Watched the Challenger explosion live in kindergarten.

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

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

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.

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

Mount St. Helens.

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?

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.

911

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.

When the Berlin Wall came down

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.

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

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

ERA (which does)

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.

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!"

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.

Probably the Iranian Revolution.

collapsed inline media

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

The Challenger explosion

Michael Jackson’s hair catching fire.

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

I remember seeing Yasser Arafat on TV.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Elvis Presley’s death.

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?

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

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.

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.

The assassination of prime minister Olof Palme.

The first moon landing