I was born after Kennedy’s assassination, so I’m not in the company of people who remember where they were when the announcement of his death was made.
That said, people born after the generation that remembers the Kennedy assassination have their unforgettable moments, too. Those singular moments in history that are so burned into your heart and mind that you can remember precisely where you were standing when they happened or when you learned that they had happened.
So I made a list:
March 30, 1981: President Reagan is shot. My mother told me about the shooting after getting off the bus from school, then I watched coverage on television while eating my after-school snack.
January 28, 1986: The space shuttle Challenger explodes. I was sitting in algebra class, watching on a television alongside my classmates. Our teacher, Mr. Offen, was a longterm substitute and not equipped to manage a class of students who had just watched seven astronauts die.
November 7, 1991: Magic Johnson announces that he is HIV positive. I heard the news on the radio while pulling into an Almacs grocery store in Attleboro, MA and shared it first with the young, female cashier who rang up my order.
April 19, 1995: The bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I learned about the bombing from a customer in the McDonald’s drive-thru less than an hour after it had happened, then I watched coverage of the bombing a couple hours later on a television in the student senate office at Manchester Community College alongside my fellow student government officials.
October 3, 1995: OJ Simpson is acquitted of murder, inciting riots in Los Angeles. I watched the news on a television in the student lounge at Manchester Community College with friends and fellow students.
September 11, 2001: Terrorists crash planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA. I received a phone call in my classroom at Wolcott School alerting me that a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I watched the towers fall and learned of the Pentagon attack on a small television in the principal’s office shortly thereafter.
February 1, 2003: The space shuttle Columbia breaks apart upon reentry. I was driving south on the Berlin Turnpike after picking up donuts at Dunkin’ Donuts when I heard the news on the radio.
June 25, 2009: Michael Jackson dies. I was on a beach at Wood Pond in West Hartford, CT, celebrating the end of the school year with my students and their families when someone learned of the news on their phone.
January 6, 2021: The Capitol insurrection: I was sitting at my desk at school, watching live coverage on my laptop.
I also wonder if I will always remember where I was when:
November 7, 2021: The networks call the Presidential election for Joe Biden. I was sitting in my office, speaking to a client in Romania when Elysha walked in, pulled my notepad across the desk, wrote, “Biden wins!” in black ink, and kissed my cheek.
April 20, 2021: Derek Chauvin guilty verdict is announced. I was sitting in my office, speaking to one of my corporate clients via Zoom when Elysha shouted the verdict for us to hear from the kitchen.
Did I miss anything? I was ten years old in 1981, so anything before that is probably beyond my recollection.
Elysha mentioned OJ Simpson’s Ford Bronco chase, which was memorable, for sure, but I was working a double shift that day at McDonald’s and didn’t arrive home until after midnight, so I only learned about it well after the fact. For me, it wasn’t happening and it hadn’t just happened. It had already happened the day before.
Anything else?
Maybe make a list of your own?
