What was a big news story when you were growing up that young people today wouldn't have heard of?

[Brettthepei]

the queens mother passing

The kidnapping of Lesley Whittle is the first news story I was aware of. I was 4 and saw on the news that she was missing. Only found out what happened when I googled it later on. Poor girl. Awful story.

The assassination of the South African PM, Hendrik Verwoerd.
The first space walk

I had completely forgotten this terrible thing.
One of (many) ends to a more innocent time
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Olof_Palme#:~:text=Memorial%20plaque%20at%20the%20place,%2C%20on%2028%20February%201986.%22

Sputnik, Assassination of JFK, Cuban missile crisis

Tiananmen Square massacre. The student standing in front of the tank.

That's a forgotten story.

Carl bridgewater.

the prison hunger strikes.

Brixton Riots

The Tianenmen Square Massacre

The kidnapping of Shergar
The Harrods bomb

It's interesting seeing some of the things remembered. Alot of them are part of my childhood memories. For example, Bobby Sands was a household name in the early eighties. We talked about him in the playground. I also remember making food parcels for the miners strike and realising the horror of chernobyl.
We watched the news nightly and Big things were talked about and tried to make sense of in the playground. I think it's been important to who I am today as I'm always aware we don't live in a vacuum and can often relate current horrors to previous ones or historical context.
We do the same now with my daughter. She watches the news and asks questions. I mostly don't censor it. I think she started watching it in covid as we were all glued and she became aware of it.
We don't watch it passively, we explain, break things down and point things out she may relate to.

I don't want her emerging into the world in her teens blinking into the light from being shielded from all that may upset her and having bo knowledge of the world apart from the narrative of it from social media.

Winter 1962/63

The death of Grace Kelly

I recall it being huge news and I suspect most young adults unless they have a interest on royalty or old movies won't get how big news this was.

The abduction and murder of Caroline Hogg. She was only 5 and it happened at the beach area we spent a lot of time at.

The miners strike
The Falklands
The Mary Rose
Terry Waite and John McCarthy
The Herald of Free Enterprise - we're going on a ferry soon and DD is scared, so been thinking about this one recently!

@weebarra Check out reports of the Herald of Free Enterprise for your daughter, the Captain set sail before the bow doors had been fully closed. The rules now specifically prohibit this, so she should have less reason for the anxiety. Enjoy your trip.

The death of the Queen Mother was not what I'd call a big news story...

Very few teenagers have any clue there is a world outside Tiktok and YouTube. I doubt the bulk know when the Gulf Wars were, when the Soviet Union broke apart, what 9/11 was all about or when Diana died, or why, indeed, they should give a shite.

I guess it depends what their life is like - if they do certain subjects at school then they will indeed know some of this. If they lead an uneducated life with closed walls and closed uneducated people around them then yes that might be the case.

I’m surprised how many I remember from Blue Peter - Mary rose or John Cravens Newsround.

Very few people will remember this, but sometime in the early 1980s (?) I remember seeing newspaper pictures of a pop singer called Sheila Rossall being carried out on a stretcher under some sort of clear plastic tent - apparently she had something called Total Allergy syndrome and was ‘allergic to the 20th century’. I have occasionally wondered, flippantly, whether she lived long enough to be allergic to the 21st century as well.

I've been listening to the history daily podcast and it covers topics that are often forgotten, or give a different view. Yesterday was the news of the world hacking story. I hadn't realised that it was Prince William who had sniffed them out, and forgotten that the Dowler family was affected.

Oh God yes I remember that. Poor little girl. Sarah Payne is the other one that haunted me for a very long time.

BSE/mad cow disease

Royal horse guards bombing so so sad

That’s just reminded me of Sefton.

Yes and Susan Maxwell. I've forgotten the name of the other girl - Sarah something? And Genette Tait.

May their murderer rot in hell, I think he has thankfully died in jail.

That was a case of fantastic policing though and before you had the techniques and technology available these days.