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Earliest Memory of Seminal News

(183 Posts)
Musicgirl Thu 13-Apr-23 19:36:43

Most of us here are interested in current affairs and it got me wondering about our earliest memories of the news that was so major that it could never be forgotten. My earliest such memory is of decimalisation in February, 1971. I was just six at the time and in my second year of primary school. We were very fortunate in that we never learnt the old system and went straight on to the new. I can remember our teacher telling us about it and teaching us how to use it. Prior to this, I can remember seeing the old prices in shops and thinking that 6d made no sense if it was six pence and that the new system of p for pence was much more logical. How about your earliest memories of seminal news events?

Whitewavemark2 Thu 13-Apr-23 19:39:45

Sitting in the cinema and seeing Hillary and Tenzing standing on top of Mount Everest a dark blue sky behind them.

Siope Thu 13-Apr-23 19:45:44

JFK’s assassination. I recall a newsflash interrupting something I was watching, but not which programme it was. I was the only person in the room, so I’m guessing my dad was at work, and my mum was putting my siblings to bed.

GrandmaSeaDragon Thu 13-Apr-23 19:49:54

Coming home from secondary school and hearing about Aberfan, October 1966.

Georgesgran Thu 13-Apr-23 19:51:34

Same here GSDragon. Mum was ironing and very upset over the tragedy.

valdali Thu 13-Apr-23 19:57:21

JFK assasination. Mum was cooking bacon & ran down to the farmyard to tell dad, meanwhile bacon burnt & I was strapped in highchair breathing fumes. But it is the first thing I can definitely remember although I didn't understand about USA presidents at the time.I coughed black mucus for days apparently but recovered without medical attention.

Yammy Thu 13-Apr-23 19:57:25

Talk on T.V about the Russians sending missiles to Cuba. I took to going out of the room.
The other sitting in a coach in the pouring rain on the Isle of Arran on a Geology field trip and the News came on the coach radio that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. We all started to silently cry.

Ailidh Thu 13-Apr-23 20:29:57

JFK. I guess it was on the six o'clock news, and my Mum told me not to look, if I thought I might be upset.

aggie Thu 13-Apr-23 20:35:35

Being told the war was over and everyone glued to the radio , it meant my aunts husband coming home , he taught me to draw a Robin , I must have been 7

Hipsy Thu 13-Apr-23 20:45:59

The Great Train Robbery 1963
I was convinced Ronnie BIggs was hiding in our garden shed.
I was four years old.

maddyone Thu 13-Apr-23 20:47:35

Like others I remember JFK’s assassination. I was about ten years old at the time. I remember how shocked my parents were and that’s probably why I remember it so well.

Callistemon21 Thu 13-Apr-23 20:51:21

Whitewavemark2

Sitting in the cinema and seeing Hillary and Tenzing standing on top of Mount Everest a dark blue sky behind them.

Yes, I remember seeing that in the newspapers and listening to it on the radio.

I remember hearing and reading about the Korean War too.

boheminan Thu 13-Apr-23 20:52:55

I remember King George V1 death being announced on the radio. I was 4 years old.

Salti Thu 13-Apr-23 20:58:43

I remember Winston Churchill's funeral on television just after we got our first T.V. The next thing I remember was the Aberfan disaster and then the awful pictures of oil covered birds after the spill from the Torrey Canyon tanker off Cornwall.

TerriBull Thu 13-Apr-23 20:59:25

Yuri Gagarin, distant memories of hearing the name President Eisenhower, Stronger memories of JFK and the impact of his assassination on my parents, which was overwhelming, we were a Catholic family, my mother was distraught if I remember rightly. Hushed mutterings about a certain "Christine" who I mistook for tennis player Christine Truman at the time and wondered about the lowered tones, just what was going on in the tennis world to cause such consternation shock all over my head, I was completely wrapped up with The Bestles.

Deedaa Thu 13-Apr-23 21:00:30

I was six when the King died. I remember my mother crying and running up the road to telephone her mother's neighbour to say that we would come over. Why???? I'm sure it was very sad but hardly the Apocalypse.

Ziplok Thu 13-Apr-23 21:11:58

England winning the World cup in 1966 and the first moon landing with Neil Armstrong in 1969 are memories from the news that stick in my mind from childhood.

Jaxjacky Thu 13-Apr-23 21:16:17

First moon landing here too Ziplok, although I didn’t realise how momentous it was.

nadateturbe Thu 13-Apr-23 21:20:00

Yuri Gagarin going into space 1961 I think.

Blossoming Thu 13-Apr-23 21:21:44

The death of Pope Pius XII in 1958. I was very young, we were not an RC family. I was sat on the floor playing when the news came on the radio and the grownups were talking about his actions, or lack thereof, in WW2. It just stuck in my memory.

EkwaNimitee Thu 13-Apr-23 21:24:34

Another one for whom it was the conquest of Everest. Our newspaper split the front page that day, half for the coronation, half for Everest. The latter was the only thing that mattered to me.

ayse Thu 13-Apr-23 21:31:59

The first story I remember was at my Granny’s house. It was the Maumau in Kenya killing but it got all mixed up with nuns being killed in the Republic of Congo. Granny said that Ian Paisley was an evil man. It struck me that Granny rarely said anything about current events so this became rather important later on.

merlotgran Thu 13-Apr-23 21:34:56

boheminan

I remember King George V1 death being announced on the radio. I was 4 years old.

Same here. I was five.

fiorentina51 Thu 13-Apr-23 21:39:03

The Suez Crisis. I hadn't a clue what a Suez was or who was Nasser but can recall it being on the radio and TV.
I was 5 at the time.

Poppyjo Thu 13-Apr-23 21:40:28

My first memory of world news was hearing every morning about on the radio about captain Carlson and the Flying Enterprise. He would not leave his ship but all the passengers were landed safely I believe. I was about 5 years old. He died only a few years ago.