Most historical events are ones I’ve read about or seen on TV. And regardless of my level of familiarity with them, there’s still a certain sense of detachment that tags along. After all, I wasn’t Philadelphia when the Declaration was signed. I wasn’t at Marpi Point. I never met John Wayne, and I wasn’t in Johnstown when [...]
Archive for the ‘Later twentieth century (1961-2000)’ Category
Heat From Las Vegas Fire Felt in the Midwest
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1980, Las Vegas, MGM Grand Hotel on November 21 | 3 Comments »
F-15 Eagle Earns its Wings
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1974, Aircraft, Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, Convair F-106 Delta Dagger, McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle, President Gerald Ford on November 14 | Leave a Comment »
When any of us boards an airplane, I wonder if we ever give any real thought to how much work, design, and planning went into building and testing it. I’m not a big fan of flying by any means, so I usually hope that the plane I enter merely conquers gravity for the 90 minutes [...]
The Blue Flame: Sun, Salt, and Speed
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1970, Blue Flame, Bonneville Salt Flats, Craig Breedlove, Gary Gabelich, Land Speed Record on October 23 | Leave a Comment »
This was a somewhat bizarre and puzzling piece to put together, and I’ll explain why in a couple minutes. But first…
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time looking at a paperback copy of the Guiness Book of World Records. It was a blue paperback (as I recall), and I believe it [...]
Black Monday: Stock Market Crash and Burn
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), tagged 1987, Black Monday, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Stock Market Crash on October 19 | 2 Comments »
It seems like October is “stock market” month. In the years since 1791, when the Bank of the United States first issued stock, millionaires by the thousands have been made and destroyed through the vicissitudes of the market (ah, there’s that cool word again…remember it?) as it has navigated through this particular 31-day cycle.
A year [...]
A Mexican Jumping Beamon
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1968, Bob Beamon, Long Jump, Mexico City, Olympics on October 18 | Leave a Comment »
Over the years, the Olympics have provided us with some really memorable moments. Of the various Games I’ve seen, there are some I recall with varying degrees of clarity.
There was Bruce Jenner’s improbable Gold Medal in the decathlon. Nadia Comaneci, the young Romanian whose perfect 10 stunned the gymnastics world. Remember the diminutive Mary Lou Retton [...]
BlackBird: Last Flight of the Uni-Tasker
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1999, Alton Brown, Kelly Johnson, Lockheed Skunk Works, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird on October 9 | Leave a Comment »
When the U.S. military buys aircraft, they sort of subscribe to the “Alton Brown” philosophy of “no uni-taskers in the kitchen”. Our armed services tend to favor multi-role aircraft that can do lots of missions well rather than simply excelling at one thing. It keeps the runways uncluttered.
It’s why aircraft like Lockheed’s F-16 Fighting Falcon [...]
Hoff: The KITT’s Meow
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1982, David Hasselhoff, KITT, Knight Industries Two Thousand, Knight Rider on September 26 | Leave a Comment »
The early 80’s saw a plethora of action shows that my younger brother and I watched regularly, and it seems that many of them were centered around a really cool vehicle. The A-Team had that van that Mr. T and that Hannibal (who was wanted for a crime he did not commit) always doctored up. 240 Robert [...]
Alton Brown: Feasting on Excellence
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1962, Alton Brown, Feasting on Asphalt, Food Network, Good Eats on July 30 | Leave a Comment »
We have satellite TV at the house, which means we’ve got a gob of channels with nothing to watch…probably a lot like you. So we find ourselves at the Food Network all the time. And most of the time, I’m ok with it. I like food. My wife’s a great cook. So watching people cook [...]
Water Surplus Hits Kaskaskia Hard
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1993, Cedar Rapids, Great Flood of 1993, Illinois, Iowa, Kaskaskia, Mississippi River on July 22 | Leave a Comment »
Do you live in the upper Midwest? Have you lived here for, oh…say, 20 years or so? If you answer “yes” to both those questions, then mentioning 1993 probably brings just one thing to mind: floods. Huge flooding. Cataclysmic flooding. Unbelievable flooding. “Whatever-adjective-you-can-think-of” flooding. It was really bad.
There’s a meteorological explanation for it, concerning jet [...]
Clinton and Bush: Team of Rivals
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1993, Cruise Missiles, Gulf War, Iraq, Kuwait, President Bill Clinton, President George H. W. Bush on June 26 | 1 Comment »
President Bill Clinton and President George Bush (that’s George H. W. Bush) were pretty serious rivals back in 1992. Those of us that watched the two verbally duke it out as they “interviewed” for the job as President probably made a couple of observations. First, President Clinton was a much better orator than his opponent. [...]
USS Iowa’s Final Shot its Deadliest
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1989, BB-61, Explosion, USS Iowa on April 19 | 1 Comment »
I love the Iowa-class battleships. They weren’t the biggest capital ships, nor did they carry the biggest main guns and shoot the biggest shells (those honors go to Japan’s Yamato-class ships). But they were the most advanced examples of their class ever built. The Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin comprised our ultimate (and final) [...]
Apollo XIII: One of NASA’s Finest Hours
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1970, Apollo XIII, James Lovell, Moon Landing, NASA, Ron Howard on April 13 | Leave a Comment »
Since most everyone has seen Ron Howard’s excellent rendition of the failed Apollo XIII mission to the Moon, Today’s History Lesson hardly bears mentioning. But still, since the central events of that mission happened on April 13, 1970, let’s give it some due.
The Apollo XIII mission began well enough on April 11th, with Tom Hanks, Kevin [...]
Hank Gathers: The Sadness of March Madness
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1990, Basketball, Bo Kimble, Hank Gathers, Jeff Fryer, Loyola Marymount University, Paul Westhead on March 4 | 1 Comment »
Let’s take to the basketball courts again today, though the occasion is a sad one.
In the late 1980’s, the basketball world was blessed with one of the most entertaining teams to ever play the game: Loyola Marymount University. Coached by Paul Westhead, the team’s philosophy (at least from my side of the television) was simple: [...]
Wilt’s Magical 100-Point Night
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 100 Points, 1962, NBA, Philadelphia Warriors, Wilt Chamberlain on March 2 | Leave a Comment »
My basketball career spanned 2 years, one on the Junior High team and another for the Sophomore team. I was an average player, but not a starter. Back issues forced me to decide between baseball and basketball (baseball won easily), so I’m always able to say that health issues held me back (which is true) while simultaneously downplaying [...]
Scuds and Patriots: Timing is Everything
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1991, Dhahran, Gulf War, Patriot Missile, Saudi Arabia, Scud Missile on February 25 | Leave a Comment »
.3433 seconds. A third of a second isn’t very long. I try to think of things I can do in that amount of time, but it’s pretty hard. I could maybe blink my eyes, or swivel my head, or count the cash in my wallet. But not much else comes to mind, which must mean I can’t [...]
The 9-1-1 in Flight 8-1-1
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1989, Boeing 747, Cargo Door, Decompression, Honolulu, UAL Flight 811 on February 24 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been a little more than a month since I wrote about Air Florida Flight 90, which crashed in the Potomac River back in 1982. Coincidentally, it was just 2 days later when Flight 1549, under very different circumstances (bird strikes), landed in the Hudson River. Of course, with no loss of life and only [...]
Fighting Falcon Flies for the Second “First” Time
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged Aircraft, McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle, General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, 1974, Vietnam War, Interceptor on February 2 | Leave a Comment »
As we’ve looked at various aircraft, there’s a trend of “action-reaction” that I hope you’ve noticed. An airplane was produced (North American’s XB-70 Valkyrie), which prompted the Russians to produce an aircraft (the MiG-25 Foxbat). The Foxbat caused the U.S. military immense alarm, and that led to the incredible McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle. Cause and effect…action and [...]
“To Touch the Face of God”
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1986, Challenger, Christa McAuliffe, President Ronald Reagan, Space Shuttle, STS-51-L on January 28 | 1 Comment »
Well, sometimes history lessons involve events that are extremely well-known to us. Today’s History Lesson is one of those topics. I get a lot of my ideas from the books I’ve read, but this one I can pretty much do from memory.
I clearly remember the excitement we had as kids when NASA launched its first [...]
SAC’s Nuclear Garden Sprouts no Mushrooms
Posted in Later twentieth century (1961-2000), United States, tagged 1961, Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, Goldsboro, Mk39 Hydrogen Bomb, North Carolina, Strategic Air Command on January 24 | 2 Comments »
Several months ago, we learned about a “near-miss” atomic war with the Soviet Union when we discussed Stansilov Petrov’s actions (or rather, his inactions) back in 1983. Not to self-promote too much, but I go back and read that piece occasionally, and I still get goosebumps when I realize, that as a 15-year old kid, [...]
