Twenty-five years ago today and only seconds into their mission, seven NASA astronauts perished in the greatest space disaster ever witnessed.
I remember that I was in either 2nd or 3rd grade. I was home sick from school to watch the shuttle take off. I also remember the minute that it exploded and the reactions on television around the world. I can’t believe that it’s been 25 years!
Just 68 seconds into the flight, Scobee uttered the last words anyone would ever hear from the Challenger crew: “Go with throttle up.”
Bob Sieck, shuttle operations manager at Kennedy Space Center, said, “We knew as soon as we saw the fireball that the explosion that we didn’t have a chance of getting the crew back alive.”
The space shuttle — America’s symbol of technical prowess — was brought down because cold weather had caused rubber O ring seals in the rocket boosters to weaken and fail. Seven people lost their lives — as a nation looked on.
That evening, President Reagan consoled the country, saying, “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”
One of my all time favorite songs…and a great history lesson for people of all ages.
Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was the subject of a final exam when I was in school. The test: to explain each historical reference in the song (in one sentence each). Good thing I know my history 🙂
Check out the video below…
For your reference, here are the lyrics:
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, Television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe
Rosenbergs, H Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, The King And I, and The Catcher In The Rye
Eisenhower, Vaccine, England’s got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Joseph Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiov
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn’s got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, Homicide, Children of Thalidomide
Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion
Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatle mania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah’s in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan
Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz
Hypodermics on the shores, China’s under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can’t take it anymore
We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning since the world’s been turning.
We didn’t start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on…
I can’t believe it’s actually been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came crumbling down on November 9, 1989. I’m starting to accept the fact that I’m actually getting older. Hell…I’ve reached 31! 🙂
At the time this historical event took place, I understood what it meant. But, looking back, I think that I only understood the significance of the day in general terms. I remember that I was in 6th grade and had read about its origins and the affect it had on the people of Germany, Europe and even the rest of the world in school.
I heard the stories of my grandfather fighting in World War II in Germany and all the stories that he had to tell of going back years later and seeing the wall in person. It’s amazing to look back at all of the history and realize what a momentous day that November day actually was.
So…where were you when the Berlin Wall fell? Do you have any memories? Do you live, or have you ever traveled to Germany either before the wall fell…or after?
It’s not often that a historic announcement comes, as an afterthought, almost by accident, at the end of an otherwise stultifyingly tedious press conference.
But that’s how the Communist East German government told an incredulous world that the Berlin Wall, that most potent symbol of the Cold War, would be thrown open after three decades.
I was fortunate enough to witness that most famous news conference of modern German history on November 9, 1989, called with no great fanfare by Politburo member and spokesman Guenter Schabowski.
For an hour he had rambled through the dull deliberations of a meeting of the Communist Party’s ruling Central Committee.
Many journalists had already left the small, stuffy windowless room on the first floor of the International Press Center where news conferences were held. Some had headed home, some drifted to the restaurant where the Stasi security police routinely observed foreign reporters by hidden camera.
Even though pressure had been building on the East German government for months to grant “Reisefreiheit” — or freedom to travel — Schabowski had nothing to say about that until near the end of his presentation when he was asked about travel rules by Riccardo Ehrman of the Italian news agency ANSA at 6:53 p.m.
“Therefore…um…we have decided today…um…to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic…um…to…um…leave East Germany through any of the border crossings,” said Schabowski.
As Germany celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I can’t help remembering my spooky 1971 visit during the Cold War. When we crossed back to the West, tour buses were emptied at the border so mirrors could be rolled under the bus. They wanted to see if anyone was trying to escape with us.
Back then, life in the East was bleak, gray and demoralizing because of ongoing political repression and their unresponsive Soviet-style command economy.
Today, Berlin feels like the nuclear fuel rod of a great nation. It’s so vibrant with youth, energy and an anything-goes-and-anything’s-possible buzz that Munich feels spent in comparison.
Flanked by leaders from the former Eastern Bloc in Communism’s last days, and mobbed by a cheering crowd, Chancellor Angela Merkel launched a day of commemoration Monday of the fall of the Berlin Wall, retracing the steps of the first East Germans, herself included, surging to West Berlin 20 years ago.
Mrs. Merkel’s symbolic walk across the Bornholmer Strasse bridge, accompanied by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, and Lech Walesa, the former shipyard worker who led a fight against Moscow-backed Communism in Poland, came as Berlin prepared for an evening of celebration to mark the moments on Nov. 9, 1989, when the wall began to crumble.
In a light drizzle hundreds of people gathered to observe the moment, some recalling the crowds who swelled the former East German checkpoint at the Bornholmer Street crossing point after an East German official announced that, with immediate effect, travel restrictions would be eased.
Mrs. Merkel has told reporters recently that she was one of those to walk into the west that night across the gray iron bridge at Bornholmer Strasse. Many of the hundreds crowding onto the bridge with her on Monday were former East German civil rights activists.
While we wait in anticipation of the DNA results in the Caylee/Casey Anthony story, police in Hollywood, Florida, say they are closing the 1981 investigation into the abduction and slaying of 6-year-old Adam Walsh.
Hollywood Police Chief Chad Wagner plans to provide details at an afternoon news conference. He will be joined by the boys parents, Reve and John Walsh (of America’s Most Wanted).
The boy’s abduction and slaying 27 years ago put missing children on the national agenda.
Police will name deceased drifter Ottis Toole, a convicted pedophile who died in prison in 1996, as the boy’s suspected killer, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Toole twice confessed to killing the boy — and twice recanted his story, saying he made it up. It could not be learned what, if any, new evidence exists.
Hollywood police chief Chad Wagner plans to provide details at an afternoon news conference. He will be joined by the boy’s parents, John and Reve Walsh, whose son would now be 33.
Adam disappeared from a Sears store across from the Hollywood police station on July 27, 1981. Two weeks later, his severed head was found in a canal 120 miles away. The boy’s body was never recovered, and no one was ever charged in the case.
Walsh turned his grief into action, becoming an early advocate for for missing children and crime victims. Three presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton — have honored John Walsh for his efforts to safeguard children.
His efforts led to the passage of the federal Missing Children’s Assistance Act of 1984, which established the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
And, his fierce loathing of fugitives, convicts and predators launched a new career as host of the television show “America’s Most Wanted.”
Walsh has long believed Toole killed Adam. Toole died in a prison in 1996, while he was serving a life sentence on unrelated charges.
Toole’s confessions in the Walsh case were questioned by police, because Toole confessed to other murders that police knew he did not commit.
The 87-year-old former first lady fell last week but she decided Monday to get checked out at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center because of persistent pain, Joanne Drake said.
Doctors determined she had a fractured pelvis.
“She’s in some pain but in very good spirits,” Drake said.
Mrs. Reagan was undergoing physical therapy but surgery won’t be required, Drake said. It was not known how long she’ll be hospitalized.
Mrs. Reagan apparently got up in middle of the night and fell after twisting on her leg at her home in Bel-Air.
Mrs. Reagan was hospitalized three days in February after a similar fall at the hillside home she shared with President Reagan after their White House years. He died June 5, 2004, after a 10-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
I guess John McCain will soon be “Running on Empty”. Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne has filled a lawsuit against Presidential candidate John McCain for using his song “Running on Empty” without his permission.
The lawsuit claims the song’s use was an infringement of his copyright and will lead people to conclude he endorses McCain. The suit says Browne is a lifelong liberal who is as well-known for his music as for being “an advocate for social and environmental justice.”
The advertisement mocks Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s contention that if U.S. drivers got regular tuneups and drove on properly inflated tires, they could save the same amount of oil that would be gained by offshore drilling. According to the suit, “Running on Empty” plays in the background of the ad criticizing the remarks.
And from the Wall Street Journal:
Yesterday, Browne reportedly filed a copyright infringement suit against both McCain and the Republican National Committee in U.S. District Court in L.A. seeking a permanent injunction as well as damages. Here’s a report from the L.A. Times’ Top of the Ticket blog.
A McCain spokesman told the LAT that the ad in question is not a McCain campaign ad but one put together by the Ohio Republican Party.
Browne’s attorney, Lawrence Y. Iser believes otherwise: “We have sued the Ohio Republican Party as well, and we have been informed and believe that McCain and his campaign were well aware of the ad.” Iser said the lawsuit “is not politically motivated. It’s a copyright infringement lawsuit, pure and simple, but the fact that Sen. McCain has used this song in a hit-piece on Barack Obama is anathema to Jackson.” (The LAT notes that Browne gave Obama $2,000 shortly after he won his Senate seat in 2004 and another $2,300 in March.)
I remember when John Mellencamp was involved in a similar lawsuit years ago when Ronald Reagan used his song “Pink Houses” in his campaign. ABBA has also been involved in a lawsuit as well.
The singer claims his reputation has already been damaged and is seeking more than $75,000 in damages. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out but I’ll be putting my money on Browne. Thoughts?
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