Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What is the first big news story you remember?
- Thread starter Reevefoug
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The Right Stuff (both the book and the movie) are excellent, and well repay a read (or a viewing).
It was when President Kennedy was killed. A lot of tears were shed that day.
First awareness of something bigger than my own little world: Election night returns for Carter. I would have been 6. Saw it at my friends house, who had a color TV in his room and was no older than me. Should tell you something for 1976.
First actual big news story that held my attention because it was serious: Iran hostage crisis. I would have been 9.
First actual big news story that caused me to become aware of the world and not retreat back into my own little space: Invasion of Grenada. I would have been 13.
First serious incident of big news that caused me to realize that the US military was not invincible: The shootdown of an F-111 Raven during the bombing of Libya in 1986. I was 15.
[automerge]1573773225[/automerge]
First actual big news story that held my attention because it was serious: Iran hostage crisis. I would have been 9.
First actual big news story that caused me to become aware of the world and not retreat back into my own little space: Invasion of Grenada. I would have been 13.
First serious incident of big news that caused me to realize that the US military was not invincible: The shootdown of an F-111 Raven during the bombing of Libya in 1986. I was 15.
[automerge]1573773225[/automerge]
I was sick at home that day and lying in front of the TV watching the launch live. Would have been ninth grade for me I think (15). I could not believe what was happening.
I was home that Tuesday too and watched the launch, not as a kid but in my 40s. I was really as excited as a kid though, because I had two comp days off that week, and so could watch it, and was delighted the launch was actually happening because it had been delayed like what, four or five times already?
Anyway I felt it was a stroke of luck... that I must have been meant to be able to watch it, and it was making a comp day's lazy breakfast even more special. I was having a second coffee. And then...
Honestly I could not comprehend what I was looking at there. Then the NASA public-facing system, "We have a report by the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded". So many things went through my head in fragments, like: what... what? oh no, no... and how could they even get those words out like that... and then realizing: oh my god every kid in the country just saw and heard that.
Could not imagine being a teacher of third graders that morning.. I still think about that announcement sometimes, how the guy just said it almost the same as if announcing downrange altitude and speed... but instead saying what he had to say because he had to say it. It must have been an complete out of body experience to be able to say it though.
I was born right in the middle of the Cold War/Space Race, Sputnik was launched about half a year before I was born. I don't really remember the Kennedy assassination, other than my dad going into his "The communists! The communists!" mode. I definitely remember seeing Vietnam War coverage, and a few of the older kids I knew died over there.
Seeing some with memories that go before my birth makes me feel a little younger... I ignored world events for a while, being secluded for much of my 20s and 30s. My family has had a few brushes with history though, such as my uncle meeting with the last Crown Prince of Bavaria, or one of my ancestors being a part of Garibaldi's Redshirts. I have had no such luck to find myself in these situations.
Seeing some with memories that go before my birth makes me feel a little younger... I ignored world events for a while, being secluded for much of my 20s and 30s. My family has had a few brushes with history though, such as my uncle meeting with the last Crown Prince of Bavaria, or one of my ancestors being a part of Garibaldi's Redshirts. I have had no such luck to find myself in these situations.
I had watched a few of these launches before and recall seeing flame coming from areas it should not have before the actual explosion. I was thinking, "That's odd, it doesn't look right. The other launches looked different." And then it exploded.
The worst part was the aftermath when you the reports detailed the design flaws and inferior O ring parts that they'd skimped on.
[automerge]1573799485[/automerge]
My father served in the Korean War and was out before they started drafting people. Consequently, Vietnam was not the war under discussion in my home nor did I know anyone that ended up there. I think I was probably a year and a half old when it ended. My father got into aerospace though in the mid-60s and that was the ride he took until his retirement in 1995.
As an electrical engineer he had a part in the Space Shuttle, the Minuteman series of ICBMs and Peacekeeper. By the time he retired he was on the team working to try and get missile to missile interception correct - part of the requirement for Star Wars, shooting down incoming ICBMs. Mostly he was involved in guidance systems and gyros.
It paid off for me when I was 16 because all of our cars had base stickers. It meant that I could drive directly through the base (Norton Air Force Base) to get where I was going while normal civilian traffic had to go around.
Retirement for my dad was hard though. 30+ years and TRW didn't need him anymore.
Last edited:
I've always wondered what the effect was on school kids who saw it.
For involved adults, I mean that worked for NASA or as contractors, regret was palpable in interviews of a lot of the engineers and other employees after Challenger. I remember one guy who had worked on the X15 test protocols before working on space shuttles, saying something like they had all been trained not to do some of the things they did in arriving at decision to put a go on that launch... ignoring stuff like the fact they were working below recommended minimums and at or below margins of ambient air temperature they'd gone with before. Yet at the time, they went along in the end, the pressure was on to get the launch done after all the delays. Horrible to live with that for the rest of a lifetime and no way to rewind the tape.
Gene Kranz was in the control room during the Shuttle disaster but he wasn't in charge of the mission and had no say on Go/No go. I imagine, if he had been things might have been different.
-- From the Apollo 1 fire disaster
Interesting to see us all date ourselves! 
Mine was the Challenger blowing up. I was in second grade at the time, and the whole class was watching that morning. Obviously it affected our teacher the most - as a bunch of 7 year olds I don't think we could fully process what a big deal it was.
Mine was the Challenger blowing up. I was in second grade at the time, and the whole class was watching that morning. Obviously it affected our teacher the most - as a bunch of 7 year olds I don't think we could fully process what a big deal it was.
I was 17 at the time, we all wondered whether we would be called up to serve.
I have a similar memory for the UKs 2005 general election*, I mainly remember all the coloured boxes and tickers and other assorted graphics on the screen and had to ask mum what it was all about (even though I was almost 10 at the time? Maybe seems a bit old to not understand it but I guess you have more important things on your mind at that age xD)
I can definitely remember 9/11, though I was too young to understand it or fully appreciate what had happened, remember all the teachers in school were talking about something in hushed tones and seeing the smoke on the news when I got home. I think I just about remember the millennium in as much as being told it was a very special night and the last of a word I definitely didn't understand at the time (and also not believing that the numeral 2000 came after 1999 for some reason, though that might have been after new years 😁)
*I'm sure it must have been that one as I remember mum saying the prime minister was likely to stay as PM and the look on her face when I said 'good'! 🤣🤣 Think 2001 would have been too early as I was only ~6?
I can't come up with a memory of a news story prior to JFK's assassination. I remember a girl in my 2nd grade class crying her eyes out at the news more than I remember any TV coverage. Of course, that was followed shortly by Ruby killing Oswald on live TV on a Sunday morning. I was more impacted personally by RFK's assassination. I remember telling my Dad "I hope he lives" before going to bed.
Sandwiched in between those, I remember an older sibling and friend listening to coverage of the first Clay vs. Liston fight. I didn't know who these guys were. After that, I started paying attention to the sport, as my Dad was a fan of boxing.
Sandwiched in between those, I remember an older sibling and friend listening to coverage of the first Clay vs. Liston fight. I didn't know who these guys were. After that, I started paying attention to the sport, as my Dad was a fan of boxing.
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth, because we were sent home from school to watch it. Didn't really sink in at the time.
Pretty much all the others mentioned here, the one with the most impact was 9/11. I remember flying through Newark airport a week later and seeing the smoldering pile of debris across the river.
Pretty much all the others mentioned here, the one with the most impact was 9/11. I remember flying through Newark airport a week later and seeing the smoldering pile of debris across the river.
I was upset I didn't get to see it happen in person. I was in Germany with my brother in 1987-1989 and left shortly before it happened.
well, I was 8
still feels like yesterday
I had already become fascinated by central and eastern Europe, - and did start to teach the history of those countries within a very short period of time after the Fall of the Wall - but, at the time, while I was teaching history and politics, as a young teacher, I was teaching other stuff, but kept trying to stress to my students that history was unfolding in front of their very eyes, and that they should note it and pay attention to it.
[automerge]1574456607[/automerge]
I don't think anyone expected that East Germany would implode so quickly or so completely within such a short space of time.
By early 1989, I was pretty certain (as I was following developments closely in that part of the world, I wa fascinated by what was happening) that within five years, both Poland and Hungary would have some sort of hybrid, or post communist, or reformist, almost half-democratic system in place, as transpired.
Likewise, despite its awful government, on account of the Prague Spring, Charter 77 and a few such movements, I was also fairly sure that the Czechoslovak communist administration would have to reform within half a decade, and that some sort of political space would open for a reformist movement, and I argued all of this from around February 1989 to anyone who would listen to me.
But, to be quite candid, I never ever thought that East Germany, or Romania, or Bulgaria would be capable of generating any sort of reformist identity or politics for at least another decade.
Last edited:
My big new stories was Nixon resigns, the 80s Challenger explosion, the Wall coming down and the Gulf War! After that the Second Gulf War and the aftermath!
Nixon resigning was big news; I was a kid, but I do remember sitting in the car, with my father, and the newspapers, asking questions and discussing it.