Editor’s Notebook
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Anniversaries
galore in ‘12
We’re winding down a year that held an astounding number of significant anniversaries.
Just culling the list to a few events of 50, 100 and 200 years ago boggles the mind.
We were reminded in October of the 13 days in 1962 when we stood on the brink of an atomic war. Television docudramas encouraged us to recall the tension in President John F. Kennedy’s White House and reconsider whether Nikita Khruschev “blinked” or merely traded his missile sites in Cuba for U.S. sites in Turkey, as later became known.
It was 50 years ago that the U.S. sent a man in orbit. In February 1962, John H. Glenn Jr. orbited the Earth three times. In May, Scott Carpenter reprised a three-orbit flight. In October, Wally Schirra made six around. And away we went from there.
Fifty years ago, the first Wal-Mart opened in Arkansas, Marilyn Monroe died from an overdose of sleeping pills, we went to the movies to see the first James Bond film, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one professional basketball game and the Beatles released their first album.
April 14 saw the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic ending all those huzzahs about “unsinkable” ships. The most modern and largest liner of its time hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage, with 1,502 fatalities. (Not coincidentally, Hillsborough High School Theatre choose this spring to stage the musical based on the accident.)
We continued to remember the 150th anniversary of our Civil War. A year after the first shots, citizens were shockingly reminded … at Shiloh and Antietam, particularly… that the conflict would be bloody and long.
It all led President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the rebellious states. The story is now in a theater near you.
Of course, 2012 was the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812 (simple math, right?) in which Great Britain was reminded that the United States was here to stay.
If we’re unlucky, 2012 will be the last of all anniversaries. Remember the Mayan calendar purportedly predicts the end of the world on Dec. 21.
If you’re lucky, you can avoid buying Christmas presents.