By Edwin Cooney
Nineteen fifty-seven was an amazing year — one of my favorites growing up. Rock’n’roll radio was really taking off. Elvis was certainly king but Pat Boone, Fats Domino, Paul Anka, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, and, surprisingly, Harry Belafonte's calypso music dominated pop music. For ladies, soft woolly sweaters, poodle skirts, and, for men, white sport coats and black slacks were the fashion. Automobiles sported tail-fins and cigarette smoking was as "in" as hot rod racing. Ike and Dick Nixon were in the White House.
Friday, October 4th, 1957 separated the second and third game of the 1957 World Series between the New York Yankees and the upstart Milwaukee Braves. The teams were tied in the series, one game apiece. Suddenly, that Friday, even baseball's World Series took second place in the hearts of many (although not mine!) when Moscow radio announced that a satellite had been launched into space and would orbit the earth every 98 minutes. In geopolitical or in American language, a nation of “slave laborers” had outstripped a nation of free men and women in such a way as to almost immediately endanger America's national security. After all, millions of Americans wondered if the Russians could launch a satellite that contained primarily equipment, how long would it take them to launch an atomic bomb orbiting the earth which at the very least would make Nikita Khrushchev and Communism the master of all humanity?
The Russians, of course, denied such an intention, but they certainly gloried in the political prestige their scientific breakthrough awarded them. Huge changes in the United States military, in technology, in high school and university syllabuses were the result of that little Russian satellite.
Sputnik, which is Russian for "fellow traveler,” was the size of a beach ball (about 23 inches) and weighed 80 pounds. It lacked the information-gathering capacity of even the United States’ Explorer 1 which only weighed 31 pounds, but it packed a political and social wallop to our national psyche that wouldn't be matched until 9/11.
As a student of history, I can name two types of dates. First there are memorable dates which excite, sadden or even disgust us. Then, there are dates that are both memorable and affect our self-perception and future attitudes and policies in both our domestic and foreign affairs.
Declarations of war both reflect who we are and stamp our future as a nation. Here are some dates of lasting significance:
On Friday, June 18th, 1812, we declared war on Great Britain.
On Wednesday, May 13th, 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico.
On Friday, April 12th, 1861, Confederate forces drove the Union Army out of Fort Sumter thus opening the Civil War.
On Friday, April 6th, 1917, Woodrow Wilson signed Congress’ Declaration of War on Germany and the Central Powers of Europe.
Finally, on Monday, December 8th, 1941, FDR signed Congress's Declaration of War on Japan. (Note: on Thursday, December 11th, 1941, Adolf Hitler declared war on the United States in response to our war declaration on Japan as part of his “Axis.”)
So devastating have declarations of war been that no president has recommended and no Congress has adopted any such presidential request in the nearly 80 years since. The Korean War was called a "police action" and the first Gulf War was called an “authorization.”
Other dates of lasting significance include December 8th, 1941 (Pearl Harbor Day); August 6th and 9th, 1945 (our atomic response to Pearl Harbor Day); June 26th, 1950 (when President Truman asked the United Nations to resist North Korea's invasion of South Korea); Monday, May 17th, 1954 (when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown vs. Board of Education which determined that separation of the races in education was not equal); Tuesday, April 12th, 1955 (the tenth anniversary of FDR's death which was the day that the Salk Polio vaccine was announced); Wednesday, March 1st, 1961 when John Kennedy signed an executive order calling for the establishment of a Peace Corps; Tuesday, October 8th, 1963 when JFK signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with Great Britain and Soviet Russia; Friday, July 2nd, 1964, the day that Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights bill which would change mores and domestic political alliances; and Monday, January 22nd 1973, the day that the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on Roe v. Wade, constitutionally sanctioning abortions. Of course, on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, we were attacked by Al-Qaeda. Finally, there’s January 6th, 2021 when President Donald Trump authorized and sanctioned treasonous activity against the Congress and Constitution of the United States.
By Thursday, October 26th, 1957, the batteries of Sputnik One were drained and by Saturday, January 4th, 1958, the Soviet''s first satellite had been destroyed after losing power and drifting back into Mother Earth's atmosphere.
On Saturday, January 31st, 1958, the United States launched Explorer 1, a much smaller satellite which contained more sophisticated instruments. The race to the moon had begun in earnest. Fortunately, all humanity has benefited with the scientific and medical advances although too often the venture has been hazardous.
The batteries for Explorer 1 finally ran out on Friday, May 23rd 1958, but it remained in orbit until Tuesday, March 31st, 1970.
As the French, our original allies, might say: Long live the memory of Friday, October 4th, 1957!
One more thing. If you know a date that was equally or even more significant than the ones I mentioned above, you’re perfectly welcome to offer it!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
No comments:
Post a Comment