What is the first major news event you remember?

[Pablo Rafael]

Some friends and I were discussing this issue and it was interesting. Since it has been kind of a slow time with posts here lately, I thought I would see what you all have to say.

What is the first national or international event of major importance that you remember as a child?

My earliest recollections are of the Vietnam War. That went on year after year, and we watched it on the evening news every night reported by Walter Cronkite. (on our black and white TV)

I remember Lyndon Johnson as president. The first event I remember that I can put a specific date to was the asassination of Robert Kennedy when he was running for president in 1968. I didn't know who he was until he was killed.

Also the first president I ever voted for was Regan when he was running against Carter.

Pablo

[pnggrad79]

I remember the Vietnam War being fought in my living room every night. The next big thing I remember is MLK Jr and RFK being shot, then George Wallace being shot. I remember the Manson killings. When we say things were so much better back in the day...I think, yeah, not so much.

[u-dog]

The death of JFK is my first public memory. I was sitting under the card table/blanket tent in my living room watching TV when the news bulletins came on. I remember it was scarey because my Mom had run out to the grocery store and I had to wait about a half an hour to have the news totally explained to me.

[BrianB]

At six years old the news never really meant much to me. The apollo program caught my attention because it was about space. My family was visiting at my grandparents farm in 1969. We all gathered around the TV to watch the first pictures from the moon.

BTW Pablo, I was only old enough to vote for Reagan the second time around in 1984. Now I'm a "recovering republican".

[dsdrane]

(Sort of.)

While I do have fuzzy recollections of a lunar landing, my first real, somewhat documented (my mother called me and my friends into the house to watch it...'cause it was history) moment was Nixon's resignation speech.

It was on our brand-new color TV in the living room, and we were all (collectively) like:

Huh? Can we go now?

Other than the many Donny & Marie moments -- among many, many others -- I would have in that room on that TV set, the next major world event was on the old, black-and-white set in my parents' room, explaining how Carter had beaten Ford.

There was no joy, I can tell you, in the Drane household that morning.

[Zerbie]

They are very vague, and I may have them out of order, but the first major things I have ANY recollection of were:

Mount St Helens erupted: I remember thinking it was exciting and glamorous that a volcano spewed all over, and had no understanding of the human cost. I just thought it was cool. :p I was young enough to be proud of being old enough to understand that a volcano had erupted, and where on the map it was.

The wedding of Princess Diana. Was it - televised? I remember seeing TV news clips of her wedding dress.

Reports of a brand new mysterious disease that only seemed to kill homosexual men. It didn't even have a name. No one wanted to save, or even comfort, the dying. This was, for some twisted reason, because of christianity.

And those are my earliest memories of major world events.

[keltic63]

I remember the Vietnam War being fought in my living room every night. The next big thing I remember is MLK Jr and RFK being shot, then George Wallace being shot. I remember the Manson killings. When we say things were so much better back in the day...I think, yeah, not so much.

Interesting. I remember the VietNam war being part of the news, but nothing in particular about it. What I do recall is the feeling that I had been awakened to the realities of this world after watching the news coverage of George Wallace being shot. That was May of 1972; I was just finishing 3rd grade. Perhaps that is the day that I lost my innocence because that was when I realized that there really are bad people in this world who would do harm to others. I had no idea who this man was. I didn't know his history. I just knew that no one deserved to die for ideas that they had.

[Zerbie]

I What I do recall is the feeling that I had been awakened to the realities of this world after watching the news coverage of George Wallace being shot. That was May of 1972; I was just finishing 3rd grade. Perhaps that is the day that I lost my innocence because that was when I realized that there really are bad people in this world who would do harm to others. I had no idea who this man was. I didn't know his history. I just knew that no one deserved to die for ideas that they had.

Steve, thank you for this.

I know what you mean. That's what happened to me when I heard the news reports in the early days of AIDS (and I won't go into details today but Jerry Falwell was the catalyst that shocked me into horror at the world, and christianity specifically.) I might have been about 8. All these years later I'm still having the overwhelming shock that a whole country can sit on their backsides and say that tens of thousands of innocent people deserve to die horrible deaths for no reason. And the absolute refusal to accept that in any world I would have to grow up in. I just knew: you just don't DO that.

[andrewlittle]

... I remember the sixth day - you know, that one when God created humankind. Well, as far as remembering anyway - I have vague recollections of the second day - back before dirt.

Seriously, though, my first memory of news was JFK's assasination. We were in Australia and I was trying to make sense of my mother's sobbing. She was (well, still is) American, and she mourned long and hard about his death.

[Pathfinder]

Since it was so close to Christmas, my aunt had decided we should walk uptown to look at what toys I wanted Santa to bring. I remember how much my feet hurt from my new patent-leather shoes as we walked the six blocks uptown from my grandparents' house. However, Christmas was almost here and being 2 years old, that's what kept me going. As we got to the square, my uncle, driving to my grandparents, saw us and stopped the car, telling us President Kennedy had just been shot in Dallas. My aunt whisked me up and jumped into the car and together with my uncle, we returned to my grandparents' where we watched Walter Cronkite announce Kennedy had died. You'd have thought a member of our own family had died. Everyone took it very hard.

Of course, I remember the Vietnam War. Two cousins fought in it and thankfully, both returned alive, although one had a great deal of difficulty dealing with life back home after having seen what he had seen over there. I also remember the tragedy at Kent State. I had a cousin attending classes there at the time and she almost ended up in it, but at the last minute, she got held up by a professor who needed to talk with her. She heard the shots as she was walking toward the demonstration.

I also remember the passage of the Civil Rights Act, the televised funeral of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the assasinations of RFK and MLK, Jr., man's first walk on the moon, the desegregation of NC schools, Apollo 13 (the real thing, not the movie), and the Watergate hearings w/NC Senator Sam Ervin presiding, as well as the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Is it any wonder I majored in Political Science as an undergrad and am now in graduate school to teach history/social studies?????

[Dash]

I can't recall anything from the 70s. We didn't have a TeeVee in the house till I was 10. All I can think of is the Challenger exploding...

[Daniel]

Of course, you know the old joke is that, if you remember the 60's, you weren't there! :lol:

But seriously, having been too young to be included in the joke above, I share the same memory as u-dog.

I remember sitting in front of the TV set and watching the funeral of JKF. My mother was standing in the doorway behind me, crying and crying. The whole world was filled with sorrow- and I could feel that sorrow. It's a feeling that I have never forgotten. It seemed primal and all encompassing.

It was my first clue that life is transitory. All that we see passes away. And the only sane response to that is love and compassion.

[dsdrane]

I can't recall anything from the 70s. We didn't have a TeeVee in the house till I was 10. All I can think of is the Challenger exploding...

Wow...freshman dorm...guys across the hall had a TV...all these guys gathered in the hallway peering in to learn what happened.

Zoom...I'm there. 21 years ago....

[Zerbie]

I can't recall anything from the 70s. We didn't have a TeeVee in the house till I was 10. All I can think of is the Challenger exploding...

:D
I almost listed the Challenger, too!! That was a few years later than the other things I remember, though.

I would almost prefer life without TV.

[Dash]

Even when we got TV ('81), we weren't allowed much watching. I'm not sure...but I think the whole reason I knew about the Challenger was because I watched it in the school lunchroom. Everybody had gathered to see a school teacher go into space.

Even now, I think, "Go at throttle up," when something bad is about to happen.

[Sherrie Z]

Great topic idea, thanks Pablo!

I'm joining Andrew in the "back before dirt" contingent, LOL! : )

I remember the "I like Ike" presidential campaign ... cartoon characters marching for Eisenhower on our black and white TV ... I remember the Kennedy vs Nixon campaign, and I kinda remember hearing about Khrushchev and banging his shoe on the table, and Sputnik ... and of course, very clearly, the Kennedy & MLK assassinations.

I remember "campaigning" for Lyndon Johnson in 5th grade ... Patty K. kept scratching "Goldwater" in the dirt in the schoolyard volleyball lot, and my sister and I kept scuffling our shoes over that to erase it, and we would scratch "Johnson" in the volleyball lot. My, we were ferocious campaigners, weren't we?

The local Shell station was giving out little donkey and elephant pins ... so I also passed out donkey pins at school as part of my Johnson campaign strategy (LOL).

And the first election where I was finally old enough to vote, I "walked precinct" for, and then proudly voted for George McGovern.

[Montanna]

What a great thread! My first memory is standing on the sidewalk watching Eisenhower's Inauguration Parade with a big "I Like Ike" button pinned to my coat. :lol:

I remember sitting in my grandmother's living room in Mississippi and watching the March on Washington and Rev. King's "I Have a Dream" speech on TV. I kept worrying that someone was going to get hurt. :eek: Glad it didn't happen.

There is a long list after that but those are my earliest recollections. :love:

Montanna

[Pablo Rafael]

The apollo program caught my attention because it was about space. My family was visiting at my grandparents farm in 1969. We all gathered around the TV to watch the first pictures from the moon.

Actually the Apollo missions might possibly be my first memory. Many of those were earlier than Robert Kennedy's assaination in 1968. I clearly remember the first landing on the moon in 1969. I also remember some of the earlier Apollo missions, but I don't know what the date was and which missions they were; they all sort of blur together.

People say that everyone who was alive when President Kennedy was killed knows where they were when they heard the news. I know where I was although I don't remember it (I was only two at the time). Mom said she was in the drugstore and I was with her. I don't know if that counts as "knowing where I was" or not. I think the 9-11 attacks are another event that everyone will remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.

[akbdc99]

Actually the Apollo missions might possibly be my first memory. Many of those were earlier than Robert Kennedy's assaination in 1968. I clearly remember the first landing on the moon in 1969. I also remember some of the earlier Apollo missions, but I don't know what the date was and which missions they were; they all sort of blur together.

People say that everyone who was alive when President Kennedy was killed knows where they were when they heard the news. I know where I was although I don't remember it (I was only two at the time). Mom said she was in the drugstore and I was with her. I don't know if that counts as "knowing where I was" or not. I think the 9-11 attacks are another event that everyone will remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.

This was my first Memory as well, I remember being alowed to stay up late and watch it on TV...The strange part is Vietman for me is also tied into this memory because my dad in the Air Force and getting ready to be shipped out to SE Asia and we were moving to TX to live near family. While my dad was over seas. Veitnam was a big presence in my childhood because my dad was career military. He was Air Force so thankfully didn't see direct combat. I do remember right before he left we bought one of those 8 or 16 mm movie camera's that my father took with him. He shot movies of him working on the planes and of the bombs that were being loaded on the bombers and all many different things while he was stationed over seas during that period.

The other big memory that had a big influence on my was Watergate. I remember watching the hearings, its funny even at an early age Barbara Jordan stood out to me and was an early hero of mine. As an adult I know know why she influenced me and stood out.

[tdogg]

JFK was my most vivid memorable news flash as a child. I also gobbled up anything having to do with NASA, Apollo missions and the moon.

One of my most memorable actual moments was seeing Halley's Comet back in the 80's. I read about Halley's Comet (huge space buff as was my father) as a small child and knew I would live to see it when it returned. Many were so disappointed because it was nothing like the previous visit. I thought it was the most incredible, beautiful, amazing sight I had ever seen.

Unfortunately, I also remember quite vividly, typing up my baby sister in her playpen, pretending she was my horsie and couldn't let her get away. I almost killed off my sister at the young age of 4 years old (me 4, my sister wasn't quite 1). She also blames me for being deaf in one ear - playing doctor when we were small and I shoved a popsicle stick in her ear to check things out. :eek:

I'm still horrified at the Challenger memory. It was very surreal and it had a profound effect on me for years after.

[Jennifer5]

News news... that would probably be that Bush was elected the first time... and people walking around looking like they could break out trying any second..



But in my personal life it came a few years earlier when my parents told us we were moving to Berkeley (we currently live on the OR coast).

[nmwolfboy]

I'd say one of the Apollo Mission launches (Apollo 7, perhaps?) I remember being in kindergarten, and we were rounded up to go into the cafeteria with other grades. We all watched the launch there on a black & white television.

Other than that, i have vague memories of Vietnam footage and casualty reports on the evening news, but nothing specific. It was part of the daily background of supper, the small television in the kitchen being on for the evening news.

[d_pedr]

showing my age

I was young, but it had t be JFK's assassination.

[Progo35]

I think it was the Challenger explosion in 1986. I was four at the time.

[u-dog]

I think it was the Challenger explosion in 1986. I was four at the time.


OK THAT'S IT !!!! :mad: I am going to have to KILL YOU!! You have NO RIGHT to be THAT YOUNG. I was three years into my first "Call" then and had a one year old son. :eek:

[andrewlittle]

OK THAT'S IT !!!! :mad: I am going to have to KILL YOU!! You have NO RIGHT to be THAT YOUNG. I was three years into my first "Call" then and had a one year old son. :eek:

My daughter was 11, and I had just kicked a 15 year drug habit. I was also a greedy, money grubbing, stab-my-mother-in-the-back-if-I-had-to, Republican economic exploiter at that time. Sigh! The good old days.

I wasn't kidding about the "mother" thing - that was the year I fired my mother to make a point. Weren't I sweet?

[Progo35]

:D! You fired your mother??? Wow, you were sick....no offense...

Don't hate me because I'm young, hate me because I'm beautiful... :D

[u-dog]

:D! You fired your mother??? Wow, you were sick....no offense...

Don't hate me because I'm young, hate me because I'm beautiful... :D

Sorry... I get to decide who to hate and why. And besides... how do we know that you're beautiful?

[rainbow7]

We all went to the school auditorium where the principal told us that the president had been shot. Then we were dismissed early from school and everyone was in shock. It seemed like the world just stopped for days. Everyone sat in front of the TV for hours. My younger brother was too little to grasp what was happening, and he kept asking why his special cartoon show wasn't on (since all the regularly scheduled programming was pre-empted). I especially remember seeing John-John salute as his father's casket went by, and listening to the military band play The Navy Hymn. Decades later, just hearing that hymn always takes me back to that experience.

Polly

[Joshuan2]

For me it would probably have to be something about the oil crisis years ago.

And I remember something now that is funny because it shows how young I was then.

I remember sitting in front of the tv and hearing a report about "gorillas that had barged into a meeting and starting firing machine guns and taking hostages"

I thought Planet of the Apes was just a TV show and here in real life a reporter is declaring that gorillas had being firing guns and kidnapping people. I didn't know that they were human guerillas, not animal gorillas.

[progressive4christ]

My first memory is Reagan being shot. I think I can vaguely remember Carter winning the election.I was 6 or 7. i remember being in kindergarten and we had some kind of news like paper for kids and it had a poll on the elected official and i remember picking Carter. I think that was when Carter lost to YUCKY Reagan. too young to truly get my facts straight.

[Progo35]

One of the most disturbing stories I heard about as a youngster was a broadcast about some friends who had killed an old woman on Halloween. I still remember the newscaster's exact words "the suspects reported that they were bored, and decided to kill someone." They stabbed this poor person several times before she died. I remember having come downstairs for something when I heard this on the TV, and I went halfway back up the stairs and started to cry silently. Their deed was so cruel, selfish, and inexplicable and thinking of that woman broke my heart. It was the first time I can remember crying over something I saw on the news. I was about nine at the time.