Hans Remembers- Headlines from Tuesday June 3 and Wednesday June 4, 1969.
- On June 3, 1969 Star Trek- the original series airs its last episode after 3 years and 79 episodes. The final episode was titled- “Turnabout Intruder”- Captain Kirk’s consciousness becomes trapped in the body of a woman bent on killing him and taking over his command while inhabiting his body. The show was ahead of its time its ratings were low- but it would gain cult status while in syndication in the 1970’s.
- Tragedy occurred when the USS Frank E. Evans was accidentally rammed and sliced in two by the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne- seventy-four U.S. Navy men were killed.
- On June 4, 1969-another tragedy this time in Mexico- all 79 persons on board the Mexicana Flight 704 were killed when a Boeing 727 crashed making its approach to Monterrey on a flight from Mexico City.
- On board that Mexicana Flight 704 was Mexican tennis player Rafael Osuna the winner of the 1963 U.S. Open. Osuna was thirty years old.
Wow. I’d never heard of the Evans-Melbourne collision or the Mexicana 704 crash. Goodness.
To be honest about it- until doing research on it- I hadn’t heard of either of them myself.
Heh. Sounds like me when I’m doing an historical post…๐
“Wait. What? I didn’t know THAT.” ๐ค๐คจ๐
Always good to learn things you didn’t know!
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Nothing’s worse than those crashes that happen between planes, too, like they can see each other, I would assume, but somehow instrument readings are off or calculations don’t pan out. The ones that actually collide while flying, in the middle of the sky…..wow. All that space up there means nothing!
I am amazed at the number of crashes in the late 60’s.. seemed like it happened all the time then.
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It was the second time that HMAS Melbourne had collided with another ship, the first time was in 1964 and 82 people died. In both instances the Melbourne was cleared of any wrongdoing but the aircraft carrier then became known as a jinxed ship. No wonder!
Thanks I didn’t know that was the second time!