Browsing: June 29

A Brief History On June 29, 1974, famed ballet dancer with the Kirov Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov, defected from the USSR while on tour in Canada.  Baryshnikov went on to great success in ballet in the US, while branching into dramatic acting and television as well, with an estimated net worth today of about $45 million. Digging Deeper Baryshnikov is not the only Soviet citizen to defect to the West in order to seek more freedom and opportunities and today, we list some other such famous defectors. In 1961, Rudolf Nureyev, possibly the greatest male ballet dancer, defected while in Paris,…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on June 29th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On June 29, 1971, the first human space travelers to die while in space perished when their Soyuz 11 space capsule depressurized after leaving the Soviet space station, Salyut 1. On June 29, 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States stunned the nation by ruling in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty violated the 8th and 14th Amendments. On June…

A Brief History On June 29, 1971, the first human space travelers to die while in space perished when their Soyuz 11 space capsule depressurized after leaving the Soviet space station, Salyut 1. Digging Deeper Salyut 1 was the first space station launched into orbit around the Earth in April of 1971, and despite its then groundbreaking technology, only lasted less than 6 months, of which humans occupied it for a total of 24 days. Soviet cosmonauts Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev had become the first ever spacemen to occupy a space station, from June 7th to June…

A Brief History On June 29, 1974, we mark the first time in World History that a woman became President of any country in the world. Sure, there have been Queens and Prime Ministers, but Isabel Peron, the third wife of former President of Argentina Juan Peron, is the first lady to have the title “President” of any country, in this case, Argentina. On top of the distinction of achieving a “first” for women, Isabel was only 33 years old when she was sworn in as president, too young to even run for president in the United States. Digging Deeper…

A Brief History On June 29, 2017, we take a moment to reflect on the history of boxing, specifically, the history of the big boys, the top dogs, the Kings of the World, the Heavyweight Champions.  On June 28, we discussed former Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson and his bizarre personality, and while he was a pretty good boxer, he does not make this list.  Why only a top 5?  Once you get past the 5, the next 5 are not in serious contention for being Number 1, and we prefer to keep this list only about boxers that our readers…