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
Which one?
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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Torvill and dean. It was 84 so i was 6. Vividly remember watching it. Piper alpha, zebrugge and lockerbie all firmly etched in my mind but they were later. Being Scottish i think made piper alpha and lockerbie stand out more.
Later ones to have burnt themselves into my concious were Dunblane ( i was at a school 18 miles away) Diana ( was driving home from a girls house v late at night) and of course 9/11.
Reading through this makes me feel a bit old. For me it's probably Scotland qualifying for Argentina'78. Brought up in Scotland and in primary we all learnt 'We're on the march wi Ally's Army, We're all off to the Argentine, and we'll really shake them up when we win the world cup for Scotland are the greatest football team' Good times! sadly no longer
Iranian embassy was the first big story I can remember, closely followed by the Falklands.
Diana died on my first wedding anniversary, so for quite a few years after I would start seeing things in the paper about the anniversary of the death approaching, reminding me to go get a card.
I remember Donald Campbell's crash, Churchills funeral, Cassius Clay and Henry,
The Great Train Robbery and Jim Clarke winning the world championship. I have no idea of the order or dates.
I was talking to a relative and he was saying about coming to see us when we moved to Tredegar[I was 3]. His dad had a radio in his Standard 10 and when they left our house the news came on the radio that Marilyn Monro had been found dead.
Anyone remember a news story about LR industries, it was on the telly quite a few times for a while, I asked my mum what they made and she fobbed me off with some bull. Moving on some years, I went to a greasers pub off the north circular and we passed a building with the "London Rubber Company" on it, I asked someone if it was LR industries and was told it was the old Johnny factory.
Hillsborough - remember being in my grandparents front room and seeing the crowd on the pitch, too young to understand the significance of what was happening though
mary rose, had a morning at infants school not doing normal school stuff to watch it on the one school tv, then we had the nit nurse checkup in the afternoon
falklands, what I really remember is seeing the troops coming back from falklands to southampton on the ferries
Churchill's death and funeral. Probably because it meant so much to my Dad, who was a copper at the time and often guarded the Churchill residence in Hyde Park Gate.
@integerspin - I remember Donald Campbell's crash as well.
After my parents died, my brother and I were going through their effects and going through the various photos came across one of my brother and I standing in front of a shed. It was obviously winter as we we both dressed in heavy coats and there were no leaves on the trees, etc. but we couldn't figure out why our mum had taken this shot. Then I noticed a bit of blue poking out from under a tarpaulin and realised. We'd gone over to Coniston and been having a look around the yard where Bluebird was being kept. This was the weekend before the crash, probably just before we went back to school after New Year given the dates.
I remember a few mentioned, the one that stands out was Lockerbie. 1988, so I was 9.
fobbed me off with some bull
Cock and bull surely?
