Earliest Memory of Seminal News

The launching of Spuknik and assasination of JFK

JFK’s assassination, I was nine. Then Aberfan, which upset me much more, still does.

It's hard to separate things I remember clearly for myself from things I later grew to understand having just heard adults talking. I remember the Great Train Robbery because it sounded like an adventure!
I also remember going up the new engineering project the Post office tower when it was first open, i remember it very clearly "for myself" as it was so exciting. I also remember the sadness that surrounded the "Aberfan disaster" as my parents were both so distressed and phoned relatives in SouthWales a lot. I remember this being in the newspapers and looking at the photos with my parents - my father's cousin was involved with the "rescue".

Much later I remember a version of Concorde being test-flown over Anglesey some years before it went into service. This is a very clear memory as my mother insisted it was Concorde and was teased about it - but some time later she was proved correct.

Earlier memories (such as JFK) I think are not really my contemporaneous memories but may have been assembled later in my brain.
I am too young to remember the end of WW2.

Aberfan as national news.
But I do recall an aunt rushing round to our house in floods of tears - a good friend's little girl had just been knocked over by a car in our small town and died. I was 4 or 5 I think.

watermeadow

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.

I think the Queen held back out of consideration for the families and officials of Aberfan. Amidst the horror of the tragedy who, in the first few days, could countenance organising a Royal Visit?
I remember the Queen being very moved by what she witnessed.

Thank you Aldom , the Queen came back to Aberfan five
times and fact - she was very distressed on her first visit.

Aberfan disaster I was 10. I remember coming home from school and my mum was listening to news on radio while cooking dinner.

The workers in Glasgow being on strike for 6months without the Social Security benefits that we have now.
The qualified Engineers were poorly paid and the Labourers were on subsistence level. It was in the news stand being displayed outside the local shop. This was before we had TV. I’m thinking about 1955ish.
We also had men who returned from the war who were homeless and would sing in the back courts to get pennies or bread and jam or butter.
Very sad times. I then remember a little later being told on the same news stand ‘We never had it so good’ Rubbish it’s always been hard when there’s no work.

Winston Churchills funeral in 1964 and I was only 3. I remember watching it on our black and white TV. I remember crying even though I'd no idea what was going on.

boheminan

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

Yes this is my first real memory of a big news event, I too was 4 years old.

The Queen’s Coronation 1952.First time I remember watching television. Gathered in a neighbour’s house. TV was like a walnut bedside cupboard with square 10 inch screen at top.

Winston Churchill dying. I never even really knew who he was at the time but I knew many adults were upset by it.

The Suez crisis in 1956 😮

I remember the death of King George VI. It was announced during the "Music and Movement" broadcast at school. I was 9. I also remember seeing film coverage of of the Flying Enterprise sinking.

I was 6 and in the greengrocers with Kit and heard the women saying how the last memory of war was now gone. Rationing on sweets had ended.
Think everyone I knew about my own age always had some sweets in their pockets( in my case the pocket in my knickers) for weeks to come.

Yuri Gagarin going into space is my first memory of anything that made world news. I thought it was so exciting!
My next clear memory of anything momentous was JFK's assassination. I remember my Mum being really upset.
The one that's stuck in my head though is Aberfan, it was just after my ninth birthday, and some of those poor children were a similar age to me. My parents were very upset, and later terribly angry that something so awful had been so preventable, but the 'Powers That Be' had just not cared at all!
I still can't watch footage of Aberfan, without lots of tears, it just brings it all back so clearly

My mom being very upset at Marilyn Monroe’s death. Then again upset at Jane Mansfield’s death, my mom was very filmy

TerriBull I was from a Catholic family too, and my mother was also distraught at the death of JFK. I remember coming home from Brownies to find her bawling her eyes out in front of the TV. She had a picture of him hung our living room until she died in 2014!

Unfortunately the Cuban missile crisis…. and having instructions on the ‘four minute warning’ ….that’s my first experience of the news. I was 11.

The general strike 1936. My Dad worked on the Star newspaper and he got a bonus for continuing to work.
Death of King George V. Radio played nothin but solemn music all day instead of Henry Hall and his dance band. Have hated bagpipes ever since because they played so much on his funeral.

Death of Elvis. I remember where I was and how I felt.

…..but the one that sticks in my mind forever is Aberfan.. I was about 14 or so and was chosen to write a piece for morning assembly and read it. I have never forgotten that day!

You would definitely win the prize if there was one Bijou.

I think it was 1970, Musicgirl.
I was married about two weeks before the changeover and was just accustoming myself to being in charge of budgeting.

JFK's assassination is my first major event. I was at Girls Brigade and one of the older girls came in and told us.
I have vague memories of the cuban missile crisis and threats of nuclear war but no details.
I do remember asking what the Profumo scandal was about and was told I was too young to know.
We had friends round for Churchill's funeral and we all had to sit and watch it. The youngest, aged around 7, was bored and said "bring on the coffin scene" - one of those silly things you never forget.