The 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens is the most studied volcanic eruption of the twentieth century. Although most people were unaware of the potential for such a violent display of volcanism in the contiguous U.S., volcanologists were keenly aware of the potential danger. Months before it erupted, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) established a base of operations at Vancouver, Washington to monitor the volcano. On May 18, survey volcanologist David Johnston was camping on Coldwater Ridge, only a few miles north of Mt. St. Helens. The eruption occurred that morning. At 8:32 a.m., Johnston radioed the USGS base and exclaimed "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!" The ensuing volcanic blast devastated the northern flank of the volcano, killing Johnston and 56 other victims. At the same time, geologists Keith and Dorothy Stoffel were flying in a light plane only 400 meters above the summit of Mt. St. Helens. From their vantage point, they witnessed one of the largest landslides ever recorded in historic times. Seconds later, a massive explosion shot out the north side of the volcano, toward Coldwater Ridge and Spirit Lake. The explosion generated a billowing cloud with numerous lightning bolts thousands of meters high. The cloud began to expand rapidly toward their aircraft and appeared to be gaining on them, but by turning south they managed to outrun it and survive. As had happened in the late 1950s, in the late 1970s and early 1980s the Soviet Union and the United States both enhanced their nuclear arsenals. This development reignited a peace movement worldwide. For New Zealanders there was a South Pacific focus. Initially provoked by French nuclear testing, from 1975 it was directed more at the United States' nuclear presence in the region. Reinforced by world trends, the New Zealand movement exploded in size in the early 1980s. In 1985 the fourth Labour government clashed with the United States over its ban on port visits by nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships. This distanced New Zealand from its Cold War allies and led the United States to suspend its ANZUS obligations to New Zealand. Nevertheless, the depth of sentiment in New Zealand was such that the National Party also adopted Labour's 'anti-nuclear' stance in 1990. By then, with Soviet control having collapsed in east and central Europe, the Cold War was approaching its end. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989. The demise of the Soviet Union itself at the end of 1991 completed the process. Some commentators saw the massive build-up of the American nuclear arsenal in the 1980s as a crucial factor, given that the Soviet Union proved unable to match it. The collapse of Soviet power probably owed more to Eastern European resentment of Soviet domination, and to internal factors, in particular the declining ability of the Soviet system to meet its citizens' needs, and the loss of legitimacy on the part of the country's governing Communist Party. Bill Gates, 32 year old founder of Microsoft becomes microcomuptings first billionaire Bill Gates, the co-founder and chairman of the Microsoft Corporation, has certainly reached legend status and not only because he is considered as the world's richest man. As the moving force behind a company that is considered "The Most Innovative Company Operating in the U.S." (1993, Forbes magazines), Gates is certainly in a league of his own. With Gates at the helm, Microsoft launched a number of revolutionary technological advancements that have changed the face of the computer industry and the way people around the world use computers History has acknowledged Microsoft's great contributions and has judged Mircrosoft to be the first truly dominant player in home computer operating systems . Even today, Microsoft's influence is felt around the world through the broad usage of Microsoft Windows, currently the most widely used operating system in the world. Argentina invaded the British territory of the Falkland Islands in the south Atlantic. The islands, off the coast of Argentina, have been a cause of friction between the two countries since Britain claimed them in 1833. The Argentine flag is now flying over Government House in the Falkland Islands' capital, Port Stanley. The head of the country's military junta, General Leopoldo Galtieri, has welcomed the "recovery" of "Las Malvinas" - the Argentine name for the Falklands. General Galtieri said Argentina had been left with no option other than military action. The invasion followed months of sabre-rattling and a build-up over the past few days of Argentine war ships off the Falkland Islands, home to about 1,800 people. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has chosen to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1984 to Bishop Desmond Tutu, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. The Committee has attached importance to Desmond Tutu's role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa. The means by which this campaign is conducted is of vital importance for the whole of the continent of Africa and for the cause of peace in the world. Through the award of this year's Peace Prize, the Committee wishes to direct attention to the non-violent struggle for liberation to which Desmond Tutu belongs, a struggle in which black and white South Africans unite to bring their country out of conflict and crisis. The worst civil nuclear catastrophe in history occurred at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, Soviet Union (which is now in Ukraine). More than thirty people were killed immediately. The radiation release was thirty to forty times that of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of people were ultimately evacuated from the most heavily contaminated zone surrounding Chernobyl. Radiation spread to encompass almost all of Europe and Asia Minor; the world first learned of the disaster when a nuclear facility in Sweden recorded abnormal radiation levels. Chernobyl had four RBMK-type reactors. These reactors suffer from instability at low power and are susceptible to rapid, difficult-to-control power increases. The accident occurred as workers were testing reactor number four. The test was being conducted improperly; as few as six control rods were in place despite orders stating that a minimum of thirty rods were necessary to maintain control, and the reactor's emergency cooling system had been shut down as part of the test. An operator error caused the reactor's power to drop below specified levels, setting off a catastrophic power surge that caused fuel rods to rupture, triggering explosions that first destroyed the reactor core and then blew apart the reactors' massive steel and concrete containment structure. The health impacts of the Chernobyl explosion will never be fully known. It is estimated that some three million people still live in contaminated areas and almost ten thousand people still live in Chernobyl itself. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 culminating in the Tiananmen Square Massacre (referred to in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident, to avoid confusion with two other Tiananmen Square protests) were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) beginning on April 14. Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world. The protests were sparked by the death of pro-market and pro-democracy official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, it had reached 100,000 people on the Tiananmen square. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally against the government's authoritarianism and voiced calls for economic change  and democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests. The movement lasted seven weeks from Hu's death on 15 April until tanks cleared Tiananmen Square on 4 June. In Beijing, the resulting military response to the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The official death toll according to the Chinese government was 200 to 300, but Chinese student associations and the Chinese Red Cross reported 2,000 to 3,000 deaths The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a physical barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany), including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc. The wall separated East Germany from West Germany for more than a quarter-century, from the day construction began on 13 August 1961 until the Wall was opened on 9 November 1989. During this period, at least 98 people were confirmed killed trying to cross the Wall into West Berlin, according to official figures. However, a prominent victims' group claims that more than 200 people were killed trying to flee from East to West Berlin. The East German government issued shooting orders to border guards dealing with defectors, though such orders are not the same as shoot to kill orders which GDR officials denied ever issuing. The fall of the Berlin Wall started in Hungary, where a reformist government started (May 2) to dismantle the Iron Curtain, with symbolic moments like the so called Paneuropean picnic (August 19) and the Austrian-Hungarian governmental meeting (August 23). On September 11 thousands of East Germans started to cross the Austrian-Hungarian border to emigrate to West Germany. That event caused popular demonstration and a irreversible political crisis in the government of GDR. When the East German government announced on 9 November 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin, crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest of it. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990. "Wind Beneath My Wings" is a U.S. number-one single performed by Bette Midler from the soundtrack of the film Beaches. Written by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar, it was named Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1990. Written by Larry Henley and Jeff Silbar, the song was first offered to Kenny Rogers who turned it down (but later recorded a version on his "Love Songs" album in 1997). Coincidentally, it was Rogers who presented Midler's Grammy for the song. Although the song has become primarily associated with Bette Midler, other versions of the song were released to the public years before Midler's. Sheena Easton (on her album Madness, Money and Music) and Roger Whittaker both released versions of the song in 1982, though neither had a hit with it. The song entered various U.S. charts the following year in versions by Gary Morris, Gladys Knight & the Pips (their version was released under the title "Hero"), and Lou Rawls (whose version was a top ten Adult Contemporary hit). Because of the songs soaring imagery and the extreme earnestness of Midler's iconic performance, the song has become ripe for parody Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) The Iran-Iraq War permanently altered the course of Iraqi history. It strained Iraqi political and social life, and led to severe economic dislocations. Viewed from a historical perspective, the outbreak of hostilities in 1980 was, in part, just another phase of the ancient Persian-Arab conflict that had been fueled by twentieth-century border disputes. Many observers, however, believe that Saddam Hussein's decision to invade Iran was a personal miscalculation based on ambition and a sense of vulnerability. Saddam Hussein, despite having made significant strides in forging an Iraqi nation-state, feared that Iran's new revolutionary leadership would threaten Iraq's delicate SunniShia balance and would exploit Iraq's geostrategic vulnerabilities--Iraq's minimal access to the Persian Gulf, for example. In this respect, Saddam Hussein's decision to invade Iran has historical precedent; the ancient rulers of Mesopotamia, fearing internal strife and foreign conquest, also engaged in frequent battles with the peoples of the highlands. The Iran-Iraq War was multifaceted and included religious schisms, border disputes, and political differences. Conflicts contributing to the outbreak of hostilities ranged from centuries-old Sunni-versus-Shia and Arab-versus-Persian religious and ethnic disputes, to a personal animosity between Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini. Above all, Iraq launched the war in an effort to consolidate its rising power in the Arab world and to replace Iran as the dominant Persian Gulf state. Phebe Marr, a noted analyst of Iraqi affairs, stated that "the war was more immediately the result of poor political judgement and miscalculation on the part of Saddam Hussein," and "the decision to invade, taken at a moment of Iranian weakness, was Saddam's". Iraq claimed territories inhabited by Arabs (the Southwestern oil-producing province of Iran called Khouzestan), as well as Iraq's right over Shatt el-Arab (Arvandroud). Iraq and Iran had engaged in border clashes for many years and had revived the dormant Shatt al Arab waterway dispute in 1979. Iraq claimed the 200-kilometer channel up to the Iranian shore as its territory, while Iran insisted that the thalweg--a line running down the middle of the waterway--negotiated last in 1975, was the official border. The Iraqis, especially the Baath leadership, regarded the 1975 treaty as merely a truce, not a definitive settlement. The Iraqis also perceived revolutionary Iran's Islamic agenda as threatening to their pan-Arabism. Khomeini, bitter over his expulsion from Iraq in 1977 after fifteen years in An Najaf, vowed to avenge Shia victims of Baathist repression. Baghdad became more confident, however, as it watched the once invincible Imperial Iranian Army disintegrate, as most of its highest ranking officers were executed. In Khuzestan (Arabistan to the Iraqis), Iraqi intelligence officers incited riots over labor disputes, and in the Kurdish region, a new rebellion caused the Khomeini government severe troubles. As the Baathists planned their military campaign, they had every reason to be confident. Not only did the Iranians lack cohesive leadership, but the Iranian armed forces, according to Iraqi intelligence estimates, also lacked spare parts for their American-made equipment. Baghdad, on the other hand, possessed fully equipped and trained forces. Morale was running high. Against Iran's armed forces, including the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) troops, led by religious mullahs with little or no military experience, the Iraqis could muster twelve complete mechanized divisions, equipped with the latest Soviet materiel. With the Iraqi military buildup in the late 1970s, Saddam Hussein had assembled an army of 190,000 men, augmented by 2,200 tanks and 450 aircraft. In addition, the area across the Shatt al Arab posed no major obstacles, particularly for an army equipped with Soviet river-crossing equipment. Iraqi commanders correctly assumed that crossing sites on the Khardeh and Karun rivers were lightly defended against their mechanized armor divisions; moreover, Iraqi intelligence sources reported that Iranian forces in Khuzestan, which had formerly included two divisions distributed among Ahvaz, Dezful, and Abadan, now consisted of only a number of ill-equipped battalion-sized formations. Tehran was further disadvantaged because the area was controlled by the Regional 1st Corps headquartered at Bakhtaran (formerly Kermanshah), whereas operational control was directed from the capital. In the year following the shah's overthrow, only a handful of company-sized tank units had been operative, and the rest of the armored equipment had been poorly maintained. For Iraqi planners, the only uncertainty was the fighting ability of the Iranian air force, equipped with some of the most sophisticated American-made aircraft. Despite the execution of key air force commanders and pilots, the Iranian air force had displayed its might during local riots and demonstrations. The air force was also active in the wake of the failed United States attempt to rescue American hostages in April 1980. This show of force had impressed Iraqi decision makers to such an extent that they decided to launch a massive preemptive air strike on Iranian air bases in an effort similar to the one that Israel employed during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The Hillsborough Disaster was a human crush that occurred on 15 April 1989 at Hillsborough, a football stadium, the home of Sheffield Wednesday F.C. in Sheffield, England, resulting in the deaths of 96 people,  all fans of Liverpool F.C. It remains the deadliest stadium-related disaster in British history and one of the worst in international football accidents that has ever occurred.  It was the second of two stadium-related disasters involving Liverpool supporters, the other being the Heysel Stadium Disaster in 1985. The match, an FA Cup semi-final tie between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, was abandoned seven minutes into the game. The inquiry into the disaster, the Taylor Report, named the cause as failure of police control, and resulted in the conversion of many football stadiums in the United Kingdom to all-seater and the removal of barriers at the front of stands. The result was that an influx of many thousands of fans through a narrow tunnel at the rear of the terrace, and into the two already overcrowded central pens, caused a huge crush at the front of the terrace, where people were being pressed up against the fencing by the weight of the crowd behind them. The people entering were unaware of the problems at the fence; police or stewards would normally have stood at the entrance to the tunnel if the central pens had reached capacity, and would have directed fans to the side pens, but on this occasion they did not, for reasons which have never been fully explained. Liverpool fans desperately try to climb the fence onto the safety of the pitch For some time, the problem at the front of the pen was not noticed by anybody other than those affected; the attention of most people was absorbed by the match, which had already begun. It was not until 3:06 pm that the referee, Ray Lewis, after being advised by the police, stopped the match several minutes after fans had started climbing the fence to escape the crush. By this time, a small gate in the fencing had been forced open and some fans escaped via this route; others continued to climb over the fencing, and still other fans were pulled to safety by fellow fans in the West Stand directly above the Leppings Lane terrace. Finally the fence broke under pressure of people. Fans were packed so tightly in the pens that many died standing up of compressive asphyxia. The pitch quickly started to fill with people sweating and gasping for breath and injured by crushing, and with the bodies of the dead. The police, stewards and ambulance service present at the stadium were overwhelmed. Uninjured fans helped as best they could, many attempting CPR and some tearing down advertising hoardings to act as makeshift stretchers. As these events unfolded, some police officers were still being deployed to make a cordon three-quarters of the way down the pitch, with the aim of preventing Liverpool supporters reaching the Nottingham Forest supporters at the opposite end of the stadium. Some fans tried to break through the police cordon to ferry injured supporters to waiting ambulances, and were forcibly turned back. 44 ambulances had arrived at the stadium, but police prevented all but one from entering, and that one was forced to turn back due to the vast number of people who needed help. This link will show you how the disaster happened. A total of 94 people died on the day, with 766 other fans being injured and around 300 being hospitalised.

John Lennon was an English rock  musician  who gained worldwide fame as one of the founders of The Beatles, for his subsequent solo career, and for his political activism. He was shot by Mark David Chapman at the entrance of the building where he lived, The Dakota, on Monday, 8 December 1980; Lennon had just returned from the Record Plant Studio with his wife, Yoko Ono. Lennon was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where it was stated that nobody could have lived for more than a few minutes after sustaining such injuries. Shortly after local news stations reported Lennon's death, crowds gathered at Roosevelt Hospital and in front of The Dakota. He was cremated on 10 December 1980, at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York; the ashes were given to Ono, who chose not to hold a funeral for him. On the morning of 8 December 1980, photographer Annie Leibovitz went to Ono and Lennon's apartment to do a photo shoot for Rolling Stone. She had promised Lennon a photo with Ono would make the cover, but initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone.  Leibovitz recalled that "nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover".  Lennon insisted that both he and his wife be on the cover, and after shooting the pictures, Leibovitz left their apartment. After the photo shoot Lennon gave what would be his last ever interview to San Francisco DJ Dave Sholin for a music show on the RKO Radio Network.  At 5:00 p.m., Lennon and Ono left their apartment to mix the track "Walking on Thin Ice", an Ono song featuring Lennon on lead guitar, at Record Plant Studio. As Lennon and Ono walked to their limousine, they were approached by several people seeking autographs, among them, Mark David Chapman. It was common for fans to wait outside the Dakota to see Lennon and get his autograph. Chapman, a 25-year-old hospital worker from Honolulu, Hawaii, had first come to New York to kill Lennon in November but changed his mind and returned home. He silently handed Lennon a copy of Double Fantasy, and Lennon obliged with an autograph. After signing the album Lennon politely asked him, "Is this all you want?" Chapman nodded in agreement. Photographer and Lennon fan Paul Goresh snapped a photo of the encounter. Police artist's drawing of the murder The Lennons spent several hours at the Record Plant studio before returning to the Dakota at about 10:50 p.m. Lennon decided against eating out so he could be home in time to say goodnight to five-year-old son Sean before he went to sleep and because Lennon liked to oblige any fans with autographs or pictures that had been waiting a long time to see him outside his home. They exited their limousine on 72nd Street, even though the car could have been driven into the more secure courtyard. The Dakota's doorman, Jose Perdomo, and a cab driver saw Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. Ono walked ahead of Lennon and into the reception area. As Lennon passed by, Chapman fired five hollow-point bullets at Lennon from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver. Numerous radio, television, and newspaper reports claimed at the time that, before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon" and dropped into a "combat stance", but this is not stated in court hearings or witness interviews. Chapman has said he did not remember calling out Lennon's name before he shot him. One shot missed, passing over Lennon's head and hitting a window of the Dakota building. However, two shots struck Lennon in the left side of his back and two more penetrated his left shoulder. All four bullets inflicted severe gunshot wounds, with at least one of them piercing Lennon's aorta. Lennon staggered up five steps to the security/reception area, said, "I'm shot," and collapsed. Concierge Jay Hastings covered Lennon with his uniform, and removed his glasses; he then summoned the police. As the decade began, Americans were struggling with an image of a country that was no longer the most powerful and prosperous nation in the world. Trust in politicians had been eroded by a series of political scandals that began in 1974 with the spectacle of an administration disgraced, as Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in the wake of Watergate, and continued into the 1980s with revelations about bribery of elected officials in the FBI Abscam sting. Social problems such as drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and violent crime were on the rise. Abscam was the FBI's operational name for its 1980 "Arab Scam" sting. The sting was executed using FBI agents posing as two fictitious sheiks seeking to bribe local, state and federal officials and eventually netted the convictions of seven members of Congress. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) was videotaped agreeing to help one of the sheiks in exchange for an investment in his district and showed a willingness to possibly accept money in the future, but took no bribe and was not indicted in the scandal. An FBI agent masqueraded as "Sheik Kambir Abdul Rahman" in the sting. The sheik and other agents masquerading as his American employees purported to have millions in a Chase Manhattan bank account that they wished to invest in an American titanium mine, New Jersey casinos and East Coast port facilities. They also purported a desire to bribe various local, state and federal officials in order to facilitate and protect their investments. An FBI agent played an additional wealthy sheik, Yasser Habib, who claimed he feared radicals would force him from to flee his country and thus sought asylum in the U.S. The sting spanned 23 months, involved 100 agents and cost $800,000 The Abscam sting started with then-mayor of Camden and New Jersey state Sen. Angelo Errichetti. FBI cameras caught Errichetti cutting a deal with agents playing aides to "Sheik Rahman" to help him make investments in the Camden seaport and a casino in Atlantic City in exchange for a $400,000 fee. Errichetti took $25,000, cash, as a down payment and said that Casino Control Commission Vice Chairman Kenneth MacDonald would also require $100,000 to obtain the casino license. The FBI later filmed Errichetti and MacDonald picking up the $100,000. Errichetti then showed up at a March 1979 meeting with Sheik Rahman on the FBI's camera-equipped yacht in Delray Beach, Fla. Accompanying him was then-Sen. Harrison "Pete" Williams (D-N.J.). The sheik said he wanted to invest in casinos and land in Atlantic City and a titanium mine in Virginia, but needed help navigating the political and business waters of the U.S. Williams told the sheik's interpreter (who "translated" into nonsense approximating Arabic), "You tell the sheik I'll do all I can. You tell him I'll deliver my end." Over the next several months, Williams and the sheik's men struck a deal by which Williams would convince government officials to seek military contracts to help the mine thrive. In return Williams received a share of the mine's stock (which the sheik had invested $100 million in) made out to an associate of the senator's, Alexander Feinberg, who promptly endorsed the stock back over to Williams. The FBI filmed all the transactions. Williams was also filmed boasting that he had helped a hotel company save $3 million by using his influence with the casino commission to secure approval for the renovation—rather than a rebuilding—of one of the company's casinos. That same company had employed William's wife as a consultant for $18,000 a year while she was also on the payroll of the Senate Labor Committee, which Williams then chaired. When Harry Met Sally... is a 1989 romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet on a cross-country carpool ride, through twelve years or so of chance encounters in New York City. The film raises the question "Can men and women ever just be friends?" and advances many ideas about love that have become household concepts now, such as the "high-maintenance" girlfriend and the "transitional person". The origins of the film came from Reiner's return to single life after a divorce. Ephron interviewed Reiner and it provided the basis for Harry. Sally was based on Ephron and some of her friends. Crystal came on board and made his own contributions to the screenplay, making Harry funnier. Ephron supplied the structure of the film with much of the dialogue based on the real-life friendship between Reiner and Crystal. The soundtrack consists of standards performed by Harry Connick, Jr., with a big band and orchestra arranged by Marc Shaiman. Connick won his first Grammy for Best Jazz Male Vocal Performance. Israeli tanks and troops today invaded southern Lebanon after Hizbullah captured two soldiers and killed several others. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, described the capture of the soldiers an "act of war" by Lebanon, with today's developments compounding the ongoing political crisis over an abducted Israeli soldier being held in Gaza. Palestinian militants holding Corporal Gilad Shalit have demanded that all Palestinian women and young people held in Israeli jails be freed in exchange for his release. The Bush administration blamed Syria and Iran for today's kidnappings and violence, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the two soldiers. Hizbullah said it would not release them until Israel agreed to set free all Arab prisoners. Its capture of the soldiers is a huge political embarrassment to Mr Olmert, coming only weeks after the seizure of Cpl Shalit last month. He will be concerned that Hamas and Hizbullah could start working together to demand the release of prisoners as a condition for freeing the missing soldiers.  Orson Welles, a man with a talent and imagination so prodigious that he spanned radio, films, television, books and theater and excelled in them all? From his first film masterpiece, CITIZEN KANE -- more often than not described as one of the best movies ever made -- to his checkered career fighting for funding to realize his directorial vision, Welles stands alone, holding a special place in the pantheon of cinematic greats. Welles himself (in F FOR FAKE) made the self-deprecating remark, "I began at the top and have been working my way down ever since," referring to the popular misconception that his post-KANE career somehow never delivered on his initial promise. In reality, Welles delivered again and again on that promise, in such dazzling and unexpected ways that audiences, critics and other filmmakers are still trying to catch up. Orson Welles (b.1915) American film maker died in 1984 It was a polar surge in 1986 that caused the destruction of the space shuttle ‘Challenger’. On the morning of 28th January 1986 large quantities of ice coated the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. NASA decided to go ahead with the launch despite the warnings from the manufacturers of the solid rocket boosters that the ‘O’ rings might not perform their function of sealing possible fuel links at such cold temperatures. Sadly the engineers were proved right as the world watched Challenger explode shortly after lift off. Over the North American continent there is nothing to stop the southerly movement of this extremely cold air as there is nothing but flat, open land. This movement south is known as a polar surge. This blast of icy cold air is huge and over North America can reach as far south as Florida and Texas, devastating crops and freezing land sometimes overnight. In 1983-84 a polar surge left almost 90 percent of the USA covered in cold air for nearly two months. In Utah a record low temperature of -54 degrees C (-65 degrees F) was measured. Mel Gibson - Whatever your personal views are about this man, it is undeniable that he has left behind the mark of a true Alpha Man. From the enticing charm displayed in Lethal Weapon, to his body beautiful in Braveheart and Maverick, to the tall, strong and silent strength in The Road Warrior, you can not help but admire him. Also important to note is his typical alpha trait of hard-core aggression and initiative: he gets his movies made! "Heaven Is a Place on Earth", which topped the single charts, not only in the U.S., but also in the UK and in several other countries (the dance mix of the song also topped the dance chart). The radio-ready song was further propelled by a video, directed by Academy Award-winning American actress Diane Keaton. The second single from the album was "I Get Weak", which shot to #2 in the U.S. and #10 in the U.K. The song was written by Diane Warren. The third single from the album was "Circle in the Sand," another Top 10 hit in the U.S., the UK, and Germany. "World Without You" was another British hit, followed by 1988 low-charting ballad "Love Never Dies", making this her fifth single from the album in the UK. In the U.S., the fourth and last single, "I Feel Free," a cover of the Cream classic, failed to reach the Top 40. After the release of the Heaven on Earth Album Carlisle reached a great level of popularity and she even sold out the historical Wembley Stadium in London in 1988. Bette Davis (actress, born April 5, 1908, Lowell, MA; died October 6, 1989) Often referred to as "The First Lady of the American Screen," Bette Davis was most recognized by her succinct, deep-timbered, slightly grave, no-nonsense voice. After several years of fighting through three serious illnesses and "learning to walk again twice," she returned to work on October 30, 1984, starring with Helen Hayes and John Mills in Agatha Christie's "Murder With Mirrors," a television movie which was broadcast early the following year on the CBS Television Network. On the first morning of filming in the fog-drenched, soggy gardens of a "stately home" in Hertfordshire, England, she proclaimed it "one of the really wonderful days of my life." The actress, whose career spanned six decades, was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, where her father, Harlow Davis, had a law practice. After the divorce of her parents in 1916, she and her sister Barbara and their mother, Ruth Favor Davis, who had taken up photography as a profession, lived in various New England communities. While in her freshmen year of high school, Bette abandoned plans to become a dancer in favor of an acting career. After performing in school productions, summer stock and with semi-professional groups, she went to New York for an interview with Eva LeGallienne. The established actress found her lacking in seriousness and advised her to study in some other field. Undaunted, she enrolled--and later won a scholarship to--John Murray Anderson's acting school in New York. From there, she joined George Cukor's stock company playing at the Lyceum Theatre in Rochester and made her professional debut in Broadway. After a season with the Provincetown Players in New York City and two Ibsen roles with a touring repertory company, Davis bowed on Broadway in the domestic comedy Broken Dishes. The following year, while appearing in a short-lived Broadway play Solid South, she made a screen test for Universal Pictures and was signed. She arrived in Hollywood as a contract actress in December, 1930. She made her film debut in 1931 in Bad Sister. Her major achievements began, however, with the film version of Somerset Maugham's novel Of Human Bondage in 1934 and continued with her two Academy Award-winning roles as Best Actress--for Dangerous in 1935 and Jezebel in 1938. She also earned eight additional Oscar nominations, for Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Now Voyager, Mr. Skeffington, All About Eve, The Star, and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? She was also named Best Actress by the New York Film Critics for her role as Margo Channing in All About Eve, establishing the much imitated line "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." She developed a reputation for cajoling and even badgering Warner Brothers into buying stories she believed in, such as Jezebel, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Now Voyager, and Dark Victory. "You know it took me three years to get Mr. Warner (Jack L. Warner) to make Dark Victory," she recalled in 1984. "He said, 'Who wants to see a story about a girl who dies?' But he saw it was a great part and finally let me do it. I never thought it was sad. It was very hopeful, and I loved doing it." "I miss motion picture executives like Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer and Darryl Zanuck," she added. "They were gamblers. They gave us all a chance. They gave me a career." The actress's career had its "bumpy nights"--and days--but its highlights have outshone them. She sailed smoothly into the age of television, winning an Emmy Award for her performance in the drama Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter. Other television films in which she starred are While Mama, The Disappearance of Aimee, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, Family Reunion, and Right of Way. Salman Rushdie is a British author who was born in India. In 1988, he wrote the highly acclaimed book, The Satanic Verses. Shortly after that, India banned the book. In the U.S., the publisher received bomb threats. The book was then banned in South Africa. Soon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Qatar banned the book. There were book burnings in England. In Pakistan, six people died and 100 were injured in demonstrations against the book. Then on Feb. 12, 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran, declared that the book was blasphemous, and called for the death of Rushdie. Rushdie went into hiding, with protection by the British government. An Iranian charity offered a million dollars reward (later raised to 2.5 million) for Rushdie's murder. Two bookstores in Berkeley California were firebombed. Twelve people died during rioting in Bombay. Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Iran. In Belgium, two Muslim leaders who opposed Rushdie's death penalty were shot to death. Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, Bulgaria, Poland and Japan banned the book. The Ayatollah Khomeini died, and the Iranian government reaffirmed Rushdie's death penalty. Five bookstores in England were firebombed. The Japanese translator of the book was stabbed to death. The Italian translator was seriously wounded. The Norwegian publisher was shot and seriously wounded. The book became a best-seller. That Ayatollah sure knew how to sell books. Rushdie explained that his book is not antireligious, and apologized that it had offended so many Muslims. The book begins rousingly as the two main characters (Gabreel and Saladin) are falling through the air, victims of the terrorist bombing of a jetliner. They miraculously survive. Gabreel, who had doubts about Islam, develops a halo, and begins to look like the angel Gabriel; Saladin grows horns, hooves, and a tail and looks like Satan. Much of the book tells of their adventures in these forms. Most of the controversy involves Gabreel's dreams. He dreams of a false prophet called Mahound (historically a derogatory name for Muhammad) who establishes a false religion. He also dreams that prostitutes took on the names of Muhammad's wives, in order to attract Muslims. In the end, Saladin returns happily to India, and Gabreel loses his faith and commits suicide. At first thought, it seems that all of these Muslims misunderstood Rushdie's intent, for he was not trying to lead anyone away from Islam. Instead he was telling a story about a fictional character's doubts about Islam. But maybe all of those Muslims really did understand Rushdie's intent. Maybe doubt is the greatest of their fears. They seem to be willing to riot, die, and commit murder in response to the mere possiblity of doubt. Other Islamic authors have been the targets of violence, threats of violence, and censorship. In 1992, Farag Fouda, a popular Egyptian writer was murdered by terrorists for speaking out against censorship. In 1994, Naguib Mahfouz, a Nobel prize winning, Egyptian author was stabbed repeatedly in the neck, by terrorists, but survived. Egyptian Nawal El Saadawi's feminist writings have been banned; she was imprisoned for writing political criticism, and she fled to the U. S. because of death threats. Taslima Nasrin, a feminist writer and critic of Islam, from Bangledesh, has been threatened with death and imprisonment, and is in hiding in the west.

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