Historic/ important events you've been to

I went to JFK's innagural Parade, my family rented a suite at the Willard to see the first Irish Catholic to be elected President, we were sure he waved at us, as was everyone else sure he waved at them. His Limo was open even though it was freezing and the day before there was a huge snowstorm in DC.
I was at his funeral procession, standing on Connecticut Avenue when virtually every leader of the free world walked by, Impressive, than his Caisson, incredibly moving, everyone was sobbing.
Was at the Ali, Ken Norton fight in LA, Norton obviously won the fight, the judges gave it to Ali.
Unlike The Ancient One, I wasn't at the Gettysburg Address! You all been to something special?

Hello all ,
With the 10th Anniversary arriving soon , many of the regular roadfooders know I was working on Sept 11th , 2001 as a police officer in Manhattan . Pretty historic and significant I believe .
 
I was at Stewart Airport in NY , well a few miles away on the route , when the  52 ex hostages arrived back on US soil in Jan 1981 , and covered the 1 yr reunion for my high school paper the next yr meeting these heros in person .
 
Met the Pope on his last visit to NY ,well he stopped in front of our barricade , but I felt the positive vibes and he did acknowledge my presence  
 
As far as sporting events I've been to a Super Bowl , Daytona 500 , World Series .
 
Sure I can think of a few more .
Have met presidents , governors , senators , through work
 
Good thread here
Benzee

 
You may have successfully out-done everyone here; even before anyone else has written anything.  I know that I have seen, done and been at many things, yet reading your post makes me feel like a complete slacker....
 
mark

Does standing guard for Billy Casper at the 1962 Indianapolis 500 Festival PGA golf tournament so he could step behind a bush on the 13th hole to relieve himself count? 

How about passing the front of the Dakota on my bicycle about 15 minutes before the John Lennon assassination? (on another John Lennon front, I was attending school across the street from the Amsterdam Hilton when he and Yoko were staying there on their honeymoon; for years I told people that they watched us play soccer on the lawn of the Hilton. A few years ago, I ran into an old schoolmate. Nobody believed  him, either.)
 
Bart
 
 

Meeting presidents, governors, senators, congressmen, Broadway actors, musicians...check. All through work.
 
Actual events...I worked one of the venues for President Ford's funeral, worked the unveiling of the new VW Beetle, worked the US premier of the merger of Daimler-Chrysler, and worked the opening ceremonies of Ford Field in Detroit. Nothing earth-shattering to be sure, but important just the same.

I watched Eisenhower's inaugural from my grandfather's office window at the Interstate Commerce Commission.  I was stuck on the New Jersey Turnpike in a snowstorm for Kennedy's.  In the summer of 1963, as a summer intern with the Federal Government, I met him at a reception in the Rose Garden and I did go to his funeral--stood in front of the White House.
 
As a student at Johns Hopkins U. in Baltimore, I was in the audience for Lyndon Johnson's speech in which he took us deeper into the Vietnamese quagmire:
 

 
In 1987 I was among the hoard of people crowding onto the Golden Gate Bridge for its 50th Anniversary that gave it this sag in the middle:
 

 
In 1989, I was living in San Francisco and working on Treasure Island halfway across the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco Bay.  On October 17, I left work early to get home to watch the World Series game between the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants, and I was standing in my living room in front of my TV set when this happened:
 

 
The power went off, of course, so I couldn't get any news reports of what had happened, but the northern sky (in the direction of the Marina District--which lay over Pacific heights and therefore wasn't directly visible) began to glow a lurid orange.  I had no water or power for the next 3 days, and a mess on the floor to clean up, and I had to eat canned food cold.
 
And then there was the first Gulf War--that was "the good war" for me because I was on the staff of the commodore of a destroyer squadron and we headed west to the Gulf but got only as far as Pearl Harbor when much of the fighting ended and we spent the next 6 weeks in Hawaii, me with nothing much to do (such a shame).

i worked as a cart boy at pinehurst CC for a couple of years when i was high school....
got a call to take a replacement cart out to hole 11 one afternoon on course 2.....
when i got there, kenny rogers and ted nuggent were sitting under a shade tree drinking and laughing, kenny rogers had a dead cart, well, after getting things swapped out, they insisted i "follow" them for the next few holes, so i ended up playing golf with the two of them for the rest of the course..... lol, they enjoyed the fact they had an opponent that was worse then they were.
 
and yes, ted nuggent was drinking fruit juice and water, and kenny rogers was drinking burbon, lol......... not presidents and world leaders, but it was the highlight of my summer 

I worked part-time for CSC Event Staff my last 6 years in Fresno. I met Presidents Ford and Carter at a luncheon. Met a ton of big name performers. Nancy Kerrigan being one of the worse. Bill Cosby being one of the best. I worked the Rose Parade for 5 years, that was a lot of fun. Worked for Fifa as armed security during the World Cup at both Calif. sites. Also did armed security for the 49'ers.
 
I still miss that part-time job.

I met (Handshake and quick greeting) V P Nixon at the Boy Scout Jamboree (1953) at Irvine,California. At the time Irvine Ranch was a bunch of very bare and brown hills in an empty part of Orange County SoCal.  The area sure looks different today.

Well, there was the interview I did with Lady Bird Johnson in the ladies room of the Pan Am Admiral's Club at the St. Thomas airport. That was an important historic event. I mean, I'd never been in a ladies room before.

I got down on my knees to show Raquel Welch a fireplace screen.
 
Rode out the Northridge Earthquake.
 
Watched President Gerald Ford exit a golf cart with Bob Hope and then Tee off right in front of me.
 
Road Engineer Bill's mini train.
 
 

Rode out a typhon off Okinawa that sunk 3 US vessels.
 
Was part of the rioting on the streets of San Francisco
 V-J Day1945.
 
Sailed into NY Harbor in a little sailboat on July 4th 1976---Operation
Op-Sail celebrating the 200th birthday of the USA.
 
Received a dime from John D Rockefeller Sr who told me to save it and add to it.  I bought candy.
 
Was in NYC the night they had the blackout in the 60s. 
 
Was frisked at the Federal Court House Center St NYCity on 9/14/2001.
 
Was at the Polo Grounds in NYC the day that Jimmy Piersall hit his 100th Major League home run.