Sunday, July 4, 1976. The Bicentennial.

 It was the Bicentennial of American Independence and I was 13 years old

There's been some recent focus on people like me who were young during the Bicentennial and who can recall it.  Many of us have real mixed feelings about today, the 250th Anniversary.

The celebrations for the Bicentennial were really a big deal.  Students, like me, who were in school at the time had been studying the Revolution in anticipation of it.  There were events everywhere.  State and local governments were very active in promoting it. The Federal government issued a special series of coins.

Looking back it's interesting to note how the celebrations came as a relief to the trauma of the Vietnam War and gave the country a sense of optimism again.  The war had torn the country apart, and of course we'd lost it.  Right after that the country went through the Watergate trauma, and it was suffering by inflation brought about by the war and the Arab Oil Embargo.  Things weren't going great, but the Bicentennial gave people a sense we'd get through it.

Gerald Ford was President at the time and was campaigning against right wing actor Ronald Reagan as well as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter.

I'd just completed 7th Grade and turned 13 just before school let out for the summer.  I had a job at a wading pool as a lifeguard.  It's weird to think of, as I was the only city employee at the pool all day long.  I filled it up each day, and drained it every night. They wouldn't let a 13 year old do that now.

As noted, in civics we studied the Revolution that year.  I can't recall all that much about the instruction.  I do recall the teacher, whom bore sort of a resemblance to Tom Selleck, saying the country had lost the Vietnam War, which was a shock to me.  I went home and asked my father, and he had the same view.

They were right, of course.

Fireworks at that time were set off on the municipal golf course.  I went up on the roof to watch them.

The IDF conducted a hostage rescue mission at Entebbe, Uganda.  102 hostages, mostly Jewish, were being held by hijackers of the Palestinian PFLP–EO and German RZ groups.

All of the hostages, 33 Ugandan soldiers and 3 hostages died in the raid.

Assassins hired by the Argentine Navy killed three Catholic priests and two seminarians at the San Patricio church in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

Related posts:

Random Camera Blog: The Summer of ’76

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Bicentennial, Blog Mirror

Last edition:

Friday, July 2, 1976. Repent.

Labels: 1970s, 1976, American Bicentennial, Catholic, Christianity, Independence Day, Prisoners of War, religion, Sex, South Vietnam, Sudan, Vietnam, Vietnam War, Washington

Thursday, February 7, 1974: Blog Mirror: "Blazing Saddles" Premieres

February 7, 1974: "Blazing Saddles" Premieres

I love that movie.

Mel Brook's great comedic spoof Western movies remains one of the all-time greats. It could not be made today.

Grenada became independent.

Prime Minister Edward Heath called for a dissolution of Parliament and new elections due to the governments' inability to resolve a coal miner's strike.

Coal mining had once been a major industry in the UK but was on its decline by the 1970s. The labor victory would be short lived as the Thatcher government of the 80s began to close coal mines down in a direction that indicated the industry was clearly done for, something she could do because of the nationalization of mines.  The trend had been going on since World War Two in any event.

Eight coal fired power plants remain in operation in the UK, all of which are slated to be closed this year. Six underground mines remain in operation, and two open pit mines. Mining communities have not been able to adjust to the change, something which should concern Wyoming.

The Nixon Administration entered into an agreement to revise the 1903 Panama Canal Treaty.

Moro rebels killed 25 civilians on a raid on Pikit, Mindanao.

The Laju Incident in Singapore ended as the combined terrorist attackers from the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine released hostages in exchange for safe passage to the Middle East.

Supposedly the small Japanese Red Army disbanded in 2001, but Japanese authorities maintain a successor organization was founded, and Japanese police have continued to maintain that known members of the group should be arrested.  The PFLP still exists.  Both groups were/are Communist in nature.

Related threads:

Coal: Understanding the time line of an industry

Last edition:

Monday, February 4, 1974. Patty Hearst kidnapped.

Labels: 1970s, 1973, 1974, 1975, 93d Congress, American Terrorist Organizations, Communism, Crime, Cuba, Israel, Personalities, Provisional Irish Republican Army, Syria, Watergate, Yom Kippur War

Friday, July 20, 1973. The death of Bruce Lee.

Actor and martial artist Bruce Lee Bruce Lee ( 李小龍) born Lee Jun-fan, (李振藩) 32 years of age, died from an allergic reaction to the meprobamate, the active ingredient in the painkiller Equagesic.

Bruce Lee from publicity photo for Fists of Fury.

Lee retains a cult following today, although I'm not part of it.  He is widely regarded as the greatest martial arts practitioner of all time.

Lee was born in San Francisco, and therefore could claim U.S. citizenship, although his family returned to Hong Kong immediately before the outbreak of the war n the Pacific.  His father was a famous Cantonese opera singer.  He was of mixed Chinese and European ancestry.  He left a wife and two children.  His son Brandon Lee would follow his footsteps and would tragically die when a firearm being used as a prop was loaded with improperly made dummy rounds.  His daughter Shannon is an actress, singer, and businesswoman.

Japan Air Lines Flight 404 was hijacked by the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.  It would eventually be flown to Benghazi were the passengers were released and the 747 blown up.

Muammar Gaddafi announced his resignation as the leader of Libya following the failure of his plans to unite the country with Egypt.  He'd get over the resignation and reverse it three days later, following his cabinet's announcement that they'd also resign.  

Efforts to form a larger Arab republic centered on Egypt have existed since World War One with serval putative efforts to establish it.  Egypt itself was the most powerful and significant Middle Eastern state up until 1973, when the importance of oil, which Egypt has little of, began to eclipse it.