What is the first news story you remember?

[AmbsPhillps]

I think for me it was the 1999 champions league final

John F. Kennedy assassination.

@mamalovebird

The lifting of the Mary Rose. I was 5 and my dad was in charge of the crane so I was glued to it trying to see if I could see him on telly!

The yellow Babcock Power Construction Division thing?? Those words are seared onto the nation's collective memory because everyone was staring at them for several hours before anything actually happened!

Challenger disaster

Stardust - all the teenagers died in a nightclub fire with padlocks on the fire escape doors.

First moon landing. Just before the end of my first year at primary school.

Princess Diana's death, also possibly Kurt Cobain's death.

Lesley Whittle, missing girl when I was 4. Looked it up as an adult and it's an appalling story what she went through en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_and_murder_of_Lesley_Whittle

The Lockerbie disaster 😢

Another one for Princess Diana's death. I was weirdly upset for a 7 year old who didn't really know who she was!

We were forced to watch Prince Charles and Diana marry. It was on the tv at the time and the teachers put the tv on. Sat us down and we had to watch it.

The Falklands War

Yep death of princess Diana, must have interrupted kids tv as I remember running upstairs to tell my mum.

Fawklands reportage, although I was only tiny at the time and then Nelson Mandela's release from prison. I think it's my mum's reaction to the news items on TV that made those things memorable - I knew it was something scary/important.

JFK assassination

Diana’s death when I was 10, we were on holiday and remember my parents watching it on the TV in the hotel bar.

Others that stand out in my memory were 9/11 obviously and the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami

When the King died, the BBC Home Service, out of respect, played solemn music all morning. "Listen With Mother" in those days was 1:45, followed by "Woman's Hour" followed at 2:00. As far as I was concerned, "Listen With Mother" was the only programme which merited my attention, but I took it on the chin when there was solemn music instead. I sort of understood that this was a big deal.
I guess by 2 o'clock, Broadcasting House decided that sufficient respect had been shown, so the announcement came, "And now, "Woman's Hour"!"
I was outraged, stamped over to the radio (a substantial piece of furniture in those days) and shouted "Oh no you don't!!!!!!!"

The divorce referendum ( I'm irish). I would have been about 7 or 8. When my mum explained what divorce was I remeber thinking you and dad should do that. I think that's why it stuck in my head.

Dunblane. I was 8. My mum told us that something very sad had happened and that people might be talking about it, as it would be on the news and in the papers. Me and my brother were in the car on the way home from primary school and I can still remember the sadness on her face.

Man on moon

The Torrey Canyon oil tanker disaster in 1967. I was four years old. Why that should be my first memory of a big news story I have no idea.

The Ethiopian famine in 1984 when I was 4. There were lots of pictures of starving children with distended tummies - I guess it really stuck with me as apparently I asked for food for hungry children on my Christmas list (alongside some new colouring pencils).

Zeebrugge

The World Cup of 1966. I can remember more about that than Aberfan, which I also remember but for some reason didn't resonate in the same way. Although I lived quite near Aberfan I can't remember it being discussed that much (I'm sure it would have been).

Dunblane and how one girl hid under her classmates body.

Interesting how many people report false memories of 9/11. I very definitely did not get home until after 4.30pm (UK time) that day, so cannot possibly have seen the collapse of the second tower live, but I "remember" doing so.