September 26, 1987: The Fox Network debuts the sitcom Second Chance. The opening scene of the pilot episode takes place in an office in Heaven, where St. Peter determines who gets in. The date is July 29, 2011, and the dictator of the North African nation of Libya, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, shows up, apparently having been killed in a coup. St. Peter's choice is easy: Send him to Hell.
It was a throwaway joke, on a bad show that got canceled after 9 episodes. The biggest thing anybody remembers, other than the Gaddafi reference, is that it was the 1st sitcom to star future Friends star Matthew Perry. Sadly, Kiel Martin, who played the 2011 version of Perry's character, who gets sent back to Earth to keep his younger self on the straight and narrow, died of cancer in 1990, only 46 years old. (UPDATE: It gets worse: Perry died from a drug relapse in 2023, at 54.)
If only Gaddafi had died in 1987, at 45 or so. Better yet, even earlier.
Here's the kicker: This lousy show predicted Gaddafi's death. It got the how right, which wasn't that hard. But as for the when, it was only off by 86 days. Pretty good for a throwaway joke on a sitcom with, as it turned out, 24 years of lead time.
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October 20, 2011: Muammar Gaddafi is killed by Libyan rebels during the Battle of Sirte. Having been deposed 3 months earlier from his brutal, weird rule of the country that had begun in 1969, the ex-dictator was believed to be 69 years old.
Little is known of his early life, including his full name. It appears to have been Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi. The spelling is unclear, as the Arabic alphabet doesn't really translate well to the Roman alphabet. Hence, his surname had often appeared as "Khadafy," "Qaddafi," and variations thereof; and his given name had often appeared as "Moammar."
The indeterminate spelling of his surname even worked its way into the pilot of the TV show The West Wing in 1999: The first lines spoken by John Spencer as White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry are in response to Gaddafi being a clue in the renowned New York Times Crossword Puzzle. McGarry said the dictator's name did not, as the puzzle said, have seven letters, even though the now-accepted version, "Gaddafi," does.
Because his family, as was usually done in nomadic Bedouin tribes, kept no birth records, his age was not known for certain. Most sources say he was born sometime in 1942, or in the Spring of 1943. Some who have studied the available evidence suggest he could have been born before 1940.
His birthplace was probably outside Qasr Abu Hadi, about 300 miles east along the Mediterranean Sea's coast from the capital of Tripoli. It is a rural area outside the town of Sirte, in the deserts of Tripolitania, in western Libya, then controlled by Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy. His upbringing in Bedouin culture influenced his personal tastes for the rest of his life: He preferred the desert over the city, and would retreat there to meditate. (His later arch-nemesis, Ronald Reagan, who liked going to his ranch outside Santa Barbara to get away from first Hollywood, then Washington, could probably have related on this one level.)
Italy had been trying to regain Libya, across the Mediterranean, since the end of the Roman Empire. (Arch-rival Carthage was in present-day Tunisia, adjacent to Libya.) It did so in 1934, but lost control in 1943, during World War II. The Libyan city of Benghazi, familiar to Americans for the 2012 attack on their consulate there, has been fought over many times, and 2 battles there in World War II were won by the Allies, forcing Axis forces out of the country.
Britain and France considered dividing the nation between their empires, but the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) decided that the country was to be granted political independence, and in 1951 created the United Kingdom of Libya, a federal state under the leadership of a pro-Western monarch, King Idris, who banned political parties and centralized power in his own hands. So, still, the country was not "free" as Americans understand the term, paving the way for future dictators.
In secondary school, Gaddafi had Egyptian teachers, and, from them, he received stories, both word-of-mouth and newspaper, about the overthrown of the corrupt King Farouk and the Socialist, pan-Arab dictatorship of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who outwitted Britain and France during the Suez Crisis of 1956.
With his good looks, cult of personality, and his adaptability -- appearing as a Western businessman, a soldier, or a pious Muslim, whichever he needed to seem to be at the time -- Nasser became the template for Middle Eastern dictators such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Assads in Syria, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and, of course, Gaddafi. But Gaddafi was a voracious reader, and also came to admire Abraham Lincoln, Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen, and the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
He enlisted in the Libyan Army, and rose through its ranks. In April 1966, he was assigned to Britain for further training. He learned English, but hated the place, claiming that British officers were racist to him. He later related that while he travelled to England believing it more advanced than Libya, he returned home "more confident and proud of our values, ideals and social character."
Libya's pointless participation in the Six-Day War against Israel in 1967 weakened King Idris, and resentment against him increased.
On September 1, 1969, while Idris was in Turkey, a group of Libyan Army officers under the leadership of Gaddafi launched a coup from Benghazi, and quickly established control over the country. The coup was bloodless, and received enthusiastic support from the public. Libya was declared a free and sovereign republic by the Revolutionary Command Council. Colonel Gaddafi, in his capacity as RCC chairman, became the de facto head of state.
He continued to call himself "Colonel Gaddafi" for the rest of his life. I remember thinking, "If he's all-powerful within his country, why doesn't he promote himself to General?" The British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen apparently agreed with me: While the events of Gaddafi's 2011 fall were going on, he was making a film titled The Dictator, and he named his character "Admiral-General Haffaz Aladeen." The parallels to Gaddafi were obvious, down to the Amazonian martial-arts-expert female bodyguards that Gaddafi preferred.
When Iran had its Islamic Revolution in 1979, he allied Libya with it. He made Libya pretty much the only nation that took Iran's side in its 1980-88 war with Iraq. Like Iran, he made Libya a state sponsor of terrorism against America. This resulted in President Ronald Reagan ordering a bombing attack on Libya in 1986. Gaddafi responded with the suicide bombing that destroyed an American airliner, Pan Am Flight 103, in 1988.
On a 1980 TV special, the Jewish American comedian Alan King used a map, photos and a pointer to try to explain the situation in the Middle East, which was confusing to so many Americans, who couldn't tell the difference between Iran and Iraq. Iraq had a President named Hussein, Jordan had a King named Hussein, Morocco had a King named Hassan, Finally, King (Alan, not Hussein or Hassan) said, "Now, who's on the side of rich little Iran? Not Rich Little! We have Libya. Libya, which is run by Colonel Gaddafi. And they gotta throw a net over this guy. Colonel Gaddafi makes the Ayatollah look like Donny Osmond!"
But after Pan Am 103, America and Libya pretty much left each other alone for a while. Osama bin Laden, the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda, became the prime focus of American attention on the Middle East. With that attention taken off him, Gaddafi was free to continue to rule absolutely, his whims allowing him to do things that would make people in free countries shudder -- or laugh.
But as he got older, his hold on power became more tenuous. There were protests in Zawiya on August 8, 2009. That paved the way for a new round of protests that began in Benghazi on February 15, 2011. The forces opposing Gaddafi established a "shadow" governing body, the National Transitional Council (NTC). On February 26, the United Nations Security Council froze the assets of Gaddafi and his inner circle, restricted their travel, and referred their case to the International Criminal Court for investigation.
In August, rebel forces launched an offensive, backed by a wide-reaching NATO bombing campaign, taking back territory lost months before, and ultimately capturing Tripoli. On September 16, the NTC was recognized by the UN as the legal representative of Libya.
Muammar Gaddafi evaded capture until October 20, when he was captured and killed in Sirte. The NTC declared "the liberation of Libya" and the official end of the war on October 23.
There was a low-level insurgency by former Gaddafi loyalists, and this led to a second civil war that lasted until 2020, including the 2012 storming of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed 4 Americans. As of October 20, 2022, there is no active fighting, but a new government has been slow to gain traction in acceptance. Libya remains in turmoil, and it cannot seriously be considered a "free country."
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October 20, 2011 was a Thursday. Game 2 of the World Series was played, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Texas Rangers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1. Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young won the game in the top of the 9th inning. Albert Pujols went 0-for-4 for the Cardinals.
There were 2 major college football games played that night. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) beat the University of Central Florida (UCF), 26-24 at Legion Field in Birmingham. And the University of Arizona (the abbreviation "UA" is usually not used) beat the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 48-12 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.
The NBA team owners locked the players out, so the season didn't start until December 25, Christmas Day. There were 11 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary. Ryan McDonagh scored the winning goal with 2 seconds left in overtime, preventing a shootout.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-2 at the TD Garden in Boston.
* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Florida Panthers, 3-0 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-1 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh.
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.
* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 2-0 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.
* The Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 in a shootout at Rexall Place (as the Northlands Coliseum was known at the time) in Edmonton.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Nashville Predators, 5-1 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
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