# Events reduced to the back page due to something "bigger" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 26, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035 "2009-06-26T03:08:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/1 "2009-06-26T03:08:36Z")
Farrah,John Ritter,Mother Theresa all died within a few days or same day as their more famous partners in death. Ricky Henderson became the all-time base stealer(declaring “I am the greatest”)the same day Nolan Ryan threw his 7th no-hitter.Sorry Ricky What else? ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/2 "2009-06-26T03:14:56Z")
Rickey ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/3 "2009-06-26T04:09:40Z")
Well, I think that the deaths of Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis got upstaged by that bastard JFK. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/4 "2009-06-26T04:36:41Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Well, I think that the deaths of Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis got upstaged by that bastard JFK. Both of which are more of a tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/5 "2009-06-26T04:51:50Z")
No joke…Mother Teresa and Princess Di died within one (or two) week(s) of each other. Too lazy to cite it, but if you look it up, you’ll see it’s true. I think it was just one week. ETA: Ah fuck it, I looked it up… …and it WAS in the same week. Princess Di died August 31st [1997](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_diana) Mother Teresa died September 5th [1997](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa) ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/6 "2009-06-26T04:57:39Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > No joke..Mother Teresa and Princess Di died within one (or two) week(s) of each other. > > Too lazy to cite it, but if you look it up, you’ll see it’s true. > I think it was just one week. > ETA: Ah fuck it, I looked it up… > > ..and it WAS in the same week. > Princess Di died August 31st [1997](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_diana) > Mother Teresa died September 5th [1997](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa) Which is why i mentioned it in the OP ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/7 "2009-06-26T07:55:36Z")
I started to ask who died near John Ritter but I decided to be a good citizen and look it up. A lot of people. He died September 11, 2003. Edit to add, but it was 2 years later. Was there someone else besides the Sept. 11 deaths? ---
**Author:** ![Bacon\_Salt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Bacon\_Salt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bacon_Salt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/8 "2009-06-26T08:51:07Z")
I think Mad’s referring to Johnny Cash upstaging John Ritter by dying the day after. I felt like they both had equal notoriety owing to the fact that John Ritter’s death was wholly unexpected. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/9 "2009-06-26T09:11:27Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Well, I think that the deaths of Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis got upstaged by that bastard JFK. That was actually referenced in a book I’m reading, but I see I was beaten to it. The advice given by the character in the book, IIRC, is “Never die on the same day as someone more famous”. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/10 "2009-06-26T09:47:25Z")
Thanks **Bacon Salt**. (mmmm, Bacon Salt…sigh…too bad it has ingredients I can’t eat, or I’d buy out the company store.) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/11 "2009-06-26T15:34:15Z")
Lyndon Johnson died January 22, 1973. His funeral would have been big news except that the Pairs Peace Accord to end the Vietnam War was announced on January 23 and signed on January 27. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/12 "2009-06-26T15:51:09Z")
That Gary Condit thing was a huge news story in the weeks leading up to 9/11. Afterwards it was basically never mentioned again. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/13 "2009-06-26T16:04:35Z")
Prokofiev died on the same day as Stalin (March 5, 1953). ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/14 "2009-06-26T16:36:03Z")
Punk Rocker [Darby Crash](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darby_Crash)’s suicide was “upstaged” by John Lennon’s death. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/15 "2009-06-26T16:39:08Z")
Warren Zevon died a few days before Johnny Cash…but I wonder how big of a deal would have been made about him anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Kingspades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecae2f/32.png) [@Kingspades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingspades)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/16 "2009-06-26T16:43:41Z")
Sammy Davis, Jr. and Jim Henson both died on the same day in 1990. Coincidentally, it was my fourteenth birthday. I’m not sure who eclipsed whom there, but as a teenager, it certainly seemed like Davis was getting much more attention than Henson. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/17 "2009-06-26T17:56:50Z")
Not exactly an upstaging, but related: The British comedians Benny Hill and Frankie Howerd both died within hours of each other in April 1992, although Hill’s death was not discovered for some time. When Howerd died, several newspapers ran canned quotes from Benny Hill mourning the passing of his “great, great friend”. Cue embarrassed retractions when the news broke that Hill had, in fact, probably died before Howerd… ETA: Wikipedia actually lists Hill’s date of death as the day _after_ Howerd’s, but that’s not what I heard at the time. His body was discovered later, so the exact time of death isn’t known. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/18 "2009-06-26T18:02:57Z")
Kurt Vonnegut died just hours before the Virginia Tech massacre started. Although Wikipedia says April 11, I believe Vonnegut’s death was announced late on the 15th. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/19 "2009-06-26T18:16:30Z")
On January 21, 1968, a US B-52 Stratofortress crashed in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs. This should have been earth-shattering news, except for several other things that eclipsed it. The Battle of Khe Sanh started the same day. Then, on the 23rd, North Korea seized the USS Pueblo, which more-or-less took over the headlines. On the 25th, an Israeli submarine sank in the Mediterranean Sea, followed by a French sub sinking in the Med on the 27th. Finally, on the 30th, the Tet Offensive started, culminating in the Viet Cong attack on the US embassy in Saigon. 'Twas a bad month all the way around. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035/20 "2009-06-26T19:05:40Z")
Well from the World War II front: 5 June 1944 - The Americans liberate Rome. 6 June 1944 - The Allies invade Normandy on D-Day. Edit to add: 6 December 1941 - The Soviets counter-attack the Germans, driving them back from Moscow. 7 December 1941 - The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/events-reduced-to-the-back-page-due-to-something-bigger/501035.md?page=2)