Earliest Memory of Seminal News

The death of King George and the return of Queen Elizabeth from Africa to take over as monarch.
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth as it was the first time I got to watch television, my mother, sister and I travelled to a relatives house twelve miles away to watch it.

This is a really good thread.

I remember Aberfan, and also a tragedy at Ibrox stadium, I think it was about 1966, when a lot of fans got killed in a crush. I think with Aberfan it was because it was all about the children, that made it more relevant to me, and Ibrox is in Scotland of course so it seemed so local.

I can only have been about 4, and we certainly had no TV, only the ‘wireless’, but I do remember the appalled faces and voices after those horrific coastal floods of 1953. I didn’t quite understand but was well aware that something dreadful had happened.

Not me, but a granny told me she remembered Queen Victoria dying, the church bells tolling, and her father saying in very solemn tones, ‘The Queen is dead!’ My poor granny (6 at the time) thought the world must be coming to an end if the Queen was dead!

When we were children the news, like sex, was not considered suitable for us. The first news I remember seeing on television was the Aber Fan disaster, horrifying black and white images of men digging with bare hands in the mud and the women standing in silent groups.
It took the Queen a week to go there.

Witzend

I can only have been about 4, and we certainly had no TV, only the ‘wireless’, but I do remember the appalled faces and voices after those horrific coastal floods of 1953. I didn’t quite understand but was well aware that something dreadful had happened.

Oh yes, those pictures in the papers were terrible.
We didn't have a TV until later that year.

Kalu

We had just finished school lunch when our headmistress announced that JFK had been assassinated. I was 13. I remember the dining hall suddenly being very quiet, so many of us were shocked and upset.

Were you in the UK? I remember my aunt telling my cousins and me at about seven o’ clock on a Friday night.

The assassination of JFK was announced early evening

I agree about JFK’s assassination.

We had just fetched fish and chips, and the News came on as we were eating it.

jfk in general 1961
the murder of him
we were watching singin the rain 1963when the news came on

Not my first memory but the JFK assasination was definitely in the evening. It was my 17th birthday and I went out for a meal with my parents. There was a huge crash from the kitchen as a waitress had heard the news on the radio and dropped the tray of plates she was carrying.

JFK for me too. I had just come home from the cinema after watching a Bond film with a friend when I heard the news. I was 13.

I remember the late Queen's wedding in 1947. I can remember my mother shushing me as she was trying to listen to it on the radio - she said something like "Shush, it's the princess's wedding," I was about 2 and a half.

It is interesting that so many remember Aberfan as an early news memory. One of my cousins was born on that day. I am too young to remember it but saw a documentary about it some years ago. Apparently, it was the day before the October half term and had it happened the next day, nobody woud have bee in the building. The headmaster showed a photograph of the first eleven football team who had won a match that week. All eleven were killed. Absolutely dreadful.

Actually, I as well as recollections up post, do remember the Queens wedding, I was about 5. After the relative boredom of being shushed through the radio broadcast I think I remember being taken to a newsreel showing at the cinema which was just like something out of a story book to my 5 year old eyes.

The death of Maria Colwell in 1973.

Yes Aberfan is also my earliest news memory. I was 10 at the time, think it was because it was a school and as I was a schoolchild it seemed real and relevant.

For me, I think it would have to be the moon landing. I remember being quite fascinated with it at the time.

The earliest I remember is the death of KIng George VI when I was eleven. Very strange that I can’t remember any news event before that.

My father had some amazing memories. The beginning of the First World War in 1914, when he was seven, and even before that, the sinking of the Titanic when he was four or five. They were a shipping family so that was a very important moment. He said he remembered the air of silent tragedy and despair in the house. How could that great ship, the pride of the country, possible sink?

It was definitely the Aberfan disaster for me. Such a tragedy. I remember Cliff Mitchelmore the News Reporter actually being in tears, as was my mother.

Calendargirl Strangely the JFK assassination was also linked with fish and chips for me. I was 16 and after the news had to go down into the town to the chippy. I was wearing my mum's high heeled sling backs which I wasn't supposed to wear and I remember crying all the way for his children.

Pre television,after the war, they used to read out the names of missing persons on the BBC radio especially if their relatives seeking them were, ‘dangerously ill ’. They were long, long lists hinting at the tragic consequences of the war.

It was well after the war, probably in the 50s and early 60s, nanna8, but I certainly remember announcements on the radio (or the ‘wireless’ then), asking such and such a person to get in touch with who/whatever it was, since someone presumably close to them was ‘dangerously ill.’

Queen Mary's funeral. My mother was watching television, I was sick and she was furious because she missed some of the news coverage (I don't think the funeral was broadcast apart from on radio).

The first seminal event I can remember is complaining about boring music on the radio and wanting to put Radio Luxemburg on. My mother snapped at me "Have some respect - the King is dead." That would be George VI. After that the announcement of the climbing of Everest and attending street parties for the coronation of Elizabeth II.