# What is Your First News Memory? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812 "2019-07-29T15:05:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/1 "2019-07-29T15:05:00Z")
That is, the first thing you remember watching happen on the News? Mine is watching the results of the Reagan/Carter election with my Parents. I remember the map lighting up as states were called (Bonus trivia. Blue for Dems and Red for the GOP was not the standard at that time. That didn’t happen until 2000 when the dragged out Bush v Gore debacle burned the colors into popular media. Originally the networks did whatever they wanted, then they consolidated to having the same as each other but who was blue and who was red alternated each time then in 2000 the colors got cemented in). What is your first News Memory? ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/2 "2019-07-29T15:10:17Z")
1. Either the Watergate scandal, or the Patty Hearst kidnapping. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/3 "2019-07-29T15:11:52Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > That is, the first thing you remember watching happen on the News? Mine is watching the results of the Reagan/Carter election with my Parents. I remember the map lighting up as states were called (Bonus trivia. Blue for Dems and Red for the GOP was not the standard at that time. That didn’t happen until 2000 when the dragged out Bush v Gore debacle burned the colors into popular media. Originally the networks did whatever they wanted, then they consolidated to having the same as each other but who was blue and who was red alternated each time then in 2000 the colors got cemented in). > > What is your first News Memory? Mine is yours, only a little earlier: the news that day was that Jimmy Carter, President of these United States, would be running for re-election against Ronald Reagan, who, y’know, had been a Hollywood movie star, back when. They didn’t mention the “Governor of California” part; just the “Movie Star” part. And my reaction, as a little kid, was, basically, _wait, what?_ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/4 "2019-07-29T15:13:51Z")
I remember coming downstairs in the morning and my mother telling me that Alaska was now a state. I asked, “What was it before?” That was 1958. I was six. I supposedly helped my parents on the Adlai Stevenson campaign in 1956, but I don’t remember it. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/5 "2019-07-29T15:17:59Z")
I was going to say a moon landing. Given the timing I’m assuming it was Apollo 17 the last moon landing. But that was at the end of 1972 and I remember several things from earlier in the year. I do remember the presidential election. I do remember very clearly looking at the TV and seeing the terrorists at the Munich Olympics. That’s probably the one. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/6 "2019-07-29T15:20:14Z")
November 22 1963. I was in the car with my father, and I saw him listening intently to the radio on the way home, and I asked what was going on. _The President’s been shot._ After getting home, the family was watching the news. One report on the capture of Oswald showed an investigator (FBI?) who had been interrogating him leave the room where Oswald was being held, and it was simply an everyday wooden door leading into a hall; it confused my impression of what “jail” looked like. I was quite young. My next specific memory that I retain is the moon landing on July 20 1969. While my father (and later, I) worked at Cape Canaveral, we were vacationing in Miami Beach for some reason, and I vividly recall watching on the tiny hotel TV. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/7 "2019-07-29T15:21:06Z")
Yeah, Watergate. I recall hearing something about it on the radio and trying to connect it to the large water main behind our house. I had no idea what it was all about. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/8 "2019-07-29T15:22:10Z")
Born in the late 70s. The first specific thing I remember seeing on the news was something about Central American (Iran-Contra?) guerrillas. I remember it because I remember wondering why we were fighting “gorillas.” What did they do?! I know this is after the Challenger disaster, which I do remember, but not as a news story, it was just something that happened that people were talking about. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/9 "2019-07-29T15:22:46Z")
I think the Apollo Moon Landing counts. I was almost 3. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/10 "2019-07-29T15:24:03Z")
I think it was the assassination attempt on Gerald Ford in 1975. I recall being in the car possibly driving to Houston. I also remember getting it mixed up and thinking it was Nixon rather than Ford. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/11 "2019-07-29T15:30:05Z")
Kennedy’s election. Not that I followed the news that closely when I was 6, but being from a Catholic family, the first Catholic being elected was a Big Deal. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/12 "2019-07-29T15:32:17Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > 1. Either the Watergate scandal, or the Patty Hearst kidnapping. Scratch that. 1970. Apollo 13. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/13 "2019-07-29T15:32:21Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > November 22 1963. This. I was 5 years old and vaguely remember watching the events on tv. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/14 "2019-07-29T15:37:37Z")
The signing of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty in 1979. I don’t remember the exact date, but I remember it was during school hours and the school had an assembly in the auditorium and wheeled in a large TV for all of us to watch it. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/15 "2019-07-29T15:38:54Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > This. I was 5 years old and vaguely remember watching the events on tv. Me three. I was 4. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/16 "2019-07-29T15:39:20Z")
Challenger, 'cos we were watching the launch in class. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/17 "2019-07-29T15:41:29Z")
The pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey on November 19th, 1963. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/18 "2019-07-29T15:46:28Z")
[Zia ul Haq’s death.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Muhammad_Zia-ul-Haq) ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/19 "2019-07-29T15:47:20Z")
The Watergate Hearings for me also. Mainly because… (from Wikipedia) > [@](#): > > …television news outlets brought the drama of the hearings to the living rooms of millions of American households, broadcasting the proceedings live for two weeks in May 1973. The public television network PBS broadcast the hearings from gavel to gavel on more than 150 national affiliates. …which meant ALL my morning kids’ shows were pre-empted. Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangaroo, whatever. I cried a lot. My absolutley earliest “big people” TV was snippets of the 1972 Olympics. Only time at that age (3 1/2 to 4) I was allowed to “stay up” and watch TV. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/20 "2019-07-29T15:47:28Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > I remember the map lighting up as states were called (Bonus trivia. Blue for Dems and Red for the GOP was not the standard at that time. That didn’t happen until 2000 when the dragged out Bush v Gore debacle burned the colors into popular media. Originally the networks did whatever they wanted, then they consolidated to having the same as each other but who was blue and who was red alternated each time then in 2000 the colors got cemented in). It wasn’t alternating per se but rather incumbent red, challenger blue. Back then we’d alternate parties for president a lot. I don’t know if you could call it ‘remembering a news event’ but I remember Eisenhower holding a press conference and thinking how ancient he looked. I was eight or none. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812.md?page=2)