At 3AM local time, former President Corazon Aquino passed away due to complications from cancer.
President Aquino served as the 11th president of the Republic of the Philippines and was married to the late Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., who was assassinated on August 21, 1983 as he was coming home to the Philippines from exile in the US.
Corazon Aquino became the focal point and unifying force for most Filipinos as they slowly got fed up with President Ferdinand Marcos' autocratic rule.
On February 22, 1986, the People Power Revolution helped triggered the changes to come and catapulted the 'plain housewife' to the country's seat of power.
She was hailed as Time's 1986 Woman of the Year and delivered a 'home run' of a speech in front of a joint session of the US Congress in September 1986. "The finest speech I've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress," U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill later remarked.
Corazon "Cory" Aquino, 1933 - 2009: looking back plus a rant from a Laodicean
Walter Cronkite, 1916-2009
Walter Leland Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, died July 17, 2009. One day after the world started celebrating the anniversary of man's journey to the moon, the event he covered 40 years ago.
Walter Cronkite reported the news from 1937-1981: the bombing in World War II, the Nuremberg trials, the Vietnam War, JFK assassination, Watergate, and the Iran Hostage Crisis.
He was also known for extensive TV coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle.
Millions who watched his relaxed, reassuring delivery, gained a warm feeling that all was not lost, even as the nation faced the horrors of an unpopular war in Vietnam, scandal in high places in the capital, or the holding hostage of United States diplomats in Tehran.
[via Telegraph.co.uk]
They will be missed
We've lost three entertainers this week.
Ed McMahon, famously known as Johnny Carson's announcer and sidekick in "The Tonight Show", died Tuesday due to pneumonia and other illnesses. He was 86.
Farrah Fawcett, once former Charlie's Angel and sex symbol of the 70s, lost her fight against cancer on Thursday. I heard about her death a little after midnight today. She was 62.
Michael Jackson, pop superstar and one of the world's greatest performer, suffered a heart attack and died just a few hours ago in his home in California. He was 50.
I thank all of them for sharing their time and talent with the world.
They will all be missed.
Mike Francis, 1961-2009
Mike Francis, whose real name was Francesco Puccioni, died of lung cancer on January 30, 2009 in Rome.
He was only 47.
Grazie per tutte le belle canzoni, Francesco.
[source: il Giornale.it]
9/11
It was about this time that I turned the TV on to watch CNN. Earlier, I received an SMS message from a friend in Chicago informing me that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. A few seconds after turning on the television, I witnessed the second plane fly into the second World Trade Center tower.
No words could ever describe what I felt at that moment.
I never ever want to feel those emotions again.
The things people do in the name of religion.
Luciano Pavarotti, 1935 - 2007
Luciano Pavarotti lost the battle against cancer. He died September 7, Friday at his villa near the northern city of Modena.
Apple has paid a tribute to the Maestro with a special remembrance page on the iTunes Store.
From the iTunes Store:
Luciano Pavarotti is universally regarded as one of the finest tenors that ever lived. He will be remembered as a charasmatic performer who was also a great ambassador for opera, a committed humanitarian and a dedicated fan of Turin's Juventus soccer team.
Farewell, Maestro.
