Way back when: Today in history

By GENE CURTIS - 11/4/2009


1964

The first attempt to launch the Mariner 3 spacecraft to Mars failed. Nine hours after the launch at Cape Kennedy, Fla., NASA announced that there was no chance of completing the mission successfully. Its twin, Mariner 4, was launched three weeks later on a 7 1/2-month voyage.

1979

Marine guards were overpowered by a mob of Iranian students who invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 98 employees hostage. The hostages were released in January 1981 when Ronald Reagan succeeded Jimmy Carter as president 444 days after they were seized.

1981

The scheduled space flight of the shuttle Columbia was scrubbed 31 seconds before its scheduled blastoff because of dirty oil that clogged two filters that fed oil to the craft's hydraulic lines. The flight, already postponed twice, finally began on Nov. 12. Columbia made 28 flights but exploded on re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

1995

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv by a 25-year-old Jewish extremist who said, "Everything I did, I did for God, for the Torah of Israel, the people of Israel and the land of Israel." Rabin, 73, died on an operating table after being shot. The assassin, Yigal Amir, showed no remorse when he was sentenced to life in prison.



Gene Curtis, 581-8304
gene.curtis@tulsaworld.com, To purchase "Only in Oklahoma," a book of collected columns by Gene Curtis, visit, tulsaworld.com/OnlyinOklahoma


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Tulsa World Reader Comments
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forkandknife, Tulsa (11/4/2009 9:21:25 AM)
Pretty exciting stuff.

lucky girl, mine (11/4/2009 9:54:49 AM)
Ok...



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