October 6, 1966: The Smoggy Sendoff of Sandy Koufax

Sandy Koufax (left) and Jim Palmer

October 6, 1966, 60 years ago: Game 2 of the World Series. Los Angeles Dodger outfielder Willie Davis, having trouble seeing a white baseball against the smog-gray Los Angeles sky, commits 3 errors in 1 inning, enabling the Baltimore Orioles to win 6-0, and take both World Series games at Dodger Stadium, and head back to Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 lead.

Jim Palmer, days short of his 21st birthday, outduels Sandy Koufax, who struggles with the Oriole bats, Davis' fielding, and the pain in his elbow.

Koufax has told only a few people yet, but he's already decided that this is his last major league game. He is not yet 31. This could be called a "generational hinge" game. To put it another way: Koufax had won 169 games, including 4 in the World Series, but would never win another; Palmer, if you count this game, had won 21, and 255 more would follow.

To this day, the Orioles have never won a Pennant without Palmer on their staff. But they won 6 with him, including the 1966, 1970 and 1983 World Series. He is the only pitcher to win a World Series game in 3 different decades. His 186 wins during the 1970s made him the winningest pitcher of the decade. By a weird coincidence, the scout who discovered him was Hal Newhouser, whose 170 wins during the 1940s made him the winningest pitcher of that decade.

Many American cities have had, and some still have, smog issues, due to topography. New York's used to be bad, up until the 1970s, when the effects of the environmental movement helped. Denver's is bad, because of the Rocky Mountains.

But Los Angeles is widely known for smog, because it's the American city most identified with driving as opposed to public transportation, and all that car exhaust flies east with the prevailing wind in the Northern Hemisphere, and runs smack into the San Gabriel Mountains, trapping it. To make matters worse, the city gets an average of only an inch and a quarter of rain per month.

On July 26, 1943, the smog in L.A. was so bad! (How bad was it?) It was so bad, people began calling the police, thinking that the Japanese were conducting chemical warfare as part of their effort in World War II. The Japanese military never developed anything like that, but America didn't know that at the time, and it had only been 25 years since World War I and Imperial Germany's use of poison gas..

On October 21, 1954, the smog in L.A. was so bad, the City actually closed its public schools for several days.

On October 16, 1966, 10 days after this World Series game, comedian Allan Sherman appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sherman, a Chicago native famed as a game show producer and a song parodist -- the "Weird Al" Yankovic of his time, many of his rewrites reflecting his Jewish heritage -- mentioned that he once lived in the L.A. suburb of Van Nuys, and sang this, to the tune of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes": 

They ask me through the years

why I shed these tears.

I, of course, replies:

When you live in Van Nuys

smog gets in your eyes.

I thought I'd play it wise

so I closed my eyes.

Then, what do you suppose?

When both my eyes I close

smog got in my nose.

I went to price

an anti-smog device

to fit behind my car.

But, all too quick

the smog became so thick

I could not find my car.

Ten thousand cars provide
carbon monoxide.
If they'd all drive a horse
there'd be no smog, of course…
But there'd be something worse!

In 1971, on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, taped outside Los Angeles in what they mockingly called "Beautiful Downtown Burbank," co-host Dan Rowan said this as part of his regular "News of the Future" sketch: "Los Angeles, two years from now: Race relations were solved in Los Angeles, when the smog became so thick, nobody could tell what anybody's color was!" (That didn't happen in 1973, but the city did elect its 1st black Mayor that year, Tom Bradley.)

The founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the passage of the Clean Air Act, both in 1970, helped. So did an additional Clean Air Act in 1990. L.A.'s last Stage 1 Smog Alert was in 2003; its last Stage 2 Smog Alert, in 1988; and its highest level of alarm, a Stage 3 Smog Alert, was last issued in 1974. Then again, the American Lung Association still ranked L.A. as the nation's most-polluted city as recently as 2013.

October 6, 1966 was a Thursday. Also on this day, LSD was declared illegal throughout the United States. And Irish soccer star Niall Quinn was born.

October 6, 1926: The Legend of the Babe and the Sick Kid

October 6, 1926, 100 years ago: Game 4 of the World Series is held at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Someone got a message to New York Yankees superstar Babe Ruth, asking him to hit a home run for a sick kid in a hospital.

He hit one. It came in the 1st inning, off St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Flint Rhem. (His name was Charles Flint Rhem, but he went by his middle name.)

He hit another, in the 3rd inning, also off Rhem.

And he hit another, in the 6th inning, off Herman "Hi" Bell. It was the 1st time a player had hit 3 home runs in a World Series game.

Ruth, who had 4 RBIs on the day, did have his chances to hit a 4th homer. He drew a walk in the 5th inning, drew another walk in the 8th, and was on deck when the Yankees made their last out in the 9th. Despite all his accomplishments in baseball, he never hit 4 home runs in a game. In fact, only 1 Yankee has ever done that: Lou Gehrig, in 1932. On this day, Gehrig went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

Billy Southworth, later to manage the Cardinals to 3 straight Pennants, went 3-for-5. Rogers Hornsby, also the Cardinals' manager this season, went 2-for-5 with an RBI. But despite allowing 5 runs on 14 hits, Waite Hoyt went the distance, and the Yankees won, 10-5, and tied up the Series.

The boy's name was Johnny Sylvester. That Summer, he was staying at a rented house in Bay Head, on the Jersey Shore, when he was thrown from his horse, and the horse kicked him in the head. He was taken back to his family home in Essex Fells, New Jersey, but the injury got worse, and he developed osteomyelitis in his skull. (Twenty years later, while playing high school football, Mickey Mantle was injured and developed osteomyelitis in his ankle, and nearly lost his leg before he could begin his Hall of Fame career with the Yankees.)

Once Sylvester's story became connected with Ruth, the story was mixed up, as what he had depended on who was telling the story. It's usually been written as "blood poisoning." The confusion led some later observers to say the whole story was a hoax. It wasn't.

It's also not clear whose idea it was to contact Ruth: Johnny himself, his father, or his uncle. But the message did get to Ruth, who sent a package to the Sylvester house, including two balls, each autographed by the one of the entire teams involved in the World Series. Next to his own autograph, Ruth wrote, "I'll knock a homer for you on Wednesday." Which he did. (So who were the other 2 homers for?)

After the game, Johnny's condition improved. The Yankees' condition didn't: The Cardinals won the Series in 7 games. After the Series, Ruth visited the Sylvester home, and Johnny told him, "I'm sorry the Yanks lost."

When Johnny's story hit the national news, he also received an autographed football from Red Grange, and an autographed tennis racket from Bill Tilden. That was half of "The Golden Age of Sports" right there. I wonder if he ever met boxing's Jack Dempsey, hockey's Howie Morenz or golf's Bobby Jones?

At any rate, Johnny grew up, graduated from Yale University, served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and met Ruth one more time, in 1948. This time, it was as a publicity stunt in connection with the film The Babe Ruth Story, starring William Bendix in a ridiculous account of Ruth's life. At this meeting, it was Ruth who was sick, with throat cancer, and died later in the year.

Sylvester settled in Garden City, Long Island, New York, and ran a company that manufactured packing machinery. He lived until 1990, age 74, and was survived by a son and 3 grandchildren. In 2014, a ball that Ruth gave him was sold at auction for $250,641.

The legend of the Babe and the sick kid has gotten into every movie made about the Babe. The truth is great enough, is Ruthian enough.

October 5, 2001: Barry Bonds Hits His 71st Home Run *

October 5, 2001, 25 years ago: At what was then known as Pacific Bell Park (now Oracle Park), Barry Bonds hits his 71st and 72nd home runs of the season, to set a new major league single-season record... which we now know is bogus. The 1st-inning homer, his record-breaking 71st, is off Dodger pitcher Chan Ho Park.

But the Dodgers win the game, 11-10. To make matters worse for Giant fans, the Dodgers' win both clinches the National League Western Division and eliminates the Giants, still their arch-rivals, from Playoff eligibility.

Bonds will raise his total to 73*. With teammate Rich Aurilia's 37 (as far as I know, his were legit), they set a (tainted) NL record for homers by teammates, 110. The major league record remains 115, by Mickey Mantle (54) and Roger Maris (still the legit record of 61) in 1961.

Ned Williamson, who played for the team now known as the Chicago Cubs, hit 27 home runs in 1884, thanks to a short left-field fence at the team's home ballpark. That remained a record through Major League Baseball's "Dead Ball Era," until 1919, when Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox hit 29.

For the 1920 season, Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees, and blew past his own record to hit 54. He raised the record to 59 in 1921, and 60 in 1927. That record stood until Maris hit 61 in '61. That record stood until Mark McGwire cheated his way to 70 in 1998. Bonds raised it to 73 in 2001. (UPDATE: Aaron Judge hit 62 in 2022.)

October 5, 1951: Mantle vs. Drain

October 5, 1951, 75 years ago: Game 2 of the World Series is played at Yankee Stadium. The New York Yankees, with Eddie Lopat pitching a fine game, evened up the Series against the New York Giants by winning 3-1 over Larry Jansen. Joe Collins hit a home run. But the big story came in the top of the 5th inning.

The Yankees' big rookie, Mickey Mantle, already a big story and not yet 20 years old for another 15 days, was playing right field, with the idea that, the next season, he would succeed Joe DiMaggio in center field.

The Giants' big rookie, Willie Mays, who had turned 20 in May, hit a fly ball to right-center. Mantle went for it, but heard DiMaggio calling for it, and stopped short. That caused Mantle to step in a drain that had been mistakenly left open, catching his spikes, and tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee.

With today's sports medicine, Mickey would have been operated on the next day, and would have been ready for Opening Day the next April. But they didn't know how to treat a torn-up knee in the Truman years. The surgery he got was hardly good enough, and the knee never really healed right. This is why people say, "We never got to see Mickey Mantle on 2 good legs."

If the Yankees ever found out which groundskeeper left the drain open, they handled it privately, without ever revealing the man's name. Which, given the fanatical devotion of the fans Mantle would eventually have, was for the best.

The story got worse. Mickey's father, Elvin "Mutt" Mantle, who had made his son a special project, teaching him to play, including how to switch-hit, was in attendance. They rode to Lenox Hill Hospital together in a taxi. Mickey leaned on his father for support getting out of the cab. But Mutt collapsed, causing Mickey to collapse, too.

All those years of working in the zinc mines of northeastern Oklahoma, inhaling the poisonous dust, had given Mutt Hodgkin's disease. He was not just too weak to support his son at that moment, he was dying. Also with today's medicine, he might have lived. Then again, with today's economy, he might not have had to work in the mines.

Father and son spent the rest of the World Series watching the games from adjoining hospital beds. Mutt died on May 7, 1952, only 40 years old. None of the men in Mickey's family had lived past the age of 45, and Mickey was convinced they family was "cursed," and that he wouldn't make it past 45, either. So he was going to live every day like there was no tomorrow. It didn't occur to him that, not working in the mines, he would be healthier.

Instead, he drank to dull the physical pain of so many injuries, and the psychological pain of losing his father so soon, and of the way he was often treated by the New York fans and the New York media, until he went from being the kid with all the promise to the star who was fulfilling the promise. He ended up playing 18 seasons, hitting 536 home runs, winning 3 American League Most Valuable Player awards, including in 1956 when he won the Triple Crown, and helped the Yankees win 12 Pennants and 7 World Series.

But it never seemed to be enough for him. There was always a hole in his life, and he tried filling it with booze and other indulgences. That never works. Realizing it too late, Mickey began using the old line, "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken a lot better care of myself." He finally quit drinking in 1994 -- but the damage to his liver was done, as he only lived another year and a half.

*

October 5, 1951 was a Friday. Actress Karen Allen and Irish rock singer Bob Geldof were born on this day. And the DuMont network variety show Cavalcade of Stars, hosted by Jackie Gleason, includes a 6-minute sketch that became a recurring one, and eventually its own half-hour sitcom on CBS: The Honeymooners.

That night, Florida State University, which had only become coeducational in 1947 (after being a women's college since its founding in 1854), played the University of Miami in football for the 1st time, at Burdine Stadium in Miami -- the stadium that will later be renamed the Orange Bowl. Miami won, 35-13. The Seminoles did not beat the Hurricanes for the 1st time until 1958, and not at home in Tallahassee until 1979. The rivalry would get much bigger over the next few years. 

Presidential Approval Rating Peaks and Valleys, 1933-2026

From The Moment with Katy Tur, October 2, 2026

According to polling presented on MS Now yesterday, on The Moment with Katy Tur, by Tur, Trump is at 82 percent disapproval on the issue of the cost of living. That's on one issue, not overall.

In contrast, the following Presidents were at the following peak levels of disapproval on the following issues: Lyndon Johnson on the Vietnam War, 57; Richard Nixon on the Watergate scandal, 71; Jimmy Carter on the economy overall, 74; George W. Bush on the economy overall, 77, and on the Iraq War, 70; and Joe Biden on the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, 62.

Not listed in that graphic, apparently because they didn't have as much as 57 percent on any particular issue, which I, having lived through every President since Nixon, find hard to believe: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

So I got curious: When were Presidents at their most popular, overall; and least? Here's the figures I found, with sources listed in the link, starting in the modern era:

* Franklin D. Roosevelt: Highest: 84 percent in a poll ending January 13, 1942, in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the country rallying around itself, its troops, and its President; Lowest, 48, August 24, 1939, after the 1937-38 "Roosevelt Recession," but before the start of World War II.

* Harry S Truman: Highest: 87, June 5, 1945, in the wake of V-E Day in the closing days of World War II; Lowest, 22, February 14, 1952, at the depth of the Korean War, and with some Democratic scandals that would seem like penny-ante stuff by the time of Watergate.

* Dwight D. Eisenhower: Highest: 78, November 22, 1955, after recovering from his heart attack 2 months earlier; Lowest, 48, April 1, 1958, at the depth of the worst recession the country had seen since the end of the Great Depression, but one that would be surpassed many times starting in 1973.

* John F. Kennedy: Highest: 83, May 3, 1961, ironically in the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs operation, with people appreciating that he took full responsibility for it, instead of blaming Ike, the CIA, or anybody else; Lowest, 56, September 17, 1963, after he'd lost much of the South with his civil rights bill, but he was still personally popular.

* Lyndon B. Johnson: Highest, 80, March 5, 1964, in the wake of the JFK assassination and his promise of a War On Poverty; Lowest, 35, August 12, 1968, with the Vietnam War and race riots both seeming to have no end in sight.

* Richard Nixon: Highest, 70, February 15, 1973, after he'd won a 2nd term and "ended the Vietnam War," but before Watergate emerged as an issue; Lowest, 23, January 7, 1974, oddly not right before he resigned.

* Gerald Ford: Highest, 71, August 19, 1974, right after he'd replaced Nixon and given a unifying "not an Inaugural Address"; Lowest, 37, January 13, 1975, after his pardon of Nixon, and with the recession Nixon dumped in his lap having had inflation added to it.

* Jimmy Carter: Highest, 75, March 21, 1977, in his 1st 100 days; Lowest, 28, July 2, 1979, oddly, right before his "Crisis of Confidence" speech, before the Iran Hostage Crisis, the OPEC moves raising gas prices, the accompanying inflation with everything else, or the high interest rates.

* Ronald Reagan: Highest, 68, May 11, 1981, after both his 1st 100 days and his recovering from an assassination attempt; Lowest, 35, January 31, 1983, with unemployment at 11 percent, it's highest non-COVID point since the end of the Great Depression.

* George H.W. Bush: Highest, 89, March 3, 1991, just as he ended the Persian Gulf War; Lowest, 29, August 2, 1992, with the deepest recession yet since the end of the Great Depression, and with the Democrats having just had a successful Convention, but before his Party's Convention made things worse.

So far, all of these polls were by the Gallup Organization. These were not, with one exception:

* Bill Clinton: Highest, 73, by CBS News and The New York Times, January 27, 1998, 6 days after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke, a day after his finger-wagging denial of the charges, and right after his State of the Union Address, so at a low point in his Administration, he was at his most popular; Lowest, 36, by Time magazine and CNN, May 27, 1993, right after his 1st 100 days, which had a few public-relations missepts.

* George W. Bush: Highest, 92, by ABC News, October 9, 2001, right after he'd begun bombing Afghanistan in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks; Lowest, 19, by the American Research Group, February 19, 2008, with a recession getting bad and the Iraq War having no end in sight, even though things would get much worse economically.

* Barack Obama: Highest, 76, by CNN, February 8, 2009, right after his Inauguration; Lowest, 37, by Gallup, September 11, 2011, 4 months after he killed Osama bin Laden, after Republicans had started running against him, including airing TV commercials against him, but before the 2012 Primaries started, and he wasn't airing his own ads yet.

* Joe Biden: Highest, 63, by the Associated Press, May 3, 2021, around the end of his 1st 100 days; Lowest, 31, by Quinnipiac University, July 18, 2022, around the time that inflation got the highest under him.

* Donald Trump, and these are the extremes for both of his terms combined, so far: Highest, 49, by McLaughlin & Associates, March 24, 2019, before his 1st impeachment, COVID, and the COVID-induced recession; Lowest, 29, Pew Research, January 12, 2021, after the January 6 insurrection, and right before his 2nd impeachment.

Therefore, they can be ranked as follows:

Highest: Dubya Bush 92, Daddy Bush 89, Truman 87, FDR 84, JFK 83, LBJ 80, Ike 78, Obama 76, Carter 75, Clinton 73, Ford 71, Nixon 70, Reagan 68, Biden 63, Trump 49. Surprise: Reagan was never as popular as Carter or Clinton at his peak, and Trump has never had a majority.

Lowest: JFK 56, FDR 48, Ike 48, Obama 37, Ford 37, Clinton 36, LBJ 35, Reagan 35, Biden 31, Daddy Bush 29, Trump 29, Carter 28, Nixon 23, Truman 22, Dubya Bush 19. Another surprise: LBJ and Clinton never got as low as Reagan; but Truman was lower than all of them except Dubya.

How about their average approval rating? These are all from Gallup, and they didn't list FDR's: JFK 70.1, Ike 65.0, Daddy Bush 60.9, LBJ 55.1, Clinton 55.1, Reagan 52.8, Dubya Bush 49.4, Nixon 49.0, Obama 47.9, Ford 47.2, Carter 45.5, Truman 45.4, Biden 42.2, Trump 41.1.

Think about that: Not only is Trump's the lowest, but even with him, and (as Rush Limbaugh would have said about Clinton) his willing accomplices in the media, bad-mouthing Biden for 5 years straight (counting the 2020 campaign), Biden's average was still higher than Trump's.

What does this mean? Basically, it means that there are certain rules to being President:

* Don't have a "Depression." Herbert Hoover, the last President before this list, had THE one. Nixon had one. Ford suffered for it, too. Carter was seen as having one, but it wasn't one. Reagan had one. Both Bushes had one. Biden was seen as having one, but it wasn't one. Trump is now on his 2nd.

* Don't have a "Vietnam." LBJ had one. Carter had won, in Iran. Reagan got out of one, in Lebanon. Dubya had one, in Iraq. Biden sort-of had one, in Afghanistan, although it was based on a Trump policy, which he didn't change. Trump now has one, in Iran.

* Don't have a Watergate. Truman sort-of had one, the various "corruption" scandals in his Administration. Nixon had THE one. Ford suffered for it, too. Reagan had one, Iran-Contra, but survived it. Clinton didn't have one, not that Republicans didn't try to say he had several. Dubya had one, the Scooter Libby vs. Valerie Plame story. Trump had one, getting impeached over trying to blackmail Ukraine.

* Don't screw up a hurricane. Nixon and Daddy Bush had particularly bad ones in both Year 1 and Year 4, but each responded properly, and while both had their Presidencies end earlier than they would have liked, their hurricane responses had nothing to do with it. Dubya Bush had the worst one in the modern era, and it basically ended his "9/11 untouchability," before his "Vietnam" could make things worse. Obama had one just a few days before voters had to decide whether to re-elect him, but he handled it right, though he probably would have won the most-affected States anyway. Trump screwed up a hurricane in Year 1, and hardly anybody even remembers that now, because he's done so many other horrible things.

* Don't screw up a pandemic. So far, only 4 Presidents have faced this problem. In 1918, Woodrow Wilson put up measures to fight the Spanish Flu, and we may never know how many people those measures saved. Obama faced Ebola in 2014, and his measures meant that literally no Americans died from it, and just one person on American soil, a visiting Liberian. The Obama Administration "wrote a pandemic playbook," because they knew something like that would happen someday, and we had to be prepared. Trump threw it out, because it was "written" by a black man. The result was the estimation that about 70 percent of the people who died from COVID wouldn't have if Trump had kept and followed the playbook. Biden was left to deal with the aftermath, and handled it as well as could have been hoped by that point.

So that's 5 rules. And Trump has broken them all. But only the "Depression" and the "Vietnam" seem to have hurt him in this 2nd term.

These polling averages also suggest that there will always be a core group that will support either party, no matter what; and a larger mass of people in between who are willing to change their minds to adjust to changing circumstances, and who do, whether the President or the media like it or not.

It's also worth noting that, once you take out FDR's 2 extra terms, most Presidents that managed to win a 2nd (or 1st full) term averaged better polling in their 1st term than in their 2nd. The exceptions, so far, have been Reagan, Clinton and Obama.

But now, as Year 6 of his Presidency is moving into its latter stages, and he is almost halfway through the 2nd term he won on the basis of fear of immigrants, inflation, and the issue of war & peace, Trump is facing blowback on the latter 2 issues, from people who had been his people all the way.

It is not enough to make them call their Congressmen and ask for his 3rd impeachment. It is not enough to make them call their Senators and ask for his conviction and removal through an impeachment trial. It is certainly not enough to make enough Republican Senators, plus Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, join every other Democratic Senator to make 67, enough to remove him.

But it might become enough to make supporters of his, who know he's not literally on the ballot in the elections to be held on November 3, either vote Democratic for the first time in who-knows-how-long-if-ever, or stay home, and lead to big Democratic victories.

Because now, Trump's policies are directly hurting them. And it's been almost 2 years: Blaming a President who hasn't been in office in that time, or the Democrats who don't hold Congressional majorities and are blocked from making policy, won't work. This is on him, and it is on his Party.

And if enough Republicans lose for the ones that are left to blame him for their new minority status, that might be enough to shake his 34-Senator firewall. And, instead of a literal wall he built that does little to keep immigrants from entering the country, it may just be that figurative wall collapsing that ends his Presidency.

Unless, of course, his health catches up to him first.

October 4, 1976: The Resignation of Secretary Earl Butz

October 4, 1976, 50 years ago: Earl Butz resigns as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. In 2020s parlance, he exercised his privilege, got caught, and fell victim to cancel culture.

Earl Lauer Butz was born on July 3, 1909 in Albion, Indiana. He grew up on a farm, and graduated in a high school class of seven students. He graduated from nearby Purdue University, married, and had 2 children. His nephew, Dave Butz, also went to Purdue, and also went on to work in Washington, in his case as a defensive tackle for the NFL's Washington Redskins.

In 1948, Earl Butz became vice president of the American Agricultural Economics Association. In 1951, he became vice president of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him Assistant Secretary of Agriculture. In 1957, he returned to Purdue to teach. In 1968, he ran for the Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed him Secretary of Agriculture. He was never connected to any of the crimes that fell under the umbrella term "Watergate," and continued to serve in the post after Nixon resigned the Presidency, and turned it over to Gerald Ford. At first, he seemed like an ordinary Republican: Pro-business, but not especially offensive.

That changed while he attended the 1974 World Food Conference in Rome, seat of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI had made public his opposition to "population control," because it included increased birth control. A natural stand for a Pope to take.

Butz, using a fake Italian accent, made a veiled reference to the mandatory celibacy of priests, all the way up to the Pope, saying, "He no play-a the game, he no make-a the rules." Terence Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of New York, for all intents and purposes the Papal Viceroy in America, demanded an apology. The White House ordered him to give one. He did, but weaseled his way into a typical "I got caught" response of being taken out of context.

But on October 4, 1976, with just 29 days before President Ford had to face the voters for re-election, against former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia, Butz resigned. The newly-published October 7 issue of Rolling Stone magazine had published some remarks of his, remarks that meant that he could not continue as a member of the President's Cabinet.

The remarks were made on a commercial flight aboard TWA from Kansas City, where the Republican Convention had been held, to California. With Butz on the flight were singer Pat Boone, a known Republican; another singer, Sonny Bono, who would later be elected Mayor of Palm Springs, California, and then to Congress, in each case as a Republican; and John Dean, former White House Counsel to Nixon, who had gone to prison for his role in Watergate, and was reporting on the campaign for Rolling Stone.

Liquor was flowing, in spite of the presence of Boone, known as perhaps popular music's biggest goody-two-shoes. (A big star from 1955 to 1957, he hadn't had a hit record since 1963, but the TV networks knew he could still draw an audience.) And, according to Dean, Butz, always a country boy at heart, and a man who enjoyed what has been called "barnyard humor," told a dirty joke, about a dog and a skunk having sex. That, alone, wouldn't have forced his resignation, because it wouldn't have been worth reporting.

But then Boone asked a good question: Why couldn't the Republican Party, which had been the party of Abraham Lincoln, attract more black voters? Instead of giving an insightful answer, Butz gave one that Time magazine, in its October 18 issue, censored. Rolling Stone did not, and Dean was willing to go only so far, and no further, in covering it up: He said it came from "an unnamed Cabinet officer." But, for those who knew the people in the Cabinet, it was too easy to figure out it was Butz, and he was exposed.

At least he didn't use the N-word. No, at most, he didn't use the N-word: He said, "I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit." (The "loose shoes" was referring to assisting in dancing.)

Ford was furious. On the one hand, firing Butz would have angered Republicans in farm States that he needed to win. On the other hand, keeping him might have put other States, that were close, at risk. Making a speech at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Ford began a sentence with the words, "The greatest danger I see in America today," and someone in the crowd yelled out, "is tight shoes!"

With demonstrators with signs saying, "KICK BUTZ" outside the White House, Butz took the decision out of Ford's hands, and quit. The election was close, even closer than Carter's Electoral Vote victory made it look: 3 States were decided by less than 5,000 votes, and 19 were decided by less than 40,000. Any number of things could have shifted the necessary 30 Electoral Votes that would have given Ford a full term: The Butz remark, the Nixon pardon, the recession that began in late 1973 ending earlier, refusing to bail New York City out, then doing it, appointing Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President, then dumping him as such for Bob Dole, and debate gaffes by both Ford and Dole.

John Knebel served as Secretary of Agriculture for the rest of Butz's term. Butz returned to Purdue as a "professor emeritus." In 1981, he pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges for having under-reported income he earned in 1978. He was sentenced to 5 years in prison, but all but 30 days of the term were suspended. He was one more member of the Nixon Administration to go to prison, although it had nothing to do with Watergate, or anything that happened while Nixon was in office.

He died in 2008, at the age of 98. At the time, he was the longest-lived former Cabinet member ever. He no longer holds that distinction: Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State under Nixon), George Schultz (Treasury under Nixon and State under Reagan) and W. Michael Blumenthal (Treasury under Carter) each lived to see a 100th birthday.

*

October 4, 1976 was a Monday. Actress Alicia Silverstone and soccer star Mauro Camoranesi were born.   

October 4, 1936: The Battle of Cable Street

October 4, 1936, 90 years ago: London's police and anti-fascist demonstrators clash with members of the British Union of Fascists in the East End. It was known as the Battle of Cable Street, and it was Britain's 1st message that it would not put up with far-right tyranny. Sadly, in 1938, its government did. Thankfully, in 1939, that stopped.

As Mike Cole, of the East End, wrote for the website Historic UK:

The 1930s was a period of seismic political change throughout Europe. Fascist dictators took power in Germany, Italy and Romania and left wing and communist movements rebelled against expanding fascism in countries like Spain. In Britain, this tension culminated in a violent event in the East London area of Stepney, on Cable Street.

The murderous pogroms in Russia and elsewhere in Europe had lead to many Jewish refugees arriving in the East End of London by the late 19th Century. The backlash against this contributed to the suspicion that serial killer Jack the Ripper might have been an immigrant, Jewish or otherwise. By the early 1900s, Stepney was one of the poorest and most densely populated suburbs of London. By the 1930s, that part of the East End had a distinct Jewish population and culture.

Sir Oswald Mosley was the leader of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1931, when America's Time magazine put him on their cover, calling him "Britain's Hitler." At 35, he had already been knighted for his government service. He met Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in early 1932, and very much admired and modelled himself on the man known as "Il Duce." Mosley even created a new, sinister organization, the Blackshirts, a quasi-military group of around 15,000 thugs, modelled on Mussolini's Squadrismo.

As the number of fascists was growing, so too was the opposition against them. Trade unionists and Communists, as well as the Jewish community, were becoming increasingly mobilized. When Mosley announced a march into the heart of the Jewish community in the East End of London, planned for Sunday, the 4th of October, 1936, the community was in disbelief and it was a clear provocation.

The Jewish People's Council presented a petition of 100,000 names to urge the Home Secretary to ban the march. But, the BUF had the support of the press and police, and with the Daily Mail running headlines in the 1930s such as "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" the government failed to ban the march and the people of the East End set about organizing to defend themselves. (After World War II, the Daily Mail continued to be far enough to the right that it was nicknamed the Daily Heil.)

The Communist newspaper, The Daily Worker, called people to the streets on the day of the march, to block Mosley’s way. There were many who were worried about violence, and the Jewish Chronicle warned its readers to stay home on the day. Many other groups such as the Communists and Irish Dockers encouraged the defense of the diverse community from Fascist intimidation. The Communist Party even cancelled a planned demonstration in Trafalgar Square and redirected its supporters to the East End.

On October 4, thousands of antifascists began to gather at Gardeners Corner in Aldgate. The battle lines were set as Mosley gathered his men at the Royal Mint by The Tower of London. The police amassed 6,000 officers to clear a path for them into Whitechapel. The police used mounted officers at Aldgate to beat back the crowds onto the pavements but thousands more were streaming into the area. Four sympathetic tram drivers strategically abandoned their vehicles to help block the road to the fascists.

"Down with the fascists!" chants were heard across East London as the police clashed with the community blocking their way. Communists, Jews, Irish Dockers, Trade Unionists all united under the chant "They Shall Not Pass!" -- a line used by French Field Marshal Henri Petain against the Germans in World War I, and recently taken up by the Spanish Republic in their eventually failed effort to prevent a Fascist takeover.

As the police could not get through the crowds towards Whitechapel, Mosley decided to change the route, and head down narrow Cable Street, that ran parallel to his original route. The Blackshirts were headed up and flanked by the Metropolitan Police as they headed into Cable Street.

Everything from rotten fruit to boiling water rained down on them from windows on all sides. The Met reached the first barrier, but brawls broke out, and the police withdrew and demanded that Mosley turn around.

Celebrations broke out across the East End that afternoon. 79 antifascists were arrested, many of whom were beaten by the police, some even sentenced to hard labor. Only 6 fascists were arrested.

Mural honoring the Battle, on Cable Street

Within 2 years, the British government was appeasing Nazi Germany. Within another year, Britain and Germany were at war.

Two days after the Battle of Cable Street, and 3 years after the death of his 1st wife, Mosley, who had cheated on her endlessly, married his longtime mistress, Diana Guinness -- in Germany, in a ceremony held at the home of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and attended by Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

On May 23, 1940, after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, Mosley was arrested under Defence Regulation 18B. Diana was interned a month later, the gap due to the fact that she was pregnant with their son, Max. Most other BUF members were interned, and Fascism was eliminated as a threat in the country. Diana was released in November 1943, but Oswald was kept under house arrest for the duration of The War.

Afterward, he became an advocate for a united Europe, and a leader of Holocaust denial. After the Notting Hill Riots of 1958, he ran for Parliament on an anti-immigrant platform, and lost badly. He ran again in 1966, from a district in East London, but his evil there was not forgotten, and, again, he was clobbered at the polls. He moved to France, and never returned to Britain except for brief visits.

By 1977, he was suffering from Parkinson's disease, but dissension in Britain led to a turn back to the right, and a partial restoration of his reputation. Rock singer Elvis Costello mentioned this in his hit song "Less Than Zero." Mosley lived to see the election of the Conservative Party government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the most right-wing government Britain had ever had. He died on December 3, 1980.

Between his 2 marriages, he had 5 children, including the novelist Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale, a title from his mother's family; and Max Mosley, who served 16 years as President of the International Automobile Federation. Through 2026, none of Mosley's descendants have run for public office in any country.