What was the most shocking moment of the 90’s?
Posted by Less_Than_Average1@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 519 comments
Just saw an article about a man who stole a tank and went on a rampage in 1995 and it got me thinking about wild 90’s moments.
Here’s a list I put together. If this is the A-side of the cassette tape; what’s the B-side?
OJ Simpson arrest
LA Riots (still remember watching the police footage)
Kurt Cobain
Oklahoma City Bombing
Desert Storm
Uni-bomber
Princess Di
Michael Jackson dangling a kid out the window
90’s Bulls - 72 win season / Jordan’s return / Dennis Rodman / Madonna / Carmen Electra
Bill Clinton / Lewinsky
Mike Tyson - biting Evander Holyfield’s ear off
Waco Texas
Columbine
Y2K
Tupac and Biggie deaths
Jeffery Dahmer
DifficultAnt23@reddit
Soviet Union collapsing.
AvailableLight2112@reddit
If we consider the Soviet Union collapse to be the 80s, then The bombing of Serbia by Bill Clinton in order to wag the dog and distract from the Lewinsky scandal, and capitulate to a few Foreign interests.
A shocking betrayal of trust and violation of international and domestic Law.
After that Al Gore loses the election by a razor thin margin.
The other war in the 90s - desert storm - was relatively free Of scandal.
shackspirit@reddit
Serbia was slaughtering villagers in Kosovo by the hundreds.
AvailableLight2112@reddit
Nobody was innocent there. All 3 sides guilty, but only one was bombed. The propaganda at the time proves again "the first casualty of war is the truth"
The just solution, if we are interfering, would be to a stabilize by stopping all 3 sides, including Croatians.
The timing was interesting as well, with the Lewinsky scandal.
Extremely partisan, too. All dems in favor, all (most?) GOP opposed.
shackspirit@reddit
Are you saying Kosovo was as guilty? Because they weren’t. After waging a four year war with Bosnia and Croatia, the Serbs were slaughtering whole Kosovan villages. Milosevic wanted to become another ceaucescu.
Several of them have been convicted in the international courts. Are you saying they were just doing what the other side were doing?
AnnaBaleevA@reddit
Hanging chads
GladosPrime@reddit
Norm Macdonald getting fired from SNL for his constant shitting on OJ
LawrenceSpiveyR@reddit
and Hilary Clinton. Norm was the goat.
geekgirlwww@reddit
The OJ verdict was a wild day. My mom had just had my younger brother two days before they’re set to leave the hospital that day. My mom gets dressed and ready, they get my brother dressed and ready they’re getting ready to leave and the hospital comes to a standstill because the verdict is coming. Literally every tv is turned to it. THE HOSPITAL stopped and was waiting on the verdict. My poor mother is just like “hi I’d like to take my baby home” literally standstill until the verdict came.
RunningbirdRC@reddit
Having 3 kids 👶👶👶!!
reddit_tom40@reddit
And no money. If only I had no kids and 3 money.
Different-Bag-8217@reddit
I fell 23 floors in a construction accident on October 9th 1990… does that count..? So many wild things happened in the 90’s
Apprehensive-Ad5318@reddit
Really? You have to explain.
Different-Bag-8217@reddit
Bloody_Mabel@reddit
Are you still doing construction work?
Different-Bag-8217@reddit
Good god no. I retrained as a chef. Problems started in 06 and had to stop work last year.
Apprehensive-Ad5318@reddit
Congratulations sir
Apprehensive-Ad5318@reddit
Do you remember grabbing that rope?
Different-Bag-8217@reddit
I remember everything except the last few seconds before I was knocked out. When I woke up I was face down in a muddy driveway..
Apprehensive-Ad5318@reddit
Thank god for the rain . Glad you made it dude. Wild story, thanks for sharing!
Interesting_Bunch323@reddit
Wow, glad you made it. My cousin fell 55 feet out of pine tree he was trimming in 1992. He landed on the pile of limbs and barely survived. He’s probably the same age as you since he turned 22 in ‘92
Different-Bag-8217@reddit
Thank you. It’s catching up now tho… ouch
HiAndStuff2112@reddit
Damn, dude! I have a serious fear of heights and falling, and that counts with me! Glad you survived!
beeskneessidecar@reddit
Congratulations on your continued life!
mediawoman@reddit
The Challenger explosion
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
Wrong decade.
Landingonmyfeet@reddit
1996? Wasn’t it?
AnasandSF@reddit
1986
DarthVader808@reddit
I saw it in 8th grade in the cafeteria and then we all just went back to class.
AnasandSF@reddit
Same! (11th grade). No counseling, no acknowledgment of feelings, just “shit happens” and carry on. Oh the 80s
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
1986
PirateJim68@reddit
No, 1986. I was a senior in high school watching the live feed in the library after we set up all of the classroom tvs. You could hear the entire school gasp and cry when it happened.
cherylesq@reddit
The Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan knee wacking.
LumpyWelder4258@reddit
WWHHHHYYYYYYYYY
kjnetz@reddit
‘Twas a wild time in the world of figure skating lol
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
I’m a skater. This just does NOT happen unless you allow your laces to get old and FUNKY.
Most skaters are picky about their skates.
I think she planned this.
PaleontologistEast76@reddit
Former skater here. I don't know if she planned it per se, but Tonya didn't even bring her own skate guards with her to Lillehammer. She was a total train wreck, so when I saw her lace was broken and she didn't even have a backup set in her bag it wasn't a shock.
Blades coming off her boots, skate laces snapping, no guards, by failing to plan she planned to fail.
cherylesq@reddit
She definitely let them rot. But Tonya was such a hot mess, it may not have been planned as much as negligence.
The thing that always got me is how the media portrayed Nancy as this spoiled rich girl. She was a blue collar kid from outside Boston. She wasn't spoiled or rich. She was just lucky that her coach knew Vera Wang and was able to hook her up and her parent's worked hard to support her. She certainly had a more supportive family.
Nancy's book on workouts from her recovery was really interesting. She did pool workouts. As a swimmer and skater, I thought that was very cool.
ImpressionMobile5182@reddit
Why? Why?
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
why?
I had no prior knowledge…
Affectionate_Cost_88@reddit
The cross country spree killings of Andrew Cunanin, including Gianni Versace in Miami, culminating with Cunanin's cowardly suicide on a random boat.
Dada2fish@reddit
And poor Elton sobbing in the church while Diana comforts him, not knowing we’d lose her next. 😕
Affectionate_Cost_88@reddit
That's right! What a time in history that was.
ElGrandeRojo67@reddit
Ok City bombing
Bright-Form730@reddit
I knew a OKC cop who worked the rubble looking for survivors. He is living with the PTSD now. 😢
ElGrandeRojo67@reddit
That had to be horrible. A whole daycare of kids was in there. Can't imagine.
Bright-Form730@reddit
He had a hard time. If you’ve seen the photo of the cop handing the firefighter an injured child, that’s him.
ElGrandeRojo67@reddit
Damn.. .I have seen that...horrible.
Agitated_Channel8914@reddit
Sergeant Terrance "Terry" Yeakey, "committed suicide". After reading the extreme injuries to his body there absolutely no way he died by a self inflicted gun shot. OKC was an inside job by some Force? Organization ?
Phog_of_War@reddit
Killdozer not being on your list is a tragedy.
Key-Contest-2879@reddit
Was that in the 90’s? I thought it was later.
Phog_of_War@reddit
You are correct actually, it was 2004.
Main_Tension_9305@reddit
Definitely need to be on the list
ErinFiqsette@reddit
The two dudes in full body armor, who tried to pull a robbery straight out of the film "Heat" in LA, as if they thought they could just shoot their way out of it.
FairBaker315@reddit
Ruby Ridge
Unabomber
Amy Fisher/Joey Buttafucco
Lovely_catastrophes@reddit
Ruby Ridge and Waco led to the OKC Murrah Building bombing :(
Bornagainchola@reddit
Heavens Gate
bizoticallyyours83@reddit
OJ Simpson
The Haley's Comet cult and Waco
The death of several much beloved musicians
Mike Tyson biting off his opponent's ear
AutoArsonist@reddit
Hale-Bopp was the comet, with Hevens Gate as the cult.
Bright-Form730@reddit
Yeah Haley’s was in 1986.
zombie_overlord@reddit
I think she cut it off, rather than biting it off.
HapaHawaii@reddit
The LA Riots. It was insane
boner79@reddit
Congress trying to ban Mortal Kombat haha
Less_Than_Average1@reddit (OP)
That’s a good one. Congress requiring Parental Advisory stickers also.
zombie_overlord@reddit
Tipper Gore and the PMRC!
Dee Snider shocking everyone in congress by being intelligent and well spoken and not some drugged out chud.
KaramazovFootman@reddit
Soviet Union collapse
Atlanta Olympic bombing / Richard Jewel
LTCM collapse
"Browser wars"
BadPAV3@reddit
Everyone forgets how Collosal that LTCM collapse was.
KaramazovFootman@reddit
Test run for the 2008-09 bailouts a decade later
Sean_theLeprachaun@reddit
Tanks firing in Moscow
KaramazovFootman@reddit
Yep!
cooter_lover1@reddit
Oval Office bj
More_Pineapple3585@reddit
he did not have sexual relations with that woman
NukularWinter@reddit
So that whole thing was inappropriate, but interestingly enough Clinton didn't "lie" when he said that. He's a lawyer, and he asked for a definition of sex during the deposition, and Ken Starr basically said contact with the genitals. Under that definition, Clinton actually didn't have sex with Monica, rather SHE had sex with HIM. Lawyer shit, lol.
BadPAV3@reddit
The bar association would beg to differ
largegreenvegtable@reddit
I fact, he did
Formal-Let-3532@reddit
Well that depends on what your definition of "is" is....
ruddy3499@reddit
The beating of Rodney King
largegreenvegtable@reddit
"They were all found not guilty "
BadPAV3@reddit
Alexander_Granite@reddit
The end of the USSR had the biggest impact on the world and we are still living in the effects 30 years later.
BadPAV3@reddit
Tell me about it. Our movies had to change villain accents, again.
CougarWriter74@reddit
All of the ones mentioned. My personal Top 3 would be the OKC bombing, OJ Simpson trial and Princess Diana's death. A close 4th or 5th would be Susan Smith letting her car go into a South Carolina lake to drown her two toddler sons. Yes she wasn't a celebrity or famous before, but that was one of the few incidents that rivaled the OJ trial in terms of national coverage and collective attention.
No-Fox2087@reddit
I forgot about OK city. I was in AIT at the time. That sucked!
No-Fox2087@reddit
Kurt Cobain and Princess Di. Although I remember watching the white Bronco on television, too.
spidermans_mom@reddit
This sounds like a vision board for new verses to We Didn’t Start the Fire.
aurelianwasrobbed@reddit
Tupac, Biggie deaths
Blanket baby, princess crash
OJ Simpson car chase
Koresh burning down the place
Kurt Cobain, Rodney King
Oklahoma, Columbine
Tyson bites Evander's ear
Jordan wins every year
Blue dress, what a mess
Rise of the online press
spidermans_mom@reddit
Outstanding!!
aurelianwasrobbed@reddit
thank you for the idea! Of course, the line I'm most proud of is the grossest 😉
GardenBunnyBaseball@reddit
🙌🏆👏
bitter_fish@reddit
We didn't start the fire.... Blah blah blah something Billy Joel
Little_Yesterday_820@reddit
OJ Simpson. From the Bronco chase to "not guilty".
While many of the events on this list (and posted by others) were certainly surprising and even "shocking", a lot of them were foreseeable (even predicted) or had previous analogues elsewhere in the world.
But for sheer "holy shitballs, is this really happening?" value, I gotta go with OJ.
damageddude@reddit
I was in a bar in NYC watching the Knicks in game 6 of the NBA finals. The network completely took the game off for the chase, not even PIP. People. Were. Pissed.
Some started rooting for OJ to crash. We were in midtown and someone suggested we storm the network. Eventually the game went to PIP and then swapped with the chase.
PrattDirkLerxt@reddit
I was out of town at a college sports camp and was not hearing anything going on in the world. On my way home, we stopped at a McDonalds and I saw the newspaper headline about OJ. It was shocking to say the least. Got home and that night was the low speed chase.
CougarWriter74@reddit
It's weird to think how even in the mid 1990s, before smartphones and 24/7 social media and internet, we could still somewhat escape or miss out on major news events. My dad and I were camping in the Black Hills of South Dakota the weekend Princess Diana was killed. We'd gone into town the evening of Aug 31 to get groceries and heard the news report on the car radio that she'd been injured initially. We then drove back to the campground (we were tent camping, so no RV or camper with a TV or radio inside) and it wasn't until the next morning when my dad went down to the camp store and got the newspaper that we learned she'd died.
FitMatch7966@reddit
So similar to me. I was a year out of college but took my first vacation overseas. In the airport when I arrived back in the states the chase was on TV.
CougarWriter74@reddit
I was 19 and had just finished my first year of college. The evening of the Bronco chase, my mom and I had gone to the mall. On the way home on the car radio, we heard the live news report about the chase. We got home just in time to turn the TV on and see him pull off the interstate and into his neighborhood then the driveway of his estate. I remember seeing his older son come running out of the house and the helicopter buzzing overhead while a dog stood in the driveway. I also remember my mom yelling at the TV "Oh just give yourself up you fool!!"
drainbead78@reddit
Ruby Ridge. The media spin on that was fascinating. The general consensus at the time felt like "They had it coming", but once the whole story got out it was horrific.
Dry_Nail5901@reddit
if I recall, wasn't it sex trafficing of young women and fully automatic weapons without the correct permits? Then an armed stand off by a bunch of felons?
Am I missing something?
MacNeal@reddit
You're confusing Ruby Ridge with Waco. And the folks killed by the government were not felons, especially the children.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
GenX-ModTeam@reddit
No Politics - Political posts or comments of any sort are not permitted. If you wish to have political discussions, you may do so on our other sub r/GenXPolitics.
Breaking this rule may result in bans, either temporary or permanent.
Before you make the claim: No, providing respite from political discussions does not infringe on your rights.
Also, this politics ban was put before the sub over a year ago, and members have spoken.
drainbead78@reddit
The Wikipedia article has all the info that came out after the fact. Definitely worth checking out. The sex trafficking was never a thing (not even in rumors), so you're remembering that wrong. There were a couple of sawed-off shotguns, but not fully automatic weapons. After trials, juries acquitted both Randy Weaver and the 14-year-old kid friend of Weaver's son who opened fire on the Marshals after they shot the family dog and then shot the son in the back as he was running away and killed him. The only person who was ever convicted out of the killings was a high-ranking FBI official who was convicted for destroying a report that put the FBI in a bad light. He got 18 months. Both Weaver and the friend later got settlements from the federal government.
Reasonable_Yard_3300@reddit
Paul Bernardo Murders. (With Karla Homolka)
Jean binet Ramsay murder
SebrinePastePlaydoh@reddit
Columbine. While there'd been a few well known school incidents (Charles Whitman, Laurie Dann, Brenda Ann Spencer are the ones I know of offhand), the sheer number of deaths catapulted Columbine into a discourse not previously seen. (Sadly, it's only gotten worse)
Informal-Gene-8777@reddit
I was at NU when Laurie Dann left the poisoned baked goods around campus. To this day I do not eat mystery treats
SebrinePastePlaydoh@reddit
I was in 8th grade a few towns over and my math teacher had to leave because his kids went to the grade school where she opened fire.
Revolutionary_Buy943@reddit
JFK Jr. dying in a plane crash. Devastating
StrangeAtomRaygun@reddit
For who?
froction@reddit
Elaine Benes
Revolutionary_Buy943@reddit
I can't even watch that episode. 😭
broberds@reddit
Dada2fish@reddit
What’s funny to me is imagining Julia Louis Dreyfus getting the script and going into her dressing room to come up with a dance that’s so bad but her character thinks looks good. I picture her coming up with the contortions and bent ankle kick but trying to appear like she thinks she’s the hottest thing.
Revolutionary_Buy943@reddit
Me. I was an admirer of his mother, he was one of the men in popular culture at the time that I found attractive, he was just getting ready to launch into a new phase of his life. I had hoped he would continue his father's political legacy. It wss also a very emotional time for me personally; my son was less than three weeks old, and my hormones were all over the place. I was devastated. 🤷♀️
StrangeAtomRaygun@reddit
She died before he did. I am not sure it affected her that much.
Revolutionary_Buy943@reddit
No, I'm not making myself clear. I was a Kennedy family admirer, and to see him die just as he was reaching his prime was devastating. If it didn't affect you the same way, that's fine. I was suggesting this event be added to the list of shocking events because it shocked me. 🤷♀️
Dada2fish@reddit
I wasn’t hormonal and yes it was devastating for all the reasons you said. He was well liked, we knew him from a baby, under his dads desk and saluting his casket, he was entering a new 🆕 phase of life, it seemed he would follow in his father’s footsteps, he came off as down to earth, he was gorgeous and bam he’s gone along with his new wife and her sister. So many tragedies in that family.
u119c@reddit
Do you remember when the President of The United States got a blowjob from someone other than his wife? I don’t think any president since then has done anything nearly as bad…
GenX-ModTeam@reddit
No Politics - Political posts or comments of any sort are not permitted. If you wish to have political discussions, you may do so on our other sub r/GenXPolitics.
Breaking this rule may result in bans, either temporary or permanent.
Before you make the claim: No, providing respite from political discussions does not infringe on your rights.
Also, this politics ban was put before the sub over a year ago, and members have spoken.
Ctheret@reddit
You. Are. Kidding. Me. (Release the Epstein files)
Entropy907@reddit
I’m guessing you’re not great at detecting sarcasm.
pebbles_temp@reddit
A truly shocking moment
Cocojo3333@reddit
JFK JR death
Dada2fish@reddit
Yeah that was crazy. I remember thinking, this family is cursed.
RedditSkippy@reddit
I think that was summer 2001.
LumpyWelder4258@reddit
It is hard to overstate how big of a deal the OJ thing was, from The chase to the trial.
Dada2fish@reddit
What a farce that was. The jury admitted that they agreed to a not guilty verdict no matter what evidence was presented as a fuck you to whitey.
Guidance-Still@reddit
The fucked up Woodstock redo and failure
PaleontologistEast76@reddit
Ahhh yes - Woodstock 1994 and Woodstock 1999 (the one that was catastrophic).
Guidance-Still@reddit
yeah you cant redo something like that
Guidance-Still@reddit
Dolly the sheep cloned
SpaceMonkeyGMG@reddit
I ran in to use the restroom in a museum in Edinburgh and saw Dolly the Sheep. I was so excited. No one under 35 seemed to even know about her.
Guidance-Still@reddit
it was a big deal back then
TheGreyAlien@reddit
LA riots were apocalyptic. Internet was a whole new world, just as AI is to new generstions. Desert storm was incredible.
antisocialdecay@reddit
I mean we had Desert Storm on prime time tv! We had trading cards!
Acrobatic_Ocelot_461@reddit
I have two decks of the Iraq's most wanted playing cards unopened. Probably not worth anything though.
More_Pineapple3585@reddit
let's get those sticks of gum on a tray
Otherwise_Appeal_295@reddit
Nice!
Spc_Scott@reddit
I think I lost the ones I was given at the start of my deployment for OIF II. Bummer.
AgntOrng1@reddit
The fall of communism over that entire list.
Engine_Sweet@reddit
This. OP can sort of be forgiven for leaving it out since the Berlin wall was in 89.
But nothing else comes close
AgntOrng1@reddit
For sure. Wasn't meant to be a dog at OP. Just this was orders of magnitude more significant than anything else in the decade. As you said, nothing else comes close.
classicsat@reddit
The Berlin Wall was the beginning, of at least visible events in the timeline.
The Gorbachev changes of the Soviet systems were a less visible beginning.
Even more visible, was the Yugoslavian civil war, and the very quick ousting of the Ceaușescus in Romania.
Much-Injury1499@reddit
Milli Vanilli lip syncing
boner79@reddit
Blame it on the raaaaiiinnnn
atxDan75@reddit
I went to college in Delaware in the early 90s. We had a student throw a newborn into a dumpster after she gave birth. Truly Awful story.
waselectricbar@reddit
I knew the college student's mother. I vividly remember that.
Timely-Bumblebee-371@reddit
wow really? damn. was quite a sad story.
Otherwise_Appeal_295@reddit
Didn't anyone teach her to use the recycling bin?
Paper. Plastic. Placenta.
RedditSkippy@reddit
I think I remember this.
Mattturley@reddit
Matthew Shepard
Columbine
Weird-Ninja8827@reddit
That Bulls season wasn't shocking, really. I remember not watching much of the regular season because I was absolutely that jaded. I was always a little surprised on those 10 times I checked the score from the day before and they had actually lost.
But shocked? Nah.
VinceHannity@reddit
While not *the* shock of the 1990s, let alone *the* shock of the 1995-1996 NBA season, the Miami Heat beating the Bulls on February 23, 1996, by a score of 113-104 was pretty shocking. Finishing up my final semester of undergrad at The U, most of us figured the Heat had no shot, as about two days before that game, they barely beat the 76ers in Philly by a score of 66-57, which either the local Miami sports news, or possibly even ESPN Sportscenter (The classic version, with Dan and Keith) were talking about how epically *bad* that game was. Supposedly, a display of utter futility in the era of the shot clock. After beating the Bulls in Miami, they were dancing in the streets that Friday night.
Update - per Google, before the Bulls completely shit the bed in 1999 against the Heat, scoring only 49 points, the above Miami @ Philly game is as close as I can find to what *was* the lowest scoring game since the inception of the shot clock - the Boston Celtics beating the *Milwaukee* Hawks 62-57 on February 27, 1955.
franzibruni1000@reddit
Joey Buttafuoco and the Long Island Lolita.
drainbead78@reddit
Imagine if that happened now. We'd all (hopefully) recognize it as a grown-ass man grooming a child.
Jagermeister_UK@reddit
For the UK, Diana.
SmokedPumpkin@reddit
It was a huge deal in the USA, too. We were watching Daria and suddenly there was a breaking news bulletin, and they announced Princess Di was dead. I think it’s the first and only time in my life I’ve actually gasped out loud. It was shocking and horrible and we kept hoping they’d come back and say no, it was a mistake, she’s still alive.
Potential_Chicken_72@reddit
I think that affected a lot of people - it was quite devastating. One of the few royals I cared about. She was an amazing soul.
Familiar-Court-4217@reddit
That's a pretty good list.
Affectionate_Cost_88@reddit
David Koresh and the whole Branch Davidians take-down. I was in college and had dislocated my knee just before it started getting crazy. I was laid up in a cast for a couple of weeks and almost everything on TV was about Waco.
Porkonaplane@reddit
Gen Z here born in 2004!
The only thing on this list that has had even the slightest impact on my list is Columbine. Doing school shooter drills was my normal. We've (or at least I) become so desensitized to it that when my school had an actual lockdown, I was singing and being a general idiot. The teacher asked why I and other students were being dumb and loud, and we all said that until we heard gunshots and screaming, it wasn't real. Come to find out, it was indeed a false alarm lol.
So if I'm allowed an opinion as a non-Gen X, Columbine is my pick.
SmokedPumpkin@reddit
Just because you’re not aware of the impact something has had on your life, doesn’t mean it didn’t have an impact. Some of those events resulted in laws changing, or in public opinions/policy changing - things that still affect us today.
Winston_Smith-1984@reddit
The fall of the Soviet Union has had more impact on the world than pretty much anything else people have mentioned.
You can pretty convincingly draw a line from that to 9-11, which, through a series of missed opportunities, squandered goodwill, and terrible decision-making at the national level, has led to the cluster fuck of a society we have now.
coryphella123@reddit
If you’re posting sports events don’t forget Kerri Strug.
wire_we_here50@reddit
That girl was a beast.
Key-Contest-2879@reddit
Coach carrying her away after her 1 legged bow. Still gets me choked up.
usingbadnamesabunch@reddit
The riots in Seattle over the WTO were pretty crazy.... But nothing tops the Rodney King riots.
ndorox@reddit
For a lot of people it was Princess Diana dying, but for me personally the Rodney King saga blew my mind as a young teen. I was naive then about how corrupt institutions could be in my own country. That video shocked me to my core. Columbine too if that was the nineties.
fshannon3@reddit
Yes, the Columbine incident was on 4/20/99.
Spc_Scott@reddit
Operation Gothic Serpent. I really only learned more about it well after the fact because one of my Drill Sergeants was there.
Devious_Ripple@reddit
I was going to comment that the Battle of Mogadishu was pretty shocking. Watching dead soldiers being dragged through the streets was a tv first for 19yo me.
Spc_Scott@reddit
A few big earthquakes through the 90's as well...
Otherwise_Appeal_295@reddit
1993 World Trade Center bombing
BillMaleficent9400@reddit
We can’t go anywhere before anyone talks about Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.
mam88k@reddit
In our day, athletes knew how to take a knee.
Spc_Scott@reddit
Why me?!?
Timely-Tourist4109@reddit
I graduated high school. Shocked everyone I knew as much as myself. Then the navy sent me to the nuke school to run nuclear reactors. I mean, wtf. The whole of the 90’s was just a wtf moment. God I miss it.
Andovars_Ghost@reddit
Getting Nuke School is NOT easy!
Timely-Tourist4109@reddit
Which I why I was shocked! Lol
Andovars_Ghost@reddit
I mean you’re still a Navy puke, but hey, not everyone can be in the Air Force! 😜
Timely-Tourist4109@reddit
I’m sorry. You spelled chair force wrong 😂
antisocialdecay@reddit
OK City bombing, knowing what we know now, was the worst for me. What a clusterfuck. I hope McVeigh is spit roasted somewhere.
Viktor_654@reddit
I highly recommend digging into the OKC bombing. Strange deaths of witnesses, German intelligence connections, Ramzi Yousef-Terry Nichola connections.
antisocialdecay@reddit
I listen to Last Podcast on the Left and while that isn’t everyone’s bag, their series on OKC is wild.
ms5h@reddit
I was driving to my baby son’s daycare to do a mid-day nursing when the news came on. They reported the building had a daycare in it, and I just held him and cried
OlderAndTired@reddit
Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding
classicsat@reddit
Amy Fisher and Loreena Bobbitt.
cap1112@reddit
Oklahoma City bombing. So many people. And the daycare. I’ll never forget the shock and horror of it.
notevenapro@reddit
Changed the landscape of our country.
I loved telling my kids about a world without bollards.
ApprehensiveCut9809@reddit
That guy was supposed to be in my airborne class in 1991. He failed the PT test because he had been deployed to Desert Storm and did not have a chance to get back into shape before the start of the course.
To attend airborne school, you have to exceed minimum PT standards. There are three events (push ups, sit ups and a 2 mile run). There's a maximum of 100 points per event; "maxing" the PT test is 300 points or higher. Minimum standards are 60 points per event for a total of 180 points.
Airborne school requires candidates to score 80 points per event for a total of 240 points.
Had he passed, he would probably have stayed in service and not turned sour towards the government.
IDunnoNuthinMr@reddit
Don't for get the Bobbits.
I recently saw Lorena. She works for the local cable company. My roommate forgot to pay the bill so she came by cut our Cox off.
UknownSk8er@reddit
👏👏👏
ImpressionMobile5182@reddit
Magic Johnson's AIDS announcement
Blue4668@reddit
I have this and Freddie Mercury's passing burned into my brain.
sammy99x@reddit
Walker told me i have aids
roytheodd@reddit
Magic getting AIDS felt like a massive change. Suddenly I could get it, too. I was jolted enough that I bought his book and educated myself. As it turned out, I had no play and was never in any peril.
shackspirit@reddit
Good list, MJ notwithstanding. The B side has to include the war, and war crimes, in Bosnia and the Rwandan genocide. One, the western world gave a damn about…the other, we watched on TV as Africans slaughtered each other in the hundreds of thousands.
JudgeJuryEx78@reddit
And Nelson Mandela released, then elected.
Engine_Sweet@reddit
Good one. The end of Apartheid belongs on the list. It occupied cultural mind space then like Gaza does now
hercules29@reddit
Kurt Cobain
bobj33@reddit
None of them.
The Soviet Union collapsed. That was the biggest and most shocking event.
Engine_Sweet@reddit
The realization that nuclear annihilation was not inevitable. A giant cloud was lifted.
For those too young: imagine if climate change suddenly went away
Dense-Consequence-70@reddit
Good point. I usually think of that as 1989 because that’s when the Berlin wall fell, but the USSR was a couple years later.
TorstedTheUnobliged@reddit
By far and above the most shocking thing of that decade or possibly any decade since 1940’s
NoFukz@reddit
Harding v Kerrigan
revolutionoverdue@reddit
That’s a really good list. As I was reading it I kept saying “oh, yeah” to myself.
HistorianJRM85@reddit
two come to mind: (1) princess diana's death. it pre-empted most tv shows on that saturday night. And nobody saw it coming.
(2) Buster Douglas defeating Mike Tyson for the World Championship. Nobody ever saw it coming. It was meant to just be a formality that Mike wins, but he actually got KO'ed. Total Shock!!
Standard_Poetry_4728@reddit
Yup. I was in the middle of playing Nintendo when I remembered the fight was starting. Thinking it would be a quick Tyson KO, instead of shutting down I paused my game with the TV on. I remembered an hour later and ran to the room it was in fearing that the image of the game would freeze on the TV. Thankfully it didn’t.
DaveTheYguy@reddit
Bill getting his knob polished in the Oval Office was wild.
The_Blitz_01@reddit
Spit-shined
SR70@reddit
The smashing down of the Berlin Wall. Watched it in my collage dorm room.
BruceTramp85@reddit
That was 1989. Close.
SR70@reddit
lol. Clearly history and spelling were not my strong subjects in college.
Yikesish@reddit
Diana. JFK Jr.
Any-Neighborhood98@reddit
So the only things of any interest that happened in the past happened in America
ms5h@reddit
So add your own?
4x4Welder@reddit
If you ask the question in a place where the largest demographic group is from the US, you're going to get a lot of answers set in that region.
Crowley123456789@reddit
You can feel free to add anything you would like…
Express_Leading_4840@reddit
The bombing of the twin towers in 93
ms5h@reddit
So many forget that 9-11 wasn’t the first terrorist attack on the Twin Towers
Japhet_Corncrake@reddit
Speaking as a British person, The Jamie Bulger murder, the Dunblane massacre, and Princess Diana's death.
Less_Than_Average1@reddit (OP)
Wasn’t the IRA a big deal back then?
Japhet_Corncrake@reddit
Yes and no. The IRA bombings on the mainland had been going on since the 1970's, so we kind of grew up with them being a fact of life, and after the 1983 Harrods bomb they actually resulted in relatively few deaths, so while they were terrible, they weren't exactly shocking.
shackspirit@reddit
They were all horrific and notable.
For an Aussie, the Port Arthur Massacre, which wasn’t too long after Dunblane.
TraditionalBackspace@reddit
Desert Storm for me. It was clear there was no reason to go in from a defense perspective. The US government suddenly made up the WMD thing, then announced they had invaded Iraq and said it would be over in a couple of days. It was shocking for me to hear our government lie to justify that war back then. Most people knew it was bullshit but the government did it anyway.
Sufficient-Dog-2337@reddit
Desert storm - 1991
Operation Iraqi freedom - 2003
toocleverbyhalf@reddit
Yup. Two different conflicts being conflated above. WMD false justification was the latter. Saddam invaded Kuwait, which actually justified the former.
All that said, I still don’t quite understand why America continues to give a shit whether the Sunni or Shia are the dominant sect of Islam other than the Israelis and Saudis are pulling our government leaders’ strings.
dunderthebarbarian@reddit
We knew they had chem weapons. We sold them.
docjagr@reddit
And some things never change.
FormerLaugh3780@reddit
Flying Toasters
Square_Ad_4929@reddit
The riding lawnmower.
DocSportello1970@reddit
Easy....the 1994 Baseball Strike. It denied the Montreal Expos of a World Series Title and eventually cost the city an MLB Franchise.
Less_Than_Average1@reddit (OP)
White Sox and Dodgers would’ve gone to the WS that year.
DocSportello1970@reddit
The Dodgers? They were at .500 when the strike started. You must be kidding? The Expos were 74-40 and had the most potent team MLB has seen in years before and since.
_i_hate_people_too@reddit
Crazy... I was pretty adjacent to multiple ones listed. I lived in LA County when the riots happened. I got married the day OJ killed his wife. I lived in OKC and responded to volunteer at the building and my husband was a firefighter who spent days down there. Moved to Vegas and went to Caesar's and saw Tyson at LV store (he had the store to himself and we were in the crowd outside) before the ear fight. For the rest, I definitely remember.
mam88k@reddit
You're like the Forrest Gump of the 90s!
_i_hate_people_too@reddit
Thankfully, I can 100% say I did not influence any of the events on this list.
FriendlyConfines23@reddit
Forrest? Is that you?
YouGottaRollReddit@reddit
For us in Australia it was the Port Arthur Massacre and the first mass shooting we had in a very long time. I was in grade 10 at the time and we all stopped upon hearing the news. It was a true tragedy.
It sparked the government of the time to buy back guns and make firearms illegal except for farmers and other groups.
Guidance-Still@reddit
Dream team dominates at the Olympics
HistorianJRM85@reddit
more like anti-shock
Ornery_Banana_6752@reddit
OKC and I really dont think it is anywhere in the stratosphere of being close. Columbine is such and incredible tragedy, that I don't want to downplay in any way...at all though. The rest of the events are mostly just scandals for the media to dig their teeth into
Top_Sympathy3371@reddit
I was abroad when it happened and somebody told me “the militia” was responsible. I was like: the ARMY? it sounded like civil war. This was the first time we’d ever heard the word “militia” in the media used to denote a bunch of bearded right-wing crybabies holing up in compounds and planning domestic terrorist attacks
Ornery_Banana_6752@reddit
To add to this, I am from Milw and lived there my whole life. Dahmer was shocking, but still nothing like OKC
dylan651977@reddit
The Speaker of the House became a convicted felon because of doing stuff with boys
BruceTramp85@reddit
How quaint now.
jediphoenix1976@reddit
The baseball strike between 1994 and 1995 is worth a mention, I think.
Crowley123456789@reddit
Yep, the white Sox were headed to the playoffs….
BruceTramp85@reddit
Owww. That still hurts.
Ornery_Banana_6752@reddit
OKC and I really dont think it is anywhere in the stratosphere of being close. Columbine is such and incredible tragedy, that I don't want to downplay in any way...at all though. The rest of the events are mostly just scandals for the media to dig their teeth into
whistlepig4life@reddit
I mean for me personally. Desert storm. I was 17 and there.
Potential_Chicken_72@reddit
My ex-husband did Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He was a bit older though, 19 to 20.
Crowley123456789@reddit
The collapse of Yugoslavia and the mess that followed
PaleontologistEast76@reddit
That was such a tragedy.
digawina@reddit
A lot of these were big stories, or impactful, but shocking? For me, Columbine, OKC bombing, Dahmer, and Princess Di are the shocking ones.
No1_Amphibian_5649@reddit
The North Hollywood bank robbery shoot out
phlebonaut@reddit
OKC bombing, Waco shootout , Columbine, OJ
Guidance-Still@reddit
USSR and the Warsaw pact collapsed, should have ended the need for NATO as well
Livid-Hovercraft-889@reddit
Should have but then ruSSia started doing ruSSian things
Guidance-Still@reddit
Yet we were scared shitless of the Warsaw pact and Russia attacking for years
Soft-Independent4833@reddit
Columbine
jcostello50@reddit
HampsterDance
ApprehensiveCut9809@reddit
I spent my 26th birthday knocking down the Berlin Wall. A year later, I was "celebrating" my birthday in Saudi Arabia before invading Kuwait. I returned to a reunited Germany after the end of Desert Storm before returning to the States once again.
The Soviet Union falls. America "wins" the Cold War.
Having been a US tanker, that guy was nuts in the tank and had there been an experienced armor crewman in the area, we could have disabled the tank once he got stuck on the concrete divider by disconnecting the batteries or disconnecting a couple of "cannon plugs."
Dry_Yogurt2458@reddit
I'm not sure "The west" won the cold war (America didn't win it, it was a joint effort with a lot of countries involved). I think there was a lul and then that shit started up again with new alliances.
ApprehensiveCut9809@reddit
Did you notice the quotation marks around the word "win"? It was just the easiest way to write it without a dissertation on the fall of the USSR.
Kindly-Might-1879@reddit
Add death of Princess Diana to the A side
Yesno-Yeahnaw@reddit
Lorena Bobbitt
OreoSpeedwaggon@reddit
I had zero interest in the OJ Simpson trial and went to great lengths to avoid hearing anything about it, which was close to impossible to do, but the obsession that the media and the public had with it changed me permanently. It was the key factor in me losing all respect for mainstream journalism empires and becoming detached and cynical about society in general. Many similar events in the news followed, but that was the one that kicked it off for me.
sungodly@reddit
People in my office spent their lunch breaks watching the trial on tv, like some kind of soap opera. It disgusted me, although not as much as when he was acquitted.
thewatchwinder@reddit
the first world trade center bombing (not 9-11).
jim henson dying
jakexcited45@reddit
Columbine shocked my system to the core
Livid-Hovercraft-889@reddit
Soviet Union collapsed and millions of people suddenly gained independence
TweeksTurbos@reddit
And that one cosmonaut wondering what’s gonna happen.
incogneeetoe@reddit
At the risk of considering stuff outside of the US, how about the Dissolution of the Soviet Union?
Less_Than_Average1@reddit (OP)
Probably the biggest moment for sure - still shapes geopolitics today.
Entropy907@reddit
Berlin Wall getting torn apart by the locals should definitely be on this list.
Bright_Broccoli1844@reddit
That was in 89.
CitizenChatt@reddit
1989 is the 90s
ApprehensiveCut9809@reddit
I spent February 1990 knocking down the Berlin Wall. Germany was still divided into two countries. Guards were still present, but huge chunks of the Wall were missing and down.
shackspirit@reddit
And the Soviet Union didn’t dissolve until 1991, even though they’d been hanging on to power by a thread in the last few stated since 1989.
watchwatertilitboils@reddit
I got laid
Just_A_Lucky_Guy469@reddit
World Trade Center bombing - not 9/11. A van in a parking structure exploded.
johnnyg08@reddit
Napster
Curlytoes18@reddit
Bat Boy Found in Cave! (1992)
BeardAfterDark@reddit
Some say he still lives in that very cave today.
Jew-zilla@reddit
He’s now Senator Rick Scott from Florida. Fucking hate that guy.
KittoosFurrEver@reddit
This 100%. IYKYK
shackspirit@reddit
Whacko Jacko dangled his baby in 2002
_TooncesLookOut@reddit
Let's not forget the Heaven's Gate mass suicide cult in San Diego in March of 1997. 39 dead, thankfully no children.
TheFlannC@reddit
Same with Waco/David Koresch
_TooncesLookOut@reddit
Indeed, though I see it on the list towards the bottom. I'll never forget that whole Branch Davidians mess.
NPC261939@reddit
Yep. I was in 6th grade and our Social Studies teacher took us outside to explain it to us. I always found that more odd than the event itself..lol.
Dollbeau@reddit
Waco was all caused by the ATF.
Janet Reno knew CS gas was flammable in confined spaces & still ordered it pumped through the walls
All for made up charges.
lewisfairchild@reddit
Carmen Electra ??
Mallev@reddit
OP is a man of culture
NPC261939@reddit
And good taste.
NPC261939@reddit
I'd add Heaven's Gate to the list.
purplepeaches63316@reddit
The Berlin Wall
Brief-Earth-5815@reddit
89
godofwine16@reddit
Columbine
warriorpriest@reddit
North Hollywood Shootout - only because that incident literally changed what weapons police carry nationwide as a result.
myeggsarebig@reddit
Don’t ask;don’t tell
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
[removed]
myeggsarebig@reddit
Nevermind, that was the 80’s
Sea_Measurement_1654@reddit
Woodstock 99 is a b side low point.
The gulf war oil spill
Clinton-Lewinsky scandal
Last episode of Cheers
Last episode of Seinfeld
Maelzoid2@reddit
Some people round here really don't know what "The 90s" means...
Scarpity026@reddit
Tonya and Nancy
dendawg@reddit
The 94/95 NBA finals in which the Rockets came into their own. It was sooo satisfying to see Olajuwon making Shaq his bitch.
bakesmysticbrickx@reddit
The O.J. white Bronco chase felt like a lucid dream because everyone just stopped living their lives to watch a slow speed drive on the freeway. Nothing else had that same weird energy of the entire country staring at the exact same screen at the same time.
dendawg@reddit
That chase pissed me off because it interrupted a damn good Knicks/Rockets game. I always was a hardcore Olajuwon fan.
FrancinetheP@reddit
Watched that chase sitting in a diner in Northampton, Mass eating a Greek omelette with my first husband. Jaw dropping. The diner closed last year.
SaltMarshGoblin@reddit
I was living in Northampton when that happened, too, but I didn't see the news at all.
Driving through town to get on I-91 to work the next morning, I passed a plywood sign spraypainted "FREE OJ", and thought it meant the homeowners were giving away citrus juice.
FrancinetheP@reddit
What’s with the downvotes? People don’t like Greek omelettes?
iamjacksprofile@reddit
"What?! Nordberg killed his wife and the cops are slow chasing him on TV?!?"
Rubberbangirl66@reddit
Shocking> Diana that came out of nowhere
WideCoconut2230@reddit
OP, good list. Do a remake of Billy Joel's song "We didn't start the fire".
sorieno@reddit
JonBenét Ramsey’s murder
BetterGoogleit17@reddit
And the wacko that confessed even though he didn't actually do it.
KittoosFurrEver@reddit
Wait what?
Ok-Pomegranate2000@reddit
that on was aquitted, Diana was murdered but it was made to look like paparazzis fault, my stopped playing music
Jensen1994@reddit
San Marino F1 Grand Prix May 1994.
Redwing41419@reddit
Haunts me to this day
Melodic_Caramel1777@reddit
Princess Diana’s death
DenseCommunication82@reddit
Murder
KittoosFurrEver@reddit
Tiananmen Square.
Yes, it was 1989 but we remember.
InfluenceAromatic293@reddit
The Michael Jackson baby-dangling was in 2002
Angelunatic74@reddit
Waco
Michelle-1115@reddit
Selena being murdered in 1995 was pretty shocking and horrible news
JeffEpp@reddit
I was stationed in Texas at the time. It came close to a lynch mob where that woman was held.
ApprehensiveCut9809@reddit
I was at Hood when that happened. I had never heard of her, but yeah, it was crazy. Wasn't she sent up to Huntsville prison above North Fort Hood?
iangeredcharlesvane2@reddit
Waco (April 1993) was incredibly shocking, how it ended with the fires and the deaths. No one expected it go like that! Just tragic, horrifying.
The Oklahoma City bombing (April 1995) was the next truly shocking event, we hadn’t ever had an attack on American soil by an American like that before. 168 lives lost, the daycare with 19 children was a shock after already being horrified by the initial reports. It was also shocking that Waco was connected, when McVeigh lost faith in law enforcement and the FBI etc
The Columbine school shooting (April 1999) was extremely shocking to me personally as well, I will never forget the footage of the kids coming out and hearing the stories. I was in my second year of teaching in a large, city high school and it shocked me deeply.
April was a bad month in the 90s!
So many of the mentioned moments here are more pop culture moments that were memorable. I think the real answer should be one of the three I mentioned: large-scale shocking events that had long ramifications across the country and changed us.
Dollbeau@reddit
Repeated from above: Waco was all caused by the ATF.
Janet Reno knew CS gas was flammable in confined spaces & still ordered it pumped through the walls
All for made up charges.
mad_dog1985@reddit
I was framing a house about 20 miles southwest of the okc bombing. The explosion was insane. We watched the smoke all day. Not really knowing how bad it was. Until we got off work and could watch the news.
mmaesq@reddit
Heavens gate cult suicide
Jesusatemypants@reddit
On the flip side it was amazing to see the comet for night after night for so long.
caligirllovewesterns@reddit
I will never forget seeing the Hale-Bopp Comet from my parent’s backyard and how bright it was in the night sky, it stayed within sight of the naked eye for quite a long time as well. I was memorized by it as a kid.
JiveTurkeyII@reddit
I Live in the college town that isn't OU, but the OKC bombing was a big deal.
Never forgive that Traitor McVeigh.
missusscamper@reddit
You’re missing a couple of civil wars but I realize your list is very USA centric r/USdefaultism
Also missing: -David Hasselhoff in front of the Berlin Wall after it came down -Reunification of East Germany and west Germany -Joey Buttafuoco -Sinéad O’Connor on SNL
eerae@reddit
Most of us live in the USA.
TobylovesPam@reddit
The United States accounts for roughly 42% of Reddit's total traffic and user base, meaning the rest of the world makes up the remaining 58%.
Dentarthurdent73@reddit
Most Gen X people?
TimeLine_DR_Dev@reddit
Lorena Bobbit
She cut off her husband's shwang and threw it out of a car.
She became a hero to women.
He went into porn.
Justinsboo@reddit
Napster, rise of cell phones and availability of the internet, club kids, grunge ends hair metal, Jeffrey Dahlmer and the rise in the interest of serial killers, Rock the Vote, and the rise of reality TV
turtle0831@reddit
I remember people stopped together in the street waiting for the OJ verdict in 95. It was surreal.
CitizenChatt@reddit
Do you remember where you were when the verdict came out?
AZTerp1080@reddit
Our whole department went to our bosses house for lunch and to watch the verdict being read.
StinkypieTicklebum@reddit
Anita Hill
printerdsw1968@reddit
That was 1987-88.
WontanSoup@reddit
October 1991
printerdsw1968@reddit
I stand corrected.
StinkypieTicklebum@reddit
Pretty sure I was in college…
Yep—October, 1991
B-Town-MusicMan@reddit
Cigars are still banned in the Oral Office.
auntieup@reddit
This one, lmao.
couldbeworse2@reddit
Billy Joel starting that fire
ltroberts24@reddit
He didn't, though. It was always burning since the world's been turning... 🔥
couldbeworse2@reddit
Like our beds. How can we sleep?
Ihadsumthin4this@reddit
Released in 1989.
Mephisto40K@reddit
The 80s release of the seminal Jane’s Addiction album “Nothing Shocking”
iamnotbetterthanyou@reddit
Me getting preggers and keeping it.
Is that too personal?
cl0ckw0rkman@reddit
I was thinking, Me getting sober and my family supporting me.
So I'm with you.
iamnotbetterthanyou@reddit
I’m so glad you had people who believe in you. Hugs!
cl0ckw0rkman@reddit
It was a fight but we all got through it.
Thank you. Hugs to you!
ilovedickwolf@reddit
The best la riots doc I’ve see. Is called LA92 and it’s all footage, no interviews, no narration (that I remember) just all news footage, raw news footage, and home video, etc all in succession to tell the story.
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
I loved how the Vietnamese community protected their businesses with weapons.
GardenBunnyBaseball@reddit
I thought they were “Rooftop Koreans”
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
You’re right!
I went to double check this & got distracted!
Thank you so much!!!
https://youtu.be/OCYT9Hew9ZU
Chad_Hooper@reddit
I think the song War Ensemble would accompany that doc well.
IIRC it was a collaboration between Ice T and Slayer. The chorus was “LA 92!”
LotsOfWatts@reddit
April 29 1992. There was a riot on the streets tell me where were you. you were sitting home watching your tv while I was participating in some anarchy.
Still a regular in my playlist.
Chad_Hooper@reddit
I’m gonna have to listen to that again sometime. I don’t think I’ve heard it since 94.
Comfortable-Bed-6814@reddit
I think Columbine was by far the most shocking. It was just brutal and evil. The other is the Oklahoma City Bombing for the same reasons.
Andobu@reddit
Yeah, and the sadness still lingers. Their (hopefully) last victim died recently due to health complications from the shooting. It was so messed up to see it mentioned that she died for other reasons. Nope!
She adopted one of my foster dogs. Absolute legend, smart and sassy. Fuck school shooters, get mental help and for god sakes parents lock up your guns. No one gives a crap about your right to own one, but our kids deserve safe schools
pemart22@reddit
Columbine was a horrible time for Colorado.
Mindless_Travel@reddit
Lived in London at the time. The Dunblane Massacre in ‘96, and then the death of Diana, ‘97. Brought everything to a standstill.
L0uZilla@reddit
Columbine school shooting
Garmon_Bozia-573@reddit
The Branch Davidians/Waco wasn't mentioned. That was a fcked up moment watching the the tank ram into the side of that makeshift compound. The whole ordeal was fcked.
newbris@reddit
Port Arthur Massacre
Strathfield Massacre
High Court Mabo Decision
The Thredbo Landslide
skully_78@reddit
The stories that made decent mini-series ; Bobbit, Letourneau, Long Island Lolita, Menendez....
Livid-Cat4507@reddit
Jon Benet.
TalkOk4096@reddit
World Trade Center first bombing?
powerbug80@reddit
I think most people forget about that one.
Comfortable-Toe-9779@reddit
North Hollywood Shootout. 1997
snakeayez@reddit
That was crazy but the whole OJ thing was huge
As was Columbine.
BMFC@reddit
Solid choice, but the answer is OJ.
banality_of_ervil@reddit
I forgot about the tank. That's up there with the Killdozer
snakeayez@reddit
The tank was in San Diego I think. If not, then there's another.
I was in Desert Storm so that was big, but I'd go with Columbine.
Fabulous_Cucumber_40@reddit
Sinead O’Connor on SNL
BoltActionRifleman@reddit
I was watching that night. Fight the real enemy!
SillyPuttyGizmo@reddit
The end of it all Y2K
roytheodd@reddit
Pee Wee Herman: "Heard any good jokes lately?"
ScorpioxxMoon@reddit
I think about this line on a weekly basis. 12/10 best opener.
dchusband@reddit
Simpson verdict was far more surprising than the arrest.
GardenBunnyBaseball@reddit
💯
Silver_fish1978@reddit
Ellie Nesler
gormholler@reddit
Free Ellie! So surprised how many don't remember her.
ChickenOSea@reddit
Port Arthur massacre
Green_Aide_9329@reddit
Yeah that was definitely ours. Add in the new gun laws. Very significant.
Cutlass327@reddit
Oddly, Columbine, N. Hollywood, and the increase of such events all happened AFTER the AWB of '94... and Columbine was after the '96 School gun ban... kinda significant...
sixshots_onlyfive@reddit
From a global perspective, Princess Di has to be near the top. She was internationally admired and a young mother.
LeanButNotMean@reddit
Exactly what came to mind first.
soleful_ginger@reddit
Ruby Ridge was kind of a big deal.
Extension_Order_9693@reddit
I know two people from ID and one of them has the last name Weaver.
gormholler@reddit
Was looking for this one. Very big deal on my end.
Dragnkat@reddit
Ruby Ridge
Comfortable-Toe-9779@reddit
FBI shooting a woman in the head holding a baby…who’d have thought…,
PhotographsWithFilm@reddit
So we don't make this a very US centric thread:
The Rwandan Genocide (1994) - 800,000 people murders over 100 days
Srebrenica Massacre (1995) - 8000 men and boys murdered
Tokyo Subway Attack (1995) - Sarin Gas attack on the subway
Balkans "Ethnic Cleansing" - happened all through the 90s.
rdogg4@reddit
It’s the GenX sub lol, it’s very American coded.
PhotographsWithFilm@reddit
Sssssshhh. Don't tell them, but shit stuff happens outside of their borders. Very shit stuff
Ok_Explorer604@reddit
My friend was an idiotic teenager and tried to follow that tank for shits and giggles. He’s no longer with us, but not because of the tank. Memories.
MNPS1603@reddit
I’m from OK so OKC bombing was a big deal here. Columbine is definitely up there too. I don’t remember hearing of a school shooting before then.
JeffEpp@reddit
Up till that point, it was standard for the media to downplay them, or not report on them at all.
Available_Thanks_131@reddit
Heaven's Gate
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
Pocket change.
Kittinf@reddit
Wasn’t there like this month where we all fell in love with Gregorian Chants, then it disappeared like we circled through some weird ass time hole? But win95 amd the rise of nerds was the big thing for me
icrossedtheroad@reddit
GG. Yep. Eesh.
tindalos@reddit
Enigma!
Columbia_Guy001@reddit
Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
I looked kinda like her & am about her age. I can do the best impression.
She was nuts.
ReverieJack@reddit
This was so much more major of an event than it gets credit for now
wegotthisonekidmongo@reddit
Me getting schizophrenia 1995 was pretty unbelievably overwhelming. Other than that maybe the OJ trial?
strangedazey@reddit
How did you get diagnosed, if you don't find the question too intrusive?
wegotthisonekidmongo@reddit
I've been in therapy since I was 19. I've been clinically diagnosed by doctors multiple ones and multiple therapists. It's been a nightmare but I cope. I'm just ridiculously exhausted. I sometimes look at the people that complain about normal things in life and I wish I could complain about those things because it would mean I'd be doing it from a healthy mental standpoint. But I've been clinically diagnosed I've been in the system since 1995. The mental health system. But I held a career and I've gotten married and I have held very good positions at very good companies but I had to fight my whole way through it tooth and nail. The exhaustion is overwhelming at times. But it is getting better.
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
I am sorry.
strangedazey@reddit
I am so sorry that you had to go through all the other things on top of it. That's a huge load to bear.
Glad that things are getting better for you. ❤️
wegotthisonekidmongo@reddit
Thanks :)
FormCheck655321@reddit
You forgot the first World Trade Center attack - 1993.
TWA 800
ValuJet crash
Ornery-Ocelot3585@reddit
Blowin up like the World Trade!
StOnEy333@reddit
Easily OJ, IMO. It changed everything. And unfortunately, eventually led to the news slop that we have today.
7eregrine@reddit
Columbine
chartographics@reddit
Killdozer in Granby, CO (but it was 2004).
peatmo55@reddit
There was an early tank incident, the 95 San Diego tank rampage.
LotsOfWatts@reddit
Billy Joel should write a song about all of this.
7eregrine@reddit
And Fall Out Boy should make a newer version of it.
cherylesq@reddit
LOL. I started singing "We didn't start the fire ..." in my head as I was reading. I'm guessing you did the same?
DJErikD@reddit
I remember and kept the paper!
virrk@reddit
That was wild seeing it on the news.
Instantly was like that's San Diego! College friends were "no". It was.
DJErikD@reddit
It went through my neighborhood I’d moved out of just a year before!
DJErikD@reddit
It went through my neighborhood I’d moved out of just before!
User-830733@reddit
This sounds like another We Didn’t Start the Fire
Soxogram@reddit
Ugh. That wretched song
Jiglii@reddit
Waco Princess Di The Berlin Wall Kurt Hugh Grant getting a BJ
National-Stock6282@reddit
Bill Clinton getting a BJ .
SPECTRE_UM@reddit
TWA Flight 800
It was live on TV, featured the first widely accepted government conspiracy since JFK and, thanks to JFK's press secretary Pierre Salinger, the first internet hoax/fake news event when he insisted in the veracity of a faked French Intelligence memo circulated on USENET (a document believed to have been generated by a KGB counterintelligence/destabilization run by a mid-level KGB officer named Putin).
Chad_Hooper@reddit
May 3rd, 1999 tornado in Oklahoma that hit Moore especially hard. On the ground for like 45 miles and tracked by helicopters like a California police pursuit.
Not as worthy of the national news, we had baseball sized hail in a different location in OK that same month.
We had to repaint half of our house and rebuild a bunch of the window screens.
Neighbors had to replace whole walls of vinyl siding and all of the windows that were facing the storm.
Andovars_Ghost@reddit
I was stationed at Tinker for that. Cleanup was god-awful. House insulation EVERYWHERE.
Chad_Hooper@reddit
I think the weather guys on TV did a really good job that day.
Compared to the damage done, the loss of lives could have been much worse than it was.
The 2013(?) EF5 that also hit Moore was much worse. It broke my heart with the schools being hit.
Andovars_Ghost@reddit
I’ll always remember it because I got to fly in Marine One to do the practice run for Clinton coming to survey the damage.
enrious@reddit
The assassination of an Israeli prime minister: Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin - Wikipedia
printerdsw1968@reddit
Definitely.
fluffy-duck-apple@reddit
Waco and columbine
sorieno@reddit
Everyone was doing the Macarena
PrehistoricSquirrel@reddit
This is vintage 90's.
sysaphiswaits@reddit
I remember that tank, it was in San Diego. I didn’t realize it was that shocking. Are you from San Diego, or was it big news everywhere?
skully_78@reddit
The Spice Girls
HilariousBosch@reddit
The collapse of the USSR.
ArthurBea@reddit
Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR. 1989 to 1991. Our collective nuclear apocalyptic trauma — the Iron Curtain that was a prominent part of our young lives — gave way to something utterly unknown. Hope? World peace? We were conditioned to see the USSR as the Evil Empire. To utterly fear nuclear holocaust. When it ended, it was a whole paradigm shift.
Impressive-Yak-7449@reddit
Princess Diana
Outside_Outcome_8600@reddit
Tanya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan
LotsOfWatts@reddit
Followed up by the Tanya Harding sex tape.
BetterGoogleit17@reddit
Good one
Zorba_lives@reddit
Port Arthur massacre
WalterSobkowich@reddit
I mean the reunification of Germany was probably a bit more surprising of a Berlin moment than MJ dangling his kid from the hotel balcony, but whatever. Oh. End of the Soviet Union, wars in Yugoslavia, genocide in Rwanda, end of Apartheid in South Africa. Hubble and Dolly in the science section. And also, let’s not forget, let’s not forget the making of The Big Lebowski.
FlyingTerrier@reddit
These were mostly 80’s
missusscamper@reddit
David Hasselhoff performing in front of Berlin Wall when it came down before official reunification was NYE 1989
ZweitenMal@reddit
Gianni Versace’s murder
srood1@reddit
Rodney King riots!
OJ Simpson car chase!
CharmingDagger@reddit
Tough to define most shocking. I remember exactly where I was when learning about Cobain's suicide, the OKC bombing, OJ car chase & verdict, and Princess Diana's death.
Beruthiel999@reddit
Oklahoma City bombing for me, nothing else really close.
I cried over Kurt and Tupac because I loved their work but I wouldn't say I was *shocked* exactly
Andovars_Ghost@reddit
I had just started a ‘Domestic Terrorism’ class, and at the next class after it happened, the Prof. came in and was like: ‘Well, now we REALLY have something to talk about!’
052-NVA@reddit
Columbine. Beginning of a new and unfortunate era
Dobgirl@reddit
Such a turning point. Especially when you learn that the NRA met and discussed how to handle it. They chose wrong.
bumpynuks@reddit
Marlins winning the Series
DocSportello1970@reddit
Only because the Montreal Expos had to dismantle their roster due to the '94 strike and gave you Moises Alou.
oldmanKiD98@reddit
I still recall them being on top only to be dismantled the following year.
Cupcake541@reddit
Heaven’s Gate
PresentTense21@reddit
Columbine
Disastrous-Arm5990@reddit
Rawanda genocide
sorieno@reddit
Tokyo subway sarin attack by that cult
jbellafi@reddit
Forrest Gump beating BOTH Pulp Fiction & Shawshank at the 1995 Oscars.
TheVentiLebowski@reddit
I liked Gump Fiction.
carpetstoremorty@reddit
The Michael Jackson thing happened in 2002 and isn't remotely on the same level as anything else on this list. I think the fact that he was investigated for child molestation in 1993 ranks above that, anyway
Silly-Shoulder-6257@reddit
Elian Gonzalez by a hair. I think it began in 99. Brothers to the Rescue. Bush/ Gore election. Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding.
IronSea7072@reddit
1 and 1A for me were the LA riots because it was so out of control for the first 48 hours and I lived 20 miles south, everyone i knew thought it was coming our way, and 2nd was the Northridge earthquake. Quakes don't normally spook me, but living on the 3rd floor of a tri-plex down by the beach. That was a scary, wild ride! Special mention goes to the Laguna Beach fire, when I saw Palisades go up in smoke that reminded me of Laguna. The 90s were crazy in SoCal.
The-Many-Faced-God@reddit
In the US, OJ being found not guilty. Globally, Diana dying.
BetterGoogleit17@reddit
Lorena Bobbitt, The Green River Killer (a big deal in the PNW) are a couple other ones.
Fragrant_Trade_9635@reddit
Somalia, the battle of Mogadishu, black hawk down. I
Tralfaz1138@reddit
'93 World Trade Center bombing.
johnnyg08@reddit
Chernobyl
admseven@reddit
That was 1986 though.
johnnyg08@reddit
Yep, you're right. For some reason I thought it was the 90s. 1986!
admseven@reddit
I only know with such certainty because it was my best friend’s 8th birthday (we’re Xennials 😆 )
johnnyg08@reddit
Nope...good call out. You're spot on!
throwawaycasun4997@reddit
Big, but wrong decade
johnnyg08@reddit
Dang it...you're right. 1986. For some reason I was thinking it was 90s.
throwawaycasun4997@reddit
Depending on your age it’s all ancient history 😂
KatrynaTheElf@reddit
OJ
bLymey4@reddit
Yup! OJ and the televised white ford Bronco escape
StrictFinance2177@reddit
GG Allin
delulu4drama@reddit
Waco
HelloStiletto14@reddit
Princess Diana died
ahutapoo@reddit
Andrew Cunanan
Uniquely_Similar74@reddit
Grunge hitting the mainstream scene.
refuzeto@reddit
That was a pretty wild change.
Uniquely_Similar74@reddit
u/refuzeto Right. One day it was hairbands and makeup.. the next flannels and jeans. Excellent trade imho 👍
ilovedickwolf@reddit
Yep, went from Guns N’ Roses to Pearl Jam overnight.
Uniquely_Similar74@reddit
Literally overnight.
DeviceElegant4959@reddit
JFK Jr, his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren’s plane crash in 1999 8 miles off of Martha’s Vineyard
likewhenyoupee@reddit
North Hollywood bank shootout
Uniquely_Similar74@reddit
Shit yeah, that's a good one!
EverythingScrolling@reddit
The bombing at the 1996 Olympics
Emunahd@reddit
Posts like this make me realize just how many times we’ve seen such crazy things in the world.
AdAggravating8273@reddit
Cobain then OJ then Clinton getting impeached then Somalia.
HungryMenu8627@reddit
Chris Farley died.
Uniquely_Similar74@reddit
Fat man in a little coat 😂
RIP Big Guy
Weak_Maintenance5629@reddit
Ruby Ridge Incident 1992.
ranmor1979@reddit
OJ
Grandmaster-HotFlash@reddit
Woodstock ‘99
ObscureLilac@reddit
Lorena Bobbit was my first thought
HOUS2000IAN@reddit
Oh yes! At that time I worked in an office with a bunch of professionals from central and South America who were fascinated by the fact that she was a Latina. My colleague from Ecuador was like “yeah, no surprise” when he was told that she was Ecuadorian.
bhull302@reddit
B-side, Menendez Brothers.
Fall of the Soviet Union would have to be A-side.
TraditionalTackle1@reddit
Phil Hartman murdered by his crazy wife.