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

Also 46 and same for me!!
however I also have a vague memory of Charles & Di’s wedding and the street party we had, I was 3. I didn’t really get what was going on then though.

Lesley Whittle, kidnapped by The Black Panther. 1975, I was 10.

It terrified me.

Omagh bombing, we lived not too far away back then and i remember watching the tennis and them saw the through emergency teletext request for all medical staff to attend the area and hospital and then sitting watching the local news waiting to hear who was caught up

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea Carl Bridgewater

Robert Black murders - I think I was aware of Susan Maxwell's death (I'd have been 8) but Caroline Hogg is the one that's really sticking in my mind (I'd have been 9).

I don't remember TV news, these were from newspapers. Another one that has stuck in my head was Heidi Koseda case but when I google I was older (10/11).

Peter Sutcliffe. Early teens. It made me realise why we had been taught to always be wary of strangers, particularly if they were male.

Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman 2002 - I was 9

Princess Diana dying. I vividly remember getting my mum to stop so I could read the newspaper board outside the corner shop. Then the Twin Towers. The news came out when I was at school and I can still remember the look on the face of the boy who came in to say what had happened. A couple of kids at the school had family in America and they were distraught because there was no way to find out if they were okay.

Edited to add one that actually before the Twin Towers it was the murder of Damilola Taylor that I have clear memories of.

Piper Alpha in 1988

The Gulf war. Set off crippling anxiety in me for a long time

Zebrugge and Suzy Lamplugh

and also Maradonna’s ‘hand of God ‘ and the Who Shot JR storyline in Dallas.

Berlin Wall coming down…my mum dragged me out of bed to watch the news footage when I was six years old, and she and my dad sat in the living room crying. They tried to explain it to me - I didn’t really understand at the time but it stuck with me…the faces of those kids crossing over. The feeling that something had immutably shifted, what we thought was eternal had become suddenly ephemeral. That things didn’t always have to be the way they were and that ordinary people could make that happen. I remember the hope that night. I don’t really remember anything major before then but that night will stick with me forever.

John F Kennedy's assassination, November 1963. I'm pretty ancient.

Chernobyl - I was five, but I was reading the newspaper daily by then.... and my parents watched the news every day too.

Dunblane. I was 12 and was in hospital, I remember watching it on the shared tv on the ward.

First Moon landing in 1969. I was 5.

The Moors murderers in 1966. I was 9 and I remember seeing their ugly mugshots on the front page with their evil staring eyes. Those photographs still give me the creeps.

I think probably the miners strike. Possibly Charles and Diana getting engaged or Bandaid. All early 80s.

The disappearance of Genette Tate in 1978. I was 10 and even now remember the news images repeatedly showing her abandoned bike

Also John Lennon being shot.

Lesley Whittle, kidnapped by The Black Panther. 1975, I was 10.

I was talking to someone from Kidsgrove about this a couple of weeks ago. Although Lesley Whittle was murdered less than half a mile from her house, neither she nor anyone she knows has ever heard of her.

The volcanic eruption on Tristan Da Cunha and all the islanders being evacuated to Brita
in.

Not sure which was first but the war in Bosnia and a bit around my age had been shot in both eyes I think. I was about 9 or 10. Also James Bulger being killed. I was 10 then, same age as the killers.

Snap!

I was 4 when the Aberfan disaster struck. I don't remember it exactly. But I remember my parents and their friends talking about it. I did wonder if I misremembered it a so was so young but my DD Was 3 when a major thing happened on our town and she recalls it very precisely.