He convinced them that a spaceship carrying Jesus
Christ was hiding behind the comet and was coming
for them; the only way they could leave was by com-
mitting suicide, allowing their souls to join the
spaceship as it neared Earth. On March 26, 1997,
Applewhite and his followers were found dead, vic-
tims of a mass suicide.
Further Reading
Burnham, Robert.Great Comets. New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2000.
Newcott, William R. “The Age of Comets.”National
Geographic Magazine192, no. 6 (December, 1997):
94-109.
Sagan, Carl, and Ann Druyan.Comet. New York: Ran-
dom House, 1985.
Paul P. Sipiera
See also Astronomy; Heaven’s Gate mass suicide;
Science and technology; Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet.
Hamm, Mia
Identification American soccer player
Born March 17, 1972; Selma, Alabama
Hamm was the most prolific scorer in soccer histor y, with
158 international goals. A member of the U.S. women’s na-
tional soccer team from 1987 to 2004, she excelled through-
out the 1990’s as the U.S. team won the Women’s World
Cup (1991, 1999) and an Olympic gold medal (1996).
Mariel Margaret “Mia” Hamm began her interna-
tional soccer career while still a teenager, and she
bookended an exemplary academic and athletic ca-
reer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill (UNC) around her participation as a member
on the U.S. women’s national soccer team in 1991,
the first of two such U.S. World Cup champion teams
in the 1990’s. UNC was 95-1 during Hamm’s under-
graduate career there, winning the National Colle-
giate Athletic Association (NCAA) national champi-
onship in all four of her years (1989, 1990, 1992,
1993). In each of her last three years, Hamm was
both an All-American and Atlantic Coast Confer-
ence (ACC) Player of the Year. Although only of
average size (five feet, four inches; 125 pounds), she
used breakaway speed, unselfish attitude (“there is
no ‘me’ in ‘Mia,’” she was fond of saying), and a com-
petitive sense of shared leadership and team spirit
that helped to establish and maintain the U.S.
women’s national soccer team among the elite
teams in international competition for nearly two
decades.
From her position as a starting forward, Hamm
was expected to spearhead the U.S. offensive attack,
and she nearly always exceeded expectations,
whether through goals, assists, tenacious defense, or
her passionate leadership style. In the decade dur-
ing which the term “soccer mom” became a house-
hold word, Hamm became perhaps the most identi-
fiable personification of the female soccer player,
presenting an image of female agency that projected
an attractive, healthy young female actively compet-
ing on the playing field rather than cheering from
the sidelines or transporting part of the team from
the ubiquitous minivan. Although her UNC team-
mates fondly nicknamed her “Jordan” (referencing
the UNC basketball star Michael Jordan, who re-
wrote many NBA records during his professional ca-
reer), her role in the history of women’s sports may
more accurately be understood with reference to402 Hamm, Mia The Nineties in America
Mia Hamm runs alongside a defender from Sweden during the
1996 Olympic Games. The U.S. women’s soccer team went on to
win the gold.(AP/Wide World Photos)