Where were you when…?

A survey of events that defined generations

Written by

Tracy Grant

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

It seems that every generation has its “I’ll always remember where I was when xxx happened” 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 event—the September 11 attacks. The editors at Encyclopædia Britannica weighed in to create this list of one major event from roughly each generation of the last 100 years, along with a number...