and then a few months later:

86 was a big year

Easy, JFK's assassination. I was 4, came in from the yard and found my mom and a neighbor were sitting at the kitchen table, crying. I asked what was wrong, and she said someone had shot the president.

After that, I remember being irritated that all my favorite TV shows were blocked by news coverage for days.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Collapse. All the news agencies were calling it the "Resentment" for some reason. They were arguing about if some of the lower order dimensions would survive or not when all the aerovets went dark.

I looked out to see it approaching our crecheworld.

Space collapsing in fifteen dimensions is terrifyingly beautiful in its own way.

Desert Storm, in small part because my dad was in the AF and deployed to Saudi Arabia. It was pretty much all the news for the short amount of time that actual hostilities were occurring.

Princess Diana's death, for sure. I remember my mother being absolutely distraught, and I didn't understand why. We're not British and I'd literally never hear of her (from my mother or otherwise) before her passing and funeral were news. The funeral took place in the middle of the night and I remember her being up super early to watch (and I eventually woke up and joined her).

I'm surprised it was 1997, I would have figured it was '95ish. Can't believe that's the first news story I can remember. But we definitely were NOT a news household. Nobody reading the newspaper, no local news on at night or cable TV news on TV all day.

Challenger exploding, closely followed by Chernobyl exploding. I'm sure inbetween there were parts of London exploding. And after that, Pan Am 103 exploding. The 80s were a wild time.

It was a weird childhood, I was 8 when Obama was installed as president. I remember people talking about George Bush Jr and the wars he started in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda. Big gap in between Obama's presidency and then 2012 shooting of Sandy Hook. And abt every school shooting of the 2010s after that sadly. Also I really want to vote for Mitt Romney but I was 12 and brainwashed by my parents. Now that I'm on a form of obamacare I don't remember any issues with him. I would re-elect for a third term

Olof Palme getting killed or the USSR attack submarine getting stuck on a mititary beach whichever came first.

The first moon landing

I was born in 1991. For me, it's gotta be 9/11. I can't really specifically remember anything from before that, and I was only 9 when it happened, so I didn't really pay much attention to the news.

There was a time I was on the news because my grandfather got asked about something at the airport. I have no idea what it was or if it was before. But it certainly wasn't major and either way I don't remember the actual story that happened. If I had to guess it was something about asking people about airline delays, but that's genuinely just a guess.

The assassination of prime minister Olof Palme.

Reagan being shot

I don't think I have a single clear memory of any news story ever. I have vague half-remembered snippets.

The best I can do is 9/11 but I was well into my teens at that point, and even then my memory of the news itself isn't clear.

I remember what my local news anchor looked like. That's absolute it.

Watched the Challenger explosion live in kindergarten.

9/11. I was in school and my teacher wheeled the TV cart in. She was an absolute wreck doing so because her husband left that morning for an interview in tower 1. Due to the phone traffic being so busy she couldnt reach him. Luckily he was running late because of traffic and had to drive far enough away before he could call her.

Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths. All over the news.

9-11 coverage and the second plane live on TV in elementary school

The Challenger explosion

• 93 Bombay bomb blasts
• Kargil war
• Attack on Taj Bombay

Internationally

• Princess Diana's death
• Gulf war
• 9/11

For myself that would be 9/11. I remember being confused when the teacher put it on the tv. Thought we were watching an action movie.

The destruction of the Berlin wall, and uniting of west- and east Germany.

Challenger and Chernobyl, as they happened within a few months.The shape of the Challenger cloud will be forever seered into my brain. And after Chernobyl we had to seek cover immediately when it started to rain and weren't allowed to play on grass, I'll always remember that sense of unease. We also had two young kids from the Ukraine in our home for a while. Thinking back on that I feel so bad for them. They were so far from home and communication only worked through a paper dictionary. They didn't shower for a while because they were told water was very expensive. Somehow their hovercraft was full of eels.

Probably the Iranian Revolution.

Michael Jackson’s hair catching fire.

Clearly, like vividly? OKC bombing. Think was 10.

I vaguely remember desert storm missle strike clips. I remember staying up to watch the ball drop in 91. But anything else on tv in the early 90s that didn't involve mutant turtles, power rangers, Italian plumbers, or mortal kombat is a blank.

Middle East wars (which doesn’t really pin down a timeframe)

ERA (which does)

Mount St. Helens.

Obama becoming President, I think! I had a very old Elementary School teacher, and while she certainly used some not-okay words to explain the event to us, I think she was quite supportive of it. I must have been 9 years old? So either my memory is bad or there just weren't all that many interesting world events that I would have heard about when I was younger than that.

I dislike that my brain went with Milli Vanilli and not something like the berlin wall...

I actually remember seeing Haley's Comet. I want to live long enough to blah blah blah, but really I just wanna see that stupid thing again before I go. Feels like a decent bookend, ya know?

JFK assassination.