Exactly sixty years ago today (Feb. 9, 1964) I watched the Beatles appear live on the Ed Sullivan TV show. My family, along with 73 million other Americans, were fascinated by "the British invasion" which quickly led to "Beatlemania."
I was six years old at the time, just able to understand this event. It's my second childhood memory after the John F. Kennedy assassination the previous Fall. (I didn't comprehend that tragedy, wondering only why adults were crying.) The Beatles' appearance was exuberantly joyful and widely seen as the seminal moment in American culture it later became. This event marked the beginning of "the Sixties."
One of the few benefits of growing old is living through history. What big events do you remember?
I'm old enough to remember "Vive le Québec libre!" and the October crisis when the PLQ kidnapped and murdered a Labour Minister and the war measures act was invoked. I was only 4 at the time so it's crazy I remember any of it. Bit of a dodgy history between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
ReplyDeleteSuzanne
Wow, that's amazing. Some things enter our kid-brains while most don't. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteHmmm, what do I remember? I do remember 9/11 as I was working at the Barbican hotel and on my break, all the hotel staff were watching the news in our basement canteen. Not really sure I remember anything else though!x
ReplyDeleteInteresting. A big determinant on what we remember is our age and situation. Many remember 9/11 just like you. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteThe first televised 'big deal' I remember was April 16, 1998. A large tornado hit downtown and we watched the news as it hit first in the city. I remember being confused why the news reporters were outside and ran into a glass building as they watched the cell come right down the street towards them! Very shortly after I was all but shoved into a blanket filled closet. Thankfully we only got hail.
ReplyDeleteI also remember 9/11. I know lots of things happened in my lifetime, but that was the first time I remember everything stopping around me to focus on the tv. I was in school and they wheeled in a CRT television on a cart while we all stood in the gym (small class, small school). I think the only other time I can equate it with is the COVID lockdowns.
Closest I can equate to the Beatlemania in my lifetime was Harry Potter (the books) creating an event that hasn't been replicated since, despite attempts to manufacture the wave of kids, teens, adults being rabid for books.
I feel the book thing was more apparent for me because my grandmother was a librarian. 😅
DeleteEvery generation has one or two huge events that transfixed everyone, in both news and entertainment. When we're young and without reference to earlier cataclysms, they feel monumental. Thanks for sharing yours.
DeleteI remember a lot of events from when I was young, I can't really choose one that seems more historical than another. Perhaps in terms of technology, I remember the first cell phones starting to make appearance. I remember the first computers and so on. My brother and I bought our first computer with money earned through summer jobs if I recall well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. To an older person like me the introduction of cellphones was unremarkable but, to you and other young people, it naturally seems more significant. I get that. Thank you for sharing.
DeleteI wasn't even three years old on Feb. 9, 1964.
ReplyDeleteEarliest world event memory must be Apollo 11 and the moon landing. That is, I remember my Dad staying up for it. xxx
Good choice. The whole world watched the moon landing.
DeleteI remember the watching the fall of the Berlin Wall. My Dad worked in electronics, so we had a satellite dish - that was unusual back in the late 80s for the UK. I mention this because the broadcasts where from Europe, so you got a ringside seat, seeing history change. Families that had been split by the Iron Curtain were reunited and Germany - and possibly Europe too - could be whole again.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing a cup of water boiling in the microwave. That certainly changed cooking - although some may argue, not necessarily for the best 😉
Do you remember your first email or connecting to the Internet?
That's so awesome you got to see them - such a monumental appearance! I was a huge Beatlemaniac in my teenage years. I remember a lot of Beatle historians pondering whether they would have been as successful in the U.S. if they hadn't come at that time - the Beatles were a huge uplifting moment for Americans who were mourning the assassination. Anyway, I remember the Challenger disaster when I was about 8 (gave me nightmares), the fall of the Berlin wall, the Columbine shooting, the 2000 U.S. Presidential election (the first I was old enough to vote in - I remember being confused as to why a new President hadn't been elected the next morning) and of course 9/11.
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