October 20, 1968: A year of shocking events hasn't run out of them yet. This one disturbed people on a level they didn't know they had.
Jacqueline Kennedy, former First Lady of the United States, widow of the martyred President John F. Kennedy, the most popular person in America, married Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping tycoon, on Skorpios, a private island that Onassis owned in the Ionian Sea.
In his 1988 book 1968 in America, journalist Charles Kaiser called it "the final shock." Kennedy fans couldn't believe that she was remarrying, especially to someone seen to be, in spite of his great wealth, a low-class person. Catholics couldn't believe she was marrying a man who was not only was divorced, but from a woman who was still alive. And people who may not have liked the Kennedys, but considered themselves to be American patriots, were infuriated that she would be living abroad with Onassis.
No one was willing to see it from her perspective. She had lost her husband, and had just lost his brother, who was both Jack's and Jackie's best friend, both to senseless acts of violence, on American soil. The great America could not protect its President or one of its Senators. Jackie had 2 small children. What was she supposed to think? That her children were safe?
This was not about love. Living abroad with "Ari," she, Caroline and John Jr. would have both financial security, about which she had always worried, personal security.
Her saintly image shattered, the woman now known as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, or Jackie Onassis, or "Jackie O," was now fair game for comedians. The NBC variety show Laugh-In had sketches showing Jackie as a flighty, free-spending fool, while Ari was oblivious to everything.
But, for the first time, the real Jackie was living on her own terms. She even took her kids and her new husband to Shea Stadium for the 1969 World Series between the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles.
While they were married, they lived on Skorpios, Onassis' house in the Greek capital of Athens, Onassis' apartment in central Paris, Jackie's 5th Avenue apartment in Manhattan, Jackie's horse farm in Peapack, New Jersey, and on Onassis' yacht, named Christina O for his daughter, who was 17 at the time of the marriage. By maintaining her friendships with Bobby's widow Ethel, and the last surviving brother, Ted, Jackie remained part of the Kennedy orbit.
Aristotle Onassis died in 1975. His financial legacy was severely limited under Greek law, which dictated how much a non-Greek surviving spouse could inherit. After 2 years of legal wrangling, Jackie accepted a settlement of $26 million from Christina, his sole heir, and waived all other claims to the Onassis estate. (Christina died in 1988, from a heart attack, only 37 years old.)
A two-time widow at 46, Jacqueline did not marry a third time, although, in 1980, she was often seen in the company of Maurice Tempelsman, a Belgian-born diamond merchant. They were together for the rest of her life. She lived mostly in New York, became a book editor, and led the effort to save Grand Central Terminal from replacement and destruction. She died in 1994, 64 years old, from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She was buried next to President Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery.
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October 20, 1968 was a Sunday. This was also the day that Dick Fosbury won the Gold Medal in the high jump at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. In so doing, he changed the event forever, using the technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop. I have a separate entry for that event.
In the NFL:
* The New York Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 26-10 at Yankee Stadium.
* The Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 29-16 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.
* The Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts, 30-20 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
* The New Orleans Saints beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-12 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions played to a tie, 14-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Minnesota Vikings, 20-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Redskins, 41-14 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-14 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
And in the American Football League:
* The New York Jets beat the Houston Oilers, 20-14 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Boston Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 230-6 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Miami Dolphins beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-22 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Kansas City Chiefs beat their arch-rivals, the Oakland Raiders, 24-10 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos, 55-24 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).
The baseball season ended 10 days earlier, with the Detroit Tigers beating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the World Series. There were no games in the NHL. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-96 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Lakers got 36 points from Elgin Baylor, 20 from Jerry West, but only 15 from Wilt Chamberlain. The Sixers got 35 points from Hal Greer.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 106-88 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.
* The Phoenix Suns beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 116-107 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
* And the San Diego Rockets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 123-108 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Elvin Hayes had 32 points and 24 rebounds for the Rockets, who moved to Houston in 1971.
And there was 1 game played in the American Basketball Association: The Oakland Oaks beat the Indiana Pacers, 144-133 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.
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