I was in a class in college. A student who knew the professor well stuck his head into the room and asked the prof, "Did you hear the space shuttle blew up?" The prof was a little annoyed and said "and..." waiting for the punchline to a bad joke. The student said, "No, it blew up on launch." Class ended early so we could go to the lounge to watch it.
That was half a lifetime ago for me.
I was working for a bank outside of Chicago back in 1986. We all gathered around the radio listening in disbelief. I was still riding a high because the Chicago Bears had just won the Super bowl a few days before. Talk about highs and lows. My how time flies.