Great and Terrible Week in History

One of my kids (I'm a youth leader at church) was talking on Wednesday about what a horrible week this was in history. These were her reasons:


An attempted assassination of Bob Marley
The guy who was killed at the Rolling Stones concert in California
Pearl Harbor day (64th anniversary)
John Lennon was assassinated (25 years ago)


Of course being the sensitive and understanding youth leader I am, I asked if she got her history lesson from Rolling Stone Magazine... Three of the four of these evens aren't even historically significant. (Lennon fans are going to hate me for that, I know, but really, in 100 or 200 years will he be remembered? I bet Pearl Harbor will be - like Fort Sumter or Fort McHenry or the Boston Tea Party are remembered - I bet MLK's assassination will be remembered because he was, historically speaking, a much more significant figure). The point is not to alienate Lennon fans (or Marley fans or Stones fans) - but to simply comment on how culture overshadows, well, everything. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing...just a thing... Is it wrong to equate the "day that will live in infamy" with, say, "the day that the music died?" Are they similar events? Does it even matter?


I dunno. We've been reading a book in our Wednesday morning men's study group called The Vanishing Word byArthur W. Hunt III. Hunt's thesis seems to be that the more the church bows to the culture (and his premise is the replacement of word with image), the more quickly our culture (and the church within it) self-destructs... I suppose if we had people (not historians, mind you, but real people - the kind that Leno interviews on the street...well, maybe more real that those people) if we had people list the most significant assassinations of all of history, a lot of people would probably include Lennon...hmmm, I wonder how many would include Jesus?


A great and terrible week in history...


By the way, here's a list of "historically significant events" from
http://search.teach-nology.com/today/today2S.pl
for December 8th:
(Note how the nature of "historically signficant" changes as we approach the current year...the "Spice Girls" making it on a list of historically significant events...what IS the world coming to? - go to the site and you'll find Lennon under "Famous Deaths" for the date):


1326 - Daitokuji temple, Rinzai line, established in Kyoto by Daito Kokushi
1710 - Battle at Brihuega: English Gen Stanhope captured
1776 - George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from NJ
1777 - Capt Cook leaves Society Islands
1792 - 1st cremation in US, Henry Laurens
1794 - 1st issue of Herald of Rutland, VT published
1813 - Ludwig von Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A, premieres
1846 - Hector Berlioz's "La Damnation de Faust," premieres
1849 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Luisa Miller," premieres in Naples
1852 - Gustav Freytag's "Die Journalisten," premieres in Breslau
1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaims Immaculate Conception, makes Mary, free of Original Sin
1857 - 1st production of Dion Boucicaults "Poor of NY"
1863 - 2,500 reported killed at Church of La Compana, Santiago Chile
1863 - Abraham Lincoln announces plan for Reconstruction of South
1863 - Jesuit church in Chile catches fire, 2,500 die in panic
1863 - Pres Lincoln offers amnesty for confederate deserters
1864 - Pope Pius IX publishes encyclical Quanta cura ("Syllabus errorum")
1869 - 20th Roman Catholic ecumenical council, Vatican I, opens in Rome
1874 - Jesse James gang takes train at Muncie Kansas
1875 - Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Volki i Ovsty," premieres in St Petersburg
1876 - Suriname begins compulsory education for 7-12 years
1880 - 5,000 armed Boers gather in Paardekraal South-Africa
1881 - Vienna's Ring Theater destroyed by fire, kills between 640-850
1886 - American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions Samuel Gompers elected AFL president
1895 - Battle at Amba Alagi: Ethiopian emperor Menelik II drives Italian general Baratieri's out
1896 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Missing 3 Quarter" (BG)
1899 - Natal: British fall/burst out belegerd Ladysmith
1902 - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr became Associate Justice on Supreme Court
1909 - Bird banding society found
1913 - Construction starts on Palace of Fine Arts in SF
1914 - British & German fleets battle at Falkland Island
1914 - Connie Mack sells Eddie Collins to the White Sox
1914 - Irving Berlin's musical "Watch your Step," premieres in NYC
1915 - Jean Sibelius' 5th Symphony in E, premieres
1921 - Eamon de Valera publicly repudiates Anglo-Irish Treaty
1923 - German-US friendship treaty signed
1923 - Labour/Liberals win British parliament
1923 - Salary & price freeze in Germany
1930 - Broadway Theater opens at 1681 Broadway NYC
1930 - Cole Porter's musical "NYCers," premieres in NYC
1931 - Coaxial cable patented
1934 - Friedrich Wolf's "Professor Mamlock," premieres in Zrich
1936 - Anastasio Somoza elected pres of Nicaragua
1936 - NAACP files suit to equalize salaries of black & white teachers
1938 - Highest temperature for December in US recorded in La Mesa Calif
1938 - LP Beria follows Nikolai Jezjov as head of Russian secret police
1940 - 1st NFL championship on national radio; Bears beat Redskins 73-0
1941 - Destruction Camp Chelmo opens
1941 - London: Dutch government declares Japan the war
1941 - Russian 16th army recaptures Krijukovo
1941 - SF 1st blackout, at 6:15 PM
1941 - US & Britain declare war on Japan, US enters WW II
1942 - 8th Heisman Trophy Award: Frank Sinkwich, Georgia (HB)
1943 - John Van Druten's "Voice of the Turtle," premieres in NYC
1946 - Army rocket plane XS-1 makes 1st powered flight
1947 - "Caribbean Carnival" opens at International Theater NYC for 11 perfs
1948 - "Marinka" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 168 performances
1948 - 14th Heisman Trophy Award: Doak Walker, SMU (HB)
1948 - Jordan annexs Arabic Palestine
1949 - "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 740 perfs
1949 - Chinese Nationalist govt moves from Chinese mainland to Formosa
1949 - Jule Styne's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," premieres in NYC
1951 - "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 267 perfs
1951 - AL alters its restrictions on night games, adopting NL's suspended game rule & lifting its ban on lights for Sunday games
1952 - 1st TV acknowledgement of pregnancy (I Love Lucy)
1952 - French troops shoot on demonstrators at Casablanca, 50 die
1952 - Isaak Ben-Zwi elected pres of Israel
1953 - 19th Heisman Trophy Award: John Lattner, Notre Dame (HB)
1954 - Maxwell Anderson's "Bad Seed," premieres in NYC
1954 - WPTZ TV channel 5 in Plattsburgh, NY (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 - 21st Heisman Trophy Award: Howard Cassady, Ohio State (HB)
1955 - Brooklyn catcher Roy Campanella wins his 3rd MVP Award
1955 - Turkish govt of Menderes forms
1956 - 16th Olympic games close at Melbourne, Australia
1956 - 1st test firing of Vanguard satellite program, TV-0
1956 - Guy Mitchell's "Singing the Blues," single goes #1 for 10 weeks
1959 - Dom Mintoff demands independence for Malta
1959 - President Eisenhower watches Pakistan v Aust Test Cricket at Karachi
1960 - Expansion LA Angels sign a 4 year lease to use Dodger Stadium
1961 - Antwerp Belgium diocese forms
1961 - Larry Costello scores 32 consecutive pts without a miss (NBA rec)
1961 - S Africa v NZ, Durban debuts for Eddie Barlow & Peter Pollock
1961 - Wilt Chamberlain scores the 2nd highest total in the NBA - 78
1962 - "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" closes at Shubert NYC after 300 perfs
1962 - 114-day newspaper strike begins in NYC
1962 - Failed coup in Brunei
1962 - Funeral for Queen Wilhelmina of Holland (New Kerk, Delft)
1963 - "Girl Who Came to Supper" opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 112 perfs
1963 - Mickey Wright/Dave Ragan Jr wins LPGA Haig & Haig Scotch Mixed Golf
1963 - 3 fuel tanks explodes when jetliner is struck by lightning crashing near Elkton, Maryland-Only case of lightning caused crash, 81 die
1965 - Abe Burrows' "Cactus Flower," premieres in NYC
1965 - Nikolai Podgorny succeeds Mikojan as president of USSR
1965 - Pope Paul VI signs 2nd Vatican council
1966 - A terrible Yankee trade, Roger Maris for Card's Charlie Smith
1966 - US & USSR sign treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons in outer space
1967 - Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" album is released in UK
1967 - NHL California Seals change name to Oakland Seals
1969 - Greek DC-6B crashes in storm at Athens, 93 killed
1969 - Police surprise attack on Black-Panthers in LA
1972 - United Airlines crashes at Chicago's Midway Airport killing 45
1973 - "Seesaw" closes at Uris Theater NYC after 296 performances
1973 - 39th Heisman Trophy Award: John Cappelletti, Penn State (RB)
1974 - Greek monarchy rejected by referendum
1974 - Irish Republican Socialist Party forms
1974 - Sandra Post wins LPGA Colgate Far East Golf Open
1974 - Soyuz 16 returns to Earth
1975 - "Raisin" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 847 performances
1976 - UN General Assembly re-elects Kurt Waldheim secretary-General
1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1977 - 43rd Heisman Trophy Award: Earl Campbell, Texas (RB)
1977 - Portugal's premier Soares resigns
1978 - Commencement of the 1st day/night WSC cricket supertest at VFL Park
1980 - "Bravo" network premieres on cable TV
1981 - France performs nuclear test
1982 - "Herman Van Veen: All of Him" opens at Ambassador NYC for 6 perfs
1982 - Clark Gilles fails in 7th Islander penalty shot
1982 - Suriname army leader Bouterse murders 15 opponents
1982 - Demanding an end to nuclear weapons, Norman Mayer, held Wash Monument hostage. After 10 hrs, police kill him he had no explosives
1983 - 9th Space Shuttle Mission-Columbia 6-lands at Edwards AFB
1983 - Richard Baker, Zen teacher, steps down from abbotship of SF Zen Center
1984 - 73rd Australian Men Tennis: Mats Wilander beats K Curren (67 64 76 62)
1984 - Europe & 64 developing countries sign Lom‚ III treaty
1984 - Ringo appears on Saturday Night Live
1985 - 60th Australian Womens Tennis: M Navratilova beats C Evert (62 46 62)
1985 - Ken O'Brien's 96 yard TD pass (NY Jet record) to Wesley Walker
1985 - Laurie Rinker/Larry Rinker wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
1986 - House Dems select majority leader Jim Wright as 48th speaker
1987 - Flyers' Ron Hextall becomes 1st goalie to actually score a goal
1987 - Jack Sikma (Milwaukee) begins NBA free throw streak of 51 games
1987 - Occupied Palestinians start "intefadeh" (uprising) against Israel
1987 - President Reagan & Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles
1988 - Knick's set NBA record of 11 3-pointers & sink Bucks, 113-109
1989 - Great Britain performs nuclear test
1990 - Galileo Earth-1 Flyby
1990 - Indians agree to a lease new ballpark in Gateway (Jacobs Field)
1991 - "Homecoming" closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 49 performances
1991 - "Nick & Nora" opens at Marquis Theater NYC for 9 performances
1991 - Kris Tschetter/Billy Andrade wins LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
1991 - Russia, Belorussia & Ukraine form Commonwealth of Ind States
1992 - Galileo's nearest approach to Jupiter (303 km)
1992 - NBC announces that "Cheers" will go off the air in May, 1993
1993 - 30 killed at religious rebellion in Algeria
1993 - 4th Billboard Music Awards
1993 - Dow-Jones hits record 3734.53
1993 - Storm hits West Europe, 11 killed in England
1994 - "What's Wrong With this Picture?" opens at Circle in Sq NYC for 12 per
1994 - Darryl Strawberry indicted on tax evasion charges
1994 - Fire in cinema in Karamay China, 310 killed
1996 - "God Said, Ha!" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 22 performances
1996 - Donna Andrews & Mike Hulbert win LPGA J C Penney Golf Classic
1997 - 8th Billboard Music Awards: LeAnn Rimes & Spice Girls win

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