Another Shuttle Challenger explosion. I was 9 or 10, and they had us in the auditorium, I think. I don’t remember if it was a rolling cart or what. I do remember watching it and not really understanding what had happened. They died? Really? That can happen? I guess it was my first real-world exposure to death, now that I think about it!
Funny, I remember Watergate more than the moon landing. I only remember the latter because classes were suspended and the teacher wheeled in a TV from the AV department so we could watch it.
As for Watergate, I remember the hearings pre-empting everything on TV. I didn’t understand all the implications, of course, but I do remember thinking that a lot of important people were in a lot of serious trouble and there was nothing I could do.
1957, standing in the front yard watching the Sputnik booster pass overhead. I was only four but I still remember it.
Death of mild-mannered dicator Tito at 88 in 1980. We were playing on the street and while the word was crawling through one of the neighbours yelled for everybody to get in their houses.
I was 9 and growing up in a family with no Communist background or Party members I was warned that me saying “Well, he lived long!” is not appropriate response. In school, a week later I got my only C in all of elementary, middle and high schooling for a work titled “My memory of Tito”. I guess that was an early lesson that embellishment does not apply only for clothes.
Secretariat winning the Triple Crown (June 1973, I was just shy of five years old.)
for news that more people cared about I’d say Nixon resigning. I didn’t have a full grasp on the events leading up to it, but I distinctly remember watching the resignation speech on TV…in my parents’ bedroom. Orange bedspread.
I have vague memories of the moon landings, and am not even sure if one of them was Apollo 11; I was only 7 at the time.
I have vague memories of the 1972 Canada-Soviet hockey series, but didn’t really care one way or the other who won it. I was 10 at the time.
I remember exactly where I was when I found out Elvis died in 1977, but it didn’t have any effect on me and I didn’t really care one way or the other. I was 15.
The very first news story that really floored me and actually affected me didn’t occur until 1980, when I was 18. I awoke to the news that John Lennon had been murdered.
I remember the first moon landing when I was 7. Next big memory of a historical event was Nixon’s resignation when I was 11.
The eruption of **Mt. St. Helens **in 1980. My family was living in a small town in E. WA right in a major ash-fall area. I was a month shy of my fifth birthday and remember that afternoon like it was yesterday.
I was 6 and home from school with bronchitis watching TV in my parents’ bedroom (a special treat reserved for when you were sick) when the Challenger blew up.
I vaguely remember the 1988 presidential election; I don’t think any other national or world event registered on my radar until the first gulf war. My 4th grade class made care packages to send to the troops. The first singular event I can remember is the Ruby Ridge killings.
What the hell is it with Challenger explosions and TVs on rolling carts. Same thing here, I was in 7th grade (13 yo, in our classroom).
Challenger explosion. I was 9 and attending a tiny parochial school; we watched the news on a TV rolled into the classroom after the explosion had been announced because of Christa McCauliffe. I remember my teacher having tears in her eyes.
I was four when I first head Kasey Kasem’s American Top Forty, with the #1 song of the week being Carole King’s It’s Too Late. I was stunned that such a thing could be ranked, and that people were interested in such rankings.
I was 6 when the Nixon hearings were starting up. My cartoons! :mad:
I was 8 when I saw, live, the Apollo launch that resulted in the first handshake in space. DAMN, IT WAS HOT!
I remember the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination of JFK, but neither were as startling and memorable to my 8 year old self as seeing Lee Harvey Oswald get shot. Right there on the brand new Philco TV. In the middle of my grandmother’s living room.
Bobby Kennedy’s assassination. I remember seeing my mom cry, something I’d never witnessed before and, sufficiently startled, it’s always stayed with me.
These weren’t firsts but your post reminded me that I didn’t miss school often, but several times when I did, major news stories broke.
Nelson Rockefeller died (He’d been governor of our state. I don’t know if coverage was as non-stop elsewhere, but no soaps for me that day!)
Reagan was shot - 1981
Anwar Sadat was assasinated (also 1981, but next school year)
My mom said it might be better for world leaders if I went to school sick.
Another kid who witnessed the Challenger explosion via rolling TV. Ours was in the library. I was 6.
Beatles on their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Yeah-Yeah-Yeah!
The beginning of the Gulf War in 1992. I was 11, and it was the first time I ever really knew about world events - I was terrified that the bombing, etc., would affect me (here in California).
First news event that had an impact on me was the Piper Alpha Disaster that happened when I was 6. I’m not sure how widely it’s remembered now but it was a big deal at the time with over 160 fatalities.
The first news event where I know where I was and likely won’t forget was the Omagh Bombing in 1998. My family are from there so when my dad heard the news it knocked him for six. I was working with him that day in his store, and funnily enough, had cancelled a trip to Omagh that morning because he needed me to work.