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Original poster

What is the biggest media event you can remember from your childhood??

504 replies

K1092902 · 28/07/2017 18:31

Mine is the death of the Princess of Wales. I was 12 at the time- Mum came and woke me and my sister up (much to her annoyance as she had been on a night out the night before) and told us it was important we watched as it was a huge deal. I can still remember sitting there that morning watching the news coverage. The next day mum took us to London for the day and we went to put flowers outside Kensington palace.

I didn't get it at the time but I was the same age as harry and honestly can't imagine having to live through my teens, getting married and having DD without my mum by my side never mind dealing with the pressure of royal life..

OP posts:
Roomba · 28/07/2017 21:57

I remember being very young and watching the Mary Rose being raised live on TV. Must have been before I started school.

Also Chsrles and Di getting married, then the miners strike, Ethiopian famine and. Falklands war.

The Hillsborough disaster was when I was 11 or 12 I think, but I remember it so vividly as we lived in Hillsborough at the time.

AtHomeDadGlos · 28/07/2017 22:01

Mine was princess Di too. I was about 12 too and making a cup of tea for my parents when they called down to say she'd died. I called back asking if she'd stepped on a land mine (she'd recently been out doing that land mine stuff for charity).

We weren't/still aren't nice royalists.

gingergenius · 28/07/2017 22:05

The Panorama nuclear war public service broadcasts! Petrified me!

annandale · 28/07/2017 22:07

Oh blimey ginger genius that sounds terrifying. Was that the protect and survive clips? I can't even watch them on YouTube, they fill me with such animal terror.

gingergenius · 28/07/2017 22:08

Omg yes! Elvis dying!

SisterMortificado · 28/07/2017 22:10

Princess Diana dying. I was six. I didn't really know who she was (grew up o/s) but I knew she had been being chased at the time and thought it was very mean of them. There was an assembly at school and everything.

9/11 had a huge impact on me- my dad was a longhaul pilot and I had a passenger seat view of the changes it brought to the aviation industry. I wasn't allowed to watch it (was a very imaginative, worried child) but saw pictures in the papers and talked about it at school. Worst of all, for ten-yo me, DDad stopped humming while getting ready for work. Dad going to work stopped being a time where DBro and I lay on the bed and chatted and sang songs and became a time where we just sat quietly in case It Happened To Him.

Also the '07 Australian Federal Election. John Howard was toppled from his pedestal. All us yr11/12 boarders were crowded 'round the tele in the common room, knowing it was important but not really sure why. For most of us it was the first time we'd really cared about politics.

gingergenius · 28/07/2017 22:16

@annandale yes I think so. I must have been about 9/10 - the one where you were told to whitewash your windows and upturn a table to hide under, with a mattress underneath etc!!! Terrified me!

Anasnake · 28/07/2017 22:18

Charles and Di wedding and when they caught the Yorkshire Ripper

Puffpaw · 28/07/2017 22:19

The big storm in '87 and the gulf war. And the Maastricht treaty.

bedtimeboys · 28/07/2017 22:20

Live Aid . . The first time anything like that has ever been televised.
I was glued to the TV all day and when kicked off it by my parents I tuned in on the radio.

oslolou · 28/07/2017 22:20

John Lennon being shot 🙁

powernapsrule · 28/07/2017 22:21

Princess Diana dying. I remember the solemn music being played when I woke up and my mum told me. I had to go to work (in a shop for older ladies clothing) and someone came in and heard us talking but didn't know what had happened. We had to tell her and she ended up needing a chair to sit on as she was really upset.

I remember 9/11 the most as I was 21. I was at work and we only had one tv so the managers were updating us. We got sent home early and I remember listening to the news in the car and at traffic lights seeing other people crying like me in their cars. DH was working late and I just sat and watched the news for about 6/7 hours solid, didn't even eat dinner.

Catra · 28/07/2017 22:24

Like other people have mentioned, Charles and Diana's wedding in 1981. I was a toddler and for some reason I had an irrational dislike of "Lady Diane Bencer" as I called her. When the ceremony was on TV I took a pair of scissors and scratched the screen when I saw her face! She has from that day on been known by my family as "Lady Scratchy". I also seem to remember that my punishment was being banned from having Ceefax on because I used to love to dance to the music!!

FuckyDuck · 28/07/2017 22:25

Diana's death & 9/11

Migraleve · 28/07/2017 22:26

All the main stories from the 80's I remember but one that I was fixated on at the time was the kidnap of Terry Waite. I don't know why it was but I was intrigued by it at 11/12/13 years old

Baalam · 28/07/2017 22:27

Live aid.

PinkCrystal · 28/07/2017 22:28

Hillsborough

BarbarianMum · 28/07/2017 22:29

Death of Elvis Presley.
Falklands war.
Lots of IRA bombings.

VoldemortsNipple · 28/07/2017 22:30

I remember that little girl who fell down the well in America. I must have been about 5 or 6 and I remember waking up each day asking my mum if she had been rescued. They made a TV movie about it.

Hillsborough. I came in the house and remember my mum saying something terrible has happened at the match. It was playing out live on Grandstand and the presenters still didn't know what was going on. The death toll at the time was 7 and we were so shocked. All night we were hearing about friends and neighbours who were there and didn't know if they were safe. Sad

The miners strike, especially Orgreave, largely due to my dad shouting Bloody Thatcher at the tv Grin

OneWildNightWithJBJ · 28/07/2017 22:32

I was going to say Live Aid too. Also Challenger, Zeebrugge and the Berlin Wall. I remember bits of Charles and Diana's wedding, but not sure if I took much notice of it!

MsGameandWatching · 28/07/2017 22:35

The Falklands. The father of a girl in my class was there and she cried when we heard the Sir Galahad had been sunk as it was possible her Dad was on it. Was a boarding school and lots of military children were there so it very heightened while it was all going on.

Zoflorabore · 28/07/2017 22:39

Hilsborough 1989 I was 11, we were at the opposite match ( Everton ) and it was the worst day.

I'm from Liverpool and the whole city was in shock, it really affected me and I still can't listen to Eternal Flame by The Bangles as this was number 1 at the time and reminds me of it.

HolyShmoly · 28/07/2017 22:40

I think Dunblane was the earliest one that I can remember. I can't seem to remember much from the 90's, but I'm sure there must be more.
Omagh seemed to be the first time when I realised that me and my family could actually be killed by terrorism. Before then it seemed to be just background noise to my childhood.
Lots of things stand out from around 2000/2001 so I'm guessing I only started becoming aware of the outside world and how it affects me when I was about 14.

DH remembers Diana's death clearly and still resents that Cartoon Network kept getting interrupted because of it.

HipsterHunter · 28/07/2017 22:40

Diana dying

HipsterHunter · 28/07/2017 22:41

Oh, and Dunlane