First major news story you remember as a child

[Mexican Wolf]

Either the Y2K scare (vague memories of hearing about it) or 9/11 (I remember exactly where I was when I found out about it).

[All Along The Watchtower]

2000 US presidential election and Elizabeth the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday.

[progressive85]

I actually think the one that I remember the most was Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding - the scandal in the figure skating world during the 1994 Olympics.  Younger people might not realize this- just how heavily that story was publicized by the press, but at the time there were the three big news networks, and it received enormous coverage.

[Del Tachi]

Elian Gonzalez

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇵🇸🤝🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

Michael Jackson's death

[Dr. Cynic]

Persian Gulf War

[Figueira]

Monica Lewinsky, but literally just the name, nothing else.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

9/11, since I was in school that day (kindergarten) and all the parents rushed to pickup their kids so it was pretty chaotic/memorable despite me being so young. Hurricane Katrina was also one I remember very specific shots of as a kid watching the news.

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Desert Storm.

[JGibson]

Flood of 1993.

[Alben Barkley]

I remember Clinton's re-election, and the fact that I do probably says something about why I'm on this site. Indeed more than a few of my earliest strong memories seem to involve politics and elections.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Other ones after 9/11 are:

Iraq War coverage in 2003 (didn't comprehend of course, but i remember seeing coverage)
The 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean
Beslan school siege 2004
Madrid bombings 2004
Popes death and succession 2005
London attacks 2005
Hurricane Katrina 2005 and it being an active hurricane season (i already started getting somewhat of a weather enthusiast starting at the age of 7-8, and i was 9 than), so hurricanes Dennis, Rita, Wilma i also somewhat remember.

I remember sports very well, i started following sports way more from 2005 on (cycling and football), so all major news coverage from then i sort of know or at least have seen, dep. on my interests maybe. I remember some tennis from before too because we had two exceptional female tennis players at the time.

The attacks of nine eleven might even be the first time i've seen the news. My foster parents obviously watch the news every day but I didn't comprehend/understand/follow it (or anything on television aside of animation maybe). I also was only recently in that family after being at my real parents and being in a sort of home or orphanage for a while. (was only at the family i would be raised in for 5 months, it was somewhere around easter 2001). My real parents didn't follow news, or i wasn't even allowed to sit with them and were a problematic family and in an orphanage they're not gonna do the either, so i think it's the first time i saw actively news coverage. I don't even remember anything from 2002 except for seeing football at school during the world cup.

[thebeloitmoderate]

Hurricane Katrina was clearly the first major news event I witnessed IIRC as a kid, as I was super super young to remember the Iraq War (happened only few weeks prior til I was born), and the 2004 presidential election/Earthquake and Tsunami in Indonesia.
The first news event that I actually witnessed and remembered as a kid was the election of Obama in 2008, we even got a book in the elementary library about his life/election.

and also according to one of the posters, I also began becoming a weather/disaster enthusiast around 7 and 8 years old, due to watching lots of tornado/hurricane related videos on youtube at the time.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The Kosovo War, I'm pretty sure.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I first heard about the 2000 presidential election from my parents, but have vivid memories of 9/11.

[Sir John Johns]

On TV: Desert Storm and, in particular, Saddam setting fire on Kuwaiti oil wells, I think.

As major news story I experienced first hand: the Great Storm of 1987 when I was three and a half.

[Biden his time]

The 2012 election

[Badger]

I'm glad Georgia moderate mentioned the JFK shooting so I don't feel so incredibly old saying the assassination attempts a couple weeks apart on President Ford

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

Possibly the 1999 Solar Eclipse. Not particularly consequential but certainly a big news story (in part because it occurred during a relatively stable period).

[Blue3]

Some chaos in Russia, and the Bill Clinton impeachment, followed by the 2000 election and recount. But 9/11 is what really made me pay attention.

[2952-0-0]

1995 Kobe earthquake

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

- Vaguely?  Bush v. Gore

- Clearly? 9/11