On Oct 14 Felix Baumgartner performed a successful record breaking freefall, from a capsule that was carried aloft to over 128,000 feet. He set an altitude record for a jumper and he broke the speed of sound in his descent. Some may scoff at this as a publicity stunt; but, as a milestone for a fellow human I feel it carries a sense of accomplishment. Several scientific questions were put to the test as far as high altitude work is concerned. So it had scientific results beyond the straight PR aspects.
As I watched the event on streaming video I harkened back to several events to which I had been witness.. The first memorable one was the launch of man's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, by the then USSR. As a young teen I used to baby sit, boys did in those days. The father of the household, which I was at,was an electronics buff. He had made a transistor radio. These were new then and too expensive for me to even think about buying; but, he let me use the radio. I was checking out some US Rock n' Roll stations ( We could pick up Albany NY and Buffalo NY, on the AM band after night fall). An announcement came on, "We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin, the Soviet Union has launched the first artificial satellite" At the time it was an immense propaganda feat, as most of us expected the US to do this. Later a dog named Leika was the first living creature sent to space. Then Uri Gagarin became the first man in space. In 1969 the world came to a halt as John Glen became the first man to set foot on the moon. This televised around the world. This was a major US triumph in space; but, it also reflected on all of mankind as we, as humans, had set foot on a far away place.
On a fun note, the 1972 Canada / Russia hockey series brought together the top players of each nation for the first time. Till then the Soviets had played "amateurs". This was their first encounter with the professionals. As a hockey mad nation I would not be far wrong to say that most Canadians were close to their screens. In all honesty we had expected to run over the Soviets. Hey, we were the pros. But, it didn't quite work out that way, the Soviets were fit and very skilled. Our players had to work themselves into shape very quickly in order to keep up. In the final match of the 8 game series the Soviets were ahead 5-3 with only one 20 minutes in the last period remaining. I still recall the intense look on the eyes of Phil Esposito as he got on the ice. Near the end of the match the score was tied when Paul Henderson took a shot from close to the net and scored. I think that this goal may have triggered the biggest party Canada has ever seen. It was a great ending; but, those of us who played hockey gained a great respect for the Soviets. They had skills we learned from, they were fit and their pre-season fitness level was an inspiration to hockey players. This changed how serious hockey players in Canada approached the game.
Not all memorable moments were positive, the assassination of John Kennedy touched people around the world. He was a charismatic man who impressed people of my generation. TV coverage was now wide in scope so the events of the day played out in a way that such a sad event had never been experienced.
Later the cowardly acts of 9/11 were carried world wide with the omnipresent satellites that now cover all corners of the globe. The political and criminal aspects of the loss of so many lives still resonates globally.
The emotions and effects of these events in my life and in others is very over whelming for the most part. From exhilaration to deep pain and shock, some positive, some negative all memorable.
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