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Meera Atkinson What, exactly, is a milestone? It can be a birthday, anniversary, mark of distance, an acknowledgement, an event, a celebration, an historic occasion, or a memorial.
A milestone signifies an important point in the life of an individual, a given society, or of humankind itself. Sometimes goals are set and they may or may not be met. Other times, milestones just come upon a person or a society as they are busy getting on with it. Either way, whether the event is one of collective meaning that has helped shaped our world, or a simple and private affair, a milestone is an opportunity to stop and reflect on a journey. Let’s look at ten of the key moments and happenings that reached a milestone in 2007. 40th anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band In 1966 the Beatles stopped their gruelling touring, cast off their suits, and took to the studio for 129 days. In June 1967 the result was released and the world gasped as it beheld the new Beatles: flamboyantly dressed, ill-barbered, sounding suspiciously like they were consuming unlawful substances, and bringing to the masses revolutionary sound-scapes that made Sgt Pepper’s one of the most innovative and influential albums of all time. Its very appearance was a milestone of 60’s music and 40 years on it stands as an unrivalled icon. The album’s stature has only grown with time and in 2003 it ranked #1 on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. Packed with instant classics like “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, rumoured to be about an acid trip (though The Beatles maintain it was inspired by the title of a drawing by Lennon’s son Julian), and crowd-pleasers like “With A Little Help From My Friends,” and boasting groundbreaking psychedelic cover art, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was both embraced by the public and heralded by critics. The jewel in this counterculture crown is the incredible “A Day In The Life”, a divine and near perfect burst of creativity that should be played for the aliens as evidence of our greatness. 50 years since the birth of the European Economic Community (EEC)In the beginning was the EEC. Established in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome, the EEC was evidence of Europe’s determination to heal after the two world wars that had decimated it. With an initial focus on economic order as a means of securing long-lasting peace, the EEC has since transformed into the European Community (EC) and is now the broader and more encompassing European Union (EU). The Cannes Film Festival turns 60 (Though it doesn’t look a day over 40 and its publicist denies rumours it’s had “work” done) Every year the Cannes Film Festival turns the French Riviera into a filmic fantasyland of hype, designer garb, premiers, networking, press conferences, and paparazzi flashbulbs. At the 60th festival, held in May, Gus Van Sant was awarded a special 60th Anniversary Award for Paranoid Park, the Ocean’s 13 premiere after party was reportedly a blast, and Pamela Anderson was booed by photographers for being late to publicise her low-culture entry Blonde and Blonder. Cannes may lack the hard-core class of days gone by but, like the Oscars, it still ranks highly as one of the most important entertainment events of the year. 40 years since the Six-Day WarThe Wikipedia entry for the Six-Day War is 33 pages long and the first page is plastered with disclaimers warning that the neutrality of the section is disputed and it is currently protected from editing until disputes have been settled, indicative of the divisions that have lingered in the wake of this war. The Six-Day War brought about the reunification of Jerusalem and it transformed the complex political and geographical landscape of the Arab-Israeli conflict, laying the ground for decades of tension. Any anniversary of war is primarily a memorial; a remembrance of loss on all sides. These are anniversaries not celebrated by parties but honoured in solemn ceremonies, or else debated and illuminated by commentators. The tragic irony is that though the Six-Day War counts among the shortest of historically important wars, it ushered in a violent conflict that continues to this day. 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in EnglandOn February 1807 the Christian statesman and politician, William Wilberforce, succeeded in his 20-year-long mission when the British House of Commons finally passed the bill to abolish the slave trade. Wilberforce fought hard for his Christian belief that all men were created equal under God and he is the subject of a new film, Amazing Grace, directed by Michael Apted. The British Council marked the occasion with a commemorative event at Elmina Castle, the former slave fort in Africa. Politicians, poets and performers, such as Linton Kwesi Johnson, honoured the memory of those who were forced to pass through the “Door of No Return.” Golden anniversary of 170-year-old turtle coupleOne cannot count on the accuracy of a site called “Weird Asia News,” but even if it isn’t true, the reported golden anniversary in Chong Qing city, China, of a 170-year-old couple named Ma Lai and Ma Ya is one of the cutest items ever posted on the internet. The article claims the turtles, weighing around 198 and 132 pounds respectively, were applauded by tourists on their happy day. And zoo workers declared that for 50 years the turtle couple had never been apart. “They do everything together,” they said. Long live love 25 years since the discovery of HIV/AIDSTwenty-five years ago this month the first five cases of unexplained pneumocystis pneumonia were reported to the US Centres for Disease Control, setting the stage for one of the most frightening epidemics known to humankind. The virus that baffled doctors and researchers and has decimated whole communities with its brutality and stigma is now, 25 years on, considered manageable thanks to anti-viral medication. However, for positive people who don’t have access to medication, such as those living in developing countries, HIV/AIDS causes incredible suffering, cutting lives short, and leaving children orphaned. Researchers continue to work on a vaccine. 10th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of WalesThe world reeled with shock when the reports filtered through on August 31, 1997, that Diana, Princess of Wales, had died following a car crash in a Paris tunnel. The paparazzi were cast as the villains, Dodi was thought to be a bad influence, Henri Paul, the driver, was said to be drunk. Before long the flowers placed in front of Kensington Palace, Diana’s London residence, became a mountain. Britons channelled lifetimes of repressed emotion into a display of collective national grief, the intensity of which astonished the world and secured her place in history as one of the most iconic women of the 20th century. 300th anniversary of Great BritainThere were few raised glasses and cheers in Scotland in March when the 1707 Treaty of Union with England turned 300. The tricentenary comes at a time when opinion polls in both Scotland and England indicate support for Scottish independence, and the Scottish National Party, which has promised a referendum on independence, is gaining popularity. The Union, it seems, has always been troubled. Even so, historians like Christopher Smout, emeritus professor of history at St Andrew’s University, say most Scots don’t hanker for independence from the point of view of liberty or nationalism. Rather, the matter will be settled on the less spirited issue of “simple straightforward taxation”. 10 years since the debut of Buffy the Vampire SlayerOn March 10, 1997, the first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired on WB in the US. It ran for seven successful years, winding up in 2003. The Emmy Award winning, Golden Globe nominated series, created by Joss Whedon, featured a young woman called Buffy, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, whose destiny was to battle vampires and other creatures lurking in the shadows of darkness — a “hellmouth” being conveniently located beneath her Californian high school. If Buffy looked to many grown ups like a silly excuse for nubile young girls to thrill the audience with high kicks in short skirts, they missed the black comedy point by a country mile. Buffy was shot through with subversion and metaphoric riffs about adolescence and young love. Critically acclaimed and the inspiration for countless tie-ins — there are novels, comics, and video games — Buffy was one of the most sophisticated and entertaining servings of pop culture to ever grace our screens. Next year, a new crop of milestones will roll around, giving us cause to pause and rejoice, pay tribute, or lament: we never stop making and remembering milestones as we travel side by side.
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