6, 7, 8,
What is it about December that leads to heartbreak, destruction and chaos?
I wish I knew. But back in 1981, I first noticed the 6, 7, 8, grouping.
Dec. 6, 1969 – the decade of the ’60s comes to a crashing halt. After the three days of peace and music just 4 months earlier, members of the Hells Angels killed Meredith Hunter during the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway in California.
Dec. 7, 1941 – the Imperial nation of Japan viciously conducted a sneak attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Dec. 8, 1980 – John Lennon is murdered outside the Dakota Apartment building in New York City by a man who shall remain nameless in anything I write.
Each of these three events had a profound effect on people and the United States. Pearl Harbor led to the US involvement in World War II. The actions of the Hell’s Angels led to a curtailing of Rock Festivals around the country. John Lennon’s death is still being felt to this day. Once John was dead, we lost all hope for a Beatles reunion and the peace movement lost a powerful voice that could still be useful.
By the way, something bizarre also happened on December 9 – In 1953, General Electric announced that all company employees who were members of the Communist Party would be discharged. Coincidentally, just 5 years later, on December 9, 1958, the Anti-Communist group, the John Birch Society was founded. In fact, during the 1950s, the Red Scare was so bad that the Cincinnati Reds changed their name from the Reds to the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1956 through 1960.
I don’t know what it is about numbers and coincidences that fascinates me, but they do.
My birthday is Pearl Harbour day, so I know exactly what you’re saying. Here in Canada we also remember the horror of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, Dec. 6, 1989. A nutjob who blamed women’s admissions on his inability to be accepted into the university shot 28 people, claiming that his motive was anti-feminism.
Oh, and a very weird coincidence in my family. My brother was born on Aug. 6, the anniversary of Hiroshima. Just curious, I googled my other brother’s b’day and found out that the first French n-test occurred on that date.
An important anniversary in our family (not a birthday, but a major event) was September 11th, 1994, which is also a major holiday in our family’s cultural background.
It hurt so much to have to call up my daughters in 2001 and tell them, “Don’t let those people take this day away from you”.