Bombs, Bands And Bombshells Burst on August 9th
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This day in history - August 9. This dog day of summer has been anything but hazy and lazy as it plays out across the decades.
In 1936, U.S. Olympic Athlete Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. Owens, an African-American, ruined Adolf Hitler's plans for the Olympics he hosted to be a showcase of Aryan supremacy. In your face Adolf.
Nine years later, 8-9-1945, just three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the U.S. exploded another nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people and bringing an end two the madness of World War II
A generation and a half later, 1969 and it seemed as though the world had gone mad again as the bloody Helter Skelter mass murder burst into the headlines when Hollywood Actress Sharon Tate, was murdered along with four other people in her Los Angeles home by Charles Manson's followers...she was 26 years old and eight months pregnant.
In 1974 the war in Vietnam was winding down and so was the political career of President Richard Nixon who, under threat of impeachment on charges related to the Watergate scandal, formally resigned at noon, on August 9th becoming the only president in U.S. history to step down. Later in the day,.Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as the nation's 38th president.
For many, August 9th was the day the never-ending-music died when Grateful Dead lead singer and co-founder Jerry Garcia died on this day in 1995 at the age of 53.
Racial tension and riots marked the day in 2014 when 18-year-old African-American Michael Brown was killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. Hands up don't shoot became a misguided national rallying cry.
The Olympic Games launched this look back in time and the games conclude it as well with the 2016, American Women's Gymnastics Team gold medal win at the Rio Olympics. The performances by Simone Biles, Lauren Hernandez, Gabby Douglas, Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman gave the U.S. the team gold for a second straight Olympics.
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