2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (5/18/1980): Living in North Carolina, elevin years old. I remember seeing pictures on the news of people shovelling ash off their driveways.
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (1/28/1986): In high school, in Utah, in the Analytic Geometry class. The principle of the school broke in over the loudspeaker to announce it.
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (10/7/1989): Living in Alaska, in a little teeny town just a hundred miles or so north of Denali. I remember seeing helicopter shots of the collapsed doubledecker on the news.
5. When the Berlin Wall fell (11/7/1989): Again, in Alaska. In the same little town, I think.
6. When the Gulf War began (1/16/1991): Just back in Utah, had been home from Alaska only a few weeks. I watched the start of Desert Storm on the monitor in the main lobby of the University Library.
8. When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (4/19/1995): Living in Utah still. I was buried deep in a programming project for a dotcom startup, and missed even hearing about it for a few days.
9. When Princess Di was killed (8/31/1997): Living in Lowell MA. I was up late at night, reading something online, and I think someone mentioned it on IRC. I flipped on CNN, and then woke up
jezel to tell her. We both shrugged, and then went to sleep.10. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates at Columbine High School (4/20/1999): Getting down to the wire in Massachusetts, getting ready for
jezel's graduation, and fighting over were we were moving to next. I don't remember anything specifically about the day, or even when I first saw the news of it. I do remember the "Voices from the Hellmouth" shitstorm on Slashdot afterwards.11. When Bush was first announced President (11/7/2000): Living in Seattle. That would be just before I quit at F5. I have no memory of the specific day, nor do I see any reason why it should be such a memorable day.
12. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (2/28/2001): I was at work in Kirkland. I remember thinking "that's got to be a HEAVY truck driving by". When it didn't stop after a few seconds, I realized what it was, grabbed my coat and case, and ten seconds later was standing in the middle of the parking lot, far far away from anything that could fall on me.
13. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center (9/11/2001): I was still living (alone) in Ballard.
jezel woke me up with a phone call to tell me about it. I thought for a moment that she had maybe confused an announcment of a movie version of a Clancy novel, but then flipped on the TV.14. When Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas (2/1/2003): Visiting
omahas & elfs. Elf heard it on NPR, called Omaha on his cell, and we went downstairs to flip on the TV. 