This Day in History: December's Retro Actions

Remember back in the early '90s, when it was impossible to show up to an awards ceremony without a little red ribbon on your lapel?

The ubiquitous symbol supporting the fight against AIDS stemmed, in part, from the efforts of James W. Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers for the World Heath Organization. Seeking a way to heighten international awareness, the two decided to dedicate a day to observe the struggle against the disease, and Worlds AIDS Day was born.

Why December 1? Bunn, formerly a San Francisco journalist, reasoned that by then, the media would tire of election news yet it would still be soon enough before the holidays to find a spot in the news cycle. Since 1995, each president has issued a statement on this day to express his support. Even the Vatican has gotten involved; in 2005 Benedict XVI said, "I feel close to people with AIDS and their families, invoking upon them the Lord's help and comfort."

World AIDS Day is now the longest-running disease awareness and prevention initiative of its kind. In recent years, efforts have been made to organize groups within individual nations, like the Students Stop AIDS Campaign in the United Kingdom.

She was born in Prague a Jew, raised in England a Catholic, and became the first female Secretary of State of the United States (as an Episcopalian, no less).

We're talking about Madeleine Albright, of course. It was on this day the one-time U.S. ambassador was appointed by President Bill Clinton, confirmed by a unanimous vote of 99-0. 

Born Marie Jana Korbelová, Albright's family fled Czechoslovakia when Hitler gained control in 1938. After spending her teen years in Denver, the precocious diplomat's daughter went on to Wellesley and Columbia before joining the faculty at Georgetown.  

Fluent in English, French, Russian, and Czech—not to mention literate in Polish and Serbo-Croatian—the trailblazing diplomat was not the last woman to hold the top cabinet job. Although she was succeeded by Colin Powell, she set the precedent for Condoleezza Rice and of course, Hillary Clinton, the current Secretary of State (and the wife of Albright's one-time boss). 

How's that for coming full circle?

It was blink-and-miss-it quick, but back in 2003, the United Nations made news by declaring every December 9th "International Anti-Corruption Day."

The goal? To raise awareness about their recent Convention Against Corruption and implore world leaders to join them in the fight against shady dealings.

Exactly five years later, Rod Blagojevich was arrested for—you guessed it—corruption.

Coincidence? Probably. It's doubtful the Justice Department was waiting for an obscure awareness day to put the brakes on the former Illinois governor's auctioning off of Obama's newly vacant Senate seat.

But is it satisfying? I'll let you be the judge of that.

Just don't go feeling too sorry for ol' Blago—after being acquitted of all but one of the charges, he's successfully segued his notoriety into celebrity spots on The Late Show With David Letterman, The Apprentice, and even his very own commercial hawking pistachios. 

Maybe he's not so nuts after all. 

Putting an end to nearly three decades of deception, on December 11, 2008, FBI officials arrested Bernie Madoff for a reported $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

"[It's] all just one big lie," said the former NASDAQ chairman when confronted by officials about his business practice. His company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, had been a Wall Street fixture since 1960.

Now imprisoned at Butner Federal Correctional Complex, a relatively cushy medium-security prison, Madoff is known—even respected— amongst the inmates for his unabashed and unapologetic stance when it comes to his crime.

"Fuck my victims,” he reportedly said, loud enough for other inmates to hear. “I carried them for 20 years, and now I’m doing 150 years."

Actually, it's 130 years with good behavior, Bernie. See you in 2139.

Photo: Getty Images

Singer Lauryn Hill came out of hiding to perform at a December 13, 2003, Christmas concert in the Vatican, only to use the platform to rail against the Roman Catholic Church for its recent slew of sex abuse allegations.

"I realize some of you may be offended by what I'm saying," said the former Fugee to an audience that included church officials. "But what do you say to the families who were betrayed by the people in whom they believed?"

"God has been a witness to the corruption of his leadership, of the exploitation and abuses by the clergy."

Hill has a history of fighting for the underdog. In 1996 she founded the Refugee Project which supports an overnight camp for at-risk youth in addition to well-building projects in Kenya and Uganda.

Although church officials refused to comment, the Catholic League maligned the singer, calling her "pathologically miserable" and ridiculing her "in decline" career.

Hill, however, was unapologetic.

"What I said was the truth. Is telling the truth bad manners?" she asked a few days later. "What I asked was the church to repent for what has happened."

Amen to that, Ms. Hill.

Photo: Reuters Pictures

Remember Strom Thurmond?

The only senator to serve at the age of 100 was known for his his love of younger women—he married his second wife when he was 66 and she was 22—and for being the last man standing when it came to resisting desegregation.

Which was all the more reason to be surprised when Essie Washington-Williams, a half-black Los Angeles school teacher, announced she was his illegitimate daughter after decades of silence.

Thurmond's family confirmed that Washington-Williams' mother had worked as a maid for the family when the future senator was 22 and living at home. After years of hiding the truth, she finally introduced Washington-Williams to her father when she was 16.

It's not hard to see why the South Carolina senator would have wanted to keep his mixed race daughter a secret. After all, he ran for president in 1948 on the segregationist Dixiecrat ticket, and continued supporting segregationist policies well past the Civil Rights Movement.

Although the senator privately acknowledged his daughter and supported her financially, he never did so publicly. Out of respect, Washington-Williams waited until his death to reveal her parentage.

Of course, by then she already had four children of her own—and 13 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Photo: Reuters Pictures

If you're one of the few smokers still puffing away, don't plan on going to Bhutan any time soon.

The tiny landlocked country, nestled away in the Himalayas, was the first to ban smoking in all public places. The sale of tobacco products is also illegal anywhere in the reclusive nation.

Here in the home of the Marlboro Man, it's hard to imagine freedom-loving Tea Partiers being joe cool with a complete and total ban on what amounts to a personal decision. 

So how does Bhutan get away with being a total drag? 

For starters, most of its citizens practice Buddhism—and many Buddhists believe smoking is bad for one's karma. Also, it doesn't hurt that a tiny minority of the population smokes: around 1 percent, according to official estimates.

Led by much adored King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck—whose family has been in power for over a century—Bhutan's citizens are no stranger to the whims of their monarchs.

For example, in Thimphu, the capital city, there are no traffic lights by official decree. And until 1999, both television and the Internet were off-limits.

But before you start huffing and puffing, there is one place in Bhutan you can still light up—in the privacy of your home.

Just don't expect your spouse to be very happy about it.

Photo: Getty Images

Buckling to pressure from women's groups, on this day in 1997, MTV dropped the video for Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up," citing its misogynistic lyrics and glorification of violence against women.

The U.K. electronic dance group defended the song by claiming the offending lyrics referred to doing "anything intensely."

Other interpretations suggested that the "smack" was in fact a reference to heroin, which was featured in the video (and later revealed to be actual heroin use).

Either way, the controversy did little to detract listeners. Despite being banned by the BBC, the single went on to sell over 100,000 copies in the U.K. alone, and made the top 15 in Canada, New Zealand, Finland, and Sweden.

As for MTV, the station eventually reversed its decision due to listener complaints, agreeing to play the video only in the early morning hours. Not that it mattered: the song was ultimately nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards, winning for Best Dance Video and Best Breakthrough Video.

The lesson? It pays to get banned from MTV.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons

Hoping to put to rest any lingering doubts as to the safety of the H1N1 flu shot, President Obama went to the press about his vaccination.

Barack and Michelle Obama followed in the footsteps of their children, Sasha and Malia, who had received their own swine flu shots a few months earlier.

As his children are "the two people that are most important in my life," Obama assured the public that the vaccine was safe. "Now there's enough vaccine so that adults should get it as well," said the president in his Oval Office interview.

After last year's media speculation about an impending flu epidemic, casualties resulting from H1N1 were relatively mild stateside, falling within the norms for seasonal patterns. On August 10, 2010, the WHO declared the pandemic officially over.

Now if they'd only come up with a cure for that pesky recession.

Photo: Getty Images

By the early '90s, Hollywood was finally ready to tackle its first big budget film depicting AIDS. The only problem was, who would star in it?

Tom Hanks, of course. Although the likable A-lister seems the obvious choice now, back in 1993, the boyish actor was better known for his lighthearted leads in Big and romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle.

But all that changed with his depiction of Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia.

Playing a homosexual lawyer who is unfairly dismissed from his law firm when his disease is discovered, Hanks was applauded for his stark portrayal of a dying man and credited with starting the trend of showing the gay community in a more realistic light.

The film itself was inspired by the true story of Geoffrey Bowers, who, in 1987, sued his law firm Baker & McKenzie for unfair dismissal in one of the first AIDS cases to receive a public hearing.

Although Bowers and his partner both passed away from the disease before a verdict was reached—it took six long years—he was posthumously awarded a settlement of $500,000, which was a record at the time.

Hanks went on to win his first Best Actor Oscar for the role. He followed it up with another the very next year for Forrest Gump, becoming the first man to win in consecutive years since Spencer Tracy.

Photo: Reuters Pictures

Move over Al Gore. Here's the real inventor of the Internet.

Tim Berners-Lee may not be a household name, but what he invented is quickly finding its way into every home, school, and office on the planet.

Of course, we know it today as the World Wide Web. But back in 1990, Berners-Lee considered calling the two computers linked on a single server the "Mine of Information" or the "Information Mesh."

Along with Robert Calliau, the two contracted CERN employees developed the first Web browser, server, and website, all at the world-famous particle physics laboratory in Switzerland.

"It's hard to overstate the impact of the global system he created," said TIME magazine, which named the MIT professor one of its most important people of the century. "It's almost Gutenbergian."

Not that Berners-Lee is the type to rest on his laurels. He continues to lead the charge for a free and open Internet, and in 2009 started the World Wide Web Foundation, which seeks to "leverage the Web as a medium for positive change."

It's also a whole lot catchier than the Information Mesh Foundation.

Photo: Getty Images

If you could clone yourself, would you?

According to most studies, the average American would decline the offer (tempting though it may be). But what if you lost a loved one, like a son or daughter?

It's a troubling question, no matter how you splice it. And the debate got even more heated when a research group of questionable origin announced that it had just successfully cloned the first human child—named, appropriately enough, Eve.

The group, Clonaid, had been previously linked to cult activity, so the claims were mostly dismissed. And despite the organization's insistence to the contrary, no further evidence—like DNA—has ever emerged.

Like it or not, some say it's just a matter of time before human cloning becomes a reality. In 2004, Dr. Panayiotis Zavos, an American fertility specialist, reportedly attempted to transfer a a freshly-cloned embryo into the womb of an anonymous 35-year-old woman.

While it did not work, it proves that the will—and willingness—is there.

Is human cloning in our future? Should it be? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo: Reuters Pictures

For 13 years Jane Pauley was the face of NBC's Today Show, inspiring a generation of female journalists as she shared hosting duties with Tom Brokaw and later Bryant Gumbel.

But on December 29, 1989, much to the surprise of her fans, Jane Pauley decided to leave the show.

Why? At the time the Indiana native cited the grueling morning schedule and her desire to work in primetime.

But what viewers didn't realize was that Pauley was also suffering from bipolar disorder. Left undiagnosed until 2001, the intensely private news anchor kept her struggles with mental health secret until her 2004 biography Skywriting: A Life Out of The Blue.

After a couple of stints hosting her own show, Pauley has largely stayed out of the limelight, instead focusing on her marriage and family with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Gary Trudeau.

But in September 2009, Pauley returned to her Indiana roots to help open the Jane Pauley Community Health Center in Warren Township. The facility helps students and their families with all of their medical and behavioral health issues, regardless of health insurance.

All of which sounds pretty sane to me.

Photo: Reuters Pictures

On New Year's Eve, 1961, a newly minted rock group took the stage at the Ritchie Valens Memorial Dance in Long Beach, California, opening for headliners Ike and Tina Turner.

The band's name? The Beach Boys.

Later, band leader Brian Wilson marveled at the memory of "five clean-cut, unworldly white boys from a conservative white suburb, in an auditorium full of black kids." Each member went home that night with a paltry 50 bucks. 

Despite their inauspicious start, by the mid-'60s The Beach Boys had secured their place in music history with number one hits "I Get Around," "Help Me Rhonda" and "Good Vibrations," earning the nickname of "America's Band."

However, with fame came tensions, mostly stemming from Wilson's alcohol and drug abuse. After suffering a nervous breakdown, the reclusive songwriter famously spent three drug-addled years in his bedroom as he overate his way to 340 pounds.

After years of recuperation and treatment, Wilson has since returned to the stage, recording solo albums and touring for the first time in decades. His most recent album, Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, was released in August of 2010, making it to #1 on Billboard's Jazz Charts.

This Beach Boy is back on top where he belongs.

Photo: Getty Images