wrog

It's more a Gen X thing, actually. Gen Y wouldn't remember Mt. St. Helens or the Challenger disaster.

As to your fogey quiz:

13. The Apollo 11 moon landing (7/20/1969)

The fetal pre-me was in utero at 5 months gestation or so, as my mom and dad signed on a new house and watched the footage on TV, or so I hear.

14. Phase One (8/15/1971)
A Republican president announces wage and price controls to tame a "runaway" inflation rate of 4.5%.

gaa gaah goo goo dada mama (21 months old)

15. The fall of Allende (9/11/1973)

Somewhere between potty trained and preschool.

16. The Yom Kippur attack (10/6/1973)

See previous.

17. Nixon announcing his resignation (8/8/1974)

Still a year away from kindergarten. I was too young to understand who the president was.

18. The fall of Saigon (4/29/1975)

Being raised by hippies. Still not in kindergarten.


19. The takeover of the US embassy in Iran (11/4/1979)

Almost ten. This is when I started watching and paying attention to TV news regularly (though I did also watch various speeches by Carter in the previous few years). I was one of two people in 4th grade who could spell "Ayatollah Khomeini." This was the first major news story aside from the 1976 election that I can remember (unless you count various happenings during Carter's administration, like the "killer rabbit" story, or anything about Amy or Billy Carter.) I probably first saw the news about this in the TV room on the second floor of our log house in Gig Harbor. The TV was later moved downstairs to the main living room, but I distinctly remember watching major news event of this period in that room, which later became my stepdad's office/den.

20. Outbreak of the First Gulf War (9/22/1980)

No clue. I'm pretty sure I saw that event as just an extension of the Hostage Crisis (how very American-centric of me) at the time.