Living History: What was the first big historical event (such as when the Berlin Wall came down) that you can remember and how old were you?

What was the first big historical event (such as when the Berlin Wall came down) that you can remember and how old were you?

Because I was born eight months before JFK’s assassination and was a baby at the time, I have no memory of that. My mom and an older half-sister, of course, were of “the age of reason” on November 22, 1963, so they had vivid memories of that tragic event.

I have vague memories of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, as well as a dim awareness of the unrest all over the world due to the Vietnam War and social upheaval in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America.

The first big historical event I recall with clarity (albeit enhanced by my watching documentaries and dramatizations on the topic) was Apollo 8’s flight to the Moon in December of 1968.

The biggest historical event I recall as a kid, though, was the Moon landing 50 years ago. I was six and living in Colombia at the time, but like most of the world, the media there gave the Apollo Program wide coverage.

Since then, of course, I've lived through many other red-letter days, including the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the two wars with Iraq, and the two Space Shuttle accidents, just to name a few. 

50 Years On: "That's One Small Step for Man...."