Hip-hop artist Common aka Elam FERGUSON on TV's "Hell on Wheels" paid tribute to the civil/racial unrest in FERGUSON, MISSourI...which brings us back to August 23rd, 1989, the Bensonhurst neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY. Yusef Hawkins, a 16 year old African-American, and three friends there to buy a car, and wrongly identified by a mob of white youth who suspected Yusef of dating a white girl in their area are beaten with baseball bats; Yusef is eventually shot and killed in the altercation.
The marches and written accounts of the protests sound far more disturbing than what has been taking place in FERGUSON, and yet there were no arrests, injuries or deaths as a result. Use of Police force as seen in FERGUSON didn't exist in N.Y.
Although not directly related to the events in Bensonhurst, several weeks later over labor day weekend more racial unrest as Greekfest (African-American fraternity/sorority beach party) attendees in Virginia Beach, VA. were met with police force, and riots ensued. The television footage of the conflict that weekend is strikingly similar to what we have been seeing in FERGUSON.
Virginia Beach, VA. is home to the NEPTUNE Festival (started in 1973), and a 34' statue of The King of the Deep (2005)
1989 also resonates with 2014 in a couple of other symbolic ways. Former Beatle, George Harrison released his second compilation album: Dark HORSE: 1976-1989 (Dark HORSE Records). The Dark HORSE has gained much attention this year with Katy Perry's music video & performance at this years Grammy Awards. It was reported that in July of 2014 in Los Angeles, the memorial George Harrison tree had died and would need to be replanted. The cause of the trees demise, Beetles.
George Harrison's 5th Solo Album was released in 1974, and also titled Dark HORSE
On July 4th, 1989, then fourteen year old actress Drew Barrymore attempted suicide. Earlier this year in late July, Drew's half-sister Jessica was found dead behind the wheel of her car of an apparent drug related overdose. Researcher Loren Coleman covered this story over at his blog "Twilight Language" in a piece entitled: The Paradise Syndrome: Celebrity Suicides.
Other events from 1989 worth nothing:
- February: Iran's Ayatollah Khoneini places bounty on Satantic Verses author Salman Rushdie
-March: "California Quake" amusement ride opens at Universal Studios
1st sea test of TRIDENT 2 mISSIle self-destructs, Cape Canaveral
Worst U.S. Oil Spill, Exxon's "Valdez" spills 11.3 million gallons off coast of Alaska
-June: "Dead Poets Society" opens (see Robin Williams)
Tiananmen Square Massacre. Chinese troops Kill nearly 1,000
Then President Ronald Reagan is Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
1st of the modern "Batman" movies opens
-August: Pete Rose banned from Baseball for life/betting scandal.
-September: Hurricane Hugo caused $10 Billion damages and left an estimated 107 dead
-October: STS-34 launches (ATLANTIS 5)
-November: Major Conjunction of Venus, Mars, Uranus, NEPTUNE, Saturn and the Moon
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
-December: Mikhail Gorbachev & George H.W. Bush declare end of the Cold War
Worst Canadian Mass Murder, Marc Lepine kills 14 at Univ. of Montreal
U.S. Invasion of Panama
Earthquake, Newcastle Australia. 11 dead