The Biggest Historical Event In Your Life?

[Wild Bill03]

After reading the "Where Were You 40 Years Ago" thread, I remembered a conversation I had with my Mom while watching the news coverage on 9-11-01.

She said that a lot of really big things had happened during my life (Born '62), the assasination of both Kennedys, man on the moon, Vietnam war, the first Space Shuttle loss, 9-11, etc.

Then she asked what I thought was the biggest historical event in my life, since the 9-11 attacks had just occured, it weighed in pretty heavy but I had to say 9-11 was the worst thing to happen and man on the moon was the best. I couldnt pick between the two.


In your opinion what was the biggest event in history to have happened during your life time?

[BillBrown]

The collapse of the Soviet Union.

Anyone predicting that, in say 1980, would have been called crazy.

[Clamp]

9-11

Collapse of the Soviet Union

The Bicentennial Celebration (I was only 6, but its one of my first "big" memories)

When the Internet "broke", and went mainstream. Absolutely phenomenal. That "text only" crap back in '89 was cool, but now...

The whole Y2K thing was fun... :)

[captusa]

.............
In your opinion what was the biggest event in history to have happened during your life time?

WWII stands out.

[Panhead0422]

After reading the "Where Were You 40 Years Ago" thread, I remembered a conversation I had with my Mom while watching the news coverage on 9-11-01.

She said that a lot of really big things had happened during my life (Born '62), the assasination of both Kennedys, man on the moon, Vietnam war, the first Space Shuttle loss, 9-11, etc.

Then she asked what I thought was the biggest historical event in my life, since the 9-11 attacks had just occured, it weighed in pretty heavy but I had to say 9-11 was the worst thing to happen and man on the moon was the best. I couldnt pick between the two.


In your opinion what was the biggest event in history to have happened during your life time?

I was born. I wouldn't know about any of the rest if I hadn't been. :whistle::)):)):))

[WhiteHatBobby]

News: January 28, 1986
News: September 11, 2001

Other notable events: November 23, 1994*
In pop culture: February 18, 2001

* On September 15, 1994, the month of October was cancelled by the Clinton administration and his union buddies, with cooperation by NBC and ABC. September was expanded to 45 days and November to 46 days. It lasted just one year.

[smyrna]

A memorable moment that I wish wasn't was...the O.J. verdict.

[BasicGreatGuy]

Viewing Haley's Comet in 1986 - Once in a lifetime experience

Challenger Disaster - Watched it live, as did many other people

Watergate & Nixon resigning

444 Days - If you don't know what those numbers mean, you are either too young or too feeble to have remembered.

Out of those 4 events, I would have to say that Watergate and Nixon resigning were the biggest for me.

[2Parties1GlobalistGoal]

Magglio Ordonez walk-off homer to send the Tigers to the World Series...

[jimjames418]

In your opinion what was the biggest event in history to have happened during your life time?
December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor which was the beginning of WWII. :flag:

[Sinister Rouge]

Oklahoma City Bombing
Jacksonville Jaguars Inaugural Playoff Season
9-11
Mars rovers
Invasion of Iraq
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Papal election
Barack Obama being elected


I know I'll catch some crap for the last one, but I thought it would be years before America would elect a black man President. I spent a lot of time in Alabama, so maybe that made me more pessimistic than normal, but it was still a big deal to me.


December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor which was the beginning of WWII. :flag:

Not to be that guy, but Pearl Harbor was the start of WWII for America. September 1, 1939, was the real start. Or possibly when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1932.
Yeah, I'm a history fanatic.

[CID_0687]

Oklahoma City Bombing
Jacksonville Jaguars Inaugural Playoff Season
9-11
Mars rovers
Invasion of Iraq
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Papal election
Barack Obama being elected


I know I'll catch some crap for the last one, but I thought it would be years before America would elect a black man President. I spent a lot of time in Alabama, so maybe that made me more pessimistic than normal, but it was still a big deal to me.
Yeah, cause all of us that live in Alabama are racist. :rolleyes:

[Sinister Rouge]

Yeah, cause all of us that live in Alabama are racist. :rolleyes:

I didn't say that, and I'm sorry if that's what you thought I was implying. I went to high school in Alabama and my folks still live there.
From the town I lived in, and the people I went to school with, I figured it would be at least a decade or two before we elected a black man.

[hatman]

I agree with the significance of many of the above mentioned events.
I was born in 1953.
The first one to pop into my mind was JFK's assassination.
From a personal perspective, it was Apollo. Along with the historical signficance, and the pride I have for my dad's contribution, his devotion to the Program contributed to my parents' divorce in 1970. The effects of that never completely go away.

[Sinister Rouge]

I think this is really just going to be the same events over and over again, with the occasional older person living through the CRM or WWII.
I will be very impressed if we get someone who remembers when the Archduke was shot...

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

I think this is really just going to be the same events over and over again, with the occasional older person living through the CRM or WWII.
I will be very impressed if we get someone who remembers when the Archduke was shot...

My grandfather was born in 1895 and fought in WWI... and lived to see man on the moon (he died in '75). To think that his lifetime spanned from horse and buggies to space travel is mind-boggling.

[wayoverthehill]

December 7, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor which was the beginning of WWII. :flag:Funny, I was just mulling over this question and the thing that came to my mind was the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that brought WWII to an end.

Of course I don't remember Dec. 7 since I was only 14 months old but much of my life was probably affected by the atomic bomb. Indirectly anyway.

[wayoverthehill]

Oklahoma City Bombing
Jacksonville Jaguars Inaugural Playoff Season
9-11
Mars rovers
Invasion of Iraq
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
Papal election
Barack Obama being elected


I know I'll catch some crap for the last one, but I thought it would be years before America would elect a black man President. I spent a lot of time in Alabama, so maybe that made me more pessimistic than normal, but it was still a big deal to me.




Not to be that guy, but Pearl Harbor was the start of WWII for America. September 1, 1939, was the real start. Or possibly when Japan invaded Manchuria in 1932.
Yeah, I'm a history fanatic.For America it was December 7, 1941. Events in Europe weren't something the average American was concerned about in 1939, or even before. Like 1933. We had our own problem. A little something called The Depression.

[BillBrown]

I think this is really just going to be the same events over and over again, with the occasional older person living through the CRM or WWII.
I will be very impressed if we get someone who remembers when the Archduke was shot...

This thread is interesting because it gives a look at what different people think is important.
Some of it is surprising.

[Wild Bill03]

This thread is interesting because it gives a look at what different people think is important.
Some of it is surprising.


I agree, some of it is surprising. And we all have the last decade or two in common.

[jeepers]

My grandfather was born in 1895 and fought in WWI... and lived to see man on the moon (he died in '75). To think that his lifetime spanned from horse and buggies to space travel is mind-boggling.

I know that one. My grandfather was born in 1906 and died in 1988. From Kitty Hawk to the Moon and beyond, all in one lifetime.

[Wild Bill03]

My grandfather was born in 1895 and fought in WWI... and lived to see man on the moon (he died in '75). To think that his lifetime spanned from horse and buggies to space travel is mind-boggling.

That would be a huge leap of technology to witness! But remember our lives are still cruisin along and some scientist is busy right now working on god only knows what.

I saw where they were actually able to teleport an atom from one location to another.....

[Pauper66]

February 1999:

Bruce Dickinson rejoins Iron Maiden.

[sgdp]

9-11.

Mmmhm.

[jeepers]

With regards to the OP: Even though I was alive before the JFK assasination, I'm going to have to say 9/11.

But Watergate was huge. Vietnam and Kent State. George Wallace and the Challenger disaster. Oklahoma, Kruschev. Reagan and the Berlin Wall...

Damn, I'm old as dirt. :))

[MikeJF]

color tv, now that was incredible

[BillBrown]

I'll still have to say, for me, it was the break up of the Soviet Union.

Kennedy's assassination, the Challenger and even 9-11 were certainly huge news events, but they didn't have as much world-wide impact. I would place the Salk vaccine above these things.

It's all opinion, anyway. That's what makes this thread interesting.

[Dr. Funkenstein]

Political- Obama getting elected, Clinton's impeachment, Reagan's landslide

News- 9/11, Challenger explosion, OJ Simpson murders/chase/trials

Sports- Ripken breaking Gehrig's record, MLB cancelling '94 World Series, '87 NFL strike (which completely changed the league), Barry Bonds going past 755, Ichiro Suzuki's breakthrough (becoming first major Japanese athlete to break through in US).

Pop culture- "Thriller", Harry Potter, Michael Jackson's death

[super cool ski instructor]

Obviously 9/11 takes top honors.

The first historical event I remember was the Challengar explosion. I was in the 1st grade and we had TVs brought in to watch.

I also remember the Berlin Wall coming down. I didn't know exactly what it was all about, but I knew it was something huge.

[jeepers]

I'll still have to say, for me, it was the break up of the Soviet Union.

Kennedy's assassination, the Challenger and even 9-11 were certainly huge news events, but they didn't have as much world-wide impact. I would place the Salk vaccine above these things.

It's all opinion, anyway. That's what makes this thread interesting.


There is more than one way to make one's jaw drop. You raise an interesting point that I can't argue with. I was stunned when the USSR collapsed. Never thought that I'd see it in my lifetime.

But to have the US attacked within it's own borders...something that happens to other countries, elsewhere....Never thought that I'd ever see that, either.

This isn't an easy question.

[merickson]

I'd have to say the moon landing.
That will be history long after 9-11 and the other events mentioned become answers to a trivia questions.

[mrclean]

Although I don't remember much about it, probably being born.

[twinheart]

in my lifetime - I guess the first was the assination of President Kennedy - it was the first time that I saw my Mom cry, and I remember thinking that there was something bad in the world that the US could not stop -

watching the moon landing - seeing all those people united in one thing - pride and true hope was very moving and reminded me all over again how great our Nation is

Pope John Paul being shot - man of love, of peace, of great strength and humor. He bore no ill will toward anyone, forgave all, even the man who shot him and nearly killed him.
He was the personification of God here on earth. He was the example of what the love of God can be in a good and willing heart.
And the amazing thing is that each and every one of us has the same ability to be all that he was. He was the example.

and 9-11 - my cousin was one of the 343 - he was murdered that day and despite the pain and loss, I could not help but feel tremendous pride in my Country as we rose up as one, and united against an enemy, stood together and took care of each other, and rebuilt our lives -

[uncledoom]

Born in '71

9/11
The Berlin Wall coming down
Space Shuttle Columbia
Reagan Getting shot
Da Bears 85 Super Bowl
Rodney King beating trial (I was in the middle of the Atlanta riotting from that)
Clarence Thomas confirmation
Al Gore invents the internet....:whistle:

[AutoRacer55]

9-11
USSR collapsing, but I was only 3 at the time, so I can't say that I remember it.
Columbine
Hurricane Katrina
2006-2007 Saints season almost getting to the super bowl (I'm from new orleans, so its gotta be up there.)

[Wild Bill03]

9-11
USSR collapsing, but I was only 3 at the time, so I can't say that I remember it.
Columbine
Hurricane Katrina
2006-2007 Saints season almost getting to the super bowl (I'm from new orleans, so its gotta be up there.)



Seeing your post and your sig reminded me of Dale Earnhardt sr., so I add that to my short list.

And I agree the Indy 500 is bigger than Daytona but not by a lot after the split and loss of USAC at Indy. It will never be the same as the old days of Foyt, the Unsers, Andretti, Mears, etc.

[roger teekell]

The Birth of my Son..

No contest.

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

There is more than one way to make one's jaw drop. You raise an interesting point that I can't argue with. I was stunned when the USSR collapsed. Never thought that I'd see it in my lifetime.

But to have the US attacked within it's own borders...something that happens to other countries, elsewhere....Never thought that I'd ever see that, either.

This isn't an easy question.

No, it isn't. So many events...

I remember learning 'duck and cover' and my Dad seriously considering a bomb-shelter. I will never forget the look on his face when the civil defense sirens went off in celebration of the end of the Vietnam war. (whoever thought that one up should have been slapped) He turned white as a sheet.

The break-up of the USSR? Never.

[mysticbeauty_nbeast]

Wow....reading this thread...you take a walk down memory lane. Blows my mind in just how much history has passed in any one person's lifetime.
Thinking back to my earliest memories ...the Moon Landing...which was pretty cool...but I was only 3...some guy in a weird suit jumping around on the surface of what looked liked a giant gray golf ball. Going from black and white t.v. to color was cool. So were microwaves...could kill a hot dog in under a minute.! lol

The investigation of the Kennedy assassination....although the assassination happened before my time...I remember something was always on the news about who did it...who was being investigated..and why he was killed. I knew it was important as they always talked about it. Nixon and Watergate...'I am not a crook!'

Vietnam...I'll never forget the news footage of army cargo plans off loading hundreds of draped coffins...lined up on the tarmac...having to ask my Dad...'what happened?" and ...he never did answer me. It was many years before anyone really began talking about it..and the adults around me always went into yelling matches over the topic.

In high school...it was the constant threat of Nuclear Destruction. My generation grew up knowing any one day could well be our last. Carter and his gas shortage...I remember that one all to well. The Iran Hostage Crises...what a mess! Regan and Gorbachev...'Mr. Gorbachev...Tear down this wall!" What a great speech from one of our most well remembered Presidents. (I called him Grandpa President). Princes song 1999 seemed appropriate..as none of us thought we would see a day past 1999. ;) (Glad we were wrong!) Genesis song 'Land of confusion' could be heard playing on the radio...

The space shuttle explosion...that stopped us all cold. I remember vividly that morning...I doubt I'll ever forget it. Regan's 'gun's for hostages' scheme...Oliver North..the ultimate patsy who fell on his sword for his President...Chernobyl melt down....Desert Storm and our first introduction as a nation to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman!" casually known as the 'Monica Lewinsky' issue. :rolleyes: Then it hit...the big one...9/11...watched unbelieving as those plans crashed into the twin towers.

Which brings us to the present....and all it holds.

What could one pick as a defining moment in one's nations history? I don't think I could choose just one. Like a story book, the events slowly unravel to reveal yet another chapter in the story. Like any good story, the ending is a slow unfolding of events. We're not boring...that much I can say...lol.

~Mysty

[wayoverthehill]

No, it isn't. So many events...

I remember learning 'duck and cover' and my Dad seriously considering a bomb-shelter. I will never forget the look on his face when the civil defense sirens went off in celebration of the end of the Vietnam war. (whoever thought that one up should have been slapped) He turned white as a sheet.

The break-up of the USSR? Never.You speaking of the civil defense sirens reminds me of the chaos created in 1959 when the White Sox won the American League pennant and Mayor Daley of Chicago allowed the sirens to go off in celebration. That scared about half the city witless and he was soundly chastised for it.

Duck and cover? I spent the first half of the 50's scared to death that we would be bombed. There were all sorts of horror stories about the devastation the bomb would cause, especially in a big city like Chicago.

[sgdp]

You speaking of the civil defense sirens reminds me of the chaos created in 1959 when the White Sox won the American League pennant and Mayor Daley of Chicago allowed the sirens to go off in celebration. That scared about half the city witless and he was soundly chastised for it.

Duck and cover? I spent the first half of the 50's scared to death that we would be bombed. There were all sorts of horror stories about the devastation the bomb would cause, especially in a big city like Chicago.

I admit I "lived in fear" after 9-11. Being around the Whatchu-Talkin-Bout Willis Tower... sometimes it still feels scary knowing it's such an in-your-face target.

[Spiked101]

President Kennedy's assassination. I remember sitting on my mom's bed and crying with her. She was inconsolable for several days and I watched the funeral procession. I can still hear those drums beating and little John saluting his dad and the horseless rider. Very very solid memories that are still vivid and clear.

[BillBrown]

No, it isn't. So many events...

I remember learning 'duck and cover' and my Dad seriously considering a bomb-shelter. I will never forget the look on his face when the civil defense sirens went off in celebration of the end of the Vietnam war. (whoever thought that one up should have been slapped) He turned white as a sheet.

The break-up of the USSR? Never.

I don't recall a specific "end" to the Vietnam War.
When was it?
When the last American was withdrawn?
When Saigon fell?

I remember it as being a drawn out and gradual process.

[sgdp]

^^ I remember being home sick watching Bush declare victory in Iraq on that aircraft carrier.

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

You speaking of the civil defense sirens reminds me of the chaos created in 1959 when the White Sox won the American League pennant and Mayor Daley of Chicago allowed the sirens to go off in celebration. That scared about half the city witless and he was soundly chastised for it.

Duck and cover? I spent the first half of the 50's scared to death that we would be bombed. There were all sorts of horror stories about the devastation the bomb would cause, especially in a big city like Chicago.

I lived outside DC, so it was kinda in our faces all the time.

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

I don't recall a specific "end" to the Vietnam War.
When was it?
When the last American was withdrawn?
When Saigon fell?

I remember it as being a drawn out and gradual process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Peace_Accords

It took effect at midnight GMT, making it 7PM our time. I remember being out in the front yard with my Dad when the sirens went off at that time.

[wayoverthehill]

I lived outside DC, so it was kinda in our faces all the time.Man, talk about having a bulls-eye painted on your head! That would be the first place to go.

[EmmanuelGoldstein]

Man, talk about having a bulls-eye painted on your head! That would be the first place to go.

Yeah, I suspect that's why my Dad was so paranoid lol.

Thinking back on all that went on in the 60s/early 70s, it was scary as hell for us kids. We saw all these images... this stuff was in our faces all the time. War, protests, firehoses on protesters, assassinations... yet our parents didn't really ever sit down to explain what was happening. We were just ignored, for the most part. But it was scary as hell to grow up during all of that and not fully understand what was going on.

I remember hearing the 'grown-ups' talking about my uncle being MIA in Vietnam, but they never said anything to us. I would sit there watching the evening news, with all the horrible images flashing across the screen, scared to death and wondering if I'd ever see him again.

[grapabeaux]

When I was 8 years old in 1979, our grade school teacher had us do a little personal time capsule about the meaningful things going on at that time. The answer to the biggest political crisis was the Iran hostage crisis.

The collapse of the Eastern European satellites of the Soviet Union, and then the Soviet Union itself, came as such as surprise to the media and everyone else that when it happened, you had to be surprised that such a big event happened, and without a lot of smarty-pants realpolitik experts anticipating it either. There was a lot of second-hand emotion at the sight of Germans taking over the Berlin Wall, marking it up, and then tearing it down.

In history books 500 years from now, they will still be talking about the inconguity of dividing up a city within a territory in such a manner, and about the brutal authoritarian nature of the government that created that situation.

On a more tragi-comical scale, I remember going out to a sports bar on a Friday night in 1994, a night where the Knicks were playing the Rockets, and seeing a full house dead silent as the TV played a white Bronco traveling at low speed on a California highway as goofballs watching on TV went out to say, "Go, OJ, go."

The things happening since then seem to have an escalating effect - a government shutdown, an impeachment, a presidential election that went to the Supreme Court, a devastating attack on American soil that forced us to wake up from history. It may be a while before we sort out which of these things is the biggest historical event.

(I'll leave the Obama term of presidency for a later subject, since we're still in the middle of it.)

[mboncher]

Bar none: 9/11. Nothing else comes close in my lifetime.

The only things I could consider comparable and possibly bigger in the last 100 years would have been:

-Hiroshima & Nagasaki nuclear bombs (warfare changed forever)
-Pearl Harbor (The quintessential call to arms for America and it's role on the world stage)
-Man walking on the moon (Man leaves the cradle of his creation)
-Sputnik (Man's first successful step to the stars)
-Yuri Gugerin being the first man in space (Proof man can leave Earth)
-Lindberg Crosses the Atlantic (A new industry is born - air travel)
-Hindenburg Explosion (Lighter than Air transport Industry ends disastrously)
-The Crash of 1929 (A thesis in global economics from the school of hard knocks)
-Fall of the Berlin Wall / End of Cold War (The end of a political standoff that defined the world for decades)
-Live Aid 1 (the largest commercial/promotional concert ever to help bring awareness to the suffering of others)
-Death of Princess Di (The most prominent expression of the celebrity phenomenon in western culture)

Those things all change the way we viewed the world forever in a sudden jolt that was front and center in the public's attention through the media. Although some inventions and advances in science did possibly as much or more than these events, they were not as 'newsworthy' or shocking.

[AutoRacer55]

Seeing your post and your sig reminded me of Dale Earnhardt sr., so I add that to my short list.

And I agree the Indy 500 is bigger than Daytona but not by a lot after the split and loss of USAC at Indy. It will never be the same as the old days of Foyt, the Unsers, Andretti, Mears, etc.

The CART/USAC split in 1978-1979 was necessary imo, but CART/IRL in 1996 certainly wasn't. The race will only get bigger when technical innovation is allowed again.

I should have added to my list the Reunification of open wheel racing in the US, as I am a huge race fan (not literally, i'm only 150 pounds).

[ISYairio]

End of the Soviet Union... but I was so young perhaps it doesn't count. If that is the case, Bush policies at the end of his second term + the policies of Obama going forward.

[Finality]

I'm going to have to agree with the breakup of the USSR as being the single biggest historical event of my lifetime. There were some major events, but that was a fall of an entire empire and the only other superpower of much or most of the 20th century. The only things I could compare to that would be the disassembling of the western European empires of the previous 200ish years, but the British and French empires took a long time whereas the Soviet Union just suddenly ... cracked. (in relative terms)

[JohnRandolph]

Kennedy shot
Vietnam
Men on the moon
Color TV
Watergate/Nixon Resigns/the dreadful six years that followed
Reagan elected/shot
The internet
My son is born

[NascarGirl2448]

My grandfather was born in 1895 and fought in WWI... and lived to see man on the moon (he died in '75). To think that his lifetime spanned from horse and buggies to space travel is mind-boggling.

Sounds like my grandfather. He was born in 1911 and died in 2005 at age 94. I can remember him talking about how what are now large cities were mere bumps in the road when he was young. Also I remember hearing about how people drove horses and buggies or took the streetcar to get places. To think we've gone from that to going into outer space within the span of a few years is just unreal.