Princess Diana's death - 31st August 1997
Woke up in the middle of the night, couldn't get back to sleep so I turned on the radio and listened to a Prom for about forty minutes, then during the interval they announced that Princess Diana had been injured in a car crash in Paris but had walked from the scene with only cuts to her legs [Conspiracy theory alert!]. About fifteen minutes later they interrupted to say she had died. Went downstairs and turned on the tv. Saw the first flowers being laid at the gates of Kensington Palace by two gay men. Looked along the darkened street and thought, am I the only person in the world who knows this?
Margaret Thatcher's Resignation - 22nd November 1990
In a queue at the greengrocer's where it was announced on the radio. People stayed silent, but broke into smiles.
Attack on the Twin Towers - 11 September 2001
At home. My sister rang me from Washington and told me a plane had hit the World Trade Centre and I should go and turn on the tv. Did, and saw the second plane go in. An American friend in London rang me hysterically crying after the Pentagon attack - her ex-boyfriend worked there and she had no way of finding out if he was ok. At the point at which the US closed its borders and declared itse;f in a state of war, I knew that the world had decisively changed. Looking at the sky, thinking, London is next.
England's World Cup Semi-Final against Germany - 4 July 1990
What?
President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963
Watching children's television. They interrupted the programme to announce it, and sensing this might be something important, went and told my mother.
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