Extremely notable events will pop-up everywhere. Before I saw it here, I had heard it on two IRC channels, saw it on a few news sites and I did a Google News search for it (which didn't add anything at all, because all those news things said nothing other than "MJ rushed to hospital" and after that "MJ died").

If HN is your only source of world news, I suggest you find at least one more. There are many things that don't pop up hear, that probably are relevant to you.