Twelve events that shaped your world

What are the 12 most significant global events that have happened throughout your life, that have had an impact on you? I was thinking about this question the other night- I just missed the birth of the Mark I computer although I was almost born on it, but since then I can remember these events clearly and my reaction to them at the time:

1963: Assassination of J F Kennedy

1969: First man on the Moon

1972-1974: Watergate

1980: Assassination of John Lennon

1987: Hurricane in UK

1989: Fall of Berlin Wall

1995 (ish): World Wide Web

1997: Labour party wins UK general election

2001: 9/11

2004: Tsunami in Indian Ocean

2008: Global financial crash

2009: Obama becomes US President

What are the 12 external events that have had most impact on you in your lifetime? (It's hard to keep the list limited to 12.) For quite a long time in my life, I thought that "great events" were things that happened in history, or a long way away so only interesting in a sort of theoretical sense. But all that changed with Gorbachev - Glasnost, Perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union - followed by various terrorist and climate upheavals, culminating with the current global financial meltdown. Bring back boredom!

Comments

[Clare D]

Great idea - and I think my list pretty much like yours. An interesting corollary might be - what were you doing at the time because we're all supposed to be able to remember aren't we?

[Dorte H]

For some reason I don´t really recall 1963.
I agree on 1969, 1989, 2001, 2004, 2009, but am not able to finish my own list on the spur of the moment.

[Norm]

This is a very interesting idea and I will have a think about this. The first event certainly had an impact on me as I was thrown under a table in 1944 following the Invention of the V1 rocket. ;o)
The recent events reminded me of Influenza Pandemic of 1958 when boys at school died. I would also say the Hungarian Rising of 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968 had a great impact on my politics. But I need more thinking time.......

[cfr]

Great question! I will have a think about this over the weekend and post later. I think may be different to yours for various reasons (including age, a bit, and location). Not sure I can come up with 12, but that may be a sign of the times also...

I suspect that when I come to it, I may exceed that 12...

Bravo on this thought, Maxine!

[Lauren]

Interesting question - I'm a different generation, and from a different part of the world, but there's certainly some overlap.

What was rather frightening this year (and reminds me that I am at heart a young fogey) was teaching German history to people for whom the Berlin Wall was over with before their birth!

[Maxine]

I get that "Berlin Wall" effect with my own teenage children, Lauren, it is rather disconcerting.