Earliest Memory of Seminal News

Death of Pope Pious xii, 1958. We were sent home from school early! I was 6.

The news on the wireless of the death of King George VI - I was 6. My parents and my Nan who lived with us were all in tears.

Many of the thing of the sixties that people have said. I can remember the start of the Six day war 1967 I think between Israel and Arab states

As well as some of the events already mentioned I can distinctly remember the Profumo affair. My straight laced mother kept muttering how disgusting the whole thing was but I was fascinated. I had an aunt who always bought "The News of the World" so I started visiting every Sunday just to read the juicy details.

“barbed” wire not “burned"

The Hungarian uprising seeing a photo of refugees fleeing across the border through ditches and burned wire. I wasn’t quite 9 years old.

Not quite so seminal but after the scriptwriters killed Grace Archer, a full page centre spread photo of a carpet of “sympathy” flowers. Did I imagine that? Or does anyone else remember that image?

The King ,George VI dying, my mum cried and I thought he must be my granddad!

JFK, I was 7, but the only news I was interested in watching was about The Beatles.

The suicide of Marilyn Monroe is one of the newspaper items that I first remember really registering in my child's brain. It just shocked me.

This thread really shows that there must be at least a 30-year spread of ages among us grans, a whole generation. It's interesting to read everyone's memories.
Mine is the death of George VI, the first time I could understand a word of the Home Service news - the rest was pretty much gibberish at age six.

The Queens Silver Jubilee celebrations. I was 4, at nursery and remember the hats and bunting.
I still have a couple of photos so not sure if my mum was there too.

I was on a bus with my mother and a man leaned across and said the war was over.

I remember seeing the shoe banging incident by Nikita Khrushchev on our very early black and white tv, i think it was c1960

Aberfan. We had recently moved from Wales, where I was born, to Newcastle. I broke my heart over all those poor children dying so unnecessarily. It's on my bucket list to pay my respects to them and the teachers who died with them.

I remember the assassination of JFK. Just back from honeymoon when I heard it, so I went to my husbands sports club to tell everyone. Being very worried during the Cuba missile crisis. I also put my very young children in from of the TV and told them to watch the moon landing as it was very important. My youngest remembers being told to watch.
I remember the Berlin wall going up and wondering why the h* it was being allowed.

Hello,
We have had all the family here for a holiday and when they leave I feel sad and think should we move to be closer to the Grandchildren one is in Brighton the other in Shrewsbury so we live in Devon and to be closer we would have to move to Oxford which would be 2 hours away from both of them. We love living in Devon and they love coming here but we love to be together so its a difficult to know what to do.
Thanks Jill

I remember JFKs assassination. I was at home helping to make a proggy mat sitting just beside the radio. Not having a tv we went to a relatives to see the footage, I was about 8 at the time also I remember Aberfan disaster, I can remember which came first but these events stimulated my first interest in news matters

Mine too. I had just started primary school & remember going round to my best friend’s house ; our parents very upset…

For me it was the Suez crisis in 1956 - I was 10 years old and was watching the news with my grandma. She turned to me and said “ I don’t know what sort of world you are going to grow up in”. When I watch the news at the moment I have the same fears for my grandchildren !!

Dashing in from outside with friends to see the news about Aberfan on the television I was 13. Seeing men digging with their bare hands and crying was just awful. Years later I went to Aberfan to see all the white arches of the memorial, a whole generation wiped out because the coal board tried to save money!

The Aberfan disaster, The moon landing and the 1966 World Cup.

As far as I can remember Jimmy Stewart the Scottish singer was on TV when the newsflash happened about JFK

silverlining48

Definitely the world coming to an end throughout my childhood. Cuban missile crisis, War with Russia, Cold War , very fearful of WW3. A frightening time.

They were my fears too and I remember having a picture of Yuri Gagarin in my bedroom so that if the Russians bombed us out of our home they might see the photo and feel slightly guilty. Mad thought !!

I was staying with my grandmother, aged 7 when news came on the radio of the assassination of JFK. She was incredibly shocked but I remember thinking you hadn’t seen so upset when my grandfather died when I was 5 (in hindsight she probably hid her feelings from me). I was at home with my mother when Robert Kennedy too, was shot. I remember both occasions very well.

JFK's death , though I didn't understand the significance. I seem to remember we'd been watching Dr. Kildare when we heard. Though that could be wrong.