Pop Culture Happenings: October

Headlines today reflect those from 40 and 50 years ago about women’s tennis and Broadway musicals. We explore those here, as well as ancient internet history.

__50 years ago: 1972__

Tennis great Serena Williams is just beginning her retirement, but back on Oct. 15, 1972, the world saw rising star and prodigy Chris Evert win the inaugural Women’s Tennis Association Tour Championship at Boca Raton, Fla. Evert beat Billie Jean King in the semifinals and then Australian Kerry Melville Reid in the final. However, since Evert was only 17 years old, she was still considered an amateur and not eligible to claim the $25,000 prize. Evert went on to win 18 major singles titles, including a record seven French Open titles and a joint record six U.S. Open titles, tied with none other than Serena Williams, who was also 17 when she won her first title in 1999.

__40 years ago: 1982__

On Oct. 7, 1982, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats” opened at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre, later winning seven Tonys and one Grammy Award. It was the longest-running show on Broadway for nearly 18 years before closing on Sept. 10, 2000, only to be surpassed on Jan. 9, 2006, by another Lloyd Webber musical, “The Phantom of the Opera,” which ran for 35 seasons before recently announcing the 2022 season would be its last.

__25 years ago: 1997__

Computer software competitors sued Microsoft, saying its search engine Internet Explorer (IE) should be a separate product apart from Microsoft Windows. The case went before a federal judge. On Oct. 27, 1997, the software giant argued it ought to be able to conduct its business free from government interference, and that IE was an integral part of its Windows OS, not a separate product. The judge saw it differently and ordered Microsoft not to bundle IE4 in Windows. For those with no idea what Internet Explorer is, Google it.