Which of these events is your earliest memory?

[Allegra]

I was aware of the Berlin Wall coming down at 4 thanks to a cartoon using it in the plot. Alvin and the Chipmunks, if I remember correctly.

[Dreamer23]

9/11. I remember watching the Simpsons when they got interrupted for 9/11 live coverage.

 

To be fair, I'm old enough for memories from 1994 - I just don't think Nelson Mandela's election was on the news that much.

[russtopher]

I remember watching the Challenger explosion live on TV. I remember seeing my older stepsister crying when I got home from school that day.

 

I was 8 years old and that was my first realization of how serious the world is. My ignorance disappeared that day.

[Yinlotus93]

I was in 2nd grade when 9/11 happened. I didn't get what was going on at the time, took about a year and a half to completely understand the gravity of it all. We were all just having class when without much warning our teacher had all the students go into a different classroom then we were all watching the news footage on the tv. I remember that day right away when I hear the Alan Jackson song about the event.

[Puck]

I think the 9/11 attacks were the first time I became conscious of America as a country with there being other countries that were different from us. The following weeks saw a young Josie being told so many weird and crazy things about people in other countries that were so counter to how I was raised. Some were lies, but it was certainly a time in my life that is cemented in my mind as I realized how big the world was...

[dragon_nerd]

My earliest memory is of me building a bridge out of a pillow and cracking my head open. I do not see that option anywhere!  

As for the 1st event that I was alive for, that would be 9/11. 

[arekathevampyre]

I was a kid back then when the 9/11 happened . and of course the Hurricane Katrina

[andreas1033]

Challenger explosion

I would of been 11, so well able to remember, such big news event.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

I remember the sadness when JFK was assassinated, my mum was quite upset about it, and we are Scots, not US citizens, so that shows how well liked he was.

[Tja]

Roots is the earliest memory from the list.

I was too young to remember the Moon landing, and was born 1 year after JFK.

*Still bugs me when someone asks, "Do you remember what you were doing when Kennedy was shot?"*

**Though, my patent answer always tickled me: "No, since I wasn't even swimming in a testicle, yet!"**

[SithAzathoth WinterDragon]

Obama and Katrina both happened when I was in my mid teens.

[Toothlesss]

I was 9 when 9/11 happened. Also, we lived very close to NYC. 

[borkfork]

 

21 hours ago, Tja said:

Roots is the earliest memory from the list.

I was too young to remember the Moon landing, and was born 1 year after JFK.

*Still bugs me when someone asks, "Do you remember what you were doing when Kennedy was shot?"*

**Though, my patent answer always tickled me: "No, since I wasn't even swimming in a testicle, yet!"**

When asked about the Challenger I say I was too busy kicking my mom's bladder.

[Finn.]

My first *world event* memory would be the introduction of the Euro (€) I think. And then the twin towers. And then the great coalition / election in 2005 here in Germany, the first time I was actually aware of politics haha. I was and infant or not yet alive for everything else before that on this list.

[PHOENIX97]

I remember when I was 3 or 4 a butterfly landed on my nose or forehead. When I tried to get it to crawl on my hand it flew away. 

[PHOENIX97]

Oops sorry I saw the title and just started typing. Earliest one was Obama when I was 10

[Sabre Cat]

I can't remember the fall of Berlin Wall, but I do remember the fall of Soviet Union very clearly (I was 12 and very scared. I live in the country not covered by the NATO and very near to USSR / Russia). So, I guess it's accurate to say that fall of the Berlin Wall is my first "big memory".

[Piotrek]

In terms of world events that I can think of right now, probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Armenian_earthquake

and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill

 

[chair jockey]

On 7/3/2016 at 10:48 PM, DiamondAce said:

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.

 

Chernobyl was huge news, especially for conservatives who were openly hoping that 20,000 people had been killed instead of, as it turned out, two. I was a watcher of the text news scroller even back then (although it was much simpler in those days) and happened to see this item: "Soviet nuclear reactor burning out of control." In the middle of the Cold War, with fear of global thermonuclear war still being common and anti-nuclear activism at its peak, that was definitely an attention-grabber. Younger people should picture it as something like this fictitious news item today: "Chunk of Antarctic ice cap melts because of climate change and exposes Antarctic soil for the first time."

 

But my first world event memory is a strange one: the first Ali-Foreman fight. it was televised live at what was 3 am local time where I lived, and not only my parents and I but my paternal grandparents gathered around our little TV to watch it. I recall most of the fight being dull, with Ali leaning back against the ropes with his forearms over his face and Foreman pounding Ali's abdomen for three minutes at a time. Then, at the start of the fifteenth round, Ali suddenly burst out swinging and knocked Foreman out. Decades later some video evidence was produced that Ali's trainer had likely slipped him a whiff of smelling salts in his corner between the fourteenth and fifteenth rounds. At the time, however, it just increased Ali's stature as the one beloved American in my part of East Europe (which had started with him going to prison for anti-Vietnam War activities).

 

One bit of additional weirdness is that the backs of the training jerseys that Ali's crew wore said "Muhamammo Ali." I recall that very clearly and it's my sharpest memory. I knew no English at the time and thought it was just how Anglophones spelled "Muhammad."

[Member4445]

My earliest memory on that list is 9/11 (I was 10). 

 

I have vague memories of the JonBenet Ramsey case being discussed when it happened and a lot more memories of Princess Diana's death. I also remember discussions of the introduction of the Euro because we used to go to Spain every year and I was sad that I wouldn't be seeing the funny 25 peseta coins anymore. 

[GreenCircles]

Technically I'm old enough to remember Nelson Mandela's election, but as a 5 year old I wasn't very aware of international politics... so from this list I had to put 9/11. But as others have mentioned, I remember the OJ Simpson car chase, the Atlanta Olympics, the Clinton/Dole election, and seeing coverage of the OKC bombings.

[X86]

The election of Barack Obama. Many of these are very US-centric, and I'm European — and besides, I was zero on 9/11.

[C8H7N3O2]

9/11.

Everything before that I had to learn about via history books. Some things I never learned about period. Although it's not on the list, the earliest historical event for me that I can remember was Loma Prieta. I was quite young but I still remember experiencing it.

[darkstreamers252]

9/11 happened a few day before my second birthday, I remember watching cartoons with the babysitter and after the second tower was hit cartoons were cut off because of the nationwide emergency. Of course being a little kid, that made me really, really, upset, but I remember the babysitter being really upset at the news and then my parents were even more upset. Later when Bush addressed the nation my dad sat me down and explained what had happened and told me to watch and listen to the president, I remember it but I had no idea what was going on, being a little kid and all.

[Guest]

9/11. I was three when it happened. I remember it very clearly, because I didn't know if my dad was dead or alive. He worked in an office building immediately next to the Twin Towers, and he had a meeting in one of them on the day of the attacks. The police lines in New York were shut down, too, because they were receiving so many calls. A fireman rescued him, thankfully, but for a long while we were terrified that my dad was killed.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

In retrospect, although I remember JFK's assassination, my actual earliest memory is of the day we moved house when I was 2. I sat in our old bathroom just looking at the black and white tiles and the 'finger boards' on the doors that were decorated in birds.

[iff]

@Snao Çoñé

 

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