The Postcard
A postcard that was published by Northern Minnesota Novelties, Crosslake, Minn. On the back of the card the publishers have printed:
'Authentic Minnesota Scene.
Minnehaha and Hiawatha,
Minnehaha Park,
Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
Located above famous Minnehaha
Falls. Sculptured by Jacob Fjelde,
it was first shown in October 1893
at the World's Fair in Chicago.
Unveiled at its present site on the
5th. October 1912.'
The card was posted on Tuesday the 14th. September 1976 to an address in Israel.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"To Dora,
With my best wishes
for a Happy New Year.
From
Hilda."
in 1976, the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) started on Friday the 24th. September and ended on Sunday the 26th. September.
Minnehaha Park (Minneapolis)
Minnehaha Park is a 170 acre (69 ha) city park in Minneapolis which is home to Minnehaha Falls and the lower reaches of Minnehaha Creek. It is part of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board system, and lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service.
The park was designed by the landscape architect Horace W. S. Cleveland in 1883 as part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway system, and was part of the popular steamboat Upper Mississippi River "Fashionable Tour" in the 1800's.
The park preserves historic sites that illustrate transportation, pioneering, and architectural themes. Preserved structures include the Minnehaha Princess Station and a Victorian train depot built in the 1870's.
Also in the park is the John H. Stevens House, built in 1849 and moved to the park from its original location in 1896, utilizing horses and 10,000 school children; as well as the Longfellow House, a house built to resemble Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's house in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as the Minnehaha Historic District in recognition of its state-level significance in architecture, commerce, conservation, literature, transportation, and urban planning.
-- Minnehaha Falls
The central feature of the park, Minnehaha Falls, was a favorite subject of pioneer photographers, beginning with Alexander Hesler's daguerreotype in 1852.
Although he never visited the park, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow helped to spread the waterfall's fame when he wrote his celebrated poem, The Song of Hiawatha.
The falls are located on Minnehaha Creek near the creek's confluence with the Mississippi River, near Fort Snelling. More than 850,000 people visit Minnehaha Falls each year, and it continues to be the most photographed site in Minnesota.
-- Gardens and Skunk Cabbage
Gardens in the upper park area include Longfellow Gardens, Minnehaha Falls Pergola Garden, and the Song of Hiawatha Garden.
The lower glen area offers examples of a surprisingly large number of trees that are native to Minnesota including basswood, black ash, maples, oaks, willows, and cottonwoods.
Unusual plants include the first spring-blooming plant, skunk cabbage, often blooming so early that temperatures are still freezing and snow may still be on the ground.
As the name implies, they have a disagreeable odor except to the various insects that prefer to feed on rotting flesh or dung.
By consuming carbohydrates stored in its fleshy roots, skunk cabbages can maintain a temperature inside the spathe that is 15–35 degrees warmer than the surrounding air temperature. The warmth helps attract cold-blooded, early-emerging pollinating insects during early spring when temperatures are still chilly.
As the spathe dies back, large, showy leaves emerge which die back by mid-August, making the plant difficult to find in late summer.
-- Minnehaha Park Statues
Statues in the park include a bronze sculpture of Hiawatha and Minnehaha, by Jacob Fjelde depicting Hiawatha carrying Minnehaha.
It was originally created in plaster to be exhibited in 1893, and cast in bronze and erected at the park in 1912.
Other statues commemorate several notable figures, including:
-- John H. Stevens, the first authorized resident on the west bank of the Mississippi River in what would become Minneapolis. He was granted permission to occupy the site, then part of the Fort Snelling military reservation, in exchange for providing a ferry service to St. Anthony across the river.
-- A statue of Swedish musician and poet Gunnar Wennerberg was placed in the park in 1915.
-- A mask of Dakota leader Taoyateduta (Little Crow) was placed overlooking the falls in 1992.
The Last Flight Out of Vietnam
So what else happened on the day that Hilda posted the card to Dora?
Well, on the 14th. September 1976, the International Red Cross completed its evacuation from Vietnam of foreigners who had been stranded since the fall of South Vietnam on the 30th. April 1975.
They brought out the last 215 non-Vietnam residents on a flight from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon) to Bangkok in Thailand.
In all, more than 3,000 people had been repatriated after Vietnam allowed them to leave.
A Very Expensive Computer Error
Also on that day, an F-14 fighter plane, equipped with one of the new top secret AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air guided missiles and the F-14's computerized firing and tracking system, accidentally rolled off of the deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.
The aircraft plunged into the North Atlantic and sank to a depth of 1,890 feet (580 m) at a location 75 miles (121 km) northwest of Scotland, prompting a salvage operation to prevent the Soviet Union from getting hold of the newest U.S. weapon.
According to the U.S. Navy, the F-14 Tomcat had been on the forward flight deck in preparation for a catapult-assisted take-off when the automated control system began powering up one of the jet's engines.
Because the brakes were locked, the F-14 veered at an angle across the deck while the pilot and navigator were inside.
Before the pilot could activate the fuel-cutoff valve, the jet fighter rolled off the side of the carrier while the two crew ejected to safety.
The loss of the F-14 came two weeks after one of the Soviet Union's newest jet fighters, a MiG-25, had been landed in Japan by a defecting pilot of the Soviet Air Forces.
The plane was finally located on the 31st. October 1976. Recovery of the jet and the missile cost $2.4 million, about 15% of the Tomcat's original cost of $16 million.
Vladimir Tushinsky
The 14th. September 1976 also marked the birth of Vladimir Tushinsky.
Tushinsky was a Russian serial killer and paedophile who killed at least five girls and women over a three and half year period.
He drove around Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in his Toyota 4Runner in search of lone girls, and would offer them a ride. Once under his control, he would kill them either by stabbing or strangulation.
-- The first victim was 22-year-old Ulyana Nikiforova, who worked as a saleswoman in one of the shopping centers of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; she was killed on the 12th. September 2010.
The offender, who used a knife, inflicted numerous blows to the face, head and body. The body was found in the tall grass next to the road connecting Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yelizovo.
-- Tushinsky committed the next murder a month later. On the evening of the 10th. October 2010, 15-year-old Natalya Moiseyeva was waiting for a bus, when she was seen by the criminal.
Shortly before her disappearance, the schoolgirl phoned her parents and said that she could not go home, because there was no bus; after 20 minutes her phone was out of range.
The remains of the girl were found two years later by a woman who was collecting mushrooms in the Mokhovaya micro-district.
-- On the 18th. November 2010, the criminal killed 11-year-old Olga Besprozvannaya, a high school student in Yelizovo, and then buried her corpse.
Her parents told the police about her disappearance after she did not return to the village of Dvurechye after the end of the school day. For several weeks police and volunteers searched for her, but they could only find her mobile phone, broken into pieces.
-- On the 9th. January 2011, Tushinsky killed 16-year-old Christina Orlova. The search operation again did not give any results, because, as in the Besprozvannaya case, the criminal carefully buried the body in a secret place.
-- The last murder Tushinsky committed was on the 16th. February 2014 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. He offered to give a ride to 20-year-old Irina Khodos, but she refused.
Tushinsky later reported:
"I just stopped and in a friendly way offered
to give her a lift, and she became rude. She
took out her phone, and threatened to call
the police. I got scared, got in the car, but
then I thought that she could blame me."
He inflicted more than 20 knife wounds on the girl, causing her death. He left the body at the "Stepnaya" bus stop, where it was later discovered.
Though sentenced to life imprisonment rather than execution, he died in 2016 at the age of 39 from "sudden cardiac arrest without signs of violent death" while being transferred to another prison.
