The 3 most memorable events in your country in your lifetime

[Arwon]

Camikaze, I wouldn't really say Black Saturday. As terrible as it was, so were the NSW fires in 2001, the Canberra fires in 2005, etcetera. Black Saturday was just recent, and the worst in terms of loss of life.

My 3:

The Sydney Olympics, 2000
The election of Kevin Rudd, 2007

The third is tough. Maybe the Bali Bombing, but I'd go with the Port Arthur Massacre, 1996.

And an honourable mention to Steve Waugh's last innings and the Swans winning the 2005 AFL grand final after a 72 year drought.

 

[civ_king]

US running a surplus
11 September 2001
Watching Columbia disintegration...

 

[Camikaze]

Camikaze, I wouldn't really say Black Saturday. As terrible as it was, so were the NSW fires in 2001, the Canberra fires in 2005, etcetera. Black Saturday was just recent, and the worst in terms of loss of life.

That's probably true, but perhaps it's why it's the most memorable. I was just thinking in terms of what stories in my life took up the first few minutes of the news for a solid month, and Black Saturday was one of them. 9/11 was another, but that doesn't count, nor does the Tsunami. I can barely remember the 2001 fires, and the 2005 ones just weren't as memorable. The Olympics I hadn't thought of...it was over half my life ago (it freaked me out when I was chatting to a kid I was babysitting and realised that they weren't alive during the Olympics).

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

9/11 and the election of Obama are way out in front. For me personally, that Sosa/Mcgwire home run chase might have actually been 3rd, above things like the Iraq War or the OK City bombing

That raises an interesting question--big even at the time it happened, or memorable in retrospect?

The 1998 home run chase turned out to be a massive fraud and was buried by a bigger and less popular fraud.

 

[Tee Kay]

None were especially memorable to me. If I have to choose: the Bali bombings, Black Saturday, and the Sydney Olympics. The Beaconsfield mining accident gets an honourable mention.

Kevin Rudd's election produced a "meh" from me. I was too young to remember the Port Arthur massacre. Black Saturday was one of many fires in the past years, true, but it was close to home.

 

[Dachs]

September 11
Super Bowl XLIV (Saints 31 - Colts 17)
2000 US election

Honorable mention to the capture of Saddam, the 2008 election, the Columbia breaking up, and the general phenomenon of "the internet".

 

[bhsup]

These are the most memorable to me. They may not warrant the most memorable, but their mine.

• Winter Olympics 1980 when USA beat USSR in hockey for the gold. Immortal man, immortal.
• I was at the MEPS station taking some test of physical or something when Challenger exploded. Everyone was just shocked and glued to a TV.
• The cowardly sucker punch on September 11th, 2001.

I was really torn on the first one listed. Reagan being shot was massive for me at the time and I'll never forget it. Frank Reynolds weeping slightly on ABC news, my parents almost afraid to watch the news because they didn't want to hear he'd died, etc. It had a very profound impact on me.

P.S. - Great idea for a thread, Red! I've really enjoyed reading the responses.

 

[Birdjaguar]

No one has mentioned the Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed so many people.

 

[Camikaze]

No one has mentioned the Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed so many people.

Well I mentioned it a few posts up, but I don't think it really counts, as it didn't happen in Australia or to Australia. Along with 9/11, it was definitely the story of the last decade in Australia, but I'm not sure either of those are what the OP is looking for.

 

[Tee Kay]

No one has mentioned the Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed so many people.

I'm not sure whether that'd count as Australian history.

Edit: crosspost.

 

[GamezRule]

I don't think there is anybody on this board who is from Indonesia. (correct me if I'm wrong) Check the title of the thread.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Ranked by how they engaged me at the time since 1988 (not their actual importance):

1. World Cup 2006 - German patriotism reinvents itself
2. Election of the Bundestag in 2010 - the first federal election where I had a sophisticated opinion on politics (I thought I did in 2006, but not really)
3. 2008/2009 The ratification of the Lisbon treaty

 

[Babbler]

I was born in 1987 in Canada:

Top 3.

1. 1995 Quebec independence referendum
2. 1998 Ice Storm
3. 2006 Election of the Conservative Party(?)

 

[shadowplay]

Damn, how'd I forget the 1995 referendum! Yes, that would definitely bump one of my three.

 

[Tee Kay]

I don't think there is anybody on this board who is from Indonesia. (correct me if I'm wrong) Check the title of the thread.

Thailand, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Burma, Somalia.

Also, some European countries lost hundreds of people on vacation.

 

[Takhisis]

I won't count the end of the Troubles or the Scottish Parliament as I was living in Bananaland by then.

Tentatively:
Hmmm…
Late '90s, Maradona retires and his deification picks up pace in the populace's minds.
2001-->Fall of President De la Rua-->2001/02 crisis, country nearly stops existing--->2003, President Kirchner is elected with 225 of the vote, a major disaster to choose a corrupt, insane power hungry despot. Oh well…
2010-->President-in-law Néstor Kirchner dies.

2002 World Cup?

The Brazilians have a lot of those, one more didn't make a difference.

I don't think there is anybody on this board who is from Indonesia. (correct me if I'm wrong) Check the title of the thread.

There's a couple Singaporeans around…

 

[Skwink]

This one is final:

1) 9/11
2) 2007 Washington Winter
3) Obama Elected

 

[JohnRM]

Destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger

Victory over Iraq in the First Gulf War

Terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001


Runners Up:

OJ Simpson Trial
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Katrina

 

[Joecoolyo]

- 9/11
- Obama Elected
- (crap, I had something else, but it just totally escaped me)

 

[Takhisis]

Michael Jordan, perhaps?