# What was the earliest big news story you remember hearing about ?



## hollydolly (Nov 9, 2019)

*For me, I think it was the Aberfan disaster in 66 when I was about 11 years old...  I kept thinking the same thing was going to happen at our school too even tho' we didn't live in Wales nor did we have any coal  mining near us..*

_The *Aberfan disaster* was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip at around 9:15 am on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil and overlaid a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed the local junior school and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board (NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees.

There were seven spoil tips on the slopes above Aberfan; Tip 7—the one that slipped onto the village—was begun in 1958 and, at the time of the disaster, was 111 feet (34 m) high. In contravention of the NCB's official procedures, the tip was partly based on ground from which water springs emerged. After three weeks of heavy rain the tip was saturated and approximately 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m3) of spoil slipped down the side of the hill and onto the Pantglas area of the village. The main building hit was Pantglas Junior School, where lessons had just begun; 5 teachers and 109 children were killed in the school._



*So what was the first big new story ..doesn't have to be a tragedy or a disaster... that you remember hearing as a child..*


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## Kaila (Nov 9, 2019)

The Polio vaccine.
I didn't comprehend the situation at that time, but I felt how much everyone was celebrating, whether they knew each other or not.  All strangers so happy about it, was an unusual and noticeable feeling to experience, a sense of everyone being involved with appreciating something.


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## Sassycakes (Nov 9, 2019)

*I think I was about 5yrs old when I heard my Mother talking to my older brother on the phone. All of a sudden I heard her screaming. My brother had called to tell her he got his Draft notice, it was during the Korean war. For the next few years nothing was the same until my brother finally came home.*


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## Marie5656 (Nov 9, 2019)

*President Kennedy's assassination.  I was 9 years old. A vivid memory I still have is when we were being dismissed from school, walking by another classroom. Looked in to see a teacher standing by the window with her hands over her face crying.*


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## Ruthanne (Nov 9, 2019)

It wasn't national news but it was big in the area where I was.  A local woman burned to death when her nightgown caught fire as she cooked breakfast.  It was really sad and I recall feeling very bad for all involved.


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## Gary O' (Nov 9, 2019)

Marie5656 said:


> President Kennedy's assassination


yup


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## Llynn (Nov 9, 2019)

The one I remember at the moment was the start of the Korean War. I was at a movie and there was a newsreel about it. In the newsreel, the announcer kept talking about guerilla fighters. I was looking at the screen as hard as I could but I couldn't spot any gorillas.


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## PopsnTuff (Nov 9, 2019)

Marie5656 said:


> *President Kennedy's assassination.  I was 9 years old. A vivid memory I still have is when we were being dismissed from school, walking by another classroom. Looked in to see a teacher standing by the window with her hands over her face crying.*


S
Same for me @Marie5656 about the same age as you....


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## jujube (Nov 9, 2019)

Russia launching Sputnik.  "OH MY GAWD, THE ROOSKIS ARE GOING TO OWN SPACE!!!!!!!!"


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## Pepper (Nov 9, 2019)

I can't remember a day in my early, preschool life when I did not know about the Holocaust.  I always knew, it was always in the background, it was always part of life.

I also vividly remember Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement.  Big topic of conversation.

Watching the news and hearing it discussed was important in my family.


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## jerry old (Nov 9, 2019)

1962, Cuban Missile Crises
Yea, we've been hearing it for years...blab, blab, blab

Whoa! these guys are serious about lobbing A-bombs.

Had I know Khrushchev was dealing with a mad dog I would have been much more frightened.
Two decades later found out Castro was willing to lob A-bombs on the U.S. knowing his island would be incinerated.


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## Aunt Bea (Nov 10, 2019)

Another vote for the Kennedy assassination.

I remember the family being glued to the television for every scrap of news, coverage of the funeral, etc...


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## Wren (Nov 10, 2019)

I was a tiny girl, much too young to be interested in the news, but a picture of a very glamorous woman on the front of my parents newspaper caught my eye, I’ve never forgotten her

*Ruth Ellis* (9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a British model and nightclub hostess. She was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, after being convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely.


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## Ken N Tx (Nov 10, 2019)

Kennedy assassination.


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## hollydolly (Nov 10, 2019)

Wren said:


> I was a tiny girl, much too young to be interested in the news, but a picture of a very glamorous woman on the front of my parents newspaper caught my eye, I’ve never forgotten her
> 
> *Ruth Ellis* (9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a British model and nightclub hostess. She was the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, after being convicted of the murder of her lover, David Blakely.


 She died the year I was born !!


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## Lc jones (Nov 10, 2019)

I remember sitting in front of the television set when it was announced to President Kennedy had just died. I was 4 years old sitting in front of our black-and-white television set the only television we had in the house. The entire neighborhood was completely silent it was pretty bizarre.


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## norman (Nov 10, 2019)

Bombing of Japan. Listen on a radio with my mum...also black outs would scare me.


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## Pappy (Nov 10, 2019)

Sitting in the parlor with my grandparents hearing on the radio that the war, WW2, had ended. I remember everyone being so happy and grandma was crying. I would have been 7 years old then. My dad was coming home.


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## IrisSenior (Nov 10, 2019)

I was 4 yrs old and the there was a crowd of people on my lawn, some having sandwiches (picnic?). Later I found out the guy across the street had hung himself.


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## RadishRose (Nov 10, 2019)

Cuban missile crisis. I didn't really understand what was going on, but the adults all seemed worried.


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## GeorgiaXplant (Nov 10, 2019)

That FDR died. I was little and didn't really get it, but I knew it was a big deal.


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## norman (Nov 10, 2019)

GeorgiaXplant said:


> That FDR died. I was little and didn't really get it, but I knew it was a big deal.


It is a shame, he died just a few months before the war ended..


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## norman (Nov 10, 2019)

Sassycakes said:


> *I think I was about 5yrs old when I heard my Mother talking to my older brother on the phone. All of a sudden I heard her screaming. My brother had called to tell her he got his Draft notice, it was during the Korean war. For the next few years nothing was the same until my brother finally came home.*


I remember when my brother came home from the Korean War, he never ever talked about the war ever, but it  was a celebration at our home.


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## StarSong (Nov 10, 2019)

I have vague recollections of Sputnik and Hawaii's statehood, but the Kennedy/Nixon election aftermath is seared in my memory.  My parents voted for Nixon, which itself wouldn't have been quite forgettable for a seven year old, except that my mother was so disappointed by his behavior after the election.  She said he was a sore loser whose actions after the elections proved that he wouldn't have been a good president anyway.  

Time proved her right.


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## JustBonee (Nov 10, 2019)

Mine was in 1951,  in Cleveland, Ohio,  a little girl by the name of Beverly Potts disappeared... and was never found.
That front page news story haunted me for the longest time, as I was a couple years younger at the time.
Back then,  I couldn't understand how that could happen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Beverly_Potts

*Aftermath... *
The enduring mystery of Potts' apparently random disappearance and the extensive investigation quickly captured the imagination of the press and by extension the entire city, becoming notorious especially among parents fearful for their own children's safety. It has since become one of Cleveland's most well-known missing-persons cases.[2] Thea Gallo Becker, author of _Legendary Locals of Cleveland_, says that it "remains one of the most haunting and heartbreaking mysteries in Cleveland history."[11]
Potts' mother died in 1956—her demise reportedly hastened by "heartbreak" over her daughter's disappearance—and her father in 1970. Beverly's only sibling, Anita, continued to search for her until her own death in 2006.[12]There is a memorial marker to Beverly situated next to the graves of her parents.[2][9]


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## Pink Biz (Nov 10, 2019)

"On Monday, December 1, 1958, a fire broke out at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois, shortly before classes were to be dismissed for the day. The fire originated in the basement near the foot of a stairway. The elementary school was operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and had an enrollment of approximately 1600 students. A total of 92 pupils and 3 nuns ultimately died when smoke, heat, fire, and toxic gases cut off their normal means of escape through corridors and stairways. Many more were injured when they jumped from second-floor windows which, because the building had a raised basement, were nearly as high as a third floor would be on level ground.

The disaster was the lead headline story in American, Canadian, and European newspapers. Pope John XXIII sent his condolences from the Vatican in Rome. The severity of the fire shocked the nation and surprised educational administrators of both public and private schools. The disaster led to major improvements in standards for school design and fire safety codes." (wikipedia)

*I was home sick that day and this event was on TV all day long and was in the news for quite a while after that. It scared the living daylights out of me.*


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## gennie (Nov 10, 2019)

Pearl Harbor


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## fmdog44 (Nov 10, 2019)

I guess the Sputnik launch. I still can see aqua blue Sputnik gum balls in my hobby store. (Why weren't they red?) We had bomb shelters with radiation warning plaques on the doors next to an Elks Club building and we practiced "Duck and Cover" in elementary schools.


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## Don M. (Nov 10, 2019)

For me, it's probably a toss-up between the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the JFK assassination.  I was in Germany (USAF) during both events, and when the Cuban thing erupted, we were within minutes of a nuclear war.  Then, a year later, a bunch of us were sitting in the barracks after Supper, playing poker, when one of the guys came rushing through with the AFN radio broadcasting about JFK.  We jumped up, put on our uniforms and headed for the shop...where the base stayed on full alert for about 2 days, while the police/FBI figured out that this wasn't a Russian attack.


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## treeguy64 (Nov 10, 2019)

I remember the excitement around Eisenhower being elected, I remember the news reports. He was elected on November 4th, I was born eight days later. I was a very curious baby, one who listened and learned, obviously.


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## AnnieA (Nov 10, 2019)

Apollo 11


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## Kaila (Nov 10, 2019)

These posts are each one, very interesting and touching ones.

I had been going to add, that while not my first one, some stood out in my mind, from childhood as well.
Cuban missile crisis.
And before that, "air raid drills" in elementary school, in the 1950's, were scary indeed.


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## DaveA (Nov 10, 2019)

Pearl Harbor..  I would have been 8 back in 1941 and although my understanding of what had happened was limited, I remember how the adults were stunned.


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## toffee (Nov 10, 2019)

abervan in wales -killed so many children in class as the coal tip slid down ……..


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## Giantsfan1954 (Nov 10, 2019)

Affecting what was a small world back then,Staten Island NY...2 planes crashed mid air and plane parts and bodies were dropping everywhere...I was probably 6.
JFK assassination,my heritage is Scotch-Irish,so you can imagine,it was like a family members death.
I went to Catholic school,the principal came in,announced he had been shot and we prayed the rosary,shortly after she came in and announced his death,we were dismissed early.


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## Marie5656 (Nov 10, 2019)

*@auntbea That clip of  Walter Cronkite is classic and etched in all our memories. You can tell he was so deeply moved. I still get a bit teary when I see it*


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## moviequeen1 (Nov 10, 2019)

JFK's death
I vaguely remember our principal of our elementary school telling us school was being let out early
At the time I didn't understand why,my siblings&I walked home together{school was 2 blocks away].I remember seeing mom sitting in front of the TV crying


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## Pepper (Nov 10, 2019)

For Giantsfan


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## hollydolly (Nov 10, 2019)

Another one I remember, is when I was about 9 years old and coming home from school, and seeing my mum with  tears running down her face after listening to the news. She said she was crying  because Jim reeves had died. In my little innocence, I couldn't understand why she should be crying for someone she didn't know!!


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## Butterfly (Nov 15, 2019)

I remember Sputnik-- we talked about it in school.  I was in grade school then.  

Of course, the biggest one was the assassination  of JFK.  It is a day I can never forget.  Funny, I even remember exactly what I was wearing that day at my first job ever, when the news first started to trickle in.  We knew it was for real when we saw the flag on the federal building go down to half-staff.


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## Capt Lightning (Nov 15, 2019)

The sinking of the Princess Victoria  sailing from Scotland to N.Ireland on 31st Jan. 1953 with the loss of 133 lives.


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## Nautilus (Nov 15, 2019)

The sinking of the Andrea Doria


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## DaveA (Nov 18, 2019)

Nautilus said:


> The sinking of the Andrea Doria


I was a radarman on the CGC Yakutat, that arrived on scene just as the Andrea Dorea took her final plunge.  By the time we arrived, the passenger had all been taken aboard other vessels, and some of the lifeboats were hooked up by the cutter General Greene  and towed to New London, CT.  

Many of the remaining lifeboats had never been launched, due to the list of the Dorea  but came to the surface having been released by pressure release catches.  They ended up inverted and we were given the task of sinking these boats as they would be a hazard to other ships.

It was surprising how many rounds of 40mm shells were required to sink each one due to their compartmentalized flotation structure.


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## Trade (Nov 18, 2019)

I can remember going to the movies and seeing Korean War stuff on the news reels. But I can't remember anything specific. 

For a while there whenever I heard some adult talk about their career I thought they were saying "My Korea" like it was some kind of great struggle in their life.


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## glofran (Nov 19, 2019)

I must be older than everyone on this list--I recall hearing about FDR's death!!


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## charry (Nov 19, 2019)

Will never forget The Lanfranc School Disaster........in Croydon UK.....in 1961.....Plane Crash..
It devastated the community...
My 2 brothers just missed going......
Will never forget this ........


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## Maywalk (Nov 25, 2019)

When WW2 was announced on the speaker that we had way back in 1939. I was 9 years old then and lived in London. From then on it was being machine gunned in the hopfields and then bombed out twice.I remember it well.


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## Sassycakes (Nov 25, 2019)

Nautilus said:


> The sinking of the Andrea Doria



*I remember the sinking of the Andrea Doria. In 1955 The year before it sank my Aunt and cousin were on it. My parents drove my Aunt and her daughter to New York to get on the ship. We all went on to look around. I remember standing near the railing and thinking how large the boat was and wondering how much of the boat was under the water . After it sank the following year was when I got my fear of the water.*


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## Fyrefox (Nov 26, 2019)

I can remember seeing Kennedy and Nixon campaigning on TV, and asking my parents who they were.  The next biggie was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I thought nuclear war was imminent as my father stocked water and canned goods in his basement "bomb shelter."  Third was the Kennedy assassination...


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