History Thread...

[mtutiger]

4 hours ago, oblong said:

I won't share a scene from Slap Shot because I can't think of one that's appropriate but I watch this montage from Color Of Money all the time.  The other great one, even better than this, is the Werewolves of London scene but that's mostly about Cruise and Scorcese's awesome direction and editing.  He totally deserved the Oscar for this, it wasn't a career award, especially when you consider the other nominees. This is a great movie that I suggest you revisit.  You get Tom Cruise right before Top Gun.  He's raw.  

 

I loved The Color of Money, but Bob Hoskins was better in Mona Lisa (such an underrated actor in general IMO)

Edited January 27 by mtutiger

[CMRivdogs]

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At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger. She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger‘s launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground, including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle broke up in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.

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A cease-fire in the Vietnam War goes into effect at 8 a.m., Saigon time (midnight on January 27, Greenwich Mean Time).

When the cease-fire went into effect, Saigon controlled about 75 percent of South Vietnam’s territory and 85 percent of the population. The South Vietnamese Army was well equipped via last-minute deliveries of U.S. weapons and continued to receive U.S. aid after the cease-fire. The CIA estimated North Vietnamese presence in the South at 145,000 men, about the same as the previous year. The cease-fire began on time, but both sides violated it. South Vietnamese forces continued to take back villages occupied by communists in the two days before the cease-fire deadline and the communists tried to capture additional territory.

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On January 28, 1901, professional baseball’s American League is founded in Milwaukee, reconstituting itself from a minor-league entity to a major-league one. The league plans for a 140-game schedule, 14-man rosters and a players’ union. Franchises are in Baltimore (Orioles), Boston (Americans), Chicago (White Stockings), Cleveland (Blues), Detroit (Tigers), Milwaukee (Brewers), Philadelphia (Athletics) and Washington (Senators).

The American League's formation came shortly after professional baseball’s other major league, the National League, contracted from 12 to eight teams. Formed in 1876, the NL had been professional baseball’s most stable league for decades. 

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The special instruction Quincy Jones sent out to the several dozen pop stars invited to participate in the recording of “We Are the World” was this: “Check your egos at the door.” Jones was the producer of a record that would eventually go on to sell more than 7 million copies and raise more than $60 million for African famine relief. But before “We Are the World” could achieve those feats, it had to be captured on tape—no simple feat considering the number of major recording artists slated to participate. With only one chance to get the recording the way he and songwriters Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wanted it, Jones convened the marathon recording session of “We Are the World” at around 10 p.m. on the evening of January 28, 1985, immediately following the conclusion of the American Music Awards ceremony held just a few miles away.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

[oblong]

I saw a reel that identified the seminal moments for each generation:

Boomer:  Moon Landing

Gen X - Space Shuttle Challenger (they originally had Stock Market Crash of '87 but I disagree)

Millenials - 9/11

Gen Z - Global Finance Crisis

Gen Alpha - Covid

There's a great doc on Netflix about Challenger and the faulty decisions by management despite what Thoikol was telling them.  

 

[oblong]

One of the Challenger Astronauts was Ron McNair.  As a kid he tried to check out books from the public library in Salt Lake City but it was segregated and they wouldn't let him.  He refused to leave and eventually the police came.  They finally let him get the books.  The library is named after him now.  He got a PhD in Physics from MIT.

 

[smr-nj]

I was home from work the day of the Challenger disaster… I was ill, but watching- and I recall shaking my head, trying to decide if what I was seeing was what had happened.  
Shocked. That’s the one word that can describe what I was feeling.  Still awful to think about

[smr-nj]

January 29th…

• 1892 The Coca-Cola Company is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia

[1776]

 

Can you believe this native of Detroit is 80 years old today!?! Seems as though it was only yesterday that he, T.C. and Rick were making life miserable for Jonathan Higgins. 

[1776]

1 minute ago, 1776 said:

 

Can you believe this native of Detroit is 80 years old today!?! Seems as though it was only yesterday that he, T.C. and Rick were making life miserable for Jonathan Higgins. 

 

[oblong]

1 hour ago, 1776 said:

 

Can you believe this native of Detroit is 80 years old today!?! Seems as though it was only yesterday that he, T.C. and Rick were making life miserable for Jonathan Higgins. 

I'm about the same age as he was when he was the 'old' guy on Friends.

Damn.

[chasfh]

On 1/25/2025 at 1:22 PM, smr-nj said:

Something we’ve all take it for granted, but oh my God, these colonists had to have gigantic sets of balls on them to Wage War against the British empire. It’s kinda hard to believe that they did it, and then they succeeded. But how disappointed so many of them would be with the **** that’s going on right now.

The colonists not only had the home field advantage of knowing the terrain and being 3,000-4,000 miles away from the aggressor, they also lacked the distinct disadvantage of not having European weapons available to them.

[chasfh]

Because, of course, this is first and foremost a Tigers-oriented forum.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-baseball-hall-of-fame-elects-first-members

On January 29, 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson.

The Hall of Fame actually had its beginnings in 1935, when plans were made to build a museum devoted to baseball and its 100-year history. A private organization based in Cooperstown called the Clark Foundation thought that establishing the Baseball Hall of Fame in their city would help to reinvigorate the area’s Depression-ravaged economy by attracting tourists. To help sell the idea, the foundation advanced the idea that U.S. Civil War hero Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown. The story proved to be phony, but baseball officials, eager to capitalize on the marketing and publicity potential of a museum to honor the game’s greats, gave their support to the project anyway.

In preparation for the dedication of the Hall of Fame in 1939—thought by many to be the centennial of baseball—the Baseball Writers’ Association of America chose the five greatest superstars of the game as the first class to be inducted: Ty Cobb was the most productive hitter in history; Babe Ruth was both an ace pitcher and the greatest home-run hitter to play the game; Honus Wagner was a versatile star shortstop and batting champion; Christy Matthewson had more wins than any pitcher in National League history; and Walter Johnson was considered one of the most powerful pitchers to ever have taken the mound.

[Sports_Freak]

8 hours ago, oblong said:

I'm about the same age as he was when he was the 'old' guy on Friends.

Damn.

1995 was his first appearance on Friends? He was 50 years old? Heck, I blew past that age 15 years ago...🤣😂

[chasfh]

9 hours ago, 1776 said:

 

Can you believe this native of Detroit is 80 years old today!?! Seems as though it was only yesterday that he, T.C. and Rick were making life miserable for Jonathan Higgins. 

Yes, I can totally, absolutely believe it.

[gehringer_2]

8 hours ago, chasfh said:

The colonists not only had the home field advantage of knowing the terrain and being 3,000-4,000 miles away from the aggressor, they also lacked the distinct disadvantage of not having European weapons available to them.

IIRC correctly, the whole raison-d'etre of the battles at Lexington/Concord was that each side wanted to be first to secure the colony's cache of cannon. The Brits marched out to get them and the colonists decided to stop them.

[CMRivdogs]

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu extremist on January 30, 1948.

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In London, King Charles I is beheaded for treason on January 30, 1649.

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1972. In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot dead by British Army paratroopers in an event that becomes known as “Bloody Sunday.” The protesters, all Northern Catholics, were marching in protest of the British policy of internment of suspected Irish nationalists. British authorities had ordered the march banned, and sent troops to confront the demonstrators when it went ahead. The soldiers fired indiscriminately into the crowd of protesters, killing 13 and wounding 17.

 

Edited Thursday at 02:24 PM by CMRivdogs

[CMRivdogs]

 

[smr-nj]

Wow. Interesting 

[CMRivdogs]

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On January 31, 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support—some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, just barely above the necessary two-thirds majority. While Section 1 of the 13th Amendment outlawed chattel slavery and involuntary servitude (except as punishment for a crime), Section 2 gave the U.S. Congress the power “to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 1865. With the passage of the amendment, the institution that had indelibly shaped American history was formally outlawed.

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On January 31, 1950, U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announces his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.

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With the stirring notes of the William Tell Overture and a shout of “Hi-yo, Silver! Away!” "The Lone Ranger" debuts on Detroit’s WXYZ radio station on January 31, 1933.

The creation of station-owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker, the “masked rider of the plains” became one of the most popular and enduring western heroes of the 20th century. Joined by his trusty steed, Silver, and Native American scout, Tonto, the Lone Ranger battled western outlaws and Native Americans.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

[smr-nj]

1876 - All Native American Indians were ordered to move into reservations.

1940 - The first Social Security check was issued by the U.S. Government.

1971 - Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

[oblong]

YOu know you can't let a space thing sneak by me..... but I already covered teh Apollo 14 mission here somewhere... This was Shepard's long awaited return to spaceflight after his 15 minute miaden voyage almost 10 years earlier.  He'd been grounded due to ear issues.  He had what was then experimental surgery, now it's kind of routine.  Fellow astronauts were a bit but off that he was given a command without being a backup but he was a legend still.  Stu Roosa took up some seeds with him and later they were given to friendly nations and planted as "moon trees".  He was an environmentalist and flew planes to help put out wildfires.  He would have commanded an Apollo 20 if they hadn't cut out missions.

 

 

[CMRivdogs]

And of course there's this

 

[oblong]

"for miles and miles..." is the legend.

Not to divert but here's another cool moon video where Dave Scott demonstrate's Galileo's theory where he drops a hammer and a feather.

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

 

[oblong]

I was reading about Apollo 14 today b/c of the anniversary of the launch.  It’s also the anniversary of the mission almost being altered. After launch they do a few orbits to make sure everything is ok. Then they do what’s called trans lunar injection (TLI) where they fire their S-IVB stage for about 5 minutes to a velocity that shoots them in a trajectory to where the moon will be in a few days. After that burn is when they do transposition and docking. Inside the now deleted third stage of the rocket is the lunar module.  They separate then turn around and face and begin the docking sequence.  This was never a problem on the previous 5 missions but on this one they couldn’t get a hard dock.  When certain connections were made 12 latches would fire and seal. They tried 5 times.   What I didn’t know is they brought back the docking mechanism with them. It comes off because that’s the area where the tunnel is to go from ship to ship. Previous missions would leave it with the lunar module due to weight.  Turned out it was debris that prevented the initial attempts. Dirt could have halted a billion dollar mission.  They reused that docking mechanism on a Skylab mission. 

[CMRivdogs]

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up while entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board.

 

 

The U.S. Supreme Court was established by Article Three of the U.S. Constitution, which took effect in March 1789. The Constitution granted the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over all laws, especially those in which constitutionality was at issue. The court was also designated to rule on cases concerning treaties of the United States, foreign diplomats, admiralty practice, and maritime jurisdiction.

In September 1789, the Judiciary Act was passed, implementing Article Three by providing for six justices who would serve on the court for life. The same day, President George Washington appointed John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania to serve as associate justices. Two days later, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.                                                                                                                       In the Royal Exchange Building on New York City’s Broad Street, the Supreme Court of the United States assembles for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding. Because some justices had transportation delays, the first official session began the following day.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/day/february-1