1985: Christa McAuliffe to travel in space

Vice President George Bush announced today that Sharon Christa McAuliffe, a teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, will be the first private citizen to travel in space. Barbara Morgan, a second grade teacher from Idaho, was selected as the backup in case McAuliffe was unable to travel on the space shuttle Challenger.

"Calling her selection to fly aboard the space shuttle Challenger next January 'the ultimate field trip,' McAuliffe, 36, was the winner of an intense competition among more than 11,000 instructors who took up President Reagan's invitation last year to become the first teacher in space," reported The Valley Independent on July 20, 1985.

NOTE: McAuliffe planned to teach two 15-minute lessons that would be telecasted live to hundreds of schools. "The lessons will be a whole crew activity," McAuliffe explained before she left. "The first will be a field trip of the spacecraft. I'll start on the flight deck and tell about life aboard the shuttle. The second lesson - Why We Are In Space - I'll start with the Wright brothers and the progress we've made and look ahead to the space station." McAuliffe was never able to give these lessons, as she and six other astronauts died aboard the Challenger just 73 seconds after liftoff on January 28, 1986.

Links to the Past
New Hampshire Teacher Heads for Space
The Gettysburg Times, July 20, 1985

Teacher Takes the Ultimate in Travel
The Valley Independent, July 20, 1985

Balky Hatch Screw Delays Space Shuttle
The News, January 27, 1986

The Risk Didn't Frighten Her
The Post-Standard, January 29, 1986

Christa's Last Letter: 'Reach for the Stars'
Daily Herald, January 31, 1986

Week in Perspective

Capturing stories missed throughout the week, here is the Week in Perspective.

In U.S. News:

• Pasadena, California, based IndyMac Bancorp Inc has been taken over by the FDIC following its collapse. This is one of the largest bank failures in U.S. history.
• Residents in the predominately-black Coal Run neighborhood of Ohio have been granted a total of almost $11 million after a federal jury ruled that local authorities had denied them public water services for decades.
• Former White House press secretary and Fox news host Tony Snow died following a bout with colon cancer. He was 53.
• Angelina Jolie has given birth to long-anticipated twins, named Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline.

In Politics:

• The July 21, 2008 cover of The New Yorker magazine has sparked controversy for a cartoon depicting Barack Obama dressed in traditional Muslim dress and his wife as a 1960’s Black militant, with an afro and submachine gun. The intent of the cover was to satirize the negative press Obama has been receiving, though many believe it was in extremely poor taste.
• Karl Rove has defied a House subpoena to testify before a Judiciary Committee hearing, claiming immunity under executive privileges.
• Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has accepted the nomination for Green Party presidential candidate.

In International News:

• Hezbollah has returned the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers during a prisoner exchange with Israel.
• Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe acknowledged and apologized for a soldier wearing the Geneva-convention-protected Red Cross symbol during the military rescue of 15 hostages from the FARC militant group last month.
• A strange bug has appeared in the gardens of London’s Natural History Museum – renowned for its entomology – and has baffled the experts there.

Links to the Past
If you received a prescreened credit offer…
Kerrville Times, September 10, 2005

A Life That Matters
The Gazette, June 10, 2007

No charges against McKinney in scuffle
Daily News, June 17, 2006

Hezbollah official says two Israelis are treated ‘humanely’
Times-Herald, April 7, 2007

Families fear military rescue could kill U.S. hostages…
Daily Times, March 9, 2007

1989: Chicago-bound DC-10 crashes in Iowa

A United Airlines DC-10, which was bound for Chicago, crashed in Sioux City, Iowa, today as the pilot attempted to make an emergency landing. More than half the passengers aboard the plane survived, as the pilots "probably did everything they could possibly do." The plane's hydraulic system completely failed, leaving the pilots without any power to land. "When the pilot realized he lost the hydraulic power, they had to do all the controls manually," Dennis Love, a certification official for the FAA, was quoted saying in the Daily Herald in 1989. "It's like losing the power steering in your car, you can still move it but the DC-10 is a pretty big, rugged bird. It takes a whole lot to land it without power."

Links to the Past
At Least 178 Survive Fiery Jet Crash
Daily Herald, July 20, 1989

Continued: Crash: Crippled Jet Slams into Runway


Pilot Told of Hydraulic Failure
The Intelligencer, July 20, 1989

1965: Former Korean president dies

Syngman Rhee, the former president of the Republic of Korea, died in exile in Hawaii today. "Rhee, elected to four terms as president of Korea, did not live to see the realization of his one burning ambition - the unification of his divided country. To this - and the earlier task of liberating Korea from 40 years of Japanese rule - Rhee dedicated most of his adult life. Only the last five years did he spend in comparatively inactive seclusion in Hawaii," explained the Syracuse Herald-Journal on July 19, 1965.

Links to the Past
Syngman Rhee Dies at 90; 'Tiger of Korea'
Syracuse Herald-Journal, July 19, 1965

Editorial: Syngman Rhee
Oakland Tribune, July 20, 1965

Syngman Rhee, 90, Dies From Stroke in Honolulu
Florence Morning News, July 20, 1965

1958: Army men released to Red Cross

"East Germany today released nine American Army men held prisoner since their helicopter strayed across the Iron Curtain June 7. U.S. Army headquarters in Heidelberg announced their release was arranged under an agreement between the American and East German Red Cross," informed the San Mateo Times on July 19, 1958. "The U.S. Embassy in Bonn emphasized that the final negotiations were conducted entirely by the two Red Cross organizations and that neither State Department nor Army officers were present."

Links to the Past
East Germany Reds Free 9 US Soldiers
Eureka Humboldt Standard, July 19, 1958

Copter Fliers Are Released to Red Cross
San Mateo Times, July 19, 1958

Release Effected by Red Cross of Both Countries
The Post-Standard, July 20, 1958

Reds Won't Release U.S. Airmen
The Odessa American, June 9, 1958

1848: Women's rights convention held in NY

Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton led the first women's rights convention today in Seneca Falls, New York. A commentary in the Waukesha Democrat from July 20, 1848, shows the sentiment that these women were fighting: "If woman was more thoughtful and opinionative than she is, she would only be more troublesome to man when he is yoked to her. If woman were not fond of dress and dressing, who could clothe and deck the little children so neatly? Would man do it? And will literary and philosophical women do it? Not they; they suffer their children to go in rags, rather than mend or darn. It requires a fortune to keep a philosophical wife," read the paper in 1848.

Links to the Past
Woman
Waukesha Democrat, July 20, 1848

Woman's Rights Champion
Syracuse Herald, January 3, 1928

Suffragettes' Kin to Dedicate Park
The Post-Standard, July 15, 1980