Remember When for week of Dec. 28, 2019

Construction slowed during December 1975 due to the holidays and weather but was still approximately three months ahead of schedule.

About 60% of the site had been excavated and the foundation was approximately 35% complete.

Project engineer Leonard Larsen estimated that $77,000 worth of work was done on the facility in December 1975.

The Sweetwater County Hospital Board discussed the possibility of building a facility adjacent to the new hospital for doctor’s offices, but no action was taken during the meeting on Dec. 29, 1975.

• Americans welcomed 1976 and wished the nation a happy 200th birthday with the traditional New Year’s Day parades, parties and football games.

In Philadelphia, large crowds gathered in the rain on Dec. 31, 1975, to watch the Liberty Bell being moved from Independence Hall to a new visitors center in a pavilion approximately one block away. Officials decided that Independence Hall was too small to accommodate the crush of visitors during the bicentennial celebration year. Celebrations to mark the moving of the 2,080-pound bell included a formal dance at the U.S. Mint.

Police in New York City set barricades up as thousands moved into Times Square to watch the historic New Year’s Eve ball drop at midnight from the top of No. 1 Times Square to ring in the bicentennial year.

President Gerald Ford and first lady Betty Ford spent a quiet New Year’s Eve in the White House, following an eight-day Christmas holiday in Vail, Colorado.

The theme of the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, was “America, Let’s Celebrate.” An estimated 1.5 million people were expected to line the 5.5-mile parade route.

1980-1981

• America’s first space shuttle was mounted on its launch pad. Bolted nose-up across a huge crawler-transporter, the Space Shuttle Columbia was mounted on its launch pad on Dec. 29, 1980, for the final tests before its maiden flight to space on March 14, 1981.

Several thousand spectators and space program workers turned out to watch the orbiter Columbia’s snail’s-paced journey from its assembly building, a milestone of the program.

“If you don’t believe how great this is, wait till March, just wait till March,” said Astronaut-Pilot Bob Crippen, who was in command of the Columbia’s first flight.

The shuttle’s 3.5-mile trip took about eight hours, with the transporter crawling along a rock-covered road at 1 mph or less.

The entire shuttle assembly — orbiter, external tank and twin rocket boosters — were rolled out on its mobile launching platform on the morning of Dec. 29, 1980, after a five-week checkout in the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building.

• A valuable Norman Rockwell painting, “New Year’s Eve,” was back at its home at the Rock Springs Library Fine Arts Center. However, the painting had changed since it left the city one year prior for restoration.

The Rockwell, depicting Pvt. Willie Gills and his girlfriend, which was acquired by Sweetwater County School District No. 1 in 1953, first appeared on the Saturday Evening Post Magazine.

It was not until 1980 that the noted American artist’s painting was rediscovered, almost unintentionally.

Sweetwater No. 1 officials were not satisfied with a first restoration effort by a California firm. The painting was then sent to New York, where art expert Gustav Berger affirmed its authenticity. He discovered the word “Post” in the upper-left hand corner had been painted and foiled over. Berge painstakingly removed the paint and foil and then glazed to conform to the darker paint color. A layer of varnish put on by the California restorers was also removed.

The “Post” rediscovery very likely increased the value of the already valuable painting. The Rockwell work was worth substantially more than the $300 originally paid to Springfield High School in Springfield, Utah, back in 1953, and the most valuable piece that the Rock Spring School District owned.

1999-2000

• From east to west and north to south the world welcomed the new millennium in a shimmering tapestry of song and light that ripped around the globe.

Along with choreographed spectacles came high drama, reminders in Russia and Asia of the turmoil of the dying century.

Woven together by satellite television, the world’s nearly 200 countries, in 24 time zones, became a jamboree of disparate cultures. Fireworks exploded all across the world as did a myriad of celebration to welcome the new millennium.

Humanity also breathed a little easier as the rolling wave of 1999-2000 date change failed to awaken any immediate Y2K disruptions of the world’s major computer systems. Experts cautioned, however, that problems could still arise.

• Pleading for forgiveness, Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned on Dec. 31, 1999, clearing the way for his hand-picked successor to take the country into a new age, and to fix the mistakes he admitted having made through eight chaotic years under his power.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the country’s most popular politician, took control of the government. He served as acting president until elections could take place within 90 days of Yeltsin’s resignation.

One of Putin’s first acts was to sign a grant of immunity to Yeltsin, inviting speculation that a deal had been made to entice Yeltsin into early retirement.

Looking grim and emotional, Yeltsin said he was stepping down immediately to give Putin the best chance of winning the presidential election.

Compiled by Connie Wilcox-Timar. If you have information for the column or would like to contact her, send an email to lifestyle1@rocketminer.com.