What was a big news story when you were growing up that young people today wouldn't have heard of?

[CGB]

I was in my 20s, but the OK City bombing. My new textbook included it in the last module/chapter and not one kid in three years has known about it.

 

[DDuckSouthBend]

United Flight 191 crashing near Ohare Airport

 

[Titanium]

Martha Mitchell's kidnapping

Storming of the US Embassy in Tehran

 

[Titanium]

John Lennon assassination.
Ronald Regan assassination attempt.

Yes. I had a wow moment when I read that and remembered Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley Jr. are still incarcerated for these crimes.

 

[barkley]

Yes. I had a wow moment when I read that and remembered Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley Jr. are still incarcerated for these crimes.

john hinckley jr. was released from institutuional care in 2016-he never served prison time b/c he was found not guily by reason of insanity. mark david chapman will likely be denied parole in february 2024 for the 13th time.

 

[PrincessJo]

The Challenger exploding. I was a junior in high school.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Louise Brown - the worlds's first test tube baby. Back then it was new and plenty of people worried that she wouldn't be normal.

 

[mommyk8]

Challenger exploding I was in elementary school and remember the teachers standing in the halls whispering.
The first word trade center bombing when a bomb was left in a truck in the garage.

 

[tcufrog]

Pan Am Flight 103 exploding over Lockerbie, Scotland

 

[Titanium]

john hinckley jr. was released from institutuional care in 2016-he never served prison time b/c he was found not guily by reason of insanity. mark david chapman will likely be denied parole in february 2024 for the 13th time.

It's amazing to me that Hinckley was released.

 

[barkley]

It's amazing to me that Hinckley was released.

that's the way non guilty by reason of insanity works in most states-they hold you until they deem your sanity has been restored. in hinkley's case they held him for decades but you look at lorenna bobbit or mary winkler who both were out within days of conviction and it makes sense why a very small handful of states (only 4) don't allow it as a defense basis (this is why lori vallow was in court/back in mental health facility/in court/back in mental health facility....idaho just waited till she was deemed sane and then went full on with their prosecution).

 

[RangerPooh]

Since Baby Jessica, OKC bombing, and the OJ chase have already been mentioned I’ll go with:

The cloning of Dolly the Sheep
The Lacy Peterson murder and trial
Chandra Leavy kidnapping and trial
The Yosemite murders by Cary Stainer

 

[georgina]

I agree with a lot of the previously mentioned ones, so I will add Elvis Presley death.

The Yosemite murders by Cary Stainer

I had to look that one up, did not recall it at all. I do remember the DC sniper case a few years later, but these were not stories from when I was growing up, and there have been too many of them to remember them all.

 

[trip]

Oliver North selling weapons to Iran in order to fund an illegal war in Nicaragua. At the time it was huge, the idea that someone with the rank of lieutenant colonel could sell arms to a declared enemy was, in and if itself, an outrageous scandal. That he did so with the intention of using the funds to support a war that congress had explicitly defunded was even more scandalous. That he was convicted and only got probation - I don't think our country has ever recovered. It proved that certain military and intelligence officials were above the law, above even congress and the president.

I'd be shocked if more than 1% of people under 30 know this even happened.

And Fawn Hall smuggling out some secret documents out of the pentagon in her boots.

 

[trip]

The soviet Union launching sputnik in 1957 -the start of the space race.

 

[DisneyHardin]

When Baby Jessica fell in the well.

This was the one I was going to post too

 

[barkley]

The Yosemite murders by Cary Stainer

i also remember his younger brother steven's kidnapping as a 7 year old in 1972 as well as steven's miracoulous reappearance in 1980 with a newly kidnapped 5 year old child he rescued and escaped with from their mutual kidnapper. i also remember when steven was killed in 1989 and that former 5 year old he rescued served as one of his pallbearers.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Pan Am Flight 103 exploding over Lockerbie, Scotland

My aunt lost a dear friend on this flight. I was only 4 at the time, and it's always felt strange that it happened during my lifetime and affected someone so close to me, but I don't remember a thing about it.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I guess the first big news stories I remember being aware of were probably the OJ Simpson trial and the Oklahoma City Bombing.

As far as a news story I remember that others might not, there was also a young girl from my town kidnapped/murdered that was national news, and had a profound effect on our community. I was 9 at the time and the whole thing was terrifying.

 

[shh]

watergate. huge.