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What is the first big news story you remember?

JFK assassination.
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retta283 said:
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.
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Your Dad was right about "the Communists"!! :)
 
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9/11, which was when i started 1st grade, & a week before my 6th birthday
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LizKat said:
I recall news of the death of President Roosevelt, vaguely, or rather the fact that people, grownups, went around crying. The whole thing of adults crying was completely new to me, and very scary. I was just old enough to have been expected to shush up whenever "the President is talking!" on the radio.

Naturally I didn't know who Roosevelt was, just that "the President" was sort of like another grownup even if he only showed up as a particular voice coming out of that box on the shelf in the kitchen or a bigger box in the living room.

I didn't understand death yet of course. I learned "Mr. Truman" would be the new President. OK so I liked him, I could pronounce his name at least, I remember saying his name over and over Truman Truman Truman Truman! and eventually being told "that'll do now, that'll do!" by my grandpa (who I learned later on loathed the man). The other guy had always just been described to me as "the President" and I never said his name as far as I can remember. So Mr. Truman (or Truman Truman Truman!) was the new voice in that box on the shelf... and whenever he talked, I was to be quiet, just like for the other guy.

But in sharper focus later on, I so clearly remember news accounts of the bombing of Hiroshima and then Nagasaki. I was just pre-kindergarten and could read, but of course not yet regularly reading newspapers. However, those incidents were definitely all that was being talked about for days, even weeks at every sit-down to table, including breakfast... so those news reports stuck like a mountain in memory... because otherwise [shrug] the days and especially breakfast were just how morning started, something to eat and then some chores. Grandpa read the paper and then headed off to the bank. Grandma and mom set about their daily routines. Sometimes the mailman brought a letter from my dad or an uncle and everyone took a break while that got read aloud to all of us. My chores were stuff like kneading that orange dot into the white margarine packets that we had instead of butter during the war rationing, and then taking kitchen veggie tops and peels out to the barn to feed the rabbits.

I remember feeling anxious about whether atomic bombs could hurt the rabbits. I knew the bombs dropped on Japan were made in the USA, that had been in the newspapers. I didn't really understand if Japan had bombs like that too. I probably couldn't deal with the idea that if bombs got dropped here it wasn't just going to be rabbits at stake. I don't remember being afraid for us, just our rabbits. Weird how kids process what they can and lay the rest off. LOL I never really got it that those rabbits were being raised (and sold) for meat. We didn't eat them, so I was spared the need to know what happened to them as they grew up.
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ok, the US knew what the 2 bombs would do to Japan,
but they would tell Americans to duck & cover, & kids should get under their desks...
good luck, kids
 
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Gravydog316 said:
9/11, which was when i started 1st grade, & a week before my 6th birthday
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ok, the US knew what the 2 bombs would do to Japan,
but they would tell Americans to duck & cover, & kids should get under their desks...
good luck, kids
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While it sounds absurd given the power of a nuclear blast. Duck and cover wasn't meant to protect people close enough to be vaporized, buildings leveled or from receiving massive radiation doses. It's to increase survivability outside that immediate kill zone. Those in areas which receive moderate to light blast damage and burns from the flash. That doesn't mean you'll be completely protected from burns, injury and radiation. You just have better odds of survival at a closer range.

When indoors it was to protect against shrapnel from shattering windows, other flying debris and the flash. As windows get blown out at far greater ranges from the blast zone than the more serious effects seen closer to the hypocenter. It takes very little overpressure to shatter glass.

Outdoors as long as you are outside the immediately lethal range. The kill zone is reduced by being prone. Having a lower profile decreases the chance of getting tossed through the air. Similar to laying flat vs standing in strong winds. The ground itself will also deflect some of the blast force upwards. Small depressions may shield you as well. Plus being prone reduces the likelihood of being hit by debris.

With advanced warning. Anything between someone and the initial flash. Which accounts for many burns received. Can reduce or prevent severe burns. By reducing the amount of UV, visible and infrared light one is exposed to. It can also reduce gamma ray exposure a little during that first minute. The first second being half the dose and the remaining minute being nearly all the rest of the gamma ray burst. That little bit of difference can mean the person prone during that burst survives while someone standing next to them dies.

Even without advanced warning. As far as the burns go. The initial flash starts as UV light then moves to visible then infrared light a few seconds later. The infrared being the real scorcher of the flash. When one sees that bright light they have a few seconds to at least duck and cover to shield their face and much of their body from the flash or get something between them and the flash before the infrared hits. Reducing burns.

This can all mean one survives. Also survives in a condition where they are still mobile. Allowing them to then seek better shelter from fallout, escape fires, help others, or evacuate. Also survive long enough until they can seek medical attention. As it would likely be days or weeks until medical attention is available.
 
Hurricane Katrina is the first big news item that I can remember. I have vague memories of seeing it in the news at the time. (I was only 3 when 9/11 happened. I remember being told about it at a fairly young age, but I remember nothing of when it happened).
 
Some dude getting all worked up about "the next BIG thing." Apparently, it was like a thin cylinder that was supposed to revolutionize transportation somehow. I was delousing my cave, so I never followed up to see how that all panned out…
 
I remember getting up very early with my father and watching the first Mercury countdowns beginning in 1961. We would drink coffee and watch until the launch, on our black and white TV.

I also remember JFK's assassination in 1963, being sent home early from school as others have also mentioned. We watched the news coverage and funeral, it seems like that was all we watched for several days.
 
AngerDanger said:
Some dude getting all worked up about "the next BIG thing." Apparently, it was like a thin cylinder that was supposed to revolutionize transportation somehow. I was delousing my cave, so I never followed up to see how that all panned out…
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Yeah, that thing. Sure it was a dude? ;)

Cartoon - The Underpinnings (New Yorker 2020 Apr).jpg
 
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3rd Grade classroom and teachers came busting in to tell us the USSR had collapsed. It's odd that I remember it so vividly because it happened on Dec 26 and I am not sure why we would have been in school at that time. Maybe there was a lead up to it.
 
Reading about my mother just giving birth to me.........;)

But seriously, it was probably hearing news about the Korean War - a relatively little-known episode of history; a terrible war which developed after North Korea invaded the south, and the latter calling upon the support of the United nations, primarily the U.S.
South Korea and their allies expected the war would be curbed within a few months or even weeks, but the North together with their allies China and the Soviet Union made this a horrific battle which lasted for 3 years, and resulted in one of the most destructive conflicts of the modern era.

A couple of years later it was certainly the news of the death of King George VI followed by the BBC coronation broadcast of Queen Elizabeth.

I still have very vivid memories of the hotel where I was staying in France and watching the Apollo 11 moon landing, and even the beer I was drinking at the time, Pelfort Pelican. One of the very few I could pronounce correctly and still be understood.
Strangely enough even though I have a fascinating collection of AppleMac computers including early PowerBooks and a 20th Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) I cannot recall hearing anything about these being officially announced.
 
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Napoleon escapes Elba ....

Seriously , the first manned Mercury launches . Watched both Shepard and Grissom in school on a big old black and white TV that was rolled into my classroom . Couple of other classes squeezed in to watch the launches . Think I was in 6th Grade at the time
 
To add to my previous post, not really a new story but an article in the National Geographic magazine about the new Vietnam War Memorial. It's simplicity, it's beauty was a perfect tribute. I vowed to myself I must see it. Years later while working as a consultant on designing military hospitals, we would have meetings at the Army Corps of Engineers building in DC. We would make it a point to visit the memorial on every trip. Words cannot describe it, it is an experience that everyone that lived through that era should see. It has had an impact on me I will never forget.
 
Spacewiz said:
Definitely JFK. Was in 2nd grade and our teacher gathered us in our "Reading Corner" to tell us the news. Then we were all sent home early...
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I too was in 2nd Grade... .still remember lining up to go to lunch, and Mrs. Wake somberly telling us what had happened... and releasing us all to go home instead of lunch. Of course this was back in the day when 2nd Grade kids could and did walk to/from school :D
 
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