Historic moments revisited
Today in History: Secretariat's Record Triple Crown, Landmark LDS Church Policy Shift
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On June 9, 1973, Secretariat did something no horse had done in 25 years. The chestnut stallion won the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths, completing the 1½-mile dirt course in 2 minutes and 24 seconds — a world record that still stands 53 years later, according to Journal News.
That single date on the calendar also carries four other defining moments in American history: the founding of Georgia in 1732, a landmark civil rights shift inside the Mormon Church in 1978, the release of the Challenger disaster report in 1986, and Rafael Nadal's eighth French Open title in 2013, Journal Gazette reported.
Secretariat's Belmont Record That No Horse Has Beaten
Secretariat entered the 1973 Belmont Stakes as already a legend. He had won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. But his Belmont performance was something else entirely. His quarter-mile splits actually got faster as the race went on — a physical feat that baffled experts. Jockey Ron Turcotte later said, "I never moved on him. He was just doing it on his own," according to Yakima Herald.
The win ended a 25-year Triple Crown drought. The last horse to achieve it was Citation in 1948. Secretariat won the Belmont by 31 lengths — nearly the length of a football field ahead of the second-place horse. His heart was later found to be roughly 2.5 times the size of an average horse's, News-Gazette reported.
LDS Church Ends 126-Year Ban on Black Priesthood Members
On this same date in 1978, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a major change. Church President Spencer W. Kimball announced the end of a ban that had kept Black men out of the Mormon priesthood for 126 years. Kimball said the change came after "spending many hours in the Upper Room of the Temple supplicating the Lord for divine guidance," according to WDRB.
The ban had been in place since 1852 under Brigham Young. It held through the entire Civil Rights movement. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, who had once defended the policy, later told members to "forget everything that I said which is contrary to the present revelation." The 1978 change opened the door for the Church to grow rapidly in Africa and South America.
Rogers Commission Blames NASA Culture, Not Just a Faulty O-Ring
On June 9, 1986, the Rogers Commission handed President Reagan its report on the Challenger disaster. The shuttle had exploded just 73 seconds after launch on January 28, killing all seven crew members. The report did not just blame a broken part. It pointed to a "flawed decision-making process" where managers ignored engineers' warnings about cold weather, according to Journal Gazette.
Physicist Richard Feynman made the problem simple. He dropped an O-ring — the rubber seal that failed — into a glass of ice water and showed it lost its flexibility. He wrote in his personal appendix: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." The report led NASA to create a new Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance.
Nadal Wins Eighth French Open, A Record No Man Had Ever Set
In 2013, Rafael Nadal beat David Ferrer 6–3, 6–2, 6–3 at Roland Garros to win his eighth French Open title. No man in history had ever won the same Grand Slam eight times. After the match, Nadal said, "I never liked the word 'perfection' because there is always room for improvement, but today was almost that," Journal News reported.
Nadal would not stop there. He eventually extended his French Open total to 14 titles before retiring. But June 9, 2013 was the day the record first fell. It was also the same date, 244 years earlier, that King George II signed the charter creating Georgia — the last of the original 13 British colonies — with James Oglethorpe as its founding trustee, according to Journal Gazette.
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