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Where were you and what were you doing when...
Where were you and what were you doing when you heard a big news story that was happening that would, depending on what happened, change the world? No, I wasn't born when John F Kennedy was assassinated, or when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, so you won't get that on my list, but to start you off, here is a list of big news events that happened in the past and what I was doing at the time when the news broke.
1) Pope John Paul II died on April 2nd 2005:
Answer: Watching Casualty on BBC 1 at home, which featured one of the characters, who was just as ill and couldn't be revived, although the character was a young child and was not as old as the Pope.
2) The Queen Mother died on March 30th 2002:
Answer: Listening to Pick of the Pops on BBC Radio Two, when Dale Winton was playing the top ten of that week of 1984 at home. Depeche Mode's "People Are People" had been playing around about the same time that she passed away, (approximately 3.15 pm), although her death wasn't officially announced publicly by Buckingham Palace until about three hours later when I was watching a repeat of "Steptoe and Son" on BBC 2 and the programme was interrupted with the breaking news.
3) The Twin Towers was bombed in America on September 11th 2001:
Answer: Shopping for a black "deckchair" style director's chair for an upstairs room at the Index Catalogue shop in Nottingham City Centre. I got home at about 4.30 pm to find that instead of the scheduled children's television programmes, on BBC1 and ITV, pictures of American buildings engulfed in a ball of flames and aircraft crashing into them.
1) Pope John Paul II died on April 2nd 2005:
Answer: Watching Casualty on BBC 1 at home, which featured one of the characters, who was just as ill and couldn't be revived, although the character was a young child and was not as old as the Pope.
2) The Queen Mother died on March 30th 2002:
Answer: Listening to Pick of the Pops on BBC Radio Two, when Dale Winton was playing the top ten of that week of 1984 at home. Depeche Mode's "People Are People" had been playing around about the same time that she passed away, (approximately 3.15 pm), although her death wasn't officially announced publicly by Buckingham Palace until about three hours later when I was watching a repeat of "Steptoe and Son" on BBC 2 and the programme was interrupted with the breaking news.
3) The Twin Towers was bombed in America on September 11th 2001:
Answer: Shopping for a black "deckchair" style director's chair for an upstairs room at the Index Catalogue shop in Nottingham City Centre. I got home at about 4.30 pm to find that instead of the scheduled children's television programmes, on BBC1 and ITV, pictures of American buildings engulfed in a ball of flames and aircraft crashing into them.
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19 Mar 88, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Two Royal Signals Corporals mistakenly entered the funeral cortege of an IRA gunman and were dragged from their vehicle and beaten to death. I was roughly three quarters of a mile away in Belfast City centre with a couple of mates. We saw the helicopter overhead and just took it that it was covering the funeral. Only on our return to camp did the full horror unfold on national(and subsequently worldwide) TV, the footage of which made me physically sick.
11 Nov 89, West Germany. The Berlin Wall begins to be demolished by Berlin residents. The only people allowed to travel the Berlin Corridor from Helmstedt to Berlin were Military Policeman. My mate and I had our trip there booked weeks in advance so we were allowed to proceed to what turned out to be one of the most momentous events in modern history.
What a party it was!
1. not sure remember thinking he really hadn't got long to live then i found out and was like oh!
2. Not sure have been to bed since then though.
3. Was decorating my room listening to Radio 1 when something came on about i was like 'what!' and rushed downstairs flicked the news on and was in awww for 2 hours watching the second plane go into it i felt sick to the stomach!
4. I woke up at my friends when i was 14 as i had slept over and her mum came in and told us we thought she was joking until we saw the news.
5. Was out partying and being very drunk, was a great new year!
6. Don't really remember too much about this.
7. Hmmm i was 4 so goodness knows.
8.Kept jumping from the TV to outside it went baltic outside and really odd twilight was cool though.
9. I really was not that bothered so im am unsure
10. Don't know.
GMH i am suprised you missed out the Asian Tsunami?! Was my mums birthday as well i didn't feel right for a week after that happened stillk gives me chills and i couldn't be in the house on my own it felt horrid, really strange never felt anything like that before.
Queen Mum :
I was working in the kitchens at Browns restaurant in Brighton. My brother phoned me about seven o'clock with the news. This was before the press announcement as my brother had a friend who worked on a newspaper who told him. I imeadiately told the chefs and waitresses, not realising there was some kind of tradition that somebody would spread exactly that rumour at Browns from time to time. Needless to say nobody believed me so I told the waitresses to ask some customers, and of course nobody had yet heard the news. I was getting a lot of stick by this time and was beginning to think I had been had by my brother. I got home about midnight that night feeling a bit foolish, turned on the tv and I am sorry to say I was delighted with what I saw. A nation in mourning at the death of the Queen Mother!
I am an American (livng in Alabama right now) here is an overview of what I was doing in the U.S. at those times:
Pope's Death: I was staying at a hotel with my parents and my dog in Birmingham, AL. My boyfriend, meanwhile, was studying abroad in Rome at that very time...and he lived one block from the Vatican. We watched the news about the Pope's death later that night on TV. My boyfriend later sent me pictures of his experience with the crowd, etc. after this event shook the world!
On September 11th, 2001: Needless to say, this day is VERY memorable for me as an American...I was a Freshman in college, sleeping in my dorm room when I got a call from my (then) boyfriend, waking me and yelling about turning on the news...it just so happened, he had just joined the Army and was sent to boot camp two weeks after this very day...now he has just returned home from a year of duty in Afghanistan.
January 1st, 2000 (millenium): I was lucky enough to have convinced my parents at age 17 that the Y2K bug was ******** and that I was mature enough to visit a friend in Cologne,Germany. I flew in days before the New Year and, of course, nothing prevented me from flying back home days after the year 2000 rolled around...I celebrated at my friends home with fireworks and champagne, without a care in the world!
Philtaz I remember very well 19th March 1988 and can still see me sitting with my dad and watching the footage on TV - I walked out of the room crying and horrified that the TV producers felt we had to watch the full horror at tea time even though I understand that it would be shown somewhere and sometime.
Twin Towers - stood in a newsagent when this paperkid runs in saying that a plane has crashed into the twin towers in america. i laughed and said he was a bit careless then cos they were huge, how couldnt he see them, turned on the telly and was in shock over the scale of it
Princess of wales - laid in my bed when my mum rushed in and woke me up in tears. i was shocked but not so much so as how quite the streets and places were that day, McDonalds was like a morgue, no one talking !
Eclipse - stuck at work at a garen centre i got a friend of mine order 2 bags of cheap gravel for me to deliver so i could get out of work and sit at our local viewpoint and watch it for an hour
I remember Kennedy assasination, I was at aunts house, I remember Hillsborough and Bradford and Heysel disasters thanks to my love of sport and live tv. As for Philtaz comments, too many incidents of innocents being slaughtered for us to list here. Thank God those days are gone and now we only have to worry about global terrorism. Doesn't seem so close to home. The above have raised some sad images and now I'm a bit morbid so off to another site to cheer myself up.
JFK assassination - He was shot exactly a month after my 13th birthday. I was watching TV with my Mum and Dad when the news came on TV. I went up to my bedroom to cry because my Dad did not like America or Americans and would not have understood how I felt. I had no political awareness but the Nixon/Kennedy election was the first time I had ever taken an interest in what was happening and I have to say it was John Kennedy as a man rather than as a politician that hooked me. I also remember being at school when Bobby was shot. I must have been 17 then. There was a really good programme on BBC 4 recently about Bobby which explained alot of things I did not understand at that time.
I only have that for the twin towers. I went to my badminton class after school at about 5pm and these boys were talking about 5000 dead and planes and buildings etc, and I thought it was some sort of computer game at first. A little later I got into conversation when playing doubles and he mentioned it and we immediatlystopped playing, I was shocked and quizzing him and the people we were playing agaisnt were getting bored and trying to imporve thier aim by aiming the shuttlecocks at our heads.
IRA bomb at the Conservative Party conference hotel, Brighton 12th October 1984
I got up normally and went to school without listening to the news on the radio. Someone made a joke about a broken leg, but then said "...like Norman Tebbit". I looked at him with a puzzled expression. He asked "Don't you get it?". I replied "Yes, I get the joke, but what has that got to do with Norman Tebbit?". He told me about the explosion (in which Norman Tebbit had been injured) but I wasn't sure to believe him until I got home.
Assassination of Indira Gandhi, 31st October 1984
My mother (who can be a daft old bat sometimes) came into my room in mid-morning and confidently blurted out "Mrs Gandhi has been shot." and then turned around and trotted happily out again. I had to shout after her and call her back in order to ask her
- is she alive or dead?
- how badly injured?
- who did it?
- where/how etc.?
She replied "Well, she's dead now" as if I somehow already knew, even though she hadn't specified.
It is strange and interesting to read what we remember. How we are all doing such mundane things when tragedy hits other people in our world.
As a Northern Irish person (as well as the other events you mention), I also remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when the Omagh bomb exploded. This is not a sermon, but as so few seem to remember, and because it is in the news again at the moment, can I quickly remind you about the horror of it.
'The Omagh bomb exploded at 3:10pm on Saturday 15 August 1998 killing a total of 29 adults and children as well as unborn twins. They killed young,old and middle-aged,fathers,mothers,sons,daughters and grannies. They killed unborn twins,bright students,cheery shop assistants and many young people.They killed three children from the Irish republic who were up north on a day trip as well as a 23 and a 12 year old on an exchange trip from Spain. Everyone they killed was a civilian. The narrow part of the street where the car bomb had been parked was crowded,housing as it did a coffee shop,clothes shops and a pub. With the new school term just two weeks away,many parents were shopping for school uniforms for their children.Others had brought their youngsters into the town because a carnival was to be held during the afternoon.'
Thankyou for taking the time to read this - it is still fresh in the minds of a lot of Northern Irish people.
I can't remember all of these but the ones I can are:
Pope John Paul II dying - was at work.
Twin Towers being bombed - was at work
Diana died - totally off my face in an internet chat room and someone said Princess Di had died and I thought it was a wind-up - I'll never forget the Saturday morning after - I went out in the car and there was barely any traffic on the roads and the strangest atmosphere in the air
Start of 3rd Millenium - off my face in a club!
I haven't always been off my face though - am a sensible married woman with child now.
Pope John Paul II dying - was at work.
Twin Towers being bombed - was at work
Diana died - totally off my face in an internet chat room and someone said Princess Di had died and I thought it was a wind-up - I'll never forget the Saturday morning after - I went out in the car and there was barely any traffic on the roads and the strangest atmosphere in the air
Start of 3rd Millenium - off my face in a club!
I haven't always been off my face though - am a sensible married woman with child now.
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