1989

Today in History 03/24/18

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Crude oil from the tanker Exxon Valdez swirls on the surface of Alaska's Prince William Sound on April 9, 1989 (© John Gaps III/AP)(1989) Oil tanker spill in Alaska
Just past midnight, the Exxon Valdez tanker strikes a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The resulting spill of up to 38 million gallons of crude oil is the largest in US history and will devastate 11,000 square miles of pristine wilderness.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 24, 1989, when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef at 12:04 am local time and spilled 10.8 million US gallons of crude oil over the next few days. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused environmental disasters. The Valdez spill is the second largest in US waters, after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in terms of volume released. Prince William Sound’s remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, or boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing response plans. The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil, originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, eventually covered 1,300 miles of coastline, and 11,000 square miles of ocean.
Date: Mar 24, 1989

Birds killed as a result of oil from the Exxon Valdez spill
Wildlife was severely affected by the oil spill.
wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill
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Today in History 12/20/17

Illustration of the first state-rights flag unfurled by secessionists at Columbia, South Carolina in 1860 (© Getty Images)(1860) South Carolina is first state to secede from the Union
In a unanimous vote, the South Carolina legislature enacts an ordinance of secession after Abraham Lincoln is elected president, declaring that in Lincoln they detect a perceived “hostility…to the institution of slavery.” Within months, other slave-holding states will also secede, forming the Confederacy and precipitating the Civil War.
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, and was one of the founder members of the Confederacy. The bombardment of the beleaguered U.S. garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861 is normally reckoned as the first military engagement of the war.
Founded: 1860
Dissolved: 1861

Map of US - SC
Map of the United States with South Carolina highlighted.

wiki/South_Carolina_in_the_American_Civil_War
US troops position themselves in Panama City on December 20, 1989 (© AP)(1989) United States invades Panama to topple military dictator
The US launches Operation Just Cause to remove Gen. Manuel Noriega from power after he had been indicted on drug trafficking charges. Noriega’s regime will fall in just days, and Noriega himself will be arrested and later sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.
The United States Invasion of Panama, code named Operation Just Cause, was an invasion of Panama by the United States between mid-December 1989 and late January 1990. It occurred during the administration of President George H. W. Bush and ten years after the Torrijos–Carter Treaties were ratified to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the U.S. to Panama by 1 January 2000.
Start date: Dec 20, 1989
End date: Jan 31, 1990

Operation Just Cause
Tactical map of Operation Just Cause showing major points of attack.

wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama
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Today in History 11/09/17

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall in November, 1989, as they watch East German border guards demolish a section of the wall (© Gerard Malie/AFP/Getty Images)(1989) East Germany lets the Berlin Wall come down
East German officials have bowed to pressure and lifted travel restrictions to the West. Thousands of Berliners from both sides swarm the wall and cheer the destruction of the 12-foot high barrier that had separated them for over 30 years.
The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic, starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
Address: Bernauer Straße 111, Berlin
Phone: 030 3087770
Construction started: Aug 13, 1961
Destroyed: Nov 09, 1989

Berlin-wall-map
Map of the Berlin Wall, showing checkpoints.

wiki/Berlin_Wall
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Today in History 07/05/17

Oliver North waves as he leaves his attorney’s office in Washington, DC, on July 5, 1989, the day he was given a 3-year suspended prison sentence and fine (© Marcy Nighswander/AP )(1989) Iran-Contra Affair’s controversial colonel is sentenced
Two years after his polarizing presence at the Iran-Contra hearings, retired US Lt. Colonel Oliver North is sentenced on three felony counts, one of which is for obstruction. His three-year suspended prison sentence and $150,000 fine will be overturned a year later with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Oliver Laurence North is an American political commentator and television host, military historian, New York Times best-selling author, and former United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. He was convicted in the Iran-Contra affair of the late 1980s but his convictions were vacated and reversed, and all charges against him dismissed in 1991.
Born: Oct 07, 1943 (age 73) · San Antonio, TX
Height: 6′ 0″ (1.83 m)
Net worth: $5 million USD (2016)
Spouse: Betsy Stuart (m. 1967)
Children: Sarah North (Daughter) · Dornin North (Daughter) · Tait North (Daughter) · Stuart North (Son)
Awards: Silver Star · Purple Heart · Bronze Star Medal
Highlights
  • 1967: In 1967, North married Betsy Stuart; they have four children.

  • 1989: He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard Gesell on July 5, 1989 to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines, and 1,200 hours of community service.

  • 1990: He resigned his Marine Corps commission in 1990 following his indictment for conspiring to defraud the United States by channeling the profits from US arms sales to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

  • 1991: After further hearings on the immunity issue, Judge Gesell dismissed all charges against North on September 16, 1991.

  • 1996: North’s candidacy was documented in the 1996 film A Perfect Candidate.

  • 2013: On November 5, 2013, North’s American Heroes on the Homefront, was released.

wiki/Oliver_North
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Today in History 06/04/17

Henry Ford is seen on the Quadricycle, the first automobile he ever built in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1896 (© AP )(1896) Henry Ford takes his first automobile for a test drive
Henry Ford has been working for another inventor at the Edison Illuminating Co., but has taken time out to tinker on his own invention, an ethanol-powered 4-wheeled vehicle he dubs the ‘Quadricycle.’ Brakes are not included, but the vehicle’s top speed is only 20 miles per hour.
The Ford Quadricycle was the first vehicle developed by Henry Ford. Ford’s first car was a simple frame with an ethanol-powered engine and four bicycle wheels mounted on it. The earliest cars were hand built, one by one, and very expensive. The peculiar machines were seen as toys for the rich. In the 1890s, the “horseless carriage” was a relatively new idea, with no one having a fixed, universal idea of what a car should look like or how it should work. Most of the first car builders were inventors, rather than businessmen, working with their imaginations and the parts they had on hand. Thus, the invention of the Quadricycle marks an important innovation as a proto-automobile that would lay the foundation for future, with more practical designs to follow.
wiki/Ford_Quadricycle
Painting of Joseph Pulitzer circa 1909 (© Culture Club/Getty Images)(1917) First awarding of Pulitzer Prizes
Publisher Joseph Pulitzer willed funds to Columbia University to reward excellence in American journalism, literature, and music, and the first awards are given out this year. In decades to come, the Pulitzer Prize will be bestowed on a stellar array of American artists and writers.
Pulitzer Prizes were first presented in 1917. There were initially four categories; others that had been specified in Joseph Pulitzer’s request were phased in over the next few years. The winners were selected by the trustees of Columbia University. The first Pulitzer Prize winner, French Ambassador Jean Jules Jusserand, who had written the best book about American history, won $2,000. Herbert Bayard Swope won a $1,000 prize for reporting.
Date: Jun 04, 1917

wiki/1917_Pulitzer_Prize
Bruce Springsteen performing in 1985 (© Bettmann via Getty Images)(1984) Bruce Springsteen releases ‘Born in the U.S.A.’
The singer releases his seventh studio album, backed by his longtime E Street Band. ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ will produce seven top-10 singles, including the smash ‘Dancing in the Dark’ (propelled by a video featuring a future ‘Friends’ star) and the often-misinterpreted title track.
Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. It was released on June 4, 1984, by Columbia Records. It was written by Springsteen and recorded with his E Street Band and producers Chuck Plotkin and Jon Landau at The Power Station and The Hit Factory in New York City.
Release date: Jun 04, 1984
Genre: Rock, Indie / Alternative
Label: Columbia
Artist: Bruce Springsteen
Awards: American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album · Grammy Hall of Fame · Juno Award for International Album of the Year

wiki/Born_in_the_U.S.A.
A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east on Beijing's Cangan Boulevard in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989 (© Jeff Widener/AP )(1989) A brutal crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square
The People’s Liberation Army arrives in Tiananmen Square with assault weapons and tank columns to forcibly remove pro-democracy student demonstrators after seven weeks of protests. The government crackdown escalates, and thousands are killed as the Chinese military fires into the crowds.
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, commonly known in China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations in Beijing in 1989. More broadly, it refers to the popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests during that period, sometimes referred to as the ’89 Democracy Movement. The protests were forcibly suppressed after the government declared martial law. In what became widely known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, troops with assault rifles and tanks killed at least several hundred demonstrators trying to block the military’s advance towards Tiananmen Square. The number of civilian deaths has been estimated at anywhere from hundreds to thousands.
Start date: Apr 15, 1989
End date: Jun 04, 1989
Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China 1988

wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989
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