Earliest Memory of Seminal News

The assassination of JFK was announced early evening

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

I remember all the obvious ones, the death of King George, the Suez crisis , the Coronation etc., however there was one news item that has stayed with me over the years. I remember, aged 9 in 1952 listening on the radio to the sinking of the Flying Enterprise in the worst storm the Atlantic had seen in 40 years. Her Captain, Kurt Carlsen stayed on his ship until the very last minute and there was some doubt as to whether he would be saved. It obviously made a big impression on me, because I remember the names and the tension around the incident.

Winston Churchill's funeral on TV. I was 6 and impressed by the solemnity.

The Cuban crisis and Dad talking about 4 minute warnings.
JFK’s assassination. Mum in tears.
The Denning report.

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.

Probably not the first things, but events that stick in my mind are the death of Marilyn Monroe, Yuri Gagarin in space, Princess Margaret’s wedding, the Cuban missile crisis and thinking that the world would end….

The coronation street party though no memory of actually watching it as we didn’t have a tv. I was almost 5. I don’t remember the Kings death a few months before.

Watching the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on TV in 1953. I was 6. We had one of the first TV's on our street, a Ferguson 12" screen as I recall, so we had a house full of neighbours, with about a dozen of us children all sitting on the floor. So exciting!

The king is death bypassed me, but I clearly remember the coronation in 1953 and Hillary’s ascent of Everest. I was just 5.

Being told at school that the King had died

Elvis’s death. I was 5.
Playing in a paddling pool at a friend’s house. The grown ups were talking about it.

I also remember seeing something about the Yorkshire Ripper in a newspaper at a friends house.
We had papers (The DM, natch) but my mom must have kept it away from me as I’d read anything and everything when I was young.
I remember asking what rape meant and getting a very vague and evasive response.

Strangely I have no memory of the death of the King when I was 5 years old but have many memories of the Coronation of The Queen in 1953. Maybe it was because of the celebrations.

nadateturbe

Yuri Gagarin going into space 1961 I think.

Same for me, but made more momentous by watching him drive past my school in Manchester on his way to the University I think. We all lined up in the grounds of the school waving Russian flags as he drove past in an open top car.

JFK funeral and Churchills funeral vaguely remember watching on tv. The Vietnam war was constantly being reported on tv. The Aberfan disaster I was last year in junior school. Famine in Biafra a year later I was only young but everything seemed so miserable.

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.

We were told at school of the death of the King and taught to sing “God be in my head”. I don't remember being sent home.
I remember much more about the Queen’s Coronation, which was the cause of lots of celebratory events at school and in the village.

The end of WW2. I heard the announcement on the radio , and the celebrations afterwards. We had a big party in a nearby park. I was 7 and a half.

Oh yes, the Sputnik in 57 and the beeps.

The first news that really affected me was definitely the Cuban missile crisis.