December 28, 1973: The Endangered Species Act

December 28, 1973: The Endangered Species Act becomes law. It was introduced into Congress by Senator Harrison Williams of New Jersey. It passed the Senate, 92-0; and the House of Representatives, 355-4.

This was one of many Democratic Party ideas that President Richard Nixon realized were not only good policy, but good politics, and should be signed into law. He signed a few of those, including the 1970 creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, which would enforce the Endangered Species Act, so he could claim those issues for himself, taking them away from the Democrats in the 1972 election. But, regardless of how Watergate was going to turn out, he was now term-limited, so he was supporting this bill on policy grounds alone.

Ironically, it would be Williams, not Nixon, who would go to prison, as a result of his participation in the ABSCAM scandal of the early 1980s. First elected to the House in 1952, and to the Senate in 1958, he was convicted of bribery and conspiracy in 1981. He resigned from the Senate on March 11, 1982, rather than face an expulsion vote. He served 2 years in prison, and died in 2001.

*

December 28, 1973 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. One college bowl game was played: Unranked Georgia upset Number 18 Maryland, 17-16, in the Peach Bowl at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Capital Bullets, 102-93 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. The Bullets would rename themselves the Washington Bullets the next season, and the Washington Wizards in 1997.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks, 118-94 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Houston Rockets, 127-111 at the Hofheinz Pavilion (now the Fertitta Center) in Houston.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-107 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 110-93 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the Utah Stars, 107-97 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* The Virginia Squires beat the Carolina Cougars, 97-89 at the Hampton Coliseum outside Norfolk in Hampton, Virginia.

* And the Indiana Pacers beat the Memphis Tams, 91-86 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis. George McGinnis led all pro scorers on the night with 37 points.

There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders played the California Golden Seals to a tie, 4-4 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Minnesota North Stars beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

And there were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The New York Golden Blades beat the Vancouver Blazers, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden. And the Chicago Cougars beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-4 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago.

December 5, 1952: The Great Smog of London

December 5, 1952: London is hit by the deadliest smog in human history.

London is known for its fog, adding to the atmosphere of books, movies and TV shows set there. There is a brand of clothing named London Fog. Stories involving the fictional Sherlock Holmes and the very real Jack the Ripper tend to be shrouded in fog.

In 1967, when the producers of the Batman TV series wanted to do a 3-episode arc parodying the era's "Swinging London," they renamed the city Londinium (the ancient Roman name for it), and the villains were felonious sibling aristocrats, Lord Marmaduke Ffogg (played by Rudy Vallée with an accent even more ridiculous than Dick Van Dyke's in Mary Poppins) and Lady Penelope Peasoup (played by Glynis Johns, who was also in Mary Poppins, and was, at least, English).

But London was also the world's 1st truly industrial city, which led to it not only becoming the biggest city in the world by the mid-19th Century, but also to the production of pollution on a scale never seen before. "Smog" is a portmanteau of "smoke" and "fog," and the city has long been called "The Smoke" or "The Big Smoke" by people from elsewhere in England.

And the seat of the British Commonwealth, formerly the British Empire, had been hit hard by smog before: 780 dead in 1873; 2,200 in 1880; 779 in 1892; 800 in 1948. (In some cases, exact numbers can't be reached, based on symptoms.) And it didn't smell too good, either: 1858 was called "The Year of the Big Stink."

A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an "anticyclone" and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants, mostly arising from the use of coal, to form a thick layer of smog over the city. It lasted from Friday to Tuesday, December 5 to 9, then dispersed quickly when the weather changed.

The smog caused major disruption by reducing visibility and even penetrating indoor areas, far more severely than previous smog events, called "pea-soupers." Government medical reports in the weeks following the event estimated that up to 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the smog, and 100,000 more were made ill by the smog's effects on the human respiratory tract. More recent research suggests that the total number of fatalities was considerably greater, with estimates of between 10,000 and 12,000 deaths.

The Great Smog was many times worse than anything the city had ever experienced before: It is thought to be the worst air pollution event in the history of the United Kingdom, and the most significant, for its effects on environmental research, government regulation, and public awareness of the relationship between air quality and health. It led to several changes in practices and regulations, including the Clean Air Act 1956.

But that Act had not yet been implemented in December 1956, when another smog killed 1,000 people. Another 400 died in the long and especially cold Winter that began in December 1962, and another 160 in December 1991.

Certainly, when it came to deadly smog, London was not alone: New York would lose 260 in 1953, 405 in 1963, and 168 in 1966. But the American city best known for smog is Los Angeles. On July 26, 1943, the smog in L.A. was so bad, people began calling the police, thinking that the Japanese were conducting chemical warfare as part of their effort in World War II. The Japanese military never developed anything like that, but America didn't know that at the time. And on October 21, 1954, the smog in L.A. was so bad, the City actually closed its public schools for several days.

Oddly, the American city best known for fog, San Francisco, has never reported a smog causing multiple deaths.

Environmental activism from 1970 onward has gone a long way toward preventing such smog disasters, but not entirely, as pointed out by the 1991 London smog event.

*

December 5, 1952 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. There were 2 college football games played that night. The University of Georgia beat the University of Miami, 35-13 at Burdine Stadium in Miami. Burdine Stadium would be renamed the Orange Bowl in 1959. And the University of the Pacific beat the University of Hawaii, 49-13 at Honolulu Stadium.

There were no games scheduled for the NHL. One game was played in the NBA: The Indianapolis Olympians beat their geographical rivals, the Fort Wayne Pistons, 84-74 at the Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

December 2, 1984: The Bhopal Disaster

December 2, 1984: A pesticide plant owned Union Carbide leaks highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas in Bhopal, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. Over 500,000 people are exposed to the gas, and estimates suggested that over 16,000 of them died, half of them in the 1st 2 weeks, with another 4,000 suffering disabling injuries. It is believed to be the worst industrial disaster in world history.

Sued by so many, Union Carbide knew it couldn't win the cases, so they settled, paying $470 million. They sold the complex to an India-based company, which took over the cleanup. It took until 1998 before the Indian federal government was satisfied that the site was once again safe for human occupancy. Dow Chemical bought the site in 2001, and operates it now.

It took until 2010 for prosecutions to be completed, with 7 Indian executives, including the chairman of UC's India division, convicted of death by negligence, and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. An 8th was convicted but died before sentencing.

1984 was a horrible year for India. The country was already in the middle of a big period of emigration that saw large numbers of Indian citizens leaving for Britain and America, changing the character of all three countries. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi went overboard in suppressing Sikh separatists at the Golden Temple in Amristar. Later in the year, she was assassinated for this. And the year closed with the Bhopal Disaster.

*

December 2, 1984 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat the New York Jets, 20-10 at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands. This was the Jets' 1st season at the Meadowlands, after 20 seasons at Shea Stadium. But the way the schedule worked out, this was officially a home game for the Jets, with their season-ticket holders rooting against the Giants.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New England Patriots, 33-10 at Sullivan Stadium (formerly Schafer Stadium, later Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 26-10 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 35-17 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Miami Dolphins, 45-34 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Indianapolis Colts, 21-15 at Rich Stadium (formerly Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 20-17 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Breech won it with a 35-yard field goal in overtime.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-14 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos, 16-13 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Nick Lowery kicked 3 field goals, all in the 4th quarter, including a 42-yarder as time ran out in regulation.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 23-20 at the Astrodome in Houston. Joe Cooper won the game with a 30-yard field goal in overtime.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the New Orleans Saints, 34-21 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Detroit Lions, 38-17 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* Three days earlier, the Washington Redskins beat the Minnesota Vikings, 31-17 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the San Diego Chargers beat the Chicago Bears, 20-7 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 114-112 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Moses Malone led all scorers on the day with 34 points.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 122-99 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-112 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Quintin Dailey had 28 points for the Bulls despite coming off the bench, Orlando Woolridge had 23, and a rookie named Michael Jordan had 20. For the Lakers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 32, while Magic Johnson was limited to 12.

Two games were played in the NHL. The Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 9-1 at the Capital Center in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Bobby Carpenter and Larry Murphy each had 2 goals. And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Flames, 8-6 at the Winnipeg Arena. Paul MacLean and Doug Smail scored 2 goals for the Jets, while Eddy Beers scored 2 for the Flames.

December 2, 1970: The Environmental Protection Agency Begins Operation

December 2, 1970: The Environmental Protection Agency begins operation. For over half a century, it has -- when the federal government has cared enough to properly fund it -- improved America's land, air and water. And we really needed it.

From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, pollution had been as American as doctoring the baseball, uninspected hot dogs, crabapple pie and a Chevrolet without seat belts. The occasional minor effort had been made before 1970, 2 notable examples being Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and Lady Bird Johnson's urging of her husband Lyndon to get Congress to pass the Highway Beautification Act to clean up America's roads (including reducing the number of eyesore billboards).

The 1962 publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson led to President John F. Kennedy putting some of her recommendations in motion. By the late 1960s, environmental activism had become serious. President Richard Nixon figured that out: Signing the EPA into law was not just good policy, it was good politics. He knew that some of the men running against him in 1972 would have run on the environmental issue, and he took it off the table.

Sadly, Carson did not live to see this. Her investigations into pesticides led to her exposure to them, and she was already ill with cancer when the book was published. She was unable to attend most of the ceremonies for the awards she received. 

*

December 2, 1970 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season, and football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 101-82 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. The arena still stands, and is now named the TCF Center.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-111 at the Boston Garden. The Celtics overcame 29 points by Wilt Chamberlain.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 119-111 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Atlanta Hawks, 126-112 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. Connie Hawkins scored 32 for the Suns.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Pittsburgh Condors, 139-127 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* The Memphis Pros beat the Indiana Pacers, 106-100 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis. It still stands, under the name of the Corteva Coliseum.

* And the Utah Stars beat the Virginia Squires, 122-115 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Zelmo Beaty scored 35 for the Stars, who went on to win the ABA Championship in that 1970-71 season.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 3-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Los Angeles Kings, 7-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the California Golden Seals, 3-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Detroit Red Wings, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the 2 new expansion teams, the Buffalo Sabres and the Vancouver Canucks, were not scheduled.

Also, Arsenal beat K.S. Beveren of Belgium, 4-0 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London, in the 1st leg of the 3rd Round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League. Arsenal advanced to the Quarterfinals, but got no further. Still, the 1970-71 season would be the 1st time that they won the League title and the FA Cup in the same season, "doing The Double."

November 24, 1966: New York's Smoggy Thanksgiving, 168 Dead

Photo on the front page of The New York Times,

November 25, 1966

November 24, 1966: New York City is struck with a major air-pollution episode and environmental disaster, coinciding with that year's Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Smog -- the word is a combination, a portmanteau, of "smoke" and "fog" covered the New York Metropolitan Area (or "the New York Tri-State Area," including portions of the States of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) from November 23 to 26, filling the City's air with damaging levels of several toxic pollutants. It was the City's 3rd major smog attack, following events of similar scale in 1953 and 1963.

On November 23, a large mass of stagnant air over the East Coast trapped pollutants in the city's air. For 3 days, New York City was engulfed in dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, smoke, and haze. Pockets of air pollution pervaded the Tri-State Area.

By November 25, the smog became severe enough that regional leaders announced a "first-stage alert." Leaders of local and State governments asked residents and industry to take voluntary steps to minimize emissions. Health officials advised people with respiratory or heart conditions to remain indoors. The City shut off garbage incinerators, requiring massive hauling of garbage to landfills.

Energy companies Consolidated Edison (called Con Ed for short) and the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) were asked to burn natural gas rather than fuel oil, to minimize the release of sulfur dioxide. Both companies voluntarily cut back emissions, with Con Ed reducing its emissions by 50 percent.

(Con Ed still runs New York City's electricity. LILCO lost favor over the years, and was replaced in 1998 by the Long Island Power Authority. In 2014, LIPA was bought out by Public Service Enterprise Group, or PSEG, which runs electricity for much of New Jersey.)

In spite of the danger, Macy's ran its Thanksgiving Day Parade as scheduled. Indeed, it ran the Parade every year from its 1st in 1924 until 2019, holding a virtual Parade due to COVID restrictions in 2020, and resuming in 2021. But fewer people than usual came out to attend.

A cold front dispersed the smog on November 26, and the alert ended. In the months that followed, medical researchers studied the smog's impact on health. City officials initially maintained that the smog had not caused any deaths, but it soon became clear that the smog had significantly harmed public health.

A study published in December 1966 estimated that 10 percent of the City's population -- around 800,000 people -- had suffered adverse health effects, such as stinging eyes, coughing and respiratory distress. A statistical analysis published in October 1967 found that 168 deaths had likely been caused by the smog. For comparison's sake: The smog event of 1953 is believed to have killed 260; the one in 1963, perhaps as many as 400.

The smog catalyzed greater national awareness of air pollution as a serious health problem and a political issue. The government of New York City updated local laws on air-pollution control. Prompted by the smog, President Lyndon B. Johnson and members of Congress worked to pass federal legislation regulating air pollution in the United States, culminating in the 1967 Air Quality Act and the 1970 Clean Air Act. The extent of harms from subsequent pollution events, including the health effects of pollution from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, have been judged by reference to the 1966 smog in New York.

*

November 24, 1966 was a Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. English singer Russell Watson, known for singing "Where My Heart Will Take Me," the theme from Star Trek: Enterprise, was born.

For the 1st time, the Dallas Cowboys hosted a Thanksgiving Day game, beating the Cleveland Browns, 26-14 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The NFL's established T-Day team, the Detroit Lions, lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 41-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. And in the American Football League, the Buffalo Bills beat the Oakland Raiders, 31-10 at the brand-new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

There were 5 games played in college football:

* Number 4 Nebraska were upset by arch-rival Oklahoma, 10-9 at Memorial Stadium (later Owen Field, now Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium) in Norman, Oklahoma.

* Villanova beat George Washington University, 16-7 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. This turned out to be the last football game that GWU ever played: The school's trustees dropped its football program on January 17, 1967. In 1969, D.C. Stadium was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.

* Virginia Tech beat Virginia Military Institute, 70-12 at Victory Stadium in Roanoke, Virginia. VMI now compete in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly Division I-AA.

* The University of Tulsa beat Wichita State, 47-14 at Skelly Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Wichita State dropped its program after the 1986 season.

* And Texas beat arch-rival Texas A&M, 22-14 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

Baseball was out of season. There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 140-123 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Wilt Chamberlain scored 27 points and grabbed 36 rebounds against his former team. Rick Barry scored 36 in defeat.

And the Boston Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks, 101-78 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Larry Siegfried of the Celtics led all scorers with 24 points, while Bill Russell, now also the head coach of the Celtics, scored 8 points and grabbed 33 rebounds.

There were 2 games in the NHL. The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red wings, 8-3 at the Boston Garden. And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-0 at the Chicago Stadium. The New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.

November 18, 1953: New York Smog Kills 260

November 18, 1953: A killer smog settles over New York City, lasting 6 days, nearly into the long Thanksgiving weekend. There were 260 deaths attributed to it. Poet Dylan Thomas is sometimes said to be one of the victims, although his copious drinking is usually considered the cause of his death.

When Americans think of smog-ridden cities in their own country, the first one that usually comes to mind is Los Angeles. But New York was stricken a few times, and this wouldn't even be the worst of it: In 1963, over 400 people would die from it. Another 168 died from a smog settlement in 1966. The environmental regulations that came about thereafter have prevented more mass deaths, although the destruction of the original World Trade Center in 2001 provided similar conditions, many of them killing people in the long term.

The 1953 New York smog was quickly compared to the smog that hit London a year earlier. There were similar conditions: "Anticyclonic" conditions and inversions were present, accompanied by fog, with "insufficient atmospheric cleansing action" -- in other words, rain.

*

November 18, 1953 was a Wednesrday. Actor Kevin Nealon, known for his work on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 2 games played in the NBA, a doubleheader played at the Baltimore Coliseum. The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 88-83, despite 41 points from the Warriors' Neil Johnston. And the Baltimore Bullets beat the Milwaukee Hawks, 104-74.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at the old Madison Square Garden.

October 27, 1948: The Donora Smog

October 27, 1948: The zinc works in Donora, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, combine with the rest of the pollution in the area to form a smog so thick and noxious that it ends up killing about 70 people.

The zinc works had 10 smelters. There was also a steel mill that used the zinc to galvanize its products. While the zinc works provided thousands of residents with good-paying jobs, there was a major downside. Workers were paid a full day's wage for just a few hours of work, because too much exposure to the zinc could make them ill. The layman's term was "the zinc shakes."

The plant also continuously released billowing emissions into the local sky, laden with a soup of pollutants that included hydrogen fluoride, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, multiple sulfur compounds, and heavy metals within fine particulate matter.

In the last week of October 1948, the Monongahela-Ohio valley experienced an unusually severe temperature inversion, a weather phenomenon that in Donora trapped smoke from the plants at ground level.

President Harry S Truman ordered the creation of a government committee to study the air pollution problem. It was the start of a research effort that ultimately led to passage of the Clean Air Acts of 1963 and 1970.

The Donora zinc works was closed in 1957, not so much because of the backlash -- they settled a lawsuit for $200,000, not much when divided among the victims' families -- but because advancing technology made the plant obsolete. The steel mill closed 10 years later, and the town never recovered. But the town still proudly claims, "Clean Air Started Here."

One of the people killed was Lukasz Musial, age 58. His son, Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals, has just put together one of the greatest offensive seasons in baseball history, batting .376, hitting a career-high 39 home runs, with 131 RBIs, and an OPS+ of 200 -- meaning that he was 100 percent better at producing runs than the average hitter was that season. He was awarded his 3rd National League Most Valuable Player award.

In Donora, Stan had a black friend, George Kenneth Griffey, a.k.a. Buddy Griffey, whose son Ken would become a major league star. Ken's son, Ken Griffey Jr., became, like Stan, a Hall-of-Famer whose birthday was November 21. And Junior's son, George Kenneth Griffey III, a.k.a. Trey Griffey, was a wide receiver for the University of Arizona, although he never played in the NFL.

Although Stan never lived in Donora after making it to the major leagues, he frequently visited, supported local charities, and gave free meals at his St. Louis restaurant to anyone with a valid Pennsylvania ID proving they were from Donora.

*

October 27, 1948 was a Wednesday. Telma Hopkins was born. She and Joyce Vincent Wilson formed singer Tony Orlando's backing duo, Dawn. Telma went on to become one of the stars of the ABC sitcom Family Matters.

Baseball season had ended 16 days earlier, with the Cleveland Indians beating the Boston Braves in the World Series. Football was in midweek. Basketball season started 5 days later.

There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 3-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.

October 6, 1966: The Smoggy Sendoff of Sandy Koufax

Sandy Koufax (left) and Jim Palmer

October 6, 1966: Game 2 of the World Series. Los Angeles Dodger outfielder Willie Davis, having trouble seeing a white baseball against the smog-gray Los Angeles sky, commits 3 errors in 1 inning, enabling the Baltimore Orioles to win 6-0, and take both World Series games at Dodger Stadium, and head back to Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 lead.

Jim Palmer, days short of his 21st birthday, outduels Sandy Koufax, who struggles with the Oriole bats, Davis' fielding, and the pain in his elbow.

Koufax has told only a few people yet, but he's already decided that this is his last major league game. He is not yet 31. This could be called a "generational hinge" game. To put it another way: Koufax had won 169 games, including 4 in the World Series, but would never win another; Palmer, if you count this game, had won 21, and 255 more would follow.

To this day, the Orioles have never won a Pennant without Palmer on their staff. But they won 6 with him, including the 1966, 1970 and 1983 World Series. He is the only pitcher to win a World Series game in 3 different decades. His 186 wins during the 1970s made him the winningest pitcher of the decade. By a weird coincidence, the scout who discovered him was Hal Newhouser, whose 170 wins during the 1940s made him the winningest pitcher of that decade.

Many American cities have had, and some still have, smog issues, due to topography. New York's used to be bad, up until the 1970s, when the effects of the environmental movement helped. Denver's is bad, because of the Rocky Mountains.

But Los Angeles is widely known for smog, because it's the American city most identified with driving as opposed to public transportation, and all that car exhaust flies east with the prevailing wind in the Northern Hemisphere, and runs smack into the San Gabriel Mountains, trapping it. To make matters worse, the city gets an average of only an inch and a quarter of rain per month.

On July 26, 1943, the smog in L.A. was so bad! (How bad was it?) It was so bad, people began calling the police, thinking that the Japanese were conducting chemical warfare as part of their effort in World War II. The Japanese military never developed anything like that, but America didn't know that at the time, and it had only been 25 years since World War I and Imperial Germany's use of poison gas..

On October 21, 1954, the smog in L.A. was so bad, the City actually closed its public schools for several days.

On October 16, 10 days after this World Series game, comedian Allan Sherman appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Sherman, a Chicago native famed as a game show producer and a song parodist -- the "Weird Al" Yankovic of his time, many of his rewrites reflecting his Jewish heritage -- mentioned that he once lived in the L.A. suburb of Van Nuys, and sang this, to the tune of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes": 

They ask me through the years

why I shed these tears.

I, of course, replies:

When you live in Van Nuys

smog gets in your eyes.

I thought I'd play it wise

so I closed my eyes.

Then, what do you suppose?

When both my eyes I close

smog got in my nose.

I went to price

an anti-smog device

to fit behind my car.

But, all too quick

the smog became so thick

I could not find my car.

Ten thousand cars provide
carbon monoxide.
If they’d all drive a horse
there’d be no smog, of course…
But there’d be something worse!

In 1971, on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, taped outside Los Angeles in what they mockingly called "Beautiful Downtown Burbank," co-host Dan Rowan saiid this as part of his regular "News of the Future" sketch: "Los Angeles, two years from now: Race relations were solved in Los Angeles, when the smog became so thick, nobody could tell what anybody's color was!" (That didn't happen in 1973, but the city did elect its 1st black Mayor that year, Tom Bradley.)

The founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the passage of the Clean Air Act, both in 1970, helped. So did an additional Clean Air Act in 1990. L.A.'s last Stage 1 Smog Alert was in 1974; its last Stage 2 Smog Alert, in 1988. Then again, the American Lung Association still ranked L.A. as the nation's most-polluted city as recently as 2013.

*

October 6, 1966 was a Thursday. Also on this day, LSD was declared illegal throughout the United States. And Irish soccer star Niall Quinn was born.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season wouldn't start for another  9 days; the NHL season, for another 13. Therefore, there were no other scores on this historic day.

September 27, 1962: Rachel Carson Publishes "Silent Spring"

September 27, 1962: Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, about the dangers of pesticides, helping to launch the modern environmental movement. She knew whereof she spoke: Within 2 years, she was dead from cancer.

Born outside Pittsburgh in 1907, she began her career as an aquatic biologist in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, and became a full-time nature writer in the 1950s. She won a National Book Award for The Sea Around Us in 1951, and wrote other bestsellers about ocean life. The decline of ocean life led her to write about pesticides, producing Silent Spring.

This was one of the earliest occurrences of the American public being aware of environmental dangers. Chemical companies were furious about being exposed; but then, villains usually are. 

She died of breast cancer on April 14, 1964, only 56. In 1970, the federal government passed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, and established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 1972, the federal government banned Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, the pesticide known by its initials DDT. On an episode of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Judy Carne called it "the groovy pesticide that kills both sprayer and sprayee. I guess 'DDT' stands for 'Drop Dead Twice.'" In 1980, President Jimmy Carter awarded Dr. Carson a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.

*

September 27, 1962 was a Thursday. The only scores on this historic day were 3 baseball games:

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Dennis Bennett pitched a 5-hit shutout. Clay Dalrymple hit a home run. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4.

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Sandy Koufax only pitched 5 innings. (The Colt .45s became the Astros in 1965.)

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 7-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Stan Musial went 5-for-5, and Gene Oliver hit a home run off former Yankee World Series hero Don Larsen. Willie Mays went 1-for-4.

June 7, 2023: Quebec Wildfire Causes Northeast U.S. Smog

Yankee Stadium, June 7, 2023.

The game scheduled for that night was postponed.

June 7, 2023: A wildfire in the Canadian Province of Québec causes a haze to spread south to the Northeastern U.S. The resulting low air quality produced warnings from America's National Weather Service, telling people to stay home if they didn't have to leave the house; and, if they must go back to wearing masks like they did during the COVID pandemic.

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

The smog resulted in New York City's worst air quality since the 1960s. People not used to seeing the sky that color, the skyscrapers that shrouded in smog, or the air that dirty and hard to breathe, compared it to apocalyptic movies.

For those of us who do remember the 1970s and '80s, when the joke was that the crosswalk signs switched from saying "WALK" and "DON'T WALK" to "BREATHE" and "DON'T BREATHE," it was an unfortunate reminder of what life was like before the Environmental Protection Agency and its safeguards kicked in.

Major League Baseball postponed games set for that day at Yankee Stadium in New York and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Both games were moved to the next day. The Yankees and the Chicago White Sox had already played in something of a haze the night before, and would again on Thursday, but both turned out to be not as bad as on Wednesday, June 7.

The WNBA postponed a game set for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, despite it being an indoor facility. And a National Women's Soccer League game, set for the outdoor Red Bull Arena, just outside New York City in Harrison, New Jersey, was also postponed.

The New York Racing Association kept a close eye on the situation, since the Belmont Stakes was supposed to be held 3 days later, at Belmont Park in Elmont, Long Island. By that point, the air quality had improved to the point where it was not considered a danger to the horses, the riders, or the spectators, and the race was held as scheduled. Arcangelo won, ridden by Javier Castellano.

As of July 1, 2023, no deaths had been attributed to either the wildfires or the resulting smog.

*

June 7, 2023 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 7-5 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Washington Nationals, 6-2 at Nationals Park in Washington. The D.C. area was not as badly affected by the smog as the New York and Philadelphia areas were.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-1 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-5 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Guardians beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-6 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-2 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers, 1-0 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. The only run of the game came in the top of the 8th inning, on a home run by Alec Burleson. Jon Gray went the distance for the Rangers, taking the loss. In contrast, it took 4 Cardinal pitchers to complete a 4-hit shutout: Jack Flaherty (6 innings), Jordan Hicks (7th inning, winning pitcher), Giovanny Gallegos (8th inning) and Ryan Helsley (9th inning, save).

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-4 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-2 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Mike Trout. Shohei Ohtani did not, but did go 1-for-4 with a walk.

* As stated, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox were postponed, resulting in a doubleheader the next day at the new Yankee Stadium. The White Sox won the opener, 6-5. The Yankees had a rally going in the bottom of the 9th, with the tying and winning runs on, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa was called out on a 3rd strike that was nowhere near the plate.

The Yankees won the nightcap of the "smoggleheader," 3-0. Billy McKinney hit his 1st home run as a Yankee. Rookie Randy Vásquez got his 1st major league win, taking a shutout into the 6th inning, allowing only 2 hits and a walk. And seemed upset when he was removed after getting into a little trouble, having thrown only 86 pitches. Ron Marinaccio ended the threat, and pitched the 7th and the 8th, allowing only a walk. Clay Holmes closed out the 2-hit shutout.

* And in the other game postponed from this date to the next, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The Tigers tied the game in the top of the 8th, then took the lead in the top of the 9th. But the Phillies got a leadoff double from Bryce Harper, a walk from Trea Turner, a single from Bryson Scott, a tying sacrifice fly from Brandon Marsh, and a game-winning double from Kody Clemens, 1st baseman and son of Roger Clemens.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals was played at the Kaseya Center in Miami. The Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat, 109-94. The Nuggets went on to win the title in 5 games.

And the Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 2 and 3. The Vegas Golden Knights would beat the Florida Panthers, also in 5 games.

May 21, 1971: Marvin Gaye Releases "What's Going On"

May 21, 1971: Marvin Gaye releases his album What's Going On, on Tamla Records, a subsidiary of Motown Records. For many years, Rolling Stone magazine rated it was one of the Top 10 albums of all time, with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles at Number 1. At the time, and certainly in hindsight, it seemed to be a Sgt. Pepper of soul music. In 2020, Rolling Stone released a revised list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and ranked What's Going On at Number 1.

Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. was born on April 2, 1939, in Washington, D.C., the son of a Pentecostal minister who beat him and the other children. His love of music developed early, and he formed one doo-wop singing group, then another, before his father kicked him out of the house. He found the U.S. Air Force no better than an abusive father, and faked mental illness, getting a general discharge.

He returned to Washington, and formed The Marquees. Harvey Fuqua, lead singer of The Moonglows, heard them, took them to Chicago, and hired them for Chess Records, renaming them the New Moonglows, singing backup on Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." and "Almost Grown."

In 1960, Fuqua took Gaye to Detroit, and introduced him to Berry Gordy Jr., who had just founded Motown Records. At the time, "gay" still usually meant "lightly happy" rather than "homosexual," but this was changing. But there were other reasons to change his name: He wanted to distance himself from his father's name, and it was a tribute to someone else who had put an E on the end of his name: Sam Cooke.

Starting in late 1962, he was one of the acts on the Motortown Revue, which toured all over the country, and even allowed its performers on ABC-TV's American Bandstand. By 1965, Motown was more than keeping up with rock and roll's "British Invasion," and Marvin's contributions that year included "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Peculiar."

And he recorded a series of hit duets with Supremes lead singer Diana Ross, Kim Weston, and especially Tammi Terrell. Tammi was married, but the musical chemistry between them was such that rumors of an affair between them persist to this day. No evidence of them being anything more than close friends has ever been discovered.

In 1968, the Detroit Tigers won the American League Pennant. Their broadcaster, Ernie Harwell, was asked to select the National Anthem singers for the World Series games in Detroit. For Game 4, he selected Marvin, a representative of the city's musical giant Motown Records, who sang it straight, and got a nice hand. For Game 5, Harwell selected José Feliciano, and that's a story for another time.

The world was changing, and Marvin thought his music should change with it. But Berry Gordy was a control freak, and he thought having black singers address social ills would hurt Motown's profile and profits. He began to relent in 1968, letting The Supremes sing "Love Child" (which hit Number 1) and "Living In Shame."

But Marvin wasn't allowed to sing about social ills. At the end of the turbulent year of 1968, he had the Number 1 song in the country, and it was a spectacular recording, but it was "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," a traditional love song. In 1969, he had a hit with "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby." This was a decent song, and, with its line of, "I ain't got time to do no studying once I get out of class," it would have been a fine start for an 18-year-old rookie singer at Motown. At the time, though, Marvin Gaye was 30 years old.

The year 1970 would prove to be a turning point. Tammi Terrell died from a brain tumor, and Marvin couldn't handle it. And his brother Frankie Gaye -- he, too, became a singer and added the E -- returned from serving in Vietnam, and told Marvin of the awful things he had experienced there. Marvin knew that Berry had complete creative control. But he also knew that something had to be done.

Even more important, he now had an ally: Stevie Wonder, now 20, was also ready to move on to topical material. He had already recorded Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out." But he wanted to write his own songs that would match those.

Together, Marvin and Stevie went on strike, and Berry relented. He let Stevie record "Higher Ground," and that was the start of a bunch of great songs about issues, including "Superstition" and "Living for the City."  

And Berry let Marvin record "What's Going On," which became the title track to a landmark album that also included "Inner City Blues" and the environmental-themed song "Mercy Mercy Me." All 3 became Top 10 hits. There was an anti-drug song, "Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky)," and songs titled "Save the Children" and "God Is Love."

The title track included Lem Barney and Mel Farr of the NFL's Detroit Lions singing backup. Marvin had been so disillusioned by his career, and perhaps inspired by Paper Lion, the film based on writer George Plimpton's book about trying out for the Lions, that he asked them for a tryout. They turned him down, fearing that injuries could hurt his music career. But when "What's Going On" the single hit Number 2 and sold over 1 million copies, everyone who played or sang on it, including Barney and Farr, received gold records.

Berry Gordy listened to the request in the chorus of Marvin's song: "Talk to me, so you can see what's going on." He saw that he was wrong, and Marvin and Stevie were right. He began to move Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles, which had become the center of the recording industry on planet Earth. But Marvin and Anna split up, and he began seeing Janis Hunter, who became the mother of his daughter Nona, who became a singer and actress, and his son Frankie, named for his brother.

Berry wasn't the only one who saw the light: The album sold over 2 million copies within a year of its release. In Rolling Stone, reviewer Vince Aletti wrote, "There are very few performers who could carry a project like this off. I've always admired Marvin Gaye, but I didn't expect that he would be one of them. Guess I seriously underestimated him. It won't happen again." Billboard magazine called it "a cross between Curtis Mayfield and that old Motown spell and outdoes anything Gaye's ever done." Even staid old Time magazine hailed it as a "vast, melodically deft symphonic pop suite."

Did I say, "staid" and "old"? How about the BBC? Their David Katz described the album as "one of the greatest albums of all time, and nothing short of a masterpiece." He compared it to Miles Davis' jazz landmark Kind of Blue by saying, "Its non-standard musical arrangements, which heralded a new sound at the time, gives it a chilling edge that ultimately underscores its gravity, with subtle orchestral enhancements offset by percolating congas, expertly layered above James Jamerson's bubbling bass."

What's Going On is often rated as one of the Top 10 rock and roll albums of all time.  Even my father, a fan of classical, folk and country music, admitted (years after Marvin's shocking death) that this album made him a fan of Marvin's.

Having gotten that out of his system, on August 28, 1973, Marvin released Let's Get It On, another concept album, one about... getting it out of your system. The title track became his 2nd Number 1 hit. He had a 3rd in 1977, "Got to Give It Up." This song inspired many other performers, from Michael Jackson, whose 1st solo Number 1, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," was very close in lyrics and style; to Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I., whose 2013 chart-topper "Blurred Lines" was so close to it that, 2 years later, a court awarded $7.4 million in royalties/damages to Marvin's children.

In spite of this success, Marvin had become, to borrow the title of David Ritz's posthumous biography of him, a divided soul. He turned to cocaine, and moved to Europe, where he was already popular, and lived and toured there.

In 1982, having kicked drugs for the moment, a deal was made to release Marvin from his Motown contract. He signed with CBS Records, and recorded the album Midnight Love, including the single "Sexual Healing." It was a smash, and he was back in the spotlight, winning his 1st 2 Grammy Awards, and being invited to sing the National Anthem before the NBA All-Star Game at The Forum outside Los Angeles. He made it sound like a gospel song. It had been 15 years since he sang it straight at the World Series, and José Feliciano hadn't. Times had changed, and everyone loved Marvin's new version.

But the comeback was all too brief, as he fell back on cocaine, and suffered bouts of paranoia. He had bought his parents a house in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. But his father had never really changed, and was always arguing with everyone else in the family, including Marvin and his mother Alberta. On April 1, 1984, at that house, an argument between Marvin Gay Sr. and Marvin Gaye Jr. turned into a shoving match, and Marvin Jr. got the upper hand, beating his father severely. In revenge, Marvin Sr. shot Marvin Jr., killing him. The next day would have been Marvin Jr.'s 45th birthday.

In 1993, singer-songwriter Linda Perry led the band 4 Non Blondes to record a song titled "What's Up?" But those words are not anywhere in the song. Instead, the chorus asks, "What's going on?" The song is about pain, possibly mental illness, and the narrator admits, "Oh, my God, do I pray, every day, for a revolution!"

It is widely presumed that the reason the song isn't titled "What's Going On?" is so that it won't be confused with Marvin Gaye's song. Nevertheless, it was nearly as big a hit, and remains Perry's biggest hit as a singer, although she's written Number 1 hits for others.

*

May 21, 1971 was a Friday. Football was in its off-season. The NHL season had ended 3 days earlier, with the Montreal Canadiens winning the Stanley Cup, beating the Chicago Black Hawks in the Finals in 7 games. The NBA season had ended 3 weeks earlier, with the Milwaukee Bucks beating the Baltimore Bullets in a 4-game sweep. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 8-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Danny Cater singled home 2 runs in the top of the 9th to give the Yankees a 7-6 lead, but Lindy McDaniel couldn't hold it, and gave up a game-tying single to Eddie Leon and a game-winning single to Gomer Hodge. According to Baseball-Reference.com, with 2 outs in the top of the 9th, the Indians had a 97 percent chance of winning, and a 13 percent chance when the bottom of the 9th began, but won, anyway.

McDaniel had once been a really good reliever, but it was games like this that led the Yankees to trade Carter and Mario Guerrero to Boston for Sparky Lyle before the next season, and to then trade McDaniel to Kansas City for Lou Piniella after 1973, 2 of the trades that helped build the next Yankee dynasty.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-2 at Shea Stadium. Nolan Ryan outpitched Pat Jarvis. Ed Kranepool went 3-for-4, and Ken Boswell, Bob Aspromonte and Jerry Grote each had 2 RBIs. Hank Aaron went 3-for-4, including his 651st career home run.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 6-2 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Bob Robertson and Willie Stargell hit home runs for the Pirates, and Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5. Stargell's home run won the game in the top of the 13th inning.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Pete Rose went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Johnny Bench went 1-for-2 with 3 walks and an RBI. Dave Concepcion hit a home run.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski hit a home run. So did Brooks Robinson. Frank Robinson went 1-for-5. The Orioles tied the game in the bottom of the 9th, but the Red Sox scored 4 runs in the top of the 10th to win it.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 1-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Dean Chance pitched 7 2/3rds innings of 3-hit ball, and Fred Scherman finished the 3-hit shutout. Ed Brinkman doubled home the only run in the 5th inning. Al Kaline did not play.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks, in his last season, only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres, 15-8 at Busch Memorial Stadium. José Cardenal, Joe Torre and Julián Javier hit home runs.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Willie Mays went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 3-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Tom Bradley pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 10-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Bert Blyleven outpitched John "Blue Moon" Odom. George Mitterwald hit 2 home runs, and Steve Braun 1. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Rod Carew went 1-for-5. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-4.

* And the Kansas City Royals and the Milwaukee Brewers were rained out at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 6. The Royals swept, 4-3 and 6-4.

March 24, 1989: The Exxon Valdez Disaster

March 24, 1989: The freighter Exxon Valdez, a supertanker run by Exxon, runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The ship spilled 10.8 million gallons of crude oil over the next few days, making life miserable for area wildlife.

The ship's captain, Joseph Hazelwood, was accused of operating the ship while drunk. He was cleared of that charge, but was convicted of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service. As of March 24, 2022, he is still alive.

Hazelwood quickly turned from the villain of the story to a mere henchman. Exxon, formerly Standard Oil (or "Esso"), quickly adopted an attitude that could be summed up by platitudes such as "That's life," and "Not our fault."

Environmental activism was on the rise. At the end of 1988, instead of a Person of the Year, Time magazine named "Endangered Earth" its "Planet of the Year." The Presidency of Ronald Reagan, with its proud blatant disregard for America's ecology and natural resources, was over, and his Vice President, George H.W. Bush, an oil company executive before going into politics, had gained the highest office in the land party on a pledge to become "the Environmental President."

Soon, activists began wearing anti-Exxon T-shirts and buttons. There were public demonstrations in New York and Washington against the oil companies, and corporate greed in general. The one in New York, on April 23, 1990, was my first participation in a political demonstration. And the Persian Gulf War of August 1990 to March 1991 was largely seen as a war for oil, and protestors called Bush out on it, with little success.

The Exxon Valdez disaster was the largest oil spill in American history, until 2010, when BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico broke all records. The difference in the responses was stark: BP committed itself fully to the cleanup and to reparations, and its reputation actually improved.

The Exxon Valdez had been launched in 1986, and required $30 million worth of repairs. To avoid the stigma of the spill, it was renamed Exxon Mediterranean. Exxon sold the ship in 1993, and it remained in use until 2012, when, under the ownership of Hong Kong, the flag of Panama, and the name Oriental Nicety, it was sold for scrap.

*

March 24, 1989 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics, 115-11 at the Boston Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Detroit Pistons, 112-96 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Joe Dumars scored 35 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 135-122 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 114-105 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 102-99 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.") Despite the Rockets' loss, Hakeem Olajuwon led all scorers on the night with 36.

* And the Chicago Bulls beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 128-113 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Michael Jordan scored 34.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Winnipeg Arena. Randy Carlyle scored the winning goal with 1:15 left in overtime.