Sudden snowstorm in Denver focuses our seasonal senses—photo Andy Cross
Christmas Full Moon
Eight foot tides will run at their highest for Solstice. This year, as a bright waxing moon leads up to Christmas Night, from Monday through Wednesday December 21-23, 2015, tides along the Northern California coastline will reach near-‘maximum tidal range’, beyond which local fishermen and surfers abandon ports of Eureka and Shelter Cove and retreat behind the sandbags.
Full “Cold Moon” at sunset on Christmas Day—first to return to that configuration in our skies since 1977—will add to the frivolity and human goodwill generated en masse at this time of year. Happy Hanukkah, Eid, and of course Siderealview’s greatest pagan celebration, end of the old year—Hogmanay yay!
As northern Pacific waters begin to freeze around the edges, the Southern Ocean revs up for the 2015 El Niño season. Prelude this year has been massive heat ceilings, causing water to become warmer for longer than the norm. September 2015 Equinox water temperatures in Humboldt Bay, Northern California, were 68ºF. Coastal Land temperature same day was 58ºF.
This autumn, however, the tropical storm system has had cosmic assistance.
Primeval fear of the Kraken kept medieval sailors watchful on the Deep—
Musical system known as the Circle of Fifths matches perfectly with Buckminster Fuller’s “vector equilibrium”: the Cuboctahedron. This same geometry is theorized in the Resonance Project, as a way we measure Space itself as an almost infinite supply of energy (in the form of quantum vacuum fluctuations), even though we perceive it to be completely empty. This is because it is in a perfectly balanced state, where all Vectors in the geometry are of equal length—
—Twelve around One—
Nassim Haramein, The Resonance Project
Sudden land temperature change is not the Ocean’s way. Slow to heat up, this watery stage holds its warm baby longer—until El Niño enters from the wings.
Solar (sunspot) activity has increased in recent weeks and Christmas weekend, Earthlings are targeted for more Coronal Mass Ejection—CME—effects: solar panel damage, electronic blackout, countered by spectacular (North) Polar Aurora Borealis. NOAA and SOHO label is ‘incoming STORM’, sidebar below right.
Meantime the equatorial ‘Volcanic Belt’ which few people pay attention to—just happens to run parallel from coastal-Mexico South to coastal-Peru and in mid-Pacific, through the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean on Earth, through Fiji, Tonga. The so-called Carnegie Ridge is a huge submerged volcanic plate that runs through Cocos Ridges and the Galapagos tectonic plate, or Platform. There it heads for the coast of Peru, becoming sub-ducted under the South American continent where it collides—approximately—with the Andes.
In East-Central Equatorial Pacific, El Niño feeds off this interaction between ocean and atmosphere, producing cyclical peaks, like any other natural phenomenon. Geneva’s World Meteorological Center predicts end-2015-2016 season to run neck-and-neck with three greatest historical surges. The strengthening 2015-2016 season is forecast to hit New Year’s Eve, with current ocean temperatures two degrees Centigrade—2ºC—above normal.
Strongest previous El Niños were in 1972-73, 1982-83 and 1997-98.
‘This naturally occurring El Niño event and human-induced climate change may interact and modify each other in ways which we have never before experienced’
Secretary-General, World Meteorological Center, Geneva EU
Where Tropical Cyclones and Hurricanes meet
El Niño has already sparked an active tropical cyclone season in the Northern Pacific. Closer to U.S. in eastern North Pacific basin, Hurricane Patricia made landfall in Mexico October 24, 2015 and was reportedly (NOAA) the most intense tropical cyclone in the western hemisphere. Coastal Peru, Ecuador and Chile usually bear the brunt of warming waters and concomitant extra rainfall.
Peru declared a pre-emptive state of emergency in July 2015 for fourteen of its 25 states, setting aside $70 million, to prepare for the coming winter rains. Local authorities have been clearing river beds of debris, reinforcing river banks with rocks, sandbags and fortifying reservoir walls.
Yet it may not be enough.
El Nino tropical Pacific anomaly
The two deadliest floods in Ecuador’s history occurred during strong El Niño events: in November 1982—307 deaths—and October 1997—218 died. Peru’s deadliest flood (518 fatalities) occurred during the 1997 El Niño event. A United Nations-backed study said that the 1997-1998 El Niño cost Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela approximately $11 billion.
One aspect of the El Niño effect is to reduce rainfall in drought-prone regions. Australia, India and Bangladesh have already been suffering with near-desert conditions prevailing through summer-autumn 2015
Ocean Warming
Increasing water temperatures in the central-eastern Pacific create more fertile conditions for tropical rain and clouds. Seasonal heavy rainfall that usually hits north Australia at this time, abandons its southern tropical band and heads for the central-eastern Pacific basin.
Also prevailing trade winds, traditionally blowing east to west over the Pacific, weaken—or, worse, reverse.
Fueling more extremes.
HIGHEST & LOWEST Tides Herald Solstice and Christmas Full Moon
Warm water funneling through ocean trenches, exaggerated by a full moon’s return in its 38-year cycle, coupled with CMEs for Christmas Day? Look out!
Highest tides for a decade combine with solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs, sidebar right)—incoming—to give the human race a little more to think about over the Festive Season than just buying trinkets, decorating trees or lighting sequential candles on the Menorah.
Haven for Humankind
For those who watch the skies, the Full Cold Moon [‘when deer shed their antlers’ in Native American Pacific Northwest] blesses us by rising ENE—Azimuth= 69.6°—at dusk on December 25th, opposite the sun setting WSW—Azimuth=239.1°—in constellation Sagittarius. The fickle Moon rises first in opposite astro sign Taurus; then moves one hour later into challenging Gemini. If humankind needs to be stimulated any more than we already are, this year-end astronomical/astrological cycle returning after thirty-eight years, promises innovative solutions.*
*Lunar 18.6-year cycle x2: for explanation, see Lunar Standstill-Returning to the Cradle of Civilization, here.
Northern Pacific Fishing Season on Hold
Snow-wracked northern hemisphere—with its rainy coastal counterparts (Naples, Florida experienced 87ºF on Solstice) may bring a better outcome for fishing fleets on both shores—California crab fishing has been on hold throughout December, while authorities assess potential risk of ‘bottom-feeders’ transmitting domoic acid-packed meat through the food chain.
While coastal control agencies continue to monitor the crab disease, fishing boats lie idle in Humboldt Bay. Some say they’re glad of the break. Others look to January and the start of the 2016 sport fishing season for new beginnings.
Hogmanay/Saturnalia
This time of year we loosen Kronos/Saturn’s bonds.
The ancient God awakens from His sleep,
and rules the Earth as in the Golden Age.
Meanwhile, with the joyful sound of merrymaking—even Saturnalian singing—on our lips and ears, perhaps the human race may find a place where we, as simple vibratory beings withinin the Great Vibration may find a bolt hole—Resonance Project quote by Nassim Haramein, above.
“6.6mag. Taiwan S.Japan location 24º129'N 122º335E 01a.m. UTC April 20. 2015
Four hours ago, a massive 6.6 magnitude Richter earthquake hit coastal Taiwan and Southern Japan. Local agencies, already overburdened with ongoing (nuclear) clean-up, continue to report. Minimal U.S. press coverage—slow to extract reports from the world arena in (western) night-time, unless specifically targeted—may find that differences in international dateline/time-zones may not result in this event’s being buried, It may not fit into a neat, orderly media-orchestrated political schedule.
There are ramifications, however—especially for western U.S.A.
EarthCrisis or Early Warning?
Minimum ‘safe’ height: 146ft—most of Tsunami Alley: sea-level
MAGNITUDE 6.6 mwp
Location / uncertainty 24.129°N 122.335°E± 5.4 km
Depth / uncertainty 28.9 km± 4.4
Origin time 2015-04-20 01:42:58.470 UTC
Source: USGS
Two groups of Native American elders have summoned their communities, in preparation for uprooting and a move inland, away from their traditional ocean-listening posts. In San Luis Obispo county, a small nucleus of Chumash, originally ‘whale-whisperer sea-shell people’from Morro Bay to Malibu—their traditional lodges and burial grounds long-since displaced by ex-pat. Ventura- and Topanga Canyon-ites—have returned to hear “repeated warnings from our cetacean siblings” that we are endangering our homeland.
Washington Tribe prepare for Move to High Ground
The Quileute tribe of La Push, Washington holds a ritual each year, where every woman, man and child in the reservation summons local whales, dolphins, sharks, seals and other marine species to the community’s beach by playing drums. The tribe’s chief then wades among the animals and interprets their sounds.
Cetacean whisperers help us tune in—use it before we lose it
In 2014, tribal leaders were “summoned” by Pacific Ocean whales, to alert them to a tsunami, ‘soon’ to engulf their community. La Push is located at the intersection of three tectonic plates, prone to earthquakes of nine-point magnitude. The tribe immediately started to make plans to move their community to higher ground. It applied for and received money from both the State of Washington and the federal government, to fund the relocation. Synchronously, assistance has been offered to Quileute elders by Finland’s University of Aalto, in designing their new settlement. In Finland’s Baltic and Arctic Oceans, they are also brother-whale-whisperers.
Wilderness no Longer Wild
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness” John Muir
John Muir—progenitor and founder of first U.S. National Park—would be proud of us, his descendants. While he was born in lowland Scotland and thus learned how precious is wild forest floor—Scotland’s indigenous trees mostly eaten by commercial sheep enterprises— un-mangled [by humans] tangled growth. Yet we seem oblivious of our continuing and unrelenting pollution of our only home.
Radioactive Slush
Gallons of slush and ice melt flood Great Lakes and Chicago hinterland.
Combination of Fracking, waste water recycling, human negligence, cause man-made quakes in U.S. central states
Sudden floods in New England, the Carolinas-coastal Virginia cause concern over contaminated drinking water supply. Marinas in Coral Gables, Everglades and Gulf states, Alabama, Louisiana and eastern Texas are revamping water towers last used in Hurricane Katrina, to cope with extra demand. Meanwhile Four Corners, Gila Bend, Arizona, Utah, Nevada—don’t even think of temperatures in Death Valley—and in a geographical spread as far east as Idaho, Kansas and Minnesota, high winds bring risk of grass fires.
Half the country is burning up, while the other half flounders in rising sea levels.
Do we still deny we have a hand in this? Are we pretending we don’t know what’s going on?
Competing for Cleanliest
Last week California Governor Jerry Brown scoffed at Florida governor’s amorous advances for a tourism “exchange”. While organic Californians greatly outnumber Brooklyn retirees in the balmy Everglades and Fort Lauderdale, in ecological terms, neither state can boast a totally clean city.
Echoes from Earth’s Chasms—Ring of Fire Rumbles into Activity
X-Class Solar flares emerging from the ‘hidden’ side of the Sun, add a frisson to so-called normal spring weather. Global extremes have caused great loss of life, however.
There’s more to come.
Triggered by solar CMEs incoming—bombarding Earth’s heat shield to stretching point, dormant volcanoes along subterranean ridges and lava reservoirs of the Ring of Fire are exploding.
Ring of Fire—Seismic Deeps and Ridges of the Pacific Ocean: festering to blow
Sewage and polluted water are high-profile questions that affect the whole human Earth-population.
When the dice are rolled, who gets the blame for leading humanity over the edge of the world——?
Unfortunately for Governor Brown—and for all his supporters south of Sacramento—the WWII-aircraft carrier U.S. Independence has been rediscovered on the ocean floor, in San Diego’s back yard. However supposedly :safely: out of sight, according to U.S. National Ocean and Atmospheric Administrqtion (NOAA) Chief Science officer, James Delgado, the hulk, used for monitoring hydrogen bomb tests on Bikini Atoll in South Pacific’s Marshall Islands was deliberately sunk off San Diego’s beaches, carrying one hundred barrels of nuclear waste in its hold.
Bikini Atoll: no Place for Bikinis Now
NOAA make light of the rediscovery:
WWII. aircraft carrier, U.S. Independence, scarred in Pacific battle theater
“After 64 years on the seafloor, Independence sits on the bottom as if ready to launch its planes”
J.Delgado, Chief NOAA Science officer
Damaged in WWII, aircraft carrier US Independence found intact April 2015 in Pacific waters carrying nuclear waste
A half-buried metal ship full of discarded nuclear waste is not what U.S.Navy residential retirement community of Coronado needs. Not to mention its hold, stuffed with radioactive bricks, concrete and mortar—’in case of leakage’—lies now exposed to every little rattle emanating from the San Andreas fault and its tributaries stretching south into Baja California. Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills experienced two middle-range quakes last week. Pasadena and San Marino residents live constantly with shaking mantels.
Sentient Earth
In cyclone-hit Philippines, residents live their lives in the shadow of a stratovolcano.
Pinatubo still fuming a century later
Fifty years to the day, volcanic activity around the planet regurgitates ash, debris and detritus from its dormant cone, as if marking the event in EARTH’s calendar, Earth‘s schedule, Earth’s Grand Plan.
Residents of Pinatubo‘s local island Luzon—unlike the cancer-prone residents of Bikini—still recount stories their grandfathers told of wildlife death toll, relocation and readjustment to life under a stratovolcano’s gaze.
Shooting Stars on Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Five years on: NorthAtlantic ridge giant, Eyjafjallajökull, used pyroclastic flows to delay SpaceShuttle Discovery’s reentry to Earth
It is also five years since Iceland’s volcanic-field-cum-ice flow blasted ash and pyroclastic mush into the North Atlantic, delaying the return of NASA’s last space shuttle, Discovery.
Their favorite volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, standing proud in a 33-mile wide lava field, is still smoldering, shooting reminders up into the stratosphere along the fault held loosely by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In case anyone farther afield is listening, Herta, Surtsey are telling us Earth has its own idea of marking anniversaries.
Perhaps we should go along with the conclusion drawn by an old veteran WWII Lancaster bomber navigator friend, who only last week decided to slough off this mortal coil at the youthful age of 95:
Combination of Earth’s silicate core, presence of Iridium and solar flares gives us our weather. It’s the CORIOLIS EFFECT.
Commander (retd.) Sandy (Gogo) Constable, RAF
CHRONOLOGY of the NEW AGE: a Countercultural Diary of Celebration
A work in progress
Icon of an Era: Jimi Hendrix November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970
He hoped and prayed that there wasn’t an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here, and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.
Douglas Adams
When we began this blog—the Siderealview of Life, the Universe and Everything—in 2009, we posted a retrospective look at the New Age in personal terms, as a little accompaniment to fellow beings walking along the Road Less Traveled. Now, a few years down the road, interestingly it seems the world IS awakening, and more of us are traveling.
The chronology that follows of that much-romanticized Era of the ’Sixties Until The Now is not complete, but an ongoing compilation of many people’s work, involving a myriad hazy memories, or lack of them…
If you remember, you weren’t there’
with a musical underground, rock, R&B edge.
As a salute to all those amazing souls who didn’t make it, but who gave the journey meaning for the rest of us, it’s probably best read while completely submerged within earphones of your favorite surround-sound. And for those of us still here, wasn’t it a blast? And won’t it get even better now that the younger generation indigoes and star children are waking up their elders!
From Neanderthal to Ascended Being in one Lifetime…or
where were you when it all began…?
As a prelude to the ’Sixties, deference is here paid to living legend, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 94, who founded City Lights Bookstore in 1953—prescient indeed—and to those who
Voyager’s golden record sent to the stars explains human culture/sounds
“threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot with eternity outside of time…” Howl, Allen Ginsberg: dedicated to and inspired by Jack Kerouac
Icon of an era: Marilyn said goodbye in the sixties
January Bob Dylan, 19, plays Greenwich Village; visits Woody Guthrie in hospital
— Civil rights demonstrations, Atlanta, GA
January 7 First Polaris nuclear-armed ballistic missile launched Cape Canaveral, FL, missile test base on Jupiter rocket, precursor to US Space Program, launched Cape Canaveral Sept.20, 1956 as Jupiter-C oxygen-fueled booster which would power embryo space vehicles
February 13 France becomes fourth nuclear power
March 15 Lunch-counter sit-ins spread 15 cities in five southern U.S. states
May 6 Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by President Eisenhower
July 20 First live nuclear-armed Polaris missile (SSBN) launched ‘successfully’ from submerged submarine, USS George Washington [Forty further SSBNs with nuclear warheads launched between 1960-1966]
July Sidney Cohen survey: 5000 individuals administered LSD 25,000 times concluded ‘safe’
August 9 Timothy Leary, 39, program of psilocybin mushrooms in Cuernavaca
August 10 Antarctic Treaty creates peaceful international ‘scientific preserve’
November 6 John F. Kennedy elected president
Eisenhower warns U.S. about ‘Military Industrial Complex’ power
November 9 Brian Epstein meets the Beatles
December Birth control pills go on sale in USA
Internationally recognized, except in war zones…
1961
January 17 Eisenhower warns of increasing power of military industrial complex
February Four black students arrested at whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, SC
February 18 Bertrand Russell, 89, leads march of 20,000 sit-down of 5000 anti-nuke outside British Defense Ministry, London. Jailed for seven days
March – Richard Alpert [Ram Dass] takes psilocybin as part of the Harvard Project
March 1 John Kennedy initiates $17 billion dollar nuclear missile program, increasing military aid to Indochina; announces creation of Peace Corps
March Polaris missiles (SSBNs/Brit ICBNs) manufactured by Lockheed, sold to British Navy, installed Holy Loch, Scotland
April 11 Bob Dylan’s first billed performance at Gerde’s Folk City, New York
April 12 Yuri Gagarin, first man in space USSR
Berlin Wall, c.1980
April 25 Bay of Pigs, Cuba: U.S.-planned invasion, defeated by Fidel Castro
May 4 Freedom Riders DC-southern tour to test integration bus stations
May 28 Amnesty International founded
June Robert Heinlein‘s Stranger in a Strange Land published
July Ban-the-Bomb demonstrations start worldwide
July 19 Telstar satellite live televised transmission across Atlantic
August 13 East German border guards begin constructiom of Berliner Mauer BERLIN WALL (opened 19 years later)
September 11 WWF (World Wildlife Fund, US & Canada, World Wide Fund for Nature, Switzerland, GB) open offices in Geneva, Switzerland, inspired by Julian Huxley, Victor Stolan, Godfrey A. Rockefeller
September 15 U.S. starts underground nuclear testing
October 6 President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters
“If the words ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ don’t include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn’t worth the hemp it was written on.”
― Terence McKenna, 1999
1962
February 2 (Candlemas) French Liner SS France, 66,000-tons, maiden voyage to New York; last (sole) steam liner on transatlantic route, see 1963; cost (then) $80-million; sold 1974 to Norwegian Line, q.v. as losing French govt $35-million annually
February 16 Boston SANE, fledgling SDS first anti-nuclear march on Washington with 4000-8000 protesters
April 25 U.S. resumes atmospheric nuclear testing after three-year moratorium
August 5 Marilyn Munroe—Norma Jeane Mortenson—b.June 1, 1926, died, age 36
September Timothy Leary founds International Foundation for International Freedom [IFIF] to promote LSD research; publishes the Physchedelic Review
October 22 Cuban Missile Crisis Soviet missile bases in Cuba, President Kennedy orders naval blockade
November 17 Findhorn Bay Community (later Findhorn Foundation) established Moray, Scotland by Eileen/Peter Caddy + Dorothy MacLean
December 25 Oscar-winning movie ‘To Kill a Mockingbird‘, based on Harper Lee novel, released, makes careers of Robert Duval, Brock Peters
Recognizing that there is intelligence in Nature that goes beyond our concept of the survival of the fittest and ecological diversity is not yet commonplace in our western culture.
Dorothy Maclean
1963
January Alabama Governor George Wallace Segregation Forever speech at inauguration
April 3 SCLC volunteers stage sit-in Birmingham, AL
June 11 JFK proposes Civil Rights Bill
June 12 Mississippi Civil rights leader Medgar Evers assassinated
June 26 John F. Kennedy “Ick bin ein Berliner” speech, Berlin
July Timothy Leary hosts Freedom House groups in Zihuatanejo Mexico, Dominica, Antigua
July 26-28 Newport Folk Festival includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger
August 5 First Nuclear Test Treaty signed
August 28 Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech, Washington, D.C. civil rights 2-million march
August 30 U.S.-Soviet hotline installed
September Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and other Harvard alumni LSD researchers move to Hitchcock estate Millbrook, NY
Last Atlantic steamship SS France, 66,000-tons, sold 1974 became SS Norway, scrapped 2006-8
September 24 Nuclear Test Ban treaty ratified by U.S. Senate
October 10 Nuclear Treaty takes effect
October 13 Beatles televised London Palladium, 15 million audience She Loves You, Twist and Shout
November 22 SS France 1st commercial voyage Southampton-New York; communications freeze 6-days JFK death until November 29th; Old World Order plays deck quoits, skittles, cabin roulette, drinkiepoos with Capt.Christian Pettre
November 22 Sidereal sails Atlantic for America; JFK assassinated in Dallas, TX, LBJ sworn in
November 22 Aldous Huxley dies on deliberate self-administered LSD; his dying intention
November 29 Beatles I Want to Hold your Hand released
‘What’s wrong with using biotechnology to get rid of mental pain altogether?’ Aldous Huxley
1964
January 8 LBJ declares ‘War on Poverty’ in State of the Union address
January 11 U.S. Surgeon General declares cigarettes cause lung disease
January 30 New military junta takes over in South Vietnam
February 7 Beatles arrive in New York to 10,000 screaming fans
February 9 Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan Show, 74 million largest audience in history of television
April 23 Beatles at Hollywood Bowl; Rolling Stones, turn the Beatles on to marijuana
July Millbrook LSD sessions with Timothy Leary
July Ken Kesey’s First Magic Bus Trip to New York
July 23 Senate passes $947 million anti-poverty bill
August Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters visit Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert at Millbrook
August Beatles first U.S. tour: 25 North American cities
August 4 Three missing civil rights workers found dead in Mississippi
August 11 Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night movie released
My people await PAHANA, the lost White Brother—from the stars—as do all our brothers in the land. He will not be like the White Men we know now, who are cruel and greedy. We were told of their coming long ago. But still we await Pahana—
He will bring with him the symbols, and the missing piece of that sacred tablet now kept by the Elders, given to him when he left, that shall identify him as our True White Brother—
The Fourth World shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the Elders everywhere know. The Signs over many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left—
HOPI Update 2012
symbol of a generation: awakening consciousness
August 20 LBJ signs anti-poverty program
August 23 Beatles Hollywood Bowl concert
August 28 Race riots in Philadelphia
August 31 LBJ signs food stamp bill
October 14 Martin Luther King Jr wins Nobel Peace prize
1965 Time Magazine calls youth a ‘generation of conformists’
January 4 President Johnson outlines ‘Great Society’
February Martin Luther King Jr, 770 protesters arrested Selma, AL picket county courthouse to end discrimination in vote
February 8 U.S. starts bombing North Vietnam
February 18 Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara calls for U.S-wide network of bomb shelters
February 21 Malcolm X shot and killed, New York
March 3 Owsley starts LSD factory making large units of acid publicly available for first time
March 6 first American soldier sets foot on Vietnam soil
March 7 Alabama state troopers attack 525 civil rights workers before march
March 8 3,500 Marines land to protect Da Nang air base
March 16 Quaker Alice Herz, 82, immolates herself in Detroit in protest of Vietnam war
March 16 Police break up demonstration of 600 Montgomery, AL
March 17 1600 demonstrate at courthouse Montgomery, AL
Jefferson Airplane, Janis and Big Brother at the Fillmore 1966
March 21 Martin Luther King Jr leads march from Selma to Montgomery, AL joined by 25,000 marchers
March 24 SDS organizes first Vietnam War teach-in, University of Michigan, 3000 attend
March 25 Civil rights worker shot, killed by Ku Klux Klan in Alabama
March 28 Martin Luther King calls for boycott of Alabama on television
April 25 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Vietnam
April 2 Ken Kesey arrested for marijuana possession
Apri1 7 SDA leads first anti-Vietnam march in Washington, D.C. 25,000 attend, including Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins
June 11 Beatles awarded MBE by HM the Queen
July 8 Chicago school integration protests
July 10 Rolling Stones I Can’t Get No Satisfaction #1
July 24 Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone enters chartsJuly 25 Dylan goes Rock at Newport Folk Festival
July 30 LBJ signs Medicare bill
August – Ken Kesey meets Hunter S. Thompson: introduces Hells Angels to Merry Pranksters; Alan Ginsberg, Richard Alpert at party
August 11 Major race riot—6 days—in Watts, Los Angeles, CA leaves 35 dead
August 13 National Guard enter Watts riots in Los Angeles
August 14 Sonny and Cher release I Got You, Babe, #1 Britain-worldwide ‘R+R Hall of Fame’s ‘greatest pop-rock song of the ’Sixties’
Biscayne Boulevard, Miami amid hurricane Betsy, August 1965
August 23 Première of Beatles’ Help!
August 27-September 14 Hurricane Betsy hits Bahamas, Florida Keys, Louisiana and southern U.S. states—first tropical storm to cause in excess of $1billion damage, c.f. Katrina 2005
August 31 Burning draft cards becomes illegal
September 5 San Francisco author Michael Fallon uses hippie in San Francisco counterculture article: Blue Unicorn coffee house; LEMAR [Legalize Marijuana] and Sexual Freedom League meet in hippie houses
September 25 Eve of Destruction sung by Barry McGuire top of the charts
October 1 Anti-pollution bill sets emission standards for cars
October 16 100,000 anti-war protesters U.S-nationwide in 80 cities
November Unsafe at Any Speed published by Ralph Nader: re automobile industry’s disregard for safety
November 22 Bob Dylan marries Sarah Lowndes; moves to Woodstock, NY
December 25 Timothy Leary arrested for el poto at Mexican border
1966
January 3 The Psychedelic Shop head shop opens Haight Street, San Francisco
January 14 March on Atlanta, GA to protest oust of Julian Bond
January 17 B-52 collides, drops four 10-megaton H-bombs over Spain, none explodes, cover-up follows
January 20 Ken Kesey arrested with Mountain Girl on the roof
January 21 First light show, Grateful Dead, 10,000 attend in San Francisco
February 19 Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin perform at the Fillmore
Dead Rock Stars: Janis received posthumous Grammy, Lifetime Awards
March 3 GI Bill grants veterans rights to education, housing, health and jobs
March 11 Timothy Leary sentenced Texas to 30 years in jail trying to cross into Mexico with personal marijuana
March 25 Anti-Vietnam war protests in NYC bring out 25,000 on Fifth Avenue. Other protests 7-U.S. cities, 7 internationally
April FBI releases file on LSD, ‘drug’ bad press
April 30 Mississippi blacks build tent city under President Johnson’s window to protest housing conditions
April Discothèques are the rage in New York and Los Angeles; Andy Warhol produces light shows
April 7 Sandoz stops supplying LSD to researchers
April 12 New York Stock Exchange hit with anti-war leaflets
April 16 Timothy Leary arrest at Millbrook by G.Gordon Liddy FBI for marijuana possession
May 15 Anti-war demonstration Washington D.C, 10,000 assemble
June Star Trek tv series by Gene Roddenberry débût; series ran three summers on NBC
July 29 Bob Dylan: motorcycle accident
July 10-year anniversary Cutty Sark Tall Ships youth race North Sea international ports–Bergen, Aberdeen, Hamburg, Copenhagen, patron HRH Prince Philip
August 5 John Lennon pronounces ‘Beatles more popular than Jesus’
August 18 Red Guard begins to remove western influence in China
September George Harrison to India:six weeks study sitar with Ravi Shankar
Cream, Airplane, Big Brother, CSN: those were the years
September Timothy Leary holds press conference in New York Press Club announcing formation of a psychedelic religion of Spiritual Discovery ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’, and starts nightly presentations at Village Theater
November 5 Walk for Love and Peace and Freedom: 10,0000 attend in New York City
December Cream first album released by Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker
November 5 Mariner-3 sent to Mars: first fly by
1967 Summer of Love
January 14 Gathering of the Tribes, First Human Be-In, 20,000 San Francisco
January 27 US-USSR-GB sign treaty banning nuclear weapons in space
February 25,000 U.S. troops sent to Cambodian border
February Beatles release Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Michelle, Yesterday
March US Scientists’ report LSD causes chromosome damage: not validated
March Berkeley Barb starts ‘smokable banana’ rumor, based on Donovan’s song Mellow Yellow
March 3 Alice B. Toklas dies
March 18 First U.S. supertanker wreck: Torrey Canyon spills 90,000-tons oil, English coast
March 26 Be-In Central Park, NY, 10,000 attend
April 5 Grayline starts hippie tours of Haight-Ashbury
April 10 Vietnam Week begins Draft card burnings and anti-draft deomonstrations
April 15 Anti-Vietnam War protest 400,000 march from Central Park to UN, Speeches by Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Dr Benjamin Spock
May Paul McCartney announces all Beatles have ‘dropped acid’
May 19 First U.S. air strike on Hanoi
May 20 Flower Power day in New York City
June 2 Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album released
June 16 Monterey Pop Festival, Monterey Bay, CA
June 21 Summer solstice party, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
June 25 Beatles sing All You Need is Love on worldwide television
June 30 448,400 U.S troops total in Vietnam
July Summer of Love in San Francisco
Fabled ‘summer of love’, 1967 came midway thru cultural change
– Summer of rioting in U.S. streets: Chicago, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Baltimore
July 1 Sgt Pepper hits #1
July 11 Newark riots start ‘long hot summer’, 43 die Detroit ‘worst in U.S. history’
July 26 H Rap Brown arrested for inciting riot in Maryland
July 29 The Doors‘ Light my Fire and Procol Harem’s Whiter Shade of Pale at #1
August 26 Jimi Hendrix’s Are you Experienced? hits charts
August 27 Beatles in India with Maharishi; informed of Brian Epstein’s death
September Richard Alpert meets Bhagwan Dass, Blue Tibetan Katmandu, stays in India; follows until he meets his guru
September 15 Donovan performs at the Hollywood Bowl
October 3 Woody Guthrie dies, age 55
October 8 Che Guevarra killed in Bolivia by U.S-trained troops
October 12 Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills with Janis Joplin at top of LP charts
October 21-22 Anti-war protesters storm the Pentagon
October 26 Draft deferments eliminated for those who violate draft laws or interfere with recruitment
November 9 Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner, San Francisco
November 14 Air Quality Act provides $428 million to fight air pollution
November 20 National commission on Product Safety established
December Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour
December 486,000 American troops in Vietnam [of total 15,000 killed, 60% died in 1967]
December ‘Stop the Draft’ movement organized by 40 anti-war groups U.S. nationwide protests
December 5 1000 anti-war protesters New York induction center, 585 arrested: Allen Ginsberg, Dr Benjamin Spock
December 5 Beatles open Apple Shop, London
December 8 Otis Redding records Dock of the Bay
December 10 Otis Redding, 26 (b. September 9, 1941) dies plane crash
December 22 Owsley arrested, stops making acid
December 31 Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krassner, Dick Gregory pronounce themselves ‘yippies’
1968
January 16 Youth International Party —Yippies— founded
January 18 Eartha Kitt visit LBJ at White House speaks against Viet war
January 22 B-52 carrying H-bomb crashes in Greenland
January 23 USS Pueblo seized by Korea
January 31 Viet Cong launch Tet Offensive
February Timothy Leary evicted from Millbrook House
February Beatles visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Rishikesh-on-Ganges; Mia Farrow, Donovan follow
February 8 George Wallace announces candidacy for President on law and order platform
February 28 Auroville, Tamil Nadu, India founded
March 12 Eugene McCarthy wins 42% of New Hampshire vote in presidential primary
March 16 My Lai massacre: 200-500 Vietnamese villagers killed
March 16 Robert F. Kennedy announces candidacy for President
March 31 LBJ announces decision not to run again; offers partial Vietnam bombing halt
April 4 Martin Luther King shot, killed Memphis, TN
April Week following Martin Luther King’s murder: black uprisings 125 U.S.cities
April 6 Oakland police ambush Black Panthers. Eldridge Cleaver arrested with bullet-shattered leg. Bobby Hutton shot/killed
April 8 Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs established [DEA]
April 11 LBJ signs Civil Rights bill banning housing discrimination
April 11 Major reserve call-up for Vietnam duty
April 14 Love-in at Malibu Canyon, CA
April 15 Start of Spring Mobilization against Vietnam war
April 23 SDS-led students take over five buildings Columbia University, one week, 700 arrested
April 24 300 black students occupy admin. building Boston University, demand black studies, financial aid
April 25 Paul Horn records in Taj Mahal
April 29 Rock musical HAIR opens Biltmore Theater, Broadway
May ‘The Weight‘ single released by The Band—Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. Rolling Stone‘s song that ‘most influenced American popular music’entered U.S. British, European and Oriental charts
May 10 Vietnam peace talks begin, Paris
June 3 Andy Warhol shot by unknown woman
June 5 Robert F. Kennedy assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan after winning California primary
June 14 Dr Benjamin Spock convicted of conspiracy to abet draft evasion
July 1 Nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by 61 nations
August 1 541,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
August 3 First Newport Pop Festival Costa Mesa, CA to 100,000+ audience. Performers included Steppenwolf Jefferson Aiplane, Sonny and Cher, Tiny Tim, the Byrds, Iron Butterfly, the Grateful Dead and Eric Burdon and the Animals
Seminal literature: Ram Dass published BE HERE NOW 1971, changed a generation
August 8 Nixon and Agnew nominated during Miami riots
August 20 Soviets invade Czechoslovakia
August 25-29 Democratic convention Chicago police riot 10,000 demonstrators vs 11,000 Chicago police; 6,000 National Guard 7,500 US army troops and 1,000 FBI, CIA and other services agents. Humphrey nominated on platform supporting war
August 28 Humphrey-Muskie nominated amid violent Chicago anti-war protest. Bystanders/press beaten by police
October 18 John Lennon; Yoko Ono arrested
October 30 ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ released by Marvin Gaye; Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, 2004
November First ‘Whole Earth Catalog‘ publshed by Stewart Brand
November 5 Nixon elected Prsident, Spiro Agnew VP
November 6 Student Strike San Francisco State U
1969
January 28 Santa Barbara, CA oil well blowout
February Massive strike UC Berkeley for Ethnic Studies
February 11 200 students smash computers with axes, set computer center on fire during sit-in protest racism at St George Williams College, Montreal
February 13 33 students arrested at admin bldg sit-in University of Massachusetts
February 18 Students seize building, begin boycott Howard University
February 24 Students occupy admin building at Penn State
February 27 Police charge student picket lines, club and arrest two Chicano leaders at UC Berkeley
February 27 Thousands rampage thru nine buildings at U Wisconsin Madison over black enrollments
Jim Morrison in 1969
March 1 Doors concert, Dinner Key Auditorium, Coconut Grove, FL; Jim Morrison peaceful débacle; used by media/city officials to arrest Morrison; trials/pardon/pending sentence +$50,000 bail bond remained unresolved at his death in Paris two years later
March 2 Concorde maiden flight of SuperSonicTransport planned to take London Heathrow-New York JFK in three hours; achieves 1350-mph
March 12 Paul McCarney marries Linda Eastman
March 20 John-Yoko fly Gibraltar, marry, fly Amsterdam for week ‘lie-in’ for peace
March 20 James Earl Ray sentenced 99 years for murder Martin Luther King
April 543,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam
April 4 Smothers Brothers TV show canceled ‘too controversial’
April 9 300 Harvard students led by SDS Seize University Hall, evict eight deans
April 10 police called into Harvard, 37 injured, 200 arrested
April 11 start of 3-day student strike Harvard
April 22 Harvard faculty votes to create black studies program, give student vote to select faculty
April 22 City College NY closed after black/Puerto Rican students self-lock re higher minority enrollment
April 23 Sirhan Sirhan sentenced to death for murder of Robt.F. Kennedy
April 24 US B-52s launch biggest attack on N Vietnam, protests in 40 cities
May 15 Hippies in People’s Park, Berkeley attacked by police/National Guard
July Movie ‘Easy Rider’ released: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, music stardom for The Band: The Weight
July Stephen Gaskin starts the Farm commune, Tennessee
July 3 Brian Jones of Rolling Stones dies
July 14 Easy Rider premières
July 20 Men walk on the Moon
July 27 Police raid on gay bar, Greenwich Village NYC results in Stonewall Uprising 2000 protesters battle 400 police, start of Gay Liberation movement
August Blind Faith forms, with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker from Cream and Steve Winwood from Traffic
Albion Doo-Wah 1969 post-Woodstock sounds from Cat Mother’s country cabin in Mendocino wilds
August 9 Sharon Tate LaBiancas found murdered by Charles Manson
August 15-17 WOODSTOCK Festival; 500,000 people gather for three days of music and peace that changed the world
August 24 Movie Alice’s Restaurant released with Arlo Guthrie
August 26 FBI reports 98% increase in marijuana arrests from 1966-1968
September 3 Ho Chi Min, North Vietnam dies
September 13-14 Big Sur Folk Festival
September 24 Chicago Eight trial begins Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin charged with conspiracy to incite riots
October 8-11 The Weatherman ‘Days of Rage’
October 15 Peace Day 5000,000 protestors U.S. nationwide. First Vietnam moratorium
October 21 Jack Kerouac, b. March 12, 1922, beat author of On the Road dies
October 30 Supreme Court orders desegregation nationwide
CSN hit San Francisco, Altamont with Wooden Ships, Guinevere
November 15 500,000 march Washington, DC for peace-largest anti-war rally in U.S. history; speakers- McCarthy, McGovern, Coretta King, Dick Gregory, Leonard Bernstein; Singers; Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, John Denver, Mich Miller, cast of Hair
November 17 First round of SALT talks, Helsinki
November 20 78 Native Americans (AIM) seize Alcatraz Island, demand its return
November 20 DDT use banned in residential areas, USA
November 24 Lt William Calley charged with murder 102 S. Vietnamese civilians at My Lai
November 25 President Nixon orders all US germ warfare stockpiles destroyed
December over 100,000 U.S. troops dead or injured in Vietnam
December First draft lottery since WWII held NYC
December 6 Altamont Free Concert, Altamont Speedway, CA Hells Angels incident; one death Performers: CSN, Rolling Stones, Santana, Grateful Dead (did not perform)
December 8 Raid on Black Panther headquarters Los Angeles shoot-out
December 24 Rolling Stones Altamont free concert erupts in violence, one spectator killed (Sidereal in attendance)
Ken Carey’s Return of the Bird Tribes, HarperCollins, see 1991
The Awesome Seventies
1970
January 1 Nixon signs National Environmental Policy Act [NEPA]
February Timothy Leary sentenced to ten years for Tex/Mex marijuana arrest
February 4 Riot in Isla Vista, CA protesting Chicago verdicts
February 18 Chicago Seven acquitted of consipiracy charges
February 19 Explosions in three office buildings in New York, California, Washington, Maryland; Michigan; Weathermen suspected
February 25 Isla Vista Riots, Santa Barbara Bank of America bombed
February 26 U.S. Army discontinues surveillance of civilian demonstrators’ files
March 6 Three Weathermen blow themselves up in Greenwich Village New York
April 1 Cigarette commercials banned on U.S.radio, television
April 7 Referring to student unrest Gov. Ronald Reagan of California: ‘If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with’
April 10 Paul McCartney announces breakup of Beatles
Greek letter theta: symbol of Earth Day, of back-to-Earth movement
April 22 First Earth Day Millions participate [former Arbor Day, now transferred to April 26!?!]; John Muir birthday, April 21, 1838]
– Nixon sends troops into Cambodia
May 4 Four College Students killed by National Guard at Kent State University, OH
May 5 Nuclear non-proliferation treaty takes effect
May 8 Construction workers attacked anti-war demonstrators, Wall Street, NYC
May 9 100,000 attend anti-war rally Washington, DC
May 14 Police kill two Jackson State during violent student demonstrations
June 15 Supreme Court approves conscientious objector status on moral grounds
June 18 U.S. voting age lowered to 18; now old enough to kill and vote
June 11 Daniel Berrigan arrested by FBI for kidnapping/bombing conspiracy
September 12 Timothy Leary escapes prison, San Luis Obispo helped by Weather Underground, joins Eldridge Cleaver, Algiers
September 18 Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) dies, age 27
October 4 Janis Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) dies, age 27
October 13 Angela Davis arrested on kidnapping, murder amd conspiracy charges
December Paul McCartney sues to dissolve Beatles
December 2 Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] activated
1971
First Mars Rovers ‘lost’ in 1971 ‘found’ again April 2013 on Martian soil
January 7 DDT use outlawed by U.S. Court of Appeals
January 12 Rev. Philip Berrigan + 6 others indicted for conspiracy to kidnap Henry Kissinger; bomb federal buildings
January 12 Ralph Nader forms Earth Act group
January 25 Chas. Manson and followers found guilty of murder
January 25 Supreme Court first ruling against sexual discrimination in workplace
February 2 [Candlemas] Ramsar Convention on World Wetlands adopted in Iran shores of Caspian Sea. Convention now celebrated internationally with water-conservation/awareness projects
March 1 Bomb explodes in Capitol men’s room. Weather Underground claims repsponsibility ‘in retaliation for Laos’ March 1 U.S. stops licensing commercial whale hunters
Whaling in California, c,1924
March 8 U.S. Supreme Court rules objection to war not grounds for conscientious objection
March 23 U.S.Congress votes to lower voting age to 18
March 29 Lt. Calley convicted for My Lai massacre
March 29 Chas. Manson et al sentenced to death after longest trial in California history
April 5 Friends of the Earth founded in Britain; International Dawn Chorus Day
April 19 1000+ Veterans demonstrate against Vietnam war Washington, DC
April 20 Supreme Court upholds school busing to end segregation
April 23 Vietnam vets return medals, ribbons in antiwar protest
April 24 350,000+ veterans march on Washington DC and San Francisco to protest war
April 26 50,000 demonstrators in Washington DC set up Algonquin Peace city
May 3 May Day anti-war protest Washington DC
May 11 Native American (AIM) occupation of Alcatraz ends after 19 months
May 28 First Russian Mars Landers launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, USSR, see December fail
June 13 Pentagon Papers published by New York Times
July 3 Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) voice of The Doors dies in Paris, age 27 (Joplin, Hendrix identical age at death)
July 6 Louis Armstrong, tour-de-force jazz trumpeter-bandleader-musician Satchmo, b.August 4, 1901 New Orleans, dies New York in seventieth year
August Earthwatch Institute earth environment charitable org founded Cambridge, Mass.
November – Nixon starts withdrawing troops from Vietnam
December Greenpeace founded in Vancouver, BC
December 2 Russian Mars Landers 2 and 3 “lost” minutes after soft landing
1972
Native American peaceful occupation of Alcatraz island, San Francisco Bay 1971
January 25 Shirley Chisholm first black woman to run for president
February Life Magazine ‘high school generation interests security stability, comfort’
February 24 Angela Davis is released after 16 months in prison
March Equal Rights amendment (ERA) passes US Congress
March 22 13-member National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommends legalization of Cannabis
March 22 Equal Rights Amendment prohibiting sex discrimination passes Senate
March 30 N Vietnamese launch attack thru DMZ into S Vietnam; U.S. resumes bombing
April 10 Biological Warfare treaty signed by US and 120 nations
April 15 President Nixon Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau sign pact to clean up Great Lakes
May FBI director J Edgar Hoover dies
May 9 President Nixon orders mining of North Vietnam’s ports
May 15 Gov. George Wallace shot during primary campaign Maryland
May 18 Margaret Kuhn start Gray Panthers to protest discrimiantion against elderly
May 22 Nixon makes first US presidential trip to Moscow
May 26 US and USSR freeze nuclear weapons at current level
June 5-16 First UN Conference on Human Environment: created World Environment Day [and World Oceans Day≠]
Global warming 1950-2012, with El Niño-La Niña years
June 8 ≠World Oceans Day El Niño-La Niña live data shown here
June 14 EPA bans DDT in the USA
June 17 Watergate Break-In
June 29 Supreme Court rules death penalties unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment
July First Rainbow Gathering, Colorado
July 1 Gloria Steinem launches feminist magazine Ms
July 10 Democratic Convention nominates George McGovern for President of U.S.
July 30 Deliverance, screenplay by elusive James Dickie, directed by John Boorman, cements careers of Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox, and Ned Beatty; strikes fear into American moviegoers
August 11 Last U.S. military unit withdraws from Veitnam
August 18 Water Pollution Control Act passed by Congress over Nixon’s veto
August 21 Republican National Convention renominates Nixon and Agnew
August 23 1100 antiwar protest arrested outside Republican National Convention Center
August 28 Consumer Product Safety Commision established
September 5 Arabs kill Israeli athletes at Munich Olympic Games, Bavaria
October Canadian director Douglas Trumbull’s Saturn special effects set—still under wraps in 2001:A Space Odyssey—released Silent Running with Bruce Dern; environmental script has worldwide impact during decade of war
November 13 U.S. + 90 countries sign International Oceanic Pollution act
December 18 full scale bombing of North Vietnam resumes
1973
January 27 Vietnam ceasefire agreement signed after 58,000 U.S. casualties: miltary draft ends
Carl Sagan changes worldview, 1973
January 30 McCord + Liddy found guilty of Watergate burglary, wiretap attempt
February 28 250 American Indians [AIM] occupy Wounded Knee
March 29 Last American troops withdrawn from Vietnam
April 16 U.S.A bombs Laos
April 30 Nixon accepts resignations of HR Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, releases John Dean; denies knowledge of break-in or cover-up
June U.S. Dept of Defense (DoD) invents GPS for worldwide military surveillance, see 1998
July 20 U.S. Senate subpoenas Watergate tapes
August 8 Nixon resigns amid Watergate scandal
September Carl Sagan publishes The Cosmic Connection: an Extraterrestrial Perspective to world acclaim, bringing concept of Higher Intelligent Lifeforms—Kardashev Civilizations levels I, II, II into public domain; television series, his academic influence in NASA/military circles softens blow for billions
October 10 Spiro Agnew resigns
October 16 Henry Kissinger awarded Nobel Peace Prize
October 23 Nixon Impeachment begins
November Congress passes Freedom of Information Act
November 7 War Powers Act passed over Nixon’s veto: gives Congress approval for military actions over 60 days
November 9 Six Watergate defendants sentenced
1974
February 4 Patty Hearst, 19, kidnapped by the SLA [Symbionese Liberation Army]
Inner Space meets Outer Space—Astrophysicist Sagan visits Tim Leary in jail
February 12 SLA demands Randolph Hearst begin food distribution to poor
February-March Carl Sagan visits Timothy Leary in jail, Vacaville, CA—Inner Space meets Outer Space
April 1 Jane Fonda arrives in Vietnam on second visit
April 15 Patricia Hearst participates in bank robbery with SLA members
May 17 SLA shoot-out in LA
September 1974-December 1975 Britain’s Three-Day-Week: government attempt to create Socialist Commonwealth (rescued by Margaret Thatcher, see 1979 below)
July 30 Two articles of impeachment voted against President Nixon
September 4 Nixon pardoned by President Ford
September 7 CIA operation against Chile’s Marxist government disclosed
September 16 President Ford announces conditional pardon for draft evaders and deserters
November 16 SETI sends Message to ET from Arecibo PR World’s Largest Radio Telescope
November 21 Freedom of Information act passed over presidential veto
December 21 New York Times reports CIA illegal domestic activites in Viet war
1975
March 8 United Nations initiated International Women’s Day
April 17 Khmer Rouge reclaims Cambodia
April 30 Fall of Saigon—North Vietnamese troops enter city
Lineup of the century: The Last Waltz ‘farewell’ concert
September 18 Patty Hearst kidnapped, San Francisco
October New York Radio City Music Hall UNESCO African Literacy Drive sponsored by Marvin Gaye
November 20 COA and FBI charged with illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens; planning foreign assassinations
1976
January 21 Concorde enters service [Aérospatiale—BAC French-British consortium] flying London-Dakar and Paris-Rio de Janeiro routes
February 12 Production of Monsanto Red Cye #2 banned
April BBC ‘most successful drama series of all time’: I, Claudius, Robert Graves-scriptwriter Jack Pulman launched careers of Siân Phillips, Derek Jacobi, Patrick Stewart (future Star Trek), John Rhys-Davies and John Hurt (Alien series)
August 15 Apocalypse Now world première, ends career of Marlo Brando; makes Robert Duval, Martin Sheen
August “hottest summer since records began“, Europe *see millennium decade
November 25 Thanksgiving: The Last Waltz ‘farewell concert’ by The Band, Winterland, San Francisco special guests Paul Butterfield, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, Neil Diamond, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton. Filmed as Martin Scorsese’s Last Waltz released 1978
Icon for a generation of space-age children boldly going…
1977
May 2 2000 Clamshell Alliance occupy site of nuclear reactor Seabrook, NH, 1400 arrested
June 6 Washington Post reports U.S. developing neutron bomb
July Star Wars movie released; Harrison Ford becomes idol of youth generation overnight
August 16 Elvis Presley (b.January 8, 1935)—the King— dies, age 42
August 20 – Voyager II and
September 5 Voyager I launched from Cape Canaveral, FL by NASA to outer solar system, aboard Titan-Centaur rocket [for official crossing the heliopause, see 2012-2013]. Aboard is ‘golden disk’ inspired by Carl Sagan, q.v. 1996
1978
June 15 Tellico Dam project, Tennessee halted by snail darter per Endangered Species Act
July 18 American Indian Movement [AIM] leads march from Alcatraz to Washington, DC to protest legislation depriving Native American land rights
August Close Encounters of the Third Kind released by Steven Spielberg; humanity enchanted by ET
September Martin Scorsese releases The Last Waltz movie of The Band’s Winterland ‘farewell concert’, see 1976
1979
Margaret Thatcher, new female Prime Minister of Britain launches Conservative manifesto. Isle of Wight May 1983
February 1 Patty Hearst released from jail
March 28 Three Mile Island Pennsylvania radiation accident, partial meltdown; plant to be dismantled in 2044
April SS France, longest passenger ship ever built, record unchallenged until 345-metre RMS Queen Mary-II in 2004, sold to Norwegian Line; sails as SS Norway, increased to 76,000tons, until scrapped 2006
May 4 Margaret Thatcher accepts positon as Great Britain’s first female Prime Minister; serves three consecutive terms; brings Britain out of recession
July U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission orders Three-Mile Island’s undamaged Unit-1 reactor remain shut down until accident is studied
September 23 200,000 in NYC for nuclear weapons protest
Robert Wise directing actors on set of Star Trek: the Motion Picture, USS Enterprise bridge, 1979
December 7 Saturn Award for Best Director Robert Wise‘s Star Trek: the Motion Picture premieres worldwide; Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Best Ever Film
The Eventful Eighties
1980
May 18 Mount St. Helens, WA ±8364ft(!!) collapses; ash builds in jet stream, falls in TX, AZ, OK 2-year worldwide weather depression; c.f.Yellowstone—3500-miles—blows, 2millionBC, 640,000BC, 1360BC where ash fell in LA, FL, Africa, Asia, precipitated global cooling
July Montreux Jazz Festival: Marvin Gaye among other black performers celebrated in Europe
September 25 John Bonham, (b. May 31, 1948) musician, songwriter, drummer for Led Zeppelin, dies, age 32; Led Zeppelin disbanded, see 2012
December 8 John Lennon b. 9 October 1940, murdered outside apartment New York, age 40
1981
April 12 First Space Shuttle STS-1 Columbia launched from Cape Canaveral, 20-yr anniversary Yuri Gagarin space capsule USSR
International Peace symbol since 1981
May 11 Bob Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981), 36, dies brain cancer
September 21 Equinox UN General Assembly ratified first International Day of Peace; specifically encouraging ceasefire and absence of violence/war for one day
1983
April 4 First ex-vehicular space walk from shuttle Challenger-4
June 18 First U.S. woman in space Sally Ride helps deploy and retrieve comms satellite aboard shuttle Challenger-5
November 28 First Spacelab launch shuttle Columbia-6
1984-1985 One million dead in Ethiopian famine; see Bob Geldof Live-Aid, below
Live-Aid London:
Live-Aid Philadelphia:
1985
LiveAid largest benefit concert in history
July 13 Wembley Stadium, London: First Live-Aid Concert opened by HRH Prince/Princess of Wales (Diana and Charles) arranged by Bob Geldof (Boomtown Rats); with simultaneous concert Philadelphia: British, US international acts with Genesis drummer, Phil Collins playing both locations (Sting in London—74,000—Led Zeppelin in JFK Stadium, Philadelphia—90,000) flies Concorde between to catch both shows.
Of the planet’s five billion people, 1.4 billion stopped and watched Geldof’s “global jukebox,” and were treated to one of the biggest, most ambitious concerts ever staged. At one point, according to a stage announcement, 95 percent of the world’s television sets were tuned in to Live Aid
April 1 Marvin Gaye, b.April 2, 1939, voice of Motown, murdered by his father, age 44; posthumous Grammy Achievement Award and Rock and Roll House of Fame
May: Three-Mile-Island: NRC allows GPU, successor to Metropolitan-Edison as plant’s post-accident operating company, to restart Unit-1.
July 31 First successful breeding/reintroduction of sea eagles to Scotland
1986
Return of sea eagles, osprey, snowy owl to Scotland
April 5 Chernobyl Nuclear accident in Soviet Union; cloud spreads N. Europe; newly-planted crops die
May 26 Michael Jackson’s huge benefit chain of Hands Across America, 6.5-million people joined hands from Battery Park, NY to RMS Queen Mary docked Long Beach, CA
June 20-30 First Burning Man prelude to annual festival, see 2010, burned by Larry Harvey and friends, Baker Beach, San Francisco
November 26 Star Trek: The Voyage Home, directed by Leonard Nimoy smashed attendance records; human-space-whale theme popular worldwide
1987
July World Population Day: world population passed seven billion, 1987
August 16-17 First global synchronized Harmonic Convergence group meditation-prayer; celestial Grand Trine of major planets Jupiter-Saturn-Moon-Neptune-Uranus-Mars-Venus, see 2003
September 16 International protocol agreed to protect Earth’s ozone layer
October 19 Black Monday world stock market crash
October 1 San Andreas fault (Whittier) tremor Richter-6.1, $100million damage to freeways L.A, San Francisco
1988
May 8 Robert Heinlein, ‘dean of science fiction’, fantasy author ‘Stranger in a Strange Land‘ dies age 88 Carmel, CA
July 15 Bruce Willis’s Hollywood blockbuster “Die Hard‘premières, ‘largest grossing movie of decade’
1989
May 20: Memorial Day weekend: GaiaFest worldwide celebrations of the Earth
May 21 Universal release Kevin Costner, Burt Lancaster ‘Field of Dreams‘ inspire millions; see 2012
Berlin Wall, c. 1991 courtesy Autobahn Hamburg-Berlin
October 3 Berlin Wall opens; DDR and West Germany unofficially reunited, Berlin Wall souvenirs proliferate Europe-wide
December 23 Leonard Bernstein conducts orchestra comprising musicians of ‘occupying’ nations: French, British, US, Soviet, in his reworked Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Schiller’s Ode to Joy becomes Ode to Freiheit/Freedom; concerts repeated either side of Wall East and West
December 25 on both sides of Wall, supported but E/W Berlin choirs, signals official reunification underway
Leonard Bernstein heals the breach: December concerts East and West Berlin
The Spending Nineties
1990
Margaret Thatcher replaced as Leader of Conservative party retires in face of laborite derision. Great Britain becomes financial power again —Thatcherite economics
October 14 Leonard Bernstein, composer, conductor, see Berlin Wall, above, dies age 72 New York
October 15 Apple Macintosh Classic computer launched on unsuspecting world
1991
June 24 Reforesting Scotland founded
June 28 Ken Carey‘s ‘Return of the Bird Tribes‘published by HarperCollins, establishes Carey as spiritual guru—Starseed Transmissions, Third Millennium series
September 28 Miles Dewey Davis, (b. May 26, 1926) genius jazz trumpet/musician dies Santa Monica, age 65
1992
Collapse of Soviet Union. Russia reemerges Holy Loch US Nuclear Submarine base, Scotland closed. Excess of 200 redundant ICBMs/ISSMs Trident missiles ‘redistributed’
September 28 Mars Observer launch
October 4 Taiga Rescue Network—Boreal Forest Network founded specifically to protect Arctic forests from exploitation/shale oil drilling etc.
November 21-30 International Buy-Nothing Day, founded Mexico to combat overconsumption; becomes US ‘Black Friday’ “NO-SHOP-DROP” day
1993
March 22 [spring equinox N.hemishere] United Nations declared World Day for Water
1994
January 17 Northridge 6.7-Richter earthquake, San Fernando, CA: costliest quake in history $20billion, 57 dead
July Comet Shoemaker-Levy crashes into Jupiter; billions watch televised impact
Plant for the Planet
August 9 International Day of World’s Indigenous Peoples established by U.N.General Assembly
September GPS begun 1973 by DoD offered to US/Europe as fully functioning satellite directional navigation aid—free
1995
June 17 World Day to Combat Desertification established by UN (UNCCD)
August 9 Jerry Garcia (August 1, 1942–August 9, 1995) lead guitar Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, dies age 53
December 2 SOHO—SOlar Heliospheric Observatory—launched into heliocentric orbit to study gas and magnetic fields, see 2012
1996
May 31 Timothy Leary (1920-1996) dies aged 76, or so it seems
September 21, 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) initiated discrimination against same-sex marriages in some U.S. states
October Cradleboard Teaching Project founded by Buffy Sainte-Marie to improve Native American Indian ‘participation in learning’ educational non-profit org
December 4 Mars Pathfinder launch
December 20 Carl Sagan (b. November 9, 1934), prophetic astronomer, author of Cosmos, Contacttelevision presenter of Cosmos dies, age 62
mingling musical modes. iDead for the 21stC
1997
April 5 Allen Ginsberg (3 June 1926-5 April 1997) dies, age 71
July 4 Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover lands successfully; comms lost Sept.27, same year
August 31 HRH Diana, Princess of Wales, dies Paris (Lady Diana Frances née Spencer b.1 July 1961), age 36
October 15 NASA launch Cassini-Huygens Saturn-orbiter spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on Titan IVB/ rocket
1997-1998 Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler ‘Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’ all time high single, featured backing daughter Liv Tyler in Bruce Willis’s Armageddon, blockbuster 1998; see video above
1998
January 5 Sonny Bono dies in ski accident
July Deep Impact and Armageddon; cement Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis’s careers as artist-cinematographer-producer-actor-benefactor – highest grossing world-wide space sci-fi action fantasies set world alight
June VP Al Gore initiates upgrade of planetary GPS—freely provided American gift to world
August 25 World List of Threatened Trees published, detailing 8753 endangered planetary species
September 6-28 Aerosmith #1 Billboard’s Hot 100 greatest hit I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing after band’s 28 years together; success of blockbuster Armageddon
Dec 11 Mars Climate Orbiter launch
1999
July 16 JFK jr (b. Nov. 25, 1960) and wife Carolyn die in Atlantic ocean private plane crash
October 12 Human population passes six billion mark
30- years of Space Shuttle: Challenger, Columbia, Endeavor— symbol of freedom
“To me, the chance of surviving with dignity on this planet hinges on the acquisition of a new mind. This new mind must be wrought, among other things, from a radically different epistemology which will inform relevant actions.”
French neuroscientist Francisco Varela
The Naughty Noughties
2000
January 1 Millennium Bug did not strike–damp squib; rise of internet for everyman
April 3 Terence McKenna, (b. 16 November 1946) psychonaut, author, lecturer in metaphysics, entheogens, shamanism, dies of brain tumor, age 53
December 30 Cassini Orbiter on way to Saturn, does close fly-by of Jupiter
Golden Lizzie ‘GoldElse’ icon of Berlin’s victory over 3 centuries of war
“We have to create culture; not watch TV, read magazines, not even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe. What is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. If you’re giving it all away to icons, you’re not empowering yourself. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron, consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.”
― Terence McKenna
2001
HHGttG: DON’T PANIC
May 11 Douglas Adams, author of ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘, dies age 49
November 30 George Harrison (25 February 1943–29 November 2001) dies, age 54
2003
January 16-February 1 Space Shuttle Columbia micro-gravity/earthscience research flight, all seven astronauts killed on failed re-entry
July Tesla Motor Company, CA first lithium battery electric car in service
September Concorde’s last flight; SST retired from service after 27 years
November 3 Harmonic Concordance millions meditate worldwide under heavenly grand sextile-star tetrahedron; 16 years after astrological Convergence Grand Trine, q.v. August 1987
2004
January 31 Mars Rover Opportunity/Spirit lands on Mars
2005
January 14 NASA’s Huygens Titan-lander component of Cassini orbiter, lands on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan
February 16 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases implemented
February 20 Hunter S.Thompson, (b.July 1937) American author ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas‘, ‘Gonzo Papers‘, journalist dies, age 67
Hurricane Katrina, greatest —unprepared-for—natural disaster in US history until 2013
April Cher completes 2003-2005 three-year 325-venue Farewell Tour highest grossing female tour ever
August 23-30 Hurricane Katrina hits southern USA:FEMA,emergency & rescue services collapse; water shortage Memorial Medical Center chaos; media coverup;2000 die needlessly. Highest winds 174mph; Costliest natural disaster in history of USA
September 14 Robert Wise, b. 10 Sept 1914, Saturn-Oscar-award-winning director Star Trek, Andromeda Strain, West Side Story, Day the Earth Stood Still, dies age 91 Los Angeles
2006
January 16 International centennial birthday Symposium ‘LSD: Problem Child and Wonder Drug’, for Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist discoverer of LSD, Santa Cruz, CA
September SS France, see 1963, synonym SS Norway, see 1979, scrapped
2007
January 1 Romania and Bulgaria join European Union—27 nations
February 7 U.S. sends 30,000 troops to Iraq
2008
Milk Hill Astrolabe alien code came in 3 phases solstice week 2009
March 19 Arthur C. Clarke, sci-fi guru author 2001: A Space Odyssey, b.16 December 1917,
July 24 Barack Obama addresses Berliners at Siegesäule/Victory statue ‘Golden Lizzie‘ pre-election campaign
July-August California wildfires claim 1.6million acres; largest loss on record, mismanaged for inadequate resources focused on So.CA property to detriment of No.CA forests; Yosemite fire started by target-shooters; majority lightning-Santa Ana-induced
2009
March European beaver reintroduced in eastern Scotland
April Actor Morgan Freeman wins Oscar award for his role as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood directed ‘Invictus‘
June 25 Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) dies cardiac arrest Los Angeles, age 50
June 21-30 Triple-phase Crop Circle Milk Hill sextant/astrolabe alien script defies translation-interpretation
2010
January 4 World’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, 2722ft (Burj Dubai until Dubai bankcrupt, borrow from Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President UAR, Ruler Abu Dhabi, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority who bale out in time for New Year’s opening
May 29 Dennis Hopper, b May 17, 1936 Dodge, KS movie actor, director, revolutionary, dies, age 74
2010-2011
Burning Man in Nevada desert has become annual Labor week event
August last week- Labor Day weekend September
Annual Burning Man Festival and intentional community, Black Rock, Nevada desert HOPI SAY:
‘There is a river flowing now very fast. Some will be afraid and try to hold on to the shore. Feeling torn apart, they will suffer greatly.
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.
And I say, look around and see who is in there with you and celebrate’
Hopi Elder Prophecy, Oraibi, Arizona 2000
2011
March 11 Fukushima nuclear plant Daiichi, Japan crippled in mag.8-9 earthquake, world response to greatest nuclear leak since Chernobyl, 1986; pollution circles Pacific, see Philippines 2013
June 28 B.B.King, 88, Blues musician extraordinaire celebrated in sold-out ‘LIVE’ concert , Royal Albert Hall London
November 11—11:11:11— Fire the Grid, Spark in the Park, World Grid Meditations affect ‘coherent consciousness’, see PrincetonU’s Global Consciousness Dot
Shuttle Endeavour lifta off NASA Boeing-747 transport for last sentimental journey LAX through downtown Los Angeles, September 2012
“Fourteen Americans are known to have taken a jump room to visit Mars. They are: Andrew D. Basiago, Raymond F. Basiago, Major Ed Dames, Regina E. Dugan, Mary J. Eisenhower, Courtney M. Hunt, Linda Hunt, William C. McCool, Bernard Mendez, Arthur Neumann, Barack H. Obama, Michael C. Relfe, William B. Stillings, and Admiral Stansfield T. Turner. In addition, three other Americans are known to have served as support personnel for the Mars project. They are: Stanley Ann Dunham, Thomas J. Stillings, and Michael Strickland. That a secret US colony exists on Mars has been established by the testimony of Laura M. Eisenhower.” — Andrew D. Basiago
January 12 70th birthday celebration for ‘Dead Rock Stars’—Janis Joplin would have been seventy
April 19 Levon Helm, drummer, vocalist, rock-wayshower for The Band, dies age 71 of throat cancer
May 20 Trees for Life Scotland’s millionth native species planted [pine and birch]; regeneration thriving
September 19 Last Space Shuttle Endeavour lands LAX atop NASA 747 transport; parade downtown Los Angeles
October 17 Save the Field of Dreams initiated by Los Angeles film editor David Blanchard, see FB page
November 6 Colorado-Washington first states to legalize sale/possession cannabis sativa for recreational use since Marijuana Tax Act 1937
December 5 Jazz composer-pianist musicianDave Brubeck, b. December 6, 1920, dies age 92 years, minus one day; Grammy Award-winner for Greatest ‘Classical-Crossover’ Album, TakeFive, Rondo à la Turc, TimeOut, etc.
December 26 Led Zeppelin honored at Kennedy Center by President Obama
December 31 SOHO solar satellites complete 360º monitoring orbit of sun: full solar surface revealed
2013
Eugene, OR top hipster city on latest poll of cool US cities
February 5 ‘Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act’ calls on the federal government to regulate marijuana as it does alcohol; bill amended September 2013
March 28 Maya Sun-Venus Calendar ends fifty-two-year Venus cycle which began April 10, 1961 and marks start of new 5000-year cycle of the Sixth Sun.
April 8 Baroness Thatcher, first female Prime Minister of Great Britain—1979-1990, Leader of Conservative Party 1975-—1990 (Margaret Thatcher, née Roberts, 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) died just after she moved Britain into the new tax year!
April 20 4/20 Festivities openly held to celebrate relaxed medical marijuana laws in 22 US states
May 9 Ascension Day —coincidentally Roman catholic festival
May 20 Dr John, blues musician singer dubbed Dr Dr John by Tulane U honorary degree
May 28 James Taylor and Carly Simon receive Library of Congress Gerschwin Prize at White House
June 18 Luminato Arts Festival birthday tribute concert to Joni Mitchell, Toronto, Canada
…Don’t Panic…
‘There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.’ Douglas Adams
July Section-3 DoMA considered unconstitutional. Federal Government acknowledges/supports rights for gay couples
August 21 Norwegian study ‘Psychedelic supplements improve mental health’
August 22 Oregon and Washington legalize personal use of marijuana
August 25 Crosby and Nash benefit concert, Pasadena, CA
September Some U.S. states legalize cannabis for medical or personal use; press celebrate 17 ‘Hipster’ US cities
“My children and I use music the way all people should use music: to help you process your feelings and to help you get on with your life”
Linda Ronstadt, 2013, Parkinson’s Disease sufferer, rock-jazz musician
September 27 Linda Ronstadt belatedly awarded Rock Hall of Fame, book-launch ‘Simple Dreams’
October U. S. Government shutdown
October 5 BMW-all-electric car launches International Auto Show, Orange Co, CA
October 8 New York Film Festival premieres Bruce Dern’s Nebraska
October 19 Fukushima human chain Ocean Beach, San Francisco hold hands against oncoming pollution from Daiichi (March 2011) fracture—nuclear cleanup operation halted; rods & effluent flow unabated into Pacific Ocean
October 27 Lou Reed, seminal rock musician, songwriter, Velvet Underground, dies New York, age 71
October 27 Neil Young, Elvis Costello et al perform Lou Reed tribute concert Bridge School benefit, Mountain View, CA
November 2 Comet Ison appears to naked eye in Earth skies—heralded as Hopi blue-star Kachina, above
November 7 Solar Radiation Storms accelerate Category-5 tropical cyclone ‘super’-Typhoon Yolanda-Haiyan (winds 195-205mph) destroys much of Philippines; deaths in hundreds of thousands; survivors unreachable ‘burying’ dead at sea, pollution cloud follows Fukushima-2 to US West Coast, landfall San Diego, CA
November 11 11:11 11/11/13 Comet Ison morphs into Blue Star Kachina twin tailed blue visible thru backyard binoculars
11/11 Solar X-class and M-class flares continue CME bombardment via earth-facing solar wind; Saturn eclipses Sun; Pacific storms aggravate pollution in North Pacific Gyre
November 23 Full moon/solar X-class flares; seven volcanoes erupt in six countries worldwide,: Daiichi subterranean fault-line re-fractures; cooling rods “lost”, clean-up abandoned, new island=Niijima 新島 formed, off coast of Nishinojima, west island= 西ノ島
November 29 Comet ISON’s awaited reemergences from perihelion ‘slingshot round the sun’ as naked eye evening spectacle in western skies stymied by solar elves who swallowed her and spat out planetary awakening ascendance code instead
December 5, 2013 Nelson Mandela,—xhosa [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla] member of Thembu royal family, & South Africa’s first black President (1994-1999), Nobel Peace Prize recipient 1993, dies at peace in Johannesburg, age 95
December 7, 2013 Shirley MacLaine, Martina Arroyo, Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, and Herbie Hancock honored at Kennedy Center Award Dinner Washington, DC
As we said at the beginning, this is a work in progress and if you have read to the end, you may be inspired to add something that’s missing. Any and all contributions via our comments page will be considered.
Thanks for being part of it.
MobyDuck on his world cruise: 28,800 plastic toys circling the globe
They’re turning up everywhere: surprising delighted beachcombers from the shores of the Outer Hebrides to the sands of Malibu. It’s the Rubber Ducky Armada, with the world as their bathtub.
In January 1992 a Hong Kong container ship caught in a cyclone tossed two rows of containers overboard. One broke open and released 28,800 plastic bath toys into the Pacific at a point where the 45th parallel meets the International Date Line 44.7°N, 178.1°E. A score years later, beachcombers are still picking up the four toy varieties on the Pacific rim: (not just) yellow duckies, (but also), green frogs, red beaver and blue turtles.
Bleached in transit: plastic duckies/frogs/turtles retrieved by the Seattle beachcomber project
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch’s oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white
Samuel T Coleridge
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Twenty years on, these little critters are still appearing on beaches — and not just round the Pacific. They’re on the move: now they can be found stranded on the shore from the Hebrides in Scotland, to Hawaii, to Nantucket, to Sitka, Alaska, where a record number of 111 toys beached within the first decade. Scientists have in the meantime succeeding in mapping a working route through the world’s oceans by tracking the movement of the rest of these little floaters. Some have even been cut by Inuit fishermen out of the Arctic ice.
Through Arctic ice, duckies head south to meet the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic
Both Seattle oceanographer, Dr Curtis Ebbesmeyer, and world traveler and author Donovan Hohn are using their route as a cautionary tale. This ‘duck-current’ navigates the Bering Strait, Arctic ice and the Greenland Gap, falling into the north Atlantic where it drifts south (cold) past New York, scoops up tropical warm from the Bermuda Triangle and returns north as the Gulf Stream to the North of Scotland. Sound romantic? Perhaps, yet the cautionary tale told by these ocean biologists to alert the rest of us, sitting in our comfort zone, is that our wasteful habits are now so thoughtless that they potentially threaten all lifeforms — including our own.
“I took to heart something said by Beth Flint, a wildlife biologist I spoke to in Hawaii, who said, ‘Be careful. As striking as the images of plastics are, there are more invisible impacts that demand attention.'”
‘Plastics, I think, are useful in this measure because we can’t see greenhouse gases that are absorbed by the oceans, and you can’t see PCBs, DDT, or agricultural runoff. So, plastics act as a bellwether’ Donovan Hohn, author Moby Duck: 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea, British release February 23rd
“I think it’s all about incongruity. These tiny Friendly Floatees are the epitome of childhood, an icon of bathtime. To think of them bobbing out there on the harsh, vast, wild ocean is funny; it seems like a joke.”
But it’s not.
Currents carry drifters around the Subpolar Gyre in 3years, around the Subtropical Gyre in 6years. Flotsam can circulate in the Garbage Patch for half a century
I have blogged before about the North Pacific Gyre (Feb.2010) and its astonishing ability to collect and entrap more plastic scum than plankton in its famous ‘Garbage Patch’. It is a deathground for any remaining wildlife foolhardy enough to enter it. It’s the size of Texas. And growing.
‘I don’t think we’ll ever find all the toys,” says Dr Curtis Ebbermeyer, whose enthusiastic beachcombing enterprise specializes in the Pacific Northwest. ‘But we’ve discovered invaluable information about the nature of the (N.Pacific) Gyre.’ He described finding three (Spanish) glass fishing floats, c.1960, which had done eight circuits. In a 1950s experiment Canadian oceanographers threw 33,869 message-in-bottles (MIBs) in 12-oz brown glass beer bottles into the Gulf of Alaska.
Albatross chick on Midway Island --neighbor to Garbage Patch-- died of starvation: fed by parent birds till it choked; photo courtesy Chris Jordan & The Guardian
PNW oceanographer Ebbesmeyer says: “So far we’re aware of about 3%. The story pleases and fascinates people, but what it shows is something terrible — awful.”
British adventurer and explorer David de Rothschild focused attention on the proliferation of plastic in the vortex of the Gyre by sailing his 60-ft plastic catamaran, Plastiki, made from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles, through the Garbage Patch between San Francisco and Sydney in summer 2010.
Hohn has also travelled the world’s oceans — by steamer, container ship, icebreaker and ferry — to follow the routes taken by the duckies. What he found was something less than a fairy story.
“Most worrying are the increased levels of plastic compared with plankton in the ocean. It enters the sea via waterways all over the world. Fishing gear, plastic bags come down rivers and streams. It gets eaten by sea birds, fish and whales. Nothing can digest it.”
Over time it breaks down into particles that spread through the water column like liquid dust that travels all round the world. Scientists have issued recent warnings that the oceans’ ‘plastic level’ has significantly increased.
Trapped in Arctic ice, toys are then released to continue their journey when the ice melts
“Plastic is landing on our shores by the ton. There is measurable impact on marine mammals that get entangled, as well as sea turtles and birds that eat the stuff. Once this poison reaches the food chain it is a worry for human beings. We are putting plastic on the dinner plates of our grandchildren.” Donovan Hohn, author/researcher, February 2012
Combined with the Seattle beachcomber finds and the Canadian MIB results, scientists now have a new working model of earth’s ocean currents. They see submarine storms not as rivers; more as ocean-weather. The forecast’s not looking good.
‘There is no doubt that plastic is creeping into the food chain. That is a definite reality. We’ve got to get past this “out-of-sight out-of-mind” mentality.’
‘That’s what the ducks teach us.’ Curtis Ebbesmeyer
“It’s a story that’s wonderful-awful,” he says. “Trash travels all round the planet through the ocean; we know that. People think they throw stuff away. There is no away. It’s all in the ocean.”
The very deep did rot: O God!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea. Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner
We're all in the same bathtub...
Part of me feels I should apologize for the ferocity of this article: compared with my usual Siderealview, where the material is often immanent, this one also has urgency. I am aware, too, that I am laying this story at the door of the already enlightened: the huge majority who shop/drop plastic bags are unlikely to bend an ear to this blog. But occasionally it doesn’t hurt to press a point.
Some of us live in the expectation that our next car will be rechargeable; our next vegetable seed purchase or market stall fruit will NOT be pesticide-sprayed or triple-plastic wrapped; our electricity bill used to help upgrade the supplier’s power source to solar/windpower. But we also live in the reality that few of our friends live ‘off-the-grid’, except in rare locations.
Some of us have even taken the proactive route in questioning suppliers on their integrity.*
Ancient Mariner's shipmates made him wear the dead albatross round his neck in penance for their change of fortune
Or we might, as Coleridge felt when he wrote his supernatural Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1796, see the sharp decline in numbers of albatross as our fault. We might, like the old man, feel we should hang our heads in shame, wear a virtual albatross around our necks until the curse is lifted. After all, it’s not our fault big business is so careless about what it dumps at sea.
But, just as Coleridge’s audience believed that to wear the carcasse of the dead bird was justified for his killing the omen of good fortune, that Regency/Victorian patriarchal view still lingers in our attitude to pollution: so long as we do a minimum recycle, somebody else will pay the price for world pollution.
After all, what can a single person do? Is it realistic to expect the combustion engine to become a dinosaur overnight?
Eco-warrior, sailor and philanthropist, David de Rothschild navigated 'Plastiki' via Heyerdahl's 'Kontiki' route through the Pacific plastic Trash Vortex, in 2010
“What I hope that the Plastiki does and what we stand for is not about vilifying people, pointing fingers or just articulating problems. We are about challenging that thinking.” David de Rothschild, eco-explorer Plastiki crew-member
In all honesty, bar another Pacific meltdown, how many of us will stop using plastic tomorrow? How many of us will refuse to shop in supermarkets until they stop plastic proliferation?
But how else shall we bring about a change in what is already an urgent situation?
Remarkably there are some brave souls out there. de Rothschild is presently putting his not inconsiderable fortune and Plastiki weight behind a British initiative to have plastic bags banned in British supermarkets.
Since Devon residents of Modbury voted in 2007 to make their town plastic-free, fifty more towns and villages in Britain have joined the anti-plastic bandwagon.
Ocean Defenders campaign, with Greenpeace, created this graphic display on a NPacific Gyre island, words in golfballs
It is sometimes difficult for our American bros/sisters to comprehend how, for a small island (Britain in total: England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland together equal the approximate area of Oregon), British bureaucracy moves so slowly. The familiar US supermarket checkout adage ‘paper or plastic?’ has no meaning in the British Isles because supermarkets here never conceived that alternative checkout wraps such as recyclable paper from sustainable forests might actually give them a better image. One chain* actually pursued outdated reasoning that their “customers didn’t want that” (paper alternative). Unlike progressive states such as New Mexico, Massachusetts, Arizona, Oregon and California, Britain has almost no awareness of the multiple friendly uses of cotton, corn, rafia and hemp. ‘Alternatives’ offered for sale as ‘recyclable’ shopping bags by some chains have plastic constituents.
Eurozone parliamentary intiatives are underway to ‘reduce’ plastic consumption (sic) by 2025 or 2030. But by then, at the rate Time is speeding up, it may be too late. It may already be too late for the albatross, the blue whale, the dolphin and the Green Turtle.
View from the Stars: whichever way you look at it, we are present in Sidereal time, Space is our growth medium, and stardust and water our constituent particles. When electromagnetically charged, our solar-powered circuitry is capable of Creating Anything We Choose.
Meantime the equatorial ‘Volcanic Belt’ which few people pay attention to—just happens to run parallel from coastal-Mexico South to coastal-Peru and in mid-Pacific, through the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean on Earth, through Fiji, Tonga. The so-called Carnegie Ridge is a huge submerged volcanic plate that runs through Cocos Ridges and the Galapagos tectonic plate, or Platform. There it heads for the coast of Peru, becoming sub-ducted under the South American continent where it collides—approximately—with the Andes.
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