41 years ago today, Samantha Smith, a US schoolgirl, flew to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov on an antiwar mission. Smith attracted extensive media attention in both countries as a “Goodwill Ambassador”, becoming known as America’s Youngest Ambassador and subsequently participating in peacemaking activities in Japan, and writing a book about her trip to the Soviet Union. A monument to her was built in Moscow; “Samantha Smith Alley” and a Soviet cosmonaut even named an asteroid after her. READ why she is thusly honored by the Russians… (1983)
The story begins on November 22nd, 1982, when TIME Magazine published an issue with recently appointed Secretary General Yuri Andropov on the cover. Feared as being a stern unitarian who would bring the Soviet Union the power to launch missiles from space, Smith asked her mother upon seeing the magazine: “If people are so afraid of him, why doesn’t someone write a letter asking whether he wants to have a war or not?” Her mother replied, “Why don’t you?”
‘Dear Mr. Andropov,’ she wrote,
My name is Samantha Smith. I am 10 years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren’t please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like it if you would. Why do you want to conquer the world or at least our country? God made the world for us to share and take care of. Not to fight over or have one group of people own it all. Please lets do what he wanted and have everybody be happy too.
Samantha Smith
Her letter was published in the Soviet state-run newspaper Pravda, but she didn’t receive a reply. So she got out her stationary again, this time to write to Russian Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. Then, On April 26th, 1983, she received a response from Andropov.
“Your question is the most important of those that every thinking man can pose. I will reply to you seriously and honestly,” he replied, “We want peace—there is something that we are occupied with: growing wheat, building and inventing, writing books and flying into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all peoples of the planet. For our children and for you, Samantha.
I invite you, if your parents will let you, to come to our country, the best time being this summer…
Thank you for your letter. I wish you all the best in your young life.”
The story is long and inspiring and should be read beyond what is included in this column.
MORE Good News in History:
- George Cukor, the film director of My Fair Lady and Philadelphia Story was born in New York City (1899-1983)
- David McCullough, award-winning author and historian known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographies, Truman and John Adams, was born (1933)
- George Harrison recorded his new song Here Comes the Sun with two other Beatles, Paul and Ringo, at Abbey Road in London (1969)
- President Bill Clinton visited an Indian reservation, the first president since FDR to do so, specifically the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota (1999)
- Influenced by Live 8, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to Africa from US$25 to US$50 billion by the year 2010 (2005)
- On 07/7/7 Live Earth concerts publicize the threat of global warming as 100 artists on seven continents perform in live broadcast (2007)
72 years ago today, SS United States passed Bishop Rock on her maiden voyage, breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world, a record which it retains to this day. Designed by American naval architect and marine engineer William Francis Gibbs, the liner’s construction was a joint effort by the United States Navy and United States Lines, and despite her magnificent speed (she could do 40 knots), she was designed to be able to carry troops, or marine shipping—in other words, she was an all-rounder.
United States had the most powerful steam turbines of any merchant marine vessel at the time. She broke the eastbound transatlantic speed record (held by RMS Queen Mary for the previous 14 years) by more than 10 hours, making the maiden crossing from the Ambrose lightship at New York Harbor to Bishop Rock off Cornwall, UK in 3 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes at an average speed of 35.59 kn.
Over a service career that lasted 17 years, the skyrocketing cost of operating the ship and the withdrawal of US subsidies into it led United States Lines to withdraw her from service, ultimately laying her up on the James River.
The ship has been sold several times since the 1970s, with each new owner trying unsuccessfully to make the liner profitable. Eventually, the ship’s fittings were sold at auction, and hazardous wastes, including asbestos panels throughout the ship, were removed, leaving her almost completely stripped by 1994. Two years later, she was towed to Pier 82 on the Delaware River, in Philadelphia, where she remains today. (1952)
7 years ago today, Tesla Motors’ first mass-produced car, the Model 3, rolled off the assembly line. A tremendous success, the Model 3 is the best-selling electric car in world history by March 2020, and in June 2021, it became the first electric car to pass the 1 million global sales milestone. The Model 3 has been the world’s top-selling plug-in electric car (PEV) for three years running, from 2018 to 2020, the best-selling PEV in the United States for three consecutive years over the same period, the top-selling PEV in Europe in 2019, and the best-selling PEV in China in 2020.
Winning plaudits for drivability, speed, and the understated, Apple-esc appearance, the Tesla Model 3 managed to stay very relevant as the electric car market has constantly buckled with innovation, obsessive media coverage, and government interest. With the help of the electric car tax credit no doubt, it was ranked by KellyBlueBook as having the best resale value of any car in America after 36 months.
In October 2021, Hertz car rental ordered 100,000 full-priced Model 3 cars for its rental fleet. (2017)
43 years ago today, Judge Sandra Day O’Connor was nominated by President Reagan to become the first female justice on the US Supreme Court.
A judge and elected official from Arizona, O’Connor was the first female majority leader of any American state senate, serving as the Republican leader in that state.
Her Supreme Court nomination was confirmed unanimously in the U.S. Senate, and her moderate voice was characterized as ‘the swing vote’ for decades on the Court. She retired at age 76 in 2006, even though she was ranked by some publications as among the most powerful women in the world. Now 92, she lives in El Paso, Texas. (1981)
Happy Birthday to Ringo Starr who is celebrating his 84th Birthday today with a little help from his friends. For 13 years, he has only asked that at 12 noon, people stop what they’re doing and flash a peace sign saying, “peace and love.”
Due to the pandemic the release of an “incredible” Beatles film had been postponed. The Beatles: Get Back, by director Peter Jackson, is an alternative take on the rooftop concert from 1970, culled from 56 hours of unused footage. It was the last time The Beatles ever performed together. Regarding current tour gigs, Ringo says he plans to go on performing “a lot longer than 80.”
“I feel like I’m 24!” Starr declared. And he still marvels at how it all began. “I’m still blown away that I was 13, in hospital [with tuberculosis], and the music teacher came round to keep us busy, and he gave me a little drum,” he said. “And from that minute on, I only wanted to be a drummer.”
His latest LP, Zoom In, was recorded at Starr’s home studio during lockdown in 2020. The 5 new songs include contributions from Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh, Ben Harper, Dave Grohl, Sheryl Crow, Chris Stapleton, Lenny Kravitz, Corinne Bailey Rae, Eric Burton, Yola, FINNEAS & many more.
During his long and fortunate life, he has had 3 children with his wife Barbara—and now has eight grandkids, and even a great-grandson. WATCH a birthday video… (1940)
Happy Birthday to one of the funniest ‘clean’ comedians in comedy, Jim Gaffigan, who turns 58 years old today.
He is known for his deadpan delivery and jokes about eating food. Besides touring with his standup routine, he starred in The Jim Gaffigan Show on TVLand. You may know him as Roy Keene from That ’70s Show, or from his memoirs: Food: A Love Story, and Dad Is Fat, or his 2016 comedy special, Obsessed. (1966)
And, on this day in 1984, Bruce Springsteen went to No.1 on the US album chart with Born In The U.S.A.
Released four weeks earlier, his seventh studio album spent a total of 139 weeks on the chart. It’s one of the highest-selling records ever and is cited by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time. It’s also one of only three albums to produce seven top-ten US singles: Born in the U.S.A., Dancing in the Dark, Cover Me, I’m on Fire, Glory Days, I’m Goin’ Down, and My Hometown (Michael Jackson’s Thriller and a Janet Jackson disk were the other two.)
For the famous cover, Annie Leibovitz shot a photo of Springsteen’s backside against the backdrop of an American flag, evoking themes of a working-class hero, while the lyrics dealt with the difficulties and marginalization of the working-class and Vietnam veterans.
With Born in the U.S.A., Springsteen helped popularize American heartland rock in the mainstream, which allowed for greater success for recording artists such as John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, and Bob Seger. Despite its American focus, the LP also topped the charts in the UK, Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. WATCH a video about why the title track is the most misunderstood song in America…
And, on this day in 1983, 11-year-old Samantha Smith boarded a plane for the Soviet Union at the invitation of that country’s leader, Yuri Andropov, after writing him a letter during the height of the Cold War. The schoolgirl received a reply and an invitation to visit.
She had seen a TIME magazine article about the Soviet Union and asked her mother, “If people are so afraid of him, why doesn’t someone write a letter asking whether he wants to have a war or not?” Her mom replied, “Why don’t you?” Smith was in fifth grade when she wrote the letter, which was published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda READ their remarkable letters below…
Dear Mr. Andropov,
My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren’t please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight.
Sincerely, Samantha Smith
On April 25, she received a response from the Soviet leader:
Dear Samantha,
I received your letter, which is like many others that have reached me recently from your country and from other countries around the world.
It seems to me – I can tell by your letter – that you are a courageous and honest girl, resembling Becky, the friend of Tom Sawyer in the famous book of your compatriot Mark Twain. This book is well known and loved in our country by all boys and girls.
You write that you are anxious about whether there will be a nuclear war between our two countries. And you ask are we doing anything so that war will not break out. Your question is the most important of those that every thinking man can pose. I will reply to you seriously and honestly.
Yes, Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are trying to do everything so that there will not be war on Earth. This is what every Soviet man wants. This is what the great founder of our state, Vladimir Lenin, taught us.
Soviet people well know what a terrible thing war is. Forty-two years ago, Nazi Germany, which strove for supremacy over the whole world, attacked our country, burned and destroyed many thousands of our towns and villages, killed millions of Soviet men, women and children.
In that war, which ended with our victory, we were in alliance with the United States: together we fought for the liberation of many people from the Nazi invaders. I hope that you know about this from your history lessons in school. And today we want very much to live in peace, to trade and cooperate with all our neighbors on this earth—with those far away and those near by. And certainly with such a great country as the United States of America.
In America and in our country there are nuclear weapons — terrible weapons that can kill millions of people in an instant. But we do not want them to be ever used. That’s precisely why the Soviet Union solemnly declared throughout the entire world that never – never – will it use nuclear weapons first against any country. In general we propose to discontinue further production of them and to proceed to the abolition of all the stockpiles on earth.
It seems to me that this is a sufficient answer to your second question: ‘Why do you want to wage war against the whole world or at least the United States?’ We want nothing of the kind. No one in our country – neither workers, peasants, writers nor doctors, neither grown-ups nor children, nor members of the government – want either a big or ‘little’ war.
We want peace — there is something that we are occupied with: growing wheat, building and inventing, writing books and flying into space. We want peace for ourselves and for all peoples of the planet. For our children and for you, Samantha.
I invite you, if your parents will let you, to come to our country, the best time being this summer. You will find out about our country, meet with your contemporaries, visit an international children’s camp – ‘Artek’ – on the sea. And see for yourself: in the Soviet Union, everyone is for peace and friendship among peoples.
Thank you for your letter. I wish you all the best in your young life. — Y. Andropov
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