World History According to Namir

On another note, things that come into being but have no specific date in mind get listed here.  Under a sort of “I have been alive to witness the birth of...”

	email
	The internet in general
	Pong
	The first Atari, and every single computer gaming system available today.
	The very first home PC, with a system equal in every way to my beloved Hewpie, a $250 calculator dubbed the HP48SX.
	Y2K.  No big whoop really.  Power stayed on, in fact, nothing perceptible happened.  Kind of a let down, really.

9 November 1989: Berlin wall comes down.  The two halves of Germany unite.

November 1995: Itzak Rabin.  Prime Minister of Israel, was assassinated.  A long time supporter of peace in the Middle East, although once a brilliant military mind (Six Day War).  I wrote about my feelings this day in Philosophical Diary.

25 June 1997: Jacques-Yves Cousteau died today.  

5 July 1997:  NASA lands the first small rover on the surface of Mars.  It will end up staying there, sending signals of scientific readings back to Earth.  It’s called the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, with the rover called Sojourner.

19 August 1997: UPS strike ended today after about 3 weeks.  Reason for strike was that the Teamsters Union’s contract with UPS ended, and negotiations for the new contract was unsatisfactory.  All that aside, I was able to witness firsthand one of UPS’s competitors (FedEx) and how they handled it.  As the increase in volume progressed, I witnessed everyone in the company support each other to handle it.  As a corporation, FedEx decided they were going to handle the increase in volume by limiting incoming packages.  I felt this was not indicative of a service oriented company.  Someone once said that we provide a service, and packages getting delivered was a byproduct.  If this is true, then FedEx should have flexed to handle the incoming volume.  Embrace it instead of shoring up the existing system.  The USPS started delivering boxes on Sunday and keeping their guarantees.  We first said no new accounts, then halted employee shipping, then limit incoming, then limit existing pickups, then early drop-box closures.  Oh well.  Fred knows what he’s doing, and I suppose we made out like bandits profitwise.

8 September 1997: Princess Diana died on August 21, 1997 after a nasty car crash in Paris in which her driver was 3 x’s the legal intoxication level, the car was traveling at 120 mph, and the Paparazzi were chasing after her (the British Media.)  She is being known for her kindness, her gracious presence in a rather cold royal family, and her generosity to many charities.  (It appears she was very invested in the poor.)

6 September 1997: A mere week after the death of a famous female icon, Mother Theresa dies.  She was a woman truly invested in the plight of the poor and the wretched in India, and actually met Princess Diana 5 years earlier in which they supposedly became good friends.

8 September 1998: This morning on the news, I learned that the Russian Space station has begun to spin out of control.  I’ve noticed the mention of MIR has become more and more prevalent in recent media reports.  This is something that I have predicted... it’s not necessarily a good thing.  In my opinion, MIR is an old, outdated piece of equipment.  Astronauts should not continue to risk their lives.  I see bad things for the future of MIR.  I fear that something bad will happen which will prohibit further ventures into the realm of space habitation.

August 1999: President Clinton aired a public apology to the nation after testifying in a trial relating to an affair with Monica Lewinski.  A 400+ page report has been created by prosecuting attorney Kenneth Starr, and published on the internet for all to see.  People are calling for possible impeachment hearings, and feel the president ought to resign.  It appears that most are pissed because the President initially lied, rather than due to the affair.

25 November 1999: At Thanksgiving on our annual pilgrimage to New Jersey, we doled out booklets to a bunch of people.  It had a poem co-authored by us that read:
 
Enclosed you’ll find a special gift,
 As we look to the future our history we’d like to sift.  
This gift indeed will be a labor of care,
Here’s hoping you won’t despair.
After a year has passed, and all days filled,
Please return to us, as we hope you will.
And as the years pass, and generations grow,
A tradition this will become, so we will all know.
 
We gave it to Mum, Pa, Mel, Nana & Poppop, Barb, Grandma.  They were received with mixed reviews, in the order above.  We hope to get them back & maybe post the interesting stories.  One thought was to make a Gharaibeh/Oakley/Graben web site, a sort of family info repository.

1 January 2000: Fantasia2000 opens today for a limited engagement in IMAX theaters around the world/nation? Until April 30.  Wow.

8 January 2000:  OK.  Not really world news, but what the hell is up with this rash of  “Prime Time Make-a-Million” game shows?  There are 3 now: “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” with Regis, “Greed” with Chuck Woolery, and “21”.

10 January 2000: Namir redid Pam’s Engagement ring to reflect a burnish set for the side stones instead of the piece of crap channel set that was coming loose.  Fucking JB Robinson.  Anyway, he removed 2 of the 4 burnished diamonds for use in the future.

Damn it’s been awhile.
9 September 2001 (9/11/01): Bad things happen: The WTC Bombing.  
8:46am A hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston, MA, crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
9:03am A second hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 175, crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center and explodes.
9:37 am A third hijacked airliner American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington.
10:00 am A fourth hijacked airliner United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a rural field in Pennsylvania.
All airports locked down, Nation & world prepare to up the battle of Terrorism for years to come.  The entire globe mourns the losses & is angered by the incidents.
Through video broadcasts, Osama bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the attacks.  The world still hunts for him & his compatriots.
New York City was devastated, but survives.  As do the memories of all the people who died in the planes, the Towers, and the NYC Firemen & Emergency Personnel who rushed into the tower to save folks when the Towers collapsed.
 Source

29 November 2002: Jennifer Granholm elected first female governor of Michigan.

1 February 2003: The space shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry 16 minutes before touchdown over Texas today.  There were ? astronauts and a buttload of experiments on it.  No cause as of yet.  People keep leaning towards the chunk of foam falling off the main booster hitting the wing.
 Update: as of 10/4/2004, no shuttle missions planned.

7 February 2003: Latest TV rage: Reality TV.  It started with Survivor, then The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Fear Factor, American Idol, Big Brother, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, Joe Freakin Millionaire.  C’mon America.  Pick up a freakin book.

14 August 2003: Power Outage of 2003: In just three minutes, starting at 4:10 p.m., 21 power plants shut down, according to Genscape, a company that monitors the output of power plants.  Cities affected included New York, Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. Source.

17 October 2003: China launches its first manned space mission, becoming third country to do so.

5 October 2004: SpaceShipOne wins $10 million X Prize.
 
SpaceShipOne crossed the finish line in an 8-year, $10 million space race Monday, winning the Ansari X Prize with its second spaceflight in less than a week. Along the way, the world's first privately developed spacecraft also broke a 41-year-old altitude record and created a new astronaut.
 
At its highest point, the rocket plane reached an altitude of 367,442 feet (69.6 miles or 112 kilometers), easily topping the 100-kilometer (62.5-miles) altitude required to win the X Prize.
 
SpaceShipOne was built by famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan of Mojave-based Scaled Composites with financial backing from software billionaire Paul Allen. Their accomplishment will win them $10 million from the St. Louis-based X Prize Foundation.
 
This marks the first time a civilian has piloted into outer space.  This is the beginning of privately funded space travel.