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.