I’m in the process of researching a community-wide activity that SociaLens is planning for Bloomington. In doing so, I found myself on the Wikipedia page for 1986. Hours later, I emerged with an appreciation for how much changes and how much stays the same.
Twenty-five years ago, I was graduating from high school, seeing my valedictorian speech blow away in the wind, and surviving a lonely first semester at DePauw, away from family and friends. It is a year that stands out in my life due to all of this personal change, but it was also quite a year for events around the globe, too.
What is amazing to me are the similarities with the big events of today. In 1986 …
… the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after launch, killing seven crew. 2011 will mark the end of the Shuttle program.
… an earthquake in El Salvador hits 7.5 on the Richter Scale and kills 1,500 people. On March 11, 2011, the Sendai earthquake and subsequent tsunami claimed almost 10,000 lives with 17,000 more missing. Less than a year earlier, China was devastated by a 6.9 quake that killed 2,600.
… a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, leading to the worst nuclear disaster in history. Thanks to the Japan tsunami, the Fukushima nuclear power plant is becoming the second worst in history.
… Libya killed 3 and injured 230 in a bombing of a discotheque in Berlin. They are still the bad guys today, fighting a revolt and a U.N. coalition that just bombed the country to enforce a ceasefire (I’ll let that last bit of irony sink in).
… Jean-Claude Duvalier flees Haiti. After the devastating earthquake last year, “Baby Doc” returned to Haiti in January.
… the Khian Sea cargo barge began a 16-month journey to dump its toxic cargo. Some of it landed in Haiti. The rest of it was finally dumped in the Indian Ocean. The Gulf of Mexico was trashed this past year by BP’s huge oil slick.
… a Lebanese magazine reports that the U.S. has been trading arms with Iran for hostages, the Iran-Contra affair. Wikileaks recently released over 250,000 diplomatic cables, forcing a lot of unplanned transparency in international politics and leading to legal actions.
Here are some other things that happened 25 years ago:
- Polaroid wins the instant camera business, knocking Kodak out of the picture.
- My Bears win Super Bowl XX
- Pixar is launched
- Halley’s Comet returns
- U.S. Senate televises its debates on a trial basis
- Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s vault on live television, discovering only a bottle of moonshine
- Over 5 million people participated in Hands Across America, forming a human chain from New York to California to raise money to fight homelessness and hunger
- Len Bias dies from a cocaine overdose 48 hours after being selected 2nd in the NBA Draft
- Eric Thomas develops LISTSERV, the first email list management software
- Greg LeMond wins the Tour de France, becoming the first American to do so. He would win twice more and Lance Armstrong would claim seven straight titles.
- Patrick Sherrill kills 14 employees at a U.S. Post Office, leading to the phrase “going postal”
- Fox Broadcasting Company launches
- Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet for unproductive talks about arms reduction between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
- The centennial of the Statue of Liberty’s dedication is celebrated, just three months after it reopened to the public after an extensive refurbishment
- Mike Tyson wins his first world boxing title, defeating Trevor Berbick
- Lady GaGa was born. So were Lindsay Lohan and Megan Fox. The deaths were more significant.
I wonder what will happen 25 years from now.