Sunday I will become an official Medicare Card toting sun of a gun. Yep, I’ll be 65. Old! Never meant for that to happen, getting old that is, but wife Danny and I will enjoy a New Orleans road trip this weekend and I suppose that will make up for it.
Anyway, in self-serving honor of my birthday, I asked Google for the top news stories each year since my birth in 1961. I really was interested, but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in the fact that said birth was not considered a major story that year, but that just goes to prove you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
So, although Google and AI say the erection of the Berlin Wall as a primary symbol of the Cold War was number one in 1961, we all know that the birth of Timothy Harmon Beeland most certainly was equally as important. Right?
Following 1961, here are some the things my research unveiled that me, and anyone else my age, have lived to see.
1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis brings the U.S. and USSR to the brink of nuclear war.
1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.
1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed into law.
1965: U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam for the first time.
1966: The Black Panther Party is founded in Oakland.
1967: The Six-Day War reshapes the Middle East.
1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated, sparking nationwide riots.
1969: Apollo 11 lands on the Moon.
1970: Four students are killed by the National Guard at Kent State.
1971: The Pentagon Papers are published.
1972: President Nixon makes a historic visit to China.
1973: Roe v. Wade legalizes abortion nationwide.
1974: Richard Nixon becomes the first president to resign.
1975: The Fall of Saigon marks the end of the Vietnam War.
1976: The U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial.
1977: The rise of the Personal Computer begins.
1978: Over 900 people die in the Jonestown mass suicide.
1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis begins.
1980: Ronald Reagan is elected president.
1981: Tim and Danny Beeland were married at Sebastopol Methodist Church and the AIDS epidemic is first reported.
1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C..
1983: The Internet is officially born with the adoption of TCP/IP.
1984: The Bhopal disaster in India kills thousands at a U.S.-owned plant.
1985: Reagan and Gorbachev meet for the first time in Geneva.
1986: The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after launch.
1987: The “Black Monday” stock market crash.
1988: The Iran-Iraq War ends.
1989: The Berlin Wall falls, signaling the end of the Cold War.
1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to the Gulf War.
1991: The Soviet Union dissolves.
1992: The L.A. Riots erupt after the Rodney King verdict.
1993: Daughter Rachel-Johanna Beeland was born and the World Trade Center is bombed for the first time.
1994: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) takes effect.
1995: The Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 people.
1996: Dolly the Sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
1997: Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in Chess.
1998: President Bill Clinton is impeached.
1999: The Columbine High School shooting shocks the nation.
2000: The 2000 Presidential Election is decided by the Supreme Court.
2001: The September 11 terrorist attacks.
2002: The Department of Homeland Security is created.
2003: The U.S. invades Iraq.
2004: Facebook is founded at Harvard.
2005: Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf Coast.
2006: Twitter is launched.
2007: The first iPhone is released.
2008: Barack Obama is elected as the first Black U.S. president.
2009: The Great Recession reaches its peak.
2010: The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is signed into law.
2011: Osama bin Laden is killed by U.S. forces.
2012: The Sandy Hook Elementary shooting occurs.
2013: Black Lives Matter movement begins.
2014: Russia annexes Crimea.
2015: Same-sex marriage is legalized nationwide by the Supreme Court.
2016: Donald Trump is elected president.
2017: The #MeToo movement goes global.
2018: The March for Our Lives protests occur nationwide.
2019: Donald Trump is impeached for the first time.
2020: The COVID-19 pandemic begins.
2021: The January 6 Capitol riot occurs.
2022: The Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
2023: AI advancements like ChatGPT go mainstream.
2024: The U.S. Presidential Election sees Donald Trump return to power.
2025: Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 47th president; later, a historic U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza takes hold.
2026: Timothy Harmon Beeland turns 65, and gets his Medicare card.
There you have it, the top stories of the last 65 years according to them, not me. Corrected, in ‘61, ‘81, ‘93 and ‘26, of course, because you can’t trust everything you read on the Internet.
P.S. The office will be closed on Friday, I’ve got a road trip to make.
