The Mysteries of History (March 26 Edition)
Salk's Polio Vaccine; Egypt/Israel Peace; Mass Suicide by Cult Members
1953 — Jonas Salk Announces Polio Vaccine
public domain image from wikimedia commons
Dr. Jonas Salk (1914-1995) announced on the radio on this date in 1953 that he had developed a cure for Polio. The previous year, there were 58,000 cases in the U.S. of Polio, and 3,000 deaths.
Polio was also colloquially called “infant paralysis” because it usually affected children, especially infants. Older people sometimes got it, too. For one famous example of that, future President Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted it at the age of 39 in 1921 and was partially paralyzed.
For more on the success of the Polio vaccine, see this.
Questions: How many lives were saved by Salk’s vaccine? How many paralyzations avoided? Who else was involved in the vaccine? Were there any false starts or mishaps before the vaccine was safe?
1979 — Peace in the Middle East?
public domain image from wikimedia commons
On this day in 1979, President Jimmy Carter was able to help broker a deal between long-time enemies Egypt and Israel by hosting them on “neutral ground” in the United States when they formally signed a peace treaty which had basically been agreed upon the year before, at Camp David (also in the United States).
Two years earlier, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918-1981) took the initiative to travel to Jerusalem to see about reconciling with Egypt’s neighbor to the east, Israel, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (1913-1992) and giving a speech at Israel’s Parliament.
Sadat and Begin shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. Still, most of the Arab world looked askance at Sadat’s overture of peace — Egypt was kicked out of the Arab League, and Sadat was assassinated in Egypt’s capital Cairo in 1981 by hardline Muslims.
Questions: What happened to Sadat’s assassins? What did they accomplish by murdering Sadat? How are relations between Egypt and Israel now? Which Arab nations have the best relationships with Israel? Which Arab nations have the worst relationships with Israel? Is the animosity level based on how religious the citizens of the Countries are? In other words, are more secular Arab nations less prone to hate Israel?
1997 — Cult Members Commit Mass Suicide Near San Diego
public domain image from wikimedia commons
Thinking the grass was greener (so to speak) on a place they’d never been to or even seen photos of, 39 people voluntarily left what their spiritual guides (chiefly Marshall Applewhite, 1931-1997) referred to as their “bodily containers” behind so that they could board a flying saucer hidden behind a comet (the Hale-Bopp comet, to name names) and “slip the surly bonds of earth.”
In other words, they killed themselves, giving credence to the crazed Applewhite and his cockamamy delusions (Applewhite was one of the 39 who poisoned themselves).
The Heaven’s Gate cult members were not only gullible, but even willing to live celibate lives — several of the men getting castrated to make sure of it.
Marshall Applewhite at his most convincing
The deeply disturbed and confused 39 individuals (21 men and 18 women) were united in dress at the time of their demise, all of them wearing black shirts, sweatpants, and Nike tennis shoes (“because they got a good deal on them”). All but the last two to commit suicide (who had nobody to cover them) were draped in a purple sheet.
Questions: Why did anybody believe Applewhite’s ludicrous assertions about an alien spacecraft hidden behind a comet, and that it would take them to a better life elsewhere — what proof, or evidence, was there for this? Was there life on earth so unbearable that they were willing to believe even such an incredible prophecy? Who were these 38 (other than Applewhite) ultra-gullible or insane people? Did they have anything in common (besides their macabre beliefs)? Who was the youngest of them? Who was the oldest of them? Were they all Americans?
Read about “The Secret Lives of Kids” here.
