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What are the news story’s you will never forget where you were at the time.

331 replies

Blueyparentsmychild · 13/04/2024 15:21

just that really,

mine will always be 7/7 - was caught up in it
grenfell tower - lived locally
9/11
Manchester bombing
probably the queens death to.

OP posts:
Copperoliverbear · 13/04/2024 18:14

Diana's death ❤️
And poor little Jamie Bulger love him 💙

BeaRF75 · 13/04/2024 18:12

Death of John Lennon
Death of Princess Diana
9/11
Election of Barack Obama (first time) - I was in the Arctic Circle!
Brexit result
Death of HM The Queen

DanielGault · 13/04/2024 18:12

GwinGwyn · 13/04/2024 18:11

Faux concern? I sympathised about Anglo-centric media reporting and I pointed out it also applied to me and that I’m not blind to those issues either.

As an adult if you don’t want to learn more about Aberfan then that’s your right, but also you can’t expect people to dig more into the troubles than was reported on the news at the time when they were kids either can you?

I was being nice, you turned nasty quick.

Grand so

GwinGwyn · 13/04/2024 18:11

DanielGault · 13/04/2024 17:55

Tbf, I was a very young child, it was likely said to me that it was a landslide as that would have been more understandable than 'colliery collapse'. And I'm fine thanks, you can hang on to your faux concern.

Faux concern? I sympathised about Anglo-centric media reporting and I pointed out it also applied to me and that I’m not blind to those issues either.

As an adult if you don’t want to learn more about Aberfan then that’s your right, but also you can’t expect people to dig more into the troubles than was reported on the news at the time when they were kids either can you?

I was being nice, you turned nasty quick.

Mammyloveswine · 13/04/2024 18:09

Oh and Boris announcing they were closing the schools in lockdown..I can remember even my dad saying he felt a bit scared!!

Mammyloveswine · 13/04/2024 18:07

As an adult the Queens death felt so significant even though she was 96.. just such a huge change!

As a child, Princess Diana's death and Dunblane.

As a teen, September 11th and the 7/7 bombings.

HoldingOnForAHeron · 13/04/2024 18:06

Aberfan was before my time but it's a news story that chills me and has me in tears. I can't even imagine how awful it was for the victims and their families and the community.

Storynanny1 · 13/04/2024 18:05

Forgot the Kings Cross fire - a couple of weeks after I changed trains there with my young children to visit grandparents and the smell was horrible

Storynanny1 · 13/04/2024 18:03

The death of Kennedy - I was about 6/7 and at my grandmas. I heard the grown ups talking about it as they’d heard it on the radio

England winning the World Cup in 1966. We had our first tv for the event. My dad was so excited he fell off his chair, mum had gone out in a huff because football was boring.

The first man on the moon

The Hungerford massacre - somewhere where we had often gone on a picnic to

The Birmingham pub bombings - Shortly after I went to university in Birmingham and my parents were terrified

The Dunblane murders - I was an infant teacher, all of the outside door handles in schools were removed

Death of Diana - my young children were watching cartoons downstairs while I was having a lie in and they came upstairs to tell me

9/11 - At school, we watched it at break time on the big tv in the staffroom

I’m obviously a lot older than most of you!

DanielGault · 13/04/2024 17:59

LakieLady · 13/04/2024 17:56

I think it's because there were so many awful events in NI that they don't really stand out so much in people's memories.

I have a very clear memory of the Bloody Sunday shootings, mainly because I can remember my father going "The bastards, the bastards" when it came on the news. Omagh stands out because I was much older, and because I was in a pub having a drink with a friend who came from Omagh. The landlady came over and told us, and he rushed home to phone his family.

😞😞😞

Drole · 13/04/2024 17:57

Diana's death
9-11

MuggedByReality · 13/04/2024 17:57

The 1997 Labour landslide. I campaigned bloody hard for that win in an important marginal seat and after the exit poll dropped, we uncorked the champagne then partied until dawn. One of the best nights of my life.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 13/04/2024 17:56

Hillsborough i also remember what I was doing although what I was doing wasn’t very interesting

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 13/04/2024 17:56

Princess Diana’s death - I was up early to get a flight so saw all the early headlines that had gone out before the news of her death - some speaking about her quite disparagingly as they had been in her final months, before the sudden about turn following her death.

9/11 - it was during the only period of my life I worked in a very high rise building and we were all sent home in case the same thing happened in London

7/7 - I was also caught up in it

underpresha · 13/04/2024 17:56

Herald of Free Enterprise.
Lockerbie.
Hillsborough, was watching on TV.
Dunblane.
Omagh bombing.
9/11 (I was actually in NY at the time, it was chaos)
Diana’s death.

LakieLady · 13/04/2024 17:56

DanielGault · 13/04/2024 17:30

And they were just the 'big' ones. There were so many things, it felt like every week. It's just interesting that it hasn't come up here that much.

I think it's because there were so many awful events in NI that they don't really stand out so much in people's memories.

I have a very clear memory of the Bloody Sunday shootings, mainly because I can remember my father going "The bastards, the bastards" when it came on the news. Omagh stands out because I was much older, and because I was in a pub having a drink with a friend who came from Omagh. The landlady came over and told us, and he rushed home to phone his family.

DanielGault · 13/04/2024 17:55

GwinGwyn · 13/04/2024 17:50

My best friend is from Ballymun, living in Belfast and a big part of the PWP.

Sounds like this thread is stirring stuff up for you. I hope you’re ok. But don’t forget this is a generic thread of people’s remembrances, it doesn’t mean any is more or less important.

And it was not remotely a landslide. It was a colliery spoil tip collapse, one is natural and the other is manmade. Just to be very accurate. Which it is very important to be because the bloody NCB was not.

Tbf, I was a very young child, it was likely said to me that it was a landslide as that would have been more understandable than 'colliery collapse'. And I'm fine thanks, you can hang on to your faux concern.

tobee · 13/04/2024 17:54

Oh and Lockerbie

MariaVT65 · 13/04/2024 17:53

Usual ones already mentioned but i’ll add:

The Alton Towers Smiler accident - i was on holiday.

Kijuity · 13/04/2024 17:53

DanielGault · 13/04/2024 17:16

(this is no criticism of anyone, I haven't said anything about NI myself here) but isn't it a bit mad that all the NI bloodshed has barely come up here? Like we were all totally immune to it?

It's still going on and probably always will although to a far lesser extent. It is deliberately not covered in the news in england/Scotland and Wales so we are somewhat oblivious to it now. I have a great grandad who was pivotel in the IRA movement sadly.

tobee · 13/04/2024 17:52

John Lennon shot
9/11
Diana death
Tsunami
Queen death (not that surprising as just recently)
7/7
OJ Simpson verdict

GwinGwyn · 13/04/2024 17:50

DanielGault · 13/04/2024 17:44

I'm ROI, we used to watch RTE and UTV, we heard all about each and every horrible shooting and knee capping every night. We knew about the landslide (😞) too.

My best friend is from Ballymun, living in Belfast and a big part of the PWP.

Sounds like this thread is stirring stuff up for you. I hope you’re ok. But don’t forget this is a generic thread of people’s remembrances, it doesn’t mean any is more or less important.

And it was not remotely a landslide. It was a colliery spoil tip collapse, one is natural and the other is manmade. Just to be very accurate. Which it is very important to be because the bloody NCB was not.

LakieLady · 13/04/2024 17:49

JaninaDuszejko · 13/04/2024 16:28

John Smith died in 1994, I was a student at Glasgow at the time (as was one of his daughters) and the news flew round the campus, I found out in the library. He was never First Minister, the devolution referendum didn't happen until 1997.

I was at work. A colleague had been out at a meeting, heard it in the car on the way back and came in and told us about it.

I was quite upset. I think he would have been a very good PM.

Ratfinkstinkypink · 13/04/2024 17:46

I remember where I was for lots of the events already mentioned but the one that had the biggest impact was the Soham murders. It was the school holidays and I was doing some ironing before the kids got up, switched on the TV only to see the face of my DD's friend and ex team mate, and my son's classmates on the screen, then hearing that the girls were missing. The police helicopter had been very active the evening before with lots of flying over our house as we lived on the route to one of the girls aunt's and there was a theory that they'd tried to walk across the fields to her house so the chopper was up, looking. Those days are forever etched in our memories.

JaninaDuszejko · 13/04/2024 17:45

Aberfan was 58 years ago so you'd have to be in your 60s to remember it which is probably why it hasn't been mentioned more than a couple of times. Watching it on The Crown was upsetting enough, and whenI spoke to Mum about it (she was 20 when it happened) she said it was one of the worst things she ever saw on the news.