Computers outsmarting humans
Russian chess champion Gary Kasparov lost to a computer for the first time on Feb. 10, 1997, in a performance that rocked the chess world. Kasparov became a grandmaster in 1980 and was the world’s youngest chess champion at 22 by 1984. He successfully beat computers in 1985, 1989, 1992, 1994 and IBM’s “Deep Blue” in 1996. Score one for Hal 9000 and the mind of Arthur C. Clarke; the rest of us should start preparing for a Matrix eventuality.
Anti-racism victories
After 27 years in South African prison, Nelson Mandela was released just as apartheid laws relaxed, and immediately returned to speak to his supporters. He showed up in public in a light gray suit holding his wife’s hand and punching the air in victory before driving off in a BMW sedan. In the country’s first multi-racial elections in 1991, Mandela was elected president.
European government
The Danes, French, Germans and British finally gave in to peer pressure, and the European Union evolved out of the European Community on Feb. 7, 1992. The union is unique in that it is flexible: States may have as little or as much cooperation as they require under European Union Law, in something the Europeans describe as “two-speed.” Too bad our government doesn’t have multiple gears — anything’s better than reverse.
McCarthyism
Sen. Joseph McCarthy began his “anti-red” crusade when he accused more than 200 staff in the U.S. State Department of being members of the Communist Party on Feb. 9, 1950. The more he pressed, the more his list dwindled, until it finally dropped to 10 names by the time an investigating sub-committee was put together. He turned to heavy drinking, and his health declined until his death in 1957. Nothing says “I love you, America” like a good, old-fashioned, four-year witch hunt that preys on the fears of a confused, post-war nation.
Student criminals
A former University of Oregon Fulbright Scholar became the object of one of the FBI’s largest manhunts after kidnapping the heir to the Coors Brewing company on Feb. 9, 1960. After killing the heir, Joe Corbett was hunted across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver, where he was apprehended. In a stunning display of early forensics, the serial engine of Corbett’s car was used to track him after it was deliberately lit on fire, a ransom note was traced back to his typewriter, dirt from the car was traced back to where the heir was taken hostage and his mail was checked to discover he had ordered handcuffs, leg irons and a gun.
Early file-sharing
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) was formed on Feb. 13, 1914, to protect copyrighted music against illegal performances for profit and the collection of license fees. One can be sure the vision of the founders didn’t include the scenario about 90 years later when the modern-day version of this group would be harassing, haranguing, and horrifying the populace of the file-sharing revolution, spearheaded by Metallica.
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