Audio: The Nines part one

The past is ever with us, and it seems that every year that ended in a nine has to be remembered because it is significant. The anniversary thing is that important.

So, rest assured the Night Air won’t be left out when there’s a media stampede running. If you remember 1989, that’s great. Everything else will be new and different.

There was 1969 the year of the moon landing and Woodstock; and 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and Margaret Thatcher was elected in Britain - but let’s concentrate on that incredible year of 1989 because it’s the year the Berlin wall collapsed and the Japanese emperor died and a new one was enthroned - so everything could start again. But did it?

Thanks to Tom Morton and Tony Barrell for collecting the years for your ears. For John Jacobs for knitting them together. To Mark Colvin and the PM team, and the Centre for Marine Science and Technology at Curtin University of Technology for their recordings of Antarctic ice.

The Night Air has been taking ABC Radio National on an imaginative detour every Sunday night since January 2002.

www.abc.net.au/rn/nightair

Sunday night at 8.30 on ABC Radio National.

For your local frequency see: www.abc.net.au/rn/freq

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foolfillment/134081135/