This week marks two milestone Flashback anniversaries of past historic events which had impact on many people here in the United States.
The calendar was the same in 1975 as it is here in 2025. On Tuesday, April 15 exactly 50 years will have been reached since New Jersey resident Karen Ann Quinlan, born March 29, 1954, and at age 21, went to a party and never returned.
Quinlan mixed alcohol and Valium. Friends found her unconscious. Karen remained that way.
In a vegetative state for months, her parents, Joseph (1925–1996) and Julia (b. 1928), brought legal action to have Karen removed from life support. They and their case did not succeed, at first, but in 1976 the New Jersey Supreme Court sided with the parents.
Karen Ann Quinlan did not die until June 11, 1985. So, this present year 2025 marks 50 years since she effectively died, yes, and it is 40 years since she legally died.
This tragedy brought to the conscious of United States citizens the matter of dying with dignity and not being artificially kept alive on life support.
Recommended reading:
• Wikipedia — Karen Ann Quinlan
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This Saturday, April 19, 2025 will mark 30 years since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
This occurred on Wednesday, April 19. 1995, at approximately 09:00 a.m. CT.
More than 150 people were killed. There were several hundreds injured.
Responsible for this crime of terrorism was Timothy McVeigh, a former U.S. Army soldier, with co-conspirator Terry Nichols.
McVeigh was born April 23, 1968, in Lockport, New York. This was the birth month of my sibling. At age 33, he was executed June 11, 2001 in Terre Haute, Indiana. That was sixteen years to the date following the death of Karen Ann Quinlan. (Coincidence, here and there, with the calendar.)
Nichols was born April 1, 1955 in Lapeer, Michigan, Now age 70, he is serving life in prison at the United States Penitentiary Florence Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX Florence) in Fremont County (near the city of Florence) in Colorado.
I will leave this with more recommended reading: but any related videos—about Karen Ann Quinlan and the Oklahoma City Bombing—will be posted by me in Comments. (Next week’s blog topic will get publish according to normal schedule.)
