THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 A3
TODAY
Today is Monday, Feb. 1, the 32nd
day of 2021. There are 333 days
left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 1, 2003, the space shut-
tle Columbia broke up during
re-entry, killing all seven of its
crew members: commander Rick
Husband; pilot William McCool;
payload commander Michael
Anderson; mission specialists
Kalpana Chawla, David Brown
and Laurel Clark; and payload
specialist Ilan Ramon, the first
Israeli in space.
In 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court
convened for the first time in New
York. (However, since only three
of the six justices were present,
the court recessed until the next
day.)
In 1862, “The Battle Hymn of the
Republic,” a poem by Julia Ward
Howe, was published in the Atlan-
tic Monthly.
In 1865, abolitionist John S. Rock
became the first Black lawyer
admitted to the bar of the U.S.
Supreme Court.
In 1893, inventor Thomas Edison
completed work on the world’s
first motion picture studio, his
“Black Maria,” in West Orange,
New Jersey.
In 1942, during World War II, the
Voice of America broadcast its
first program to Europe, relaying
it through the facilities of the Brit-
ish Broadcasting Corp. in London.
In 1943, during World War II, one
of America’s most highly deco-
rated military units, the 442nd
Regimental Combat Team, made
up almost exclusively of Japa-
nese-Americans, was authorized.
In 1960, four Black college
students began a sit-in protest
at a Woolworth’s lunch counter
in Greensboro, North Carolina,
where they’d been refused
service.
In 1962, the Ken Kesey novel
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest” was first published by Vi-
king Press.
In 1968, during the Vietnam
War, South Vietnam’s police chief
executed a Viet Cong officer
with a pistol shot to the head in a
scene captured by news photog-
raphers.
In 1979, Iranian religious leader
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
received a tumultuous welcome
in Tehran as he ended nearly 15
years of exile.
In 1991, 34 people were killed
when an arriving USAir jetliner
crashed atop a commuter plane
on a runway at Los Angeles Inter-
national Airport.
In 2018, a judge ordered a Wis-
consin girl, Morgan Geyser, to be
committed to a mental hospital
for 40 years for stabbing a class-
mate when she was 12 years old
to curry favor with the fictional
horror character Slender Man.
Ten years ago: Egyptian Presi-
dent Hosni Mubarak announced
he would not run for a new term
in September elections but reject-
ed protesters’ demands he step
down immediately and leave the
country, after a dramatic day in
which a quarter-million Egyptians
staged their biggest protest to
date calling on him to go.
Five years ago: The World Health
Organization declared a global
emergency over the explosive
spread of the Zika virus, which
was linked to birth defects in the
Americas, calling it an “extraordi-
nary event” that posed a public
health threat to other parts of the
world.
One year ago: As China’s death
toll from the new coronavirus rose
to 259, Beijing criticized Washing-
ton’s order barring entry to most
foreigners who had visited China
in the past two weeks. A World
Health Organization official said
governments needed to prepare
for “domestic outbreak control.”
Today’s Birthdays: Singer Don
Everly is 84. Actor Garrett Morris is
84. Bluegrass singer Del McCoury
is 82. TV personality-singer Joy
Philbin is 80. Political commen-
tator Fred Barnes is 78. Rock
musician Mike Campbell (Tom
Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 71.
Blues singer-musician Sonny
Landreth is 70. Actor-writer-pro-
ducer Bill Mumy is 67. Rock singer
Exene Cervenka is 65. Actor Linus
Roache is 57. Princess Stephanie
of Monaco is 56. Actor Sherilyn
Fenn is 56. Lisa Marie Presley is
53. Comedian-actor Pauly Shore
is 53. Actor Brian Krause is 52.
Jazz musician Joshua Redman is
52. Rock musician Patrick Wilson
(Weezer) is 52. Actor Michael C.
Hall is 50. Rock musician Ron Wel-
ty is 50. Rapper Big Boi (Outkast) is
46. Roots rocker Jason Isbell is 42.
Country singer Julie Roberts is 42.
Actor Jarrett Lennon is 39. Rock
singer-musician Andrew Van-
Wyngarden is 38. TV personality
Lauren Conrad is 35. Actor-singer
Heather Morris is 34. Actor and
mixed martial artist Ronda Rous-
ey is 34. Rock singer Harry Styles
(One Direction) is 27.
— Associated Press
A BANNER DAY
GEORGE ROSE/TNS
By Charles Apple | THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Typically, viewers remember a Super Bowl because of a
spectacular performance by a football player. Or because
of a close game with an exciting finish. Or perhaps an
extraordinarily entertaining halftime performance.
But in the case of Super Bowl XXV — 30 years ago — the
showstopper came before the show even began: When
Whitney Houston set the country on fire with her unusual
performance of the national anthem.
Houston’s electrifying performance in Tampa
Just 10 days before, the U.S. and its
coalition of allies had begun daily aerial
attacks on Iraq in what would become
known as the Gulf War.
It was in this environment that 26-year-old
Whitney Houston stepped up to perform
the traditional pregame national anthem,
accompanied by the Florida Orchestra.
Officials worried about terrorist attacks.
The Goodyear blimp was grounded for
Super Bowl XXV. Concrete barriers and
6-foot-high chain-link fences stood
between the parking lot and Tampa
Stadium. Fans were asked to walk
through metal detectors and past
bomb-sniffing dogs. Ladies’ bags were
checked. All this is common today. But
in 1991, not so much.
Wanting to wow the crowd with some
patriotic soul, Houston had worked with
her vocal arranger Rickey Minor and the
orchestra to put her own twist on the
191-year-old “The Star Spangled Banner”:
They took the anthem, normally played in
3/4 time, and changed it to 4/4 time. This
slowed the anthem down just a bit, but
allowing Houston to perform a little vocal
magic with it.
Another thing they did, which would be
called into question later: They prerecorded
Houston’s vocals. The NFL insisted that it
would be too difficult for Houston to hear
her musical cue in front of 73,800 fans that
day. So yes, Houston would lip-sync to her
own recording on national TV before the
game.
At one point, NFL officials listened to the
recording, decided it was a little too
different for their tastes, and asked Houston
to give it another go. She and her arranger
refused. She’d present the song in Tampa as
planned, singing into a “dead” mic.
Houston launched into her
falsetto on “broad stripes
and bright stars.” She hit her
stride with “rockets red
glare.” F-16 jets from MacDill
Air Force Base flew
overhead as she neared the
end of her performance,
holding the word “brave” for
eight seconds that she made
seem effortless.
By the time she was done,
the nation was buzzing: “Did
you see that?”
Houston’s anthem on the charts
Later in 1991, Houston’s
anthem performance would
place her onto the front of a
football card published by
Pro Set — at the time, a
popular brand for collectors.
Today, copies can be found
on Amazon and other popular
forums for sports card
collectors for under $5.
The public clamored for a recording of Houston’s
performance. Two weeks after the Super Bowl, Arista
Records released the recording as a single on vinyl,
CD and cassette.
The single debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot
100 singles chart and peaked at No. 20 on March 20.
The single was Arista’s fastest-selling single ever, at
the time, spending a total of 11 weeks on the Hot 100.
Houston donated $531,650 of the proceeds to the
American Red Cross Gulf Crisis Fund, which provided
aid to military personnel serving in the Gulf, their
families and to victims of the war there.
Houston and her record company released the
recording again, following the terrorist attacks of
9/11.
This time, the single would peak at No. 6 — the first
time in the history of Billboard’s Hot 100 that an
artist had placed the national anthem in the Top 10.
Before the introduction of the Hot 100, “The Star
Spangled Banner” had been at No. 7 hit for
Margaret Woodrow Wilson in 1915 and then a No. 1
hit for John McCormack in 1917.
The single would sell 1.2 million copies in the U.S.
and would remain in the Hot 100 for 27 weeks.
But what about
the game itself?
The Bills were known for
their high-flying no-hud-
dle offense which had
led the league in scoring.
The Giants had led the
NFL by allowing just 211
points all season long.
It would have to be one heck of a game
to top Houston’s national anthem
performance. And Super Bowl XXV was
one heck of a game.
The New York Giants won, 20-19, after
Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood’s
last-second field goal attempt — which
would have won the game for the Bills
— sailed wide right of the goalposts.
If you’re a Bills fan, then you might
remember this game as the first of four
consecutive Super Bowl appearances —
and four consecutive Super Bowl losses.
Sources: ESPN, the New Yorker, Essence, Jet, Beckett, USA Today, the
Florida Orchestra, “The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits” by Joel Whitburn
Giants defensive
coordinator Bill Belichick
came up with an
ever-shifting series of
defensive schemes
aimed at throwing Bills
quarterback Jim Kelly
off-kilter. That plan
seemed to work.
PHIL SANDLIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The game was unusual in
that ABC chose to not
broadcast the halftime show,
“A Small World Salute to 25
Years of the Super Bowl,”
produced by Disney and
featuring 3,500 local children
and a performance by the
boy band New Kids on the
Block.
Instead, it showed a special
ABC News report hosted by
Peter Jennings with the
latest news on the Gulf War.
The halftime show was taped
and shown after the game.