What is the first major news story that you can remember

The Coronation. We got a TV and some neighbours came to watch. I probably remember it for that more than anything because nobody ever came into our house apart from my Granny.

I remember the assassination of JFK when I was about eight or nine.
On a happier note I recall reports of 'Beatlemania' when the Fab Four toured America.

The death of King George and the Coronation (watched on my grandparents tiny tv) are the first national events I recall. More local to my home was the flooding of Canvey Island. A major focus for my parents so I’m not sure if it was the news reports I recall or their conversations. Later Abervan has remained with me. I recall the reporting at the time and learning later that my boyfriend, now my husband, had gone there to try to help.

I can't think of anything I heard or read before my mid teens. (The Coronation, on the radio.)
We didn't have TV for ages, and I can't remember listening to the radio, nor seeing newspapers.
We listened to music a lot though, probably gramaphone records.

I remember watching the Coronation on our TV. All the neighbours were in our " kitchen" having brought dishes to share and their own dining room chairs which were lined up cinema style. As children we sat on the floor in front for the good bits (gilded carriage with waving queen) and under the table for the boring bits.

The 1962 Bay of Pigs saga when we were on the brink of nuclear war. Russia had sited missiles on Cuba aimed at the US. I remember saying to my mum atbthe time I'll never grow up and have kids! I was 10 at the time.

Aberfan , Winston Churchill's funeral then the assassination of John F Kennedy . I remember running noisily in from school( on all 3 occasions ) but getting hissed at by my Mother as she was head to the radio listening to the news .

Possibly the coronation but i was very young and no one had tv’s so its just a photo of the street party. A bit later the cuban missile crisis, terrified thinking the third world war was about to start, and it so very nearly did.

JFK and Aberfan.

Me too! Emergency Ward 10 was on the telly and they stopped it.

I was only a tiny child when the Queen was crowned, but I seem to remember everyone being so excited. I seem to remember a tiny tv with lots of folk crowded round it. There are photos of me in a lovely seersucker dress in red white and blue tiny spots with a matching cardie..

The Moors murders, I lived in Ashton u Lyme at the time and just could not believe such evil, still can’t.

Me too LouLou. I remember being on the market with my mother the afternoon that John Kilbride went missing and hearing the announcement asking him to go to the market office. The months of fear that our parents had, as soon as children were out of sight, is still vivid.

Definitely the first to make an impact on me was the Suez crisis.
My father had received an official looking brown envelope with his wartime rank on it and I was convinced he was being called up.
I was hysterical but Mum found it was only some reminder about a regimental association subscription and gave him such an ear-bashing for worrying me!

I was grown up when some of these major things happened - JFK, Aberfan, the Moors murders. I assiduously avoided hearing or reading anything about the Moors murders after I knew the general drift, and have done to this day.

Aberfan, just appalling preventable tragedy.

The moon landing...I was bored to tears as I really didn't realise the significance.

The War was over!! It was on the wireless, VE Day 1945, I was 5. I remember everyone being happy, a street party with a bonfire, baked potatoes in the ashes. Union flags in cupboards since King George VI’s 1936 Coronation were hung out of windows. A piano was rolled into the street, everyone singing ‘She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain’ - I wondered who She was but never found out! Grown ups with beer, us with pop.
I thought all the fathers and uncles would be back next day, it took rather longer! I been told of such pre-war delights as bananas and balloons, they took a year I think!
I expected life to be one big happy party after the war ended. I was only 5!

It’s strange that I can’t remember the end of the war at all. I was five, too. There wouldn’t have been any parties where we lived, but there must have been joy and happiness. I remember other things about being five, but not that.

The death of George VI; we were sent home from school for the rest of the day, and Listen with Mother wasn't on the radio.
The floods in Lynton and Lynmouth in Devon, which we had visited earlier that year. An assistant in a gift shop had been very nice to me as I spent my holiday money and I worried if she had survived.

The Cuba Crisis only because a girl I was at school with got quite hysterical because she thought the world was going to end, I also have memories of little James Bulger and being horrified by it.

What interesting memories. I'm sure I remember Princess Margaret's wedding. Definitely JFK's assassination and Churchill's funeral as well as Aberfan and the moon landing - my dad got me out of bed to watch that. My parents went to the Festival of Britain in '51 - I still have the brochure and some photos of them there. It was 3 years before I came along. I do remember Torre Canyon too and of course the older we get the more these things stick in our minds. I don't think I was aware of the Moors murders back then - my parents probably tried to keep it from me.

As a ps to my earlier post - I have a newspaper from Wales announcing the end of WW2.
I think Dad must have got it from a Welsh uncle, (Uncle Tom, married to one of Dad's sisters,) and then he passed it on to me.

blossom14 I must be around your age as I remember Tommy Handley dying. I was so upset and cried!

Aberfan. For welsh people it was a catastrophe of gigantic proportions. I was 13 at the time and remember it vividly. We were all playing outside ( what 13 year old would be doing that now) and rushed in and saw it happening on the tele. Men dug for hours and hours until they collapsed with exhaustion . It was horrendous. It made me realise for the first time that you didn't have to be grown up to die.

watermeadow has just jogged my memory. The launch of Sputnik! I remember my Dad gathering is around the radio to listen to the beep, beep. It wasn't very interesting to a six year old.