SOME ANNIVERSARIES of NOTEWORTHY EVENTS in 2019
(Investigator 188, 2019 September)
(Investigator 188, 2019 September)
The current edition of Investigator Magazine remembers 100 years of Tarzan movies from 1918 to 2018.
This year (2019), however, saw other 25-year, 50-year, 75-year and 100-year anniversaries of noteworthy events.
MOON LANDING — 50 years
Most notable is the 50-year anniversary of the first men landing on the Moon on July 20th 1969. That event was watched on television by an estimated one-sixth of the human race, 600 million people, and has been dubbed mankind's greatest achievement, and the greatest scientific event of the 20th century, and "one giant leap for mankind."
Perhaps an article on Moon myths, especially myths refuted by the Moon-landing, would be informative. If you're interested in Moon myths the websites in the reference list below include several books worth examining.
VERSAILLES TREATY — 100 years
A100-year anniversary is the Versailles Treaty that officially ended World War One.
Could Germany, except for an alleged "stab in the back", have won the First World War? The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, and put the blame for the World War on Germany. Afterwards, Germany's Nazis rulers attributed the 1918 defeat to a "stab in the back" and made this a justification for the "Holocaust" and concentration camps.
From March to July 1918 the German army launched five military offensives that fractured the Allied Front in France and inflicted 700,000 casualties.
Was German victory possible or was it impossible and amounts to a paranormal claim? And was the Treaty of Versailles as draconian as usually asserted and hence a cause of World War II? Perhaps a future Investigator edition will investigate this.
WOODSTOCK — 50 years
<>2019 is 50 years since the Woodstock Music Festival.
About 400,000 marijuana-smoking Hippies gathered on a huge bowl-shaped field, on August 15, on a dairy farm outside the town of Bethel 134km "as the crow flies" north-west of Brooklyn (New York). The Festival was named after the town of Woodstock (74km north-east of Bethel) because of that town's history of music and festivals.
Viewed from the stage, when Swami Satchidananda officially opened the event, the vast crowd extended so far that not all of it to be seen. Authorities became alarmed when all roads leading to the Festival became jammed with traffic and a million people had to turn back.
Hippies were associated with love, peace, flowers, drug abuse, rock concerts, "lenient" morality, anti-war protests, the New Age movement and, unfortunately, with the Charles Manson murders (which also occurred in August 1969).
Woodstock was billed "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 days of Peace and Music". 186,000 advance tickets were sold but the concert became free when a further quarter million people began to arrive and there was no way to keep them out.
With lack of shelter and sanitation, nudity, repeated rainfall and people having fun sliding in the mud the initial reports were negative — "Hippies Mired in a Sea of Mud" and "a nightmare of mud and stagnation". But later reports spoke of "a sense of social harmony", "a victory of peace and love", and the "good nature" of the people, and that the event "exemplified the best of the hippie counterculture".
Thirty-two acts were performed on stage. Most of them lasted about a half hour each and several almost two hours.
The Hippy movement spread worldwide and there were other huge concerts. In December, 1969, 300,000 gathered east of San Francisco, and in 1970 about 500,000 (exceeding even Woodstock) on the Isle of Wight off southern England.
D-Day — 75 Years
June 6th, 1944, saw Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, the greatest amphibious invasion in history. It easily exceeded the Persian invasion of Europe in 480 BC (when 700 ships were tied together to form two bridges across the Bosporus) and the Roman invasions of Britain in 54 BC and 43 AD.
World War II Almanac 1931-1945 says of Operation Overlord: "Within 24 hours, 176,000 troops were put ashore from 4,000 ships. They were protected by 9,500 aircraft and 600 warships."
The Commander-in-Chief of Germany's armies, Adolf Hitler, dithered and refused to order an immediate full scale counter attack and soon it was too late.
POKIES — 25 years
An example of a 25-year anniversary is the introduction of poker machines (or "pokies") in South Australia in 1994.
The Sunday Mail (of SA) reported that poker machines in SA now number 12,130 and net machine revenue in the year ending June 2019 was $681.6 million. The total net poker machine revenue in 25 years is $15.7 billion i.e. $15,700 million. Problem gamblers who can't afford to lose but who gamble and lose anyway are still increasing "almost doubled in the past 14 years".
The damage from pokies continues to be "massive" .The Sunday Mail report mentions suicide, breakdown of relationships, loss of housing, hungry children, and "increases in crime as people steal to feed their addiction."
For decades Investigator Magazine has pointed out that pokies players nearly always lose in the long run because the machines are programmed with the odds in their favor and against the gambler. The way to be sure of winning is to accept science, including mathematics and probability, and combine this with self-control.
PORT ADELAIDE CHURCH
Remembrances of past events need not be limited to 25, 50, 75 or 100-year intervals.
China, this year, celebrates 70 years of Communist rule and the Port Adelaide Uniting Church, which started in 1849 as the Congregational Church, celebrates 170 years. A banner on display announces "1849 170 Years 2019". The stone building was opened in 1868 as the "Congregational Church of Port Adelaide" — the 150th anniversary in 2018.
Church events may not seem noteworthy like the other anniversaries but this one has a noteworthy side:
The world's greatest 20th century evangelist prior to Billy Graham ministered in the Port Adelaide Church from 1909 to 1915. His calling to evangelism occurred in 1912 and during 40 years produced 250,000 conversions.
Lionel B. Fletcher (1877-1954) grew up as a Methodist in New South Wales. After working as a seaman, farmhand, miner and clerk he joined the Congregational Church in NSW and was ordained in 1908. He transferred to Port Adelaide and became famous for his preaching talents and social-reform efforts — about a thousand newspaper articles reported about him.
In 1915 Fletcher and wife relocated to England. During the next 26 years he preached in the British Isles, New York, South Africa and New Zealand.
In 1941 they returned to Australia where Fletcher continued as an evangelist.
GREATEST SPEECH NEVER GIVEN — 50 years
Did you know that President Nixon had an alternative speech prepared, titled "In The Event of Moon Disaster", to give to the world if the Moon landing ended disastrously?
It was prepared by William Safire (1929-2009), journalist, author, columnist and presidential speech writer.
Probably the most risky part of the Moon mission was for the lunar module (named "Eagle") to get back into orbit and rejoin the command craft. Potentially Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin could have gotten stranded on the Moon and die there. Aldrin (2009) writes:
"We
had no margin for error, no second chances, no rescue plans if the
liftoff failed. There would be no way for Mike up in Columbia [the
Moon-orbiting command craft] to retrieve us. We had no provision for
another team to race from Earth to pick us up if the Eagle did not
soar. Nor did we have food, water, or oxygen for more than a few hours."
That's another anniversary, a 50th anniversary, of a great speech never given. Here it is:
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
References:
Aldrin, B. 2009 Magnificent Desolation, Large Print edition, Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 61
Di Girolamo, R. 25 Years on the Pokies, Sunday Mail, July 21, 2019, pp 10-11
Lambert, Peter 2015 Lionel B Fletcher: Empire Evangelist, Uniting Church SA Historical Society
Malcolm, C.W. 1956 Twelve hours in the day: the life of Rev. Lionel B. Fletcher DD, Marshall Morgan & Scott
Free Map Tool
https://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm
Hippies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie
Moon Myths
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Moon_myths
http://theconversation.com/blood-moon-lunar-eclipse-myths-from-around-the-world-100548
http://www.berkano.hu/downloads/harley
http://www.gjpsy.uni-goettingen.de/gjp-article-owens
https://ia801906.us.archive.org/30/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.76982/ 2015.76982.Moons-Myths-And-Man
Nixon's alternative Moon Speech, Google Search