On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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''That corn is going to hell when it ought to be going to West Texas.'' - Jim Hightower, Texas Agriculture Commissioner, on requests that the Federal Government release stored grain for use in areas devastated by drought. (A14:1.)
One recent morning while joggers passed by on the shore-front pavement and rush-hour traffic began to back up, a fully dressed man walked purposefully onto the beach in Rio's wealthy Leblon neighborhood. He placed a small Bible at the water's edge, dove into the breakers and swam out to sea until he disappeared. No note was left behind to explain what had led to such an act of desperation; perhaps the victim reasoned that none was needed. Hopelessness, a sentiment considered out of character or even subversive in Brazil until a short time ago, now seems to be the national mood. ''In the 60 years in which I have been working in Brazil, this is the first time that I find my feelings dominated by pessimism,'' wrote Adolpho Bloch in Manchete, a popular magazine of which he is the founder and director. A Russian emigrant, Mr. Bloch has built one of Latin America's largest communications empires producing publications known for their brimming doses of boosterism for his adopted country.
Brian Friel's ''Faith Healer'' won acclaim recently in Dublin and London, but it didn't fare well in a 1979 Broadway production that starred James Mason. Mr. Friel now feels the play should never have been on Broadway because it needs an intimate site. Intimacy is unmistakable at the 65-seat Vineyard Theater, 309 East 26th Street, where previews of ''Faith Healer'' start tonight at 8. J. T. Walsh, whose Broadway credits include ''Rose'' with Glenda Jackson and ''Richard III'' with Al Pacino, plays the title character, who seems to have lost his touch. Also in the cast are Kathleen Chalfant and Martin Shakar, who was John Travolta's brother in ''Saturday Night Fever.'' Tickets are $8. For reservations call 683-0696. RARE BOOKS TO BUY Specialists in books about gardening, New York, the Wizard of Oz and English royalty are among the more than 50 American and British dealers to be represented at the fourth annual Trinity-Westside Antiquarian Book Fair at the Trinity School, 101 West 91st Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Generalists will be there, too, with diverse old, rare and collectible printed matter. Tickets for a wine-and-cheese preview tonight, 6 to 9, cost $7.50 and are good for all three days. Tickets for Saturday, 11 A.M. to 7 P.M., are $5 and are good for Sunday as well. Tickets for Sunday alone, noon to 5 P.M., are $3. RARE PAINTINGS TO VIEW
The Senate voted today to block until at least April 15 President Reagan's new system of lifelong censorship for more than 100,000 officials handling highly sensitive information. The 56-to-34 vote in the Republican- controlled chamber was considered a mild rebuff to the Administration and signaled rising concern in Congress about Mr. Reagan's directive of March 11 to protect national security secrets by expanded use of censorship and polygraph testing of officials. The measure approved today, which supporters said would probably be adopted by the House as well, would apparently force the Administration to stop putting into effect its new requirement that officials of the Defense, State, Justice and other departments who handle highly classified ''sensitive compartmented information'' sign agreements consenting to ''prepublication review'' by Government censors of their writing for the rest of their lives. Distribution Has Begun The Administration has already begun distributing such agreements to be signed, and some of the more than 100,000 employees with access to ''sensitive compartmented information'' may have signed them already.
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of October 19, 1983, covering October 21, 1983.
The Police
Michael Jackson
Quiet Riot
Billy Joel
Soundtrack
1983Casey Fien, American baseball player[†]
Casey Michael Fien, is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, and Philadelphia Phillies.
1983Zack Greinke, American baseball player[†]
Donald Zackary Greinke is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. Greinke last played for the Kansas City Royals, with whom he played across two stints, from his 2004 debut to 2010, and from 2022 to 2023. Greinke also played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Houston Astros, where he finished as a runner-up in the 2019 and 2021 World Series. Greinke is considered to be one of the greatest pitchers of his generation.
1983Brent Hayden, Canadian swimmer[†]
Brent Matthew Hayden is a Canadian retired competitive swimmer. Representing Canada for a decade, Hayden is regarded as the fastest swimmer in Canadian history. Hayden won a bronze medal in the 100 m freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a time of 47.80, and was world champion in the same event in 2007 with Filippo Magnini of Italy. By winning the 100 metre, Hayden became the first Canadian in 21 years to win a gold medal at the World Aquatics Championships, and was also the first Canadian to appear in the 100 metre final at the Olympics since Dick Pound at the 1960 Summer Olympics, and the first Canadian to win an Olympic medal in the 100 metre. Hayden added a further three silver and one bronze medal to his World Championship totals.
1983Gonzalo Klusener, Argentinian footballer[†]
Gonzalo Martín Klusener is an Argentine footballer currently playing for Arsenal Sarandí.
1983Andy Marte, Dominican baseball player (died 2017)[†]
Andy Manuel Marte was a Dominican professional baseball third baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, and Arizona Diamondbacks. He also played in the KBO League for the KT Wiz. On January 22, 2017, Marte was killed in a car crash in the Dominican Republic.
1983Amber Rose, American model[†]
Amber Rose Levonchuck is an American model and television personality. She gained attention after she starred in the music video for Young Jeezy's 2008 single "Put On", which featured Kanye West. She began a romantic relationship with West, leading her to model for the Louis Vuitton brand; she then signed a modeling contract with Ford Models. She earned wider recognition as a video vixen in more hip hop videos. After splitting from West in 2010, she dated and in 2013 married rapper Wiz Khalifa, but filed for divorce in 2014. Simon & Schuster then published her book How to Be a Bad Bitch. In 2015 she founded the Los Angeles chapter of the SlutWalk protest march, an annual feminist demonstration founded in Toronto. The next year she hosted her own talk show, The Amber Rose Show, for VH1, and began hosting the syndicated radio call-in program Loveline.
1983Chris Sherrington, English-Scottish martial artist[†]
Christopher David Sherrington is a British judoka. He competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the +100 kg event. He is a black belt.
1983Charlotte Sullivan, Canadian actress[†]
Charlotte Sullivan is a Canadian actress. Her credits include Harriet the Spy (1996), Goosebumps (1996), The New Ghostwriter Mysteries (1997), How to Deal (2003), Fever Pitch (2005), MVP (2008), The Cry of the Owl (2009), Rookie Blue (2010), The Kennedys (2011), The Colony (2013), Chicago Fire (2016–2017), Mary Kills People (2017–2019), Caught (2018), Wynonna Earp (2021), Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021), and Pretty Hard Cases (2022).
1983Ninet Tayeb, Israeli singer[†]
Ninet Nati Tayeb, professionally known as Ninet, is an Israeli musician, singer-songwriter, composer, DJ, model, actress, and reality television judge on Rising Star: Israel. She is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in the Israeli entertainment industry.
1983Shelden Williams, American basketball player[†]
Shelden DeMar Williams is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "the Landlord", he played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils, and later played in the NBA for parts of seven seasons.
1983Joseph P. Lordi, American government official (born 1919)[†]
Joseph P. Lordi was an American law enforcement official who served as the Essex County, New Jersey prosecutor and as the first Chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.
1983The metre is defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.[†]
The metre is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second, where the second is defined by a hyperfine transition frequency of caesium.
In 1983, the world population was approximately 4,697,327,573 people[†]