My Birthday Events

Elise Fiscus

On November 17, 1983, many events occurred.  From popular television shows, to a castration choice for guilty rapists, to the birth of a very special Elise, this was a very extraordinary day.

Mental Hospital Blaze

The first event I encountered that struck my attention was a news story stating, "A mental hospital blaze in Berlin, kills 19, injures 6" ("Mental").  According to a witness, "The fire was started by a sixteen-year-old retarded boy while he was wandering the halls of the hospital for mentally ill children."  The fire was stated to killing nineteen and injuring six.  It was not discussed how many of the victims were children ("Mental").

Castration Choice

South Carolina Circuit Court Judge, Victor Pyle Jr., gave three convicted sexual offenders the choice of being physically castrated or having a sentence to thirty years in prison on November 17, 1983 ("Crime").  The story states the men had plead guilty on October 24, 1983 in Anderson, South Carolina, to raping a woman named Elizabeth Daniel, who lost over four pints of blood during the six-hour gang rape.  The three men, Roscoe Brown, Mike T. Braxton, and Mark Vaughn, went on to appeal their sentences ("Crime").

CBS Rules Television Ratings

CBS seemed to be the champion network the week of November 17, 1983.  They ruled the local television stations as far as television Nielsen ratings go, with seven out of the top ten most popular shows.  Among these, were "60 Minutes" and "Dallas."  This victory for the seventh week of the fall season was a comeback for CBS, which fell behind ABC the previous week ("CBS").  The CBS network won the A.C Nielsen Company survey with a network average of 19.6.  The networks say, "This means that in an average prime time minute, 19.6 percent of the nation's TV homes were tuned into CBS" ("CBS").  Some of the top ten programs at that time were, "Dallas", "Chiefs, part 1", "Simon and Simon", "The A-Team", "Dynasty", and "Magnum, P.I." ("CBS").

Smoking Causes Heart Disease

In medicine and health news, the U.S Surgeon General strongly relates smoking to heart disease.  According to Dr. C. Everett Koop, on November 17, 1983, "Smoking causes even more deaths from heart disease than from all forms of associated cancers" ("Medicine").  In Koop's 378-page report titled "The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cardiovascular Disease," Koop states, "Unless smoking habits of the American population change, perhaps 10 percent of all persons now alive may die prematurely of heart disease attributed to their smoking behavior" ("Medicine").  The report cited government findings that found smoking responsible for up to 30 percent of all heart disease related in the United States each year ("Medicine").

In conclusion, from criminal activity, to television, to health and medicine news, a great deal of interesting news occurred on November 17, 1983.  Things change a great deal from decade to decade.  Now if anyone asks the question, "What happened on the day you were born?" I am prepared to answer.