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

9/11. I remember coming home from school and my mum wouldn't let me put cartoons on because she was watching the news.

Zeebrugee

A war in the early 90s, not sure which but i used to pretend to be Kate Adie reporting.

Miners strike.

This ^^

Aberfan for me too. I was 6. I remember my mother crying. Such a vivid memory.

Bobby sands on hunger strike, then dying.

Very much the same for me

Lesley Whittle going missing. At 4 years old I didn't know the horrific details
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_murder_of_Lesley_Whittle

The modern miracle that was the oral contraceptive pill.
Remember my parents talking in shocked, hushed tones that “that (young) girl across the road is on it you know”
….which lead me, as a probably frightened 10 year old, to believe that if you didn’t take this pill then babies would just keep on and on automatically arriving from nowhere - which was utterly terrifying.

The falklands war starting.

Elvis dying - I was 6 or 7. My mum was really upset so that's probably why I remember it.

Sarah Payne

I was around 10 - vividly remember her being on the front page of all the newspapers in her red school uniform.

The big ones that really stuck with me were the Fred and Rose West murders, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsly and Damilola Taylor.

Princess Diana dying, I was 7

Challenger

Sadly the death of a brother and sister who were killed in a crash with a drunk driver. We live in a small town and one was my age and I remember my mum crying while watching the news.

Otherwise it was Diana's death two years later.

Aberfan in 1966. Not just the news coverage but all our parents talking about it. Made me scared to go to school.

Dunblane. I was 7. I remember the horrible feeling it gave me even at 7

I remember Princess Diana dying and 9/11 but only dimly. The one I REALLY remember that felt like it was all over was Holly and Jessica, I think because they were the same age as me, and all my friends and I had little football kits just like they did in their photos. I remember teachers and parents getting a lot more worried about “stranger danger” then too (although of course it wasn’t actually a stranger)

The late Queen's wedding in 1947! I was 2 yrs old, and can remember my mum telling me to be quiet as she was listening to Princess Elizabeth's wedding on the radio.

Princess Diana dying, then the twin towers.

Early 90’s I remember Iraq being in conflict only because the newspaper (in one of those newspaper racks people had, which dates it somewhat!) had Iraq in the headline and I couldn’t pronounce it, I remember my mum explaining it, think it might have been with Kuwait?

Aside from that, Princess Diana dying in the mid 1990’s. I didn’t have a clue how significant it was at the time.

1958 Munich Air Disaster
1963 JFK Assassination
1966. Aberfan Disaster

Moon landing.