Most momentous International event in your lifetime?

threespires said:
Pretty comprehensive list. Though I was alive for all but JFK the first ones to really impinge on my consciousness were those in the 80s though I have some recollection of the 72 Olympics attack and I also remember Louise Brown as major news. As vivid as my memories of some of those international events are, they are not as vivid as the 7/7 attacks as I witnessed the bus bombing in Tavistock Square. That entire day, which was surreal in a number of ways, is still pretty much etched in my memory.
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I should have added, 'the troubles' and Brexit. Probably also the moors murders and Aberfan disaster, both of which had a profound impact when I was young. I had a number of London based colleagues caught up in 7/7 and there personal testimonies were pretty bloody horrible.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I should have added, 'the troubles' and Brexit. Probably also the moors murders and Aberfan disaster, both of which had a profound impact when I was young. I had a number of London based colleagues caught up in 7/7 and there personal testimonies were pretty bloody horrible.
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When I typed that I remembered the Munich Olympics attack it occurred to me that though it stuck in my mind, I do not have a contemporaneous memory of Bloody Sunday which was only a few months before. I don't know if it was covered differently on the news, whether my parents shielded me from it, or whether it was simply that as a sports mad child anything to do with the Olympics imprinted itself more clearly. Thinking about 'the troubles' more broadly, growing up I have no recollection in the in the 70s and early 80s of anything other than reporting on the IRAs activities ie I don't remember the UVF or UDA being reported on I presume they must have been but to a lesser degree.
 
JFK .... which I don't remember
Moon landings .... which I do
Berlin Wall
9/11 and Covid both of which had an enormous effect on people's lives and perceptions
Closer to home, Aberfan is probably my first memory of a major incident. The Manchester bombing was a bit too close for comfort and had quite an impact on my working life at the time. The Arena bomb was a devastating tragedy for the city.
 
I was in grammar school when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened, in Mr. Liptrot's English class doing the Merchant of Venice. His explanations of the casket scene made him oblivious to the threat of impending nuclear catastrophe as the class nervously watched the clock tick towards the moment the Russian ships were expected to meet the U.S. blockade. I'd passed a scribbled note along the back row to Gillian (call her Smith, just in case) asking her to meet me by the bike sheds if the bombs went off, she looked up and nodded yes. It never happened, neither did the bombs, and after school when we'd heard the world was safe she indignantly refused all further entreaties.
Apart from that, and amid all the things like the moon landing and the Wall coming down, I'd have to pick the international event that took place in a pub in London after seeing City lose at Crystal Palace when a nice American lass sat next to me and asked why I looked so glum, that one's still having repercussions today.
 
threespires said:
When I typed that I remembered the Munich Olympics attack it occurred to me that though it stuck in my mind, I do not have a contemporaneous memory of Bloody Sunday which was only a few months before. I don't know if it was covered differently on the news, whether my parents shielded me from it, or whether it was simply that as a sports mad child anything to do with the Olympics imprinted itself more clearly. Thinking about 'the troubles' more broadly, growing up I have no recollection in the in the 70s and early 80s of anything other than reporting on the IRAs activities ie I don't remember the UVF or UDA being reported on I presume they must have been but to a lesser degree.
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I remember a great deal of news coverage and believing the IRA were the enemy. I couldn’t believe that so many atrocities could possibly take place on British soil. It ultimately lead me to research british/Irish history. I seem to have a need to understand world events as far as I am able which indirectly fuels my interest in history and politics. I was on a youth hostel trail with my primary school when the moon anding happened. I can still remember looking up to the night sky in some place like Kettlewell and thinking oh my god. Someone is standing on that.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I remember a great deal of news coverage and believing the IRA were the enemy. I couldn’t believe that so many atrocities could possibly take place on British soil. It ultimately lead me to research british/Irish history. I seem to have a need to understand world events as far as I am able which indirectly fuels my interest in history and politics. I was on a youth hostel trail with my primary school when the moon anding happened. I can still remember looking up to the night sky in some place like Kettlewell and thinking oh my god. Someone is standing on that.
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That must have been so awesome, in the truest sense of the word.
 
personally, the 2016 earthquake northern Ecuador, was still waking up in a cold sweat for 2 years.

The death of Churchill
9/11
Birmingham pub bombings
 
9/11 and Covid are the only two that have directly affected me in my lifetime.
 
I was alive for the moon landing but don't remember it.

As a kid, I remember being most impacted by Watergate and Pope Paul VI dying (and subsequently John Paul I being elected and dying and JP2 being elected).

As an adult, 9/11. Up til then, fall of the Berlin wall. COVID is up there I guess. Obama being elected was a source of great pride too.
 

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Terry Waite and John Mccarthy taken hostage somehow stand out for me, I don't know why but when I was a kid it was always on the news, Also the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege and sending in the SAS and throwing that gas bomb through the window,


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Bible John unidentified serial killer in the late sixties had a huge impact on Glasgow and the Central region.
Loads of rumours of who it was but the 3 murders were never solved.
Every city and town had a Bible John got chased by the police story at the time.
 
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