1973: The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The Gulag Archipelago was published many years ago today:

"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "literary investigation" of the police-state system in the Soviet Union, The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956, is published in the original Russian in Paris. The book was the first of the three-volume work. The brutal and uncompromising description of political repression and terror was quickly translated into many languages and was published in the United States just a few months later."

It is a very difficult book to read but worth the effort.  The USSR collapsed at the end of 1991 but we can not forget what was done in the name of communism.

 

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1973: Top 10 this week WABC radio in New York

  1. The Most Beautiful Girl - Charlie Rich (Epic)
  2. Top of the World - The Carpenters (A&M)                     
  3. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John (MCA)                
  4. Just You 'n' Me - Chicago (Columbia)                        
  5. Time In a Bottle - Jim Croce (ABC)                          
  6. Hello It's Me - Todd Rundgren (Bearsville)                  
  7. Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) - Helen Reddy (Capitol)     
  8. The Love I Lost -                                            
             Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes (Philadelphia Int.)  
  9. The Joker - The Steve Miller Band (Capitol)                 
 10. Photograph - Ringo Starr (Apple)  

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We remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1911-2008)

Alexander Solzhenitsyn died in 2008.   He was born in Kislovodsk, Russia on this day in 1911.

We remember him as an author who wrote about Soviet communism. He knew first hand what repression and tyranny really were:

"Beginning with the 1962 short novel "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich," Solzhenitsyn devoted himself to describing what he called the human "meat grinder" that had caught him along with millions of other Soviet citizens: capricious arrests, often for trifling and seemingly absurd reasons, followed by sentences to slave labor camps where cold, starvation and punishing work crushed inmates physically and spiritually.
His "Gulag Archipelago" trilogy of the 1970s left readers shocked by the savagery of the Soviet state under the dictator Josef Stalin."

Mr. Solzhenitsyn was a real hero of the 20th century!

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We remember Pearl Harbor 1941

Today, we remember Pearl Harbor.   Again, we recall the bravery of everyone who died and fought in WW 2.

Let's hope that new generations always remember this day.

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"Tora! Tora! Tora!"... https://t.co/6PQjJATLzn via @amazon

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) December 7, 2017

December 5, 1872: What happened to the Mary Celeste?

On December 5, 1872, the Mary Celeste, an American vessel, was found near the Azores Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.   The ship's supplies were untouched and everything looked normal.   However, there was not one passenger, or trait of anyone, on board.

So what happened?   We don't know.  There are many theories but nothing definite.  

It is one of the great shipping mysteries of the 19th century.

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1973: The day that Gerald Ford became VP

On this day in 1973,  Representative Gerald Ford became Vice President of the US following the resignation of VP Agnew.   

David Shribman wrote an article reminding us of just how fortunate we were that Gerald Ford was the man who assumed the office.

Put me down as one of those who believes that President Ford was a great president.  He did not fight a war or deal with an economic depression.  He did restore the presidency and that's no small achievement.

As President Carter said after taking the presidential oath:   

"For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land.."

Yes, we should all thank President Ford for healing the nation.  It was no small task.

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