As things currently stand:
* Trump fans are demanding that the vote-counting stop in Arizona, a State where Biden currently leads. This is not a smart thing to do.
It's a redneck version of "the Brooks Brothers Riot" that stopped the counting in Miami in 2000, illegally giving Florida to George W. Bush instead of legally giving it to Al Gore. As the name implies, that one was considerably better-dressed.
Conservatives were hoping for a "gritty reboot" of Florida 2000. Instead, they're seeing that the sequel is not as successful as the original.
* How poetic it would be if Donald Trump, the master of insults, spite and misogyny, were to lose this election because his insults of John McCain, both before and after his death, led his widow Cindy to tell Arizona to vote for Joe Biden.
* The one State where Biden currently leads that could still flip to Trump is Nevada, but it's unlikely. And the Trump protestors don't seem to be paying as much attention to that as they are to Arizona.
Somebody joked that Nevada is known for 2 things: Staying up all night, and counting. Of course, there's also quickie marriages -- and quickie divorces. Before television took over as the nation's dominant form of entertainment, the radio announcer Walter Winchell used to call it "Reno-vating."
* Pennsylvania is coming closer to flipping to Biden, as votes come in from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and his home region of Scranton.
* Georgia may even flip by the time I publish this post. It is that close.
What this flip, if it happens, tells me is that, alone among the Southern States, Georgia has enough black voters to outnumber the white racists. This is a triumph of the fans of the late John Lewis over the fans of John Rocker.
It's also a sign that Biden's choice of Kamala Harris, half-African-American and half-Asian-Indian, mattered a great deal more than nominees for Vice President usually do.
Either way, it looks like Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has a 95 percent chance of becoming the 46th President of the United States.
Truly, this is a 5th of November that will never be forgot.
(UPDATE: As it turned out, had Trump won Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia, it wouldn't have made a difference had he not also won Pennsylvania. And he won none of them.)
*
November 5, 333 BC: The Battle of Issus is fought in Anatolia. The Hellenic League defeats the Persian Empire. It effectively dooms Persia to Greek control, under the leader of the Hellenic League, who had taken personal control of its army: King Alexander III of Macedon -- Alexander the Great. At age 23, Alexander may have just become the most powerful man in the world, and he was just getting warmed up.
With the Persian Empire now effectively under his control, Alexander pursued the Persian Emperor, Darius III. Darius managed to elude capture for nearly 3 years, before being assassinated by a cousin. This was 150 years after the Persians had nearly annihilated the Greeks at Thermopylae.
There would also be a Battle of Issus in AD 194, and another in AD 622. There is no town on the site today. The closest city is İskenderun, in south-central Turkey, near the border with Syria.
November 5, 1605: Guy Fawkes, a Catholic fanatic, is arrested beneath the House of Lords at Britain's Parliament, for plotting to blow it up, taking with it the Protestant King James I, his wife Queen Anne, and his sons Prince Henry and Prince Charles. The idea was to place James' daughter, Princess Elizabeth, on the throne. She was just 9 years old, and would, under their order, be raised as, and be married to, a Catholic.
In hindsight, the plot was doomed to failure. The gunpowder was too damp: Lighting it would have had little effect, and aside from whoever lit it, nobody would have died.
And if it had worked? Instead of the people of England rising up in celebration, the reaction would have been like America's after Pearl Harbor and 9/11, or Britain's after the Brighton bombing of 1984 failed to kill Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: A moment of fear, followed by righteous rage. The conspirators would not have lived to see Christmas, no matter what they did.
Although all the conspirators were caught and hanged, Fawkes is generally the only one remembered. Today, Britain chooses to "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot," and it's known as Guy Fawkes Night, commemorated with fireworks and bonfires -- leading to its other name, Bonfire Night.
There are those, of course, who commemorate the plot, rather than its failure, but these are less Fawkes' fellow Catholic fanatics, and more people who don't like the government, whoever currently holds it: Fawkes is often called "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions."
The 1982 graphic novel V for Vendetta features an antihero wearing a mask designed to look like Fawkes, and his attempt to take down a tyrannical government in a dystopian future: 1997 in the book, 2038 in the film -- meaning that Norsefire took over in 2018.
The film based on it (with some considerable differences) was supposed to be released on November 5, 2005, the 400th Anniversary, but after the London bombings of July 7 of that year, it was considered to be too soon, and it was pushed back to March 17, 2006 -- St. Patrick's Day.
Except, in both book and film, "V" got one big thing very wrong: The government Fawkes was trying to bring down was actually more tolerant toward his faith than the one that came before (under Queen Elizabeth I), while the one he wanted to impose would have been a faith-based dictatorship that would have brooked no dissent -- much like the one "V" was trying to bring down. Not the only inconsistency in the character.
*
November 5, 1805: Thomas Wilson Dorr is born in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1841, his home State was the only one in the Union that did not have universal suffrage for adult white males. In other words, if you were a white man age 21 or over, you still couldn't vote in Rhode Island unless you owned land. It was the only State still using its pre-1776 colonial charter as its governing document.
Dorr led a group that got the State to call a Constitutional Convention, but it rejected the proposed new State Constitution. As a result, two separate bodies held elections in the State in 1842, one of them electing Dorr as Governor. The established Governor, Samuel Ward King, declared martial law, and Dorr eventually served a year in prison. His work paid off, though, as a new Constitution was passed in 1843, granting universal suffrage -- for white men only, not for nonwhites or for women. Dorr died in 1854.
November 5, 1810: Alphonso Taft (no middle name) is born in Townshend, Vermont. His was among the many New England families that settled the old Northwest, what would become known as the Midwest, and give it an innate conservatism that it has never fully shaken. The Tafts became the first family of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Alphonso Taft was one of the founders of the Republican Party, and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1856. He became the 1st President of the Cincinnati Bar Association. In 1875, he lost the Republican nomination for Governor to Rutherford B. Hayes, who would become President.
Taft served 11 weeks as U.S. Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant, before Grant appointed him Attorney General, where he served the last 9 months of the Administration. President Chester Arthur would later appoint him U.S. Minister to the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. He died in 1891.
He founded one of America's most impressive political dynasties. His son, William Howard Taft, is the only man to serve both as President and on the Supreme Court (and as Chief Justice, no less). William's son, Robert Alphonso Taft, was one of the most powerful U.S. Senators, even before becoming Majority Leader, but his 3 campaigns for President all ended short of the Republican nomination. Nevertheless, he was known as "Mr. Republican" during the Democratic Administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Robert's son Bob served Ohio in both houses of Congress, and his son Bob served as Governor of Ohio.
November 5, 1818: Benjamin Franklin Butler is born in Deerfield, New Hampshire. He became a lawyer, becoming renowned for both criminal defense and bankruptcy law. He briefly served in the Massachusetts State Senate before the U.S. Civil War, and rose to the rank of Major General (2 stars).
He captured New Orleans on May 1, 1862. On the one hand, he devised a relief plan for the poor, confiscated weapons, and his garbage collection system resulted in breaking the grip that yellow fever had on the city: Whereas it usually killed 10 percent of the population every year, in 1862, it killed a grand total of two people.
On the other hand, his anti-Semitism was horrible, and it was his official policy (General Order Number 28) that if any woman should insult or show contempt for any Union soldier, she would be regarded and held liable to be treated as a "woman of the town plying her avocation," in other words, a prostitute. This attack on "Southern womanhood" earned him the nickname Beast Butler. (But those white Southern men apparently had no problem with his anti-Semitic remarks.)
He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1866, 1868, 1870 and 1872, was defeated in 1874, but returned for 1 more term in 1876. In 1882, he was elected Governor. He lived until 1893.
November 5, 1840, 180 years ago: George Hewes dies in Richfield Springs, Otsego County, New York, not far from Cooperstown. He was 98 years old, and he didn't exactly die of old age, either. He was reasonably healthy, but slipped and fell boarding a carriage.
Born in Boston on August 25, 1742, he was one of the mob of Bostonians throwing snowballs and rocks at British soldiers on March 5, 1770, leading to the Boston Massacre. He was also one of the participants of the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. In each case, he appears to have been the last surviving person to be involved in the event. He later fought in the Revolutionary War, and became a shoemaker.
*
November 5, 1855: Northwestern University opens its campus north of Chicago, in Evanston, Illinois. It might seem a bit ridiculous now, knowing that Chicago is a Midwestern city, to refer to such a place as "Northwestern," but in the pre-Civil War era, before transcontinental railroads, never mind cars and planes, and with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 within the lifetimes of people then living, the name wasn't so silly.
For a small private school -- with a current undergraduate enrollment of just 8,353, it is easily the smallest in the Big Ten Conference -- Northwestern has produced a surprising amount of entertainment figures, including such big names as Edgar Bergen, Tony Randall, Agnes Nixon, Patricia Neal, Charlton Heston, Cloris Leachman, Paul Lynde, McLean Stevenson, Ann-Margret, Garry Marshall, Jerry Orbach, Warren Beatty, Shelley Long, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Cindy Crawford, Stephen Colbert, David Schwimmer, Jeri Ryan, Pharrell Williams, Zach Braff, Zooey Deschanel, Robin Lord Taylor, Duchess Meghan Markle, and brothers Seth and Josh Meyers.
As for sports, the school is less known for athletes than for journalists: Irv Kupcinet, Brent Musburger, Ira Berkow, Irv Cross, Rick Telander, Mike Adamle (the last 3 also NU football players), Michael Wilbon, Christine Brennan, Kevin Blackistone, Craig Sager, Mike Greenberg, Jonathan Eig, Jon Heyman, J.A. Adande (now the school's director of sports journalism), Rich Eisen and Rachel Nichols.
Also, writers Saul Bellow, Sidney Sheldon, Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin and Bones creator Kathy Reichs. Also 3-time Democratic Presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, Supreme Court Justices Arthur Goldberg and John Paul Stevens, 4 U.S. Senators including 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern; Chicago Mayors Harold Washington and Rahm Emanuel, and 8 Governors, 6 of Illinois, including 2-time Democratic Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson.
In sports, the Wildcats have produced baseball figures Joe Girardi, Mark Loretta, J.A. Happ, original Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Jerry Doggett, and Chicago White Sox co-owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn; Pro Football Hall-of-Famers Paddy Driscoll and Otto Graham, and not-yet-Hall-of-Famers-but-former-stars Ray Wietecha, Fred "the Hammer" Williamson and Steve Tasker, and title-winning Detroit Lions coach George Wilson; Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz; and Olympic Gold Medal swimmers Bob Skelton and Matt Grevers.
*
November 5, 1856: Foster McGowan Voorhees is born in Clinton, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He served as Governor of New Jersey from 1899 to 1902, and lived until 1927. Voorhees Township in Hunterdon County is named for him, as is Voorhees Hall, a major building on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Connected to the Hall is the University's Art Museum, named for his daughter-in-law, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli.
November 5, 1857: Ida Minerva Tarbell is born outside Erie in Amity, Pennsylvania. In 1904, she published The History of Standard Oil, leading to the general public learning of the corrupt practices of that company, and eventually the breakup of its monopoly and the creation of the Federal Trade Commission. She lived until 1944.
November 5, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln, tired of not seeing the Union Army pressing the case against the Confederate Army, fires the General-in-Chief, George McClellan. For cause.
Though fully justified in this decision, he got as badly ripped for it as Harry Truman did for firing Douglas MacArthur in 1951. Except McClellan ended up running against Lincoln in 1864, on a peace-at-all-costs platform, and until early September, looked like he would win. Then William Tecumseh Sherman took Atlanta, and McClellan was finished.
November 5, 1869: The Cincinnati Red Stockings complete their 1st season as the 1st openly professional baseball team, going 65-0, and playing from coast (Boston) to coast (San Francisco), doing as much to spread the growth of the game than any other team had ever done.
Hail the Champions:
* Pitcher, Asa Brainard, from whose name we supposedly get the word "ace," a native of Albany, New York, 1841-1888.
* Center fielder and manager, Harry Wright, born in Sheffield, England, and grew up in New York, 1835-1895.
* 3rd baseman, Fred Waterman, Manhattan, 1845-1899.
* Left fielder, Andy Leonard, born in Cavan, Ireland and grew up in Newark, 1846-1903
* 2nd baseman, Charlie Sweasy, Newark, 1847-1908
* Catcher, Doug Allison, Philadelphia, 1846-1916.
* Substitute, but mainly an outfielder, Dick Hurley, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, born in 1847, and history has lost track of him, the last record of him being in 1916.
* 1st baseman, Charlie Gould, the only one actually from Cincinnati, 1847-1917.
* Right fielder, Cal McVey, born in Montrose, Iowa and grew up in Indianapolis, 1849-1926,
* Shortstop, George Wright, Yonkers, brother of Harry, the last survivor, 1847-1937.
So it was a pair of Wright Brothers in southern Ohio who, essentially, invented professional baseball, just as another such air invented the airplane. Harry and George are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1 of only 2 pairs of brothers both in. The other is Paul and Lloyd Waner.
It was a different world. There really wasn't professional sports at this point. The 1st college football game was played the very next day, in New Jersey, and it was basically a 25-a-side soccer game. Soccer had barely been standardized, with England's Football Association establishing rules in 1863. Hockey was in its infancy. Basketball hadn't been invented yet. Boxing was an "underground" sport. Horse racing was big, as sports went. The Olympic Games weren't even an idea.
November 5, 1872: President Ulysses S. Grant is re-elected, defeating Horace Greeley, with 55 percent of the vote to 43, and 286 Electoral Votes to 66.
This was a weird election. The Republican Party was split over the corruption in the Grant Administration (though Grant himself has never been accused of wrongdoing). A group of "Liberal Republicans" nominated Horace Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune, formerly one of the nation's leading voices against slavery, briefly a Congressman in 1848-49, and one of the Party's founders in 1854.
Greeley favored Western expansionism, popularizing the slogan, "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country!" But he didn't come up with the words himself: John Babson Lane Soule first used it in the Terre Haute Express in Indiana in 1851.
Greeley had long lambasted the Democratic Party as the party of slavery, but, not wanting to divide the opposition to the Republicans, the Democrats swallowed their pride, and also nominated Greeley. (This is not quite like today's Democratic Party nominating Bernie Sanders. More like if they nominated George Will. Certainly, not Pat Buchanan.) As a result, pretty much every attack that Greeley had hurled at the Democrats for a quarter of a century was hurled back at him, including that he supported racist policies, even the nascent Ku Klux Klan.
In addition, his wife Mary got sick, and on October 12, he effectively stopped campaigning to be by her side. She died 5 days before the election, and he won only 6 States, all formerly slaveholding States: Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri and Texas.
All this took a terrible toll on his own health, and he died at age 61 on November 29, before the Electoral Votes could be cast -- thus becoming the only person ever entitled to receive Electoral Votes for President, but unable to receive them.
Did I say the election was weird? It was so weird. (How weird was it?) Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull voted -- Anthony for Grant, Woodhull for herself, the 1st woman known to have gotten on any ballot as a candidate for President. Even if the million-to-one shot came in, and she won, she couldn't have served at first, anyway: She didn't reach the minimum age of 35 until September 23, 1873, over 6 months into the term. Her Vice Presidential nominee would have had to serve as President from March 4 to September 23. That was Frederick Douglass.
Both Anthony and Woodhull were arrested on Election Day. Voting was then illegal for a woman, and that's what Anthony was arrested for. But that's not what Woodhull was arrested for. She was arrested for obscenity, for printing, in a magazine she and her sister Tennessee Claflin ran (the 1st women in America to do so -- and they were also the 1st women ever to run a Wall Street brokerage firm), the story of the infidelity of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, yet another former abolitionist, and yet another founder of the Republican Party.
Ironically, Beecher had supported women's right to vote, but, though apparently a practitioner of free love, he denounced it in public, and denounced Woodhull in particular, from his pulpit. That's why Woodhull was charged with obscenity (the story was sexual in nature), not with libel (the story was true), and Beecher's reputation did not improve.
Woodhull was held in jail for a month, and released. She ran for President again in 1884 and 1892, with almost no notice. She moved to England with her 3rd husband, and died there in 1927, and was buried there. Beecher died in 1887. He and Greeley are both buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, along with several early baseball stars.
*
November 5, 1873: Edwin Harold Flack is born in London, and grows up in Berwick, Victoria, Australia. He was Australia's 1st Olympian: The only person from the country selected for the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece. He became the 1st Gold Medalist in the 800 meters, and the 1st in the 1,500 meters. He was also a renowned tennis player, and lived until 1935.
Hail the Champions:
* Pitcher, Asa Brainard, from whose name we supposedly get the word "ace," a native of Albany, New York, 1841-1888.
* Center fielder and manager, Harry Wright, born in Sheffield, England, and grew up in New York, 1835-1895.
* 3rd baseman, Fred Waterman, Manhattan, 1845-1899.
* Left fielder, Andy Leonard, born in Cavan, Ireland and grew up in Newark, 1846-1903
* 2nd baseman, Charlie Sweasy, Newark, 1847-1908
* Catcher, Doug Allison, Philadelphia, 1846-1916.
* Substitute, but mainly an outfielder, Dick Hurley, Honesdale, Pennsylvania, born in 1847, and history has lost track of him, the last record of him being in 1916.
* 1st baseman, Charlie Gould, the only one actually from Cincinnati, 1847-1917.
* Right fielder, Cal McVey, born in Montrose, Iowa and grew up in Indianapolis, 1849-1926,
* Shortstop, George Wright, Yonkers, brother of Harry, the last survivor, 1847-1937.
So it was a pair of Wright Brothers in southern Ohio who, essentially, invented professional baseball, just as another such air invented the airplane. Harry and George are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1 of only 2 pairs of brothers both in. The other is Paul and Lloyd Waner.
It was a different world. There really wasn't professional sports at this point. The 1st college football game was played the very next day, in New Jersey, and it was basically a 25-a-side soccer game. Soccer had barely been standardized, with England's Football Association establishing rules in 1863. Hockey was in its infancy. Basketball hadn't been invented yet. Boxing was an "underground" sport. Horse racing was big, as sports went. The Olympic Games weren't even an idea.
November 5, 1872: President Ulysses S. Grant is re-elected, defeating Horace Greeley, with 55 percent of the vote to 43, and 286 Electoral Votes to 66.
This was a weird election. The Republican Party was split over the corruption in the Grant Administration (though Grant himself has never been accused of wrongdoing). A group of "Liberal Republicans" nominated Horace Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune, formerly one of the nation's leading voices against slavery, briefly a Congressman in 1848-49, and one of the Party's founders in 1854.
Greeley favored Western expansionism, popularizing the slogan, "Go west, young man, and grow up with the country!" But he didn't come up with the words himself: John Babson Lane Soule first used it in the Terre Haute Express in Indiana in 1851.
Greeley had long lambasted the Democratic Party as the party of slavery, but, not wanting to divide the opposition to the Republicans, the Democrats swallowed their pride, and also nominated Greeley. (This is not quite like today's Democratic Party nominating Bernie Sanders. More like if they nominated George Will. Certainly, not Pat Buchanan.) As a result, pretty much every attack that Greeley had hurled at the Democrats for a quarter of a century was hurled back at him, including that he supported racist policies, even the nascent Ku Klux Klan.
In addition, his wife Mary got sick, and on October 12, he effectively stopped campaigning to be by her side. She died 5 days before the election, and he won only 6 States, all formerly slaveholding States: Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri and Texas.
All this took a terrible toll on his own health, and he died at age 61 on November 29, before the Electoral Votes could be cast -- thus becoming the only person ever entitled to receive Electoral Votes for President, but unable to receive them.
Did I say the election was weird? It was so weird. (How weird was it?) Susan B. Anthony and Victoria Woodhull voted -- Anthony for Grant, Woodhull for herself, the 1st woman known to have gotten on any ballot as a candidate for President. Even if the million-to-one shot came in, and she won, she couldn't have served at first, anyway: She didn't reach the minimum age of 35 until September 23, 1873, over 6 months into the term. Her Vice Presidential nominee would have had to serve as President from March 4 to September 23. That was Frederick Douglass.
Both Anthony and Woodhull were arrested on Election Day. Voting was then illegal for a woman, and that's what Anthony was arrested for. But that's not what Woodhull was arrested for. She was arrested for obscenity, for printing, in a magazine she and her sister Tennessee Claflin ran (the 1st women in America to do so -- and they were also the 1st women ever to run a Wall Street brokerage firm), the story of the infidelity of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, yet another former abolitionist, and yet another founder of the Republican Party.
Ironically, Beecher had supported women's right to vote, but, though apparently a practitioner of free love, he denounced it in public, and denounced Woodhull in particular, from his pulpit. That's why Woodhull was charged with obscenity (the story was sexual in nature), not with libel (the story was true), and Beecher's reputation did not improve.
Woodhull was held in jail for a month, and released. She ran for President again in 1884 and 1892, with almost no notice. She moved to England with her 3rd husband, and died there in 1927, and was buried there. Beecher died in 1887. He and Greeley are both buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, along with several early baseball stars.
*
November 5, 1873: Edwin Harold Flack is born in London, and grows up in Berwick, Victoria, Australia. He was Australia's 1st Olympian: The only person from the country selected for the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece. He became the 1st Gold Medalist in the 800 meters, and the 1st in the 1,500 meters. He was also a renowned tennis player, and lived until 1935.
November 5, 1887: Paul Wittgenstein (no middle name) is born in Vienna, Austria. An older brother of mathematician, linguist and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, he was drafted into the Austrian Army in World War I, and lost his right arm in 1914 at the Battle of Galicia, in what's now Ukraine.
This seemed to end his career as a concert pianist. But he refused to let it. He wrote to composer after composer to write piano pieces that could be played by the left hand only. According to an episode of M*A*S*H, they all turned him down until French composer Maurice Ravel, best known for "Bolero," said yes. This wasn't true: England's Benjamin Britten, Russia's Sergei Prokofiev, and Germany's Richard Strauss all wrote for him.
But it was Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand, premiering in 1932, that made him as famous as his brother. Both brothers fled the Nazis, with Ludwig living until 1951, Paul until 1961.
November 5, 1891: Alfred Earle Neale is born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. An outfielder, he played 8 seasons, batting .259, and won the World Series with the 1919 Cincinnati Reds. But it is football for which "Greasy" Neale is remembered.
He played professional football before there was an NFL, including as a player-coach, for some of the teams that would go on to found the League: The Canton Bulldogs in 1917, the Dayton Triangles in 1918, and the Massillon Tigers in 1919. He coached at the University of Virginia and West Virginia University, and in 1941 was named the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, leading them to 3 straight NFL Championship Games, winning in 1948 and 1949.
He retired after a disappointing 1950 season, and never coached at any level again. He died in 1973, having lived long enough to see himself elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. The Eagles also elected him to their team Hall of Fame.
November 5, 1892: John William Alcock is born in Seymour Grove, then part of Lancashire, now part of Greater Manchester, England. A hero of Britain's Royal Air Force in World War I, he and Arthur Whitten Brown made the 1st transatlantic flight. (Charles Lindbergh made the 1st solo flight, and the 1st flight from the North American continent to the European continent, in 1927, but this was the 1st flight between any 2 points in what's generally considered those continents.)
On June 14, 1919, aboard a Vickers Vimy biplane, they took off from St. John's, Newfoundland, the easternmost city in North America. They flew through a snowstorm, and their wings iced up. They had little choice but to crash, no matter where they landed, and did so the next morning, 15 hours and 57 minutes after takeoff, in Clifden, County Galway, Ireland, pretty much the westernmost point in "Europe." Remarkably, neither man was injured in the crash.
Alcock did not long enjoy his triumph. On December 18, 1919, he was testing a new Vickers aircraft outside Rouen, France, and crashed, killing him at age 27. Brown lived a bit longer, but his health declined after his only son was killed in service on D-Day. He died of an accidental prescription overdose in 1948, age 62.
He played professional football before there was an NFL, including as a player-coach, for some of the teams that would go on to found the League: The Canton Bulldogs in 1917, the Dayton Triangles in 1918, and the Massillon Tigers in 1919. He coached at the University of Virginia and West Virginia University, and in 1941 was named the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, leading them to 3 straight NFL Championship Games, winning in 1948 and 1949.
He retired after a disappointing 1950 season, and never coached at any level again. He died in 1973, having lived long enough to see himself elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. The Eagles also elected him to their team Hall of Fame.
November 5, 1892: John William Alcock is born in Seymour Grove, then part of Lancashire, now part of Greater Manchester, England. A hero of Britain's Royal Air Force in World War I, he and Arthur Whitten Brown made the 1st transatlantic flight. (Charles Lindbergh made the 1st solo flight, and the 1st flight from the North American continent to the European continent, in 1927, but this was the 1st flight between any 2 points in what's generally considered those continents.)
On June 14, 1919, aboard a Vickers Vimy biplane, they took off from St. John's, Newfoundland, the easternmost city in North America. They flew through a snowstorm, and their wings iced up. They had little choice but to crash, no matter where they landed, and did so the next morning, 15 hours and 57 minutes after takeoff, in Clifden, County Galway, Ireland, pretty much the westernmost point in "Europe." Remarkably, neither man was injured in the crash.
Alcock did not long enjoy his triumph. On December 18, 1919, he was testing a new Vickers aircraft outside Rouen, France, and crashed, killing him at age 27. Brown lived a bit longer, but his health declined after his only son was killed in service on D-Day. He died of an accidental prescription overdose in 1948, age 62.
November 5, 1894: Donald Magruder Scott is born in Woodville, Mississippi. He was a member of the U.S. Olympic track & field teams in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium and 1924 in Paris. He lived until 1988, and was elected to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
November 5, 1897: Warneford Cresswell (no middle name) is born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, in the North-East of England, across the River Tyne from Newcastle. Known as "The Prince of Full Backs," Warney Cresswell starred for nearby team Sunderland, nearly helping them win the Football League title in 1923.
In 1926, he moved to Liverpool team Everton, winning the League in 1928 and 1932, and the FA Cup in 1933. He later went into management, and died on October 20, 1973 -- the same day as Richard Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre," and the opening of the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
Also on this day, John Mahlon Ogden is born in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania, in a neighborhood named Ogden for his family. A pitcher, Jack Ogden was mostly a minor leaguer, getting cups of coffee with the New York Giants in 1918, the St. Louis Browns in 1928 and '29, and the Cincinnati Reds in 1931 and '32. He finished with a major league career record of 25-34.
In 1926, he moved to Liverpool team Everton, winning the League in 1928 and 1932, and the FA Cup in 1933. He later went into management, and died on October 20, 1973 -- the same day as Richard Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre," and the opening of the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
Also on this day, John Mahlon Ogden is born in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania, in a neighborhood named Ogden for his family. A pitcher, Jack Ogden was mostly a minor leaguer, getting cups of coffee with the New York Giants in 1918, the St. Louis Browns in 1928 and '29, and the Cincinnati Reds in 1931 and '32. He finished with a major league career record of 25-34.
He later served as an assistant general manager of his hometown Philadelphia Phillies, bought the minor-league Elmira Pioneers, and was later a scout for the Boston Braves and the Phillies, signing Dick Allen. He died in 1977. His brother, Warren "Curly" Ogden, also pitched in the major leagues, including for the 1924 World Champion Washington Senators.
*
November 5, 1900, 120 years ago: Harvey John Harman is born outside Harrisburg in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. He served as the head football coach at Haverford College in Pennsylvania from 1922 to 1929, Sewanee University in Tennessee in 1930, the University of Pennsylvania from 1931 to 1937, and at Rutgers from 1938 to 1941. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he returned to the Rutgers job from 1946 to 1955.
His tenure at Rutgers included the opening of the original Rutgers Stadium, on his birthday in 1938. He went 14-2-2 in 1938 and '39, and 22-5 from 1946 to 1948. He died on December 17, 1969 -- the day before I was born -- and was posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. A plaque in his memory hangs at the new Rutgers Stadium, now named SHI Stadium.
Also on this day, Peter Joseph Donohue is born outside Dallas in Athens, Texas. A pitcher, Pete Donohue pitched 12 seasons in the majors, mostly with the Cincinnati Reds, leading the National League in wins in 1926. He went 134-118 for his career, and the Reds named him to their team Hall of Fame. He died in 1988.
Also on this day, Natalie Schafer (no middle name) is born in Red Bank, Monmouth County, New Jersey, and grows up in Manhattan. The actress is best known for playing Eunice "Lovey" Howell on Gilligan's Island. She died in 1990.
November 5, 1902: William Harold Cotton is born in Nanticoke, Ontario. A left wing, Baldy Cotton played for one of the earliest American teams in the NHL, the soon-defunct Pittsburgh Pirates, and won the Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1932. He also played in the Ace Bailey Benefit Game in 1934, and lived until 1984.
November 5, 1902: William Harold Cotton is born in Nanticoke, Ontario. A left wing, Baldy Cotton played for one of the earliest American teams in the NHL, the soon-defunct Pittsburgh Pirates, and won the Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1932. He also played in the Ace Bailey Benefit Game in 1934, and lived until 1984.
November 5, 1904: Ralph Weiland (no middle name) is born in Seaforth, Ontario. In 1929, rookie center "Cooney" Weiland helped the Boston Bruins win their 1st Stanley Cup. He also helped them win the Cup in his last season, 1939, and coached them to another in 1941.
From 1950 to 1971, he was the head coach at nearby Harvard University. He was succeeded by Bill Cleary, who had played for him, and was 1 of 4 Harvard players on the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. (As in 1980, they beat the Russians, but not in the Final.)
He died in 1980. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. His uniform number, 7, is retired by the Bruins, but not for him: For Phil Esposito.
November 5, 1908: Salvatore Joseph Battaglia is born in Chicago. One of Al Capone's original Chicago gang, by 1966 he succeeded Sam Giancana as the city's boss, running "The Chicago Outfit" as it became known. This didn't last long: He was convicted in 1967, and died in prison in 1973.
November 5, 1909: Frank Moss (no middle name) is born in Leyland, Lancashire, England. He was the goalkeeper for the Arsenal teams that won the 1933, 1934 and 1935 Football League titles.
On November 14, 1934, he was 1 of 7 Arsenal players to play for England (who, in those days, did not compete in the World Cup) against World Cup winners Italy at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury. In a driving rain, and in one of the dirtiest games ever played, known as the Battle of Highbury, England won 3-2.
On March 16, 1935, Moss dislocated his left shoulder. There were no substitutes allowed in English soccer until 1966, so he switched positions with left wing Wilf Copping, and scored Arsenal's opener in a 2-0 win over Everton. But he was unable to play in Arsenal's 1936 FA Cup-winning run, and retired in 1937.
He briefly managed Edinburgh team Heart of Midlothian, a.k.a. Hearts, but World War II led him to enlist. He survived the war, but never worked in sports again. He died in 1970, only 60 years old.
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November 5, 1911: Berry Nieuwenhuis is born in Boksburg, South Africa. An outside right, he played for Liverpool from 1933 to 1947, winning the Football League title in his last season. He lived until 1984.
Also on this day, Leonard Franklin Slye is born in Cincinnati. We knew him as Roy Rogers. "The King of the Cowboys" was an entertainment legend from 1933 until his death in 1998. He was my mother's childhood hero due to The Roy Rogers Show, which ran on NBC from 1951 to 1957. Aside from lending his name, and doing some commercials, he had no involvement with Roy Rogers Restaurants.
November 5, 1912: Woodrow Wilson is elected the 28th President of the United States. The Governor of New Jersey and the former President of Princeton University, he remains the only New Jersey-based politician ever to become President, although he was born in Virginia and raised in Georgia and South Carolina.
He wins because the Republican Party is split between the conservative wing, led by incumbent President William Howard Taft, and the progressive wing, led by former President Theodore Roosevelt, who believes that Taft and his allies have betrayed what he tried to do from 1901 to 1909.
It's actually a 4-way race, also including the Socialist Party nominee, labor union leader Eugene V. Debs. In the popular vote, it's Wilson 6.3 million, Roosevelt 4.1 million, Taft 3.5 million, and Debs 900,000. (Debs would slightly top that total when he ran while in prison in 1920, but with a lower percentage of the vote.) In popular vote percentage, it's Wilson 41.8, Roosevelt 27.4, Taft 23.2, Debs 6.0 -- meaning that, combined, the 2 Republicans got 50.6 percent, a majority, making Wilson a plurality President.
But it's Electoral Votes that matter. Wilson won 435, Roosevelt 88 (winning Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, and 11 of the 13 then available in California), Taft 8 (winning only Utah and Vermont -- Debs won 2 Counties in Minnesota and 1 in North Dakota, but no States).
Wilson won 40 of the 48 States then in the Union -- New Mexico and Arizona having gained Statehood that very year, and voting for President for the 1st time. Had the votes for TR and the votes for Taft been combined in each State, Wilson would have won Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia -- 13 States, all of them Southern, for a total of 149 Electoral Votes, while the Republican nominee would have won 382. But Taft's conservatism and TR's ego split the GOP, and Wilson got in.
Like all modern U.S. Election Days, this was a Tuesday, so no football; and November, so no baseball. And neither the NBA nor the NHL had been founded yet. So I can't do a "Scores On This Historic Day" post for the event, because there were no scores.
November 5, 1913: Vivian Mary Hartley is born in Darjeeling, Bengal Presidency, British India, and lived in several places in the Raj before the family moved to London in 1931. She became an actress, taking the name Vivien Leigh, after her 1st husband, Herbert Leigh Holman.
Despite her British-Indian background, she is remembered for playing 2 women of the American South: Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film version of Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind, and Blanche DuBois in the 1951 film version of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. For 20 years, she was married to the greatest British actor of the time, Laurence Olivier, and they occasionally starred together. When he was knighted, she became known as Lady Olivier. But she was stricken with bipolar disorder, and tuberculosis claimed her life in 1967.
November 5, 1914: Britain annexes the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, and declares war on the Ottoman Empire, already an ally of their World War I enemies Germany and Austria-Hungary. This will prove to be a mistake in the short term, as, on April 25, 1915, the attempted amphibious landing at the Gallipoli peninsula, about 225 miles southwest of Istanbul, is a disaster for British Empire forces.
It works out better in the not-so-short term, as the British essentially took control of the Middle East over the next 3 years. But in the long term, we're still dealing with the consequences over a century later.
Despite her British-Indian background, she is remembered for playing 2 women of the American South: Scarlett O'Hara in the 1939 film version of Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind, and Blanche DuBois in the 1951 film version of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. For 20 years, she was married to the greatest British actor of the time, Laurence Olivier, and they occasionally starred together. When he was knighted, she became known as Lady Olivier. But she was stricken with bipolar disorder, and tuberculosis claimed her life in 1967.
November 5, 1914: Britain annexes the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, and declares war on the Ottoman Empire, already an ally of their World War I enemies Germany and Austria-Hungary. This will prove to be a mistake in the short term, as, on April 25, 1915, the attempted amphibious landing at the Gallipoli peninsula, about 225 miles southwest of Istanbul, is a disaster for British Empire forces.
It works out better in the not-so-short term, as the British essentially took control of the Middle East over the next 3 years. But in the long term, we're still dealing with the consequences over a century later.
November 5, 1915: Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, starts its football team. "Clube de Regatas": Many South American soccer teams began as rowing clubs.
Known as Almirante (Admiral), Gigante a Colina (Giant of the Hill), and Expresso da Vitória (Victory Express Train), this team, known for a white sash over black shirts, has won 24 Campeonato Carioca (Rio State Championships), 4 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (National Championships), and the 1998 Copa Libertadores (South America's continental championship, equivalent to Europe's UEFA Champions League).
Their great players have included 1958 World Cup winners Hilderaldo Bellini, Orlando and Vavá; 1982 World Cup star (but not winner) Roberto Dinamite; and 1994 World Cup winners Romário (although he was with Barcelona then) and Ricardo Rocha. (Brazil won the World Cup in 1962, 1970 and 2002 with no Vasco players.)
November 5, 1916: James Reubin Tabor is born in New Hope, Alabama. A 3rd baseman for the Boston Red Sox, on July 4, 1939 (while the Yankees were holding Lou Gehrig Day at Yankee Stadium), he hit 4 home runs and drove in 11 runs in a doubleheader win over the Philadelphia Athletics. Both remain single-day American League records.
His drinking short-circuited his career, to the point where the Sox hired private detectives to follow him. He last played in the major leagues with the 1947 Philadelphia Phillies, and was part of the Southern abuse of Jackie Robinson when they played the Brooklyn Dodgers. He last played in the minor leagues in 1952, and died the next year, not yet 37 years old. He was elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, 7 people are killed in fighting between police and the Industrial Workers of the World in Everett, Washington, outside Seattle. It becomes known as the Everett Massacre, and is regarded as a turning point in the American labor movement.
Also on this day, 7 people are killed in fighting between police and the Industrial Workers of the World in Everett, Washington, outside Seattle. It becomes known as the Everett Massacre, and is regarded as a turning point in the American labor movement.
November 5, 1919: Edward Gerald Flynn is born in Corduff, Ireland. A goalkeeper, Eddie Flynn helped Dublin soccer teams St. James's Gate and Drumcondra win the FAI Cup (Ireland's version of the FA Cup) in 1938 and 1943, respectively.
He moved to Canada after World War II, and America in 1951, playing for teams in Toronto and New York. He died in 2002.
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November 5, 1920, 100 years ago: Warren Mehrtens (no middle name) is born in Brooklyn, and grows up in Jamaica, Queens. In 1946, he rode Assault to win American thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. He died in 1997.
November 5, 1921: Mike Mitchell Goliat (not "Michael") is born outside Pittsburgh in Yatesboro, Pennsylvania. He only played 4 seasons in the major leagues, but 1 of them was as the starting 2nd baseman on the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies, the "Whiz Kids" who won the National League Pennant. He died in 2004.
November 5, 1922: Mike Yaschuk (apparently, his full name) is born in Ituna, Saskatchewan. A right wing, he never played in the NHL, but led the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in scoring with the 1943 St. Boniface Athletics. He later moved to Britain, and led the Streatham Redhawks to the 1950 English National League title.
He later founded and coached th St. Boniface Mohawks of the Manitoba Senior League, and this is probably what led to his election to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, rather than his playing. He died this past August 7.
November 5, 1923: Frederick Jolley Sheffield is born in Kaysville, Utah, outside Ogden. A forward, Fred Sheffield was a member of the University of Utah's 1944 National Champions, and a member of the 1st NBA Champions, the 1946-47 Philadelphia Warriors. He became a doctor, and died in 2009.
Also on this day, Philip Francis Berrigan is born in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Like his brother Daniel, he grew up in Syracuse, New York. They both became Catholic priests, and both became activists for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. Philip died in 2002, Daniel in 2016.
November 5, 1929: St. Louis Blues premieres. The film, with an all-black cast, lasts only 16 minutes, but it includes the only known video of "The Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith, singing the title song, written by W.C. Handy. In 1967, the song would inspire the name of St. Louis' expansion hockey team.
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November 5, 1930, 90 years ago: Manfredi Mineo, leader of one of New York's organized crime outfits, and his lieutenant Steve Ferrigno are murdered in the courtyard of a Bronx apartment building. This was a big moment in what became known as the Castellamarese War, which reshaped the American Mafia in the early 1930s.
November 5, 1930, 90 years ago: Manfredi Mineo, leader of one of New York's organized crime outfits, and his lieutenant Steve Ferrigno are murdered in the courtyard of a Bronx apartment building. This was a big moment in what became known as the Castellamarese War, which reshaped the American Mafia in the early 1930s.
No one was ever charged in Mineo's murder. His group would eventually become known as the Gambino crime family. As far as I can tell, Ferrigno was not related to The Incredible Hulk actor Lou Ferrigno.
Also on this day, the Wittpenn Bridge opens, carrying New Jersey Route 7 over the Passaic River between Jersey City and Kearny. It is named for H. Otto Wittpenn, Mayor of Jersey City between 1908 and 1913, who lived just long enough to see its opening.
A replacement bridge is currently under construction, and is likely to open next year, Presumably, the original bridge will be demolished.
November 5, 1931: Izear Luster Turner Jr. is born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. We knew him as Ike Turner. He was introduced to abuse as a boy by a vengeful alcoholic stepfather, and, instead of rejecting this, adopted it.
He became a disc jockey in Memphis, and a bandleader. In 1951, at Sun Records in Memphis, later to be home base for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and other stars, he and his band, The Kings of Rhythm, recorded "Rocket 88," about an Oldsmobile car. It is often called the 1st rock and roll record.
In 1957, he met a teenager named Anna Mae Bullock, and she became his singer and girlfriend, eventually his wife. He renamed her Tina Turner, because Tina rhymed with a TV character he liked, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. In the 1960s, The Ike & Tina Turner Revue were big among black audiences. By 1970, white audiences had accepted them as well.
But he had been terribly abusive toward Tina, and on July 1, 1976, she left him, and began a solo career. She became bigger than ever in the 1980s, and his reputation was in ruins. In 1991, they were, as a unit, elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tina showed up to claim her award. Ike couldn't: He was in prison following a drug conviction. Accepting for him, and keeping it until he could be released, was a man who had produced records for them... Phil Spector, another man whose artistic genius had long excused his monstrous treatment of women.
When Tina's memoir I, Tina was turned into the 1993 film What's Love Got to Do With It, with Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, any reputation Ike still had was utterly destroyed. No one wanted to think of such a horrible person as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, or as the discoverer and guide of a legend like Tina. He published his own memoir in 1999, but his confessions only dug his hole deeper. He died in 2007, from a cocaine overdose.
November 5, 1932: Victor George Groves is born in Stepney, East London. A forward, he played a season for North London soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, and his career went nowhere. Well, not quite "nowhere": He bounced around London's clubs for a while. Then, in 1955, he was signed by the better North London club, Arsenal. He played 9 years for them, scoring 31 goals.
It was a down period for Arsenal, when they had lots of scorers, but not much defense. Vic ran a pub and became an insurance salesman, and watched his nephew, Perry Groves, help Arsenal win the 1989 and 1991 League titles. Vic died in 2015.
He became a disc jockey in Memphis, and a bandleader. In 1951, at Sun Records in Memphis, later to be home base for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and other stars, he and his band, The Kings of Rhythm, recorded "Rocket 88," about an Oldsmobile car. It is often called the 1st rock and roll record.
In 1957, he met a teenager named Anna Mae Bullock, and she became his singer and girlfriend, eventually his wife. He renamed her Tina Turner, because Tina rhymed with a TV character he liked, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. In the 1960s, The Ike & Tina Turner Revue were big among black audiences. By 1970, white audiences had accepted them as well.
But he had been terribly abusive toward Tina, and on July 1, 1976, she left him, and began a solo career. She became bigger than ever in the 1980s, and his reputation was in ruins. In 1991, they were, as a unit, elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tina showed up to claim her award. Ike couldn't: He was in prison following a drug conviction. Accepting for him, and keeping it until he could be released, was a man who had produced records for them... Phil Spector, another man whose artistic genius had long excused his monstrous treatment of women.
When Tina's memoir I, Tina was turned into the 1993 film What's Love Got to Do With It, with Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, any reputation Ike still had was utterly destroyed. No one wanted to think of such a horrible person as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, or as the discoverer and guide of a legend like Tina. He published his own memoir in 1999, but his confessions only dug his hole deeper. He died in 2007, from a cocaine overdose.
November 5, 1932: Victor George Groves is born in Stepney, East London. A forward, he played a season for North London soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, and his career went nowhere. Well, not quite "nowhere": He bounced around London's clubs for a while. Then, in 1955, he was signed by the better North London club, Arsenal. He played 9 years for them, scoring 31 goals.
It was a down period for Arsenal, when they had lots of scorers, but not much defense. Vic ran a pub and became an insurance salesman, and watched his nephew, Perry Groves, help Arsenal win the 1989 and 1991 League titles. Vic died in 2015.
November 5, 1933: Edward Raymond Abramoski is born in Erie, Pennsylvania. From 1960 to 1997, "Abe" was the original athletic trainer for the Buffalo Bills, including their 2 AFL Championships in 1964 and '65; and their 4 AFC Championships in 1990, '91, '92 and '93. He was named to the team's Wall of Fame, and is still alive. (UPDATE: He died in 2022.)
November 5, 1934: Jeb Stuart Magruder is born in Staten Island, New York, named for a Confederate General by his father, a Civil War buff. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, 4 years after Yankee owner George Steinbrenner did. He went into public relations, and got involved in Republican politics in Kansas City in 1954, helping future Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld get elected to Congress in Illinois in 1962.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon named him "Special Assistant to the President." Officially, he was Deputy Director of White House Communications. If you watched The West Wing, this made him Nixon's "Sam Seaborn."
In 1972, he was deputy to John Mitchell on the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP -- or "CREEP," as Nixon's opponents liked to call it). He ran it more than Mitchell did, as Mitchell was wrapped up in the ITT scandal and keeping a lid on his beans-spilling wife Martha. The victory in hand, Magruder organized the White House side of Nixon's Inauguration on January 20, 1973 (while Congress did the bulk of the work, as it constitutionally does). At the age of 38, Jeb Magruder was one of the biggest young people in American public service.
Then it all came crashing down, when it became known that he was one of the planners of the Watergate burglary of June 17, 1972. In April 1973, he made the best deal he could, pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, and was sentenced to 10 months to 4 years in federal prison. He ended up serving 7 months. Shortly before his sentencing, with Nixon still in office, he published one of the earliest Watergate memoirs, saying, "I know nothing to indicate that Nixon was aware in advance of the plan to break into the Democratic headquarters."
Like another Watergate figure, Chuck Colson, he became an ordained minister, having studied in New Jersey at Princeton Theological Seminary. He became pastor at Presbyterian churches in California, Ohio and Kentucky.
In 2003, interviewed for a PBS documentary, Reverend Magruder changed his story: He said that, on March 30, 1972, he was at a meeting with John Mitchell, and overheard a phone call between Mitchell and Nixon in which Nixon told Mitchell to begin the Watergate plan. Magruder had no documentary evidence to back this up. He died in 2014, having outlived most of the major players of Watergate. To this day, no other member of Nixon's inner circle has asserted that Nixon knew of the break-in before it happened.
November 5, 1934: Jeb Stuart Magruder is born in Staten Island, New York, named for a Confederate General by his father, a Civil War buff. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts, 4 years after Yankee owner George Steinbrenner did. He went into public relations, and got involved in Republican politics in Kansas City in 1954, helping future Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld get elected to Congress in Illinois in 1962.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon named him "Special Assistant to the President." Officially, he was Deputy Director of White House Communications. If you watched The West Wing, this made him Nixon's "Sam Seaborn."
In 1972, he was deputy to John Mitchell on the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP -- or "CREEP," as Nixon's opponents liked to call it). He ran it more than Mitchell did, as Mitchell was wrapped up in the ITT scandal and keeping a lid on his beans-spilling wife Martha. The victory in hand, Magruder organized the White House side of Nixon's Inauguration on January 20, 1973 (while Congress did the bulk of the work, as it constitutionally does). At the age of 38, Jeb Magruder was one of the biggest young people in American public service.
Then it all came crashing down, when it became known that he was one of the planners of the Watergate burglary of June 17, 1972. In April 1973, he made the best deal he could, pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, and was sentenced to 10 months to 4 years in federal prison. He ended up serving 7 months. Shortly before his sentencing, with Nixon still in office, he published one of the earliest Watergate memoirs, saying, "I know nothing to indicate that Nixon was aware in advance of the plan to break into the Democratic headquarters."
Like another Watergate figure, Chuck Colson, he became an ordained minister, having studied in New Jersey at Princeton Theological Seminary. He became pastor at Presbyterian churches in California, Ohio and Kentucky.
In 2003, interviewed for a PBS documentary, Reverend Magruder changed his story: He said that, on March 30, 1972, he was at a meeting with John Mitchell, and overheard a phone call between Mitchell and Nixon in which Nixon told Mitchell to begin the Watergate plan. Magruder had no documentary evidence to back this up. He died in 2014, having outlived most of the major players of Watergate. To this day, no other member of Nixon's inner circle has asserted that Nixon knew of the break-in before it happened.
November 5, 1936: Uwe Seeler (no middle name) is born in Hamburg, Germany. The striker is the greatest player in the history of German soccer team Hamburger SV, having helped them win the national championship (pre-Bundesliga) in 1960 and the DFB-Pokal (German Cup) in 1963. He was the top scorer in the Bundesliga's 1st season, 1963-64, and later served as a club executive. A sculpture, not a full statue of him but just his bare right foot, stands outside Hamburg's stadium, the Volksparkstadion.
He played for West Germany in 4 World Cups, captaining them in the Final in 1966, losing to England in extra time. He is still alive. (UPDATE: He died in 2022.) His daughter married a Turkish immigrant who served as a Hamburg scout, and their son, Levin Öztunalı, is a 24-year-old midfielder for German club Mainz. He helped Germany win the UEFA European Under-19 and Under-21 Championships, but has yet to be selected for a major tournament, having been overlooked for Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.
November 5, 1937: Alfred Jamison (no middle name) is born in Toledo, Ohio. An offensive tackle, "Al the Assassin" played only 3 seasons of professional football, but his Houston Oilers reached the AFL Championship Game all 3 times, winning in 1960 and 1961. He was named an AFL All-Star in 1961 and 1962. He is still alive. (UPDATE: He died in 2021.)
November 5, 1938: Rutgers Stadium opens in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey, across the Raritan River from the Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) campus in New Brunswick. For the 1st time since they played the 1st college football game against each other in 1869 -- 69 years minus 1 day earlier -- Rutgers beats Princeton, 20-18.
November 5, 1937: Alfred Jamison (no middle name) is born in Toledo, Ohio. An offensive tackle, "Al the Assassin" played only 3 seasons of professional football, but his Houston Oilers reached the AFL Championship Game all 3 times, winning in 1960 and 1961. He was named an AFL All-Star in 1961 and 1962. He is still alive. (UPDATE: He died in 2021.)
November 5, 1938: Rutgers Stadium opens in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey, across the Raritan River from the Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) campus in New Brunswick. For the 1st time since they played the 1st college football game against each other in 1869 -- 69 years minus 1 day earlier -- Rutgers beats Princeton, 20-18.
RU would continue to play home games in football, and sometimes soccer and lacrosse, at the 23,000-seat stadium until 1992. While they played their 1993 home games at Giants Stadium, the old stadium was demolished, and replaced with a 41,000-seat modern Rutgers Stadium that opened in 1994. It was renamed High Point Solutions Stadium in 2011, HighPoint.com Stadium in 2017, and SHI Stadium in 2019. It now seats 52,454.
Also on this day, Edward Olivares Balzac is born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. An outfielder, Ed Olivares briefly played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1960 and 1961. He is still alive. His son, Omar Olivares, was a major league pitcher from 1990 to 2001, including his 1st 5 seasons with the Cardinals.
Also on this day, Clare Exelby (no middle name) is born in Toronto. A running back, he played for the Toronto Argonauts in the 1st game ever played between a CFL team and an NFL team, a 55-26 St. Louis Cardinals win over the Argos at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto on August 5, 1959.
He was named a CFL All-Star while with the Calgary Stampeders in 1960. He is still alive. His son Randy Exelby played for the Buffalo Sabres. His grandson Kyle Capobianco plays for the Arizona Coyotes.
Also on this day, César Luis Menotti is born in Rosario, Argentina. A forward, he started for hometown soccer team Rosario Central, but is better known as a manager. He led Huracán to the 1973 league title, and took Argentina to victory in the 1978 World Cup on home soil. There was controversy, but he has never been personally implicated in it. He also managed his country in the 1982 World Cup, and last managed in Mexico in 2007.
Argentina had a vicious fascist government when he won them the World Cup. In a 1982 interview, he explained that this was against his own views:
There's a right-wing football and a left-wing football. Right-wing football wants to suggest that life is struggle. It demands sacrifices. We have to become of steel and win by any method... obey and function, that's what those with power want from the players. That's how they create retards, useful idiots that go with the system.
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November 5, 1941: Arthur Ira Garfunkel is born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. In 1954, he was cast in a 6th grade play version of Alice In Wonderland. A classmate in the play was Paul Simon. In 1957, still in high school, they recorded "Hey Schoolgirl" together, under the name Tom & Jerry, after the cartoon cat and mouse. The song was not a hit.
Both men got their college degrees, and in 1964, they recorded their 1st album under the Simon & Garfunkel name, the all-acoustic Wednesday Morning, 3 AM. It went nowhere, and they split up.
But in late 1965, someone at Columbia Records took their recording of Simon's song "The Sound of Silence, and had electric backing tracks recorded over it. It hit Number 1 at the beginning of 1966, and they got back together. Their harmonies and Simon's lyrics produced 5 fantastic albums, but they split up again after Bridge Over Troubled Water in 1970.
Paul launched a very successful solo career. Art's was less successful, but he also got good reviews for some movie roles. The have occasionally reunited since: An early episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975, The Concert In Central Park in 1981 (500,000 people came), their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, tours in 2003 and 2009, and, most recently, a tribute to Mike Nichols in 2010.
November 5, 1942: Richard Allen Scheinblum is born in Manhattan, and grows up in The Bronx. An outfielder, Richie Scheinblum debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1965, going up and down between the majors and the minors until 1969. He would later say, "Maybe we should change our name to the Cleveland Utility Company. All we have are utility players." Clearly, he was including himself.
In 1971, with the Denver Bears, he was named Most Valuable Player of the American Association, and was called up to the Washington Senators at the end of the season. In 1972, he had his best season in the major leagues, batting .300 for the Kansas City Royals. That September, after the Munich Massacre at the Olympics, he wore a black armband on his sleeve in memory of the Israeli athletes. Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, a Protestant of German descent, was fine with it.
Richie remained in the major leagues through 1974, with a .263 batting average, and played in Japan in 1975 and 1976. He is still alive, and a retired salesman in Texas.
November 5, 1943: Vatican City, the world's smallest independent nation, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, and neutral in World War II despite having been completely surrounded by the City of Rome, the capital of (until a few months ago) Fascist Italy, is bombed by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe.
Four bombs are dropped on the microstate. There is some damage, but there are no deaths. The aircraft responsible is never identified. There would be another bombing on March 1, 1944, causing less damage, but taking a life. In neither case was Pope Pius XII within range of the bombs.
Also on this day, Friedman Paul Erhardt is born in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1970, at 27, he was named Germany's youngest-ever master chef. Having played William Tell in a school play, he was nicknamed "Tell," and when he debuted on American television in 1974, he took the stage name Chef Tell.
His gregarious personality and German accent made him an early superstar chef in the tradition of James Beard, Julia Child and Graham Kerr, a.k.a. "the Galloping Gourmet." However, as the character of the Swedish Chef debuted on The Muppet Show in 1976, before Tell had become really famous, the rumor that the character was based on Tell is very unlikely. Chef Tell died in 2007, at age 63.
November 5, 1945, 75 years ago: Peter Pace (no middle name) is born in Brooklyn, and grows up in Teaneck, Bergen County, New Jersey. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 40 years, starting as a Private in the Vietnam War, and ending in 2007 with his retirement as a 4-star General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
November 5, 1946: The Boston Celtics play their 1st home game at the Boston Garden. Only 4,329 fans attend, and it's delayed for an hour, because a Celtic player damaged a wooden backboard with a dunk during warmups. A new backboard was brought in from the Boston Arena (now Matthews Arena, home court and ice of Northeastern University). The Celtics lose 57-55 to the Chicago Stags.
The Stags, and the original NBA teams of Washington, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis, would quickly fail. The Celtics might have as well, had their owner, Walter Brown, not also owned the Garden, the NHL's Bruins, and the Ice Capades. He was able to keep the team going long enough to hire Red Auerbach as head coach, and the rest is history.
Oh, the player who became the 1st NBA player to break a backboard? A 6-foot-5 Brooklynite who played at New Jersey's Seton Hall University. He went on to play 1 game for his hometown Dodgers in 1949, coming to bat once as a pinch-hitter, never playing the field for them. He then got traded to the Chicago Cubs, and played 66 games at 1st base for them in the 1951 season.
The Cubs' top farm team at the time was the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. While playing in L.A., this athlete found off-season work as a stuntman, and, like John Wayne, moved from stunts to acting, mostly in Westerns. His name was Chuck Connors, famed for his portrayal of Lucas McCain, the lead character of The Rifleman.
Also on this day, James Charles Bethke is born in Falls City, Nebraska. A pitcher, Jim Bethke made 25 appearances in the major leagues, all with the Mets in 1965, going 2-0 with a 4.28 ERA. He is still alive.
Also on this day, James Bremond Evans is born outside Dallas in Longview, Texas. Jim Evans served in the Texas Air National Guard at the same time as future Texas Rangers owner, future Texas Governor, and future President George W. Bush.
He also served as an American League umpire from 1971 to 1999, and worked 3 All-Star Games, 3 AL Division Series, 7 AL Championship Series, and 4 World Series. He worked in 2 perfect games: At 3rd base for Mike Witt in 1984, and at 2nd base for David Cone in 1999. He was behind home plate for Nolan Ryan's 1st no-hitter in 1973, and for Don Sutton's 300th win in 1986.
Some other big moments for him: He was in right field when Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs to clinch the World Series for the Yankees in Game 6 in 1977; at 1st base in the Yankees' victorious Playoff for the AL Eastern Division title in 1978 (he was not related to Dwight Evans of the Red Sox); in right field for Game 7 of the 1982 World Series, won by the St. Louis Cardinals over the Milwaukee Brewers; at 2nd base for the Bill Buckner Game in the 1986 World Series, and at 1st base when the Mets won the Series the next night; and at 1st base when the Yankees clinched the 1996 World Series in Game 6.
He ran an umpiring school from 1990 to 2012, and is now an umpiring advisor for Minor League Baseball.
November 5, 1949: Armin Shimerman (no middle name) is born in Lakewood, Ocean County, New Jersey, but spent his teenage years in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, California. You might know his name, but you might not know his real face. He played Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
The Cubs' top farm team at the time was the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. While playing in L.A., this athlete found off-season work as a stuntman, and, like John Wayne, moved from stunts to acting, mostly in Westerns. His name was Chuck Connors, famed for his portrayal of Lucas McCain, the lead character of The Rifleman.
Also on this day, James Charles Bethke is born in Falls City, Nebraska. A pitcher, Jim Bethke made 25 appearances in the major leagues, all with the Mets in 1965, going 2-0 with a 4.28 ERA. He is still alive.
Also on this day, James Bremond Evans is born outside Dallas in Longview, Texas. Jim Evans served in the Texas Air National Guard at the same time as future Texas Rangers owner, future Texas Governor, and future President George W. Bush.
He also served as an American League umpire from 1971 to 1999, and worked 3 All-Star Games, 3 AL Division Series, 7 AL Championship Series, and 4 World Series. He worked in 2 perfect games: At 3rd base for Mike Witt in 1984, and at 2nd base for David Cone in 1999. He was behind home plate for Nolan Ryan's 1st no-hitter in 1973, and for Don Sutton's 300th win in 1986.
Some other big moments for him: He was in right field when Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs to clinch the World Series for the Yankees in Game 6 in 1977; at 1st base in the Yankees' victorious Playoff for the AL Eastern Division title in 1978 (he was not related to Dwight Evans of the Red Sox); in right field for Game 7 of the 1982 World Series, won by the St. Louis Cardinals over the Milwaukee Brewers; at 2nd base for the Bill Buckner Game in the 1986 World Series, and at 1st base when the Mets won the Series the next night; and at 1st base when the Yankees clinched the 1996 World Series in Game 6.
He ran an umpiring school from 1990 to 2012, and is now an umpiring advisor for Minor League Baseball.
November 5, 1949: Armin Shimerman (no middle name) is born in Lakewood, Ocean County, New Jersey, but spent his teenage years in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica, California. You might know his name, but you might not know his real face. He played Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
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November 5, 1951: The 1st section of the New Jersey Turnpike opens, from Exit 1 in Pennsville, Salem County, accessing the newly-opened Delaware Memorial Bridge, to Exit 5 in Westampton, Burlington County. On January 15, 1952, it will be fully open, all the way to Exit 16/18 in Secaucus, Hudson County, accessing the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge. This includes Exit 9 in what would become my hometown, East Brunswick, Middlesex County.
The year 1956 would see the opening of the Newark Bay Extension, including Exits 14A, 14B and 14C, and accessing the Holland Tunnel; and the Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension, leaving at Exit 6 and connecting the main road with the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
In 1970, the Western Spur was opened, including Exits 15W, 16W and 18W, with 16W providing access to the Meadowlands Sports Complex that opened in 1976. This forced the renaming of Exits 15, 16 and 18 to 15E, 16E and 18E.
Also on this day, I Love Lucy airs the episode "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her." Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) is wrapped up in reading a mystery novel, in which a man kills his wife so he can marry someone else. Her best friend Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) decided to read her fortune with a deck of cards, but the cards (according to her interpretation) predict death.
Then Lucy hears her bandleader husband Ricky (Desi Arnaz) talk about "replacing a girl." She jumps to conclusions, and doesn't realize that Ricky is talking about one of the dancers in his show. And hilarity ensues.
November 5, 1952: William Theodore Walton III is born in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, California. Bill Walton was a loner, Dottie. A rebel. Yet he wanted to play basketball for the best coach in the college game, John Wooden of UCLA. Wooden wanted him, too, and may have been the only coach who could make him fulfill his potential.
Together, they won the National Championship in 1972 and 1973, and forged an 88-game winning streak from January 23, 1971 to January 19, 1974 that remains the record for men's college basketball. (Notre Dame was both the last and the next team to beat them. The University of Connecticut women's team broke the record with a 90-game streak, 2008-10.)
He battled injuries during his pro career, but still won NBA Championships with the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and the 1986 Boston Celtics. He has since become an analyst on basketball broadcasts, and was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Gretest Players, and the San Diego Hall of Champions.
His son Luke Walton was with the Los Angeles Lakers when they won the 2009 and 2010 NBA Championships. The Waltons thus became the 3rd father-son tandem to both win NBA titles, following the Matt Guokasas (Sr., 1947 Philadelphia Warriors; Jr., 1967 Philadelphia 76ers) and the Barrys (Rick, 1975 Golden State Warriors; Brent, 2005 and 2007 San Antonio Spurs). Luke was an assistant coach to Steve Kerr on the Warriors' 2015 title, was the Lakers' head coach from 2016 until this year, and is now the Sacramento Kings' head coach.
Also on this day, Oleh Volodymyrovych Blokhin is born in Kyiv, Ukraine. His name usually written as Oleg Blokhin in English-language publications, the forward starred for Dynamo Kyiv, winning the Soviet Top League 8 times from 1971 to 1986, the Soviet Cup 5 times, and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1975. That year, he won the Ballon d'Or as World Player of the Year.
He played for the Soviet Union in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and managed Ukraine in the 2006 World Cup and on home soil in Euro 2012. He has since managed Dynamo Kyiv, without success, and is currently out of the game.
November 5, 1955: The Honeymooners airs the episode "The Sleepwalker." They didn't call it "repressed memory" in those days, but Ed Norton (Art Carney) began sleepwalking because he remembered that, when he was a boy, his dog Lulu ran away.
This was also the day in Back to the Future to which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) was accidentally sent back in time, input into the DeLorean's time circuits by its inventor, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), because that was the day, 30 years before "Temporal Experiment Number 1" on October 26, 1985, that he came up with the idea for time travel.
Marty ends up having dinner with his mother's family, and they watch The Honeymooners. The show did air that night, they got that right. But they got the episode wrong. Good thing they did, though, because the episode they showed in the film, "The Man From Space," ends up giving Marty an idea that proves key to the plot.
Also on this day, Kristen Mary Houghton is born in San Diego. She would become the wife, and then the ex-wife, of Robert Kardashian and Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner; the mother and business manager of Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian West, Khloé Kardashian, Rob Kardashian Jr., Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner; and the stepmother of Burt, Casey, Brandon and Brody Jenner.
November 5, 1956: The British Olympic soccer team plays its final tuneup before flying to Melbourne, Australia for the Games -- played this late in the year because it's late Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. The game is against Arsenal at the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its North London neighborhood. The game ends in a 3-2 Arsenal win. Derek Tapscott scores 2 goals (whether he lived up to his name by making either of them a tap-in is not recorded), and Cliff Holton scores the other.
Things did not get better for the British team at the Games: They beat Thailand 9-0 in the 1st Round, but got thumped 6-1 by Bulgaria in the Quarterfinal. In fact, they did no better than the U.S. team, which got a bye in the 1st Round because their original opponent dropped out, and was then slaughtered 9-1 by Yugoslavia in the Quarterfinal.
The Gold Medal was won by the Soviet Union, beating Yugoslavia 2-1 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 8. Bulgaria beat India to take the Bronze Medal.
November 5, 1957: Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. of New York is re-elected. The Democrat defeats the Republican nominee, Robert Christenberry, manager of the Hotel Astor. Wagner, swept all 5 Boroughs, getting 69 percent of the vote to Christenberry's 27 percent.
He did this despite 2 of the City's baseball teams leaving for California: The New York Giants, of whom he was a fan, and the Brooklyn Dodgers. By any measure, Brooklyn should have absolutely revolted against him. Maybe the myth of the Dodgers meaning so much to the Borough is overrated. Or maybe New York's Tammany Hall political machine was just that powerful.
Also on this day, Kellen Boswell Winslow is born in St. Louis. A star tight end at the University of Missouri, he played 9 seasons in the NFL, all for the San Diego Chargers. He made 5 Pro Bowls, and was elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame, the San Diego Hall of Champions, the NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team and its 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, The Sporting News' 1999 list of the 100 Greatest Football Players and the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.
Also on this day, Oleh Volodymyrovych Blokhin is born in Kyiv, Ukraine. His name usually written as Oleg Blokhin in English-language publications, the forward starred for Dynamo Kyiv, winning the Soviet Top League 8 times from 1971 to 1986, the Soviet Cup 5 times, and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1975. That year, he won the Ballon d'Or as World Player of the Year.
He played for the Soviet Union in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and managed Ukraine in the 2006 World Cup and on home soil in Euro 2012. He has since managed Dynamo Kyiv, without success, and is currently out of the game.
November 5, 1955: The Honeymooners airs the episode "The Sleepwalker." They didn't call it "repressed memory" in those days, but Ed Norton (Art Carney) began sleepwalking because he remembered that, when he was a boy, his dog Lulu ran away.
This was also the day in Back to the Future to which Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) was accidentally sent back in time, input into the DeLorean's time circuits by its inventor, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), because that was the day, 30 years before "Temporal Experiment Number 1" on October 26, 1985, that he came up with the idea for time travel.
Marty ends up having dinner with his mother's family, and they watch The Honeymooners. The show did air that night, they got that right. But they got the episode wrong. Good thing they did, though, because the episode they showed in the film, "The Man From Space," ends up giving Marty an idea that proves key to the plot.
Also on this day, Kristen Mary Houghton is born in San Diego. She would become the wife, and then the ex-wife, of Robert Kardashian and Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner; the mother and business manager of Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian West, Khloé Kardashian, Rob Kardashian Jr., Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner; and the stepmother of Burt, Casey, Brandon and Brody Jenner.
November 5, 1956: The British Olympic soccer team plays its final tuneup before flying to Melbourne, Australia for the Games -- played this late in the year because it's late Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. The game is against Arsenal at the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its North London neighborhood. The game ends in a 3-2 Arsenal win. Derek Tapscott scores 2 goals (whether he lived up to his name by making either of them a tap-in is not recorded), and Cliff Holton scores the other.
Things did not get better for the British team at the Games: They beat Thailand 9-0 in the 1st Round, but got thumped 6-1 by Bulgaria in the Quarterfinal. In fact, they did no better than the U.S. team, which got a bye in the 1st Round because their original opponent dropped out, and was then slaughtered 9-1 by Yugoslavia in the Quarterfinal.
The Gold Medal was won by the Soviet Union, beating Yugoslavia 2-1 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 8. Bulgaria beat India to take the Bronze Medal.
November 5, 1957: Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. of New York is re-elected. The Democrat defeats the Republican nominee, Robert Christenberry, manager of the Hotel Astor. Wagner, swept all 5 Boroughs, getting 69 percent of the vote to Christenberry's 27 percent.
He did this despite 2 of the City's baseball teams leaving for California: The New York Giants, of whom he was a fan, and the Brooklyn Dodgers. By any measure, Brooklyn should have absolutely revolted against him. Maybe the myth of the Dodgers meaning so much to the Borough is overrated. Or maybe New York's Tammany Hall political machine was just that powerful.
Also on this day, Kellen Boswell Winslow is born in St. Louis. A star tight end at the University of Missouri, he played 9 seasons in the NFL, all for the San Diego Chargers. He made 5 Pro Bowls, and was elected to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame, the San Diego Hall of Champions, the NFL's 1980s All-Decade Team and its 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, The Sporting News' 1999 list of the 100 Greatest Football Players and the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.
The Chargers' 1982 AFC Divisional Playoff win in overtime over the Miami Dolphins is known as The Epic In Miami and, due to his role in it, The Kellen Winslow Game.
He has since served as athletic director at Central State University in Ohio and Florida A&M University. His son Kellen Winslow II was also a Pro Bowl tight end, mostly with the Cleveland Browns. The father had 541 receptions for 6,741 yards and 45 touchdowns, the son 469 receptions for 5,236 yards and 25 touchdowns. Total: 1,010 catches, 11,977 yards and 69 touchdowns. Pretty good for a single family.
November 5, 1959: Bryan Guy Adams is born in Kingston, Ontario, and grows up in Ottawa. This date means that he was only 9 years old during the time that became the title of one of his earliest hits, "Summer of '69." The only thing that looks good on him is a muzzle.
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He has since served as athletic director at Central State University in Ohio and Florida A&M University. His son Kellen Winslow II was also a Pro Bowl tight end, mostly with the Cleveland Browns. The father had 541 receptions for 6,741 yards and 45 touchdowns, the son 469 receptions for 5,236 yards and 25 touchdowns. Total: 1,010 catches, 11,977 yards and 69 touchdowns. Pretty good for a single family.
November 5, 1959: Bryan Guy Adams is born in Kingston, Ontario, and grows up in Ottawa. This date means that he was only 9 years old during the time that became the title of one of his earliest hits, "Summer of '69." The only thing that looks good on him is a muzzle.
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November 5, 1960, 60
years ago: Mark Andre West is born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and grows up in Petersburg, Virginia. A center, he was a 3-time All-American at Norfolk's Old Dominion University, which retired his Number 45. He then played 17 seasons in the NBA, including making the 1993 NBA Finals with the Phoenix Suns.
He later served as an assistant coach with the Suns, and is now a stockbroker, and a member o the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this say, Wendy Lee (the only name I have for her) is born in Vancouver. She swam for Canada in the 1976 Olympics, in her homeland in Montreal. She is a member of the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Mack Sennett dies in Los Angeles at age 80. From 1912 to 1917, he directed the Keystone Kops silent comedy movies, named for the Keystone Studio Company, pioneering such movie tropes as car chases and pie throwing.
From 1915 to 1928, he directed the Sennett Bathing Beauties films, featuring women swimming in outfits as skimpy as the moralizers of the World War I years and Roaring Twenties would allow. But he never adjusted to talking pictures, and they, along with the Great Depression, left him bankrupt by 1933.
It was not a good day for Hollywood. Ward Bond dies of a heart attack at a Dallas hotel, where he was staying so he could attend that day's football game between Southern Methodist and Texas A&M at the Cotton Bowl. It ended in a scoreless tie. The great Western actor's life ended at age 57.
He was a close friend of John Wayne, and from 1929 to 1959, they appeared in 23 films together, including Fort Apache, The Quiet Man, Hondo, The Searchers, and concluding (not that anyone knew it at the time) with Rio Bravo.
Also on this day, country singer Johnny Horton dies when his band's car collides with a truck on a bridge in Milano, Texas, on their way to a gig in Shreveport, Louisiana. Two other band members were seriously injured. "The Singing Fisherman" was 35, and his wife, Billie Jean, was widowed for the 2nd time in 8 years: She had previously been married to country singer Hank Williams. She is still alive, at age 87.
Also on this day, Katherine Matilda Swinton is born to Scottish parents in London. Tilda is best known for playing the White Witch in the recent Chronicles of Narnia films. She recently completed voiceover work for a new animated version of Pinocchio.
November 5, 1963: Jean-Pierre Papin is born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. The forward helped Club Brugge win the Belgian Cup in 1986. With Olympique de Marseille, some of it as a teammate of the about-to-be-mentioned Abedi Pele, he won France's top division in 1989 (including the Coupe de France for a Double), 1990, 1991 and 1992. He was France's top scorer 5 straight seasons, from 1988 to 1992, and won the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) as World Player of the Year in 1991.
He then signed with Milan and won Serie A in 1993 and 1994. Ironically, he lost to Marseille in the 1993 Champions League Final, but Milan won it in 1994, beating Barcelona. He won the 1996 UEFA Cup with Bayern Munich. He helped France reach 3rd place in the 1986 World Cup, but arrived at the national team too late to win Euro 1984, and retired too soon to win the 1998 World Cup. He was named L'OM Player of the Century by the club's fans. He has since managed 5 French clubs, currently with C'Chartres in France's 4th division.
Also on this day, Tatum Beatrice O'Neal is born in Los Angeles. The Oscar-winning actress and daughter of actor Ryan O'Neal, she has 2 connections to sports: Playing kid pitcher Amanda Whurlitzer in The Bad News Bears in 1976, and being married to tennis legend John McEnroe from 1986 to 1994. They had 3 kids, all now grown: Kevin, Sean and Emily.
Also on this day, Andrea McArdle is born in Philadelphia. Although also a child actress, she would never be as famous as Tatum O'Neal. In 1977, she became the 1st actress to play the title role in the Broadway musical Annie, based on the Little Orphan Annie comic strip. Later in the year, she played Doris Horshack, Arnold's sister, on Welcome Back, Kotter.
She sang the National Anthem at the 1979 All-Star Game in Seattle, and at Game 5 of the 1983 World Series in her native Philadelphia.
She played the young Judy Garland in the 1978 TV-movie Rainbow, and 2 Garland's most famous roles in regional theater: Dorothy Gale, in a 1985 version of The Wizard of Oz; and Esther Smith, in a 1989 version of Meet Me in St. Louis. In various productions, she has also played Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, both Fantine and Eponine in Les Miserables, Eva Peron in Evita, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Sandy Dumbrowski in Grease, Sally Bowles in Cabaret, Rose in Gypsy, Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly, and, in 2010, coming full circle, orphanage owner Miss Hannigan in Annie. She is still alive and performing.
November 5, 1964: Abedi Ayew is born in Kibi, Ghana. Known professionally as Abedi Pele, after the legendary Brazilian soccer player, the midfielder is the greatest player his country has ever produced. He helped Olympique de Marseille, a.k.a. L'OM, win France's top division in 1991, 1992 and 1993, reach the European Cup Final in 1991 (losing to Red Star Belgrade), and, in the tournament's 1st season under the name of the UEFA Champions League, win it in 1993 (defeating AC Milan).
He led Ghana to win the African Cup of Nations in 1982, but because they never qualified for the World Cup during his career, he never played in one. He now runs Nania FC in Ghana's 2nd division, as both president and head coach.
His brothers Kwame Ayew and Sola Ayew were also professional players. His sons Ibrahim (known as Rahim Ayew, playing for Gibraltar club Europa) and André (known as Dede Ayew, and playing for West Ham United) represented Ghana at the 2010 World Cup. André and Jordan (Aston Villa) played in the 2014 World Cup.
Also on this day, Famke Beumer Janssen is born in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. She played the villainous pervert Xenia Onatopp in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, and was the 1st actress to play Jean Grey in the X-Men films, from 2000 to 2014.
November 5, 1966: Mohammed Alí Amar is born in Ceuta, Spain. A Spaniard of Turkish descent, known professionally as Nayim, he was part of the La Masia youth program at Barcelona, and won the Copa del Rey (King's Cup) with them in 1988. He went to North London club Tottenham Hotspur, and won the FA Cup with them in 1991, filling in for their star Paul Gascoigne after "Gazza" wrecked his knee on a stupid tackle, the injury that would ruin his career.
Nayim went back to Spain, to Real Zaragoza, and helped them win the 1994 Copa del Rey. This qualified them for the 1994-95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and they reached the Final in Paris, against the real North London club, Arsenal. With extra time winding down, and penalties looming, Nayim hit a 40-yard lob, and Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman could do nothing about it. Zaragoza won 2-1. He is now sporting director at hometown team AD Ceuta FC.
Tottenham fans still sing Nayim's name, to tease Arsenal fans. They don't seem to grasp that his goal to win that trophy had absolutely nothing to do with them. Indeed, since that 1991 FA Cup win (in which "Spurs" beat Arsenal to reach the Final), Arsenal have won 16 trophies, Tottenham just 2. If you don't count the League Cup, the count becomes Arsenal 15, Tottenham 0. Nobody ever went broke by betting on Tottenham fans being stupid.
November 5, 1967: After losing the 1st 7 regular-season games in franchise history, the New Orleans Saints have a great reason to remember, remember the 5th of November: They get their 1st win, 31-24 at Tulane Stadium over (no surprise here) the Philadelphia Eagles.
Ten years later, in 1977, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would end a franchise-opening 26-game losing streak by getting their 1st win -- over the Saints at the Superdome.
Also on this day, Frank Pollack (no middle name) is born outside Washington in Camp Springs, Maryland. An offensive tackle, he was with the San Francisco 49ers when they won Super Bowl XXIX. He went into coaching, and is now the offensive line coach for the Jets.
November 5, 1968: Eight years after losing one of the closest Presidential elections, former Vice President Richard Nixon wins one that's nearly as close. The Republican nominee wins 301 Electoral Votes, with 43.4 percent of the popular vote. With the incumbent, President Lyndon Johnson, having dropped out of the race, the Democratic Party nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who won 191 Electoral Votes, with 42.7 percent of the vote.
Former Governor George Wallace of Alabama ran a 3rd-party candidacy based on racism, crime and anti-Communism, and won 5 States (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, plus 1 Electoral Vote in South Carolina) for 46 Electoral Votes, with 13.5 percent of the vote.
Nixon's popular vote advantage, not that it mattered, was just 512,000 votes. (He lost to John F. Kennedy by 118,000 votes in 1960.) Wallace did not win the following States, but almost certainly threw them from Humphrey to Nixon: Alaska, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin. That's 197 Electoral Votes. If Humphrey had gotten even 40 percent of those, 79, he would have won, 270-222-46.
Johnson had stopped the bombing of North Vietnam on October 31. But the Paris Peace Talks stalled anyway. Nixon had a 30-point poll lead on Humphrey after the Conventions in August. In the last week, the polls showed a statistical dead heat. Someone wrote at the time that, if the election had been the next day, Humphrey would have won.
Think about what that would have meant. We don't know when he would have ended the Vietnam War, or how, but he wouldn't have kept it going for 4 more years, just so he could use it as an election issue again in 1972, like Nixon did. Certainly, there would have been no Cambodian Incursion in 1970, meaning no Kent State Massacre, and no "Killing Fields."
Humphrey certainly wouldn't have been as paranoid as Nixon, and wouldn't have had the war to be paranoid over. When the "Pentagon Papers" were published in 1971, Nixon started his "Plumbers" unit, to "stop leaks." That led directly to what was originally known as "the Watergate matter." Humphrey and his people wouldn't have committed any of the crimes that eventually fell under the umbrella term "Watergate."
The good things Nixon did? In 1970, he heavily increased spending on health care, and signed into law the creations of the Environmental Protection Agency (and the accompanying Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act), and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) -- both ideas proposed by Democratic Senators who ended up running for President in 1972 (Henry Jackson of Washington and George McGovern of South Dakota, respectively), but Nixon signed them into law, thus taking those accomplishments away. It was both good policy and good politics on his part. Surely, Humphrey would have had no trouble signing them into law as well.
Would Humphrey have made overtures to Red China, as Nixon did? I doubt it: "Only Nixon can go to China" has become a phrase meaning that only someone who was once so incredibly opposed to an issue could seriously tackle it. Nixon also "triangulated" China and the Soviet Union against each other, and got the Soviet Premier, Leonid Brezhnev, to sign the SALT treaty in 1972. Humphrey could have gotten an agreement with Brezhnev, but not with Mao Zedong.
Would Humphrey have been re-elected in 1972? His health hadn't yet become an issue, although he developed cancer in 1976, and chose not to make a 4th run for the Presidency, and died in 1978.
But a Humphrey Administration might have given Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, an additional 4 years following his half-hearted attempt at the Republican nomination in 1968, to become the leader of the conservative movement (as actually happened after 1972). With California, much of the rest of the West, and the South (which had hated Humphrey since his 1948 election to the Senate because of civil rights) in his pocket, and with the Democrats possibly "growing stale in power" after 12 years, maybe the slogan, already old when Reagan was elected in 1980, "It's time for a change," would have worked in this alternate 1972.
But the problems Nixon faced in 1973 and 1974 before his forced resignation over Watergate were hard enough for an intelligent man like him. For Reagan, who was, to put it politely, not as smart as Nixon? (Or Humphrey, or LBJ, or RFK.) He would have botched the recession that began in late 1973. And the Yom Kippur War? That was one of the moments between the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall that could have brought us into World War III. Nixon had Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State, with his "shuttle diplomacy." Reagan would have had... Who? Alexander Haig? That wouldn't have been good. George Schultz? That might have worked.
Presuming a Reagan elected in 1972 didn't get us into World War III, then, with his own scandals (just as he had in the 1980s), particularly with the recession raging, he wouldn't have been able to thread the needle, and he would have lost in 1976, especially if Jimmy Carter ran as a moral leader as he did in real life. Only this time, with the conservative movement completely discredited, Carter might have won in 1980 even with the Iran Hostage Crisis -- or, at the least, would not have lost nearly as badly.
Republican Presidents since might have included George H.W. Bush, but not George W., who went out of his way to be more like Reagan than his father. Bob Dole? John McCain? Mitt Romney? Maybe. Donald Trump? Not a chance: The American people would not have elected a celebrity again, especially one so dumb, he made Reagan look like Albert Einstein.
Democratic Presidents after Carter? Probably not Ted Kennedy. Bill Clinton? Maybe. Barack Obama? Maybe. Somebody else? Who knows. The President in 2018? It would not be a Trump type. It would not be a paranoiac, alternately blustery and insecure, causing problems with both.
Because this, the Nixon victory is where it all began. Donald Trump is not the betrayal of the Republican Party ideals set forth by Ronald Reagan 40 years ago. He is the culmination of the Republican Party ideals set forth by Richard Nixon over 50 years ago. He is not the cause, he is the effect.
Nixon won in 1968 because liberals, saddened over the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, disillusioned by the candidacy of Senator Eugene McCarthy, and angry over Humphrey's refusal to oppose LBJ on the Vietnam War sooner than his September 30 speech in Salt Lake City, mainly stayed home.
This was the 1st time the left's refusal to vote for the most liberal candidate in the race doomed the Democratic Party, ending up with the candidate least like the President they'd hoped for. They have since done it once every generation. They didn't get Ted Kennedy in 1980, so they didn't vote for Jimmy Carter, and they got Ronald Reagan. They voted for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore in 2000, and they got George W. Bush. They didn't get Bernie Sanders in 2016, so they didn't vote for Hillary Clinton, and they got Donald Trump. Maybe, in 2020, they have finally learned.
The 1968 Presidential election is proof that every vote counts. As are those of 1980, 2000 and 2016. But 1968 is where the Trump phenomenon began, even if we didn't know it until now. 1968: Remember, remember, that 5th of November.
November 5, 1969: Kenneth William Sutton is born in Edmonton. A defenseman, Ken Sutton played in the NHL from 1990 to 2002, including 6 games with the Stanley Cup-winning 2000 New Jersey Devils.
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November 5, 1970, 50 years ago: Javier López Torres is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Known professionally as Javy López, the catcher was a 3-time All-Star for the Atlanta Braves. He reached the postseason with them 11 times, winning the National League Pennant in 1992, 1995 (also winning the World Series), 1996 (being named NL Championship Series Most Valuable Player) and 1999. He now works in the Braves' organization, and has been elected to their team Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Ryan Wetnight (no middle name) is born in Fresno, California. A tight end, he played 7 seasons for the Chicago Bears and 1 for the Green Bay Packers, catching 175 passes, including 9 for touchdowns. He became a real estate broker and a high school coach, but died of cancer this past May 1, only 49 years old.
November 5, 1971: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 110-106 at The Forum. Gail Goodrich leads all scorers with 31 points. Jim McMillian, taking over at forward for the retired Elgin Baylor, has 22. Despite their reputations, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain are limited to 19 and 12, respectively, although Wilt does grab 25 rebounds.
OBJ spent much of the 2017 season on injured reserve, and rebounded in 2018, even throwing an option pass for a touchdown. But the Giants, wanting to upgrade their defense, traded him to the Cleveland Browns for Jabril Peppers and 2 draft picks. So far, that trade has benefited the Browns a little more, despite him missing most of this season with another injury.
Also on this day, Marco Verratti (no middle name) is born in Pescara, Italy. The midfielder led his hometown club Delfino Pescara to the title in Italy's Serie B (and thus promotion to Serie A) in 2012. That got the attention of Paris Saint-German. In his 1st 7 seasons with them, he led them to win France's Ligue 1 7 times (including the last 3), and the Coupe de France 5 (including the Double in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020).
He played for Italy in the 2014 World Cup, but missed Euro 2016 due to injury, and the 2018 World Cup because Italy failed to qualify.
November 5, 1993: Arthur Rowe dies in Wallington, Surrey, England at age 87. A centreback for Middlesex (not yet North London) club Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s, he managed them to their 1st Football League title in 1951, with a style that got them nicknamed "The Push and Run Spurs." He later managed 2 other London clubs, Crystal Palace and Leyton Orient.
November 5, 1994: A 45-year-old overweight minister wins the Heavyweight Championship of the World. It doesn't sound possible. It is, when it's George Foreman.
Wearing the same trunks he wore 20 years minus a week earlier, when he lost the title to Muhammad Ali, Big George knocks Michael Moorer out in the 10th round at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. He thus breaks Jersey Joe Walcott's record as oldest Heavyweight Champion (38).
He doesn't hold the title for long, as organizational shenanigans beyond his control forced him to give it up. But he had made his point. Today, who remembers the guys who made George Foreman give up the title (except for Ali)? Ah, but everybody remembers George, and everybody likes George. Which was not the case the first time around: After retiring from boxing for the 1st time in 1977, he totally changed his life, and became a different and better person. His last fight was a loss to Shannon Briggs in 1997. His final record was 76-5 -- 31-3 after his comeback.
November 5, 1995, 25 years ago: The expansion Vancouver Grizzlies make their NBA debut, at the new General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena). They win their premiere, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 100-98. Christian Laettner scores 26 for the T-Wolves to lead all scorers, but the Grizz get 18 off the bench from ex-Laker star and future Net head coach Byron Scott, 17 from ex-Knick Greg Anthony, and 16 from James "Blue" Edwards.
The Grizzlies never make the Playoffs in Vancouver, and they move to Memphis in 2001. The NBA has shown no indication that they will give Vancouver a 2nd team.
November 5, 1996: President Bill Clinton is re-elected, winning 379 Electoral Votes to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's 159. Clinton wins 49.2 percent of the popular vote, while Dole wins 40.7, and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot wins 8.4 percent but no Electoral Votes.
There had never been a more coordinated effort to stop a President from getting re-elected. As his wife, Hillary Clinton, would say a little more than a year later, there was a vast right-wing conspiracy out to get him. He won anyway.
But he was unable to lead the Democratic Party to regain control of either house of Congress, both of which were lost in 1994. This would have serious consequences in his 2nd term.
November 5, 1997: Star Trek: Voyager airs the episode "Year of Hell, Part I." Kurtwood Smith, who previously played the President of the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, plays a bad guy this time, using his starship's time-warping technology to wipe entire planets out of existence, hoping it will restore his planet, including his wife, to life. The USS Voyager gets wrapped up in his plans, with disastrous effects. The episode concludes the next week.
Also on this day, Frank Pollack (no middle name) is born outside Washington in Camp Springs, Maryland. An offensive tackle, he was with the San Francisco 49ers when they won Super Bowl XXIX. He went into coaching, and is now the offensive line coach for the Jets.
November 5, 1968: Eight years after losing one of the closest Presidential elections, former Vice President Richard Nixon wins one that's nearly as close. The Republican nominee wins 301 Electoral Votes, with 43.4 percent of the popular vote. With the incumbent, President Lyndon Johnson, having dropped out of the race, the Democratic Party nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who won 191 Electoral Votes, with 42.7 percent of the vote.
Former Governor George Wallace of Alabama ran a 3rd-party candidacy based on racism, crime and anti-Communism, and won 5 States (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, plus 1 Electoral Vote in South Carolina) for 46 Electoral Votes, with 13.5 percent of the vote.
Nixon's popular vote advantage, not that it mattered, was just 512,000 votes. (He lost to John F. Kennedy by 118,000 votes in 1960.) Wallace did not win the following States, but almost certainly threw them from Humphrey to Nixon: Alaska, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin. That's 197 Electoral Votes. If Humphrey had gotten even 40 percent of those, 79, he would have won, 270-222-46.
Johnson had stopped the bombing of North Vietnam on October 31. But the Paris Peace Talks stalled anyway. Nixon had a 30-point poll lead on Humphrey after the Conventions in August. In the last week, the polls showed a statistical dead heat. Someone wrote at the time that, if the election had been the next day, Humphrey would have won.
Think about what that would have meant. We don't know when he would have ended the Vietnam War, or how, but he wouldn't have kept it going for 4 more years, just so he could use it as an election issue again in 1972, like Nixon did. Certainly, there would have been no Cambodian Incursion in 1970, meaning no Kent State Massacre, and no "Killing Fields."
Humphrey certainly wouldn't have been as paranoid as Nixon, and wouldn't have had the war to be paranoid over. When the "Pentagon Papers" were published in 1971, Nixon started his "Plumbers" unit, to "stop leaks." That led directly to what was originally known as "the Watergate matter." Humphrey and his people wouldn't have committed any of the crimes that eventually fell under the umbrella term "Watergate."
The good things Nixon did? In 1970, he heavily increased spending on health care, and signed into law the creations of the Environmental Protection Agency (and the accompanying Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act), and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) -- both ideas proposed by Democratic Senators who ended up running for President in 1972 (Henry Jackson of Washington and George McGovern of South Dakota, respectively), but Nixon signed them into law, thus taking those accomplishments away. It was both good policy and good politics on his part. Surely, Humphrey would have had no trouble signing them into law as well.
Would Humphrey have made overtures to Red China, as Nixon did? I doubt it: "Only Nixon can go to China" has become a phrase meaning that only someone who was once so incredibly opposed to an issue could seriously tackle it. Nixon also "triangulated" China and the Soviet Union against each other, and got the Soviet Premier, Leonid Brezhnev, to sign the SALT treaty in 1972. Humphrey could have gotten an agreement with Brezhnev, but not with Mao Zedong.
Would Humphrey have been re-elected in 1972? His health hadn't yet become an issue, although he developed cancer in 1976, and chose not to make a 4th run for the Presidency, and died in 1978.
But a Humphrey Administration might have given Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California, an additional 4 years following his half-hearted attempt at the Republican nomination in 1968, to become the leader of the conservative movement (as actually happened after 1972). With California, much of the rest of the West, and the South (which had hated Humphrey since his 1948 election to the Senate because of civil rights) in his pocket, and with the Democrats possibly "growing stale in power" after 12 years, maybe the slogan, already old when Reagan was elected in 1980, "It's time for a change," would have worked in this alternate 1972.
But the problems Nixon faced in 1973 and 1974 before his forced resignation over Watergate were hard enough for an intelligent man like him. For Reagan, who was, to put it politely, not as smart as Nixon? (Or Humphrey, or LBJ, or RFK.) He would have botched the recession that began in late 1973. And the Yom Kippur War? That was one of the moments between the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall that could have brought us into World War III. Nixon had Henry Kissinger as Secretary of State, with his "shuttle diplomacy." Reagan would have had... Who? Alexander Haig? That wouldn't have been good. George Schultz? That might have worked.
Presuming a Reagan elected in 1972 didn't get us into World War III, then, with his own scandals (just as he had in the 1980s), particularly with the recession raging, he wouldn't have been able to thread the needle, and he would have lost in 1976, especially if Jimmy Carter ran as a moral leader as he did in real life. Only this time, with the conservative movement completely discredited, Carter might have won in 1980 even with the Iran Hostage Crisis -- or, at the least, would not have lost nearly as badly.
Republican Presidents since might have included George H.W. Bush, but not George W., who went out of his way to be more like Reagan than his father. Bob Dole? John McCain? Mitt Romney? Maybe. Donald Trump? Not a chance: The American people would not have elected a celebrity again, especially one so dumb, he made Reagan look like Albert Einstein.
Democratic Presidents after Carter? Probably not Ted Kennedy. Bill Clinton? Maybe. Barack Obama? Maybe. Somebody else? Who knows. The President in 2018? It would not be a Trump type. It would not be a paranoiac, alternately blustery and insecure, causing problems with both.
Because this, the Nixon victory is where it all began. Donald Trump is not the betrayal of the Republican Party ideals set forth by Ronald Reagan 40 years ago. He is the culmination of the Republican Party ideals set forth by Richard Nixon over 50 years ago. He is not the cause, he is the effect.
Nixon won in 1968 because liberals, saddened over the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, disillusioned by the candidacy of Senator Eugene McCarthy, and angry over Humphrey's refusal to oppose LBJ on the Vietnam War sooner than his September 30 speech in Salt Lake City, mainly stayed home.
This was the 1st time the left's refusal to vote for the most liberal candidate in the race doomed the Democratic Party, ending up with the candidate least like the President they'd hoped for. They have since done it once every generation. They didn't get Ted Kennedy in 1980, so they didn't vote for Jimmy Carter, and they got Ronald Reagan. They voted for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore in 2000, and they got George W. Bush. They didn't get Bernie Sanders in 2016, so they didn't vote for Hillary Clinton, and they got Donald Trump. Maybe, in 2020, they have finally learned.
The 1968 Presidential election is proof that every vote counts. As are those of 1980, 2000 and 2016. But 1968 is where the Trump phenomenon began, even if we didn't know it until now. 1968: Remember, remember, that 5th of November.
November 5, 1969: Kenneth William Sutton is born in Edmonton. A defenseman, Ken Sutton played in the NHL from 1990 to 2002, including 6 games with the Stanley Cup-winning 2000 New Jersey Devils.
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November 5, 1970, 50 years ago: Javier López Torres is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Known professionally as Javy López, the catcher was a 3-time All-Star for the Atlanta Braves. He reached the postseason with them 11 times, winning the National League Pennant in 1992, 1995 (also winning the World Series), 1996 (being named NL Championship Series Most Valuable Player) and 1999. He now works in the Braves' organization, and has been elected to their team Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Ryan Wetnight (no middle name) is born in Fresno, California. A tight end, he played 7 seasons for the Chicago Bears and 1 for the Green Bay Packers, catching 175 passes, including 9 for touchdowns. He became a real estate broker and a high school coach, but died of cancer this past May 1, only 49 years old.
Also on this day, Scrooge premieres, starring Albert Finney. This would go on to become the 1st live-action version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that I saw on TV. The 1st version of any kind that I saw was the 1962 animated Mr. Magoo’s Christmas
Carol. Funny how the 1st that I saw were both musicals.
November 5, 1971: The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Baltimore Bullets, 110-106 at The Forum. Gail Goodrich leads all scorers with 31 points. Jim McMillian, taking over at forward for the retired Elgin Baylor, has 22. Despite their reputations, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain are limited to 19 and 12, respectively, although Wilt does grab 25 rebounds.
This begins a 33-game winning streak, which remains the longest in the history of major league sports in North America, and leads them to an NBA record (since broken) of 69 wins and the Championship the following May.
For perspective: The longest winning streak in Major League Baseball is 26, by the 1916 New York Giants (who nonetheless finished 4th); in the National Football League, 23 in regular season play, by the 2008 and '09 Indianapolis Colts, and 21 counting the postseason, by the 2003 and '04 New England Patriots; and in the National Hockey League, 17, by the 1993 Pittsburgh Penguins.
In the 1979-80 season, the Philadelphia Flyers had a 35-game unbeaten streak, but that included 6 ties. When Arsenal set a new record for longest unbeaten streak in English 1st division soccer in 2003 and '04, it was 49 games, but that included 13 draws.
Also on this day, Robert Marc Jones is born in Wrexham, Wales. Wrexham? The right back practically killed 'em. Rob Jones helped Liverpool win the 1992 FA Cup and the 1995 League Cup. He and his wife now run a chain of nursery schools, and works in their youth setup, where his son Declan was a trainee, before turning to auto racing.
Also on this day, The Odd Couple airs the episode "Does Your Mother Know You're Out, Rigoletto?" Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) knows Dick Fredricks from his Central Park softball league team. Felix Unger (Tony Randall) knows Richard Fredricks as a great opera singer. It turns out that they're the same guy, and Felix is staging an amateur production of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, and wants Oscar to talk Dick into performing in it.
But in a game, Oscar accidentally injures Dick, and he can't perform. Felix tells Oscar he has to perform the title role himself -- a hunchbacked court jester to the medieval Duke of Mantua. Fredericks plays himself, and closes the episode by singing "If Ever I Would Leave You" from the Broadway musical Camelot. He is still alive, age 87.
November 5, 1973: Johnny David Damon is born at Fort Riley, Kansas, where his father is stationed in the U.S. Army, and grows up in the suburbs of Orlando. He starred for 7 different teams, all in the American League. He led the AL in stolen bases in 2000, and was a 2-time All-Star. He appeared in the postseason with the Oakland Athletics in 2001, and with the Boston Red Sox in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
It was Damon who called the 2004 Sox "a bunch of idiots," giving them their tagline, and his grand slam in Game 7 of the 2004 AL Championship Series buried the Yankees and the alleged Curse of the Bambino, on the way to winning the World Series.
But, as did Babe Ruth, Red Ruffing, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and others before him, the Red Sox decided they no longer wanted him, and his contract was allowed to run out. The Yankees signed him, and he helped them reach the Playoffs in 2006 and 2007, and win the 2009 World Series. His double steal to foil the Philadelphia Phillies' shift led to the run that won Game 4, and was the defining play of that Series.
But the Yankees let him go, too, and he reached the postseason once more, with the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays. He has a lifetime a batting average of .284, 2,769 hits, 235 home runs, 408 stolen bases, and 2 World Series rings -- but no Gold Gloves. He got just 1.8 percent of the votes in the Baseball Hall of Fame election of 2018, and has been dropped from future Writers' Association consideration. He will have to wait until he is eligible through whatever the Veterans' Committee will be called by then. He has been elected to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Like another recent Yankee outfield hero, Paul O'Neill, he campaigned for Donald Trump. I'll forgive them on January 20, 2021.
On the same day as Damon, Alexei Valeryevich Yashin is born in Sverdlovsk, Russia. The center starred for the Ottawa Senators in the 1990s and the New York Islanders in the 2000s. He has just been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation's Hall of Fame, and is now general manager of Russia's national women's hockey team. Speaking of women and hockey, he is the longtime partner of Carol Alt, the former supermodel who was once married to Rangers defenseman Ron Greschner.
November 5, 1974: Jerry Darnell Stackhouse is born in Kinston, North Carolina. In 1995, the guard led the University of North Carolina to the Final Four, and was named National Player of the Year. Although he left the team for the NBA early, he stayed at UNC and got his degree.
He was a 2-time NBA All-Star with the Detroit Pistons, and finished his playing career with the Nets in their 1st season in Brooklyn, 2012-13. He led Raptors 905, the Toronto Raptors' top farm team, in the Toronto satellite city of Mississauga, Ontario (hence "905," the Area Code), to the 2017 D-League Championship. This got him a promotion to a Raptors assistant coach, and he is now the head coach at Vanderbilt University.
November 5, 1976: Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley trades his manager, Chuck Tanner, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000. He says, "I'll trade a manager for a player anytime," but who's kidding who? He wanted the money.
This was a big mistake: After managing the A's, already having been broken up by Finley for the sake of money, to a 2nd place finish in his 1st season with them (after 5 years running the Chicago White Sox, including a near-division title in 1972), Tanner goes on to win the 1979 World Series with the Pirates, including Sanguillen, whom Finley had traded back.
I don't know if Tanner could have avoided the competitive meltdown the A's had in the late 1970s, but the A's surely would have been better off with him as field boss instead of Jack McKeon, Bobby Winkles, McKeon again, and finally Jim Marshall, before Finley hired Billy Martin for 1980 and sold the team, allowing them to rebound.
November 5, 1977: Richard Ian Wright is born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. No relation to that other Ian Wright who played for Arsenal, nor to the American novelist Richard Wright, this Richard Wright's goalkeeping helped get hometown club Ipswich Town promoted to the Premier League in 2000. Afterward, Arsenal signed him as David Seaman's backup, and he won Premier League and FA Cup medals in 2002.
He continued to suit up until 2017, when, unable to get a single game for Manchester City ahead of Joe Hart for 4 years, he retired. He is now City's goalkeeping coach. His son Harry Wright is also now a goalkeeper in Ipswich's system, although he has yet to make a first team appearance.
November 5, 1978: The newspaper strike in New York City, which began on August 10, ends. The fact that there were fewer reporters to bother them, and to complain to (although there were still TV and radio guys), is often credited as being one of the reasons the Yankees made their epic comeback and won the World Series.
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November 5, 1980, 40 years ago: The Winnipeg Sun is founded. Like the papers named The Sun in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton (but not Vancouver), it is a tabloid, liberal with the headlines but conservative with the politics.
Also on this day, Aaron Matthew Moorehead is born in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado. A receiver, he was with the Indianapolis Colts when they won Super Bowl XLI. He is now the receivers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.
November 5, 1981: Luke Hemsworth -- as far as I know, his full name -- is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The older brother of actors Chris and Liam Hemsworth, he plays Ashley Stubbs on
Just as their arch-rivals, the Orlando Magic, will do a year later when they choose the Nets, the Heat chose wrong: The Clips win, 111-91. Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington comes off the bench to lead the Heat with 16 points, but the Clips get 22 from Ken Norman and 21 from Reggie Williams.
Also on this day, Gino Gradkowski (no middle name) is born in Pittsburgh. A center, he was with the Baltimore Ravens when they won Super Bowl XLVII. He is now retired.
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November 5, 1992: Odell Cornelious Beckham Jr. is born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His parents were both star runners at Louisiana State University: His father, Odell Beckham Sr., was a running back; and his mother, Heather Van Norman, was a National Champion relay runner, who might have made the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona had she not been pregnant with Odell Jr. She later coached college track teams.
Also on this day, The Odd Couple airs the episode "Does Your Mother Know You're Out, Rigoletto?" Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman) knows Dick Fredricks from his Central Park softball league team. Felix Unger (Tony Randall) knows Richard Fredricks as a great opera singer. It turns out that they're the same guy, and Felix is staging an amateur production of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto, and wants Oscar to talk Dick into performing in it.
But in a game, Oscar accidentally injures Dick, and he can't perform. Felix tells Oscar he has to perform the title role himself -- a hunchbacked court jester to the medieval Duke of Mantua. Fredericks plays himself, and closes the episode by singing "If Ever I Would Leave You" from the Broadway musical Camelot. He is still alive, age 87.
November 5, 1973: Johnny David Damon is born at Fort Riley, Kansas, where his father is stationed in the U.S. Army, and grows up in the suburbs of Orlando. He starred for 7 different teams, all in the American League. He led the AL in stolen bases in 2000, and was a 2-time All-Star. He appeared in the postseason with the Oakland Athletics in 2001, and with the Boston Red Sox in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
It was Damon who called the 2004 Sox "a bunch of idiots," giving them their tagline, and his grand slam in Game 7 of the 2004 AL Championship Series buried the Yankees and the alleged Curse of the Bambino, on the way to winning the World Series.
But, as did Babe Ruth, Red Ruffing, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and others before him, the Red Sox decided they no longer wanted him, and his contract was allowed to run out. The Yankees signed him, and he helped them reach the Playoffs in 2006 and 2007, and win the 2009 World Series. His double steal to foil the Philadelphia Phillies' shift led to the run that won Game 4, and was the defining play of that Series.
But the Yankees let him go, too, and he reached the postseason once more, with the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays. He has a lifetime a batting average of .284, 2,769 hits, 235 home runs, 408 stolen bases, and 2 World Series rings -- but no Gold Gloves. He got just 1.8 percent of the votes in the Baseball Hall of Fame election of 2018, and has been dropped from future Writers' Association consideration. He will have to wait until he is eligible through whatever the Veterans' Committee will be called by then. He has been elected to the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
Like another recent Yankee outfield hero, Paul O'Neill, he campaigned for Donald Trump. I'll forgive them on January 20, 2021.
On the same day as Damon, Alexei Valeryevich Yashin is born in Sverdlovsk, Russia. The center starred for the Ottawa Senators in the 1990s and the New York Islanders in the 2000s. He has just been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation's Hall of Fame, and is now general manager of Russia's national women's hockey team. Speaking of women and hockey, he is the longtime partner of Carol Alt, the former supermodel who was once married to Rangers defenseman Ron Greschner.
November 5, 1974: Jerry Darnell Stackhouse is born in Kinston, North Carolina. In 1995, the guard led the University of North Carolina to the Final Four, and was named National Player of the Year. Although he left the team for the NBA early, he stayed at UNC and got his degree.
He was a 2-time NBA All-Star with the Detroit Pistons, and finished his playing career with the Nets in their 1st season in Brooklyn, 2012-13. He led Raptors 905, the Toronto Raptors' top farm team, in the Toronto satellite city of Mississauga, Ontario (hence "905," the Area Code), to the 2017 D-League Championship. This got him a promotion to a Raptors assistant coach, and he is now the head coach at Vanderbilt University.
November 5, 1976: Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley trades his manager, Chuck Tanner, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000. He says, "I'll trade a manager for a player anytime," but who's kidding who? He wanted the money.
This was a big mistake: After managing the A's, already having been broken up by Finley for the sake of money, to a 2nd place finish in his 1st season with them (after 5 years running the Chicago White Sox, including a near-division title in 1972), Tanner goes on to win the 1979 World Series with the Pirates, including Sanguillen, whom Finley had traded back.
I don't know if Tanner could have avoided the competitive meltdown the A's had in the late 1970s, but the A's surely would have been better off with him as field boss instead of Jack McKeon, Bobby Winkles, McKeon again, and finally Jim Marshall, before Finley hired Billy Martin for 1980 and sold the team, allowing them to rebound.
November 5, 1977: Richard Ian Wright is born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. No relation to that other Ian Wright who played for Arsenal, nor to the American novelist Richard Wright, this Richard Wright's goalkeeping helped get hometown club Ipswich Town promoted to the Premier League in 2000. Afterward, Arsenal signed him as David Seaman's backup, and he won Premier League and FA Cup medals in 2002.
He continued to suit up until 2017, when, unable to get a single game for Manchester City ahead of Joe Hart for 4 years, he retired. He is now City's goalkeeping coach. His son Harry Wright is also now a goalkeeper in Ipswich's system, although he has yet to make a first team appearance.
November 5, 1978: The newspaper strike in New York City, which began on August 10, ends. The fact that there were fewer reporters to bother them, and to complain to (although there were still TV and radio guys), is often credited as being one of the reasons the Yankees made their epic comeback and won the World Series.
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November 5, 1980, 40 years ago: The Winnipeg Sun is founded. Like the papers named The Sun in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton (but not Vancouver), it is a tabloid, liberal with the headlines but conservative with the politics.
Also on this day, Aaron Matthew Moorehead is born in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado. A receiver, he was with the Indianapolis Colts when they won Super Bowl XLI. He is now the receivers coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.
November 5, 1981: Luke Hemsworth -- as far as I know, his full name -- is born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The older brother of actors Chris and Liam Hemsworth, he plays Ashley Stubbs on
Westworld.
November 5, 1982: Bryan Allan LaHair is born outside Boston in Worcester, Massachusetts. A 1st baseman and right fielder, he played for the Seattle Mariners in 2008, and the Chicago Cubs in 2011 and 2012. He is now a coach in the Cincinnati Reds' organization.
November 5, 1983: Juan Bautista Morillo is born in San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic. A member of the Colorado Rockies' Pennant winners of 2007, he hasn't thrown a professional pitch since 2013.
November 5, 1984: Nicholas Alexander Folk is born in Los Angeles. The kicker was a Pro Bowler as a rookie with the Dallas Cowboys in 2007. The Jets' kicker from 2010 to 2016, he holds the career record for best extra-point percentage. Sadly, he now lays for the enemy of all decent football fans, the New England Patriots. He is also a New York Red Bulls' season-ticket holder, and a member of the fan group the Viking Army.
November 5, 1986: Kasper Peter Schmeichel is born in Copenhagen, Denmark. The son of legendary Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, Kasper is the goalie for Leicester City, winning the 2016 season's improbable Premier League title. He played for Denmark in Euro 2012 and the 2018 World Cup.
November 5, 1987: Tom Parker dies in Southampton, Hampshire, England. No, not Elvis Presley's manager. This Tom Parker was called Captain, not Colonel. He was one of the best English defenders of the 1920s. A right back, he starred for hometown club Southampton, and Holley & Chalk's The Alphabet of the Saints described him as "never the fastest of players, he had wonderful positional sense and his tackling was always well-timed."
Given that kind of talent, Southampton could not refuse overtures from bigger clubs. In 1926, he was acquired by North London's Arsenal. In his 1st full season with them, he helped them reach the FA Cup Final, but lost. Succeeding the legendary Charlie Buchan as Captain, he became the Gunners' 1st trophy-winning Captain, leading them to their 1st FA Cup win in 1930, and the League title in 1931, before age overtook him, and he gave the Number 2 shirt up to George Male. He later managed Norfolk team Norwich City, getting them promoted to the 2nd Division in 1934; then Southampton, getting them promoted in 1939; then Norwich again.
Also on this day, Jason Kelce (no middle name) is born in Westlake, Ohio, and grows up in another Cleveland suburb, Cleveland Heights. A 2-time Pro Bowl center for the Philadelphia Eagles, he was with them when they won Super Bowl LII.
Also on this day, Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo is born in Huntington, West Virginia. The guard was a high school basketball sensation, and it seemed that every major college coach wanted him. The stories of how O.J. Mayo and his family made coaches jump through hoops to get him have become legend: Supposedly, when one visited him at home, he told the coach, "Get me a sammich!" (Sandwich.)
He went to USC, and, like a famous football player at that school named O.J., wore Number 32. But he played only 1 season there, and turned pro. It didn't work out quite the way he hoped, as he spent 4 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, 1 with the Dallas Mavericks, and 3 with the Milwaukee Bucks.
In July 2016, he was banned from the NBA for life because of a drug violation -- not the first time he's had drug issues. He became eligible for reinstatement in 2018-19, but concluded that no one would take him. He now plays in China.
Also on this day, Kevin Paul Jonas II is born in Teaneck, Bergen County, New Jersey, and grows up in nearby Wyckoff. He is the oldest of the singing Jonas Brothers.
November 5, 1988: The expansion Miami Heat make their NBA debut, at the now-demolished Miami Arena. They probably thought that picking the Los Angeles Clippers as their 1st opponent would help.
November 5, 1982: Bryan Allan LaHair is born outside Boston in Worcester, Massachusetts. A 1st baseman and right fielder, he played for the Seattle Mariners in 2008, and the Chicago Cubs in 2011 and 2012. He is now a coach in the Cincinnati Reds' organization.
November 5, 1983: Juan Bautista Morillo is born in San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic. A member of the Colorado Rockies' Pennant winners of 2007, he hasn't thrown a professional pitch since 2013.
November 5, 1984: Nicholas Alexander Folk is born in Los Angeles. The kicker was a Pro Bowler as a rookie with the Dallas Cowboys in 2007. The Jets' kicker from 2010 to 2016, he holds the career record for best extra-point percentage. Sadly, he now lays for the enemy of all decent football fans, the New England Patriots. He is also a New York Red Bulls' season-ticket holder, and a member of the fan group the Viking Army.
November 5, 1986: Kasper Peter Schmeichel is born in Copenhagen, Denmark. The son of legendary Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, Kasper is the goalie for Leicester City, winning the 2016 season's improbable Premier League title. He played for Denmark in Euro 2012 and the 2018 World Cup.
November 5, 1987: Tom Parker dies in Southampton, Hampshire, England. No, not Elvis Presley's manager. This Tom Parker was called Captain, not Colonel. He was one of the best English defenders of the 1920s. A right back, he starred for hometown club Southampton, and Holley & Chalk's The Alphabet of the Saints described him as "never the fastest of players, he had wonderful positional sense and his tackling was always well-timed."
Given that kind of talent, Southampton could not refuse overtures from bigger clubs. In 1926, he was acquired by North London's Arsenal. In his 1st full season with them, he helped them reach the FA Cup Final, but lost. Succeeding the legendary Charlie Buchan as Captain, he became the Gunners' 1st trophy-winning Captain, leading them to their 1st FA Cup win in 1930, and the League title in 1931, before age overtook him, and he gave the Number 2 shirt up to George Male. He later managed Norfolk team Norwich City, getting them promoted to the 2nd Division in 1934; then Southampton, getting them promoted in 1939; then Norwich again.
Also on this day, Jason Kelce (no middle name) is born in Westlake, Ohio, and grows up in another Cleveland suburb, Cleveland Heights. A 2-time Pro Bowl center for the Philadelphia Eagles, he was with them when they won Super Bowl LII.
Also on this day, Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo is born in Huntington, West Virginia. The guard was a high school basketball sensation, and it seemed that every major college coach wanted him. The stories of how O.J. Mayo and his family made coaches jump through hoops to get him have become legend: Supposedly, when one visited him at home, he told the coach, "Get me a sammich!" (Sandwich.)
He went to USC, and, like a famous football player at that school named O.J., wore Number 32. But he played only 1 season there, and turned pro. It didn't work out quite the way he hoped, as he spent 4 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, 1 with the Dallas Mavericks, and 3 with the Milwaukee Bucks.
In July 2016, he was banned from the NBA for life because of a drug violation -- not the first time he's had drug issues. He became eligible for reinstatement in 2018-19, but concluded that no one would take him. He now plays in China.
Also on this day, Kevin Paul Jonas II is born in Teaneck, Bergen County, New Jersey, and grows up in nearby Wyckoff. He is the oldest of the singing Jonas Brothers.
November 5, 1988: The expansion Miami Heat make their NBA debut, at the now-demolished Miami Arena. They probably thought that picking the Los Angeles Clippers as their 1st opponent would help.
Just as their arch-rivals, the Orlando Magic, will do a year later when they choose the Nets, the Heat chose wrong: The Clips win, 111-91. Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington comes off the bench to lead the Heat with 16 points, but the Clips get 22 from Ken Norman and 21 from Reggie Williams.
Also on this day, Gino Gradkowski (no middle name) is born in Pittsburgh. A center, he was with the Baltimore Ravens when they won Super Bowl XLVII. He is now retired.
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November 5, 1992: Odell Cornelious Beckham Jr. is born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His parents were both star runners at Louisiana State University: His father, Odell Beckham Sr., was a running back; and his mother, Heather Van Norman, was a National Champion relay runner, who might have made the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona had she not been pregnant with Odell Jr. She later coached college track teams.
Although Odell Jr. went to a private high school in New Orleans, the receiver returned to Baton Rouge to play at LSU. In each of his 1st 3 seasons with the New York Giants, he was named an All-Pro.
OBJ spent much of the 2017 season on injured reserve, and rebounded in 2018, even throwing an option pass for a touchdown. But the Giants, wanting to upgrade their defense, traded him to the Cleveland Browns for Jabril Peppers and 2 draft picks. So far, that trade has benefited the Browns a little more, despite him missing most of this season with another injury.
Also on this day, Marco Verratti (no middle name) is born in Pescara, Italy. The midfielder led his hometown club Delfino Pescara to the title in Italy's Serie B (and thus promotion to Serie A) in 2012. That got the attention of Paris Saint-German. In his 1st 7 seasons with them, he led them to win France's Ligue 1 7 times (including the last 3), and the Coupe de France 5 (including the Double in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020).
He played for Italy in the 2014 World Cup, but missed Euro 2016 due to injury, and the 2018 World Cup because Italy failed to qualify.
November 5, 1993: Arthur Rowe dies in Wallington, Surrey, England at age 87. A centreback for Middlesex (not yet North London) club Tottenham Hotspur in the 1930s, he managed them to their 1st Football League title in 1951, with a style that got them nicknamed "The Push and Run Spurs." He later managed 2 other London clubs, Crystal Palace and Leyton Orient.
November 5, 1994: A 45-year-old overweight minister wins the Heavyweight Championship of the World. It doesn't sound possible. It is, when it's George Foreman.
Wearing the same trunks he wore 20 years minus a week earlier, when he lost the title to Muhammad Ali, Big George knocks Michael Moorer out in the 10th round at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas. He thus breaks Jersey Joe Walcott's record as oldest Heavyweight Champion (38).
He doesn't hold the title for long, as organizational shenanigans beyond his control forced him to give it up. But he had made his point. Today, who remembers the guys who made George Foreman give up the title (except for Ali)? Ah, but everybody remembers George, and everybody likes George. Which was not the case the first time around: After retiring from boxing for the 1st time in 1977, he totally changed his life, and became a different and better person. His last fight was a loss to Shannon Briggs in 1997. His final record was 76-5 -- 31-3 after his comeback.
November 5, 1995, 25 years ago: The expansion Vancouver Grizzlies make their NBA debut, at the new General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena). They win their premiere, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 100-98. Christian Laettner scores 26 for the T-Wolves to lead all scorers, but the Grizz get 18 off the bench from ex-Laker star and future Net head coach Byron Scott, 17 from ex-Knick Greg Anthony, and 16 from James "Blue" Edwards.
The Grizzlies never make the Playoffs in Vancouver, and they move to Memphis in 2001. The NBA has shown no indication that they will give Vancouver a 2nd team.
November 5, 1996: President Bill Clinton is re-elected, winning 379 Electoral Votes to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's 159. Clinton wins 49.2 percent of the popular vote, while Dole wins 40.7, and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot wins 8.4 percent but no Electoral Votes.
There had never been a more coordinated effort to stop a President from getting re-elected. As his wife, Hillary Clinton, would say a little more than a year later, there was a vast right-wing conspiracy out to get him. He won anyway.
But he was unable to lead the Democratic Party to regain control of either house of Congress, both of which were lost in 1994. This would have serious consequences in his 2nd term.
November 5, 1997: Star Trek: Voyager airs the episode "Year of Hell, Part I." Kurtwood Smith, who previously played the President of the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, plays a bad guy this time, using his starship's time-warping technology to wipe entire planets out of existence, hoping it will restore his planet, including his wife, to life. The USS Voyager gets wrapped up in his plans, with disastrous effects. The episode concludes the next week.
This is also the day in which, in the original 1982 graphic novel of V for Vendetta, that V blows up the Palace of Westminster, the now-vacant and redundant House of Parliament. He vows to the British people that he will blow up 10 Downing Street, once the residence of the Prime Minister but now that of the authoritarian High Chancellor, Adam Susan, exactly one year later.
November 5, 1998: V is unable to keep his word, as he dies following his battle with Norsefire Party leader Peter Creedy, who, with V's help, has killed Susan. But the head of Norsefire has been cut off, and Evey Hammond starts the train that blows up Number 10.
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November 5, 2006: Pietro Rava dies in Turin at age 90. A left back, he helped Italy's soccer team win the Gold Medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and the 1938 World Cup. With Turin team Juventus, he won the Coppa Italia in 1938 and 1942, and Serie A (the Italian league) in 1950.
November 5, 2011: Louisiana State, ranked Number 1, takes on Number 2 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Complicating things is the fact that Alabama coach Nick Saban had previously led LSU to a National Championship. It is one of several college football games that has gotten billed as "The Game of the Century," and it goes to overtime, where Alabama's Cade Foster misses a field goal, while Drew Alleman makes his to give LSU a 9-6 victory.
But, in one of the several scenarios that made people hate the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and demand a Playoff system (which we now have), 'Bama ended up Number 2 in the national rankings anyway, and got a rematch with LSU, and dominated it, 21-0, to win the National Championship. It made Saban the 1st coach ever to win National Championships at 2 different schools.
November 5, 2012: Castle airs the episode "The Final Frontier." Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, directs, and plays a nerdy fan of mystery writer and NYPD consultant Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), signing copies of his Derrick Storm graphic novel at a sci-fi convention at Madison Square Garden.
But Castle's girlfriend, Detective Kate Beckett, shows up, and tells him there's been a murder at the convention, in the setup of the bridge of the starship in the (fictional) early 2000s TV show Nebula 9
-- a show Beckett (then in college) loved and Castle (already a best-selling novelist by then) hated. It was so bad (How bad was it?), it only lasted 12 episodes (a nod to Fillion's previous sci-fi show, Firefly, which lasted just 14 episodes in the Autumn of 2002), and an Internet meme developed, asking if people were rooting for the bad guys.
The episode airs on the 63rd birthday of the aforementioned Armin Shimerman, who appears in it, as a man who designs and builds replicas of sci-fi shows' and movies' equipment, including a version of the Nebula 9 blaster that not only works, but turns out to be the murder weapon. (He didn't commit the murder.)
November 5, 2016: Benedict Cumberbatch hosts Saturday Night Live, with musical guest Solange (Knowles, Beyoncé's sister). Alec Baldwin plays Donald Trump again.
Dana Carvey makes a rare return, in character as the Church Lady. And Anthony Rizzo, Dexter Fowler and David Ross of the recently crowned World Champion Chicago Cubs make a guest appearance, along with Cub fan and SNL legend Bill Murray, singing Steve Goodman's song "Go, Cubs, Go."
November 5, 2006: Pietro Rava dies in Turin at age 90. A left back, he helped Italy's soccer team win the Gold Medal in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and the 1938 World Cup. With Turin team Juventus, he won the Coppa Italia in 1938 and 1942, and Serie A (the Italian league) in 1950.
November 5, 2011: Louisiana State, ranked Number 1, takes on Number 2 Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Complicating things is the fact that Alabama coach Nick Saban had previously led LSU to a National Championship. It is one of several college football games that has gotten billed as "The Game of the Century," and it goes to overtime, where Alabama's Cade Foster misses a field goal, while Drew Alleman makes his to give LSU a 9-6 victory.
But, in one of the several scenarios that made people hate the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and demand a Playoff system (which we now have), 'Bama ended up Number 2 in the national rankings anyway, and got a rematch with LSU, and dominated it, 21-0, to win the National Championship. It made Saban the 1st coach ever to win National Championships at 2 different schools.
November 5, 2012: Castle airs the episode "The Final Frontier." Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, directs, and plays a nerdy fan of mystery writer and NYPD consultant Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), signing copies of his Derrick Storm graphic novel at a sci-fi convention at Madison Square Garden.
But Castle's girlfriend, Detective Kate Beckett, shows up, and tells him there's been a murder at the convention, in the setup of the bridge of the starship in the (fictional) early 2000s TV show Nebula 9
-- a show Beckett (then in college) loved and Castle (already a best-selling novelist by then) hated. It was so bad (How bad was it?), it only lasted 12 episodes (a nod to Fillion's previous sci-fi show, Firefly, which lasted just 14 episodes in the Autumn of 2002), and an Internet meme developed, asking if people were rooting for the bad guys.
The episode airs on the 63rd birthday of the aforementioned Armin Shimerman, who appears in it, as a man who designs and builds replicas of sci-fi shows' and movies' equipment, including a version of the Nebula 9 blaster that not only works, but turns out to be the murder weapon. (He didn't commit the murder.)
November 5, 2016: Benedict Cumberbatch hosts Saturday Night Live, with musical guest Solange (Knowles, Beyoncé's sister). Alec Baldwin plays Donald Trump again.
Dana Carvey makes a rare return, in character as the Church Lady. And Anthony Rizzo, Dexter Fowler and David Ross of the recently crowned World Champion Chicago Cubs make a guest appearance, along with Cub fan and SNL legend Bill Murray, singing Steve Goodman's song "Go, Cubs, Go."
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Cumberbatch plays Doctor Strange, and Robert Downey Jr. plays Iron Man. Each has also played Sherlock Holmes. The MCU, not afraid to use profanity, has thus far missed an opportunity to have someone say to either -- and especially to have one say to the other -- "No shit, Sherlock!"
November 5, 2017: Devin Patrick Kelley walks into the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio, and shoots 46 people, 26 of whom die. He then leads the police on a chase, but crashes, and, refusing to be taken alive, kills himself. He was 26, and his motive has never been established.
He was convicted of domestic violence in a court-martial while he served in the U.S. Air Force, but the USAF failed to record the conviction with the FBI, meaning that he was not officially legally prohibited from obtaining a firearm. The system failed, due to negligence.
November 5, 2018: In the film version of V for Vendetta, this is the day that Larkhill Detention Centre blows up. But the St. Mary's Virus has already been launched.
November 5, 2037: In the film, this is the day that V (Hugo Weaving) blows up the Old Bailey, attacks the British Television Network, and announces his plan to blow up Parliament one year later.
November 5, 2038: V is unable to keep his word, as he dies following his battle with Norsefire Party leader Peter Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), who, with V's help, has killed the High Chancellor, here named Adam Sutler. (In an irony, he is played by John Hurt, who had played the protagonist in a film version of George Orwell's "future fascist Britain" story 1984, and is now, essentially, playing "Big Brother.") But the head of Norsefire has been cut off, and Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) starts the train that blows up Parliament.
November 5, 2017: Devin Patrick Kelley walks into the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a suburb of San Antonio, and shoots 46 people, 26 of whom die. He then leads the police on a chase, but crashes, and, refusing to be taken alive, kills himself. He was 26, and his motive has never been established.
He was convicted of domestic violence in a court-martial while he served in the U.S. Air Force, but the USAF failed to record the conviction with the FBI, meaning that he was not officially legally prohibited from obtaining a firearm. The system failed, due to negligence.
November 5, 2018: In the film version of V for Vendetta, this is the day that Larkhill Detention Centre blows up. But the St. Mary's Virus has already been launched.
November 5, 2037: In the film, this is the day that V (Hugo Weaving) blows up the Old Bailey, attacks the British Television Network, and announces his plan to blow up Parliament one year later.
November 5, 2038: V is unable to keep his word, as he dies following his battle with Norsefire Party leader Peter Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), who, with V's help, has killed the High Chancellor, here named Adam Sutler. (In an irony, he is played by John Hurt, who had played the protagonist in a film version of George Orwell's "future fascist Britain" story 1984, and is now, essentially, playing "Big Brother.") But the head of Norsefire has been cut off, and Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) starts the train that blows up Parliament.
November 5, 2112: The events of the 1st Alien film, released in 1979, take place on this date. Had they stopped after 1 film, it would have been better, Instead, it would become one of the most ridiculous film franchises of all time.
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