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This Week in Boomer History: 'Pulp Fiction' ... Marilyn Monroe ... 'What's Going On'

Marvin Gaye What's Going On album cover
Notable events from our shared experience

Marvin Gaye's seminal album  What's Going On is released  May 21, 1971. Influenced by letters his brother sent from Vietnam, Gaye writes the songs from the perspective of a Vietnam vet.

Happy birthday, Mr. President. At Madison Square Garden in New York, Marilyn Monroe serenades President John Kennedy at a fundraiser on  May 19, 1962. Monroe dies less than three months later at age 36.



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Ambassador Foy Kohler delivers a protest note to the Soviet Foreign Ministry  May 19, 1964, after discovery of more than 40  listening devices hidden at the  U.S. Embassy on Tchaikovsky Street in Moscow.

Pulp Fiction Poster
Quentin Tarantino 's Pulp Fiction , starring Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and John Travolta, wins best picture at the Cannes Film Festival May 23, 1994.

Foiled in 18 consecutive nominations,  Susan Lucci, star of the ABC soap opera  All My Children, wins her first Daytime  Emmy Award for best actress on  May 21, 1999.

Comedian  Gilda Radner, an original cast member of  Saturday Night Live, dies of cancer at age 42 on  May 20, 1989.

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An estimated 5 million-plus people join  Hands Across America on  May 25, 1986, to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless. They don't actually span the country in an unbroken chain, but they have the numbers to do it.

600-reagan-hands-accross-america-boomer-history

 

Let us read This Week in Boomer History to you:

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Boomers at 50 plus
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Photos - Marvin Gaye What's Going On: Wikipedia; Pulp Fiction poster: Roman Soto/Flickr;  Hands Across America: Diana Walker/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Music - Test Drive: Zapac via ccMixter

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