We often tend to think of historical events as a little bit abstract, we have perhaps seen them a hundred times in various depictions, from different angles, with a multitude of sources and perspectives. But, as with so many things in life, seeing things with your own eyes is a very unique experience.
Someone asked “What is the most historically significant event you witnessed IN PERSON?” and people shared what they saw. So get comfortable as you scroll through and be sure to upvote your favorite posts and if you have witnessed a bit of history with your own eyes, share it in the comments. We also got in touch with FictionVent to learn more.
#1
Not exactly. I was in class with the daughter of one of the pilots on 9/11 when she found out that her father had died.
We all knew about the attacks already, and we knew her father was a pilot, so when her mother came in with the principal we all knew why. It was without a doubt the most painful thing I’ve ever witnessed.
Image source: Marissa_Webb11, Mr.TinMD
#2
I was working in New York City ICUs in April 2020. Would not recommend.
Image source: Jamf, Amir Arabshahi
#3
I sat on the roof of our house and watched Mt. St. Helens erupt less than 100 miles away.
Image source: stinkykitty71, Austin Post
#4
I was standing on my front porch watching the launch of the Challenger.
Image source: StarChaser_Tyger, NASA
#5
Ran away from the 2004 tsunami. Twice.
Image source: oRedDeadDano, David Rydevik
#6
October 17th, 1989. I watched the 880 Nimitz freeway collapse during the San Francisco earthquake. The Honda in front of me had the upper deck crush her front-end engine compartment. The mother and her daughter were shaken up but completely fine.
I was driving a convertible Triumph Spitfire, which was scratched up slightly from debris. However, I walked away unscathed. Aside from the fact I pissed my pants, which I didn’t notice until much later.
Image source: CatDaddyWhisper, H.G. Wilshire, U.S. Geological Survey
#7
Terry Fox running during his marathon of hope.
Image source: genuinesasksealskin, R. D. Barry
#8
I was on the freeway in CA in the 90s when a white ford bronco passed us, and then a whole lotta police cars! I was like 10
Image source: TheLonelySnail, Jobs For Felons Hub
#9
The tumbling of the Wall in Germany… along with people selling bits and pieces of it on tables in lobby in front of commissary and px in the following weeks and months. I had picked up a chunk about the size of an oreo and kept it… has blue spray paint on the flat side. Wonder if anyone is buying them now?
Image source: SingedPenguin13, Gavin Stewart
#10
Halley’s comet, on my way to school in 1986.
Image source: Catlenfell, NASA/W. Liller
#11
The Three Mile Island nuclear accident. I was a young newspaper reporter (21 years old) standing outside the plant the morning of the accident when the workers evacuated. They refused to say what if anything was wrong. I was the first reporter on the scene, as I had been writing about (the many) previous problems at the plant. The morning started off as a local news story. By lunchtime, it was international news. There obviously were no cell phones. There was a single pay phone in front of the plant’s observation center where we all had to take turns phoning in our stories.
Image source: hiker201, United States Department of Energy
#12
Not historically significant overall, but for me it was pretty crazy – the Hawaii ‘incoming ballistic missile’ broadcast that later turned out to be accidental. As an Australian tourist on the island it was pretty whack to suddenly get the emergency message to ‘take cover, this is not a drill’ pushed to my phone, and to hear every phone around me getting the same ping.
Image source: JoeKrano, Apple Inc
#13
1964 Good Friday Earthquake 9.2 Richter. Was a boy in Cordova, Alaska at the time.
Image source: KitchenLab2536, U.S. Army
#14
I would have to say the LA riots. I lived about two blocks from where it started. I was on my way home from school and saw someone throw a brick through a window. I didn’t even wait. I just started running the whole way home.
Image source: Scarlaymama0721, Mick Taylor
#15
Passage of the human rights bill on the Minnesota Senate floor in 1993. One of the first states to codify LGBT equal protection.
Image source: LovesRainstorms, Warren LeMay
#16
I was at The who concert in Cincinnati where all the people were trampled dead. I was within 6 ft of the pile of people that died
Image source: dubawabsdubababy, Jack Klumpe
#17
Took part in Hands Across America with my parents and my sister.
Image source: foxylady315, Buchoamerica
#18
I was at the Women’s March on Washington with half a million of my closest friends on January 21, 2017.
Also my husband applied for a job in the World Trade Center in June 2001, and we’re forever grateful that he did not get the position.
Image source: SaintHannah, Peter Kaminski
#19
The 1953 testing of the Salk polio vaccine … I was volunteered for the event by my parents.
Second most: 1968 Democratic Convention Riots
Image source: TsuDhoNimh2, Bryan Alexander
#20
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It’s mostly forgotten now that the towers are gone, but it was a big deal back then. I remember riding across the Manhattan bridge and looking towards the bay and thinking ‘well, it looks okay from here…’
Image source: AdWonderful5920, FBI
#21
Seven rows back ringside when Tyson chomped Holyfield’s ear off
Image source: Tokiohas12biffles, That’s why MMA
#22
Boston Marathon bombing. I was there and then part of the medical team – the tents at the finish line.
Ive worked in the medical tents for a decade now. The year it was super hot the news came to do a piece about us and used me with a patient as their backdrop – my phone erupted as soon as they aired it!
Image source: green_all, Tim Pierce
#23
I was the Command Post Controller that called the Pentagon to inform them of Kim Jong Un’s first missile launch (and 6 subsequent launches over the next 5 years).
I was at Post Malone’s opening of his personalized Raising Caines restaurant.
I was sitting at the airport gate across the way from the gate boarding MH370 (the Malaysian Airlines that went down), so I watched them board.
I was in Tokyo during the Tohoku Earthquake and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in 2011.
Image source: Business_Ground_3279, Touch Of Light
#24
I was in the SF Bay Area in 1989 when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit. Fortunately, I was in a park with my mom, so we both just got knocked to the ground and sat down and rode it out, so we weren’t in any danger and it wasn’t super scary.
Image source: yakusokuN8, CIR Online
#25
Elon Musk has his spaceport in our backyard. We saw the launch of the world’s tallest and most powerful rocket… and then it blew up.
Image source: ProfessorGigs, Daniel Oberhaus
#26
Space Shuttle Columbia first launch in April 1981
Image source: GeneralUrsus721, NASA
#27
I was a young barely high school student when Marcos was overthrown in the Philippines. I was part of the People’s Power along with my Dad, Mom and brothers. We didn’t feel unsafe but that night after Marcos left the Philippines we learned that the military was close to using force on the people. My Dad was alarmed and was glad we’re finally home safe; not sure why we went as a family but at the time my parents felt being there was important enough. My parents are dead and I know they’re probably turning in their graves when Marcos’ son was recently elected as President of the Philippines.
Image source: Red_Blurred, A1C Virgil C. Zurbruegg
#28
The b-52 crash that led to changing what large military aircraft are allowed to do for airshows. I didn’t see the plane, but immediately saw the fireball. It was just a perfect, bright red turning to black mushroom cloud. Fairchild is a nuclear air base and there were a few minutes there where I was sure the world was about to end. A few years before a KC-135 doing the same thing crashed near the school while we were in class.
#29
Chernobyl. When we were small, we used to spend time on farms that my father worked on. When Chernobyl happened, there were so many dead animals and deformed baby calves and sheep that my Dad stopped taking us out to farms. Our own cow was in a calf, and my mother rubbed iodine all over the cow twice a day in the hopes of protecting the unborn calf. It worked, and the calf survived. (She still is really proud of her efforts)
The fall of the Berlin Wall. The show on TV stopped, and the station went live to the Berlin Wall falling. I didn’t really understand much about it, but it was the beginning of the end of the iron curtain. I remember we had a teacher bring in a piece of the Berlin Wall. It had googly eyes on it and was in a small plastic display case.
The fall of communism and the lines for bread in Moscow followed by the huge queue when McDonalds first opened in Moscow. Tens of thousands of people queued in the freezing cold in Moscow to get their first taste of McDonalds. It was so extremely interesting because we knew absolutely nothing about Moscow before that there were so many stories and so much we didn’t have a clue about.
The IRA ceasefire marked the beginning of peace in Northern Ireland. Our teacher brought in a radio into the classroom as the IRA ceasefire was announced. It was truly amazing after 30 years of constant violence.
A couple of years later, I was on my bike cycling to work when I saw General de Chastelain’s convoy pass me. It was super early in the morning, and they were on their way back from visiting an IRA weapons dump. I obviously didn’t know who he was, but it was really, really unusual to see such high-end cars down an isolated country road. They were in a convoy of very fancy cars, like Mercedes and rolls Royce, etc, and I ended up pulling into a gate where one of the neighbours explained who they were.
I see a lot of 9/11, but I was working when it happened, and we only had access to a radio. I didn’t actually know what the World Trade Centre was, I vaguely heard of a Bombing that occurred in that building in the 90s, but I thought it was just 1 building. We didn’t really have access to the Internet and we had to wait until after work and go to the pub to actually see it on the news because we lived in student accommodation and no one had a TV. There was a communal TV, but we didn’t have access to it.
Y2K. I remember where I worked. All the checkouts got upgraded, and we closed the supermarket early for IT upgrades!
Obviously, Covid.
Image source: Delicious-Pear-No9, Ian Bancroft
#30
I accidentally got caught in that Taxpayer March on Washington on September 12 2009. First time I went to the capital. I just wanted to see Washington D.C. since I moved to New Jersey a few months prior
Image source: SanadaBeach, Ben Schumin
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