Most Important/Historical Event You Ever Witnessed in Person [Archive]

megoapesnut

Jan 13, '11, 8:30 PM

Didn't really witness anything, but I was in the death zone during the almost meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant back in the seventies. Scary time. We were packed and ready to bolt. Not sure what good it would have done.

cjefferys

Jan 13, '11, 8:45 PM

Crap, I got nothin'......

MLoudin

Jan 13, '11, 8:45 PM

My childhood home was less than a block from the where the Kent State shootings took place . I could hear the shots. Minutes later people were running through the yard in all directions. I was only six but it had a MAJOR impact on me.

Bizarro Amy

Jan 13, '11, 8:57 PM

I guess the closest would be volunteering in the last Presidential election. I wasn't actually there in Washington, but I felt like the whole day was part of a pretty big event. (I tried to keep this related to the event, and avoid political content)

palitoy

Jan 13, '11, 8:59 PM

I seen a deer once...

toys2cool

Jan 13, '11, 9:30 PM

umm..i saw joe Montana's last game :grin: Miami beat him 27-17 i think :grin:

Brazoo

Jan 13, '11, 9:31 PM

Uh - saw Mr. T at the opening of the first Toys R Us in Canada.

Sorry, got nothing.

jimsmegos

Jan 13, '11, 9:43 PM

Bill Clinton's first win for the presidency. It was a helluva night in Little Rock!

Allie Fox

Jan 13, '11, 9:44 PM

In the grand scheme of things I can't really say that it was "important" but it was relatively historic; I was at game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

I also saw Tom Glavine win his 200th game.

BENDY

Jan 13, '11, 9:48 PM

saw the shuttle crashing a few years back.

Mikey

Jan 13, '11, 10:05 PM

Was at one of the full complete original Beach Boys last shows.

Was in Washington DC the day they dedicated the United States Air Force Memorial.

UnderdogDJLSW

Jan 13, '11, 10:09 PM

I got nothing. Some pop culture stuff, but nothing really historical. My wife does have a piece of the Berlin Wall that a college friend sent to her who was there at the time it came down.

The Toyroom

Jan 13, '11, 10:11 PM

Was at Woodstock '99....

Doc

Jan 13, '11, 10:11 PM

I seen a deer once...

:smiley1::smiley1::smiley1::smiley1::smiley1::smil ey1:

kingdom warrior

Jan 13, '11, 10:19 PM

My Old apartment in Brooklyn faced right across from the Twin Towers witnessed the second Plane hit.......

AJ Collector

Jan 13, '11, 11:26 PM

My Old apartment in Brooklyn faced right across from the Twin Towers witnessed the second Plane hit.......

I will never forget the cloud of black smoke as the D train went over the bridge going back to Brooklyn.

kingdom warrior

Jan 13, '11, 11:31 PM

I will never forget the cloud of black smoke as the D train went over the bridge going back to Brooklyn.

Or that horrible smell everywhere for days......

jessica

Jan 14, '11, 1:02 AM

I heard Nelson Mandela speak at the Oakland Stadium.

I ate what I thought was going to be my last meal (a glazed donut) seconds after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

I was in Nairobi when President Moi decided to torch a stack of elephant tusks to combat poaching of ivory.

LadyZod

Jan 14, '11, 1:20 AM

I was across the street when the the FBI raided the Elian Gonzalez house in Miami.

I was in the classroom watching the Challenger launch getting ready for our lesson from space. Then it blew up.

toysrus

Jan 14, '11, 2:00 AM

Not in person, but many of us watched Live Aid back in 1985 live, an all day event.

I remember that entire day like it was yesterday.

LadyZod

Jan 14, '11, 2:02 AM

How many of you held hands on Hands Across America?

I was in Ozone Park, Queens.... holding some strangers hands.

Hotfoot

Jan 14, '11, 3:12 AM

We went to the Train Station in Hinsdale, Illinois and watched the Bicentennial Train go past in 1976!

Brazoo

Jan 14, '11, 4:14 AM

saw the shuttle crashing a few years back.

Really? That must have been really shocking. You're in Arizona, right? Was it visible from there or were you in Texas when it happened?

Brazoo

Jan 14, '11, 4:24 AM

I was in the classroom watching the Challenger launch getting ready for our lesson from space. Then it blew up.

I remember seeing it live in class just like that - but for some reason it's hard for me to vouch on it being a real memory.

I also have a memory of being led outside school to see a space shuttle piggybacking on a shuttle carrier aircraft flying overhead - but I have no way of confirming if that happened - I'm not sure it makes any sense that it would have done that - and my memory is terrible.

Rallygirl

Jan 14, '11, 5:32 AM

I have never participated in or even seen anything that could be considered important or historical.

However,...when they try to start clearing for a new highway a half mile from my quiet, remote, country house next spring, you all just might see me on CNN chained to a bulldozer.

Brown Bear

Jan 14, '11, 5:59 AM

Back in 1987, I saw the very first time WWF ever came to Halifax. The main event was WWF champ Hulk Hogan vs Intercontinental champ Randy Savage (with Elizabeth). That was a big deal for a 12 year old boy.

BENDY

Jan 14, '11, 7:23 AM

i was driving from az to texas.

Adam West

Jan 14, '11, 7:50 AM

I know I have seen a lot of live events on TV. I was one of those twisted people that would set my alarm clock for the early hours of the morning and did see the first Space Shuttle disaster live, some of the Royal Wedding, the 2nd plane go into the Twin Towers.

Probably live events would have to come down to sports. I didn't get tickets to Cal Ripken's last game but 2nd to last. It was still an electrifying event. The other memorable game was watching Sean Taylor block a Dallas Cowboy field goal attempt for the game winner, put the Redskins in scoring range and end the game with our own field goal. I don't remember off hand if that was 2006 or 2007. It was a thrilling sight for the game itself but became more poignant after learning of Sean Taylor's murder.

Adam West

Jan 14, '11, 7:52 AM

I don't know if this counts but I constantly see the president flying back and forth from Camp David. It's pretty close to my house and I see three military helicopters flying in formation back and forth. I always presume the president is in the middle copter?

Allie Fox

Jan 14, '11, 8:04 AM

I was across the street when the the FBI raided the Elian Gonzalez house in Miami.

I wasn't there myself but I watched it on tv. My wife's aunt lived about five houses down from the Gonzalez family. Being the elderly Cuban lady she is, she was more upset about the people all over the place than she was about the political situation. ;)

I had forgotten about being at the first Space Shuttle launch in 1981. We were in the car listening on the radio driving into the Space Center. The traffic was horrendous. As Mission Control counted down the final minutes over the radio, everyone pulled off the road and got out. We watched it go up from the side of the road.

UnderdogDJLSW

Jan 14, '11, 8:15 AM

I also have a memory of being led outside school to see a space shuttle piggybacking on a shuttle carrier aircraft flying overhead - but I have no way of confirming if that happened - I'm not sure it makes any sense that it would have done that - and my memory is terrible.

Somewhere around '78-80 NASA gave the test shuttle Enterprise to the Smithsonian and before it went to VA/DC it toured around to different parts of the country piggy back a 747. We saw it fly through Maryland (Although that is a lot closer to DC)

Brazoo

Jan 14, '11, 8:35 AM

Somewhere around '78-80 NASA gave the test shuttle Enterprise to the Smithsonian and before it went to VA/DC it toured around to different parts of the country piggy back a 747. We saw it fly through Maryland (Although that is a lot closer to DC)

Hmm --- Maybe it was part of that - but would they have flown it through Canada over a suburb of Toronto? Also, the school I'm picturing in my head would make it about '83ish - if my memory is accurate at all.

megojim

Jan 14, '11, 8:45 AM

The Shuttle Columbia was breaking up right over the D/FW area. I was sitting at the computer that morning and heard an explosion but could tell it was off in the distance, it was kinda muffled. I walked outside, at the same time 2 of my neighbors followed suit, we looked at each other like "what was that?" I looked up to the southern sky and saw the debris field streaking across the sky. At that time I thought it was a meteor breaking up upon entry. We soon found out the sad truth. My nioece was attending Steven F Austin University in Nacogdoches, TX where the bulk of the shuttle was found. There was a large piece of Columbia about a half mile from her apartment.

david_b

Jan 14, '11, 8:52 AM

I was in Red Square when the Soviet Union Flag came down and the Russian flag went up.. (1991)

david_b

Mikey

Jan 14, '11, 8:58 AM

I was in Red Square when the Soviet Union Flag came down and the Russian flag went up.. (1991)

david_b

That one has just about all of us beat :2thumbsup:

Nostalgiabuff

Jan 14, '11, 9:18 AM

saildog

Jan 14, '11, 9:26 AM

I looked up to the southern sky and saw the debris field streaking across the sky.

I'm kind of freaked out a bit by the fact that, just yesterday, I was talking about the Columbia accident with some of my co-workers.

That debris field created a contrail (I guess that's what it would be called) and the prevailing winds that morning carried it over my house within a few hours of the accident. Seeing that really got to me.

lepage

Jan 14, '11, 9:46 AM

I was less then a block from the U.S.O. in Naples Italy when a car bomb went off. I was with 3 of my buds when the blast came down the back alleyway and laid us flat on our backs resulting in broken eardrums. Not a good time in my life.

Bombs In New Jersey and Naples - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967219,00.html)

Brazoo

Jan 14, '11, 9:47 AM

My Old apartment in Brooklyn faced right across from the Twin Towers witnessed the second Plane hit.......

Seeing it on TV was so surreal and mind boggling - I can't imagine how my brain would even process seeing that in real life.

david_b

Jan 14, '11, 9:59 AM

That one has just about all of us beat :2thumbsup:

Purely coincidental.. I was on my 'last vacation trip' while stationed in Germany (being there when the Wall came down as well, but in Giessen, West Germany, not Berlin...).

The trip choice was actually a toss-up between Casablanca and USSR, so knowing my tour of duty was practically up, I opted for USSR. Spent Christmas in Moscow, New Years Eve in St. Petersburg. Got to walk through and see Lenin's Tomb there as well.

A few pics and stories, but not much to share here in the Forum. Witnessing 9-11 first-hand, now THAT's impressive.

Perhaps odd to say, but the Cold War was a great time to be an American Soldier, especially under Presidents Reagan and Bush, Sr.

david_b

david_b

Jan 14, '11, 10:01 AM

I saw Paul McCartney open Citi Field in Queens
Saw Rogers Waters do the Wall show at the Berlin wall in 1990....had to watch it live on TV but I was in Germany, just could not get over to Berlin by myself.
.
course David still has me beat

Where were you in Germany..?? I was there from '89-'92.

I did get to see McCartney in Frankfurt in '90, actually front row about 10ft away from center stage.. THAT was cool. :drool_y:

Cmonster

Jan 14, '11, 10:20 AM

kingdom warrior

Jan 14, '11, 10:39 AM

Seeing it on TV was so surreal and mind boggling - I can't imagine how my brain would even process seeing that in real life.

I swore I thought for a moment I was in the movie independence day when will smith went to his lawn picked up the newspaper then looked up to see the Alien ship......

I worked nights so I was still sleeping when the first plane hit I remember hearing the first plane but being a New Yorker I paid it no mind to it....until my phone rang a few minutes later and my Dad telling me to look out my Window in a horrified tone.......The scene blew my mind and all I thought was OMG what a horrible accident........then I saw the second one hit and gasped and said that's no accident.....

kingdom warrior

Jan 14, '11, 10:42 AM

October 18th, 1977, Yankee Stadium.

I watched Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs against the Dodgers. I was there.

77 was the best year of my life. "Star Wars" came out. Yanks won the world series. Me and my friends went as Tusken Raiders for Halloween, ALL in homemade costumes, and the mego thing was in full swing. Now if I could have only talked my mom into the KISS concert...

SC

Awww yeah Reggie my boy!!! I saw it on TV.......but i was there on opening day when on his first at bat, first pitch hit a homerun and was showered with reggie bars......I didn't throw mine I had already ate mine and was trying to get my sisters......:smiley1:

highquality

Jan 14, '11, 10:45 AM

I saw Pink Floyd's last tour as Pink Floyd.

Gorn Captain

Jan 14, '11, 11:50 AM

The European premiere of The Empire Strikes Back, at the London Odeon, Leicester Square in 1980.
That's the best I can do....

megomania

Jan 14, '11, 11:50 AM

Mt. St. Helen's erupting

Adam West

Jan 14, '11, 12:49 PM

Actually I remember seeing (was it Spacelab) that you could see breaking apart when it entered the Earth's atmosphere back in the 70's. I vaguely remember it looked something like a shooting star.

jessica

Jan 14, '11, 12:58 PM

I was at my mom's house in the back yard in San Francisco when all of this weird ash and debris came fluttering down from the sky. I thought...OMG! nuclear fallout?!?!?!?! One of them was a charred check. It had blown across the bay from the huge Oakland firestorm that engulfed more than 3,000 homes.

Mikey

Jan 14, '11, 1:06 PM

Not me personally, but my nephew was in Sumatra during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.

Luckily he got out unharmed.

wolfie

Jan 14, '11, 1:36 PM

I was on the course at Turnberry in 1977 when Nicklaus & Watson went head to head in one of the greatest showdowns in Open History, Nobody who was there will ever forget it.

Allie Fox

Jan 14, '11, 1:39 PM

Like Boomerang. . . "It's all coming back to me."

I was in Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996 when the bomb exploded. It was the fastest, most organized and efficient evacuation of 100K+ people I could ever have imagined.

MIB41

Jan 14, '11, 1:50 PM

1964... my birth... the world has never recovered and the details are fairly sketchy on that day. I just remember a whole lot of screaming. :smiley1:

Brazoo

Jan 14, '11, 3:40 PM

1964... my birth... the world has never recovered and the details are fairly sketchy on that day. I just remember a whole lot of screaming. :smiley1:

haha - Nice!

mego73

Jan 14, '11, 3:51 PM

On a boy scout trip to the airport in 1977, there was a buzz that someone named Elvis Presley had landed because he was doing a concert in Rochester. I had no idea who Elvis was at that young age but my cub scout troupe, a small group of screaming fans and I waited at the exit of the airport and finally saw a limo drive by and Elvis's hand waving out the window (I suppose if I were taller I could've seen his face).

Couldn't have been more than 4 months before he died.

Nostalgiabuff

Jan 14, '11, 4:25 PM

Where were you in Germany..?? I was there from '89-'92

to tell you the truth, I don't remember what town I was in at that point.....not far from Neuschwanstein, somewhere in Bavaria

jwyblejr

Jan 14, '11, 6:28 PM

Only thing I've got is the 8" of snow we just got. Don't get that much around here.

johnmiic

Jan 14, '11, 6:54 PM

I was at work, in Manhattan, at 55 Water Street when me and all of my co-workers were watching out the windows and the second plane hit the WTC on 9/11. We were 6 blocks away but it was still so close it was right in front of us. We were lucky we weren't closer. People from our competition had offices right accross the street and they said they could see and hear every time a person jumped from a window. We couldn't see jumpers from our vantage point.

The impact that caused the explosion shook our building and the windows quivered like Jello. A short time later from the street level I saw the first building go down. It sounded like a subway car when they enter a subway station too fast and have to slow down real quick.

TEXASFETT

Jan 14, '11, 8:52 PM

Man I have to many of them....:silly:

Adam West

Jan 15, '11, 2:21 AM

Now that I think about it....not truly spectacular but important to me personally. 1983 I think. My greatest childhood trip was spending three weeks in California to visit my Aunt. I was born and raised in Maryland...still live here and up until that time...Myrtle Beach, South Carolina was the furthest I had traveled. My aunt lives in Long Beach and she had an incredible itinerary planned for us. The most memorable event was attending "The Rosebowl Parade". Jimmy Stewart was the Grand Marshall. I was only 12 or 13 and had no clue who he was (I had not seen It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Rear Window, etc.) at that point. My mom went crazy over this old man....we were right in the front row and he looked right at us, winked and waved. My mom just about fainted and I remember asking her why she was getting all queasy over some no-name....she responded"you'll know know who he is someday"....needless to say, he is probably my favorite actor of all time now that I have seen quite a few of his movies. A very surreal experience now that I think back on it.

The Bat

Jan 15, '11, 6:40 AM

I saw Star Wars in Theater when it opened.:grin:

Timothy2251

Jan 15, '11, 6:49 AM

First ones that come to mind:
Moon landing back in '69 on TV (I was a toddler, but my folks made sure I watched it with them)

Saw the 9/11 stuff go down live via the internet at work (at the time I worked as a holographer for a company that made the for security/anti-counterfeiting products. Live news feeds were always on), the saw the dust/debris cloud from NYC all the way in NJ.

R. Bud Dwyer commit suicide on live TV. That was one of those "Whoa! What'd I just watch?" moments.