Way back when: Today in history
BY GENE CURTIS
Saturday, October 13, 2012
10/13/12 at 3:37 AM
1972 - Deadliest crash?
The crash of an Aeroflot Il-62 airplane near Moscow may have been the world's worst air disaster (up to that time), but western newsmen couldn't find the wreckage.
The Friday the 13th crash in heavy rain occurred on a flight carrying 162 passengers and 10 crew members from Leningrad to Moscow. Six foreign newsmen drove into the area where they believed the plane crashed and exploded until they saw three men on the highway and asked them. "We know nothing," a man who appeared to be an official said before ordering the foreign newsmen to turn around and leave. They left.
1988 - Israel celebration
Israel's year-long celebration of its 40th year ended with a concert by the 120-member Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a choir of 170 performing at Masada, a popular tourist site overlooking the Dead Sea.
Jewish tradition holds that 1,000 Jewish warriors and their families resisted 15,000 Romans at Masada for nearly two years before committing mass suicide when they were facing certain defeat. The celebration began after the start of the Jewish new year in September 1987.
1992 - Around the world
A Concorde, a supersonic jet developed by Air France and British Airways, set a commercial flight record by circling the earth in 33 hours and one minute, three hours faster than the previous record. The Concorde was flown by Air France and carried 70 passengers and a crew of 16. The flight ended in Lisbon, its starting point.
The airline said the flight commemorated the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas and began in Lisbon because that was the nearest large airport to Palos de la Frontera, Spain, where Columbus began his voyage. Concordes made their last flights in November 2003.
1999 - Cricket invasion
"Some people think they're taking over the world; they're not," Dr. Ken Pinkston, an OSU extension entomologist, said after millions of crickets rained down on players and spectators at a football game at Lewis Field in Stillwater the day before.
They may chew on fabrics, or fall down people's backs or in their colas, but they'll go away at the first freeze of winter, he said. The cricket invasion also hit Tulsa and probably other places at the same time.
"We swept and vacuumed, and they were back Sunday and Monday," a Tulsa store manager said.
Associated Images:
Crickets litter the ground outside Lewis Field in Stillwater in 1999. Tulsa World file
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