The kind of day we have grown used to now, but in 1999 nine were killed and it was still shocking.
A stock trader angry over his losses opened fire Thursday in two brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 12. He escaped, then killed himself when cornered by police. While police hunted him throughout Atlanta’s fashionable Buckhead district, his wife and two children were found beaten to death in their suburban home. Mayor Bill Campbell said Mark O. Barton, 44, committed suicide after police stopped him in a van at a service station in Atlanta’s northern suburbs about five hours after the office shootings.
Co-workers, when asked by police about Barton almost all exclaimed that he was “a perfectly normal person” and expressed disbelief over why such an event would happen. It was the latest in a grim wave of mass shootings at schools and workplaces and was among the worst office massacres ever.
Meanwhile, President Clinton and the leaders of some 40 nations are trying to secure stability and development for the Balkans, which have known little of either since World War I. “We have a lot more to do, but those who are overly critical should come here to see” progress that has been made, the president said of this city, a symbol of war and recovery. No city better embodies the horrors and hopes of the Balkans than Sarajevo, where world leaders are gathering to offer a formula for peace and prosperity in a region shattered by a decade of wars. For 3 1/2 years, Sarajevo’s besieged population was pinned down by Serbian forces encircling the city. Among the most powerful images from the battered capital: the heartbreaking story of young lovers a Muslim woman named Amira Ismic and a Serbian man named Bosko Brkic killed by a sniper as they tried to flee the city in May 1993. Sarajevo was chosen for the Balkan Stability Pact summit today because the city also represents regional hopes for economic and democratic reforms.
And finally: G.I. Joe turned 35 this day – The action figure made its debut on July 30, 1964. The conventional marketing wisdom of the early 1960s was that boys would not play with dolls and parents would not buy their sons dolls, which have been traditionally a girl’s toy; thus the word “doll” was never used by Hasbro or anyone involved in the development or marketing of G.I. Joe. “Action figure” was the only acceptable term, and has since become the generic description for any poseable doll intended for boys. “America’s movable fighting man” is a registered trademark of Hasbro, and was prominently displayed on every boxed figure package.
And that’s a small slice of what happened, this July 30, 1999 as presented by the CBS World News Roundup.
