What Was The First Major News Story

Discussion in 'Other Reminiscences' started by Holly Saunders, Nov 24, 2017.

  1. Holly Saunders

    Holly Saunders Supreme Member
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    .. you can recall hearing about when you were young which affected you in some way ?


    This will be fascinating I think, given the age difference among all us seniors... but what was the first Major news Story you can remember hearing about ?

    Mine has to have been the Aberfan Disaster.. in 1966 where a Mining Coal colliery spill , slid down the mountain killing 116 children and 28 adults in their schools and homes in Wales ... maybe because it involved children my age being killed ..or the fact that I watched my mum crying every time the news came on, but it definitely made an impression on me and I think the first Major News story I can remember..

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/october/21/newsid_3194000/3194860.stm
     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I was born in 1945, so just after the end of WW2, and before the Korean War; but I can remember my folks turning on the radio every night and listening to the news, which was always something about war.
    Even though I was really to young to understand what war was all about, I understood enough of what my mom explained to me that I knew it was not a good thing, and it would upset me when the news came on at night.
    When we went to the movie theater, before the show, there was always a short newsreel (black and white, of course) and then the cartoon, previews, and finally, the main feature started.
    The newsreel always showed armies marching somewhere or tanks going across hills; so it still always look like war to me.
     
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  3. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    [​IMG]
    The Burns Murder
    On the morning of Monday, Jan. 27, 1958, the mutilated and severed head of Edna Burns was found in the vestibule of Immaculate Conception Church at North 13th Street and Garrrison Avenue.

    The story that quickly emerged that day and in the days that followed would be burned into the collective memory of the city and into the individual memories of the people of the city who lived through those days.

    It is a story of mental illness, delusion and matricide.

    Sometime between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. that Monday, Bobby Joe Burns, the son of Jesse and Edna Burns, drugged his mother and decapitated her in the kitchen of the family's home at 2203 South L Street. At least twice before, Bobby Joe Burns, 28, had been committed to a mental institution for paranoid schizophrenia and was given to abusing narcotics, according to Southwest American news stories from the time.

    After his capture in the area west of Moffett on Tuesday, he would claim to police that his mother had consented and that he was enacting an Aztec sacrifice ritual.

    [​IMG]
    This photo of Bobby Joe Burns
    "shortly after his capture" appeared
    in the Southwest American on Jan. 29, 1958.


    According to the American, he explained to police that human anatomy and geographical anatomy are related. The ritual included removal of an eye, part of the nose and part of the tongue. Bobby Joe Burns also referred police to verses in Revelations 20: 9-11. He carried his mother's head to the church wrapped in a sheet, then walked over the Garrison Avenue bridge into eastern Oklahoma, sleeping in a cold farm field that Monday night.

    Burns confession to police was done while munching candy bars and drinking sodas. During the questioning, his brother delivered two packages of cigarettes to him and left after saying, "Joe, we don't blame you for what happened?"

    Edna Burns had secured the release of her son from a state mental institution about a year prior to the murder. Other members of the family had tried to persuade Edna Burns to return Bobby Joe to the hospital.

    Following his capture, Circuit Court Judge Paul Wolfe immediately committed Bobby Joe Burns to the state hospital for 30 days of observation.

    Despite later asking that he be charged with murder and executed, he would later rescind that request and ask to be released. Burns would remain in the mental hospital for the rest of his life. Although solid confirmation of his death there many decades later hasn't been obtained, it is believed he died in the state hospital sometime in the 1980s.

    The luridness and shocking nature of the murder has ensured that it is still talked about today.
     
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  4. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    The first was Kennedy followed by Bobby :(
    The third that has always stayed with me, was of a murdered prostitute found in the woods
    she had the same name as meself !!! :eek:
    I never touched a paper for years after that one and the last few years I've given up on them again, except for 'good' snippets
     
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  5. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    I'd have to say it was JFK's assassination for me too. To this day it's as clear in my mind as it was on the day it happened.
     
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  6. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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  7. Ted Richards

    Ted Richards Veteran Member
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    I remember my folks hunched over the radio every night during WWII listening to the derails of the Battle of the Bulge in Germany.
     
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  8. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    Gathered around the radio listening to news of the bombing of Pearl Harber. Later on, reports of submarines off both coasts, and talk on the air of a possible immanent invasion of the United States.
     
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  9. Ted Richards

    Ted Richards Veteran Member
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    Yes, my mother took me along when she visited her sisters in Los Angeles during the war. I was about 4 at the time but I do remember seeing the barrage balloons.


    Barrage balloon - Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_balloon
    A barrage balloon is a large kite balloon used to defend against aircraft attack by raising aloft cables which pose a collision risk, making the attacker's approach more difficult.
     
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  10. Kitty Carmel

    Kitty Carmel Veteran Member
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    I was born in the very early 60's. Mine would be the Munich Olympics.
     
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  11. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Didn't realize you are so young! My 2 sisters were born in the 60's. 1961 and 1966.

    I had forgotten about Munich!
     
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  12. Kitty Carmel

    Kitty Carmel Veteran Member
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    @Chrissy Cross yes heading to the late 50's. At least I am over 50 and qualify to be here. Good or bad.
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I'm not sure. I didn't generally watch or listen to the news on purpose when I was a kid. Probably, it was the Cuban missile crisis.
     
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  14. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    Yes, I remember that one and also remember being worried or scared about it.
     
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