What is the first major news story that you can remember

The Cuban missile crisis in 1962. I was nine years old and terrified there was going to be a nuclear war.

Assassination JFK

Bbevan, the baby polar bear was Brumas.

The first I REALLY remember is the death of Elvis. Although I have a vague memory as a very young child of getting up in the middle of the night, and the TV glowing and my dad watching it. For years, as an adult, I thought I imaged that memory, then eventually put 2 & 2 together and realised I woke up while he was watching the moon landing on TV.

The launch of the first satellite, Russia’s Sputnik. We went out to spot it in the night sky. It seemed miraculous and all space travel since has left me cold. I was about 13 but we children knew nothing about the news normally. Like money, politics, sex, those subjects were not mentioned.

Sputnik 1957. I was five years old and, obviously, I knew of it from adults talking. I remember seeing footage of the news of JFK's assassination (1963) and I remember watching Winston Churchill's funeral procession in 1965. I was 11 and 13 by then though, so those news items made an impression on me without adult input.

As a child I can remember being out with my Dad and him being stopped and asked to sign a petition about the death penalty not being used for Ruth Ellis. Last woman to be hanged in this country,
He then explained to me what is was all about and I became a lifelong opposer of the death penalty - murder another name!!

I also have very deep memories of Aberfan. I was unwell at work, (to which I used to walk there and back), and arranged for a friend who lived close by to give me a lift back to my house and she came in with me to make sure I was okay. We turned on the tv and just stood there totally transfixed with the horror if it. Some years later there was a teacher at my childrens' primary school who came from there, but he had not been there at the time. He lost family members, but did not talk much about it.

annodomini just to add, that not ALL families held the royals in high esteem even back then. My East London parents and extended family were, even then, favouring the idea of a republic.

Another one which has stayed with was the Dunblane massacre in March 1996.
I was working in my classroom with the radio on, when I heard the news.
I ran to the the staffroom to tell my colleagues. We were all in tears, it was too close to home.

Then I realised how vulnerable we all were. Every door, fire doors included, were wide open, as it was lunchtime. Anyone could have got into the school.

Things changed dramatically after that. The LA immediately installed security systems in all the schools, giving us all key fobs and building janitor's offices at the front door.

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I remember the news of a baby polar bear being born at London zoo .Called Bruin? . This is only because I was bought a polar bear soap which I carried with me all day and night. Until it sort of melted. I must have been about 3 or 4, so 1947/48? I also remember being told at school about the death of the King.

Gosh Franbern I'd forgotten about the Munich air disaster. Shame on me.

February 6th 1952 - the death of George VI and accession of Queen Elizabeth. We were asked to stand up in class to hear the news. I don't think newer generations understand the affection that was felt for the Royal Family in those wartime and post-war years.

JFK for me too. I was 7 and all the adults I knew were so shocked and upset.

It left a huge impression and I have since visited the site of the assassination in Dallas,as well as JFK’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery. I found it very moving indeed.

The Queen's wedding to Prince Philip in 1947. Of course she was Princess Elizabeth then. I must have been two, and I can remember my DM telling me to be quiet as the service was broadcast on the radio. The next thing I remember is George VI dying, and then the coronation. I can also remember about that time all the fuss about the baby polar bear, Brumas, being born at the London Zoo. I had a jigsaw of him.

I was 16 yrs old and working in the offices of a major newsagent distributor. Each morning when I first arrived, a copy of every single national newspaper (and there were a lot back in the 1950's), was on my desk and I had to record in a book how many pages each of those contained. (No idea why, or how that information was ever used).

On the morning of 6th Feb 1958, every single one of those newspaper had a big black border as they recorded the deaths of so many of the young Busby Babes and virtually every newspaper the deaths of their own sports reporters in the tragic Munich Air Disaster. It had me in tears just looking at them, and to this dah I can recall sitting at my desk looking at those black bordered newspapers.

The death of King George is one that stands out in my memory, that would be February 1952.

I do still remember understanding that something really dreadful had happened, just after the terrible East Anglian floods of 1953 (?). I would have been just 4. The faces, the hushed voices, the sombre atmosphere.

My paternal GM once told me that she remembered the death of Queen Victoria. The church bells were tolling and in a deep and very solemn voice her father had said, ‘The Queen is dead!’ - and she thought the world must be coming to an end if the Queen was dead!
She would have been 6.

I would have to say watching protests on TV regarding the Vietnam war, and American civil rights marches and protests.
I was born in 1961, and the mid to late 60's were fraught with protests. As a Canadian, we also saw quite a bit of American news .

further to earlier post, The greengrocers shop was owned by Maud Jiggins who was serving customers.

I heard over the radio that 'the King had died'.....It was Feb 6th 1952 and I was a small girl standing in a greengrocers shop getting a 'pound of carrot and onion' for my mother! I often ran errands. I ran all the way home and told my mother 'The King has died!

Certainly the coronation in 1953; I was seven and watched it on a neighbour’s tv in a very crowded living room. The end of rationing. Then the first satellite, Sputnik, going into space in 1957. The moors murderers in 1965 and then Aberfan in 1966.

I remember watching tv showing the Queen’s Coronation at a neighbour’s and then years later being told to hush while at the breakfast table to listen to the news on the radio which was talking about aerial bombing , Suez, but I was too young to understand both events. The first ones I really understood were Yuri Gagarin’s trip into space, the Profumo affair and Kennedy’s death.

The Aberfan Disaster for me too - coming home from school to find both Mum and Gran in tears.
Later the assassinations of Martin Luther King and John Lennon. Reports of Famine in Ethiopia.
The Moors Murderers.
Death of Diana - that a young mum could go on holiday and never come back,
More recently, the murder of Daniel Pelka - I read about this when out having a coffee - so distressing, I was in floods of tears but didn’t care, the story was horrific.

I looked at a timeline of major news events. The first I remembered was Charles and Diana's wedding. The only reason I remember that is because some friends at school were talking about it. I watched the wedding on TV because of school friend influence, but I wasn't aware of it as a news story, as such. I was probably a bit young to have much awareness of much news at the time.

Death of King George V1,I was four a few days later,I heard it on the Radio and ran outside to tell my Mum and the next door neighbour,they were out the back chatting.