THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021 A3
TODAY
Today is Monday, April 26, the
116th day of 2021. There are 249
days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On April 26, 1986, an explosion
and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant in Ukraine caused
radioactive fallout to begin
spewing into the atmosphere.
(Dozens of people were killed
in the immediate aftermath of
the disaster while the long-term
death toll from radiation poison-
ing is believed to number in the
thousands.)
In 1607, English colonists went
ashore at present-day Cape
Henry, Virginia, on an expedition
to establish the first permanent
English settlement in the West-
ern Hemisphere.
In 1865, John Wilkes Booth, the
assassin of President Abraham
Lincoln, was surrounded by
federal troops near Port Royal,
Virginia, and killed.
In 1913, Mary Phagan, a
13-year-old worker at a Georgia
pencil factory, was strangled;
Leo Frank, the factory superin-
tendent, was convicted of her
murder and sentenced to death.
(Frank’s death sentence was
commuted, but he was lynched
by an anti-Semitic mob in 1915.)
In 1933, Nazi Germany’s infa-
mous secret police, the Gestapo,
was created.
In 1945, Marshal Henri Philippe
Petain, the head of France’s
Vichy government during World
War II, was arrested.
In 1968, the United States
exploded beneath the Nevada
desert a 1.3 megaton nuclear
device called “Boxcar.”
In 1977, the legendary nightclub
Studio 54 had its opening night
in New York.
In 1989, actor-comedian Lucille
Ball died at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles at age 77.
In 1994, voting began in South
Africa’s first all-race elections,
resulting in victory for the Afri-
can National Congress and the
inauguration of Nelson Mandela
as president.
In 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean signed the nation’s first bill
allowing same-sex couples to
form civil unions.
In 2009, the United States
declared a public health emer-
gency as more possible cases of
swine flu surfaced from Canada
to New Zealand; officials in Mex-
ico City closed everything from
concerts to sports matches to
churches in an effort to stem the
spread of the virus.
In 2018, Bill Cosby was convict-
ed of drugging and molesting
Temple University employee An-
drea Constand at his suburban
Philadelphia mansion in 2004; it
was the first big celebrity trial of
the #MeToo era and completed
the spectacular downfall of a
comedian who broke racial bar-
riers on his way to TV superstar-
dom. (Cosby was later sentenced
to three to 10 years in prison.)
Ten years ago: Phoebe Snow, a
singer, guitarist and songwriter
whose song “Poetry Man” was a
defining hit of the 1970s, died in
Edison, New Jersey.
Five years ago: Republican
Donald Trump roared to victory
in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Con-
necticut, Delaware and Rhode
Island while Democrat Hillary
Clinton prevailed in four of those
states, ceding Rhode Island to
Bernie Sanders.
One year ago: Children in Spain
were allowed to go outside
and play for the first time in six
weeks as European countries
moved to ease their coronavirus
lockdowns and reopen their
economies. Italy recorded its
lowest 24-hour death toll from
the virus since mid-March.
China’s state-run media said
hospitals in Wuhan, the original
epicenter of the virus, no longer
had any COVID-19 patients.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-co-
median Carol Burnett is 88. R&B
singer Maurice Williams is 83.
Songwriter-musician Duane
Eddy is 83. Singer Bobby Rydell is
79. Rock musician Gary Wright is
78. Actor Giancarlo Esposito is 63.
Rock musician Roger Taylor (Du-
ran Duran) is 61. Actor Joan Chen
is 60. Rock musician Chris Mars is
60. Actor Jet Li is 58. Actor-come-
dian Kevin James is 56. Author
and former U.S. Poet Laureate
Natasha Trethewey is 55. Actor
Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 54.
Rapper T-Boz (TLC) is 51. Former
first lady Melania Trump is 51.
Actor Simbi Kali is 50. Country
musician Jay DeMarcus (Rascal
Flatts) is 50. Rock musician Jose
Pasillas (Incubus) is 45. Actor
Jason Earles is 44. Actor Pablo
Schreiber is 43. Actor Nyambi
Nyambi is 42. Actor Channing
Tatum is 41. Actor Aaron Weeks
is 35. Electro pop musician James
Sunderland (Frenship) is 34. New
York Yankees outfielder Aaron
Judge is 29.
— Associated Press
93RD ACADEMY AWARDS
OSCAR HISTORY
MADE, MANY
TIMES OVER
« Chloe Zhao accepts the award for best director for “Nomadland” at the Oscars on Sunday.
She is only the second female director to win the award, and the first woman of color. ABC via AP
A pandemic
presentation
C
hloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” — a wistful portrait of itinerant
lives on open roads across the American West — won best
picture Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, where the
China-born Chloe Zhao also became just the second woman to
win best director, and the first woman of color.
The “Nomadland” victory capped the extraordinary rise of
Zhao, a lyrical filmmaker whose winning film is just her third,
and which — with a budget less than $5 million and featuring
a cast populated by nonprofessional actors — ranks as one of
the most modest-sized movies to win Hollywood’s top honor.
Only Kathryn Bigelow, 11 years ago for “The Hurt Locker,” had
previously won best director. “I have always found goodness
in the people I’ve met everywhere I went in
the world,” said Zhao when accepting best
director.
SUPPORTING ROLES
Best supporting actress went to Yuh-Jung
Youn for the matriarch of Lee Isaac Chung’s ten-
der Korean American family drama “Minari.”
The 72-year-old Youn, a well-known actress in
her native South Korea, is the first Asian actress to win an Oscar
since 1957 and the second in history. She accepted the award from
Brad Pitt, an executive producer on “Minari.” “Mr. Brad Pitt, fi-
nally,” said Youn. “Nice to meet you.”
Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for “Judas and the
Black Messiah.” The win for the 32-year-old British actor who
was previously nominated for “Get Out,” was widely expected.
Kaluuya won for his fiery performance as the Black Panther leader
Fred Hampton, whom Kaluuya thanked for showing him “how
to love myself.” “You’ve got to celebrate life, man. We’re breathing.
We’re walking. It’s incredible. My mum met my dad, they had sex.
It’s amazing. I’m here. I’m so happy to be alive,” said Kaluuya while
cameras caught his mother’s confused reaction.
FAMILIAR FACES
Anthony Hopkins, 80, won his first Oscar since he was victo-
rious for playing Hannibal Lecter. Despite his pedigree, Hopkins
was a surprise as the winner of the Academy Award for best ac-
tor for his work on “The Father.” The late Chadwick Boseman
was expected to win the award, which, in a very rare move from
the academy, was the last to be handed out this year instead of
best picture.
Frances McDormand won the Oscar for best actress for
OREGON NEWS
Biden taps professor
at OSU to lead NOAA
oversees the National Weather
Service, conducts climate re-
An Oregon State Univer-
search and protects the nation’s
sity professor is poised to be-
coastlines and fisheries.
come the head of the U.S. gov-
He would also be the first
ernment’s leading agency for
person confirmed to head
weather, climate and ocean
the NOAA since 2017 — two
science.
nominees selected
President Joe Biden
by President Donald
picked Rick Spinrad to
Trump never received
run the National Oce-
a Senate vote.
anic and Atmospheric
Biden appears de-
Administration, a role
termined to bolster
that could prove pivotal
the size of the agency,
as the White House
which is part of the
Spinrad
seeks to make climate
Commerce Depart-
action a top priority.
ment, as well as the
An internationally recog-
scope of its work, particularly
nized oceanographer with
in the area of climate change.
decades of policy experience,
His administration has pro-
Spinrad previously served as
posed the largest budget in the
the agency’s chief scientist un-
agency’s history — $6.4 billion,
der President Barack Obama as a more than 25% increase from
well as the U.S. representative
its 2021 budget.
to the United Nations’ Inter-
Spinrad, who also earned his
governmental Oceanic Com-
Ph.D. from OSU, has most re-
mission.
cently been involved with the
If confirmed by the U.S. Sen- university’s wave energy testing
ate, Spinrad would become the
facility off the Oregon Coast,
third person affiliated with Or-
which aims to harness the mo-
egon State University to lead the tion of the ocean to generate
11,000-employee agency, which electricity.
BY SHANE DIXON KAVANAUGH
The Oregonian
STATE BRIEFING
‘Shameful’: Nazi’s dagger listed by Portland auction house
A dagger supposedly once owned by Heinrich Himmler, the
leader of Adolf Hitler’s SS security force that helped run Nazi con-
centration camps, is being sold through the 49-year-old Portland
family business O’Gallerie, prompting local outrage in the days
since an Oregon artist discovered the listing.
“We don’t believe that a business or an individual should be
able to profit from something like this — it’s shameful,” says Bob
Horenstein, the director of community relations at the Jewish
Federation of Greater Portland. He says he’s tried without success
to reach O’Gallerie’s owners.
O’Gallerie on Sunday did not respond to emails or phone mes-
sages from The Oregonian.
Items used or touched by high-ranking Nazis have become col-
lectibles . Himmler, one of the architects of the Holocaust, killed him-
self in May 1945 after being captured by Allied forces . The dagger
might be one that he presented to SS officers during ceremonies.
— The Oregonian
MORE WINNERS
Travon Free, co-director of the live-action short winner “Two
Perfect Strangers,” wore a suit jacket lined with the names of
those killed by police; his film dramatizes police brutality as an
inescapable time loop for Black Americans. Hairstylists Mia Neal
and Jamika Wilson of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” became the
first Black women to win in makeup and hairstyling; Ann Roth,
at 89 one of the oldest winners ever, won for the film’s costume
design. Pixar notched its 11th best animated feature Oscar with
“Soul,” the studio’s first feature with a Black protagonist. The
night’s first award went to Emerald Fennell, the writer-director
of the provocative revenge thriller “Promising Young Woman,”
for best screenplay; Fennell, winning for her feature debut, is
the first woman win solo in the category since Diablo Cody
(“Juno”) in 2007.
It was perhaps the diverse Academy Awards ever, with more
women and more actors of color nominated than ever before.
Sunday night’s broadcast
of the awards ceremony
instantly looked different.
In a more intimate show
without an audience be-
yond nominees, winners
were given wider latitude in
their speeches. “It has been
quite a year and we are still
smack dab in the middle of
it,” actress Regina King said
in the opening.
King explained how Sun-
day’s Oscars were even pos-
sible — testing, vaccina-
tions, social distancing and
more testing. The safety
protocols, she said, echoed
those of film shoots during
the pandemic. “When we’re
rolling, masks on,” said King.
“When we’re not, masks off.”
Sunday’s pandemic-de-
layed Oscars bring to a
close the longest awards
season ever — one that
turned the season’s indus-
trial complex of cocktail
parties and screenings
virtual. And pandemic clo-
sures have made it a pun-
ishing year for Hollywood.
After the pandemic, the
movie industry — and the
Oscars — may not ever
be quite the same. Or as
WarnerMedia’s new chief
executive Jason Kilar said
when announcing plans
to shift the studio’s movies
to streaming: “We’re not in
Kansas anymore.”
— Bulletin wire reports
— Associated Press
Daniel Kaluuya won an Oscar trophy for best supporting actor.
Yuh-Jung Youn won one for best supporting actress. AP photos
“Nomadland.” It’s the second Oscar for McDormand, who also
won best actress in 2018 for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,
Missouri.” In “Nomadland,” McDormand, 63, plays a woman
who leaves her small town to wander the West. She beat out
Viola Davis, Carey Mulligan, Vanessa Kirby and Andra Day.