All Things in Moderation

1988 – 43 years after the end of World War II, President Reagan signs a bill providing payments of $20,000 to Japanese-Americans interned during the war. The payment is the equivalent of roughly $25 per day interned.

1984 – During the women’s 3,000 meter race at the Los Angeles Olympics, American and favorite Mary Decker trips on the heel of Britain Zola Budd, ending her quest for gold and producing an iconic photo of the agony of Olympic defeat.

1984 – The movie Red Dawn is released, notable not only for its cast filled with young, future stars such as Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey, but also for being the first movie ever released with a PG-13 rating. A Cold War classic, it was re-made last year.

1977 – Postal employee and serial killer David Berkowitz, aka Son of Sam, is finally arrested in Yonkers, New York after killing six and wounding seven in a series of shootings that took place over the course of a year. Berkowitz says his neighbor’s dog, possessed by a demon, told him to do it.

1948 – Allen Funt’s “Candid Camera” debut’s on ABC television. Originally a radio show called Candid Microphone, Funt’s television show would continue to be produced, either as a regular feature or as a periodic special, until 2004. When I lived in England the BBC broadcast an edgier Candid Camera-like show called Trigger Happy TV, which I thought was hilarious.

1846 – President James K. Polk signs the law establishing the Smithsonian Institution.

1792 – Mobs in Paris attack Tuileries Palace, home of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, forcing the King to take shelter in the Legislative Assembly. The attack marks the effective end to the Bourbon monarchy, as Louis was a arrested 3 days later, tried, and eventually executed.

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