Finally it is sommer! Some countries already groaning under the great heat wave. Many of you are already on holidays or have only a few days until they can recover at their holiday place. The big evant of the past month, the "European Soccer Championship" is also already over. We do not want to miss to send our warmest congratulations to the winners of S P A I N !!
But even in our Top 10 June, a winner was selected. You want to know who? Our page "Results 2008" will betray this to you. Of course, we also have this month again a Top 10 selection. For your favorites, you can vote on our page "TOP 10 JULY". Incidentally, our Top 10 this time were made in cooperation with one of our "readers". To
his favourite title you can also listen in the new edition.
In our cover story we tell you this time something about the year 1969 and the Eurovison Song Contest of this year. And our Top 10 of this month include the Irish contribution "The Wages of Love" from this year.
A summary of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest we have prepared for you on our page "2008 NEWS" and the 43 paticipating songs of the contest 2008 you can still hear on our page "2008 RUNNING ORDER".
If you have any suggestions, complaints or opinions for our pages, send uns an e-mail on our "CONTACT" page. Of course you can also transmit in this way your wish for our next Top 10. And for distraction and recreation is ample provided in our "Fun Corner".
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1969 - The Sixties go to the end
Also the last year of the Sixties brought to the people good news, curiosities and sadness. The year should already start with a terrible disaster. On its way to the coast of Vietnam, 70 nautical miles off Honolulu (Hawaii), the carrier "USS-Enterprise" conducted flight operations at 14th January 1969. During the arming of an F-4 Phantom one of the aircraft’s Zuni missiles detonated. The fire was spreading to other armed planes and some of their bombs and missiles detonated, too. "USS-Enterprise" turned into the wind to keep the flames away from the isle. One hour later the fire on the flight deck was under control but there were still fires inside the ship which were finally extinguished some hours later. During the eight explosions and the following fires aboard "USS-Enterprise", 27 crewmen were killed and approximately 120 others were injured. The carrier was heavily damaged and in the flight deck there were three holes, one of them through two decks.
15 aircraft were destroyed or damaged.
The next shocking news came already a few days later from Prague. The Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 was designed to crush the liberalising reforms of Alexander Dubček’s government during the Prague Spring. Jan Palach, a Czech student, died after setting himself on fire in Wenceslas Square in Prague on 16th January 1969, as a political protest. He was the first of a group of students to sign a suicide pact, but most of the others did not go through with their part, after the well-publicised pleas Palach made on his deathbed about the degree of pain they faced. The funeral of Jan Palach turned into a major protest against the occupation, and a month later another student, Jan Zajíc, burned himself to death in the same place, followed in April of the same year by Evžen Plocek in Jihlava.
Another, man-induced, disaster has happened on 3rd June 1969. Between the light aircraft carrier "HMAS Melbourne" of the Royal Australian Navy and the destroyer "USS Frank E. Evans" of the United States Navy it came to a heavy collision. The two ships were participating in SEATO exercise Sea Spirit. At approximately 3 am, when ordered to a new escort station, "Evans" sailed under "Melbourne’s" bow, where she was cut in two. Seventy-four of Evans’ crew were killed.
But also the nature demanded it’s right. Hurricane Camille was the strongest tropical cyclone of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season. The third tropical cyclone and second hurricane of the season, Camille was the second of three Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States during the 20th century, which it did near the mouth of the Mississippi River on the night of August 17th, resulting in catastrophic damage. Camille was the only Atlantic hurricane with official winds reported to reach 190 mph (305 km/h) until Allen equalled that number in 1980. The storm formed on August 14th and rapidly deepened. It scraped the western edge of Cuba at Category 3 intensity. Camille strengthened further over the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall with a pressure of 905 mbar , estimated sustained winds of 190 mph (305 km/h), and a peak storm surge of 24 feet (7,3 m). By maximum sustained wind speeds, Camille was the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone recorded worldwide, and one of only four tropical cyclones worldwide ever to achieve wind speeds of 190 mph (305 km/h).
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. It was incorporated on October 1969 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972.
It is the largest private employer in the world. Wal-Mart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States, with an estimated 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business, as well as the largest toy seller in the U.S.
On 20th June 1969, Georges Pompidou was elected President of France with a comfortable majority. In the presidential race, the Gaullist Party was represented by former Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. He was very popular in the conservative electorate in due to the economic growth when he led the cabinet (from 1962 to 1968) and his role in the settlement of the May 68 crisis and the winning the June 1968 legislative camapaign. In his presidential campaign, he obtained the support of the Independent Republicans and their leader Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who had voted "no" in the referendum.
The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport. First flown in 1969, piloted by André Turcat, Concorde service commenced in 1976 and continued for 27 years. It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation. With only 20 aircraft ultimately built, the costly development phase represented a substantial economic loss. Additionally, Air France and British Airways were subsidised by their governments to buy the aircraft. The Concorde was the more successful of the only two supersonic airliners to have ever operated commercially, the Tupolev Tu-144 being the other.
The Stonewall Riots were a series of violent conflicts between LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) people and New York City police officers that began during a 28th June 1969 police raid, and lasted several days. They were centered at the Stonewall Inn and are widely recognized as the catalyst for the modern-day movement towards LGBT rights. Also called the Stonewall Uprising, Stonewall Rebellion, Stonewall Revolution or simply Stonewall, the clash was a watershed for the worldwide gay rights movement, as gay, lesbian and transgender people had never before acted together in such large numbers to forcibly resist police harassment directed towards their community. On Saturday morning, 28th June 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village where gay people frequently gathered to socialize on Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square. A number of factors differentiated the raid that took place on 28th June from other raids at the Stonewall Inn. Because raids had occurred at the Stonewall Inn in the past, managers usually knew what to expect when a raid was about to occur. Likewise, raids tended to occur earlier in the evening, which allowed the bar to continue with normal business for the busiest hours of the night. On 28th June, however, an unexpected raid unfolded at the Inn. At approximately 1:20 am, eight police officers entered the bar with a warrant authorizing a search for illegal sales of alcohol. Of the eight policemen, only one was dressed in his uniform. The police questioned the customers and made many of them show identification. Many were escorted out of the bar, and some were even arrested. The escorted crowd became very angry and began to cause chaos outside of the Inn. While the police loaded arrested patrons into the police van, the existing crowd responded with catcalls and then, eventually erupted into violence. Many also credit the events as igniting a movement to celebrate gay pride with events such as pride parades and dyke marches.
Michael Dennis Rohan is an Australian citizen who gained worldwide infamy on 21stAugust 1969, when he attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Michael Dennis Rohan, a Christian and considering himself "the Lord’s emissary", stated that he tried to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque acting upon divine instructions to enable the Jews of Israel to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount in accordance with the Book of Zechariah, thereby hasten the second coming of Jesus as the Messiah to rule the world for one thousand years. Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on 23rd August 1969. He was tried, found to be insane, hospitalized in a mental institution and later deported from Israel.
The year 1969 is also reported as being the year the first strain of the AIDS virus (HIV) migrated to the United States via Haiti.
For leisure time the cinemas invited in 1969 to movies such as: "Easy Rider" with Peter Fonda in the main role, the musical filming "Hello Dolly" where the unforgettable Barbara Streisand was playing and "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid" where Robert Redford and Paul Newman have acted in the title roles. Those who prefer it more musicaly, they moved to the dance halls and bars. Others simply switched on their radios, to hear the hits: "Eloise" with Barry Ryan, "Je T’aime ... Moi Non Plus" with Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg and "Aquarius" with the Fifth Dimension, which have been the most popular of that time.
The second broadcasted Song Contest in color was transfered at 29th March 1969 from the Spanish capital Madrid. After Austria had canceled his participation, cause they refused to support a right-winged dictatorship, the hostess Laurita Valenzuela on that Saturday evening could salute 16 participating countries. The political orientation of Spain dosen’t further pollute the contest, but the show itself was ending in a dispute, which would have nearly meant the end of the Eurovision Song Contest.
The competition was opened by "Ivan" from Yugoslavia. In his song "Pozdrav Svijetu (Greetings To The World)" the somewhat sinister-looking Yugoslavian was sending the best wishes in several languages to all the world. The juries were unaware of this, what brought him with only five points place thirteen. The only 12 year old "Jean Jacques" represents in 1969 the Principality of Monaco. In his song "Maman (Mother)" he was telling a story about his mother, of what the juries were only a little bit interested. At the end he found himself on place six with eleven points.
Another, first French lookalike song, came from Switzerland. The contribution "Bonjour, Bonjour (Hello, Hello)" with "Paola Del Medico" was, however, presented in German language. The very up-to-date title was seted with thirteen points to place five.
Nevertheless, this competition for the young Swiss woman was beginning of a great career. The second German languaged contribution of this evening was presnted by the Swede"Siw Malmkvist". With her song "Primaballerina (Prima Ballerina)" she was going for Germany in the competition. The yield of points was miserably, not even from her home country, Sweden, she got points. So she had to deal with eight points and the ninth place.
Ireland was represented for the first time by a protestant femal singer. This fact was quite irrelevant for the competition, was published in the Irish press in huge headlines. "The Wages Of Love" sung by "Muriel Day",
was a very sparkling number and the first Irish contribution in the lively style of Eurovion-Songs. She received huge applause from the audience, but also until then the worst result for Ireland. The juries referenced her with ten votes to the seventh place. The strangest contribution of the evening was provided by "Louis Neefs" from Belgium. He was beginning with his song "Jennifer Jennings" twice and was threwing in his curious presentation suddenly and explosion like his arms in the air. The song was totally disliked by the juries and this is why he only gots ten points and place seven in the competition.
Not any country had ever won the competition two years in a row and only Switzerland was succeeded in 1956, to win in it’s own country. The representative of Spain, "Salomé", was not swayed about that and wrote herself with her song "Vivo Cantando (I Live For To Sing)" into the record book. The Spanish entry was beginning more slowly and and when the pace of the music was going faster, "Salomé" always moved more wilder to the music. She had developed a very bizzare choreography, which was reminding to the movements of puppets. Normally Spain had to be disqualified, because "Salomé" had clearly irregular behaved. It was for the performers strictly prohibited, to move during their presentation even one centimeter. In this example, once again the inconsistency of the EBU leaders is clearly visible.
France was presenting an incredibly emotional and dramatic performance. "Un Jour, Un Enfant (A Day, A Child)" was a tender ballad with a simple bold and also sweeping melody. It was presented by in Morocco born "Frida Boccara". Most of the experts and viewers have seen this song as the clear winner of the evening. The United Kingdom once again had nominated a topstar, "Lulu", for the contest. In the British Pre-Selection the TV-viewers had decided for the undemanding title "Boom-Bang-A-Bang". Despite her concerns about the song, "Lulu" arrived in Madrid as hot favourite. This evening "Lulu" was providing the best artistic performance of the competition.
And as she finished her song with an improvised "Olé", the audience cheered enthusiastically to her.
With her song "De Troubadour (The Troubadour)", the representative from the Netherlands, "Leny Kuhr" was coming then. She had written the text of her song together with the composer "David Hartsema" and accompanied herself on the guitar - a premiere at the contest. The melody was very gentle, but the many "Li, Li, Li, La" deposits, have not been particularly an original innovation.
For the juries, it seemed not much choice between the competitors. When the voting neared its end - Spain, United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands competed for first place. Portugal was giving two votes to Spain and France. This brought the two countries with 18 points together with the Netherlands at number one. With one point from Portugal the United Kingdom became with 17 points fourth behind the three leaders. In the hall it was crackling with tension, because only the voting of Finland was outstanding.
When the Finnish jury was giving one point to United Kingdom, but not any point to Spain, Netherlands and France, the audience shocked and outraged screamed out. All four countries so had the same points tally. When Helsinki had finished it’s choice, the audience initially applauded frenetically, but remaind then in flabbergasted silence.
No one seemed to know what this result has to mean, at least the hostess, who was becoming extremely nervous. She asked the election auditor of the Eurovision, "Clifford Brown", about his thoughts. But as he confirmed, that there are four winners, she not wanted to believe him. She asked him still twice, to clarify the confusion. But Clifford repeated twice, that the result is a quadruple draw. When Laurita then called the winners, she seemed to be like the audience still completely flabbergasted and confused.
The competition of 1969 was the first and only Eurovision Song Contest were it has given more than one winner.
Also the last year of the Sixties brought to the people good news, curiosities and sadness. The year should already start with a terrible disaster. On its way to the coast of Vietnam, 70 nautical miles off Honolulu (Hawaii), the carrier "USS-Enterprise" conducted flight operations at 14th January 1969. During the arming of an F-4 Phantom one of the aircraft’s Zuni missiles detonated. The fire was spreading to other armed planes and some of their bombs and missiles detonated, too. "USS-Enterprise" turned into the wind to keep the flames away from the isle. One hour later the fire on the flight deck was under control but there were still fires inside the ship which were finally extinguished some hours later. During the eight explosions and the following fires aboard "USS-Enterprise", 27 crewmen were killed and approximately 120 others were injured. The carrier was heavily damaged and in the flight deck there were three holes, one of them through two decks.
15 aircraft were destroyed or damaged.
Another, man-induced, disaster has happened on 3rd June 1969. Between the light aircraft carrier "HMAS Melbourne" of the Royal Australian Navy and the destroyer "USS Frank E. Evans" of the United States Navy it came to a heavy collision. The two ships were participating in SEATO exercise Sea Spirit. At approximately 3 am, when ordered to a new escort station, "Evans" sailed under "Melbourne’s" bow, where she was cut in two. Seventy-four of Evans’ crew were killed.
But also the nature demanded it’s right. Hurricane Camille was the strongest tropical cyclone of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season. The third tropical cyclone and second hurricane of the season, Camille was the second of three Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States during the 20th century, which it did near the mouth of the Mississippi River on the night of August 17th, resulting in catastrophic damage. Camille was the only Atlantic hurricane with official winds reported to reach 190 mph (305 km/h) until Allen equalled that number in 1980. The storm formed on August 14th and rapidly deepened. It scraped the western edge of Cuba at Category 3 intensity. Camille strengthened further over the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall with a pressure of 905 mbar , estimated sustained winds of 190 mph (305 km/h), and a peak storm surge of 24 feet (7,3 m). By maximum sustained wind speeds, Camille was the strongest landfalling tropical cyclone recorded worldwide, and one of only four tropical cyclones worldwide ever to achieve wind speeds of 190 mph (305 km/h).
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. It is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue, according to the 2008 Fortune Global 500. It was incorporated on October 1969 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972.
It is the largest private employer in the world. Wal-Mart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States, with an estimated 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business, as well as the largest toy seller in the U.S. 
The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport. First flown in 1969, piloted by André Turcat, Concorde service commenced in 1976 and continued for 27 years. It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation. With only 20 aircraft ultimately built, the costly development phase represented a substantial economic loss. Additionally, Air France and British Airways were subsidised by their governments to buy the aircraft. The Concorde was the more successful of the only two supersonic airliners to have ever operated commercially, the Tupolev Tu-144 being the other.
The Stonewall Riots were a series of violent conflicts between LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) people and New York City police officers that began during a 28th June 1969 police raid, and lasted several days. They were centered at the Stonewall Inn and are widely recognized as the catalyst for the modern-day movement towards LGBT rights. Also called the Stonewall Uprising, Stonewall Rebellion, Stonewall Revolution or simply Stonewall, the clash was a watershed for the worldwide gay rights movement, as gay, lesbian and transgender people had never before acted together in such large numbers to forcibly resist police harassment directed towards their community. On Saturday morning, 28th June 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village where gay people frequently gathered to socialize on Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square. A number of factors differentiated the raid that took place on 28th June from other raids at the Stonewall Inn. Because raids had occurred at the Stonewall Inn in the past, managers usually knew what to expect when a raid was about to occur. Likewise, raids tended to occur earlier in the evening, which allowed the bar to continue with normal business for the busiest hours of the night. On 28th June, however, an unexpected raid unfolded at the Inn. At approximately 1:20 am, eight police officers entered the bar with a warrant authorizing a search for illegal sales of alcohol. Of the eight policemen, only one was dressed in his uniform. The police questioned the customers and made many of them show identification. Many were escorted out of the bar, and some were even arrested. The escorted crowd became very angry and began to cause chaos outside of the Inn. While the police loaded arrested patrons into the police van, the existing crowd responded with catcalls and then, eventually erupted into violence. Many also credit the events as igniting a movement to celebrate gay pride with events such as pride parades and dyke marches.
Michael Dennis Rohan is an Australian citizen who gained worldwide infamy on 21stAugust 1969, when he attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, located atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Michael Dennis Rohan, a Christian and considering himself "the Lord’s emissary", stated that he tried to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque acting upon divine instructions to enable the Jews of Israel to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount in accordance with the Book of Zechariah, thereby hasten the second coming of Jesus as the Messiah to rule the world for one thousand years. Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on 23rd August 1969. He was tried, found to be insane, hospitalized in a mental institution and later deported from Israel. 
The year 1969 is also reported as being the year the first strain of the AIDS virus (HIV) migrated to the United States via Haiti.
The competition was opened by "Ivan" from Yugoslavia. In his song "Pozdrav Svijetu (Greetings To The World)" the somewhat sinister-looking Yugoslavian was sending the best wishes in several languages to all the world. The juries were unaware of this, what brought him with only five points place thirteen. The only 12 year old "Jean Jacques" represents in 1969 the Principality of Monaco. In his song "Maman (Mother)" he was telling a story about his mother, of what the juries were only a little bit interested. At the end he found himself on place six with eleven points.
Nevertheless, this competition for the young Swiss woman was beginning of a great career. The second German languaged contribution of this evening was presnted by the Swede"Siw Malmkvist". With her song "Primaballerina (Prima Ballerina)" she was going for Germany in the competition. The yield of points was miserably, not even from her home country, Sweden, she got points. So she had to deal with eight points and the ninth place.
Not any country had ever won the competition two years in a row and only Switzerland was succeeded in 1956, to win in it’s own country. The representative of Spain, "Salomé", was not swayed about that and wrote herself with her song "Vivo Cantando (I Live For To Sing)" into the record book. The Spanish entry was beginning more slowly and and when the pace of the music was going faster, "Salomé" always moved more wilder to the music. She had developed a very bizzare choreography, which was reminding to the movements of puppets. Normally Spain had to be disqualified, because "Salomé" had clearly irregular behaved. It was for the performers strictly prohibited, to move during their presentation even one centimeter. In this example, once again the inconsistency of the EBU leaders is clearly visible.
And as she finished her song with an improvised "Olé", the audience cheered enthusiastically to her. 
When the Finnish jury was giving one point to United Kingdom, but not any point to Spain, Netherlands and France, the audience shocked and outraged screamed out. All four countries so had the same points tally. When Helsinki had finished it’s choice, the audience initially applauded frenetically, but remaind then in flabbergasted silence. 
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