I remember many of them but the one that has haunted me for a lifetime is the murder of JFK. I read books about all this for over 20 years.

I was tiny but I remember watching Nixon resign and my mother was crying.

The eruption of Mount St. Helens, although I remember it less for it being on the news and more for a Sunday morning that turned back into night...and stayed that way all day.

I was in the hallway for punishment in 3rd grade class when some sort of code came over the intercom. All the teachers came out of their classrooms and met in the hallway in front of me. They all started crying. The next week was like a sci-fi movie, the whole town shell shocked. JFK was a great man.

I was born the day before JFK was killed (RIP). The first big news story that I remember was the man walk on the moon.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The U.S. trying to get a spacecraft off the ground without it blowing up, after that Walter Cronkite crying, JFK'S assassination.

The assasination of Ronald McDonald.

Sitting in 2nd grade and watching 9/11 happen on t.v.

Watergate.

JFK's assassination. I was in Kindergarten.

The Cuban missile crisis. It is the only time in my life I have been afraid we could end up in a nuclear war.

My first was the resignation of Nixon on 8/9/1974.

I'm sure it wasn't my first but I still remember it well. I was living in a flat in London. A Friday evening I think and the BBC cancelled TV programmes and played mournful music all evening. A bit OTT for a foreign head of state but it was the height of the cold war and JFK was our great white hope to keep the pesky Soviets in their place,

I was in 5th grade when Elizabeth II was crowned. We all went the auditorium to watch it on a 19 inch TV on the stage. I'm pretty sure almost no one could actually see the proceedings, but in later years I have come to appreciate the decision to show it - I remember that day and can say that I saw it on tv.

Sputnik.

But for those who said the JFK assassination, here are my personal memories of that:
I was living in Dallas, Texas on November 22,1963 and was in sixth grade at L. O.Donald Elementary School.

My memories actually begin a few days before when the Dallas Independent School District announced that the only excused absences to go see the President would go to students who had a note saying that they were being accompanied by their parent. The announcement made it very clear that going to see the President with a legal guardian would not qualify as an excused absence. Even as a sixth grader I found this suspicious. There was only one student from my class who went to the parade.

On the 22nd I arrived at school as usual approximately a half hour before my first class. I was a flag monitor.That means that I had the responsibility of raising the flags (American and Texas) on the pole in front of the school each morning and lowering them each afternoon. That was the windiest day of the school year. Larry Howell, the other monitor and my good friend since before first grade, and I had no problem getting the flags to the top of the pole, but the wind was blowing so hard that we could not pull the rope down enough to wrap around the cleat properly. We had to call Gary McFarland, a 7th grade Safety Patrol over for help, and he only managed to get the rope around the cleat by employing the 2” long 1” diameter dowel that was the handle of his Safety Patrol flag.

After lunch I went to my fourth period math class in the southwest corner of the second floor. Sitting I the front corner by the door, I could not see the flag,but the students in the far corner of the room could, and they started giving me a hard time about what a bad job we had done that morning putting the flag up, since it was at least a flag’s height from the top of the pole. I distinctly remembered otherwise, just how high and tight it was. After walking across to the window and seeing what they were talking about, I told Mr. Owens, the teacher that I needed to go down and fix the problem. He said that I should go the office first and ask them about it. I thought this was a little strange, but I did as I was told. The secretary in the office asked why I was there and then disappeared for about a minute into the Principal’s office. She came back out and told me I should go back to class.

About five minutes before the end of class I got called down to the office. I was taken into the Principal’s office. Mr. Breeding, the Principal, told me that the problem with the flag was that they had attempted to lower it to half-mast because the President and the Governor had been shot. He then told me that the President was dead but that, thankfully the Governor was still alive, and went on to explain that this caused a certain dilemma. Since the Governor was still alive they could not fly the Texas flag at half-mast until he issued an order to do so, but they knew they could not fly the Texas flag over the American flag. They resolved the issue by ordering me to take down both flags. I protested that they should both be at half-mast or we should at least put the American flag back up at half-mast after pulling down the Texas flag. Each of those suggestions was met with an absolute no, so I agreed to take both flags down.

Before I was dismissed to lower the flags I was asked not tell anyone about the shootings, as they did not want panic in the school. Mr. Breeding explained that the first graders had just left, the second graders would go home at the end of fifth period as usual, and he would make an announcement during sixth period for the third through seventh grades. After I took the flags down, folded them and put them safely away in their locker, I went to my fifth and sixth period classes, but did not tell anyone what had happened.

Sixth period was Library and our class was sitting reading when the PA came on with the announcement. Immediately after the announcement there were a few seconds of stunned silence. This was followed by an eruption of applause, whistles and cheers (e.g., “Yeah! They got him!” ) from other rooms throughout the school. Yes, I was there and yes, that is exactly what happened. I remember the librarian crying. I’m sure part of it was hearing about the President’s death, but I have to believe an even greater part was in response to the reaction of the other students (those of us in the library simply set there quietly – we were in the library).

I mentioned that one classmate went to the parade. Steve Stacey was with his dad on Main Street, less than a block from Dealey Plaza. He was one of the last people to see the President alive. Less than 15 minutes after the shooting his father drove through Dealey Plaza on the way back to Oak Cliff. Steve was in the pickup with him, and in the rear window was a gun rack with a 30.06 in plain sight. No one even noticed, or if they did they didn’t say a thing.

I had suspicions before the shooting, and hearing Steve’s experience did nothing to reassure me. I give the Warren Commission Report even less credence than I give the 9/11 Commission Report. Inasmuch as Congress has disavowed the Warren Commission Report and a majority of the members of the 9/11 Commission,including its co-chairs, have disavowed their report, I would have to say the crazy conspiracy theorists are the ones who still believe either of those works to be anything but fiction.

For me it was the JFK assassination as well. I was in Kindergarten, I was convinced the world was ending. The adults were crying, the calendar had only one more page, and everything on the TV was sad and dreary. I was SO relieved when mom put up a new calendar.

This won't mean anything to anybody outside the UK and even then not many in the UK under a certain age (Roughly mine) but it was the Torrey Canyon oil spill off the SW coast of the UK

[en.wikipedia.org]

I remember so much from that day, the kids on the bus talking about how Kennedy was a threat to business interests, my mother sobbing in front of the TV, where I was sitting when I heard...

JFK assasination for me, too.
The world was so SAD. TV filled with folks crying. Even at my young age it impacted me.

The first one was probably Challenger (7 years old), but the only one I remembered like it's seared into my eyes is 9/11 (22 years old).

JFK Assassination, I actually saw him in Arkansas, the month before he was killed.

Reagan being shot

Live TV, the Challenger explosion. The first news I remember: Regan being shot.