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These days, it’s hard to shock a television audience. Watching TV is an American pastime; whole generations have been raised by that glowing box.
But live television, usually reserved for news, sporting events, and a single Saturday night-airing sketch comedy show, retains its capacity to capture true-life drama as it unfolds in real time. And those images become unforgettable moments in modern history.
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These days, it's hard to shock a television audience
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Watching TV is an American pastime. Whole generations have been raised by that glowing box
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But live television, usually reserved for news, sporting events, and a single Saturday night airing sketch comedy show
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retains its capacity to capture true-life drama as it unfolds in real time
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And those images become unforgettable moments in modern history. So, today, we're taking a deep dive into the most shocking things
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that have ever been broadcast live on TV. Okay, time for some breaking history
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In 1986, NASA was high on its biggest PR moment since the moon landing
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The organization was going to send a civilian schoolteacher named Chris McAuliffe into space
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She would be accompanying a team of six trained astronauts and broadcasting a pair of lessons back down to Earth while in orbit
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People around the world were eager to see this historic achievement live before their eyes
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A normal person being able to go into space seemed like a massive step forward for humanity
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Tragically, millions watched on television as the Challenger rocket suffered a catastrophic failure and exploded seconds after liftoff
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obliterating the shuttle and its entire crew, including McAuliffe. The disaster crushed public enthusiasm for the space program, and it remains one of the most infamous live broadcasts in history
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In 2015, reporter Allison Parker and her cameraman Adam Ward, working near Roanoke, Virginia
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were interviewing Vicki Gardner, an executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce
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when an unidentified man suddenly approached and gunned them both down. The entire shocking crime was broadcast live
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The perpetrator was Vester Lee Flanagan II, who used to work as a reporter for Roanoke's CBS affiliate
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before being fired in 2013 for inappropriate conduct. Flanagan took the lives of Parker and Ward as revenge for what he felt was mistreatment by the broadcast company
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Vicki Gardner, the interview subject, was hit in the crossfire But she survived her injuries
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A manhunt ensued, with Flanagan leading authorities on a two-mile pursuit Before driving his truck off the road and fatally shooting himself
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As the televised crime was committed, a document written by Flanagan surfaced on ABC News
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In it, he claimed to be inspired by similar acts of violence And insisted he was the victim of discrimination by his former employer
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calling himself a human powder keg just waiting to go boom Christine Chubbuck a newscaster in Sarasota Florida ended her broadcast on July 15th 1974 by saying
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in keeping with the WXLT practice of presenting the most immediate and complete reports of local blood and guts news
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TV 40 presents what is believed to be a television first, in living color and exclusive coverage of an attempted
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then she drew a pistol and used it on herself. live on air. According to sources close to the family, Chubbuck endured a lengthy battle with
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depression and ideation of self-harm and had made a previous attempt on her own life four years
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earlier in 1970. Chubbuck's mother chose not to notify WXLT's management of her daughter's
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struggles because she feared Christine would be fired. A few days before the fatal broadcast
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Chubbuck hosted a party with her co-workers. Sportscaster Craig Sager said, she was having a great time. That was her going away party and it was her chance to say goodbye
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to everyone. But of course, we didn't realize it at the time. In 2016, separate filmmakers released
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two movies about the incident, Christine and Kate Plays Christine, both of which chronicle
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Chubbuck's deteriorating condition in the time leading up to the tragedy. Robert Bud Dwyer was the treasurer of Pennsylvania from 1981 through 1987
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until he became embroiled in a series of scandals and was ultimately convicted of corruption
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On January 22, 1987, the day before his sentencing and facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and potentially 55 years in prison, Dwyer called a press conference
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He gave a rambling 30-minute speech proclaiming his innocence and insisting he was the victim of a widespread conspiracy within the Justice Department to destroy his career
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Near the end of his remarks, he suddenly said something uncharacteristically ominous
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Please leave immediately if you have a weak stomach or mind since I don't want to cause physical or mental distress
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Goodbye to you all on the count of three. Please make sure that the sacrifice of my life is not in vain
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Then Dwyer withdrew a pistol from a manila envelope and shot himself
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The act was broadcast live to numerous Pennsylvania TV stations, with Press Secretary James Horschach pleading for the camera operators to leave the room immediately and show a little decorum
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Despite his efforts, the graphic and upsetting event was recorded by multiple sources
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videotaped copies were widely circulated and Dwyer's dramatic final moments briefly became
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part of the zeitgeist Filters 1995 hit Hey Man Nice Shot is a direct reference to the event and Kurt Cobain was known to watch his copy of the tape obsessively In 1998 Daniel V Jones an HIV maintenance worker from Los Angeles
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parked his truck in the middle of an interstate and unfurled a banner that said
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HMOs are in it for the money. Live free, love safe, or die
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The SWAT team arrived with news helicopters in tow and attempted to negotiate with Jones
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unsure of what the man would do next, or if this standoff was simply an act of protest
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But then, as the police and countless others on live TV watched in shock
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Jones lit himself ablaze before ultimately ending his life with a firearm
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This final dramatic act of protest was aired live on countless TV stations
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even interrupting many afternoon cartoon blocks. Before his final act, Jones threw a videotape onto the freeway
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The authorities viewed it, finding footage of Jones explaining his actions and protesting the immense pain and social stigma he faced as a result of his HIV diagnosis
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Jones reportedly claimed that the disease was affecting his neurological system and that he had no desire to wait around to lose his mind
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Two helicopters collided in the Phoenix, Arizona sky in 2007. Two helicopters from different news stations
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pilot Craig Smith and photographer Rick Krolak were in a Channel 15 chopper
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while pilot Scott Bauerbank and photographer Jim Cox were flying with Channel 3
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were urgently following a police pursuit as it unfolded. In their efforts to keep up with the action, the two pilots somehow wound up in each other's path
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resulting in a mid-air collision that claimed the lives of all four men. After the deadly accident, the families of Smith and Bauerbank filed wrongful death lawsuits against all parties involved
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But these suits were all dismissed. The National Transportation Safety Board ultimately ruled that the pilots themselves were at fault
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for failing to see each other before the collision. In 1960, Japanese right-wing nationalist Otoyo Yamaguchi
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stormed a live televised political debate featuring socialist party chairman Inijiru Asanuma and attacked him with a traditional wakizashi
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or short sword, before being subdued. Asanuma succumbed to his wounds minutes later
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Yamaguchi was carrying a notebook explaining his motivations. It read, in part
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Lee Harvey Oswald was easily the most hated man in America after taking the life of President John F Kennedy in 1963 during a fateful motorcade parade in Dallas However
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when the infamous Zapruder film captured footage of the historic tragedy, it was not actually
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broadcast on television. The same couldn't be said for Oswald's fate. While Oswald was being
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transported between prisons, Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner with ties to organized crime
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leapt from a crowd that had gathered around the notorious assassin and shot Oswald at point-blank
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range while news cameras were rolling. Several now-iconic photographs of the shooting even ran
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in newspapers the following day. It's a live moment that would launch a thousand more conspiracy
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theories, on top of the ones that already surrounded JFK's death. Was Ruby acting alone
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Was he operating as an agent of the mob? What were his ties to the Kennedys
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Unfortunately, we'll probably never know. In 1997, two men robbed a North Hollywood, California Bank of America with a genuine arsenal of firepower
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As the world watched on television, they engaged in a shootout with police
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that injured 11 police officers and 7 innocent bystanders and ended with both thieves fatally shot
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The incident was quickly dubbed the Battle of North Hollywood. The two suspects, Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil Matasarano, had perpetrated one of the most dramatic robberies ever recorded
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During the entire standoff, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 bullets were exchanged between the gunmen and police, as news cameras recorded every second
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Before Sean Nelson was rampaging through the streets of San Diego in a stolen tank
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he was an Army vet, a plumber, a crystal meth addict, and the possible host of an undiagnosed
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mental problem. After stealing a tank from a National Guard armory, Army veteran Sean Nelson
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led police on a 23-minute televised chase through the streets of San Diego, demolishing hundreds of
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thousands of dollars of property as he drove the armored vehicle through entire buildings
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Nelson had found work as a plumber after the military, but was struggling with addiction
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and it's been theorized that he likely had other mental health issues that were going untreated
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Every moment of Nelson's shocking rampage was broadcast on television, as news helicopters followed the stolen tank
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The chase finally came to an end when a police officer climbed onto the tank and fired into the hatch
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fatally striking Nelson. Nelson's motivations remain a mystery, although some observers noted that Nelson just wanted to get the utilities
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and causes much damage without hurting people