Free the Chicago 7!

On February 18, 1970 the Chicago Seven (once the Chicago 8) were found Not Guilty of Conspiracy for the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968.  Notables in the Chicago Seven included Yippie leaders Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin as well as political activist Tom Hayden.  Black Panther Bobby Seale was removed from the trial and was tried separately. Hoffman committed suicide in 1989 staying true to his radical politics and living underground for many years.  Rubbin traded his Yippie credentials for Yuppie attire becoming a capitalist.  He died jaywalking Wilshire Blvd in LA in 1994.  Hayden was married briefly to actress Jane Fonda and had a brief career in politics and now teaches.  Bobby Seale once came in second in mayoral race for the city of Oakland in 1973 but has since retired from active politics.  He wrote "Barbequing with Bobby" in 1987 and now teaches occasionally while working for community organizations.

Brian Wilson begins recording Good Vibrations

February 17, 1966 Brian Wilson rolls tape for the first time on "Good Vibrations".  Over the next 8 months he will rewrite and rerecord  words and music searching to duplicate the sound he hears in his head.

The Begining of the End - February 16, 1971

 Like other Presidents before him, Richard Nixon wanted to record conversations he had in his Oval Office.  He said it was to ensure historical accuracy.  Others noted that it was to verify what was said in private if public statements later proved contradictory.  The system was installed by Presidential Aid Alexander Butterfield and in this first conversation he instructs the President and the President's Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman on how to use the system.  The existence of the system was largely unknown until revealed by Butterfield during the Watergate hearings.  This lead to a tenacious tug of war between the Congress and the President for possession of the tapes.  The conversation recorded June 23, 1972 would eventually be called "The Smoking Gun" that contributed to the Presidents resignation.

LEON! The Toothless Champion of the World!

On February 15, 1978 Leon Spinks stuns the world by defeating reining heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali in a 15 round decision.  This was only his eighth professional fight but he went on to a long, though interesting career.  He was known for his large entourage and his partying was the suff of legend.  Today he can be found working weekends in a YMCA in Columbus, Nebraska.

1962 JFK authorizes advisors to return fire

By February 1962, US involvement in Vietnam was still limited to several hundred military advisors under direction on the US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV).  On February 14, President Kennedy authorized military "advisors" to return fire if fired upon essentially acknowledging for the first time that the US was actively involved in combat.  Within a year, there would be more than 15,000 Us troops in Vietnam.

Big Brother is Watching

Although the CIA was legally forbidden from domestic activities, on February 11, 1963 they created the Domestic Operations Division.  Essentially to spy on Americans, or at least to save us from ourselves, The DOD would grow over the years and finally be exposed in the 1970s for a long list of illegal activities.

Gary Powers released from Soviet prision

February 10, 1962 - Pilot and CIA Operative Gary Powers is returned to the United States in a prisoner exchange with the Soviet Union. 

Powers, piloting the secretive U2 spy plane, was shot down by Soviet missiles on May 1, 1960.  The US first reports a "weather plane" had been reported missing only to be embarrassed when they learn that not only had the pilot survived and was captured, but the aircraft had been recovered largely intact.  Furthermore, Powers had in his procession not only a survival kit, but also 7500 Soviet rubbles and "jewelry for women."  The Cold War escalated when it was proven that the US had been spying on the Soviet Union.  Tried and convicted as a spy, Powers along with an American student Fredric Pryor is swapped for Soviet Spy KGB Colonel Vilyan Fisher. He died in 1977 at age 47 covering fires in Santa Barbara when his helicopter ran out of fuel.  Parts of the US Spy Plane remain on display at a Moscow museum.

The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan Show

February 9, 1964 - 73 million Americans - 40% of the population -tuned into the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS that evening.  For months the airwaves and popular culture where abuzz about a new group from England.  Teenage girls were hysterical in the infatuation.  John, Paul, Ringo and George were the subject of rabid devotion as screaming mobs followed their every move.  More than 50,000 requests were made for the 700 seats in the theater.  The screams of the audience drowned out their singing and young girls bumped and grinded to their parent horror in living rooms across America.  If was a welcome relief to a tragic assaination just 77 days prior.  Any the Beatles were handsomly compansated $2500 for their efforts.

Hasbro introduces the Action Figure - 1964

 In 1964 everybody knew that real, red blooded American boys did not play with dolls.  So Hasbro launches a new concept - it's not a doll, it's an Action Figure!  Now little boys can act out their aggressive fantasies indoors as well as out, as the try to kill and maim the enemy rather than each other.  Mothers sighed with relief when they learned that though GI Joe was a male, he was not exactly anatomically correct.  No need to worry about embarrassing questions from grandma or little sis. And fathers, many of them veterans of WWII, could explain to their sons what dog tags were and how to clean a rifle.  Ah, the Spartans!  Now they had something,  Strart training warriors from the begining.

Aint' we lucky we got 'em, Good Times!

February 8, 1974
Good Times premiers on CBS.

The Norman Lear factory, which first gave us All in the Family, then Maude, creates another spin off.  Good Times is the story of a poor, hardworking family struggling to survive in Chicago's infamous Cabrini-Green housing project. In typical 1970s sitcom fashion, the shows characters faced everyday problems as they struggled to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, while interjecting comedy to lighten the moment.  The cheers of the live audience lent support to the underlying moral message that good people will triumph over oppression.  Leftist politics were never more entertaining.

The British Invasion has begun

On February 7, 1964 The Beatles arrive at JFK airport.

For months the airwaves had been abuzz about this new group from Liverpool with strange clothes and long hair.  More than 3,000 scream fans were there to meet them and Beatlemania had begun.  They would give three concerts and appear for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Where's the 19th hole?

On February 6, 1974 Allan Shepard, who had been the first American in space in 1961, was commander of Apollo 14 mission.  He created a golf club by attaching a 6 iron to a lunar scoop handle and managed to be the first man to play golf on the moon.  Unfortunately, he was unable to follow up with the customary martini.

1967 - You can't say that on Television

In 1967 the Smother Brothers Comedy Hour premiers on CBS.  Using the typical comedy/variety stick of the era, the Smother Brothers Comedy Hour became what the cool people watched on TV.  Pushing the envelope of what was considered permissible for television, the conservative looking Smother Brothers and their writers (including Steve Martin, Rob Reiner and Al Brooks) were often at odds with CBS censors.  While their parents watched Bonanza on NBC, kids in the 15 - 25 year old demographic were watching the likes of The Who, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Joan Baez, and Stephenwolf.  Once taboo topics like politics, sex, race, and drugs were openly discussed for the first time.

1974 - Patty Hearst kidnapped by the Symbionse Liberation Army

In the early morning hours of February 4, 1974, nineteen year old heiress Patty Hearst is kidnapped from her Berkeley apartment. 

Gamal Abdel Nassar

Political Instability rocks the Middle East

Before Mubarak there was Sadat.  Before Sadat there was Nassar. He was one of the leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 that overthrew the monarchy, and Nasar became the republics second president in 1956.  He quickly became on of the major players in the Arab world.  He is remembered for nationalizing the Suez Canal, building the Aswan high dam, and founding the short-lived United Arab Republic (1958 - 1961) linking Egypt and Syria.  Through much of the 1960s, his influence continued to grow throughout the Middle East until disastrous defeat in the Six Day War with Israel in 1967.  After loosing control of the Suez Canal to Israel, his star began to decline and he aligned himself with Soviet interests in the Cold War.  He died of a heart attack in 1970 and was succeeded by Vice President Anwar Sadat.  Sadat, who made peace with Israel in 1978, Sadat was assassinated by Egyptian military in 1981 when Vice President Mubarak became President.

Day Two of the Tet Offensive

Is this what we are fighting for?

Saigon Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan tells reports "These guys kill a lot of our people, and I think Buddha will forgive me" and walks up to a captive Vietcong guerrilla and shots him in the head at point blank range.  This image, and the footage captured by an NBC News team, is published around the world.  America was stunned and the world gasped at the brutality.  Loan was never prosecuted.  He narrowly escaped South Vietnam in the closing days of the war in 1975, and eventually resettled in Virginia where he opened a pizzeria. He lived there quietly until 1991 when he identity was discovered and he closed the pizzeria.  He died of cancer in 1998.

1968 - Richard Nixon announces his candidacy for President.

On this date in 1968 Richard Millhouse Nixon announces he is a candidate for the President of the United States.  After losing the election of 1960 to John F. Kennedy, Nixon retired to his native California.  He ran unsuccessfully against incumbent Governor Pat Brown (father of the current governor Jerry “Governor Moonbeam” Brown) in 1962.  He was viewed as the moderate Republican alternative to the liberal Nelson Rockefeller and the conservative Ronald Reagan