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What is the first big news story you remember?
- Thread starter Reevefoug
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The Hillsborough disaster in 1989. My mum panicked as it was a game my older brother would normally go to but he decided to give up his ticket to work instead. His other mates went along to the game and sadly one of them was one of the 96. I was desperate to see my first game but had to wait until 1990 until I was allowed to go.
I also remember the Berlin Wall coming down later that same year in 1989.
I also remember the Berlin Wall coming down later that same year in 1989.
Chernobyl for me, I was 6 & live in Lancashire
We got all the warnings about keeping windows shut, not to eat Welsh & Cumbrian hill lamb etc...
Quite worrying times
We got all the warnings about keeping windows shut, not to eat Welsh & Cumbrian hill lamb etc...
Quite worrying times
Like you I remember both, vividly. More so the Berlin Wall TBH; I was 10
My wife works with a women who’s father was one of the 96 also; such a travesty
Probably the assassination attempt on President Reagan's life and Ted Koppel's countdown of the days in captivity for the hostages in Iran.
9/11 - came home from school and it was on the news
5-1 to England I watched live. I have it on DVD lol
I find it odd that they announced that to a bunch of 8 year olds. Did it mean anything to you at the time? I certainly remember when it happened, but I don't recall any special announcements or anyone really making a big deal of it. (or maybe I just wasn't paying attention - I was 22 and very self absorbed at that age)
It didn't really mean anything to me honestly. Having grown up in rural Colorado I really didn't know what communists were. It was a really big deal to the teachers at the time.
All the items that first came to mind for me. I also have a very vivid memory of my dad getting me up early on a Sunday morning to watch the very first Space Shuttle launch--not the earliest memory but as a huge fan of anything space related, this memory is still crystal clear in my mind. Can still picture the clock showing 7 am (EST) when the launch started.
Sort of unrelated, but interesting side story. The oldest people I knew were born in the 1880s, and a few were present for historical events in the early 20th century. I knew an old Italian man that served in the Italo-Turkish war of 1911-12, and the Great War. During the end of the war, he came down with the Spanish flu.
Few of my relatives had served in the various German armies, one of them was present with the German fleet when it was interned at Scapa Flow after the war, where the fleet was scuttled. He was able to keep his original Kaiserliche Marine uniform, and I still have one of his medals that he gave me. Not sure if the uniform is still in the family or not.
Shows that these events really were not that long ago. As I stated in my original post, my first memory of historical events were vague memories of JFK's assassination. I also remember hearing of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Vivid memories of watching the moon landing.
Few of my relatives had served in the various German armies, one of them was present with the German fleet when it was interned at Scapa Flow after the war, where the fleet was scuttled. He was able to keep his original Kaiserliche Marine uniform, and I still have one of his medals that he gave me. Not sure if the uniform is still in the family or not.
Shows that these events really were not that long ago. As I stated in my original post, my first memory of historical events were vague memories of JFK's assassination. I also remember hearing of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Vivid memories of watching the moon landing.
Off the top of my head, probably this...
Jonestown Massacre
November 18, 1978
Guyana (South America)
918 murdered
I was a small child.
Image looking at your parents' Time magazine, and seeing small children - just like yourself - lying on the ground, dead...
I have seen some horrible world events in my lifetime, but to see women and children slaughtered by a mad man, THAT, never leaves you...
(And over 40 years later, Americans are still killing each other full-force...)
Jonestown Massacre
November 18, 1978
Guyana (South America)
918 murdered
I was a small child.
Image looking at your parents' Time magazine, and seeing small children - just like yourself - lying on the ground, dead...
I have seen some horrible world events in my lifetime, but to see women and children slaughtered by a mad man, THAT, never leaves you...
(And over 40 years later, Americans are still killing each other full-force...)
Likewise.
Two, if not three, of my grandparents were born in the 1880s, but they died when I was a child, which meant that, unfortunately, I never managed to ask the sort of questions that a little maturity (and perspective, and family and historical curiosity) would have allowed.
And I knew a Frenchman, the grandfather of the family I stayed with when I visited France, with whom I did enjoy several lengthy and fascinating conversations, who was born in 1899, and who was called up for military service a year before the end of WW1, in 1917, when he reached 18.
However, a medical examination revealed that he suffered - quite severely - from TB, and the French military decided to reject him, and classed him as unfit for military service, because, as they subsequently informed his family, given that he suffered from TB, "he probably wouldn't live long enough to get killed in the war", as they feared he would succumb to TB before he even completed military training.
As it happened, he lived a long life, and professionally, a very rewarding one, a life that was creative, fulfilling, and extraordinary successful, finally passing away at the age of 95, many, many decades later.
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