Which of these events is your earliest memory?

[Snao Cone]

I don't necessarily mean which of these is the earliest you were alive for, but rather which of these is the earliest world event that you remember as being noted in your life?

[Rising Sun]

The first big historical event that i remember is the First Gulf War. However I remember older things, I remember people talking about the USSR, maps with it, and its fall. Curiously, I don't remember the fall of the Berlin Wall.

[ThaHoward]

Bill Clinton for some reason :P

[Rising Sun]

Bill Clinton for some reason :P

Monica Lewinsky ? :lol:

[ThaHoward]

No, just Bill Clinton :P Like I literally only remember the guy first for a reason xD But I guess it had something to do with her. Then 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan.

[Sage Raven Domino]

You've made me so ashamed of not knowing about Nelson Mandela in childhood :redface:

I do have vague memories of the 1993 storm of the Russian White House, though.

And of course I remember the Monica Lewinsky scandal

[butterflydreams]

The first major event I remember was actually the OJ Simpson trial. I distinctly remember watching them chase his white bronco on the TV news.

But in your list, I had to put september 11th...wow, that makes me seem young, but I was in junior high at the time. I could've remembered Nelson Mandela, but it just wasn't something I was aware of.

[Grumpy Alien]

I don't actually remember Nelson Mandela's election. I remember knowing about it a few years later but I was too young at the time it happened. I remember 9/11 vividly.

[Snao Cone]

I remember talking about the fall of the Berlin Wall to my 1st grade teacher.

[butterflydreams]

I guess I remember Bill Clinton being elected...mostly because my parents had Ross Perot signs on our yard. It was the first and last time I ever saw them being political in any way.

[Snao Cone]

I had an American neighbour a few houses down who had a Clinton/Gore sign in his window in 1992.

[kriddle]

Considering I have only been alive for less than half of these, I had limited options to choose from. I would have said the post 9-11 America policies since I remember those more than the actual event if it had been there.

[Lia]

The OKC bombing, the WTC bombing, Clinton's first inauguration, the Gulf War...

I'm 31 years old, so there was SO MUCH MORE in between Mandela (which I don't remember) and 9/11, when I was a senior in high school. I was alive for the Challenger and Berlin Wall but I was too young.

[tali.lynn]

I was alive for the 9/11 attacks and I vaguely remember being in preschool and knowing something was going on... but I didn't know what happened or understand the impact. Hurricane Katrina, I remember though.

[Gentle Giant]

I selected the moon landing. Though it was kind of vague for me. I remember more about Watergate, even though I didn't know what the heck that was about! I remember it because it kept interrupting the TV shows I was watching.

[TheStarrySkai]

I put Hurricane Katrina. Although that is mostly because I wasn't in the U.S. in 2001. I didn't come into the US until late 2002. I was also 4 in 2001 and I didn't really watch TV.

[Philip027]

September 11. I was probably still practically a newborn for the Challenger explosion, I've only heard of the Berlin Wall in history classes, and I don't even know who Nelson Mandela is.

On September 11, due to living in Hawaii, the attacks occurred in the very early morning for me, which caused phone calls to happen, which caused TVs to get turned on to the news stations, which caused me to wake up early as well. It was a strange, somber environment at school that day.

[butterflydreams]

I was probably still practically a newborn for the Challenger explosion,

Holy shit...you're older than me?!

<checks profile> You are older than me! :lol:

The OKC bombing

Oh, that was big news. I definitely remember that. 1995.

[SorryNotSorry]

Hmm... earliest world event would have to be all the hoopla on TV about the 1972 Olympics.

As for my own personal earliest memory, that would have to be when my mother tried to enter me in preschool. I remember it because the outside of the building was painted this pukey apple green, and she said "shit" as she tried to enter through a locked door on the wrong side of the building. That would have been in 1970 or 1971, when I was 3 or 4.

[DragonflytotheMoon]

Since I was born in Dec 68, I chose Roots. Back when miniseries were a family event. I haven't read the novel & didn't watch the recent remake on History. In 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated. As were Martin Luther King Jr & Bobby Kennedy in 1968. If you wanted to keep adding to your list :P

[Snao Cone]

I didn't want to add too many options around the same period of time, and I went with mostly American events because I think those are more widely known. I was initially going to include Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope (1980) but that might just be a Canadian thing.

[Gloomy]

9/11. My earliest memories were from 1993 or 1994 but I didn't pay attention to world events back then.

[Sage Raven Domino]

I wonder how much exposure the Chernobyl accident got in the US media throughout 1986... it influenced nuclear policies across the world and accelerated the dissolution of the USSR.

[nanogretchen4]

I didn't actually watch Roots because I was eight years old but I remember grownups talking about it.

[Skycaptain]

Challenger landing. I wasn't born at the moon landing, and I've never heard of Roots,

[touching-not-so-much]

God these results make me feel old - the overwhelming majority putting 9/11 as their earliest significant memory, compared to my Challenger disaster - I even recall Roots but it had to have been a re-air because I would have only been four.

[Anthracite_Impreza]

9/11, we were going on holiday to America about a week later and it scared the crap out of me.

[Ace-TheTimelordsCompanion]

I put 9/11

But honestly, the first major world event I remember would be the Y2K scare (millenium bug)

[Homer]

I was born in the former GDR. The Berlin wall came down when I was seven. I still remember people destroying the wall on TV... didn't really know what it meant but I definitely knew that it was something big and important.

[binary suns]

I think the earliest I became world aware was in 2000 with the GW Bush campaign and stuff. I also remember bits of the Enron Scandal, and then a lot about the sept. 11 attack. I think I was pretty much unaware of these kinds of events before then. there's definitely important personal events I remember before that, but I didn't pay any attention to the rest of the world.