November 25, 1986: The Iran-Contra Scandal

November 25, 1986: Of all the scandals in the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, what already should have been the biggest one gets a lot bigger.

On November 3, 1 day before the midterm Congressional elections, Ash-Shiraa (Arabic for "The Sail"), a magazine based in the Middle Eastern nation of Lebanon, reported that the American government had secretly been selling weapons to Iran, in order to secure the release of 7 American hostages held in Lebanon by pro-Iranian groups.

And if this had been the extent of Reagan's involvement, it would have been bad enough, an impeachable offense. This was not the extent of it.

On November 4, the Democratic Party gained 8 seats in the U.S. Senate, enough to take control for the 1st time in 6 years. That was actually more seats than they gained in the House of Representatives, 5, but they already had control there.

Representative Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill of Massachusetts, retiring after 34 years in Congress, the last 10 as Speaker of the House, told the media, "The Reagan Revolution is dead." It sure seemed likely: For the last 2 years of Reagan's 2nd term -- regardless of whether he finished it -- Congress would be fully under Democratic control, making it more willing to investigate any misdeeds for which he and his men were responsible. And the new Speaker would be Jim Wright of Texas: While O'Neill and Reagan put partisanship aside enough to become friendly when not talking politics, relying on their shared Irishness and love of baseball, Wright had no such connection with Reagan.

On November 25, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, who had worked with Reagan since the beginning of his tenure as Governor of California in 1967, publicly admitted that profits from weapons sales to Iran were made available to assist the Contras, a right-wing paramilitary group looking to overthrow the Communist government of Nicaragua.

This was prohibited by the Boland Amendment to the War Powers Act of 1973. Like O'Neill, a close friend of his, Eddie Boland was a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, and he wanted to outlaw such assistance, because people from his District, aid workers in Nicaragua, had been killed by the Contras. It was unanimously passed by Congress in 1982, and Reagan himself had signed it into law.

Therefore, if it could be proven that Reagan had authorized the "Contra" part of what had now become known as "The Iran-Contra Affair," he needed to be impeached by the House, and convicted and removed from office by the Senate. This was just 12 years after Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency, rather than face that likelihood over the Watergate scandal, and many of the major players in Congress in 1974 were still there at this point, so it was fresh in people's memory. 

Also on November 25, former U.S. Navy Admiral John Poindexter, Reagan's National Security Adviser, up to his neck in the scandal, resigned. One of his aides, Oliver North, a Lieutenant Colonel still on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps, was discovered to have shredded documents relating to the funding of the Contras, and Reagan flat-out fired him.

An actor before going into politics, Reagan made 69 films between 1937 and 1964, 4 with his 1st wife, Jane Wyman, and 1 with his 2nd wife and eventual First Lady, then billed as Nancy Davis. In 2 of his films, he, a former football player at NCAA Division III Eureka College in Illinois, played sports legends: Notre Dame back George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All-American in 1940; and St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander (a man named for a President) in The Winning Team in 1952.

But there was no role he played better than "President Reagan." Parodying a commercial for pain reliever that debuted during his 1st term, "I'm not a doctor, but... " I said, "Ronald Reagan isn't a great President, but he plays one on TV." And no matter what bad things happened on his watch, nothing seemed to stick to him -- hence the nickname "The Teflon President" -- and nothing seemed to faze him.

But Iran-Contra fazed Ronald Reagan. He was now approaching his 76th birthday, and, for the first time, he looked tired. The familiar smile was seen less often. There were times, especially during press conferences, where not only was his famed ability to verbally fence with, and disarm, reporters gone, but he looked like, as had often been said of boxers who had taken a beating, he didn't know where he was.

After bad performances in his debates with Walter Mondale during the 1984 election, people began to joke that Reagan, by that point the oldest President in American history, had Alzheimer's disease. Now, it looked like it was no longer a joke. Indeed, in 1994, he revealed that he now had it, but wouldn't admit to having had it while still President.

One great performance came on the December 6, 1986 episode of Saturday Night Live. Phil Hartman played Reagan, showing that his friendly but out-of-it persona was a façade, and that the Iran-Contra scandal was actually masking a James Bond-style supervillain, trading money, armaments and illicit goods all over the world -- including to Iraq, with whom America would end up at war 4 years later.

Hartman as Reagan on SNL

Howard Baker, the former Senate Majority Leader from Tennessee, who had been one of Reagan's competitors for the 1980 Republican nomination for President, and had been a member of the Senate Select Committee investigating Watergate, was brought in as his new White House Chief of Staff, to get the White House running properly again, and also to calm his old friends in Congress down.

On February 26, 1987, the Tower Commission -- chaired by his old friend, former Senator John Tower of Texas -- issued its report. As historian Michael Farquhar put it in his 2015 book Bad Days In History:

Rather than being seen as a maniacal schemer bent on undermining the law, Reagan was portrayed by the commission as something almost as bad: in essence, a doddering old coot who remained clueless as members of his administration ran amok, dealing with terrorists and illegally funding a foreign war.

By early May 1987, when hearings were underway, it became clear that, unlike with Nixon, nobody was going to "flip" on Reagan. There would be no "John Dean," only a bunch of "G. Gordon Liddys." No Articles of Impeachment were ever drawn up against him. If he was still alive on January 20, 1989, the end of his 2nd term, he was going to serve it out.

He did, leaving office just short of turning 78. (The current President, Joe Biden, has broken his record. Despite attacks by Republicans, his mind is still sharp.) Reagan admitted to having Alzheimer's in 1994, stepped out of public life, and died in 2004, at age 93, at the time the oldest former President ever.

In 1998, with Reagan and most of the people associated with his Administration still alive, PBS aired a documentary as part of its series The American Experience: The Presidents. Nancy was not interviewed, but his children were: Sons Michael and Ronald, and daughters Maureen and Patti (who uses her mother's maiden name as her last name, Davis).

Meese was interviewed, but while he resigned as Attorney General due to his apparent role in the Wedtech scandal, he has never been indicted for any crimes, and he appears not to have committed any of the crimes connected to Iran-Contra. The major figures involved in Iran-Contra were not interviewed: Not Poindexter, not North, not Fawn Hall, the secretary he ordered to do the document shredding.

One exception was Robert C. "Bud" McFarlane, Poindexter's predecessor as National Security Adviser. In his interview, he said that, on July 18, 1985, while Reagan was hospitalized for cancer surgery, he presented the President with the plan of the arms sales to Iran and the redirection of the profits to the Contras, and that Reagan -- possibly compromised due to the drugs he was being prescribed -- approved it.

This contradicted what McFarlane had said in his testimony before Congress. He had already pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress, and was sentenced to 2 years' probation -- no jail time. Reagan's Vice President and successor as President, George H.W. Bush, made McFarlane the beneficiary of one of his "Christmas Pardons" on December 24, 1992.

If McFarlane had told Congress the truth in the Spring of 1987, Reagan could well have been impeached and removed by the end of the calendar year. Bush would have had a full year as an incumbent under his belt as he ran for President in 1988, but would have had to do a lot more defending of himself, his people, and the Republican Party in general than he actually ended up having to do. And, instead of winning in a landslide, he might have lost.

McFarlane died on May 12, 2022, at the age of 84. Lots of people were convicted in connection with Iran-Contra. Thanks to Bush, few of them really paid for it. Reagan got away with it completely.

*

November 25, 1986 was a Tuesday, 2 days before Thanksgiving. That made it the off-season for baseball, and an off-day for the NFL. There were 8 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New York Knicks beat the Houston Rockets, 102-93 at Madison Square Garden. Gerald Henderson came off the bench to lead Knick scorers with 21 points. Patrick Ewing did not play, for reasons I've forgotten and for which I can't find a reason online. Hakeem Olajuwon matched his uniform number by scoring 34 in defeat.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 117-99 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. Orlando Woolridge led the Meadowlands team with 21 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 102-100 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Maurice Cheeks led the Sixers with 23 points. A young Charles Barkley scored 17. Julius "Dr. J" Erving, in his final season, scored 16. The Celtics' Big Three? Kevin McHale 29, Larry Bird 22, Robert Parish 10.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 111-99 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-107 at the Great Western Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California. Dominique Wilkins scored 26, while Magic Johnson had 22 and Byron Scott 20 for the Lakers. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was held to 16.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Utah Jazz, 111-106 at what's now named the Oracle Arena in Oakland.

* The Sacramento Kings beat the Phoenix Suns, 123-102 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento. This was the 10,333-seat original version, not its 17,317-seat successor built in 1988, later known as the Power Balance Pavilion and the Sleep Train Arena. The old arena, in California's capital city, has been converted into office space, and now houses the State's Department of Consumer Affairs. The new arena has been converted into a hospital for COVID-19 victims, and its long-term fate is uncertain.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 113-103 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 NHL games played on the day, only 1 involving a New York Tri-State Area team:

* The New York Islanders beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at Le Colisée de Québec. 

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 11-5 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

November 4, 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis Begins

November 4, 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis begins. Islamic militants, inspired by the Islamic Revolution 9 months earlier, led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a fundamentalist Shia Muslim cleric, take over the U.S. Embassy in Iran, and take 80 hostages, a number that will drop to 52. At first, the nation rallies around President Jimmy Carter, as the nation tends to rally around the President when a crisis occurs.

By April 25, 1980, when the failed "Desert One" rescue attempt occurred, Carter had the Democratic nomination for a 2nd term sewed up, and people (including some Republicans crossing over) started voting for Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy as a protest vote, knowing he could no longer win the nomination, but the Primaries he might win could, and did, damage Carter.

As the Crisis dragged on and on, with ABC News starting its late-night broadcast Nightline, hosted by Ted Koppel, and that show and Walter Cronkite on The CBS Evening News both counting the days up and up and up -- Day 50, Day 100, Day 200, Day 365, and so on -- and as the economy continued to struggle as it had begun to do in 1979, people got more and more fed up with Carter.

The 1980 election was held exactly one year to the date after the Crisis began, and Carter lost very badly to Ronald Reagan.

As the great politically-themed comedian Mort Sahl put it: "Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. Had he run unopposed, he would have lost."

The hostages:

* From the U.S. Army: Colonels Leland Holland and Charles W. Scott, military attachés; Chief Warrant Officer 3rd Class Joseph M. Hall, USA, military attaché; Master Sergeant Regis Ragan, defense attaché’s office; Staff Sergeant Joseph Subic, military police; Specialist 1st Class Donald Hohman, medic.

* From the U.S. Navy: Commander Donald Sharer and Lieutenant Commander Robert Engelmann, military attachés; IS1 Duane Gillette, communications and intelligence specialist.

* From the U.S. Air Force: Colonel Thomas Schaefer, Air Force attaché; Lieutenant Colonel David Roeder, deputy Air Force attaché; Captain Neal Robinson, military intelligence officer; Captain Paul Needham, logistics staff officer; Master Sergeant Joseph Vincent and Sergeant James Hughes, administrative managers.

* From the U.S. Marine Corps: Staff Sergeant Michael Moeller, head of the Marine Corps guard unit, as every U.S. Embassy is guarded by Marines; Sergeants William Gallegos, Kevin Hermening, Paul Lewis, James Lopez, Ladell Maples, John McKeel, Gregory Persinger, William Quarles, Rodney Sickmann, David Walker and Westley Williams, and Corporal Steven Kirtley, embassy guards.

* From the CIA (their roles since declassified): William J. Daugherty, secretary of the U.S. mission; Jerry Miele and Phillip Ward, communications officers.

* Civilians: Richard Morefield, consul general; Thomas Ahern, narcotics control officer; Clair Cortland Barnes, communications specialist; William Belk, records officer; Robert Blucker, economics officer; Donald Cooke and Richard Queen, vice consuls; Bruce German, budget officer; Alan Golacinski, chief of embassy security; John Graves, public affairs officer; Michael Howland, assistant regional security officer; Charles A. Jones Jr., teletype operator; Malcolm Kalp and Moorhead Kennedy, commercial officers; Kathryn Koob, cultural officer; Frederick Kupke, electronics specialist; Bruce Laingen, chargé d'affaires; Gary Lee, administrative officer; John Limbert and Michael Metrinko, political officers; Bert Moore, administration counselor; Robert Ode, retired foreign service officer on temporary duty in Tehran; Jerry Plotkin, civilian businessman visiting Tehran; Lloyd Rollins, administrative officer; Barry Rosen, press attaché; William Royer, assistant director of the Iran-American Society; Elizabeth Ann Swift, deputy head of political section; Victor Tomseth, counselor for political affairs; Kathy Gross, Lillian Johnson, Elizabeth Montagne, Terri Tedford and Joan Walsh, secretaries.

Kathy Gross, Ladell Maples and William Quarles were released on November 19, 1979. James Hughes, Lillian Johnson, Elizabeth Montagne, Lloyd Rollins, Neal Robinson, Terri Tedford, Joseph Vincent, David Walker, Joan Walsh and Westley Williams were released on November 20. Richard Queen, for health reasons, was released on July 11, 1980. The remaining 52 had to wait until the end, January 20, 1981, 444 days.

Joan Walsh and Michael Howland married each other in 1982. William Keough died in 1985, Leland Holland in 1990, John McKeel in 1991, Robert Ode in 1995, Jerry Plotkin in 1996, Bert Moore in 2000, Michael Kalp and Richard Queen in 2002, Elizabeth Cronin (formerly Elizabeth Swift) in 2004; Bruce German, Richard Morefield and Gary Lee in 2010, Phillip Ward in 2012, Thomas Schaefer in 2016, Neal Robinson in 2017, Bruce Laingen in 2019, Westley Williams in 2020, Donald Sharer and Donald Hohman in 2021, and Duane Gillette in 2022. As of November 4, 2022, the others are still alive.

UPDATE: Moorhead Kennedy died in 2024.

*

November 4, 1979 was a Sunday. The baseball season was over. But the NFL held games:

* The New York Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 16-14 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Green Bay Packers, 27-22 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-19 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 26-6 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Washington Redskins, 38-7 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 38-28 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 17-14 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 35-7 at the old Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings, 37-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-14 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the New Orleans Saints, 10-3 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the San Francisco 49ers, 23-10 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks, 24-0 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Houston Oilers beat the Miami Dolphins, 9-6 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

There were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Kansas City Kings, 101-98 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena)

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 114-101 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 127-124 in overtime at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. George Gervin led all scorers on the night, with 32 points.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Rangers trailed 2-1 with 4:16 left in regulation, but they got an equalizer on the power play from Anders Hedberg at that point, a go-ahead goal from Phil Esposito with 3:07 to go, and an empty-netter at the end from Don Maloney.

* The New York Islanders played the Winnipeg Jets to a tie, 4-4 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

October 21, 1980: The October Surprise

October 21, 1980: Iranian negotiators, previously offered military equipment by the Carter Administration as part of the exchange for the 52 remaining American hostages from the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran the preceding November 4, turn this offer down.

This followed a meeting with former Republican government officials, including former Deputy Secretary of State William Casey, who told the Iranians that, no matter what, they shouldn't release the hostages before November 4, Election Day.

This denied the last chance of the incumbent President, Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, to get the hostages freed before the election, and assured the victory of the Republican nominee, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California.

Although this was not the 1st use of the phrase "October Surprise," it is the best-remembered example. Still, it's not clear that getting the hostages out between October 21 and November 3 would have saved Carter: There were other issues, such as inflation, interest rates, and Carter's handling of the Cold War.

Oh yeah: Reagan rewarded Casey by naming him Director of the CIA, and he became a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal. A previous President, Andrew Jackson, would have called that "a corrupt bargain."

Also on this day, Kimberly Noel Kardashian is born in Los Angeles. Unlike her former friend Paris Hilton, another L.A.-based heiress with an embarrassingly released sex tape, Kim is not an "heirhead." She actually works for a living, and not just as a model: She worked for the music-marketing company that was run by her late father, Robert Kardashian, who had given up being a high-powered L.A. lawyer to do it, returning for one last case in 1994-95 (the murder defense "Dream Team" of O.J. Simpson).

She and her sisters Kourtney and Khloé also run high-end women's clothing stores. Kim was often the main focus of the E! reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

What does Kim have to do with sports? Well, after her parents Robert and Kris divorced, Kris married Olympic decathlon Gold Medalist Bruce Jenner, though they split up, and Bruce has "transitioned" into what he, now she, has always considered his, now her, true identity of Caitlin Jenner.

Kim married then-Nets player Kris Humphries, following Khloé's marriage to Los Angeles Lakers player Lamar Odom. However, the Kardashian-Humphries marriage collapsed after 72 days, and Kim later married to Kanye West, and they now have 4 children, but have also split up. Khloé and Lamar split, and Khloé had 2 children with Tristan Thompson, then of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they have also now split.

Previously, Kim dated, among others, running back Reggie Bush, in a relationship the gossip pages liked to call "Kush." And if "Bush" and "Kush" rhyme with a prominent part of Kim's anatomy, that's not my fault!

*

October 21, 1980 was a Tuesday. This was also the day the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series for the 1st time, beating the Kansas City Royals, 4-1 at Veterans Stadium in Game 6. I have a separate entry for that event.

Football was in midweek. There were 8 NBA games played that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the Chicago Bulls, 105-97 at Madison Square Garden. Ray Williams scored 27 for the Knickerbockers.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 121-116 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-95 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Kansas City Kings, 116-11 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. (It's now named the the Hy-Vee Arena.)

* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 119-117 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver. Moses Malone had 41 points and 26 rebounds for the Rockets.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the San Diego Clippers, 123-120 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. The Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Dallas Mavericks, 111-99 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 107-103 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

There were 4 NHL games: 

* The New York Islanders lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 6-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-5 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the St. Louis Arena.

September 22, 1980: The Iran-Iraq War Begins

September 22, 1980: The Iran-Iraq War begins, when Iraq invades from the east.

Iraq's primary rationale for the attack against Iran cited the need to prevent the country's new Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had spearheaded the Iranian Revolution in 1979, from exporting his ideology to Iraq.

There were also fears among the Iraqi leadership of President Saddam Hussein that Iran, a theocratic state with a population predominantly composed of Shia Muslims, would exploit sectarian tensions in Iraq by rallying Iraq's Shia majority against the Ba'ath Party government, which was officially secular, but was dominated by Sunni Muslims.

An estimated 85 to 90 percent of the world's Muslims are Sunni. The remaining 10 to 15 percent are Shia. The term "Shiite" (pronounced "SHE-ight") was frequently used in America after the 1979 Revolution, but was generally dropped due to its resemblance to an English profanity. It is estimated that, in Iraq, about 61 percent of the population is Shia, and 34 percent are Sunni, like the Ba'athists. So the Ba'athists were, though a dictatorship, a minority government. Only 2 percent of Iraqis are Christian.

The war lasted 8 years, until a truce was brokered by the United Nations. So who won? Neither. Nobody gained anything, and there were losses. A lot of losses. Neither side was all that honest about its casualties. Iran's death toll could be anywhere from 200,000 to 600,000. Iraq's has been cited as anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000. And it's been said that there were 100,000 civilian casualties, both sides combined.

At the time, Saddam was considered America’s ally, since he opposed Iran and Khomeini. With hindsight, this may not have been the proper stance. Americans would see games where they didn't like either team, and joke, "It's like Iran vs. Iraq: It’s a shame they can't both lose." In this war, both did.

*

September 22, 1980 was a Monday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Tommy John outpitched Len Barker. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4. Bob Watson went 1-for-3 with 3 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski did not play, but Tony Pérez and Dwight Evans hit home runs for Boston. Eddie Murray went 1-for-5.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Willie Stargell did not play.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Rod Carew went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Robin Yount did not play, but Paul Molitor went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 1-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Jerry Koosman allowed 9 hits, but no runs, over 8 innings. Doug Corbett finished the shutout.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Keith Moreland doubled Larry Bowa home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning, giving Steve Carlton his 23rd win of the season. Mike Schmidt hit his 42nd home run of the season. Pete Rose went 0-for-5.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 4-2 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Joe Niekro outpitched Bob Shirley. Dave Winfield went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Willie Horton singled Bruce Bochte home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. George Brett and Willie Aikens hit home runs for the Royals. Brett ended the day batting .393, and finished at .390.

* And the Chicago White Sox and the Oakland Athletics were not scheduled.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New York Giants, 35-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

April 25, 1980: The Failed Desert One Rescue

April 25, 1980: Operation Eagle Claw is launched. It becomes known by its staging area, codenamed Desert One. It was an attempt to rescue the Americans being held hostage by the Iranian government. It was one of the earliest operations of the U.S. Army's Delta Force special-operations group.

But of the 8 helicopters meant to be involved, one had hydraulic problems, one had a cracked rotor blade, and another was caught in a sandstorm. The field commanders got word back to Washington, saying the mission should be aborted. President Jimmy Carter gave that order.

But as the helicopters withdrew, one crashed into a transport aircraft, killing 8 servicemen. Had that not happened, Carter could have simply not told the country what had happened -- and he could have gotten away with it, because nothing had happened.

During his 1976 campaign for President, Carter told the American people, "I will never lie to you." The words had great resonance in the wake of Richard Nixon and Watergate. If the mission were aborted, and he didn't reveal it, it wouldn't have been a lie, just an omission, necessary due to national security. The story might have remained a secret for years. But Carter couldn't hide this.

And so he addressed the nation early in the morning, U.S. time, from the Oval Office in the White House. He was already in trouble in his bid for re-election. Had the mission succeeded, all the talk of the apparent Republican nominee for President, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, of the Democrats being weak on national security would have evaporated. Instead, Carter now looked absolutely hopeless. His only hope of winning after this was getting the hostages home before the election on November 4. He didn't.

Three days later, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who had advised Carter not to go through with the rescue plan, resigned. It was the 1st time a Secretary of State had resigned over a difference of principle with his President since William Jennings Bryan quit on Woodrow Wilson over the approach to World War I in 1915.

Cyrus Vance

Carter appointed Senator Ed Muskie of Maine, the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 1968, to replace Vance. He was easily confirmed, and proved vital in the negotiations to get the hostages released.

When President Barack Obama was told of the chance to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011, he knew that if the mission failed, it would be "his Desert One," and he would probably lose his bid for re-election. Advised to do so by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he gave the order to go ahead, and it worked spectacularly: The target was eliminated, and none of our people were lost. Obama was re-elected.

He was lucky. Carter was not.

*

April 25, 1980 was a Friday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were between rounds. The NBA Playoffs were in the Conference Finals. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics, 102-90 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 104-100 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. The Lakers would beat the Sixers in the Finals.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 6-0 at Yankee Stadium. Steve Trout pitched a 7-hit shutout. And it wouldn't be the last time he hurt the Yankees. Ed Figueroa lasted only 4 innings. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4. Jim Morrison hit a home run for the White Sox. No, not the lead singer for The Doors, although their organist, Ray Manzarek, grew up as a White Sox fan on the South Side of Chicago.

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 7-4 at the Astrodome in Houston. J.R. Richard was the winning pitcher. Just 3 months later, this would-be Hall-of-Famer suffered a stroke, and never played another major league game.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Montreal Expos, 8-7 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Chris Chambliss doubled home Jerry Royster in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 11-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Willie Stargell went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Robin Yount went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Paul Molitor went 1-for-5.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 10-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 0-for-5.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-0 at Royals Stadium (later renamed Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Larry Gura pitched a 4-hit shutout. George Brett tripled home a run in the 1st inning, and then had to leave the game due to an injury.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 6-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Dave Winfield hit a home run for the Padres.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-3 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Rod Carew went 0-for-4.

February 14, 1989: The Fatwa Against Salman Rushdie

February 14, 1989: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, supreme leader of Iran, issues a fatwa, a death sentence under Islamic law, against novelist Salman Rushdie.

Ahmed Salman Rushdie was born on June 19, 1947 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. His father was a lawyer, educated at England's Cambridge University. He was inspired to become a writer by reading The Wizard of Oz. Although India gained independence 2 months after his birth, he retained his British citizenship, and he claimed to be "obsessed with P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie." He also became fascinated by fantasy, especially J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books; and science fiction, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke.

But, given what he wrote later, the author that may have had the most effect on him was Kurt Vonnegut. Absurdist novels like Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five inspired his debut novel, Grimus, in 1975; and Midnight's Children, in 1981. Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize, awarded annually to "the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, which was published in the United Kingdom or Ireland."

In 1988, Rushdie published The Satanic Verses. The title refers to a group of Quarnic verses about three pagan (pre-Islamic) Meccan goddesses: The sisters Al-Lat, goddess of war, peace, combat, and prosperity; Al-Uzza, goddess of might and protection; and Manāt, Goddess of fate, fortune, time, death, and destiny.

The main story involves 2 actors, Indians raised as Muslims but now living in Britain, much like Rushdie himself (except he wasn't an actor). The book takes on a fantasy element, a weird one that I won't get into here, but Rushdie used this framing to describe the Indian and Muslim experiences in Britain.

The book's straying from reality wasn't enough for Islamic fundamentalists, and the Ayatollah issued his fatwa. A little more than 3 months later, it was not Rushdie, but Khomeini, who was dead -- although being 89 years old had something to do with that. Today, Rushdie is still alive.

In 1991, Ettore Capirolo, Rushdie's Italian translator, was stabbed at his home in Milan, though he survived. Ten days later, Hitoshi Igarashi, Rushdie's Japanese translator, was stabbed to death in his office at the University of Tsukuba. In 1993, 37 people died when arsonists set fire to a hotel in Siva, Turkey, where Aziz Nesin, Rushdie's Turkish translator, was staying. He survived. Four months later, William Nygaard, Rushdie's Norwegian publisher, was shot, and needed months of recovery.

In March 2016, the bounty for the Rushdie fatwa was raised to $3 million.

Rushdie was a fan of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, of North London. This was not the reason for the fatwa. It is, however, a good reason to go into hiding. (I'm a fan of Spurs' North London arch-rivals, Arsenal.)

In 2007, Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, for "services to literature." To most of the world, he is a hero of the fight for freedom of speech.

UPDATE: On August 12, 2022, Rushdie faced his closest call yet. He was attacked onstage while speaking at an event of the Chautauqua Institution, in Chautauqua, in the southwestern corner of New York State.

He was flown by medivac helicopter to a hospital in nearby Erie, Pennsylvania. Rushdie had 14 separate wounds. He lost the use of his right eye, lost function in his left hand, and sustained liver damage. He was 75 years old.

And yet, the doctors were able to save his life. One told him he was very lucky that the guy who attacked him didn’t know how to kill a person with a knife. He described himself as "a medical miracle," and wrote a book about the Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.

He said the book was about 3 people: Himself; the assailant, who represented Death; and his wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, an African-American visual artist, who represented Love. He said, "Love wins." (He had been married 4 times before, including to Indian television personality Padma Lakshmi, and has a son with his 1st wife and a son with his 3rd.)

He did not mention the assailant's name. His was Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, Bergen County, New Jersey. He was convicted in 2025, and faces up to 25 years in prison. The Iranian government denied any involvement in the attack, but Iranian media celebrated it.

*

February 14, 1989 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 11 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 129-117 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, 132-91 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat, 109-98 at the Miami Arena.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 117-98 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics, 137-123 at The Summit in Houston. When the Rockets moved to the Toyota Center in 2003, televangelist Joel Osteen bought The Summit, and converted it into the Central Campus of his Lakewood Church. It must bother him that he will never be as popular in that building as a black Muslim immigrant named Hakeem Olajuwon, who, on this night, scored 35 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for the Rockets.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers, 113-108 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls, 106-98 at the Chicago Stadium. Dominique Wilkins, "the Human Highlight Film," scored 36 points for the Hawks.

* The Utah Jazz beat their arch-rivals, the Denver Nuggets, 119-105 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 111-103 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. James Worthy scored 33 points. This was a rematch of the previous season's NBA Finals, won by the Lakers. It turned out to be a preview of this season's Finals, won by the Pistons.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Sacramento Kings, 107-99 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Antonio Spurs, 129-113 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The New York Islanders beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 7-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-3 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Boston Bruins, 5-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

February 1, 1979: The Ayatollah Returns to Iran

February 1, 1979: The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran, after a 15-year exile. It is seen as the high point of the Iranian Revolution, a.k.a. the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

He was born on May 17, 1900 in Khomeyn, hence his surname. His homeland was known as Qajar Iran, or "The Sublime State of Persia," until 1925. The Pahlavi dynasty took hold, and in 1935, changed the country's name from Persia to Iran.

As a young man, Khomeini was fascinated with both his native Shia Islamic culture and the ancient Greeks, in particular Aristotle. He became a leading Shia scholar and a published poet in the 1920s. By the 1940s, he was writing political books.

In 1963, having been awarded the honorific "Ayatollah," meaning "Sign of God" -- and there are many Ayatollahs, it's just that he's the one who ended up being referred to as the Ayatollah -- he opposed the "White Revolution," a liberalization of the nation announced by the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. He was placed under house arrest, and was expelled from the country on November 4, 1964, living in Bursa, Turkey for a year, and then in Najaf, Iraq until 1978, when he was expelled from that country by its new dictator, Saddam Hussein. He fled to Paris. 

Aware of the importance of broadening his base, Khomeini reached out to Islamic reformist and secular enemies of the Shah, groups that were suppressed after he took and consolidated power. Khomeini became the most influential leader of the opposition to the Shah.

Adding to his mystique was the circulation among Iranians in the 1970s of an old Shia saying attributed to the Imam Musa al-Kadhem. Prior to his death in AD 799, al-Kadhem was said to have prophesied that "[a] man will come out from Qom and he will summon people to the right path." By late 1978, Khomeini was increasingly regarded as a messianic figure in Iran, and perceived by many as the spiritual as well as political leader of the revolt.

Late in 1978, the Shah announced, "I have heard the voice of your revolution," and promised major reforms. He soon released political prisoners, but it wasn't enough. He saw military leaders end their support for him. He heard that the key Western leaders: Presidents Jimmy Carter of American and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing of France, Prime Minister James Callaghan of Britain, and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany, were going to meet to discuss the crisis. The Shah took this to mean that they were looking for a way to abandon him.

On January 16, 1979, the Shah and his family fled, leaving Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar in charge of the country. He dissolved SAVAK, the much-hated secret police, freed the remaining political prisoners, and invited Khomeini to return to Iran.

This was a terrible mistake by Bakhtiar. On February 1, Khomeini returned to a rapturous reception at the airport. Bakhtiar had to leave as well, and did so on February 11. Khomeini was now a dictator, and he seemed to be the one the nation wanted.

Time magazine named Khomeini its "Man of the Year" for 1979. This led to thousands of outraged letters from the magazine's readers. The editors reminded them that it's not an award, it's a distinction: The man (or person, as it's been "Person of the Year" from 2000 onward) who, in the editors' collective opinion, has most affected the news in the past year.

All references to the imperial family were removed. Taj Football Club, one of the most successful sports teams in the country, had to change its name, which means "Crown." It became Esteghlal, meaning "Independence." Its rivalry with fellow Tehran team Perseopolis remains vicious, and women are still not allowed to attend soccer games in Iran.

Because he seemed like a tyrant, to young men who had never known true tyranny, Herb Brooks, the head coach of the U.S. hockey team that went on to win the Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics, was nicknamed "The Ayatollah." So was George Graham, manager of London soccer team Arsenal F.C. from 1986 to 1995. Having had a bit of a playboy image as a player, but become a disciplinarian, he freely admitted, "The player I was could never have played for the manager that I am."

But the Ayatollah of Ayatollahs, Ruhollah Khomeini, ruled Iran with an iron fist for the next 10 years, dying on June 3, 1989, at the age of 89. He was succeeded by the similarly-named Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As of February 1, 2022, he is still in charge, at the age of 82. In 1991, he ordered Bakhtiar's assassination, even though he was in exile. For the Shah, it wasn't necessary, as he died of cancer in exile in 1980.

Reza Pahlavi was 18 years old and the Crown Prince of Iran when his father, the Shah, was overthrown. Luckily for him, he was already in the U.S., training as a fighter pilot, much as was his cousin and fellow heir to a Middle Eastern throne, now King Abdullah II of Jordan.

He now lives in Potomac, Maryland, outside Washington. He is the founder and leader of the Iran National Council, a government-in-exile, having gotten a degree in political science from the University of Southern California. Unlike his father, he has been an outspoken supporter of human rights, saying that in order to bring freedom to his homeland, "Idealism and realism, behavior change and regime change do not require different policies but the same: Empowering the Iranian people."

On his website, he calls for a separation of religion and state in Iran, and for free and fair elections "for all freedom-loving individuals and political ideologies." A follower of Shia Islam, he has stated that he believes that religion has a humanizing and ethical role in shaping individual character and infusing society with greater purpose.

His supporters have referred to him as "His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah II" since his father's death, but he officially calls himself "the former Crown Prince," and admits he has no realistic hope of the monarchy being restored, even when the Ayatollahs are finally and rightfully toppled. He has written 3 books about his homeland, and in 2014 he founded OfoghIran, a television and radio network.

Although he has been married for 34 years, his 3 children are all girls, so an older cousin, Patrick Ali Pahlavi, is next in line to the throne, followed by his son Davoud.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much political movement, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

*

February 1, 1979 was a Thursday. Actress Rachelle Lefevre was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were 4 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Seattle SuperSonics, 107-102 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Eric Money led all scorers on the night, with 40 points in defeat for the Nets. Jack Sikma led the Sonics with 30.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-116 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richield, Ohio.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 128-105 at the Chicago Stadium. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 32 points.

* And the Washington Bullets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 123-122 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. Bob Dandridge scored 36 points. George "the Iceman" Gervin scored 37 points in defeat.

There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-1 at the Boston Garden.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at The Omni in Atlanta.

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

And there was 1 game in the World Hockey Association: The Birmingham Bulls beat the Quebec Nordiques, 7-5 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center (now the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex) in Birmingham, Alabama.

January 20, 1981: Reagan Inaugurated, Iran Hostage Crisis Ends

January 20, 1981: On his last day as President of the United States, Jimmy Carter finally gains the release of the last 52 hostages taken by revolutionary militants on November 4, 1979.

Except, in one last act of spite, they wait to do the actual release until after 12:00 Noon, Washington time, so that Carter is no longer President when it happens. Ronald Reagan, a former actor and a former Governor of California, who had overwhelmingly defeated Carter on November 4, 1980 -- one year to the day after the Iran Hostage Crisis began -- is sworn in as the nation's 40th President. The announcement that the hostages were free was made at 12:35 PM Eastern Time, 35 minutes after Reagan took the Oath of Office.

The Republicans also gained control of the U.S. Senate, and what turns out to be not a numerical majority in the House of Representatives, but frequently a "working majority" of Republicans and conservative Southern and Western Democrats that occasionally outflanks the Speaker of the House, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill of Massachusetts.

Some conservative voters are so dumb (How dumb are they?), they believe Reagan deserves the credit for getting the hostages home. After all, he was President when they were freed; he hosted the welcome home ceremony at the White House a week later; and, they believe, the reason the Iranians let the hostages go was that they were afraid Reagan would drop an atomic bomb on them if they didn't let them go while Carter was still President.

It was the 1st Presidential Inauguration to be held on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, which Reagan had wanted because there was room on the National Mall for bigger crowds, and also so that the TV cameras could show such structures as the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Smithsonian Institution. 

Previous Inaugurations going back to 1817 had been held on the East Portico of the Capitol, with less room, and a view that included the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress, but not much else. So, more experienced in stagecraft than in statecraft, this is one of the things that Reagan got right.

He was sworn in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. The first true conservative to be elected since Herbert Hoover in 1928 (and that didn't exactly work out very well), Reagan told the people, "Government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem." And then he spent 8 years proving that government is not the problem, bad government is the problem. To paraphrase Robert Young's line from 1970s TV commercials, reminding us that he starred as Marcus Welby, M.D.: Ronald Reagan wasn't a great President, but he played one on TV.

Look at what his supporters claim his accomplishments were, and look at the truth. Take it from someone who was around then, and knows (me):

* "He turned the economy around." This is a lie. He brought inflation and interest rates back to earth. But he actually wrecked the economy.

When Reagan became President on January 20, 1981, unemployment was 7.2 percent. Not good, but not terrible. It was still around that for much of the year. Then, in August, he signed his tax cut into law. By January 1982, it was 8.2 percent. By November 1982, it was 10.8 percent, the highest it's been since the Great Depression. Indeed, it didn't even get that high during the 2007-10 George W. Bush recession.

So, in early 1983, Reagan, who knew that he couldn't "save the world from Communism" if he didn't get re-elected, and couldn't get re-elected if he had an unemployment rate that approached the one Herbert Hoover ran with in 1932, did what George H.W. Bush later did in 1990, and what George W. Bush refused to do until 2008: He compromised with the Democratic leaders of Congress, and he raised taxes. That's right: Ronald Reagan raised taxes.

Result? By January 1984, the unemployment rate had dropped below 8 percent. On November 6, 1984, the day Reagan stood for re-election, the rate was 7.2 percent -- the same as it was on November 4, 1980, when he won by saying the economy was bad. But Reagan was wrong, and the Democrats were right: Raising taxes worked.

And yet, unemployment still didn't drop below the rate he inherited until November 1985, near the end of his 5th year. For as long as he was President, it never dropped below 5 percent, which is generally, if erroneously, thought of as "full employment."

Oh yeah: On October 19, 1987, the stock market crashed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 22 percent of its value in one day of trading, six and a half hours.

But there was no new recession (at least, not until the savings & loan scandal of 1989 and other causes led to the 1990-93 downturn), because the Federal Reserve Board stepped in. In other words, what really saved Reagan from becoming another Herbert Hoover was... the heavy hand of the federal government.

What else did Reagan do that his supporters love to claim that he did?

* "He won the Cold War." This is a lie. The Cold War was won by Lech Walesa -- who was something that Reagan hated: The leader of a labor union. (Never mind that younger, Democratic Reagan was the President of a union, the Screen Actors Guild.)

On June 12, 1987, Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate -- in front of a crowd half the size of the one JFK addressed at West Berlin's City Hall in 1963 -- and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" On January 20, 1989, Reagan left the Presidency, and the Berlin Wall still stood.

On November 9, 1989, the East German government passed a law that rendered the Wall meaningless. And the only thing Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had to do with it is that he... did absolutely nothing to stop it.

Meanwhile, Reagan signed a trade deal with China. Red China. Reagan strengthened the world's largest Communist country.

What else did Reagan do that his supporters love to claim that he did?

* "He stood up to terrorists." This is a lie. Reagan gave Iran weapons in exchange for money and hostages. Then he used the profits to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. We liberals correctly called them "death squads" at the time, but we can also say they were terrorists.

Then there was his veto of sanctions on the government of South Africa, whose apartheid policies were, in part, terroristic. Congress properly overrode that veto, one of the dents in Reagan's reputation for strength and beating liberals.

And then there was the fact that he sent American money and weapons to the anti-Communist rebels in Afghanistan. These were the guys who became al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Ronald Reagan made Osama bin Laden, as we came to know him, possible.

Conservatives love to talk about "the law of unintended consequences" when they want to show that "throwing money at poor people" actually hurts them; but when it turns "freedom fighters" into 9/11 hijackers, they don't want to hear it.

In other words, if someone else had been President from 1981 to 1988, the Berlin Wall would still have fallen, but the World Trade Center would not have fallen.

And I haven't even gotten to the criminal charges. Just from Iran-Contra, Reagan's Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and 2 National Security Advisors, Bud McFarlane and John Poindexter, were convicted. Secretary of the Interior James Watt, whose paranoia about religion and drugs marked a bridge between the old John Birch Society and the current MAGA movement, was convicted. Reagan's White House Chief of Staff Michael Deaver and his Press Secretary Lyn Nofziger were convicted. His Attorney General Edwin Meese resigned as part a deal to avoid prosecution.

Ronald Reagan was a disgraceful President.

*

January 20, 1981 was a Tuesday. English soccer star Owen Hargreaves was born on this day. So was Daniel Cudmore, who played the superhero Colossus in the X-Men films.

Baseball was out of season. The NFL Playoffs were between the Conference Championship Games and the Super Bowl: Super Bowl XV was played 5 days later, at the Superdome in New Orleans, and the Oakland Raiders beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10.

There were 7 NBA games played that day, one not far away from the Capitol, if not quite in the District of Columbia itself:

* The New York Knicks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 98-97 at Madison Square Garden. Ray Williams led the Knickerbockers with 30 points. The New Jersey Nets were not scheduled for the day.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Utah Jazz, 121-113 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Adrian Dantley scored 39 points for the Jazz, but it wasn't enough, as the Bullets get 30 from Kevin Grevey, 28 from Greg Ballard, and 25 from Elvin Hayes. The Bullets moved to a new arena in the District in 1997, and took the name the Washington Wizards.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 99-94, at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 83-75 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Indiana Pacers, 121-105 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the expansion Dallas Mavericks, 104-91 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-112 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There were 3 NHL games that day:

* The New York Islanders, defending Stanley Cup Champions, beat the Calgary Flames, 5-0 at the Nassau Coliseum. This was the Flames' 1st season in Calgary, after 8 years in Atlanta. The Isles got 2 goals from Bryan Trottier, and 1 each from Butch Goring, Bobby Nystrom and Clark Gillies. The New York Rangers were not scheduled for the day. Nor were the Colorado Rockies, the team that became the New Jersey Devils for the 1982-83 season.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Detroit Red Wings, 11-4 at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs played the Vancouver Canucks to a tie, 2-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.