Pop Culture Happenings: May

Skylab goes up, then comes back down, Reggie Jackson holds a record no one wants and the Unabomber is sentenced.

__1973__

50 Years Ago

On May 14, 1973, NASA launched Skylab, the world’s first space station, into orbit around the earth. The station had room for three astronauts and included a solar observatory and a workshop where crew members conducted several hundred life science and physical science experiments. The station’s first crew — Pete Conrad, Joseph P. Kerwin, Paul J. Weitz — traveled to Skylab separately on May 25, 1973. Skylab was occupied for approximately 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. Budget constraints forced NASA to abandon Skylab; its orbit eventually decayed, and it disintegrated in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979, scattering debris across the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.

Honorable Mention: Stevie Wonder released “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” on May 17, 1973.

__1983__

40 Years Ago

No one could say Reggie Jackson was bad at baseball. Yet, even acknowledged as one of the game’s best, Jackson was the first Major Leaguer to strike out 2,000 times on May 13, 1983. In fact, Jackson holds the record for the most career strike-outs by a batter, with 2,597. He’s in good company: There are only six MLB batters to have more than 2,000 strike-outs, including Sammy Sosa at 2,306 and Alex Rodriguez at 2,287. It’s an impressive stat, considering Jackson’s 20-year career of 9,864 at-bats, with 2,584 hits and 1,551 runs, 563 of those being home runs.

Honorable Mention: “Laverne & Shirley” last aired on May 10, 1983.

__1998__

25 Years Ago

On May 4, 1998, domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was given four life sentences plus 30 years after accepting a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide mail bombing campaign against people he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the environment. The FBI arrested Kaczynski in 1996 at his makeshift cabin near Lincoln, Mont., where he lived as a recluse.

Honorable Mention: “Seinfeld’s” final two-part episode, “The Finale,” aired on May 14, 1998.