What's the first news event you have a clear memory of?

[FormerCallingCardRep]

My earliest memory of an actual news story was probably the colapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasants, WV.

I remember as a young child going over to my friend's apartment to play while Mom was helping her Mom pack to go stay with her Grandparents when the base chaplin and base commander knocked on the door to tell her Mom that her Dad was killed in Vietnam the first day he was there. I was probably 3 at the time.

[thegiraffe]

I remember seeing General Schwarzkopf on TV walking through a line of cheering troops in the desert and asking my Mom why they were all so happy. Being like 6 or 7, I didn't understand the concept of war and what was going on.

After that, Princess Diana dying and the OJ scandal (I don't have a good time line memory, so I can't remember which happened first). Then, definitely 9-11 and the subsequent "shock and awe" invasion and the space shuttle Columbia exploding.

[Mr. Rager!]

Magic Johnson announcing that he was HIV positive. That was the first major news story I really remember. Huge Laker fan always... so, that stuck with me.

[KabeRinnaul]

Hurricane Andrew, I think, and that one's kinda vague. I would've been about 7. After that, it's not really a news story, but I remember seeing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on MTV when it still had the "Buzzworthy" tag.

And then all my older memories of television are long-gone Nickelodeon game shows.

[NightAngel]

I can remember President Ford being on tv frequently but I don't remember what he was talking about.

[SG15Z]

I remember hearing about Bill Clinton's sex scandal, but vaguely. I was shielded from the news for a while.

The first major event I remember was 9/11. I was in 8th grade at the time. I'll never forget that day.

I'm so young.

[Severen13]

I have vague memories of John Lennon being killed, but I do remember Reagan getting shot because I was mad that there were no cartoons on. I wanted to watch Scooby-Doo, not all this news about some boring old guy who got shot. Sheesh!

[sanchopanza65]

To make me seems as young as I am, I'd have to go with the Oklahoma City Bombings, or Andrew Cunanin, whichever happened first. I remember being upset about Oklahoma City, simply because they preempted Animaniacs fro coverage. The funny thing is, when they executed McVeigh, I annoyed my friends by making them watch coverage of that instead of cartoons. I remember being scared of Andrew Cunanin, for two reasons. First, he started his spree in the Twin Cities, where I was, and second, the night they found his body, we had just gotten a sliding glass door, and I was not used to being able to see that much of my backyard from the kitchen, and I kept on expecting him to pop up back there.

Also, SGZ15, you're a year older than me, so don't feel too young. I was a newshound when I was younger though.

Edit: Rereading this topic made me remember my daycare lady watching the white bronco chase on a portable TV when I was in preschool. It's kind of funny, because I'm pretty sury by the time I turned 5 I knew who Judge Ito was. My Mom says I knew who Gorbachov was when he came to the US and Minnesota in 1989. Apparently, one of my first words was "Gorby" said when he appeared on the news.

[flybye023]

I guess for me it would have been the famine in Ethiopia. I was going to say the Challenger explosion but I was over 12 so I can't imagine that's the earliest news I remember.

[rdp78]

I think the very first major event I remember was the Challenger explosion and how historic it was going to be becuase there was going the first civilian was going to on it. I couldn't remember her name but I did Google "Challenger explosion" and found on Wiki that her name was Christa McAuliffe. I knew she was a teacher and there was a lot of press surrounding her. I do remember after it happened how sad it was and the memorial service they had for the crew.

I do vaguely remember Prince Charles marrying Diana and well, we knew how that ended. I just remember seeing it on TV and I didn't knew who they were from what I remember. (Note: After checking on Wiki I think it might have been the Duke and Duchess of York getting married I watched getting married.)

I also remember my own community devastatingly being flooded and well, it's called the "Flood of '85" (now, how easy is that to remember). Everytime it rains hard and the river waters rises they always talk about it. We have since seen a couple of more floods and they weren't as bad as this one. I was fortunate I wasn't a victim (we actually lived on a steep hill) and I didn't really see it up close but I have seen what kind of damage it did up close.

[hinakiba777]

The White Bronco Racing Down the Highway.

Yeah OJ's get away is clear in my head.

After that I don't think I remember any news events until I was 9.