Middle School - Being bussed from your neighborhood school across town to a TAG Magnet school with a bunch of white people (who were the definite minority at the local school) at the onset of puberty in '85/'86 was the WORST. I've mentally blocked 6th-8th grade

Len Bias - I was a big Celtics fan at the time, thanks to Larry Legend. I remember hearing of Bias' death in Spanish class. Took over a decade for the Celtics to recover. I'm not sure I did and moved on from the team. Adopting the Knicks didn't do me any favors in the late 80's/90's, so there's that

Challenger Explosion - A few teachers in our school knew Christa McAuliffe and were watching live. This pretty much was like watching a snuff film in 6th grade. Everyone was traumatized, students, teachers, everyone.

The Death of Optimus Prime - You have middle school boys openly crying about a cartoon character, you dune f*cked up. Put me off Transformers for a while.

Trouble T-Roy - His was probably the first hip hop death that resonated with me. It was an accident. No beef. Everybody loved Heavy D and The Boyz. And at the time, you only heard from the radio, MTV, or the monthly music mag of choice, so details and facts trickled in slowly. I didn't like Peaceful Journey, but gave Hev a huge pass for it. We got T.R.O.Y out of it, though most that hear it have no clue where it stemmed from.

Bonus: Anytime KITT got destroyed. That was a long week waiting for the cliffhanger for him to get rebuilt.