[Closed] the first major news story you remember?

Princes Diana, Labour coming into power, Ayrton Senna

First major world news story I have memories of everyone talking about/constantly seeing on television was 9/11. I would have been 6.

Aberfan disaster,I was off sick from school,with mumps,and my mum let me watch the tv.

it would be the Elvis one for me

Labour coming into power, Ayrton Senna

they were over 3 years apart!

Death of Churchill

Aberfan disaster

Death of Churchill

was earlier and I remember the funeral being on TV.

Falklands.

I remember Mum being careful about the Yorkshire Ripper (we lived between Leeds and Bradford).

Piper Alpha about 9 years old I think.

Senna for me.

Challenger I think - I remember doing something about it in primary school.

england 4-2 west germany

Last moon landings, Apollo/ Soyuz link-up, Bloody Sunday, Wolves losing against Spurs, the Lancaster-Penrith section of the M6 being opened, the end of the Vietnam War, UDI in Rhodesia... all a bit confused...

World Cup 1966 - watched on a Black & White TV outside at a Scout Camp & Aberfan in the papers as we didn't have TV at home!

Assassination of Kennedy, Churchill, Aberfan. I remember those quite vividly.

Death of Churchill. I also remember the funeral being on TV. We didn't have one so we went to someone else's house to watch it.

Churchill funeral for me too. Strange how embedded those tv images are.

moon landing

Ethiopian famine, bits of the miners strike.

Elvis.

Apart from Thatcher's election, it would be the Falklands War I think. I remember lots of stuff from 1980 but nothing newsworthy. I remember there being a recession and 3m unemployed but I think that was later.

Apollo 11 , my granddad was fascinated by all the Apollo missions , spent many hours watching it on their tiny tv.

Cuban missile crisis.

In terms of when breaking news really was breaking and you'd get that cold chill as the schedule changed it's probably Challenger followed by Herald of Free Enterprise. I certainly remember news stories from long before that like Falklands, Ethiopia, but only through conversation, watching the news etc. As a kid it was the breaking news that was 'remember where you were' defining - usually in front of the TV 😉

Falklands war I think.

I remember in my childish mind it didn't seem that 'good' a war, same with the first Gulf War, I'd grown up hearing about World War 2 all hundreds of thousands of men being shipped from here to there and bombs falling.

Princess Di.
I can remember everything about it vividly, getting up at about 5am and sneaking downstairs to watch Ulysses cartoons and eventually the news started reporting on it. Woke my parents up to tell them, they didn't believe me but when they came down to see what was going on the tv stayed on the news all day.. I couldn't watch my cartoons!

It's bizarre I can remember everything about it, even can picture the footage etc, and it's probably my earliest big memory despite being 12 at the time. I can remember some of the events above I.e. Senna but not with any real coherency.

Gulf war one

Aberfan.

Gulf War for me I think. My other early memories are of my dad being in hospital but I would have been 7 when the Gulf War started.

I'm not sure if I remember it or I remember being told about it and so have false memories but Churchill's funeral is likely to be the earliest. Then it's the World Cup then Aberfan both of which I definitely remember.

My earliest definite memory of any kind was my brother being born - July 1963.

Joe Cocker's death 🙁

thatcher becoming PM probably.

although I do remember being bored every evening when my parents watched the news daily before that, and also remember there being lots of sport on the telly one week and wondering why my parents were not watching the news like they normally did. that was the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Falklands was the first news story I can remember, I would have been nine so perhaps a late starter.

Was never hugely interested in the news, despite later working as a news journo for years.

Yorkshire Ripper for me too, back in the 1970s we lived in a quiet village called Simister in one of the small blocks of flats down Simister Green I think... How things change over the decades! 😯

Funnily enough I was telling a class about mine today (I'm a Geography teacher). It was the eruption of Mount St Helens. Remember being quite affected by the story of the old boy that wouldn't leave his cabin.

First moon landing.

I was 2 days old when Churchill died - my dad wanted to name me Winston...

Challenger for me I think. Was playing Lego in the lounge and it was on the TV. Ran through to my mum to say the rocket had crashed.

End of Vietnam war

Donald Neilson aka "The Black Panther"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson

He hit a series of post offices in the area where I grew up including one directly opposite my house.

Fall of the Berlin wall I think, or possibly Major being elected. My first instinct was Piper Alpha but that was such a big story for so long where I'm from that I'm not sure if I remember it at the time or not.

Actually I need to change mine. Gulf war 1, not Senna.

Edit: possibly Berlin Wall but not sure if that is just because it's been replayed so many times since.

Can't quite pick the order without Wikipedia open but..
Vague - Falklands
Strong - Challenger
Definitele Gulf War 1
Sticks - Freddie Mercury died/concert and 1st Comic Relief
In the middle of that various Ira related stuff, riots in Wallsend and Terry Butchers bloody head

Falklands for me too

Moon Landing. When aged 8, watched on crappy B&W TV on a French campsite.

Assasination of President Kennedy.

Space Shuttle Columbia launch, 1981, watched it on TV at Primary School.

The Falklands for me too, but not at the time!

They happened when I was 18 months old and as I lived in the Brecon Beacons under one of their training flight paths I was constantly woken by the sound of planes and helicopters going over. It made me nervous of loud noises until I was 4 or 5 when my dad took me to an airshow at RAF Brawdy while we were on holiday. I vividly remember being scared witless as the first plane took off but my dad stuck with me and kept me calm while I got used to the noise and vibrations. He then explained to me what the noise was and even got one of the pilots to talk to me about the noise etc. When we got home he showed me a load of VHS tapes of the news from that time and explained to me that they had been practising their skills when I was younger and it was nothing to be scared of. It sparked a fascination with engineering and military stuff that lasted throughout my school years. I must have watched those news reels hundreds of times over that time. So while I was too young to remember the war at the time I got to relive it though news tapes a few years later.

The first one I remember experiencing 'live' was Chernobyl. I was too young to understand what had happened but my fascination of everything engineering from the story above meant it stuck in my mind.

Challenger.

I was watching it live on John Craven's Newsround. That was early 1986 so I was 8.

Diana was easily remembered just for how I found out. I was doing a road race on Sunday morning, one of the Surrey League ones. About 2/3rds of the way through a rider alongside me said "oh did you hear Princess Diana's died".
I thought he was just looking for some sort of reaction or a distraction so he could attack so I was like "yeah bollocks" and then thought no more of it.

It was only in the car on the way home, listening to the radio that we realised it was true.
August 1997 so I was 19. There must be other big news stories in between those two but they stand out very clearly in my memory.

Joe Cocker's death

It's the space race which I remember - growing up from the end of the Mercury missions through Gemini and on to Apollo. I hoovered up all the news on those.

But I suppose there were two huge news items - Aberfan, as mentioned earlier, largely because I lived in a pit village and the death of Tom Simpson, who was from our village. I have photos of the floral tributes at the funeral tucked away somewhere.

The plane crash that killed nearly all of our politicians from both houses in Borneo. They were flying to the capital to discuss about the Union.

That's the first major news I can remember ... 😯

I have a vague memory of the Challenger disaster, I was 6.

I've a vivid memory of the night of the Lockerbie plane crash, I remember watching it all on the news, it probably struck me more as it was in Scotland and relatively close to home.

Neither is massive news but my first "event" was one of:

Munich 1972 - all that awsum Spitz/Korbut etc followed by the grimness that I didn't really "get"

Some Apollo mission launch that was televised liveish (I remember it vividly but don't know which one it was)

Edit: must've been the Apollo 'cos we were on our holidays in Scarborough ( 8) ), so only 11 (1969 - probably this one as I think I was ded little) or 13 (1970) are goers

Either the Falklands or JR Ewing getting shot, whichever came first.....

The 'herald of free enterprise' zeebrugge ferry disaster

Falklands for me as well

1979 UK General Election

Out of the mouths of babes and all that: I asked my dad "If David Steel wants to be Prime Minister, why did he join the Liberal Party?"

I was five.

Three mile island. I asked if they could not just build a wall to stop the fall out from reaching us.

Hard to totally pin down but think it was Moscow Olympics in particular Coe vs Ovett watching it with my dad who has instilled in me a love of all sports. He managed to do some form of competitive sport all the way into his 70s (latterly Curling)

Tube train Crash. Drive drove down a dead end flat out. Never even tried to apply the brakes.

I think it would be Terry Waite for me, difficult to tell given the time involved.

Equally it could be piper alpha but, it seemed there was a major oil spill in the news every week and I've seen so many images throughout my life i could be making it up.

I definitely remember exon valdez and the fall of the Berlin wall which were both 89 and very clearly West Germany knocking us out in the semi finals off the world cup in 90.

Edit

Tube train Crash.

Reminded me- kings cross fire in 87.
I was nearly six and recently returned from visiting family in London, i remember it grabbed me because I'd been so excited about the underground trains.

And having goggled the dates, Lockerbie and Hillsborough were all around the same time to the point that i couldn't have told you which was first.

Early 70s in bed with my headphones with built in transistor radio.. news came on.. 'Elvis had died'. I shouted my mum and asked who he was. She burst into tears.

Falklands

Was my first reaction, however a quick Google says the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981

Edit: After reading some of the above, would probably be Peter Sutcliffe

Three stick out in my mind:
Raising of the Mary Rose, particularly the bit where the cradle broke;
First space shuttle launch;
Falklands invasion.
Watched first two at primary school. The third was on Swiss TV while we were in Villars skiing.

Funnily enough I was telling a class about mine today (I'm a Geography teacher). It was the eruption of Mount St Helens.

Remember it well, I was in Runcorn at the time.

Sputnik 1 - 1957

Challenger disaster- we watched it live, or semi-live I think but it felt live, at school, that left a mark.

The black and white images of Donald Campbell's fatal crash in Bluebird. I was 5 years old. Other than that, staying up late or getting up early (not sure which) for the Apollo moon landing.

Watching the first moon landingbsat on my mom's lap

SAS on the Iranian Embassay.

Torrey Canyon.

Collected news paper clippings for my scrap book, along with those for Sir Francis Chichester, Apollo 1 etc. Do kids still do that??

Very vaguely remember the raising of the Mary rose, remember my mum being excited and explaining to me what was happening on the tv and being a bit disappointed that the wreck didn't look (to me) like a ship.
Remember very clearly the BSE outbreak, and 1st gulf war but probably first started taking an interest when doing a paper round and reading all the daily papers, remember reading about Robert Maxwell falling off his yaught

JFK assassination. Didn't have a clue what it was about, but I remember asking my mother why the television programs had been replaced by news reports and sad music.

Interesting thread.

Mine is John Lennon being shot. Remember my mum being very upset. 1980, I was 4.

More clear memory of the Falklands 81 or 82? And vague memories of mount Helena eruption, also the embassy raid.

For me it was the 1st moon landings, mainly as it was on the TV and my father even dragged me out into the garden to look at the moon as man first landed on it!
I'm sure I was pretty fractious the next day as 9:18pm was way past my normal bedtime then 😮

The asteroid. #prayforthedinosaurs

But definitely the JFK assassination. My dad was working miles away and we had to go to the phone box in the village and ring him every Friday as he only came home once a month. I remember how sombre everyone was. And the fact that the black and white telly was just showing a still image of a lily (?) and all the good telly was cancelled due to respect.
If it happened to Trump I'd want the Monkees show and the Bananasplits showing nonstop for a month.

The Biafran war, or Jim Clark death in a race at Hockenheim

Piper alpha disaster.

And my parents frantically trying to get hold of anyone who knew where our family working offshore were stationed at the time.

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