Practically every American who was older than about 5 at the time remembers exactly what they were doing when they first heard about the JFK assassination. I was in my classroom and remember the principal coming on the intercom and announcing it and asking for a minute of silence. Thinking about it years later, my memory is so clear that I remember exactly what the intercom panel on the wall looked like, and the hesitation in his voice--for a moment he was about to ask for a minute of silent prayer and caught himself. School-led prayer had been banned from US public schools just a few months earlier. I don't think anybody would have faulted him for making the mistake though, under the circumstances, and I'm sure lots of others did. The teacher (Mrs. Beggs) did her best to make it a learning experience, explaining how presidential succession worked and so forth.
There are other events that are nearly as universal.
Titanic Sinking 15 Apr 1912
Pearl Harbor 7 Dec 1941
VE Day 8 May 1945
Hiroshima 6 Aug 1945
Sputnik 4 Oct 1957
JFK assassination 22 Nov 1963
First orbit around the moon 24 Dec 1968
First moon landing 20 Jul 1969
Challenger disaster 28 Jan 1986
September 11th 11 Sept 2001
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