What were you doing when...

9/11: I was asleep. I was in 6th grade. I woke up and went to school, only to be taken out of school for the day 10 minutes after I got there. My parents didn’t want the teachers to be the ones to discuss it their children. Good thing they showed up when they did, because my teacher was just about to get into it.

JFK Assassination: In the sixth grade. When we came in after the morning recess, I could tell that something terrible had happened. My teacher (male) was crying. The principal announced the assassination on the PA system, and we were released for the day.

RFK Assassination: I only recall seeing this on television, so I don’t know that I can cite exactly where I was. Likely I was in school.

Man walks on moon: I was a senior in high school, and the family was vacationing in Austin, Texas (where I’d later go to college and live all my adult life). We all gathered in the den to watch the event on television. I remember feeling very proud.

Space Shuttle Challenger: I was at work. I believe we had gathered in a conference room to watch the launch, and I remember that very eerie voice counting out the coordinates for the descent. Very, very odd and eerie.

Reagan Shot. Again, I don’t know that I was aware “in the moment” when this happened. I was likely at work but certainly caught up with things via the nightly news.

9/11 Terrorist Attacks: Working from my home office. Saw the first breaking news item on CNN.com and turned on the television. I was actually in e-mail correspondence with a person who worked at the Pentagon, and he was keeping me apprised of events there. Awful, awful day.

Major Olympic events? Ummmmm, I’m not sure I can cite much here. I remember Mary Lou Retton’s achievements because I was a gymnastics fan.

You can tell I’m pretty old by my long list ;-)

I was 10 at the time of the moonwalk, it was a great summer evening and I was mad that my mom made me come in the house to watch it, I didn’t care. lol
I vaguely remember the JFK assassination, I was 3, family all crying and not really understanding the impact, obviously.
Um, lets see…I’ll skip a few, and jump to 9/11.
I had just dropped my daughter off at her school bus stop when I heard the first reports on the radio that broke in to the station we were listening to. Drove home and walked in and turned the TV on just in time to see the 2nd tower get hit. Pretty intense. :-(

The rest you mention are not noteworthy for me. :-)

JFK assassination. I was in school in elementary school. A teacher came in and told our teacher. The teacher was crying. My teacher started crying. Many of the kids started crying. I just sat there numb.

RFK assassination. I don’t remember.

The Moonwalk. I was at work at a summer job at a camp after just having graduated from high school. We watched it on TV.

Space Shuttle Challenger/Reagan assassination attempt: Don’t remember.

9/11 My husband woke me. He had the TV on. We saw the second plane go into the building and then, one by, one the two towers fall. It seemed surreal. I was grateful the TV did not show the people jumping.

The ones that I can remember:

Regan- I was in elementary school. They put us all in the gym and told us.
The Challenger- in high school, in Accounting class
9/11— I was in the Meijer (midwest chain of big box stores)

For the rest of them, if I was alive I have no ides.

Also, for Princess Diana I was in our first house by the washing machine
and for Michael Jackson I was in our second house in the front room.

JFK—I was in kindergarten. I don’t remember getting the news. But I do remember rushing into the house to see his funeral. My little sister was right behind me. The screen door had a pneumatic spring on it. Her pinky was in the hinge side when it snapped shut. Cut the end of her pinky off. I remember JFK’s flag draped casket, screaming and blood.

RFK….I don’t remember that at all.

911…I was in a staff meeting at work. We’d all stepped out for a smoke when one of the staff came out and told us that her Mom had called and told us what had happened. I didn’t have cable then. I came home and told my 13 year old son to get the rabbit ears and get reception of some kind ANY kind on the TV. He did. It didn’t really hit me till I saw the footage.

Major Olympic Event…The Black Power fist sign that cost the guy his gold medal in…1971 I think it was.

Man on the moon..Ever seen Apollo 13, where the dad calls the kids down from the steps going up stairs? I was just the older girls age that she portrays in the show, about 13, right down to the leather purse, and Dad called us down from the stairs just like that.

Challenger…I was subbing in Wichita. Don’t remember what class. Don’t remember how I felt.

Reagan Shot…didn’t feel much. Sister kept the newspapers.

1929 Stock Market Crash – n/a
Pearl Harbor Bombing – n/a
Atomic Bombs 1945 – n/a
JFK Assassination 11/63 – percolating in my mom’s womb
RFK Assassination 6/68 – 4 years old… probably playing outside
Man walks on moon 7/69 – 5 years old. This is the first major TV event that I remember seeing. Therefore, I was in front of the TV.
Space Shuttle Challenger 1/86 – In Cambridge, England for a semester abroad. We saw it on the news. The group of us that were there met at a pub and talked about what had happened. It was the first night that the people at that pub were actually nice to us.
Reagan Shot 3/81 – Junior year of high school. I remember seeing it on the news and being glad that he would be okay.
9/11 Terrorist Attacks – In Florida, on our way to The Kennedy Space Center. The weather was bad and we couldn’t get a radio signal, and we watched cartoons that morning so we hadn’t seen any news. We wondered what was up when two state troopers went flying down the road in the opposite direction. We got there and the flags were already at half-staff. We walked over to the ticket booth and heard the ticket seller tell the people ahead of us that they weren’t doing bus tours, so we left. Finally got a radio signal and heard what happened. We wound up having to drive home in a rental car that pulled to the right.
Major Olympic events – I have distinct scary memories of the hostage situation during the 1972 Munich olympics. I was 8 and was sure that terrorists were now under our basement steps and would “get” me if I didn’t get up the stairs quickly enough. Other memories are good, Dorothy Hamill, Mary Lou Retton, Nadia Comaneci, Shaun White just to name a few.

Man walks on Moon
I wasn’t alive, but my dad watched it with his buddies at the bar. He said it was pretty epic.

I’ll just skip all the other ones that happened before my birth.

9/11
I was at work, near the end of lunch. Someone came in and tuned the TV to the news channel. We got all the coverage not even an hour and a half after the last attack. It was pretty fucking depressing.

Northridge Quake
I was probbaly playing video games or something. I don’t remember.

Columbia Explosion
I remember that. Denno what I was doing at the time, but when I heard the news, I was in the kitchen, which was pretty much also the living room in that place, drawing. I always drew and watched TV at the same time, usually whatever everyone else was watching, and saw that. I was reminded of a very similar incident from the mid nineties or so, where a shuttle blew up upon landing. They told us at school about that, and how one of the members was a teacher.

Olympics
Erm, I don’t ever pay attention to those, so I denno.

And something not listed; 2011 Tucson Shooting
At the exact time it happened, if memory serves right, I was sleeping. I kept following that up for months after, though.

Jesus. I’m really not very old.

Wasn’t alive for any of the other things but these:

9/11 Terrorist Attacks: Found out about it in the morning. Seemed a bit like a movie. Then we went to school and one of the buildings had been burned down, so we promptly forgot about 9/11.

Major Olympic events: Sydney 2000 olympics, first olympic games I remember. Felt like we were closer to the rest of the world than before.

Space Shuttle Challenger
High School, sophomore year, science class. Mr. O’Brien was a huge fan of all things NASA, particularly the space shuttle. In fact, he had applied to be the teacher in space. A fact he mentioned frequently as he went on and on about the space program for days leading up to the launch.

The day of, he set up a giant television at the front of class and threw a “shuttle launch” party for our class. He was so excited to share this with us, he was practically bouncing all morning.

He darkened the room and we all huddled around the TV, staring into it’s glowing screen. Within seconds of the launch, Mr. O’Brien’s chesire grin fell away and became a cold look of dread.

I’d like to say we were equally as horrified, but in truth, we were shocked and confused. As the shuttle’s white smoke trail multiplied and snaked off in many directions, we began to bubble with stammering questions.

Mr. O’Brien however, knew what had just happened. Ignoring our questions, he slowly turned away from the tv and walked out the door.

Our teacher never returned to class that day or any day for that matter. We never saw him again.

Pearl Harbor – My Mom got married the day before, and they were driving by a horse race track and picked up a soldier who told them about the attack.

9–11 I was receptionist at small company and got online to keep on with updates.

I was in high school during 9/11, and I don’t care about the Olympics. Lol.