Today was my birthday, and I was interested in finding out what actually was happening in the world the day I was born. So a quick google brought me to the New York Times website which apparently has summery pages on various days of the past.
Things that happened the day I was born
- Reagan made Americans disappointed when he decided to bring sanctions against Libya. Needless to say, many of our Allies and Libya’s allies were not happy either.
- Reagan wanted to sell government loans to private collectors to make government smaller. To be honest I’m not sure how this works in making government smaller other then saving paper.
- An antiviral substance called Interferon seems to work against the Common cold. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS?!? I looked it up and all I got was that later betaseron was developed from it and that is used to treat MS. Wait, a more specific google search turned up a 1985 paper detailing a study using the substance. Basically it can reduce the cold, but it causes more blood in your mucus and doesn’t seem to keep others from getting it from you.
- Gorbachev introduces a unemployment program because modernizing Russia’s economy means a temporary increase in unemployment.
- A group of Jewish slave laborers win a settlement against German munitions factories that used their labor.
- Unemployment was down to 6.8, the lowest in 5 years in the United States. (Current unemployment is 5.5, so we are doing much better now)
- Kodak stops selling their answer to Polaroid after loosing a case. Although I couldn’t find out if January 9th was the day they stopped producing it or the day they were taken to trial.
And I found a video with the top 40 songs for January 9th. Oddly enoguh I only knew about 3 of the songs. But at least I knew the #1 song the day I was born. Pet Shop Boys’ West End Girls.
Sokorra Lewis 