Yeah, That Happened: Topics in History

[Carolinian]

Well, January 19th is Edgar Allan Poe's birthday, and he's an antebellum southerner (though perhaps not considered a Southern author)- perhaps you can redirect his enthusiasm toward Poe?

[Metizia]

Jul 13, 2015 18:52:36 GMT -4 chonies said:

I think Rousseff and Mujica are definitely interesting, but their narratives are more like Daniel Ortega (and I guess Vaclav Havel, and maybe a few others), who have unremarkable origins but who chose to take specific paths based on conscience and political leanings. I suppose when I posed the question, I was thinking about something more immutable.

But new question: who, besides Mujica and Rousseff, have been elected to power after being jailed and tortured by their own country?

Michelle Bachelet of Chile.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

Today's the 30th anniversary of the Challenger explosion.

I don't remember a lot from third grade, I must have been doing a lot of drugs. But I remember very clearly my teacher wheeling the television cart into class and crying while viewing the coverage. It was the first time I ever experienced a national tragedy.

[tabby]

I was stationed in Germany (it was West Germany at the time). I'd gotten home from work and turned on the Today show on Armed Forces Television (aired in the afternoon because of the time difference). The show switched to the local Florida station with the live broadcast when the Challenger blew. I cried in front of the tv for hours.

[mrspickles]

Jan 28, 2016 14:02:49 GMT -4 tabby said:

I was stationed in Germany (it was West Germany at the time). I'd gotten home from work and turned on the Today show on Armed Forces Television (aired in the afternoon because of the time difference). The show switched to the local Florida station with the live broadcast when the Challenger blew. I cried in front of the tv for hours.

Seeing that on a bar television is one of the few things I remember from 1986. Not my best year, by a long shot. It was horrifying in and of itself, but the Christa McAuliffe jokes... never funny.

[chiquita]

I was in middle school, and a friend who'd been at home told us when she arrived at school. I'll never forget that I got my hair permed that afternoon, as their TV only received one station and the news was on the whole time. I spent roughly two hours (or however long it took) seeing the images of the Challenger exploding over and over and over again until I was numb to it.

[kostgard]

I was in elementary school and was home sick the day it happened (kinda-sorta faking - I didn't feel the greatest, but I probably could have handled going to school. I just didn't feel like it). And when I wasn't feeling good my mom would always let me crawl into her bed and watch TV from there. It felt so weird to be home by myself and watching that (I think my mom called to check on me and I was able to talk to her about it), but in a way I was glad that I didn't see it at school, what with my tendency to get weepy.

I can't imagine what it was like for the kids from her school who came to Florida to watch. Can you imagine watching your teacher die in a terrible accident like that?

[Deleted]

I was only 3 years old so I don't actually remember it, my mother tells me her and I were in the car when the news came on the radio. I think we were going to pick up my brother from kindergarten or something.

I grew up hearing all about Christa McAuliffe in school because she was from Massachusetts, so she was a pretty big deal here.

[smitten]

Our teacher came and told us while we were all in the cafeteria eating lunch, I was in fifth grade. I remember thinking that her son was my age and she had the same perm as my mom.

[prisma]

I was in 9th grade, third period, Coach Patterson's Alabama history class. Somehow I was out in the hall (going to the bathroom or on the way back) and a girl came down the hall announcing it to anyone who was out there.

I have a friend who's from Florida and his class was on a field trip to the launch and witnessed it in person.