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

[K1092902]

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..

Bertie I came on to write the exact same thing. I was around 13 at the time & I remember thinking oh gosh that's terrible, but the numbers of killed & injured people just didn't occur to me. I couldn't understand the sheer magnitude of the whole thing. I've watched documentaries since & sobbed my heart out when the realisation kicked in. I was in a History lesson at the time & I remember my teacher finding a radio to put on & she was really upset & trying to keep it together. I imagine that would have been more my reaction if older.

Aberfan, which I remember for my mum crying. The fall of the Berlin Wall, which really seemed like a new beginning. The violence of the Miners Strike, which saw my dad badly beaten by the police. The Poll Tax riots, which I was at.

Memory is weird anyway. A poster up thread says she watched the 2nd tower being hit at 4pm. I'm sure it was before then because I was on a demo that day and we were in the pub for lunch after when it all kicked off and they cut to the news. I don't think we were eating lunch at 4pm. We can't both be right but I'm sure neither of us are lying.

I was thinking that too. Some of these incidents I was a lot older than the poster and remember them differently.

Second tower was hit around 10/10.30, we had it on in work live.

Maybe the other poster lived in a different time zone?

Quick google- first tower hit at 8.46 am and second tower hit at 9.03 am.

The IRA London bombing campaign in the 1970's and then in the early 80's the disappearance of 11 year old Susan Maxwell i remember the appeals and reconstructions as if it were yesterday and I was in a toy shop with my family when I heard the announcement on the radio her body had been found. I don't know why it affected me so much, maybe because we had the same first name, she was a couple of years younger then me and a couple of years older than my sister and I think it was the first time I realised there are bad people out there and children can go missing never to be seen again.

Moon landing in 1969, I was 5.

My first big things:
Nelson Mandela's release from prison
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Romanian Revolution & Romanian orphans
Yugoslavian war
Iraq war

When I was a bit older:

Death of Diana
Labour election victory of 1997

The winter of Discontent - the power cuts, fire brigade on strike and green goddesses being used by the army.

The Yorkshire Ripper

The Black Panther murders, close to where I was living at the time

IRA bombings and bomb warnings, was almost routine to be evacuated from a shopping centre, I particularly remember the horses in Hyde Park and Harrods.

I was born in 1983. I remember the Gulf war being discussed on the news (so I would have been around 7). I also remember getting really sad about the birds and seals covered in oil after the Oil spill in Shetland around the same time.

The end of the Thatcher government in 1990 also sticks out I my head. I remember a news clip that showed the House of Commons and people cheering when it was announced.

I do also remember the Dunblane massacre and the Jamie Bulger murder but I was a little older then - about 9 or 10.

Dunblane. I remember being in the car with my mum on the way home from school and we were talking about my school report. The news came on the radio and we sat on the driveway listening.

Princess Di dying, I remember watching all the news coverage.

9/11 I came home from college and was talking to my dad, he was flicking through the TV channels while we were chatting and thought he had found a film but we suddenly realised it was real. I was old enough to understand it and it terrified me.

Also the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey.

The towers were hit mid afternoon UK time. Morning in New York.

Princess Diana's death in 1997 - I was 6. I remember being aware of my mum watching the TV in the kitchen all night and sobbing; I couldn't settle in bed knowing that she was up watching the news coverage and clearly distraught.

Then the murder of Jill Dando in 1999, when I was 8. That affected me more than any other news story to this day, as we had a close personal involvement in the tragedy.

9/11 happened when I was 10 too, @SouthernComforts and I recall it exactly as you described: "I remember 9/11 vividly, I was 10 and remember the teachers rolling the tv trolley out to watch the news. Then getting home and seeing it over and over."

I thought the towers were hit at lunchtime, a colleague who went home for lunch called the office and told us to turn on the TV. Maybe they'd had a late lunch.

Definitely 9/11. I was in secondary school and I remember coming home to find the news being shown on repeat on what seemed like every channel. My Mum was still at work and I just remember thinking how huge it was and wondering if she knew about it yet.

The first man on the moon - 'One small step for man, one large step for mankind'. Major event.

Jumping in late and feeling a bit old reading some of these, it's really interesting to see people's perspectives of events based on whether they were a child or adult! For me it'd be, in no particular order

Charles and Di's wedding
Falklands War
Chernobyl
Toxteth and Brixton riots
Arrest of the Yorkshire Ripper - I was only around 7 but for some reason it stuck with me
The Berlin Wall coming down (just about counts as I was still under 18)
The end of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia which admittedly I only remember cos Blue Peter had an ongoing appeal for relief - I think they were collecting milk bottle tops
Andy and Fergie's wedding BUT more excitedly the whole thing about Andy going out with supposedly deeply unsuitable Koo Stark ('Queen Koo' as the Sun briefly dubbed her)
Live Aid and of course the famine in Ethiopia
The Winter of Discontent, strikes, power cuts etc, which went on well past 79
Glasnost and Perestroika (I remember writing about these in my diary Very Seriously with an eye to the future - eat your heart out Samuel Pepys)

And of course who could forget Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster...

Just about remember the Berlin Wall coming down and everyone cheering on the news.

The Gulf war.

Diana dying.

9/11.

Some hoohaa about Nelson Mandela..I think when he was released from prison. That was a massive deal I remember everyone being happy.

Death/funeral of Elvis Presley think I was about 11

The Hillsborough disaster really sticks in my mind. I was about 8 years old and the news showing the sea of Liverpool scarves, shirts and flowers was like nothing I'd seen before. It might have had even more coverage where we were in the North West which probably added to it.

The moors murders. I can still feel the coldness I felt when I saw the hard eyes of Myra Hindley staring out from the front pages of the newspaper. That photograph still gives me the creeps even now.I think I was about 9 when they were convicted.

Also Britain's biggest recorded earthquake in 1984. I lived in N Wales so it was near the epicentre. I was in my room and suddenly there was what I thought was a prolonged sonic boom, my teddy fell off the bed and my mum went apeshit downstairs.

Even my Kiwi husband is reasonably impressed it was a 5.4 (had to look that up)

Fuck, double posting - I also have a strong memory of the silver jubilee in 77 - mainly because a) my mum was in hospital having just had my brother and b) I wet myself at the street party (actually indoors because it pissed down) and had to be taken home. Ruined my new white tights

Some of you are so young!

Earliest events I remember are mostly football matches! But aside from those I guess Chernobyl, Berlin wall coming down, Thatcher continually getting re elected in 80s, George Bush Snr being elected.