I won't say from the news because due to technology we're given the chance to observe everything, lately the war in Armenia-Azerbaijan for example. But from my own more personal experiences, this year back in February-March when the situation in Ukraine started getting more intense, I had a roommate who is half Russian half Ukrainian and she would tell me how it was all going and when the sanctions started taking place we were worried of her bank card not working and I remember going to the bank one day with her and when she got outside and told me they had blocked her account and started crying from the stress, that's when it hit me this was happening for real and had real consequences on innocent people.
Oh sorry I just saw you were talking about being a kid. I guess the 2004 Olympic Games and 2008 riots as I was living where they were happening. Also as a teenager the 2015 refugee crisis. It had a huge impact on my moral sense.
SW-User
Although I never experienced it, I've always been profoundly aware of the Holocaust because my grandparents were there and they have shared their experiences and their traumas with me, and of course with my parents.
Events from my early childhood haven't really stood out, which I can attribute to not having any interest in "news" until I was 11 or so.
I do remember terrorism always being a common theme though, and it comprised most of the events I was aware of. I started to become more aware of other events in my early teens.
When I was 11-13, I remember hearing a lot about Syria and the civil war that is still ongoing there.
At 14, I recall the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. That was significant because the catalyst for that particular conflict was three boys being murdered. I remember how horrible I thought it was, and how frustrating and antisemitic the narrative from the media was.
That same year, there were several plane crashes that were really disturbing. The disappearance of flight MH370 interested me greatly. Honestly, I found it scary but thrilling at the same time. I was so curious about it and desperately wanted to know what had happened, so followed all the news stories, watched all the videos, and read countless articles about it.
Around the same time, a pilot from Germany intentionally crashed a passenger plane into the French Alps. Then in July of that year, when Israel was engaged in conflict with Hamas, the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 got shot down over Ukraine. That just made me feel angry and really sorry for the people who lost their lives in such a horrific way. I found what happened to them to be so grim and depressing.
A year after that, I recall the migrant crisis and how stupid and insane Europe behaved over it. I remember the Charlie Hebdo attack happening that year as well.
In 2016, I distinctly remember the U.S election and Trump winning it. I also remember Brexit.
In the summer of 2017, I remember a tower block (Grenfell) in London being on fire and dozens of people dying in it. I recall the U.K having an election. There was also that Ariana Grande concert that was bombed.
I’m sharing the good ones. Watched the Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s wedding. First-hand witness to the birth of MTV Witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall Live-Aid Took part in Hands Across America
@easterniowegin I was driving to the airport in Houston when the launch of Challenger that morning was announced. There had been some concern about the cold temperatures in Florida. When the radio broadcast was interrupted to carry the launch live, I had a horrible premonition of what was about to happen. Suddenly I knew with absolute certainty that Challenger was going to explode. My face went white and my hands started to shake. I have not had a premonition like that before or since. I listened in horror as it cleared the tower and exploded in the air. There was nothing I could do.
As far as the events themselves as a kid, the Bakersfield and Tehachapi earthquakes. As far as news reports as a kid, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, FDR's death just for starters. Don't ask when it comes to adulthood -- just got worse.
I lived in an area that was a primary nuclear target during the Cuban Missle Crisis. I didn't fully understand it at the time, but reading about it scares me even now.
SW-User
Good: Obama’s presidential win in 2008 and inauguration The completion of the One World Trade center
@SW-User I had to visit the new One World Trade Center for work when it was under construction. I rode the construction elevator up the outside of the building to one of the upper floors. Most of the windows weren't in yet so they were covered in tarps, but you could pull the tarps to the side and look out. Not for those fearful of heights!
@bijouxbroussard Sirhan was practicing Rosicrucianism and self hypnosis according to DR Colin Ross who wrote BLUEBIRD,deliberate creation of multiple personalities by the CIA...many Psychiatrists who examined him felt he might have been programmmed
Nothing that I can much recall as a kid but a couple of years after the Challenger Disaster our teacher made us rewatch the live reports from that day. At the time it occured I was in kindergarten so my class wasn't actually shown the live report in 1986.
We are a NASA city so back then everyone watched the take offs and landings in class.
