People Are Sharing The First Major News Stories They Remember Living Through, And They Range From The Moon Landing To Princess Diana
1. "The Challenger explosion. I was 6 and I'd just gotten home from a doctor's appointment, and my mom turned on the TV and there it was: the Challenger exploding in the sky."
— MushLampMaker
"I was home and sick for this. One of those days you never forget.
AND I was home on 9/11/01. I was moving my mom out of my childhood home because of divorce.
Weird takeaway: the sky was SO blue that day. No planes, nor pollution. It was a surreal experience. 3,000 people died. Life-changing, completely. And nature still being beautiful."
— beachboyjedi
"My dad let me stay home from school to watch it. I told him they launched fireworks instead because, at 6 years old, I didn't understand what had just happened."
— halfgrow
2. " The death of Princess Diana."
— FourLiveBears
"Wow, same. We were camping, and my buddy's dad came down from the lodge with the newspaper."
— thewhiteboytacos
"Yep. It was surreal. I was 10. The impact it had on the adults around me was wild."
— Serious-Landscape-74
3. "The assassination of President Kennedy. Yes, I'm old."
4. " JonBenét Ramsey and how much her case really upset my dad, and how serious he was about it towards me especially because I was his youngest and only daughter."
"I remember how much it really upset and shook him, but I was too young to really understand at the time. I have a vivid memory of us in a grocery store and him looking at one of those tabloid magazines with her on the cover and just how upset he was, and trying to explain stranger danger to me and stuff, but I was just a little, little child and really didn't comprehend what he was saying."
— luridweb
5. "Apollo 11 landing on the moon."
— prajnadhyana
"I remember the moon landing. I didn't realize how big a deal it was, though. I was young. I can remember sitting with my cousins watching it on the black-and-white."
— MiaEmilyJane
6. " The fall of the Berlin Wall. Alas, I've lived to see people wanting to build walls anew."
— medes24
"Same. My parents woke us up so that we could see. I still remember the PJs I was wearing and the fact that I brought my teddy bear along to watch."
— Reisefuedli
7. "The day that Nixon resigned the presidency was my first real news memory."
8. "The first major news story I remember was the Night Stalker, a serial killer whose real name was Richard Ramirez."
"It was the year 1984, when I was 10 years old, and I was extremely frightened that he would come and harm me and/or my family. I recall writing a prayer and taping it outside our front door so we'd be protected."
— catpunsfreakmeowt
"My mom was about 13 and living in LA when the Night Stalker was at his height. Not only was she living in LA, but she lived in a yellow house next to the freeway he frequented. My grandparents insisted on keeping the windows open all night because it was summer and 'it wouldn't happen to them.' My poor mom slept with a knife under her pillow every night."
— aud4f7
9. "The Iran hostage crisis being on the news and my family talking about it is very prominent in my memories about the time I was 4 or 5 years old."
10. " Tiananmen Square. I wasn't aware of how significant that was."
11. "The Mount St. Helens eruption."
— imawizardslp87
"Same! An early memory that I thought was a dream until my dad, years later, confirmed where we were at the time and that the cloud was visible. I was 5 years old."
— Snapesdaughter
12. " Columbine. It was especially shocking since school shootings weren't an issue before then. It seemed to inspire other disturbed students, so shootings became, sadly, pretty routine."
"Before, we had no real security. Over the years we began locking doors, using a metal detector to enter school, and getting school resource officers."
— WastingMyLifeOnSocMd
14. "I remember the JFK Jr. plane crash really well because it happened on my 8th birthday, and for some reason that really annoyed me, as if the news channels would have been covering my birthday were it not for this tragedy."
15. "The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968) and my mother's uncontrollable crying while she combed my hair; police attacking crowds of singing Black people with dogs and fire hoses on TV. It was a time of fear and anxiety for me. I was 7 years old."
16. "The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. As third-graders, we would practice crawling under our desks in case of a nuclear attack."
— Ok_Spare1427
17. "The wedding of Charles and Diana."
— AussieBlondage
"I remember my mom waking me up when it was still dark out to watch it. It was pretty cool watching a real-life princess as a little girl."
— Ambitious_Flower677
"I remember getting up really early to watch it. I had the flu that day so I was pretty miserable, but I was amazed by the whole thing."
— lylisdad
18. "The shootings of John Lennon and Ronald Reagan. They were three months apart."
19. " The Port Arthur Massacre. I was 5. It was Australia's worst mass shooting in history and the catalyst for gun control being enacted in the country."
20. "The death of Michael Jackson. I remember it was all over the news and everyone at school was talking about it."
Barry King / WireImage
— throwawaypatien
"Same here. My aunt was treating us by taking us to a nail salon for pedicures and it was on the TV there. I remember it so vividly for some reason."
— twinsnakess
21. "Probably Kurt Cobain's death."
— Consistent-Key-865
"I was a 10-year-old fan when that happened, and my stepdad told me through the bathroom door while I was pooping. Couldn't wait five fucking minutes."
— RequirementQuick3431
22. "The war in Bosnia. Some of the images from the news still haunt me."
23. " Polio in the early '50s. I was a little kid, and I remember how big that polio shot was! I was a happy little kid when they started using sugar cubes!"
— Bubwheat
"My parents took us to the junior high school gym to get a sugar cube. All the kids thought it was great to get a free sugar cube."
— throwaway281409
24. "The Vietnam War. I remember Walter Cronkite on the news on Fridays saying how many Americans were killed that week. I will never forget it."
CBS Photo Archive / CBS via Getty Images
"My dad would always go silent and frequently just barely tear up and wipe his eyes a little. He didn't have to go because of me and my brother. I really didn't fully understand of course, but definitely understood '235 men died this week in Vietnam' from Walter. Makes me sad remembering that too. RIP vets."
— FurnitureMaker58
"Yes, we ate dinner watching the evening news. My Uncle was in Vietnam; I was pretty young, and I would always look for him even though, at the time, I barely knew him. He has taught me a lot through all these years."
— squidaor1
25. " Reagan was shot when I was in fourth grade. They brought a TV into the classroom, and we watched it the rest of the day."
Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
— BennyG11
"I was 5 and was watching Tom and Jerry after school when the news bulletin came on."
—u/ DeadMoneyDrew
26. "The Kennedy assassination. I was 4. Mom was in the dining room listening to the radio, and I was in the living room playing with my toy cars. I'll never forget Mom suddenly screaming, crying, and running into the den to turn on our black and white television."
Three Lions / Getty Images
"I remember being very confused and scared because she never behaved that way, not before or since. I had no idea what happened, only that something really bad must have happened and that maybe I did it."
— Artistewarholio
27. And finally: " The Rodney King riots. I lived in Los Angeles at the time and I remember seeing a lot of burned buildings. I was about 8 years old then."
Lindsay Brice / Getty Images
— sirleggy
Let me know your thoughts down below! If you have your own historic memory you want to share, I want to hear that too. Or, if you want to share but prefer to stay anonymous, feel free to check out this anonymous Google form. Who knows — your answer might be included in an upcoming BuzzFeed article!
Note: some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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