10 most compelling news stories during your life?

[tikay]

Some good ones there, Wako, Berlin Wall, Lockerbie & hanging chads, especially the last-named. Only in America....

[maccol]

Lots of "I remember where I was " moments listed. I would have to include Dunblane killings and Iranian Embassy siege in that category.

[horseplayer]

9/11 for me

Was a strange time of my life my mum had just been diagnosed my dad has just left her and i was at college unsure what to do.

Plenty of tears that day remember watching the whole thing unfold on the news with my mum.

[nirvana]

Interesting stuff

9/11
Falklands
First gulf war
Diana
Vicious/spungeon
Heysel
Berlin Wall
Kobain
Tsunami
Brixton riots

[AndrewT]

Mine as they come to me. A lot of these will be not just the story but because I remember the coverage as well

Space Shuttle Explosion – this happened about 4.30pm in the afternoon our time so in the days before 24 hour news channels the first news of it was on Newsround, meaning that (probably almost uniquely) this was a news story that a lot of people first heard about from their kids (‘Mum, come in here quick – the space shuttle’s blown up’)

9/11 –I was off work that day so spent the entire day in front of the TV, a very surreal feeling in that I wasn’t quite sure what I was watching – in scale just so much bigger than a car bomb, shooting, or any other previous terrorist attack, plus it was happening live on the TV.

7/7 – At work in Camden when stories start emerging of power failures on the tube, people coming in late (‘Had to walk the last two stops – all the tubes have stopped running’). We then started wandering down to the building cafeteria (as they had a TV) as it quickly filled up with people from the surrounding buildings.

Princess Diana – A very terse short news broadcast (‘The Princess of Wales has been involved in a road accident in Paris – no further details’ kind of thing) then not a single mention for over an hour. Even then, I’m sure the general reports were that she was injured but not badly, so I went to bed thinking the story was over. Woke up the next morning, turned the radio on and they’re playing the national anthem before the news…

Berlin Wall – Amazing to think that the US had no idea how close to collapse their big enemy was, it took them completely on the hop.

Hillsborough/Bradford fire – Coming so close together, with news coming in on Grandstand. Felt so close to home for anyone who went to watch football.

1997 General Election – I’d only ever known a Conservative government. Blair coming to power was like a big party – it was all going to change now. A real mood of general optimism among people.

1991 Gulf War – The first war that took place live on TV. And yet it began with my dad complaining that they interrupted the film he was watching.

Boston Marathon Bombing/Raoul Moat – two separate stories, but both revolving around the live TV coverage of murderers on the run.

Jimmy Savile – In UK terms, probably the starting point for what will be one of the biggest stories in our lifetime, assuming it all comes out (Ted Heath the biggest one so far, but so much more still to come).

[Marky147]

Don't really follow the news at all, but these two are ones that I definitely followed closely.

9/11 - Was working with the marines at Nelson, and ended up in the Senior Rates mess with my boss watching it all for hours. Very harrowing, and hard to comprehend just what we were seeing.

Iraq War (2003) - Was just coming to the end of training @ Chicksands, and it was being mooted by some of the senior staff members that some of the school may end up being needed out there, which definitely had a few of us giving it 5p/50p!

[bobAlike]

Don't really follow the news at all, but these two are ones that I definitely followed closely.

9/11 - Was working with the marines at Nelson, and ended up in the Senior Rates mess with my boss watching it all for hours. Very harrowing, and hard to comprehend just what we were seeing.

Iraq War (2003) - Was just coming to the end of training @ Chicksands, and it was being mooted by some of the senior staff members that some of the school may end up being needed out there, which definitely had a few of us giving it 5p/50p!

Never heard this expression before but I instantly knew what you meant

[StuartHopkin]

Bit different to most of the lists, I never used to follow the news at all but these are the stories that I remember taking the time to read up on...

Madeline McCann
Raol Moat
Capture of Saddam
James Bulger
Soham murders
Death of Jean Charles de Menezes
9/11
7/7
Diana
Michael Jackson

[hhyftrftdr]

9/11 (was at secondary school when this happened, remember the head teacher popping his head in the classroom saying what had happened, the severity only really registered when I got home and put the TV on)

Diana (I wanted to play football in the street the day of her funeral, my Dad wouldn't let me.....good job it still doesn't bother me....)

Saville

Boxing day tsunami.

London riots in 2011.

Hysteria surrounding the new millennium.

Japanese tsunami.

Disappearance (murder?) of Claudia Lawrence....her house was 5 minutes from where I grew up, and stuff like that rarely happens in York. I was walking home from a night out not long after she vanished, it was maybe 3am. A young lady approached me and asked which way I was walking, and I pointed and said that direction. She said she was going in the same direction and did I mind if she walked with me as she was nervous given what had happened (her student accommodation was right next to Claudia's house). Not often a female feels safer walking the streets with a complete male stranger in the dead of night than on her own.

MH370 - bit of an aviation geek and this is still ongoing. How does a plane vanish?

Man City takeover...again, another one that was difficult to comprehend at the time just how massive this was for English football. I started a new job the week following the takeover, and of course my new colleagues were dubious when we talked football and I told them I was a City fan. I enjoy it when people raise an eyebrow these days, but I do understand why.

[FUN4FRASER]

In my lifetime the two that immediately jump out at me because they dominated the news for weeks after were 9/11 and Dianna's Death

1969 landing on the moon must of been pretty big at the time

[RED-DOG]

OMG. News stories are like a drug for me, I am endlessly fascinated by them. I only fear dying because I'll miss what happens next,

I don't think I can even attempt to whittle it down to 10, but I will have a try.

Number one. WWll. What a tale that is. I've been stories about it since I was a boy and I'm still astounded by them.


The Blitz.
The Battle of Britain.
The war in the Pacific.
The convoys and the Hunter killer submarines.
The war in the desert.
Monty and Rommel.
The resistance.
The spies.
The code breakers.
The dam Busters.
The Japs and the jungle.
The POWs.
The Holocaust.
The Dunkirk evacuation.
The D Day Landings.
Hiroshima....

[FUN4FRASER]

great list Tom...certainly has made me think

[RED-DOG]

great list Tom...certainly has made me think

That's only number one on my list, lol.

[RED-DOG]

Number two.

9,11.

What a story that was to watch in real time. My daughter Sadie and I were felling a tree for a customer and he called us into his living room. We sat there, father daughter and a total stranger open mouthed and absolutely transfixed.

The aftermath of 9,11 has affected, and will continue to affect all our lives. So many unpalatable laws have made it on to the statute books under the guise of anti-terrorism. So much of our freedom and privacy has been lost.  

The world will never be the same.

[Marky147]

Don't really follow the news at all, but these two are ones that I definitely followed closely.

9/11 - Was working with the marines at Nelson, and ended up in the Senior Rates mess with my boss watching it all for hours. Very harrowing, and hard to comprehend just what we were seeing.

Iraq War (2003) - Was just coming to the end of training @ Chicksands, and it was being mooted by some of the senior staff members that some of the school may end up being needed out there, which definitely had a few of us giving it 5p/50p!

Never heard this expression before but I instantly knew what you meant

Probably belongs in Tighty's TMI thread