What is the first major news story that you can remember

Both my earliest memories of major news stories are from 1956, but until I googled them just now, I couldn't have told you which came first. They are Suez and Hungary. We always had the news on at breakfast time, and had to be quiet so that my parents could hear the headlines, and Suez seemed to go on for a long time. When the Hungarian crisis happened (I was coming up to 5) I thought the newsreader was saying 'hungry', which seemed appropriate for breakfast time. My parents had to explain what the difference was!

I remember being very frightened about Cuba and the prospect of nuclear war, and of course I can still remember where I was when I heard about JFK!

I remember the coronation because my grandmother was a keen royalist and so my grandparents bought a television so she could watch it - the first person I knew well to get a tv.

I also remember my first bar of chocolate (a Punch bar) when sweets came off the ration, which according to google was 1953 also - in fact that was the first thing that came to mind which probably says it all!

The Coronation, we had a party at school.

The death of King George VI as well. I was 7. At the table having lunch (or maybe breakfast) with my family, in Montreal. I thought "kings" were bad people so I said "youpi". I got a hard slap from my papa and then a long explanation re the King and Royal family. Although French speaking, my family was very pro Royalty as I am now and living here in the UK.
Gosh, all those memories! Fun post HurdyGurdy

For me it was Aberfan. I remember my grandmother and her friends sitting togther watching the tv, crying. I suspect thatmis my first memory of seeing something on tv, too.

Here is a nice one - seeing the Beatles on television for the first time and noticing a shiver down my back.

The Coronation for me. We lived in Arundal and there was a big fancy dress party at the castle. I went as a penguin (for some unknown reason.)At the end they gave us a mug and threw lots of sixpences up in the air for us to get. I was enthralled!

I have a vague recollection of sitting on my mum's knee watching a TV with a tiny screen and huge cabinet - the queen's coronation. And there was Suez stuff burbling on in the background while I played. But I wasn't old enough to understand anything special was going on. The first time something I was old enough to comprehend happened it was the assassination of President Kennedy. Or maybe Yuri Gagarin's space trip.

JFK, Mum and Nan were crying in the kitchen, TV was on all the time.
Churchill's funeral.
Aberfan, I still weep when I think of it, I knew it involved children about the same age as me.
The moon landing!

I was born in Plymouth in 1937 so all my earliest memories are of the war and sleeping in a shelter and bombs and fires.
The first big news item I remember was the end of the war and the street parties and huge celebrations.

The Cuban crisis. We had to write an essay at school on the Bay if Pigs and why it was so named while my father had been called away to sea, he was a long term sailor from 1938-1965, and I was much more worried about him than the fact that the world was about to blow itself up.

I vaguely knew about Suez and indirectly about the Korean War because he was sent Ifg fir both those, but I was too young to be directly involved in those at the time, only in retrospect (when he came home - firtubatekyvajways in one bit - physically although he was always a mental wreck after Narvik)

Winston Churchill dying. Aberfan. Not sure which was first.

I lived in India as a small child and my first news story memory is of the border clashes that preceded the Sino-Indian War of 1962. I can remember being quite scared, although we lived in Bombay and so were thousands of miles away from where the conflict was occurring.

The space flights, Little Lemon and Yuri Gagarin.
JFK
Aberfan.

I am confused about Little Lemon. I have googled the dates and can’t find reference to Little Lemon, but have found Laika, (Lemon) but at 1957 that would have been too early as I remember learning about it in a house that we didn’t move into until the early sixties.

1955 in the Daily Mirror (back when it was a proper newspaper!) The Rock'n'Roll train. It was a cartoon of a train rocking and rolling right across the middle pages.

Aberfan..it still haunts me, although I have no connections with Wales at all. I'm sure there were other major headlines, but I was relatively old enough to understand what happened with this one.

Aberfan. Also vaguely remember Churchill's funeral on the television. But Aberfan is clear in my mind to this day.

The Coronation ..... Then the Suez crisis though all so long ago it's difficult to remember!!!

Yes willsmadnan my Dad was a commercial traveller too. It meant we had a car long before anyone else in the street. I think the birth of Prince Charles is my first news memory. My mother was very pleased, I don’t know why, because my brother was born in the same year!!!

UDI in Rhodesia. We were allowed to listen to the radio at school and also the Cuba crisis, which was the first time I actually felt frightened.

Aberfan for me, too, though I think that has made more of an impression on me long term than, say, the Munich air disaster, which I also remember well. The floods of 1952 (3?) also made an impression on me as I can remember getting off a bus and seeing shopkeepers sandbagging their front steps to prevent the water getting in! And the Coronation, of course.

What has come home to me, reading through the posts is that I am probably old enough to be the mother of some posters!

The assassination of JFK. I was sitting with my Irish nan who fell to her knees. She then pulled me down to the floor to say a few Hail Mary's! No wonder I didn't forget it. I've always had a fascination with JFK ever since.

Anno - VE Day for me too. 8 May 1945. Didn't hear any announcement or see any celebrations though, just jubilant parents. I wasn't five until July.

The first thing I heard for myself was in 1950 when I was off school ill and listened to the wireless all day in bed - it was the results of the election, so Friday 24th February.
It was exciting, as I was old enough to understand it.

Thank you all for responding (I'm always a little bit iffy about starting a new thread!)

Some wonderful responses and memories. I was only dimly aware of a lot of them, so I have spent a lot of time googling and reading up on the events mentioned.

It is also interesting that I appear (at the grand old age of 57) to be a bit of a kid on this forum . I am usually the granny of the forum!