“A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia.”  ~ David McCullough, historian

“The past actually happened but history is only what someone wrote down. ” ~ A. Whitney Brown, comedian

1997: First U.S. ambassador since end of the Vietnam War arrives in Saigon.

1992: Final episode of television hit Golden Girls.

1991: Michael Landon appears on Tonight Show and announces he has cancer.

1984: Pop culture icon Alexander Calder’s sculpture “Big Crinkly” sells for an astonishing (then) $852,000.

1983: Country Music Awards: Alabama wins Best Album for Closer You Get. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers get Best Single for Islands in the Stream.

1974: House Judiciary Committee begins formal hearings on President Nixon’s impeachment.

1979: U.S. and U.S.S.R. sign Salt 2 treaty, limiting nuclear weapons.

1977: Patty Hearst released from jail by President Carter’s order.

1971: Emmy Awards: All in the Family takes Best Comedy. Best Variety (musical) goes to the Carol Burnett Show; Best Variety (talk) is the Dick Cavett Show.

1970: 100,000 demonstrate in Washington against Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings.

1965: Beatles attend a Bob Dylan concert.

1960: U.S. becomes the first country to legalize a birth control pill.