I friend posted this on his Facebook page and you could really tell the various age differences from one's response.
Me: Robert F. Kennedy's assassination.
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I friend posted this on his Facebook page and you could really tell the various age differences from one's response.
Me: Robert F. Kennedy's assassination.
by Anonymous | reply 236 | April 18, 2018 5:28 AM |
John Lennon's assassination.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | December 8, 2017 8:42 PM |
The death of Princess Diana. My aunt and uncle were visiting that weekend, and I remember my mom and aunt sobbing, staring at the television. My siblings, cousins and I didn't understand why they were so upset. It was definitely the first time I was aware of public events on a large scale.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | December 8, 2017 8:42 PM |
grace kelly's tragic car wreck. we were off school for some reason.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | December 8, 2017 8:43 PM |
Khomeini's fatwah against Salman Rushdie.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | December 8, 2017 8:43 PM |
Elvis dying. I was five and my babysitter cried.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | December 8, 2017 8:43 PM |
When Pee Wee Herman was arrested for indecent exposure.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | December 8, 2017 8:44 PM |
president kennedy assassination. i only remember cause my mom was watching tv and crying for 3 days.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | December 8, 2017 8:44 PM |
John F Kennedy assassination - I made a scrapbook and cried all over it. Been a Democrat ever since (I was 8).
by Anonymous | reply 8 | December 8, 2017 8:44 PM |
R1 here, I remember my uncles, who were teens in the 60's, repeatedly playing Double Fantasy and one said something along the lines of crazy Americans and their guns.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | December 8, 2017 8:44 PM |
The Gulf War.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | December 8, 2017 8:45 PM |
Probably the Dunblane Primary School massacre in 1996. I remember all the adults around me being very shocked.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | December 8, 2017 8:45 PM |
Watergate—didn't know what it all meant, but I remember my grandmother being pissed about her "stories" being preempted.
LBJ's funeral
by Anonymous | reply 12 | December 8, 2017 8:45 PM |
Columbine.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | December 8, 2017 8:47 PM |
We have some young'uns posting in this thread. Chuck & Di royal wedding for me.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | December 8, 2017 8:48 PM |
Tonya Harding
by Anonymous | reply 15 | December 8, 2017 8:50 PM |
When Sally Kirkland didn't win the Oscar.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | December 8, 2017 8:50 PM |
When the space shuttle exploded. I think we were actually watching it live in class.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | December 8, 2017 8:51 PM |
Monica Lewinsky and the Impeachment attempts. I was in kindergarten and my Clinton-hating grandfather couldn’t shut up about it.
9/11 was the first one I remember on a personal level.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | December 8, 2017 8:52 PM |
Was it Challenger or Tchernobyl? I can sort of remember the news coverage on these events, but not clearly.
The first one I clearly and fully remember is the fall of the Berlin wall.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | December 8, 2017 8:53 PM |
JFK’s assassination. Yes, I’m that old (I was 8). I remember my mother crying and crying. I didn’t understand. I just knew something horrible had happened. And it went on for days. The weirdest thing was i remember it being so quiet outside.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | December 8, 2017 8:53 PM |
Princess Diana dying
by Anonymous | reply 21 | December 8, 2017 8:54 PM |
[quote]9/11 was the first one I remember on a personal level.
Same for me. 9/11 was when I became permanently tuned into "the news" for good.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | December 8, 2017 8:54 PM |
Moon landing - 1969.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | December 8, 2017 8:54 PM |
I guess I'm older than all of you. I don't remember this as a specific news STORY, but I definitely remember the news coverage of the 1960 election. I was 8 at the time.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | December 8, 2017 8:57 PM |
Yes I remember the Watergate Hearings as so boring .... I also remember the airplanes on the tarmac and soldiers returning from Vietnam - but I live in Los Angeles and I have a vivid memory of the live coverage of the house on fire and the police shootout with the SLA _ reporters crouching behind cars and speculating that Patty Hearst was burning in the fire - I was about 8 - I didn't know how far or near the whole thing was - scary!
by Anonymous | reply 25 | December 8, 2017 8:59 PM |
Diana I remember but not glued to TV. 9/11 was the big one
by Anonymous | reply 26 | December 8, 2017 8:59 PM |
I was five when the Gulf War started and I have memories of the news coverage and how TV shows would get interrupted. I also remember the Waco raids.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | December 8, 2017 9:01 PM |
The Challenger space shuttle disaster. I never realized how many of us kids in the US watched that live until years later.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | December 8, 2017 9:02 PM |
John Kennedy's inauguration, not the swearing in ceremony itself, but it all being on TV. I was only 4, so I didn't understand what all it was, but I do remember seeing Kennedy on tv while "Hail to the Chief" was played and my father telling me he was the President now. I have much more vivid memories of things over the next few years, such as Alan Shepard's, Gus Grissom, and John Glenn's space shots. I remember most major events of the weekend (Friday through Monday) JFK was killed, including Oswald being killed and Kennedy's funeral the next day.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | December 8, 2017 9:04 PM |
JFK. I was in first grade and they let us all out of school. I guess no one had a working Mom.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | December 8, 2017 9:04 PM |
When Mrs Patrick Campbell lost her virginity. It was a very clammy tale......
by Anonymous | reply 31 | December 8, 2017 9:05 PM |
Fidel Castro had come to power in Cuba. A mob of citizens tied ropes to the concrete eagle sitting atop the U.S. Embassy in Havana, and yanked it down.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | December 8, 2017 9:12 PM |
US leaving Vietnam
by Anonymous | reply 33 | December 8, 2017 9:12 PM |
The assassination of John Lennon. This was long before I became a fan of the Beatles, but somehow I still knew it was a big deal.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | December 8, 2017 9:15 PM |
The assassination attempt on President Reagan.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | December 8, 2017 9:18 PM |
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Boy, what a shock that was.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | December 8, 2017 9:23 PM |
The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. School was cancelled for weeks!
by Anonymous | reply 37 | December 8, 2017 9:24 PM |
I remember being at a doctors office and seeing a magazine cover with a story about Reagan being shot.
I knew my parents really really really didn't like Reagan, and I couldn't imagine why anyone would make a guys over him being shot. I mean, he survived.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | December 8, 2017 9:27 PM |
President Roosevelt’s death in 1945. I was 7 walking home and our neighbor was on her front porch crying. The President had just died. Nothing but slow ‘funeral’ music on the radio for a long time. Yes, I’m old but going strong.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | December 8, 2017 9:28 PM |
I remember hearing about WWII having happened in the past, but not understanding what it meant. I knew it was bad because of the Nazis, but my father used to talk about it as if it had been nothing but a big party. I was extremely confused.
As a current event, the earliest thing I remember was Khrushchev coming to the US. I went to Catholic school and our pastor used to go on incessantly about how we had to pray to God Almighty, his Son, and his Son's Blessed Mother to protect us from Khrushchev and the Communists, because if they got their way "Khrushchev would hang (us) out to dry." I had nightmares about literally being hung from a clothesline with clothespins for months.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | December 8, 2017 9:29 PM |
Elvis dying.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | December 8, 2017 9:32 PM |
Rodney King riots
by Anonymous | reply 42 | December 8, 2017 9:34 PM |
I remember watching the moon landing on the b&w portable TV in my parents bedroom - we were sitting on the bed - I had just turned 6 and every time my 4 year old sister fell asleep I would shake her awake and say “this is history”
by Anonymous | reply 43 | December 8, 2017 9:35 PM |
The death of princess Diana. I was six and I'd never seen people cry over the news before. I remember feeling incredibly sad for the princes, at images of her coffin with the hand written card on top saying "mummy."
by Anonymous | reply 44 | December 8, 2017 9:41 PM |
Vietnam POW's getting off planes and their families running to them, arms open.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | December 8, 2017 9:44 PM |
R44 I was 4 when the funeral occurred. When I saw pictures, I figured they were giving an Egyptian mummy a royal parade.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | December 8, 2017 9:45 PM |
Watergate.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | December 8, 2017 9:46 PM |
[quote]I remember being at a doctors office and seeing a magazine cover with a story about Reagan being shot.
I remember it was on my birthday and was dreading it would become a 'horrible date in history' forever.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | December 8, 2017 9:46 PM |
The OJ Simpson trial.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | December 8, 2017 9:49 PM |
r44 I was 8 and that Mummy card freaked me out
by Anonymous | reply 50 | December 8, 2017 9:50 PM |
JFK was Catholic!
by Anonymous | reply 51 | December 8, 2017 9:50 PM |
The worst part of the shuttle explosion was that the networks replayed the explosion every single day for over a year and a half.
A year and a half. Boom.
I still feel bad for the families that were left behind. They couldn’t turn on the media at all. A million times worse trying to grieve.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | December 8, 2017 9:52 PM |
Nixon's trip to China in 1966--I was six years old
by Anonymous | reply 53 | December 8, 2017 9:53 PM |
Sorry--I mean in 1972 (I was born in 1966).
by Anonymous | reply 54 | December 8, 2017 9:54 PM |
[quote]I was 8 and that Mummy card freaked me out
Freaky for sure, but Dodi al-Fayed *was* Egyptian.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | December 8, 2017 9:55 PM |
JFK, barely.
More recently, 9/11. I still recall the morning the attack occurred: upon arising in the morning, I'd always flip on CNN to learn of overnight events while preparing for the work day. The NYC CNN scenes were like a surreal disaster movie. At first, I'd thought I'd accidentally selected a movie channel; I could not comprehend what I was watching.
F-16s were immediately dispatched to monitor the costal US states for surveillance. Though I could hear the F-16s all day, they were no where in sight. Eerie.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | December 8, 2017 10:05 PM |
JFK, they sent us home from school.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | December 8, 2017 10:07 PM |
Watergate. Preempted mom’s soaps. Also Nixon’s resignation, which was the first part of it I actually understood. (“The President quit.”)
by Anonymous | reply 58 | December 8, 2017 10:12 PM |
Winston Churchill's funeral.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | December 8, 2017 10:14 PM |
The Challenger explosion. They kept showing the footage and I think those explosion trails just seared into my 5-year-old mind. I still remember looking at the magazine cover, Time I think, of the explosion.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | December 8, 2017 10:19 PM |
The Lindbergh kidnapping. I was in grade school and I remember my mother sitting before the radio while I had breakfast, and she would still be sitting there when I returned home.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | December 8, 2017 10:21 PM |
First US space launch of Alan Shepard in 1961. I was in first grade and the principal announced it over the loudspeaker. I also vaguely remember my grandparents watching the Kennedy inauguration on television a year earlier but I spent most of that day playing outside in the snow.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | December 8, 2017 10:23 PM |
John Foster Dulles' funeral.
No shit.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | December 8, 2017 10:23 PM |
Freddie Mercury's death
by Anonymous | reply 64 | December 8, 2017 10:24 PM |
OP - mine is the same - RFK assassination.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | December 8, 2017 10:25 PM |
Nixon's resignation. I was 4 and had no idea what was going on.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | December 8, 2017 10:32 PM |
The moon landing is the first time I think I really paid attention to a news story,though I had seen Vietnam coverage for years (my dad watched Walter Cronkite EVERY night) thats the one that captured my attention the most.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | December 8, 2017 10:45 PM |
JFK death. I would have been 7
by Anonymous | reply 68 | December 8, 2017 10:55 PM |
Oliver North trial. I didn't really understand it, but it went on and on.
Then the OJ trial, which I also wasn't all that invested in either. I loved People v OJ when it was on, though.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | December 8, 2017 11:03 PM |
Manson family murders - Sharon Tate, etc.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | December 8, 2017 11:05 PM |
Al Franken's resignation. They sent us home from school.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | December 8, 2017 11:16 PM |
Eisenhower's suicide.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | December 8, 2017 11:21 PM |
The Betty White shooting.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | December 8, 2017 11:23 PM |
The Bowling Green Massacre.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | December 8, 2017 11:24 PM |
Maude's abortion.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | December 8, 2017 11:26 PM |
The night they drove Old Dixie down.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | December 8, 2017 11:30 PM |
When Mia Farrow had shorn her long hair into that ultra short pixie.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | December 8, 2017 11:38 PM |
The Cuban missile crisis.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | December 8, 2017 11:41 PM |
Nixon 24/7!
by Anonymous | reply 80 | December 8, 2017 11:42 PM |
The 1976 Montreal Olympics (I was 6 and living in nearby Ottawa at the time).
First major global news story I can remember is the Tenerife Disaster of 1977, still to this day the worst aviation disaster in history.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | December 8, 2017 11:51 PM |
Queen Elizabeth's coronation, I was 2.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | December 8, 2017 11:59 PM |
The Challenger, then Baby Jessica. That was one dumb baby.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | December 8, 2017 11:59 PM |
Our Lady of the Angels school fire in Chicago. Look it up, bitches.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | December 9, 2017 12:01 AM |
Another for Elvis dying
by Anonymous | reply 85 | December 9, 2017 12:06 AM |
RFK's assasinatuion/
by Anonymous | reply 86 | December 9, 2017 12:09 AM |
So many of these made such a deep impression on me as a kid and young adult.
Like many others around my age, Watergate and its ceaseless coverage got my attention when it bumped all my shows. The only thing I distinctly remember was the culmination: Nixon getting on the helicopter for the last time. I should've been celebrating since it meant a return to my cartoons, but I was genuinely moved by the spectacle, even though I understood none of it.
A bit later, Jim Jones and the Guyana tragedy had me horrified but unable to look away. Sometimes I have to question my parents' thinking when they ran the evening news on the tiny TV in the kitchen before dinner.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | December 9, 2017 12:13 AM |
I love you, R71
by Anonymous | reply 88 | December 9, 2017 12:24 AM |
The kidknapping of the Lindbergh baby.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | December 9, 2017 12:35 AM |
The Challenger explosion. Before it happened I remember Christa McAuliffe was on the cover of our Weekly Reader and our teacher said soon anyone would be able to travel into space. So much for that.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | December 9, 2017 12:50 AM |
JFK assassination. I was in kindergarten and a neighbor drove over to the school to get her daughter (we stayed in school the entire day). She saw me and said oh I'll drive you home. The neighbor lady was crying, and her daughter had been crying, an "older" 6th grader. Got home and mom was crying.
I remember watching on live tv Lee Harvey Oswald being shot, too. We had a family event to go to later that afternoon, and someone brought a portable tv so everyone could keep up with the latest news. It was wall to wall news coverage on our 3 networks. Having a portable tv was quite a big deal at the time.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | December 9, 2017 12:51 AM |
Waco
by Anonymous | reply 92 | December 9, 2017 12:53 AM |
I remember hearing about the Chowchilla California school bus kidnapping as a kid while we were on summer vacation on the radio news. Being the same age as those kids it really scared me. Also from the same trip I remember updates about Karen Ann Quinlan, girl in a coma who was the forerunner of Terry Schiavo. This would have been in July 1976 on vacation at Bethany Beach, Delaware.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | December 9, 2017 1:09 AM |
the 72 Munich Olympics when the Israeli wrestling team was taken hostage and killed...i was 12 and my mom let me stay up all night and home from school the next day
by Anonymous | reply 94 | December 9, 2017 1:12 AM |
Betty Broderick!!!!!!!!
by Anonymous | reply 95 | December 9, 2017 1:15 AM |
I remember Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) beating Sonny Liston for the heavyweight crown. I listened to it on the radio in my bunk bed.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | December 9, 2017 1:18 AM |
The Baldwin Hills dam break.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | December 9, 2017 1:23 AM |
I was just listening to some old-time radio shows from the '50s, and at one point the announcer broke in with BREAKING NEWS that the national coal strike had ended.
I remember my mom telling me how they interrupted her class in school to announce that the King had abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson.
BTW, these things both happened in the US, not the UK.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | December 9, 2017 1:28 AM |
[quote]I remember hearing about the Chowchilla California school bus kidnapping as a kid while we were on summer vacation on the radio news.
I remember when that happened a friend at work (who'd just relocated from the east coast to California) had no idea what Chowchilla was. She initially thought it was a cross between a chow-chow and a chinchilla.
by Anonymous | reply 99 | December 9, 2017 1:29 AM |
The sinking of the Andrea Doria. I was 5 and I remember seeing the photo of the ship going under on the cover of the NY Daily News.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | December 9, 2017 1:29 AM |
Guyana tragedy
by Anonymous | reply 101 | December 9, 2017 1:32 AM |
Ethel Merman died.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | December 9, 2017 1:33 AM |
Edmund Dantes' escape from the Chateau D'If.
by Anonymous | reply 103 | December 9, 2017 1:36 AM |
I recall our class starting doing current events for homework in June 1968. My father gave me the NY Daily news evening edition and I decided to clip an article on Bobby Kennedy's campaign for president and write a summary. The following week we had to do another one, and that is when RFK was shot, so I chose to cover his assassination as by second current event. It was a really hard way to be introduced to news articles.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | December 9, 2017 1:39 AM |
R104 I forgot to include a cover of that days' Daily News coverage.
by Anonymous | reply 105 | December 9, 2017 1:40 AM |
Baby Jessica in that damn well
by Anonymous | reply 106 | December 9, 2017 1:41 AM |
Moon landing in July of 1969. I hadn't started school yet but I remember being in a room full of school-aged kids watching a black and white TV.
My mom said when she was young the average person knew nothing about the moon, and for all they knew people were looking back at us from here.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | December 9, 2017 1:46 AM |
Lindbergh baby kidnapping. It seems like just yesterday...
by Anonymous | reply 108 | December 9, 2017 1:47 AM |
I remember Elvis dying. My mom played his music all day. I was 5🎶
by Anonymous | reply 109 | December 9, 2017 1:49 AM |
I was walking by the television when they announced Judy Garland died. I fainted.
I was seven.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | December 9, 2017 1:57 AM |
President Reagan being shot.
by Anonymous | reply 111 | December 9, 2017 1:58 AM |
Nixon winning in 1968.
by Anonymous | reply 112 | December 9, 2017 1:59 AM |
Harold Holt (Australian PM) drowning in 1967.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | December 9, 2017 2:02 AM |
Although I noticed a newspaper article about Elvis's death when I was six, I had no idea who we was or how big the story was.
The first huge story for me was the Iranian hostage crisis, which was reported endlessly on AM radio every morning on the station wagon school bus.
by Anonymous | reply 114 | December 9, 2017 2:07 AM |
Challenger explosion
by Anonymous | reply 115 | December 9, 2017 2:11 AM |
I am suspicious of the supposed nonagenarians who recall the Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
On another kidnapping note, I had never heard of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping. Fucking nightmarish.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | December 9, 2017 2:18 AM |
I've the barest memory of RFK; first half-way decent memory is of the moon landing, my parents waking me up to watch it live.
by Anonymous | reply 117 | December 9, 2017 2:18 AM |
Iran hostage crisis in '79. I also remember people wearing t-shirts that said "Hey Iran!" and showed Mickey Mouse flipping the bird.
I also remember stories about the long lines at gas stations due to the gas crisis.
by Anonymous | reply 118 | December 9, 2017 2:20 AM |
I'm not sure when or who it was but I heard the story of someone kidnapped and buried alive in a box. (actually there was a TV Movie of it I might have seen.)
That always freaked me out as a kid. It must have registered with Patty Hearst too because in the "Patty Hearst" film she says in the narration stuff like "please just don't bury me alive."
Anyone know the story and the TV movie?
by Anonymous | reply 119 | December 9, 2017 2:22 AM |
Murder of nursing students by Richard Speck in Chicago and University of Texas tower shooting. Both happened around the same time, summer of 1966.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | December 9, 2017 2:24 AM |
Barbara Jean Mackle was buried alive on a box.
by Anonymous | reply 121 | December 9, 2017 2:26 AM |
r119, I wonder if it is the Chowchilla kidnapping. It has turned up a few times on this thread.
I could have included Patty Hearst on my list. I used Nixon's last helicopter departure from the White House, but PH was also in 1974, and it seemed like all the kids were talking about her. I just don't recall any single one news story. It was more kids imagining her sordid life on the lam.
by Anonymous | reply 122 | December 9, 2017 2:27 AM |
John Lennon getting shot. My sister worked at a radio station and it came over the teletype. She called me as soon as she found out.
by Anonymous | reply 123 | December 9, 2017 2:28 AM |
r5 me too, and I was too young to know who Elvis was but I remember my mom and her friends acting like it was a big deal when he died.
by Anonymous | reply 124 | December 9, 2017 2:30 AM |
Watching TV coverage of Robert Kennedy's assassination. He had just been in our town about a month before. Our elementary school was along the motorcade route and we all went out to wave as he drove by. He was in an open convertible and I remember he had a lot of gray/white hair.
by Anonymous | reply 126 | December 9, 2017 2:35 AM |
Mt. St. Helens erupting.
by Anonymous | reply 127 | December 9, 2017 2:35 AM |
Princess Diana's death. I was four years old.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | December 9, 2017 2:39 AM |
JFK's assassination is my earliest memory. I was three, and all I really recall is the flag draped casket in the Great Rotunda on our black and white TV, and how sad my mom was.
When Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? swept so many of the major Academy Awards I was six. I told my mom how badly I wanted to see it. Given the title, I thought it was a move for kids. When she said it wasn't, I was very confused.
by Anonymous | reply 129 | December 9, 2017 2:39 AM |
I’m in Australia - so when the moon landing happened, we were let out of school early to go watch it on tv. It as a big deal. Both my parents were home. Old black and white TV set.
Later that year, there was an abduction and murder of a child here - Vicky Barton - and I remember the news on that too. She was abducted and it was speculated she’d been murdered - but they didn’t discover her body for many years.
by Anonymous | reply 130 | December 9, 2017 2:40 AM |
The failed rescue of hostages from Iran in 1980. I was five.
by Anonymous | reply 131 | December 9, 2017 2:40 AM |
Ditto baby Jessica in that well. Hours of my life I will never get back
by Anonymous | reply 132 | December 9, 2017 2:48 AM |
First lunar landing. We had the only color TV in the neighborhood and all the neighbors were crowded in our living room to watch BLACK AND WHITE coverage. I was five.
by Anonymous | reply 133 | December 9, 2017 2:48 AM |
The Lindbergh baby kidnapping really r61? You must be older than dirt.
by Anonymous | reply 134 | December 9, 2017 2:50 AM |
MLK assasination. They made Kmart close early and had armored tanks rolling down The streets of Macon, Ga.
by Anonymous | reply 135 | December 9, 2017 2:52 AM |
JFK's assasinatiion. I was only a toddler, but I can still remember my Mom sobbing.
by Anonymous | reply 136 | December 9, 2017 2:54 AM |
Not my first but one that really affected me, The Oklahoma City bombing.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | December 9, 2017 2:57 AM |
The election of Jimmy Carter.
by Anonymous | reply 138 | December 9, 2017 2:59 AM |
The Chowchilla Kidnapping happened when I was a teenager, but I do remember it.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | December 9, 2017 3:01 AM |
I remember that we were watching TV, and whatever we were watching was interrupted to announce that Joseph Stalin had died. While my family didn't jump up and cheer, they seemed to be happy that he was dead. I thought it was strange that they would be happy about someone's death.
by Anonymous | reply 140 | December 9, 2017 3:06 AM |
The death of Lucy. I was watching that Chuck Woolrey game show that aired in the morning and they cut that programming to announce her passing.
by Anonymous | reply 141 | December 9, 2017 3:11 AM |
R 74, R75, R 102, THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY DAY.
by Anonymous | reply 142 | December 9, 2017 3:12 AM |
Nancy Kerrigan getting hit with the baton.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | December 9, 2017 3:14 AM |
Back in 1968, my Dad took my brother and me on a different route to his second job, because of rioting in our city. We were poor white people, trying to make a living. My brother and me accompanied my Dad, to help him vacuum offices and empty trash containers. No one ever explained to us what the rioters were protesting. I didn't learn (or understand) the issue until I was already middle-aged. I knew about Martin Luther King, Jr, but had no idea that whole city blocks had been burnt down here,.
by Anonymous | reply 144 | December 9, 2017 3:15 AM |
For people interested in Patty Hearst this is a fantastic documentary:
by Anonymous | reply 145 | December 9, 2017 3:22 AM |
Only because I was in it: the 1959 Yellowstone earthquake. 28+ killed, major issues for survivors. I was tiny, pretty scared, and got sick from dysentery.
by Anonymous | reply 146 | December 9, 2017 3:37 AM |
Another one for the RFK assassination. I think we were watching the coverage on the Today show.
by Anonymous | reply 147 | December 9, 2017 3:50 AM |
The FBI knew about the Hearst kidnapping before hand! Idiots.
by Anonymous | reply 148 | December 9, 2017 3:56 AM |
I'm Canadian and I remember the 1995 Quebec Referendum really well, for some reason. Internationally, I suppose the first major news stories I remember are the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa.
by Anonymous | reply 149 | December 9, 2017 4:32 AM |
The Summer of Love. RFK's death yet again, and those of MLK, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. The bombings in Vietnam. The Zodiac Killer. The moon landing. The Chicago 8. Kent State. Riots everywhere. One long blur of Cronkite and Reasoner nightly on our huge box of a Magnavox.
by Anonymous | reply 150 | December 9, 2017 4:42 AM |
JFK assasination, in first grade. Our teacher, a nun, rolled a TV on an elevated platform into the classroom for us to watch the rest of the day. I knew something bad happened to our president, but it was over most of our 6-7 year old heads.
by Anonymous | reply 151 | December 9, 2017 5:02 AM |
The 1956 mid-air collision between a United Airlines DC-8 and a TWA Constellation over the Grand Canyon in Arizona; all 128 persons aboard the two planes died. The planes had taken off from L.A. a few minutes apart and were flying east in uncontrolled airspace when they collided. When neither plane reported reaching its next checkpoint, a search was initiated. At first it was thought than both had crashed separately, but the wreckage revealed that they had collided.
Yes, I'm old.
by Anonymous | reply 152 | December 9, 2017 5:48 AM |
Oj Simpson trial
by Anonymous | reply 153 | December 9, 2017 5:56 AM |
Robert Kennedy assassination
by Anonymous | reply 154 | December 9, 2017 6:49 AM |
President Obama being elected the first time.
by Anonymous | reply 155 | December 9, 2017 6:50 AM |
JFK's assassination and funeral. I was 10.
by Anonymous | reply 157 | December 9, 2017 7:13 AM |
1986: NASA space shuttle Challenger . I had nightmares about that for weeks.
by Anonymous | reply 158 | December 9, 2017 7:21 AM |
The O.J. trial. Updates were played over the P.A. system at my school.
by Anonymous | reply 159 | December 9, 2017 7:35 AM |
9-11
by Anonymous | reply 160 | December 9, 2017 8:53 AM |
The murder and subsequent cover up of Dorothy Kilgallen.
by Anonymous | reply 161 | December 9, 2017 8:54 AM |
Birth of Little Ricky
by Anonymous | reply 162 | December 9, 2017 8:54 AM |
When they fired on Fort Sumter
by Anonymous | reply 163 | December 9, 2017 8:55 AM |
I remember being at another kid's house and on TV they announced that Frank Reynolds the anchorman had died. The kid's mother screamed! (and then her husband got mad at her for making such a fuss.)
People were really wrapped up in their TV News people back then.
by Anonymous | reply 164 | December 9, 2017 9:50 AM |
Pope John Paul’s visit to Boston in October 1979. Being Polish Catholics in Boston, it was required viewing. I was 10.
by Anonymous | reply 165 | December 9, 2017 10:36 AM |
I remember JFK campaigning on Long Island in 1960 when I was five years old. As far as a news story on TV, it would have to be JFK's assasination three years later.
by Anonymous | reply 166 | December 9, 2017 10:44 AM |
Clarence Thomas pubic hair in Coke.
by Anonymous | reply 167 | December 9, 2017 12:04 PM |
Virginia Tech massacre.
by Anonymous | reply 168 | December 9, 2017 12:14 PM |
R168 types prepubescent. Or his parents didn't let their kids watch TV.
by Anonymous | reply 169 | December 9, 2017 12:17 PM |
I could have been someone's first memory but Michael Jackson stole my spotlight. Bitch.
by Anonymous | reply 170 | December 9, 2017 12:27 PM |
I lived near the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980, and remember standing in my back yard, waving a sign for Jimmy Carter, who was flying over in a helicopter.
A year later, I remember watching the assassination attempts on both Reagan and Pope John Paul on television. I mailed the pope my allowance (coins taped to a piece of paper) to aid in his recovery.
by Anonymous | reply 171 | December 9, 2017 12:33 PM |
The Iran hostage crisis and the election of Ronald Reagan.
by Anonymous | reply 172 | December 9, 2017 12:42 PM |
R169 actually, you are spot on! We were not allowed to watch tv! Good spot!
by Anonymous | reply 173 | December 9, 2017 12:48 PM |
There may be earlier news story memories that I cannot date, but the earliest memory - for certain - was the presidential campaigns and election of 1960.
by Anonymous | reply 174 | December 9, 2017 1:39 PM |
Anita Hill or Rodney King
by Anonymous | reply 175 | December 9, 2017 2:36 PM |
Also Kurt Cobain's suicide and Michael Jackson being accused of molestation.
by Anonymous | reply 176 | December 9, 2017 2:37 PM |
Apollo landing in 1969 is the first major story I can remember. I would save the newspapers with pictures of the landing until my younger sister chopped them up and used them for show-and-tell.
by Anonymous | reply 177 | December 9, 2017 3:20 PM |
My birth.
by Anonymous | reply 178 | December 9, 2017 4:21 PM |
I remember being about 4 watching Michael Jackson's video statement where he denied being a child molester. I didn't really understand what he was talking about or who he was but I understood enough to find him really creepy.
Politically nothing made an impression until the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal which was everywhere, though I do recall being stuck on a long car ride listening to my aunt and uncle blathering about Whitewater.
by Anonymous | reply 179 | December 9, 2017 4:29 PM |
Teapot Dome scandal
by Anonymous | reply 180 | December 9, 2017 4:42 PM |
The invention of the wheel.
by Anonymous | reply 181 | December 9, 2017 5:36 PM |
The death of Elvis
by Anonymous | reply 182 | December 9, 2017 6:13 PM |
Several news stories stuck in my head from the 1960s:
The assisination of JFK
The Beatles come to America
Richard Speck murdered the eight nurses in the middle of the night in their apartment in Chicago
The Charles Manson Murders
by Anonymous | reply 183 | December 9, 2017 10:23 PM |
The Vietnam War
The hippies and protests against the war
by Anonymous | reply 184 | December 9, 2017 10:24 PM |
The Cuban middle crisis. I was 3. My mother took me and my brother to her home town. My great uncle had a bunker that would hold our entire extended family under his store downtown. I don’t remember much of the trip.. we flew ...
by Anonymous | reply 185 | December 9, 2017 10:32 PM |
I clearly remember Elvis as we were driving my grandmother home from a visit (she lived 3 hours away) we switched on the radio and there was a call in show where people were calling in and talking about their memories of Elvis but no one was making it clear he had died. My grandmother got upset and said "Oh my God, I bet something has happened to Elvis!" . She made us pull over so she could buy the afternoon newspaper (they had those then) to see if it was reported but he must not have died in time to make the paper. Soon enough of course, we knew that the King was DEAD.
by Anonymous | reply 186 | December 9, 2017 10:45 PM |
The bay of pigs. I also remember during that time Khrushchev pounding his shoe on the table. It really scared me because I was aware that he had nukes.
by Anonymous | reply 187 | December 9, 2017 10:52 PM |
Tough to say.
I could swear I remember Nixon resigning (I would have been 6), but that could have been replays of his resignation speech. But it was '74 if I'm remembering the original. I remember asking my mother about Karen Anne Quinlan and Patty Hearst because I didn't understand what those stories meant. So those may have been '75. I feel like I remember the two assassination attempts on Ford; those would have been in '75 too. And I definitely remember the '75 World Series (Red Sox vs. Reds).
I definitely remember watch Brady Bunch & Partridge Family on Fri nights. BB was cancelled in '74, so that lines up with me becoming aware of stuff in '74.
by Anonymous | reply 188 | December 11, 2017 5:43 AM |
The Alamo.
by Anonymous | reply 189 | December 11, 2017 5:58 AM |
Robert Kennedy funeral
Vietnam
by Anonymous | reply 190 | December 11, 2017 6:07 AM |
The death of Judy Garland
by Anonymous | reply 191 | December 11, 2017 6:14 AM |
JFK assasination. In reading group in first grade. Announcement emphasized that it was only an attempt. For some odd reason, I remember some kid had his hand down his pants. Later in day I thought I knew something because I said the "filibusters " were going to take over (?). Guess I just learned that word. Canfield elementary school in LA. Dorothy Troeger was principal. Random memories
by Anonymous | reply 192 | December 11, 2017 6:21 AM |
King Edward Longshanks instituting Prima Nocta.
by Anonymous | reply 193 | December 11, 2017 7:11 AM |
MLK and RFK assassinations.
by Anonymous | reply 194 | December 11, 2017 7:22 AM |
The Berlin Wall coming down
by Anonymous | reply 195 | December 11, 2017 7:30 AM |
"Mission Accomplished"
by Anonymous | reply 196 | December 11, 2017 12:41 PM |
Moon landing
by Anonymous | reply 197 | December 11, 2017 12:47 PM |
The Virginia Piper kidnapping in Minneapolis in 1972--the basis for the movie "Fargo."
It wasn't that big of a deal nationally, but it was a huge deal locally--the kidnappers asked for $1 million, and they got it (it was the national record for a ransom at the time). They had planned to kill her but she talked her way out of it. It was also very creepy because (as in Fargo) they kidnapped her in broad daylight--they just walked up to her while she was gardening in front of her mansion and took her away.
I was convinced for a year or so after I would be kidnapped, even though my parents were middle-class nobodies.
by Anonymous | reply 198 | December 11, 2017 8:14 PM |
Son of Sam killer in NYC. Even though I was in adjacent Long Island, I remember feeling scared
by Anonymous | reply 199 | December 11, 2017 8:18 PM |
When the Challenger blew up.
by Anonymous | reply 200 | December 11, 2017 8:56 PM |
It was the JFK assassination, although I was only a toddler.
by Anonymous | reply 201 | December 11, 2017 11:20 PM |
The JFK Assassination.
One of the few times in my life that I actually saw my Dad cry.
by Anonymous | reply 202 | December 11, 2017 11:35 PM |
The Manson murders, but I didn't really understand what was going on. We lived in the Hollywood/Los Feliz area and my parents were really scared after the La Bianca murders in Los Feliz.
by Anonymous | reply 203 | April 17, 2018 6:21 PM |
Vaguely remember some of the NASA stuff - not sure which ones
Then Watergate hearing taking a lot of airtime
by Anonymous | reply 204 | April 17, 2018 6:26 PM |
Eisenhower elected 1952, watching my parents sitting by the radio (no tv) an weeping. Dirt poor farm family in the south, they knew they were fucked, and they were.
by Anonymous | reply 205 | April 17, 2018 6:40 PM |
Elvis dying. I was four at the time. Later, the Jamestown Massacre, death of John Lennon, Mt. St. Helens exploding and, the assassination of Anwar Sadat, which I'm kind of surprised people never talk about anymore. I remember that being a huge big deal at the time.
by Anonymous | reply 206 | April 17, 2018 6:44 PM |
For me I think it was Desert Storm. I remember the yellow ribbons everywhere and seeing the oil wells burning on TV.
by Anonymous | reply 207 | April 17, 2018 6:59 PM |
I remember the OJ Simpson trial and the 1996 Election going on in a general sense, but I don't have memories of specific moments for those, except for voting for Ross Perot in our class's mock election. The 1994 Lillehammer Olympics too, if that counts.
I guess the earliest for me is Princess Diana dying. I don't have memories of finding out though, just people talking about it the next day. Earliest distinct news memory would be the Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998.
by Anonymous | reply 208 | April 17, 2018 7:00 PM |
The Omaha bombing.
by Anonymous | reply 209 | April 17, 2018 7:10 PM |
*Omagh bombing. For some reason I thought that happened 10 years before it did. Which means my earliest memory of a particular news story was Fred and Rose West. I recall those infamous photos on the front pages for weeks.
by Anonymous | reply 210 | April 17, 2018 7:14 PM |
Challenger disaster.
by Anonymous | reply 211 | April 17, 2018 7:16 PM |
I dimly remember the reporting on the death of Pope John XXIII. That was five months before the JFK assassination. My upbringing was decidedly midwestern protestant. I remember how strangely I thought the pope's costume and how extravagantly large was St. Peter's.
Even in the summer after kindergarten, I thought it all grotesquely excessive.
by Anonymous | reply 212 | April 17, 2018 7:16 PM |
The battle at Gettysburg.
by Anonymous | reply 213 | April 17, 2018 7:17 PM |
The wedding of Princess Margaret.
by Anonymous | reply 214 | April 17, 2018 7:23 PM |
Sputnik being launched
by Anonymous | reply 215 | April 17, 2018 7:27 PM |
Fall of the Berlin Wall. (I’m in Germany)
by Anonymous | reply 216 | April 17, 2018 10:29 PM |
The '76 election.
by Anonymous | reply 217 | April 17, 2018 10:33 PM |
The Kennedy assassination. On a local level it was a news story of an estranged husband who took his child for a visit and then killed the toddler and left his body in a field. When the body was finally found the grandmother ID'd the dead child by a red button she had sewn on his coat the day the dad picked him up. I was maybe 6 when it happened and it has stuck with me all these years.
by Anonymous | reply 218 | April 17, 2018 10:44 PM |
The death of Princess Diana.
by Anonymous | reply 219 | April 17, 2018 11:05 PM |
Interesting to have one's first memory be RFK's death, but Martin Luther King's death a couple months before went unnoticed.
That must have been a few weeks of crucial developmental steps.
Or something.
by Anonymous | reply 220 | April 17, 2018 11:09 PM |
JFK's assassination and Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. The latter happened on my eighth birthday.
by Anonymous | reply 221 | April 17, 2018 11:15 PM |
Watergate. And wondering why they named a jello salad after it.
by Anonymous | reply 222 | April 17, 2018 11:17 PM |
The 1972 Munich Olympics. I still remember a stunned Jim McKay saying, "They're all gone."
by Anonymous | reply 223 | April 17, 2018 11:52 PM |
Moon landing and manson murders. I was 5 in the summer of 1969.
by Anonymous | reply 224 | April 18, 2018 12:46 AM |
The TV news and funeral coverage of the astronauts killed in on the launching pad at Cape Kennedy in 1967, and then the assassination news and funeral coverage on TV of Robert Kennedy. Now with the eyeglasses and almost all white hair, I get a lot of younger people at work asking me, "Do you remember what it was like when President Kennedy was killed?" Uhm, no, I was 1 year and 2 months old.. So it's a weird feeling that coming up on the 50th anniversary of Robert's death and related news events, this is the first time and the first one major political event I can say that I truly do recall in my life, from that time.
by Anonymous | reply 225 | April 18, 2018 1:02 AM |
Americans held hostage in Iran.
by Anonymous | reply 226 | April 18, 2018 1:42 AM |
Atlanta child murders.
by Anonymous | reply 227 | April 18, 2018 1:43 AM |
I have vague memories of the moon landing and watching on our small black and white TV (that moved into my bedroom when I was a teenager), but the first clear memory in which I can remember details about what I was doing (playing at a neighbor's house when his mother called us inside to see) when RIchard Nixon resigned. She said it was something we'd remember for the rest of our lives.
by Anonymous | reply 228 | April 18, 2018 3:01 AM |
The FLQ Crisis in Quebec...October, 1970
by Anonymous | reply 229 | April 18, 2018 3:07 AM |
I must have been around 4,and I remember asking my dad what all those bags lined up on a runway were and he said " men who's luck ran out' . It was apparently a shot of Vietnam . That was the 1st time I "noticed" something other than Captain Kangaroo or Speed racer.
by Anonymous | reply 230 | April 18, 2018 3:30 AM |
JFK assassination. I was only 8, but I remember that it was unbelievably sad in my house. However Princess Diana death and funeral was even sadder.
Another major news story was when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald happening right before your eyes. No assassin would ever be allowed to be in the open like that ever again as they walked him out of the courtroom My father yelled, my mother screamed as we watched TV. It was shocking beyond belief happening right after JKF's death.
by Anonymous | reply 231 | April 18, 2018 3:44 AM |
Age 4- fall of the Berlin War
by Anonymous | reply 232 | April 18, 2018 3:49 AM |
I recall watching the Summer Olympics in Mexico City on tv with my parents (in black & white) in August 1968 when I was five, but I do not remember MLK and RFK's assassinations just a few months earlier.
by Anonymous | reply 233 | April 18, 2018 4:10 AM |
Cuban Missle Crisis, JFK Assassination, Freedom Summer, Selma. Remarkably frightening all of it. Horrible, unspeakable to see Americans treated so violently by white racists - and I mean the cops. Fire hoses, dogs- just shocking. I kept saying WHY are they doing this to people?? LIfe magazine was full of stories of “Night Riders” dumb thugs and white terrorists trying to prevent voting. I developed a visceral reaction to hate those cowards. I was 6 years old.
I am appalled to see a POS like Trump trying to align this country with what the White Nationalists refer to as the last White Nation/Russia. The GOP created this shit storm of bigotry and now we will make them pay.
Worrying about Nuclear war - this was in Miami so very very real. On the day JFK was murdered being sent home from school after the principle gathered us all in the cafeteria to announce that we all were dismissed for the day. The television was on for 3 days nonstop. My mother and father were shaken - they were depressions kids - they knew who was looking out for their interests and were extremely serious Dems. All of the students were Democratic families, progressive smart liberals. This was a nightmare, we were home for the rest of the week.
by Anonymous | reply 234 | April 18, 2018 4:35 AM |
I also forgot the launch of Alan Sheppard and John Glenn.
by Anonymous | reply 235 | April 18, 2018 4:41 AM |
Bay of Pigs. There were all these pigs in Cuba that were swimming to Florida. Weird, I know.
by Anonymous | reply 236 | April 18, 2018 5:28 AM |
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