“The Most Painful Thing I’ve Ever Witnessed”: 14 Historical Events Witnessed By These Folks

Article created by: Ilona Baliūnaitė

We often tend to think of historical events as a little bit abstract, we have perhaps seen them a hundred times in various depictions, from different angles, with a multitude of sources and perspectives. But, as with so many things in life, seeing things with your own eyes is a very unique experience.

Someone asked “What is the most historically significant event you witnessed IN PERSON?” and people shared what they saw. So get comfortable as you scroll through and be sure to upvote your favorite posts and if you have witnessed a bit of history with your own eyes, share it in the comments. We also got in touch with FictionVent to learn more.

#1

Not exactly. I was in class with the daughter of one of the pilots on 9/11 when she found out that her father had died.

We all knew about the attacks already, and we knew her father was a pilot, so when her mother came in with the principal we all knew why. It was without a doubt the most painful thing I’ve ever witnessed.

Image credits: Marissa_Webb11

#2

I was standing on my front porch watching the launch of the Challenger.

Image credits: StarChaser_Tyger

#3

I was on the freeway in CA in the 90s when a white ford bronco passed us, and then a whole lotta police cars! I was like 10

Image credits: TheLonelySnail

#4

The tumbling of the Wall in Germany… along with people selling bits and pieces of it on tables in lobby in front of commissary and px in the following weeks and months. I had picked up a chunk about the size of an oreo and kept it… has blue spray paint on the flat side. Wonder if anyone is buying them now?

Image credits: SingedPenguin13

#5

The Three Mile Island nuclear accident. I was a young newspaper reporter (21 years old) standing outside the plant the morning of the accident when the workers evacuated. They refused to say what if anything was wrong. I was the first reporter on the scene, as I had been writing about (the many) previous problems at the plant. The morning started off as a local news story. By lunchtime, it was international news. There obviously were no cell phones. There was a single pay phone in front of the plant’s observation center where we all had to take turns phoning in our stories.

Image credits: hiker201

#6

Not historically significant overall, but for me it was pretty crazy – the Hawaii ‘incoming ballistic missile’ broadcast that later turned out to be accidental. As an Australian tourist on the island it was pretty whack to suddenly get the emergency message to ‘take cover, this is not a drill’ pushed to my phone, and to hear every phone around me getting the same ping.

Image credits: JoeKrano

#7

Passage of the human rights bill on the Minnesota Senate floor in 1993. One of the first states to codify LGBT equal protection.

Image credits: LovesRainstorms

#8

I was at The who concert in Cincinnati where all the people were trampled dead. I was within 6 ft of the pile of people that died

Image credits: dubawabsdubababy

#9

Took part in Hands Across America with my parents and my sister.

Image credits: foxylady315

#10

I was at the Women’s March on Washington with half a million of my closest friends on January 21, 2017.

Also my husband applied for a job in the World Trade Center in June 2001, and we’re forever grateful that he did not get the position.

Image credits: SaintHannah

#11

Elon Musk has his spaceport in our backyard. We saw the launch of the world’s tallest and most powerful rocket… and then it blew up.

Image credits: ProfessorGigs

#12

Space Shuttle Columbia first launch in April 1981

Image credits: GeneralUrsus721

#13

Chernobyl. When we were small, we used to spend time on farms that my father worked on. When Chernobyl happened, there were so many dead animals and deformed baby calves and sheep that my Dad stopped taking us out to farms. Our own cow was in a calf, and my mother rubbed iodine all over the cow twice a day in the hopes of protecting the unborn calf. It worked, and the calf survived. (She still is really proud of her efforts)

The fall of the Berlin Wall. The show on TV stopped, and the station went live to the Berlin Wall falling. I didn’t really understand much about it, but it was the beginning of the end of the iron curtain. I remember we had a teacher bring in a piece of the Berlin Wall. It had googly eyes on it and was in a small plastic display case.

The fall of communism and the lines for bread in Moscow followed by the huge queue when McDonalds first opened in Moscow. Tens of thousands of people queued in the freezing cold in Moscow to get their first taste of McDonalds. It was so extremely interesting because we knew absolutely nothing about Moscow before that there were so many stories and so much we didn’t have a clue about.

The IRA ceasefire marked the beginning of peace in Northern Ireland. Our teacher brought in a radio into the classroom as the IRA ceasefire was announced. It was truly amazing after 30 years of constant violence.

A couple of years later, I was on my bike cycling to work when I saw General de Chastelain’s convoy pass me. It was super early in the morning, and they were on their way back from visiting an IRA weapons dump. I obviously didn’t know who he was, but it was really, really unusual to see such high-end cars down an isolated country road. They were in a convoy of very fancy cars, like Mercedes and rolls Royce, etc, and I ended up pulling into a gate where one of the neighbours explained who they were.

I see a lot of 9/11, but I was working when it happened, and we only had access to a radio. I didn’t actually know what the World Trade Centre was, I vaguely heard of a Bombing that occurred in that building in the 90s, but I thought it was just 1 building. We didn’t really have access to the Internet and we had to wait until after work and go to the pub to actually see it on the news because we lived in student accommodation and no one had a TV. There was a communal TV, but we didn’t have access to it.

Y2K. I remember where I worked. All the checkouts got upgraded, and we closed the supermarket early for IT upgrades!

Obviously, Covid.

Image credits: Delicious-Pear-No9

#14

I accidentally got caught in that Taxpayer March on Washington on September 12 2009. First time I went to the capital. I just wanted to see Washington D.C. since I moved to New Jersey a few months prior

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Image credits: SanadaBeach