Most significant (live) TV you've ever seen.

[ThankQ]

January 2005, the Huygens probe from the Cassini-Huygens mission lands on Saturn's moon Titan.

Totally forgot about that one. God, I think it landed at like 4:00 AM EST or something like that, I just remember being up all night following it, posting on the BBS, being as excited as I could possibly be, and NO ONE ELSE being on line to enjoy it with me, so I was just posting by myself.

That was a super fun and exciting night.

Guess the Pluto fly-by is the only think in the near future we'll have that even comes close to this.

 

[tomalak301]

Definitely 9/11. Looking forward to tomorrow and being up bright and early to hear the oath and inauguration though.

 

[teya]

Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald live on television.

That was really the most shocking thing I ever saw in my life.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

No they didn't. We had an 'Avoid the Royal Wedding Party' so it was only fair to have an 'Avoid the Royal Funeral' weekend holiday. Very nice it was too. The outbreak of Diarrhea in Sept 1997 is one of those events which have subsequently provoked national amnesia at the sheer horrifying embarrassment of it all.

Was sitting in a bar during the 'outbreak' and there was footage of Di going down the logflume in some park, a voice commented - 'they could have afforded a coffin surely?'

 

[Neroon]

Without question it was the actual lunar landing of Apollo 11, and nothing else comes close. I was only eight at the time, but even at that age I felt like Walter Cronkite in his broadcast - wiping my eyes and giddy with an unreal excitement.

 

[trekkerguy]

The point of 9/11 was to be significant.

I try to place no significance on it because that is in a very small way giving
into the "terrorism". It happened, was horrible, moving on.

This year's Election. And on Tuesday the swearing in of my President will take
the place as most significant.

I see your point but the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Guatanamo Bay, Abu Gharib, the Patriot Act make it hard to downplay the significance.

I'm not downplaying the significance. The fact that these events and atrocities
occured because of 9/11 is undeniable. But I personaly don't focus on it as
I see so many do, which is what the "terrorists" wanted and as Bush wants me to,
to justify his agendas.

 

[Koinek]

The Mumbai terrorist attacks - When a captured police vehicle buzzed a group of journalists with AK-47s. One died.

 

[Holdfast]

.... 'Avoid the Royal Funeral' weekend holiday. Very nice it was too. The outbreak of Diarrhea in Sept 1997 is one of those events which have subsequently provoked national amnesia at the sheer horrifying embarrassment of it all.

The whole Diana Funeral mass hysteria was truly ridiculous, made even worse by Blair's affected "People's Princess" speech nonsense. I didn't get it at the time, and get it even less in hindsight.

 

[EnsignRicky]

September 11, 2001

 

[GMac]

The September 11 events are the most obvious, but seeing both Shuttle accidents unfold wasn't much fun either. On the more positive side, I can just about remember seeing Apollo 13 splashing down in 1970 (it's one of my first memories - I was 3 at the time....).

GM

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

9/11. I watched the second plane crash into the twin towers.

Likewise. When i first heard it on the radio, i was half asleep and thought i was dreaming. Then they mentioned the Pentagon, so i woke up and turned the TV on. There it was. I was just in time to catch the second plane.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

The September 11 events are the most obvious, but seeing both Shuttle accidents unfold wasn't much fun either. On the more positive side, I can just about remember seeing Apollo 13 splashing down in 1970 (it's one of my first memories - I was 3 at the time....).

GM

Oh man, I totally forgot the Columbia accident. That brought me to tears...it was THE first and I mean THE first thing I saw that morning upon waking up.

 

[ThankQ]

Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald live on television.

That was really the most shocking thing I ever saw in my life.

I can't even imagine. That must have been one of those times when jaws literally just dropped and eyes stood agape and blink free for what must have seemed like hours.

 

[Hermiod]

The whole Diana Funeral mass hysteria was truly ridiculous, made even worse by Blair's affected "People's Princess" speech nonsense. I didn't get it at the time, and get it even less in hindsight.

Not an Express reader, I take it ?

 

[CaptainStoner]

May take a few shots for this, but I have to admit, the Obama acceptance speech just after midnight was electrifying and emotional, from the second it began.

I had worked 3rd shift on 9/11 and missed the initial coverage. The Landlady came down and yelled something about "they flew a plane into the WTC!!!!" I had been asleep about an hour. For some reason I just didn't believe her. Then I heard her again with the second tower, and got up. I think that puts my reaction slightly above Dubya's. And I had worked all night dipping buckets of bolts into chemicals.

 

[Deckerd]

No they didn't. We had an 'Avoid the Royal Wedding Party' so it was only fair to have an 'Avoid the Royal Funeral' weekend holiday. Very nice it was too. The outbreak of Diarrhea in Sept 1997 is one of those events which have subsequently provoked national amnesia at the sheer horrifying embarrassment of it all.

Was sitting in a bar during the 'outbreak' and there was footage of Di going down the logflume in some park, a voice commented - 'they could have afforded a coffin surely?'

Oh there were priceless comments to be gleaned. To be fair there were quite a few journalists who still had a sense of a) outrage at the sheer luxurious excess of all that weeping and wailing and rending of garments and b) wicked humour.

During the Royal Birth, one of my mother's friends, a midwife of some 30 years pondered whether Di had had the Royal Enema yet.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

^It's a shame she died so young and at the height of her 'wrong-done-for piousness'. I reckon she was on course for a cornucopia of cock-ups providing us with evil entertainment *wicked face*

 

[anti-matter]

I was in the Army down at Ft Eustis...asked my platoon sgt for some time off so I could watch the moon landing off base with my wife...and he said, yeah go for it.

Right now have both the radio and TV on checking out this historic inauguration.

Been here a couple of years and decided today I need an Avatar to celebrate this day.

 

[Mr. B]

I'm only 24 so I wasn't around for most of the things mentioned here. I didn't have the TV on until later in the morning on 9/11. I did see Di's funeral on TV. I wached that statue of Saddam get pulled down by US troops live. I've also seen most politically significant events live for the last 12 years or so.

 

[iguana_tonante]

The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Growing up during the Cold War, seeing people dismantling the Wall pieces by pieces with their hands was like watching the world changing in front of your eyes. When I went to sleep that night, I just didn't know how the world would be when I would have waken up the next morning.

9-11 was shocking and horrifying, but it didn't change the world in the same way.