Watched the Challenger explosion live in kindergarten.

9-11 coverage and the second plane live on TV in elementary school

The destruction of the Berlin wall, and uniting of west- and east Germany.

Mount St. Helens.

9/11. I was in school and my teacher wheeled the TV cart in. She was an absolute wreck doing so because her husband left that morning for an interview in tower 1. Due to the phone traffic being so busy she couldnt reach him. Luckily he was running late because of traffic and had to drive far enough away before he could call her.

JFK assassination.

Challenger exploding, closely followed by Chernobyl exploding. I'm sure inbetween there were parts of London exploding. And after that, Pan Am 103 exploding. The 80s were a wild time.

I actually remember seeing Haley's Comet. I want to live long enough to blah blah blah, but really I just wanna see that stupid thing again before I go. Feels like a decent bookend, ya know?

Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths. All over the news.

911

Although I lived through others I think I was to young to remember them or caring. So for me it was the OJ trial since they legit announced it overhead at our school which was weird thinking back on it. After that would be 911.

When the Berlin Wall came down

Probably the Iranian Revolution.

For myself that would be 9/11. I remember being confused when the teacher put it on the tv. Thought we were watching an action movie.

The opening weeks of Star Wars, fans lined up around the block, many seeing it again and again and again. Some had seen it dozens of times. I was shocked.

Sister took me when I was 6. All I remember was eating lunch in the breakfast room, parents asking, "WELL? How was it?!" "OK I guess." LOL, was not impressed in the moment, turned into a fairly rabid fan for a couple of decades.

NYC blackout was a couple of months later. Not that I had a clue what was happening, but it was all over the news. My Silent Gen parents shielded me from their racism best they could, but I remember mom commenting on the rioting, "Oh, those BUH-LACKS!"

The beating of Rodney King. I was very young, maybe 6, and didn't understand why they had to beat that man.

Now I do understand. And it's pretty shitty.

Middle East wars (which doesn’t really pin down a timeframe)

ERA (which does)

I remember OJ’s Bronco on the news. I would have been 6yo. I also remember OK City Bombing a year later. Mostly just the wanted poster sketch, honestly. Then I don’t remember much news until Princess Diana’s death.

After that I remember a lot of news stories.

I don't think I have a single clear memory of any news story ever. I have vague half-remembered snippets.

The best I can do is 9/11 but I was well into my teens at that point, and even then my memory of the news itself isn't clear.

I remember what my local news anchor looked like. That's absolute it.

Michael Jackson’s hair catching fire.

I was born in 1991. For me, it's gotta be 9/11. I can't really specifically remember anything from before that, and I was only 9 when it happened, so I didn't really pay much attention to the news.

There was a time I was on the news because my grandfather got asked about something at the airport. I have no idea what it was or if it was before. But it certainly wasn't major and either way I don't remember the actual story that happened. If I had to guess it was something about asking people about airline delays, but that's genuinely just a guess.

The first major story where I thought "oh noes" was the Canary Wharf bombing in 1996ish. It was the first time I'd ever seen a "we interrupt this broadcast..." moment and it was so out of the ordinary that it sticks in my mind.

9/11 was a wild ride too. Getting home from school and my old man - who never watched the news - had Sky News on. At that point, the replays seemed... incredible, in the most literal sense of the word.

I dislike that my brain went with Milli Vanilli and not something like the berlin wall...

I remember seeing Yasser Arafat on TV.

I think mine is the JonBenet Ramsey case. I lived in Colorado and I just remember seeing her picture on the news over and over and over. It's a very very early memory so I don't remember much else at all.

I vaguely remember Princess Diana's death, I think. I remember when Michael Jordan retired - but honestly that might be more to do with Space Jam than anything else.

And then 911 is the next big one.

Challenger and Chernobyl, as they happened within a few months.The shape of the Challenger cloud will be forever seered into my brain. And after Chernobyl we had to seek cover immediately when it started to rain and weren't allowed to play on grass, I'll always remember that sense of unease. We also had two young kids from the Ukraine in our home for a while. Thinking back on that I feel so bad for them. They were so far from home and communication only worked through a paper dictionary. They didn't shower for a while because they were told water was very expensive. Somehow their hovercraft was full of eels.

Prob Rodney King. I was just old enough to know what was going on.

The Challenger explosion

Selenas death or OJ trial. Can’t remember which one was first?

Bush Sr's war on Iraq. Rodney king. I was also acutely aware of Ross Perot, because I had an impression I would do where my sibling would put their bare feet on the side of my head to be his ears.

The PM dying. They've interrupted Duck Tales for that shit, the bastards!

Princess Diana's death, for sure. I remember my mother being absolutely distraught, and I didn't understand why. We're not British and I'd literally never hear of her (from my mother or otherwise) before her passing and funeral were news. The funeral took place in the middle of the night and I remember her being up super early to watch (and I eventually woke up and joined her).

I'm surprised it was 1997, I would have figured it was '95ish. Can't believe that's the first news story I can remember. But we definitely were NOT a news household. Nobody reading the newspaper, no local news on at night or cable TV news on TV all day.

I think for me, it would be the Fukushima catastrophe. I was 8 at the time and I remember my school doing a donation event for it.

Early 1970s, I was around 6yo, hearing a discussion on the news about black civil rights and understanding it was logical and right.

Very vague memories of the berlin wall being torn down as presented by mtv. I was like 6.

I remember it all over tv. All these alternative punk kids.

And I was so confused why there was a big ass wall covered in graffiti in the middle of the city and also why it was an issue.

Easy, JFK's assassination. I was 4, came in from the yard and found my mom and a neighbor were sitting at the kitchen table, crying. I asked what was wrong, and she said someone had shot the president.

After that, I remember being irritated that all my favorite TV shows were blocked by news coverage for days.

The picture is Walter Cronkite, but I couldn't tell you what he's reporting on here. Best guess is JFK assassination, just because that's probably the most famous thing.

Elvis Presley’s death.

I remember seeing a story about a bombing in Lisbon (Portugal) and being concerned because I had an Aunt in Lisbon (Ohio)

Desert Storm, in small part because my dad was in the AF and deployed to Saudi Arabia. It was pretty much all the news for the short amount of time that actual hostilities were occurring.

and then a few months later:

86 was a big year

Great question! The very earliest story I can vaguely summon up at the moment was about a hurricane devastating the city of La Paz in Baja California Sur, from Mexican news on television. To pin down any details, I had to look it up, and came up with Hurricane Liza in 1976.

There was an image that got seared into my brain at the time, but it was probably my very young mind playing tricks on me, watching this report on one of those old, old, OLD small and blurry black-and-white televisions: the image of a dead baby lying face down among the rubble.

EDIT: That was a bummer, let me try again with a much more positive mind-blowing blast-from-the-past that might make some of you go - "Damn... yeah, deep pull, man!"...

How about the Montreal Olympics, particularly and spectacularly, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci! I also remember one specific moment of the closing ceremonies, doves being released as Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" was playing at full blast at the Stadium Olympique!

5 October 1974: Guildford pub bombings: IRA bombs exploded in two pubs frequented by off-duty British military personnel. Four soldiers and a civilian were killed and 44 injured.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Berlin wall for sure. Earlier major events like Tchernobyl, famine in Ethiopia or the death of Coluche (iconic French comedian, pretty big thing in France), I mostly remember my parents reaction and discussions at home.

Obama becoming President, I think! I had a very old Elementary School teacher, and while she certainly used some not-okay words to explain the event to us, I think she was quite supportive of it. I must have been 9 years old? So either my memory is bad or there just weren't all that many interesting world events that I would have heard about when I was younger than that.

9.11, I remember questioning as a kid why they bombed iraq afterwards when it was already clear it wasn't their doing.

The first moon landing

Just realized what the second question in the topic is asking. I believe Walter Cronkite is reporting the assassination of JFK.

Edit:No, wait, I think that's Apollo 11, the moon landing.

Honestly the earliest TV news memory I have is seeing heavy news coverage of John Lennon's murder.

I think Wałęsa winning presidential elections. But I just kind of remember it happening and people talking about it, not actually seeing it on TV. It's really hard to say what was the first live broadcast I remember. Fire in shipyard in Gdańsk happened in 1994, so when I was 10, but there was a song about it so maybe I remember it from the music video and not news from the day?

Reagan being shot

Clearly, like vividly? OKC bombing. Think was 10.

I vaguely remember desert storm missle strike clips. I remember staying up to watch the ball drop in 91. But anything else on tv in the early 90s that didn't involve mutant turtles, power rangers, Italian plumbers, or mortal kombat is a blank.

Partially because I lived through it, the ‘89 earthquake. I specifically remember not having power and then everything turning back on after midnight and what the news looked like (more grainy than normal) because I was afraid of the dark and hadn’t been able to sleep.

genuinely? everything has been so saturated with "major news" that i do not remember a single one.

if urgency becomes the norm, nothing is urgent anymore

I remember us giving Hong Kong to China, and Princess Diana's horrible death.

As for the picture, I don't know what county it's from but it doesn't look like the British Broadcasting Corporation which would have been the dominant broadcaster of that era, so I wouldn't know.

Last manned moon landing.

Vague recollection of Rodney King & the LA Riots. After that would be the Northridge earthquake, because it woke me up.

Desert storm has ended announcement on the radio in a garage in a car. I said what's desert storm and I don't think it was explained and life went on

OJ

Margaret Thatcher getting rid of milk snacks in schools. I grew up in a mining town, so from a very young age, I was acutely aware of how much everyone hated Thatcher. However, I just thought that people really liked milk, and that's why they hated "Margaret Thatcher the milk snatched". I don't like the taste of milk on its own, and I can remember being 3 or 4 years old and bemused by the intensity of feelings towards her — I guessed that people must really like milk

Edit: turns out that the milk removal was before my time

• 93 Bombay bomb blasts
• Kargil war
• Attack on Taj Bombay

Internationally

• Princess Diana's death
• Gulf war
• 9/11

The Collapse. All the news agencies were calling it the "Resentment" for some reason. They were arguing about if some of the lower order dimensions would survive or not when all the aerovets went dark.

I looked out to see it approaching our crecheworld.

Space collapsing in fifteen dimensions is terrifyingly beautiful in its own way.

Protestors stealing a tank and driving it out of a museum into the crowd (nobody got hurt) during the 2006 protests that were the foundation to the Orbán regime.