News stories from your youth that have stayed with you

[JabbaDaButt]

Researching Meryl Streep films for a work quiz reminded me of the infamous Dingo took my baby case.
I was nearly 9 years old that summer but I remember it being all over the news and on the newspapers headlines.
So glad the parents were exonerated of their baby’s death eventually.

Oh god, me too. I can still remember the image of her all slumped over. So tragic.

I suppose the earliest one I really remember was the Moon landing. I got dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to watch it.

The first successful heart transplant (my dad needed one but died a couple of years before they started doing them).

Mark Spitz winning 7 gold medals at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, and of course the awful terrorist attack there too.

Also the 'test tube' baby, Louise Brown.

Oh yes, and the unsuccessful attempts of London Zoo to breed pandas. Chi Chi and An An were having none of it, much to the frustration of their keepers.😂

A girl from my school was murdered. She was in Year 7. They had her picture all over the national papers. That freaked me out.

James Bulger was the first one that came to mind here too. I clearly remember Leah Betts and many of the others too. I remember where I was when I heard that Diana had died.

I have vague memories of the Berlin wall coming down, Gulf War, Yugoslavia, OJ Simpson and various IRA bombings, but didn't understand them or particularly care at the time.

Yes. I was a student in Leeds at the time.

The fear was indescribable.

Other news items I recall:
Vietnam
The IRA

Sarah Harper. She was the same age and had the same name as me. It was when I learned that bad things can happen to little children and lost my innocence I guess.

Just remembered another one - the oil spill off Shetland Islands. I remember it being covered a lot on News Round and Blue Peter and being upset about the washed up dead sea life completely covered in oil

Some of these resonate deeply with me

The James Bulger case because my sister lived near the Strand shopping center from which he was taken and I knew it well. Its still there and something of a local landmark.

The great SMOG outbreak in London. We had a similar day in Liverpool. a few years later. I was only 16 and just started at my workplace when my boss suggested I leave at 3 pm because the buses had stopped. The fog was so thick I lost by bearings and began to walk in the wrong direction at a big traffic island. A kindly stranger walked a way with me and set me on the right path. My hair was filled with drops of filthy water when I got home.

I also remember the day Diana died. I had gone to a fleamerket and was sitting in the cafeteria when I saw on the TV people walking around carrying sheafs of flowers. People were standing about watching the monitor. When I asked someone what was happening she told me Princess Diana is dead. What a shock.

Same here - absolutely terrified me although l don't think l would have taken drugs anyway.

The assassination of JFK - I heard it on the radio when I was very young

Aberfan, I had just started secondary school and we had a collection at the end of Assembly for the relief effort.

This really stayed with me with great shame really because everyone talked about the beloved teacher that died. I remember wishing my teacher Mrs B had gone off in a space shuttle and exploded. When I think of that now it sounds like I'm a sociopath!

Chernobyl was one that really struck with me, I remember there being worries that a radiation cloud would reach the UK.

My dad visited the site around it and the abandoned city of Pripyat while working in Ukraine about 12 years ago - he took some very haunting photos of buildings overgrown with vegetation and Soviet symbols still on their roofs.

Millie Dowler - she was local to me. So sad.

Princess Di car crash.

there was one murder that happened to a mum and her two kids while they were walking along the edge of a corn field back from school. I can’t remember their names but it scared me enough to never feel completely safe walking in the countryside again.

The Mormon sex in chains story with Joyce Mckinney had us enthralled at school.

Jill Saward. Raped Infront of her father and boyfriend then the attackers were given a longer sentence for burglary than rape. I was so impressed by her tireless campaigning for women and justice. The press pretty much named her from the off so I remember it was the first time I saw a rape victim. An awesome brave woman.

All the mentions of Leah Betts reminded me of Rachel Whitear. I think her image has stayed with me more.
I remember a plane crash on a motorway and seeing it on tv.
Iraq war is probably my first real awareness of the news though.

Thank you @DuckyLuck I'll have a look for that. I am an avid reader. x

You may be thinking of Lin and Megan Russell..Megan's sister Josie survived the attack. He also murdered their dog.
Horrifying

I am old.
I can remember the death of GeorgeVI.I was 7 years old and that was when I first became aware of death.I remember seeing photos of his coffin while he was lying in state.I asked my mother what death meant she replied that is when you go to sleep and never wake up.For ages after I was frightened to sleep in case it was forever.
The Queen's coronation the following year.My uncle bought my grandmother a television and she felt like the Queen, especially when she invited loads of her friend's in to watch the coronation as she was the only one among them to get one,We sat crammed into her living room staring at the tiny screen with the black and white pictures and thought it was wonderful.My brother had been born a few days before, my mother was in the local maternity hospital and was ''miffed''she had not been allowed home to join in the excitement.In those days women were really ''confined'' after giving birth.
A few years after was the Suez crisis, when the name Nasser seemed to be everywhere.I remember prayers being said at school as well as church to prevent another war happening.
A few years before was Christie murders.Christie went missing for ages before giving himself up.Loads of people said they had seen him, including my father who claimed he had been chatting to him in he pub.Christie's poor lodger had been hanged as he had been the main suspect.This was one of the reasons the death penalty was abolished

Interesting how many of these answers could probably be summed up that way.
For me it was the shootings in Dumblane- I was 9 nearly 10 and while I can’t remember how I heard about it I can vividly recall the feelings it left me with- fear, shock and disbelief. Sadness came later.
Then 4 years later the killing of Sarah Payne- her body was found fairly local to me and turned out he came from a local town which obviously made it more real to me.
2 years after that the murders of Holly and Jessica- I remember following the search very closely on sky news.
9/11 in there as well but as that’s been covered so much since hard to know what are my original memories.

And on a lighter note...... the destruction of the Blue Peter garden. Young idealistic me was outraged.

The disappearance of Muriel McKay. I had just learnt to read and became obsessed with the story. I’m sure my parents would have much preferred me to become obsessed with something less scary . But they took the stance that any reading practice was good.

Oh my gosh yes that was it. I remember josie being in the papers here and there over the next few years, her not talking for ages etc. the poor girl. Absolutely horrific

Aberfan.

Kennedy’s assassination
Beatlemania
Aberfan
Flower power
Moon landing