Can you remember where you were when you heard Princess Diana had been killed?...etc

[mikepara]

Can't remember what I was doing when she died.

But when she was getting married I was making love!

I don't think the death of anyone outwith my family would leave that much of a mark to remember it.

 

[dashiell]

Oklahoma City - I was a proctor in my middle school administrative office (and quite proud of my skill with an ancient copy machine only one other person could operate). As I waited for the copies to dry so I could take them to an instructor, the school secretary turned on the television. Unheard of ... that television was never turned on. But we watched the news. I stayed during lunch to watch, and then had to go to class.

Princess Diana - I didn't know about this until well after it happened. I was at university and had very little to do with anything but work and my studies. When I did find out, I was in a library.

9/11 - Stationed at Strategic Command. My shop chief came in, told us what happened, and went back out. I just looked at the person next to me for a moment, told everyone to double check the state of their mo-bags after shift, and got back to work.

 

[LadyStardust]

She was one of my heroines growing up, so it is odd that I don't have a vivid memory of where I was, what I was doing when I found out the news of her passing. I believe I was at home, and my mom had the news on. I was in the kitchen, and as soon as the announcements started coming in, I hurried into the living room in disbelief, and sat glued to the T.V. I remember feeling very numb for a long while. And it's even more surreal that a decade has already passed. Rest in peace, Lady Diana.

 

[Big Man]

This is a good thread. It is interesting to see how major events are remembered by folks of different ages.

There are several events in history that really stick out in my mind as a "flash bulb" memory. Why these do and others don't (even though I remember a lot of notable historic events) I have not a clue. Some of the "flash bulb" moments surely are not as historically significant as others, but here is my list:

1963 - JFK assignation. I was sick and home from school that day. I can still see in my mind everything in the room just as it was. I didn't hear the announcement on the news, but I was in the room when my mother called my dad to tell him. My dad was the principal of the school, and we lived in a house on the school grounds. We had the school intercom in our house, and I remember my dad making the announcement to the school that the President had been shot.

1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald assignation. I will never forget seeing Lee Harvey Oswald shot right before my eyes on TV. This event probably is burned into my memory more than hearing of JFK's assignation.

1967 - Jayne Mansfield's death. Why is this a "flash bulb" memory? I have absolutely no idea why this is so fresh in my mind, but it is. I remember I was at my grandmother's house, sitting on the back porch and just happened to look at the newspaper. There was a story about Mansfield and a picture of the wrecked car. I remember there was a rather graphic description of her injuries.

1968 - MLK assignation. I remember this well. I was with my mother who was visiting her sister in Charlotte, NC. The news of the murder came across the television while we were all in my aunt's living room. What sticks out most in my memory of this event was the fear of being away from home when something like this occurred. Later in the evening the news was filled with stories of civil unrest, and I vividly remember the tone of the adults was fear. My aunt and uncle did not own a firearm, and were concerned over what to do if something were to happen in their neighborhood. While I am sure they took precautions not to intentionally frighten us, the underlying message was quite clear. I wished my dad was with us, as he always traveled with a .38. Looking back, I don't know what good one pistol would have done, but I do know that the thought of being unable to at least attempt to defend ourselves was something that significantly impacted me.

1969 - Moon landing. My dad bought a color TV just for this occasion. Then, when the pictures from the moon were in black and white, we were all let down.

1970 - Dr. Jeffery McDonald case. I know, most of you are saying "Who is Dr. Jeffery McDonald?" This is another one that I have absolutely no idea why it is one of those "flash bulb" memories, but it is. Dr. McDonald was an army Special Forces doctor at Fort Bragg, NC who was arrested for the murder of his wife. There was a significant court case. I always thought he was innocent. I vividly remember sitting in my grandmother's living room watching the news on TV when this story broke. Like I said, I have absolutely nom idea why this sticks in my mind, but it does.

1989 - Tiananmen Square. I was working an extra late-night shift covering for someone in the hospital when the news of the protest came on. I remember sitting glued to the TV and watching the lone protester in front of the tank. I remember thinking that this was the beginning of a revolution in China. I thought that there would eventually be a war.

1997 - Princess Dianna's death. I was up late and working on setting up a new computer. I caught the news of the story as it broke.

2001 - 9/11 Attack. I was at work. I got a call from our Police Chief telling me to turn my radio on. After being glued to the radio, we went to a conference room where there was a TV, and watched the second plane hit the building.

 

[plain old dave]

Princess Di: Was online in the evening. I rarely watch news during the day and so was unaware til @10pm EDT that night.

9/11: I was in Speech class in college. I honestly thought that the feller that told us was using it as an attention getter for his speech.

 

[Josephine]

For Princess Di, I was at my mom's after we had my eldest daughter's 1st birthday party. I was staying an extra day and I brought the newspapers in, and saw the headlines. It seemed very unreal.

For 9/11, I was at work and the Administrative VP had a small (relatively) tv she had for weather updates. We watched it unfold, and when the plane hit the Pentagon I called my husband who drives past it to go to work (we live about 2 miles from it). He hadn't left, he was running late that day and subsequently never went in. I said the heck with it, got my two kids and went home.

I remember when my father's plane was lost at sea, I was home after school and was getting dinner ready when I heard a car pull up. I opened the door to see one of the officers in my father's squadron get out. I was about to make a funny quip about no one being home when my mother got out of the car too. The look on her face stopped me short.

 

[Paisley]

Princess Diana: I don't remember; I had too many problems of my own at the time.

Columbine: A coworker asked me if I knew where Columbine High School was and I told him the intersection. He said someone was shooting inside the school. When I left work, I drove through the rain to give blood, but there was a long line of people waiting to donate.

9/11: I was on my way to work and heard about a plane flying into a building. I was in total denial until I saw a picture of the collapsed towers on the Wall Street Journal's web site.

 

[Starius]

I hate to admit this, but the death of lady Di wasn't that big of a deal for me. My mother is still very much a British loyalist, considers herself a part of the Church of England, etc... and she always thought that Diana ruined the royal family. (This is the same woman, after all, that made me wear orange on St. Patrick's Day as a child because she didn't see why I had to take part in a Irish Catholic holiday.) As a result, I suppose mom's views affected me. Even so, I thought what happened to her was a tragic horror. Paparazzi leave a foul taste in my mouth. I don't remember what I was doing, but I do remember mom watching the media fiasco that ensued on television that day.

As for 9/11... I was in college. I woke up, turned on my tv tuner on my computer and was shocked at what I saw. Only the first tower had been hit at that point. I just started taking tons of screenshots at what was happening on the screen. (I still have them saved somewhere but I never look at them.) Then were the reports of the 2nd tower and the Pentagon as well. I got a bit scared, thinking the country was under attack. I tried to wake my roommate, telling him about it all but I couldn't wake him. He slept through the whole thing. I didn't go to my classes that day. I really could have, but I think I just kind of used it as an excuse not to go.

 

[52Styleline]

Sputnik Launch: In grade school. It was the height of the Cold War and we were all afraid that the Soviets would be sending missiles at us the next day. We also couldn’t understand how they beat us into space.

JFK: I was in the student union at college when a friend came up and said, “Did you hear Kennedy was shot?” We rushed out to my car and listened to the news.

MLK: I was on a ship in the South China Sea. We got the news from the Armed Forces Network and the BBC.

RFK: Still in the South China Sea. I was on a warship in a war zone but couldn’t help but feel I was safer than back home. All of us wondered what the heck was happening to the USA.

Challenger: I was working for the Governor’s office of the State of Oregon. Doing an evaluation of the HR policies at OSU. Heard it from a student.

Princess Di: Can’t remember. I really pay no attention to the privileged chuckleheads who owe their good fortune to the sperm/egg lottery.

9/11: I was shaving and watching TV while getting ready for work when the second plane hit.

 

[dhermann1]

I was visiting my mom upstate when Princess Di died. We were glued to the TV like everyone else.
Nov 22, 1963, I was in my Physics class, the teacher came in from the adjacent room and said "Well, someone just shot the president." Minutes later when the bell rang and we all milled around in the hall, another teacher said "The president HAS been shot." That moment is, as they say, seared in my memory, along with the whole weekend in front of the TV, watching the funeral.
9/11, I was at my Dr's office 5 blocks from ground zero in Manhattan, getting my blood drawn for a routine cholesterol test. We heard a loud KABOOM, and looked out the window to see huge flames coming out of the north side of the north tower. The hospital went crazy, with "Trauma team, report to the ER" messages going out over the loud speakers. People watched from the 5th floor waiting room window, which was like a front row balcony seat on the whole event. Some in amazement, others in tears. Then the other crash came. Various people had been speculating what the original cause was, but one of my doctors said "I saw the plane hit the building". That removed any question in anyone's mind. It was a terrorist attack.
My blood was drawn, but the sample was lost somehow, not surprisingly.
For some stupid reason I decided to get down to my office at 80 Maiden Lane, a few blocks south. As I walked down William St I made a conscious effort not to look up. As I passed intersections I heard people say "Oh, look! They're jumping!" I didn't look. I didn't think those intersections were a good place to be standing.
I got up to my office on the 14th floor of the building. Everyone was watching the scene unfold through the window. At that point the main visual impression, aside from the inferno in the towers, was a huge cloud of paper that had been flung out from the offices. There was paper everywhere. A scrap of a religious book, singed at the edges, landed on my coworkers window sill.
Then we saw that the first tower was collapsing. We dashed away from the window and ran down the hall. My supervisor automatically went into her office to get her purse. I ran in and dragged her out. I didn't think she needed her purse as much as her life at that moment!
As we watched the huge 100 foot tall cloud of dust roll down Liberty St towards us, I had one of those weird thoughts you get in such moments. I was reminded of the giant Campfire Marshmallow Man rolling down the street in the scene in "Ghostbusters". Goofy what you think of.
At this point some people went down to the 6th floor to be with other employees of our agency. I figured the air was a lot better at a 14th floor level, and I was right.
Finally I went downstairs to the building lobby. The air was very pungent with the smoke and debris. Suddenly the windows at the front and back of the building went absolutely black, and we heard another roar. The second tower had fallen.
I joined my coworkers on the 6th floor. At about noon we decided it might be time to get out of the place. We walked out of the building to a bizarre scene. It was utterly silent, in a city that never was without a constant background roar. There was a thin layer of grey dust on everything, like newly fallen snow. The sun was shining beautifully, a gorgeous day.
We walked towads the east River. There was an agency van, that picked up some people and got them home eventually. We had a couple people who had trouble walking. They didn't get home till 7 that evening.
I opted to walk home, across the Brooklyn Bridge, along with about 50,000 other Brooklynites.
It was was about a five mile walk, ultimately. I joked with my coworker about what we'd do if a plane started heading for the bridge. How you hit the water would determine if you survived.
I got a bottle of water at the entrance to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Brooklyn, and headed off for Prospect Park. It was a beautiful day in the park. Mothers were playing with their babies, kids were tossing Frisbees. But a tall black cloud of ugly smoke rose up from the towers, and bent directly southeast, over Brooklyn and the park. After about 2 hours I made it home. My wife stood at the door. We went into the back yard and just held each other for a good long time.
A day I'll never forget.

 

[Mr. Lucky]

My wife, some friends, and myself were at Lawry's Prime Rib in Beverly Hills. I remember we were celebrating some sort of milestone - a job or something - and that we kept getting up and going to the bar to watch the TV. Oddly enough, Richard Grieco (21 Jump Street, post Depp) was there also. Now, unfortunately, every time I think of Princess Diana, I immediately associate her with "Booker".

 

[ShortClara]

9-11 - In Chicago. I was off work and sleeping in. My husband calls me (he and I both worked on Michigan Avenue) and says they sent us all home b/c they are afraid there's a threat to the Hancock building (3 blocks away) and he told me to turn on the TV. Then, right after, my mother calls and says there are threats to Chicago I hope you're not at work. Remember when they were trying to locate planes for half the day? Horrible. The next day we went to Sony where we worked and tons of people who were stranded in Chicago came in to get radios and portable TVs so they could watch the news. We put it on all day at the store.

Challenger - in Florida. We could look out the window and see launches. In class at school, Scooter Brown said - it just blew up! No one believed him because he was a sassy little kid - then we went to the window and saw that famous sight of the pieces shooting off in all directions. We knew it wasn't supposed to look like that.

 

[zaika]

Hmmm...interesting thread...

When the Challenger...I dunno, crashed? blew apart? I was getting ready for school that morning. I think I was in third grade...the height of my astronaut phase. It was really tragic, but it fueled my desire to be an astronaut.

Diana: This was a very personal tragedy for me. I had just lost my mother that spring, so the grief was still very fresh. I had been working as a housekeeper that summer, cleaning up summer rental homes where I could turn on the TV or radio while I cleaned. I couldn't tear myself away from the TV, and I couldn't stop crying. I felt the worst for her boys because I knew how they felt. It's still a very sad thing for me to hear about.

9/11: I was in studying abroad in Russia when the attacks happened. I was sitting down to eat dinner and my house mother shouted from the living room to come see what was happening on the TV. At first I thought it was just an accident and I was really concerned...but then I watched as the second plane hit...and then the Pentagon was hit...and then Flight 93 crashed...and my heart just sank into my stomach. The following weeks and months I was really concerned for my family back home and kept calling every week to make sure they were okay. I thought it was really odd that I felt safer in Russia than I did when I came home that Christmas. After the US made clear the intent to go into Afghanistan, my professors advised me to keep a low profile because there were many Afghan refugees in our city. But it's hard to pretend to not be an American when I obviously speak Russian like an American! In actuality, the Russians were VERY sympathetic to what happened, and it started a lot of good conversations. It was hard to come home after that because I felt like a complete outsider. It was a horrible event, but I don't feel as affected by it like most people do.

 

[plain old dave]

This is why I re-enlisted in the Naval Reserve. Thank you for sharing.

9/11, I was at my Dr's office 5 blocks from ground zero in Manhattan, getting my blood drawn for a routine cholesterol test. We heard a loud KABOOM, and looked out the window to see huge flames coming out of the north side of the north tower. The hospital went crazy, with "Trauma team, report to the ER" messages going out over the loud speakers. People watched from the 5th floor waiting room window, which was like a front row balcony seat on the whole event. Some in amazement, others in tears. Then the other crash came. Various people had been speculating what the original cause was, but one of my doctors said "I saw the plane hit the building". That removed any question in anyone's mind. It was a terrorist attack.
My blood was drawn, but the sample was lost somehow, not surprisingly.
For some stupid reason I decided to get down to my office at 80 Maiden Lane, a few blocks south. As I walked down William St I made a conscious effort not to look up. As I passed intersections I heard people say "Oh, look! They're jumping!" I didn't look. I didn't think those intersections were a good place to be standing.
I got up to my office on the 14th floor of the building. Everyone was watching the scene unfold through the window. At that point the main visual impression, aside from the inferno in the towers, was a huge cloud of paper that had been flung out from the offices. There was paper everywhere. A scrap of a religious book, singed at the edges, landed on my coworkers window sill.
Then we saw that the first tower was collapsing. We dashed away from the window and ran down the hall. My supervisor automatically went into her office to get her purse. I ran in and dragged her out. I didn't think she needed her purse as much as her life at that moment!
As we watched the huge 100 foot tall cloud of dust roll down Liberty St towards us, I had one of those weird thoughts you get in such moments. I was reminded of the giant Campfire Marshmallow Man rolling down the street in the scene in "Ghostbusters". Goofy what you think of.
At this point some people went down to the 6th floor to be with other employees of our agency. I figured the air was a lot better at a 14th floor level, and I was right.
Finally I went downstairs to the building lobby. The air was very pungent with the smoke and debris. Suddenly the windows at the front and back of the building went absolutely black, and we heard another roar. The second tower had fallen.
I joined my coworkers on the 6th floor. At about noon we decided it might be time to get out of the place. We walked out of the building to a bizarre scene. It was utterly silent, in a city that never was without a constant background roar. There was a thin layer of grey dust on everything, like newly fallen snow. The sun was shining beautifully, a gorgeous day.
We walked towads the east River. There was an agency van, that picked up some people and got them home eventually. We had a couple people who had trouble walking. They didn't get home till 7 that evening.
I opted to walk home, across the Brooklyn Bridge, along with about 50,000 other Brooklynites.
It was was about a five mile walk, ultimately. I joked with my coworker about what we'd do if a plane started heading for the bridge. How you hit the water would determine if you survived.
I got a bottle of water at the entrance to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Brooklyn, and headed off for Prospect Park. It was a beautiful day in the park. Mothers were playing with their babies, kids were tossing Frisbees. But a tall black cloud of ugly smoke rose up from the towers, and bent directly southeast, over Brooklyn and the park. After about 2 hours I made it home. My wife stood at the door. We went into the back yard and just held each other for a good long time.
A day I'll never forget.

 

[Girl Friday]

I remember we (me and my ex-boyfriend) had gone out that night with several people, one of them was named Diana. The next morning he said "Diana was killed in a car accident last night." I of course thought he was talking about the girl that had been out with us the night before, until he explained...the Princess.

 

[dostacos]

Watergate scandal hearings begin, I was at my birthday party

the SLA shootout in LA. ah I was at my birthday party...

the night Bobby Valentine end his baseball career[breaking his leg on the center field fence] I was at my birthday party

an Iraqi fighter hits the USS Stark (FFG-31) with a pair of missiles I was at my birthday party

JFK at home alone when I found out parental units did not come home for several hours kinda lost and confused

1969 moon walk watched it on da TV, [part of the CLASS OF '69s high school memories ]

Challenger at my office watched on a 4" portable TV

Diana, don't remember but I do remember where I was when she was married I was sound asleep, wife was up with a sick baby, watched the whole thing and I do believe it was LIVE

9/11 on my way to work heard it on the radio spent a good portion of the day walking VERY slowly by the TV in the Radiology department

 

[skwerl-hat]

princess di: i was at my friends parents house sitting on their couch since thats all these people did 10 hours a day is watch tv and eat and suddenly there it was i didnt think much of it at the time i was 17

9/11 i was out of a job and rethinking life in general. I was watching a shaft of light shine through the window and enjoying the dust motes when the news came on tv that the towers were hit.

so basically i remember those days clearly because i was doing nothing at all :-D

 

[MrNewportCustom]

1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake - I was in bed. I grabbed the alarm clock and the radio (each on opposite sides of the bed), then looked up and saw the 20X24 glass photo frame above my head and wondered on which bedpost I'd put my priorities the night before.

1989 San Francisco Earthquake - I was on the toilet (I lived in Anaheim Hills), and in no position to get up and run.

1992 L. A. Riots - I was driving home in my '66 Mustang, listening to the news on the radio. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I went home and called a friend. She and I spoke on the phone for three hours while flipping TV channels. After I hung up with her, my boss called and told me my truck for the next day was cancelled; I told him I wasn't going to do it, anyway - It was for our Torrance store. That mall was hit HARD in the riots (to this day, it's still closed). The next day I went to a car parts store. One of the kids working there said he wanted to get a gun and go down there. I told him he was an idiot for thinking that. :rage:

1994 Northridge Earthquake - I was in bed (4:31 A.M.) It woke me up (they normally don't) and my landlord called to see if I was alright. I said I was, watched TV for about five minutes and, seeing they had no clue what had happened, I went back to bed, waking up an hour later to my alarm clock and then going to work. (John Doe and Jane Doe, my cats at the time, each reacted differently: Jane was wide-eyed and kept low. John was completely unaffected, prompting me to give him yet another nickname: Clueless John.) lol

1997 Princess Di - I have no idea. [huh]

9/11/2001 - I was on my way to work, listening to Bill Handel telling us about the first building having been hit. Later at work, I was checking my load when the boss came out and told everyone to go home and be with their family, because now the second building had been hit and it was obviously not an accident. Listened to more Bill Handel on the way home, as he was telling us about the first tower falling at that moment. I watched the second tower fall on live television. (That morning, at about 8:30 EST, a friend of mine in NY had called her attorney to postpone their 9:00 meeting. His office was across the street from tower one.)


Lee

 

[zaika]

1989 San Francisco Earthquake - I was on the toilet (I lived in Anaheim Hills), and in no position to get up and run.

Oy...that is my worst nightmare! hehe.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

I remember exactly. We'd just come home from a BBQ at friends, and we had a houseful that weekend (my partner's folks, my mom, a couple other friends) and I fllipped on the TV as soon as we got in and BBCA was reporting the story. I called the friends we'd just come home from (other side of the lake - 10 minutes from here) and said, "Randy, turn on your TV - did you hear about Princess Diane yet?" He jokingly said, "What - did Lady Di die?" "Uh...yes...quite frankly, that's apparently exactly what HAS happened in a car crash in Paris." He still feels bad to this day about making that crack/pun/whatever you want to call it to this day. Put quite a damper on brunch the next morning.g..