Two months ago today, we had a Selzer poll fiasco in Iowa. We had been following the presidential race for a year, but there was no voting or caucusing yet, no Iowa meltdown, no Bernie frontrunner panic, no unprecedented strikeback from the establishment, no coronavirus lockdown. S&P 500 was at 3,225 (which was actually the trough for the year until the late-February crash). The previous day, the Senate had voted against calling John Bolton to testify, and we were still a few days away from the acquittal vote (including Mitt Romney’s historic vote to convict). It’s hard to wrap my mind around.
I say “in the past half century”, because in an even shorter period of time (a month or less) in the summer of '69 there was also a lot of crazy shit that happened: the Apollo 11 moon landing, Woodstock, Chappaquiddick, and the Manson gang murders of a famous actress and others, all against the backdrop of a raging Vietnam War that would soon lead to the largest antiwar protests in American history.
I’m sure we can argue about what events were more consequential for more people. But I mean just in terms of finding oneself wondering “WTF has just happened in the past couple months?” and finding your mind boggled by the sheer volume of various crazy news events that have transpired.
Worldwide, I’d say the events of April-June 1989, starting with Tienanmen Square, the recognition of Solidarity in Poland, and the opening of the Iron Curtain border in Hungary, pretty much set the entire world on its ear.
You can chop this into any 60-day period you want, but consider the very end of 1980 and beginning of 1981:
12/8/80 - John Lennon murdered
1/20/81- Ronald Reagan inaugurated s the U.S. hostages are freed by Iran
3/30/81 - Reagan shot by John Hinckley
4/12/81 - The first Space Shuttle orbital launch
4/24/81 - The IBM PC is introduced
5/13/81 - Pope John Paul I is shot in St. Peter’s Square
Strictly speaking about the U.S., less than a month after 9/11 the U.S. and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan. I’d also put the period of July-August 1974 up there, with the release of the Watergate “smoking gun” tape, the resignation of Nixon and succession of Ford to the presidency, and pardon of Nixon
Worldwide, I’d say the events of April-June 1989, starting with Tienanmen Square, the recognition of Solidarity in Poland, and the opening of the Iron Curtain border in Hungary, pretty much set the entire world on its ear.
You can chop this into any 60-day period you want, but consider the very end of 1980 and beginning of 1981:
12/8/80 - John Lennon murdered
1/20/81- Ronald Reagan inaugurated s the U.S. hostages are freed by Iran
3/30/81 - Reagan shot by John Hinckley
4/12/81 - The first Space Shuttle orbital launch
4/24/81 - The IBM PC is introduced
5/13/81 - Pope John Paul I is shot in St. Peter’s Square
Strictly speaking about the U.S., less than a month after 9/11 the U.S. and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan. I’d also put the period of July-August 1974 up there, with the release of the Watergate “smoking gun” tape, the resignation of Nixon and succession of Ford to the presidency, and pardon of Nixon
I lived through the 1981 stuff, and it wasn’t 10% as shocking as what has been going on now.
The stuff that happened in 1969 - the Pueblo, the MLK assassination, the RFK assassination, etc., was much more shocking than 1969 - but not as much as now. Also over 50 years in the past.
Kent, I think you make a strong case for some slightly longer periods of time that were amazing, like six months to a year. I was reminded by your mention of 1989 that at some point around the end of that year or the beginning of 1990 I was a teenager and uncharacteristically spent a Saturday night in the library instead of hanging out with my friends, because I was trying to grasp how all this stuff had happened–so I got out the back issues of Newsweek and Time and just went through week by week, starting with Tienanman Square (or actually a little bit before that, when Gorbachev went to visit China).
But we’ve got a strict 60 day limit here, and you can’t compress enough of the “crazy shit” into 60 days there.
Also, part of what is so wild about this is that the impeachment vote, Iowa’s meltdown, Bernie’s rise and fall, Biden’s comeback from the dead–all were actually unrelated to the story that has dominated the last third or so of that 60 day period. Even if there were no pandemic, we could still say “wow, what a crazy couple months it has been”–yet the political stuff all seems like a distant, hazy memory of an ancien regime.
Most comparable 60 day period of earth-shattering news is June 28th, 1914 - August 28th, 1914, from the assassination of the Archduke through the Battle of the Frontiers. Every day was “Shit, this is bad. No, I mean it’s getting worse.”
When history is all done with this, as far as America is concerned, 3/11 will remain the date when this became “real” for most of us… to borrow a 9/11 phrase, 3/11 is the date everything changed.
Although it’s a bit past the 50-year limit set by the OP, I would note that during a 26-day period in 1945:
12 April 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly; replaced by Harry Truman.
25 Apr 1945: 45 countries convene UN Conference on Intl Organization in San Francisco
28 April 1945: After escaping on 17 April, Benito Mussolini is captured and killed by Italian partizans.
30 April 1945: Hitler commits suicide.
2 May 1945: The Soviets finish conquered Berlin.
8 May 1945: VE Day.
During this period the Battle of Okinawa was ongoing (Kamikazes and the USS Franklin, sinking the Yamato, Edward R. Murrow made a radio broadcast about Buchenwald, and the ‘Arthur Godfrey Time’ began a 27-year radio run.
April - Martin Luther King assassinated, riots break out
June - RFK assassinated
July - Riots at the Democratic convention
Also takeovers and demonstrations across Europe and the Vietnam War
Those are all good ones. 1968 comes closest to our 50 year window. Interesting that my candidate from summer '69 was only a year later.
If you’re interested in '68, the movie Medium Cool captures the Chicago riots, police brutality, and martial law in incredibly vivid 35mm from an Oscar-winning choreographer. The movie’s director knew some serious shit was going to go down, and he was ready. The fictional part of the story is just okay, but the documentary aspect is priceless. (It’s also wild to realize that he put paid actors right in the midst of it all, in harm’s way, as people were being beaten and teargassed around them.)
Do we all agree that it would be a notably eventful 60 day period in the political sphere even without the coronavirus? And that a different timing for the virus could have really thrown a wrench into the works?
You think? I feel like the twists and turns that took us to Biden as the presumptive nominee all pretty much happened before the virus became a huge story. And of course impeachment was long over by then. (“Long over” in relative terms: in a normal time, we might still feel like it didn’t happen that long ago.)
I’ll look back a bit before my seven decades and judge the final two months of WWII as especially influential, and folks on the North America home front certainly consumed the allowed media, stayed as connected as possible.
No other 60-day period after the start of WWI has shaped its global aftermath so. That’s my criteria for “head-spinning” news. How long-lasting are the effects?
Okay, two months around the start of 2020 are head-spinners. That’s the good news. Now sit down. Take a deep breath. Ready? It’s going to get worse. I hereby predict: The next two months will be global shit-disturbers. Virus plus storms equals misery.
Will we remember the start of 2020 as “the good old days”? :eek: