Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 5

This is day number five in the 40 til 40 series of blog entries leading to my 40th birthday on July 10.

Last time I talked about Mike Gundy’s famous “I’m a man, I’m 40!” speech from 2007.  Today I will talk about the events that occurred on my birthday, starting with the day I was born through 2024.

1985:  The Coca-Cola Company agreed to revive the classic Coke formula after the failure of New Coke.

1986:  Actress Jody Lawrance died at the age of 55.

1987:  Music critic John Hammond died of complications from a stroke at the age of 76.

1988:  ABC’s World News Tonight celebrated its 10th anniversary.

1989:  Mel Blanc, the “man of a thousand voices”, died of complications from emphysema and COPD at the age of 81.

1990:  Wheel of Fortune letter turner Vanna White won a court case ordering former mental patient Roger Davis, who had been stalking her, to stay at least 150 yards away from her for three years.

1991:  Boris Yeltsin took office as the first president of Russia.

1992:  Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations.

1993:  Yobes Ondieki ran a 10K in 26:58.38 to set a new world record.

1994:  Mark McCumber won the Anheuser-Busch Golf Classic at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg for the second time by three strokes over Glen Day.

1995:  The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health air filtration ratings were updated with the enactment of a new regulation including rules for governing the new N95 respirator standard.

1996:  Former Barker’s Beauty Holly Hallstrom, who was sued by Price is Right host Bob Barker in December 1995 for slander and libel, countersued Barker for wrongful termination.

1997:  London scientists reported the findings of a DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton supporting the “Out of Africa” theory of human evolution, placing an “African Eve” at between 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

1998:  The Diocese of Dallas agreed to pay a $23.4 million settlement to nine former male altar servers who claimed to be sexually molested by Father Rudolph Kos.

1999:  The United States women’s soccer team defeated China in a penalty kick shootout at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to win the Women’s World Cup in front of 90,185 spectators, including president Bill Clinton.  It was the highest attended women’s sporting event.

2000:  The band Coldplay released its debut album “Parachutes”, which won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album.

2001:  Amerada Hess agreed to acquire Triton Energy for a cash payment of $2.7 billion.

2002:  The Peter Paul Rubens painting The Massacre of the Innocents was sold to Lord Thomson at a Sotheby’s auction for £49.5 million, equivalent to $76.2 million.

2003:  The Neoplan bus owned by Kowloon Motor Bus collided with a truck and fell off a bridge into the underlying valley, killing 21 people.

2004:  Dule Hill of The West Wing married actress Nicole Lyn in Montego Bay.

2005:  Hurricane Dennis slammed into the Florida panhandle, causing billions of dollars in damages.

2006:  Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies won the Home Run Derby during the Major League Baseball All-Star festivities at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

2007:  The Major League Baseball All Star Game was held at AT&T Park in San Francisco, won by the American League 5-4.

2008:  Berwick native Mike Souchak, a former PGA Tour golfer, died of complications from a heart attack at the age of 81.

2009:  Elizabethtown native and longtime Pennsylvania representative Jack B. Horner died in Lancaster at the age of 87.

2010:  Lincoln “Sugar” Minott of the reggae group The African Brothers, died at the age of 54.

2011:  After 168 years, the weekly British tabloid News of the World published its final edition and ceased operations following widespread backlash to revelations of phone hacking.

2012:  The American Episcopal Church allowed same sex marriages.

2013:  The PGA Tour announced the cancellation of The Greenbrier Classic after heavy flooding throughout West Virginia.

2014:  Yair Lapid warned of Israeli Defense Force ground operation if Gazan rocket fire did not stop.

2015:  Omar Sharif, who won the Golden Globe Award for his role as the title character in the movie Doctor Zhivago, died of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 83.

2016:  Portugal defeated France in the UEFA Euro 2016 final for their first European title.

2017:  NASA’s Juno spacecraft makes its closest ever pass over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot at about 12,000 miles overhead.

2018:  An original sketch of Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by EH Shepard was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for £430,000.

2019:  West Reading native Taylor Swift was named the world’s highest paid entertainer by Forbes magazine with earnings of $185 million in 2018.

2020:  National Hockey League combines opened for the 24 playoff teams after the suspension of the regular season following the declaration of the Covid pandemic.

2021:  Gwendolyn Faison, the former mayor of Camden, New Jersey, died at the age of 96.

2022:  Longtime Vermont representative Warren Kitsmiller died of complications from a stroke at the age of 79.

2023:  Longtime Northwestern Wildcats football coach Pat Fitzgerald was terminated for his role in a hazing scandal involving several of his players.

2024:  Dave Loggins, who composed the iconic Masters Tournament theme song “Augusta”, died at the age of 76.