Where were you when ???? Died?

[RED-DOG]

Tikay  where were you when Tribeca  died???

Think I was mid humpy-pumpy.

Mercifully quick then.

[TightEnd]

Princess Diana, I was on holiday in a holiday cottage in Norfolk. I was feeding my then one month old son, 4am feed from the bottle while my wife slept.

Switched on news to keep me awake while I fed the baby! and there it was, remember it as clear as day..There I was caring for this beautiful baby and several hundred miles away a huge story about someone losing their life was unfolding.

Others I remember....

I was coming out of a concert at Old Trafford when I heard that Marc-Viven Foe the footballer had collapsed and died while playing. Walking down the road with complete strangers I can visualise their faces in detail to this day.

I lived literally 100 yards as a boy from the spot where Marc Bolan crashed his mini into a tree...I was ten. Still remember being told that night like it was yesterday.

September 11th I can remember the clothes I was wearing whilst I watched the coverage!

I don't remember the Queen Mum moment either!

[KingPoker]

I have such a poor long trerm memory bu thte two that stand out for me both involved coming home from school or college.

The world Trade Centre and the Commencement of The second war in iraq. Watched the telly for hours eyes just glued to the screen and i never miss a programme or documentary that comes out on either now!

And anything to do with space, love that too!

[totalise]

The one that shocked me the most was Jill Dando.. was driving back from the golf course and almost crashed my car... felt numb for hours, which is strange considering i never knew her

As for the WTC, I was working on the equity desk in a trading house in London and it was absolute bedlam, markets were like a straight line down, then closed, clients who were trading on 1% margins ended up owing £10k on positions that only required nominal balances , and then had to move into the backoffice temporarily to try and get settlement on all the accounts with deficit balances.. the craziest week of work I ever encountered. Glad thats over now.

Diana I had to wake up at 6:30am to play the final of my Club Championship matchplay, and heard it on the radio.. my opponent was a staunch royalist so i thank her royal highness everytime I look at the trophy and reminisce on the 7&5 thrashing I gave the poor soul.

[thetank]

I remember where I was on 9/11.
Was living in a house without a telly. Hearing the unbelivable on the radio.

My mate phoned me, he said you have to come over here. The second plane hit as I was walking over, he phoned me again and told me to hurry up.

You just have to rubber neck whenever "Breaking News" comes on the television, it's human nature. As you watch people jump out of burning buildings and the similar horrors of that day though, you  feel sick, but you can't stop watching either. Why is that?

It was an awful afternoon, you didn't know when it was going to stop.

[AndrewT]

Oh yes, that's another - the World Trade Centre. Mixed emotions & feelings on that. So awful for the innocent civilians, heart-wrenching, but best not start me on the American Government......

I had the day off work on Sept 11th and had gone into town to Tesco. I popped into Dixons for a browse round on my way up (as you do) and the TVs had News 24 on showing one of the towers with smoke coming out and the 'Plane crashes into World Trade Centre' message across the screen. There was no sound on the TV so I didn't realise the magnitude of what had happened - the tower was so big that it just looked like a light aircraft had crashed into it - just an accident.

On my way back from Tesco I walked past and saw all the staff stood in front of the TVs - watching an image which was quite clearly only showing half as many World Trade Centre towers as there had been previously. I practically ran home to watch it on the TV. I saw the sceond tower fall live - it was clear the reporters were having real trouble coming to terms with the magnitude of what they were seeing. At the time, there were conflicting reports of how many people were in the towers when the planes struck - some estimates put the figure at 50,000 per tower.

Watching something, knowing you've just seen thousands of people dying right before your eyes is a reality-twisting moment - it's difficult to come up with an emotion as it is just so far removed from the usual world of experience.

[booder]

Elvis............had been to visit family friends in Hemsby.As soon as we heard the news, the heavens oponed and the most ferocious rainstorm erupted.

Diana.........was in bed waiting for my ex to bring my breakfast for me.when she told me that she had died, my first response was to ask if she had od'd

World Trade Centre.....driving along the A14 near Bury ST Edmunds,with a lorry load of washing machines bound for Ireland .heard the terrible news on the radio and rang my mother to ask her to videotape the news for me,little realising the full extent of the horror until the next days newspapers.

Freddie Mercury....like AndrewT , i was listening to John Peel when the terrible news broke.horrible horrible time.

[tikay]

Tighty's reference to football reminds me of Hillsborough, I know the exact where & when I was for that, ditto the Bradford stadium fire.

Ditto Ayrton Senna, I was big into F1 at the time, & we watched him die, literally, on TV. It was clear he was dead by the trackside pics, but he was not "officialy" announced as dead for 6 or 7 hours. Italian law, or some such. A huge hero.

John Surtees too (not a racing accident), Stirling Moss's huge Goodwood shunt (not fatal), Niki Lauda's inferno, (ditto), and worst of all, the Le Mans tragedy in 195x, in which so many specctators died.

I was into motor bike racing, too, & well remember Derek Minter - "King of Brands" tangling with Paul Dunstall (Dunstall Domiracer, a Norton/Triumph hybrid, ahh those lovely names) at 180mph along that straight just before Clearways, as it was then called,. (Brands Hatch changed the names of all the corners since, damn them). Dunstall was inches ahead of Minter, when an oil pipe burst, covered his back tyre, & The Mint, and Paul, down they both came. Paul died. A boyhood hero dies in front of one's eyes, & a teenager cries.

[77dave]

I was eleven and had been out witha friend one saturady afternnon

when i got back my dad told me what had happened at hillsbrough

will always remember him sitting me down and explaining it to me


9/11   i had just bought a new tv  i turned it on tuned it in and first thing i saw was a plane crashing into the tower

[tikay]

The one that shocked me the most was Jill Dando.. was driving back from the golf course and almost crashed my car... felt numb for hours, which is strange considering i never knew her
As for the WTC, I was working on the equity desk in a trading house in London and it was absolute bedlam, markets were like a straight line down, then closed, clients who were trading on 1% margins ended up owing £10k on positions that only required nominal balances , and then had to move into the backoffice temporarily to try and get settlement on all the accounts with deficit balances.. the craziest week of work I ever encountered. Glad thats over now.

Diana I had to wake up at 6:30am to play the final of my Club Championship matchplay, and heard it on the radio.. my opponent was a staunch royalist so i thank her royal highness everytime I look at the trophy and reminisce on the 7&5 thrashing I gave the poor soul.

Jill Dando, I never quite "got" that, though I don't really watch TV. Seemed a lovely girl, & it was vey sad, but the damn Press blew it up too much for me.

[AndrewT]

Ditto Ayrton Senna, I was big into F1 at the time, & we watched him die, literally, on TV. It was clear he was dead by the trackside pics, but he was not "officialy" announced as dead for 6 or 7 hours. Italian law, or some such. A huge hero.

Not Italian law at all - it was simply that Bernie Ecclestone had decreed that no racing driver would die at the track - they were to die 'on their way to the hospital'.

Horrible, nasty piece of work.

[tikay]

I remember where I was on 9/11.
Was living in a house without a telly. Hearing the unbelivable on the radio.

My mate phoned me, he said you have to come over here. The second plane hit as I was walking over, he phoned me again and told me to hurry up.

You just have to rubber neck whenever "Breaking News" comes on the television, it's human nature. As you watch people jump out of burning buildings and the similar horrors of that day though, you  feel sick, but you can't stop watching either. Why is that?

It was an awful afternoon, you didn't know when it was going to stop.

You are so right - why DO we rubber-neck? Motorway Accident, we ALL have to look. I do wonder why, but I'm as guilty as the next man.

[tikay]

Ditto Ayrton Senna, I was big into F1 at the time, & we watched him die, literally, on TV. It was clear he was dead by the trackside pics, but he was not "officialy" announced as dead for 6 or 7 hours. Italian law, or some such. A huge hero.

Not Italian law at all - it was simply that Bernie Ecclestone had decreed that no racing driver would die at the track - they were to die 'on their way to the hospital'.

Horrible, nasty piece of work.

I am not sure I buy that, but knowing Mr Ecclestone, I guess you could be right. I just went by contemporary news reports. News Media re always right, eh?

[AndrewT]

Jill Dando, I never quite "got" that, though I don't really watch TV. Seemed a lovely girl, & it was vey sad, but the damn Press blew it up too much for me.

It was because there were too many similarities to Diana (young, blonde, pretty, violent death) - in death she became an ersatz People's Princess.

One more - Anna Nicole Smith. I seem to recall I was on here, posting bad taste jokes...

[RioRodent]

JFK - I was a (considerably younger [than TK]) kid also... talking at the next door neighbours window when a newsflash came on the TV.

Elvis Presley - In a pub on the way to Swindon (Moonrakers) for a night out.

Princess Di - Up at 3am to go fishing and put the TV to see the weather.

9/11 - For some reason not at work and round the pub!! This particularly memorable for me as my daughter was at the WTC exactly one week earlier... after cutting her 'round the world trip' short by one week, due to running low on money.