October 9, 1967: The Death of Che Guevara

October 9, 1967: Che Guevara is executed by the Bolivian Army. He was 39 years old.

Born in 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, Ernesto Guevara was an accomplished rugby player in school, and earned a medical degree in 1953. By that point, he had undertaken a motorcycle trip across South America and Central America, which he documented in a book titled The Motorcycle Diaries. Seeing the effect that American-supported dictatorships had on poor people, he wrote of "the shivering flesh-and-blood victims of capitalist exploitation."

It made him a Communist, and he met up with Fidel Castro, aiding him, and avoiding imprisonment as a result of the failed 26th of July Revolution. His frequent use of the word "che," an Argentine word equivalent to "Eh?" led to it becoming his nickname.

His further study of Communism made him more ready when Castro got out of prison, and became his second-in-command. In 1959, they overthrew the fascist, Mafia-aided regime of President Fulgencio Batista, and Cuba became a Communist nation. Guevara became Minister of Industries, led a successful nationwide literacy campaign, and was President of the National Bank. On March 5, 1960, Cuban photographer Alberto Korda took the famous Guerrillero Heroico picture of Guevara wearing a beret, at a memorial service in Havana.

Guevara left Cuba in 1965, to foment continental revolutions elsewhere. He was unsuccessful in the Congo in Africa. Then he went to the South American nation of Bolivia in 1966, but, on October 7, 1967, he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces. He told them, "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara, and I am worth more to you alive than dead."

President René Barrientos of Bolivia didn't care, and ordered his execution. As Sergeant Mario Terán approached to perform the execution, Guevara said, "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man!" He did, but later described it as "the worst moment of my life." He served 30 years in the Army, and died in 2022.

Korda died in 2001. Barrientos was killed in a helicopter crash in 1969. Assassination by sabotage has been rumored by never proven. Castro remained official dictator of Cuba until 2011, handing official power over to his brother Raúl, and died in 2016. As of October 9, 2022, Cuba remains a Communist nation.

In life, Guevara was a traitor to his medical training of "First, do no harm," becoming a vicious killer. In death, that famous photo made him a symbol of peace and love to an entire generation who didn't realize what he was in life. In a further irony, the Korda photograph became one of the most reproduced images ever, leading to Che's image appearing on all kinds of merchandise, benefiting the capitalism he hated so much.

This was referenced in a 2019 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, which featured Robert Rico playing Guevara, and "Nice" Peter Shukoff playing another legendary failed revolutionary, Guy Fawkes.

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October 9, 1967 was a Monday. Gheorghe Popescu was born on this day. He and Gheorghe Hagi are probably the 2 greatest soccer players ever to come from the Eastern European nation of Romania, and they are brothers-in-law.

Since it was too soon for the NBA and NHL seasons, and there would be no Monday Night Football for another 3 seasons, there was only 1 score on this historic day. It was in Game 5 of the World Series, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. In a must-win game for the Boston Red Sox, Jim Lonborg goes the distance, tiring in the 9th inning and giving up a home run to former New York Yankee Roger Maris, but hanging on for a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Steve Carlton had pitched well in defeat for the Cards. In 1976, '77 and '78, Carlton and Lonborg would be teammates on the National League Eastern Division Champion Philadelphia Phillies.