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What is the earliest major news event that you remember in your lifetime? (1 Viewer)

Born in 85.

Vague memories of the first Gulf War.

WTC Bombing probably the first major news story where I had more of an understanding what was happening.

 
Maybe the Friendship 7 orbiting the earth with John Glenn, but the whole space race of that era was a big block to me rather than a singular news event ( was six).

For a singular news event, definitely the JFK assassination a year later.

 
JFK elected president.

I was too young to care normally,  but my parents had talked about it quite a bit. My mom was pregnant and they had agreed to name the baby after who won.

Good thing he turned out to be a boy.

 
First thing I thought of was Reagan being shot. I can remember it vividly as I was home from school sick that day and I recall watching tons of coverage when I wasn't falling asleep.

Skimming through there are a few things mentioned here that I do remember seeing and were a big deal but wasn't what I thought of on my own.

 
facook said:
Reagan was first thing in my head, but I do vividly remember MSH eruption.  Living in Central Oregon we got some ash.  My sister and her husband had moved to Yakima, WA not long before the eruption.  We visited them early that summer and there was ash everywhere.
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I was an auditor for Case Construction and Ag in the mid-90s and had the hellhole that is Eastern Washington as part of my territory.  One town called Lind, Washington had this sign that said "Drop on in, St. Helens did!" and I think I recall seeing some ash on their desolate tractor lot.  

 
The Iguana said:
First thing I thought of was Reagan being shot. I can remember it vividly as I was home from school sick that day and I recall watching tons of coverage when I wasn't falling asleep.

Skimming through there are a few things mentioned here that I do remember seeing and were a big deal but wasn't what I thought of on my own.
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This is the one I remember. I was 7. I remember where I was when I heard it.

 
Tigers winning 84 World Series but if that doesn’t count than the Challenger

Also not sure if this one made national news back then but I remember hearing about it on the local news and then realizing I knew the 8 year old boy.  He went to my school at one point but I believe they had moved when the tragedy happened

 
wikkidpissah said:
my reaction to the Sputnik launch, the wk b4 i turned 3, got me on TV. i've told the story too many times before - a FBG search of the name of the satellite should yield sumn
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I remember talk/fear of the Russian space program, but not any specific news events. Mostly I remember being fascinated that they sent dogs into space. SAme with the Cuban Missile crisis. We lived on the Gulf Coast and knew several neighbors starting to build fallout shelters. But again, not a specific news event.

 
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I also vividly remember the Post/life magazine coverage of the Alaskan earthquake in 64. Earthquakes scared the bejesus out of me. 

 
Mets winning the World Series in '86.  I liked their colors.  Been a fan since. 

 
Born in 1978. I have to go with the Grenada invasion, or when Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire for the Pepsi commercial.

My first thought was the Barneveld tornado, which I suppose is only local major news.

 
Don Quixote said:
I saw this trending on Twitter and thought it might make for an interesting (shtick and non-shtick) topic.

The earliest one that I can remember was the Challenger explosion.  I remember coming back into class after lunch/recess and my teacher telling my class about it, because she was watching in the faculty break room.  Some teachers at my school (as many all over did) had applied for the spot that went to McAuliffe.

I was 6 at the time.  That seems a bit old for first news memory, but I can't think of anything earlier.
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Probably Challenger for me as well...I was a year or so older than you, 7 or so.  2nd grade.  We were actually watching the launch live in the classroom.  I remember as a kid seeing that thing explode and thinking it looked like a scorpion cloud, and that I didn't think that was what was supposed to happen.  The teacher calmly got up and turned the TV off and just went right back to the next lesson and didn't address anything about it.  It was very confusing.  I remember watching and learning more on the evening news when I got home.  

Shortly after that, I remember the Iran-Contra affair - it was covered very heavily in our area, being right outside of DC, and Oliver North I believe lived in our county at that point in time.  A few kids I went to school with had family who I believe knew him.

 
I remember seeing the Challenger explosion, but being 6 I wasn’t too aware of the overall situation.  First news event I remember truly sitting around and watching nightly news about for updates and info was Desert Storm

 
Got four of them in consecutive years

Theatrical release of Beauty and the Beast - 5
Laettner's shot against UK - 5
Waco, TX Siege - 6
OJ Simpson White Bronco chase - 7

 
This was far from an early memory for me, but I remember when the Zapruder film started getting airplay around the 10 year anniversary of JFK's assassination.  I was 7 and that was probably the first traumatic event I witnessed in my life. I lost track of how many times I saw it, including a frame-by-frame breakdown. I guess I've been desensitized for a long time now.

 
El Floppo said:
I remember Nixon resigning, but not watergate. 
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I vaguely knew something was going on with Vietnam, but at 5-6 years old it wasn't on my radar. But I was 6 when Nixon resigned ... I remember being in a campground in NH when the word started to spread.

 
General Malaise said:
I was an auditor for Case Construction and Ag in the mid-90s and had the hellhole that is Eastern Washington as part of my territory.  One town called Lind, Washington had this sign that said "Drop on in, St. Helens did!" and I think I recall seeing some ash on their desolate tractor lot.  
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Yakima: The Madras of Washington (might just be a Central Oregon joke).

Actually, actually true: I went to college with a girl from Lind.  Her best friend was her horse back home.

 
The shuttle blowing up. I believe I was at school when it happened, watching in the basement or if I wasn't I remember it being shown on tv at home. An odd one, but I remember watching the morning news and seeing the Dow Jones go over 2,000 (1987) or 3,000 (1991) for the first time. No reason why but I'd watch Video Power before school, or TMNT, or something else, can't remember.

Others were Jeffrey Dahmer, Magic and AIDS, Gulf War lighting up the skies, World Series earthquake.

 
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Carter wins in 1976 (maybe).  Star Wars came out in 1977 (definitely).

First newsy item that I actually paid attention to over a period of time was the Iran Hostages.

Born in 1970.

 
Dickie Dunn said:
I vaguely knew something was going on with Vietnam, but at 5-6 years old it wasn't on my radar. But I was 6 when Nixon resigned ... I remember being in a campground in NH when the word started to spread.
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I'm sure my parents let me know what they thought was important for me to know that young. War and scandal not so much, but historic end of a president... Sure

 
Mine is also the Nixon resignation. I remember hearing about it on the radio and my mom talking to me about it.

i was much older, living in Germany, when the Challenger exploded. I had a crazy polish friend named Wodak who rolled huge cone-shaped joints (hash+tobacco leaf) which he called “rockets.” I was bartending that night, and he came into the bar, gave me one of his rockets and he had written “challenger” on it. I thought it was in poor taste, but was dirt poor at the time so of course I kept the joint. 

 
I have earlier memories, but the big news item I remember was the Detroit riots of '67.  I had just turned 4 and lived in the Detroit suburbs.  We saw National Guard troops in big trucks heading to the city to keep the peace.

 
worrierking said:
I have earlier memories, but the big news item I remember was the Detroit riots of '67.  I had just turned 4 and lived in the Detroit suburbs.  We saw National Guard troops in big trucks heading to the city to keep the peace.
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We were loading up the car to drive from Port Arthur to Detroit for a convention. I remember listening to the news on the radio as we were loading our suitcases, thinking wtf, dad.

 
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Steve Tasker said:
The OJ Simpson chase
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Moe. said:
I might have to change my answer to this, I remember my parents watching but I had no concept of who OJ was or why it was important. 
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Its not my earliest memory (sadly far from it), but I remember meeting him at the Country Club I caddied just before this. He was golfing with guys the group in front of us and he left our CC in NY to go straight to the airport to go to California. I remember one of the members rushing the valets to get the car b/c "He had a plane to catch" 

That weekend, I left the course and went to NJ to visit my girlfriend and were at a bar when the chase broke on TV, just as I was just telling everyone how I just met OJ the day or so before.  
 

 
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