Earliest Memory of Seminal News

The workers in Glasgow being on strike for 6months without the Social Security benefits that we have now.
The qualified Engineers were poorly paid and the Labourers were on subsistence level. It was in the news stand being displayed outside the local shop. This was before we had TV. I’m thinking about 1955ish.
We also had men who returned from the war who were homeless and would sing in the back courts to get pennies or bread and jam or butter.
Very sad times. I then remember a little later being told on the same news stand ‘We never had it so good’ Rubbish it’s always been hard when there’s no work.

Aberfan disaster I was 10. I remember coming home from school and my mum was listening to news on radio while cooking dinner.

Thank you Aldom , the Queen came back to Aberfan five
times and fact - she was very distressed on her first visit.

watermeadow

When we were children the news, like sex, was not considered suitable for us. The first news I remember seeing on television was the Aber Fan disaster, horrifying black and white images of men digging with bare hands in the mud and the women standing in silent groups.
It took the Queen a week to go there.

I think the Queen held back out of consideration for the families and officials of Aberfan. Amidst the horror of the tragedy who, in the first few days, could countenance organising a Royal Visit?
I remember the Queen being very moved by what she witnessed.

Aberfan as national news.
But I do recall an aunt rushing round to our house in floods of tears - a good friend's little girl had just been knocked over by a car in our small town and died. I was 4 or 5 I think.

It's hard to separate things I remember clearly for myself from things I later grew to understand having just heard adults talking. I remember the Great Train Robbery because it sounded like an adventure!
I also remember going up the new engineering project the Post office tower when it was first open, i remember it very clearly "for myself" as it was so exciting. I also remember the sadness that surrounded the "Aberfan disaster" as my parents were both so distressed and phoned relatives in SouthWales a lot. I remember this being in the newspapers and looking at the photos with my parents - my father's cousin was involved with the "rescue".

Much later I remember a version of Concorde being test-flown over Anglesey some years before it went into service. This is a very clear memory as my mother insisted it was Concorde and was teased about it - but some time later she was proved correct.

Earlier memories (such as JFK) I think are not really my contemporaneous memories but may have been assembled later in my brain.
I am too young to remember the end of WW2.

JFK’s assassination, I was nine. Then Aberfan, which upset me much more, still does.

The launching of Spuknik and assasination of JFK

The first seminal event I can remember is complaining about boring music on the radio and wanting to put Radio Luxemburg on. My mother snapped at me "Have some respect - the King is dead." That would be George VI. After that the announcement of the climbing of Everest and attending street parties for the coronation of Elizabeth II.

Queen Mary's funeral. My mother was watching television, I was sick and she was furious because she missed some of the news coverage (I don't think the funeral was broadcast apart from on radio).

It was well after the war, probably in the 50s and early 60s, nanna8, but I certainly remember announcements on the radio (or the ‘wireless’ then), asking such and such a person to get in touch with who/whatever it was, since someone presumably close to them was ‘dangerously ill.’

Pre television,after the war, they used to read out the names of missing persons on the BBC radio especially if their relatives seeking them were, ‘dangerously ill ’. They were long, long lists hinting at the tragic consequences of the war.

Calendargirl Strangely the JFK assassination was also linked with fish and chips for me. I was 16 and after the news had to go down into the town to the chippy. I was wearing my mum's high heeled sling backs which I wasn't supposed to wear and I remember crying all the way for his children.

It was definitely the Aberfan disaster for me. Such a tragedy. I remember Cliff Mitchelmore the News Reporter actually being in tears, as was my mother.

The earliest I remember is the death of KIng George VI when I was eleven. Very strange that I can’t remember any news event before that.

My father had some amazing memories. The beginning of the First World War in 1914, when he was seven, and even before that, the sinking of the Titanic when he was four or five. They were a shipping family so that was a very important moment. He said he remembered the air of silent tragedy and despair in the house. How could that great ship, the pride of the country, possible sink?

For me, I think it would have to be the moon landing. I remember being quite fascinated with it at the time.

Yes Aberfan is also my earliest news memory. I was 10 at the time, think it was because it was a school and as I was a schoolchild it seemed real and relevant.

The death of Maria Colwell in 1973.

Actually, I as well as recollections up post, do remember the Queens wedding, I was about 5. After the relative boredom of being shushed through the radio broadcast I think I remember being taken to a newsreel showing at the cinema which was just like something out of a story book to my 5 year old eyes.

It is interesting that so many remember Aberfan as an early news memory. One of my cousins was born on that day. I am too young to remember it but saw a documentary about it some years ago. Apparently, it was the day before the October half term and had it happened the next day, nobody woud have bee in the building. The headmaster showed a photograph of the first eleven football team who had won a match that week. All eleven were killed. Absolutely dreadful.

I remember the late Queen's wedding in 1947. I can remember my mother shushing me as she was trying to listen to it on the radio - she said something like "Shush, it's the princess's wedding," I was about 2 and a half.

JFK for me too. I had just come home from the cinema after watching a Bond film with a friend when I heard the news. I was 13.

Not my first memory but the JFK assasination was definitely in the evening. It was my 17th birthday and I went out for a meal with my parents. There was a huge crash from the kitchen as a waitress had heard the news on the radio and dropped the tray of plates she was carrying.

jfk in general 1961
the murder of him
we were watching singin the rain 1963when the news came on

I agree about JFK’s assassination.

We had just fetched fish and chips, and the News came on as we were eating it.