What Was The First Major News Event That You Can Recall As A Child And How Did It Affect You?

Question

Mine was the Falklands war when I was told that Argentina were going to bomb us. If affected me because as a kid we used to visit a place called Argentinny and I assumed that the war was going to be near us.

Answer 1

John Major becoming prime minister in 1990, I would have been 5.  Just hope conservatives come into power at the next elections aswell.

Answer 2

The Queens Coronation, I was only 4 but I do remember it vividly.

Even after all these years I still remember the lavishness of it all and the very idea of Royalty, the aristocracy and privilege offends me deeply.

Answer 3

Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.

BTW I don’t know if the person talking about the Kennedy assignation is accurate the now world famous Zapruder film was not shown till a decade after the event.

Answer 4

I was watching TV when John Kennedy was shot. Scared the life out of me. I thought Dallas was on the next street ( it was Dallas St. too blooks where I lived) I was to young to know Dallas TX. was far from where I lived. I will never forget that one.

Oh! today I do know where Dallas TX is...:-)

Answer 5

3rd grade. Standing at the chalk board in front of the class when the principles speaker came on, and announced that President Kennedy had been shot and had died everyone was stunned....... then we all broke out crying............

Answer 6

Cuban Missile crisis.

I was only six but it was obvious that something scary was going on.

Answer 7

The death of Elvis Presley.  I was too young to be radically effected but I guess I have always loved The King

Answer 8

the first was the yorkshire ripper,i can remember even the woman from all over the country were frightened,and everyone was talking about it.didnt really affect me at the time,it would of i think if it was some one going around attacking kids.and elvis when he died.i can just remember that.

Answer 9

I remember a newsflash coming on TV to say that Elvis had died.  I remember my dad being totally shocked because he was a big fan.

Answer 10

The JFK killing. I remember it as clearly as if it was yesterday.

Answer 11

My family were on a coach on our way home after touring Europe, when it came on the radio "England have beaten Germany 4 - 2 to win the football world cup" I remember asking my mum what that meant, she said Englands football players, Bobby Charlton etc had won the best football prize. Well I was only 8 ! We were just going through a border crossing at the time, YES you`ve guessed it, just trying to leave Germany, the guards held us up for hours !!

Answer 12

The Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.  I don't remember it affecting me at all. I felt kind of bad about that.

Answer 13

Elvis dying when i was 7 but I couldn't understand why my cousin was so upset about someone she had never met !

Answer 14

I can't think of anything that really stands out when I was a child but I was always in a world of my own! I can remember the drought of 76 and that was scary, as I thought we were all doomed! but I was a teenager at the time so that might explain it lol.

Answer 15

I think it was the Kings Cross fire. I was about 8 and it affected me for some time after, thinking about those poor people trapped.

Answer 16

Suez Canal crisis.......yes I am 59!!! I was born 4 yrs after World War 2 finished but all the stories were still around and I remember on hearing this I was absolutely terrified there was going to be another World War.

Answer 17

The Apollo 11 Moon landing.  I remember watching the live TV coverage of the touchdown but I was too young to really appreciate its meaning.

Answer 18

Quen Elizabeth's coronation.  I saw it on my auntie's brand new TV.  My very first experience of television. I can see it now. A tiny screen, about 10 inches and the picture black and white.

The whole family sat around waiting to see it.  There was nothing on before or after the event, I can remember just sitting there, staring at this box and expecting to see the new Queen in all her finery.   I was not disappointed when eventually the transmission began.  Even now I think it was one of the greatest events of the century for this country.

Answer 19

I can remember the day that Elvis died, in our old house in Gloucestershire aged about 7, in 1977.  I think,  from the radio, suddenly playing all his songs. That was sad, because i love his music and he was, whatever his faults, i think, one of a kind. And also John Lennon`s death, in i think 1980.

The other thing, was the miners strike. Seeing Arthur Scargill etc and their marches, in the 80`s. Even as a youngish child I didn`t agree with the bullying part of stopping people who wanted to work. But, as i have got older,  i don`t think unions are all bad.

I agree the Falklands was a big thing early 80`s. It was the first time, for a long time, that we were involved in a big military conflict, that affected British people, in this country and also a British community so far away.

Answer 20

9/11,

Only Joking,

Answer 21

I vividly remember the Hillsborough disaster. I was watching the game on TV, i was 10, and it was a horrific thing to see at what was supposed to be entertainment.

Although seeing my dad burned in a pit explosion years before sticks in my mind, and a few years later the miner strikes, taught me much about my roots.

Answer 22

The first major event in my life as a child was the bombs  dropping all around us while we crouched together in an Air Raid shelter in 1940. That was in the South of England.  That made me think   of .. Why was this happening to me and my family, and all my friends... but sadly one of them got killed that night, and I have never forgotten her or her family.

Answer 23

Mine was the after effects of WW2 with rationing  and a general feeling of despondency , considering that we had just beaten the Huns and Italian and the j**s. We had a new NHS but we still felt poor, considering that the Yanks had returned home to a rich country to whom we were indebted for saving our hide.

Answer 24

The Queens coronation,every schoolchild in the country received a mug bearing a picture of The Queen and a bar of Cadburys chocolate.

Answer 25

http://www.reminiscethis.co.uk/aberfan.h...

I remember it because other children were killed.

Answer 26

Cuban missile crisis. I remember being in my dad's car and we drove pass an American base, the GIs were wearing battledress and tin helmets. The base was a hive of activity, missiles on massive trailers....you get the picture. A few years later I was on all the Aldermarston marches and a member of CND.

Also 1962 when Hanratty was hung, I couldn't sleep and got upset, that made me anti capital punishment.

edit: Hey Cisco, my brother got a Coronation Crown, and my sister a silver spoon, both came in red boxes, you were cheated. I hadn't started school yet.

Answer 27

I can remember watching the news, must have been six or seven, and asking " Why  are the Americans in Vietnam fighting gorillas?.

Answer 28

when the second ww was over, and the americans introduced europe to white break and cigarettes.

Answer 29

I keep getting told I must remember the moon landings, but I don't honestly I do not recall that at all. I do however recall at Breakfast one morning telling a French student that they should not go near the bank  as the whole group qeued up to go change their Francs some guy robbed the bank and shot someone killing him.

In fact this is what I am told I said exactly that day "Don't go to the bank later on Stepanie someone is going to die"

I remember that day real well, I even recall telling the student and the way my mum dropped a dish when it came on the news of the shooting.

Answer 30

I think it was probably the Kings Cross fire. I would have been about seven or eight, but I used to read the papers. I still remember the picture they printed of the fireman who died going back in to save people so I suppose it did affect me in some way.

Answer 31

Grand Hotel Brighton being blown up by the IRA.

It was the only time I remember my dad taking a day off work and that was only because he couldnt get there, due to the road closures.