10 Years That Made the Modern World-- Part 1: 2001, 1848, 1918, 1962, 1953

From the February 3, 2020, ListVerse by Himanshu Sharma.

I am doing the very short version.  Go to site for more info and pictures.

10.  2001

Understanding the human genome, 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S.

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9.  1848 

Wave of revolutions that hit Europe and elsewhere.  Idea of nation-state.

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8.  1918

The end of World War I, end of Ottaman, German,  Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires.  Spanish flu pandemic.

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7.  1962

Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis,   Things heating up in Vietnam.  Vatican Council

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6.  1953

Coup in Iran,  Rise of Iran as a power  DNA a double helix, designer babies and clones.

--Cooter

Deaths in 2019: Soviet Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

ALEXEI LEONOV, 85

Died October 11, 2019, in Moscow.

In 1965, he became the first person to walk in space and was scheduled to walk on the moon before the Soviet Union abandoned its efforts for a manned lunar landing.

He was a Soviet air force officer chosen in 1959 as part of the first inaugural class of cosmonauts.  At the time, the Soviet Union was leading in the Race to Space.  In 1957, they launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth.  In April 1961, Yuri Gagarin, a close friend of Leonov, became the first person in space.

On March 18, 1965, Leonov took that first spacewalk outside his capsule.  His spacewalk lasted just 12 minutes and he came close to dying, but survived.

Deaths in 2019: Joseph Hasil, Czech Border Guard Who Helped Freedom-Seekers

From the Nov. 24, 2019, Chicago Tribune by Graydon Megan.

1924-2019

Born in the Bohemian region what was Czechoslovakia, was a German conscript in Dresden during WW II and later part of an underground network that smuggled people out of the country when it was controlled by the Communists.

In postwar years he was officially a border guard for Czechoslovakia, but he worked secretly to smuggle those in danger from the communist regime across the Czech border into Germany.

Tourists Find a Section of the Berlin Wall Under Vegetation

From the August 15, 2018, Chicago Tribune by Erik Kirschbaum LA Times.

Nearly 30 years after it was toppled, a 20-yard-long section of the Berlin Wall has been discovered, hidden behind bushes, weeds and overgrown trees that over the years obscured it.

The Berlin Wall is one of the Cold War's most divisive symbols.  (I personally never thought it would come down.)

It is 11-feet high cement slabs and was found in the heart of Berlin.  It had once been part of an interior security barrier to keep East Germans from getting close to the outer wall separating East Berlin from West Berlin.  It is covered with graffiti and is now under monument protection status.

The tourists discovered it in June but it was just determined to be authentic this week.

Another, longer piece of the wall, about a 260-foot section, was discovered in similar fashion in January in a northern district of East Berlin in a forest area.

This occurred just one day after Berliners marked the anniversary of the wall's construction in 1961.

I  have a very small piece of the wall.

--Cooter

"Atomic Attack" At NIU in 1968

From the August 8, 2018, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1968, 50 Years Ago.

"The United States will be under 'atomic attack' for 24 hours this weekend as nearly 30 Northern Illinois  residents take shelter in a university dormitory here.

"The shelter is in the basement of the 13-story Stevenson Towers on the Northern Illinois University campus will house participants from age three to adults during a drill  conducted by NIU's disaster preparedness committee."

Better Prepared Than Sorry.  --Cootbomb

10 Bizarre Cold War Tales-- Part 3: "Uncle Wiggly Wing"

3.  Joseph McCarthy's campaign against gays.  The Lavendar Scare.  Claimed there were gay government workers he gave away state secrets.  He forced the gay community underground.

2.  The United States dropped tons of candy on Berlin after the Berlin Blockade began which could have started World War III.  Pilots dropping the candy were called "The Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wing."

1.  Nikita Khruschev and Richard Nixon squared off inside an American kitchen in what is called "The Kitchen Debate.  Vice President Nixon was in Moscow on July 24, 1959 for the opening of the America Nation Exhibition.

Pas the Coffee.  --Cooter

10 Bizarre Cold War Tales-- Part 2: Tricking Castro

7.  The Zambian schoolteacher's strange space program.  Zambia sort of had our space program.

6.  The U.S. built an underground nuclear ice fortress in Greenland called Project Iceworm in 1960.

5.  The British annexed a single rock islet called Rockall as a security measure.   It was 70 feet tall near the Falkland Islands.

4.  The Soviet Union tricked Castro into giving up his nuclear missiles during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  It did not end when the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles in October 1962.  The true ending was November 22, 1962, when the Soviet Union tricked Castro.

--DaCootIce

10 Bizarre Cold War Tales Left Out of History Books-- Part 1: Bears in Planes

From the March 27, 2015, ListVerse by Marc V.

Of course, I am just listing here.  Go to the site to find out more.

10.  North Korea and the U.S. almost went to war over a tree in what is called the Poplar Tree Incident on August 17, 1976.

9.  The U.S. created a ring of copper around the Earth.  Five hundred copper needles launched into space in 1963 in Project West Ford.

8.  U.S. Air Force used bears as test pilots.  Sedated bears were used in experiments to determine ejection capsules from supersonic aircraft.  No deaths, but major injuries.

--CootTree

Navy Retires Last Ship to Sink Enemy Ship in Action, the USS Simpson-- Part 2: Served in Waning years of the Cold War

Continued from May 4, 2017.

The USS Simpson was built and commissioned in the waning years of the Cold War

It searched for and escorted submarines and fought narcotics traffickers and pirates.  Its most recent security missions were in the Mediterranean Sea but were classified.

So, now it is for sale.  Pakistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey and Poland have purchased the Navy's decommissioned frigates.

They aren't state-of-the-art technological wonders.  They had crews of 230.

The ship was named for Rear Admiral Rodger Whitten Simpson and several family members were at the decommissioning.

--DaCoot

Five Myths About the Berlin Wall-- Part 2: Key Move in the Cold War?

2.  KEY MOVE IN THE COLD WAR?  In 1952, the Soviets closed the East-West German border, but since Berlin was still 3/4 under the control of the U.S., Britain and France, they left the city alone.  West Berlin became an escape hatch for East Germans.

East Germany and the Soviet Union argued for 8 years about closing off West Berlin.  The Soviet Union argued that such a move would would make them look bad.  During that time, East Germany began stockpiling barbed wire and cement posts and formed a top secret working group to build the wall.  Plans were made to do this.

In the summer of 1961, with more than 1,000 East Germans a day leaving to West Berlin, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev gave the east Germans the go-ahead and were greatly surprised at how fast they acted.

--Cooter

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Five Myths About the Berlin Wall-- Part 1: 25 Years Ago This Month

From the November 2, 2014, Chicago Tribune by Hope M. Harrison.

November 9, 1989, was an amazing day in history for me.  Something that I thought would always be there essentially came down with its opening.  I'm talking about the Berlin Wall.  This also was the death knell of the Soviet Union and to a large degree, Communism.  Two other things I thought would always be with us.  I was able to get a very small piece of it from friends who went to Germany shortly afterwards.  I would pass it around in my classes after that so the kids could touch some real history.

This was always a point in the very real Cold War.

These are some interesting things about the wall that most people don't know:

1.  THE BERLIN WALL WAS ONE WALL.  In fact, it was two walls separated by up to 160 yards of a death strip with guards (with shoot-to-kill orders), towers, dogs, floodlights, tripwires.  There were also over a million mines along the border between East and West Germany.

More than 5,000 East Germans managed to escape despite these obstacles.  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died.

--Cooter

Fiftieth Anniversary of 1963-- Part 4: Civil Rights-- Nuclear Weapons

JUNE 11TH

Standing in a doorway, Alabama Governor George Wallace blocks the enrollment of Vivian Malone and James Hood, the first black students at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  Wallace steps aside when President Kennedy mobilizes National Guard troops to the scene.

JUNE 11TH

Following the confrontation in Alabama. President Kennedy delivers his landmark civil rights address, "I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public--hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores and similar establishments.  This seems to me to be an elementary right.

Eleven months later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law.

AUGUST 5TH

The United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union sign the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.  The treaty signing follows nearly a decade of negotiations aimed at slowing down the arms race and limiting the effect of nuclear testing on the atmosphere and environment.  The signing comes one day before the 18th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima near the end of World War II.

Something we can all live with.

All Big Events.  --Cooter

Hitler's Airport Update-- Part 2

Today, Berliners wander through the prairielike 950 acres.

During the war, Allied forces knew that one day they would need the airport after the war, so it was spared the bombing that destroyed so much of Berlin.

Tempelhof became the eastern end of President Harry Truman's famous air bridge during the 1948-49 Soviet blockade of West Berlin which was surrounded by Soviet East Germany. Today, there is an abstract monument bearing the names of 70 British and American "Candy Bombers" who died ferrying food and supplies to West Berlin. It's three fingers represent the three air routes into the city.

Tempelhoff became a major US base and the main civilian air link. As commercial airlines began using the other two airports, private planes carrying high-end travelers continued to use it.

The Story of an Airport. --DaCoot

Quite an Anniversary-- The Berlin Wall

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall. I remember just looking at the TV in wonder of those East Berliners standing on top of the wall, a place wherethey would have been shot had they done it just 24-hours earlier.

I never thought I'd see this as the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union and fall of Communism.

Some friends of ours who ran the Black Bear Restaurant in Ingleside, Illinois, which featured German food, were returning home for a visit to Berlin and I asked if they would get me a piece of it, figuring this would be a way for my students to actually touch history. They came back with a small bag with a piece of it for $15.

It was a really small piece, but had paint on one flat piece which I figure must have faced the West Berlin side unless it had been painted on after the wall opened.

I understand there are some sections of the wall left in place.

I have also seen sections of the wall at a fort out in Kansas and at Westminister College in Fulton, Missouri, where Winston Churchill gave his Iron Curtain speech.

An Important Wall. --Cooter

Getting Nostalgic for the Cold War in Berlin

In these post-Cold War days in Germany, some people are getting nostalgic for those days according to an article in the September 29th Time Magazine by Stephanie Kirchner.

Hans-Holger, an East German border guard recalles thedays he was supposed to shoot fellow citizens for trying to escape to West Berlin. He had to serve a 17-month prison sentence for trying to escape himself.

Now, Zur Furma is open in East Berlin, close to the former Stasi headquarters. It's theme comes from East Germany's feared secret police. The place has a surveillance camera over the door, old wiretap devices and furnishings from a 1970s interrogation room. The name itself translates to "The Firm."

Some people do not like this taking light of a dark era. But, folks can buy G.D.R. souvenirs, stay at the Ostel, a G.D.R.-themed hostel, or take a "Trabi-safari" which involves taking a Trabi car sightseeing. Trabis were the notoriously poor-quality cars build in East Germany.

Tourists can also pose with actors dressed as US and Russian soldiers at Check Point Charlie, for years the only way to get from East to West Berlin.

Wail Long Enough, and Anything is Possible. --Cooter