ABSTRACT
Some events are so momentous as to be unforgettable. The election of Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States on November 4, 2008, was a moment in history that will remain an enduring, lifelong memory for many of the millions of onlookers who witnessed it, whether in the United States or via international news coverage. Fifty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, on November 22, 1963, people around the world old enough to have personal memories of the president’s death are still able to recall where they were, and what they were doing, when they first heard news of the tragedy. It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that, 50 years after Obama’s first election to the White House, surviving witnesses of the occasion will similarly be able to recall how, and when, they first witnessed the images of his victory speech in Grant Park, Chicago, on that memorable autumnal evening.
