Have You Witnessed A Major Historical Or Current Event?

[mark1111]

Not as major as the fall of Saigon, I was part of the withdrawal of Mogadishu, Somalia. I'll never forget the swarm coming over the wall I witnessed from the helo...

Iraq for 3 years...

btw, I was on the HMS Beaver when the crew told me about the LA riots.

 

[unloadonme]

I've not witnessed any such events in person, but I've obviously seen TV and newspaper reporting of many of the events mentioned by others above. I don't regard seeing media coverage as actually witnessing such events though.

 

[Willie Boy]

I can't comment on it....

You ain't quite so young as I thought.

 

[gsdx]

I don't regard seeing media coverage as actually witnessing such events though.

I guess it's a matter of perspective. I wasn't on the Eagle, but I witnessed the moon landing. I guess it was one of those 'you didn't have to be there' events.

 

[Willie Boy]

I guess it's a matter of perspective. I wasn't on the Eagle, but I witnessed the moon landing. I guess it was one of those 'you didn't have to be there' events.

Oh, but you did have to be there.

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall on TV, though of course at the time I was a child and didn't understand the significance.

 

[EJMichaels]

... I don't regard seeing media coverage as actually witnessing such events though.

True, it's not the same, but watching the events unfold in real-time on TV is not the same as later viewing the video and edited report. Seeing the planes hit the World Trade Towers during my regular morning news-viewing left an impression unlike hearing about it later would. Same for watching Challenger explode, and other events.

As for direct experiences, I lived in the area of the DC area Beltway sniper attacks in 2002, close to the center of the various shooting sites, and was afraid to be out in the open.

In 1987, I was on a train affected by, but not part of, what was the deadliest Amtrak crash at the time. I found out about it when people called home to ask others who watched the news. The people involved weren't told at the time, while they kept us waiting for hours at a nearby station. So, the news stories were actually more informatinve than being there.

 

[ShyTwink]

I personally experienced Hurrican Katrina in 2005. I remember the hotel we stayed in lost power and trees were knocked down. We ended up going to Houston for a few weeks, but it felt like it was much longer.

 

[Hotrich]

I remember the news coverage on the TV of the murder of Princess Diana.

 

[gsdx]

I remember the news coverage on the TV of the murder of Princess Diana.

I'm guessing you're blaming the 'murder' on the paparazzi.

 

[jbrown329]

Mount St. Helens going burp. NO, after-the-fact.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and aftermath. YEAH, I saw its occurrence from the World Series point-of-view on TV, which quickly went into earthquake coverage. I have actually felt two non-eventful earthquakes in my lifetime.
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. ​NO, ibid. NO, ibid..
The attempted assassination of Ronald Regan. NO, ibid.
The fall of the Berlin wall. YES, SAW SOME OF THE EVENTS LIVE on the telly.
The election of Barack Obama. YES...among a handful of other presidential elections. I tend to be watching.
The resignation of Richard Nixon. YES, DEFINITELY - I was "in for the evening" at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio during the week that I was sent there for government Auditing school.
Walter Cronkite's last newscast and Dan Rather taking over the anchor desk. No, missed it.

On the no, I didn't see live coverage. Just saw what was on the tube afterwards. St. Helens burped the day I flew into Billings MT from Louisville KY. Woke up to a light dusting on the car. Drove back to Missoula from Ennis. Screwed the engine in my mom's car. Ash does a nasty number on an internal combustion engine.

The moon landing I didn't get to see. Was at the grandparent's for the summer and they lived in the sticks. TV reception was never good.

 

[Hotrich]

Probably, but I thought that there was someone behind the fatal crash who had an agenda of some kind. It is all some time ago now, but I see the crash has been in the news again, recently, and they are saying that the bodyguard is now to blame for not being fully trained to protect members of the royal family. It is an ongoing saga.

 

[gsdx]

St. Helens burped the day I flew into Billings MT from Louisville KY.

I'll see your Mt. St Helens and raise you an Eyjafjallajökull.

St. Helens burped, but Eyjafjallajökull disrupted air traffic from April to October 2010.

 

[jbrown329]

I'll see your Mt. St Helens and raise you an Eyjafjallajökull.

St. Helens burped, but Eyjafjallajökull disrupted air traffic from April to October 2010.

I remember that. What a mess. Don't remember how long air traffic wasn't possible.

 

[gsdx]

I remember that. What a mess. Don't remember how long air traffic wasn't possible.

And most people still don't know how to pronounce it:

The media:

Icelanders:

 

[Kyanimal]

Media vs. Actually Being THERE ...

I have too many stories to tell ... some first hand ... others through proximity ...

Yeah! I've been around that long, and have been to many places ... some at the "right" moment when something was happening. However, most not at "THE" moment, but since I'd been there, shortly before or after, I feel as though I can "relate". I've experienced the place, or have known the people involved.

With today's constant, 24hr, "immediate" news cycle, through the prevalence of "The Net", ALL of us are constantly exposed to world wide events like never before.

We are "experiencing" moments, hundreds, even thousands, of miles away, while safely tucked in our homes.

The entire world is now streaming into our consciousness. We are CONNECTED, for better, or for worse.

We no longer HAVE to be THERE to know what's going on.

The concept of Witnessing something no longer means what it used to.

 

[frankfrank]

I remember the news coverage on the TV of the murder of Princess Diana.

I'm very surprised that it wasn't mentioned by anybody (I don't think) until you finally mentioned it. I didn't think of it either; and by no means did I see any of it "live" or close to it. I was actually at a big hotel party and there wasn't a TV there.

Icelanders:

I'm temporarily wearing a splint - not a broken bone, but to rest my left hand from tendonitis which has affected the thumb tendon. (Of course the medical name is surely something as non-pronounceable as the volcano here.) I just noticed the other night that it is made in Iceland! I think it's the first time I've "owned' anything from there.

 

[Aron9000]

Personally witnessed the great flood of Nashville and middle TN in 2010. Rained 20" in two days, was a once in a lifetime event. Funny how little national media coverage this flood received.

Interstate 24 in Antioch. There was a trailer, a portable classrom type trailer floating down the intestate at one point, I think you can see what's left of it on the right . . .

Just a small portion of people flooded in Bellvue, a suburb west of town near the Harpeth River.

Thing was, this happened to people all over middle and West TN, southern Kentucky and parts of north Mississippi. Very widespread damage.

 

[unloadonme]

Media vs. Actually Being THERE ...

I have too many stories to tell ... some first hand ... others through proximity ...

Yeah! I've been around that long, and have been to many places ... some at the "right" moment when something was happening. However, most not at "THE" moment, but since I'd been there, shortly before or after, I feel as though I can "relate". I've experienced the place, or have known the people involved.

With today's constant, 24hr, "immediate" news cycle, through the prevalence of "The Net", ALL of us are constantly exposed to world wide events like never before.

We are "experiencing" moments, hundreds, even thousands, of miles away, while safely tucked in our homes.

The entire world is now streaming into our consciousness. We are CONNECTED, for better, or for worse.

We no longer HAVE to be THERE to know what's going on.

The concept of Witnessing something no longer means what it used to.

You make a fair point, but if access to 24 hour world news effectively means that we all witness everything, then the thread becomes pointless in a way. Everyone here is likely to remember the Orlando shootings earlier this year, so it would follow that we all witnessed that. Most are old enough to remember coverage of 9/11, some clearly remember the moon landings and the assassination of President Kennedy. No doubt one or two of the older members will recall the Relief of Mafeking or the Seige of Troy. One might as well just ask who is old enough to have seen what on TV.

It would be much more interesting from my point of view to hear from anyone who was present at one of these events or who had a personal connection tò it.

 

[tarallucci]

I've only seen the events on TV. I saw the second plane crushing in the other tower "live". That is probably the event that touched me the most, where I was 11 and conscious enough to understand what was going on.