Best & Worst Summers…Ever!
Here’s a quick look at MOMeo Magazine’s picks for the best and worst summers of all time!
BEST!
1776 – Did anything interesting or important happen this summer? Well, Captain James Cook departed for the South Pacific for the third and last time. Mozart’s spine-tingling Haffner Serenade was performed for the first time in Vienna. Anything else? On July 4, King George III of Britain apparently wrote “nothing of importance happened today” in his diary. Um, yeah: he was wrong.
1936 – Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, with you-know-who watching. Owens, a ridiculously talented African-American athlete, was denied the “honor” of being presented with his medals by the Fuhrer. Plus, Edward Ravenscroft patents the screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip, improving summer drinking for future generations. This is also a landmark year for women’s literature – Margaret Mitchell wins a Pulitzer Prize for Gone with the Wind.
1969 – Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix rock mud- and rain-soaked revellers at Woodstock! Neil Armstrong walks on the moon! It’s the summer of love! Oh, behave!
2009 – MOMeo’s first summer issue. Hey, a blatant plug isn’t shameless if it’s honest, right? (–and we rock on!)
WORST!
1812 – “THUGS terrorising the streets; the economy in freefall, a deeply unpopular war and a government in permanent crisis.” Yesterday’s USA Today? Nope – a story from the Daily Mail lamenting the UK’s worst year ever. Plus, Canada and the United States go to war for the first and only time, leading to Washington DC being burned to the ground – including the White House. We’ve learned to get along better since then.
1914 – On June 28, in faraway Sarajevo, a young Bosnian named Gavrilo Princip murders the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his wife. A month to the day later, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, launching the First World War – which didn’t end well for anyone.
1990 – Vanilla Ice, Dr. Feelgood, day-glo videos, MC Hammer, Nelson, C+C Music Factory, Milli Vanilli, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rap. No doubt about it – the worst summer in music history.
2008 – Fortune called 2008 the worst year in history for America’s largest companies. From $645 billion in profits in 2007, profits dropped to just $98.9 billion – an 84.7 per cent decline! 11 of the top 25 largest corporate losses in list history took place in 2008. Nowhere to go but up, right?
Add your pick for the best or worst summer of all time to the comments below!
About Maclean Kay
MOMeo Magazine Managing Editor was always supposed to be a journalist. It just took him a long time to realize that. Maclean worked as a marina harbour master, corporate security advisor, and in the Prime Minister’s Office under Jean Chretien before deciding to lose the tie and go back to school.
Since then, when not writing for and editing MOMeo Magazine, Maclean’s work has appeared in local, national and international publications, including the National Post, Financial Post, and the Globe and Mail. He is a feature columnist for The Calgary Herald, and recently relocated to beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, with his wife Melissa. Maclean enjoys SCUBA diving and follows the Calgary Stampeders football team a little too seriously.
