Those were the days, my friend

Ask anyone over 60 if they can remember what they were doing when they heard President Kennedy was assassinated (November 22, 1963) and the chances are they will have complete recall.

The shock of the totally unexpected cruel act of violence numbed the consciousness of the public and created a vivid and permanent image of what they were doing at that specific time.

Ask anyone under 30 if they can remember what they were doing when they heard of the events of 9/11 (September 11, 2001) and it is likely that they, too, will have total recall.

It is not our preoccupation with morbid events that causes this memory recall, but the ability to link a major event with a more trivial one that is happening at the same time. To each person, their own particular memory, good or bad, but often recalled by something else more dramatic that coincided with the event.

In selecting 30 memorable events over 30 years, the list, by its very nature, must be subjective. One compilation is unlikely to conform to another selection, for many reasons.

For example, if you got married in the past 30 years, then it is possible it was the most significant and memorable event that happened for you (or possibly not, depending on your marriage). The list we have published is entirely subjective and no apology is made for that. Someone has to make a choice and it will be that person's view on the life experienced over the years.

Many people would agree that a significant event that took place in 1978 was the appointment of a non-Italian Pope for the first time in over 450 years. It is an event that would have certainly spiked the interest of the world's 1.13 billion Catholics, but may have been of lesser interest to the 1.3 billion Muslims. However, Pope John Paul II went on to be the second longest serving pope - 27 years - and is only the fourth pope to be acclaimed "The Great".

No middle ground

In the great meaning of things, one is entitled to ask how that compares to Margaret Thatcher becoming Britain's first woman prime minister? She held the post for 11 years, eventually ousted from power by nervous colleagues who saw her as more of a liability than a benefit. She succeeded in smashing the trade unions and, others would argue, she squandered the oil revenue. However, whatever ones' political leanings, with Thatcher there was no middle ground, which can also be said of the British public.

Many people may look upon the collapse of the Soviet Union as being the most significant event of the past three decades. It put an end to the balance of power between the Soviet Union and the US. This, anyway, was a mythological state of presumed superiority, militarily, technologically and economically.

Third World countries liked to play one "Super Power" off against the other in order to achieve more beneficial terms for whatever project - arms or aid - they wanted. But following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it came to light there was no equal balance: the Soviets were about two to three decades behind in military and industrial technology. Yet this is rapidly changing as Russia's new-found oil and gas wealth enables it to be more competitive in the world, while dictating to Eur-ope, and others, when providing their energy needs.

As Russia's economy has grown stronger, it develops a more bullish attitude in world diplomacy, the economy and confidence of the US has become less assured. Although the US is still ahead technologically in many areas, its economy, which drives the global economy, is presently suffering from one crisis after another.

Celebrated elder statesman

It would not be remiss, with the present turmoil in South African politics, to remember that it was 16 years ago that apartheid came to an end, which led two years later to the election of that country's first black president, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela who, in retirement, now enjoys the position as the country's most celebrated elder statesman.

Depending upon your perception - macro or micro - and interests in life, significant events will vary. Merely touching bases on a couple in the past 30 years will obviously exclude many others you may consider important. Hopefully, though, it will have whetted your appetite to delve into the past more assiduously.

1

Pole Wojtyla is first non-Italian pope

October 16, 1978: 58-year-old Pole Karol Wojtyla, elected as successor to Pope John Paul I. The new pope, John Paul II, becomes first non-Italian to be elected supreme pontiff since 1522 and the first Pole ever to be chosen.

2

Tanzanian troops capture Kampala

April 11, 1979: Tanzanian troops capture Ugandan President Idi Amin's capital Kampala and exiled leader Yusufu Lule announces formation of a new government. Once the laughing stock of the world for his claims to have "conquered the British Empire" and later reviled for ordering the deaths of thousands of his opponents, Amin took power in a 1971 coup.

3

Thatcher first woman PM

May 4, 1979: Conservative party leader Margaret Thatcher takes office as the first woman PM in the history of Britain. She succeeds James Callaghan.

4

Skylab comes crashing down

July 12, 1979: Skylab, the 77.5 ton spacecraft sent up in 1973 to continue the spectacular manned space voyages of the Apollos, crashes down to earth 6 years, 1 month and 27 days after its launch.

5

Earl Mountbatten killed in blast

August 27, 1979: The Queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten, is killed by a bomb blast on his boat in Ireland. One of the Earl's twin grandsons, Nicholas, 14, and a local employed as a boat boy, are also killed in the blast.

6

Rhodesian peace treaty signed

December 21, 1979: Rhodesian peace agreement formally signed, ending the seven-year guerrilla war and launching the southern African territory on the path to legal independence.

7

US President Reagan wounded

March 30, 1981: US President Ronald Reagan is shot and wounded in the left side of his chest while leaving a Washington hotel where he had addressed a labour union organisation. White House Press Secretary James Brady is wounded in the head.

8

Prince Charles weds Lady Diana

July 29, 1981: Prince Charles, 32, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 20, in a fairytale wedding watched and heard throughout the world by an estimated 1 billion people. London explodes with colour and neighbourhood celebrations are held throughout the UK.

9

Argentina invades Falkland Islands

April 2, 1982: Argentina's armed forces invade and occupy the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, sparking a war with the UK.

10

President Reagan re-elected

January 6, 1984: US President Ronald Reagan wins re-election to a four-year term on a tidal wave of votes that buries Democrat Walter Mondale and amounted to a sweeping approval of his conservative leadership.

11

Gorbachev takes over as party chief

March 11, 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, takes over as Communist Party General Secretary after the death of President Konstantin Chernenko. Gorbachev's speedy election to the top post in the Communist party within 12 hours is regarded as confirmation that his election was not disputed.

12

Mid-air blast destroys Air India plane

June 23, 1985: A mid-air explosion destroys an Air India jumbo jet, sending it crashing into the North Atlantic off Ireland, killing all 329 people aboard.

13

Challenger explodes

January 28, 1986: Space shuttle Challenger explodes into a gigantic fireball 75 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members, including a school teacher. Fragments of the $1.2 billion spacecraft, one of four in Nasa's shuttle fleet, fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

14

East Germany opens

November 9, 1989: East Germany throws open its prison-like western borders to its frustrated people, letting them travel or emigrate freely in the most stunning move since it built the Berlin Wall in 1961.

15

Ceausescu and wife executed

December 25, 1989: Deposed Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena are executed by the army after a secret trial. A tribunal declared him guilty of a series of crimes against the state, including genocide. Ceausescu, 71, became Communist Party leader in 1965 and took over as the head of state 10 years later.

16

Mandela released after 27 years

February 11, 1990: African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela walks out of prison and tells black South Africans that armed struggle against white rule must go on. Mandela, released after 27 years behind bars, says the ANC had been forced into a guerrilla war in 1960 as "a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid".

17

Major new British PM

November 27, 1990: John Major becomes Britain's new Prime Minister after emerging as the clear winner in the Conservative leadership contest. A week after Michael Heseltine's "challenge" brought to an end Thatcher's 15-year term as party leader, Tory MPs decide to jump a generation and elect Major, who at 47 becomes the youngest prime minister of the century.

18

Yeltsin at the helm

August 19, 1991: Russian President Boris Yeltsin stands his ground against the hardline junta that ousted President Mikhail Gorbachev in a coup at dawn. Yeltsin was the sole obstacle preventing a complete takeover by the eight-man State of Emergency Committee, which had declared Gorbachev ill and unfit to rule.

19

New entity replaces USSR

September 5, 1991: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is dissolved, to be replaced by a new organisation called the Confederation of Independent States.

20

Gorbachev resigns

December 25, 1991: President Mikhail Gorbachev grimly announces his resignation and hands control of Russia's huge nuclear arsenal to Boris Yeltsin. As the Soviet hammer and sickle flag comes down from the Kremlin towers for the last time, Gorbachev calls in a nationwide television address for the democratic gains of his six and three-quarter year rule to be defended.

21

Croatia and Slovenia earn recognition

January 14, 1992: Croatia and Slovenia win their battle for international recognition as independent states, dealing a fatal blow to the Yugoslav federation.

22

De Klerk posts big win in referendum

March 17, 1992: South Africa's whites give President F. W. de Klerk's reforms a resounding endorsement with a landslide "yes" vote in the referendum on a new democratic constitution and power-sharing with blacks.

23

Huge turnout for South Africa polls

April 26, 1994: Defying bombs and bureaucratic bungling, black South Africans vote for the first time in a resounding declaration that they are free at last. The old, the maimed, the sick, the jailed and the exiled stride and shuffle - some are carried - to polling stations across the country and abroad for the first "special day" of the three-day, all-race elections.

24

Mandela sworn in as president

May 10, 1994: Nelson Mandela, sworn in as South Africa's first black President after a long journey from prison to power, pledges to create from the darkness of apartheid a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world. In a moving ceremony which draws thousands of joyous blacks and many celebrating whites to the former heart of white minority rule, he urges South Africans to forget past bitterness and unite to end poverty, suffering and all discrimination.

25

Diana killed in Paris car crash

August 31, 1997: Princess Diana is killed in a high-speed Paris car crash as she is pursued by photographers on motorcycles. Diana's tragic death triggered a worldwide outpouring of grief for a woman whose life was both fairytale and tragedy. Diana, 36, dies with millionaire companion Dodi Al Fayed.

26

World's six billionth baby born

October 11, 1999: The United Nations declares the son of a refugee to be the world's six billionth baby, honouring the newborn from Bosnia as the symbolic hope for the planet's next generation. Fatima Nevic, 29, gave birth to the 3.55kg boy, making Adnan Nevic the world's designated six billionth person.

27

Bush becomes 43rd us president

January 20, 2001: George Walker Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd President of the US, becoming only the second son in American history to follow his father to the White House. In a first act after taking office, Bush issues an order that essentially blocks some of the last-minute executive orders and rules laid down by Clinton.

28

Columbia blows up over Texas

February 1, 2003: The space shuttle Columbia breaks up in the skies over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.

29

American Tito is first-ever space tourist

April 28, 2001: US millionaire businessman Dennis Tito is thrust into orbit aboard a Russian rocket heading for the International Space Station and into the history books as the world's first space tourist.

30

Hijacked jets unleash terror in the US

September 11, 2001: In coordinated attacks, two hijacked commercial planes slam into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, causing both 110-storey landmarks to collapse in devastating clouds of flame and smoke and killing nearly 3,000 people starting their workday inside. Another plane to San Francisco from Newark International Airport, New Jersey, crashes near Pittsburgh in southern Pennsylvania. A fourth plane hits the western part of the Pentagon in Washington.