# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/101 "2019-08-02T04:38:22Z")
The first one that I’m sure was actual news on TV and not something I’ve seen in documentaries must have taken place in November of 1975. Franco was in a state in which any other person would have been pronounced dead, but his doctors were keeping the corpse officially alive; the machines were switched off on November 20th, anniversary of the execution of the founder of Falange, the political party Franco had co-opted. I remember my dad’s snort that “God, they plan on keeping him alive until the 20th, uh? :rolleyes:” ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/102 "2019-08-02T07:12:44Z")
I was very young, but I remember (not clearly) our family gathering at our neighbor’s house to watch something on TV. I was sitting in my older sister’s lap, and I recall her telling me that a man was walking on the moon; everyone was very excited, so I’ve always assumed since that it was Apollo 11. I can recall (not clearly) a grainy image of a space-suited man climbing down a ladder. I would’ve been a little over 2 y/o at the time of Apollo 11, so it’s possible that I was actually a bit older and watching one of the later Apollos. I was 5-1/2 y/o at the time of the last Apollo mission (Apollo 17), but we had moved away from that particular neighborhood by then, so the last it could have been was Apollo 16, at which time I was about 1-1/2 months shy of 5 y/o. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/103 "2019-08-02T13:28:59Z")
Alaska and Hawaii becoming states was ‘current events’ in kindergarten in 1959. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/104 "2019-08-02T14:10:34Z")
If you look back on the big news events of New Zealand circa 1975 you would fall into a coma from boredom. Nothing of interest for a grown adult, let alone a five year old such as myself. When I was a teen in the 80s they started a special News show for kids called _[The Video Dispatch](https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/video-dispatch-1980/series)_, dumbed down stuff with explainers, and I started to pay more attention then, plus some significant events had started to happen that actually affected me. Before then, though, my memory is a blank. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/105 "2019-08-02T15:56:30Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I remember footage of the Vietnam War being shown on. Other than the fact it was obviously soldiers fighting, and possibly having heard the name ‘Vietnam’ I didn’t comprehend anything about it. I recall that it agitated my mother and it was the first time I heard the phrase “what if they had a war and nobody came?”. For years I thought she came up with that herself :o Vietnam footage is probably the first for me as well. I also remember the first Nixon inauguration. Not exactly good news in either case. If I can count an editorial segment, there was a guy on our local news who read an editorial every night at the end of the 6:00 news. He had a very distinct raspy voice, and many of us grew up imitating him. I found out after his death that his brother started Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, which was a staple for many of us on Saturdays. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/106 "2019-08-02T17:13:09Z")
I have very vague impressions of my parents talking about something that I think was Nixon resigning. I don’t know if I remember or was told my parent’s reaction when Ford fell down a flight of stairs, that he would never be reelected. I would have been 6 then. We didn’t watch much TV news, so I don’t remember much else. I heard about it on the school bus home both when Reagan was shot and when the Challenger blew up. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/107 "2019-08-02T19:49:30Z")
FWIW that XKCD comic inspired this thread. It also took me a minute to get the joke. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/108 "2019-08-02T20:42:14Z")
Mid 1980s, watching Oliver North and John Poindexter testifying about Iran-Contra. They frequently interrupted the cartoons I wanted to watch. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/109 "2019-08-03T01:35:24Z")
Oh, I remembered a big news event that affected New Zealand. The [Mt Erebus plane crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_New_Zealand_Flight_901) of 1979 in the Antarctic. A sight-seeing plane was placed on the wrong flight path, hit a mountain, and all aboard were killed, 257 people. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/110 "2019-08-03T02:08:29Z")
Besides the Apollo 11 moon landing (I was about to start kindergarten and was as excited about being allowed to eat breakfast in the living room as I was about this), I also remember the Attica prison riots in 1971, when I was 7. I saw that word on TV and thought it was happening at a wide spot in the road that we passed through en route to Grandma’s house, and my parents told me that there was another Attica, in New York, and that’s where it was going on. > **[Attica, Iowa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica,_Iowa)** > > Attica is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Iowa, United States. It lies approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) south of Knoxville on Iowa Highway 5. A notable landmark around the area is the Hammond Covered Bridge Located south of town off of Highway G-76 on 170th. > > This article about the geography of Marion County, Iowa is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/111 "2019-08-03T02:10:59Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > Saturday morning cartoons, 1977. I was at a friend’s apartment (we didn’t have a TV), and there was an “In The News” segment on Begin meeting Sadat. I loved those spots! When we played television, we would try to imitate that synthesizer theme. ---
**Author:** ![Turki-lurki](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turki-lurki/32/7168_2.png) [@Turki-lurki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turki-lurki)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2019, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812/112 "2019-08-03T02:54:10Z")
I remember seeing Lee Harvey Oswald get shot on TV. Remember the sick feeling of realizing that this wasn’ t like a shooting in “Gunsmoke”. The guy really dird. I was about 8 years old. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-first-news-memory/837812.md?page=5)