March 30, 2019
Dearest Readers,
It’s a rather violent edition of On This Date, as we revisit a car bombing and an assassination attempt, while Top of the Charts mellows out in 1974 and Philosophy 101 talks about not dying in the closet.
Many thanks for reading,
xoxoxo,
Kaitlyn
On This Date:
In 1965 – A car bomb explodes outside the US Embassy in Saigon, South Vietnam. The car bomb was placed by the Viet Cong, the Communists that ran the People’s Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam, who were the enemy in the Vietnam War. The explosion killed two Americans, 19 Vietnamese, and one Filipino serving in the US Navy and injured 183.
In 1981 – John Hinckley Jr., looking to impress actress Jodi Foster, attempts to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, shooting him once in the chest. Reagan would suffer a broken rib and a punctured lung but would recover. Also shot were Press Secretary James Brady, whose injuries confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and a Secret Service agent and a Washington, D.C. policeman. Hinkley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was confined to mental hospitals until 2016. He is now 63 and lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1974:
Hot 100 – Sunshine on My Shoulders…John Denver (only week)
Soul Chart – Lookin’ for a Love…Bobby Womack (3rd and final week)
Country Chart – Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)…Tanya Tucker (only week)
UK Singles Chart – Billy Don’t Be a Hero…Paper Lace (3rd of three weeks)
Album Chart – John Denver’s Greatest Hits…John Denver (1st of three non-consecutive weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard (US) and Official Charts Company (UK).
Numbers Racket
10,689: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
22.164: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
592: number of days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
Don’t die hiding in the closet.
Jim Murray
We can all do something well. It was one of the earliest lessons we remember learning and it is a lesson that proves itself on a daily basis.
We must be us. Our time on this planet is not only finite but of undetermined length. Unless we are in possession of a death warrant or a suicide note we have no idea when our time on this planet will end. Fair enough. This means we have an obligation to ourselves and our fellow beings to get the most out of the talents we were issued at birth. When our turn comes to die, we must ensure we are looking back at time well-spent and not time squandered. To do this we must do three things:
We must have the wisdom to know what we are about, to know the life we are meant to live.
We must have the courage to go and live that life
We must have the patience to see our journey through to the very end.
We must do these things every day. Not some days and not others, not some years and not others. We must live the life we are meant to live every day, from the day we commit to our path to the day we die. There’s no middle ground.
When we do this, when our lives exhibit these three traits, then we are living the life we are meant to live – life’s great prize. There is no hiding in the closet.
Jim Murray (1919-98) was an American sportswriter, best known as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.