What's the first news event you remember?

The earliest event I can remember seeing live coverage was the Reagan assasination attempt, 1981, though I have vague memories of the Carter and Clarke administrations.

I remember watching Princess Diana get married. I was impressed that there really were Princesses.

I remember the Three Mile Island incident very well. It’s the first news event I can remember. I remember it well because the phone in my house went nuts. My Dad ran the Nuclear Reactor Saftey division and flew out the next day to help deal with the problem. I also remember telling my teacher, who tried to explain the problem to the kids in the class, that she was wrong. She said that it could have exploded or some other crap. I told her that it couldn’t explode but it could melt.

I found out from my Dad a couple of years ago that I talked to the White House. My Dad was asked to take over the clean up of Three Mile Island. My Dad turned it down and said it was the best career choice he ever made.

Slee

I distinctly remember seeing that picture in <u>Time</u> 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.

I can remember being allowed, along with some cousins, being allowed to stay up and watch Eisenhower be elected president. I thing this was the first election shown on TV.

Armstrong walking on the moon I remember vaguely. I remember Watergate a bit better. I especially remember how those hearings were always interrupting my afternoon cartoons.

Wow, some of you are young. I had already graduated from college when the Berlin wall came down.

The first big event I can remember is the presidential elections of 1972, and the Olympics of the same year, when Olga Korbut won our hearts. A few years later her memory was completely overshadowed by Nadia Comaneci and her showy perfect tens.

Prior to that I kept hearing about Watergate and Vietnam, but had no idea what either one was.

For me, I guess it would have been news about a Gemini space shot and the BIG news about the Apollo One fire.

Vietnam for me was seeing the Huntley Brinkley report every night on the TV while mom was getting supper ready and Chet Huntley coming on and reporting right off the top, “Today, ‘n’ American troops killed, ‘n’ wounded, ‘n’ missing. ‘N’ NVA troops killed, ‘n’ wounded, ‘n’ captured.” As graphics got better later in the war, each night’s body count would be accompanied by little soldier graphs illustrating the numbers …

Watergate happened while I was finishing up elementary school. I remember the hearings on live in the school library every day during sixth grade.

I remember being aware of the grownups talking about Adlai Stevenson and Ike running against each other for President (the 2nd time) and sort of getting the idea of an election; and also realizing I had one of each side for parents.

The next one, which I understood a bit better, was Sputnik I.

Not really news, but I do remember the Impeach Earl Warren billboards as well.

I was four-and-a-half when Martin Luther King was shot. I distinctly remember watching the news with my mom, who was clearly very upset.

Out of curiosity, I asked my eleven-year-old son this question. First, he mentioned 9/11. After some more thought, he added the Bush-Gore election mess in Florida, and the Clinton impeachment hearings. He opined that Kenneth Starr was extremely boring.

Very vaguely…

The first (?) US moon shot. My teacher brought in her own tv for us to watch. (The mere idea of a televison in a classroom was very radical.) We all drew lopsided crayon drawings of the “spaceship”.

Somewhate clearer…

JFK’s murder and funeral. “John-John” because he was another confused little kid, and my tough, Depression-tough, WWII era parents being so stunned, eerily brought to a total halt. I got the general sense that our comfy world just shook to the core but hadn’t the least clue why.

Veb

The first event I distinctly remember is the election of President Carter. I remember staying up late on election night, and my Dad being pissed and carrying on all night because my parent’s were/are diehard republicans.

Born in December, 1971

I remember people talking about gasoline prices all the time, but some of the earliest news events I remember were all from 1979-1980:

Iran hostage crisis
Skylab crashing
Carter/Kennedy-Reagan campaign
Lake Placid Olympics & the big hockey game.

Watergate.

Mostly because I was fleeing the country as a result.

Challenger explosion.

I believe it would be the RFK assasination.

I rememeber how wierd it seemed to me that someone would have their first and last names the same.

Robert Kennedy assassination. My mom was holding me when she got the word. Her response: “Oh, they got him, too?”

He didn’t remember OJ? Jeez, now I feel old too.

The fall of the Berlin Wall. At the tender age of five I knew what it meant, somewhat.

You are all horribly young!

My very first memory of anything was the ending of WWII. My aunt and my mother were setting off firecrackers in celebration. I asked why they were doing that and mother said, “The war is over!” I thought the war must be a kind of party because they were so happy.

I was twenty-five months old at the time.

I can’t remember the Berlin Wall coming down because I have short-term memory problems. :rolleyes: :wink: