What is the earliest news story you remember?

[Drunkrobot]

The question is simple-what is the very first news story or historic moment you saw on the T.V or the radio etc. as it happened? Not the first story that happens in your lifetime (I was born on 25 Feb 1997, so the big news story back then would've been the fire on Mir), the first one you remember.

I'll start. The earliest story I remember was a man being hung. He requested that he didn't wear a hood during the "ordeal". As it turned out, that man was Saddam Hussein. Yeah, I know, a tyrant being executed is a pretty bad first impression of the wider world.

Hopefully, your stories are more cheerful. What piece of history introduced you to the human race?

Edited September 10, 2013 by Drunkrobot

[rpayne88]

9/11/2001. I was six at the time. Although I have memories from earlier, I didn't watch the news before that day. Unfortunately, I think this was a worse first impression of the world outside of Maryland than yours.

[Sid]

That's one small step for a man...

[Guest]

The death of Elvis Presley. I AM NOT A REDNECK! OK, maybe I am.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Otis

[astropapi1]

9/11.

I was 3 when that happened, and I remember it was everywhere: TV News, newspapers, normal TV...

People didn't stop talking about it for what seemed an eternity, an I didn't quite understand the magnitude of it.

[swiftgates24]

9/11 I wasn't even a year old, and I didn't know what was happening, but everything was just so weird I remember it.

[The Destroyer]

Is it wrong that I don't watch news...

like...

at all?

[zekes]

I am 16. I was born in August 1997, so i was four when 9/11 happened. The memory is fuzzy, but i can remember a screen showing two burning towers my dad saying "bad people did this." Of course i had no idea what was happening at the time... i wish i was older and had seen the whole thing live and remembered and understood it...

[rewdew2]

Um... let's see...

I guess i never really payed attention to the news... ever...

Earliest event of interest i remember?

9/11

I was 4, and it was a sunny Tuesday morning....

[Guest]

I saw it live, on my television in the cab of my white '99 Freightliner while I was preparing to move a load from Jonesboro, AR to Eagle Pass, TX. I can assure you that trip was no picnic. For those of you who remember this event as one of your first memories, I am truly sorry. Elvis's death is truly my first memory, mainly because it interrupted my daily dose of The Andy Griffith Show when I was only 6.

[War Eagle 1]

I have my 9/11 story

I was in 3rd grade. 9 years old at the time. I remember hearing on the intercom for all teachers to turn on the class tv to the news. School was also going to be let out early that day. I got home and my mom, dad and my grandparents (moms side) were sitting around the tv. Both towers had already fallen but they were showing it over and over again. I was to young to really understand at the time now that I know what was going on, its a day I will never forget.

I thank God everyday for all the people who pay the ultimate sacrifice to keep America free and to try to help fight for those who can't.

Edited September 11, 2013 by War Eagle 1

[Flymetothemun]

I can't remember what my first news event was, but the first thing I remember hearing about and seeing on the telly was the space shuttle.

[Vanamonde]

[rpayne88]

I have my 9/11 story

I was in 3rd grade. 9 years old at the time. I remember hearing on the intercom for all teachers to turn on the class tv to the news. School was also going to be let out early that day. I got home and my mom, dad and my grandparents (moms side) were sitting around the tv. Both towers had already fallen but they were showing it over and over again. I was to young to really understand at the time now that I know what was going on, its a day I will never forget.

I thank God everyday for all the people who pay the ultimate sacrifice to keep America free and to try to help fight for those who can't.

Not only America, but the rest of the world. Anyone who hunts criminals like those is a friend of mine.

[Rjhere]

9/11 here too. It was so sad i ran downstairs, jumped in my bed and cried. :c

I was six then, I'm glad they caught the motherf........ you know.

Greatest regards from Norway.

[Eric S]

I know I watched all the televised Apollo stuff, but I don't remember watching it.

My first memory of the news was Vietnam. I was pretty little, and they'd show a map of the country on the TV when they were talking about it, but never actually talked about where it was, so I was 8 or so before I learned that Vietnam wasn't somewhere on the east coast.

My first memory of a political cartoon was of Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

[llamatoes]

9/11. I was 4 at the time.

[Jackissimus]

Mine is from late 1992, breakup of Czechoslovakia into Czech and Slovak Republic. I was 6 at the time. My mother sat me down and we watched the live broadcast from the voting that took place in the parliament. My mother is a native Slovak (although she speaks Czech now), so it was kinda sad for her to think that she would have to travel across the border to visit her parents. That only lasted a few years of course, then both republics entered the EU and borders got abolished altogether. Some people still think that Czechoslovakia exists to this day, it results in funny situations when I introduce myself, I guess they need their textbooks updated

[nhnifong]

I remember when yahoo started doing real time stock tickers. I thought that was pretty cool.

As for TV news? I can't remember a thing. I've probably only watched a TV for 10 to 20 hours in my whole life.

[Person012345]

9/11/2001.

This. I was 11, I just have a bad memory so I don't really remember **** from before then. In fact, I only really remember this because it happened whilst we were in school and the teacher started running around like a headless chicken.

Edit: although 9/11 is still relevant today so I probably would still be able to remember hearing about it.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Person012345

[bsalis]

I remember this...

The Challenger disaster also happened that year.

It was not a good year.

[Superfluous J]

Maybe Reagan beating Cater? I recall the election, just no specific news about it. I was 8 at the time.

[Omicron314]

I didn't really keep up with the news much when I was younger, so my ealiest remembered news story was the announcement of the retirement of the Space Shuttle. I think that was in 2007, but I know the last shuttle flight was in 2011. Or, maybe the announcement was in 2011, in which case my earliest news article would be the death of bin Laden.

[KOCOUR]

1989 The news about riots that started the fall of Comunist regime in Czechoslovakia. I was watching it in TV, and then i played pretending iam cop supressing the riots. I was 5.

[pxi]

I've vague memories of watching the early parts of the Iran-Iraq war on breakfast TV back in the days when you had to sit through a lot of grown-up stuff before the channels started showing cartoons.

The first real event I remember was Chernobyl, that scared the hell out of me, or more specifically what scared me most about that was hearing my aunt claim that most of Europe was going to die from radiation poisoning. I would have been 7 at the time.