Bruce Norris, NHL, died at 61. Marty Friedman, NBA, died at 96. Bill Veeck, MLB, died at 71. Joseph Kraft, American columnist, died at 61. Mike Garcia, MLB, died at 62. Donna Reed, American actress, died at 64. James H “Jim” Crowley, US football player, died at 83. Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, died at 94. Claire James, American actress died at 65. Gordon MacRae, American singer and actor, died at 64. L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Church of Scientology, died at 74. Lilli Palmer, German actress, died at 71. Christa McAuliffe, died at 37, Dick Scobee died at 46, Ellison Onizuka died at 39. Greg Jarvis died at 41, Judith Resnik, died at 36. Michael J. Smith died at 40. Ronald McNair died at 35, all in the Challenger space shuttle disaster. Ticker Freeman, American songwriter died at 74. Alva Myrdal, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1982, died at 84. Dick James, British dance band vocalist, died at 65. Minoru Yamasaki, American architect, died at 73. Sid Stone, American comedian, died at 82. Howard Da Silva, died at 76. Red Ruffing, MLB, died at 80. James Eastland, American politician, died at 81. Tommy Douglas, Father of Medicare, died at 81. Jacques Plante, NHL, died at 57. Laura Z. Hobson, American TV writer, died at 85. Howard Greenfield, American song lyricist, died at 50. Georgia O’Keeffe, American sculptor and painter, died at 98. Jacob K Javits, American politician, died at 81. Ray Milland, Welsh actor, died at 81. Sherman Kent, father of intelligence analysis, dies at 82. Mark Dinning, American singer, died at 52. James Cagney, American actor, died at 86. Jerry Paris, American director, died at 60. O’Kelly Isley, American rock singer, died at 48. Simone de Beauvoir, French author and feminist, died at 78. Mircea Eliade, Romanian religious historian, died at 79. Harold Arlen, American popular song composer, at 81. Otto Preminger, theatre and film director, producer died at 80. Wallis Simpson, wife of British King Edward VIII, died at 89. Broderick Crawford, American actor, died at 74. Robert Alda, American actor, died at 72. Herschel Bernardi, American actor, died of a heart attack at 62. Fritz Pollard, NFL, died at 92. Theodore H. White, American journalist, died at 71. Chester Bowles, American ambassador and writer, died at 85. Desi Arnaz, actor, producer and bandleader, died at 69. Cary Grant, classic movie star, died at 82. Cliff Burton, American songwriter and musician, died at 24. Gia Carangi, first Supermodel, died at 26. Scatman Crothers, actor and musician, died at 76. Ted Knight, comedy roles on TV, died at 64. Benny Goodman, bandleader, died at 79. Len Bias, NBA, died at 22. Vincente Minnelli, film director, died at 83. Keenan Wynn, American character actor, died at 70. Sterling Hayden, actor, died at 70. Forrest Tucker, actor, died at 67. Kate Smith, singer, died at 79. V. C. Andrews, novelist, died at 63. Harold Macmillan, former British PM, died at 92. Perry Ellis, fashion designer, died at 46. Hank Greenberg, MLB, died at 75. Marlin Perkins, American zoologist, died at 81. W Averell Harriman, NY governor, died at 95. Hyman Rickover, USA Navy Admiral, died at 86. Bobby Layne, NFL, died at 60. Alan Jay Lerner, lyricist, died at 86. Rudy Vallee, singer, died at 85. Norm Cash, MLB, died at 52. Hal B. Wallis, film producer, died at 88. Jacqueline Roque, second wife of Pablo Picasso, died at 59. Roy Cohn, American Lawyer, died at 59. Mae Capone, wife of gangster Al Capone, died at 89. Do you know anyone who died in 1986?
Disasters in 1986
A Canadian National train heading westbound collided with a Via Rail train in Hinton, Alberta, with 23 people killed and 71 injured. The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov sank in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, as well as the Soviet passenger liner SS Admiral Nakhimov collided with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the Black Sea, killing 398. Hotel New World in Singapore collapsed, with 33 killed. A three-day Egyptian Conscripts Riot in Cairo, left at least 25 people dead. The West Berlin discothèque La Belle, a known hangout for USA soldiers, was bombed, killing three and injuring 230. At least 15 people died after USA planes bombed targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region. British journalist John McCarthy was kidnapped in Beirut and three others killed in retaliation for the bombing of Libya. The Bangladeshi double-decked ferry Shamia capsized in the Meghna River, in southern Barisal, Bangladesh, killing more than 500 people. Typhoon Wayne formed over the South China Sea, going on to become one of the longest-lived tropical cyclones at 21 days, killing 490 people. The 6.0 Mw Kalamata earthquake shook southern Greece with a maximum Mercalli intensity of 10, leaving at least 20 dead, 300 injured, and causing $5 million in damage. A magnitude 5.7 earthquake destroyed most of the Bulgarian town of Strajica, killing 2 people. The 5.7 Mw San Salvador earthquake shook San Salvador, El Salvador, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of 9 with up to 1,500 people killed. Hailstones weighing 2 pounds fell on the Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, killing 92. A hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 97 and injured 140. Titan 34D-9 exploded just after launch while carrying the final KH-9 satellite. The Mindbender at Galaxy land inside West Edmonton Mall derailed, and killed three riders. In Edmond, Oklahoma, a USA Postal Service employee gunned down 14 of his coworkers before committing suicide. The Lake Nyos disaster, a limnic eruption, occurred in Cameroon, killing nearly 2,000 people. In Istanbul, two Abu Nidal terrorists killed 22 and wounded 6 inside the Neve Shalom Synagogue during Shabbat services. Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet survived an assassination attempt by the FPMR, but 5 of Pinochet’s bodyguards were killed. Mass anti-government protests broke out across Kazakh, USSR, resulting in the massacre of over 165 protesters. Mexicana Flight 940 crashed near Maravatío, Mexico, killing 167. A bomb exploded on a TWA flight from Rome to Athens, killing 4 people. Aeroméxico Flight 498, a Douglas DC-9, collided with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 82. Pan Am Flight 73, with 358 people on board, was hijacked at Karachi International Airport by four Abu Nidal terrorists. Mozambican President Samora Machel’s plane crashed in South Africa, killing him and 33 others. 45 people were killed in the 1986 British International Helicopters Chinook crash. The MV Amazon Venture oil tanker began leaking oil while at the port of Savannah, Georgia, resulting in an oil spill of approximately 500,000 USA gallons. A major environmental disaster near Basel, Switzerland, polluted the Rhine, when an agrochemical storehouse caught on fire. Do you remember any disasters of 1986?
Great events in 1986
The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, opened as the world’s longest prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge. The UK and France announced plans to construct the Channel Tunnel. The USA Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The USA Senate allowed its debates to be televised on a trial basis. At the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the keywords of Glasnost and Perestroika. President Ronald Reagan signed the Goldwater–Nichols Act into law, making official the largest reorganization of the USA Department of Defense, since the Air Force was made a separate branch of the military service in 1947. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavík, Iceland, to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe, but it ended in a failure. President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines was ousted from power and went into exile in Hawaii after 20 years of dictatorial rule. Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death on his way home from the cinema in Stockholm, Sweden. Former United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim was elected president of Austria. Pope John Paul II was the first pope to officially visit the Great Synagogue of Rome. The Voyager 2 space probe made its first encounter with Uranus. Halley’s Comet reached the closest point to the sun, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th century. The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station. Rutan Voyager completed the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by air without refueling. Pixar was founded by John Lasseter along with Steve Jobs. Microsoft Corporation held its initial public offering of stock shares. Eric Thomas developed LISTSERV, the first email list management software. The first child born to a non-related surrogate mother happened. On May 25, my birthday, “Hands Across America” took place when more than 5 million people formed a human chain from New York City to Long Beach, California, to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness. I was not part of it. The New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Act decriminalized consensual sex between men over the age of 16. In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey. Desmond Tutu became the first black Anglican Church bishop in South Africa. Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov was permitted to return to Moscow after six years of internal exile. Three African Americans were assaulted by a group of white teens in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens, New York. The average per capita income in Japan exceeded that in the USA. The first commercially available 3D printer was sold. Informal stock trading was done in Shenyang, China, the first of its kind in Communist China. The Nobel Peace Prize went to Elie Wiesel (1925-2016), a holocaust survivor. What do you remember about 1986?
The Iran–Contra affair
The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported in November, 1986, that the USA had been selling weapons to Iran in secret, to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. The Iran–Contra affair was a political scandal in the USA that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitated by senior officials of the Reagan administration. As Iran was subject to an arms embargo at the time of the scandal, the sale of arms was deemed illegal. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua. Further funding of the Contras by legislative appropriations was prohibited by Congress, but the Reagan administration continued funding them secretively using these non-appropriated funds. The administration’s justification for the arms shipments was that they were part of an attempt to free seven USA hostages being held in Lebanon by Hezbollah. The idea to exchange arms for hostages was proposed by an expatriate Iranian arms dealer. Some within the Reagan administration hoped the sales would influence Iran to get Hezbollah to release the American hostages. The investigation of this affair was impeded when large volumes of documents relating to the affair were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. In March, 1987, President Reagan finally made a nationally televised address, saying that he was taking full responsibility for the affair, stating that what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages. The affair was investigated by Congress and by the three-person, Reagan-appointed Tower Commission. Neither investigation found evidence that President Reagan himself knew of the extent of the multiple programs. Additionally, USA Deputy Attorney General Lawrence Walsh was appointed an independent counsel in December, 1986, to investigate possible criminal actions by officials involved in the scheme. In the end, several dozen administration officials were indicted, including Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. Eleven convictions resulted, some of which were vacated on appeal. The rest of those indicted or convicted were all pardoned in the final days of the presidency of George H. W. Bush, who had been vice president at the time of the affair. In Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981–1987, journalist Bob Woodward chronicled the role of the CIA in facilitating the transfer of funds from the Iran arms sales to the Nicaraguan Contras spearheaded by Oliver North. According to Woodward, then-Director of the CIA, William J. Casey, admitted to him in February, 1987, that he was aware of the diversion of funds to the Contras. Domestically, the affair precipitated a drop in President Reagan’s popularity. His approval ratings suffered the largest single drop for any USA president in history, from 67% to 46% in November, 1986. Do you remember the Iran-Contra scandal?
Joy went to a Marian High School math class in 1986
Meanwhile, Joy, my daughter, was getting ready for eighth grade in 1986. She was going to graduate from St. Lawrence O’Toole grade school in June, 1987. Where would she go to High School? She could go to the local public high school, Rich South, in Richton Park, but Margaret and I decided that she would be better off at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights. However, all the Catholic High Schools in the Chicago Archdiocese all had standardized tests that students had to take before they could enter a Catholic High School. Since Margaret, my wife, taught at St. Lawrence O’Toole, I felt that she had a better understanding of what was going on. She strongly recommended Marian Catholic as a high school. She also knew that they had a special program for eighth grade students from the various local Catholic grade schools in math. They had a special first period class for these eighth graders in algebra. Obviously, students would have to take a test to see if they qualified. I knew that Joy was a good student, but because of her December birthday, she was nearly a year younger than most of her classmates. Anyway, she was chosen as one of the five girls from O’Toole to take this class. The other girls were Katie Fote, Cindi Bianchi, Megan Siegert, and Bridget Neu. They were all good students. They had to get to Marian HS for first class at 8:00 AM and get transportation back to O’Toole for the rest of their classes. Margaret brought Joy on Monday and Tuesday, and then because of my schedule, I brought her over on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning. On Thursday, I picked up all five to get them back to O’Toole for the rest of their classes. It turned out good, because the first freshman class standings after one semester at Marian Catholic HS had Cindi Bianchi first, Joy Finnegan second, and Katie Fotie third. Megan Siegert and Bridget Neu did not go to Marian HS. That is when I knew that I would never have to worry about Joy and school. She was doing fine. She had good abilities, but she also applied herself extremely well. She also turned out well with math, as she became a successful CPA after college. Did you take any special classes when you were in eighth grade?
The movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
In the summer of 1986, the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released. I really liked this American teen comedy, written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes (1950-2009). The film stared Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, a charismatic high school slacker who lived in a north Chicago suburb. He skipped school for a day with his best friend Cameron and his girlfriend Sloane. Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week that featured many Chicago landmarks, including the Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, and the Art Institute of Chicago. This movie grossed $70 million, based on a $5 million budget, with generally positive reviews from critics and audiences alike, who praised Broderick’s performance, the film’s humor, and tone. In 2014, this movie was selected for preservation in the USA National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. This movie was all about high school senior Ferris Bueller, who faked an illness to stay home from school, two months before his graduation, on a spring day in a north Chicago suburb. Ferris hacked into the school’s new computer system and reduced his absence count to two, making it appear that he attended school regularly. Ferris borrowed the prized possession of Cameron’s father, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. The three senior high schoolers ate lunch at an upscale restaurant, visited the Art Institute of Chicago, went to a Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field, and attended the Von Steuben Day Parade, where Ferris jumped on a float and lip synced “Danke Schoen” by Wayne Newton and “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles. John Hughes intended to focus more on the characters rather than the plot. I loved the Chicago scenes and the stupidity of these young kids. Hughes said, “Chicago is what I am. A lot of Ferris is sort of my love letter to the city. Let the people in Chicago enjoy Ferris Bueller.” John Hughes got the chance to take a more expansive look at the city where he spent his teenage years. He really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as he could, not just the architecture and the landscape, but the spirit. The high school scenes were filmed at Glenbrook North High School, where Hughes went to high school, with the modernist house of Cameron Frye in Highland Park, Illinois. According to Hughes, the scene at the Art Institute of Chicago was his self-indulgent scene, a place of refuge for him, as he was born and spent his childhood in Grose Point, Michigan, before he moved to the north Chicago suburb of Northbrook, when he was thirteen. Ben Stein’s famous monotonous lecture about the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act was not originally in Hughes’s script. However, Stein, by happenstance, was lecturing off-camera to the amusement of the student cast. When he gave the lecture about supply-side economics, he thought they were applauding him. However, they were applauding because they thought he was boring. The parade scene took multiple days of filming. Wrigley Field was featured in two interwoven and consecutive scenes. Several scenes were cut from the final film. Broderick was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1987 for Best Actor. Many scholars have discussed the film’s depiction of academia and youth culture. Did you ever see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
Going to Dell Rapids, South Dakota, on I-90
We were going to stay in Dell Rapids, SD, with Margaret’s parents and Joy’s grandparents. We drove through the desert like area of western South Dakota, until we hit Mitchell, SD, where we had dinner. Then, we spent Sunday night and Monday night in Dell Rapids. Dell Rapids’ downtown on Main Street was built from 1889-1910, with most of the buildings still standing, built from the quarry granite in town. We visited Margaret’s father who was in the hospital getting a knee replacement on Monday. He had a little bit of trouble waking up. Thus, we spent most of Monday, June 23, 1986, at the hospital. Then early on Tuesday morning, June 24, 1986, we headed back to Matteson, IL, through Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. We made it home on I-80 to end our wild west tour of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. We had seen many friends and relatives along the way, visited presidential libraries, national parks, the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone, and Mount Rushmore. We had a taste of the great plains and the Rocky Mountains. Have you ever gone west, young man?
Sunday at Wall Drug Store and the Badlands
On Sunday morning, June 22, 1986, we headed east on I-90 towards Dell Rapids, SD. We went to Wall Drug, where we had breakfast in the town of Wall, SD, adjacent to the Badlands National Park. Thus, we stopped there before we hit the Badlands. Unlike a traditional shopping mall, all the stores at Wall Drug operate under a single entity rather than being run individually. The New York Times has described Wall Drug as “a sprawling tourist attraction of international renown that draws some two million annual visitors to a remote town.” In 1981, Wall Drug was featured in Time magazine as one of the largest tourist attractions. This small-town drugstore made its first step towards fame when it was purchased by Ted Hustead in 1931, who died in 1999. He bought Wall Drug, located in a 231-person town in what he referred to as “the middle of nowhere,” and strove to make a living. His wife, Dorothy, thought of advertising free ice water to thirsty travelers heading to the newly opened Mount Rushmore monument 60 miles to the west, right off I-90. From that time on, business was brisk. Wall Drug earns much of its fame from its self-promotion. Billboards advertising the establishment can be seen for hundreds of miles throughout South Dakota and the neighboring states, offering free drinking water. By 1981, Wall Drug was claiming it was giving away 20,000 cups of water per day during the peak tourist season, lasting from Memorial Day to Labor Day, during the hottest days of the summer. Our next stop was in Badlands National Park, about 250,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. I have six postcards from there. Authorized as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929 by Calvin Coolidge on his last day in office, it was not established until January 25, 1939, but was redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978. This was part of a comprehensive federal drive to develop western South Dakota for tourism. The colors of the rocks seemed special to me. They appeared like a rust color, brown, bronze, and brownish in odd shapes, not just hills. In 1929, the South Dakota Department of Agriculture published an advertisement to lure settlers to the state. On this map they called the Badlands, “The Wonderlands.” promising marvelous scenic and recreational advantages. As part of the World War II effort, the USA Army Air Force took possession of acres on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of the Oglala Sioux people, for a gunnery range. Included in this range was 337 acres from the Badlands National Monument. Around a million visitors a year come to Badlands National Park to view its distinctive rock formations, teeming wildlife and wide-open skies. The Badlands is divided into two main regions, the North Unit, which is just south of Interstate 90 near Rapid City, and the South Unit, which is entirely within the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation. Many visitors only experience the park by driving the Badlands Loop Road in the North Unit, like we did. The Badlands National Monument was established to preserve the natural scenery and educational resources within its boundaries. Have you ever been to a bad land?
Mount Rushmore Cave
On Saturday morning, June 21, 1986, we went to Mount Rushmore Cave, the closest cave to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, with a wide variety of natural formations, the ninth longest cave in South Dakota, 3,600 feet. It was discovered in 1876 when a log flume that supplied water to mining operations in town of Hayward broke and spilled onto the side of the hill. The local miners who went to fix the flume noticed this abnormality and became suspicious of where this water was going. After fixing the flume, the men decided to go inside and explore. After about 30 feet, the men came to a large drop off which went down about 15 feet. The miners then noticed that most of the cave was made from limestone. Knowing that limestone did not contain any gold deposits, they abandoned the cave as a mining opportunity, and left it alone. Some of the local townspeople heard news of this discovery, and became very curious as to what they might find inside the cave. This cave was created by a very long process stretching over a 360-million-year period. This cave has a cornucopia of rooms including the Entrance Room, Post Office, Image Room, Big Room, Fairyland, Rope Room, Geode Room, The Rouge Room, Arrowhead Room, and the Floral Room. The cave also includes boxwork and many dripstone formations including stalactites, stalagmites, columns, helictites and flowstone. I have three postcards and a brochure from this cave. Unfortunately, we did not spend much time there. My wallet was either stolen or lost there, since I was wearing shorts. I spent all my time that afternoon calling my credit card companies to put a stop on them. This was before cell phones. Thus, it was a hard process, since I had to find the numbers. I also lost my driver’s license, so that Margaret had to do all the driving. This trip went downhill from here. I was lucky that we were near the end of our trip. Margaret had some money and credit cards also. Now I just wanted to go home. That Saturday night, we went to the 6 PM Mass at Our Lady of the Black Hills Church at 123656 Sturgis Road, in Piedmont, SD, that is still going today. Then we went to Taco Johns for supper. Have you ever had your wallet stolen?
The making of the Mount Rushmore sculpture
This huge carving on the side of a mountain was the idea of Doane Robinson (1856-1946), a historian for the state of South Dakota. Robinson originally wanted the sculpture to feature American West heroes, such as Lewis and Clark, their expedition guide Sacagawea, Oglala Lakota chief Red Cloud, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Oglala Lakota chief Crazy Horse. However, Charles Edward Rushmore (1857-1931) was born in New York City, like myself. He was an American businessman and attorney. In 1885, he went to the Black Hills to check the titles to properties for an eastern mining company. He also did some hunting. How Mount Rushmore came to be named after Charles Rushmore is subject to some contradictory stories. However, the United States Board of Geographic Names officially recognized his name in June 1930, five years after Rushmore donated $5,000 towards Gutzon Borglum’s sculpture. Doane Robinson met sculptor Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941) in 1924. A year later, Borglum chose the Mount Rushmore land because it faced southeast for maximum sun exposure. He wanted to do this sculpture of the four presidents that he called the Shrine of Democracy. He oversaw this project from 1927 to 1941 with the help of his son, Lincoln Borglum (1912-1986). Construction began in 1927. The presidents’ faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. After Gutzon Borglum died in March 1941, his son Lincoln took over as leader of the construction project. Each president was originally to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end on October 31, 1941. Only Washington’s sculpture includes any detail below chin level. The memorial was dedicated and funded by President Calvin Coolidge on August 10, 1927. Doane Robinson got to see the completion of his dream of a mountain sculpture, before he died. Today, Mount Rushmore attracts more than two million visitors annually. Have you ever been to Mount Rushmore?
Gene Finnegan Remembers Living Eighty Wonderful Years 