USA TODAY Continues 25th Anniversary Celebration With Weekly Top 25 Lists

USA TODAY Continues 25th Anniversary Celebration With Weekly Top 25 Lists

Today's List: Top 25 Public Meltdowns

MCLEAN, Va., May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY turns 25 years young this September, and to continue the celebration, The Nation's Newspaper will look back at the Top 25 Public Meltdowns.

Moments of unscripted behavior - good and bad, but mostly bad - capture our attention and become bookmarks of our times. USA TODAY looks backs at 25 memorable public meltdowns that had us talking and laughing or cringing over the past quarter-century.

Every Monday for 25 weeks, USA TODAY will offer an exclusive color page of Top 25 anniversary memories - 25 lists over 25 weeks designed to spark conversation and debates. USA TODAY's interactive online environment at USATODAY.com offers readers not only the chance to debate each list, but will post reader's choices as well.

The Top 25 conversation continues today with the Top 25 Public Meltdowns. Here are the top 10:

1. Pulpit Blues

Red-faced and weeping, Jimmy Swaggart, the USA's leading televangelist, begged for forgiveness as a congregation of 7,000 in Baton Rouge and millions of TV viewers watched on Feb. 21, 1988. A private detective had photographed him with a prostitute.

2. Bite Fight

Boxer Mike Tyson, angered by what he thought were illegal head butts during a Las Vegas match with Evander Holyfield on June 28, 1997, bit off pieces of his opponent's ears during the third round.

3. Hurricane Dan

CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather stormed off the set when a tennis match threatened to cut into his broadcast on Sept. 11, 1987. The network ended up airing six minutes of dead air.

4. Hot Knight

Indiana University's volatile basketball coach, Bobby Knight, tossed a chair across the court to protest a referee's call during a Feb. 23, 1985, game against Purdue. He was ejected. Purdue won, 72-63.

5. Slow-speed Pursuit

Former football great O.J. Simpson and friend Al Cowlings, in a white Ford Bronco, were pursued by Los Angeles police in a one-hour, low-speed chase on June 17, 1994, as news helicopters hovered above and people waved signs from overpasses. Simpson was a suspect in the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. He ended up at home, where he surrendered. He was later acquitted.

6. Jumping jack Tom

Actor Tom Cruise expressed his love for future wife Katie Holmes by jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch on May 23, 2005. A month later on the Today show, he lectured host Matt Lauer about antidepressants: "Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt . . . You're so glib."

7. Campaign Calamity

After a disappointing third-place finish in Iowa's caucuses Jan. 19, 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told supporters he would continue his campaign in other states, "and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yaaaaahhhh!" He later told David Letterman it was a "crazy, red-faced rant."

8. NBA Brawl NBA players charged into the stands to fight with fans, and cups, ice, bottles and a chair were thrown during an Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons basketball brawl on Nov. 19, 2004, in Auburn Hills, Mich. The game was stopped with 45.9 seconds remaining; the Pacers won, 97-82. "Ugliest thing I've seen," Pistons coach Larry Brown said. Nine players were suspended.

9. MJ in PJ's

Pop star Michael Jackson arrived at his child molestation trial wearing blue pajama bottoms and slippers on March 10, 2005, claiming he'd come from a hospital visit for a back injury. A California jury later acquitted him of charges that could have sent him to prison for almost 20 years.

10. Defining Moment

President Clinton parsed a single word in an Aug. 17, 1998, grand jury testimony. Asked whether he was having sexual relations with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Clinton said, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." The videotaped testimony was made public, and in December the House of Representatives approved four articles of impeachment; the Senate acquitted him.

Find the full list in today's editions of USA TODAY or log on to USATODAY.com. A new Top 25 list will run every Monday through September 10th.

USA TODAY, the nation's top-selling newspaper, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on September 15th, 2007. It is published via satellite at 36 locations in the USA and at four sites abroad. With a total average daily circulation of 2.3 million, USA TODAY is available worldwide. USA TODAY is published by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI). The USA TODAY brand also includes: USATODAY.com, an award-winning news and information Web site that is updated 24 hours per day; USA TODAY Sports Weekly, a magazine for enthusiasts of professional football and baseball; and USA TODAY LIVE, the television arm of the USA TODAY brand that brings the spirit and quality of the newspaper to television.

Source: USA TODAY

CONTACT: Heidi Zimmerman, Director-Communications of USA TODAY,
+1-703-854-5304, hzimmerman@usatoday.com

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