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Historical Context for November 17, 1985

In 1985, the world population was approximately 4,868,943,465 people[†]

In 1985, the average yearly tuition was $1,228 for public universities and $5,556 for private universities. Today, these costs have risen to $9,750 and $35,248 respectively[†]

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Headlines from November 17, 1985

LOOKING AHEAD TO A MOMENTOUS ENCOUNTER

By Larry Rohter

PRESIDENT Reagan flew to Geneva yesterday for what he called ''a mission of peace,'' his first meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader. As the first Soviet-American summit meeting in more than six years approached, each side sought to position itself in the most favorable light. Proposals and counterproposals to reduce nuclear arsenals are on the table for the talks Tuesday and Wednesday. One of the biggest stumbling blocks was Moscow's opposition to Mr. Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. Left behind in Washington, Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger urged the President in a letter not to yield on space defense, asserting that Soviet violations of past treaties had put ''us in a particularly vulnerable and dangerous position.'' An unidentified official reportedly called the release of the letter by the Pentagon an attempt to ''sabotage'' the summit meeting and Larry Speakes, White House spokesman, indicated the President was displeased.

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MORE ERUPTIONS REPORTED

By Joseph B. Treaster, Special To the New York Times

Thousands of people, fearing another volcanic eruption, today fled several towns in the area where an avalanche of mud earlier this week buried an entire town. Late this afternoon the Government said there had been new eruptions of the 16,200-foot-high volcano, Nevado del Ruiz. But after several hours, the Government said that the eruptions had been minor and that there was no need for people to leave their homes. A short time before, the Government had ordered the evacuation of more than 200,000 people who live along five rivers in the area. Many Flee From Houses Many people streamed out of houses and stores after hearing radio reports of renewed volcanic activity.

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FOR JOE PATERNO, TOUGH CLIMB BACK

By Malcolm Moran

FOR the first time in 14 years, the exodus from central Pennsylvania last December consisted of nothing more than trips home for the holidays. There was no excuse for people dressed in blue and white to parade in and out of the establishments in the French Quarter of New Orleans. There was no reason to hope for warm weather in Miami or Tempe, Ariz., or shiver in Dallas; not even a return to Honolulu or Jacksonville or Memphis. ''Fortunately,'' Joe Paterno said, ''we didn't have a bowl game to go to. Which was good.'' A different view might come from the followers of the Penn State Nittany Lions who have grown accustomed to welcoming the new year as the anticipation of an important bowl game ties their stomachs in knots. But Paterno had more important things to consider at the end of last season. Not far from its end, he had felt that his staff had done its finest job in his 19 years as the head coach, and then, within eight days, the feeling, the season and the team had come apart.

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JEWISH ARTISTS WRESTLE WITH TRADITION

By Michael Brenson

Is there such a thing as Jewish art? In his pioneering study, ''Jewish Experience in the Art of the 20th Century,'' Avram Kampf indicates that this charged question has been around since the end of the 19th century. ''In the West the notion of Jewish art arose largely from the need of the Jewish minority to affirm a distinct cultural identity.'' In Russia, Mr. Kampf writes, the ''quest for a Jewish secular art was inseparable from the quest for political emancipation and cultural autonomy.''

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PENN STATE TROUNCES NOTRE DAME TO STAY UNBEATEN

By Malcolm Moran, Special To the New York Times

Undefeated and underappreciated Penn State did not seem offended by the criticism that it had no business sitting on top of the college football rankings. The criticism did not push the Nittany Lions this week. Their memories did. At the juncture where last year's team suffered the first of two humiliating losses, the Nittany Lions defeated Notre Dame today, 36-6, in rainy, muddy Beaver Stadium. The Lions, 10-0 for the first time since 1978, scored on eight of their first nine possessions - including five field goals by Massimo Manca - to give Notre Dame its worst defeat in Gerry Faust's five troubled seasons as coach.

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ASSESSING BLAME IN A CO-OP

By Andree Brooks

FEW situations generate more anger and confusion among residents of co-ops and condominiums than damage caused by the negligent acts of a neighbor. A bathtub may have been allowed to overflow, flooding the apartment below. Or, as happened in a Staten Island condominum last year, an owner may fly to Florida for the winter after resetting his thermostat so low that a pipe freezes and bursts inside a wall of his apartment, deluging two units underneath. Whatever the case, the situation often deteriorates into an ugly dispute between neighbors or between the board and an aggrieved unit owner, or even into a three-way fight among the managing agent, the board and the unit owners.

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REAGAN AIDES UPSET BY DISCLOSURE OF WEINBERGER'S LETTER ON ARMS

By Bernard Weinraub, Special To the New York Times

President Reagan arrived here today for the Soviet-American summit meeting amid a dispute over the disclosure of a letter written by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger urging that no accords be made on two key arms issues. En route to Geneva, a White House official said that he was ''astonished'' and ''perplexed'' by the letter published in The New York Times today. The letter was obtained by The Times from a confidential source. An article about the letter, which was not made public officially, also appeared in The Washington Post.

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MAJORITY IN POLL LOOK TO CONGRESS TO CUT SPENDING

By Adam Clymer

Even though President Reagan's popularity remains very high, Americans think Congress should have the most say in deciding how to cut Federal spending, the latest New York Times/ CBS News Poll has found. Those polled view the budget deficit as a key problem and overwhelmingly prefer spending cuts to tax increases as the way to solve it. But the poll also found that almost half the public thought tax increases were needed, too, and a third said they would be willing to pay 10 percent more in taxes to cut the deficit. Sixty-five percent of the respondents, interviewed by telephone from Nov. 6 to Nov. 10, approved of Mr. Reagan's handling of his job while 26 percent disapproved. The findings from the poll of 1,659 adults have a margin of sampling error of three percentage points in either direction.

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ARIZONA CHEERS AS CANAL CARRIES COLORADO RIVER WATER TO PHOENIX

By Iver Peterson, Special To the New York Times

Water from the Colorado River began to spill into Phoenix's waterworks Friday, coursing 200 miles through the Central Arizona Project's big concrete canal. The project, the Federal Government's most expensive undertaking for supplying water, has come to stand for the increasing doubts some people have about whether such giant projects are worth the cost. Authorized by Congress in 1968, the project came to life when Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel and Gov. Bruce Babbitt of Arizona started a pump that gave the water its final push down the canal. 'Dream Has Come True' Bringing water from the Colorado to the dry, dusty heart of the Southwestern desert was the fruition of a yearning that Arizona farmers and developers have had for well over a hundred years. They knew that the distant Colorado, beyond several rugged mountain ranges, was the only source of enough water to make the desert bloom with cotton, alfalfa, citrus and, lately, green and grassy condominium subdivisions.

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HOW THE BIG SIX STEER THE ECONOMY

By Peter T. Kilborn

AROUND 10 A.M. on Tuesday, Sept. 24, the currency markets were acting up, and Richard G. Darman, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, was shown a snippet from the Treasury's news ticker. The item quoted the Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige, doubting that the United States and other countries would intervene strongly in the currency markets to reduce the exchange rate of the dollar. Mr. Darman got his boss, Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d, out of a meeting, and Mr. Baker telephoned Mr. Baldrige. According to people familiar with the incident, Mr. Baker told Mr. Baldrige that he had stepped out of bounds. Just two days before, at the Plaza Hotel in New York, Mr. Baker had announced an American-led five-nation agreement to knock down the dollar. But Mr. Baldrige, in theory one of the Administration's top economic policy makers, had not been included in the planning and misread the announcement. ''He didn't know,'' said a senior Administration official.

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ARMS ACCORD: ELUSIVE GOAL

By Leslie H. Gelb, Special To the New York Times

With new proposals advanced on both sides, the United States and the Soviet Union are now in a position for some form of general accord on limiting offensive and defensive nuclear arms. But the assessment on both sides remains that agreement will not be reached. Nonetheless, key Administration experts have prepared standby drafts calling for 50 percent cuts in strategic and medium-range forces and restricting defenses to ''research'' consistent with existing treaty obligations. But it is doubtful whether President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, will use these drafts and agree on general principles or guidelines for arms-control negotiators. It depends on whether they are prepared either to make significant mutual concessions, which officials on both sides say they doubt, or to paper over differences on critical details with rhetorical compromises, the value of which is debated by officials on both sides.

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CONVERSION OF A SUBURBAN PIONEER

By Unknown Author

Conde Nast, whose publications include Vogue, House and Garden and Glamour magazines, was among the first companies to establish headquarters in the suburbs when it opened its 23-acre office and production facility in Greenwich, Conn., in 1918. The publishing company maintained offices on Route 1 there until the mid-1960's, when the compound was sold.

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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.