Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

June 18, 1983, NASA Astronaut Sally Ride [May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012] became the first American woman in space and the youngest American astronaut to have flown in space, at the age of 32. She died of pancreatic cancer and her obituary publicly revealed for the first time that Tam Elizabeth O'Shaughnessy had been her partner of 27 years...which made Ride the first known LGBT astronaut. How you like them apples! Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" mentions her at 3:29 in the history lyrics vid.



A 2017 "Women of NASA" Lego set featured mini-figurines of Ride, Margaret Hamilton, Mae Jemison, and Nancy Roman.

In 2019, Mattel released a Barbie doll in Ride's likeness as part of their "Inspiring Women" series.

In 2021, Ride was featured in the second season of the Apple TV+ streaming series For All Mankind, where she was played by Ellen Wroe.

NASA Public Affairs director Brian Duff [1927-1998] was reassigned to a less prestigious job after a kerfuffle involving Jane Fonda (being at the launch event and being called a "role model").



"What the hell is Jane Fonda doing there? Nancy Reagan is mad and I am mad and everybody is mad" - Michael Deaver, WH Deputy Chief of Staff. The Jane Fonda kerfuffle as described in Lynn Sherr's Sally Ride biography.



Ride Sally Ride... (song got stuck in my head)




June 18, 1979:





And the world was deprived of H.R. Giger’s Batmobile design. In 1994, the artist known for the film, "Alien" pitched his own version of the Batmobile for "Batman Forever".






How close to reality were they really?
For 20 hours of primetime network TV, "Dark Skies" (NBC, Sony) aired in 1996-1997 season (The series takes place from May 1, 1960 to June 22, 1967) an extremely subversive Main Title sequence that went on to win the Emmy Award.

"My name is John Loengard. I'm recording this because we may not make it through the night. They're here, they're hostile, and powerful people don't want you to know: history as you know it is a lie."






Pre-Google research. Those of a certain age remember it.