Each week here on through the decades we see the exceptional range of our human nature. And this week, weve seen the bombing of an Anarchist Organization in the middle of an american city, the launch of a rocket that would fuel the Foreign Policy of the Twentieth Century, the inauguration of an extraordinary man that signaled peace to all corners of the globe and the failure of an auto maker that set a political precedent decades later. And we begin with an event that happened this week in 1981 when the leader of the catholic became the target of anthe ii assassin. Became the target of anthe ii assassin. Pope john paul the iis election to the papacy in 1978 was unique for a number of reasons he succeeded one of the shortest papal reigns in history, he was the first nonitalian pope in over 400 years, he was relatively young but what really made john paul the ii stand out was his presence. This one could easily be dubbed the tireless or vigorous pope with crowds, especially children. He is as active as a politician. The pope in his usual bulliant fashion did some greeting of his own working the crowd along the fence like an experienced politician. For the time, john paul the iis rapport was unusual. He was exceptionally public, insistent on being among the people and his weekly general audiences were always an opportunity to greet his supporters that gathered in vatican citys st. Peters square. But on may 13, 1981, among that crowd lurked an assassin. Riding in an openair jeep, Pope John Paul the ii passed through the square waving at the crowd of thousands but then all of a sudden gunshots four of them each hitting Pope John Paul the ii. The crowd was left stunned. The pope slumped over and was immediately rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, the shooter tried to make his escape but was grabbed by a group of bystanders and held until police arrived. Italian police positively identified the suspected gunman. Twentythree year old Mehmet Ali Agca was charged with attempting to murder john paul ii. Police claimed agca told them of his support for a marxist palestinian faction in the middle east but turkish officials described agca as a notorious hitman for right wing extremists in turkey. Agca was a Turkish National and he was no stranger to the authorities. In 1979, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison but months into his sentence, he escaped. He is a wellknown fugitive from turkish justice, a terrorist who has been tried and convicted for the murder of a prominent turkish journalist. Police found several handwritten notes in agcas pocket when they arrested him. One stated that he was killing the pope as a protest to soviet and u. S. Imperialism as well as the genocide happening in el salvador and afghanistan. But later on, hed offer several conflicting statements about his motives leaving the World Wrestling to make sense of it all. This kind of violence or terrorism against a religious figure seems out of place in modern times, doesnt it . Doesnt it seem somewhat medieval perhaps rather than modern . How do you explain it in modern times . Well, i wish it were an unusual phenomenon but if you think back over the last two years, across almost all major religious groups, youve seen acts of violence. But an increasing tide of violence wasnt just felt among religious groups. Six weeks before the pope was shot, an assassination attempt was made on president ronald reagan. To me, the worry is that all of this is becoming so routine. I wonder if the shock is wearing off. The question that swirled was how to protect a public person whether a pope or a president without completely isolating them from the people theyve been entrusted to lead. So, i think whats happened is weve become accustomed now to the pope, particularly this pope, traveling around the world and taking advantage of the extraordinary means of transportation that we have. I think it would be more a disappointment that this particular pope couldnt continue at least for the time being to exploit his obvious gifts in reaching millions of people and somehow touching them in a way that many public figures just dont seem to be able to do today. Pope john paul the ii made a full recovery and when he returned, there was no shying away from the pope he was before. He was just as visible just as accessible even to the man who tried to take his life who john paul the ii would meet and forgive two years later. Law enforcement shootouts with Fringe Groups are nothing new but usually theyre located in remote or deserted locales. The risks are catastrophically higher when the organization under attack is headquartered in a crowded city as philadelphia found out this week in 1985, when its police force badly miscalculated an assault on an Anarchist Organization called move. A barricaded house, bursts of gunfire through the day, tear gas and water cannon. That was the scene today in philadelphia, as police confronted membe of a radical, backtonature cult called move. And just minutes ago that house burst into flames after an earlymorning shootout had evolved into a standoff. Chris the siege began about daybreak. Police say they attempted to serve arrest warrants on five people inside the barricaded road house. The building was bombarded with tear gas, and then police say gunfire erupted from inside the house. The neighborhood sounded like a war zone. It was a war that had been brewing for more than seven years ever since the first confrontation between the police and the radicals. The selfproclaimed calling themselves move, short for Community Action movement, have been preparing for a confrontation with police for weeks. For five years, the groups has occupied a house in West Philadelphia. Last may, the move people, brandishing firearms, refused to allow a health inspection. Eleven arrest warrants were issued. Despite their radical beliefs, the members of move maintain their movement is nonviolent. Our weapons are here strictly for defense. Not for the shooting of any cops, but to stop the cops from killing us. N keeping close watch on the move group but have made no forcible attempt to enter the house, waiting instead for a court action which would enable them to seal off the move people and starve them out. Well completely shut off food. Theyll get nothing. Even a fly wouldnt be able to get through when we get done. Last night the courts gave the police the goahead and early this morning they moved in, setting up barricades. No one is allowed to approach the move house. Perhaps 25 people are inside. Electricity and water have been shut off. The entire operation took place without violence from either side. Now, the situation is frozen. The move people say theyll not shoot, unless shot at, but they will not leave their house. Five months later, the confrontation finally turned violent. Shortly after dawn, bulldozers knocked down the fences surrounding the threestory victorian style house that had been occupied by a group called move. Move had refused to respond to charges of housing and Health Code Violations over a year ago. Police spent a year staking out the neighborhood and this spring spent almost two months trying to starve out move members and prevent violence. This morning the Police Ordered them to surrrenderthe orders were ignored. The first police sweep through the house was fruitless. Move members had hidden in a basement. An hour later, as fire hoses flooded the basement, several shots rang out, answered by a barrage of police gunfire. In all, one Police Officer was killed, 13 people wounded, including at least eight police and firemen. D and convicted of thirddegree murder. The remainder of the group relocated to a new house in West Philadelphia where now, eight years later, trouble had boiled over again after neighbors complained the house was a headquarters for terrorism and crime. Philadelphias new mayor justified another police assault. Im totally convinced that the organization is bent on confrontation, is bent on violent confrontation, is bent on destruction of the system. It was just a disgrace. I think Something Else shouldve been done before it came to at least half a dozen explosions rocked the area. Bullets ricocheted through the streets and snapped through the air two blocks away. Despite the massive firepower, Officials Say they have been at a standoff since midday. The standoff ended when the police made the unprecedented move of dropping a percussion grenade on the house. But the result was a firestorm that spread rapidly, destroying 61 stunned residents took stock. , you dont drop Something Like that on a row house. These houses are made of tissue paper almost. Theyre not no strong houses. To destroy a whole neighborhood like that in an amount of hours, its uncalled for. The mayor says he isnt sure how the money will be raised, but the victims will be compensated, the houses rebuilt by christmas, he hopes. To look at people talk with me with tears in their eyes, who the money may be raised andsy paid, lost clothes and furniture replaced, housing restored. One thing is probably lost forever the sense of neighborhood. Ive been living here for about eight years. Im about ready to get out of here. I dont want to look at it. The bombing resulted in the deaths of eleven move members, including five children. In 1996, a federal jury ordered the city to pay oneandahalf million in damages to the groups survivors. Despite 30 years later move remainse, active and philadelphia is still known as the city that bombed itself. This week on through the decades, were reflecting on the birth of the 1970s next big thing , the betamax, only it failed to live up to the expectation. Plus, other technical revolutions that had a bigger impact. The birth of the long range missile. At white sands, new mexico the huge missile takes off. Plusthe birth of music on the go and the cassette player and later the death of revolutionary musician, bob marley and the inauguration of a leader who represented equality worldwide. Its all today as we look back on this week on through the decades. On this week on through the decades. Introduced as the latest and greatest sony product this week in 1975, betamax was supposed to change the course of tv viewing forever. Instead, while it may have won an important battle in the supreme court, the video cassette recorder ultimately lost the war to its competition. The Television Age has spawned a new electronic gadget and it in turned has spawned a legal hassle. Ron flagg owns a home video tape recorder. Its called the sony betamax and as ron demonsrates the device allows him to watch programs hes recorded earlier whenever he wants to. The movie, airport 75 for instance. The machine can also record one television broadcast, while it plays back a different onwhet announced may 10, 1975, it was touted as sonys next thing. But almost from the start, sony had not one but two fights on their hands. Two years after the debut of beta, rival jvc brought thr vhs format to the states. Meanwhile, in the courts sony was paving the way for the technology of today. The ability to record audio at home had been around since the 50s and 60s but video was something new. So, Universal Studios and Walt Disney Productions sued sony to stop the vcr with its programmable clock. The studios worry that as more and more video recorders are sold and sony expects to sell 85,000 betamaxs this year, more and more taped copies of televised movies and other programs will be floating around. And for Companies Like mca, which runs Universal Studios that was problematic. A Motion Picture is a protected item under the copyrighw of the United States. If everyone in america, or substantial numbers of people, lets put it that way, were taping airport 75, its pretty obvious that our ability to expect subsequent revenues from the licensing of this product to independent stations would be sustantianally diminished or eliminated. So universal and disney are charging copyright violation on films and series made in these studios. Charging in effect that the consumer whot tapes with the sony betamax is breaking the law even if its done for private use. But sony saw it differently the American Public should be able to do in their homes as they wish especially with the programs coming over the public airwaves. The airwaves apparently belong to everyone. T ruled in sonys favor saying, that by making and manufacturing vcrs, it did not infringe on copyrights owned by the so while betamax would lose the format war to vhs, it did manage to carve out a niche for itself inside the television industry. And the legal fight sony won continues to pave the way for online video, dvrs, even social media. Next, the launch of a missile that would make the world smaller and more dangerous and the robbery of an armed truck that left one dead and led to a life on the run for three and a half years, with over a Million Dollars. Its all still to come today on through the decades. Its all still to come today on through the decades. It went from object of terror to the herald of the space age. This week in 1946, the United States accomplished its First Successful launch of a v2 rocket. The v2 rocket entered service as a weapon of vengeance. The worlds first longrange ballistic missile. It was developed by nazi germany during world war ii and used to obliterate allied targets beginning in september, 1944. Over 3000 were launched leaving behind their fair share of destruction. As the war drew to a close, the allies did their best to salvage any remaining v2 parts. The americans returned with over 300 rail cars worth of materialalong with hundreds of n engineers and scientists. Chief among them, wernher von braun, the architect of the v2 rocket. The v2s were reassembled in white sands, new mexico where the First Successful test launched on may 10, 1946. At white sands, new mexico, the huge missile takes off. The rocket climbed 75 miles high before landing nearly 40 miles from the launch site. A seven minute flight that pushed the country into the space age. In the months that followed, there were more tests. Each successive flight carried some sort of payload. Initally plant seeds and insects to test the cosmic radiation. Eventually a camera was strapped to a v2 and would capture the first picture from space. The huge projector drops the earth behind at the tremendous speed of 4000 feet per second. The rotation of the rocket causes the planet to spin before the lens and the camera photographs the earth 65 miles straight down. The horizon 720 miles away and the curvature of the earth of astonishingly apparent in this still picture from the film. The u. S. Continued running tests on the v2 until 1952 learning valuable rocketry lessons that paved the way for manned spaceflhts which would commence less than a decade later. The beta videocassette may not have had the impact its designers intended but when we come back, the audio cassette player took the country by storm and led a revolution in music on the go in a decades moment in time and later, the inauguration of a man who commanded respect from all corners. I accordingly declare mr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela duly elected president of the republic of south africa. Dear fellow citizen, i know what its like to make a home you love. Im so happy that everybody could come today. I have a big family and its still growing so my home equity line of credit helped me upgrade my kitchen and make room for everyone. Call 18554224740 to learn more. And i love helping others with their own home equity line of credit. You can use it to renovate your home, do repairs or just have it on hand for whenever you need it. Its there for you. And i am too. If you have a question about how a home equity line of credit can work for you, ask me. Sincerely, Karen Peterson fellow home owner and fellow citizen. Citizens bank home equity line of credit. Call 18554224740 to apply now. We turn the lens of time back to 1981 when the idea of taking you music on the go was the newest thing. Just about anywhere you go this weekend you may be listening to music or if youre really lucky as Bernard Goldberg reports, you may be watching people listen to music. From the noisy streets of new york to the laid back tranquility of california, americans are tuning out and tuning in. Its the latest fad, tiny stereo cassette players with featherweight headphones. Its caught on all over america but nowhere as it has in new york where more and more people are discovering that about the only space theyve got is between their ears in a manner of speaking of course. You know listening to beethoven and walking in manhatta. You know walking on the streets, its pretty nice as opposed to hearing the sirens going by and the jackhammers. It just puts you in your own world all by yourself. Its like carrying your stereo with you, you know, on your head and its light. Where they wear pinstripes or no stripes theyre discovering that at least musically speaking, you can take it with you, about 750,000 people nationwide are doing juseverye machines. Anyone from a wealthy executive who likes to spend his weekends out on his sailboat listening to beethoven to the street Kid Listening to new wave music down in the subways. Well this is all it is. Theres a lot of noise and confusion down here. It just centers me. You know, i just got to go about five stops but it feels good. Is it the me generation gone wild, a height of antisocial behavior, electronic snubbery . S out to me sometimes so i might as well do it to them. Some still prefer last years model. The radio thats about as big as the Empire State Building and as loud as world war ii that exemplify the sophistication for which new york is so admired . Do you bother a lot of people with that . No. You bother me. Bothe