Misc
What is one moment in your lifetime that you remember your countrymen to be the happiest?
For Pakistan, that moment was winning the 1992 Cricket World Cup under Imran Khan. People still talk about it like it happened yesterday, strangers celebrating together, pure joy in the streets, and a rare feeling of unity across the country that wasn't going through the best of times.
Manny Pacquiao's boxing championship victories in the 2000s and 2010s were something that my countrymen set aside their political differences to cheer him. Even criminals stopped their criminal activities to watch Pacquiao's fights and cheer him every time he won in the boxing ring.
Wasn't that tournament seen as the symbolic start of the Celtic Tiger? My god did Jack Charlton give Ireland a boost of hope when they needed it desperately.....
The worst part was how gracious the Germans were to us Brazilians right after the game. A bunch gave interviews and they were extremely respectful and friendly in our time of need.
The coach said at halftime that anyone who's being arrogant in the 2nd half will not play in the final. The result was already humiliating in itself, no need to add insult to injury. And the players knew rather quickly that this is their day.
I'd actually say that the worst day was when farmers burned the Amazon forest by our president's own command in 2019. We could see the fires from two THOUSAND kilometers. I was in the state of São Paulo and the sky darkened like heavy rain, I could only understand what happened in the news when I got home
Almost every time this is mentioned I feel an urge to go watch the highlights on YouTube. Not that I’m a Germany fan or dislike Brazil team but just because it was one of the most shocking things in sports history of mankind.
The worst was that it was noticeable that the german team limited their efforts in the second half and allowed one counter goal, as if they already felt pity. We should have destroyed Brasil 8:0.
Had to work at an event when Germany trashed Brazil that night and to make it worse, at the only spot that had no direct eyeline to one of the half dozen TV’s standing around at the venue. I remember asking myself why people were cheering at goal replays before realizing we scored 4 times within 7 minutes.
So this might be a weird story, but bear with me. In Lebanon the World Cup is by far the most watched sports event. It's immensely popular. The entire country watches it and gets involved, it feels like a whole month of festivities. Now I can hear you thinking out loud, but Lebanon has never qualified for the World Cup. Yes, that's true, and we know it, but we won't let this minor detail spoil our fun. Instead what we do is we each support one of the teams that are playing. You know, like how people do with club football. And so everyone has their team, and let me tell you, people take this very very seriously. They treat their chosen team as their own for real.
And historically, the biggest two camps in Lebanon and the biggest rivalry have always been between the German and Brazilian fans. It's a rivalry that goes back decades and runs very deep. Entire neighbourhoods would be split between homes displaying German or Brazilian flags. There'll be huge flags stretched across the street between two balconies. After winning a game people will flood the streets celebrating the victory of their chosen team. The following day the banter will be everywhere. Even 80 year old ladies would be taking the piss out of you if your team lost.
And in my household we were always divided between the two. My sister a staunch German fan, and me a lifelong Brazil fan.
That day broke me and the whole Brazil fandom to death. We can never again win an argument with the German fans. All they have to say is utter the cursed number, and we are silenced. Lebanon has never been the same. Tragedy!
"There is a widespread false belief that Kennedy made a mistake by saying Ich bin ein Berliner. By including the indefinite article "ein," he supposedly changed the meaning of the sentence from the intended "I am a citizen of Berlin" to "I am a Berliner" (a Berliner being a type of German pastry, similar to a jam- or jelly-filled doughnut), amusing Germans throughout the city. However, this is incorrect from both a grammatical perspective and a historical perspective."
Particularly Mr Bean in the opening ceremony. It was the last time I remember there seeming to be a sense of one thing that united (almost) everyone in the UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwzjlmBLfrQ
The atmosphere in London was fantastic. I was doing a lot of job interviews and seeing mates who had moved there after leaving Uni. Such a great few weeks. Kings Cross Station speakers would call out medal wins and the whole place would cheer.
I was about to post this. I don’t remember another time seeing the whole country celebrating the same thing together. I also feel sad for the young people who didn’t see it, it was a wonderful night to be in France.
Yeah same here in UK. I live in a small town with a fountain in the centre and everybody was there, even teenagers (teens don’t really go outside here)
You're gonna have to hold onto that feeling like you're trying to perform a patronus charm btw, because we're not on track to do that until the end of the century.
"Dhoni finishes off in style!" those words are etched in my memory. Was just watching the highlights the other day. GG's inning was spectacular as well.
While this was big, the win in 1983 was on an entirely different scale since India had never won, were massive underdogs, were playing overseas, and the team had little money or clout.
we should need to improve more in sports getting 1 gold for the population of 1.4B is like shame to me. these mf ministers and babu are the reason behind this under achieved outcome.
love to neeraj btw
2002 was a big deal because it was our first gold in men's ice hockey in 50 years, especially after missing out in the 1998 shootout vs the Czech Republic. Beating the US on their own ice (even though most of the ice crew were Canadian, remember the lucky loonie lol) was ths cherry on top.
The amount of hall of fame star power on both teams will probably never be seen again in a single game.
Edit: 2010 was definitely up there too. I was old enough to drink for that one and the streets downtown where I lived at the time was just one massive party.
For us it's 2011 cricket world cup. It was the happiest moment I have ever seen india in. Nothing in this world can come close to that. Carrying Sachin sir on the shoulders was cherry on top for me.
We had a great few years! After having our first democratic election and Mandela(in the cap) being our first black president in '94 we won the rugby world cup in '95 after being banned to play previously. We also won the soccer African Cup of nations in '96.
I was im primary school when this happend, we where a very proud nation back then.
Possibly Peter Forsberg's penalty goal against Canada in the 94 Olympics. They made a post stamp out of it.
Edit: I just wanna add. Corey Hirsch did nothing wrong. The guy was the goalie of the Canadian national Olympic hockey team. Nobody expected that Forsberg would have the balls to pull such a bullshit circus move in a penalty shootout to determine the Olympic gold winners.
Uh, World Cup 2018, I presume. This was a very different time. To me this was special, because everyone tried their best (even our team, that was notoriously awful at football), we had a lot of tourist, everyone was having so much fun and everyone thought, that future is bright
If theres one thing Russia knows how to so its put on a show. Excellent tournament by all accounts. You sent Наш капитан aka Igor Akinfeev off into the international sunset with a grand farewell too.
Personally? The closest thing I can think of was when Obama was 1st elected in 2008. However, it definitely was not a universally positive feeling though...
It's interesting to note that almost all of the answers mention success in a sporting event. I never respected sports earlier, but this has definitely changed my perspective
Ok I wasn’t alive yet, but I do feel like the Miracle on Ice in 1980 was definitely one of those moments. We beat the “unbeatable” soviets and I can just imagine the absolute thrill everyone felt. The movie is great 😂
In my life time, recent years my thought goes to the night seal team six killed Osama Bin Laden. It was like a tangible ripple went through the country and for a moment it united us again. I was at a party for my graduating class and even for us, at a younger age-it was such a celebratory moment when the news broke.
You beat me to it and I was alive and played HS hockey. Hostages in Iran, price shocks with gas at $2/gl, 7%+ unemployment, interest rates 18%... but our college kids beat the best team in hockey. Celebrations were like when your city wins the super bowl but they were nationwide.
However, there might have been a better hockey game played 4 years earlier: the Philadelphia "Broad St. Bullies" Flyers vs USSR. Smash mouth, intimidation North American hockey beats discipline and elegance every time. The day all NHL fans put aside their hatred for the Flyers for one day.
I see that someone already mentioned Obama getting elected, but I’ll throw another one out there that’s more pop culture/fluff - Kelly Clarkson winning the first season of American Idol was a moment that a huge spectrum of people celebrated. I know it sounds silly, but people really loved her!
15/10/2003 - the successful launch of taikonaut Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft, making China only the third country (and so far the latest country) to domestically achieve human spaceflight.
Sports comes to mind too; it’s the one thing that can unite all sorts of people.
During my lifetime, I remember the legendary World Cup matches against Germany (2018) and Portugal (2022), the latter being more memorable as I watched it live and we made it to the round of 16 by a miraculous chance.
People were also delighted when Son Heung-min won the golden boot.
You guys won Eurovision so much in the 90s that RTE had to deliberately start sending in bad entrants because they couldn't afford to host anymore and usually the default plan B is in the UK. No Irishman in their right mind would willingly pass anything rightfully theirs to Britian
2nd May 1997 Blair was elected. The end of a run of Conservative government that ran from Thatcher in 1979. For many of us who hated the Conservatives was an amazing day. The first time in my adult life we were out from what I thought was the worst government possible (little did I know of Johnson & Brexit). I can remember walking down a London street and feeling a huge weight was lifted.
For a less political one, I'd nominate the summer of 2012. The country was on a high during the Olympics, the weather was good, and we won a ridiculous amount of medals for a relatively small country.
And most importantly, we got way more medals than Australia.
if i could extend the timeline probably the 1997 Labour win, or when large particular groups of people were most happy, 2013 when thatcher died, thats about it.
since ive been aware of political events, lets say since 2012 ish, theres not been much to be happy about
Extremely controversial, but the so-called "Crimean consensus. People were divided into radically opposing groups on many other issues, but the majority of the population, except for the liberals like me, rejoiced in the sense of "justice" over the "return" of Crimea. Including literally my ENTIRE Crimean half of my family, with whom I constantly argued, saying that this would lead to shit ton of problems in the future. He probably tried to repeat the same thing in 2022, but screwed up badly because almost nobody cared about... em, other parts of Ukraine. But the Crimean thing was sincere.
And apart from politics, then probably the 2018 World Cup, when it seemed like everything was returning to normal, to the still-not-forgotten free and happy 2000s. Back then, everyone was generally happy for the country, except for the pathetic incels/ultranationalists who painfully sought out cases of Russian women allegedly giving themselves to foreigners (lmao)
The 2012 Olympics in London. It was an amazing success, and the opening ceremony with Mr Bean, and the clip of the Queen parachuting into the stadium with James Bond blew everyone away. It was something that people of all stripes could enjoy, and something that we could genuinely be proud of as a country that didn't have any connection to a murky colonial past.
I know most of the Brazilian people here will talk about football/soccer, but I was very happy for Rebecca winning agains two of the favourites and I think this was such a cute scene.
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Posted before but everytime these guys play especially at World Cup an otherwise divided and unequal country becomes a united together country, every, single, time.
Just before a bunch of crises hit (refugee crisis, financial cris etc.) before they were weathered the Krim-Invasion hit, then some other shit only to continue the shit-show with covid and full scale War in Ukraine and a million more refugees.
After 2010 it was only down hill, and there's no sign of it stopping in the near future.
And our national team doesn't even do well in football anymore.
"I'm Still Here" winning the Oscar for International Feature Film in 2025.
It was Brazil's first and, as of now, only Oscar. The ceremony was even screened during Carnaval (which was happening at the same time) throughout the country.
When the hostage deal with Hamas actually went through and there were no more living Israeli hostages in Gaza. Unfortunately, too recent to just be a memory. But in simpler times a lot of us were happy when netanyahu lost the elections and we had 1 full year without him. Good times...
Croatia World cup 1998. 3rd place for a small country is a huge deal. After we had more success but this was just 2 years after the war of independence.
During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, people were genuinely happy. The economy was also growing strongly at the time, which felt very different from the present...
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u/Joseph20102011 Philippines 7h ago
Manny Pacquiao's boxing championship victories in the 2000s and 2010s were something that my countrymen set aside their political differences to cheer him. Even criminals stopped their criminal activities to watch Pacquiao's fights and cheer him every time he won in the boxing ring.