November 11, 1975: The Australian Constitutional Crisis

Gough Whitlam

November 11, 1975, 50 years ago: Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General of Australia, dismisses the country's Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, from office. It is the only time in the history of the office, which dates to 1901, that its holder has been dismissed, rather than losing the office through death, resignation or an election defeat.

Australia is an unusual country in many ways, including the fact that its leading conservative party is named the Liberal Party. Its leading liberal party is named the Australian Labor Party. (There's another thing that's unusual: They use the American spelling, "Labor," rather than the British spelling, "Labour." Canada's version uses the extra U, while Israel's does not.)

Edward Gough Whitlam, who dropped his first name, became Prime Minister on December 5, 1972, having led the Labor Party to victory in the elections for the House of Representatives (not "House of Commons," as in Britain and Canada), with a small majority. However, the Liberals still held control of the Senate. Another election, in 1974, changed hardly any seats in either house of Parliament.

As a result, while Whitlam was able to get some reforms passed, others were stalled in the Senate. He tried to get a budget passed in October 1975, but the Liberals refused to pass a budget until Whitlam called another election. He tried to bypass this, calling for a "half-election," putting only the Senate up for election, which he had the authority to do, although it had never been tried before, and has not since.

But to get permission for the election, full or half, he had to go to the Governor-General. Since many nations in the British Commonwealth, formerly the British Empire, are far from the home islands, their head of state, the British monarch, appoints a representative, a Governor-General, to act as a "sub-king" or "viceroy" for the country.

Ordinarily, the G-G has very little power. But this person does have the power to call new elections and to dismiss the Prime Minister, even if that person has rightly won an election -- even if, as in Whitlam's case, he has won two of them.

On November 11, 1975, Whitlam went to the Governor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, and asked him to call a half-election for the Senate. Instead, Kerr saw this as a power play on Whitlam's part, and dismissed him from office. The Prime Minister was fired. What's more, Kerr appointed the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the Liberal Party, Malcolm Fraser, as a caretaker Prime Minister.

John Kerr

It should be noted that this had never happened before in Australia. Nor had it ever happened in the United Kingdom, or in Canada, or in Australia's neighbor, New Zealand. Nor has it happened in any of those countries since.

It was a counter-power play. It was a coup d'etat. And it got worse. This was before social media, and before the rise of mobile phones. Fraser quickly gathered his allies and formed a new Cabinet. They wrote new appropriation bills, and got Parliament to pass them, faster than Labour could even make sure all of its members knew what had happened. Kerr then dissolved Parliament and called a new election.

It should be noted that Kerr was not the head of state. He was the representative of the head of state, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. This was Kerr's decision, not the Queen's. Whitlam had to get Kerr's permission to do what he wanted. Kerr should have gotten the Queen's permission before doing what he wanted. It was certainly possible by that point to make a telephone call from Government House, the Governor-General's residence in the capital of Canberra, to Buckingham Palace, or to Windsor Castle, or to wherever the Queen was at that point.

Kerr didn't get the Queen's permission. He didn't even try to contact her. He acted completely on his own. He acted like a dictator. Did the Queen punish him for this? No, she took no action at all. That was seen as a royal endorsement of his action.

That, and the fact that there was now action on the budget, convinced Australians that this constitutional crisis might not have been so bad. On December 13, the Liberals gained 30 seats in the snap election, and Fraser remained Prime Minister for 7 years, winning elections in 1977 and 1980.

Malcolm Fraser

What reaction did President Gerald Ford have to this coup? Very little. He sent a letter of congratulation to Fraser upon winning the 1975 election, and hosted a State Dinner for him at the White House on June 27, 1976.

Whitlam, cast into Opposition, remained Labor's Leader until 1977, losing another election, and then stepping down. After Fraser was defeated by Bob Hawke in the 1983 election, Hawke appointed Whitlam to be Australia's Ambassador to the United Nations.

Whitlam may have lost the office and the subsequent elections, but he won the historical argument. Not only has no Governor-General fired a Prime Minister again, but while Kerr got the result he wanted, and Fraser got the support of the people, Kerr did not get the support of the people: They turned on him, and he resigned as Governor-General in December 1977, a few days before Whitlam resigned as Leader of the Opposition. Kerr died in 1991, Whitlam in 2014, Fraser in 2015.

May 29, 1953: The Conquest of Mount Everest

Tenzing Norgay on the summit.

Photo taken by Edmund Hillary.

May 29, 1953, 70 years ago: For the 1st time, there is documented proof that someone has set foot on the summit of the world's highest mountain, on the border between Nepal and the Tibet region of China. and Nepal, in the Himalayan mountain range. The Nepalese name for it is Deodungha, meaning "Holy Mountain." The Tibetan name is Qomolangma, meaning "Holy Mother." In 1849, Andrew Waugh, the British-appointed Surveyor General of India, named it for his predecessor, George Everest -- who opposed the honor, but got it anyway.

In 1856, a British survey team determined that Mount Everest was the tallest on Earth. Over the years, various figures have been cited: It has been 29,000 feet high exactly (as measured by early surveyor Andrew Waugh), or 29,002 (Waugh listed it as such, because he didn't think anyone would believe it was exactly 29,000, thus earning him the mock title of "the first man to put two feet on Mount Everest"), or 29,028 (the generally accepted height in 1953), or 29,035 (a revision determined in 1999).

In 1922, a British expedition, with several Sherpa guides from Nepal assisting them, made the 1st serious attempt to climb to the top. It was led by George Mallory, and it made 3 attempts, with the last resulting in a height of 27,320 feet, before causing an avalanche that killed 7 people.

In 1924, Mallory announced another expedition. Someone asked him why he was doing this, when it was so dangerous. His answer has become legend: "Because it is there." (This answer would be cited by President John F. Kennedy, 38 years later, when giving a speech about America's mission to the Moon.) A member of Mallory's crew, Edward Norton -- no relation to the real-life actor or the fictional sewer worker of that name -- got to 28,126 feet before he had to turn back.

On June 9, Mallory and Sandy Irvine went up the route he'd taken, and were never seen alive again. Irvine's body has never been found. Neither was Mallory's... for decades.

English adventurer Maurice Wilson set out to climb it in 1934. Alone. His body was found a year later, not even as close to the summit as either of Mallory's attempts.

The Communist revolution in China in 1949 led to the mountain's North Face being closed off to would-be adventurers for decades, forcing them to try the more dangerous south side, the Nepal side. On October 31, 1952, a Swiss expedition tried to reach the top, when Dorje Mingma was killed by falling ice, and they chose to turn back.

In the Spring of 1953, Colonel John Hunt of the British Army launched a new expedition. He had hoped to reach the summit by June 2, to help celebration the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. On April 12, they established a base camp at 17,900 feet. On April 15, they got to 19,400; on April 22, 20,200; on May 1, 21,000; on May 3, 22,000; on May 4, 23,000. Then, things stalled, and it took them until May 17 to get to 24,000. On May 21, they got to 26,000; On May 26, 28,700. They were now 300 (or so) feet away. But altitude sickness set in, and they had to turn back.

On May 29, another attempt was made, by 2 members of the team: Edmund Hillary, 33, who had served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II; and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa mountaineer. At 11:30 AM local time -- Nepal is in a unique time zone, so it was 5:45 PM in Hillary's native New Zealand, 6:45 AM in Britain, and 1:45 AM on the U.S. East Coast -- Hillary set foot on the summit, planting a pole with the flags of Britain, New Zealand and Nepal.

Edmund Hillary. Not on Mount Everest.

Just as most of the photographs of the first manned Moon landing were taken by the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, and are of the second man, Buzz Aldrin, the first photograph of a human being on top of Mount Everest is of the second man, Norgay, taken by the first man, Hillary.

Tenzing Norgay. Not on Mount Everest.

In his memoir, Norgay wrote, "I motioned to Hillary that I would now take his picture. But for some reason he shook his head; he did not want it." In his memoir, Hillary asked Norgay if he'd ever used a camera before, and Norgay said he hadn't. "This didn't seem like the time to teach him," Hillary said, so he took the picture of Norgay.

On the way back down, they were met by expedition member George Lowe. Hillary told him, "Well, George, we knocked the bastard off." Not exactly "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," but certainly memorable.

They got back to base camp in time to relay the news around the world, and it was announced on June 2, Coronation Day. As a native of a country in the British Commonwealth, both men were eligible to be knighted by the Queen. She did knight Hillary. She did not knight Norgay, possibly under pressure from Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, who was then feuding with Nepal's government. Norgay did get medals from various countries. He died in 1986. 

In 1999, an expedition found a well-preserved body at 26,760 feet. The remains were taken back down, and determined to be those of George Mallory, finally found after three-quarters of a century. But was he on his way up, or on his way back down?

Sir Edmund Hillary was asked for his thoughts on the subject, and he was sacrosanct: "For 45 years, I've been regarded as the hero of Everest, so I really couldn't be upset now if it was someone else's turn." But he added, "You know, to mountaineers, it's one thing getting to the top, but another getting back to the bottom. I'll settle for that."

(After all, again to connect the conquest of Everest with that of the Moon, 16 years later, JFK said the goal was, before the 1960s were over, "of placing a man on the Moon, and returning him safely to the Earth.")

In 1999, Sports Illustrated conducted a joint interview with Sir Edmund Hillary and Dr. Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile race in less than four minutes. The 2 events took place a little less than a year apart, and while each achievement has been matched many times, there could be only one first time for each.

Hillary died on January 11, 2008, at age 88. At the time, his face was on his country's five-dollar bill -- and his name was still listed in the Auckland phone book. "If someone wants to believe I'm a heroic figure, fine," he said in that SI interview. "But for me, I did a reasonable job at the time. I didn't get carried away then, and I never have."

Queen Elizabeth II, 1926-2022

Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned longer as monarch of England or Great Britain than anyone, has died after 70 years on the throne. She was 96 years old, also the oldest English or British monarch ever.

She was born on April 21, 1926, as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, at 17 Bruton Street, in the Mayfair section of London. This was the home of her maternal grandfather, the Scottish nobleman Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Her mother was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, and her father was Prince Albert Arthur Frederick George, the Duke of York, the 2nd son of King George V.

In 1936, George V died, and was succeeded by his eldest son as King Edward VIII. But before the year was out, Edward abdicated the throne in order to marry the woman he loved, Wallis Simpson, who, as a divorcée (never mind a commoner and an American), was unacceptable as a spouse for the monarch. So Elizabeth's father became King George VI, and, at age 10, she was suddenly heir presumptive to the throne.

During World War II, the Nazis bombed London, including Buckingham Palace, but the royal family survived. Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, still teenagers, entered the British Army. Elizabeth worked in a motor pool, meaning she could, literally, fix your wagon and clean your clock. To the end of her life, she hated fascists.

In 1947, she married Philip Mountbatten, descended through intermarriages from the royal houses of Britain, Germany, Denmark and Greece. Like Elizabeth, he was a great-great-grandchild of Britain's Queen Victoria. They went on to have 4 children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, the Princess Royal; Andrew, Duke of York; and Edward, Earl of Wessex. Each child had 2 children, so Elizabeth had 4 grandchildren; and lived long enough to see 12 great-grandchildren.

Left to right: Princess Elizabeth, Prince Philip,

Queen Elizabeth (known after 1952 as the Queen Mother),

King George VI, Princess Margaret

In 1952, while Elizabeth and Philip were on vacation in Kenya, then still a British colony, King George died. They had to fly back, a 25-year-old Queen and her 30-year-old Prince Consort, the Duke of Edinburgh. They were met at Croydon Airport in London -- Heathrow had not yet been expanded into London's international airport -- by the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, the 1st of 15 Prime Ministers to serve under her. (Harold Wilson lost the office in 1970, and regained it in 1974, but is only counted as one Prime Minister.)

She became the greatest diplomat the world has ever known. No monarch ever traveled more. She enjoyed visiting America, where some of the racehorses she owned were kept, and she met (sometimes in America, sometimes in Britain) with every President from Harry Truman to Joe Biden, except Lyndon Johnson. She enjoyed visiting Canada, and she met with every Prime Minister from Louis St. Laurent to Justin Trudeau. And she was the 1st British monarch to visit Australia.

With President John F. Kennedy, 1961

But during her reign, several colonies declared their independence, though some of them remained in the British Commonwealth: There were still 15 nations, including Canada and Australia, where she was still the head of state, represented in said countries by a Governor-General.

Although various individual members of the royal family, including her sister, the jet-setting Princess Margaret, saw their popularity rise and fall, her own remained high. The exception was the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, in 1997. Charles had treated her poorly, including in public. And when the Queen stuck too closely to protocol thereafter, including not making a televised statement at first, the public turned on her.

It was the only time she ever lost a popularity contest, and the only time she ever had to eat crow: The day before Diana's funeral, she took to the airwaves and gave a brief, conciliatory speech. Unlike Charles, whose reputation was permanently damaged, the Queen won most of her new critics back.

But she knew she was reigning in a modern world. She proved adept at new media, including social media. She even agreed to record a short film for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London, with actor Daniel Craig in character as James Bond. Through his many incarnations, the Queen is the one woman to whom Bond was always faithful. When two figures jumped out of what appeared to be the royal helicopter into the Olympic Stadium, it was the sort of thing Bond would do, but not the 76-year-old Queen. Then again, who could say it was completely out of character? She did attend the Ceremony, and took the traditional head-of-state role in the host nation of declaring the Olympic Games open.

A common joke from 2017 onward:

"Your orders regarding Trump, Ma'am?"

"Make it look like an accident, 007."

Like most British monarchs since it opened, she didn't much like Buckingham Palace, the official royal residence in London. She preferred Windsor Castle in Berkshire, a royal home since William the Conqueror had it built in 1170; and, even more so, Balmoral Castle outside Aberdeen, Scotland, built for Queen Victoria in 1856. (Kings Edward VII and George VI, and Prince Charles, had Sandringham House in Norfolk as their preferred getaways.)

Like many other monarchs (in particular, Edward VII), she loved horses and horse racing. She also loved dogs, and was known for her Welsh corgis, 2 of whom even made guest appearances in the Bond Olympic video. When England won the World Cup on home soil in 1966, she presented the trophy to team Captain Bobby Moore. And she supported North London soccer team Arsenal.

On a 1991 visit to America, President George H.W. Bush invited her to a baseball game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, then the closest city to Washington in Major League Baseball. The Orioles hosted the Oakland Athletics, who had one of their legends, Reggie Jackson, as a guest.

This was a bit awkward: In 1988, the film The Naked Gun had Jeannette Charles, who often played the Queen in movies and TV shows due to her resemblance, play the Queen as the target of a murder plot of a villain played by Ricardo Montalban. Leslie Nielsen played Lieutenant Frank Drebin, the Los Angeles policeman charged with protecting her.

The climax of the film was at a baseball game between the team then known as the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners -- supposedly at Anaheim Stadium (now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim), but actually filmed up the freeway at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. During the game, Reggie -- who had played for the Angels, but, by this point, was retired in real life -- was brainwashed, Manchurian Candidate-style, and walked from his position in right field to the Queen's box seat, all the while saying, "I... must kill... the Queen." Drebin manages to stop him, in a rather haphazard way.

Retroactively, the most bizarre thing about this spoof of police movies is that one of the Los Angeles cops is played by O.J. Simpson. But there were no hard feelings when the Queen and Reggie were introduced for real.

There were jokes that the reason the Queen lived so long was that she didn't want to hand the crown over to Prince Charles. But, understanding her duty, she refused to abdicate, even as the monarchs of Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium had all done so in recent years.

Or maybe she was willing herself to live long enough to see Prime Minister Boris Johnson and "President" Donald Trump leave office. She didn't like either one. In 2021, she saw Trump leave, but when Prince Philip died a few weeks later, at the age of 99, royal observers thought she wouldn't live much longer. Nevertheless, at age 95, having survived the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the modernization of the world, and even a bout with COVID-19, she continued to not only do her job, but enjoy her job.

The year 2022 marked her 70th Anniversary on the throne, her Platinum Jubilee. For the 1st half of the year, turning 96, she was still involved in the celebrations. But she began canceling some appearances, due to what were being officially called "mobility issues." When she appeared in public, she seemed thinner, and was using a cane.

On September 6, with the Conservative Party having finally chosen a new Leader, triggering Johnson's announced resignation, that new Leader, Liz Truss, went to Balmoral, where the Queen was spending the Summer.

This was the 1st time since the establishment of the office of Prime Minister that the new holder of it had met with the monarch other than at a palace in London. That was considered a bad sign. And when no video of the event was released, that was also considered a bad sign. But in the official photographs, the Queen, while still thinner and looking frail, was smiling, and appeared to be fully mentally engaged. That was a good sign.

Just 2 days later, at 12:30 PM British time on September 8, Buckingham Palace released this announcement: "Following further evaluation this morning, the Queen's doctors are concerned for Her Majesty's health and have recommended she remain under medical supervision. The Queen remains comfortable and at Balmoral." At 6:30 PM -- 1:30 PM, U.S. Eastern Time -- the Queen's death was announced on the BBC.

Over 90 percent of people living in Britain had no memory of any monarch except Queen Elizabeth II. Now, they do: Her son became King Charles III. His son, Prince William, is now next in line.

Although Charles automatically gives up the titles he had previously held, William, already Duke of Cambridge, did not immediately receive Charles' title of Prince of Wales, which is usually given to the eldest son of the monarch. He will likely be invested in that title after Charles' coronation, which usually takes place a little over a year after the death of the preceding monarch. He did, however, immediately inherit Charles' former titles as Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay. Officially, he is now listed in England as "Duke of Cornwall and Cambridge."

And so, after 70 years, British coins and banknotes will have a new face on them. All the institutions that were named "Her Majesty's (whatever)" are now "His Majesty's." And the National Anthem, for 70 years titled "God Save the Queen," is, for the first time since February 6, 1952, "God Save the King."

Charles has waited 73 years for this. He should get it right. There are people in the Commonwealth who no longer want a monarchy. Indeed, in Australia, it is said that there are many people who were Elizabethans, but not monarchists. It is entirely possible that some of the 14 nations in the Commonwealth, other than Britain itself, were waiting for the Queen to be gone before finally jettisoning the monarchy. We shall see.

UPDATE: On September 9, in his first address to the nation as King, Charles announced that he had given William and Kate the titles of Prince and Princess of Wales. An official investiture date, as with Charles' Coronation, has not yet been announced. 

How Long It's Been: England Won a Major Soccer Tournament

July 30, 1966, 50 years ago today: England wins the World Cup, beating West Germany 4-2 after extra time, on home soil, at the original Wembley Stadium in London.

Geoff Hurst became the only man to score a hat trick in a World Cup Final -- the only person, until Carli Lloyd did so for America in the Women's World Cup Final against Japan last year.

His 2nd goal was controversial, in that some people think it didn't cross the goal line. His 3rd came in the 120th minute, the last minute of extra time (not counting stoppage time), as fans ran onto the pitch to celebrate what seemed to be a 3-2 win. BBC announcer Kenneth Wolstenholme made the most famous call in the history of sportscasting -- yes, more famous than "The Giants win the Pennant!":

And here comes Hurst! He's got... Some people are on the pitch! They think it's all over! It is now! It's four!

Captain Bobby Moore led the England players up the famous Wembley steps, and received the World Cup trophy from his head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.

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Here's England's performance in major tournaments since then:

* Euro 1968: Semifinal.
* 1970 World Cup: Quarterfinal.
* Euro 1972: Did not qualify.
* 1974 World Cup: Did not qualify.
* Euro 1976: Did not qualify.
* 1978 World Cup: Did not qualify.
* Euro 1980: Eliminated after Group Stage.
* 1982 World Cup: Eliminated after 2nd Group Stage. (Effectively, Round of 16.)
* Euro 1984: Did not qualify.
* 1986 World Cup: Quarterfinal. (Cheated by Argentina's Diego Maradona.)
* Euro 1988: Eliminated after Group Stage.
* 1990 World Cup: Semifinal. (Went out to West Germany on penalties.)
* Euro 1992: Eliminated after Group Stage.
* 1994 World Cup: Did not qualify.
* Euro 1996, on home soil: Semifinal. (Went out to the reunited Germany on penalties.)
* 1998 World Cup: Quarterfinal.
* Euro 2000: Eliminated after Group Stage.
* 2002 World Cup: Quarterfinal.
* Euro 2004: Quarterfinal. (Went out to Portugal on penalties.)
* 2006 World Cup: Quarterfinal. (Went out to Portugal on penalties.)
* Euro 2008: Did not qualify.
* 2010 World Cup: Round of 16. (Went out to Germany in normal time.)
* Euro 2012: Quarterfinal. (Went out to Italy on penalties.)
* 2014 World Cup: Eliminated after Group Stage.
* Euro 2016: Round of 16. (Went out to Iceland. Iceland!)

50 years. 25 tournaments. No wins. No Finals. 2 Semifinals. 3 times eliminated by Ze Germans. 5 times (out of the last 14) eliminated on penalties. 7 outright failures to qualify.

For half a century, the English have been telling the world that they "invented football." They did not: The Greeks and the Chinese were playing it 500 years before the birth of Christ. Then they'll say they popularized it and brought it to the world. Well, you don't see Harvard (or, even more ridiculously, the school that played the first American football game, which was really a 25-a-side soccer game: Rutgers) talking about their role in popularizing that sport.

And when you point out that English "football" is terrible now, they say, "Has your country won the World Cup?"

No, not the men's version. And for 50 years, neither has yours. These same English who make fun of the Scots for still talking about the Battle of Bannockburn, over 700 years later, are clinging to the fact that England won the World Cup within the lifetimes of many people still alive today.

Including 17 of the 22 players on that England squad: Gordon Banks, George Cohen, Ray Wilson, Nobby Stiles (the one with the missing teeth in the photo above), Jack Charlton, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Charlton (Jack's brother), Hurst, Peter Bonetti, Jimmy Armfield, Martin Peters, Ron Flowers, Norman Hunter, Terry Paine, Ian Callaghan, Roger Hunt and George Eastham. Moore died in 1993. Manager Alf Ramsey died in 1999, Alan Ball in 2007, John Connelly in 2012, and Ron Springett and Gerry Byrne both died last year.

UPDATE: Armfield and Wilson died in 2018. Banks died in 2019.

July 30, 1966. Exactly 50 years. How long has that been?

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England hasn't won the World Cup since. Brazil and Germany have won it 3 times since. Argentina and Italy have won it twice, France and Spain have won it once.

The World Cup has since been held in Mexico twice, Germany twice, Argentina, Spain, Italy, America, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa and Brazil. The Olympics have since been held in America 4 times, Canada 3 times, France twice, Japan twice, Russia twice, Mexico, Germany, Austria, Bosnia, Korea, Spain, Norway, Australia, Greece, Italy, China and Britain. Next week, you can add Brazil to that list.

Since England last won it, the Football League and its successor the Premier League have been won by Manchester United 14 times, Liverpool 11 times, Arsenal 6 times, Chelsea 4 times; Everton, Leeds United and Manchester City 3 times each; twice each by Derby County; and once each by Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City.

Liverpool had just won the Football League, while Everton had just won the FA Cup. The defending World Champions in North American sports were the Los Angeles Dodgers in baseball, the Green Bay Packers in football, the Boston Celtics in basketball, and the Montreal Canadiens in hockey. Muhammad Ali was the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

Of the 8 stadiums used in that World Cup, 4 still stand: Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield (home of Sheffield Wednesday, now infamous for the disaster that killed 96 people there during the 1989 FA Cup Semifinal), Villa Park in Birmingham (home of Aston Villa), Old Trafford in Salford (home of Manchester United), Goodison Park in Liverpool (home of Everton),

Wembley has been demolished and replaced by a new stadium of the same name on the same site. The White City Stadium in London (built as the main stadium for the 1908 Olympics) is now the site of the BBC's (British Broadcasting Corporation) headquarters and main studios. Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough and Roker Park in Sunderland have both been demolished and replaced by low-cost housing, and their home clubs have built new stadiums.

Most English stadiums had "terraces" behind the goal, without seats, where people would stand. These were disasters waiting to happen, and Hillsborough 1989 was the last of a few incidents that killed people, or could have. Most stadiums had poor concession and restroom facilities, and the seated stands along the sidelines ("touchlines," they would say) had little legroom. Nearly every stadium in England would be either replaced entirely or seriously modernized in the 1990s and 2000s.

Of the 19 men (the role is currently vacant at Hull City) who are starting the 2016-17 season as managers of Premier League teams: Arsene Wenger of Arsenal was 16, Claudio Ranieri of Leicester City was 14, Francesco Guidolin of Swansea City was 10, Tony Pulis of West Bromwich Albion was 8, Alan Pardew of Crystal Palace was 5, Claude Puel of Southampton and Walter Mazzarri of Watford were 4; Ronald Koeman of Everton, Jose Mourinho of Manchester United and David Moyes of Sunderland were 3, Mark Hughes of Stoke City was 2; and Eddie Howe of Bournemouth, Sean Dyche of Burnley, Antonio Conte of Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool, Pep Guardiola of Manchester City, Aitor Karanka of Middlesbrough, Mauricio Pochettino of Tottenham Hotspur and Slavin Bilic of West Ham United weren't born yet.

In English football in 1966, if a player was said to be "foreign," that usually meant he was from Scotland, Wales, the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. Occasionally, there would be a player from outside the British Isles, but not often.

Queen Elizabeth is still on the throne. Harold Wilson was the Prime Minister. He would lose the office to Edward Heath, then regain it from him. Counting the 2 tenures of this 1 person, Britain has had 9 Prime Ministers -- despite Wilson holding the job for a total of 8 years, Margaret Thatcher for 11 and Tony Blair for 10. Theresa May just became the country's 2nd female Prime Minister. America has had 9 Presidents, and will soon have a 10th. The Prime Minister of Canada was Lester Pearson. The holder of the Nobel Peace Prize was UNICEF.

The President of the United States was Lyndon Johnson. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry Truman, their wives, and the widow of John F. Kennedy were still alive. Richard Nixon was in political exile. Gerald Ford was the Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Jimmy Carter was in the State Senate in Georgia, and was embarking on his 1st campaign for Governor. So was former actor Ronald Reagan, in California. George H.W. Bush was running for the House of Representatives, and his son George W. was at Yale University. Bill Clinton was at Georgetown University, and his eventual wife Hillary Rodham was at Wellesley College. Donald Trump was at the University of Pennsylvania. Barack Obama was about to turn 5 years old, and his eventual wife Michelle Robinson was 2.

The Governor of the State of New York was Nelson Rockefeller. The Mayor of the City of New York was John Lindsay. The Governor of New Jersey was Richard J. Hughes. Andrew Cuomo was 8 years old, Bill de Blasio was 5, and Chris Christie was about to turn 4.

Major novels of the year included In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, The Magus by John Fowles, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (which was adapted into the Cliff Robertson movie Charly 2 years later), The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry, The Fixer by Bernard Malamud, The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott, The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron, and the best-selling novel in America since World War II, Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann.

Stephen King was at the University of Maine. George R.R. Martin had just graduated from Bayonne High School in New Jersey. J.K. Rowling would have her 1st birthday the day after the World Cup Final. No one had yet heard of Alexander Portnoy, Lestat de Lioncourt, T.S. Garp, Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Forrest Gump, Jack Ryan, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Lisbeth Salander, Bella Swan or Katniss Everdeen.

Major films of the Summer of 1966 included a film version of the new Batman TV series (released on the very day of England's World Cup win), Daleks -- Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (the 1st film based on Doctor Who, starring Peter Cushing as The Doctor), The Glass Bottom Boat, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, How to Steal a Million, Fantastic Voyage, the Elvis Presley film Paradise, Hawaiian Style, Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. (a modernized comedy version of Robinson Crusoe starring Dick Van Dyke), and a Steve McQueen film whose name would be appropriated for the 1st great soccer bar in America: Nevada Smith.

Gene Roddenberry was getting ready to premiere Star Trek. George Lucas was at the University of Southern California. Steven Spielberg was at California State University at Long Beach. No one had yet heard of Billy Jack, Michael Corleone, HAL 9000, Harry Callahan, Cheech & Cong, John Shaft, Paul Kersey, Leatherface, Rocky Balboa, Howard Beale, Michael Myers, Jake & Elwood Blues, Mad Max Rockatansky, Jason Voorhees, Ash Williams, John Rambo, the Terminator, the Ghostbusters, Freddy Kreuger, Marty McFly, Robocop, John McClane, Jay & Silent Bob or Austin Powers.

Rawhide, Mister Ed, The Donna Reed Show, Ben Casey, The Addams Family and its copy (or was it vice versa?) The Munsters, McHale's Navy, The Patty Duke Show, Perry Mason and The Dick Van Dyke Show had all closed their runs on network TV; The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and My Favorite Martian soon would. The iconic Westerns Gunsmoke and Bonanza were still clippity-clopping along nicely. So were the spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E and the spy spoof Get Smart. Soon to premiere were Mission: Impossible, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Green Hornet, The Time Tunnel, The Monkees, That Girl, Family Affair, The Rat Patrol and The Hollywood Squares.

Bob Holiday had recently starred in the Broadway musical It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman.
Adam West had recently debuted as Batman. William Hartnell was still playing Doctor Who's First Doctor. There had not yet been live-action versions of Wonder Woman or Spider-Man. The comic book characters Ghost Rider, Luke Cage, the Punisher, Iron Fist, Cyborg, V (for Vendetta), Deadpool and Rick Grimes had yet to be created.

No one had yet heard of Hawkeye Pierce, Columbo, Scooby-Doo, Big Bird, Carol Brady, Monty Python, Mary Richards, Keith Partridge, Archie Bunker, Kwai Chang Caine, Fred Sanford, Bob Hartley, Theo Kojak, Arthur Fonzarelli, Barney Miller, Basil Fawlty, J.R. Ewing, Mork from Ork, William Adam, Arnold Jackson, Ken Reeves, Sam Malone, Christine Cagney & Marty Beth Lacey, He-Man, Goku, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Thundercats, Bart Simpson, Zack Morris, the Seinfeld Four, Buffy Summers, Fox Mulder & Dana Scully, Ross Geller & Rachel Greene, Doug Ross, Xena, Carrie Bradshaw, Tony Soprano, Jed Bartlet, Jack Bauer, Omar Little, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Don Draper, Walter White, Richard Castle or Sarah Manning.

The Number 1 song in America was "Wild Thing" by The Troggs. Elvis, as I said, was in the doldrums of the movie phase of his career. Frank Sinatra was enjoying a renaissance as he approached his 50th birthday: "Strangers In the Night" had hit Number 1, his album September of My Years and his TV special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music were both big hits, and his daughter Nancy had recently hit Number 1 with "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'." The day before England won the World Cup, Bob Dylan had a nasty motorcycle crash that kept him from doing anything in music for over a year. His absence from the public eye led many people to think that the crash had actually killed him.

A car crash later in the year did not injure Paul McCartney of The Beatles, but, eventually, rumors would abound that he had been killed, and replaced by a double. Having recently released their album Revolver, the band was in the middle of a world tour and about to arrive in America, where, for what turned out to be the only time in his public life, John Lennon apologized for something: Saying that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus now. (He was right: They were.) After the tour ended in San Francisco on August 29, they decided never to tour again. They never did -- at least, not together.

That Summer, Bobby Fuller was murdered at what looked like the beginning of a great rock and roll career. Comedian Lenny Bruce was found dead of a drug overdose, but rumors that he was murdered would also persist. Frank Zappa and his band, The Mothers of Invention, released their album Freak Out! McCartney would later cite this, and The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, as inspirations for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Other albums released that Summer included Aretha Franklin's Soul Sister, The Supremes A' Go-Go, The Temptations' Gettin' Ready, The Byrds' Fifth Dimenson, And Then... Along Comes the Association, Dusty Springfield's You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Tim Hardin 1, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, The Mamas & the Papas, The Exciting Wilson Pickett, and James Brown's It's a Man's Man's Man's World.

Inflation has been such that what $1.00 bought then would cost $7.40 now. Or, more to the point of the country in question, what £1.00 bought then would cost £17.45 now. This was before the decimalisation of the pound on February 15, 1971.

Credit cards were still a relatively new thing, and there were no automatic teller machines in America. There were artificial kidneys, but no artificial hearts. Transplanting a kidney or a lung was possible, but not a heart or liver. There were birth control pills, but no Viagra. The U.S. space program was in the middle of Project Gemini, the middle stage of trying to get to the Moon.

Most American TV shows had gone over to color broadcasts, but only about 1/3rd of U.S. households had color TV sets. There were no hand-held calculators, no video games, no digital watches, no cable televisions, no mobile telephones, no VCRs, no personal computers, and no Internet. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee were all 11 years old.

In the Summer of 1966, the Vatican abolished their index of banned books. Prime Minister Wilson, President Charles de Gaulle of France, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India and Secretary General U Thant of the United Nations each made visits to the Soviet Union. Mao Zedong announced his Great Leap Forward in China. A gang led by Harry Roberts killed 3 London police officers.

In America, race riots struck the West Side of Chicago, the East Side of Cleveland, and in the Michigan capital of Lansing. Martin Luther King led a civil rights march in Chicago, and was hit with a rock thrown by a white counter-demonstrator. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) endorsed what it called "Black Power." The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that policemen must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them. The National Organization for Women (NOW) and the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) were founded. Richard Speck in Chicago and Charles Whitman in Austin, Texas became notorious murderers. The New York Herald Tribune ceased publication. Caesars Palace opened in Las Vegas. And ground was broken in New York for the original World Trade Center.

Delmore Schwartz, and Montgomery Clift, and Ed "Strangler" Lewis, the leading professional wrestler of the interwar years, died. Dikembo Mutombo, and Mike Tyson, and Gianfranco Zola were born.

July 30, 1966. England won the World Cup on home soil. It was the greatest moment in the history of British sport.

England have not won it since. They have not even been to a World Cup Final since. Only once since have they even made a World Cup Semifinal. And, based on their performances at the most recent editions of the World Cup and the European Championships, they're not getting appreciably close to doing it again.

I don't know what they're doing wrong. But they truly inspire a few rounds of that classic terrace chant: "You don't know what you're doing!"