January 31, 1945: Al Blozis Is Killed In Action

January 31, 1945, 80 years ago: Al Blozis is killed while fighting with the U.S. Army. He had just turned 26. He was 1 of 14 NFL players to die while serving in World War II.

Albert Charles Blozis was born on January 5, 1919 in Garfield, Bergen County, New Jersey. He was an NCAA Champion in the shot put at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. But it would be as a two-way tackle in football that he would become a professional player. The New York Giants chose him in the 5th round of the 1942 NFL Draft, and he played in all 11 games with them in 1942, and in all 10 games in 1943.

He was 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, making him too big for most roles in the Army. But by late 1943, the Army was desperate for more men, and so his attempts to enlist finally succeeded. The Army was especially impressed with the former shot-putter's ability to throw a grenade 95 yards, almost the length of a football field. In the 1944 season, he played 3 games on furlough, including the NFL Championship Game, which the Giants lost to the Green Bay Packers on December 17, 1944, 14-7 at the Polo Grounds.

Within days, he was sent overseas with the 28th Infantry Division, as part of the relief in the Battle of the Bulge. On January 31, 1945, his platoon was scouting enemy lines in the Vosges Mountains, near the border with Nazi Germany. Two men failed to return from a patrol, and 2nd Lieutenant Albert C. Blozis went in search of them -- alone. He never returned, either. He was listed as missing in action, until his body was found in April. The men he was searching for were never found.

The Giants retired his Number 32. He and end Jack Lummus, who was killed on Iwo Jima a few days later, were honored with plaques on the wall of the clubhouse at the Polo Grounds. Those plaques were lost after the baseball Giants left the stadium following the 1957 season, but both Blozis and Lummus were inducted into the Giants' Ring of Honor when MetLifeStadium opened in 2010.

January 30, 2000: The Greatest Show On Turf

January 30, 2000, 25 years ago: The franchises I grew up knowing as the Los Angeles Rams and the Houston Oilers play each other in Super Bowl XXXIV, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

But the Rams moved to become the St. Louis Rams in 1995, and the Oilers to Memphis in 1997, then to Nashville in 1998, and finally changed their name to the Tennessee Titans in 1999.

In midseason, the Rams, coached by former Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, replaced starting quarterback Trent Green with Kurt Warner, and the result became known as "The Greatest Show On Turf." Warner could throw passes to receivers Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Az-Zahir Hakim and Ricky Proehl, and to running back Marshall Faulk, who, in this 1999-2000 season, maybe have become the best all-around player in the game. Tackle Orlando Pace was then the best offensive lineman in the league.

It wouldn't have mattered much if they didn't also have a good defense, with tackles Ray Agnew and D'Marco Farr, ends Kevin Carter and Grant Wistrom, linebackers Lendon Fletcher and Mike Jones, and cornerbacks Dré Bly and Todd Lyght. So while the Rams had 9 games of at least 34 points, they also had 11 games of allowing 14 or fewer points.

They won 13 of their 1st 15, clinching the top seed on the NFC side of the Playoffs, before a meaningless loss away to the Philadelphia Eagles in their season finale. In the Playoffs, they won a 49-37 shootout over the Minnesota Vikings, and went the other way in the NFC Championship Game, winning a defensive struggle over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 11-6.

The Titans struggled in their 1st 2 seasons, as the Tennessee Oilers. But in their 1st season under the Titans name, their 1st season at the Adelphia Coliseum (now Nissan Stadium), coach Jeff Fisher's men were embraced by Nashville fans. The embracees included quarterback Steve McNair, running back Eddie George, receiver Kevin Dyson, tight end Frank Wycheck, center Bruce Matthews, defensive end Jevon Kearse (known as The Freak), safeties Blaine Bishop and Anthony Dorsett (son of Hall-of-Famer Tony), and ageless placekicker Al Del Greco.

The Titans weren't flashy, but they won 7 of their last 8 games, saving their biggest offensive outputs for their last 2, a 41-14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, and a 47-36 battle away to the Pittsburgh Steelers. A last-minute kickoff return, featuring a lateral from Wycheck to Dyson, beat the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card Round, becoming known as the Music City Miracle. They beat Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts away, 19-16, and then went to Jacksonville and beat the Jags again, 33-14, for the AFC Championship.

For the Rams, it was their 1st trip to the Super Bowl in 20 years, and they were looking for their 1st World Championship in 49 years, since Los Angeles beat Cleveland in the 1951 NFL Championship Game. For the Oilers/Titans franchise, it was their 1st trip to the Super Bowl ever. They had won the 1st 2 AFL Championships, in 1960 and '61, and also made it to the AFL Championship Game in '62 and '67. But except for back-to-back trips to the AFC Championship Game in '78 and '79, their NFL experience had been a bust. Until now.

For St. Louis as a city/metro area, there had not been a World Championship in over 17 years, since the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series. They had lost 2 World Series and a National League Championship Series in the interim. The NFL version of the Cardinals had moved to Arizona after the 1987 season. The NHL's Blues hadn't reached the Stanley Cup Finals since 1970. And there was no NBA team.

For Tennessee, this was all new. They'd had teams in "rebel leagues" like the ABA, the WFL and the USFL, but until now, with the NHL also adding the Nashville Predators for the 1997-98 season, they'd had nothing in the major leagues.

Vermeil had gotten the Eagles into Super Bowl XV, but they lost it. Before Super Bowl XXXIV, he got phone calls from many of his Eagle players, telling him they were pulling for him.

The Rams were favored by 7, possibly because the game would be played on artificial turf, which they usually played on at the Trans World Dome (now The Dome at America's Center), while the Titans played their home games on natural grass.

The 1st half was a defensive struggle. The Rams went 3-for-4 on field goal attempts, the Titans 0-for-1, and neither team could get into the end zone. The half ended with the Rams up, 9-0. On their opening drive of the 2nd half, the Rams blocked a Titan field goal attempt.

Finally, "The Greatest Show On Turf" took over, and Warner got the Rams going, leading to a 9-yard touchdown pass to Holt. It was 16-0 St. Louis. The Titans answered with a touchdown drive of their own, ending with a 1-yard run by George. They went for the 2-point conversion, but missed, and it was 16-6 Rams as the 3rd quarter ended.

The Titans forced the Rams to punt on their next drive. McNair took advantage of this by taking his team 79 yards in 13 plays, concluding with George running it in from 2 yards out. The Titans were now within 16-13, with 7:21 to go. The Titans forced the Rams to put again, and they got close enough for another field goal attempt by Del Greco. With 2:12 left, the game was tied, 16-16.

This was the 1st time a team had a lead of 16 or more points in a Super Bowl, and blown it. Could the Rams recover? Yes: On their next play from scrimmage, Warner threw a bomb to Bruce, who took it 73 yards for a touchdown. With 1:54 left, the Rams led, 23-16.

The Titans' last chance began at their own 12-yard line with 1:48 left. They were aided by a pair of dumb defensive penalties by the Rams, putting the ball on the Ram 40 with 59 seconds to go.

On a 3rd & 5, McNair escaped what looked like a sure sack, and passed to Dyson for a 1st down and the Ram 10. With 6 seconds left, the Titans called their last time-out. At this point, there had never been a Super Bowl go to overtime. Of course, if the Titans scored, and went for 2 instead of 1, there would be no overtime.

Fisher's plan for the last play (at least, of regulation time) was to have Wycheck run straight up the right side, as a decoy, to lure Jones away from Dyson. Dyson would then slant left through the middle and be open at around the 5-yard line. McNair would then pass to him for the touchdown that would make it no worse than 23-22.

It didn't work. Jones saw Dyson getting ready to catch the ball. Jones ran toward Dyson, and wrapped is arms around Dyson's legs to tackle him, less than 3 yards short of the goal line. But Dyson knew he was not yet down, and he reached out with his arm, holding the ball, hoping to have it break the plane of the goal line for the touchdown. But the way that Jones tackled him, his shoulder hit the ground, ending the play, and the ball was still about one full foot away from the goal line.

It's become known as "The Tackle" and "The Longest Yard." The Titans had fought bravely, but were one yard short of, at the very least, being tied at the end of regulation of the Super Bowl. The Rams had blown a 16-point 2nd half lead in the Super Bowl, but were still World Champions. They also became the 1st team to win NFL Championships in 3 different cities: Cleveland in 1945, Los Angeles in 1951, and St. Louis in 1999-2000.

Warner's story of being a supermarket bagger and an Arena Football League quarterback in Iowa to winning the Most Valuable Player award in a Super Bowl was made into the recent movie American Underdog, starring Zachary Levi. And Dick Vermeil, once again crying tears of joy after a big win, finally got his ring.

After failing to repeat, the Rams got back to the Super Bowl in the 2001-02 season, but lost to the New England Patriots on a last-play field goal. Soon, "The Greatest Show On Turf" broke up, and the Rams became a mediocre team again. Warner went, ironically, to the former St. Louis football team, now the Arizona Cardinals, and got them into Super Bowl XLIII, but lost.

St. Louis lost interest in the Rams, and when they moved back to Los Angeles in 2016, there wasn't much of a fuss over it. The Rams got back to the Super Bowl in the 2019 season, but lost. They were back in for the 2021 season, and beat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI in their new home, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. (They had previously played Super Bowl XIV in the Rose Bowl, 14 miles from their home at the time, the Los Angeles Coliseum, but lost it to the Pittsburgh Steelers.)

The Titans reached the AFC Championship Game again in the 2002 season, but lost it to the then-Oakland Raiders, They were still a Playoff team as late as 2008, but fell apart. They have rebuilt, making the Playoffs in 4 of the last 5 seasons, including another AFC Championship Game in the 2019 season, which could have set up a Super Bowl rematch with the Rams, but they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.

In 2019, a poll ranked this game 16th on a list of the 100 Greatest Games of the NFL's 1st 100 years.

January 29, 1995: Steve Young Proves His Point

January 29, 1995, 30 years ago: Super Bowl XXIX is played at Joe Robbie Stadium (now named Hard Rock Stadium) in suburban Miami Gardens, Florida, capping the NFL's 75th Season celebrations. The San Francisco 49ers, appropriately, score 49 points to beat the San Diego Chargers, with 26.

While it is the 5th Super Bowl win for the 49ers, it remains the only Super Bowl appearance for the Chargers, who did win an AFL Championship in 1963. Despite their coming within 14 seasons, no one played on all 5 49er title teams.

Steve Young not only breaks out of the shadow of Joe Montana, but surpasses him in a way, setting a Super Bowl record with 6 touchdown passes. Deion Sanders becomes the 1st man to play in both a World Series and a Super Bowl. He is still the only one. Although he didn't win in either of his World Series appearances with the Atlanta Braves, he went on to win another Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys the next season.

It was the 2nd win as 49er head coach George Seifert, following the 1st 3, won by Bill Walsh, to whom he was defensive coordinator.

The 49ers have since been in 3 Super Bowls, losing them all. The Chargers, who moved to Los Angeles for the 2017 season, have lost their only AFC Championship Game appearance since this game.

January 28, 1985: "We Are the World" Is Recorded

January 28, 1985, 40 years ago: "We Are the World" is recorded in Los Angeles. It is the American response to the British recording of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and its fundraising for relief for the famine in the African nation of Ethiopia.

It was produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian. It was the idea of singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, after he'd heard the British single.

Officially, the name of the "performer" on the Columbia Records single release was "USA for Africa." The song was listed as having been written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, at Havenhurst, the Jackson family home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, California. One particular note is the changing of an original lyric: "There's a chance we're taking, we're taking our own lives." Jackson wasn't satisfied with that, and Jones suggested, "There's a choice we're making, we're saving our own lives."

The first tracks for recording were laid down on January 22, 1985, at Lion Share Recording Studio in Los Angeles, owned by country superstar Kenny Rogers. The main session was on January 28, at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood.

A sign taped to the studio door read: "Check your ego at the door." Stevie Wonder greeted the musicians as they entered, and said that if the recording was not completed in one take, he and Ray Charles, two blind men, would drive everybody home. They began at 10:30 PM, Pacific Time (1:30 AM, January 29, Eastern Time). The singers were as follows:

* First verse: Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner and Billy Joel.

* First chorus: Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.

* Second verse: Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson and Al Jarreau.

* Second chorus: Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry of Journey, and Daryl Hall.

* Bridge: Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper and Kim Carnes.

* Third, fourth and fifth choruses: Everybody, with Bob Dylan coming in for the second half on the fourth and fifth chorus.

* Sixth chorus: Ray Charles.

* Seventh chorus: Stevie and Bruce.

* Eighth chorus: Everybody... and so on.

* Backing vocalists, in alphabetical order: Dan Aykroyd, Harry Belafonte, Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Sheila E., Bob Geldof (it seemed natural to invite him, as the starter of it all), music producer Bill Gibson; Jackie, La Toya, Marlon, Randy and Tito Jackson; Waylon Jennings, Bette Midler, Daryl Hall's usual singing partner John Oates, Jeffrey Osborne; Anita, June and Ruth Pointer; Smokey Robinson; and, from Huey Lewis' band, The News, Mario Cipollina, Johnny Colla, Chris Hayes and Sean Hopper.

Louis Johnson of The Brothers Johnson played bass guitar.

From the band Toto, David Paich and Steve Porcaro played synthesizers. In addition, keyboards were played by Omartian, John Barnes, Michael Boddicker, Ian Underwood from Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention; and Greg Phillinganes, who was then Michael Jackson's musical director, and had also worked with Stevie Wonder and Toto. John Robinson played drums, as he had previously for Jackson on the albums Off the Wall and Thriller, both with Quincy Jones producing. Brazilian musician Paulinho da Costa played percussion.

The session is as interesting for who didn't participate as for who did. There was no lead guitarist. Paul Simon was there, but not his former singing partner Art Garfunkel. Lindsay Buckingham was invited, but none of his former Fleetwood Mac bandmates were. No acts identified primarily with disco were involved.

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson had worked together many times, and, later in 1985, would form The Highwaymen with Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson; however, despite their own previous (and later) charity work, neither Cash nor Kristofferson was involved on this occasion. Nor was any other act usually considered "country," including Dolly Parton.

Despite the heavy Motown Records presence, there were no members of the Temptations or the Four Tops; and, sadly, Marvin Gaye had been killed the year before. Given Jackson's affinity for Elvis Presley, it has to be considered that, had Elvis lived, he would have been invited.

Aside from the courtesy to Geldof, it was all American acts, so there were no Canadian singers like Neil Young or Geddy Lee of Rush. Nor were Young's occasional singing partners David Crosby (American), Stephen Stills (Canadian) and Graham Nash (British), nor Nash's former girlfriend Joni Mitchell (Canadian).

Madonna, probably then too new a star, was not invited. Nor was any member of Van Halen, despite Eddie Van Halen having played on Jackson's "Beat It." Nor was any other act considered to be "heavy metal," or any act considered to be "punk" or "New Wave." Prince was invited, but the reason he didn't participate is disputed, from his ego getting in the way to his being miffed that Geldof had once called him "a creep."

Eddie Murphy was then the biggest comic actor in the world, and was close with both Michael and Stevie, but he turned it down because he was working on something else, and later said, "After I realized what it was, I felt like an idiot."

John Denver, whose charitable bona fides had long been established, asked to participate, and was turned down, because his style was considered too light for a "pop-rock anthem." He said, "It broke my heart not to be included."

It's often forgotten that there was an entire album, titled We Are the World, which Columbia released on April 1. Side One: "We Are the World"; "if Only for the Moment, Girl," by Perry; "Just a Little Closer," by The Pointer Sisters; "Trapped," Springsteen's cover of a Jimmy Cliff song; "Tears Are Not Enough," by Northern Lights.

Side Two: "4 the Tears in Your Eyes," Prince; "Good for Nothing," Chicago, with lyrics by Richard Marx; "Total Control," Tina Turner; "A Little More Love," Kenny Rogers; and "Trouble in Paradise," by Huey Lewis.

"We Are the World" was released as a single on March 7, and sold over 20 million copies, winning 4 Grammy Awards; "Do They Know It's Christmas?", 12 million. In spite of the fundraising of both songs, much of the money was converted not into food for the starving, but into guns and other amenities for the ruling party. In the end, Ethiopia, which had 40 million people before the famine started, lost 1.2 million people to death by starvation, and 400,000 people fled the country. The Communist regime collapsed in 1991, but the country has been in civil war on and off ever since.

Aretha Franklin, enjoying something of a comeback in 1985, was not involved in recording the song, although she led a performance of the song, along with Jackson, Jones, Ross and Rogers, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, as part of the ceremonies honoring the Inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.

A&M Studios is now part of Jim Henson Studios. The building is still standing, at 1416 North La Brea Avenue, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.

Waylon Jennings died in 2002, Ray Charles in 2004, Michael Jackson in 2009, June Pointer in 2016, Louis Johnson in 2015, Al Jarreau in 2017, James Ingram in 2019, Kenny Rogers in 2020, Anita Pointer in 2022, Harry Belafonte and Tina Turner in 2023, and Tito Jackson and Quincy Jones in 2024. The rest of the participants are still alive.

January 27, 1945: The End of Auschwitz & the Courage of Robbie Edmunds

January 27, 1945, 80 years ago: The Soviet Union's Red Army discovers the Auschwitz concentration camp, saving the lives of the 8,100 prisoners still alive there. As Auschwitz was the camp with the most deaths in the Holocaust, January 27 has been commemorated as Holocaust Remembrance Day ever since.

I have titled this entry "The End of Auschwitz," not "The Liberation of Auschwitz," because the Soviet Union never "liberated" anything. Most of the survivors returned to a Poland that would be under Communist rule until 1989.

The camp opened in May 1940. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, and executed for the most trivial of reasons. The first gassings took place in August 1941. The freight trains kept on coming in, under the gate with the lettering ARBEIT MACHT FREI -- "Work Makes Free." As far as the outside world knew, such places were slave labor camps, which was true, and was bad enough.

But few outside the Third Reich knew about the genocide. Over 1.3 million people were sent there, and 1.1 million were murdered, 960,000 of those being Jews, and 865,000 of those gassed on arrival. Those not gassed were murdered via starvation, exhaustion, willful ignorance of disease, individual executions, beatings, or during medical experiments that the SS carried out with sadistic glee. There were 802 prisoners known to have tried to escape, 144 successfully. An uprising was launched on October 7, 1944, but it was doomed to failure.

The trains kept coming. Generals begged Chancellor Adolf Hitler to make trains available to send soldiers to the fronts, to stop the Soviets to the East, and the Americans, British, Canadians and French to the West. He told them, "No! I need the trains to kill the Jews!" He seemed to have accepted that the war was lost, but, always determined to exterminate Europe's Jews, he also seemed to have adopted a policy of, "If I'm going down, I'm taking as many of the enemy as I can with me."

As the Red Army approached Auschwitz in January 1945, the SS sent most of the camp's population west on a death march to camps inside Germany and Austria. Those 8,100 remaining prisoners were essentially left to fend for themselves.

Georgii Elisavetskii, a Soviet soldier who entered one of the barracks, said in 1980 that he could hear other soldiers telling the inmates: "You are free, comrades!" But they did not respond, so he tried in Russian, Polish, German, Ukrainian. Then he used some Yiddish: "They think that I am provoking them. They begin to hide. And only when I said to them: 'Do not be afraid. I am a Colonel of Soviet Army, and a Jew. We have come to liberate you.'... Finally, as if the barrier collapsed... they rushed toward us, shouting, fell on their knees, kissed the flaps of our overcoats, and threw their arms around our legs."

The Soviets had first encountered a Nazi concentration camp on August 16, 1944, in Treblinka, Poland. A folk song would later commemorate Treblinka as "the biggest grave in the world."

In Germany itself, on April 11, 1945, American troops under the command of General George S. Patton liberated the Buchenwald camp in Weimar, Thuringia. On April 15, British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen camp in Bergen, Lower Saxony. On April 22, the Red Army reached the Sachsenhausen camp in Oranienburg, outside Berlin.

On April 29, American troops under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower liberated the camp at Dachau, outside Munich. When Eisenhower saw the emaciated prisoners, many of them within days of death if they didn't receive medical treatment, he ordered photographers and film crews to come in and document it, because he knew that if no one did, then, one day, people would deny that the Nazis ever did such things. People have denied it, but "Ike" and the other Allied commanders got the proof.

Over 11 million people died in the Holocaust -- about as many as died from combat in all of World War I. Of those 11 million, over 6 million had been imprisoned for the reason that they were Jewish. Others were killed because they were of Slavic descent, and therefore of "an inferior race" to the German "Aryans"; or because they were Communists; or because they belonged to labor unions; or because, despite not fitting any of those other categories, they resisted the Nazis.

Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor from Lippstadt, Westphalia, had supported the Nazis at first. But when the Nazis began enforcing their ideology on Protestant churches, he led a resistance movement, and was imprisoned in 1938, first at Sachsenhausen, then at Dachau.

On January 6, 1946, in a speech in Frankfurt, he gave a speech whose exact wording has varied over the years, possibly losing something in translation. The most common version is this: "First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then, they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then, they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then, they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me." He became an antiwar activist, and lived until 1984.

Auschwitz -- with the changing of national borders after The War, now in Oświęcim, in southern Poland -- is maintained as a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, January 27, 2025, in commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the liberation, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum released a statement:

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers. This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

This is true. It also took thought. Careful consideration that should have resulted in the idea of, "There is a group of people that is not doing as well as us, so we should help them, and raise them to our level." Instead, it resulted in the idea of, "There is a group of people that is less than us, and, for that reason, they must be eliminated."

And that kind of evil can never be tolerated.

*

That same day, at another German camp, at Ziegeghain, in Germany's Rhineland, Master Sergeant Roderick W. Edmonds, U.S. Army, a 25-year-old native of South Knoxville, Tennessee, having been captured by the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge, was held at the prisoner-of-war camp at Ziegeghain, in Germany's Rhineland.

A German commander gathered all the American POWs at the camp. Then, he ordered all Jewish soldiers among them to step forward. "Roddie" Edmonds, the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer at the camp, ordered all 1,000 U.S. soldiers to step forward, regardless of their religion.

The German commander demanded that Edmonds identify the Jewish soldiers. Edmonds replied, "We are all Jews here." The commander threatened to shoot him if he did not comply. Edmonds refused, saying, "If you shoot, you'll have to shoot us all."

It was a reverse of the scene in the 1960 film Spartacus, where the Roman commander Crassus, having surrounded Spartacus' army, offers a pardon if the men will identify Spartacus, living or dead. But this would mean a return to slavery, and they would rather die. So every surviving man responds by shouting "I'm Spartacus!"

None of the Jewish soldiers stepped forward -- and none of the Gentile soldiers stepped back in betrayal. All followed Edmonds' order.

The commander backed down.

Edmonds survived the war. He never told his family of the event at the POW camp. He was again recruited to service during the Korean War. After returning from Korea, he worked variously for The Knoxville Journal, and in sales related to mobile homes and cable television. He died in 1985, never having received any official recognition, citation or medal for his defense of the Jewish POWs.

His actions are credited with saving the lives of 200 Jewish soldiers. In 2015, he was posthumously given the title "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. He was the first American soldier to receive the honor.

Edmonds' story is a reminder of the courage and compassion of those who stood up to the Nazis during World War II. He is a true hero, and his legacy should never be forgotten.

January 26, 1945: Audie Murphy In the Colmar Pocket

January 26, 1945, 80 years ago: Audie Murphy takes actions that lead to him being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The story didn't start there. It certainly did not end there.

Audie Leon Murphy was born on June 20, 1925 in Kingston, Texas. He was born into a large family of sharecroppers. After his father abandoned them, his mother died when he was a teenager. Murphy left school in 5th grade to pick cotton and find other work to help support his family. His skill with a hunting rifle helped feed his family.

He was 16 years old at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. His older sister helped him to falsify documentation about his birthdate in order to meet the minimum age for enlisting in the military. At first, the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps all turned him down for being underweight. Eventually, the Army accepted him.

He served in the invasion of Sicily, then the Battle of Anzio, the liberation of Rome, and the invasion of southern France at Provence. He was transferred to northeastern France, and led his men on a successful assault at L'Omet quarry in October 1944.

On January 26, 1945, he single-handedly held off a company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in Alsace, France, before leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition. For this action, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was just 19 years old.

Despite suffering from multiple illnesses and wounds throughout his service, Murphy became one of the most praised and decorated soldiers of World War II. He is credited with killing 241 enemy soldiers. He has been described as the most-decorated soldier in American history.

In 1949, he published a memoir, To Hell and Back. In 1955, he played himself in the film version of the story. He received more acting roles, most of them in Westerns, including the NBC TV series Whispering Smith. He also became an accomplished songwriter and breeder of quarter horses at ranches in California and Arizona.

Murphy married actress Wanda Hendrix in 1949. Their divorce became final in 1951. Four days later, he married former airline stewardess Pamela Opal Lee Archer, with whom he had 2 sons, Terry and James.

Because he had what would today be described as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), then known as "battle fatigue," he slept with a loaded handgun under his pillow. He looked for solace in addictive sleeping pills. He was noted for a quick, fierce temper, and was involved in various violent altercations during his adult life. In May 1970, he was charged with battery and assault in Burbank, California, but was cleared of the charges.

In his last few years, with the Vietnam War and opposition to it having taken the place of World War II as the defining war in Americans' minds, he was seen as a figure from another era. Between this and his personal issues, his acting roles became fewer and further between. He was plagued by money problems, but refused offers to appear in alcohol and cigarette commercials, because he did not want to set a bad example.

Audie Murphy died on May 28, 1971, in the crash of a private plane outside Roanoke, Virginia, shortly before his 46th birthday. There was rain and fog, and the pilot and 4 other passengers were killed. He was interred with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Most NFL Conference Championship Games, 1932-2024

Notes: Years mentioned are for the calendar year in which the season began, not in which it ended. In other words, tomorrow, we will see the 2024 NFC and AFC Championship Games, not the 2025 editions.

Also, this includes the 1932 to 1969 NFL Championship Games, and the 1960 to 1969 AFL Championship Games, but not the 1946 to 1949 AAFC Championship Games.

For once, I am counting all cities for a team.

Ties broken by wins, then by most recent.

1. New York Giants, 19: 1933, 1934, 1935, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1986, 1990, 2000, 2007, 2011.

2. San Francisco 49ers, 19: 1970, 1971, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023.

3. Green Bay Packers, 18: 1936, 1938, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020.

4. Chicago Bears, 16: 1932, 1933, 1934, 1937, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1956, 1963, 1984, 1985, 1988 2006, 2010.

5. Boston/New England Patriots, 16: 1963, 1985, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.

6. Pittsburgh Steelers, 16: 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1984, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2016.

7. Dallas Cowboys, 16: 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995.

8. Cleveland/St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, 16: 1945, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1985, 1989, 1999, 2001, 2018, 2021.

9. Cleveland Browns, 14: 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1986, 1987, 1989.

10. Philadelphia Eagles, 13: 1947, 1948, 1949, 1960, 1980, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2017, 2022, 2024.

11. Boston/Washington Redskins/Commanders, 13: 1936, 1937, 1940, 1942, 1943, 1945, 1972, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1991, 2024.

12. Oakland/Los Angeles/Las Vegas Raiders, 13: 1967, 1968, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1990, 2000, 2002.

13. Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs, 11: 1962, 1966, 1969, 1993, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

14. Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts, 11: 1958, 1959, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1995, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2014.

15. Minnesota Vikings, 11: 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1987, 1998, 2000, 2009, 2017.

16. Buffalo Bills, 10: 1964, 1965, 1966, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2020, 2024.

17. Denver Broncos, 10: 1977, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2013, 2015.

18. San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers, 9: 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1980, 1981, 1994, 2007.

19. Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans, 9: 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1978, 1979, 1999, 2002, 2019.

20. Portsmouth Spartans/Detroit Lions, 8: 1932, 1935, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1957, 1991, 2023.

21. Miami Dolphins, 7: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1992.

22. Baltimore Ravens, 5: 2000, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2023.

23. New York Jets, 5: 1968, 1982, 1998, 2009, 2010.

24. Seattle Seahawks, 4: 1983, 2005, 2013, 2014.

25. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 4: 1979, 1999, 2002, 2020.

26. Atlanta Falcons, 4: 1998, 2004, 2012, 2016.

27. Carolina Panthers, 4: 1996, 2003, 2005, 2015.

28. Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals, 4: 1947, 1948, 2008, 2015. Think about that: The Cardinals have been around 75 years longer than the Panthers, yet they've appeared in the same number of NFL or NFC Championship Games.

29. Cincinnati Bengals, 4: 1981, 1988, 2021, 2022.

30. New Orleans Saints, 3: 2006, 2009, 2018.

31. Jacksonville Jaguars, 3: 1996, 1999, 2017.

32. Houston Texans, none.

January 25, 1995: The Cantona Kick

January 25, 1995, 30 years ago: A shocking moment occurs in English soccer's Premier League. It involves the most popular, and possibly the best, player on the League's best team.

The Premier League's 1st season was 1992-93. It replaced the old Football League Division One, which Manchester United hadn't won since 1967. They had a near-miss in 1992, the last season of the old League. Manager Alex Ferguson was building a team around youth, with players known as "Fergie's Fledglings."

But the fanbase was antsy. They wanted to win now, having not won the League in 26 years, with only FA Cup wins in 1977, '83, '85 and '90 in the meantime. The last of these was Ferguson's only trophy since taking over as manager in 1986.

So early in the 1992-93 season, he purchased forward Eric Cantona from the defending Champions, Leeds United. Although the rivalry between "Man U" and Leeds is a nasty one -- with echoes of the ancient rivalry between the Duchies of Lancaster (to which the region of Greater Manchester once belonged) and York (Leeds United remains the biggest team in Yorkshire).

But Cantona, a man whose great talent was exceeded by his ego, had made a nuisance of himself at Elland Road, and manager Howard Wilkinson -- who, through the 2023-24 season, remains the last title-winning manager in the English top flight who was born and raised in England -- sold him just to get rid of a headache. The results were brilliant: Man United won the 1993 League title by 10 points over Birmingham team Aston Villa, and the 1994 League title by 8 points over Lancashire team Blackburn Rovers. 

Unfortunately, like hockey's New York Rangers in 1994, baseball's Boston Red Sox in 2004, football's New England Patriots in 2002, college basketball's Duke University in 1991, and English soccer's Chelsea in 2005, United had a fanbase that turned a long period of struggle into a burst of arrogance. After years as sore losers, they were completely obnoxious as winners. As a result, while, like many other newly winning teams, they gained a great number of bandwagon fans, even more fans began hating them. Cantona became a target of their ire, and the media labeled him "Le Brat."

But United fans adored him, calling him "King Eric." Many of them cut their hair very short like him. When playing in their neighborhood games, they turned their collars up like him. Men with a "unibrow" saw that he had one, and were no longer ashamed of their own. He was the latest in a string of United stars who had worn the Number 7 shirt, including George Best and Bryan Robson. The string would later extend to David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.

On January 22, 1995, United, at their home ground of Old Trafford, in Salford just outside the city limits of Manchester, beat Blackburn, 1-0. Cantona scored the goal, his 12th of the season. Blackburn were in 1st place, but United thus closed to within 1 point of them. (Many British clubs have "United" in their name, but the one in Manchester is the only one that usually gets called only "United." More often, they are called "Man United" or "Man U" for short. People who don't like them call them "ManUre," among other things.)

Three days later, United played away to Crystal Palace, at Selhurst Park in South London. Palace manager Alan Smith -- not to be confused with either the star Arsenal forward of the time, or a later Leeds-to-Man United midfielder -- told defender Richard Shaw to stick to Cantona "like a rash." After a series of unpunished tackles by Shaw in the first half, Cantona said to the referee, Alan Wilkie, "No yellow cards, then?" Coach Ferguson was more blunt, yelling at the referee: "Why don't you do your fucking job?"

Angry at the lack of consequences for Palace's apparent misdeeds, in the 2nd half, Cantona literally kicked Shaw's ass. One yellow card is a warning. Two yellow cards, and a player is thrown out of the game, and suspended for the next game in the competition. For his action, Cantona was given a straight red card, and was thrown out. The suspension for a straight red is a minimum of the next 3 games in the competition, but the governing body -- the Premier League, the Football Association if it's in the FA Cup, UEFA if it's in a European tournament, and so on -- can make it longer.

Cantona headed off toward the tunnel leading to the locker rooms. Then, he ran toward the stands, jumped, and launched a kick that landed in a fan's ribs.

The fans went wild, and booed the hell out of him. The game ended 1-1, and it was arguably the highlight of Palace's season, as they finished 18th, and were relegated.

At first, before the English media found out what exactly provoked him, they turned on Cantona, as they often did on players who fell into the category of "Johnny Foreigner." At a press conference, he said, "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."

Nobody could figure out what he meant, and some thought that something had been lost in the translation in his head, from his thinking in French to his speaking in English. What he meant was, "You, the English media, are the seagulls; I am the trawler; and a story that makes me look bad is sardines being thrown into the sea."

Some people wanted Cantona banned from the sport for life. Others would have been satisfied with a ban from English football and his deportation back to France. At first, he was fined £20,000 by his team, and a further £10,000 by the FA. On March 23, he was criminally charged with assault, and pleaded guilty. He received a two-week prison sentence, although he was freed on bail pending appeal. A week later, the sentence was thrown out, and he was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, which was spent coaching children at United's training ground.

Cantona had been Captain of the French national team, but was stripped of the captaincy, and never played for the national team again. And the FA extended his domestic ban until September 30, meaning that not only would he miss the rest of the 1994-95 season, but the first few weeks of the 1995-96 season.

United had won both the Premier League and the FA Cup in 1993-94, known in England as winning "The Double," and were still in the hunt to do it again. Instead, they lost the League title to Blackburn by 1 point, on the last day of the season, and lost the FA Cup Final to Liverpool team Everton. In other words, Cantona's moment of lost temper cost the team both trophies.

Then, a journalist actually did his job, and found out what really happened. When Cantona was sent off, Palace fan Matthew Simmons, then 20 years old, ran down 11 rows toward the front row, and yelled at Cantona, "You dirty French bastard! Fuck off back to France, you French motherfucker!"

In fact, while he was French by birth, Cantona was not ethnically French. His mother's family was Catalan, from Barcelona; and his father's family was Italian, from the island of Sardinia. His grandfather had fought with Italian troops under Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, part of "Franco's Italian Army" (the military unit from which a group of fans of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers, overlooking that unit's fascist ties, took as their name to honor running back Franco Harris), was wounded in combat, and was taken to Marseille, France, where the family had lived since.

So while he wasn't French by blood, Cantona was a French citizen, and he was proud of this. So he went after the fan who yelled it. Perhaps Simmons' greatest mistake wasn't his bigotry, but yelling long enough so that Cantona knew exactly who to kick. If Simmons had only yelled, "You dirty French bastard!" Cantona might have gotten the wrong guy.

Instead, Simmons was properly exposed as a racist. Indeed, he was a member and rally attender of not one, but two fascist groups in Britain: The British National Party, and the National Front. Three years before the kung fu kick, Simmons had been convicted of a violent attempted robbery of a Sri Lankan immigrant. With this being made public, Cantona regained his hero status. Even people who hated Manchester United saluted him for his stand.

And so, Simmons was arrested, and went on trial for provoking the attack. Simmons claimed he had shouted, "Off! Off! Off! It's an early bath for you, Mr. Cantona!" But the prosecution produced witnesses who heard him call Cantona "You dirty French bastard," "You French motherfucker" and "You French animal," and his mother a "French whore." Simmons was found guilty, was handed a £500 fine for abusive behavior, and also received a year-long stadium ban -- but avoided jail time for the charge.

Following the the verdict, Simmons launched himself over the bench at the prosecutor, Jeffrey McCann, kicking and grabbing him. McCann, who was 55 at the time, was dealing with his final case before retirement. He managed to wriggle free, but looked terrified and disheveled. Court staff took Simmons away in handcuffs, as he yelled, "I am innocent! I swear on the Bible!" He was jailed for a week for that attack -- half as long as the initial sentence on Cantona -- and fined £500, plus £200 in legal costs.

Cantona returned to Manchester United in October 1995, and led them to another Double in 1996, and another League title in 1997. Then, at age 31, he retired from the sport. The next season, United did not win any trophies, although Ferguson did rebuild, and managed them to win the League title the next 3 seasons, and 9 of the next 15.

What happened to Simmons? Crystal Palace banned him from Selhurst Park for life. He was fired from his job. Even his family turned their backs on him. In 2010, he was the father of a 13-year-old son, and a salesman named Stuart Cooper met that son, and mockingly told him what his father had done. Enraged, Simmons assaulted Cooper.

The following year, in court, he said, "I accept the guilty verdict. I will make sure I will never come before these courts ever again." He told the judge he had a full-time job with the Territorial Army (which the British government renamed the Army Reserve in 2014), and he hoped to be deployed. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison, which was suspended, and 150 hours of community service. That's the most recent information I can find on him.

Like many former athletes, Cantona became an actor. Years later, he said of the incident, "I have one regret: I would've loved to have kicked him even harder." As of January 25, 2025, Cantona is 58 years old; presuming Simmons is still alive, he would be 50. And, in the annals of English "football," there has never been another incident like the one between them.

Why Donald Trump and Elon Musk Are Bad Villains

On a Facebook page devoted to the (sadly fictional) character of Superman, someone wrote, "It sure feels like Lex Luthor is president again."

In 1986, following the series Crisis On Infinite Earths, the character of Luthor was rewritten by DC Comics, as not merely a mad scientist, about the same age as Superman, but as a corrupt businessman, several years older. Some people speculated that the character was based on Donald Trump, as he was then.

In the year 2000, within DC continuity, having appeared to have done a lot of good with his fortune, Luthor gets elected President, despite never having served in elective office. Eventually, all that power goes to his head, and he ends up overplaying his hand, allowing Superman and Batman to expose him, and getting impeached and removed from office before he can run for re-election.

On the TV show Smallville, where he was depicted as roughly the same age as Superman, he goes on to become President.

Back to that Facebook entry: Someone responded: "Why would Luthor want to limit his political power by being a senator or governor? He already owns most of those people in the DCU." (Meaning, "The DC Universe.")

That's what so many people don't understand about villainy. So many villains, in movies and in TV cartoons, say they want to "Take over the world."

They never ask themselves a key question: "What would happen if you actually won?"

(Note: I am aware that I use the word "actually" too much, both in speech and in writing. Deal with it.)

If you actually took over the world, you'd actually have to govern. That means it's all on you. That means policing. Firefighting. Garbage pickup. Fixing potholes. You wanted to be the King. The Emperor. Surprise: What you really are is the damn Mayor of the World. Yeah, you can delegate, but you gotta have guys who actually get it done.

Supposedly, Nikita Khrushchev, dictator of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, said, "You can feed the people with revolutionary slogans today, and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. But, the next day, they will say, 'To Hell with you.'" Eventually, there will be a counter-revolution.

That's why the best James Bond villain isn't his arch-rival, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, or any of these other "take over the world" types. It's Raymond Carver, the media mogul played by Jonathan Pryce in the 1997 film Tomorrow Never Dies, obviously based on Rupert Murdoch (and his character was married to a woman played by Teri Hatcher, who was then playing Lois Lane on TV).

Carver found a way to get all the power he wanted, without having the responsibility. That's what Trump wanted, and that's what Elon Musk wanted: To eliminate the truth of Spider-Man's slogan: "With great power, there must also come great responsibility."

They don't care what's left of the world after they get what they want. The smart ones are the ones who don't make their ambitions so obvious, and want to keep the world running while they make their money and keep their power.

Murdoch keeps the world running, and has found ways to benefit when things are going well for most people, and also when they aren't. He's a bad person, but a great villain.

But Trump? and Musk? And Mark Zuckerberg? They see people mocking them, even after their success. And for this, they believe those people must be punished. Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg are bad villains. Poor excuses for villains.

(Jeff Bezos? Remains to be seen whether he's a good villain or a bad villain, but he's definitely exposed himself as a villain.)

Someone, referring to Batman and his villains, once said that a villain wants to make others feel his pain, while a hero wants to prevent others from feeling his pain.

When Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde addressed Trump at the post-Inauguration service, and called on him to show mercy to those who were afraid of the policies he promised -- asking him to act like the man at the center of the religion he claims to follow -- he lashed out against her on social media.

She doesn't want people to feel pain. She's the first hero of the 2025-28 Resistance movement. She will not be the last.

Trump wants to feel pain. May his pain increase.

The Economy When Joe Biden Left the Presidency

January 19, 2025: These were the economic conditions on the last full day in office for President Joe Biden:

* The previous Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed at 43,487.83. That was an all-time high. (It won't change today: Due to the federal Martin Luther King Day holiday, the stock market is closed.) The day he was inaugurated to take over from Donald Trump, it was 30,930.52.

On March 23, 2020, early in the COVID lockdown, it bottomed out at 18,591.93. It could be argued that such a thing might have happened even if the President at the time had done everything right in regard to the pandemic.

* The unemployment rate is 4.1 percent. Biden became the 1st President ever to leave office having created jobs in every full month in office. Trump left it as the 2nd President ever to leave office having a net loss of jobs. The 1st was Herbert Hoover (1929-33). As bad as both George Bushes were (the father, 1989-93; the son, 2001-09), they managed to squeak through with slight gains at the end.

* Inflation, the very thing Trump campaigned on and won in 2024 (along with the allegedly connected fears of immigration and crime), is at 2.9 percent. When Trump left office, it was 1.7 percent -- but that was after COVID had artificially held prices down, because purchasing had gone down. Because of the return to buying in late 2020, and especially in mid-2021 after the last of the COVID restrictions were lifted, It hit 9.0 percent in June 2022, its highest rate in 41 years.

On August 16, 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, having gotten it through a very closely divided Congress, and it worked. The rise in inflation was only slightly his fault, largely the fault of COVID and Trump's stupid response to it; the drop inflation was all him. But he and Vice President Kamala Harris did a lousy job of showing people that in 2024.

* As for the 2 items most often cited by 2024 voters as being too expensive: The average price of a gallon of gas in the United States is around $3.12; while the average price of a dozen eggs is, oddly, about the same.

Trump's idea to raise tariffs isn't going to lower prices. That usually does the exact opposite: It raises prices. And, in his interview with Time magazine after being named its Person of the Year, the dumb schmuck admitted that he wasn't so great and powerful when it came to prices: "I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it's very hard." He spoke like a child. That's because he has the understanding of a child, when it comes to the economy and pretty much anything else.

And I have barely even touched on any other issue: Crime, immigration, the environment, foreign policy, the corruption of Trump and his flunkies, etc.

These are the bases for which Trump's handling of the economy should be measured. Will the media hold him to account if he handles it badly? Or if he handles any other issue badly? They have shown no indication that they will.

But to it's all on him now. He has effective control of all 3 branches of government, and the media. And, for those of you who voted for him, it's also all on you. Whatever happens over the next four years, it's because you chose this guy.

If it works out in your favor, you are well within your rights to gloat.

If it doesn't -- if Trump crashes the economy a second time, if crime gets worse, if the immigration problem is not fixed, if there is a foreign-policy disaster, if there is another pandemic -- I am well within my rights to tell you that I told you so.

Because, in spite of whatever dictatorial ambitions he has, I do have that right.

As for Joe Biden, who, today, says goodbye after spending 50 of the last 54 years in elective office...

Thank you, Mr. President. You, too, Dr. Jill Biden. You, too, Vice President Kamala Harris. You, too, everyone who worked for them. (Except you, Merrick Garland and Robert Mueller, who turned out to be as useful as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.)

Godspeed, folks.

January 20, 1945: FDR's Last Inauguration

January 20, 1945, 80 years ago: For the 4th time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as President of the United States. For the 1st time, an official Inauguration ceremony is held at the White House, instead of the Capitol Building.

The most important traditions were held. Outgoing Vice President Henry A. Wallace, as was then traditional, swore in his replacement, former Senator Harry S Truman of Missouri, who then gave a short speech. From 1949 onward, Vice Presidents have usually been sworn in by an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1973 onward, they have not given their own Inaugural Addresses.

Then, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Harlan Stone, asked FDR to repeat the Oath of Office, which he did, with a voice considerably weaker than just 4 years earlier: "I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me, God." And then, he delivered an Inaugural Address.

It would not be like his 1st, on March 4, 1933. The country's economy was then on the brink of absolute collapse. There was no need for him to ask Congress for "action, and action now!" There was no need for him to tell the American people, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!" Thanks to his leadership and the actions of Congress, the American economy was now as strong as ever.

It would not be like his 2nd, on January 20, 1937. He had addressed the need for further work to alleviate the Depression, saying, "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." Additional "New Deal" programs had lowered that percentage.

It would not be like his 3rd, on January 20, 1941. The threat of America being dragged into World War II loomed overhead, and no one knew what the result would be. He called on Americans to face the threats of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: "There are men who believe that democracy, as a form of government and a frame of life, is limited or measured by a kind of mystical and artificial fate that, for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the future, and that freedom is an ebbing tide. But we Americans know that this is not true."

On this 4th Inauguration Day for him, FDR had seen America enter that war, and make great progress in it. He knew that the war could be won in this new calendar year. He also knew his own health, as he approached his 63rd birthday, was precarious: His constant smoking had given him heart disease, and that and the pressures of the war had given him unacceptably high blood pressure. It was now a race as to whether he would see the end of the war, and begin to implement the plans he already had for after the victory, at home and abroad.

Due to his health, FDR asked that the ceremony be held on the South Portico of the White House, not at the Capitol; and that the traditional Inaugural Parade and Inaugural Balls be canceled. And guests were limited to wounded personnel who had returned from serving.

Due to these conditions, and those of the weather -- it was 36 degrees, and there was snow on the ground -- he kept the speech short. His 1st 3 Inaugural Addresses had been 1,880, 1,808 and 1,359 words, respectively, in no case particularly long. (The 3 previous Republican Presidents, even the famously taciturn Calvin Coolidge, had each spoken over 3,300 words.) This speech lasted just 559 words, the shortest ever except for George Washington's 135 words of 1793. It lasted just 6 minutes:

Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, my friends: You will understand and, I believe, agree with my wish that the form of this Inauguration be simple, and its words brief.

We Americans of today, together with our allies, are passing through a period of supreme test. It is a test of our courage, of our resolve, of our wisdom, our essential democracy. If we meet that test, successfully and honorably, we shall perform a service of historic importance which men and women and children will honor throughout all time.

As I stand here today, having taken the solemn oath of office in the presence of my fellow countrymen, in the presence of our God, I know that it is America's purpose that we shall not fail.

In the days and in the years that are to come, we shall work for a just and honorable peace, a durable peace, as today we work and fight for total victory in war. We can and we will achieve such a peace.

We shall strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately, but we still shall strive. We may make mistakes, but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.

I remember that my old schoolmaster, Dr. Peabody, said, in days that seemed to us then to be secure and untroubled: "Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights. Then, all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend."

Our Constitution of 1787 was not a perfect instrument. It is not perfect yet. But it provided a firm base upon which all manner of men, of all races and colors and creeds, could build our solid structure of democracy.

And so today, in this year of war, 1945, we have learned lessons, at a fearful cost, and we shall profit by them. We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches, nor as dogs in the manger. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.

We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that, "The only way to have a friend is to be one." We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. We can gain it only if we proceed with the understanding, the confidence, and the courage which flow from conviction.

The Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all peoples in an anguished world.

So we pray to Him now for the vision to see our way clearly, to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves and for all our fellow men, to the achievement of His will to peace on earth.

Just 82 days later, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was dead. Just 18 days after that, so was Adolf Hitler. Just 8 days after that, the Nazis surrendered. And 98 days after that, Japan surrendered. World War II was over.

To borrow an analogy that would later be used by Martin Luther King Jr.: FDR had been to the mountaintop, and had seen the Promised Land, knew he wouldn't get there with us, but also knew that we, as a people, would get there.

In 1947, Congress approved the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, limiting the President to 2 terms. In 1951, enough States ratified it to make it official.

Since 1945, every intentional Inauguration ceremony has been held at the Capitol. Unforeseen circumstances have required 2 Presidents to be sworn in during a predecessor's term: In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One; and in 1974, Richard Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal, and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in at the White House, indoors in the East Room.

On January 20, 2025, the Inauguration is being properly held at the Capitol -- although, due to cold weather, it is, like Ronald Reagan's 2nd Inauguration in 1985, being held inside, in the Rotunda.

Of course, the President taking the Oath has proven once before that he doesn't mean it. He is the kind of man Franklin Roosevelt would have opposed with everything he had. On March 15, 1941, he attended the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, and said, "They seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers... call this a new order. It is not new, and it is not order."

Donald Trump, born 304 days after V-J Day, talks about wanting law and order. He despises the law, and what he offers is far from order.

FDR told us the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. DJT offers us nothing but fear. But, as FDR taught us, under very different circumstances, "This great nation will endure, as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper."