Earliest Memory of Seminal News

Aberfan for me too I would have been 6 years old. Another that sticks in my mind is the Torrey Canyon disaster in 1967 when an oil tanker ran aground and leaked an enormous amount of crude oil into the English channel .

The pictures of the opening up of Belsen concentration camp, the piles of bodies with some limbs still moving. I was about 10 at the time. It haunts me still.

This is a really interesting question. My earliest memory is (what I now realise) the moon landing in 1969. I remember playing outside and being called in to watch the TV and being told we were watching world history. I watched the TV for a while, quite unimpressed and went back outside to play, which was far more interesting. I'd have been almost 5 years old.

I also remember Elvis and John Lennon dying but not JFK.

Aberfan happened on my first birthday, my mum was terribly upset by it and we talked about it when I was older, and a young mother myself.

I'm sure there are more. I'll clear my mind (not too difficult) and see if anything else occurs. 🙄

Munich air crash 6th February 1958

I remember Princess Margaret's wedding -possibly because my mother deeply admired her dress ,tiara and hair .
She had enormous respect for the late Queen , but she thought that her dress was too fussy and not chic .
I think that Princess Margaret set a trend for Royal brides .

Later , I recall the assasignation of Kennedy with shock . And cried when I saw his little son salute him at his funeral .

I recall the funeral of Churchill - an irreplaceable leader -the saviour of the Nation .

But the news item that filld me with horror was the tragedy of Aberfan .

Whoops - my spelling of assassination looks as though I have an adenoid problem!

Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation on our newly rented TV

I was just nine when King George V1 died. A teacher came into the cloakroom at school, where I was washing my hands. He told us that the king was dead.
In 1953 Neville Duke became the holder of the World Air Speed record. We were taken from school to the promenade to hear the breaking of the sound barrier.

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.

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.

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 !!

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

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

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!

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 !!

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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.

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 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.