Olympic memories...
The highlight of the 1996 Olympics was the lighting of the Olympic flame by Muhammad Ali. Badly shaking from Parkinson's disease, Ali ignited the Olympic torch as thousands of spectators at the games and millions more at home looked on. The stadium erupted as Olympic legend Janet Evans describes it for us, "I thought the stadium was gonna fall down". There were only 2 things that were memorable about the XXVI Olympiad, a.k.a. the "Centennial Olympics" because it marked the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic games and those were the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park and the opening ceremony. Rarely does the lighting of the Olympic flame steal the spotlight. This one did...
On this same July 19th date 20 years earlier in the Montreal games, the Manhattans topped the charts with "Kiss and Say Goodbye" when tiny 14-year old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci took her turn at the parallel bars and all Nadia would do was score a perfect 10 and become an overnight sensation in the blink of an eye...
Both Olympic events happened on the same July 19th date, giving us 2 great memories of the summer games...
Ten Timeline Memories...
1954] Sun Records releases "That's All Right (Mama)" by Elvis Presley...
1958] "Will the real Drifters please stand up"...Drifters manager George Treadwell goes backstage at the Apollo Theater and fires his group. George then walks across to the dressing room of the group's opening act, The Crowns, hires them and then christens them The Drifters. You may have heard of The Crowns lead singer ? Ben E. King (this really happened and is one of my favorite stories)...
1961] TWA shows the 1st in-flight movie (which reminds me of the time they showed "Airport" on one of my flights in the 70's. I had white knuckles for days)...
1967] The 1st air conditioned New York City subway (the "F" train) rolls down the tracks...
1969] Apollo 11 and astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins circle the moon in orbit (tomorrow is the big day)...
1976] It's splitsville for the rock group Deep Purple, who agree to disagree...
1980] Olympics ? What Olympics ?...The Moscow Summer Olympics begin minus about half the nations of the world who were boycotting because of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan...
1982] Future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn makes his major league debut with 2 hits (Tony would win a record 8 National League batting titles and wind up with 3,141 hits when he ends his career in 2001)...
1985] New Hampshire's Christa McAuliffe is chosen as the 1st school teacher to ride aboard the space shuttle (Christa was on the ill-fated Challenger in 1986 when it exploded)...
1990] Baseball's all-time hits leader Pete Rose is sentenced in Cincinnati to 5 months in prison for tax evasion (see ya, see ya, wouldn't want to be ya)...
#1's on this date: 1968] "Grazing in the Grass" - Hugh Masekela, 1976] "Kiss and Say Goodbye" - Manhattans...
Wedding Bells...
1966] 50-year old Frank Sinatra and 21-year old Mia Farrow (he had kids older than her)...
1986] Partay at the Compound...Caroline Kennedy, 28-year old daughter of JFK, walks down the aisle with Edwin A. Schlossberg in Centerville (MA)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
In the Summertime...
Dick Summer has a new podcast which can be heard and downloaded thanks to suburban New York's WHUD in Peekskill. This is a great opportunity to hear Dick's "Good Night" podcasts, 9 to 10 minutes in length. This is an exciting new venture from one of Boston's all-time favorite personalities and we wish you all the best Dick. Go to whud.com for more information...
Happy Birthday...happy birthday...
Former "ER" actor Anthony Edwards (44), Queen's Brian May (59), The Eagles' Bernie Leadon (59), Tennis Hall of Famer Ilie Nastase (60), Vikki Carr (65), George Hamilton IV (69), Sue Thompson (81), veteran actor Pat Hingle (82), George McGovern (84)...
Starting with this thread we will track, in addition to Labor Day, days leading up to the NFL opener on Sept. 7th and the major league playoffs on October 3rd...
[Today is the 200th day of 2006 with 165 days remaining in the year, 48 days until Labor Day, 52 days until the NFL opener and 77 days until the major league playoffs]
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