What's the first major news story you can remember living through as a child?
Robot
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RubySoo · 56-60, F
I remember it being on the news about a young woman called Lesley Whittle being kidnapped. The man who had taken her was known as The Black Panther'. It was 1975, so I would have been 8. Poor Lesley was missing for weeks and there were updates on the news every night before being found deceased in a drainshaft in a park a few months later. I renember being very sad she was dead. It terrified me someone could do such a thing. I truthfully felt fear up until the day I heard Donald Neilson, The Black Panther had been arrested.
I've never forgotten poor Lesley. I hope she is resting in paradise. X
I've never forgotten poor Lesley. I hope she is resting in paradise. X
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Heartlander · 80-89, M
I was born in 1941 and grew up with an awareness of WW2 in process, the GIs being away, the war end and all the war movies. Later, I must have been 7 or 8 and and looking through 4 or 5 year old editions of Life Magazine and seeing the images of the Holocaust. Until then my awareness of the war was as portrayed in war movies with heroic GIs.
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
Gemini space rockets around 1964. I was 5 at the time.
Note the Gemini program was between 1961 to 1966.
I do remember the first Watts riots in 1965 as well.
Note the Gemini program was between 1961 to 1966.
I do remember the first Watts riots in 1965 as well.
WillaKissing · 56-60, M
Sidewinder · 36-40, M
The Oklahoma City Bombing that occurred on April 19th, 1995.
I was 8 years old, going on 9 at the time.
And before that, the Los Angeles Riots of 1992.
I was 8 years old, going on 9 at the time.
And before that, the Los Angeles Riots of 1992.
whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M
rinkydinkydoink · M
whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M
@rinkydinkydoink Another reason to like Canadians (as if we needed more)😷
rinkydinkydoink · M
Punxi · F
I was 10....News announced Joey Romone had passed. Firsts news I ever actually..... emotionally......heard.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
The first major news story I remember, though not very well, was the air crash in Berlin that killed most of the Manchester [City?] football team. I think that was in 1958.
I regard the phrase "living through" as merely tautology for anything not involving me, rather as "lived experience" is merely silly.
I regard the phrase "living through" as merely tautology for anything not involving me, rather as "lived experience" is merely silly.
emmasfriend · 46-50, F
@ArishMell
Long before my time, but what I read recently in a short history of Manchester UNITED was about an aeroplane crashing while taking off from MUNICH.
Apparently there was another air crash that day - small plane, Hollywood actor [Todd ?]
Long before my time, but what I read recently in a short history of Manchester UNITED was about an aeroplane crashing while taking off from MUNICH.
Apparently there was another air crash that day - small plane, Hollywood actor [Todd ?]
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@emmasfriend Thankyou!
I did put a question-mark after "City" but considering I was trying to recollect this over sixty years later at least I had the basic incident right.
The way I remember it at all was unusual. I would have been only about six at the time.
I learnt to read remarkably early, and to a quite precocious level so although brought up on the classics (Winnie The Pooh and the like) our Infants' School form-teacher used to lend me her daily paper! I cannot possibly claim to have understood all the main news stories by subject, nor known about the personalities, but must have had few if any problems with the reports and their vocabularies simply as text. So I do recall reading about the Munich (as you rightly corrected me) air-crash, and perhaps other disasters I don't now remember.
Quite the reverse from my best friend in that class, whose over-strict mother felt her daughter - and probably any children - should not read grown-ups' newspapers. Instead we could watch Andy Pandy or The Flowerpot Men on their TV: children's puppet shows with innocuous contents but worse, desperately low vocabularies.
I did put a question-mark after "City" but considering I was trying to recollect this over sixty years later at least I had the basic incident right.
The way I remember it at all was unusual. I would have been only about six at the time.
I learnt to read remarkably early, and to a quite precocious level so although brought up on the classics (Winnie The Pooh and the like) our Infants' School form-teacher used to lend me her daily paper! I cannot possibly claim to have understood all the main news stories by subject, nor known about the personalities, but must have had few if any problems with the reports and their vocabularies simply as text. So I do recall reading about the Munich (as you rightly corrected me) air-crash, and perhaps other disasters I don't now remember.
Quite the reverse from my best friend in that class, whose over-strict mother felt her daughter - and probably any children - should not read grown-ups' newspapers. Instead we could watch Andy Pandy or The Flowerpot Men on their TV: children's puppet shows with innocuous contents but worse, desperately low vocabularies.
icedsky · 51-55, M
Vaguely remember Ted Bundy being arrested in Utah and how he was a suspect in several cases here in Washington state
bijouxbroussard · F
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YoMomma · 41-45
We didn't even watch news when i was a kid.. but there was a tornado so that probably made the news .. i guess that would be local news tho..
BigImo · 26-30, F
Iraq
JSul3 · 70-79
The trial of Adolph Eichmann.
I remember seeing the front page photo of him sitting in the bullet proof witness stand wearing ear phones.
The next one would be taking canned food to school, and doing the 'duck and cover' drills.....and then the JFK assassination.
I remember seeing the front page photo of him sitting in the bullet proof witness stand wearing ear phones.
The next one would be taking canned food to school, and doing the 'duck and cover' drills.....and then the JFK assassination.
hunkalove · 70-79, M
I began reading a newspaper every day when I was about 8 but the first major story I remember is the JFK assassination when I was 13. My mother thought the Russians did it, it was the beginning of WWIII, and we were all going to die at any moment.
DearAmbellina2113 · 41-45, F
Katie01 · F
I've never paid attention to the news tbh. I didn't even know about 911 until a few years ago
AntisocialTroll · 56-60, F
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MrDavidson · M
JonUK41 · 36-40, M
@MrDavidson Remember that well. At school at the time, every self respecting kid decided they were going to join the SAS. Must have been a heck of a recruiting advert for the Army. Strangely enough one of my school mates actually did end up in the SAS, had some hair raising stories to tell but nothing with this level of drama. Presumably terrorists saw the film and decided the UK was not a sensible target.
alongalone · M
Moon landing
smileylovesgaming · 31-35, F
I some what remember the Oklahoma City bombing
AngelUnforgiven · 51-55, F
It had something to do with a caravan of rapist and drug dealers headed towards Texas 🙄 from Mexico, I was in Elementary school in 2nd grade, we had a brand new class called Current Events that year and the teacher would wheel a TV into the classroom so that we could watch the news and then discuss it .
KingofBones1 · 46-50, M
The Iranian attacks on oil tankers and Gorbachev and Reagan during early nuclear talks on Malta and the days of old Muammar Gaddafi
exexec · 70-79, C
The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 when we had drills to hide from nuclear explosions.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@cherokeepatti
Same, I was just a toddler but I remember how distraught my mother was when she heard the news on the radio.
Same, I was just a toddler but I remember how distraught my mother was when she heard the news on the radio.
cherokeepatti · 61-69, F
@Onestarlitnight I was in first grade. We stayed glued to the tv coverage and watched Jack Ruby shoot Oswald as he was being led by police.
Allelse · 36-40, M
Gulf war.
LordShadowfire · 46-50, M
@Allelse I remember the first one. It was such a naïve kid, I bought into all the pro war propaganda. I even had a poster of Saddam Hussein drawn as a snake that said, "He'll never slither out of this."
Looking back on it now, there's just so much I didn't know and wouldn't have grasped if someone had told me.
Looking back on it now, there's just so much I didn't know and wouldn't have grasped if someone had told me.
OverTheHill · 61-69, M
MrBrownstone · 46-50, M
The girl who fell into a well.
Seniorsecurity · M
Midlifemale · 61-69, M
alan20 · M
Suez Canal crisis with Egypt
sunsporter1649 · 70-79, M
sputnik
HumanEarth · F
FreestyleArt · 36-40, M
When the journalist arguing with the news anchor.
@FreestyleArt
Those were the days 🤣
Those were the days 🤣
FreestyleArt · 36-40, M
@Onestarlitnight [media=https://youtu.be/AtzG3wdF_IU]
SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
The fall of the Berlin Wall.
Heartlander · 80-89, M
@SunshineGirl
Reminds me of how I came of age during the hotter part of the cold war. As a USAF pilot the Iron Curtain was very real with elaborate procedures to prevent triggering WW3. Narrow corridors for flying into Berlin and the risk of being fired on if an inch over the constraints. As I recall, Lufsta sa was not allowed to fly into Berlin and passengers had to change to a Pan Am flight to get to Berlin. We had diplomatic flights to zMoscow and Warsaw that had to be coordinated months in advance with the pickup of a Russian observer in Copenhagen. I visited the Wall a few times, the monuments for those killed trying to flee East zzGermany. For 25+ years the Wall was headline news. Then suddenly it crumbled. Overnight. All it takes is for a couple of people saying enough is enough.
Reminds me of how I came of age during the hotter part of the cold war. As a USAF pilot the Iron Curtain was very real with elaborate procedures to prevent triggering WW3. Narrow corridors for flying into Berlin and the risk of being fired on if an inch over the constraints. As I recall, Lufsta sa was not allowed to fly into Berlin and passengers had to change to a Pan Am flight to get to Berlin. We had diplomatic flights to zMoscow and Warsaw that had to be coordinated months in advance with the pickup of a Russian observer in Copenhagen. I visited the Wall a few times, the monuments for those killed trying to flee East zzGermany. For 25+ years the Wall was headline news. Then suddenly it crumbled. Overnight. All it takes is for a couple of people saying enough is enough.
Bleak · 36-40, F
Persian Gulf War.
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craig7 · 70-79, M
Internationally,probably the Suez Crisis of 1956.
JimboSaturn · 56-60, M
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DDonde · 31-35, M
Y2K and then 9/11
TheSirfurryanimalWales · 61-69, M
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