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Where were you when�
It seems that every generation has its âIâll always remember where I was when xxx happenedâ moment. Maybe grandparents shared the horror of Pearl Harbor or parents recounted their shock the day JFK was shot. 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of one such eventâthe September 11 attacks. The editors at EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica weighed in to create this list of one major event from roughly each generation of the last 100 years, along with a number of honorable mentions.
First, a few words about how we defined these events. They had to be:
instantly recognizable, that is, be widely enough known for there to be a collective understanding of the impact of the event
- life-altering, that is, fundamentally change the way you thought about the world, what was possible, and what were shared values.
- enduring, such that you would tell your kids about your remembered event the way your parents had told you.
Now if youâre thinking, âI donât want to read about the worst things that happened over the last 100 years,â read on. You may be surprised at how much joy and wonder mingles with tears and devastation.
Finally, weâre SURE that you will disagree with us on some of our choices (picking just one main event and a handful of other noteworthy ones was hard and bound to stir controversy). So, we want to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] to tell us what you think we forgot. We may come up with a readersâ list.
1930â50: The attack on Pearl Harbor
Over the course of less than two hours on the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese engaged in a military campaign that was as brazen as it was brilliant. The United States, which had been lurching toward entry in the Second World War, was suddenly and inescapably thrust into global conflict. Much of what had led up to this momentâa global Depression, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and Asiaâand much of what we would learn of in the wake of itâthe horrors of the Holocaust and the rise of nuclear weaponsâhelped define the rest of the 20th century. But the fulcrum for all of that is what happened that morning at Pearl Harbor, a precision attack that left more than 2,400 Americans dead and the nation that had thought itself immune from direct attack because of geography with no choice but to enter the war.
In asking Congress to declare war, Pres. Franklin Roosevelt uttered words that have become as well remembered as the attack that inspired them:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941âa date which will live in infamyâthe United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
Also of note
⢠The Lindbergh baby kidnapping (1932): This true-crime mystery had everything needed to rivet national attention. The toddler son of national hero Charles Lindbergh was snatched from his bed in his parentsâ home in the middle of the night. Ransom money was paid and searches were conducted as a country and a family clung to hope. Two months after the abduction, the body of 20-month-old Charles was found; he had probably been killed during the kidnapping.
⢠Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial (1939): A global sensation, Marian Anderson was denied the right to perform at the Daughters of the American Revolutionâs Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., in 1939 because of her race. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was part of a contingent that intervened, and Anderson sang on Easter Sunday on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the first time the monument had been used for a civil rights event.
⢠The Holocaust (1941â45): The Nazi persecution of Jews was well-known by world powers throughout the 1930s, but little was done. From 1941, when the systematic killing of Jews and other groups began as part of Nazi government policy, until the liberation of concentration camps in 1945, six million Jews would be killed. The horrors inflicted and the resilience of the Jewish people in the face of denial and cruelty would define the rest of the century.
⢠The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945): The worldâs first atomic bombs were dropped three days apart on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to the Japanese surrender to end World War II. The decision by Pres. Harry Truman to use nuclear weapons led to tens of thousands of deaths and a world forever changed.
⢠Jackie Robinson integrates Major League Baseball (1947): On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson played in an MLB game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first Black man to do so in the 20th century. Despite being a star player, Robinson was subjected to almost-constant racial slurs but held his temper, recalling later, âI knew I was kind of an experiment. The whole thing was bigger than me.â MLB now observes April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day, with all players wearing his number 42 jersey.
⢠Partition of India (1947): It would be hard to imagine the end of Britainâs 89-year rule of India being more chaotic or catastrophic. New boundaries for India, Pakistan, and what would later become Bangladesh were decided upon in July 1947 and set to be implemented just a month later, forcing some 15 million Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus to relocate before the new boundaries became effective. In the process, somewhere between 200,000 and 2 million people died in the ensuing violence. The lasting schism among religious groups would ultimately be linked to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi (1948) and that of Indira Gandhi (1984).
⢠Creation of the modern state of Israel (1948): While the idea of a Jewish state, exemplified by Zionism, dates to the late 19th century, the Holocaust accelerated calls for the creation of Israel. But the creation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, triggered an almost immediate invasion by Arab neighbors who had lost their homes with Israelâs formation. What followed were decades of a seemingly endless cycle of skirmishes, all-out wars, and (sometimes failed) peace accords.
1951â70: The death of the president
It was up to Walter Cronkite, who would become known as âthe most trusted man in America,â to deliver the devastating news on a Friday afternoon in November 1963:
From Dallas, Texas, the Flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 pm Central Standard Time, 2 oâclock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.
The announcement was followed by six seconds of silence as a clearly shaken Cronkite looked away from the camera, cleared his throat, and then continued to report the shattering news.
John F. Kennedy was not the first American president to die by violence, but it had been more than six decades since Pres. William McKinley was assassinated. The death of the youthful, charismatic Kennedy, leaving behind his young family, set off a wave of national mourning. The murder two days later of Kennedyâs suspected assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, would fuel decades of conspiracy theories. Kennedyâs killing would also be the one 1960s assassinationâthere were many, including Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedyâthat would epitomize a decade of horrific political violence in the United States.
Also of note
⢠The four-minute mile (1954): On May 6, 1954, Englandâs Roger Bannister did what many thought was physically impossible: He ran a mile in less than 4 minutes; 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, to be exact. In the more than seven decades since the achievement, 16.74 seconds have been shaved off Bannisterâs record to 3 minutes 42.66 seconds.
⢠Death of Emmett Till (1955): The brutal murder of a 14-year-old Black boy at the hands of a white mob in Mississippi helped galvanize the emerging civil rights movement in the United States. Perhaps no one was more instrumental in ensuring that Tillâs death would be remembered than his mother, Mamie Till, who insisted her sonâs coffin be open so that the grievousness of his wounds could be seen and allowed photographs to be published for the world to see.
⢠Elvis Presley/the Beatles on Ed Sullivan (1956/1964): Itâs hard to imagine the sometimes-dour host of a television variety show having such an instrumental role in two of the most controversial and influential musical acts of a generation. Both Presley and the Beatles made nationwide television appearances that cemented their place in pop culture on The Ed Sullivan Show (although Sullivan wasnât actually hosting the night of Presleyâs first appearance).
⢠Marilyn Monroeâs death (1962): She starred in some of Hollywoodâs most famous films, married baseball and literary legends, famously sang a salacious version of âHappy Birthdayâ to the president of the United States, but her death of a drug overdose at age 36 cemented Marilyn Monroeâs place in the iconography of popular culture.
⢠âI have a dreamâ (1963): Some 40 years after the Lincoln Memorialâs dedication and 24 after Marian Andersonâs historic concert, Martin Luther King, Jr., stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looked out at a sea of more than 200,000 supporters, and began to speak. He rambled a bit and seemed to be losing the audience until Mahalia Jackson called out, urging him to talk about âthe dream.â The rest, as they say, is history.
⢠LBJ wonât run again (1968): There are few real surprises in politics, but in March 1968 Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson delivered one when he announced at the end of a nationally televised address: âI shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.â Johnson delivered his prepared text about the divisive Vietnam War but then stunned White House aides and the nation when he continued with words he had written himself about his decision not to seek a second full term.
⢠Moon landing (1969): In May 1961 Pres. John F. Kennedy made the bold statement, âI believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.â Just more than eight years later, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins aboard landed on the lunar surface as hundreds of millions of people around the world watched on television. It would return home safely four days later. While the Moon missions seemingly ended in 1972, a new generation experienced similar awe with the 2026 Artemis mission to the Moon.
⢠Kent State shootings (1970): On May 4, 1970, after four days of Vietnam War protests on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio, the National Guard opened fire, killing four students and wounding nine. What sparked the shootings remained unclear, but it was a pivotal moment in the opposition to the war. The event was immortalized in the song âOhioâ by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which was released just weeks after the shootings.
1971-90: Challenger disaster
By 1986 the Apollo program had been replaced by the space shuttle, a name indicative of how almost-routine space travel had become. On the morning of January 28, 1986, among the seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Challengerâthe 25th space shuttle missionâwas a New Hampshire schoolteacher, part of what could be considered a public relations stunt to generate interest in the now âho-humâ shuttle missions. Christa McAuliffe was going to teach lessons from space, so among those watching the launch from a cold Cape Canaveral in Florida were tens of thousands of schoolchildren. But a little more than a minute after launch, the shuttle exploded, sending jagged plumes across the sky creating an image that would be seared into collective memory. After agonizing seconds of silence, the mission control announcer noted âa major malfunction.â
Hours later in an Oval Office address, Pres. Ronald Reagan would note that the seven astronauts who had âslipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of Godâ were the first to have died in flight. They would not be the last. After the Challenger disaster, the shuttle program was grounded for two years. On February 1, 2003, shuttle Columbia exploded on reentry, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The shuttle program would be officially ended in 2011.
Also of note
⢠Olympic Games massacre (1972): For 20 hours in September 1972 the world watched as Palestinian terrorists held members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. The Munich Games were the first time Germany had hosted an Olympics since Adolf Hitlerâs 1936 games in Berlin. In the end, ABC sportscaster Jim McKay broke the devastating news to viewers: âTheyâre all gone,â he said in announcing the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes. A German police officer and five of the terrorists were also killed.
⢠Watergate and Nixon resignation (1974): What started as a âthird-rate burglaryâ of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., in 1972 led to the stunning and yet inevitable resignation of Pres. Richard M. Nixon o n August 9, 1974. The Nixon administrationâs attempt to cover up the illegal acts of senior members of the government led to growing distrust of government officials as well as reforms intended to, among other things, ensure the independence of the Justice Department.
⢠Deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon (1977 and 1980): The deaths of Elvis Presley at age 42 and John Lennon at age 40 marked the end of musical âwhat might have beens.â Presley, who had been addicted to drugs and had become reclusive, died of a heart attack. Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York City apartment building. The men were dead; their music and mythology would live on.
⢠Jonestown massacre (1978): The deaths of 900 followers of religious cult leader Jim Jones in November 1978 shocked the world both in scale (about a third of the dead were children or teenagers) and the method (murder/coerced suicide). The massacre was set off when U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan tried to get access to the Jonestown compound in Guyana amid reports that some people were being held against their will. As Ryan prepared to return to the United States, he and three members of the press were shot and killed, prompting Jones to enact a mass suicide plan involving drinking a fruit drink laced with poison and sedatives. The massacre would lead to the phrase âdonât drink the Kool-Aidâ becoming part of the vernacular.
⢠Iran hostage crisis (1979â81): For 444 days, a group of 52 Americans were held hostage by Iranian radicals in the wake of the Iranian Revolution and the ouster of the U.S.-backed Pahlavi regime. The crisis spawned a nightly news update program that would become Nightline, prompted Walter Cronkite to end the nightly news by noting what day it was in the crisis, and led to yellow ribbons adorning trees throughout the country to honor the hostages. The crisis dominated (and probably doomed) the presidency of Jimmy Carter. The hostages were freed just hours after his administration ended.
⢠Assassination of Anwar Sadat (1981): The Egyptian president was killed while attending a military parade some three years after making peace with Israel with the signing of the Camp David Accords. Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel. In 1978 Sadat and Israelâs Prime Minister Menachem Begin were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Sadat was killed by Muslim extremists who were displeased with Sadatâs foreign and domestic policies. It pointed to the continued complexity around trying to achieve peace in the Middle East.
⢠Michael Jacksonâs âThrillerâ and MTV (1983): In 1981 a bold experiment in rock music began as MTV took the air and made music a visual as well as auditory experience. But it was Michael Jacksonâs epic 14-minute music video of âThrillerâ two years later that forever changed how music was experienced around the world.
⢠The fall of the wall (1989): The barrier that literally divided Berlin into East and West and figuratively divided the world beginning in 1961 peacefully came down in November 1989 based on an ill-advised comment by an East German Communist Party official that travel restrictions were being lifted. Upon hearing the news, East Germans flooded to the wallâs checkpoints, demanding to cross. Within hours they were joyously scaling the wall as fireworks exploded and champagne corks popped. The fall of the wall proved to be a pivotal domino. Some two years later the Soviet Union would be no more.