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Top news events: Your picks
 SPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- As CNN celebrates its anniversary by highlighting the most memorable news stories of the past 25 years, we've asked readers to participate by sending in their comments about the events that had an impact on their lives. To contribute your top story picks from the past 25 years, complete this form. The list is organized according to reader picks. (Read some previous responses) AIDSBuddy Brown: AIDS -- the disease was first "discovered" when I was a senior in high school. I would have to say that is the top news event of the past 25 years, since it forever changed the world. Seth McClurkin: When Magic Johnson announced he had the HIV virus. We were in basketball practice and someone ran to the gym crying telling us the story. No one could believe it: Magic had AIDS. It changed a lot of people's lives that day, knowing this was a real thing that could affect anyone, even a healthy basketball player. Baby Jessica rescueAmy Billings: October 16, 1987, was my 15th birthday and the celebration was cut short by a little girl being pulled out of a well. My mother had planned for the family to have dinner, then cake, then presents. We only had dinner that night. I remember not being able to stop watching the TV as the rescue workers worked relentlessly to save Baby Jessica. More importantly, I remember them succeeding. I woke up the next morning and realized that we had totally forgotten to have cake and my presents were unopened on the kitchen table. It was a birthday that I will definitely never forget. Baseball strikeAndy Kosut: The news event that shaped my life the most is the MLB strike of 1994. If that season had continued to the end Matt Williams might have easily broken Roger Maris' single season HR record, and Tony Gwynn may have had a real shot at a .400 batting average. Brazil electionJulie Dudgeon: I was in Brazil in 1989-90 as a high school exchange student. Witnessing the first presidential elections in decades was an incredible experience! It made me learn to appreciate the democratic system we have been blessed with in this country. Challenger disasterJames Knake: I remember being in college and seeing the Challenger disaster on the news. I just remember thinking for the first time in my life that we can't take life for granted. Tammy Bigwood: I will never forget being in 6th grade and watching the Challenger go down. We made sympathy cards and sent them to Christa McAuliffe's family. I just didn't understand why that had to happen. Fall of communismJohn Murray: The fall of communism is, to me, the greatest series of events in my lifetime. Its legacy is one of suffering, loss of individual esteem and pollution of the environment. Linnea Takacs: It's a tie for me. On the positive side, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and communism, and on the negative side the attack on the World Trade Center and the ensuing war in Iraq. Gulf WarMichael Freitag: The original Gulf War was immense in the effect it had on me. I remember sitting as a high schooler watching the news of the first wave of attacks crying and wondering. Would this erupt to world war 3, would I be fighting in this war one day soon? Would the brothers of my friends come home alive and intact? Unlike the outrage of 9/11, there was no sentimental reason to go off and fight this battle. Funny how we had to go back and do the job right. Kim Joralemon: I remember waking up one morning in 1989 and seeing the overwhelming view of Baghdad and the anti-aircraft fire illuminating the sky. It was quite frightening and fantastic all at the same time. I was late for work that day so I could continue watching. E. Abecassis: The war in the Gulf -- I was just dating my husband when the war was on CNN -- the war was actually on TV! My boyfriend and I found it amazing and after having dinner would go to his place to watch the war (subsequently taping over 25 hours of footage thinking we'd never see anything like it again). Lennon's deathMark Freshwater: December 8, 1980, the night John Lennon was shot and killed in front of his apartment in New York. His death was the end of innocence for me. No suicide, no overdose but a violent, senseless murder from a deranged fan who hours earlier asked and received an autograph from his "idol." This truly was the day that music died. Oklahoma City bombingMissy Merritt: The bombing of the Murrah Federal Building was a turning point in many young people's lives. Many assumed it was a foreign terrorist group. It was even more devastating when we found out it was Americans. Olympic Park bombingKory Gollan: I will never forget trucking out of Centennial Park after the '96 bomb went off, going by the CNN building and then watching CNN in the hotel room to find out exactly what happened. Princess Diana's deathBettie McDonald: The sudden death of Princess Di gave me reason to pause and enjoy today with my family. Jessica Johnson: Princess Diana's death was such a shock to me. I was 4 years old when I saw her marry her Prince Charles and become a princess. I couldn't wait until I grew up so that I could become a princess, too. I fell to the floor and cried when I saw the news report that she had died. It was so sad because she had finally come into her own and was enjoying life after so many years of being stifled by the royal family and being in a bad marriage. I also cried for William and Harry -- knowing that they were about to wake up and hear the devastating news. RwandaBetty Rucamuvyuma: The 1994 Rwandan genocide. That nearly a million people were killed in such a barbaric way (most by machetes wielded by their neighbors) and so quickly makes one's faith in humanity waver. That the world (especially the countries and institutions that had the means and the duty to intervene) stood by as the Tutsi people were nearly wiped out makes one wonder whether, for the West, Africa is even still on the world map. September 11, 2001Randy Reed: 9/11 still has the most impact for me. It has made me and most of my friends rethink our place in history and the world. Kim Joralemon: I remember going to work the morning of 9/11, and our company sent us all home for the day. I drove through town and noticed how people were in shock. We all were in shock. The church door was wide open when normally it's closed. That night my neighbors and I lit candles and stood on the sidewalk outside our complex. Complete strangers stopped and talked about the event. How horrifying it was at that time, but also I wished that Americans could be that cohesive all the time. I felt great tenderness for everyone after the tragedy. Beth Raines: September 11, 2001, will forever hold a sad feeling in my heart. Leonie Wishnew: I'll never forget the morning (9/11) I was awoken by my son just outside of D.C., shouting into the phone to turn on the TV. He had [lost] visual on his laptop, and I talked him though the second plane. We were both speechless and just stayed on the phone with each other for (it seems like eternity) hours. He was due to be at the towers for his client. Carole Crawford: 9/11 changed all our lives forever. Watching the tragedy unfold, the sinking realization that it wasn't simply a movie with a clever plot but reality in the here and now, we were all in disbelief. It was as though we were moving in slow motion. At work we gathered before the television, watching with literally our mouths open and tears flowing. My employer instructed everyone to leave work and retrieve our children from school. We didn't know the portent, or the extent, of the attack on America or when it would stop. We still don't. Tiananmen SquareJ. Leung: While I was just a touch too young to remember much of the news coverage, I remember seeing the tanks roll over the students in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. Even though I was only 6 at the time, I knew something was not right with China, which was right behind a thin border to the north of where I lived in (Hong Kong). U.S. hostages' returnBob Chisholm: The return trip of the hostages from Iran was a watershed moment for me. They arrived at Stewart Airport and traveled to the USMA. The route was lined with signs, yellow ribbons and many, many people, and the warmth and enthusiasm of the greetings helped me get over the bitterness towards the treatment returning Vietnam veterans received a decade earlier. 
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