With 11th Sept, I was working in a local supermarket at the time , stacking some shelves near a portable stereo which aired the news. I didn't entirely grasp what had happened and didn't realise how many people had been killed/affected until I got home and saw the video on the TV.

When Elvis died, I was with my family in a tent on a campsite in Wales. I seem to remember it being on the radio, and one of the parents bought a paper - something they never normally did. I would have been 13.

Can't remember what I was doing when Di was killed. I remember being a bit staggered at the rather irrational response from the public at large. I think I watched part of the funeral procession when she was taken back to Althorp.

9/11: I was just trying to get my freelance business off the ground. Best Beloved was in the other room when the reports started coming in. At first it was thought to be just a small plane, and only later - after the second plane - did the full horror sink in. I think we both spent the rest of the day, and the next, essentially glued to the telly flipping between BBC, ITV and Sky news channels. I remember being worried about my Mum. She'd gone over to visit an old friend, and had stated they had planned on visiting the viewing platform in one of the WTC towers. I recall a couple of frantic phone calls to my Dad and sister. Luckily, they'd actually not done the trip, and I think they were both out of New York at the time the planes hit. Obviously, getting back home was a bit of a problem as all flights were grounded for a time. Which reminds me, the sky was absolutely crystal clear for about three solid days as the UK airspace was also closed. No contrails.

I don't remember exactly what I was doing when the coalition forces starting bombing the carp out of Baghdad. Having been against the whole foolish escapade from the start, I was probably trying to avoid the blanket news coverage. Nearly a decade on, and we're still reaping the whirlwind.

7/7: Again, working from home. I recall having the TV news channels on, while sitting on the sofa interacting with friends and coworkers in various parts of the country through the interwebs.

These days, I get my news from Twitter. I follow up interesting links, trying to get my own view of an event. I leave the mainstream (lamestream?) media to obsess and froth about it on their own. I only get annoyed by watching them these days, as they never shed any light, and just go round and round and round with no real journalism to clarify anything.

*EDIT* I forgot the bit when John Lennon was shot. I was working in a nasty little factory, my first proper job after leaving school. It came over the radio, interrupting whatever station it was tuned to. That was 1981.

I know where I was when the Twin Towers were hit. I was in a network data centre frantically scrambling to try to keep the BBC's network connection up under the sudden enormous load it had been hit by (at the time, the BBC routed their network traffic through us - not any more, they're now way too big for any single data centre to manage). That was the first 'world event' where a significant portion of the population headed to their computers rather than their TVs. After my shift was finished I headed to my brother's house - much nearer work than mine - and sat on their sofa watching the news with my mouth open. They were packing to go on holiday to Greece the next day - as it turned out, they weren't going anywhere the next day... - and I think they were a bit dischuffed with me getting in the way.

Diana - as it happened in the middle of the night, I was in bed. Woke up to the news the next morning. Sad event, but the royals stir no great emotion in me, so I didn't pay a lot of attention to it.

I was a babe in arms when man first stepped foot on the moon. I don't remember it, but I am told I was awake to see it.

7/7: Remember this well as that morning my car broke down at a roundabout on the A21 causing some quite serious delays. AA got to me eventually and I drove home thinking about what an awful day I was having! When my other half rang me from her workplace in London saying she'd heard about an explosion it seemed as if it was just a power problem on the Underground, but later updates soon revealed the scale of the incident. She worked at a London Hospital where some of the wounded were treated.

When Diana was killed I came downstairs that Sunday morning and put on the radio expecting to hear the Danny Baker Show and instead got something very different. When out shopping later it was eerily quiet.

1982 Falklands (for the older forumites here) - I was at school and remember being concerned about how it might escalate.

Elvis - can't remember but I guess in School.
Diana - at home woke up to find out the next morning.
9/11 Twin towers - on the top floor of a tall building in London ( Rail Track House ) thought it was an advert for a new disaster movie.
7/7 London bombing - at Paddington cursing I had missed the tube ..........................then being rather glad I did.
Shock and Awe - in a hotel bar in Copenhagen thanking god I had declined the contract to do the middle east roll out.....

September 11th - I was working at a horrible advertising production company who's name I forget. Near Euston Road IIRC.
Anway - I'd been sent off into Soho to collect some things from a post production house on Wardour Street, and as I walked up the street, it got emptier and emptier. Got to Joe's Basement (not there anymore sadly) and it was full of people watching the TVs they had hanging up over the counters.
Got back to the office to find most people crowded round the TV in the meeting room, except one twat who was calling people away from the TV to hear about the discount on a job he'd managed to wangle.
That night I got home, drank about 2 bottles of wine and was convinced there'd be a draft and we'd be off to war.
The next day I decided that, on balance, I didn't want to work in that office any more as they were all horrible people and frankly life was too short to work with [LIFTED].

7/7 - Got to work on Gt. Portland Street as usual, started getting MSN messenger messages from a friend asking if I had got to work ok, as there was a nightmare on the underground.
Didn't think anything more about it, but as the day went on, I started checking on the news to see if I was getting home ok, and then we realised what was going on.
Turns out, I'd missed one of the trains by about 15 minutes. Next problem was the team coming back from shooting in our Amsterdam studio, heading straight to the edit in Soho. Of course, at this point, heading into town was the last thing you should be doing, so I was trying to get hold of them, let them know what was going on and organising taxis to meet them at the airport and get them home.
One of my most recent jobs prior to this one was on Dirty War for the BBC, so I'm already thinking 'Dirty bomb! Dust clouds!' and running round closing windows.
The walk back to Paddington (as the public transport had stopped) was crazy, almost like 28 Days Later. I managed to share a cab with a stranger (perhaps the last time that's happened in London) to the station.
Got back on the Tube the next day, and it was eery. Emptier, of course, and the folk who were on there all looked apprehensive. I can still remember looking up at the girl opposite me, who looked nervous, and sharing a smile. I guess I looked nervous too.

That particular event didn't register with me either.

I recall being absolutly stunned in to silence when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on live TV.
I was watching it as it happened and simply could not properly comprehend what I was looking at.
If it hadn't been a live feed I wouldn't have believed my eyes.
Seeing the footage from that explosion always brings a lump to my throat, even now.
It had at the time, and continues to have a very profound effect on me.

Mark

I remember challenger, I was visiting a school my parents were thinking of sending me. It was the school they chose in the end.

Princess di, I was getting on a ferry having just driven up from the south of France, as no one could hear the tellies and we'd all been without news for so long, every one on the ferry was rather confused. It was quite surreal.

World trade centre, I was buying petrol, and it was on a screen in the station. Raced home and watched it with my parents as I'd just moved back home.

July bombings, I don't know. Didn't really think it was that momentous. Bit of a London thing really, and I'd left London years before.

I remember the Herold Of Free Enterprise disaster, Chernobyl and Dunblane.
Challanger, I don't remember at the time.

was stationed in singapore with 2 Batt RNZIR ...

I don't recall any of those things happening at the time.

Mark

I remember declaring war on Iraq and 9/11.

You declared war on Iraq?!?

Mark

Yeah, also i remember something about forming New Labour and clause 4

Really. Dunblane was only in 96. I know the others are older.