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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:
user1492287253 · 28/07/2017 19:34

john lennon dying.
my dad cried
i was 11

Seryph · 28/07/2017 19:34

James Bulger, I was not much older than him and I remember my mum holding me and just not letting go.
Princess Di dying.
9/11
Bosnian War

TidyDancer · 28/07/2017 19:35

I think mine would be Italia 90, very clearly remember watching the semi with my dad, which was odd because he wasn't a football fan and didn't really do a lot with us kids.

Princess Diana dying was probably the first 'I remember where I was when....' moment I had though.

CaoNiMartacus · 28/07/2017 19:35

Tian'anmen Square, and the Marchioness.

GirlOnATrainToShite · 28/07/2017 19:36

Dunblane too and Challenger, IRA bombings and the Roger Black murders.

Sad

Cheery!

Original poster
K1092902 · 28/07/2017 19:37

9/11 too. I remember being told after school in the park walking my dog (i had gone home and got the dog without listening to the radio or watching TV) that there had been a terrorist attack from a boy at another local school and I thought he was winding me up. How wrong I was Sad

The headmaster of the school held an assembly the next day. It was my first week of sixth form as well.

OP posts:
SouthernComforts · 28/07/2017 19:37

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.

Another that springs to mind for some reason is the cockle pickers who drowned. No idea how long ago that was?

Not media, but I remember being on a train with my grandparents and the train stopped whilst the conductor announced the Queen mother had died.

TheNewSchmoo · 28/07/2017 19:38

Herald of Free Enterprise. Scared the shit out of me.

It really upset me. I still freak out if I see the bottom of a boat. You're not meant to see their bottom!

thegoodnameshadgone · 28/07/2017 19:38

Knocking through the wall for the channel tunnel it was on my birthday

EatTheChocolateTeapot · 28/07/2017 19:38

9/11

Welshwabbit · 28/07/2017 19:40

Lockerbie and Margaret Thatcher leaving office from childhood. I was thinking the Herald of Free Enterprise was different from Zeebrugge but have just checked and they were the same, so that too. New Labour and Diana's death are inextricably linked in my head, but I was 17/18 by then.

GlowWine · 28/07/2017 19:43

Yes Elvis, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. A bit more continental my memories: I vividly remember Chernobyl and in 78 I think the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro by the RAF/Red Brigade (the terrorists) and other high profile kidnappings (Kronzucker kids 1980)
Later the fall of the Berlin wall and the summer leading up to it. But I was 19 or 20 by then

WaxOnFeckOff · 28/07/2017 19:44

I remember most of these so far.

Elvis Presley's death stands out too as does the coverage when they were hunting for the killer dubbed "The black panther" I can remember being terrified that he was going to get me but not being quite sure if it was an actual panther or not.

I remember the miner's strikes (we had to chop down and burn the trees in the garden)

The drought of '76.

Verbena37 · 28/07/2017 19:44

Zeebrugger ferry disaster
Fergie and Andrews wedding.
Princess Diana's death

MissRenataFlitworth · 28/07/2017 19:44

The Coronation!

Original poster
K1092902 · 28/07/2017 19:44

I was 8 when James bulger died. Think it hit home for my grandmother as she lived in Bootle as a child and while it is considered a "rough" area what those boys did is just unimaginable Sad

OP posts:
user1471462290 · 28/07/2017 19:48

Berlin Wall, Kurt Cobain & Princess Diana's death :(

rookiemere · 28/07/2017 19:50

Charles and Di's wedding - my friend and I made a massive scrap book up about it - wish I'd kept it.

Hunger strikers in Northern Ireland. I lived there and my parents are on the other side and were saying things ( mostly DF) like good, that makes less of them then and hope they die quickly. I remember thinking what a horrible way it was to die, and being told that they'd have been told to go on hunger strike or their families would have been threatened - I'm not sure if that's true or not. I prayed for them secretly.

I was driving to work ( I worked weekends as part of my shifts at the time) when I heard the news of Diana's death. I couldn't quite believe it as it seemed so surreal.

blacksax · 28/07/2017 19:51

In no particular order -
Abba winning the Eurovision Song Contest
Tragedy at the Munich Olympics
Elvis passing on
Moon landings
Having to watch where you stood on the beach as there was still oil under the stones from the Torrey Canyon

DonaldStott · 28/07/2017 19:51

Lockerbie. Andrew and fergie wedding as we had a street party for it.

I have been a republican for as long as I remember and it shames me when I see old photo's of that day Grin

Str4ngedaysindeed · 28/07/2017 19:51

Probably Princess Anne's wedding! 1973? We had a day off school and I spent with one of my friends. I remember wishing I was lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones as she was exactly my age.

babyboomersrock · 28/07/2017 19:53

Coronation for me too. My parents bought their first television so we could watch it. The neighbours came round and we had sandwiches and jelly made in a rabbit-shaped mould. Quite weird really - ours was hardly a royalist household!

Doilooklikeatourist · 28/07/2017 19:55

Spaceman walking on the moon ( watched that in a bar in a campsite in Spain on holiday with my parents and sister ) 1967 ? I don't remember the year
Lots of cheering and grainy , fuzzy black and white TV

Babyroobs · 28/07/2017 19:57

I remember visiting my grandparents house on a Saturday afternoon. My Grandad always had the football on. Then all of sudden pictures of the Bradford fire and people staggering out on fire. I was about 14 and it will always stick in my mind.

PeppaPigObsession · 28/07/2017 19:58

9/11 I was 9 and had just started in year 5.

I came home from school and remember seeing the first tower falling. I was both shocked and fascinated as I'd never seen anything like it before. When the second tower fell my mum turned the TV off and told me she didn't want me watching and worrying I've always been a worrier still to this day remember seeing the footage of the plane going into the tower and shiver that someone could be so full of hate to kill so many people.