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Historical Context for November 28, 1983

In 1983, the world population was approximately 4,697,327,573 people[†]

In 1983, the average yearly tuition was $1,031 for public universities and $4,639 for private universities. Today, these costs have risen to $9,750 and $35,248 respectively[†]

Notable Births

1983Rostam Batmanglij, American musician and songwriter[†]

Rostam Batmanglij, known mononymously as Rostam, is an American musician, producer and songwriter. He was a founding member of the band Vampire Weekend, whose first three albums he produced. He has been described by Stereogum as one of the greatest pop and indie-rock producers of his generation. Rostam also works as a solo artist and is a member of electro-soul group Discovery. He produced his first number-one album, Vampire Weekend's Contra, when he was 27 years old.

1983Tyler Glenn, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player[†]

Tyler Aaron Glenn is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is known as the lead vocalist and keyboardist of the American rock band Neon Trees and as a solo artist.

1983Summer Rae, American football player, wrestler, and actress[†]

Danielle Louise Moinet is an American model, actress, ring announcer, former professional wrestler, manager and American football player. She is best known for her tenure in WWE from 2011 to 2017, under the ring name Summer Rae. Moinet was a main cast member on the reality show Total Divas during its second and third seasons. Before joining WWE, she played with the Chicago Bliss of the Lingerie Football League.

1983Édouard Roger-Vasselin, French tennis player[†]

Édouard Roger-Vasselin is a French professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. He won two Grand Slam titles in doubles at the 2014 French Open, partnering Julien Benneteau, and mixed doubles at the 2024 French Open, partnering Laura Siegemund. He also finished runner-up at the Wimbledon Championships in both 2016 and 2019, alongside Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut respectively. Roger-Vasselin reached his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 6 in November 2014, and has won 28 doubles and 1 mixed doubles titles on the ATP Tour, including three Masters titles.

1983Nelson Valdez, Paraguayan footballer[†]

Nelson Antonio Haedo Valdez commonly known as Nelson Valdez or Nelson Haedo in Spanish speaking countries, is a Paraguayan professional football coach and a former player who played as a striker for clubs in Paraguay, Germany, Spain, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, the US and for the Paraguay national team between 2000 and 2021. He is an assistant coach with the German club Werder Bremen II.

1983Carlos Villanueva, Dominican baseball player[†]

Carlos Manuel Villanueva Paulino is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and San Diego Padres. He also played in the KBO League for the Hanwha Eagles.

Notable Deaths

1983Christopher George, American actor (born 1929)[†]

Christopher John George was an American television and film actor who starred in the 1960s television series The Rat Patrol. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1967 as Best TV Star for his performance in the series. He was also the recipient of a New York Film Festival award as the Best Actor in a Television Commercial. George was married to actress Lynda Day George.

Historical Events

1983Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-9, the first mission to carry the European Space Agency's Spacelab module.[†]

Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle launch vehicle on its maiden flight on April 12, 1981 and becoming the first spacecraft to be re-used after its first flight when it launched on STS-2 on November 12, 1981. As only the second full-scale orbiter to be manufactured after the Approach and Landing Test vehicle Enterprise, Columbia retained unique external and internal features compared to later orbiters, such as test instrumentation and distinctive black chines. In addition to a heavier aft fuselage and the retention of an internal airlock throughout its lifetime, these made Columbia the heaviest of the five spacefaring orbiters: around 1,000 kilograms heavier than Challenger and 3,600 kilograms heavier than Endeavour when originally constructed. Columbia also carried ejection seats based on those from the SR-71 during its first six flights until 1983, and from 1986 onwards carried an imaging pod on its vertical stabilizer.

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Headlines from November 28, 1983

U.S. HOPES SOAR WITH MAHRES

By Neil Amdur

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. - "You don't have to motivate them," Kelly said, with a smile, recalling the episode during a recent training camp at this resort high in the Rockies. "They've got the experience, and they're gonna go that extra mile to make it." The World Cup skiing circuit will begin this week with men's and women's slalom events at Kranjskagora, Yugoslavia. In a season that will also include the Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, in February, American hopes have never been higher. For the first time, the United States will have two defending World Cup champions in the Alpine events (Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney), along with such established international-class skiers as Steve Mahre, Christin Cooper and Cindy Nelson. The outlook in the Nordic events, led by Bill Koch, is equally upbeat. "We're going to approach it like any other World Cup season," said Bill Marolt, the director of the Alpine program, before departing for Europe. "Because of the stature of the Olympics, there is extra stature and emotion, and there is a higher level of intensity and preparation. But we know what our capabilities are, and we know if there's a hunt, we'll be in the hunt." The United States has never won an Olympic gold medal in men's Alpine skiing, one of the glamour events of the Winter Olympics. This is another reason why Phil Mahre, with three consecutive World Cup titles, and his brother Steve will be followed more closely than ever this season.

Sports Desk2442 words

NEW 150-SEAT JET STIRS DEBATE

By Unknown Author

The official decision earlier this month by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation not to produce an all-new 150-passenger airliner leaves the field to the Boeing Company and Airbus Industrie, the European consortium, but it has also stepped up the debate over whether the plane is needed at all. Airbus, backed principally by the German, French and British Governments, is expected to announce by early next year whether it will produce its entrant, the A320 twin-engine airliner that is aimed at replacing older Boeing 727's, McDonnell Douglas DC-9's and other smaller narrow-body planes. For its part, Boeing is waiting to see how the market develops for an all-new plane before committing itself to any particular design. Replacing Aging Fleets Virtually all industry officials agree that the airlines will soon have to begin buying some kind of plane to replace many of their aging narrow- body jets, which account for almost 80 percent of the 6,100 commercial planes in the air today.

Financial Desk1205 words

ECONOMISTS HAIL LEANER RECOVERY

By Kenneth N. Gilpin

This economic recovery, like many before it, is slowing from the vigorous growth it showed at its start, economists say with pleasure. For the time being, at least, they are looking for a more modest, but solid, upturn. ''The outlook is for the best of all possible worlds in the fourth quarter and through next year - low inflation and a sustainable recovery,'' said Edward Yardeni, chief economist at Prudential-Bache Securities. ''I didn't think that was possible a year ago.''

Financial Desk970 words

MEDICAL HELP DUE AT OFFICE TOWERS

By Ronald Sullivan

A program designed to speed emergency medical services in Manhattan's tall office buildings is to begin early next year. It will be run by New York City's Emergency Medical Service and an organization representing 150 of the city's largest corporations and real-estate interests. The immediate objective, city officials said, is to organize volunteer medical teams in office buildings, especially for the upper floors, to provide first aid until an emergency ambulance crew arrives. Faster Response Time Sought Another goal is to cut the response time of the ambulance crews. The average response time for high-priority calls on the 911 emergency telephone system is now 11 minutes.

Metropolitan Desk908 words

TOOL ORDERS UP, BUT ARE STILL LOW

By Steven Greenhouse

Machine tool orders, a guage of business plans to increase production, rose 70 percent in October over levels of a year earlier, an industry trade group reported yesterday. In its monthly survey of orders, however, the National Machine Tool Builders' Association noted that the level of orders last month was still depressed, even though the increase indicates that the recovery is starting to help the capital goods sector. ''In early 1980, monthly machine tool orders averaged over $500 million per month, versus $203 million in October,'' said James A. Gray, the association's president.

Financial Desk429 words

3 MILLION CHICKENS DESTROYED IN BID TO HALT SPREAD OF VIRUS

By William Robbins, Special To the New York Times

Five hundred Federal and state officials and aides have been pursuing a grim assignment here in south-central Pennsylvania, killing millions of chickens that are the livelihood of many of the area's farmers. Crews of workers, in a rush to contain a deadly avian influenza virus that has caused millions of dollars in losses to the state's poultry industry, killed 500,000 chickens with carbon dioxide gas Friday, 465,000 Saturday, and continued their work today on five more farms. This brought their ''depopulation'' total over the last few weeks to about 3 million. ''We've identified about 4 million in infected flocks,'' said David Goodman, a Federal information officer. ''We use that terrible word depopulation to avoid saying slaughter, to emphasize that they are not being killed for human consumption.''

National Desk1097 words

BUSINESS DIGEST MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1983

By Unknown Author

The Economy The pace of the recovery has slowed after a vigorous, initial rebound from the recession. Economists are hailing the slowdown, saying a modest recovery is more sustainable. (Page D1.)

Financial Desk357 words

MACLEAN HUNTER TAKES A CAREFUL STEP INTO U.S.

By Douglas Martin

When The Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation bought The Houston Post last month, the company insisted that it had handled and financed the $100 million-plus deal by itself. But many media executives saw in the transaction the hand of Maclean Hunter Ltd., Sun Publishing's half-owner and Canada's biggest communications company. The purchase of the United States's 17th-largest newspaper fulfilled one of Maclean Hunter's own long-term ambitions. Its executives also concede that Sun's ties to Canada's largest media conglomerate did not exactly hurt the deal.

Financial Desk818 words

ISRAEL'S TALKS WITH THE U.S.

By David K. Shipler, Special To the New York Times

News Analysis JERUSALEM, Nov. 27 - The visit of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Moshe Arens to Washington this week comes at an unusual moment. Rarely in recent years have the explicit, short-term objectives of the United States and Israel overlapped as they do now. The talks are likely to be conducted in a spirit of accord. But beneath this outward harmony, the tone of relations between Israel and the United States is still set by dissonant attitudes and priorities. To the extent that the talks in Washington reach into the fundamentals of Middle East policy, they can be expected to give new voice to these old discords.

Foreign Desk1163 words

REPORT SAYS CITY'S UPTURN IS INCOMPLETE

By Sam Roberts

Excerpts from report, page B4. New York City has failed to reap the full benefits of its economic recovery, according to a report compiled by two professors. In addition, the report said the employment demands of the city's growing service industry have widened the gap between rich and poor residents. The report found that since the city's fiscal crisis in the mid-70's three out of four jobs generated by industry have been filled by out-of-towners and that the growth of the local economy outpaced business tax revenues by $660 million. It also pointed out that one in five residents lives below the Federal poverty level.

Metropolitan Desk1135 words

I was wondering if anything interesting on the news was going on when I was born, and decided to create this website for fun. The purpose is to show people what was going on when they were born. With this website I've found out that it was a pretty slow news day on my birthday, but I bet it would feel cool to know a historical event happened on your birthday.

The data used in this project is provided by the New York Times API. They have by far the best API I was able to find, with articles dating back to the 1950s. There weren't any other major newspapers that had an API with close to as much data. The closest was the Guardian API, but theirs only went back to the 1990s. I decided to only use articles from the New York Times because their API was by far the best. This tool works if you have a birthday after the 1950s or so.

Some important dates in history I'd recommend looking up on this website are:

  • 9/11/2001: The September 11 Attacks happened on this day, the news articles from this date provide great context to the tragedy our nation suffered and the immediate response from the American people. The headlines capture the shock, confusion, and unity that emerged in the aftermath of this devastating event.
  • 7/20/1969: The historic Apollo 11 moon landing, when humans first set foot on another celestial body. The articles from this date showcase humanity's greatest achievement in space exploration and the culmination of the space race.
  • 11/9/1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall, marking the beginning of the end of the Cold War. The coverage provides fascinating insights into this pivotal moment in world history and the emotions of people as decades of division came to an end.
  • 1/20/2009: Barack Obama's inauguration as the first African American President of the United States, a watershed moment in American history that represented a major milestone in the ongoing journey toward racial equality.
  • 8/15/1969: The Woodstock Music Festival began, marking a defining moment in American counterculture and music history. The coverage captures the spirit of the era and the unprecedented gathering of young people.

These historical events are just a few examples of the fascinating moments in history you can explore through this tool. Whether you're interested in your own birthday, significant historical dates, or just curious about what was making headlines on any given day, this website offers a unique window into the past through the lens of contemporary news coverage.

You can read more on our blog.