What was the very first Major News Story You can remember

hollydolly

hollydolly

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..hearing about when you were young which made an impression on you?


This will be fascinating I think, given the age difference among all us seniors... but what was the first Major news Story you can remember hearing about and or taking notice ?

Mine has to have been the Aberfan Disaster.. in 1966 where a Mining Coal colliery spill tip slid down the mountain killing 116 children and 28 adults in their schools and homes in Wales ... maybe because it involved children my age being killed ..or the fact that I watched my mum crying every time the news came on, but it definitely made an impression on me and I think the first Major News story I can remember..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/21/newsid_3194000/3194860.stm


 

hollydolly said:
..hearing about when you were young?


This will be fascinating I think, given the age difference among all us seniors... but what was the first Major news Story you can remember hearing about and or taking notice ?

Mine has to have been the Aberfan Disaster.. in 1966 where a Minin Coal colliery spill tip slid down the mountain killing 116 children and 28 adults in their schools and homes in Wales ... maybe because it involved children my age being killed ..or the fact that I watched my mum crying every time the news came on, but it definitely made an impression on me and I think the first Major News story I can remember..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/21/newsid_3194000/3194860.stm
Click to expand...

Honestly, it was when President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas:(
 
It would have to be after we got a TV in 1952 (I was 5), because I didn't read the newspaper or listen much to the radio before that.

Probably the Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954. I didn't really know what it was all about at the time, but my mom watched them gavel to gavel.

Others I remember, not considered major, but historical: The Nixon Checkers speech, 1952; Queen Elizabeth's coronation, 1953.
 
Kennedy vs Nixon election - 1960
Alan Shepherd first American in space 1961
John Glenn space orbit 1962
Civil rights march in Wash DC 1963
kennedy assassination 1963
 
The execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Life magazine covered it extensively and my mother didn't get to the mail before we did. I remember being fascinated by the story because I didn't know things like that happened.
 
My big sister came in and said "the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor". I had a vague idea who the Japs were, but no clue as to where Pearl Harbor is.
 
The 1938 hurricane that swept through southern New England and the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. I'm not sure if the bombing meant much to me but my family was disturbed by it. I was 5 in '38 and 8 in '41.

We lived in the area only a few miles from the shore where the hurricane hit. Lots of trees down and many beautiful yachts and sailboats were washed up and left high and dry when the water receded. Without the warnings that are commonplace today, most of the boats had not been hauled out of the water or secured any more than usual.
 
The fall of Eastern Europe after the war: I wasn't very old (I was born in 1943), but I listened to the news because my mother left the radio on. Then I heard about the Nationalist Chinese and the Red Chinese. We were losing everywhere. It was a sad, sad time.
 
El Alamein.

That fool Churchill ordered the church bells rung, and the last that I, a four year old, had been told was that when the church bell rang the Germans were coming and I was to get the carving knife and hide under the stairs (standing instructions were to stab him where he goes to wee - easy to reach for a four year old!)

I crouched trembling in the darkness for hours until I heard my mother calling when she came home from work.
 
A rather more local event for me - and one of my very earliest memories....

I have always lived near the sea and as a child, I used to love my father taking me to see the waves breaking on a rough day. On the 31 Jan. 1953 (incidentally, my mother's birthday) it was particularly rough and the passenger / car ferry "Princess Victoria" ran into difficulties after leaving the shelter of Loch Ryan on the west coast of Scotland. Heavy seas damaged the stern doors and water entered the car deck. (note that the ship was fitted with an additional door which was not used because it was difficult to operate)

In spite of trying to reach N.Ireland and some heroic rescue attempts by the lifeboat , merchant shipping and the Royal Navy, the Victoria sank with the loss of over 130 passengers and crew. There were 44 survivors.

I was only 2 1/2, but I can still remember the events very clearly..

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1939. I was only six years old. There was an extra edition of the newspapers and boys on bicycles selling them hollering.

"Extra, Extra, France declares war" That was the start of World War II.

We all got together as kids to try to decide what it meant and some of the older boys said our fathers have to go into the army.
 

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