http://tvguide.com/special/100moments/5.asp
20. SEINFELD'S MASTER OF YOUR DOMAIN (11/18/92)
It was gripping comedy at its finest. But who actually won the contest that turned Seinfeld into a bona fide comedy institution? The show's fans did — hands down.
19. CLINTON DENIES AFFAIR (1/26/98)
Clinton's 11-word proclamation led to the ultimate presidential backroom drama — and allowed the GOP to dream the impeachable dream.
18. SAMMY KISSES ARCHIE (2/19/72)
Sammy Davis Jr. kissing Archie Bunker's cheek the moment a photo of them is taken proved to be the ultimate race laugh-riot — and was Sammy's way of telling Archie, "I gotta be me."
17. THE DEATH OF DALE EARNHARDT (2/18/01)
The terrible moment of impact on that black Sunday forever shifted the way drivers — and fans — view life behind the wheel, and robbed the sport of its defining hero.
16. THE ROYAL WEDDING (7/29/81)
The bride's train went on longer than the marriage, but at that very moment in time, the warmth and pageantry of the day was princely.
15. THE BOMBING OF BAGHDAD (1/16/91)
CNN scoops the world by sending home vivid views of the bombs bursting in air.
14: RUBY KILLS OSWALD (11/24/63)
"Lee Oswald has been shot!" The news fix that hooked a nation unfolded live from the basement of Dallas City Jail and fueled a lingering cloud of conspiracy theories.
13. TIANANMEN SQUARE: MAN VS. TANK (6/5/89)
One man stands in the path of oppression and, for a moment, hatred is stuck in neutral.
12. THE O.J. SIMPSON CHASE (6/17/94)
It was just a white Bronco in a low-speed highway chase — but the inside story had us all riveted.
11. THE O.J. VERDICT (10/3/95)
Nobody realized how polarizing this event was until the foreman read the verdict and half the country cheered while the other half sat in stunned silence.
10. WHO SHOT J.R.? (3/21/80)
A shot rang out in the dark and made for one of the longest summers in television. The rest is ratings history, darlin'.
9. I LOVE LUCY: "JOB SWITCHING" LANDS LUCY IN CANDY FACTORY (9/15/52)
Lucy was like a conveyer belt filled with chocolates: sweet, irresistible, delicious and very fast.
8. The M*A*S*H FINAL EPISODE (2/28/83)
The series lasted longer than the Korean War and as much as we wished it to go on forever, this fine episode proved that in a show about war, there's no place like home.
7. ALEX HALEY'S ROOTS (1/24/77)
Each horrific lash of the whip on Kunta Kinte's back in Roots made him hang onto his past that much harder. But he changed his name to protect his innocence.
6. JFK's STATE FUNERAL: JOHN-JOHN'S SALUTE (11/25/63)
To amuse family and annoy friends, I used to do a mean John Fitzgerald Kennedy imitation. OK, so it was a sixth-grade knockoff of a knockoff, lifted straight from the vinyl grooves of The First Family, comic Vaughan Meader's send-up of JFK and Jackie. Was there a single person in my hometown who didn't spin that LP on the hi-fi? Just old Mrs. Ball, who smelled like camphor, had no sense of humor and was half-deaf anyway. Looking back at the flannel-gray November days following Kennedy's assassination, what I recall most clearly is that no one wanted that damn record around anymore. Especially after the day we watched the funeral cortege pass through the streets of Washington on TV, with the dampened brrrump, bruump, bruump drum cadence that repeats in my ears to this day. And whenever I see that now-historic photograph of the little boy who would become John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting the flag-draped coffin, I am transported back to a day in 1963 when all three available TV stations in my hometown carried the same grim images. — Michael Davis
5. THE BEATLES ON ED SULLIVAN (2/9/64)
You could hardly hear the music over the screams, but two months after the death of a president, the innocent message of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was not lost on anyone.
4. "I HAVE A DREAM...": MARTIN LUTHER KING SPEECH AT LINCOLN MEMORIAL (8/28/63)
At Dr. King's sermon on the mount, he preached a message of tolerance — the truth of which is still marching on.
3. THE CHALLENGER EXPLODES (1/28/86)
The images are as sad and frightening today as they were then, perhaps because with teacher Christa McAuliffe aboard, Challenger brought home the point that in the name of exploration, we lost one of our own.
2. MOON LANDING (7/20/69)
A dream as big as the stars comes true in fuzzy black-and-white on TV sets everywhere, as two men take us on a trip to a whole new world.
1. SOUTH TOWER COLLAPSES (9/11/01)
The moment of our generation, when a pall hung over the nation as thick as the dust clouds over lower Manhattan, and we came to learn the true meaning of resolve.