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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:
Birdsgottaf1y · 28/07/2017 22:41

My first memory is the marriage of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Then the Silver Jubilee and the death of Elvis. Elvis was the first person who I cried over who I didn't know, I was nine.

sakura06 · 28/07/2017 22:42

Thatcher resigning
Mandela's release
Warrington bombing
Death of Princess Diana
9/11 (by then I was 18)

Jellykat · 28/07/2017 22:43

Another Elvis dying here.. i was 14 and really upset, not sure why, as i didn't particularly like his music!

QODRestYeMerryGentlemen · 28/07/2017 22:43

Gennette Tate

StinkyMcgrinky · 28/07/2017 22:45

I was 6 when Princess Di was killed. I remember waking up early and taking myself downstairs and switching on the TV. When my mum came down a little while later she was really upset I hadn't gone and woken her up. I didn't understand why I should have woken her but I wasn't allowed to watch cartoon network that day.

The one I really remember is 9/11. I was 13, during 4th period Spanish lesson another teacher came into our classroom, whispered something to my teacher and they both disappeared and never returned. 5th and final period was history, should have been a test but ended up being a video lesson with another class while all the teachers congregated in the corridor. We knew something weird was going on but had absolutely no idea. I got home around 4pm and asked my mum what she was watching, thinking it was a film. We watched the second plane hit the twin towers together. I thought it was the end of the world

StinkyMcgrinky · 28/07/2017 22:46

*8 when Princess Diana died

onemorecupofcoffeefortheroad · 28/07/2017 22:50

The moon landings - I was three and rolled around under the coffee table with my sister whilst my parents kept telling us history was being made. I was more interested in the underside of the coffee table.

Longdistance · 28/07/2017 22:52

Diana and Charles' wedding.

We were made to sit in a cold floor in the canteen and made to watch it.
I'm sure I couldn't give a toss aged 7.

woodwaj · 28/07/2017 22:53

I vaguely remember the Manchester IRA bombing and remember 9/11 in high school I'm pretty sure I'd never watched the news till then!

ParadiseCity · 28/07/2017 22:57

Mary Rose. We watched it live on TV at school. The whole school in the hall around one TV. It was a huge deal because it was LIVE yet also totally uneventful because it was exactly how you would imagine a big ship being lifted out of the water.

We were doing Space for our topic when the shuttle exploded but due to our age it just got kind of glossed over by the teacher and we were diverted onto other stuff without really twigging what actually happened.

Hillsborough was a big big awful thing - I remember being horrified and our English teacher bringing in the Sun to show us how to never trust the press.

I also remember a hijacked plane situation (Libya?) that went on for what seemed like the whole 6 weeks holiday.

And a bit older but John Major getting ousted when we were studying Julius Caesar and looking at all the parallels.

I am lucky I really had some amazing teachers.

LordTrash · 28/07/2017 23:01

My young childhood was during the 70s, which was an unmemorable sludge of strikes, elections, power cuts, more strikes etc. Nothing really stood out until the Charles/Di wedding.

But I do remember a news story - not a media event at all, but it stuck in my mind for some reason - about a young boy who ran away from home and died of exposure.

At the time, teachers in assembly used it as a warning of the dangers of running away. Thinking back to it now, I can't help thinking that a young child (he was 8 or 9, I think) who'd stay out until he died of exposure rather than seek help or go back home must have been escaping from some pretty heavy shit Sad.

I do still think of him from time to time. Think his name was Lester, but there's no record at all of it from the internet. Maybe 1978-ish?

LordTrash · 28/07/2017 23:03

Oh, the death of Elvis was big, though, around the same time.

I was staying at my nan's, on summer holiday. I remember the girl next door saying 'At least we've still got Marti Caine'. Grin

Cailleach666 · 28/07/2017 23:03

First moon landing.

Imbeingunreasonable · 28/07/2017 23:14

Same as you OP, vividly it was princess Diana's death and it the early hours of Sunday morning and I was due to start high school on the Monday.

My mum and dad had a night in the pub, then they came home and my older brothers were still awake. They were watching tv downstairs, my oldest brother was awake still in his bedroom. I had gone to bed early and I remember in the small hours of that Sunday morning I heard one of my brothers run upstairs shouting to the other brother "princess Diana's dead'". I briefly woke up but fell back asleep.

When I awoke in the morning I thought I had dreamt it. Then I watched the to and it was real Sad.

I also remember the death of Freddie mercury when I was about 5. I knew he sang the radio gaga song. My mum was devastated as she was a huge fan of Freddie but at the time I didn't realise just how famous he was. I just remember my mum being upset and telling me what a great singer he was and how there would never be another like him. I love Queen now

sowhatusernameisnttaken · 28/07/2017 23:14

James bulger case
Fred and rose west murders
Harold shipman case
Billie jo Jenkins
Holly wells Jessica chapman
Ethiopia footage
Romanian orphanages footage

All really affected me at the time

LordTrash · 28/07/2017 23:22

Oh God, the Yorkshire Ripper too. I remember him being caught - I was spending part of the Christmas holidays with my friend and we went out on our roller skates and shouted 'The Ripper's dead!' around the neighbourhood. Would have been about 11, I think.

acornsandnuts · 28/07/2017 23:24

The Falklands war. It terrified me. I also watched some scary Tales of the Unexpected at the same time which freaked me out.

And.. the news told me I would catch cancer from 'jeans' (my mother tried to get me into some stone wash from C&A and I was having non of it )

NurseButtercup · 28/07/2017 23:28

IRA bombings - Manchester and Birmingham scared me because I was nearby when both happened.
Hillsborough disaster
Princess Diana's death
Freddie Mercury death
The AIDs sexual awareness campaign scared me into safe sex and using condoms
Tiananmen Square Massacre
Execution of Saddam Hussein
osama bin laden death

It's all a bit grim reading back through my list

MarvinKMooney · 28/07/2017 23:30

The Herald of the Free Enterprise disaster; the war in the Falklands; being shit scared of nuclear war breaking out between the USA and the USSR. Oh and the the conflict with the IRA of course. Fun times.

ParadiseCity · 28/07/2017 23:30

Lord Trash - Lester Chapman, I think from googling? Poor soul.

TeenagersandFurbabies · 28/07/2017 23:39

It's so hard to pick just one thing as there were so many big news events in the 80's like the first ever space shuttle launch (Columbia), I was 8 and watched it at school. Charles & Diana's wedding, The Falklands war, Challenger exploding, The miners Strike, Zeebrugge, King Cross Tube fire, Hillsborough, Live Aid, Iranian Embassy siege, The Berlin wall coming down, The hurricane of 87 I was on a,school camping trip Shrugborough so was in a tent,When pan am flight 103 was blown from the sky over Lockabie.
But the thing I remember the most are the troubles in Northern Ireland, the IRA. They were always in the news. It seemed that almost daily that there was news about bomb threats, bombs exploding, people both civilian and military being killed. It was something that was always there in the background growing up.

AnneGrommit · 28/07/2017 23:40

God the Mary Rose was boring - it was just a few bits of wood being lifted out of the water - you couldn't even tell it was a boat.

I remember Charles and Diana getting married. We had the day off school and my mum kept on giving us money for sweets so we would go to the shop and leave her and her friends to watch it in peace. This was a massive deal as we were never normally allowed sweets. We must have went at least five times!

Elvis dying was also a big deal because it was the first time I saw my mum cry.

And John Lennon getting shot. I couldn't get my head round why anyone would shoot a singer. Soldiers got shot. Politicians got shot. Sometimes the police got shot. But singers ...?

LordTrash · 28/07/2017 23:44

Thanks, Paradise, that's the one.

Looking at google with the full name, my suspicions appear to be confirmed. Just so sad Sad.

ElizabethFrancis · 28/07/2017 23:45

To make myself feel really ancient, watching the Moon Landings on our tv in 1969.

BlondeB83 · 28/07/2017 23:47

Berlin Wall coming down, Diana death and 9/11.