# What was the earliest national/international event that you remember? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450 "2019-03-24T14:33:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/101 "2019-03-26T11:53:43Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > When a new state is added, the US flag doesn’t change until the Independence Day following the admission. Alaska was admitted in the first half of 1959, so we had a 49-star flag from 4-Jul-1959 to 3-July-1960. Hawaii was admitted in the second half of 1959, so its star wasn’t added until 4-Jul-1960. I should add that that’s the official times stars are added. That doesn’t prevent people from anticipating the addition of stars, and the memories mentioned above may be of those anticipations. I have vague memories of new stars being added but don’t remember enough specifics to say which one or which year it was. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/102 "2019-03-26T14:23:38Z")
I recall cartoons being interrupted by news of the Kennedy assassination. I have a vague memory of seeing a tank on a city street on tv in perhaps Central Europe and wondering why my Father didn’t call them up and tell them to stop. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/103 "2019-03-26T14:52:38Z")
The first big story that I remember seeing and actually understanding was the [Jonestown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown) massacre. I have still never got over the images they showed of all the bodies lying on the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/104 "2019-03-26T15:37:18Z")
Alaska’s statehood celebration. It was more local than national, but it impressed my 12 year-old mind. After that, it would have been Kennedy’s funeral. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/105 "2019-03-26T15:38:33Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Iran Contra. I didn’t understand any of it but I know it was on the news and it seemed like it lasted for months and months. Yup, I guess that’s mine. I was too young to understand “guerillas” and thought that somehow, gorillas with guns were involved. The name of Oliver North was repeated over and over and over … The first big event that I grasped mentally was the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Birds dying in gummy black water - now THAT I could understand. (To this day I’m a non-fan of the Reagan administration, and a huge environmentalist. Go figure.) ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/106 "2019-03-26T16:13:54Z")
The earliest (around my 6th birthday) memories of hearing about things that made national or international news were probably the[La Mesa fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mesa_Fire) and [Typhoon Thlma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Pacific_typhoon_season#Typhoon_Thelma_(Goring)). Primarily because me an my family narrowly missed both. We lived in Los Alamos but took a trip to Taiwan. While we were there we read in the papers about the LaMesa fire back home. Then a few weeks after we got back Taiwan got hit by a Typhoon. I’m not sure whether we were blessed or cursed. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/107 "2019-03-26T16:20:33Z")
Boy, I’m feeling young. I was alive for the John Kennedy assassination but was still quite young and have no recollection of it. My awareness begins in 1968, when I was 7, and mostly has to do with the presidential election. During the primaries, I supported Robert Kennedy because I liked his last name and my best friends were both named “Bobby.” This is why young children aren’t given the franchise. I lived in a neighborhood where there was a lot of support for Gene McCarthy, and most of my friends were on his team. I used to exaggerate the number of Kennedy bumper stickers I’d see on my walk to school. “Make up out of whole cloth” might actually be better, as there weren’t actually all that many, but like many a politician I was not above an occasional untruth for the greater good. I remember being worried about riots going on, but don’t recall whether that was about MLK’s assassination or the Democratic convention (we lived in Chicago; could’ve been either). Humphrey came to campaign, flew in a private plane to Midway Airport. My mom and her best friend (mother of one of the Bobbys) made a sign and went to the airport to welcome him to town, along with a whole bunch of other people. Bobby and his brother and I came with. We marched through the airport holding the sign and shouting DUMP THE HUMP! Till we were told to cut it out. So we had some wider awareness. There was a school-wide election at some point. Nixon got only a handful of votes. I think one was my teacher. Curiously, I don’t recall the election itself. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/108 "2019-03-26T16:38:02Z")
Earliest thing I can tie a date to: Nixon’s resignation speech. I was just shy of 6. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/109 "2019-03-26T17:21:12Z")
Hmm. It would have been either the 1st moonwalk (watched in school) or daily body counts from the Vietnam War (dad always watched the evening news). I remember both, but can’t say which I remember first. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/110 "2019-03-26T17:26:17Z")
I’m not sure which happened first, but looking back through my terrible memory I find the Iran hostage crisis and the stampede at the Who concert. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/111 "2019-03-26T17:30:00Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > When a new state is added, the US flag doesn’t change until the Independence Day following the admission. Alaska was admitted in the first half of 1959, so we had a 49-star flag from 4-Jul-1959 to 3-July-1960. Hawaii was admitted in the second half of 1959, so its star wasn’t added until 4-Jul-1960. Yes. I was under the impression it was never made official, but apparently it was [an official flag for 1 year.](http://www.usflag.org/the.49.star.flag.html) ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/112 "2019-03-26T17:38:51Z")
One of the later moon landings that used the LRV. Wikipedia tells me it would have been one of Apollo 15, 16 or 17, which occurred in 1971 and 1972. I would have been 5 or 6 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/113 "2019-03-26T17:48:03Z")
I just googled the Who concert stampede. 1979. I was 10 then, I guess I don’t remember anything from before I was 10. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/114 "2019-03-26T18:16:50Z")
I remember being in nap time in preschool (so 1969ish) and getting in trouble because the teacher was watching a rocket launch and I kept sitting up to look at the TV. To this day, I think that teacher had some pretty unrealistic expectations of a toddler’s self control as it relates to rocket ships. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/115 "2019-03-26T18:33:23Z")
The 1986 World Cup. I was almost four, and I don’t remember anything about the matches. My mental image is Maradona crying, but that was from the 1990 Cup Final so my youthful brain must have conflated the two. I only know I saw bits of the 1986 WC because I watched it with my dad; my parents separated a couple of years later and we were back in the UK (sans Dad) by '90. If sporting events don’t count, the first Important News I remember is a bunch of things that happened in 1988. First, the Lockerbie/Pan Am bombing: I clearly remember seeing images of the wreckage on TV, especially the [cockpit](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/lockerbie-the-alternate-theories/). I also vaguely remember the O-levels being [replaced by the GCSEs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education), which happened before that. I think I remember the [Mandela Birthday Tribute concert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela_70th_Birthday_Tribute), because it was the first time I’d heard of him. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/116 "2019-03-26T18:59:30Z")
I’m posting with children. ---
**Author:** ![FatOrangeCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cab0a1/32.png) [@FatOrangeCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatOrangeCat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/117 "2019-03-26T19:08:06Z")
The day JFK was shot. I was five years old and just home from 1/2 day kindergarten. The bulletin came on the news, my parents were devastated, and I remember tugging on my mom’s dress and asking her what “wounded” meant. ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/118 "2019-03-26T19:58:52Z")
The sinking of the [Ocean Ranger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Ranger) in 1982 when I was 5. I was living in Newfoundland at the time, so it was a topic of conversation for weeks. ---
**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:** [March 26, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/119 "2019-03-26T21:15:54Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Iran Contra. I didn’t understand any of it but I know it was on the news and it seemed like it lasted for months and months. This is my answer as well. I remember hating Oliver North and John Poindexter because they were always interrupting the cartoons I wanted to watch. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450/120 "2019-03-27T00:32:15Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > The earliest clear memory I have of an national/international event that I remember was watching the space shuttle _Challenger_ explode on on January 28, 1986 and the speech Reagan gave later that night. Same here, sans the speech and seeing it live. My elementary school had been in the habit of showing us the students the shuttle launches, and this one was big news because of Christa McAuliffe, but for some reason we didn’t watch this one live, fortunately. I found out from a teacher who figured little nerdy me would understand what happened. I have a vague memory of Chernobyl not long afterwards, but I really didn’t understand that at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-earliest-national-international-event-that-you-remember/831450.md?page=7)