May 14, 2004: The Film "Troy" Premieres

Top: Brad Pitt as Achilles and Eric Bana as Hector.

Bottom: Diane Kruger as Helen and Orlando Bloom as Paris.

May 14, 2004: The film Troy premieres, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, and loosely based on The Iliad, the story of the Trojan War, the most famous conflict of ancient Greek mythology.

Supposedly written in the 8th Century BC by a man known as Homer, it was followed by The Odyssey, possibly popular culture's first sequel. Historians have debated whether these stories actually happened, and whether Homer himself ever existed, or whether the stories were written by two completely different authors.

The Iliad and The Odyssey are among the oldest surviving works of literature still widely read by modern readers. Each of them is divided into 24 "books," and was written in dactylic hexameter.

Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a 10-year siege of the city of Tory by a coalition of Greek states in the Mycenaean Era (1750 to 1050 BC), the poem depicts significant events in the war's final weeks. It focuses primarily on Achilles, a celebrated warrior, whose wrath is the driving force of the narrative, from his fierce quarrel with King Agamemnon of Mycenae to his killing of Prince Hector, son of King Priam of Troy.

The story introduced many concepts to literature:

* "Helen of Troy": Helen is the daughter of Zeus, king of the Greek gods, and the mortal woman Leda. She is the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, who is the brother of Agamemnon. She is said to be the most beautiful woman in Greece, kidnapped by Prince Priam, another son of Priam, and taken to Troy, leading to Agamemnon declaring war on Troy, thus Helen had "the face that launched a thousand ships," as in warships.

* "Sulking in his tent": Agamemnon and Achilles each take a Trojan woman as a concubine, leading to a Trojan appeal to Apollo, Greek god of the Sun, to send a plague onto the Greek troops. To end the plague, Agamemnon returns his concubine, but takes Briseis, the one Achilles took, for himself. This insults Achilles, and he declares that his men will no longer fight for Agamemnon, and so he stays in his tent, resulting in serious battle losses for the Greeks, until Agamemnon satisfies Achilles' sense of honor.

* "Achilles heel": When Achilles was born, his mother, Thetis, dipped him in magic water, so that he would be invulnerable. But, because she held him by the heel, that one part of his body remained vulnerable, and, for all his skill and courage in battle, an arrow to the heel, fired by Paris, is what kills him. The tendon at the back of the human ankle is still known as the "Achilles tendon," or simply "the Achilles."

* "The Trojan horse." This is actually not mentioned in The Iliad, but is mentioned in The Odyssey, and more so in The Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil in the 1st Century BC, as a sequel to the preceding, suggesting that Rome was founded by refugees of the Trojan War.

The giant wooden horse is a peace offering of the Greeks to Troy, and they let it through the gates, despite the warnings of Cassandra, Priam's daughter and a Trojan priestess blessed by Apollo to make accurate predictions, but cursed by him to never have them be believed. (As Homer's tales point out, the Greek gods and goddesses could be very rotten people.)

A "Cassandra" became someone whose prediction of doom is not heeded; and a "Trojan horse" became a bad thing disguising itself as a good thing. In The Aeneid, Virgil referred to it with these words: "I fear the Greeks, even those bearing gifts," which became the proverb, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." However, the proverb, "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" refers to being grateful for a gift, rather than being suspicious of it, such as trying to inspect a horse's teeth to judge its age, and has nothing to do with the concept of the Trojan horse.

And so the horse is let in through the gates, and that's when the Greek soldiers come out and sack the city, burning it to the ground and taking its goods and many of its women. Thus, after 10 years, is the war finally won. The horse was a plan carried out by King Odysseus of Ithaca, (known in his Latin form as Ulysses), ally of Agamemnon and namesake of The Odyssey. Speaking of which:

* "Odyssey": The sequel tells of Odysseus' 10-year struggle to get home, to his wife, Penelope, and his son, Telemachus, who was born shortly before his father left for Troy, and now, at age 20, has no memory of him, and doesn't recognize him when he returns. (The Greeks had art, including statues and busts, but they did not paint portraits, much less have photography, by which people could be remembered.) So the word "odyssey" has come to mean any voyage.

What happened to the other major players? Ajax the Great, a grandson of Zeus and thus related to both Achilles and Helen, said to be Greece's second-greatest warrior after Achillies, dies after the events of The Iliad, but before the Sack of Troy; Paris dies in the final battle, as does Priam, killed by Achilles' son, Neoptolemus; Agamemnon was assassinated upon his return by his wife, Clytemnestra; and Menelaus and Helen are reconciled, return to Sparta, and have a happy ending -- mostly, as they do not produce a male heir, and Menelaus' only sons are illegitimate, born during Helen's absence.

The Homeric poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, writing about 400 years after Homer is said to have, Homer was, in simple words, the one who "has educated Greece." Writing in the early 14th Century AD, in The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri used Virgil as a character, and Virgil refers to Homer as "Poet sovereign." Writing in the early 18th Century, English writer Alexander Pope said that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets."

(It was Pope who introduced to the English language the sayings, "damn with faint praise," and, "To err is human; to forgive, divine.")

Did the war actually happen? Archaeologists have tried to prove it. Troy was said to have been on the coast of Marmara, the western part of Turkey, or Türkiye as the country now prefers to call itself. Digs at the alleged site have found evidence of a city, and a war that destroyed it, but it would have been part of the Hittite Empire, which lasted from about 1650 to 1190 BC; and there's no indication that any people of Greece had anything to do with it.

The 2004 film gives the date of the fall of Troy as 1184 BC, which may put it at around 100 years after the Biblical Exodus, and about 200 years before King David united the Twelve Tribes of Israel -- presuming, of course, that those events actually happened, which has not been determined by modern science.

The fall of Troy is said to have been part of "the Late Bronze Age Collapse," a series of events in which several civilizations fell. The American archaeologist Eric H. Cline, who has studied these cultures, titled his book about these events 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.

Regardless of whether the war actually happened, the peoples of the lands now known as the Hellenic Republic of Greece and the Republic of Türkiye have hated each other for over 3,000 years.

Later Greek stories based on the war include the plays Agamemnon by Aeschylus; Ajax, Philoctetes and Electra by Sophocles; and The Trojan Women, a new version of Electra, and Orestes by Euripides. In addition to Virgil's Aeneid, Roman stories about the war include The Metamorphoses by Ovid.

The late 14th Century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the poem Troilus and Criseyde, based on the Trojan War. (Troilus was yet another son of Priam, brother to Hector, Paris and Cassandra.) This was adapted by William Shakespeare into his 1602 play Troilus and Cressida.

Both Shakespeare's contemporary Christopher Marlowe and the early 19th Century German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe used Helen in their versions of the story of Faust. The early 20th Century Irish writer William Butler Yeats wrote many poems about the war. In 2019, Natalie Haynes, an English author who specializes in stories set in ancient Greece, published A Thousand Ships, a novel telling the story from various female characters' points of view.

Operas about the war include Les Troyens by (appropriately enough) Hector Berlioz in 1858, and La belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach in 1864. Modern songs invoking the war include Bob Dylan's "Temporary Like Achilles," Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses," Led Zeppelin's "Achilles Last Stand," and songs titled "Cassandra" by ABBA and Taylor Swift.

As for the 2004 film: It tells the story most people remember, the last year of the siege, the Trojan Horse, and the Sack of Troy. The main cast:

* On the Greek side: Achilles is played by Brad Pitt, Thetis by Julie Christie, Agamemnon by Brian Cox, Menelaus by Brendan Gleeson, and Odysseus by Sean Bean, who, contrary to the joke that he dies in every film he's in, survives to undertake The Odyssey.

* On the Trojan side: Helen is played by Diane Kruger, Hector by Eric Bana, Paris by Orlando Bloom, Priam by Peter O'Toole, Briseis by Rose Byrne, Andromache by Saffron Burrows, and Archeptolemus by Nigel Terry.

Other films about the war include The Private Life of Helen of Troy in 1927, Helen of Troy in 1956, The Trojan Women in 1971, and the NBC TV-movie The Odyssey in 1993. (UPDATE: A new film version of The Odyssey premiered in 2026.)

Amsterdam Football Club Ajax (pronounced "EYE-ax"), the leading soccer team in the Netherlands, and the cleaning product Ajax (pronounced "AY-jax"), are named for Ajax the Great. Many other sports teams have been named the Trojans, including at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and at George Washington High School in Manhattan, though why a school would name its team after the most famous losing side in ancient warfare is a mystery.

"Trojan" is also the name of the world's best-selling brand of condoms, making it even odder for a Catholic school, such as St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Edison, New Jersey, to name their teams the Trojans.

*

May 14, 2004 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-5 at Yankee Stadium. Mike Mussina was the winning pitcher, while M's starter Gil Meche didn't get out of the 1st inning. Derek Jeter went 0-for-5, but Bernie Williams went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs, and Alex Rodriguez went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 8-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Steve Trachsel outpitched Roy Oswalt. Mike Piazza and Cliff Floyd hit home runs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-3 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. The Sox scored 6 runs in the top of the 8th to win it. David Ortiz went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The Anaheim Angels beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-9 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Chone Figgins singled Adam Kennedy home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 8-7 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. Casey Blake hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Texas Rangers, 7-1 at Comerica Park (now Fifth Third Park) in Detroit.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-0 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee. Horacio Ramírez allowed 5 hits over 8 innings, and John Smoltz completed the 5-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Florida Marlins, 6-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Ray Lankford hit a home run. Albert Pujols went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-4 at Coors Field in Denver. Pat Burrell went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk and 4 RBIs. Bobby Abreu went 2-for-3 with a home run, 2 walks and 2 RBIs. Jimmy Rollins went 3-for-5.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 6-1 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-2 at SBC Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were in their Conference Finals, but neither was played on this day.

There were 2 games in the NBA Playoffs. In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the New Jersey Nets beat the Detroit Pistons, 127-120 in triple overtime at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. But the Pistons won Game 6 at the Meadowlands and Game 7 back at The Palace to win the series.

And in Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals, the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Sacramento Kings, 86-74 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The Kings won Game 6 in Sacramento, but the T-Wolves won Game 7 in Minneapolis. The Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Timberwolves lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, and the Pistons beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

December 31, 1999 & January 1, 2000: The Millennium

December 31, 1999: The Millennium arrives. The people of planet Earth survived. At a terrible cost. But we hadn't destroyed ourselves. It felt like a great achievement. It was, "Hey, we made it! We actually made it! This is something really worth celebrating!"

ABC News covered it for 24 hours straight, from 4:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on December 31 to 4:00 AM U.S. Eastern Time on January 1. Eventually, even anchorman Peter Jennings looked half-asleep in his tuxedo.

January 1, 2000: As time zone after time zone turned over from 11:59 to 12:00, there was great joy -- literally, all over the world.

It didn't last. So far, the 21st Century has been a bust. In words that have been attributed to, among others, New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra, then 74 years old, "The future ain't what it used to be."

December 31, 1999 was a Friday. It was the day that Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia, handing the office over to the Prime Minister -- Vladimir Putin.

It was the day that Elliot Richardson died. He remains the only person to serve the President of the United States in 4 different Cabinet posts, including Attorney General, an office he resigned rather than follow Richard Nixon's unconstitutional order in "the Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973.

In the Pacific, Portugal handed its colony of Macau over to China, just as Britain had handed Hong Kong over to China on June 30/July 1, 1997. In Central America, as per the 1978 treaty, America handed control of the Panama Canal Zone, including the Panama Canal itself, over to Panama.

It was also the day that actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones announced their engagement. They had to wait to get married until Douglas' divorce from current wife Diandra Luker was final. The ceremony was held on November 18, 2000.

And the computer problem known as "The Y2K Bug"? Not much happened. A few minor things, like scattered automatic teller machines (ATMs) at banks not quite working properly. But that was it: The computers didn't cause an apocalypse, or even an inconvenient power outage.

Why? Because changing the format from one that would have followed 12-31-99 with 01-01-00, and thus caused computers to think it was January 1, 1900, and thus confuse them into not working, into one that would recognize 01-01-2000, was a problem that human society took seriously, and properly handled. We'll never know what would have happened if we got it wrong, because we, as a people, stepped up, did what we had to do, and got it right.

And nobody stepped forward to say that the Y2K Bug was just a hoax perpetrated by liberals to take away your freedom, like gun control already had been for 20 years, and COVID-19 would be 20 years later.

The London Eye, a 443-foot-high Ferris wheel, opened on the day. Until 2006, it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world.

Several big-city arenas hosted concerts, usually (but not exclusively) by local artists. Billy Joel played Madison Square Garden. James Taylor, who grew up in North Carolina and wrote and sang "Carolina In My Mind," played the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh.

Cher played Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. From the New York side of New Jersey rather than from New England, Bruce Springsteen played the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Quebec native Celine Dion played the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

John Denver, singer of "Rocky Mountain High," the natural choice to play the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver, was already dead, so the artist in residence that night was New York native Neil Diamond. Elton John played Circus Maximus at Caesars Palace outside Las Vegas. Los Angeles-based rock band The Eagles played that city's Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena). NSYNC played the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, the arena that had hosted Elvis Presley's "Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite" concert in 1973.

This was also the day that the American Airlines Arena opened in Miami. Naturally, the choice to open it was a New Year's Eve concert by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. The building is now named the Miami-Dade Arena. (UPDATE: In 2023, it became the Kaseya Center.)

Neither Paul McCartney nor Bob Dylan played a concert that night. Michael Jackson was scheduled to play Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, but had to cancel after being injured in a concert in Munich, Germany.

Baseball was out of season, and no NFL games were played. As it turned out, no NBA games were scheduled for the day, either.

There were 2 games scheduled in the NHL. One was, by NHL standards, an ancient rivalry, going back to 1926. At the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, the host Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks played to a 4-4 tie. (There would be no shootouts in the NHL until the 2005-06 season.)

And in a matchup that had only been possible for 6 years, the Dallas Stars beat the team then known as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 5-4 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

*

January 1, 2000 was a Saturday. Isis Naija Gaston was born that day, and grew up to become the rapper Ice Spice.

Still no baseball, and still no NFL games. But there were 7 NHL games, about a half-full slate:

* One team in the New York Tri-State Area was in action: The New Jersey Devils traveled to what's now named the TD Garden, and played the Boston Bruins to a 2-2 tie.

* The St. Louis Blues and the Washington Capitals played to a 1-1 tie at what's now named the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

* In a regional rivalry, the Buffalo Sabres beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 8-1 at what's now named the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* In a regional rivalry, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-2 at what's now State Farm Arena in Atlanta. (The Thrashers became the new Winnipeg Jets in 2011.)

* In not just a regional but an intrastate rivalry, the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 7-5 at what's now named the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.

* The Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-2 at what's now named the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-4 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix. (The Coyotes were renamed the Arizona Coyotes in 2014.)

And 6 college football bowl games were played:

* At 11:00 AM Eastern Time, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the Outback Bowl was played: Number 21 Georgia beat Number 19 Purdue, 28-25.

* Also at 11 Eastern, 10:00 AM Central Time, at the Cotton Bowl stadium in Dallas, the Cotton Bowl Classic was played: Number 24 Arkansas beat Number 14 Texas, 27-6. This was once an intense rivalry, but Arkansas' 1992 move from the Southwest Conference to the Southeastern Conference moved it to the back burner.

* At 12:30 PM Eastern Time, at Alltel Stadium (now TIAA Bank Field) in Jacksonville, the Gator Bowl was played: Number 23 Miami beat Number 17 Georgia Tech, 28-13.

* At 1:00 PM Eastern Time, at the Florida Citrus Bowl (now Camping World Stadium) in Orlando, the Florida Citrus Bowl was played: Number 9 Michigan State beat Number 10 Florida, 37-34.

* At 4:30 PM Eastern Time, 1:30 Pacific Time, at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, the game of the same name was played: Number 4 Wisconsin beat Number 22 Stanford, 17-9.

* And at 8:30 PM Eastern Time, at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, the Orange Bowl was played: Number 8 Michigan beat Number 5 Alabama, 35-34.

It was a bit strange for it to be New Year's Day, and see Michigan playing in a game other than the Rose Bowl, and also to see Alabama playing on the day, but not in the Sugar Bowl.

Under the format then in place, the Bowl Championship Series, the Fiesta Bowl was played on January 2, at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe. Number 3 Nebraska beat Number 6 Tennessee, 31-21.

And the matchup that the BCS was intended to set up? It was hard to argue that these 2 undefeated teams weren't the top 2 teams in the country. At the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, the Sugar Bowl was played between Number 1 Florida State and Number 2 Virginia Tech. Florida State won, 46-29.

December 31, 2011: The Last American Combat Troops Leave Iraq

December 31, 2011: The last American combat troops leave Iraq. It had been 8 years, 9 months and 11 days since the first ones got there.

And what did America get out of it? Well, we got rid of Saddam Hussein, and replaced him with... a government that we're still not sure is trustworthy. And we emboldened neighboring Iran, who were glad to see Saddam out. And we emboldened terrorists in the Middle East, ditto.

Over 1 million Iraqis, the vast majority of them civilians, died as a result of this war. American combat deaths were, officially, 4,507; with another 32,292 wounded, another 47,541 listed under "Injured/diseases/other medical." How many have psychiatric issues as a result of being sent there, we may never know.

In his 1988 book 1968 In America, Charles Kaiser reasoned that the only good thing about the Vietnam War was that America had apparently learned its lesson, and had never had another "Vietnam." That was before George W. Bush, who actively sought to avoid serving in Vietnam even as he supported the war effort (as Donald Trump did, but Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Joe Biden did not) wanted Iraq's oil.

Why is it that Democratic Presidents always have to clean up the messes left by their Republican predecessors? Barack Obama got the Democratic nomination for President in 2008 because, unlike Hillary Clinton, he did not vote in the U.S. Senate (which she was then in, but he was not) to authorize the Iraq War in any way. Maybe he would have won the general election even without the economic crash later that year. But it was the war, and the atrocities committed by certain Americans in it, some of them civilians, that ruined Bush's legacy before the crash did.

Obama said he would end the war. His Republican opponent, John McCain said he would end it by winning it. America preferred an ending sooner rather than later, and voted for Obama. And he ended it.

And we will be paying for it, in many ways, for a long time to come. Which we can truthfully say about a lot of Republican policies.

*

December 31, 2011 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. All the NFL games that weekend were played the next day, New Year's Day. There were 5 college football bowl games played:

* The Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas was played at what's now NRG Stadium in Houston. This used to be known as the Texas Bowl, and is the successor to the old Bluebonnet Bowl that was played at the Astrodome. Texas A&M beat Northwester, 33-22.

* The Hyundai Sun Bowl was played at the Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas. Utah beat Georgia Tech, 30-27 in overtime.

* The AutoZone Liberty was played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis. (A memorial to a game that's still being played?) The University of Cincinnati beat Vanderbilt, 31-24.

* The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl was played at what's now Oracle Park in San Francisco. Illinois beat UCLA, 20-14.

* And the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the once-and-future Peach Bowl, was played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Auburn beat Virginia, 43-24.

There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Sacramento Kings, 114-92 at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers, 96-88 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Phoenix Suns, 107-97 at what's now the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 95-84 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Utah Jazz, 104-89 at what's now the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets, 92-89 at what's now the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Andrew Bynum led all scorers on the night with 29 points.

* And the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Golden State Warriors, 107-79 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).

There were 12 NHL games played that day:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at the Prudential Center. Ilya Kovalchuk, David Clarkson and Zach Parise scored.

* The New York Islanders beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Form (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 in a shootout at the First Niagara Center (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-2 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-0 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the MTS Centre (now the Canada Life Centre) in Winnipeg.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Anaheim Ducks, 4-2 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The New York Rangers, the Calgary Flames, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Nashville Predators, the Philadelphia Flyers and the San Jose Sharks were not scheduled.

December 31, 1993: The Murder of Brandon Teena

December 31, 1993: Brandon Teena is murdered by bigots in Humboldt, Nebraska. He was 21 years old, and unwittingly becomes perhaps the first famous pre-surgery transgender person – not post-surgery, what was then called a "transsexual."

The subject of this essay was born on December 12, 1972, in Lincoln, Nebraska, with female characteristics, and the name Teena Brandon. The child's father died before the birth, and was raised, along with an older sister, by a single mother. Both children were abused by an uncle.

Teena was described by others as a "tomboy," and, in adolescence, began identifying as male. He was kicked out of a Catholic high school for dressing like a boy, and rejected by the U.S. Army by listing "male" on his enlistment form.

In 1993, Teena began dating a woman named Lana Tisdel, who was 2 years younger. Teena was arrested for forging checks, and it was only upon going to bail him out and seeing "her" in the female section of the jail that Tisdel learned that Teena was transgender. He assured her that he was seeking what would then have been called a sex change operation (today, it would be called "gender reassignment surgery"), and she stuck with him.

Five days later, on Christmas Eve, Teena was beaten and raped by 2 male ex-convicts. They told him that if he went to the police, they would kill him. He went to the police. They refused to file charges. Seven days later, on New Year's Eve, the rapists kept their word, shooting Teena in the stomach. Both men were convicted, and, as of December 31, 2022, are still in prison.

In 1999, Hilary Swank played Brandon Teena in the film Boys Don't Cry, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress, as a woman playing, as would have been said at the time, "a man trapped in a woman's body."

*

December 31, 1993 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. No NBA games were scheduled. There were 4 college football bowl games played:

* Number 12 North Carolina were beaten by Number 18 Alabama, 24-12 in the Gator Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in Jacksonville, Florida.

* Number 21 Indiana were beaten by Number 22 Virginia Tech, 45-20 in the Independence Bowl, at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, North Carolina.

* Number 24 Clemson beat Kentucky, 14-13 in the Peach Bowl, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* And California beat Iowa, 37-3 in the Alamo Bowl, at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

In the fictional world of the ABC sitcom Coach, the next day, January 1, 1994, the Pioneer Bowl was held at the Alamodome, to decide the National Championship. Minnesota State, coached by the titular Hayden Fox, played by Craig T. Nelson, beat West Texas, 24-20. Footage of a Minnesota-Wisconsin game, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, was used.

At the time, there was no real school named Minnesota State University. In 1998, Mankato State University was renamed Minnesota State University, Mankato. In 2000, Moorhead State University was renamed Minnesota State University Moorhead. Unlike the Mankato campus, there is no comma in the title.

There were no NBA games scheduled. There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 4-4 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Chicago Blakchawks, 5-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3. This was part of the NHL's experiment in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 seasons, with neutral-site games, in a search for future expansion sites. This one was at the Target Center in Minneapolis, 8 months after the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas. Minnesota did get a new team for the 2000-01 season, the Minnesota Wild, playing at the new Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, built on the site of the St. Paul Civic Center, which had been home to the World Hockey Association's Minnesota Fighting Saints.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Calgary Flames, 5-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

December 31, 1988: The Fog Bowl & Five-Way Mario

December 31, 1988: The Chicago Bears host the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFC Divisional Playoff at Soldier Field in Chicago. It was Mike Ditka coaching the team he'd led to a Super Bowl win 3 seasons before, against a team coached by Buddy Ryan, who'd been the defensive coordinator for those Bears, and with whom he'd never gotten along.

Chicago is known for nasty Winter weather, and plenty of games at Soldier Field, both at its 1924 original (as this one was) and at its 2003 replacement, have had bitter cold, or snow, or rain, or wind blasting in off Lake Michigan, just 2 blocks away, or some combination thereof.

But they'd never been hit by fog before. San Francisco is the American city best known for fog, and while Giants games at Candlestick Park had to be called due to fog, 49ers games there never have. Cleveland Municipal Stadium had seen some Indians games called due to fog, but not Browns games. Chicago? Fog was one weather condition they were not used to.

At kickoff, the sky was a perfect, cloudless blue. Mike Tomczak threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to Dennis McKinnon, putting the Bears up, 7-0. The Eagles came right back, but only got to the 26-yard line, and Luis Zendejas missed a field goal attempt.

A Seth Joyner interception of Tomczak gave the Eagles a quick next chance, but they committed 2 penalties that nullified touchdowns. Coach Buddy Ryan, so great with defense but totally clueless on offense, went for the field goal again, and, this time, Zendejas converted, making it 7-3 Chicago.

Kevin Butler missed a field goal for the Bears. Randall Cunningham drove the Eagles down the field, and got to 4th & 1 on the Bear 4. He tried a quarterback sneak, but a measurement suggested that he didn't get it, turning the ball over. A fumble recovery early in the 2nd quarter gave the Eagles another chance, but, again, they could only get a field goal attempt out of it, and it was 7-6 Chicago.

Neal Anderson ran for a touchdown, increasing the Bears' lead to 14-6. A Butler field goal made it 17-6, with 2:03 left in the half. This was when the fog arrived, coming in off the Lake. The Eagles managed a field goal before the half, and the teams went into the locker rooms with the score Bears 17, Eagles 9.

CBS had hired a helicopter to provide aerial images. The copter was forced to land, because the fog was so thick. The right thing for the officials to do would have been to suspend the game until the fog lifted. But they didn't, deciding that the fog posed no danger to fans or players (unlike, say, lightning), and they sent the teams out for the 2nd half.

Tomczak and Cunningham couldn't see their receivers. Terry Bradshaw was CBS' color commentator, and he said it was the most frustrating game he had ever seen. I watched this game on CBS, and I couldn't see anything, either. I was reminded of one of the earliest games I'd ever seen, a Los Angeles Rams vs. Minnesota Vikings Playoff game that was so muddy, I couldn't tell which team was which, despite the contrast in their colors. (The Rams' blue and gold, the Vikings' purple and white.) Come to think of it, that game was also on a New Year's Eve, in 1978, exactly 10 years earlier. The Rams won it, 34-10.

The Eagles had the 1st drive of the 2nd half, getting to the Bear 12, but an interception put an end to that. The Bears drove, but stalled, and Butler missed another field goal. An interception was turned into Zendejas' 4th field goal of the game, and the Eagles closed to within 17-12 by the end of the 3rd quarter.

Tomczak was knocked out of the game with an injury, and former starter Jim McMahon was back. He got the Bears into field goal range, and Butler added the 3 points. Around this time, Dan Hampton, the Bears' Hall of Fame defensive end, asked referee Jim Tunney what the score was, because he couldn't see the scoreboard. Never mind read it well enough to make out the numbers, he couldn't see the board. After the game, Hampton told the media, "If I'd known it was only 20-12, I would've played harder!"

The Eagles had 1 last chance, but Cunningham threw his 3rd interception of the game. He threw for 407 yards, but no touchdowns.

There had been football games known as "The Fog Bowl" before. On December 1, 1962, the Grey Cup, the Championship game of the Canadian Football League, at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, also off a Great Lake (Lake Ontario), was suspended and resumed the next day. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 28-27. And on December 28, 1974, steam rising off the frozen artificial turf at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas resembled fog. Mississippi State beat North Carolina, 28-26.

Within half an hour of the final gun of this game at Soldier Field, the fog lifted. Eagle fans still believe that if the game had been suspended once the fog rolled in, and restarted once it lifted, their team would've won. I don't think so: These were still Ditka's Bears, and Ryan was a terrible head coach who would have found a way to lose. And even if they had won it, they would have had to play the NFC Championship game away to the 49ers at their Joe Montana-to-Jerry Rice peak. The Bears did play the 49ers, at Soldier Field (the Bears had the better record), and, with no weather issues, the 49ers won.

This game has been cited as part of "The Curse of Billy Penn": From 1983, when the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA Championship, until 2008, when the Phillies won their next World Series, no Philadelphia professional sports team won a World Championship. The suggestion was that the construction of One Liberty Place in 1987, making it taller than the statue of William Penn atop City Hall, caused Penn's spirit to put a curse on the city's teams.

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December 31, 1988 was a Saturday. One other NFL Playoff game was played: The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Seattle Seahawks, 21-13 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. The Bengals won the AFC Championship Game, and the 49ers beat them in Super Bowl XXIII.

There were no NBA games scheduled. But there were 9 NHL games, including all 3 New York Tri-State Area teams:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 8-6 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. This was the game in which Mario Lemieux scored all 5 ways in which a player can score: Even-strength (at 4:17 of the 1st period), shorthanded (at 7:50 of the 1st), on the power play (at 10:59 of the 1st), a penalty shot (11:14 of the 2nd, and this was also shorthanded), and empty net (19:59 of the 3rd, in other words with 1 second left in regulation).

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 6-4 at the Nassau Coliseum

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-1 at Maple Leaf Garden in Toronto, in the 1st half of CBC's Hockey Night In Canada doubleheader.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Winnipeg Jets played the Calgary Flames to a 4-4 tie, at the Olympic Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum, in the 2nd half of the CNBC doubleheader. 

December 31, 1984: Rick Allen's Car Crash

December 31, 1984: Rick Allen, the drummer for British hard-rock band Def Leppard, is badly injured in a car crash, outside the hometown of most of the band's members, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Allen, himself from Dronfield, in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands, was thrown from his Chevrolet Corvette. He had a seat belt on. The belt did not restrain him. It did restrain his left arm, severing it.

Until this moment, Allen seemed to be living a charmed life with one of the biggest bands in the world. On his 15th birthday, November 1, 1978, he was admitted to the band, after responding to their classified ad for a new drummer. On his 16th birthday, they opened for one of the biggest rock bands in the world, AC/DC.

But at 21, his career seemed to be over. As lead singer Joe Elliott said, "If I lose my arm, I can still sing. If he loses his voice, he can still play drums." How can a drummer play drums with one arm?

Allen had a specially-rigged drum kit made by Whirlwind USA, whose cables allowed his left foot to play the parts his left hand would have. This setup made its debut on August 5, 1986, at the Monsters of Rock festival, at the Donington Park race track in Leicestershire, England. The band went on to have its biggest album, Hysteria, in 1987.

Def Leppard's guitarists, Phil Collin and Steve Clark, were known as "The Terror Twins." Clark died from excessive drinking in 1991. He was subsequently replaced by Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell. He, Allen, Elliott, Collin and bass guitarist Rick Savage (his real name, not a stage name) are still together in 2022.

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December 31, 1984 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between its Divisional Playoffs and its Conference Championships. There were 2 college football bowl games. Virginia beat Purdue, 27-24 in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. And West Virginia beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 31-14 in the Bluebonnet Bowl at the Astrodome in Houston.

There were no games played in the NBA, but there were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Minnesota North Stars, 4-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 6-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Quebec Nordiques and their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, played to a 4-4 tie at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings played to a 4-4 tie at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

December 31, 1975: Hockey's "Game of the Century"

Left to right: Peter Mahovlich,

Vladislav Tretiak, Yvan Cournoyer

December 31, 1975: A hockey game is played at the Montreal Forum. It not only ends up getting labeled "The Game of the Century," but it is often credited with "saving the sport."

Super Series '76 was scheduled, with 2 Soviet club teams taking on NHL teams. One was the reigning Soviet Champions, CSKA Moscow. Translated into English, "CSKA" (pronounced "CHESS-kah") became "Central Sports Club of the Army." It was a team sponsored by the country's Red Army, and that's what they were called in the American media: "The Red Army." The other was Krylya Sovetov, translated as "Soviet Wings." This suggests they were sponsored by the country's Air Force. Not quite: They were sponsored by the country's aircraft builders.

The Super Series began on December 28, 1975, at Madison Square Garden, and the Red Army pounded the New York Rangers, 7-3. This was understandable: Despite celebrating their 50th Season, the Broadway Blueshirts were in total disarray, having recently fired their head coach and general manager, Emile Francis; and traded away several key players, including goaltender Eddie Giacomin, defenseman Brad Park and center Jean Ratelle. On December 29, the Soviet Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-4. Also not a surprise: The Pens were not a good team at the time.

The next game got people's attention, though: On New Year's Eve, at the Montreal Forum, the Red Army took on the Montreal Canadiens, a team loaded with future Hall-of-Famers, and one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

Les Habitantes got on the board first, as Steve Shutt scored 3:10 into the game. At 7:25, Yvon Lambert made it 2-0. Boris Mikhailov scored for the Soviets, 3:54 into the 2nd period. At 9:39, Canadien Captain Yvan Cournoyer scored, to make it 3-1. So, of the Habs' 1st 3 goals, 2 were scored by men with the French variation on the Russian name "Ivan," meaning "John."

At 16:21, Valery Kharlamov scored, to make it 3-2. At 4:04 into the 3rd period, Boris Aleksandrov scored to tie the game. It ended in a 3-3 tie, and the entire game only saw 8 penalties called. Montreal goalie Ken Dryden saved 10 of 13 shots, while the Soviets' Vladislav Tretiak saved 35 of 38. Each man was reprising a fine performance in the 1972 "Summit Series." It has been called one of the greatest games in the sport's history.

"We outshot them 38 to 13, and that was pretty indicative of the way the game went," the Canadiens' Doug Risebrough said. "Vladislav Tretiak stole the game. He was just great. But the final score didn’t matter. Whether we won, lost or tied the game, we knew we had something special."

On January 4, 1976, an NHL team finally got a win. The Buffalo Sabres, who had advanced to the previous season's Stanley Cup Finals, beat the Wings, 12-6 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. But the Russians re-established their dominance: On January 7, the Wings went into the Chicago Stadium, and beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-2.

On January 8, the Red Army went into the Boston Garden and, playing a Boston Bruins team with Bobby Orr injured, Phil Esposito traded to the Rangers for Park and Ratelle, and Park and Ratelle not really settled in yet, dominated the Beantown Brats, 5-2. And on January 10, the Wings went out to Long Island, and beat the rising New York Islanders, 2-1.

There was one game left to play. On January 11, the Red Army went into The Spectrum in Philadelphia, to play the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-time defending Stanley Cup Champions. And the Flyers, in the process of standing up for America, undid a lot of the undoing of the damage.

They had a well-balanced team led by Captain Bobby Clarke and goaltender Bernie Parent. But they were also the most violent team hockey had ever seen, known as "The Broad Street Bullies." Philadelphia fans, enjoying their image as a city for tough people, loved it. 

In the 1st period, Ed Van Impe was sent to the penalty box for hooking. When his penalty ended, with the score still 0-0, he went right at Kharlamov, and elbowed him in the head. The referee, Lloyd Gilmour, did not call a penalty. Red Army coach Konstantin Loktev decided that his players were not going to be treated fairly, and, with the clock reading 11:21 of the 1st period (in other words, 9:39 to go), pulled his team off the ice. Bob Cole, calling the game for CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), yelled, "They're going home! They're going home!"

With the threat of losing their share of the gate receipts, the Russians were talked back into going back onto the ice, and the Flyers beat them, 4-1. Tretiak said the Flyers won by playing "rude hockey." Loktev called them "a bunch of animals." They were both right. But the Flyers had won, and came away believing the Russians were skilled but soft. They were right, too.

The Flyers made it 3 straight trips to the Stanley Cup Finals, and printed up memorabilia reading, "HAT TRICK IN '76." But the Canadiens put a stop to that, sweeping them in 4 straight, for the 1st of 4 straight Stanley Cups. They credited the New Year's Eve tie with the Soviets for sparking them into that dynasty. Dryden, Cournoyer, Shutt, Guy Lafleur, Jacques Lemaire, Bob Gainey, Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe and Larry Robinson would all be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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December 31, 1975 was a Wednesday. There were 4 regular-season games in the NHL that day:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Atlanta Flames, 8-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Washington Capitals, 4-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

There were no games in the World Hockey Association. Nor were there any in the NBA. There was 1 in the American Basketball Association: The Denver Nuggets beat the Kentucky Colonels, 141-137 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

Baseball was out of season. There were 2 college bowl games played. Number 4 Alabama beat Number 8 Penn State, 13-8 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. It was the 1st Sugar Bowl indoors, at the Superdome, after being outdoors at Tulane Stadium since New Year's Day 1935. And West Virginia beat North Carolina State, 13-10 in the Peach Bowl, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.