Holiday Letter 2002

 

 

Hello to everyone!

 

Well, another year has passed.  What a crazy year it was been and like most others, it has passed in the blink of an eye.  It’s time once again to reflect and see where it has taken me. 

 

Check out my updated website with lots of new photos and information: http://users.rcn.com/kws0330/Home.html

 

I’m starting my Holiday letter today, Thursday, December 12, 2002, just after returning home from my grandmother’s funeral.  She was my last surviving grandparent and lived a long life of 98 years.  My mom’s mother, Catherine Areni, lived through many changes in this country and the world around her.  Oh, what she must have experienced from 1904 - 2002.  I began thinking and doing a little research.  Below are the top news stories from her lifetime.  It’s amazing to read about all that you can see in a life.   How the world has changed.  Please read on  below at [X]

 

As for me, I have had a really awesome 2002!  I started off in January still traveling around doing training at travel agencies.  January 26 was my luckiest day of the year!  I found something personal that was missing for a long time. 

 

February was nice because I got to spend a week on the island of Jamaica at a Sales Business Meeting.  I know…I know…tough job.  It gets worse…the first weekend, we stayed at a 6-bedroom villa at the Half Moon Resort that was occupied the week before by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.  It had it’s own butler, maid, pool, and golf cart.  Sweet!  For the rest of the week, we stayed at Sandals.  I also bought a new (used) computer…oh, this is so nice…fast and a 19” monitor…what a difference!  I started a photography class too.  I’m much better with my 35mm.

 

March was busy.  My housemate, Christoph returned to Germany.  We got to go to the Philadelphia Flower Show.  That was really beautiful to see.  I was down in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia for our Spring Trade Shows.  I started a spring semester Yoga class.  That was relaxing!

 

April was a good month.  I spent a week over Easter in Arizona with Anh visiting my relatives and his.  We went to Phoenix, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon and Sedona.  The Grand Canyon will always be one of my favorite places…peaceful and beautiful!  After Anh flew home, I went to San Francisco on business.  It’s always fun in SFO!  On April 15, I used my family Christmas present of “tickets” to take my family to see the Champions on Ice show in Reading, PA.  That was fun!  On April 22, I started a new position at Travel Impressions.  Finally, no more travel for work!  I am now the Q/A Manager in the MIS (IT) Department.  Basically, I make sure to catch any bugs in our programs before we release them live.  April 27, we were in NYC to see the Broadway Show, Cabaret with Molly Ringwold…you know from 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club…who knew she could sing too? 

 

In May, my housemate, Lisa’s husband, Carlos, finally was able to move to the USA from the Dominican Republic.  On May 18, we had a Graduation / Wedding Reception for her.  She graduated from Moravian in Education.  (PS - They are expecting their first child in June 2003.)  We were once again in NYC in May to see another Broadway Show, Beauty and the Beast.  Loved it!  On May 26, my Rutgers University friends gathered to celebrate our friend, Jim’s, ordination as a Catholic priest.  He will make a really great “Father!”  Finally, Anh and I took a long weekend in Orlando, Florida to visit Disney World and Universal Studios. 

 

June was great!  I bought my “new” car…2001 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder Convertible.   Wow, I love it!  Check out my website under Photos for a pic.  I took my last travel agency training business trip to Columbus, Ohio…oh, what a fun town, not.  We had a blast at the Cher concert June 22 in Philadelphia!  Now, that was a show! 

 

4th of July week, we spent at the beach in Rehoboth, Delaware.  My first time there, was so much fun that I’m sure to return.  We celebrated another graduation party for my friend, Tim.  Like Lisa, he’s another Education major.  I’m surrounded by teachers!  You all know who you are!  Why do I know so many?

 

August was once again a fun time at Musikfest in Bethlehem, PA!  My friends from Rutgers made it out for a really nice day.  I got to spend some time with Kathy, Franco and their kids as well as, Michelle, Victoria, Father Jim, Kenny and Kenny’s fiancée, Lauren.  Our last Dent Intern housemate, Heiko left to return to Germany.  We have not had another since.  Too bad, I miss having them around.  My housemates, Lisa and Carlos also moved out.  They are living in NYC since Lisa started a teaching job in the Bronx.  Good luck!   Vish, my housemate from India, is still living at my house though.  It’s just the 2 of us.  August 31 we were Broadway bound once again, to see The Phantom of the Opera. 

 

Labor Day weekend of September in NYC was a wet one!  We had tickets to the US Open Tennis match, but the rain canceled it.  Better luck next year, we’ll be getting refunded tickets to come back in 2003.  September 22, my parents, Anh and I went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Vareka in Philadelphia.  Wow!  If you have not seen a Cirque show, go!  You wont regret it! 

 

October 5, we helped out at the XTU 92.5 radio station’s Philly Chili Cook Off.  I’m not into country music, but this was fun!  On the 12th, we went to see Joan Rivers at the State Theatre in Easton.  She is too funny!  I did my volunteer work for the year by getting sponsors and walking in the AIDS Walk Philly on the 20th.  Ended the month celebrating Halloween in Hershey at Hershey Park.  Boo! 

 

We welcomed our newest family member, Kinsey Ryanne Lochard - November 3, 2002.  Her proud parents are my cousin, Tanya Sirotank Lochard and her husband, Keith Lochard.  My friend, Eileen and her husband Mike also has a baby, Alba Marie Sales a few days later.  Congratulations to both families!  Of course, it would not be a complete year without a trip to Europe!  I too Anh for his first trip out of the country.  We went to Rome, Italy Thanksgiving week Nov 22 – Dec 1.  Beautiful city!  It has so many ruins.  We did it all…Vatican City, St Peter’s, Vatican Museum, Piazza Venezia, Roman Forum, Palantine Hill, Pantheon, Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and a day trip to Naples & Pompeii.  If you ever go to Rome, make sure you go to Pompeii.  It’s really worth it!  Photos will soon be up on my website. 

 

Finally December is here!  Christmas shopping and party time!  I hope that you had a great Holiday! 

 

In 2003, I plan to join the gym!  Yes, I need it!  I also plan to head back to Paris in July for my friend, Cecile’s wedding.  She will marry a great Mexican guy, Roberto, who she met while teaching there a few years ago.  I wish them the best of luck and look forward to seeing them and celebrating their special day.  It will be a good chance to catch up with many of our common friends and to spend time with her family.  I also might take a class this year, since my company is finally offering tuition reimbursement.  Well, that’s all I can think of for 2003.  I wish you all health & happiness for the New Year!  Please write when you have time!  For those of you, who sent me Holiday Cards and/or emails, thanks!  I like getting the cards, but have given up on sending them.  I hope to see as many of you as possible in 2003!

 

Love ya,

 

Kevin

 

 

[X] Please look over a lifetime of changes -

YEAR CONCIVED - December 17, 1903 – First Ever Flight - The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, achieved the first successful airplane flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

 

BIRTH YEAR - February 24, 1904 - Panama Canal Treaty Ratified - Ratification of the Panama Canal treaty by the United States Senate at three o'clock this afternoon by a vote of 66 to 14 was the important legislative step to make a reality the "dream of the centuries."  The building of this great interoceanic waterway by the United States is at last assured.  It will change the commercial map of the world and it is a present which this government intends to make to all the nations.

 

AGE 1 - June 30, 1905 - Einstein Proposes Radical New Theory E=mc2 - Physicist Albert Einstein submitted his paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," to the leading German physics journal in 1905. At the age of 26, he applied his theory to mass and energy and formulated the equation E=mc2.

 

AGE 2 - April 18, 1906 - Quake Rocks San Francisco - San Francisco-Earthquake and fire today have put nearly half of San Francisco in ruins.

 

AGE 3 - January 1, 1907 - Pure Food Act Signed - Proclaimed the country's greatest health measure, the crowning achievement of the last session of Congress, the Pure Food bill went into effect yesterday-that is, technically. There was nothing even approaching riot amount the grocers, druggists and delicatessen men. In fact, they feel rather friendly to the bill, since it is friendly to them.

 

AGE 4 - September 30, 1908 - Peary Sets Off To Conquer North Pole - Robert E. Peary coaled his ship, the Roosevelt, from the Erik at Etah, Greenland, and steamed northward on the night of August 17. The Roosevelt is well supplied with Eskimos, dogs and walrus meat.

 

AGE 5 - April 6, 1909 - Warfare in a Zeppelin - Prominent aeronauts throughout the country yesterday discussed with interest the brilliant record made by Count Zeppelin's airship, 850 miles in thirty-seven hours, and some of them spoke of the lesson it teaches as to the importance of this sort of aerial craft in warfare.

 

AGE 6 - July 4, 1910 - Johnson Victorious - John Arthur Johnson, a Texas negro, the son of an American slave, tonight is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

 

AGE 7 - December 29, 1911 - Sun Yat-Sen Elected President of China - Dr. Sun Yat-sen has been unanimously elected President of the Republic of China.

 

AGE 8 - April 14, 1912 - Titanic Sinks - The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, on her maiden - and only - voyage. Touted as "unsinkable," the ship struck an iceberg and went down on April 14, 1912.

 

AGE 9 - March 3, 1913 - Washington Suffrage Pageant - Five thousand women, marching in the woman suffrage pageant today, virtually fought their way foot by foot up Pennsylvania Avenue through a surging mob that completely defied the Washington Police, swamped the marchers, and broke their procession into little companies.

 

AGE 10 - June 28, 1914 - Archduke Assassinated - Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and the Princess of Hohenberg, his morganatic wife, were shot dead today by a student in the main street of the Bosnian capital, a short time after they had escaped from a bomb hurled at the royal automobile. They were slain while passing through the city on their annual visit to the annexed provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

AGE 11 - May 9, 1915 - Lusitania Sinks After Attack - Of those who left New York a week ago on the Lusitania fewer than 700 survived after that vessel was torpedoed and sunk by German submarines off Kinsale, Ireland, Friday afternoon.

 

AGE 12 - November 20, 1916 - Woodrow Wilson Elected President - Wilson won re-election after campaigning on the slogan, "He kept us out of war."

 

AGE 13 - April 6, 1917 - Congress Declares War on Germany to join World War I - The resolution declaring that a state of war exist between the United States and Germany, already passed by the Senate, passed the House shortly after 3 o'clock this morning by a vote of 373 to 50.

 

AGE 14 - Nov. 11, 1918 - America Rejoices Germany Defeat - War-time Washington celebrated noisily the advent of peace.   The demonstration was getting well under way when President Wilson drove to the Capitol to read to Congress the terms imposed upon defeated Germany, and it continued interruptedly far into the night.

 

AGE 15 - June 28, 1919  - Versailles Treaty ends World War I - Germany and the allied and associated powers signed the peace terms here today in the same imperial hall where the Germans humbled the French so ignominiously forty-eight years ago.   This formally ended the world war, which lasted just thirty-seven days less than five years. Today, the day of peace, is the fifth anniversary of the murder of Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo.

 

AGE 16 - October 8, 1920 – Sinn Fein Riots Kill 109 Policemen - Dublin -

 

AGE 17 - March 4, 1921 - Harding Opens White House -  Gates to the White House grounds, closed to the public since the United States severed relations with Germany early in 1917, were opened late today under the first order issued by Warren G. Harding as President of the United States.

 

AGE 18 - November 4, 1922 - King Tut's Tomb Discovered - Explorer Howard Carter, sponsored by his benefactor Lord Carnarvon, discovered the tomb of King (Tut) Tutankhamen on November 4, 1922, and opened the tomb on November 26 of the same year.  Treasures of incalculable worth were discovered in the tomb of this relatively insignificant Egyptian pharaoh.

 

AGE 19 - August 2, 1923  - President Harding Dies - Warren G. Harding, President of the United States, died instantly and without warning tonight at 7:30 o'clock, a victim of a stroke of apoplexy, which struck him down in his weakened condition after an illness of exactly one week.  With the passing of Mr. Harding, the office of President devolves on Calvin Cooldige, Vice President of the United States, a man silent in nature but demonstrated as strong in emergencies.

 

AGE 20 - February 18, 1924 - Scandals Erupt in Washington - Secretary Denby has resigned and will retire from the Cabinet on March 10. He informed President Coolidge that in view of his connection with the oil leases, he did not desire to further embarrass the Administration by remaining a member of the Cabinet.

 

AGE 21 - July 20, 1925 – Darrow Vs. Bryan - The Scopes Evolution Trial -  Admitted agnosticism met unwavering fundamentalism here today as Clarence Darrow, defense attorney in Darrow Vs. Bryan - the Scopes evolution case, drew William Jennings Bryan, associated prosecuting counsel, upon the witness stand.

 

AGE 22 - August 6, 1926 - American Swims the English Channel - Gertrude Ederle, American swimming marvel, tonight won the proud distinction of being the first of her sex to conquer the treacherous waters of the English channel.

 

AGE 23 - May 21, 1927 – Lindbergh’s First Flight Over the Atlantic - From New York to Paris by air is accomplished. The greatest feat in the history of aviation ended on Le Bourget flying field at 10:21 o'clock tonight (3:21 p.m. Indianapolis time), when Capt. Charles A. Lindbergh, lone American aviator, taxied to earth in the flare of red beacons and huge searchlights.

 

AGE 24 - August 11, 1928 - Hoover Accepts Nomination - His voice heard around the world, Herbert Hoover today enunciated the principles upon which he asks the American people to send him to the White House as the third successive Republican President.

 

AGE 25 - October 23, 1929 – The Stock Market Crash - Wall Street was thrown into the nearest approximation of a stock market panic experienced in years during the last hour of trading on the Stock Exchange today. 

 

AGE 26 - December 10, 1930 - The Great Depression Begins - Thousands of excited depositors congregated at eight branches of one of the smaller banking organizations of the city tonight, as a reassuring statement from the New York Federal Reserve Bank and the Wall Street Banking Fraternity was expected momentarily.

 

AGE 27 - January 4, 1931 - Hungry Farmers Riot - England, Ark. - Drought-impoverished farmers of these once fertile Arkansas river bottoms, three hundred or more of whom yesterday descended on this village in search of food were assured by local Red Cross officials today they would be fed.

 

AGE 28 - March 2, 1932 - Lindbergh Baby Kidnapped - Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., 20-month-old son of the flying colonel, was kidnapped last night from his nursery in the Lindbergh country home near here.

 

AGE 29 - March 22, 1933 - Beer Legalized; Prohibition Ends - President Roosevelt signed the 3.2 percent beer and wine bill into law this afternoon immediately on receiving it from the Capital.  The bill modifying the strict prohibition laws which have prevailed since 1920.

 

AGE 30 - March 3, 1934 - Dillinger - Public Enemy #1 – Escapes - John Dillinger, sworn "cop killer" and notorious desperado, made good his boast today, that he would escape any jail.

 

AGE 31 - August 14, 1935 - FDR Signs Social Security Act - President Roosevelt today signed into law a social security program he said would "provide for the United States an economic structure of vastly greater soundness."

 

AGE 32 - November 3, 1936 - FDR Re-Elected - President Roosevelt today had piled up the biggest electoral majority any candidate ever enjoyed since the nation grew up.

 

AGE 33 - July 2, 1937 - Amelia Earhart Missing - Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Captain Fred J. Noonan were believed to have been forced down at sea near Howland Island, in mid-pacific today when the fuel of their Lockheed-Electra monoplane gave out on a flight of 2,556 miles from Lae, New Guinea to the island.

 

AGE 34 - June 23, 1938 - The Brown Bomber, Joe Louis, came back last night - all the way back with an explosion that electrified the fight world and smashed Germany's Max Schmelling into a helpless sprawling figure of defeat in less than one round.

 

AGE 35 - September 1, 1939 - Nazis Invade Poland and Begins World War II - German warplanes swooped over Warsaw this afternoon in an air attack in advance of three Hitler armies invading this country.

 

AGE 36 - May 31, 1940 - Allies Defeated at Dunkirk - Thousands of Britain's smashed army of Flanders, staggering with fatigue from the bloody 20-day failure across the Channel, landed on home soil tonight. But many were lost on the narrow stretch of water that was turned into a raging strip of fire.

 

AGE 37 - December 7, 1941 - Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor - In an attack without parallel in the Far East, Nipponese planes appeared without warning over Hawaii just after dawn on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning and bombed U.S. air and naval forces at Pearl Harbor.

 

AGE 38 - June 5, 1942 - The Battle of Midway Island - We received word the Japs were coming in at 6 a.m. on June 4. They were sighted at 6:20, several miles at sea. We were ready for them. All our planes were in the air when they came in three waves of bombers at 10,000 feet.

 

AGE 39 - January 31, 1943 - Soviet Victory at Stalingrad - Virtually complete destruction of Hitler's proud Stalingrad siege forces of 330,000 men - with smashing of two crack Nazi armies, killing of 100,000 troops in the last 20 days alone, and capture of a field marshal and 16 generals - was announced by the Soviets late tonight in a triumphant special communiqué.

 

AGE 40 - June 6, 1944 - The Beginning of the End - D-Day - American, British and Canadian troops landed in northern France this morning, launching the greatest overseas military operation in history with word from their supreme commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, that "we will accept nothing except full victory" over the German masters of the continent.

 

AGE 41 - August 6, 1945 - Atom Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima and Helps Bring an End to World War II - An atomic bomb, hailed as the most terrible destructive force in history and as the greatest achievement of organized science, has been loosed upon Japan.   President Truman disclosed in a White House statement at 11 a.m., Eastern War Time, today that the first use of the bomb containing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT and producing more than 2,000 times the blast of the most powerful bomb ever dropped before was made 16 hours earlier on Hiroshima, a Japanese army base.

 

AGE 42 - September 1, 1946 - Prosperity Returns to U.S. - Here are the major ways in which Americans planned early this spring to use their savings and income:  (1) Some 5 million wanted cars this year. Two out of five had less than $500 savings, and yet only one out of five would settle for a used car. The great majority (62 percent) wanted to pay from $1,000 to $1,350.  (2)Some 9.9 million definitely planned to buy refrigerators, furniture, radios, washing machines.  (3) Some 3.1 million wanted homes.

 

AGE 43 - April 10, 1947 - Jackie Robinson Breaks Baseball's Color Barrier - Jackie Robinson, brilliant Negro infielder, today became the first of his race to break into modern major league baseball when President Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers announced the purchase of his contract from the Montreal Royals of the International League.

 

AGE 44 - May 14, 1948 - Israel Declares Statehood - Prime Minister David Ben Gurion signs a document proclaiming the new state of Israel.  The United Nations, with the backing of the United States and the Soviet Union, mandated the creation of Israel as a Jewish state.  The Arab nations surrounding Israel were violently opposed to the new state.  War began on the day of independence.

 

AGE 45 - April 24, 1949 - Revolution in China - Chairman Mao Tse-tung proclaims founding of the People's Republic of China. 

 

AGE 46 - February 10, 1950 - McCarthy Charges Reds in Government - Senator McCarthy (R., Wis.) said tonight that under certain conditions, he would give Dean Acheson, Secretary of State, the names of "57 card-carrying Communists" in the State Department.

 

AGE 47 - April 11, 1951 - Truman Fires Gen. MacArthur - President Truman early today forced General Douglas MacArthur from all his commands.  The President said he had concluded that MacArthur "is unable to give his wholehearted support" to United States and United Nations policies.

 

AGE 48 - November 1, 1952 - U.S. Explodes Hydrogen Bomb - The distinctive mushroom cloud from the first U.S. hydrogen bomb test rises over Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.

 

AGE 49 - June 19, 1953 - Rosenbergs Executed - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, silent and without emotion, died in the electric chair tonight for betraying atomic bomb secrets to Russia.

 

AGE 50 - May 17, 1954 - Brown Vs. Board of Education in Segregation Case - The Supreme Court ruled today that the states of the nation do not have the right to separate Negro and white pupils in different public schools.  By a unanimous 9-0 vote, the high court held that such segregation of the races is unconstitutional.

 

AGE 51 - December 5, 1955 – Rosa Parks Arrested; Negro Boycott Begins - The arrest of a Negro who refused to move to the colored section of a city bus may bring a court test of segregated transportation in the cradle of Confederacy.  While thousands of other Negroes boycotted Montgomery City Lines in protest, Mrs. Rosa Parks was fined $14 in police court today for disregarding a driver's order to move to the rear of a bus last Thursday.

 

AGE 52 - July 29, 1956 - Egypt Nationalizes Suez Canal - Egypt is seizing the Suez Canal under a nationalization decree, President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced tonight. Its revenues will be used to build the Aswan High Dam, he said.

 

AGE 53 - October 5, 1957 - Sputnik I Launched - The Soviet Union announced today it has the world's first artificial moon streaking around the globe 560 miles out in space.

 

AGE 54 - November 3, 1958 - Satellite Carries Dog Into Orbit - The Soviet Union moved closer to space travel today by launching a second earth satellite-this one a half-ton air-conditioned sphere carrying a live dog.  The world's most famous dog, Laika,  has fallen from the skies, still locked in the steel casket where she died, a bizarre and bewildered first citizen of space.  Russia's Sputnik II became a flaming hearse as it twisted and burrowed through the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere. Both the satellite and its passenger were cremated in the heat of the friction.

 

AGE 55 - November 21, 1959 - Quiz Show Scandal - Fallen TV idol Charles Van Doren confessed in shame and anguish today that he was deeply involved in rigging the defunct, scandal-tinged "Twenty-One" quiz show.

 

AGE 56 - September 26, 1960 - Kennedy-Nixon Debate - The rival presidential candidates clashed tonight in unprecedented debate that left issues and positions unchanged, the goals for America in broad agreement, the methods of reaching them in dispute.  Vice President Richard M. Nixon, the Republican nominee, and Sen. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic standard bearer, quarreled in public, before millions of television viewers, over such things as the farm problem and pay for teachers.

 

AGE 57 - July 20, 1961 - The Rise of the Berlin Wall - The Communists early today barred East Germans from West Berlin--either to work or visit--in an attempt to dam the flow of refugees to the west.

 

AGE 58 - October 23, 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis - President Kennedy tonight ordered a blockade clamped on deliveries of offensive arms to Cuba effective at 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow.

 

AGE 59 - November 22, 1963 - JFK Assassinated - President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy. She cried, “Oh, No!” The motorcade sped on. 

 

AGE 60 - June 19, 1964 - Civil Rights Bill Passed - The Senate tonight passed the Civil Rights Bill containing strong new barriers to racial bias in employment, public facilities, businesses and federal aid programs.

 

AGE 61 - February 14, 1965 - Selma Negro Voter Registration Drive - More than 2,000 Negroes, including teachers and school children, marched to the Dallas County Courthouse today in a massive demonstration underscoring their voter registration drive.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who opened the campaign nearly one month ago, led the first wave of 1,200 adults to the courthouse, where the board of registrars received voter applications. There was no trouble, no arrests.

 

AGE 62 - June 6, 1966 - James Meredith Shot - James H. Meredith met a shotgun ambush today as he led a handful of civil rights marchers along a Mississippi highway on a pilgrimage to banish racial fear in his deep south homeland.  A world-wide symbol in America's integration crisis since his riot-marked entry four years ago into the University of Mississippi, Meredith apparently escaped with superficial wounds. At a Memphis, Tenn., Hospital, his condition was reported as satisfactory.

 

AGE 63 - January 19, 1967 - Vietnam - Operation Cedar Falls - An objective of Operation Cedar Falls is to make the Iron Triangle useless to the Viet Cong.

 

AGE 64 - April 4, 1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated - Nobel Laureate Martin Luther King Jr., father of non-violence in the American civil rights movement, was killed by an assassin's bullet Thursday night.  King, 39, was hit in the neck by a bullet as he stood on the balcony of a motel here. He died less than an hour later in St. Joseph's Hospital.

 

AGE 65 - July 20, 1969 - Neil Armstrong Walks on the Moon - Two Americans landed on the moon and explored its surface for some two hours Sunday, planting the first human footprints in its dusty soil. They raised their nation's flag and talked to their President on earth 240,000 miles away.  Both civilian Neil Alden Armstrong and Air Force Col. Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. reported they were back in their spacecraft at 1:11 a.m. EDT Monday. "The hatch is closed and locked," Armstrong reported.

 

AGE 66 - April 30, 1970 - U.S. Invades Cambodia - President Nixon dramatically

announced Thursday night that American ground troops have attacked - at his order - a Communist base complex extending 20 miles into Cambodia.

 

AGE 67 - April 11, 1971 - China Welcomes U.S. Ping Pong Team, American Correspondents - We are the first U.S. correspondents ever given visas as working newsmen, officials here told us. The table tennis team was the first American group of any kind invited to the mainland since the People's Republic was proclaimed in 1949.

 

AGE 68 - November 8, 1972 - Nixon Re-Elected in Landslide Victory - President Nixon swept to towering re-election Tuesday night, burying Democratic challenger George McGovern beneath one of history's greatest landslides.

 

AGE 69 - November 9, 1973 - Energy Crisis Deepens - Schools considered shorter sessions, motorists took their feet off the gas pedals and department stores cut back on plans for holiday season displays as energy belt-tightening continued Friday.

 

AGE 70 - August 8, 1974 - Nixon Resigns due to Watergate - President Nixon resigned Thursday night, telling the nation he acted to help heal the wounds of Watergate and to give America "a full-time president" in Gerald R. Ford.

 

AGE 71 - April 29, 1975 - U.S. Pulls Out of Saigon - Dodging bullets from bitter South Vietnamese troops and fighting off desperate civilians, Americans fled Saigon today in an armada of 81 helicopters guarded by 800 marines and U.S. fighter planes roaring overhead.   Communist-led troops, meanwhile, pressed closer to Saigon and President Duong Van Minh maneuvered in search of a ceasefire.

 

AGE 72 - July 4, 1976 - The U.S. Bicentennial - The greatest maritime spectacle in American history marked the nation's 200th birthday Sunday as stately tall ships from a by-gone era led a parade of sailing vessels in review past modern men-of-war in New York Harbor.

 

AGE 73 - November 20, 1977 - Sadat Speaks to the Knesset - When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat spoke to Israel and the world Sunday from the rostrum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem a new page was written in the often-bloody history of Arab-Israeli relations.

 

AGE 74 - November 20, 1978 - Cultists Commit Mass Suicide in Guyana - Guyanese soldiers searched through a steaming jungle Monday for hundreds of American religious zealots who fled their remote compound after the suicide-murder deaths of at least 409 fellow cultists.  Some were shot, but most apparently lined up and took doses of cyanide poison mixed in a tub with flavored water. A witness said poison was spoon-fed to babies.

 

AGE 75 - April 6, 1979 - Three Mile Island Incident - In the darkness before dawn, in the chill mists that rise from the Susquehanna River, the atomic powerhouse on Three Mile Island defied its human keepers and threatened catastrophe.

 

AGE 76 - November 4, 1980 - Reagan Wins in a Landslide - Ronald Reagan won the White House from President Carter Tuesday night in a startling landslide that changed the face of American government, delivering control of the Senate to Republicans for the first time in a quarter century.

 

AGE 77 - January 21, 1981 - Iranian Hostages Freed - It fell, finally, for Ronald Reagan to tell the nation what Jimmy Carter had labored so long to be able to say: America's hostages were free.  The declaration - awaited by Americans for more than 14 months - came from the new president Tuesday, minutes after he took the oath of office.

 

AGE 78 - June 24, 1982 - ERA Defeated - The National Organization for Women -the driving force behind the campaign to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment - has given up on ERA for the moment and will concentrate on other ways to insure women's rights, the president of NOW said Thursday.  The deadline for ratification of the constitutional ban on sex discrimination by 38 states falls on June 30. Only 35 states so far have approved the measure, and NOW's recent drive to win in three more states has been defeated in each.

 

AGE 79 - October 23, 1983 - Suicide Bombing in Beirut - A suicide bomber rammed a pickup truck packed with explosives into an airport building full of sleeping Marines early Sunday and blew up the four-story structure. The U.S. Embassy said at least 76 Marines were killed and 115 wounded.   Moments later another terrorist drove a car loaded with explosives into a compound a mile away housing French members of the multinational force in Beirut, and Lebanon's state radio said as many as 100 French soldiers were killed.

 

AGE 80 - July 19, 1984 - Ferraro Accepts VP Nomination - Geraldine A. Ferraro, her "heart filled with pride," accepted a tumultuous salute and the Democratic vice presidential nomination Thursday with sharp words for President Reagan and the personal proclamation: "Change is in the air."

 

AGE 81 - October 2, 1985 - Rock Hudson Dies of AIDS - Rock Hudson, for two decades one of Hollywood's superstars, died today after a battle with AIDS that brought worldwide attention to the incurable disease. He was 59.

 

AGE 82 - January 28, 1986 - Challenger Explodes - Space shuttle Challenger exploded into a gigantic fireball 75 seconds after liftoff today, killing its crew of seven, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. 

 

AGE 83 - July 8, 1987 - Iran-Contra Hearings - In two days of testimony, Lt. Col. Oliver North has contradicted key assertions by major figures in the Iran-Contra affair, including President Reagan, Attorney General Edwin Meese III, and late CIA Director William Casey.

 

AGE 84 - December 21, 1988 - Jumbo Jet Crashes in Lockerbie - A New York-bound jumbo jet carrying 258 Christmas travelers crashed in a Scottish village Wednesday night, sending up a towering ball of flame and raining burning debris on houses and cars.   Four hours after the Pan Am Boeing 747 crashed at Lockerbie in southwest Scotland, there was no word of survivors among the passengers, some of them U.S. servicemen according to unconfirmed reports.

 

AGE 85 - November 11, 1989 - The Berlin Wall Crumbles - Workers punched through the Berlin Wall today and border guards from two nations reached through a gaping hole and shook hands in a spine-tingling ceremony marking the opening of the border between East and West Germany.  Thousands of exultant East Germans poured across the border for a second day to revel in their new freedom to travel after three decades of confinement in their once strictly controlled country.

 

AGE 86 - February 11, 1990 - Mandela Released From Prison - Nelson Mandela walked through a prison gate to freedom Sunday, welcomed joyfully by blacks as their leader after 27 years in jail for choosing to take up arms against apartheid.

 

AGE 87 - January 16, 1991 - Persian Gulf War Begins - The United States launched air attacks early Thursday against Iraq, hurling the world's mightiest air force against an Arab power that seized and occupied Kuwait in defiance of the rest of the world.  ''Operation Desert Storm,'' which U.S. officials said included U.S.-allied forces, began at 3 a.m. local time, 7 p.m. EST, the White House said. It said the U.S.-led attack was aimed at Iraqi troops in both Iraq and Kuwait.

 

AGE 88 - December 10, 1992 - Famine Stalks Somalia - A few miles outside Mogadishu, the confident crunch of Marine boots gives way before the wavering cries of sickly, starving children from the stick huts at the Lafoole refugee camp.

 

AGE 89 - February 27, 1993 - World Trade Center Bombed - An explosion apparently caused by a car bomb in an underground garage rocked the 110-story World Trade Center on Friday, killing at least five people, injuring 600 and forcing thousands to flee down dark, smoke-filled stairs.

 

AGE 90 - May 13, 1994 - Rwandan Massacre - Nobody lives here any more. Not the expectant mothers huddled outside the maternity clinic, not the families squeezed into the church, not the man who lies rotting in a schoolroom beneath a chalkboard map of Africa.  Everybody here is dead. Karubamba is a vision from hell, a flesh-and-bone junkyard of human wreckage, an obscene slaughterhouse that has fallen silent save for the roaring buzz of flies the size of honeybees.

 

AGE 91 - April 19, 1995 - Bomb Rips Through Oklahoma City Building - A car bomb ripped a nine-story hole in a downtown federal office building today, killing at least 20 people, including 17 children at a day-care center, and injuring hundreds. Bodies were spotted in the building and 300 people were unaccounted for. Other victims were trapped in the rubble.

 

AGE 92 - July 18, 1996 - TWA Flight 800 Explodes Off Long Island - Rescuers pulled more than 100 burned bodies from the waters off New York on Thursday as an FBI terrorism team investigated what caused a TWA jumbo jet to explode over the Atlantic shortly after takeoff. All 230 people aboard were apparently killed.  President Clinton and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno warned against jumping to conclusions about what caused the plane to crash, which killed all 212 passengers and 18 crew members.

 

AGE 93 - September 6, 1997 - Funeral for a Princess - Then, 16 years ago, a shy Diana Spencer emerged from a glass coach in an ivory, silk taffeta wedding gown, trailing a 25-foot train, to become the Princess of Wales.  Now, here was another rare English summer day, with sunlight slanting blue beams through stained-glass windows and the streets lined with even larger crowds - 20 deep outside the abbey.

 

AGE 94 - January 22, 1998 - Clinton Presidency in Crisis - For five years, scandal and surprise have surrounded President Clinton, raising doubts about his character but not seriously hurting his political popularity.  Indeed, even as Paula Jones pushed ahead with her sexual harassment suit against him and Monica Lewinsky entered the public arena, the president's rating was comfortably high, above 60 percent.

 

AGE 95 - June 9, 1999 - NATO Alliance Agrees on Kosovo Peace Plan - The commander of NATO troops in Macedonia said today the alliance and Yugoslav generals signed an agreement providing for the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo, suspension of NATO airstrikes and the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees.  Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson made the announcement after marathon negotiations at this French military base near the Kosovo border.  ”The war has ended,” Yugoslav Col. Gen. Svetozar Marjanovic told reporters after Jackson made his statement.

 

AGE 96 - October 12, 2000 - USS Cole Attacked in Aden, Yemen – The USS Cole, claimed by the Navy to be the "finest warship in the world" a "Determined Warrior", was attacked earlier today in the Yemeni port of Aden.  Four members of the crews 350 sailors were reported killed, while 36 have so far been reported injured and 10 others missing.  It's assumed that all aboard what can only be described as a suicide vehicle are dead as well.  First reports that the craft utilized was a rubber raft are now being replaced with reports that it was a boat.

 

AGE 97 - September 11, 2001  - Terrorist Attacks Begin War on Terrorism – In an apparently coordinated terrorist attack against the United States, four commercial passenger jets crashed on Tuesday, three of them into significant landmarks.  U.S. intelligence officials tell CNN "there are good indications that persons linked to Osama bin Laden may be responsible for these attacks." The sources say they based the statement on specific information that had been gathered Tuesday. Bin Laden is the Saudi millionaire who has been blamed for terror attacks against U.S. interests and is believed to be in Afghanistan.  American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members, slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m. About 15 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles, with 56 passengers and nine crew members on board, crashed into the south tower. Both towers eventually collapsed in a shower of debris and plume of thick dust. A half-hour after the second crash, American Flight 77 took off from Washington, D.C.'s Dulles Airport en route to Los Angeles, California, carrying 58 passengers and six crew members -- but crashed into the Pentagon instead. Less than an hour after the third crash, United Flight 93 en route from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, with 38 passengers and seven crew aboard.

 

AGE 98 - November 9, 2002 - U.N. Security Council Passes Resolution Demanding that Iraq Disarm - The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday giving weapons inspectors the muscle they need to hunt for illicit weapons in Iraq. The vote was a major victory for the United States and started a countdown toward disarmament or war.