Disaster in the sky 74 years ago

Nearly everyone is familiar with the images of the 「ヒンデンブルク」 (Hindenburg) disaster.

The shot of it bursting into flames just as it was landing in New Jersey, USA on it’s three-day flight from Germany is one of the most famous photographs in the world.

The hard rock band Led Zeppelin used it on the cover of their 1969 debut album.

Led Zeppelin I

But did you know that the Hindenburg disaster happened on 1937 May 6…seventy-four years ago today?
Neither did I. But that’s one of the wonders of living in the Information Age. Without even leaving my living room I can check Wikipedia‘s page about the Hindenburg and learn that there were only 97 passengers and crew on board the zeppelin on it’s fatal journey…and most managed to survive somehow. There were 36 fatalities.

Besides the famous shot of the Hindenburg burning, the radio news announcer, Herbert Morrison’s broadcast is also well-known. Especially his line:

“Oh, the humanity!”
–Herbert Morrison

Another wonder of the internet is YouTube.
I was able to find a YouTube video showing a newsreel from 1937 about the Hindenburg Disaster:

Happy New Year 2010

明けましておめでとうございます！ (“Happy New Year!“)

It’s now 2010. The second decade of the 21st century!

2010 is the "Year Of The Tiger".

If you go to the Tokyo Tower by 2010 Jan 17 (8:00-10:00PM), you can see it lit up with "2010"

Every year on New Year’s Eve in Japan, many people watch 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) on TV.
It’s a music show with two teams of musicians (a “red” team and a “white” team…red and white are the colors or celebration) competing for points based on their live song performance.

Just before midnight, they countdown to the new year.

This show has been a New Year tradition in Japan for many years.

Last night we watched the show…as we usually do every year.
Here’s a clip of the show from yesterday.

And as I mentioned in an earlier post, Susan Boyle came to Japan to perform on this show last night. It was an excellent performance.
Here it is:

America also has a musical New Year countdown show that has been aired for many years. I used to watch it when I was a kid.
On this show, they show a illuminated ball descend a tower in New York City…the ball is timed to reach the bottom of the tower precisely at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

I haven’t seen this show since the mid-1980s…but I’m sure it’s still on the air every year.

As today is the start of a new decade, let’s look at Japan’s 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) from New Years Eve four decades ago (the year I was born)…

Here’s a clip from Japan’s 「紅白歌合戦」 (“Red And White Song Battle“) from New Year’s Eve 1969 → 1970:

I couldn’t find a clip from America’s “New Years Eve At Times Square” from the same time but here’s one from three decades ago (New Year’s Eve 1979 → 1980):

Time flies. TV and music (and life in general) is so different now!

How about ten years ago?
New Years Eve 1999 ushered in the year 2000 (the start of the 21st century). Remember the “Y2K scare” at that time?
Well here’s a clip that shows highlights of the New Years celebrations from that evening (1999 → 2000) from around the world:

October 1609 and 1969

Did you know that the internet started this week forty years ago (in 1969 October)?

It was much simpler then than it is now and it was only used by the U.S. military as a way for computers to “talk” to each other.
Supposedly the first message sent between two computers via the internet was “L-O-G”…and it crashed at “O”!

Do you remember what Yahoo! looked like when it first started in 1996?

Here’s a screen-shot of an early Yahoo! page from thirteen years ago:

What "Yahoo!" looked like when it first started in '96.

Also, four hundred years ago today in 1609 October, the Italian scientist Galileo invented the first telescope.

It was nothing compared to today’s telescopes, but it helped Galileo discover that the sun and other planets don’t revolve around the Earth (which was the common belief at the time).

When he published his findings, the Catholic Church dubbed him a heretic and demanded that he recant lest he tried in court for heresy!

Summer of ’69

As I’ve mentioned before, I was born in 1969.

◆ 1969 was the year that Led Zeppelin released their debut album…

Led Zeppelin I

This album is forty years old now. The members of Led Zeppelin who are still alive, have become old…but this album is still excellent.
If you don’t own a copy, you should buy one.

◆ Also, on 1969 July 20, the first astronaut landed on the moon (I wrote a post about it…click here).

I wasn’t born until November 1969, but I’m sure that this was a momentous event for those that witnessed it.

◆ August 9th was the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan…

but it was also the 40th anniversary of the 1969 August 9 grisly murders of Sharon Tate and others by the notorious “Charles Manson Family” in California.

Charles Manson in custody.

The late sixties changed America in many ways and took away it’s “innocence”.
The Vietnam War, hippies, drugs, Woodstock…and the Charles Manson trial.

I heard that many Americans only began locking their house at night after the murders by the Manson Family. Even the judge in the trial began carrying a gun under his robe after Manson tried to stab him with a pencil in court. (The court officers intercepted him before he reached the judge and they escorted him out of the court room…as they did, Manson yelled to the judge: “In the name of Christian justice, someone should chop off your head!”)

Once Charles Manson showed up in court with an “X” carved into his forehead, and the next day his “Family” had matching “X”‘s in their foreheads. (Years later, Manson carved more into the “X” and turned it into a swastika).

Also, tomorrow, a member of the “Manson Family” who went to prison in 1975 for an assassination attempt on then-US President Richard Nixon will be released from prison.
Her name is Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, and she is the only member of the Manson Family who is still loyal to Charles Manson. And she’s getting out of prison tomorrow (2009 August 16) after serving 34 years of a life-sentence.

◆ Today is the 64th anniversary of VJ Day…

but today’s also the 40th anniversary of the first day of “Woodstock“, the three-day rock / folk music festival in New York that went from 1969 August 15th to 17th.

3-day ticket for Woodstock Festival, 1969 August 15-17

A three-day outdoor concert in the mud and rain with little food and water…I don’t think it sounds enjoyable. Maybe I’m just not the right generation to understand the appeal of Woodstock.

Forty years ago this summer America went through alot of changes.