I think for me in massachusetts it would have to be the boston bomber getting caught.

39 comments

  1. I was born before 9/11 but I was too young to care.

    Honestly, lots of things. Katrina (lived through it), Hurricane Ike (lived through it), Osama Bin Laden’s death, the 2016 and 2020 elections (and the fallout of both), and COVID.

  2. I was actually thinking about this the other day. Outside of Covid:

    My first “political” memory is of the night Obama was announced as the winner of the 2008 election. I will always remember waking up to seeing the results of the 2016 election. 15-year-old me was big confused and shocked. Mom had to give me the political reality talk and it was the first time I realized what I was taught in AP government didn’t always translate to the real world.

    But yeah, the Bostom bombing is a big one. I remember my 6th-grade science teacher crying in the middle of class because her husband was there and he wasn’t picking up his phone. She turned on the tv and it was the first time I had seen large amounts of blood before. Really freaked me out and I remember feeling sick watching the live stream.

    Sandy hook was the first time I realized what the internal threat drills we did at school were for. Before that, I had always categorized them as just being another severe weather drill and never really thought about *why* we did them. The Aurora movie theatre is a very clear memory. Much like with Boston, the photos the news kept showing will never leave my mind. Parkland messed with me as I was the same age, same grade, and in a similar style school as the victims. Lockdown drills were a lot stricter after that and everyone was clearly shaken up. The whole thing left me with feelings I won’t forget.

  3. Gay marriage verdict! First thing I was like… conscious for, I guess. Not that I slept through everything else, but it was important to me

  4. So weird to me that people born after 9/11 can be adults and post online and have opinions. The passage of time… it be like that sometimes.

    Anyway to answer your question, 9/11 is the big historical event I remember. I also remember the 2016 election because I was working overnights at the time and so was wide awake when they finally called it. 2020, thankfully, I had a better schedule and was asleep lol.

  5. I am 80’s baby. So I for sure remember 9/11. But my first big thing I remember like that is the Oklahoma City bombing.

    And the oj trial, idk if that counts though

  6. I remember Obama winning but I was still fairly young, so the one that sticks out most is Bin Laden getting killed.

  7. Water in flint Michigan being full of lead for years before and years after it was reported and still not being fixed…

  8. Born in 2002. Bin Laden’s death, the 2016 and 2020 elections, Ukraine War’s start and the public thoughts on it before the war started and Covid.

  9. I was born shortly before 9/11. 9/11; Obama being elected….Trump being elected…and then maybe the whole rollout of iPhones? I don’t really remember Katrina. My region was effected by Sandy so I view that as a sort of ahistorical/personally historical thing.

  10. I’m way older than you request, so for me the Challenger explosion was a massive deal (they brought in TVs and we watched it happen live).

    Being an adult and living through the things people are mentioning as responses, so much of it was just another disaster, gotta get back to my life. And that visceral response kind of scares me.

    Even on 911, I was in a training session and we heard that the first plane hit and we went back to training. A couple people left cause their day cares closed when the terror set in. But because there was no direct impact, it was just a sit back in horror and then move on thing.

    Katrina floods NOLA, raise money, send time off down to our coworkers down there.
    Earthquake in X, raise money or whatever.
    War, famine, disease; just make a token acknowledgment and get on with your life. K’thks’bye

  12. I was born before 9/11 but I just just 17 months old when it happened. I feel like a lot of answers will be depressing so I’ll leave it on a positive one. The 2008 Election will be something I will never forget, even though it took me years to realize how big of a deal it really was. Even in the moment I don’t think I ever so many people so happy and excited for a president. It was like a “we made it” feeling, and even though I didn’t quiet understand it at the time I certainly felt it radiate from the people around me.

  13. I don’t remember every detail, but I do remember it was nighttime when Mr. Obama announced That bin Laden was KIA. I also remember the day that the cardinals voted for the new Pope.

  14. While I do remember 9/11, I was 4 so it’s not like I understood what was happening. The biggest event I remember happening was the storming of the capitol. I was working graves and woke up to find out what was happening all at once and just about lost my shit. I was terrified.

  15. Born before 9/11 but was a year old. The first one that comes to mind was Katrina. Other than that, some big ones were the deaths of Michael Jackson, Bin Laden, and Steve Jobs.

  16. Born in mid 2000s so I remember Boston marathon bombing but didn’t really know what it meant at the time. The first things that really left a impression on me where the parkland ss and trump winning and George Floyd. Also January 6th I’ll never forget that either. That and George floyd’s death were probably the biggest impact for me.

  17. Not the bombing tho. Forget that. The live manhunt and capture were unforgettable tho.

  18. Sandy Hook I think. There was a visible “vibe shift” in school and among the teachers.

    Gay marriage hits personal though.

    I vaguely remember the 2012 election. I lied to my friends and said my parents for voting for Romney because they said their parents were. Not so much an important historical moment but I think it’s funny.

  19. Election Night 2008 in Chicago, I don’t think I’ll even be at a more positive-feeling historical event.

    Also, seeing the Phish reunion video on YouTube in ’09. It was important to me, dammit.

  20. I live in mass as well and turned 19 the day before 9/11 and my cousin was working in a building right at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. They are the two most historical events that I remember. The Boston bombing felt more personally important but 9/11 felt more historically important.

  21. I was almost 13 when 9/11 happened so thats the biggest for me for sure but hurricane katrina as well. It was the first time i was made aware of modern racism being viewed as anything other than ppl still being mean. I remember kanye west saying “george bush doesnt care about black people” and really being caught off guard by that and having a long talk with my father about real and percieved imbalances and why i was grateful to have growm up surrounded by diversity and inclusion for the most part.

  24. storming of the capital – i do not remember 9/11 at all. I dont remember other tragedies much either,

  25. The first events that I remember following were the Iran Contra Affair trial and the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was still a kid at the time, but I understood the gist of the events and was interested in them.

  26. I was seven yrs old when 9/11 happened so that was the event I remember the most. But excluding 9/11, it would probably be the Virginia Tech shooting, Obama winning the presidential election, and the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan.

  27. The earliest is the Challenger explosion. But some other big ones are the Berlin Wall coming down, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the fall of the Soviet Union.

  28. this is going to localize me hard as fuck, but the Boston marathon bombing is the first to come to mind.
    Sandy hook is the second.
    The pulse shooting.
    2016 election for absolute sure. I started caring about politics and I was invested. 2020 election equally so.
    The insurrection.
    I’ll remember when covid restrictions first hit! March 13th 2020, it’s my anniversary 😅.

    there’s others I’ll probably remember, but a lot of the shootings are just merging in my head… I try to keep track but it’s hard. I remember after Sandy hook I thought something would change, they’d protect us kids… wishful thinking I guess. became numb to the shooting a while ago. what can you do…

  30. I was alive for 9/11 but too young to remember, definitely Trump getting elected.

  31. Jeffery Epstein . Probably one of the biggest cases in world history. And how he somehow died in a federal prison . But no one talks about it .

  32. For some reason, the year of 2014 always sticks in my head. So much happened, including the roots of a lot of modern protests and movements. Not to mention global events like the annexation of Crimea.

  33. I’ll always remember 9/11, I was 6, my parents were trying to make it “work” again so my mom was over to celebrate her birthday…. we had the TV on in the background. It was a horrible night for everyone and sent her into a terrible spiral.

  34. I was born in 1997 and so while I was alive during 9/11, I really don’t remember it. I think the Great Recession/Obama being elected, Trump, and finally COVID are the biggest ones.

  36. For me personally, I’d have to say the 2016 election was a huge shock, which happened during my last year of high school.

    Also, when Trump announced the closing of borders in the US from Europe due to covid. The start of the pandemic was pretty crazy for me at least since I was in Europe when this was announced and had to go home very quickly.

  37. I’m in my 30s, so 9/11 because that’s when we transitioned from the hopeful post cold war world to the post 9/11 world. I’m sure future me will be including the Ukraine War because it’s another big transition.

  39. Born 2002. I vividly remember sandyhook and having a gathering at my school about it. It was my first time hearing about gun violence and it was just really sad.

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