A full 76% of the American public include the Sept. 11 terror attacks as one of the 10 events with the greatest impact during their lifetime, according to a PEW national online survey of 2,025 adults conducted June 16-July 4, 2016.
The question they were asked was: “Please name the 10 historic events that occurred in YOUR lifetime that you think have had the greatest impact on the country. This could be one specific event, a series of related events or any other historic development or change that had an important impact on the nation.”
The top 11 answers were:
1. Sept. 11 – 76%
2. Obama elections – 40
3. The tech revolution – 22
4. JFK assassination – 21
5. Vietnam war – 20
6. Iraq/Afghanistan wars – 17
7. Moon landing – 17
8. Fall of Berlin Wall/end of Cold War – 13
9. Gay marriage – 11
10. Orlando shooting – 10
11. Gulf War – 10
The perceived historic importance of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon span virtually every traditional demographic divide, the Pew survey reports. Majorities of men and women, Millennials and Baby Boomers, Americans with college degrees and those without a high school diploma, and more than seven-in-ten Republicans and Democrats rate 9/11 as one of the 10 most historically significant events to occur during their lifetime.
For the oldest Americans, the unifying event is World War II. For Baby Boomers, the assassination of JFK and the Vietnam War. For Millennials and Gen Xers, the 9/11 terror attacks and the Obama election.
The Columbine school shooting makes the top 10 list of Millennials and Gen Xers but not Boomers or the Silent Generation. Millennials also included the Sandy Hook and Orlando/Pulse nightclub shootings, the death of Osama bin Laden, the Boston Marathon bombing and the Bush/Obama Recession, which appear in no other generation’s top 10 list.