It’s funny, as we didn’t have a TV or I wasn’t allowed to watch one during most of the 1970s, but after Patty Hearst it was Carter winning and then Reggie Jackson hitting 3 homers in a world series game and then Carter saying he’d whoop Reagan’s ass, then the miracle on ice 1980 winter Olympics in way upstate NY then Reagan getting shot.
No wonder I’m always in IP. 
I’ll fourth the Challenger explosion. I remember getting out of school early that day for a dentist appointment.
Beyond that, the first time I became truly aware of the outside world was when the Japanese boom was in full swing some time around '89 or '90 or so. I remember my fifth grade teacher ranting about how it was revenge for WWII. Good times.
The Wonderland Murders – watching a news feature on it when I was on holiday visiting Anahiem as a kid.
I was 2 or 3 and I some kid in Vancouver died from black widow spiderbites, the spider(s?) were in his clothes when he put them on, and bit him ina panic to get out and he died… was playin on the floor and heard it on the news… (we lived very far from vancouver, no black widows 
but that was all irrelivant to me at such a wee age…)
Beirut, Reagan, Alexander Haig, the Ayatolah and the Shah were the first characters I can remember (old Time Magazines).
The death of Elvis in 1977. I remember watching TV with my mother and she was crying. She said he had the voice of an angel. I also remember something about a plane crash around that time.
Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Still remember seeing that on TV back home in Sweden, in 1969 was it? There must have been earlier stories, but today, that’s the one that leaps to mind.
The first News story on TV i remember was the Reagan asassination attempt I think
jeeze, i’m getting so old i don’t remember what i haven’t forgot. i remember news clips of the vietnam war. i remember bobby darin dying. i remember the cops busting up the band that set up in their driveway and trying to finish “i’m leaving on a jet plane”. i remember family members setting me down to watch guys on the moon but it was deadly boring (what isn’t to a toddler) and didn’t hold my attention despite warnings such as “this is gonna be history one day”. the play “jesus christ superstar” musta been big because i remember scandaling my mom’s family by belting out “jesus christ superstar, who in the hell do you think you are?” much to granny’s dismay. she used to take all the food before a family function and have it blessed by the priest. black and white TV for sure and when 8 tracks were all new.
RFK assasination, Apollo, Vietnam and hippies.
death of one of the best french satire :coluche
Eisenhowers election
[quote=“Shin-Gua”]Eisenhowers election[/quote]Ahh…the trigger point I was hoping for.
As a child we always received 3 magazines - U.S. News & World Report, Life and Look. The 1st was primarily text with limited photos - usually just headhsots of the people being referred to in the articles.
Life & Look were, as most will know, heavily photo-journalism mags. Lots & lots of excellent photos by some of the best working pj’s of the time.
I think it may be a story from 1955 of then President Dwight D. Eisenhowers heart attack and recovery that is among my earliest news story memories. I can remember looking at the pic’s of him in the hospital and my Father discussing this with some friends who were at the house for dinner (we called it ‘supper’.)
So I guess its an early Life or Look magazine story about Pres. Eisenhowers heart attack recovery. And the great shots of him golfing…always remember those.
Are we old, or what. 
[quote=“Shin-Gua”]Are we old, or what. [/quote]In the words of my dear Father - “I don’t get old, I just gain greater perspective.”
Not bad reasoning I think.
Of course I think some of the best advice he ever gave was also the simplest - “Pay Attention!”
Reagan and the Pope being shot. I don’t remember which one was first but the two were pretty close to each other.
[quote=“navillus”]Reagan and the Pope being shot. I don’t remember which one was first but the two were pretty close to each other.[/quote]March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan is shot as he leaves a hotel in Washington, DC.
And -
May 13, 1981 at 5:19 pm a young Turk Mehmet Alì Agca shot the Pope in the abdomen and hand while he circled St. Peter’s Square.
Yep…2 major events pretty close together.
JFK assassination- we got out of school early…in Canada.
Have vague memories of my parents sitting on the couch being white-faced scared during Cuban Missile Crisis, but didnt really know what it was about.
I recall in Grade 4 in Canada, we had one Catholic girl in our grade, and she was let out early after Pope John Paul got shot. I felt gypped.
Another real early news story I remember, because it was kind of neat for me how it played out, was driving to visit some relatives in Rochester in the US and while we were on the Interstate listening to whatever lame easy-listening station my parents were tuned into, came the ‘breaking news’ of Pres. Reagan and James Brady getting shot. At one point they announced that Sec. Brady had died, then was alive again (just a mistaken update that he died of course)…it was unreal for my young brain and I was riveted. That influenced me later in life to want to work on the radio, which I went on to do in BC.
My first news story is the Charles/Diana wedding too.
The next is Robert Mugabe becoming leader of Z, and I remember that because we used to go to this forest every holiday and one of the people there had named their dog Mugabe.