What was the earliest big news story you remember hearing about ?

"On Monday, December 1, 1958, a fire broke out at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois, shortly before classes were to be dismissed for the day. The fire originated in the basement near the foot of a stairway. The elementary school was operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and had an enrollment of approximately 1600 students. A total of 92 pupils and 3 nuns ultimately died when smoke, heat, fire, and toxic gases cut off their normal means of escape through corridors and stairways. Many more were injured when they jumped from second-floor windows which, because the building had a raised basement, were nearly as high as a third floor would be on level ground.

The disaster was the lead headline story in American, Canadian, and European newspapers. Pope John XXIII sent his condolences from the Vatican in Rome. The severity of the fire shocked the nation and surprised educational administrators of both public and private schools. The disaster led to major improvements in standards for school design and fire safety codes." (wikipedia)

I was home sick that day and this event was on TV all day long and was in the news for quite a while after that. It scared the living daylights out of me.
 

I guess the Sputnik launch. I still can see aqua blue Sputnik gum balls in my hobby store. (Why weren't they red?) We had bomb shelters with radiation warning plaques on the doors next to an Elks Club building and we practiced "Duck and Cover" in elementary schools.
 

For me, it's probably a toss-up between the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the JFK assassination. I was in Germany (USAF) during both events, and when the Cuban thing erupted, we were within minutes of a nuclear war. Then, a year later, a bunch of us were sitting in the barracks after Supper, playing poker, when one of the guys came rushing through with the AFN radio broadcasting about JFK. We jumped up, put on our uniforms and headed for the shop...where the base stayed on full alert for about 2 days, while the police/FBI figured out that this wasn't a Russian attack.
 
These posts are each one, very interesting and touching ones.

I had been going to add, that while not my first one, some stood out in my mind, from childhood as well.
Cuban missile crisis.
And before that, "air raid drills" in elementary school, in the 1950's, were scary indeed.
 
Affecting what was a small world back then,Staten Island NY...2 planes crashed mid air and plane parts and bodies were dropping everywhere...I was probably 6.
JFK assassination,my heritage is Scotch-Irish,so you can imagine,it was like a family members death.
I went to Catholic school,the principal came in,announced he had been shot and we prayed the rosary,shortly after she came in and announced his death,we were dismissed early.
 
JFK's death
I vaguely remember our principal of our elementary school telling us school was being let out early
At the time I didn't understand why,my siblings&I walked home together{school was 2 blocks away].I remember seeing mom sitting in front of the TV crying
 
Another one I remember, is when I was about 9 years old and coming home from school, and seeing my mum with tears running down her face after listening to the news. She said she was crying because Jim reeves had died. In my little innocence, I couldn't understand why she should be crying for someone she didn't know!!
 
I remember Sputnik-- we talked about it in school. I was in grade school then.

Of course, the biggest one was the assassination of JFK. It is a day I can never forget. Funny, I even remember exactly what I was wearing that day at my first job ever, when the news first started to trickle in. We knew it was for real when we saw the flag on the federal building go down to half-staff.
 
Nautilus said:
The sinking of the Andrea Doria
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I was a radarman on the CGC Yakutat, that arrived on scene just as the Andrea Dorea took her final plunge. By the time we arrived, the passenger had all been taken aboard other vessels, and some of the lifeboats were hooked up by the cutter General Greene and towed to New London, CT.

Many of the remaining lifeboats had never been launched, due to the list of the Dorea but came to the surface having been released by pressure release catches. They ended up inverted and we were given the task of sinking these boats as they would be a hazard to other ships.

It was surprising how many rounds of 40mm shells were required to sink each one due to their compartmentalized flotation structure.
 
I can remember going to the movies and seeing Korean War stuff on the news reels. But I can't remember anything specific.

For a while there whenever I heard some adult talk about their career I thought they were saying "My Korea" like it was some kind of great struggle in their life.
 
Will never forget The Lanfranc School Disaster........in Croydon UK.....in 1961.....Plane Crash..
It devastated the community...
My 2 brothers just missed going......
Will never forget this ........



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Nautilus said:
The sinking of the Andrea Doria
Click to expand...

I remember the sinking of the Andrea Doria. In 1955 The year before it sank my Aunt and cousin were on it. My parents drove my Aunt and her daughter to New York to get on the ship. We all went on to look around. I remember standing near the railing and thinking how large the boat was and wondering how much of the boat was under the water . After it sank the following year was when I got my fear of the water.
 
I can remember seeing Kennedy and Nixon campaigning on TV, and asking my parents who they were. The next biggie was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I thought nuclear war was imminent as my father stocked water and canned goods in his basement "bomb shelter." Third was the Kennedy assassination...
 

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