Explanation:
It’s September 8th, 1965: the city of St. Augustine is finally lighting the 400th candle on its birthday cake, and the world is in chaos. As usual.
St. Augustine was founded on September 8, 1565, by Spanish admiral Pedro MenĂ©ndez de AvilĂ©s, Florida's first governor. He named the settlement "San AgustĂn", as his ships bearing settlers, troops, and supplies from Spain had first sighted land in Florida eleven days earlier on August 28, the feast day of St. Augustine.
The country is in the middle of the Cold War, with no end in sight. Only four years ago, construction of the Berlin Wall began, and a Russian cosmonaut completed the first manned space flight into orbit. Three years ago nuclear war was narrowly avoided with the deft statesmanship of President John F. Kennedy. The next year that same president was assassinated. Last year in our own city, black demonstrators seeking equal access to jobs, education, and services were met with brutality and violence by white mobs, and a Category 3 hurricane named Dora came ashore six miles north, causing $200 million in state-wide damage. Not to mention, those four Brits with funny haircuts played on the Ed Sullivan show and whipped all the kids into a frenzy. This year activist Malcolm X was assassinated, President Lyndon Johnson deployed the first troops to war in Vietnam, the tear gas and billy clubs of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” flashed across our television screens, and just last month, the Watts Riots left Los Angeles burning for six days.