Alan Shepard's space launch. We had a TV in the classroom. It was an all day event with Cronkite.

The Cuban missile crisis.

The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 is the earliest major news event I can remember.

Richard Speck killing the nurses in Chicago.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
JFK's assassination and funeral.

Same.

Kennedy assassination. I was 8 and in the second grade when my teacher came into the room sobbing when she heard the news. I remember being home and watching the news reports on TV and eventually, the funeral.

Some guy talking about the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. It was not the original message but a replay in the late 40's.

I believe it was related to President Gerald Ford around the the celebrations of '76.

At 5 at the time WWII ending. Our little city went nuts with people in the streets cheering and throwing confetti,a wild time.

I remember watching reports in 1950 on the Korean War when I was four-years old. We didn't have a television, but my rich uncle did and we often went to their house to watch. I had older cousins who were in Korea in the Marines and Navy.

quote:

Originally posted by qxsoup:
Challenger explosion. I was in the 4th grade and watched it live in the cafeteria along with the rest of my elementary school.

This. I was in the 4th grade also, teacher wheeled in a TV cart so we could all watch it.

JFK's funeral. I was 5 and was upset that the TV coverage preempted the usual cartoons that day. As the space program got cranked up I was seriously into that (Mom would let me get up early in the morning to watch the launches on TV). So the first really traumatic event for me was the Apollo 1 fire three years later.

The ones that stand out for me:

Apollo 11 moon landing (July 20, 1969)

SLA shootout (May 17, 1974)

Nixon Resignation (August 9, 1974)

My father was assigned to the U. S. Embassy in Thailand in 1960. In 1962, I became aware of activity in neighboring Laos; this activity was fighting between communists (Laotian and Vietnamese). Even though news was sparse (this has since become known as the "Secret War"), I remember how the general tone and activity level at my father's circle of associates had become much more somber and agitated. (See: Battle of Luang Namtha).

A couple of years later, I was playing Little League baseball, and I learned of Kennedy's assassination.

May 07 1954 the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu little did I know Viet-Nam was in my future.

I can remember my parents talking about Elvis' death, but the news memory I can remember watching was the Shuttle Challenger exploding live as my third or fourth grade classroom watched.

JFK's assassination.

Probably the '84 election.

My parents still let me know that 4/5 year old me thought "Mondale Ferraro" was one person, not two.

There may be other events from '83 or '84 that I recall, but the election is the big one.

I think it was the Gemini mission where they first walked in space.

I do also remember Bobby and MLK getting shot. One that really made an impression on me was watching South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan blow a guy's head off while eating dinner.

I thought I had replied earlier, but guess not. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As a kid I was obsessed by the space program. I remember seeing pictures & books about Mercury & Gemini missions. I remember being upset about the deaths of the Apollo 1 astronauts - especially Ed White, because of his spacewalk.