BoomerZoo Almanac for March 18-24, 2007: A Jurassic state of mind
As the Boomer generation began swelling the population, the U.S. was able to recruit a couple more states, so we’d have someplace to put all these people. Seems like Alaska by itself added enough acreage to take up the slack, but on March 18, 1959, President Eisenhower signed a bill into law that would welcome Hawaii as our 50th state, though it wouldn’t be an official state until August 21 of that year.
Then—in keeping with what seems to be the national notion that we can never have enough—we decided to expand into outer space. Also, we didn’t want to get beat out by the Commies, now, did we? Unfortunately, right up until at least March 18 of 1965, the Soviets were spitting in our collective eye. On that very day, as reported by the New York Times, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by a tether. (Go to article ). Two days later, the Ranger 9 was launched by the This unmanned lunar space probe sent photos back to earth as it neared, then crashed into the moon. (See: http://www.answers.com/topic/ranger-program) Though a bit miffed at being shown up by the Soviets earlier in the week, the was putting the pressure on them. On March 23—just five days after Leonov floated around in the outmosphere—astronauts Young and Grissom drove around out there in the first maneuverable manned spacecraft.
(The Europeans didn’t want to be left out, so just about exactly a year prior to this flurry of flinging ourselves into outer space the European Space Research Organization—precursor to the European Space Agency—was established on March 20, 1964.)
If we don’t get any more states on the moon or Mars to clamor for inclusion into our union, there are a couple possibilities still open to us here on earth. The Puerto Ricans, for example, have had more than one referendum on the subject, but so far have managed to hold off. I think this really hurt their chances at getting a Major League Baseball franchise, though, which is too bad. I understand they really love baseball there. I don’t know how the people of Guam feel about baseball, but it is another island that’s a territory. At least, I always thought it was just a territory, but I recently read that on March 23, 1983, the Apatosaurus was made the “official state dinosaur of .” I couldn’t figure out how could have an “official state dinosaur” if it isn’t an official state. And then I thought, apart from the question of its stateliness, it’s pretty weird for any entity outside a natural history museum to have an “official dinosaur.” Turns out Guam isn’t the only place that has its own dino rep. Already 10 of the “official” states, along with the , have “official dinosaurs.” Not , though. They talked it over in 1998 and just couldn’t decide which dinosaur best represented them. That legislature was so obstreperous that it couldn’t even come up with a state fossil! Maybe the whole thing about state dinosaurs is a good idea, though. It might make us stop and think about what can happen if you just get a bit too big for your britches.
For more info about this dino (but no explanation about why Guam chose it as its own official dinosaur):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatosaurus
