I was in Houston, Tx in the lobby of a hospital I was dropping off a resume since I was looking for a job. They had the tv on in the lobby.

I thought that Reagan had died until they said it was the Challenger.

Boy, it was really sad around Houston in the following days.

As I said in a thread in "News" I was the Production Manager of an NBC Owned TV station here in Denver. I was in the Chief Engineer's office, next to mine, and the News Operations Manager came in and told us about the explosion.

We spent the rest of the day jockying programming (newscasts), none of which got on the air since NBC stayed with coverage all day and most of the evening.

I was also in first grade. I remember our PE teacher telling us what happened and watching it on TV. It was very sad.

I also remember my uncle giving me a book about the space program that was dedicated to the astronauts who died in the Challenger. He has always been big about NASA. Ironically, we didn't talk about the anniversary Saturday.

I was 3 years and 26 days old. I don't really remember.

I was 4 :( I don't remember it at all, just vaguely knowing something was wrong with the space ship

Junior year in high school, was home sick.

Coincidentally--when the federal bldg in OK was bombed I was also home sick.

9/11? ALSO home sick.

Moral of the story? Never stay home sick.

5th Grade English Class. Was at the teacher's desk turning in my paper when the teacher from across the hall came in to tell her to turn the radio on. After school went to my friend's house and watched it the rest of the day. Mom was out driving around and saw the "clouds", but didn't know til later what it was. Dad was at the Cape covering it for his TV station. He was right next to Kristie's parents. He said they had no idea anything was wrong until about 10-15 minutes later when someone came and got them. People who had seen a live launch before knew something was wrong, but nobody had the heart to say anything.

I was home sick too (light snowy day) the first time the World Trade Center was bombed!

Denise

Unfortunately watching history-making news can be quite devastating. I'm sure there were many children AND adults around the world just in medical shock and hysterics when they saw the Challenger explode, the Pentagon on fire and the WTC being actually hit by the 2nd airplane and then both buildings collapse.

My daughter was in 8th grade in 2001 and the history teacher had turned on the tv because of the WTC news. Suddenly there was a cutaway to the Pentagon in flames and the news following that a plane had hit there. Needless to say she and every other Pentagon child was in hysterics wondering if their dads (or moms) were okay. Our area of Virginia (in fact the whole DC region) has a huge military population.

"History in the making"or not, I don't know if the teachers (not just my daughter's) should have turned on the news to watch tragedy and horror unfold before the children's eyes.

I was in Kindergarten I think....I don't really remember.

I was in 5th grade watching it on TV.

I can echo alum's point about the Pentagon. I was in college in DC at the time and we have lots of local students at Trinity. There were several women who were concerned about the safety of their parents. We were fortunate enough not to have anyone with parents in that part of the Pentagon.

Attending a class at a Junior College. I saw it on the news when I got home.

I was just barely 4 years old. I don't know if I saw it live or not, but I definitely saw a lot of the footage about it. My dad had me into spaceflight at a very young age.

Obviously, I remember Columbia a lot better. That's a day I will absolutely never forget, especially since I was listening for the sonic boom in the back of my mind.