Way back when: Today in history

By GENE CURTIS - 11/7/2009


1940

The new $6.4 million Tacoma, Wash., Narrows suspension bridgefell with a terrific roar into Puget Sound. A Seattle insurance agent who had written $800,000 worth of insurance on the bridge was arrested on an embezzlement charge for failing to turn over the insurance premiums to the company.

1952

The first report that the world's first hydrogen bomb had been exploded at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific was published by The Los Angeles Examiner. Other eyewitness accounts were published but the government kept a lid on the news for several weeks. The explosion was so great that a mile-wide island disappeared, a witness said.

1962

"You won't have Nixon to kick around any longer," an embittered Richard M. Nixon told reporters the day after he lost a comeback attempt for the California governorship. "This, gentlemen, is my last press conference," the former governor, former vice president and 1960 presidential candidate added. It wasn't. Nixon was elected president in 1968.

1991

Earvin "Magic" Johnson, 32, announced his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers "because of the HIV virus I have attained." Johnson said he would campaign for safe sex. He returned to play in 1996 but retired for good after 32 games.



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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