First Major News Story You Can Remember?

I just saw this question posed on Twitter.

The first news thing I can remember is decimalisation. Spotlight came round to our school (Hyde Park) and interviewed me and a girl named Beverley Hoskins: "How many new pence makes a shilling?" and so on.

The footage pops up every now and then when the Beeb is trawling for old film... If it does again and you see it then I'm the little boy. Can't remember the year exactly but it was probably '71 because that's when it happened so I'd've been about 6 depending on the time of year it was filmed.

After that the '72 Munich Olympics.

So what's the first one you can remember?

Munich plane crash for me, I was quite young, about 8 I think and I couldn't quite understand football players being killed, started me following Man U ever since

Vaguely remember the JFK assassination and, much more clearly ,that of Bobby Kennedy. Also remember being fascinated by the term Vietcong-didn't have a clue what it meant but was fascinated nonetheless.

Moon landing and the Beatles splitting up.

JFK. I can remember the babysitter screaming and running to her house to tell her parents (about 3 houses away) - not certain they had a tv.

Strangely, the Sex Pistols tour 76? ish. Not sure why it sticks in my mind but Plymouth was on their list of venues so I'd imagine the local tv and radio and the 'erald would've been creaming their pants as most of the gigs on the tour were cancelled due to their reputation for being the spawn of satan.

My "vietcong" was Lebanon/Beirut. Seemed to be on every news bulletin all the time but I had no idea what it was all about or even where they were. I wasn't so much fascinated as baffled as to why everybody was being so horrible to everybody else. I wouldn't like to even guess the year.

'76? The Drought. That long, long, hot, hot summer. It seemed endless.

The West Indies slaughtering England at an absolutely parched Oval is the only event I can tie to it though.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

My "vietcong" was Lebanon/Beirut. Seemed to be on every news bulletin all the time but I had no idea what it was all about or even where they were. I wasn't so much fascinated as baffled as to why everybody was being so horrible to everybody else. I wouldn't like to even guess the year.

I remember the news reporter in some hotel, the Hilton I think, with a gunman firing through a big hole in the wall and seeing the ruins of the city.

There is something else in '76: Borg v Nastase at Wimbledon.

I was supporting Nastase and he was winning to start with. I had to go into town to the opticians to pick up my first ever spectacles and when I got home Borg had won.

Mick Jones of Leeds breaking his arm in the FA cup final in 1971 or 72 ???

The Aberfan disaster in '66 and the Torrey Canyon disaster the following year.

mouldyoldgoat wrote:

Mick Jones of Leeds breaking his arm in the FA cup final in 1971 or 72 ???

'72.

'71 was Charlie George laying down and '73 was Liverpool v Newcastle.

The British army crossing the Rhine in 1945

i remember the 79 cup final between arsenal and man u, the biggest news event would be John Lennons assasination.

pepsipete wrote:

The British army crossing the Rhine in 1945

Trumps the lot, that must have been something to behold

Street party for the Queens Silver Jubilee in '77.

The Falklands war.

John Lemon assassination. (That's what I thought he was called at the time)

JFK for me as well, fecking annoying as the Beeb just had a picture of a vase of flowers and somber music all that evening. they may not have, of course, but that's what I remember.

I would have been nearly ten at the time......the year would have been 1949..... the occasion was the announcement on the radio that the comedian Tommy Handley had died.....he had been well known for his radio show ITMA.....he had helped during the war years to keep a smile on listeners faces......why did I remember it.....because my mum burst into tears at the news.....and I had never seen her cry before.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

mouldyoldgoat wrote:

Mick Jones of Leeds breaking his arm in the FA cup final in 1971 or 72 ???

'72.

'71 was Charlie George laying down and '73 was Liverpool v Newcastle.

Right. I knew it was one or the other.

Miners Strikes. Buses getting bricked and the oil drum fires roaring.

Remember the 66 World Cup well so I was 6

I remember clearly the freezing winter of 1962/63.

There was snow for a number of months and the football league fixture list was decimated.

I also remember the Man Utd v Leicester Cup Final, Clay v Liston, Beatles v Stones and the Kennedy assassination.