WP Prompt: Share what you know about the year you were born
Anchorage, Alaska, in the aftermath of the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake.Bill Ray—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
The 1964 Alaska earthquake, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America, struck Alaska’s Prince William Sound, about 74 miles southeast of Anchorage. Most of Alaska’s mainland felt the magnitude 9.2 earthquake, which wobbled Seattle’s Space Needle some 1,200 miles away. The earthquake was so powerful it registered in all U.S. states except Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware. The quake also led to significant scientific breakthroughs in subduction earthquakes and how to minimize their destruction.
As a side note, the 64 Earthquake in Alaska is one of those things that inspired more then a few stories in my family when we told Ghost stories at Christmas.
I grew up in the shadow of these two events- which was funny because I grew up in the suburbs and the ‘Burbs have a long history of ignoring things happening in the big world that they don’t like. These two events made it through ‘the dome’.
Three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi during “Freedom Summer Murders”
US Surgeon General’s Report Links Smoking to Lung Cancer: The landmark U.S. Surgeon General’s report definitively established a causal relationship between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, marking a critical moment in public health awareness and tobacco regulation.
Mariner 4 was launched in November of 1964 ( the month I was born…hoozah! )and traveled towards Mars. As the first deep space satellite to utilize the higher S-band frequency, it had more powerful uplink capabilities than in previous missions. Mariner 4 was also the first satellite to take the first up close pictures of another planet. Mariner 4 ceased transmitting in 1967.
By the 1960s, most larger cities had their own weekly late night program that offered old horror films, usually hosted by a an actor or actress in ghoulish make-up, chewing the scenery and bombarding the mostly young audience with really bad jokes. For most of Western Washington, it was Nightmare Theatre and The Count. By most accounts, Nightmare Theatre–which ran Friday Nights, usually around 11:30 P.M.–was kicked off on September 25, 1964. What isn’t currently known is when Joe “The Count” Towey stepped in to host the show, as Nightmare Theatre is said to have existed several years before The Count rose from his crypt in order to host the proceedings. It is a certainty, though, that Nightmare Theatre’s mascot was around by 1968.
TV Shows that were popular that debuted the year I was born : The Addams Family, Bewitched, The Munsters, Nightmare Theatre, Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea, Underdog.
I was devoted to Nightmare Theatre and Underdog before I turned 5 years old and guess what… I STILL LOVE THEM.
Ticket to the movies were a $1.25 and in November 1964 the #1 movies were Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady ( which hit #1 one day before I was born ) My Mom loved, ” My Fair Lady ” and I grew up to not like Mary Poppins so much, then I saw this:
VOGUE-1964