News
News/Commentary
*9:30P.M.Update/Correction: Wall Street Journal says that this is like 1982, four years earlier than the headline. I have seen several dates used but the WSJ appears to be the correct one. Our apologies for the error. We hope, however, our dating error does not keep you from reading about what else was going on in that time frame. There are fascinating similarities.
By Cheree Cleghorn, Editor
History does remind us that people have been through trouble, more recently, than comes to mind right now.
Headlines today are comparing this year (or rather the dregs of 2008) as the worst “since 1986.”
So, let’s take a look at that 1986 time period.
Time Magazine Person of the Year Issue, 1986: The Computer
The Bad News
….”Nor did all of the year’s major news derive from wars or the threat of international violence. (Check. Two wars and terrorists plotting in their caves.) Even as Ronald Reagan cheered the sharpest decline in the U.S. inflation rate in ten years (No real worries there. Deflation, perhaps?), 1982 brought the worst unemployment since the Great Depression (12 million jobless) (Definitely, we have that.) as well as budget deficits that may reach an unprecedented $180 billion in fiscal 1982.(Deficits have been a way of governing for some years but even these are staggering.) High unemployment plagued Western Europe as well (They even have some rioting.), and the multibillion-dollar debts of more than two dozen nations gave international financiers a severe fright. (International financiers are severely frightened by America and Western Europe, but also some other countries have been added to the list.)“Some Good Medical News
Second, this also was the year a patient received the first artificial heart, a development which has led to many generations of new mechanical heart devices which have extended the lives of people with serious heart disease. That turned out to be a great thing but, at the time, seemed interesting but, then again, who knew what would happen?
Some Greater than We Imagined Good Business News
In 1983, there was no Microsoft!
Gizmondo November 10, 1983
“Two decades and a half ago today (Nov. 10, 2008), Bill Gates unveiled Microsoft’s first operating systems. Oh, it wasn’t for sale yet—no, no, it’s still only 1983 and we wouldn’t see Windows on store shelves until 1985. But that didn’t stop the young heart throb Gates.
“Gates wasn’t at all shy when promoting his debut Windows OS at New York’s Helmsley Palace Hotel that day, claiming that it, powered by a unique graphical interface, would be running 90% of IBM systems by 1984 (before missing the launch date by a year, of course). To his credit, that ridiculously lofty number is just about identical to the Windows marketshare of today.
“Windows 1 wouldn’t be around for long, with its Windows 2 predecessor following just two years later. But if you have a fond memory of the old OS, now would be a good time to share it with the class in the comment.”
In 1984, the first Apple went on sale!
Venture Beat January 24, 1984
“25 years ago today, on Jan. 24, 1984, the first Macintosh computer went on sale. Now better known as the “Mac,” the name came from the Apple employee who created the project, Jef Raskin, who wanted to name it after his favorite kind of apple, McIntosh, but had to tweak the name for legal rights.
This original Macintosh came with 128 kilobytes of RAM (it would later become known as the Macintosh 128K) and featured a 8 MHz Motorola 68000 microprocessor. It had a 9-inch black and white CRT screen and featured a 400 kB, single-sided 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. The price? $2,495, which in today’s dollars would have been well over $5,000.
The computer featured the signatures of the entire Apple Macintosh division molded inside the case. Those name include Raskin, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and many others.
A Tragedy in Space
In 1986, the world watched as NASA’s Challenger exploded at lift-off—-seven people killed instantly. Many people have little, if any, experience with death but this was surreal. What, if you did not know what you were seeing, was a monumental site, proved to be the first cremation in space.
BBC News January 28, 1986
Seven dead in space shuttle disaster
“The American space shuttle, Challenger, has exploded killing all seven astronauts on board.
“The five men and two women – including the first teacher in space – were just over a minute into their flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida when the Challenger blew up.
“The astronauts’ families, at the airbase, and millions of Americans witnessed the world’s worst space disaster live on TV.
“The danger from falling debris prevented rescue boats reaching the scene for more than an hour.
“In 25 years of space exploration seven people have died – today that total has been doubled.”
Conclusion
Contrary to what they say, “History always repeats itself,” it never does exactly. It can’t. People change. Technologies die or arrive.
Nevertheless, it’s useful to remember, if you were alive then, how little our nation remembers of that time in terms of its shock power.
We do recover, with effort and time.
So, no, it has “never been like this” before and it never will again.
It will be the same, only different.
Sources: Time, Person of the Year, 1986; Gizmondo, November 10, 1983; Venture Beat, January 24, 1984; and BBC News, January 28, 1986
