What is the first big news story you remember?

I was in my classroom in school at the age of 9 when a teacher rushed in, without knocking and announced dramatically:”The King is dead!”
My class teacher clutched her chest and said:”The King! Dead! Oh no!”
It made such an impression on me, I have never forgotten it!

The Coronation, then Aberfan.

I some news bulletins concerning the 'Space Race' - the dog called 'Laika' going into space. Having just read the tragic circumstances of what happened to her, I don't remember any of that reaching us at the time. www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/sad-story-laika-space-dog-and-her-one-way-trip-orbit-1-180968728/ . After that there was a chimpanzee called 'Ham' sent. Eventually the huge fuss surrounding Yuri Gagarin's orbit of Earth.

At the age of 10, I also remember the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 - followed by the horrible films of unsuccessful attempts by some people trying to escape from East to West. They often showed the Eastern Guards firing on people who were desperately trying to get back to their families in the West. I remember one body lying on the ground - in the space between the fences - for some time .................... possibly as a warning to others who might have felt like attempting escape.

I was working on Night Shift in a Care Home (supposed to be doing the ironing while watching TV) and cried when I watched that same Wall being breached - with the Guards just standing there doing nothing to prevent it.

The first big news story I remember was the Manchester United Munich air disaster, a few weeks before my eighth birthday, I saw it in newspaper boards on my walk to school.

The assassination of John Kennedy. I was in bed with mumps and mother burst into my bedroom and told me. She was shocked. I was shocked.

Someone had a TV so I saw in Coronation, although I didn't know what was happening when I was three. The next time was when I was about 6 and told to be quiet, only to listen to the news talking about bombs being dropped, Suez. I remember the news talking about the Wall being built. Telstar and the music. The Profumo affair caused me to be pulled up to the Head's office, (another story). I remember Kennedy and I was doing a paper round when the 'great train robbery' hit the headlines. However, although the Moors murders were horrific, it is Aberfan that first touched me.

The moon landings.

Assassination of President Kennedy. Early 60's I guess so I was about 12 or 13. I know my mother cried.

I remember Yuri Gagarin going into space. My class listened to the news report on the "wireless".

Death of president kennedy
I was 5
We were in scotland up a mountain
Dad stopped the car
Radio was on
I hated looking over at the pine treetops

Olliebeak - in my previous post, I said I remember crying about (probably) Laika and other animals not coming back from space. I assumed this must have been before Yuri Gagarin, but maybe not. I don't remember if I found out from a news-paper or the radio (we didn't have a TV until either '63 or '64.

I remember exactly how I learnt of the death of George VI. I was 11, and was crossing the road from senior to middle school when I bumped into a girl I knew coming in the opposite direction in floods of tears. She told me the King had died. I was terribly shocked. I mean, he was the King! How could he be dead? What would happen? It felt as if everything was falling apart.

Aberfan I still think about all them children and how those parents must have felt .

All in 1963, the year I turned seven:

The Beatles on television (I'm a huge fan still)
The Great Train Robbery
Kennedy's assassination

My first memory was the King dying.. I remember my mother running down to the public phone box in tears. She wanted to ring her mother who hadn't got a phone either, so it meant ringing a neighbor who could go and get her. Even at the age of 6 I thought it was all a bit of a fuss.

I do remember my mother being dreadfully upset about the Cuban missile crisis, though I don't remember the story, I think that was late 1962, and also TV news coverage of the extreme snow over that winter, 1962/3, though not a specific story about it.

The Daleks appearing in Dr Who in 1963, utterly terrifying.

Later on, the awful Aberfan disaster in 1966... England winning the World Cup...

Marion Coakes and little Stroller winning a silver medal at the Mexico Olympics in 1968.

Paul McCartney marrying Linda, Woodstock, the moon landings, 1969.

I love nostalgic threads but it's sad remembering some of the terrible stories seared on our childhood memories.

Poppyred, absolutely the same....I was one year older, but like you remember running into the kitchen to tell my mum that Kennedy had been shot.

The moon landings. I'd have been about 4 or 5 and remember someone telling me I should be watching it on TV as it was history being made. I just wanted to go out and play.

Poppyred same as you.
I had just given birth to our second son, at home, and my husband burst into the room saying that Kennedy had been killed.
I thought, what a world have I brought this little boy into?

The Great Train Robbery , Moors murders and JFK .

I remember being worried that the Moors murder(s) would come to my village in Berkshire.

I was standing in the queue to go into school dinners when the headteacher came and told us the King had died. I can see it vividly. I looked across the yard to where my little sister was playing and thought she didn't know. There followed the pictures of Elizabeth coming home, from somewhere in Africa I think, and then the coronation.
I remember Suez as a neighbour's son was in the forces involved.

The next would be the Munich air disaster 1958. Very clearly in my memory as I lived in Manchester at the time. I've had a fear of ice on aircraft wings ever since.

Definitely Suez.
It was compounded by a brown envelope which arrived for my father, addressing him by his rank. I was convinced he was being called up and would have to fight and be killed and remember clearly crying and crying.
When they opened the letter and it was a reminder for an overdue subscription to some regimental organisation, she absolutely laid into him for frightening us like that!

The Suez crisis when I was 7

I was in class when my teacher came in the room and told us all that President Kennedy had been assassinated. She was crying and we were all in shock.

Kennedy assassination. I remember crying and my dad asked why. I said "I liked him"! I was only 8. I think it was because he was usually smiling and had an American accent which I thought was really exotic. I remember the moon landings aswell.