What oldest major event do you remember ?

[demi]

The recent thread on where were you 30 years ago got me thinking...what major news event is your oldest memory ?  I can remember family things before this, but my earliest major news item that I can remember that had an impact on me is the Alaska earthquake. 

[Anonymous]

The oldest major news event I remember is the Cuban missile crisis and the subsequent blockade of Cuba by the Kennedy administration. The JFK assassination is also still very vivid in my memory.

[Anonymous]

Mt. St. Helens. I was living in Yakima, Wa. at the time as a young boy and I can remember it was black as night at 3:00 in the afternoon. My parents were shoveling ash just like it was snow. It you dig a few inches into the ground even now you can still get to volcanic ash. All the street lights were on and my mom was really scared. I thought thought it was the coolest thing ever

[Lel]

I recall my dad explaining to me that the President told a lie and quit his job.  I was 5 years old at the time.

[Scamp]

The first moon landing. 

Mom called all us kids inside from playing and sat us down on the floor in front of the black-and-white TV in the family room (only TV in the house), telling us we needed to watch this because it was important.

[Anonymous]

Assassination of John F. Kennedy.

[Anonymous]

Very vague memories of Nixon resignation.  I was only 5 at the time, but my father was very active politically and had us kids come and watch TV and tried to explain what was going on and why it was important.

I remember Mt. Saint Helen's very well.  We were living in Salem, Oregon.  We watched the news and we even got some ash.

While in Salem, I remember the Iran hostage crisis....my elementary school counted the days by adding a ticker number till freedom.

I can remember staying up with my father to watch the Presidential election results when Ronald Reagan won in 1980.  My father was a very active supporter and fund raiser.

I remember the release of the Iran hostages and our school held a celebration.  There were a few relatives to the hostages in our school.

[llecs]

I remember the 1980 election too. I was 6, going on 7. I remember that I was up late at a friends house and sitting in front of their large, new TV w/ the wood finish around it. I was playing with a bunch of marble with my friend and we watched the election returns come in. I came up with a brilliant idea that we should throw marbles at the politician we don't like. I chose Carter and my friend chose Reagan.

Well after 30 minutes of pelting the TV with glass marbles and seeing how each strike put a tiny, but very obvious chip into the screen, both of our bottoms were searing red from the spankings.

One other event occurred a few months later as we flew down to see Columbia launch for the first time.

[Anonymous]

After reading this post it has finally hit home that I am old.

[llecs]

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guiness56 wrote:
After reading this post it has finally hit home that I am old.

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Guiness, you are young at heart! How many "old" people have a "Happy Feet" avatar. Well, come thing of it, how many "old" people even have "a" avatar.