Tags
@TheosTrek, Apollo 1, Auschwitz, Edward Higgins White, Folk Singers, Gus Grissom, January 27, Kate Wolf, Roger B. Chaffee, Siege of Leningrad, Television, YouTube
“Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts. . .”
~~Sgt. Joe Friday (you think that’s a coincidence? 
)
It turns out that January 27 is a very interesting and event-filled day in world history. I came across a few of these facts, which are quite fabulous, all things considered! Enjoy!
A tragedy that I remember well occurred this day in 1967 at Cape Kennedy, Florida – an event known as “The failure of imagination.” Three astronauts aboard Apollo 1 ( Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee ) die while still on the launch pad as they are practicing for a two-week mission in space. The following is a clip from the miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon” which gives a dramatic telling of the events of that awful day in history.
Coincidentally, on that very same day, another space-related event took place: The Outer Space Treaty which banned the placing of nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth is signed by 60 countries of the world including the two most important superpowers at the time The Soviet Union and The United States Of America who both had large Space Exploration programs and Large Nuclear programs. This was an important treaty because if any country was to place Nuclear Weapons or other Weapons of Mass Destruction in Orbit no country in the world would be safe.
On this day in 1984, some of you might remember hearing of this news: Michael Jackson receives serious burns to his head after his hair caught fire while singing his hit “Billie Jean” for a Pepsi Cola commercial in Los Angeles when the special effects went wrong. ”Went wrong” is an understatement, don’t you think?
All of my British Gentle Readers can claim boasting rights, or can hang their heads in shame – depending on your disposition toward television: John Logie Baird, gives the first public demonstration of a television system in London. The BBC started the first public broadcasts in London in 1936. Regular television broadcasts began in the United States in 1939. (Us Yanks like to say that we were waiting to see if it was just a fad.)
This day in 1944 marked the end of one of the most horrific periods of World War II: After 872 days of the siege of Leningrad by German forces allowing no food or medical supplies to enter which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Russian lives, The Siege was finally broken.
One year to the day after the end of The Siege, in 1945: The Red Army liberates the Nazi’s biggest concentration camp at Auschwitz in southern Poland. During the concentration camps existence it is believed up to 1 million Jews were murdered ,75,000 Poles, 21,000 Gypsies, and 15,000 Soviet POWs.
January 27, 1951 changed the history of the world forever: The US government detonates the first of a series of nuclear bombs at its new Nevada test site. The end of the beginning, and the beginning of our end?
I will close today’s list of facts with less of a “downer.” Today would have been the 70th birthday of folk singer Kate Wolf. Born this day in 1942, she died on December 20, 1986, just short of her 45th birthday, after a long battle with leukemia. Another great singer gone too soon. Enjoy this YouTube video of her singing one of her great songs: ”Eyes of a Painter”
Kate Wolf was one of the generation of late 60′s Folk Singers who made not only an impact on the Folk Singing scene in the seventies and early eighties but has influenced many singers since. Some of her other songs are “Back Roads,” “Lines on the Paper,” “Safe at Anchor,” “Close to You,” and “Poets Heart.”
Have a wonderful day and a great weekend, my Gentle Readers. I wish you all enough. . .
If we could only learn from history we’d be much better off.
Thank you for sharing all these facts. It’s interesting to look back like this and see how far we’ve come (or haven’t…)
It’s a case of three steps forward and two steps back (or vice-versa), I think!
Paula you could host a tv show called “Read More About It”. That would be great.
Used to be a public television program that used that tag line, as I recall. Maybe it was a tag line at the end of a program that one of the networks used in an effort to make their programs seem more educational. I don’t remember.which!
What a significant day! It would have passed us by without you. Thanks
Interesting that so many things of significance happened on the same date (different years). I wonder if people at the time remembered that the liberation of Auschwitz was exactly a year after the siege of Leningrad ended?
I missed Kate Wolf somehow…probably because in the early 80s I was doing a contract in the North – by the Yukon – where the only radio station played mainly classical and semi-classical music! She certainly has a great voice!
I knew of her only peripherally. i remember her and some of her music, but I was not a fan – I didn’t know her well enough to be. She was extraordinarily talented, and wrote thoughtful music. I do not recall her from the 80′s, though – what memory I have is from the late 60′s and early 70′s.
This post is depressing.
It was, kind of! At least there was the treaty – for whatever good it did (or didn’t?). But I thought it was really strange how many significant things happened on this day. At least we can say that the horrific siege of Leningrad ENDED, and the prisoners were liberated from Auschwitz. The circumstances surrounding those things were and are pretty depressing, though.
So many significant events to contemplate. It’s interesting that so many comments are about tv. No doubt tv has had a huge impact on the world in its history; so has the Holocaust , space travel , etc. Communication is almost instantaneous. And thank goodness someone kept this video of Kate Wolf.
Hubs
I really wonder what the world would be like today if TV had never been invented?
Better, methinks. I had a TV-deprived childhood, but I don’t FEEL it was deprived!
Have to agree with Colonialist on the tv.
always interesting around here.
Definitely a two-edged sword. One thing I can say FOR TV is that it was responsible when I was a child for stimulating my interest in a number of things, and sent me to the library to “read more about it” a great many times!
That is unusual. TV is accused of keeping people AWAY from books, generally; not attracting them TO them.
A fascinating list of happenings, indeed.
Perhaps one of the worst atrocities was the launching of TV on an unsuspecting world?