what is the most compelling news event that has ocurred in your lifetime?

I would like to add the prevelence of the internet in home use as one of the biggest events, that might also be in your life time.

 

Tupac and Biggie's death

Princess Diana

Desert Storm

 

I'm surprised to see the Berlin Wall over the collapse of the USSR, but I suppose the two events are conflated in most Americans' minds. Freeing Eastern Europe from Russian hegemony was big, but the collapse of the USSR seems much bigger to me. It was the most compelling news event of my life. I remember I was on a roadtrip to Canada and watched Yeltsin on the tank in the evening news at the motel. I majored in Soviet history in college largely because of that event.

In impact, I'd say the opening up of the Chinese market rivals the collapse of the USSR. But, I don't know if it is a "compelling news event" since it was a gradual shift.

In third place, I'd put the AIDS epidemic, especially in Africa. Actually, I might put that in first place.

 

Definitely belongs on the list. Good call.

 

9/11

USS Cole

Both Shuttle tragedies

Reagan shot

Beirut Bombing (Marines killed)

Iran hostages set free

Berlin Wall

Tiananmen Square

Princess Diana death

Magic Johnson press conference (HIV/AIDS) -at the time seemed very surreal

OJ Bronco chase



-most of these I can remember where I was, what I was doing, etc.

 

this and dealing with world poverty in the midst of all the western world has will likely be the items our generations are most judged for...

but i don't think of this as a news "event", ya know? it's not a "holy crap, look what just happened" kinda thing. i guess that's how i was interpreting the question of the thread.

 

Well, I'll keep my picks within your lifetime. And since you were born in 1984, my selections are:

1. 911
2. challenger
3. Fall of Soviet Union
4. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky".
5. Sam McGuffie runs for 270 yards and 5 TD's in first quarter of football game.

 

is Sam McGuffie even a prospect?



Go ahead and write about the White Bronco chase.


It was a friday night, and i was watching basketball until NBC decided to switch.

 

By compelling news events - i assume you mean evens that just pulled us all to our tv screens, "compelled" us to be drawn away from whatever we were doing and into the tv of what was going on....and this is from an american centric point of view of course. I also am doing everything post watergate since most people on here can't remember that even or what happened before then...


1. Sept 11th. Let's face it, everyone in the country was engaged on it for weeks if not longer. Everyone can tell you not only where they were, but what they were thinking and feeling. That's compelling as a news event goes.

2. OJ Simpson

3. Challenger Explosion

4. Collapse of Communism (Berlin wall to Fall of Soviet Union)

5. Iran Hostage Crisis

6. L.A Riots

7. Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident

8. Tylenol Poisioning

9. Tsunami

10. Hurricane Katrina

11. Mid-East Peace Plan

12. Chernobyl

13. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

14. Monica Lewinsky Scandal

15. Reagan Shot

16. Waco

17. Iran-Contra scandal

18. Oklamhoma City Bombing

19. Black Monday (stock crash and S & L crisis)

20. Tiananmen square

21. The Sniper

22. Anthrax

23. Pan Am Terrorist Bombing

24. Olympic Bombing

25. Hurricane Andrew

26. US. Marrine Barracks Bombed in Lebannon

27. Union Carbide Accident (Bopal India)

 

1. Beatles broke up

 

sputnik.

 

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dancron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkwether, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

Hemingway, Eichman, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire...