Author: Bill Thompson

On August 6, 1945, the United States became the first — and so far, only — nation to use a nuclear weapon in war. That was the day the Enola Gay dropped a bomb codenamed “Little Boy” that decimated the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

But Hiroshima didn’t have to happen.

And in 1991, I met a man who tried to prevent it.

His name was Martin Quigley. In World War Two he worked for the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS — the forerunner tp the CIA.

Quigley told me that in finding and recruitingv just the right person to get a message to Tokyo, he had a critical choice to make:

So Martin Quigley got secret messsages through his contact to the Japanesee foreign ministry, in the form of two diplomatic cables.
In any case, the communication continued — and Martin Quigley put his mark on history:

Martin Quigley died in 2011 at age 93.

Among the large field of Democrats runnin for president in 2020 is 67-year-old author and activist Marianne Williamson.

She waged an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 2014, and announced last January that she would seek the Democratic nomination for president.

The principles she’s running on now were apparent 22 years ago, in 1997, when I talked with her about her then-newly-published book called “The Healing of America.”

A “Now I’ve Heard Everything” disclaimer: this interview should not be seen as an endorsement of the Williamson candidacy. In this forum, I neither endrose nor oppose any candidate.

On the night of July 25, 1956, the Italian luxury liner “Andrea Doria” was struck by the Swedish liner “Stockholm” about 40 miles off Nantucket, and sank some 11 hours later.

It wasn’t on the scale of the Titanic, but 46 people died.

Among the surviving passengers aboard the Andrea Doria that night was nine-year-old Pierette Domenica Simpson, looking forward to arriving in America with her grandparents from their native Italy.

In 2006 she wrote a book about her shipwreck experience. That’s when I met her.

A snowstorm in 1987 changed Jami Goldman’s life forever.

She was 19 at the time, driving home with a friend from a ski trip, when their car slid into a snow bank along an isolated northern Arizona road.

The women were stranded and alone for 11 days. By the time they were rescued, Jami had suffered severe frostbite, and lost both legs.

But instead of accepting life as a paraplegic, Jami began running. Yes, running, on specially-made prosthetic legs. Eventually she became a competitive runner, and inspirational speaker.

I met her in 2001:

Last weekend we all celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

And one of the most important behind-the-scenes people responsible for the success of the mission — indeed, the success of the entire U.S. space program — was an extraordinary aerospace engineer named Chris Kraft.

He was instrumental in establishing what we now know as “Mission Control.”

Kraft lived just long enough to mark that big anniversary last week. Yesterday, he passed away at age 95.

I talked with Chris Kraft in 2001:

The answer: This iconic host of “Jeopoardy” since 1984 is marking his 79th birthday today, July 22nd.

Who is Alex Trebek?

I had so much fun that day, in November 1990, talking to the great Alex Trebek, who was promoting a book called, appropriately enough, the “Jeopardy Book.”

Get ready now for some real behind the scenes stuff about the show America can’t get enough of.

On July 20th, 1969, Buzz Aldrin was 39 years old, a few months older than Neil Armstrong, as the two men became the first human beings ever to set foor on the moon.

Circling above them in the Apollo 11 command module was Michael Collins, age 38.

Now, Neil Armstrong died seven year ago, but Aldrin and Collins — both approaching 90 now — are still here to mark the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most significant days in all iof human history.

I was privileged to meet and interview both men — Collins in 1988, Aldrin in 2000

Fifty years ago tonight, a young woman lost her life in a car accident in Massachusetts.

Her name was Mary Jo Kopechne. She was 28 years old. She was the passenger in a car that drove off a very narrow bridge and ended up in the water. She was trapped inside, and drowned.

The driver of the car: Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy.

The scene of the accident was a small island called Chappaquiddick.

Many believe the Chappaquiddick incident influenced Ted Kennedy’s decision not to run for President in 1972 and 1976,

In the late 1980s, journalist Leo Damore succeeded in breaking through a years-long wall of silence about Chappaquiddick, in a New York Times bestselling book called “Senatorial Privilege.” I talked with him in 1989.

This story ends in more tragedy.

Just six years after this interview, Damore was broke, depressed, about to be evicted from his home. He shot and killed himself in 1995 at the age of 65.

Sen. Ted Kennedy died of brain cancer in 2009, at the age of 77.

Who doesn’t love a good chocolate chip cookie?

One of the best was the original “Famous Amos” cookies, created by Wally Amos, who, as a young man, used to bake cookies with his aunt. He took her recipe, added some unusual ingredients, and .. presto.

But nearly three decades ago, Amos lost his company — and was then actually sued over the use of his own name, when he tried to start a new cookie company.

He explained igt to me in our 1994 conversation.

Twenty years ago today, the nation was shocked by the tragic news of the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette in the crash of their small plane in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard. He was 38 years old.

A dozen years later, a book came out, by JFK Jr’s onetime executive assistant, gatekeeper, and confidante, RoseMarie Terenzio. She told me in a 2012 interview that her five years working with Kennedy at “George” Magazine was like a fairy tale.