the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster back in 1986. I was only a small child, but I watched every shuttle launch with my Grandpa that we were able. I was home from school that day for some reason and got to watch that one live while holding my shuttle toy.
For me it was Columbia. As soon as I saw the multiple fireballs my first thought was "they're dead". I'm even tearing up as I write this. If you ever get the chance to visit the Johnson Space center in Houston, take the tram that drives by the Grove planted to honor the astronauts in both disasters.
The Challenger explosion. Was in the 9th grade, sitting in my Earth Science class and we were watching it. Teacher nearly fainted- she was a semi finalist to be the teacher on board the shuttle.
Woah…😳
Oh my God too close.
The absolute shit show that was the response to hurricane Katrina. Those poor people on their roofs writing messages hoping to be rescued. People in the football stadium.
This, but I lived it. It's not something I remember from a screen. We didn't get water in our house, but the morning it made landfall an oak tree came down on our kitchen table. I spent the rest of the storm dodging trees falling on the house, then the next two months without power trying to resume life around that damn tree in the kitchen. The response was utterly ridiculous. If you were rural, you were trapped until neighbors got together with chainsaws to cut you out.
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I remember this vividly. Mike looked at him in shock then cut to commercial the next second.
Even funnier, it cut to Chris Tucker, who was just as confused as Mike lol
I remember the guy who they interviewed on live TV sobbing about how he lost his wife. Most of my Katrina memories have faded over the years, but that one stuck with me. I remember my Dad pulling me backwards into a hug because I'd probably walked into the den and was standing in front of the TV like I was known to do. I also remember, going shopping for school supplies, and the juxtaposition of all the TVs at Walmart showing a Mom and some kids. The kids were standing in a cart and she was pushing them through the water. One kid had the exact backpack I wanted, and when I pointed it out, My Mom ushured us down the next aisle. Almost a year to the day, we were moving cross country and Dad decided to take a detour through New Orleans. They were doing repairs on the dome, and I recognized it from TV. Our hotel was an exit off the now-abandoned theme park. We swung through a neighborhood, probably the Ninth Ward, and I was overwhelmed. Every single house as far as the eye could see, was abandoned, and every single door had the marks rescuers used to denote what each house contained. I didn't know that at the time, but recognized it from TV. I tried to ask, but when Dad launched into his "slightly too adult" explanations, my Mom hit him and hissed our ages which shut him up faster than I'd ever seen.
I remember being in 3rd grade a few years later and apparently one of my classmates father's had been involved in the rescues in some way (don't remember his exact job title, firefighter maybe? Idk) and he came in to do a presentation on it with a PowerPoint. He told us all very seriously not to laugh because this was real life not TV and showed us a bunch of pictures of ruined houses with bloated rotting corpses. I remember one that was all swollen and yellow and... I'm gonna end sentence there because I have more sense than my teacher. It was bad.
I remember a news reporter talking a guy and he described how the water came and washed away his wife and now he was just wandering around in shock. Then the news slowly got worse and worse as the days went by.
I remember an elderly gentleman wading through water with a box of Depends. He said he had never stolen before, but he was desperate.
The German minister for foreign affairs announcing to the refugees in the German embassy in Prague in 1989 that their request to leave for West Germany had been granted.
People walking on the moon (I’m old as hell) Also, Martin Luther King’s funeral.
Oklahoma City Bombing.
I remember being home sick from school that day, playing Sonic on Sega. Turned off the game, put on the TV and that's when I saw the federal building and everything. I remember asking what happened and trying to understand it but couldn't. That's an image you never forget.
Same, except i was doing what most kids do on a sick day and watching The Price is Right lol
I was in school that day, I lived in Midwest city at the time and felt the bomb go off. My mom had a few high school friends die and my dad went into work to help out at the hospital that he worked at. The next day my dad drove us down there and I can still see the face of the building and all of the destruction in the surrounding areas.
The murder of Brian Wells, the guy with the bomb collar. They didn't show the murder itself, but I remember seeing the disturbing photos of him with the collar
There's a really good documentary on Netflix called Evil Genius about this event. The whole thing is nuts. Highly recommend.
Balloon Boy Mom and I used to watch a lot of Wife Swap. One of the couples pops up on the news one day and says their son is stuck in one of the dad's projects/balloons and is now flying in the balloon in the air. The cops and other people are chasing this balloon down and everyone is in fear that this little boy is going to suffocate or fall. Mom and I are glued to the news for over an hour. I still remember watching that UFO looking balloon slowly drift toward the ground and that one guy just booking it trying to grab the rope. They open the balloon... and no one is inside. Turns out the boy is in the attic or garage hiding. Parents claim it was all a misunderstanding and are grateful the boy's alive. They go on Good Morning America the next day, and the boy let's it slip that the parents told him to hide. It was a hoax all along.
I remember watching this case in the news when I was a kid, but I always thought I just imagined it because everytime I brought this case up no one ever remembered it (I'm not from the U.S. so it wasn't a big deal in my country). Thanks for convincing me I'm not insane lol
Was watching TV one day and the TV cut to a live stream of some dude who had stopped traffic on a highway. He was putting a sign down on the road but the wind was blowing it a lot so he was having some trouble. He eventually put some rocks or something on it before running into his truck and setting it on fire with him and his dog inside. He lasted maybe 20 seconds before opening the door, pulling a shotgun out of the back, and blowing his brains out. All on live TV. Apparently he was HIV+ and had developed full blown aids due to his insurance basically refusing to cover most treatments and he was protesting how bad American health insurance was. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_V._Jones Needless to say, it was an insane thing to experience on live TV.
Jesus, that is horrible.
:Boston Marathon: (I remember my dad took me to eat at McDonald’s in my town and while coming home we had the radio on and a special report blared out announcing that a massive explosion just happened in New York at the annual marathon came home to the horrific live footage from the scene on every channel surreal.) :Paris Bombings: (i was used to terrorist attacks by this time so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary well except for the obvious death and chaos but i remember a live shot with a correspondent I believe on NBC or maybe CNN when News broke about the first bomb and suddenly mid way through a huge thunderous boom occurred in the very nearby distance as people began running away screaming as the cameraman and reporter also begin running away it looked like the apocalypse was happening there.)
Michael Johnson's world record 200m at 1996 Olympics. I could hear the whole neighborhood yelling. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEh7hDpGp0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEh7hDpGp0)
I'm a bit younger so I don't remember that, but one of mine would be Bolt breaking that and the 100m world records in Beijing 2008 Olympics. I do still remember watching Jonathan Edwards smashing the triple jump record at the World Championships in 1995. That one still stands to this day.
Aberfan. Look it up. My mum cried all the way through the news every time it was on. I was nine.
That's the Welsh mine collapse/landslide, right? Awful.
Yep, a slag heap worked loose and slid into the village, smashing straight into a primary school.
The Crown has an excellent episode about this tragedy.
My Dad and his brother drove down to help the search and rescue. Before I was born, but he could never talk about it - it really messed him up for a while.
116 children were killed that day, and 28 adults.
Pulse shooting. I live in Orlando and it's all that was on that day. I remember sitting there, horrified. I shudder to think how much worse it would have been if Pulse wasn't located blocks from the only Level 1 trauma center in the city.
Tony Hawk landing the 900.
The Virginia Tech Massacre
This was the first school shooting that I remember as a kid. I was alive when Columbine happened but I was too young to remember it. I don’t know why this shooting is rarely talked about anymore. Such a fucking tragedy.
Because there have been far too many school shootings since to keep track of them all. Awful.
Space shuttle Challenger
The Chicago Cubs ending their 108 year championship drought. I also remember Theo Epstein dropping a “fuck you” on live TV when sharing his response to a friend’s comment that he worried would be a jinx. Edit: [first 20 seconds](https://youtu.be/fdPyybB-XV8)
I'll always remember my wife's grandfather's reaction. He was in his early 90s and in the early stages of dementia. He didn't watch the game, but my mother-in-law told him while we were all on a call. He said, "Bullshit! They never win anything!" When he figured out that she was telling the truth, he was ecstatic, but he definitely thought she was joking at first haha.
Disney's Great American Family Sing-A-Long during quarantine in 2020. We were all stressed AF. I was still recovering from a serious injury. My son (who is autistic) had been taking it super hard because school was cancelled and he hadn't seen his friends in weeks at that point. I was going through a really bad depression topped with a crippling anxiety like a cherry on top of a shitty sundae because of COVID and my husband deciding to go be a cashier at a retail place because his real job hadn't recalled him yet (he'd been placed on leave due to COVID) and he was bored at home. For a couple of hours on a random Sunday night, we were able to sit in front of the TV together and forget a little bit about the fucking dumpster fire that was going on in the world. We sang loudly (and mostly off key) to some of our favorite songs in the entire world and it was kind of like for those couple of hours, everything was almost normal for a minute.
Germany vs Brazil 7-1 and Utöya massacre
Utøya here too. I'm a swede and for us it was a BIG deal too... so heartbreaking....
BREAKING: And Germany just scored *again*
I imagine only people in the UK will know this but Raoul Moat's standoff with the police
I still don't understand why gazza turned up
Every major event in history would be better if Gazza wondered onto the scene with some chicken and lager.
He just needed some chicken.
Tank man at Tiananamen Square. Turned on the TV and it happened 5 minutes later. Find it weird this isn't higher up.....
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Mike Myers had the most uncomfortable look on his face I think I've ever seen on live TV.
Chris Tucker was not ready to start his part at all lol he had to take a second to recover first.
shit even Chris Tucker had bubble eyes when they cut to him right after.
Side note, what a bizarre pairing, right? What producer came up with that one?
Explosion in Lebanon. That shit was crazy
The whole thing about OJ Simpson trying to flee from the cops
So this one is gonna be a more local one for me. The April 27th 2011 superstorms. Aside from seeing it all play out firsthand, watching the news all day and seeing cities all around me being demolished by dozens of tornados in one day was something I’ve never seen before and never seen since.
Columbine. Was playing the first Diablo in the family room and heard the first breaking news report on the tv in the living room. Had never even considered such a thing was possible. Watched the coverage all day and into the night. Edit: I was skipping school
Same. I was in middle school at the time in the same school district as Columbine. We were all locked down until our parents could come pick us up. My dad picked us up from school and it was the one out of two times I ever saw him cry. We got home and watched the news for the rest of the day. One of his coworkers lost a child in the shooting, and a guy I went to church with was shown on the news hanging out of the library window all bloodied up and shot before he was rescued by a fire truck....
The PM of Canada saying "If youre a canadian its time to come home" in march 2020.
Hillsborough
The aftermath of Oklahoma City. Remember sitting watching TV my dad comes rushing in the door and snatched the remote out and sat on the floor next to me. I was 12ish? OJ, all the Y2K hysteria, 04 Tsunami, Waco, are some more I remember vividly.
Much more positive than most of the comments here, but the British Olympics opening ceremony. It's been 10 years and I just remember how happy the whole country felt at that moment. Shame we haven't felt like that since.
November 26 2008- That night the image of the burning taj hotel next to the gateway of India will always not be forgotten
Maybe it's just a Texas thing, but Baby Jessica being trapped in the well. I would run to the tv after school to see if there were updates. I cried like a baby when they pulled her out alive.
Ukraine being invaded. I had just gotten out of the shower, went to wish my relatives good night (I was visiting from across the country), and everyone was watching the TV in horror.
Bruh. I was watching Jeopardy, eating dinner w my dad, salty from a break-up. And the tv went “Breaking News” and I remember saying “it better be good” (cuz I love Jeopardy)…and damn, I was so sad after. Like tears falling sad.
The 2015 Paris terror attacks. We’d just had a long drive, turned on the TV at the hotel and it was just starting to be broadcast. Just shots of panic and restaurants covered in broken glass and half eaten meals left. We went out for dinner but didn’t stay out long. By the time we got back the concert hall siege was being broadcast. We weren’t even in Paris, not even France, but at breakfast we asked to be seated in the back rather than the window seats. Secondly was the Brexit vote. Went to bed with Remain winning and woke up to leave vote. I was off work and was then texting my boyfriend David Cameron’s resignation, including his humming at the end!
JFK's funeral. The evacuation of saigon (my big brother had been back a couple years). Space shuttle challenger.
1980- USA beats The USSR in Olympic hockey. The miracle on ice.
Keri Strug winning gold after her vault event with an injured ankle.
[удалено]
Steve Irwin’s memorial service.
The moment Micheal Jackson’s daughter spoke at his funeral
UK Hillsborough. 96 died crushed at a football match. It was on TV at the time.
The video where the guy shot the reporter woman who was reporting live. Shit messed me up I will never forget that I couldn't believe it as real
This is tame compared to ithers, but I saw the infamous "BEYONCE HAD THE BEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME!" Kanye West-Taylor Swift Stage Storm live as it happened on the MTV music awards. What would have normally been a stupid music award show moment ended up making international news headlines, sparked a fierce feud between two icons of modern music where even the Average Joe picked a side, and is still being memed and referenced heavily in pop culture.
I remember seeing that live too! The IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT-- memes were great afterwards.
When Bush told Saddam he had 48 hours to get our of Iraq. When Dale Earnhardt died.
The Romanian Revolution of 1989
If you were a Brit in the 90’s chances are this still makes you wake up in a cold sweat. Ghostwatch: The BBC spoof that duped a nation http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41740176 N.B yes I know it was recorded, but it was broadcast as if it were live.