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..

9/11.

I'd just got back from school when it was on the news.

Lockerbie. Herald of free enterprise. Prince Andrew's wedding.

Oh, i remember the Brighton Grand Hotel bombing. That's earlier than the other things Ive said!

Also Heissel (sic?) and Hillsborough.

Corcory my mum recently confessed that she missed the moon landings because she got pissed and passed out.

The Miners Strikes
Hillsborough
Highsall (sp?)
The falklands war
The Herald of Free Enterprise/Townsend Thoreson disaster

That should be landing as in the first one, I don't want anyone thinking my mum had a thing about getting hammered every time there was an Apollo launch!!

Launch of the MMR vaccine when I was a med student and our clinic was cancelled and we got to watch the press conference and tv cameras

Oh God I also remember Fred and Rosemary West. That was terrifying as a kid.

I'm older than most of you. I remember skipping round a bonfire on VE day. The next national event was the death of the King.

mothquandry I remember the Mary Rose too. It was early in the morning so my Mum let us be late for school (not whole day off). I remember being slightly underwhelmed by the piece of wood that came out of the water.
So bizarre that she let us be late for that as when the hurricane came, a few years later, we were two of only about 6 children at school after having driven for almost an hour to get around fallen trees! (We did trampolining as I remember).

9/11

I remember theMary Rose. We watched it at school and I did a shit job of my work and was sent to sit with the infants. To this day I don't know what was wrong with my work!

I'm 32 and it has to be the death of princess Diana. The twin towers was horrific too.

Bit of a gruesome one- the killing of Jamie Bulger. I was about the same age as Venables and Thompson at the time, so I think that is why it upset me so much. I could not imagine myself or any of my friends or classmates doing anything like that. So sad.

Oh and Princess Di's death. I was about 15 and away on holiday at the time. It is somethin which you don't forget.

Just to add, I don't remember the media coverag eof Hillsborough- at the time I would have been 7 or 8 but I remeber age about 11 or 12 a classmate talking about it. It horrified me and stayed in my mind a long while. I actully became very afraid of being in a queue or crowd after that in case I suffocated. Bit of an extreme reaction but I was a bit sensitive as a child

My friend being murdered.

Lockerbie for me.... still freaks me out can remember the smoking hole in the ground and feel for the family were two boys survived as at friends but died as troubled young men. Zeebrugge was another seeing it lying in its side. Miners strikes and scargill (northern and we had coal fires and some very cold winters at that time!!) living in fear of nuclear war....THAT petrified me as only a kid at the time and still affects me... I play silly games of "what if" some times...
IRA another major one obviously remember the awful bomb going off as people were ushered into it and like you guys the wall coming down and everyone gathering at my aunts to watch the royal wedding when I was 9.... and obviously 1984 and Bob geldof feeding the world
So many horrendous events I am scarred for life....

I'm very sorry Nolove.

Would Dallas be classed as media? I remember the night JR was shot. We were in a caravan at the seaside. The streets were eerily deserted for the hour. You don't get that any more!

Oh so many more to add you're all triggering memories... another few Chernobyl and not connected but Red Rum....
Don't really remember the silver jubilee but strangely enough I remember sitting cross legged at school and awaiting the commerative cup which I still have today

On my first post i meant seeing the herald of free enterprise on its side not the port in Belgium!

Thank you FauxPas x

nolove

Terry Waite being released. First thing that came to me. Can remember it so clearly.

Mid-70s-born.

Mary Rose, especially because my uncle was one of the divers who brought it up. (Dad v proud and telling all the neighbours.)

Nuclear war dramas/ programmes on TV (Threads?) Absolutely terrified me. Stuff of nightmares.

Dennis Nilsen's arrest and trial in 83/84(?) ( because we lived in Crouch End at the time and Muswell Hill was just around the corner so it was even more shocking.)

My beloved Freddie Mercury's death. DSB and I in floods of tears for days as both HUGE fans.

Moon landing. Watched the grainy images but didn't get the full impact of it until years later.
Kidnap and subsequent finding of the body of the heiress Lesley Whittle. A running theme to my childhood was nuclear war. Mum used to talk about the H bomb and the A bomb and what the effects of both would be. I was in a state of agitation most of my childhood.