1. Weâre poorer than our parents were at our age. Few people have been through as many economic ups and downs as the members of Generation X. Born between 1965 and 1980, any entered the workforce during the boom years of the Clinton administrationâbut then along came 9/11 and, a few years later, the Great Recession.
The shooter, Charles Whitman, was a student at the University of Texas. A former Marine who grew up with an abusive father, he admitted to killing his mother and his wife in a suicide note. The next day, Whitman began shooting people from the top of the Texas Tower with a sniper rifle.
An expert marksman, Whitman was able to hit people as far away as 500 yards. For 90 minutes, he continued firing while officers searched for a chance to get a shot at him. By the end of his rampage, 16 people were dead and another 30 were injured. The University of Texas tower remained closed for25 years before reopening in 1999.