I was born during WWII so can remember nothing of it. The first conflict I remember hearing about was the Malayan Emergency which started in 1948. When the radio news announcers referred to guerillas I thought they meant gorillas. For some considerable time aftewards I was convinced the terrorists were using trained apes to attack British troops.

I can say with reasonable confidence, that I think you have never seen a movie called Captain Ron, Doug.

"Stay outta the jungle boss, there's Go-rillas in there!" This is the premise for some great cheesy American comedy.
I think it's easy to tack off the major events of MY life from a "what made the headlines" standpoint, but "what affected my life most?" 9/11 first.......I had just gotten established in a job in the aviation buisness where I was making a lot of money doing what I loved best, flying airplanes, and those A$$h0l3s f**cked it up! No I'm not disregarding the lives that were lost. BUT this was NOT a matter of lives lost, first and foremost(more people die of heart attacks on this planet in the course of one day), the biggest issue, in my opinion, was the idea that the Western world was no longer allowed to sit back and enjoy the same basic freedoms that it had before that day. I can't even walk around my favorite LOCAL airport anymore(they put up an 8foot chain link fence), and flying(even recreational) is fast becoming a pastime for the wealthy.
The BIGGEST event in MY life though, I would consider to be the fall of the Berlin wall and the "Iron Curtain" along with it. It was the ultimate letdown. Intitially, it seemed like Utopia come of Earth, to my 20 year old naive eyes. It would now seem that many of us long for that comfort of the "old days", when the lines were very clearly drawn and things seemed much simpler.
.....so I loaded up the plane and moved to Middle-EEEE..........OIL..that is......