The last full viewing of the AIDS Quilt is among the many events within the second half of 1996–your childhood.
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The Good Men Project classifies the Guyhood demographic from age 18-24. This means 1996 holds significance, whether as your birth year or your early childhood. In Part II, let’s look back at events (some humorous, some serious) from the latter half of 1996 (July-December).
July
4– HoTMaiL (catch the HTML in there?), a free Internet e-mail service created by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, is born. America rejoices with fireworks. Millions of users sign up within the first few years. In Spring 2013, Hotmail dies. The ten remaining users mourn. (Actually over 300 million accounts were transferred to Outlook.com)
5– A sheep, code name 6LL3, is cloned. She is named Dolly after Dolly Parton since the clone was developed from an adult mammary cell (not Dolly Parton’s). Her birth sparks controversy about possible human cloning. Stem cell research now dominates the conversation. Peter Griffin wonders,”Why are we not funding this?”
August
1– M2, MTV’s second television channel, is launched. Its purpose is to offer constant, commercial free music. Beck’s “Where It’s At” is the first video aired on M2. Original fans of MTV and M2 now wonder what happened to the two turntables and a microphone … you know, the ones that play music.
16– After a 3-year-old boy falls into a 20-foot (6.1 m) deep gorilla enclosure at the Chicago Zoo, the resident female silverback, Binti Jua, nurtures the injured boy until he is rescued. The events are caught on video and Binti Jua becomes world famous. In September of 2012, animal activist Damian Aspinall releases a video (filmed 20 years before) where he intentionally places his daughter in a 300 lb. gorilla cage. She is unharmed, but Aspinall becomes world famous for a different reason.
September
3– David Slowinski and Paul Gage, using a CRAY T94 supercomputer, discover 2^1,257,787-1, the largest Mersenne prime number to date, consisting of 378,632 digits. A Mersenne prime is a prime number of the form 2P-1 (the P must be a prime number, and the answer must be prime when calculated).
On Jan. 25, 2013, Curtis Cooper, volunteer member of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) shattered any previous records by discovering the new largest known Mersenne prime, 2^57,885,161-1. This prime number, 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times, less one, has 17,425,170 digits. For those interested in this work, here’s a video to get you started.
7– Rapper Tupac Shakur is shot multiple times in a drive-by in Las Vegas. He dies on July 13. To this very day, conspiracy theories abound regarding whether Shakur is actually still alive. One of the most popular theories, that might make Slowinski, Gage, and Cooper proud, is the Seven Day Theory (you know, cause 7 is a Mersenne prime number).
According to the theory: “Tupac was shot exactly seven months after All Eyez On Me was released. He was shot on the 7th but died seven days later on the 13th at 4.03 pm (4+3=7). He posthumously released an album called Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, and was 25 at the time (2+5 = 7) of his death. Theorists say he planned it all without giving any real explanation to his obsession with the number seven.”
October
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is displayed, in its entirety, for the final time in public on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Gay rights activist, Cleve Jones, developed the AIDS Memorial Quilt concept in 1985 as a way for families, friends, and allies to honor those affected by HIV and AIDS. He partnered with others in 1987 to create the NAMES Project Foundation. The Quilt has grown too large for full display in any public area, but the Quilt, and each of the 48,000+ panels, is preserved and searchable electronically at http://www.aidsquilttouch.org.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS estimates that today over 34 million individuals globally live with HIV.
November
18– Tony Silva, world-renowned bird expert, receives a 7 year prison sentence (without parole) for heading an illegal parrot smuggling ring. Current worldwide exotic animal smuggling is an estimated $10-20 billion black market industry.
23– Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes in the Indian Ocean after running out of fuel, killing 125. Investigators now search radius roughly the size of the continental United States in and around the Indian Ocean for signs of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Certain theories point to hijacking in this case as well, although all is speculation at this time.
December
18– Television executives voluntarily agree to adopt a rating system. Just this month, the Parents TV Council campaigned for more transparency, consistency, and accountability with the current rating system, as networks ultimately decide a show’s rating.
27– The first trials following the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus open in the southeastern town of Kibungo. It is estimated that over 800,000 Tutsi men, women, and children perished in the genocide, along with thousands of Hutus opposed to the genocide actions taken by Hutu extremists. Twenty years later, the genocide still looms large in the minds of many.
On March 14, Pascal Simbikangwa, director of Hutu intelligence services during the genocide, was convicted in a French court to 25 years in prison.
You were born and grew up in an unbelievable time. You will create even more unbelievable times throughout your lives.
In the spirit of The Good Men Project, hopefully one or more items you read will spark dialogue.
Join the conversation.
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Image credit: schacon/flickr