I was a senior in high school when former Beatle John Lennon was shot to death outside his home near Central Park.  It was a pretty shocking story and I remember reading about in the newspapers, watching it on television, and talking about it the next day.   It turned out to be the beginning of  a stretch of time in our history that would rival 1968.

Four months later, President Ronald Reagan was shot during an assassination attempt outside the Hilton hotel in Washington.  He survived along with another world leader who was shot six weeks later:  Pope John Paul II.