What was the first major news story you remember as a kid?

[igotbills]

Mine was the disappearance of Madeline Mccann in 2007 - I was 10

The coal miners strikes / the Challenger space shuttle blowing up

Lady Di, I was 6.

After that, 9/11, Iraq war, Boxing Day tsunami, London tube bombing, all stand out as the most reported events when I was an older child/teen.

I vividly remember Tony Blair becoming prime minister when I was 5 or 6 (I was in year 1) and hoping someone would ask about it so I could tell them all about it-but they never did 😂

Then I think it must have been 9/11, when I was in year 6.

The 3 that stand out clearly for me were the Rwanda genocide, Jamie Bulger, and then a few years later Princess Diana.

Moon landings, power cuts, the black panther that kidnap a young girl and kept her underground cant rember the details going to goggle it now

My first thoughts on seeing the title were the fall of the Berlin wall and Margaret Thatcher getting the boot. I remember the news showing the fall of the wall, with people standing on top and kids being passed over. The tv show Going Live had a giveaway of a piece of the wall that I didn't enter, as I didn't understand the significance. We had previously hosted a German exchange student from West Berlin and I had seen Checkpoint Charlie on the news regularly before. With Thatcher it was just odd, as she was all I had ever known. I didn't really know much about her though

Also John Lennon dying. I remember my mum cried, she was from Liverpool and they were the same age. She used to watch The Beatles in the Cavern on her lunch break so she'd grown up with him really and it hit her hard. I'd never seen her cry before and so it sticks in my mind. I was 6.

I also remember Monica Lewinsky being written about so much in the newspapers but I didn’t really know what it was all about.

James Bulger. I would have been about 5. My brother was also 2 at the time and the same first name - I remember my mum commenting on that.

The Biafra war in the early 60s.

I am ancient! ☺️

I could read when I was 3 years old and I don't think my parents really realised as I stealth read the newspapers. In the 1950s and early 1960s the stories in the Sunday papers seemed to be focused on the atrocities in the German concentration camps and Japanese POW camps. I do hope my parents didn't know I could make out the words because it really wasn't suitable reading material for an infant!! 😳 I couldn't comprehend the full horror but I certainly had an understanding of the cruelty of war and its aftermath.

The first big current story was the death of Winston Churchill in 1963. In school we were told he was a heroic leader etc etc. in my home in the South Wales Valleys there was another story to be told. A good grounding in politics at a very young age.

A story that affected me very closely was the Aberfan disaster of 1964. Many men from my village went across to help dig out the bodies. They were understandably traumatised and terrified for their own communities. Many villages stood in the shadow of coal tips that were likely to fall and we felt that the families in Aberfan were our brothers and sisters.

On a lighter note, the Beatles in Paris was fabulous and as a teen the Moon landing made a lasting impression. Just writing about it takes me back to our living room and Fly Me to the Moon!

This, and the Falklands. Soon after that, the miners' strike.

There are two that I remember, one was the Black Panther who murdered Lesley Whittle. I remember being really scared of the front page of a newspaper with the story. I would have been 6. The other was Genette Tate going missing. I would have been 8.

I was caught up in that aswell. Hideous.

9/11, I was in year 7 at secondary school. We didn’t watch the news at home really, but they did put that on TV. It was a really weird time as it was when the anti-brown movement started (where we lived anyway), we had to start taking a carrier bag to school as so many people had been attacked or reported to the police for carrying a rucksack. My 12 year old mine also thought the world trade centre must be like a really big indoor market, so I was very confused that it was so tall.

Me too! I remember the news flash coming on the TV and my Irish Grandma falling to her knees. She then pulled me off the sofa to join her in saying a load of Hail Mary's!

Princess Di’s death, I remember telling my dad the queen was dead

Lady Di’s funeral. I was 6, we went to my grandparents’ to watch it.

Then joining the Afghanistan war in I think 2001. We’d learnt a bit about WW2 and for some reason the teacher told us we were now “at war” so I was terrified thinking our lives were about to change completely as we’d be getting bombed like in the ‘40s

This was mine too, would only have been 4 but I was terrified of fires and there seemed to be a lot in the news!

Elvis dying. I was about 8 My mum was upset as she was a fan.

The mormon sex in chains Joyce McKinney case. 1977.

James bulger I was 10 and absolutely heartbroken for him

James Bulger being kidnapped and murdered in bootle. I remember the news that it’d been two 10 year olds responsible which was the same age as me. To think that children my age could have done something so horrifying was difficult to understand.

Probably Elvis's death.

mum and dad were big musical fans and watched his movies a lot!

Hillsborough was the first time I got moved to tears by the news.

It was my Mums birthday and I just quietly went to bed and cried.

I was 13.