Where were you when the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago? I was a little over 1 year old, possibly in a crib, definitely blissfully ignorant of the changes taking place. I may have been alive for the end of the Cold War, but I don’t remember it. By the time I was aware of the world and watching the news, America had emerged from that chapter of history.

I’ve read stories about the fall of the wall, seen pictures before, during and after it came down and listened to the speeches imploring Soviet leaders to tear it down. I’ve even touched the largest remaining piece of the wall in Berlin itself. Still, I have absolutely no personal connection to the event.

This got me thinking: What major events 20 years from now will the media devote significant reportage to? What events will I look back on, remember watching live on the news and feel an emotional connection with? There’s the obvious answer: Sept. 11. But since then, no monumental, world-changing-in-an-instant events have occurred.

The strange fact is, since the fall of the wall, so called red-letter days have become much less frequent. Our generation, the children of the ’90s, experienced almost none of the world in our formative days — we experienced none of the crucial events which characterized the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

Our parents, on the other hand, saw a rapid succession of days that would be immortalized in history. If we begin the count in the early 1960s, one of the first events universally remembered is the death of John F. Kennedy on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963. With television almost ubiquitous, JFK’s assassination established the model of hugely important news spreading in a matter of minutes.

In fact, according to Kennedy Assassination and the American Public: Social Communication in Crisis by William L. Rivers and B. Greenberg, nine out of 10 Americans knew of the shooting within one hour of its occurrence. No respondents heard of the news via newspaper. Even before the Internet, the events on red-letter days were common knowledge within minutes.

The next event which, without exception, the parents of our generation remember distinctly was likely Apollo 11’s successful arrival on the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong touched his foot to the surface, uttered his famous, baffling quote (if only he had remember to include “a” between “for” and “man”) and 500 million people watched live on their televisions. America took the largest prize in the space race and instantly established itself as the top superpower.

The 1970s saw a string of important events which suddenly changed the course of the nation — Richard Nixon’s resignation, the beginning of the Vietnam War, the start of the Iran hostage crises, the Three Mile Island accident — but few were true red-letter days.

The 1980s, however, contained at least a couple true red-letter days. On Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1986 the space shuttle Challenger broke apart during liftoff, killing its seven-member crew. Video and stills from the even still abound today and media at the time were saturated with it. America’s space program was suddenly under fire and the future of space flight was questionable. Decades later when the space shuttle Columbia suffered a similar fate as it returned to Earth, media attention was high, but the Challenger’s loss seemed to numb us from being shocked.

Just a few years later, on Thursday, Nov. 9, 1989, the wall finally fell. Its destruction set off a wave of changes throughout the Soviet Union which eventually ended the Cold War. The children of the ’90s may have been alive, but many of us couldn’t even say the word “Berlin” at that time, much less understand the weight of this event.

These memories bring us to present day. Between the fall of the wall and now, only one event has been a true red-letter day — Sept 11. While that tragedy has shaped our lives and America’s direction for eight years, we haven’t seen any sudden changes in government, any amazing, instantaneous breakthroughs or assassinations since. We haven’t walked on uncharted planets or torn down any walls.

The children of the ’90s are different. Whether it’s because we’ve know what’s coming before it’s happened or because not much has occurred, there aren’t many events we’ll all remember where were when we became aware of them. Newspapers, assuming they exist in 20 years, won’t have many retrospectives tied to a single date we all remember. Maybe we’re overdue for a red-letter day. If that’s the case, let’s hope and try to make sure the next red-letter day is something truly great.

Associate Editor Brett Weinstein is a College senior from Scarsdale, N.Y.