# What's the first news event you remember? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 13, 2002, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395 "2002-12-13T01:50:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/41 "2002-12-13T06:03:35Z")
First thing I remember… Sitting on the summer linoleum. Strange anticipation. Ohio boy. Walks on green cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/42 "2002-12-13T06:30:09Z")
Frankd6, well done! > [@](#): > > from Jack Batty > > I distinctly remember seeing that picture in Time of the Vietnamese girl, naked and burned from napalm, running from a burning village. > > Does that count? I think I was around 7 or 8 then It was certainly an image that got our attention at the time. You might be interested in knowing that that little girl survived. As an adult, she addressed a group of people in front of the Vietnam Memorial. The man who was responsible for dropping the napalm on her and her village was present. He managed to approach her after her speech to confess and ask her forgiveness – which he received with open arms. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/43 "2002-12-13T06:36:20Z")
I distintly remember going to the polls in '68 with my mom and brother, with both of us suggesting she vote for Pat Paulsen. We knew he was running, because he campained on the Smothers Brothers show. After she left the booth, she told us his name wasn’t there, so she had to go with Humphrey. I remember the discontent in the house when we heard that Nixon had won. I’d had my 4th birthday a little over a month before that. The next news story I remember is the Apollo 11 landing. ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/44 "2002-12-13T06:38:07Z")
I recall the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80 (I believe this was when it happened). I was around 9-10 years old at the time. I also remember the 1980 Winter Olympic games in Lake Placid, New York. I can only vaguely recall the Three Mile Island incident. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/45 "2002-12-13T07:01:05Z")
Isn’t it funny how, after you recall the first couple or so, a _bunch_ more flood in, iin the next five or six years. Sputnik I clicked off when I was four, but I remember the coming of Castro, Francis Gary Powers, Kennedy v. Nixon, the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall (why do ya have to keep ‘em in if bein’ a lefty is such a great deal?). ---
**Author:** ![Medievalist2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@Medievalist2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medievalist2)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/46 "2002-12-13T07:01:32Z")
I was only four when President Nixon resigned - too young to understand what was going on or to remember the event. I remember the 1976 Bicentennial celebration, but I don’t think that counts as a news event because it was an ongoing thing that lasted all year. The first news event I remember seeing on television is the 1976 Olympics. I also remember the 1976 presidential election campaign. I remember my mother and father explaining to me what an election was, and how they told me that they wanted Ford to win because Carter was “a turkey.” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/47 "2002-12-13T07:22:06Z")
John Lennon’s murder. I was only three and a half, but I remember my parent’s talking about how terrible it was, and vaguely understanding he was somehow connected to the music they liked. I’m not sure if they explained how he died or not, but I thought that someone with a knife hurt him, after waiting for him outside in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/48 "2002-12-13T08:12:13Z")
I’m a bit disappointed that I don’t remember the 1969 moon landing clearly at all (I was nearly 6 at the time). But, I do remember the 1972 Munich Olympics, and Black September’s attack there. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![SmileyDeath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb8c5e/32.png) [@SmileyDeath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmileyDeath)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/49 "2002-12-13T08:28:41Z")
Sept 11. is the only one that has stayed with me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/50 "2002-12-13T09:17:46Z")
Wow Ice …must have been very dramaticaly recounted here cause the '72 Munich Olympics were my first too. I also really clearly remember the hijacking that ended up in Entebbe. Wow, thinking how long ago those events were puts the “war against terror” into context. It’s gonna be a lonnnnnnnnnng war. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/51 "2002-12-13T09:22:12Z")
Yup. I also remember when the Entebbe raid was anounced, **calm kiwi**. I think it was during one of those Telethons we used to have here – Angela D’Audney broke the news on th’ telly. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/52 "2002-12-13T13:30:51Z")
Born in 1966. I watched the news every night with my Mom and Dad, Cronkite’s Vietnam body count. Dad was recently back. George Wallace shot in 1972. We had a friend named George Wallace and I didn’t know why anyone would want to shoot _him_. Wondering what the Hell would happen if the Dow Jones ever hit 1000 (1972). I didn’t know what it meant, but it was the last number given at night. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/53 "2002-12-13T13:53:10Z")
Peregrine, your story is a lot like mine. I had to go to the bathroom in school, and on my way back to class, I saw two teachers crying in the hall. I walked back into my classroom and the teacher told us the president had been shot. One of the girls in class started laughing (nervous laughing, I’m sure). We were sent home, and I walked in the door and my mom was holding the vaccuum, staring at the tv, crying. Everything after that is kind of dream-sequencey. Especially when Ruby shot Oswald live on tv. It just kept getting weirder. ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/54 "2002-12-13T14:15:34Z")
God help me. The first news I remember is hearing that the murdering SOB Guevara was killed. And my father’s reaction: “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about him ousting castro anymore, things are bad now but with that idiot in charge we’d all be before the firing squad.” ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/55 "2002-12-13T14:56:39Z")
I remember my father coming home and saying “Well, the war is over.” The war in question was WWII. I have a few random memories of war related events gleaned from MovieTone News, but I can’t put dates on them. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/56 "2002-12-13T15:52:55Z")
Thank goodness there are one or two other old-timers here! Like **Ave Minerva** , I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis—I hid under the coffee table when I heard missiles were pointed “at us,” and my mother drily told me that wouldn’t do a whole lot of good. ---
**Author:** ![Stccrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Stccrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stccrd)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/57 "2002-12-13T16:15:52Z")
The first memory of a news event I have is of the protest at Tian-an-men Square in 1989. I think that is how you spelled it, but more importantly, I remember feeling awful for the people that had to live under such a harsh government. ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/58 "2002-12-13T16:52:29Z")
I vaguely remember the Challenger explosion. I was in kindergarten, and my sister was born three weeks later. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/59 "2002-12-13T17:25:20Z")
Challenger for me as well. Had odd premonition it would happen. ---
**Author:** ![Pablito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Pablito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pablito)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2002, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395/60 "2002-12-13T17:36:22Z")
watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, on a small black and white TV with my parents and little brother, when I was about 5 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-first-news-event-you-remember/142395.md?page=4)