Today in history! How much of this do you remember? And dont miss the joke at the end. The AMC Pacer Comes To An End, 1979 Today is December 3rd. Think AMC Pacer! When the car first came on the market in 1975, it was a sensation, hailed as the car of the future. The ads said, When you buy any other car all you end up with is todays car. When you get a Pacer, you get a piece of tomorrow. By 1979, sales had faded considerably. Today, polls and experts agree: the Pacer was one of the worst cars of all time. On December 3, 1979, the last Pacer rolled off the assembly line at the American Motors Corporation (AMC) factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Tragedy At Cincinnati WHO Concert, 11 Fans Are Killed The general-admission ticketing policy for rock concerts at Cincinnatis Riverfront Coliseum in the 1970s was known as festival seating. That term and that ticketing policy would become infamous in the wake of one of the deadliest rock-concert incidents in history. Eleven people, including three high-school students, were killed on this day in 1979, when a crowd of general-admission ticket-holders to a Cincinnati Who concert surged forward in an attempt to enter Riverfront Coliseum and secure prime unreserved seats inside. With Coliseum security nowhere in sight, the police on hand were aware immediately that the situation had the potential for disaster, yet they were physically unable to slow the stream of people flowing through the gates. Shortly before the show was to begin, the police began to work their way into the crowd, where they found the first of what would eventually turn out to be 11 concert-goers lying on the ground, dead from asphyxiation. Afraid of how the crowd might react to a cancellation, Cincinnati fire officials instructed the promoters to go on with the show, and the members of the Who were not told what had happened until after completing their final encore hours later. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the City of Cincinnati banned festival seating at its concert venues. That ban was overturned, however, 24 years later, and improved crowd-control procedures have thus far prevented a reoccurrence of any such incident. The Bhopal-Union Carbide Disaster, 1984 On this date in 1984, one of the worst industrial disasters in history began when a pesticide plant located in highly populated city of Bhopal, India leaked a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate into the air. Of the estimated one million people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 were killed immediately, at least 600,000 were injured, and at least 6,000 have died since. The leak was caused by a series of mechanical and human errors in the US owned Union Carbide Corporation pesticide plant. For an hour, the plants personnel and safety equipment failed to detect the massive leak. By the time officials found the leak most of the damage had already been done. To make matters worse, local health officials had not been told about the types of chemicals made and used at the plant. There were no emergency procedures in place to protect Bhopals citizens. If the victims had simply placed a wet towel over their face, most would have escaped serious injury but no one from union carbide wanted to discuss the possibility of a leak and frighten the local government. The Indian government sued Union Carbide in a civil case and settled in 1989 for $470 million. Because of the great number of individuals affected by the disaster, most Bhopal victims received just $550, which could not pay for the chronic lung ailments, eye problems, psychiatric disorders, and other common illnesses they developed. The average compensation for deaths resulting from the disaster was $1,300. The Indian government, famous for its corruption, has yet to distribute roughly half of Union Carbides original settlement. Union Carbide, which shut down its Bhopal plant after the disaster, has continued to fail to clean up the site completely. The rusty, deserted complex has continued to leak poisonous substances into the water and soil of Bhopal for the last thirty years. Cold War Ends Meeting off the coast of Malta, President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev issue statements saying that the Cold War is coming to an end. Commentators in both the United States and Russia went farther and reported that the Cold War was over. Ohios Oberlin College Opens As Co-Ed School December 3, 1833, Oberlin College in Ohio started classes as the first coed institution of higher learning in the United States. Looking at the school’s registration, one would have found a total of 44 students enrolled: 29 men and 15 women. Frederick Douglass Establishes Anti-Slavery Newspaper In 1847 on the third of December, Frederick Douglass and Martin R. Delaney establish the North Star, and anti-slavery paper. After escaping from slavery, Frederick Douglass became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Many Northerners also found it hard to believe that such a great orator had been a slave. Frederick Douglass was first inspired to publish the North Star after subscribing to The Liberator, a weekly newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison. The Liberator was founded upon moral principles of humanity. Under the guidance of the abolitionist society, Douglass became well acquainted with the pursuit of the emancipation of slaves through a New England religious perspective. Douglass’ thoughts toward political inaction changed when he attended the National Convention of Colored Citizens, an antislavery convention in Buffalo, New York, in August 1843. One of the many speakers present at the convention was Henry Highland Garnet. Formerly a slave in Maryland, Garnet was a Presbyterian minister who supported violent action against slaveholders. Garnets demands of independent action addressed to the American slaves remained one of the leading issues of change for Douglass. Douglass was able to achieve an unconstrained independence to write freely on topics that covered his analysis of the Constitution as an antislavery document, his desires for political action necessary to bring emancipation, and the support of the women’s rights movement. There are only twenty one shopping days until Christmas. Dont forget anyone this year. Here is a Christmas joke about making sure you get what you want under the tree. Christmas Prayers A few days before Christmas, two young brothers were spending the night at their grandparents house. When it was time to go to bed, and anxious to do the right thing, they both knelt down to say their prayers. Suddenly, the younger one began to do so in a very loud voice, Dear Lord, please ask Santa Claus to bring me a play-station, a mountain-bike and a telescope. His older brother leaned over and nudged his brother and said, Why are you shouting your prayers? God isnt deaf. I know he replied, But Grandma is! Have a great day!
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 09:21:48 +0000
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