Hello/Goodbye: May

Born, May 1979

May 2 - Jason Chimera, Canadian ice hockey player
May 2 - Roman Lyashenko, Russian ice hockey player (d. 2003)
May 4 - Wes Butters, British broadcaster
May 4 - Lance Bass, American singer (*NSYNC)
May 5 - Vincent Kartheiser, American actor (Angel, Mad Men)
May 9 - Rosario Dawson, American actress
May 9 - Andrew W.K., American musician
May 9 - Brandon Webb, American baseball player
May 12 - Andre Carter, American football player
May 12 - Steve Smith, American football player
May 13 - Michael Madden, American musician (Maroon 5)
May 14 - Dan Auerbach, American musician – Black Keys, Akron OH
May 16 - Evan Ferrante, actor (Funny or Die)
May 19 - Barbara Nedeljakova, Slovak actress
May 22 - Maggie Q, American actress
May 23 - Brian Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player
May 23 - Rasual Butler, American basketball player
May 24 - Tracy McGrady, NBA forward
May 24 - Frank Mir, American UFC fighter
May 26 - Elisabeth Harnois, American actress
May 26 - Mehmet Okur (Memo), Turkish basketball player
May 28 - Jesse Bradford, American actor
May 28 - Ronald Curry, American football player
May 28 - Monica Keena, American actress
May 29 - Casey Sheehan, American soldier; son of Cindy Sheehan (d. 2004)


Died, May 1979
May 9th - Cyrus S Eaton, Canada/US multi-millionaire, dies at 95
May 9th - Lan Adomian, composer and Lincoln Brigade vet, dies at 73
May 11th - Joan Chandler, actress, dies at 55
May 11th - Lester Raymond Flatt, musician (Flatt and Scruggs), dies at 64
May 16th - Asa Philip Randolph, labor leader & civil rights pioneer, dies at 90
May 24th - Jan Arvan, actor (Red Skelton Show, Zorro), dies
May 25th - John Arthur Spenkelink, American murderer, controversially executed at 30
May 26th - George Brent, actor, dies at 75
May 29th - Mary Pickford, actress, dies at 86

Push Play 2: the IXI

This might be the craziest thing I found while digging through 1979. We've already seen the introduction of the compact disc, and in a few weeks we'll hear about the release of the Walkman, but the real breakthrough in terms of personal digital music came this week in 1979 with the creation of the iPod.  That's right--  the iPod.

Kane Kramer, a "serial inventor", dreamed up the idea as a 23 year old in the UK.  He applied for a patent on his device, which he called the IXI, in 1981, which was awarded in 1985.  Sadly for him, he could no longer afford to keep up the payments on the patent and was forced to let it lapse in 1988, after which the design became public domain.

Kramer's story came to light in 2006 when Burst.com sued Apple for copyright infringement and Apple hired Kramer as a "consultant" for the trial, during which images of his creation were released. It wasn't just that he came up with the device, he also envisioned the online store from which users would purchase and download songs.  (The original capacity of the IXI was only enough for one song!)  He even addressed issues of piracy and copyright infringement.

Kramer is still in there pitching, serving as the Chariman of the British Inventors Society.  But even though he wasn't able to reap the rewards, his invention completely changed the way we listen to music.

MIssing

Etan Patz has been in the news this week.  Etan was a six year old boy living in New York City when he disappeared on the morning of May 25th, 1979.  He was never found and was declared legally dead in 2001. It was just a few days ago that a man confessed to his murder.  His disappearance sparked at first a furious effort in the NYC area which would grow into a larger movement to find missing children,  He was the first child to be pictured on a milk carton.  His became the face of the movement and in 1983, Reagan would declare May 25th as National Missing Children Day.

In the intervening years, efforts to locate missing children have continued to grow from the work of John Walsh, whose son Adam disappeared two years later, to the development of the Amber alerts which can now be received via text.  But the case of Etan Patz was the one that first created coordinated community responses to missing children.

Same As It Ever Was ... Since 1979

It's been 31 years since Jimmy Carter was president and yet for the republicans it's still 1979. Whether it's Romney himself or one of his stooges stand-ins, like Bobby Jindal, these guys are still running against Carter.  A lot of this is based on the Cult of Reagan, in that for Reagan to be the bestest president evah, of necessity he had to've saved us from the worst.  And the most liberal.  We'll hear more about Carter and Reagan later, but it's amazing that after all these years, Carter's still the villain.  But mention George Bush (you remember him ... two term president just four years ago?) and ... crickets.

A brief lull

May 1979 was pretty quiet, for our purposes. A few tidbits from that month…

• Elton John became the first western pop star to play both Israel and the USSR
• At the same time that Village People’s “In The Navy” was at the top of the charts here, Dan White was convicted of manslaughter in the death of SF Mayor George Moscone, and the ruling was marked by the White Night Riots.
• The following week, Pope John Paul ordains the virulently anti-gay Navy admiral John J O'Connor as a bishop
• Canada follows the UK and precedes the US by moving right politically to elect the conservative Joe Clark to succeed Pierre Trudeau as PM
• Israel begins to return Sinai to Egypt
• European Market accepts Greece as member
• The USSR conducts two nuclear test while Carter and Brezhnev sign SALT II

 

The Iron Lady

On May 4th, 1979, Margaret Thatcher was appointed as the first woman PM in British History.  She's already been in Parliament for twenty years, having first been elected in 1959, and had been a force in the party for ten.  In the early 70s, she was secretary for education and science, becoming famous as "Thatcher, milk snatcher,” after her abolition of the universal free school milk scheme.  This approach to government would be the hallmark of her time as PM.

She would lead the conservative resurgence in the west, becoming a close ally to Ronald Reagan.  She would also be the first leader in the west who would regard Mikhail Gorbachev someone they could work with.  She would also perfect the "conservative as victim" attitude so common with her brethren on the right here in the states, as seen in statements like, "If my critics saw me walking over the Thames they would say it was because I couldn't swim."  

Thatcher presided over 10 years of conservative rule with all the policies that we've seen here with Reagan and those that have followed:  lower taxes (especially on the wealthy), attacks on unions, the dismantling of social programs, etc.  Her legacy lives on...