# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/61 "2019-07-30T00:13:49Z")
The Vietnam War–not a specific battle or singular event but the daily reports that were a regular part of the news during the late 60s. In terms of a single event, it would’ve been one the manned space launches before Apollo 11. Maybe Apollo 7 or Apollo 8. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/62 "2019-07-30T00:34:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > [Moderating] > > I hadn’t noticed before that this was in CS, rather than the more fitting IMHO. I’ll move it now. Sorry about that. FWIW I started to post it in IMHO and then switched because it was about TV News. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/63 "2019-07-30T00:55:28Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > [Zia ul Haq’s death.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Muhammad_Zia-ul-Haq) You are a young pup. I remember the 1971 war! We only had five or six hours of TV on a single channel in those days and my daily (literally) five minutes of cartoons was preempted by news. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/64 "2019-07-30T01:02:32Z")
1976 Presidential Election, lived in Vermont, my father swearing a blue streak because those damn commie Texas Democrats voted for Carter, essentially guaranteeing his victory. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/65 "2019-07-30T01:03:59Z")
I remember the news that the Cleveland Indians won the pennant in 1954 when I was 5 1/2. I have vague recollections of sitting on my mother’s lap and watching a story about a huge snow storm. I think I’m too young to have remembered the Nov 1950 or Nov 1951 blizzard so I’d guess it was the March 1, 1954 storm. On the other hand, I do have a distinct memory of walking the cleared sidewalk from the front door and not being able to see over the cleared snow so either I was very small like in 1950 or 1951 or maybe I remember the piled snow over my head. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/66 "2019-07-30T01:13:27Z")
I think I remember Reagan getting shot. I seem to remember it cutting into the soaps that all the women in my family watched. So I also remember some early 80s General Hospital. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/67 "2019-07-30T01:15:00Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > I remember the news that the Cleveland Indians won the pennant in 1954 when I was 5 1/2. I have vague recollections of sitting on my mother’s lap and watching a story about a huge snow storm. I think I’m too young to have remembered the Nov 1950 or Nov 1951 blizzard so I’d guess it was the March 1, 1954 storm. On the other hand, I do have a distinct memory of walking the cleared sidewalk from the front door and not being able to see over the cleared snow so either I was very small like in 1950 or 1951 or maybe I remember the piled snow over my head. I have some vivid memories of the 1950 blizzard. I had just turned 5. It happened on Thanksgiving, and we were expecting lots of guests, but nobody could make it. So we were stuck with a 23-pound turkey, which was a good thing, since there was no way to get food for a week. Our street was plowed, leaving huge mountains of snow on either side. All the kids climbed the mountains and slid down into the street (there was very little traffic). I remember the snow drifts that were up to the 2nd floor windows. So that’s actually the first event I remember. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/68 "2019-07-30T01:40:44Z")
Mine’s pretty crappy - when I was nearly 6, I found out my parents were dead on the news. My grandmother was babysitting us and had the tv on while we played on the rug. My uncle (a high-schooler at the time) was on the couch watching it and suddenly sat up and shouted “MOM!” while staring at the set, and I turned around to see my mother’s name as my grandmother ran in from the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/69 "2019-07-30T02:21:22Z")
Watching the Mercury missions early launches. My parents would let us get up early, saying we would want to remember this. After that it was JFK’s funeral procession. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/70 "2019-07-30T02:24:38Z")
Television? JFK and Oswald getting shot live. I remember more radio (mostly music) programs we listened to before that. My earliest memory of any kind is a walk my Dad and I took together in a patch of woods coming out by where a neighbor kept his goat; I remember it all vividly. I’m told it would have been a month or two after my third birthday. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/71 "2019-07-30T02:52:13Z")
Kennedy crisis speech. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/72 "2019-07-30T06:17:15Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Mine’s pretty crappy - when I was nearly 6, I found out my parents were dead on the news. My grandmother was babysitting us and had the tv on while we played on the rug. My uncle (a high-schooler at the time) was on the couch watching it and suddenly sat up and shouted “MOM!” while staring at the set, and I turned around to see my mother’s name as my grandmother ran in from the kitchen. Oh God. That had to have been awful. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/73 "2019-07-30T10:42:19Z")
I’d been watching TV news for awhile but the first one I specifically remember is the 1984 presidential election. I remember the 1980 presidential election and the Reagan assassination attempt but don’t specifically remember seeing them on the news. My first “news memory” from other media, though, was in the early 80s when I saw a headline in the checkout lane that JFK wasn’t dead, which was when my mom told me about fake news. ---
**Author:** ![Taesahnim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taesahnim/32/84_2.png) [@Taesahnim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taesahnim)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/74 "2019-07-30T12:43:50Z")
Mine is probably the 1952 Presidential election. All I really remember is my parents wearing “I like Ike” buttons and being very happy when Ike was elected. I didn’t really understand what was going on (I was 4), but I started paying attendtion to the later elections and have ever since. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/75 "2019-07-30T13:08:12Z")
I remember seeing John Kennedy making speeches on our B&W TV set. Mom was a big fan. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/76 "2019-07-30T14:22:28Z")
Daily body counts from Vietnam, mid to later 60’s. ---
**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 30, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/77 "2019-07-30T15:11:57Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > [Obligatory xkcd link](https://xkcd.com/2174/). I got whooshed by Crewcut’s teacher getting fired after the Challenger explosion. Or is just another non-sequitur? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/78 "2019-07-30T15:28:04Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I got whooshed by Crewcut’s teacher getting fired after the Challenger explosion. Or is just another non-sequitur? My take on it was that the teacher was fired for showing the Challenger explosion to kids as though it were a live event in 1995 (actual event: 1986). Cruel. ---
**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 30, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/79 "2019-07-30T15:32:32Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > I got whooshed by Crewcut’s teacher getting fired after the Challenger explosion. Or is just another non-sequitur? Maybe his teacher was Christa McAuliffe? ETA: that is, she never returned to school and he therefore thought she was fired. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/80 "2019-07-30T15:48:34Z")
I should remember the Challenger explosion, but believe it or not, I didn’t know about that until a year or two later when I was at a friend’s house and saw a book about it. In fairness, I was only three and a half when the event occurred, but when I saw the book I was old enough to read it, so I must have been five or so. I also remember my parents driving out to the beach to look for Halley’s Comet. It was cloudy or something so they couldn’t see it, and I fell asleep in the back seat of the car. But while it must have been on the news, I didn’t hear about it there. I didn’t like the news much as a kid. So I guess my earliest memory of actually watching the news must have been Baby Jessica when she fell down that well. I remember it was on TV a lot, and they’d interrupt shows to update the story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812.md?page=5)