What Was the First Big News Story You Remember as a Kid

[KevinHall]

I am shamelessly taking this topic from another board I frequent. I thought it was an interesting topic and you get to see how old everyone is.

My dad watched the CBS Evening News everyday at 6:30. Walter Conkrite was the anchor. The one that sticks out to me is Viet Nam. Every evening they would put up a graphic with the daily numbers of wounded,killed and missing in action for each country involved. I found this fascinating although it was really sad. But as kid you look at things much differently and naively.
Also remember many of the Apollo missions to the moon and especially the blast offs. These were great for a kid to watch back then. Although I don't remember the first man on moon broadcast. I think it happened late at night and I wasn't allowed to stay up that late.
I can also remember some of the Civil Rights protest but didn't understand a thing about it at the time. Also Watergate was big and the hearings were on TV everyday. It would make me mad when they pre-empted reruns of Gilligans Island.

[DA#23]

The Squeeze piloting that white bronco. It was the trial that wouldn't go away...ever

[Uncle Dave]

I am shamelessly taking this topic from another board I frequent. I thought it was an interesting topic and you get to see how old everyone is.

My dad watched the CBS Evening News everyday at 6:30. Walter Conkrite was the anchor. The one that sticks out to me is Viet Nam. Every evening they would put up a graphic with the daily numbers of wounded,killed and missing in action for each country involved. I found this fascinating although it was really sad. But as kid you look at things much differently and naively.
Also remember many of the Apollo missions to the moon and especially the blast offs. These were great for a kid to watch back then. Although I don't remember the first man on moon broadcast. I think it happened late at night and I wasn't allowed to stay up that late.
I can also remember some of the Civil Rights protest but didn't understand a thing about it at the time. Also Watergate was big and the hearings were on TV everyday. It would make me mad when they pre-empted reruns of Gilligans Island.

LOL!! Interesting topic. BTW Kevin, the first moon landing was in July 1969. My family and another family we were super close to had rented a house boat on Dale Hollow. 13 of us on board lol. We were allowed to watch this on an ultra small portable TV. Black and white of course with a hefty amount of aluminum foil assisting our antennae. I certainly remember JFK getting shot. Everyone freaked. I vividly remember Nikita Krushchev(?), the leader of the Soviet Union, beating his freaking shoe on the podium as he was addressing the UN during the Cuban missle crisis. We would have drills at school for if a nuclear bomb hit. LOL. Like we were all going to survive in the hallway with our heads between our legs. Had to stay away from windows so the shattering glass wouldn't harm us. My step-grandfather was an immigrant from Germany. He came over in 1932. Based on his experience in Germany in WWI, he advised us to stay off asphalt roads. He said the asphalt would get so hot from the explosion we would stick in it and burn to death!!!!

[George]

The Oklahoma City Bombing. NPR had special music before and after every break from that story, and I can still remember how it sounded through Dad's crackly truck speakers.

[Catsrock]

Hostage crisis in Iran. Remember releasing balloons at school in first grade when they were released from captivity.

[Matt Dillon]

I can tell from reading the responses, I'm older than you all. The first big news event I remember was the Russians launching Sputnik 1 in Oct., 1957. I've been fascinated by outer space, and the possibility of intelligent life on other planets, for as long as I can remember. So, as you can well imagine, this was a huge deal to me. I was just a few weeks shy of my 13th birthday, at the time.

[Uncle Dave]

^^^^I'm surprised they even had rockets back when you were young. I thought the only mode of transportation back then was horse and buggy!!!!

[Matt Dillon]

^^^^I'm surprised they even had rockets back when you were young. I thought the only mode of transportation back then was horse and buggy!!!!

.........

[Spiritof96]

Elvis's funeral.

[KCKUKFan]

The white Bronco chase, without a doubt.

[Joneslab]

Probably the Challenger.

But just generally the first big "story" I remember in my hometown was about Satanists. They were said to've held sacrifices in the woods and parks around my town. There was one particular murder on Highway 27 at a small park--it's more a parking lot with a swingset--where a girl was supposed to have been killed by "devil worshippers." There was also a large rock on a trail off the main park in my town that had strange spraypainting on it. Symbols and the like.

Satanists were a huge deal back in the '80s and '90s. Everywhere you went they were there. Funny, though: I never actually met one.

[George]

Hang on. I might have to say the White Bronco Chase, too. Just checked the dates for it and the OKC bombing. Thought OKC happened before OJ, but looks like I was wrong.

[George]

Probably the Challenger.

But just generally the first big "story" I remember in my hometown was about Satanists. They were said to've held sacrifices in the woods and parks around my town. There was one particular murder on Highway 27 at a small park--it's more a parking lot with a swingset--where a girl was supposed to have been killed by "devil worshippers." There was also a large rock on a trail off the main park in my town that had strange spraypainting on it. Symbols and the like.

Satanists were a huge deal back in the '80s and '90s. Everywhere you went they were there. Funny, though: I never actually met one.

Culminating with the West Memphis Three.

[surveyor]

Robert F. Kennedy's death. I recall playing in the floor in front of the teevee and on the news was a video of a jumble of people and this guy laying on the ground with, what I thought at the time to be a pillow under his head. I thought it was someone important passed out or fainted or something. I only remember that by my mom's reaction at the time, it must have been a big deal.

The other early recollection was the moon landing. That one I don't recall appreciating the significance, because a 6 year old doesn't grasp the difference between reality and fiction at that point. Seeing Lost in Space and Star Trek at the time leaves a bigger impression than some guy talking about Americans on the moon.

[samsdad]

I can remember Ike running against Adlai Stevenson in 1956. I was 8 later that year.