Major events - where were you?

[Raffles1981]

After watching The Crown and seeing Aberfan and now The Irishman and the shooting of Kennedy. Just curious as to which major event you remember that stopped you in your tracks. Made you take stock. For me, it was Diana. I was 16 and it was quite a shock and I remember the day being still and her funeral - no one seemed to be getting on with life. What was a major day for you?

9/11
Challenger
Kennedy

I think the assassination of JFK was the first major news story that hit me, followed by the Aberfan disaster.

Same here, Diana. And 911

Hillsborough (I was 9)
Diana
9/11

@fjreflycaramel - challenger?

I remember dunblane. Day before my 18th and we were in double English before lunch. I went home and woke my dad who had been night shift and was a police officer as I was so shocked.

Diana. I was a supervisor for a shop and it opened late as I was watching the tv.

9/11. Working in an office with no internet or tv and on the phone to my sister who updated me. Drove home with Chris Moyles playing music rather than chatting.

Challenger - the space shuttle disaster.

Yes, the space shuttle.
I remember Hillsborough, Dunblane and Hungerford as well.

Lockerbie. Diana. 9/11.

First one I truly remember was Lockerbie and yes to the others that followed.

Lockerbie
Hillsborough
Dunblane
Diana
9/11
2004 Tsunami

Diana - remember waking up, hearing someone had died on the radio and the gentle music being played, but it took us a while to work out who had died.

911 - watched neighbours and then news flashed over to the planes flying into the towers. I can recall the clear blue skies.

Margaret Thatcher resigning- she’d been in power for years so this was big news. I was in the stockroom of the shop I was working in.

@nicknacky
I remember Chris Moyles playing music on 9/11 too. I hadn’t heard the news and thought it was him just playing a few tracks without a break. I phoned my mum at work back home, I just wanted to speak to her. The first time I cried was when Mark and Lard played “Nothing Compares to You” the next day.
Princess Diana’s death - 14 years old. Spent most of the day at the village pub with my family, everybody coming out to watch the news on the lounge telly and chat about events.
Dunblane- came home from secondary and my wee brother (who had been sent home from primary) told me what had happened. Refused to believe him until my mum confirmed it.

Challenger (was watching it live)
Diana
9/11

Whakaari

and several of the others mentioned.

The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 - That was the first time that I watched a news story unfold with genuine horror.

9/11 was only a few years before this and whilst I knew it was a huge world event, I was only 14 and I think just didn’t really comprehend the enormity of it.

Furry It’s strange the small things you remember.

Kings cross fire- I was at a dinner in London where lots of people were called away to deal with it. Diana at my boyfriend’s parent’s house, 9/11 in Seville.

Lots of the IRA bombs as I lives and worked in London from late 1987 until 2005. The Bishopsgate bomb when I was in my office two streets away. A horrible experience.

Although I do recall a little of the Challenger, space shuttle disintegration, and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (both 1986) being a little earlier than Lockerbie (happening later in 1988).

Hillsborough. A friend was there (he survived).

Dunblane - my Mum has picked me up from sixth form as I had study periods in the afternoon. We heard it on the radio and I remember her hugging me for a long time when we got home.

Diana's death - I was 18 and staying at my boyfriend's house. His Mum ran into the bedroom to tell us...I initially thought the Diana she was talking about must be one of their relatives because his Mum was sobbing.

911 - I worked in an open plan call-centre which had a screen in the canteen area. We had the TV on all day with subtitles. Almost every customer I spoke to asked if I'd heard what happened. It took some days for the severity to sink in.

9/11
7/7
Diana’s death
Margaret Thatcher resignation

The Colombian volcano in about 1986. Apparently there was some news footage of a girl in the rubble and they were talking to her and she was talking to them. They got her out and she died. My mum came in and tell me and cried.

Otherwise 9/11, Challenger space shuttle disaster, Thatcher resigning, and yes Diana dying though I didn't know who'd died until later, I'd just heard someone saying to their companion in a hotel I was staying in that someone had died "and their boyfriend" but I didn't know who they were referring to. Also the IRA attack on Canary Wharf in about 96.

I remember when Diana died I woke up to the news on radio 4. I realised a royal had died (I think Henry Kissinger was being interviewed) and first thought it was the queen mother.

When I realised it was Diana I initially thought she'd killed herself.

Then I rang my mother who was thrilled!
Not because Diana had died but because she always used to insist that she never ever slept (I knew she did) but she had actually been awake in the early hours and heard the news as it came in.

Apparently, it was initially reported that Dodi had died and Diana had a broken leg.

As a parent, Madeline McCann's disappearance impacted on me hugely. DD1 was a newborn and DS nearly 2 - I constantly worried about leaving them to sleep upstairs and would watch the garden to check no one could get near their bedroom (had mild PND which added to the over thinking)