I Remember Sputnik

There are some events where just about everyone can tell you — with near perfect detail description — what they were doing when they took occurred.

9/11 (2001): I was at the San Francisco Airport (attempting to) check in for a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. The quietest I've ever experienced SFO. Everyone was bewildered and dumbstruck.

Challenger Explosion, January 28, 1986: I was going over book tour plans ("A Kick in the Seat of the Pants") and a colleague came in and said, "You have to see what just happened." Very sad.

Reagan Assassination Attempt: March 31, 1981: I was doing a creativity seminar for ARCO at the ARCO building in downtown LA. During the noon break I went to the underground shopping area and saw a large group huddled around TV screens. Details were sketchy, and it wasn't known if Reagan had survived. No one said much at all. I went back upstairs and canceled the afternoon.

Nixon Resignation Speech, August 8, 1974: Listened to it on car radio at Lake Tahoe while driving with friends to an outdoor performance of "A Mid-Summer's Night Dream." Great excitement that Nixon would leave office the next day.

Kennedy Assassination, November 22, 1963: I was at military school (Culver Military Academy), and I had just come off the rifle range. A friend said, "Did you hear what just happened in Dallas? The president has been shot."

Sputnik Launched by the Soviets, October 4, 1957. I was in fourth grade in Linworth, Ohio. The school principal came in (during our science period) and announced that he had received word the Russians had just put up the first satellite. Surprise, confusion, and uncertainty. "Why weren't we first?" everyone wondered.

At home that evening, I remember watching the news with my family. The TV commentators didn't quite know what to make of it the Sputnik launch. "A jolt to our national psyche." "A great embarrassment for our science efforts." 

I remember Arthur Godfrey (on his then top-rated TV program) speculating, "At this point we don't know for sure that the Russians haven't attached a nuclear warhead to the satellite." Hardly calming thoughts.

Everyone seemed to agree on three things: 1) the Cold War just got chillier and scarier; 2) the United States would have to pour a lot more resources into its science education; and, 3) we would need to pay a lot more attention to space.

Looking back fifty years (can it really be that long ago?), I'd have to say that 80 kg. orb gave the Soviets one of their greatest propaganda victories of the Cold War. It was also a giant "whack on the side of the head" to American space and education programs. Without Sputnik, I wonder if Apollo 11 would have happened in the 1960s.

I was a beneficiary as well: more federal monies into higher education: over a decade later, some of the fellowship money I received to go to Stanford came from a National Defense Education Act grant.

Comments

[Cam Beck]

Good list. Here are two more I remember vividly: Tiananman Square Massacre in China, and the day the Berlin Wall "fell."

In both cases, my dad woke me out of bed and asked, "Do you want to see history being made?" Since I was living in Berlin at the time, I was actually able to go down to stand on the Wall near the Brandenburg Gate the next day (and the day after).

Wonderful feeling. Neither event can be used for communist propaganda and should serve as a whack on the side of the head for ages to come.

[Alex von Oech]

New Year's Eve 1999. The last moments of the 20th century and the first moments of the next millenium (technically 2001 was the first year of the third millenium AD, but nobody cares about technicalities when you're staring at a grandiose number like 2000). The much publicized Y2K bug. Would old OSs around the world fail creating a 'chaosscenario'?

And one that I wasn't around for but stung for most westerners who lived through the 60's.

John Lennon's assassination - Dec 8, 1980.

[Roger von Oech]

Cam: 1989 holds some memories for you!

Tiananaman Square Massacre: I was at the Rodin Sculpture garden at Stanford with my (soon-to-be) five year old son. I had just bought him his first knife. We got in the car and that was the breaking news. I told him he would never forget that day.

Fall of the Berlin Wall: I cheered from my hotel room in Philly.

Alex: Most people learned about Lennon's death from Howard Cosell who announced it during Monday Night Football (back in the day when MNF was a big deal)

[Valeria Maltoni]

Roger:

We cheered about the fall of the Berlin wall from the same city!

Got another one for you: Chernobyl -- April 26, 1986. I lived in Italy at the time, much closer. I was in the kitchen with my younger sister and mom when the news broke.

[patti digh]

I remember many of the same ones, Roger. And one more, from a small Southern town: I remember when man first walked on the moon. Everyone else was watching TV, but we were on the rough cement driveway looking up at the moon, waiting for it to explode. My PawPaw had told us that the Bible said the moon would explode if man walked on it. Ah, what a memory...

[Lynn Cutts]

I too remember most of the events mentioned above, especially when man first landed on the moon. My parents had taken us on a camping vacation, which meant tents and campgrounds for four solid weeks. But this time, we checked into a motel (it was a Holiday Inn) in Amarillo Texas, so we could watch on TV. I don't know what was most exciting: the air conditioning and soft beds, the motel's swimming pool, or the moon walk. Or Walter Cronkite tearing up on national TV.

[Bryan Loar]

Although Sputnik & the moon landing were before my time, I too remember the Challenger explosion & 9/11.

It's curious to me that most of the lasting impressions listed are events which have some sort of negativity attached to them.

I'm not a psychologist, but it seems to demonstrate that recall is affected by distress (psychological or physical). I'm sure the media has a strong role in reinforcement as well.

It also might just demonstrate that we need a creative "whack" instead of a creative "gentle push".

[Doug Barber]

"some of the fellowship money I received to go to Stanford came from a National Defense Education Act grant"

Clearly yet another proof of the idiocy of government.