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These are in no particular order, except as they come to me. I'll try not to repeat too many of yours, though there'll be some overlap, starting with:

10. The destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11. My first thought, once I was over the shock enough to actually think, was (and a lot of people are going to hate me for this), Did our own government orchestrate this? I'm not a big conspiracy nut, really. But I'm jaded enough to believe our government capable of just about any atrocity imaginable.

9. Watergate and Nixon resigning. I was a wee tot (I think I was in 2nd grade when Nixon resigned), but I remember my parents and all the other adults around me debating and hand-wringing over the whole affair. I had no real idea what was going on. Not at all. In fact, I once asked my father what good a water-gate would do -- wouldn't water flow right through it?

8. A Moon landing. My mother assures me I was far too young to remember the very first Moon landing (and I was only 2 at the time, so it's likely she's correct). But I have a very clear memory of watching a Moon landing on an old, small black-and-white television at the home of one of my parents' friends. We were all gathered around, and me being small, I got a front row seat on the floor. The image was grainy and choppy, the sound quality was horrible. But I knew, somehow I just knew that this was a very significant event.

7. The assassination attempt on Reagan's life. I was in middle school, seventh grade, and they released us an hour early with an announcement on the PA. Normally, when I got out of school, I had about 30 minutes to rush home, change, then get the newspapers to deliver, but that day, I had to sit around in front of the TV for an hour and a half first. I remember being stunned and worried. Not that I particularly cared for Reagan's politics (or any politics, for that matter). But the thought that the President could be shot -- and possibly killed -- in my lifetime, with all the security following Kennedy's assassination two decades earlier, it was just shocking.

6. The assassination of John Lennon outside his home, the Dakota, in New York City by crazed fanatic, Mark David Chapman. This happened the same year as the attempt on Reagan's life, 1980. I wasn't a big Beatles fan yet, but I knew who John Lennon was and basically what he stood for. Again, I was stunned and deeply saddened. They didn't let us out of school early.

5. The Challenger disaster. I was a sophomore in college. That morning, I was in my dorm room studying, listening to NPR on the radio. I don't even remember what show I was listening to, but they broke in with the news. I was so shocked, I listened to the same story again and again for nearly an hour before I remembered I had a TV in the room, and I could actually watch what was being described. Like a lot of people, I didn't make it to any classes that day.

4. The Gulf War. I was a senior in college, my last semester. Like all my friends, I was disgusted that the President was waging a war to increase profits for himself and his oil buddies. And, like all my friends, I was worried about the reinstatement of the draft. Even though we were all very vocally out of the closet, the 'official word' was that it wouldn't matter this time: they'd beat the gay out of you, if necessary, but if you were drafted, you were going to fight.

3. Walter Mondale selecting Geraldine Ferraro (sp?) as his Vice Presidential running mate. Never before had a major candidate been so bold as to select a woman as his running mate for the highest office in the land. At the time, I was well brainwashed by my family and peers, and so I was more than happy to see their resounding defeat at the polls.

2. The collapse of the Soviet Union. By this time, I was in the midst of a major political shift of my own, going from far right wing to far left. My whole left had been spent believing the USSR to be the 'evil empire', and so on the one hand, I was thrilled at the thought of a dictatorship falling. On the other, the woman who would become my sister was a card-carrying Communist, and I myself was becoming more and more one of the 'pinko f*gs' my family associated with Communism and the USSR. It was a strange time for me.

And the Number One Most Memorable Public Event of my Lifetime (again, in no particular order, it just came to me last): the disappearance of Des Moines Register paperboy, Johnny Gosch. It was 1982, and I wasn't a paperboy anymore by then. He lived in West Des Moines, which is a good hundred or more miles from where I lived. But it was still chilling. Johnny Gosch was one of the very first missing children to appear on a milk carton. Although his mother claims he visited her in 1999, there has never been a confirmed sighting of Johnny Gosch since his disappearance in 1982. The case remains unsolved.

well 9-11 is one that most everyone will agree on.

The northridge earthquake. We lived 5 miles from the epicenter and there is still some disagreement among seizmologists as to whether it should have been considered a 7 or not.

The thurston HS shooting. It always hits harder when it is a closer location. Columbine a year or so later is much more remebered and recognized but some of the thurston horrors were more scarring to me.

the columbia disaster. I'm too young to remeber the challenger one but the columbia disaster was painful in that it was my first real fear for the astronauts.

The OJ trial. I lived in SoCal at that point and went to a racialy mixed school and it was rather a matter of debate within the school not to mention the cause of many fights on campus.

and that's all i can come up with for now.