Daily Archives: May 3, 2021

The California department of fish and wildlife relies on an intricate network of citizen-informants to help do its job. The agencys secret tip line is a critical tool in the fight against wildlife crimes because, in more rural areas of the state, a single wildlife officer can be responsible for thousands of miles of territory.

Todd Kinnard is one such officer tasked with overseeing agency operations across the expansive Lassen county, five hours north-east of San Francisco by car. He was on duty when an anonymous tip came in that someone in the county was shooting raptors, birds of prey such as red-tailed and ferruginous hawks.

Raptors are not typically the subject of poaching tips. They are agile, apex predators that due to a diet consisting largely of pests such as rats, snakes, and mice tend to coexist with humans rather than compete with them.

Kinnard took the tip with a grain of salt. In Lassen county, it is not unheard of for neighbors to weaponize the departments anonymous tip line against one another out of spite. Because something as seemingly innocuous as taking one too many fish from a local pond can result in substantial government fines, grazing-rights or property-line disputes can quickly mushroom-cloud into frenzies of sometimes bogus, sometimes legitimate, tit-for-tat poaching complaints.

Kinnard drove out to the site of the alleged raptor killings to carry out a preliminary, informal knock-and-talk inquiry. It was a large-tract property, roughly 80 acres, in the unincorporated town of Standish. The property sat perched on the banks of the Susan River, a few miles east of the county seat, Susanville. The owners, Richard Parker and his wife, Tonya, were not at home at the time.

But what Kinnard saw upon entering the property was stomach-churning. A cottonwood tree near the Parkers home was strung up with grisly ornamentation several dead raptors, all at varying stages of decomposition. Other bodies were scattered around the trees base, approximately a dozen in all.

Kinnard was not prepared to bag and tag the gruesome cache of evidence dangling from the cottonwood tree. He seized what evidence he could and took the bodies to the fish and wildlife departments forensic laboratory in Sacramento.

The agencys raptor specialist examined the carcasses and was able to determine species, with corresponding protected statuses. Causes of death proved more elusive, however. The bodies had been left to field for quite some time.

Still, the probability of a dozen birds of prey dying of natural causes at the same location is spectacularly low. As the Sacramento laboratory got to work on identifying causes of death, Kinnard proceeded with his own investigation. The dead raptors recovered on that day in 2018 were only the tip of a blood-red iceberg.

Richard Parker, a seemingly ordinary country gentleman, appeared to have a secret, sadistic hobby and the anonymous tipster had led Kinnard to uncover one of the bloodiest poaching cases in California history.

Lassen county is tucked away in the sparsely populated north-east of California. It sits north of Lake Tahoe along the Nevada border, and east of Redding, the last major population center before the vast wilderness stretching between northern California and southern Oregon.

Lt Kyle Kroll, who oversees game wardens in the area, describes the region around Susanville as the Honey Lake Valley, a unique ecosystem straddling a transition zone between the desert and the mountains. But with a lot of water, he says, because the aquifers flow eastward into the desert. Its a perfect habitat for raptors, because its a rich area that attracts a lot of their prey.

Topography aside, Lassen is an entirely different world, culturally speaking, from the metropolitan sprawl of the Bay Area to its south-west, or even the exurbs and rich farmland of the nearby Sacramento Valley.

The population in 2019 was just over 30,500 residents, less than half that of the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, spread out over more than 180 times the square mileage. It is the kind of place people go to get away from the congestion of coastal Californias urban-suburban sprawl, and the many customs and regulations woven into life there.

There is a palpable anti-government streak embedded in the culture of Lassen county a dont tread on me mentality that often pits the priorities of local residents against those of state conservation officers such as Kroll and Kinnard.

Californias sole pack of wild wolves inhabits a territory encompassing parts of Lassen county. There is no love lost between the endangered canines and area ranchers, who view the pack as a direct threat to their livelihoods. (Wolves occasionally feed on cattle and sheep.)

In December of 2020, a state investigation into the shooting of a protected wolf in Lassen county laid bare these tensions by implicating a 23-year-old, sixth-generation rancher, Brett Gagnon.

I cant believe you guys would waste your time to investigate somebody for shooting a miserable wolf, Gagnons grandfather told state agents as they executed a search warrant on the family ranch.

Gagnon was not ultimately charged with the killing. Analysis of the bullet recovered from the wolfs body did not match any of the guns seized from the Gagnon home. The case remains open.

The ordeal did little to warm relations between the fish and wildlife department and county residents. And perhaps a flavor of that tension informed the politics of one Richard Parker.

As the fish and wildlife departments forensic examiners poked and prodded the bodies recovered from the Parker property, Todd Kinnard remained disturbed and restless over what he could only imagine had occurred there. He knew the physical evidence against the Parkers was damning, but not conclusive, and the agency would need solid proof that one or more members of the family were behind the brutal raptor killings in order to bring about any kind of justice.

Kinnard enacted what state agents call a Code Five surveillance plan. In March 2018, for several mornings in a row, he took up a vantage point on a neighboring property and, using a high-powered scope, staked out the Parker home.

On one of these mornings, he witnessed an individual emerging from the house, rifle in hand, later determined to be Parker, according to department officials.

Kinnard says Parker took up position in the yard, raised his rifle, and shot off several rounds in different directions. Kinnard recalls watching nearby foliage explode to life as birds fled the vicinity. He now had sufficient probable cause to corroborate the initial tip and secure a search warrant.

The warrant was served on the Parkers by a team of wildlife officers in the early hours of 11 March 2018.

Ill be honest, we thought we were only going to find what was already around that tree, Kroll recalls. But that was just one of the specks of evidence that we found. The true extent of the horror would stretch from fence to fence.

Recollecting the broader examination of the property, Kroll describes a scene of complete carnage within a 300-yard radius of the Parker home. Every bird within reach of his house, anything he could hit, was lying there on the ground. Dozens and dozens of carcasses.

It was just an unbelievable amount of evidence, Kroll says. The team needed to restrategize. Time was of the essence many of the bodies had clearly been decomposing for some time. Some were little more than skulls and delicate wing bones.

State wildlife officers assembled in a kind of phalanx formation and began meticulously surveying the property in four waves. The first wave made initial identifications of body locations, marking points on a GPS app. The second took photographs; the third recorded copious notes on the state and positioning of the carcasses. The fourth collected and bagged them.

The process created a map of the butchery, which investigators later transposed on to satellite imagery of the Parker property. It provided unsettling insight into Parkers bloody method.

As he entered his property by vehicle, any raptors hed see perched along the access road hed shoot, Kroll says. It was a row of dots along the road and around his home.

Parker, for his part, was surprised by the raid, yet calm, Kroll recalls. Kinnard obtained an admission on the scene from Parker that he had shot a red-tailed hawk just the day before. The justification offered was that he believed the raptors were killing off local game birds.

He was an upland game hunter, Kroll says, conceding that raptors are known to predate on certain species of quail, dove and pheasant, favored by sportsmen. He said he thought he was doing the game bird population a favor by eradicating the predators.

Kroll believes this may have been Parkers original intent, but it eventually became a sick sport, he speculates. There might have been an adrenaline rush; people get addicted to that. We see that from time to time with the larger-scale poaching cases.

Likewise, the map of Parkers killings seemingly refutes the notion that his motives lay chiefly with preserving the area game bird population. All of the bodies recovered from Parkers property were killed along the access road and in the immediate vicinity of his home. There is no evidence to suggest he made treks further afield to enact this purported, self-directed population-control program.

That same day, Parker was arrested and booked into Lassen county jail on charges including unlawful killing of birds of prey, killing of migratory non-game birds in violation of the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and possession of wildlife unlawfully taken.

The man wildlife agents took into custody that day had not necessarily lived a life indicative of a future sport killer. Richard Earl Parker was born and raised in Lassen county. He graduated from Susanville high school, and after receiving his bachelors degree from Sacramento State University in 1973, he returned to the area to settle down.

He became a significant figure in the Honey Lake Valley, according to local people who spoke with the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. Parker still has friends in the area. Susanville is small. And even two years after his conviction, anxiety about retaliation persists. They [dont] want to stir up anything, one local resident explains.

For 20 years, Parker was the area milkman. When the home milk-delivery business died out, he pivoted to insurance sales. He served in the Lassen County Chamber of Commerce for 15 years and participated in local theater productions.

Members of the community in Susanville say Parkers local status was polarizing. He was intensely liked by his circle of friends and confidants and intensely disliked by others.

A lot of people from his community called us after the arrest came out, Capt Patrick Foy of the department of fish and wildlife says. They acknowledged that he was a powerful, well-connected guy in the community, and there was concern he was not going to be prosecuted fairly.

Indeed, local residents tell the Guardian that Parker viewed the Honey Lake Valley as a manor and himself as its lord.

And like all standard-issue country gentlemen, Parker relished a stalk and a hunt.

Sport hunting in many parts of rural America sits at an awkward philosophical crossroads between conservationism and libertarianism. On the one hand, there is a rationale for the preservation of wild lands, which arises from a mixture of legitimate appreciation for nature and simple supply-and-demand economics: better habitats attract more creatures to hunt. On the other hand, there is a natural tension between the autonomy of the hunter and the conservationist machinations of the state.

Parker seemingly resided, for a time, at this crossroads. But the tension perhaps proved untenable for him.

In the late 1990s, shortly after purchasing the property in Standish, Parker asked state forestry authorities to set a controlled fire on his land. Parker thought the riverside property was a perfect nesting ground for waterfowl. But at the time, it was infested with whitetop, an invasive weed that chokes out competing grasses.

The controlled blaze, administered in November 1999, wiped out a mat of whitetop and made way for the areas natural weeds and grasses to take root.

What I was going to grow was wildlife, little critters, waterfowl, Parker told the Lassen County News just after the fire. My interest is to have birds and wildlife around me.

But something in Parkers philosophy would change in the ensuing years. The self-described hunter and naturalist began advocating seemingly contrary positions to the conservationist movement.

In 2013, he told the Lassen County Times, another local newspaper, that he hoped a commission tasked with making countywide economic projections would prioritize logging, largely viewed as one of the most ecologically devastating industries in the world. This committee should recommend to the people that our biggest opportunity for economic growth is timber, he said.

The inciting incident for this change of heart may have been a small-town political scandal, at the heart of which was Parker himself.

Despite the shades of anti-government spirit that pervade Lassen county, Parker seemed to crave public office. He has made several runs at various positions most recently, it appears, in 2008, for the Lassen Community College board.

In 2000, he was elected director of the Lassen municipal utility district, the public utility provider for the county. Less than a year into his tenure, citizens launched a vigorous recall effort against Parker and his fellow board members.

Organizers accused Parker of abdication of authority, violation of public trust, abuse of power, and intentional misuse of public funds arising from a proposed 162% rate hike in electrical costs for the county that year.

Public meetings in response to the proposed rate hike were vile and disorderly, according newspaper reports from the time, with community members lodging concerns that such a move would destroy the countys fragile economy.

Richard Parker was effectively villainized by the whole ordeal. The place to which he devoted years of time and effort cultivating a reputation seemed to be rejecting him. And he scrambled to shift blame first, to unnamed local environmentalists, allegedly to blame for preventing the construction of more power plants.

Bunny huggers, he called them in one public meeting, with palpable, newfound derision.

Nearly two decades after the recall effort, Parker found himself on trial for conduct that was arguably the polar opposite of bunny hugging. In April of 2019, Parker, then 68, pleaded guilty to crimes associated with poaching in excess of 150 birds of prey and other wildlife. He was sentenced to three months in jail, a $75,000 fine, and five years probation. Terms of his probation forbid him from possessing firearms or engaging in hunting or fishing of any kind.

Wildlife officers are reluctant to label crimes like Parkers serial killings, as it conflates terminology associated with homicide and animal poaching. Still, they acknowledge a distinction between the crimes of Richard Parker and your average poacher.

Poaching can be taking one too many trout from a pond, or redirecting a creek on your own property, says Foy. But there are individuals who seem to enjoy killing for the sake of killing, he says, noting that in cases where the body count is as high as Parkers, it is difficult to identify a motive other than rank cruelty or sadism.

Who knows what the true extent was, Kroll says of Parkers crimes. We uncovered a hundredfold more than we assumed wed find. But things dont last long in the wild. The true extent of the carnage was probably much greater. We truly think that his kill number was so much higher than what we were able to collect.

Kroll speculates Parkers conviction was largely attributable to the strength of the governments case against him, primarily due to forensic assistance from the federal Fish and Wildlife Service.

Because these birds are federally protected, we were in constant contact with them, Kroll says. They were an immense help because we were able to ship the [dead] birds up to their lab in Ashland, Oregon, which is really world-renowned in wildlife forensics. They spent an immense amount of time going through every piece of evidence submitted and writing a comprehensive report for each way beyond anything we could have compiled locally.

Ultimately, despite committing several federal crimes, Parker was tried in state court by the office of the former California attorney general Xavier Becerra. This, Kroll says, allowed for the story of Richard Parker bloody as it may be to inspire a happy ending.

Because of the case disposition, a huge sum of money went back into community conservation and education programs, he explains. Per the California fish code, 10% of fish and wildlife-related fines go to individual county fish and game commissions, which can reinvest those funds to the benefit of local ecology. Seventy-five hundred dollars goes a long way in Lassen county.

They might donate the money to a fishing program for inner-city youth, Kroll says, Or wildlife projects like installing [water] guzzlers for antelope in the high desert.

Its a nice way of bringing wildlife crimes full circle, he says. Despite himself, Richard Parker, one of the most extensively prosecuted poachers in California history, became an indirect bunny hugger after all.

This article was amended on 2 May 2021. An image caption in an earlier version referred incorrectly to Eagle Lake as near Standish, when it actually refers to a smaller Eagle Lake west of Lake Tahoe.

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How did a wildlife lover become one of the bloodiest poachers in California history? - The Guardian

Youve seen the clip: James Van Der Beek dissolving into exquisitely artificial tears, his lustrous blond hair blowing in the creekside breeze as his face crumples like a discarded gum wrapper. Its the reaction gif of absurd sorrow, of tragedy so overwrought as to be funny. Its dawsoncrying.gif.

Crying Dawson ruled the internet comment sections of the late 00s and early 10s. Its on the Mount Rushmore of GIFs, says TV critic Sarah D. Bunting. It was, for a while, the sight that greeted you if you navigated to a broken URL on the Huffington Post. Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life. Anyone whos been even remotely online in the past decade or so knows it.

But Crying Dawson has a secret history one that most people who saw the GIF would never know.

Dawson wept in the season three finale of the angsty teen soap Dawsons Creek, one of the most ubiquitous shows of its era. The episode, True Love, aired on May 24, 2000, and his fateful tears were the culmination of a long and tortured story arc.

Dawsons had been a pop cultural flashpoint from the time it debuted in 1998. It was all 15-year-olds speaking like thesauruses and the looming threat that someone might, at any moment, have sex. 10 Things I Hate About You would immortalize it as being the show where those Dawsons River kids are always climbing in and out of each others beds, while its beautiful teen cast frolicked through the pages of the J. Crew catalog and its theme song raced across the Billboard charts. It was achingly of its moment.

By the time its third season began airing in the fall of 1999, to the extent that Dawsons Creek had a mythology, it was the story of Dawsons love affair with his best friend Joey, played by Katie Holmes. But Joey would soon fall for Dawsons other best friend, Pacey (Joshua Jackson).

And Dawson would, ultimately, tell Joey to go to Pacey. And then he would cry and cry and cry, and pop culture history would be made.

But Dawsons decision to send Joey to Pacey was not inevitable. The entire love triangle of Dawson, Joey, and Pacey was a glorified accident, the call of a group of young and raw writers, mostly in their 20s and mostly working their first TV jobs, as they tried desperately to create order out of chaos and shape one of the flagship shows of the young and hungry WB network. When their choice paid off, it would launch the careers of some of the most influential writers in television today.

And as the writers room was crafting Dawsons tears, an entire ecosystem of pop culture observers was building up around it. The TV recap site Television Without Pity began as a Dawsons Creek hate-watching site and grew from there to become a website that broke ground for the way we continue to talk about TV more than two decades later. And it was on the forums of Television Without Pity that the first and earliest GIFs of Dawson crying would pass from computer to computer.

To find out exactly how Dawson came to cry and why that moment has had such a long afterlife, I decided to talk with the writers who made him do it and with the TV recappers who would make the moment loop in GIF form across our screens forever after. Heres our cast of recurring characters.

True Love was written by four writers all still working in the TV industry and I talked to each of them. The first, Greg Berlanti, was the showrunner for Dawsons Creek when True Love aired. He would leave the series after its fourth season to create Everwood. Eventually, he would become the executive producer in charge of the TV shows of DC Comics, and he would serve as executive producer on Brothers & Sisters, Political Animals, Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and You. In 2018, he directed Love, Simon.

The second, Tom Kapinos, would take over as Dawsons Creek showrunner after Berlanti departed. He would go on to create Californication and Lucifer.

The third, Gina Fattore, would eventually become a co-executive producer on Dawsons Creek and is remembered by fans for writing many of the pivotal Joey-Pacey love scenes. She would go on to write for Dare Me, Better Things, UnREAL, Masters of Sex, Parenthood, Californication, and Gilmore Girls.

And the fourth, Jeffrey Stepakoff, would also become a co-executive producer on Dawsons Creek. Before he joined Dawsons, he worked on shows like The Wonder Years, and afterward, he wrote and developed Disneys Tarzan and Brother Bear. In 2007, he wrote Billion-Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawsons Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing. Hes currently the head of the Atlanta-based Georgia Film Academy, which provides training for Georgians to work in the entertainment arts industry.

Meanwhile, watching and recapping every episode of Dawsons Creek were Television Without Pity cofounders Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting. Their website would become the place where pop culture commenters like NPRs Linda Holmes and Go Fug Yourselfs Jessica Morgan would cut their teeth as writers and it would be where the rest of the internet, including Pulitzer-winning TV critic Emily Nussbaum, learned how to talk about television.

But in 1998, all of that was just beginning. Here is the secret history of how a beloved but mediocre show almost fell apart, pulled itself together instead, and ended up accidentally creating contemporary pop culture in the process. Here is the story of dawsoncrying.gif.

Dawsons Creek premiered on January 20, 1998, and the fledgling WB promoted it hard. This new show, the network had decided, was going to be the show that defined the WB. It would create the network brand of beautiful angsty teenagers maybe having sex in beautiful nostalgic Americana landscapes.

Season one was not an unmitigated critical success a New York Times review called Dawsons Creek a lesson in the dangers of overhype but it was a sensation. It was the new show that everyone had to talk about. Which meant, for one of the first times in TV history, it was the new show that everyone had to talk about on the internet.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: I was working on a movie idea with [Dawsons Creek creator] Kevin Williamson. And in the midst of that, he said, I want to show you this TV show Im working on. He popped in a VHS tape, and I watched the pilot of Dawsons Creek.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: My cofounder Tara Ariano and I met on a bulletin board about Beverly Hills 90210 in the mid-90s and became bulletin board friends. We read these recaps, which were called wrap-ups, by Danny Drennan. And we then just started chatting offline.

And then Dawsons Creek premiered.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: Initially, it seemed to me a little weird that the characters all spoke like adults. But over time, I sort of fell in love with the fact that they had this kind of heightened language that was their own, but their emotions and all of the things that they were going through still made them very much teenagers. That tension, you know, I really liked.

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: None of the teens sounded like teens. They just all sounded like characters on a TV show. They were very hyperverbal. That became the charm of the show and what people liked about it; that it was this heightened reality. It wasnt a vrit style.

That was annoying to me at the time, but ultimately, Dawson was a problem. Dawson was just such a pill.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: Kevin asked me to come and work on the second season of the show as a staff writer in television for the first time. And he had been so good to me and had really kick-started my entire career. And even though I wasnt initially planning on working in TV, it sounded fun. So I did it.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: We started writing these lengthy screeds on the bulletin boards and then someone suggested that we start our own wrap-up about Dawsons Creek. Possibly so that we would shut the fuck up and let them go back to talking like normal people. But possibly because they thought it would be a good idea, which it turned out to be.

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: My husband David T. Cole is a web designer, so he made us a site called the Dawsons Wrap, and we started doing recaps. It did well enough in its first year that, after that, we went back and added a bunch of other shows. That became Mighty Big TV, and then that became Television Without Pity. And Dawson was our flagship show.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: I remember us all of us gathering around the computer to be like, Oh, theyre writing about us on the internet. This must be nice! And then realizing that, no, most of what people write about you on the internet is not very nice.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: That was the idea: that Dawsons Creek we were very unfair to it, Im sure was trying to be something and failing. And it also seemed to be oblivious to what it actually did do well.

I give it credit: It learned. It developed an intelligence about itself. And crying Dawson is Exhibit A.

As Dawsons Creek ended its second season, series creator Kevin Williamson departed the show, along with most of the original writers room. With a skeleton staff, the new Dawsons Creek struggled to find its voice. Showrunners cycled in and out of the writers room, and ratings plummeted. The TV show that the WB had built its brand around just two years earlier was now in danger of cancellation.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: At the end of season two, Kevin left, and I think every other writer on staff either left or was let go by the studio. So I was the only remaining writer from previous seasons that was on the staff at the top of season three.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: It was indescribably weird in retrospect. The first day of season three in the writers room, only Greg Berlanti had ever written an episode of Dawsons Creek before. And even he didnt go all the way back to season one.

Tom Kapinos, Dawsons Creek showrunner: I realized pretty early on that the things we were talking about in the room didnt really bear any response to the show I had watched for two years. I remember getting this feeling like, this seems like were headed for some kind of a disaster. But I didnt know what I was doing. I assumed this was just TV.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: We were having some ratings problems at the top of the season. I went off to make a movie, and I came back, and the network was making some changes to the folks that were above me, who I quite liked.

Tom Kapinos, Dawsons Creek showrunner: We had this infamous femme fatale storyline, which we hit a wall with. And then we also hit a wall with this storyline where Pacey and Jen were going to embark on a casual fuck-buddy relationship. I guess somewhere around episode eight, the network flipped out.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: Now that people dont even make those long seasons of television so much anymore, I look back and I can see how there was this rhythm to the year, and it was exhausting. Especially that season. We had a production shutdown around Thanksgiving.

Tom Kapinos, Dawsons Creek showrunner: We just had to change course. And I think Berlanti just sort of was like, Okay, this is what the show is going to be.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: The studio and the network came to me and said, What would you do?

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: It seemed as though, perhaps because Kevin Williamson had left, the rest of the team maybe felt a little bit freer to let the show become what it wanted to become. Which was not a show about Dawson.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: I had always felt like there was a real natural kind of love triangle, very much in the vein of the King Arthur tale: Arthur at the center and Lancelot and Guinevere all connecting romantically. In that story, theyre all good people and theyre all heroes. But the heart wants what it wants, and that can complicate things.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: The Joey and Pacey chemistry that was there in season one obviously worked.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: Joey and Paceys chemistry was, you know, actual chemistry, and not this sad two-wet-envelopes-lying-next-to-each-other thing that was happening with Dawson and Joey.

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: Pacey was obviously the better character and always had been. And the two of those actors were like magic to watch.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: Because I had written so many episodes, the network and the studio and the cast wanted me to step up and run the show, rather than import a new person.

I was very hesitant at first. I tried to turn it down. But they said theyd help me.

I said I would do it if they let me have an actual gay kiss between two characters. That had never happened on network TV before. And the network agreed to that. So after that, I felt like it was worth it.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: It says a lot about how much TV has changed that like we were like, Okay, were gonna set up Joey and Pacey for like 12 episodes. And also we need to end a lot of the other storylines and stuff. We didnt really get there and activate that story till the 12th episode of the season.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: When we finally did start to reorient the season around that love triangle narrative, in the back half, we were just doing stuff on the fly. But it was really connecting with the audience.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: The Joey-Pacey stuff was more interesting to recap.

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: They were so much more fun to watch, too. Thats what you want in a teen drama, is that kind of spark, and it doesnt happen that much.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: It was as atypical then as it is now for the ratings to grow for a show in season three or beyond. But the ratings started to grow again.

The actors were happy, and everybody was excited. I think we found what the show would be without Kevin there.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: By the time you get to the final beat of a story, it should be rolling downhill. If you have set everything up correctly, it should be falling into place like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: It was, in a strange way, fanservice. Because that whole season, leading up to crying Dawson, you could kind of sense that Dawson was going to get a cartoon skillet in the face.

With the Joey-Pacey-Dawson love triangle in place, the show approached its season three endgame: the moment when Dawson would have to tell Joey to go to Pacey. Fans anticipated Dawsons comeuppance eagerly. But they would have to wait for the finale, True Love, to get what they wanted: the moment when Dawson would cry.

Dawsons tears were funny out of context. But in context, they were incredibly satisfying. In the writers room, they were the culmination of an incredibly vexed and chaotic season of television. And on the boards of Television Without Pity, they were the payoff for three seasons of mounting hatred toward Dawson and everything he stood for.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: At least for our corner of the internet, it wasnt so much Will they or wont they? It was, When are they going to screw Dawson over so we can enjoy it?

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: He was not an appealing lead character. This is often a problem with shows where the leads name is in the title: They have to always make that person the hero because theyre not going to get them out of the show.

Jeffrey Stepakoff, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: John Wells used to say that writing television is like improv jazz. By the time we got to the end of the season, Greg, Tom, Gina, and me I think we had really, really good improv jazz. We were making beautiful music in the room.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: We wrote that episode, True Love, together as a group, Tom Kapinos and Jeff Stepakoff and Greg Berlanti and I. We traded off on scenes.

Tom Kapinos, Dawsons Creek showrunner: I wrote the Dawson crying scene! Who knew back then?

I actually compared the script file to the finished product, and its pretty much word-for-word. I think Greg may have tweaked a little bit of the dialogue here and there. That just goes to show how that whole season was essentially crisis mode: We were writing this stuff really quickly.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: I was the one who actually went to Wilmington [where the show was shot] with the script. I was there when they shot it. I was standing in Dawsons backyard.

Greg Berlanti, Dawsons Creek showrunner: Until you said that GIF came from the end of season three, I did not remember that. Im not saying that we had Dawson cry a lot, but

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: I dont think we would have scripted a crying response. As a general rule, our scripts were light on stage directions. They were mostly just dialogue.

Tom Kapinos, Dawsons Creek showrunner: It says, Joey makes a decision, a simple enough gesture, and in that single second, Dawsons reserve shatters. He cant hold it together anymore. Theres a little bit more talk, and he says, Just go. And then I write, And he means it. Tears streaming down his face. And then Joey backs away from the scene.

So yeah, its in there!

Television Without Pity recap, 2000: Just go, Dawson commands her. Jo, go, Im telling you, before I take it all back, all right. Just go! GO! Joey turns, and as soon as shes looking the other way, Dawsons face crumples into the most hideously misguided man-crying scene since Luke Skywalker learned the truth about his father in The Empire Strikes Back: Noooooooo! Thats not true! Thats impossible! Joey runs through the wedding. Dawson collapses in a heap of moist sobbing goo on the dock.

Gina Fattore, Dawsons Creek co-executive producer: Anytime you got to a season finale, theres just that combination of exhaustion and excitement. And it was just such a hard year in so many ways.

Ive often found that the emotions of your real life spill over into what youre making. And I know for myself, I couldnt believe that I had finally made it there. To this moment where I could just be standing in Dawsons backyard, feeling a sense of relief that we had actually done it and made it to the end.

So I was thrilled when James cried! I felt like crying myself. I was like, Okay, this is great.

Tom Kapinos, Dawsons Creek showrunner: I dont know that I meant it, you know, with that intensity. Dawson was certainly an emotional character, but I didnt think of him as someone who would break down crying like that.

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: Its just so overdone for what the moment is. Its just like, this is a fucking teenager.

Tom Kapinos, Dawsons Creek showrunner: You know, some people are ugly criers, and he was just an ugly crier. So it was just intense. I can see how it took on a life of its own.

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: Sometimes, especially when its a show that you watch every week and you get to know the characters and the actors so well, when something like this happens, you see it coming. And its like, Oh no. This is beyond the capability of what youre asking this performer to do.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: That was absolutely the most unflattering iteration of Dawsons hair and his character, that whole season. And that it culminates in this legitimately brave, I would say hideously ugly cry, where he has what appears to be a painted sea anemone attached to his head, masquerading as hair, and now its on the Mount Rushmore of GIFs? I mean, this poor man, truly.

Tara Ariano, cofounder of Television Without Pity: Like it was so funny. But also you just sort of felt bad for him, too. This is still a very young actor, and thats one of his very first roles. Playing the pathos of this moment is clearly beyond him. It was like, Oh yeah, this is not gonna be good for you. The fans are going to destroy you for this.

Sarah D. Bunting, cofounder of Television Without Pity: GIFs were miserably hard to make back then. You needed a staff. You needed to be a smart-smartie. And they were already happening. The number of screenshots people took! Or people physically using a disposable camera to photograph it. Demian, one of our moderators at the time, was the one who with a hammer and tongs crafted the first GIF and uploaded it to the forums.

People recorded it. It was a thing. But as far as thinking that in 20 years you will say crying Dawson and my almost-80-year-old parents will know what that is? I dont think I wouldve thought that.

Dawsons Creek went off the air in 2004, after six seasons of melodramatic love triangle configurations and reconfigurations. But the GIF of Dawson crying would go on much longer.

To get a grasp on the afterlife of the GIF, I spoke to some of the people who would help it live on. Filmmaker Lauren Palmigiano asked Van Der Beek to recreate the GIF for a Funny or Die meme in 2011 in a sketch that rocketed across the internet. And Nahnatchka Khan, the director of Always Be My Maybe and showrunner for Fresh Off the Boat, would draw on the legacy of the GIF when she had Van Der Beek parody himself in her cult-classic sitcom Dont Trust the B in Apartment 23.

Meanwhile, I asked internet culture reporters Miles Klee and EJ Dickson to weigh in on exactly why the Dawson Crying GIF endured so long and why it was probably one of the first GIFs many people ever saw.

Nahnatchka Khan, showrunner for Dont Trust the B in Apartment 23: I feel like it was one of the first ones to go really viral? Its just the perfect length: At first, you dont think hes going to go as far as he does and then he goes to the final face. Its certainly one of the first GIFs I can remember seeing.

Miles Klee, internet culture writer: This GIF is really peaking in the five to 10 years after the show ended, especially around the 2009 to 2011 era, when Tumblr culture and some of those adjacent subcultures were very preoccupied with very recent nostalgia for things from high school or just a few years ago. That was the kind of peak for that scene. Youd use it to indicate any kind of histrionic emotion.

EJ Dickson, senior culture writer for Rolling Stone and former editor for the Daily Dot: It was probably one of the first GIFs I ever saw. My understanding is that use of this GIF was primarily taking place on Tumblr. I dont know if GIFs were as integrated into our cultural lexicon then as they are today.

Lauren Palmigiano, filmmaker: I was a writer/director at Funny or Die. Often celebrities would be interested in doing something silly with us, and James came in for a meeting. Usually, the deal when someone comes in is the writers have all met beforehand and come up with ideas for this person, and they come into the room and we just start throwing ideas. James liked a bunch of ours, and he got the joke and was down to make fun of himself, so we ended up doing a full Van Der Week.

Nahnatchka Khan, Dont Trust the B in Apartment 23 showrunner: When we were looking to shoot the pilot for Dont Trust the B in 2011, I knew I wanted Chloe [played by Krysten Ritter] to have a friend who was playing themselves. It felt like she would be friends with someone famous. Our casting director put together a small list of zeitgeist actors who were the right age, who were really funny actors, who would be down to play themselves.

James was at the top of the list. He did a bunch of Funny or Die videos where he made fun of himself. He seemed to have a great sense of humor.

So we sat down with him, and he was so game for everything. He completely got the joke.

Lauren Palmigiano, filmmaker: One of the pitches came from me. The crying meme was the most internet-y thing about James Van Der Beek, so I thought, why not make more? We thought, lets celebrate it, make more of them, add to it. And it might be something that makes some noise on the internet. Which was always the goal at Funny or Die: to make something that will get people clicking.

And James had a really great sense of humor about it. He already knew about the meme. He said people had sent it to him before.

James Van Der Beek makes Vandermemes for Funny Or Die in 2011

I had actually been a Dawsons Creek fan growing up. I dont remember clocking his crying when I watched it on the show, but I do remember thinking the scene was heartbreaking. They were breaking up! It was awful. I did love the Pacey years, though.

Nahnatchka Khan, Dont Trust the B in Apartment 23 showrunner: We talked about doing some reference to that GIF, but I dont think it ever made it into the final shooting script. But he would have been down with it. Its iconic! Even when we were shooting the show, back in 2012, it was known.

Miles Klee, internet culture writer: The popularity of that GIF maybe speaks to that feeling that the stuff you liked as a teen is pretty cringe when you think about it. You were maybe obsessed with it at that time, and you go back and youre like, Oh, lol, its these older people playing teens, written by older people who are pretending to know what teens do today.

But because it is using these heightened teenager emotions, which are a real thing, its also timeless. Youre cringing at your past self but also recognizing why these things had such power over you.

EJ Dickson, senior culture writer for Rolling Stone: Its the same as the Saved by the Bell Im So Excited meme. It resonates in the same way. The cast was on this teen show that wasnt taken seriously, they were attempting to do a dramatic scene, and the actors were extremely earnestly trying to communicate this tonal shift. James Van Der Beek clearly took it extremely seriously, and the earnestness just backfired so tremendously. And theres nothing the internet loves more than failed earnestness.

Miles Klee, internet culture writer: I would compare this GIF to that moment on The Simpsons when Lisa dumps Ralph Wiggums publicly in this really humiliating way. And then Bart keeps replaying the moment, and hes like, You guys, look, if you slow it down, you can see the exact moment that his heart tears in half.

And when you see that GIF, you actually do have the visceral, physical feeling of your heart exploding, just torn asunder. Thats what the face is conveying. Its just this total collapse.

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An oral history of the Dawson crying GIF and its outsized legacy - Vox.com

For 13 months, investors have enjoyed an almost uninterrupted rally for the ages. Since the iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES:^DJI), benchmark S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC), and technology-reliant Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) hit their bear-market bottoms on March 23, 2020, these widely followed indexes have gained 83%, 87%, and 106%, respectively, through April 26.

In one respect, things couldn't possibly be better for equities. The Federal Reserve has pledged to keep lending rates at or near historic lows for years. Meanwhile, Washington seems to be rolling out one trillion-dollar spending package after another. We could be on the cusp of one of the strongest growth periods for the U.S. economy that we've seen in decades.

On the other hand, the stock market isn't known to go up in a straight line. History tells a far different story of what's to potentially come -- and you may not like it.

Image source: Getty Images.

To state the obvious, it's impossible to precisely pick when a stock market crash will occur, how long it'll last, how steep the decline will be, and in many instances, what'll be the primary cause of the crash. Last year, few had "once-in-a-century pandemic" penciled in on their cheat sheets.

Nevertheless, history is pretty clear that when certain parameters are hit, a crash or sizable correction has occurred. Although the market doesn't follow averages to a T, it does tend to mirror history quite closely.

For months, the biggest telltale indicator of an upcoming crash has been the S&P 500's Shiller price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, which is also commonly known as the cyclically adjusted P/E ratio (CAPE). The S&P 500's Shiller P/E is a measure of average inflation-adjusted earnings from the previous 10 years.

On April 26, with the S&P 500 closing at a fresh all-time high, the Shiller P/E ratio crept up to 37.62. That's well over double the average Shiller P/E (16.81) for the benchmark index since 1870 and its highest level since the dot-com bubble nearly two decades ago.

But doubling up the average S&P 500 Shiller P/E ratio throughout history isn't what's scary. What's worrisome is if you analyze how the S&P 500 responded each and every time the Shiller P/E has previously hit and sustained a ratio above 30 during a bull market. The 30 level has only been breached five times since 1870 in a continuous bull market, and in each of the previous four instances, the S&P 500 eventually declined by 20% to 89% from its peak. Though a Great Depression-esque 89% plunge is extremely unlikely today, a 20% or greater decline is quite possible, based on history.

Image source: Getty Images.

And that's not all.

History has given us an inside look at what happens following bear-market declines, too.

Since 1960 (a year I've chosen for the sake of simplicity), there have been nine bear markets. In each of the previous eight (i.e., not including the coronavirus crash), there was at least one double-digit percentage crash or correction within three years of reaching the bear-market bottom. In aggregate, these eight bear markets yielded 13 double-digit moves lower within three years of a bottom. That's one or two sizable crashes or corrections following every bear market.

As a reminder, we're more than 13 months removed from the S&P 500's bear-market bottom and we've yet to see a double-digit decline in the index.

Keeping in mind that the market doesn't strictly adhere to averages, it's also worth pointing out that the S&P 500 has experienced a 10% or greater decline once every 1.87 years since 1950.

Big declines are commonplace in the stock market, but there's no need for them to be feared.

Image source: Getty Images.

One of the more interesting statistics that often gets overlooked about stock market crashes and corrections is how quickly they're over.

Out of 38 double-digit declines in the S&P 500 since the beginning of 1950, 24 of these dips have resolved in 104 or fewer calendar days. That's about 3.5 months. Another seven found their trough somewhere between 157 and 288 calendar days, or between five and 10 months. That leaves just seven double-digit declines in 71 years that took more than a year to find a bottom.

Even more important, history tells us that crashes and correction are a surefire buying opportunity. Though "surefire" isn't a word to toss around lightly when it comes to investing, each and every one of these 38 double-digit declines was eventually put in the rearview mirror by a bull market rally.

If you have a long-term mindset, history can be your greatest ally.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Is a Stock Market Crash in the Cards? Here's What History Tells Us - Motley Fool

The Minnesota Timberwolves will miss the playoffs for the 16th time in 17 years, and even though they just went on a four-game winning streak and have won six of their last nine games, it doesnt mean much for this season.

Lets look back on the various iterations of ABA basketball in Minnesota and their successful runs that ended all too quickly.

To help set the stage: Minnesota basketball fans love to claim the Lakers first five championships, and rightfully so. But that team history resides in Los Angeles now, and so do those banners, so they are excluded from this article.

Even though Minnesota was the face of basketball during the 50s, once the Lakers left in 1960, the state was without a team for seven years until theMinnesota Muskies came along in 1967.

The Muskies were an American Basketball Association (ABA) franchise and were one of the 11 teams formed in the inaugural season.

Minnesota Legend George Mikan, was the commissioner of the league and his office resided in Minneapolis, so of course, Minnesota needed a team. Jim Pollard, another Minneapolis Laker legend, was hired to coach the Muskies, and the Metropolitan Sports Center was their home arena.

The Muskies struck gold in their initial off-season convincing center Mel Daniels, who was a first-round selection in the NBA, to sign with the ABA. Along with Daniels, the Muskies found two more pillars in guard Donnie Freeman and Les Big Game Hunter. All three were selected for the first ABA All-Star Game.

The Muskies started slowly in their inaugural season and found themselves sitting with a 1-4 record. After a week of play, however, the young team found their chemistry and won 16 of their next 19 games.

Finishing the season with a 50-28 record, Pollards best season of coaching by far, the Muskies were the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Division and held the second-best record overall. Mel Daniels was named the first-ever ABA Rookie of the Year.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Muskies faced the Kentucky Colonels, a team they traded wins with the entire season, ultimately going 5-5 vs them.

The first round proved to be no different with both teams trading victories and neither team winning two games in a row. Luckily for the Muskies, they took game one of the five-game series and advanced 3-2 onto the next round to face the Pittsburgh Pipers.

Although the Muskies beat the Pipers four times that season, the Pipers had their number securing seven victories, and that dominance continued in the playoffs.

With every defeat being decided by single digits, the Muskies were only able to prevail in game two 137-123 and lost the series, 4-1. Losing Game 1 and Game 3 by eight points and Games 4 and 5 by nine.

The Pipers went on to defeat the New Orleans Buccaneers in Game 7 in an incredibly tight series where every single contest was won by single digits.

Even though the Muskies almost made the championship games, they struggled to get fans interested, reportedly only having 100 season ticket holders and an inflated 2,800 fan average in theMetropolitan Sports Center, which sat 15,000. It was estimated that the Muskies lost $400,000 in their first season.

Muskies management decided to move the team for its second season to Miami to become the Miami Floridians, and the champion Pittsburgh Pipers were forced to come to Minneapolis to take the Muskies place as Minneapolis attorney Bill Erickson bought a majority share of the team.

This marked the beginning of the Minnesota Pipers.

Led by league MVP Connie Hawkins, the Minnesota Pipers looked to run it back, and, in turn, attract more fans than the inaugural season of the Muskies.

The Pipers started hot, winning seven of their first nine games under coach Jim Harding.

But four of the teams starters suffered serious injuries at least in part due to long, difficult practices: Hawkins, Charlie Williams, Chico Vaughn, and Art Heyman suffered serious injuries due to long and frequent practices run by Harding. (The Tom Thibodeau before Tom Thibodeau?)

Harding was selected as the All-Star coach, but according to Basketball Weekly, he physically attacked Pipers chairman Gabe Rubin and was immediately released.

This began the downfall.

The Pipers started 18-8 under Jim Harding but were unable to find a new coach right away and General Manager Vern Mikkelsen filled in until they found Verl Young to coach their team. Young did not nearly have the same amount of success, and they finished the season 10-23, including an eight-game losing streak.

The Pipers season ended with a 36-42 record, but they started just well enough to just sneak into the playoffs.

In the first round, ironically enough they faced the Miami Floridians, formerly known as the Minnesota Muskies. The Pipers fell in Game One but bounced back in both Game Two and Three, winning by scores of 106-99 and 109-93, respectively.

The Floridians sneaked away with a win in Game Four and dismantled the Pipers in Game Five, 122-107.

With the series on the line, Connie Hawkins dropped 33 points in Game Six, and five other Pipers scored in double figures to secure the 105-100 victory. But in the end, it was the Floridians who prevailed 137-128 in game seven.

Yet again failing to get fans interested, even after lowing ticket prices to $2, the Pipers lost an estimated $400,000.

The Pipers moved back to Pittsburgh after the season.

Another ABA team did not come to Minnesota until 2006, the inaugural season of theMinnesota Ripknees. Yes, the Ripknees.

The Ripknees, owned by father-son duo John and William Jurewicz, played their games at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, home to the Division-II Concordia Golden Bears.

They had a successful first season, going 24-8 and earning first place in their division, but financial disputes prevented them from ever playing in the playoffs.

In their second and last season, the Ripknees joined the Premier Basketball League, but the team was immediately sold and the relationship with the PBL was terminated. The team folded in 2008.

Even though the Timberwolves havent exactly had a lot of success, at least they are still in Minnaepolis. It seems like teams that do end up succeeding either leave or end up folding, so heres hoping that isnt in the cards for the current iteration of mens professional basketball in the Twin Cities.

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Minnesota Timberwolves: History of non-Wolves professional mens teams in Minnesota - Dunking with Wolves

WASHINGTON A sparsely packed chamber. No special guests. Everyone in masks.

President Joe Biden's address to a joint session of Congress was unlike any in modern history due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. With no more than 200 folks permitted for an event that can hold up to 1,500, an event known for its glad-handing cadence and rousing momentswas destined to be subdued.

"While the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is very different a reminder of the extraordinary times we are in," Biden said, acknowledging the scene before him of strategically spaced lawmakers.

As it happened: Biden focuses on American Families Plan, COVID during speech to Congress

President Biden says 'America is on the move again' after nearly 100 days in office

President Joe Biden addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time after nearly 100 days into his presidency.

STAFF VIDEO, USA TODAY

The few dozen lawmakers who attended were assigned to specific seats and couldn't move once they were in place. Some sat in the balcony of the chamber, known as the gallery, usually reserved for guests.

Despite the partisanship that normally resides in the U.S. Capitol, thevibe before the speech was relaxed and amicable, with members fist-bumping each other and gathering in small clusters all wearing masks, as required by House rules.

Two veterans Republican Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland chatted while sitting next to one anotherbefore Hoyer had to leave to join the escort team that would usherBiden into the House chamber.

Some members took selfies with each other. Some sat quietly scrolling through their phones as they waited for senators to make their way in. Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, the GOP caucus chair, traded friendly words with South Carolina Democrat James Clyburn.

The brown leather seats were marked either with the name of a lawmaker or a paper sheet saying no one could sit there.

Underscoring the socially distanced feel of the event, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, standing in forthe nine-member court by himself, fist-bumpedArmy Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also was his respective group's sole representative.

With an appreciative bow to the cheering lawmakers, Jill Biden took her seat near second gentlemen Doug Emhoff in the first ladys box that would normally be packed with special guests the president would introduce during key inflection points of his speech. This time, they were all watching virtually.

But even those who were in the gallery near Biden got no more than a wave and a few words from a socially safe distance.

More: Biden is turbocharging the economy with stimulus. Will he smother it with regulation?

More: Joe Biden made climate change a priority of his presidency, but progressives want him to go bigger

Not everylawmaker was itching to attend Biden's speech.

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio opted not to even try, saying the security protocols alone would have been a "hassle."

"If it was a normal State of the Union, I would definitely go," he told Capitol Hill reporters Tuesday. "I figured, if I'm gonna sit in the last row at the top balcony, why don't I just watch it on TV? I probably hear better."

The speech, which falls just before his 100th day as president, was the first time Biden has addressed Congress since entering the White House. He spent muchof hisremarks selling his $1.8 trillion plan to boostprograms for families, students and children and a $2.3 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan. Both need congressional approval.

More: There's no 'designated survivor' for Biden's first speech to Congress. Here's why.

It was the third role Biden has played in such speeches and the first time he was the one delivering it. He attended many of them during his 36 years as a senator from Delaware, starting with President Richard Nixon. Then, for eight years, he sat behind President Barack Obama on the dais as his vice president.

Early on in his speech Wednesday, he paid homage to his vice president, Kamala Harris, the first woman to hold that position and, as a result, the first woman to preside over the Senate during a presidential address.

"Madam Vice President," Biden said as he turned to her. "No president has ever said those words from this podium, and its about time."

That drew one of the few bipartisan standing ovations, along with his call to end cancer, his plea to Americans to "get vaccinated now," and his salute to wife, Jill, at the beginning of his address.

A smaller crowd also highlighted the security in the chamber.

Plainclothes security stood guard at every doorway, a reminder that the Capitol still was recovering from the damage inflicted on Jan. 6 by a pro-Trump mob intent on stopping the ceremonial tabulation of the Electoral College votes affirming Biden's victory in November.

When he was finished with his roughly 70-minute speech, Biden gathered with Democratic lawmakers near the well of the house as they gave him congratulatory praise.

And then he bumped their fists.

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Published10:10 am UTC Apr. 29, 2021Updated2:15 pm UTC Apr. 29, 2021

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Why President Joe Biden's speech to Congress was unlike any other in modern history - USA TODAY

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) On May 4, 1871 the first-ever professional league baseball game was played in Fort Wayne as the host Kekiongas beat the Cleveland Forest Citys 2-0 at what is now Camp Allen Park on the westside of downtown.

With the 150th anniversary approaching, WANE-TV brought you a half hour special entitled Summit City Hardball History to celebrate the importance of that game and Fort Waynes place in baseballs storied history. The full show is listed above, with the show edited into its four segments below.

The show aired at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 1 on WANE-TV and was hosted by WANE-TV sports director Glenn Marini.

The first segment (below) chronicles the evolution of the 1871 game with Major League Baseballs official historian John Thorn and local baseball historian Chad Gramling, author of the book Baseblal in Fort Wayne. The first segment also includes a story on Babe Ruth and the Murderers Row Yankees stopping mid-summer in 1927 to play in the Summit City as recounted by Blake Sebring, author of the book Fort Wayne Sports History.

Segment two focuses on how Fort Wayne played a role in the diversification of Americas past time. That includes a recollection of Jackie Robinsons most famous visit to Fort Wayne in 1962. Colton Howard also reports on Noble county native Ford Frick, who eventually became the third commissioner of Major League Baseball, and prior to that played an integral role as the president of the National League when Robinson broke baseballs color barrier. Tim Tassler, the chair of the Kekionga Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, also regales baseball fans with the history of Black Baseball in Fort Wayne, including when it was at its peak with the Fort Wayne Colored Giants of the 1920s.

In the third segment of the show author Don Graham, who wrote the recently published book Daisies, Diamonds, and Dugouts, discusses the history of the Fort Wayne Daises in the Summit City, as the franchise played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1945-54. Dennis Auger, a published biographer for the Society for American Baseball Research, tells the tale of Avilla native Chick Stahl, a turn of the century star from northeast Indiana who was on his way to a Hall of Fame career before committing suicide in 1907. The segment closes with a look back at the unique career of Maples native Harley Hisner, who stands as a footnote in baseball history as the pitcher to give up Joe DiMaggios last hit while pitching just one game in the big leagues in 1951.

The fourth and final segment brings you up to date on the current status of baseball in Fort Wayne, as professional baseball returned to the Summit City on April 19, 1993 when the Fort Wayne Wizards hosted their first game against Peoria at the newly constructed War Memorial Stadium. Presently, the Fort Wayne TinCaps will serendipitously open their 2021 season on May 4 at Parkview Field 150 years to the day of the famous Kekiongas game, and just over a mile as the crow flies southeast of the where the Grand Duchess used to stand.

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Summit City Hardball History: Celebrating 150 Years of Baseball in Fort Wayne - WANE

One of the most infamous World War II inventions is the atomic bomb. In August 1945, the United States launched its first (and so far, only) nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated 110,000 to 210,000 people.

While the bomb stands out for its devastating impact, there were many other nonlethal innovations during the war in the fields of medicine and technology that have drastically reshaped the world.

Some of these innovations were based on research or designs predating the war that werent able to take off until the U.S. or British governments funded these projects to help the Allied forces. Here are six innovations that came out of that development surge.

A guinea pig being inoculated to determine type of pneumonia and aid in diagnosis of other infectious diseases on the U.S.S. Solace, Navy Hospital Ship, c. 1942.

Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

The influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919 had a major effect on World War I, and it motivated the U.S. military to develop the first flu vaccine. Scientists began to isolate flu viruses in the 1930s, and in the 1940s, the U.S. Army helped sponsor the development of a vaccine against them.

The U.S. approved the first flu vaccine for military use in 1945 and for civilian use in 1946. One of the lead researchers on the project was Jonas Salk, the U.S. scientist who would later develop the polio vaccine.

Pandemics: Full Coverage

Injured British Pvt. F. Harris waits for a medic to inject penicillin in preparation for an operation on a hospital train on its way to a station in England. Harris was wounded during an attack on a position in Normandy.

Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Before the widespread use of antibiotics like penicillin in the United States, even small cuts and scrapes could lead to deadly infections. The Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, but it wasnt until World War II that the United States began to mass-produce it as a medical treatment.

Manufacturing penicillin for soldiers was a major priority for the U.S. War Department, which touted the effort as a race against death in one poster. Military surgeons were amazed by how the drug reduced pain, increased the chance of survival and made it easier for nurses and doctors to care for soldiers on the battlefield.

The United States considered the drug so critical to the war effort that, to prepare for the D-Day landings, the country produced 2.3 million doses of penicillin for the Allied troops. After the war, civilians gained access to this life-saving drug, too.

WATCH: D-Day: The Untold Stories on HISTORY Vault

The first jet propulsion engine designed by Frank Whittle, c. 1938. In May 1941 the jet-propelled craft took off from Cranwell in the first real proof that jet propulsion was a viable alternative to the propeller.

Power Jets Ltd/SSPL/Getty Images

Frank Whittle, an English engineer with the Royal Air Force, filed the first patent for the jet engine in 1930. But the first country to fly a jet engine plane was Germany, which performed a flight test of its model on August 27, 1939, just a few days before the country invaded Poland.

Both Germany and Japan had been really getting ready for World War II for about a decade, says Rob Wallace, the STEM education specialist at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

With the onset of the war, the British government developed planes based on Whittles designs. The first Allied plane to use jet propulsion took flight on May 15, 1941. Jet planes could go faster than propeller planes, yet also required a lot more fuel and were more difficult to handle. Though they didnt have an impact on the war (they were still early in their development), jet engines would later transform both military and civilian transportation.

WATCH: Modern Marvels: Jet Engines on HISTORY Vault

Medics tending to a wounded soldier on D-Day, administer a blood plasma transfusion.

ullstein bild/Getty Images

During World War II, a U.S. surgeon named Charles Drew standardized the production of blood plasma for medical use.

They developed this whole system where they sent two sterile jars, one with water in it and one with freeze-dried blood plasma and theyd mix them together, Wallace says.

Unlike whole blood, plasma can be given to anyone regardless of a persons blood type, making it easier to administer on the battlefield.

The women seen here belonged to the Women's Royal Naval Service, (WRNS) October 1943.Colossus was the world's first electronic programmable computer at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, where cryptographers deciphered top-secret military communiques between Hitler and his armed forces.

SSPL/Getty Images

In the 1940s, the word computers referred to people (mostly women) who performed complex calculations by hand. During World War II, the United States began to develop new machines to do calculations for ballistics trajectories, and those who had been doing computations by hand took jobs programming these machines.

READ MORE: When Computer Coding Was a Womans Job

The programmers who worked on the University of Pennsylvanias ENIAC machine included Jean Jennings Bartik, who went on to lead the development of computer storage and memory, and Frances Elizabeth Betty Holberton, who went on to create the first software application. Lieutenant Grace Hopper (later a U.S. Navy rear admiral) also programmed the Mark I machine at Harvard University during the war, and went on to develop the first computer programming language.

In Britain, Alan Turing invented an electro-mechanical machine called the Bombe that helped break the German Enigma cipher. While not technically what wed now call a computer, the Bombe was a forerunner to the Colossus machines, a series of British electronic computers. During the war, programmers like Dorothy Du Boisson and Elsie Booker used the Colossus machines to break messages encrypted with the German Lorenz cipher.

Personnel manning a radar scope during World War II.

Time Life Pictures/US Navy/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

MITs Radiation Laboratory, or Rad Lab, played a huge role in advancing radar technology in the 1940s. However, the labs original goal was to use electromagnetic radiation as a weapon, not a form of detection.

Their first idea that they had was that if we could send a beam of electromagnetic energy at a plane, maybe we could kill the pilot by cooking them or something, Wallace says. The cooking thing wasnt working, but they were getting bounce-back that they could receive and they had the idea that they could use electromagnetic radiation just like they used sound radiation in sonar. So they started working on radar.

Radar helped the Allied forces detect enemy ships and planes. Later, it proved to have many non-military uses, including guiding civilian crafts and detecting major weather events like hurricanes.

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6 World War II Innovations That Changed Everyday Life - History