the cat and mouse | past present future
me myself iArchive for July, 2007
my beer personality?
| You Are Corona |
 You don’t drink for the love of beer. You drink to get drunk. You prefer a very light, very smooth beer. A beer that’s hardly a beer at all. And while you make not like the taste of beer, you like the feeling of being drunk. You drink early and often. Sometimes with friends. Sometimes alone. All the party needs is you! |
masculine or feminine?
| You Are 59% Feminine, 41% Masculine |
 You are in touch with both your feminine and masculine sides. You’re sensitive at the right times, but you don’t let your emotions overwhelm you. You’re not a eunuch, just the best of both genders. |
Top 25 Influential Business Leaders
These leaders — with products ranging from coffee to microprocessors — are the 25 most influential business leaders of the past 25 years, as ranked by USA TODAY’s Money section editors and reporters.
AFP/Getty Images
1 Bill Gates, Microsoft
Gates co-founded Microsoft and used tough business tactics to dominate PC operating systems. But his most lasting influence may be in philanthropy as he gives away his $56 billion fortune.
By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY
2 Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman
Greenspan was the maestro who presided over the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. His words moved global markets and still do, even out of office.
By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images
3 Steve Jobs, Apple
Co-founder of Apple, Jobs was ousted in a boardroom coup in 1985. But he prospered in exile, buying Pixar, the company that redefined animation. He returned to Apple in 1997, and the rest is history: iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone.
By Ben Margot, AP
4 Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google founders
The two Stanford University grad students founded Google in 1998, and in less than a decade, the innovative search company has grown to dominate online searches and advertising.
Bloomberg News.
5 Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines
Kelleher, now chairman, expanded low-cost airline Southwest’s service nationwide over the past 25 years and created a fun-loving corporate culture that changed the flying experience for millions of people, on top of saving them billions on fares.
By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY
6 Andy Grove, Intel
Grove popularized the phrase “only the paranoid survive,” but the paranoia paid off: Grove’s leadership helped create tech behemoth Intel with a market cap of more than $150 billion.
By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY
7 Jack Welch, General Electric
With Welch as CEO from 1981-2001, GE’s market value grew from $14 billion to $410 billion. But his most enduring legacy may be the lieutenants who left to run other companies, such as Boeing’s James McNerney.
Getty Images
8 Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway
The Sage of Omaha pushed the price of Berkshire Hathaway, his holding company, up more than 14,000% the past 25 years, and his public statements, particularly his annual reports, are read more closely than any other document in business.
Bloomberg News
9 Charles Schwab, investments
Schwab saw the promise in a no-frills, low-cost brokerage and ran with it, making stock trading affordable to a new generation of investors. Today, he’s probably the nation’s most visible advocate of do-it-yourself investing.
By Fred Prouser, Reuters
10 Michael Milken, junk bonds
Milken may conjure up images of inside trading (he served two years in prison for violating securities laws), but his legacy is providing financing to entrepreneurs. He raised money from investors in the form of high-yield debt (junk bonds) to finance start-ups such as MCI.
By Marcus R. Donner, AP
11 Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
Bezos helped ignite the dot-com boom when he founded Amazon.com to sell books online. Amazon weathered the dot-com bust, and is one of the most popular Web retailers
By Mike Segar, Reuters
12 Rupert Murdoch, News Corp.
The last and most polarizing of the larger-than-life megamedia moguls, Murdoch has left his mark on TV, movies, newspapers, books, sports, the Internet and,if Dow Jones accepts his $5 billion acquisition offer, The Wall Street Journal.
By Rogelio Solis, AP
13 Frederick Smith, FedEx
Smith founded Federal Express in 1973, creating the business category of overnight delivery. Now, the Memphis-based company is a $35.2-billion-a-year global operator that includes heavy freight, trucking and supply-chain management, plus the FedEx/Kinko’s retail stores.
By Jack Smith, AP
14 Phil Knight, Nike
Knight re-imagined sneakers into pricey, gotta-have-em jock wear. He plopped a pair of Nikes onto young Michael Jordan, and both took off and never stopped running. Bo, Lance and Tiger followed. Just do it. He did it.
By Jessica Kourkounis, AP
15 Ken Lay, Enron
Ken Lay was the public face of the energy company that became the poster child for bad corporate behavior in the 21st century. After Enron’s collapse in an accounting scandal, similar frauds surfaced at WorldCom and elsewhere, leading to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the most sweeping reform of securities laws in 70 years.
By Charles Rex Arbogast. AP
16 Oprah Winfrey, Harpo
Oprah was the first woman to produce and own her own TV show and that led to a media empire that includes TV, Broadway-show production, O magazine, a website and mini-series production.
Bloomberg News
17 Michael Dell, Dell
Why waste your college years on beer if you can create a giant company in your dorm room? At 19, Dell took $1,000 and started a computer maker he named after himself. A decade or so later, it was the world’s largest maker of PCs.
By David McNew, Getty Images
18 Meg Whitman, eBay
Meg Whitman left her job as general manager for Hasbro’s preschool division to join eBay as CEO in May 1998. Today, she’s still leading one of dot-comÕs biggest successes. EBay, a marketplace for buyers and sellers across the world, has become one of the Web’s most-imitated phenomena
AFP/Getty Images
19 Howard Schultz, Starbucks
Schultz was first to have the chutzpah – or foresight – to turn a cup of coffee into a $4 luxury. And he’s doing it worldwide. Only question is if he can turn Starbucks into a McBrand as McBig as you-know-McWho.
By Shawn G. Henry
20 Edward C. “Ned” Johnson 3d, Fidelity Investments
Johnson may not have invented every innovation in the mutual fund industry, but he brought them to more investors than anyone else. Discount brokerage, sector funds, money-fund check writing, charitable endowment funds and more helped propel Fidelity to its place as the largest fund complex in the USA.
NBC
21 Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Stewart created a business segment based on how-to crafts and lifestyle information. Not even a conviction for lying could destroy Martha’s popularity.
By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY
22 John Bogle, The Vanguard Group
Bogle founded The Vanguard Group in 1975 with the radical notion that funds should be owned and managed by shareholders. A tireless advocate of low-cost index investing, Bogle has won a cadre of adoring loyalists called “Bogleheads.” At the same time, he drove Vanguard to second among all mutual fund complexes.
By Diane Bondareff, AP
23 Robert Johnson, BET
A trailblazer for minority entrepreneurs, Johnson founded cable’s Black Entertainment Television in 1979. He sold it in 2002 to Viacom for $3 billion, making him the first African-American billionaire. Other firsts: first black-owned business to go public on the NYSE and first African-American to wholly own a professional sports team, the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats.
By Gregory Bull. AP
24 Barry Diller, Expedia, IAC
Hollywood thought the man who greenlighted hits including Beverly Hills Cop was crazy in 1992 when he became a TV home-shopping mogul. But the business evolved into e-commerce, and Diller created an Internet power that includes Ticketmaster, Citysearch, Match.com, Evite and LendingTree.
By Marty Lederhandler, AP
25 Steve Case, AOL
Case was a marketing guy who rose through the ranks at AOL and was CEO for a decade before the ill-fated merger with Time Warner in 2001. He didn’t run AOL Time Warner as chairman and later resigned. But his original AOL Web portal introduced millions of non-techies to the Internet with its simple, goof-proof format. And that’s his legacy.
Top 25 Medical Moments
USA TODAY’s medical staff looks back at the top 25 medical developments.
AIDS quilt in D.C., USA TODAY
1 AIDS
In 1982, the government selects AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, as the formal name for the deadly disease then known as gay-related immune deficiency, or GRID. That same year the first cases were reported in Africa and an alarmed Congress held its first hearings on the new disease. AIDS now afflicts 40 million people worldwide, about 900,000 of them in the USA.
AP
2 Quitting the habit
Fewer Americans are lighting up, which means more lives saved. A report from the American Cancer Society in 2006 said that men’s death rates from cancer dropped 16% from 1991 to 2003; women haven’t experienced that dramactic drop off because smoking rates in women have dropped more recently than among men.
Gannett News Service
3 Obesity epidemic
Although fewer Americans are smoking, more of them are hitting the buffet lines. Roughly 32% of adults over 20 are obese, or 30 or more pounds over a health weight. Researcher has shown that the extra pounds increases the risk of some types of cancer, diabetes, heart diease and other ills.
4 Cancer screening
More patients are opting to try to find cancer early. In 1987, only 39% of women over 40 had had a mammogram in the past two years. By 2005, 66% had been screened in the past two years. Although experts say they don’t yet have evidence that the PSA test saves lives from prostate cancer, 58% of men over 50 had gotten the screening by 2003, up from 41% in 2000.
Getty Images
5 Prozac anyone?
Eli Lilly and Co.,’s Prozac hit the U.S. market in 1988. It was the first of a new class of drugs that were touted as safer than older antidepressants. Primary care doctors began prescribing the pills, and use quickly soared. The Food and Drug Administration has recently ordered the makers of all antidepressants to update their labels, warning of an increased risk of suicide in children and young adults taking the drugs. Still, doctors wrote 227 million prescriptions for antidepressants in 2006, making them the most popular U.S. medicine.
Getty Images
6 Declining infant mortality
The infant mortality rate fell by nearly half from 1980 to 2004, to 6.8 deaths per 1,000 newborns. Experts credit advances in treatment of the sickest and smallest babies, as well as the falling rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS.
7 Statins
In 1982, Merck & Co. begins human trials of the first successful cholesterol-lowering drug, lovastatin, and learn it can heart risk by about 30%. Since then, companies have developed a whole class of so-called statins, which are among the world’s top selling drugs.
8 Cancer vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration in June 2006 approves the first vaccine specifically designed to prevent cancer. The Merck vaccine, Gardasil, blocks infection by two types of the human papillomarvirus (HPV) that account for about 70% of cervical cancer cases. The debate about whether the vaccine should be mandatory for preteen girls continues.
USA TODAY
9 The rise of the AED
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of cardiac arrest victims are saved each year by folks using an AED, which delivers a shock to a dying heart. The first models were sold for home use in 1986, but it was in the early 1990s when the device became so simplified with voice prompts that even children could use one to save a life.
10 Are you having trouble …
TV ads for prescripton drugs have long been legal, but, until the FDA issued guidelines in 1997, manufacturers were uncertain about how to meet the agency’s requirements for including information about side effects, contraindications and effectiveness. The guidelines said commercials could fulfill the obligation of alerting consumers to risks by referring them to their doctor, a toll-free number, a print ad and a Web site for more information. New TV stars, like purple pills, talking stomachs and a chess-playing beaver, were born.
11 Donor egg baby
In 1983, doctors at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, took an egg from one patient and fertilized it with sperm from the husband of a 25-year-old woman who’d gone through premature menopause. The resulting embryo was placed in the womanÕs uterus, resulting in the worldÕs first baby conceived with a donor egg. Many recipients of this technology are now younger women whose ovaries failed prematurely or who carry a genetic disorder they don’t want to pass on..
PhotoDisc
12 Human blueprint
The first draft of the human genome, our genetic blueprint, was published on Feb. 11, 2000. The scientific undertaking raises hope of finding causes for many diseases as well as potential cures.
AP
13 Nasty bugs emerge
First it was West Nile virus, which made it’s U.S. debut in 1999. Then came the international epidemics of SARS and bird flu, along with the emergence of new strains of drug-resistant bacteria. Partly fueled by globalization and misuse of antibiotics, nasty bugs are on the rise.
14 Medical technology
Spectacular innovations in technology have changed the world of medical diagnosis and research. For instance, PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, rapidly makes millions of copies of DNA from the tiniest samples, enhancing crime detection and forensics, allowing DNA fingerprinting and ushering in a new era of genetic research.
15 Minimally invasive operations
Wider use of laparoscopic surgery has drastically reduced the recovery time for patients undergoing a number of surgical procedures.
16 Hormones begone
Hormone therapy was once thought to be a fountain of youth for postmenopausal women, but a landmark study in 2002 found that estrogen plus progestin raises the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks, stroke and blood clots. Women stopped taking the hormones in droves, and today, they’re prescribed only for relief of hot flashes and other symptoms.
17 Johnny’s little helper
Children considered hyperactive or unfocused began to take prescription pills. Ritalin, the first drug for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, became widely used in the last 20 years. Now there are more drugs for ADHD, such as Strattera and Concerta.
18 Targeted cancer therapies
Doctors are slowly replacing traditional chemotherapy – which kills all growing cells, both good and bad – with “targeted” cancer drugs designed to block the deadly effects of specific genetic mutations. Herceptin, approved in 1998 for certain breast tumors, and Gleevec, approved in 2001 for rare leukemias, led the way.
PhotoDisc
19 C-section rates
The U.S. C-section rate hit an all time high of 30.2% in 2005 — a 46% increase over 1996. Growing numbers of older mothers, multiple births and labor inductions are thought to be some of the reasons.
20 Drug safety
Arthritis drug Vioxx was taken off the market in 2004 because of increased heart attack risk. That would led to concern over the safety of a number of other drugs in the medicine cabinet.
21 Child health, safety
Lawmakers have gotten serious about protecting kids on the roads. Since 1993, 21 states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws requiring kids to wear bike helmets, which reduce the risk of serious brain injury by 85%, according to the National Highway Safety Administration. And all states now require car seats for children, which cuts their risk of dying in an accident by more than half.
USA TODAY
22 Lasik
Since 1990, roughly 8 million Americans have ditched their eyeglasses or contact lenses for this high-tech laser surgery to correct their eyesight.The first laser was approved for LASIK by the FDA in 1998, so there is no long-term safety and effectiveness data about the popular eye surgery.
AP
23 Shunning the sun
Americans, who once slicked with baby oil and used reflective shields to enhance their tans, have learned that it’s safer to cover up. Many beachgoers now coat themselves with sunscreens – and even clothing lines – that offer sun protection factors of 55 or more.
AFP
24 Viagra
The little baby blue pill came onto the U.S. market in 1998, and erectile dysfunction, or ED, became a part of the American vernacular. Viagra pushed ED (formerly known as impotence) out of the bedroom and onto the television screen. Viagra was the first pill for ED, but it now faces competition from Cialis and Levitra.
25 Botox
Even before the FDA approved Botox for cosmetic use in 2002, Americans were shelling out hundreds of dollars for injections of the stuff, aka botulinum toxin.The shots temporarily paralyze muscles that cause expression lines, which, fans say, creates a more youthful appearance.
Top 25 Ads We Can’t Get Out Of Our Heads
Here are the 25 TV spots — love em or hate em — that left the most indelible marks on our collective memory. But don’t touch that dial.
1 Life Alert: I’ve Fallen, and I Can’t Get Up! (1990)
The best-remembered (and most-parodied) commercial phrase of the past 25 years isn’t for a cola or sneaker. It comes from that elderly woman using the Life Alert gizmo around her neck to call for help. It is the ultimate product-as-hero ad.
2 Apple Macintosh: 1984 (1984)
The ad all others have aspired to be. Never mind that it aired once nationally, on the Super Bowl and that few recall much besides that very buff woman wielding a sledgehammer. It sold Macs.
3 Wendy’s: Where’s the Beef? (1984)
The same year Apple went over-the-top to tout its Mac, Wendy’s went under-the-bun to tout its burger. Crusty ol’ Clara Peller ranting “Where’s the Beef” became ingrained in pop culture. It may be the most effective fast-food ad ever. Sorry, Ronald.
4 Isuzu: Joe “Trust me” Isuzu (1986)
Joe Isuzu ranks among the most memorable auto pitchmen. He (David Leisure) was a remarkably likable liar making outrageous claims about the Isuzus. Joe’s job as slimy hawker wasn’t to sell cars, but to familiarize consumers with the then-little-known Isuzu name. Did he ever. Trust us.
5 Energizer Bunny (1989)
Energizer stole Duracell’s drum-beating bunny, put it in motion and never looked back. For this campaign, Energizer can beat its own drum. And it’s still going and going and going.
PR Newswire
6 Bartles & Jaymes: Thank You for Your Support (1985)
Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes perfected the art of sitting on the front porch step and shooting the breeze. (OK, Ed never spoke.) They convinced millions that the new wine cooler was from a coupla country geezers – never mind that wine giant Gallo was behind it.
7 California Raisin Advisory Board: Heard it Through the Grapevine (1986)
The ad wasn’t just the birth of the dancing raisins. It also was the birth of Claymation – clay animated figures that could move and groove. And it was the original better-for-you snack pitch: raisins instead of sweets?
8 Budweiser: Croaking Frogs (1995)
Perhaps the most fondly remembered Super Bowl campaign from Anheuser-Busch starred a trio of talking frogs in a dark swamp croaking: “Bud. Wei. Ser.” It was so widely mimicked and so wildly successful, the King of Beers made it a series with talking lizards and ferrets.
9 Bush campaign: Willie Horton (1988)
Who can forget that mug shot? The ad tried to link Democratic presidential opponent Michael Dukakis to a prison furlough for the Massachusetts convict during which Horton raped a woman and stabbed her boyfriend. But Dukakis felt the knife.
10 California Milk Processors Board: Got Milk? (1993)
What could be stickier than to have an entire peanut butter sandwich stuffed into your mouth – and have no milk to wash it down? This first ad was a springboard for Got Milk? – and Aaron Burr – into pop culture.
11 Partnership for a Drug-Free America: “This is Your Brain on Drugs” (1987)
To scare teens off drugs, this public-service ad compared an egg in a frying pan to a brain on drugs. Any questions? Yes: Got cholesterol?
12 Ikea: Gay Men Shopping (1994)
Major marketers were too timid to court gays on TV until Ikea broke the barrier. Two male actors portray a couple shopping for a dining room table. IKEA was bold, but not so much that they shopped for other rooms.
13 McDonald’s: Nothing but Net (1993)
With a Big Mac at stake, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird play the most famous game of h-o-r-s-e ever captured on film. Each proposes – then swishes – increasingly improbable shots in this Super Bowl ad. For McD’s, it was nothing but net.
14 Pepsi: Michael Jackson on fire (1984)
This ad is remembered not for its wonderfully 1980s capture of the Jackson mystique, but for its pyrotechnics gone awry. Jackson’s hair caught fire, and nothing else mattered – not even the fact that the Gloved One refused to be seen in the ad actually holding a Pepsi.
15 Reagan Campaign: Morning in America (1984)
Here’s a rarity: a positive political ad. The ultimate feel-good spot boasted of things President Reagan had done, while showing waving flags, happy kids, smiling brides. Only thing missing was a puppy.
16 Nike: Bo Knows (1989)
Super jock Bo Jackson proved he could play pro football and baseball and wear Nikes, all at the same time. But Bo Jackson, you’re no Bo Diddley.
17 Nike: Revolution (1987)
Nike changed the world – at least, the ad world, by being first to feature an original Beatles recording in a TV spot. This resulted in a predictable (for Beatles music) flurry of lawsuits, including one for Nike. But in the end, the love you take is equal to the ads you make.
18 Pardon Me, Would You Have Any Grey Poupon? (1984)
Ah, the beginning of a condiment class system. Out with the yellow mustard, in with the brown Dijon. Pardon me, got any purple Heinz ketchup?
19 Federal government: Crash Test Dummies (1985)
It took a coupla dummies (Vince and Larry) to persuade Americans to buckle their seat belts. We all learned a lot from these dummies.
20 Playtex: Model (1987)
Playtex showed some skin – if you can call it that – in the first TV spot showing a bra on live models. No more mannequins in lingerie – cross your heart! It’s the grandmother to the Victoria’s Secret fashion shows.
21 Chevrolet trucks: Like a Rock (1991)
Most car and truck ads are entirely forgettable. Chevy made its truck ads entirely memorable by cozying-up to singer Bob Seger’s Like a Rock anthem. The ads made Seger richer and Chevy truck ads hummable.
22 New Coke: Max Headroom (1986)
He was one part computer chip, one part cult hit and one part goofy while interviewing a nervous Pepsi can. Max Headroom hyped New Coke as the better-than-Pepsi. Uh-oh. Where’s New Coke now? Right pitchman, wrong product.
23 Pets.com: Because Pets Can’t Drive (1999)
Pets.com was a dot-com victim, but its silly sock puppet was the dot-com darling. What better way to promote an online pet supplier than with a puppy sock puppet with button eyes?
24 Reebok: Dan & Dave (1992)
It was gonna be the perfect Olympic hype. The Reebok ad had the two Americans favored to face off for decathlon gold in Barcelona. But Dan didn’t even make the team. And Dave mustered only bronze. Oops.
25 Taster’s Choice soap opera (1991)
What will that coffee lead to? That’s what the Taster’s Choice campaign seemed to pose in a series of titillating, soap opera-like ads that left viewers clamoring for the couple’s next installment. Will they ever kiss?
Top 25 Movies With Real Impact
With picks by USA TODAY’s movie staff, Susan Wloszczyna recounts the 25 top milestones.
New Line Productions
1 The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
New Line Cinema risked it all by entrusting low-profile New Zealander Peter Jackson with the audacious task of spinning Tolkien’s dense literary fantasy into cinema gold. The result: 17 Oscars, a box-office gross of $3 billion worldwide and the birth of two superstars — one virtual (Gollum) and one pointy-eared (Orlando Bloom).
Walt Disney Pictures
2 Toy Story (1995)
Pixar pioneers Buzz and Woody took the feature-animation genre that Disney created with 1937’sSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs and blasted it into the digital future with a cutting-edge combo of heartfelt wit and computerized wonder. Now, nearly every studio does 3-D cartoons. Just not as well.
Miramax Films
3 Pulp Fiction (1994)
B-movie fanatic Quentin Tarantino crammed guns, drugs, molls and a killer John Travolta into a post-mod Molotov cocktail of a plot while slicing the action into shuffled fragments. And writers are still ripping off his narrative.
Universal City Studios
4 Do the Right Thing (1989)
Spike Lee earned the title of America’s most influential black filmmaker when he did the controversial thing, focusing on urban violence born of simmering racial tensions.The film was feared to be incendiary enough to ignite a real riot; instead it inspired a new generation of black directors.
Paramount Pictures
5 Titanic (1997)
It loomed as a titanic disaster, with delays and a budget that bloated to $200 million. Luckily, audiences were enraptured by the steamy romance between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, whose presence led to repeat viewings by teens.It remains king of domestic box-office grosses at $600.8 million.
Paramount Pictures
6 Fatal Attraction (1987)
A date movie for the AIDS era. A cautionary tale of a woman scorned turned psycho hit home by mixing frank sexuality and nightmarish horror, as Michael Douglas’ fling with Glenn Close endangers his family. The rare popcorn thriller deemed Oscar worthy (six nominations).
Twentieth Century Fox
7 There’s Something About Mary (1998)
The PC police surrendered when those comic barons of bubbling crude, the Farrelly brothers, launched their assault on good taste. The public gladly giggled and gagged along, while Ben Stiller cemented his loser persona and the world was made safe for R-rated movies like American Pie and 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Tristar Pictures
8 Philadelphia (1993)
Before that rendezvous on Brokeback Mountain, straight stars Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas were gay lovers in this groundbreaker about an AIDS-afflicted lawyer who sues over job discrimination. Hard to believe that this was the first major studio movie to deal with the disease.
Lucasfilm
9 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
E.T.’s glowing heart? Good. A beating heart ripped from a man’s chest? Not so much. Parents protested the intense violence found in Steven Spielberg’s PG-rated follow-up to 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. In response, the Motion Picture Association of America established the PG-13 rating.
Warner Bros. Pictures
10 Batman (1989)
Superman came first in 1978. But director Tim Burton’s neo-gothic caped crusader was a distinctly adult version of a comic-book thriller.Batman’s brooding cool made it safe for a Joker like Jack Nicholson to cavort in a costume caper, and the film’s dark vision has influenced nearly every cinematic superhero since.
Columbia/Tristar
11 The Cable Guy (1996)
Audiences rejected it. Critics jeered it. But Jim Carrey’s nasty black comedy became infamous as the film to break the $20 million salary barrier. You’d think studios would have reconsidered the value of star power. But the bucks didn’t stop there. Tom Hanks is supposed to get $35 million for a Da Vinci Code prequel.
Icon Productions
12 The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Mel Gibson’s controversial and highly profitable interpretation of the last days of Jesus didn’t just reveal the movie idol’s devotion to religion and bloodletting. It also showed there is a profit to be made from preaching to the faithful, a community that BC (before Christ) was rarely served by Hollywood.
Touchstone Pictures
13 Pretty Woman (1990)
Disney’s only fairy tale about a street walker solidified Julia Roberts’ big-hair, huge-smile mystique and began her run as the industry’s most powerful actress.Roberts, who turns 40 this year, continues to be the incandescent standard against which each new ingénue is measured.
Paramount Pictures
14 Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Jumping the couch is the new jumping the shark, thanks to Tom Cruise’s not-quite blockbuster that inadvertently turned into a case study of the harm that erratic behavior can do to a star’s appeal.
Dimension Films
15 Scream (1996)
Endless rehashings of teen slashings had sucked the genre dry. But a transfusion of self-referential irony injected hipness into a tired premise.The twist: Scream was stocked with stalked high-schoolers well versed in lame horror conventions. Two sequels and many copycats followed, including the dumbed-down Scary Movie franchise.
Lions Gate Films
16 Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Michael Moore’s Bush attack couldn’t halt the president’s re-election. But his diatribe grossed almost $120 million, a record for documentaries, and made the genre safe for mass consumption.
Tri-Star Pictures
17 Total Recall (1990)
Most would look to the first twoTerminators as the sci-fi outings that molded Arnold Schwarzenegger’s multiplex muscle. But in this stylish exercise in violent excess directed by ever-canny Paul Verhoeven, Arnie exhibited real acting skill in a dual role.
By Jim Cooper, AP
18 El Mariachi (1993)
The catalyst for an el cheapo revolution. Robert Rodriguez spent just $7,000 to shoot this Spanish-language action thriller.The Sundance hit grossed $2 million, spawned two sequels and led to such low-budget landmarks as Clerks.
Sony Picture Classics
19 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Who’s afraid of subtitles? Not fans of this poignant Chinese fable about a stolen sword, which mixed star-crossed lovers with gravity-defying martial artistry. The most successful foreign-language film ever, grossing $128.1 million, and the most Oscar-nominated (10).
Warner Bros.
20 The Matrix (1999)
The first sci-fi thriller that felt like a portal into a 21st-century mind-set. The Wachowski brothers melded new (hacker culture, time-freezing action moves) with old (Buddhism, Lewis Carroll) for a cool high-tech aesthetic.
Warner Brothers
21 Goodfellas (1990)
The Departed? Fuggedaboutit. Martin Scorsese deserved an Oscar for this Mob classic, subbing the grandeur of The Godfather with the grubbiness of lowly sociopaths. The Sopranos would have been in the dark without it.
DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures
22 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Not only did Steven Spielberg’s D-Day epic open a dialogue between generations about the harrowing events of World War II, but few sequences have depicted the horror and chaos of combat as authentically as the landings at Omaha Beach.
Lucasfilm
23 Star Wars: Episodes I-III (1999-2005)
The reptilian embarrassment of Jar Jar Binks and oak-like emoting by Hayden Christensen as headstrong Jedi warrior Anakin Skywalker detracted from what was an achievement in effects (Yoda unbound!), digital filmmaking and pure iconography.Not up to the thrills of the original trilogy, especially without Harrison Ford as Han Solo. But time might prove kinder than critics.
By Bob Marshak, USA Films
24 Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)
The fallout from this voyeuristic study of tangled relationships in camcorder-saturated times went beyond being one of the first breakouts of the Sundance Film Festival. The $1.2 million drama that grossed $25 million gave birth to a mightier Miramax, Steven Soderbergh and the indie gold rush.
Warner Bros.
25 The Bodyguard (1992)
What set this formulaic showbiz opera apart was its knockout soundtrack topped by Whitney Houston’s soaring I Will Always Love You. It sold 17 million copies, bumped Saturday Night Fever as the No. 1 all-time film soundtrack and showed how to squeeze big money from a so-so movie.
Top 25 Cars That Made An Impact
If your choices differ — and we’re betting they just might — let us know by commenting below.
1 1992 Toyota Camry
Not sexy, but a game-changer. Japan Inc.’s first truly American sedan. The late Robert McCurry, then head of Toyota’s U.S. sales, demanded Japan give him a bigger, smoother car. It helped propel Camry to best-selling car and pushed Detroit close to irrelevant in the car market
2 1991 Ford Explorer
Genteel by the standards of the day, smoother and more powerful than Jeep Cherokee and Isuzu Trooper, Explorer started the SUV craze. Despite a breathtaking sales plunge, it’s still among the top-selling SUVs.
3 2001 Toyota Prius
Too weird, critics said, when it hit U.S. shores in summer 2000. Who’ll gamble on an odd-looking sedan with a preposterous gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain? Just 400,000 U.S. buyers so far, who love the 40-plus mpg.
4 1984 Chrysler minivans
Revolutionary. Family-size Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth vans that fit the garage and were easy to park. Unstoppable until SUVs came along.
5 1986 Hyundai Excel
Hah, hah, hah, hah. A little South Korean car cheap enough at $4,995 to put on your credit card. Solid foundation, apparently. More models were added, sales boomed, quality improved. Hyundai’s now No. 7 in sales, behind Detroit 3, Japan Big 3.
6 1986 Ford Taurus
Crisp handling for the time, wholly out of synch with the barges Detroit had been selling. A wild success until the late ‘90s when Honda Accord and Toyota Camry turned Taurus into a rental car.
7 1990 Lexus LS 400
A Japanese luxury sedan as good as Mercedes-Benz? Absurd. Not.
Gary C. Knapp. AP
8 1990 Mazda Miata
The affordable, two-seat sports car lives. Better than your best euphoric recall of those Triumphs and MGs you couldn’t quite acquire during your misspent youth, or wished you hadn’t if you did.
9 1986 Acura Legend
The first separate luxury brand from a Japanese maker prices its flagship Legend sedan at — gasp — $20,000. Pioneers the way for Lexus and Infiniti and helps establish the notion that the Japanese are capable of true luxury cars.
10 1996 Toyota RAV4
SUV body on a Corolla compact car chassis. Voila, the first crossover SUV.
11 1994 Ford Mustang
The Mustang that saved Mustang. Ford said kill it, but engineers crafted a cheap redo to keep it alive until the beloved, nostalgic ‘05 overhaul.
12 1991 Saturn SL
A little plastic car made in Spring Hill, Tenn., sold by dealers who posted the price and stuck to it. The customer-friendly showrooms, no-haggle pricing and flexible union rules are still around. Saturn Aura won this year’s North American Car of the Year Award and Saturn sent the trophy around to owners to enjoy.
13 1997 Ford F-150
First stylish modern pickup, first with a standard three-door cab. Created a blinding flash of the obvious for the rest: What if we design these things for people, not just cargo?
14 2003 Hummer H2
The SUV equivalent of WWII’s “a bridge too far?” No more than a war-like body on a modified Chevrolet Suburban chassis, but it instantly became a lightning rod for environmentalists claiming the SUV craze was killing the Earth.
15 2002 Mini Cooper
Proof you can sell a small car for a big price if you have the look and the legacy.
16 1998 Lincoln Navigator
Detroit’s first luxury SUV, beating rival Cadillac Escalade by 16 months. Profits hit an astonishing $15,000 each until rivals poured in, gas prices went north and sales went south.
17 1986 Yugo
Hit the U.S. for $3,990, a grand less than the Hyundai Excel. There were fights for places in line to buy such an affordable car, and fights to get rid of it when its flaws became evident. The butt of late-night comedy show jokes. Probably ruined any chance the Yugoslavs had of selling cars in the U.S.
18 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser
Instantly created a new segment and a mad rush to pay far more than sticker price for the retro-styled four-door hatchback officially classed as an SUV. Even the government paid sticker-plus to crash-test a couple.
19 2001 Pontiac AzteK
It was supposed to look hip, but never rose above ugly. Said GM CEO Rick Wagoner: “You know you’re going to get a love-hate reaction, but you kind of hope there’s somebody on the love side.”
20 2003 Cadillac CTS
The car that saved Cadillac, allowing Detroit to claim at least one credible luxury brand. Taut, modern styling. Rockin’ Led Zeppelin music in zippy TV ads. Whoa! Suddenly, Caddy is cool. Rival Lincoln still is searching.
21 1986 Suzuki Samarai
The tiny Samurai SUV introduced mini-SUVs to the U.S. and became synonymous with “rollover” when Consumer Reports branded an ’88 model tipsy. Suzuki sued and won a partial victory in 2004. But by then the Samurai was barely a memory and mini-SUVs were tainted.
22 GM Impact
An experimental electric car — no gasoline, no pollution, no buyers. GM did put a few into the hands of consumers, starting in 1994. But GM eventually impounded the cars after deciding they caught fire too easily while recharging. Or, some environmentalists say, as a move to kill electric cars.
23 1998 Volkswagen New Beetle
A safer, better equipped, more powerful version of the little car that could. VW’s grudging acknowledgement that the U.S. market was important enough for a car of its own. You couldn’t see it without smiling.
24 2005 Scion xB
The box. Stodgy Toyota creates an edgy brand for the next great bubble of buyers, Gen Y. Toyota panicked when rival Honda launched the likewise boxy Element first, also aimed at young buyers. But Scion seems closer to the target: Average xB buyer is 37. Honda says the average Element buyer is 44.
25 2002 BMW 7-series
Gave us two things we didn’t need: Ungainly styling in back, complicated iDrive mega-control system inside. Unfortunately, BMW being BMW, other brands felt a need to follow.
Top 25 Great Sports Stories
1 Red Sox Win World Series
It took 86 years, included insufferable losses to the hated New York Yankees and monumental gaffes seemingly replayed constantly, but the Fenway Park faithful finally danced in the streets when their beloved Boston Red Sox won the 2004 World Series in a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, et al., ended the agony that tormented Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Luis Tiant, et al. And who knows? This could be their year, too!
USA TODAY
2 Ripken breaks record
On Sept. 6, 1995, with President Clinton in attendance, Oriole Park at Camden Yards rocked when native son Cal Ripken Jr. broke the ironman record of 2,130 consecutive games played set by the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig. With a home run for good measure, and a midgame romp around the field, Ripken helped restore luster to a sport torn apart by the 1994-95 players strike and subsequent owners lockout. The streak of 2.632 consecutive games played ran from May 30, 1982 to Sept. 19, 1998. Ripken enters the Hall of Fame on July 29.
AP
3 Tiger wins first Masters
In the Deep South, at a club whose members do not look like him, on a hallowed course where legends Jones, Hogan, Nicklaus and Palmer carved out shots for history, Tiger Woods earned a victory “for the ages” in winning the green jacket in 1997 at The Masters in Augusta, Ga. The game of golf has not looked the same since.
AP
4 Villanova upsets Georgetown
The No. 1-seeded Georgetown Hoyas were overwhelming favorites to successfully defend their 1984 NCAA men’s basketball title when they met No. 8-seeded Villanova on April Fools’ Day. The Hoyas’ senior superstar center, Patrick Ewing, only months later would become the first pick of the NBA draft. But Ed Pinckney, Dwayne McClain, Harold Pressley, Harold Jensen, Gary McLain and teammates hit 79% of their shots, including 90% in the second half, under the direction of animated coach Rollie Massimino. The Wildcats won 66-64 and remain the lowest-seeded NCAA men’s champion.
AP
5 BALCO-steroids in baseball
The celebration of ballooning home -run figures from the last decade of the 20th century into the early years of the 21st gives way to the dirty little secret of untested ballplayers taking advantage of substances boosting their natural talents. The innocence of the nation’s pastime devolves into the steroid era.
Michael Madrid, USA TODAY
6 1998 home run chase
In hindsight, the world followed the mammoth marathon to immortality through rose-colored glasses. Mark McGwire, a playful giant of a man, and Sammy Sosa, whose hop out of the batter’s box signaled another long ball smacked, battled through the summer to surpass Roger Maris’ season record of 61 homers set in 1961. McGwire does it first and finishes as the leader with 70; Sosa hits 66.
7 N.C. State upsets Houston
Jim Valvano in a daze, trying to find someone to hug, is as unforgettable an image as Lorenzo Charles, moments earlier, dunking after grabbing Dereck Whittenburg’s desperation heave to give North Carolina State the 1983 NCAA men’s basketball title. How improbable was it? N.C. State was the first champion with 10 losses, had lost six of eight in one stretch of the regular season and only qualified for the NCAA tournament by winning the ACC tournament. But the Wolfpack never gave up.
USA TODAY
8 Nicklaus, at 46, wins ’86 Masters
He had missed the cut in three of seven tournaments, withdrew from another and hadn’t won a tournament in two years. His last major title was in 1980. But with an 18th (and final) major in sight, the Golden Bear sank a 12-foot putt for eagle at No. 15 in the final round. That brought a smile even to the stoic Nicklaus, whose son Jack was his caddie. “It’s about the only television event (that) when I see it come on television, I actually stop and watch a little bit of it,” Nicklaus says.
9 Magic Johnson retires with HIV
The stunning revelation at a hastily called news conference in November 1991 saddened sports fans worldwide, for this was a man whose enjoyment of the game was so genuine, so uplifting. At the time, it was presumed to be a death sentence. Today, the former Los Angeles Laker, who at 6-9 redefined the point guard position with his exquisite passing, is doing quite well as a part-time analyst on TNT and in partnership with such business giants as Starbucks, Burger King and Cadbury Schweppes as well as running movie theaters, health clubs and real estate development.
10 Pete Rose banned
Baseball’s all-time hits leader (4,256) bet on the game while managing the Cincinnati Reds and accepted a lifetime ban from then-commissioner Bart Giamatti in August 1989. Rose became a pariah, reduced to autograph shows at any and all venues — except inside a major league park. The player excluded even from consideration for the Hall of Fame denied for almost 15 years that he bet on baseball, then acknowledged it in his January 2004 autobiography.
11 Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass
Six seconds to go. Forty-eight yards to a touchdown. Team trailing 45-41 at Miami’s Orange Bowl. That’s what faced the 5-9 quarterback for Boston College on Nov. 23, 1984, when he scrambled and tossed up a prayer. Three receivers and three defenders begin converging toward the end zone, with BC’s Gerard Phelan snagging the catch, cradling the ball as if it were “my firstborn.” Flutie won the Heisman Trophy, and played professionally in the USFL, CFL and NFL until retiring a year ago.
AP
12 Dale Earnhardt’s death
The Intimidator won seven NASCAR championships, had career earnings in excess of $40 million and after 20 attempts captured the Daytona 500 in February 1998. But three years later at Daytona International Speedway, racing in his black No. 3 Chevrolet, gunning it in the final lap and probably realizing teammate Michael Waltrip would finally win his first Daytona 500, Earnhardt slammed into the wall on the final turn while fighting for position. Rescuers had to cut Earnhardt out of the car, but doctors said he had died instantly from head injuries. He was 49.
13 Kirk Gibson walk-off homer
Two outs, bottom of the ninth, man on first for the Los Angeles Dodgers, future Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley on the mound for the Oakland Athletics. Gibson, soon to be named NL MVP, is summoned to pinch-hit despite hamstring and knee problems. He works the count to 3-2. Jack Buck makes the TV call: “Gibson swings, and a fly ball to deep right field. This is gonna be a home run! Unbelievable! A home run for Gibson! And the Dodgers have won the game 5-4. I don’t believe what I just saw. I don’t believe what I just saw.” Gibson’s only at-bat of the Series sends the Dodgers on their way to winning the championship.
14 U.S. women win ’99 World Cup
Before 90,185 at the Rose Bowl, the largest crowd to witness a women’s sporting event, Brandi Chastain beats China goalkeeper Gao Hong for a 5-4 edge in penalty kicks to break the overtime tie and give the USA the soccer title after two hours of play under a broiling sun. Chastain flings off her white uniform jersey, sparkling confetti envelops the field, U.S. players hug and dance and the Chinese graciously applaud the victors. TV ratings were 2 points higher than for the ’99 NBA Finals.
15 Bill Buckner error
If only Boston relievers could have held the 5-3 advantage with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6, the 1986 World Series would have been over and the Red Sox would have had their first title since 1918. But Calvin Schiraldi gave up three consecutive singles to make it 5-4. Bob Stanley relieved and threw a wild pitch, allowing in the tying run. Few remember all that. What is remembered: Mookie Wilson’s soft grounder down the first-base line that went underneath the glove and through the legs of sore-ankled Buckner, allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run for the New York Mets, who go on to win and take Game 7. Thus are born endless references to having a “Bill Buckner moment.”
16 Christian Laettner jumper sends Duke into ’92 NCAA Final Four
Grant Hill throws the ball three-quarters of the way upcourt. Laettner, at the free throw line, makes the catch, pivots, takes one dribble, fakes right to clear his defender, spins left and shoots the fadeaway — all in less than 2.1 seconds to beat the final buzzer. The 17-foot jumper caps an overtime thriller as Duke beats Kentucky 104-103 in the East Regional final and goes on to successfully defend its ’91 NCAA title.
AP
17 Harding-Kerrigan skating scandal
As if women’s figure skating needed more drama, the stage was set for just that at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships a month before the 1994 Winter Olympics. An attack on Kerrigan at practice, masterminded by Harding’s former husband to benefit his wife’s chances of making the team and done with Harding’s knowledge, gripped even the non-sports fan. Kerrigan was awarded a spot on the Olympic team despite being unable to compete in the U.S. championships. She recovered enough to earn the Olympic silver medal and went on to a lucrative career in skating shows. Harding, eighth at the Olympics, served court-ordered community service, dabbled in boxing and became a punch line for comics.
18 Jordan ends first part of NBA career with winning shot vs. Utah
What a wonderful parting shot Jordan left us, hitting the championship-winning basket in June 1998 in presumably his final NBA game. Jordan scored 16 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter of Game 6 as Chicago beat Utah 87-86 for its sixth title in eight years. Only that wasn’t his final shot. Jordan took over management of the Washington Wizards in January 2000, took back the uniform two seasons later as a Wizard — and took a drive out of Washington in May 2003 when he was fired. He’s back in the NBA again, as managing member of basketball operations for Charlotte.
19 Postponed by earthquake
Four minutes into ABC’s setup of Game 3 of the ’89 Bay Area World Series at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Al Michaels interrupts analyst Tim McCarver. “I’ll tell you what, we’re having an earth—!” he says before the signal gets knocked off the air. More than 60,000 fans and the rest of the city were rocked by the 7.1 earthquake, which collapsed part of the Bay Bridge. Michaels won a News Emmy for his coverage of the earthquake, which left 67 dead and did an estimated $6 billion in property damage. The World Series resumed 10 days later, won in a sweep by Oakland.
20 Ashe has AIDS
On April 8, 1992, in response to a story USA TODAY was preparing, tennis legend and humanitarian Arthur Ashe announced he had contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion. Tennis made Ashe famous, but his work to end apartheid in South Africa and racial injustice around the world is his greater legacy. He died Feb. 6, 1993, after raising awareness of AIDS and the need for research. He was 49.
21 Armstrong wins seven consecutive Tours de France
In 1996, Lance Armstrong was the top-ranked cyclist in the world when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. Aggressive chemotherapy worked, and in 1999 he began his Tour de France title run that ended in 2005 only by retirement.
Pool
22 O.J. Simpson trial
A Heisman Trophy-winning running back from Southern California. A Hall of Fame career with the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. TV spokesman for Hertz, football analyst for ABC and NBC. As popular an athlete as there was, O.J. Simpson lives in infamy after the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife and her friend. Simpson was found not guilty in the 1995 criminal trial but liable in the subsequent civil trial for $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
23 ’94 World Series canceled
The most high-profile strike in professional sports, beginning Aug. 12, 1994, cost baseball fans the ultimate enjoyment to any season — but cost the sport more in lost prestige, trust and adulation. The 232-day strike over issues regarding a salary cap, spanning the 1994 and ’95 seasons, was baseball’s eighth work stoppage but the first to wipe out the postseason.
24 Pervasiveness of ESPN
SportsCenter. ESPN2. ESPNews. ESPN Deportes. ESPN Classic. ESPNU. ESPN Radio. ESPN The Magazine. ESPN.com. ESPN Zone. Live NFL draft coverage. Sunday night baseball. ESPYs. Chris Berman. Dick Vitale. Dan Patrick. Stuart Scott. Da-da-da, da-da-da.
25 Gretzky sets NHL scoring record
The Great One, who holds virtually every major offensive record in the NHL, became the all-time leading scorer Oct. 15, 1989, passing Gordie Howe’s 1,850 points as a member of the Los Angeles Kings. Gretzky played nine more seasons, ending with 2,857 points in a 20-year NHL playing career. Gretzky was the leading scorer in 10 seasons, nine times was the MVP and twice the playoff MVP and made 18 consecutive All-Star Game appearances.
USA TODAY porting and writing by Rachel Shuster
Top 25 Long Goodbyes
Sylwia Kapuscinski, Getty Images
1 Indoor smoking
The workplace once had clouds of secondhand smoke and first-rate smokers. You could even puff away in the rear of jets. Attitudes have changed, forcing smokers outside, rain or shine.
Chris Pizzello, AP
2 Service stations
It’s easier to find chips and a hot dog than free air or somebody to clean your windshield as service has transformed into convenience shopping and self-serve fill-ups. Want fries with that?
Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP
3 The Soviet threat
The United States’ Cold War rival ended with the stroke of a pen in December 1991. The “evil empire” was undone by internal changes, the desire for independence by its satellites and economic pressures.
Handout
4 Typewriters
The computer keyboard on your desk used to be a thundering, hulking device. The electric model sank the manual, only to be trumped by a revolution in technology that continues to this day.
Henry J. Koshollek, AP
5 Vinyl records
Music used to be big. Literally. Before palm-sized CDs took over, songs were embedded in vinyl platters the size of hubcaps. And then there were 8-tracks and cassettes. But that’s another story.
AP
6 New Coke
Introduced in 1985 as a replacement for Coca-Cola’s flagship brand, New Coke is considered one of marketing’s all-time duds. New Coke evolved into Coca-Cola II before being discontinued in 2002.
7 Carbon paper
If you worked with typewriters, you’re familiar with the flimsy, filthy filament. To make copies, you’d need a sheet of this purplish-looking stuff. Type “good riddance.” In triplicate.
8 Betamax
Betamax was the most popular video format in the early 1980s. By the end of the decade, VHS was king. What happened? Some say Betamax’s limited recording time was the culprit.
D. Kevin Elliott for USA TODAY
9 Phone booths
Don’t tug on Superman’s cape — especially when he’s been trying to find a place to ditch his Clark Kent duds. The bulky boxes with a phone inside have gone away for the most part. Sorry, Clark.
10 Leaded gasoline
The EPA phased out leaded gas in the mid-1990s, citing threats to the environment and public health. Lead was blended into gasoline to boost octane levels and enhance engine performance.
11 Rotary dial phones
Imagine your cellphone, only stationary and way bulkier, with a numbered wheel that you had to spin seven to 10 times or more, depending on your call being local or long distance. Oy.
Handout
12 Videos on MTV
Before reality shows and the like filled its airtime, MTV forged its identity with wall-to-wall videos and the veejays who loved them. OK, who misses 1984’s 99 Luftballoons by Nena? Anyone?
Handout
13 Baltimore Colts
One of the NFL’s cornerstones ended its stay in Baltimore with a whimper in 1984, hitting the road for Indianapolis. The Colts’ Marching Band lived on, even after the Ravens took the field, till 1998.
14 Oldsmobiles
The last Olds rolled off the assembly line in April 2004, signaling a shift in the U.S. auto marketplace and marking the end of a renowned brand. Also deceased: Plymouth (2001) and AMC (1987).
Getty Images
15 Civility
It can be rough out there — whether on TV, radio, the Web or at sporting arenas. Today’s discourse has plenty of “dis,” and it can be pretty “coarse,” too. And whatever happened to thank-you notes? We could go on.
Handout
16 ‘American Bandstand’
The TV dance show, a sensation in Philadelphia in the 1950s before going national on ABC, survived countless shifts in musical tastes. Bandstand ended its run in 1989.
Michael Madrid, USA TODAY
17 Beverage pull tabs
Once, to open a beverage can, you’d pull a metal ring from a can, creating a tiny blade you’d rediscover walking barefoot. Tabs that stay attached to the can did away with pull-tabs.
Chris Ocken, AP
18 West African black rhino
At 12 feet long and 3,000 pounds, the rhino might appear indestructible. Last summer, it was “tentatively declared as extinct” by the World Conservation Union. Blame illegal poaching.
19 Hand-crank car windows
Before your car was controlled by electronics, you could get a brisk workout just opening the window for a little air. No fingertip controls here, thank you. Crank, two, three. Repeat.
Tim Parker, Reuters
20 Home run kings
Roger Maris got a record and an asterisk in 1961 when he passed Babe Ruth’s season record. He’s been passed by Mark McGwire (70) in 1998 and Barry Bonds (73) in 2001. More asterisks to come?
Lennox McLenden, AP
21 Hair bands
The music: bad. The hair: worse. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the mix was magical for bands such as Poison, Ratt and Cinderella. Some continue to tour, testing the endurance of leather pants.
Roberto Borea, AP
22 The afternoon newspaper
Remember the kid on the bike who never quite reached the porch with your afternoon daily? He moved on, as did lifestyles and the media world. City afternoons became lonelier for newspaper readers.
23 Transistor radios
Before iPods, the handheld music-delivery system of choice was the transistor radio. The transistor tuned in to whatever your local radio station was dishing out. It’s the very definition of “quaint.”
File photo
24 Michael Jackson
The Jackson 5’s lead singer evolved into, well, the “King of Pop,” selling gazillion of copies of 1982’s Thriller. Sales slowed as various accusations and trials came. Today, he is believed to reside in Bahrain.
Handout
25 Checker cabs
The iconic yellow Marathon cab — you know, like the ones in the movie Taxi Driver — stopped being produced in the early 1980s. The last Checker cab in New York City was retired in 1999. So it goes.
Reported and written by USA TODAY’s Robert Fleming. Photo research by Mike Tsukamoto.
Top 25 Lives of Indelible Impact
Disagree with our picks? Tell us at usatoday.com, and we’ll post yours.
By Doug Mills, AP
1 9/11 heroes
They saved lives. After the passengers on United Flight 93 learned that the three other jets hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, were deliberately flown into large buildings, they fought back. They attacked the terrorists. Their flight crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa. In New York City, hundreds of firefighters sacrificed their lives to rescue others by racing into the disintegrating twin towers of the World Trade Center.
AP
2 Nelson Mandela
He spent 27 years in prison, much of it doing hard labor, for his activism in fighting racial segregation in South Africa. Upon his release in 1990, he sought reconciliation. Mandela, 88, was the first president of his country to be chosen in fully democratic elections. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. .
AP
3 Princess Diana
The “people’s princess” was beloved for her style and ability to connect with regular people. She married Prince Charles at 20 in a fairy-tale wedding viewed worldwide. She produced two male heirs to the throne, William and Harry, before her marriage ended in divorce. Diana promoted efforts to comfort AIDS sufferers and to rid the world of land mines. She died at 36 in a high-speed car crash in 1997 in Paris.
AP
4 Space shuttle Challenger astronauts
The shuttle exploded 73 seconds after takeoff in 1986 as millions of horrified TV viewers watched. All seven crewmembers died, including Christa McAuliffe, an eager junior high school teacher who was scheduled to teach two lessons from space.
AFP/Getty Images
5 Lance Armstrong
“Anything is possible,” he wrote. He won an unprecedented seven consecutive Tour de France cycling titles from 1999 through 2005 after surgery and chemotherapy in 1996 for testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. Armstrong, 35, started a foundation to raise money for cancer treatment and research, partly through the sale of yellow rubber “Livestrong” wristbands.
The Stamford Advocate
6 Christopher and Dana Reeve
He played Superman, and she was his real-life Lois Lane. Their roles changed in 1995 when he fell from a horse and was paralyzed. They became profiles in courage, lobbying for people with spinal cord injuries. He died of cardiac arrest in 2004 and she of lung cancer in 2006. They left a son, who is now 14.
AP
7 Pope John Paul II
The first Polish pope, he visited more than 100 countries and spoke many languages. He is often credited with fostering the demise of communism in Eastern Europe. In his 26 years as pope, he made public apologies for the church’s wrongdoing, such as its role in the African slave trade and its failure to act during the Holocaust. He died in 2005 at 84.
8 Ryan White
He was just a boy when he was infected with HIV from a blood product used to treat his hemophilia. He was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS at 13 in 1984 and became a symbol of the illness. A cheerful boy who fought for the right to attend public school, he showed that AIDS was not a “homosexual disease.” He died at 18.
9 Man at Tiananmen Square
Alone, he stood before tanks at Tiananmen Square during pro-democracy protests in China in 1989. Video footage showed that when the lead tank veered left, he did the same, and when it moved forward, he held his ground. Eventually onlookers pulled him aside. His identity remains unknown.
10 Mother Teresa
For more than 40 years, the Catholic nun operated a small hospice in Calcutta, India, where the terminally ill could die in peace. She also began a leper colony. “I see God in every human being,” she said. Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she was asked what people can do to promote peace. “Go home and love your family,” she said. She died at 87 in 1997.
11 Oprah Winfrey
“When you see me, you see what is possible,” she said in a commencement address this month at Howard University. Raised in poverty, abused as a child, she sought to uplift and inspire on her talk show. Winfrey, 53, ranked the richest African-American of the 20th century, motivated her fans to read with her book club and helped them understand sexual abuse and racism with her Oscar-nominated performance in The Color Purple.
12 Terri Schiavo
In 1990 at 26, she mysteriously collapsed and suffered brain damage. Eventually, her husband wanted her feeding tube removed to let her die. Her parents argued she was conscious and gave TV media film of her seeming to smile. They battled in court and Congress. Her husband prevailed; she died after the tube was removed in 2005. Her case prompted greater use of living wills.
AP
13 Michael J. Fox
The actor was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991. In testimony before Congress in 1998, his body jerked uncontrollably because he hadn’t taken medication, to show the ravages of the illness. Fox, 45, who won Emmys and Golden Globes for his work on TV, started a foundation to lobby for more research on Parkinson’s and embryonic stem cells.
14 Arthur Ashe
An African-American, he dominated the white world of tennis by winning three Grand Slam titles. He protested apartheid in South Africa, and perhaps most memorably, handled tragedy with grace. After learning in 1988 that he had contracted HIV from tainted blood transfusions, he spoke for AIDS sufferers worldwide. He died of AIDS complications in 1993.
AFP
15 U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, 1999
Their World Cup title win on U.S. soil energized girls in sports. Brandi Chastain, scoring the final penalty kick, tore off her jersey, showing a sports bra, and fell to her knees, fists clenched in victory. “Momentary insanity,” she said later. She and teammates Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy have hung up their cleats. In the past year, each became a mother.
16 Megan Kanka & Jessica Lunsford
Their deaths frightened us into action. The girls, ages 7 and 9, respectively, were raped and murdered, Megan in 1994 and Jessica in 2005, each by a convicted sex offender. To protect other children, states and Congress passed laws that require sex offenders to register their addresses.
17 Mattie Stepanek
At 3, he began writing poems to cope with the death of an older brother who suffered, like him, from a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Before his death at age 13 in 2004, he had published five books of poetry, three of them best sellers.
18 Bono
He’s famous as the Grammy-winning lead singer and lyricist for the Irish rock band U2, but he’s inspired people as an activist for Africa and poor countries. His humanitarian work promotes trade, debt relief and AIDS awareness.
19 Pat Tillman
He embodied patriotism. He gave up a multimillion-dollar contract with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals to join the Army after the Sept. 11 attacks. He served in Iraq and later Afghanistan, where he was killed in 2004. At first, the Army said the cause was enemy fire, but an investigation found that he was shot accidentally by U.S. soldiers.
20 Muhammad Ali
A tough guy with a heart and a three-time World Heavyweight Champion, the retired boxer, 65, devotes his energies to humanitarian causes that include hunger and poverty relief. In a memorable moment, Ali accepted the Olympic torch in 1996 and, hands shaking from the effects of Parkinson’s disease, lit the flame that would burn throughout the games.
Getty Images
21 Steve Irwin
The Crocodile Hunter had a fearless joy. The Australian wildlife expert achieved worldwide fame from a TV series he co-hosted with his wife, Terri. He was killed last September, pierced in the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef.
22 Jessica McClure
Her ordeal captivated a nation. She was 18 months old when she fell into a well in Midland, Texas, in 1987. Rescuers worked 58 hours to free her from an 8-inch-wide pipe. McClure, 21, married last year and had a baby girl. “She’s just a normal person with a famous name,” says her high school principal, Scott Knippa.
23 “Baby M”
She is the baby who first illuminated the thorny issues of surrogate parenting. Melissa Stern, her real name, is the biological child of William Stern and Mary Beth Whitehead, the surrogate hired to carry her. Once she was born, a tearful Whitehead refused to give her up. A court awarded Stern custody. Melissa is a junior at George Washington University in Washington.
24 Matthew Shepard
The killing of this gay 21-year-old college student brought national attention to the issue of hate crimes. In October 1998, he met two men in a Wyoming bar who later savagely beat him, tied him to a fence in a remote area and left him. He was found barely alive. Candlelight vigils were held worldwide until he died five days later. barely alive. Candlelight vigils were held worldwide until he died five days later.
Reuters
25 Elian Gonzalez
He was 5 when the small boat carrying him and 13 others escaping Cuba sank in 1999, killing his mother. He survived on an inner tube and was taken in by relatives in Miami. His father in Cuba wanted him back, and Attorney General Janet Reno ordered his return. When the relatives balked, armed federal agents stormed their house and found Elian hiding in the closet. He lives with his father.
