August 1, 1975: The Helsinki Accords

Ford (left) and Brezhnev

August 1, 1975: President Gerald Ford and Premier Leonid Brezhnev sign the Helsinki Accords in Finland.

The United States, Canada, and all then-existing European countries, including the Soviet Union, except the microstate of Andorra and the Communist nation of Albania, signed the Final Act, in an attempt to improve the détente (French for "relaxation") between the East and the West.

The Accords' signatory nations agreed to accept the borders of European nations as they then stood, and to not invade them. While the Soviet Union did exercise influence in Poland in the early 1980s, and attempted to keep Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from achieving independence in 1990 and '91, never again did they invade a separate European nation to stop them from exercising even the smallest of freedoms, as they had in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, and threatened to do in West Berlin in 1948 and 1961.

Most of the world approved of the Helsinki Accords. American conservatives did not, and they were a major reason why Ronald Reagan opposed Ford in the 1976 Republican Primaries.

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August 1, 1975 was a Friday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at Shea Stadium, where the Yankees were groundsharing with the Mets while the original Yankee Stadium was being renovated. Jim "Catfish" Hunter was the winning pitcher. The Yankees hit no home runs, but John "Boog" Powell and Jake Brohamer, neither of whom is remembered as a Cleveland player, hit them for the Indians. Indians player-manager Frank Robinson put himself in the lineup as a pinch-hitter, and drew a walk.

This was the last game the Yankees played with Bill Virdon as manager. The next day, team owner George Steinbrenner fired him, and replaced him with Billy Martin, his 1st time managing his former team.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. George Stone outpitched Ken Brett. Willie Stargell did not play.

* A doubleheader was split at Jarry Park in Montreal. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 8-6. In the top of the 10th inning, Johnny Oates attempted a sacrifice bunt, and Montreal Expos 1st baseman José Morales threw it away, allowing Mike Schmidt to score. The Expos won the nightcap, 6-4. Over the 2 games, Schmidt went 4-for-6 with a home run, 2 walks and 4 RBIs, and Larry Parrish went 3-for-8 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-7 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Tigers scored 4 runs in the top of the 9th, but the Sox scored 2 in the bottom half. The winning run came when rookie Jim Rice bunted, and pitcher Gene Pentz threw the ball away, allowing Carl Yastrzemski to score, making Jim Willoughby the winning pitcher in relief of Luis Tiant. Yaz went 2-for-4. Bill Freehan and Willie Horton each hit 2 home runs off Tiant.

* The Baltimore Orioles swept a doubleheader from the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-4 and 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jim Palmer was the winning pitcher in the 1st game. Hank Aaron drove in 2 runs with a pinch-hit single, and Robin Yount was sent in to pinch-run for him. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-3 with a walk. Ross Grimsley won the nightcap. Robinson sat it out. Aaron went 0-for-2 with a walk in the 2nd game, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Yount went 0-for-3.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 9-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lou Brock appeared as a pinch-hitter, and singled home 2 runs.

* The Chicago White Sox were leading the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, when the game was called due to rain. Uncharacteristically, Rod Carew went 0-for-3.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-0 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Steve Busby pitched a 6-hit shutout. Stan Bahnsen started for the A's, but didn't get out of the 4th inning. George Brett hit a home run. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4.

* The Texas Rangers beat the California Angels, 2-1 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Gaylord Perry outpitched Ed Figueroa.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-0 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Randy Jones pitched a 3-hit shutout. Dave Winfield went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Ron Cey hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th to win it. Pete Rose went 5-for-5, and Johnny Bench went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs, but it was for nought.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

July 27, 1952: Emil Zátopek Wins the Olympic Marathon

July 27, 1952: The Olympic Marathon is held in Helsinki, Finland. The winner is from a country controlled by Communism -- but he is hailed as a hero worldwide, anyway.

Emil Zátopek was born on September 19, 1922 in Kopřivnice, Czechoslovakia. "The Czech Locomotive" was a veteran of World War II, fighting the Nazis. Still in the Czech Army during the 1948 Olympics in London, he won the Gold Medal in the 10,000 meters, and the Silver Medal in the 5,000 meters.

The 1940 Olympics were supposed to be held in Helsinki, but, by September 1939, Finland was among the nations wrapped up in World War II, specifically the "Winter War" with the Soviet Union. With the war over, they were awarded the Olympics for 1952.

And in those Olympic Games, Emil Zátopek won Gold in both the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters. That had never been before, although it has since. He had never previously run a marathon, but he entered the Olympic marathon, and won it in record time: 2 hours, 23 minutes, 3.2 seconds. At those same Games, his wife, Dana Zátopková, who was born on the exact same day tha the was, won the Gold Medal in the javelin throw.

Dana did not compete in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. Emil did, attempting to repeat as marathon winner, which had never happened before (and wouldn't until 1960 and 1964). But an injury in training resulted in him coming back too soon, and he finished 6th. Dana returned in 1960, in Rome, and won the Silver Medal in the javelin.

The Zátopeks never had children. While Emil was a member of the Communist Party, it was basically a requirement, however reluctant, for any major athlete from a Warsaw Pact county. In 1968, supporting the party's democratic wing, he was expelled from the Party and stripped of his Army rank after the Prague Spring. He was only allowed to work menial jobs into his 50s.

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 freed the country, and Emil was officially "rehabilitated." He died on November 22, 2000, at the age of 78. In 2012, the International Association of Athletics Federations, the world's governing body for track & field, established its IAAF Hall of Fame, and Emil Zátopek was 1 of its 1st 12 inductees.

(Requirements: Athletes must have won at least 2 Gold Medals in "Athletics" -- their official name for track & field -- in the Summer Olympics or the World Championships, must have set at least one world record, and must be retired from competition for at least 10 years.)

Dana Zátopková died on March 13, 2020, at 97. She and her husband are buried in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, in the Czech Republic.

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July 27, 1952 was a Sunday. As was common in this era, baseball teams often played doubleheaders on Sundays. These games were played:

* The New York Yankees split with the Detroit Tigers at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (The ballpark was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) The Tigers won the opener, 8-3. Billy Hoeft outpitched Allie Reynolds. Johnny Groth's 3-run home run in the 5th inning was the key blow. Gil McDougald homered for the Yankees.

The Yankees won the nightcap, 6-0. Bill Miller pitched a 7-hit shutout. It was 1 of only 6 games he would win in the major leagues. Gene Woodling went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Over the 2 games, Mickey Mantle went 1-for-7 with a walk.

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 11-4 at the Polo Grounds. Willie Mays was serving in the Korean War, and unavailable for the Giants.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Ebbets Field. Red Schoendienst singled Tommy Glaviano home with the winning run in the top of the 9th inning. Gil Hodges hit a home run. Jackie Robinson drew a walk as a pinch-hitter. Stan Musial went 2-for-4 with a walk.

* The Boston Braves won the 1st game of a doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2 at Braves Field. The 2nd game was tied 3-3 after 11 innings, but, while the ballpark had lights, and Sunday sports were now legal in Massachusetts, they had a curfew, and the game was called.

* The Philadelphia Phillies swept the Chicago Cubs, 12-8 and 3-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. (The ballpark was renamed Connie Mack Stadium the next season.) Karl Drews pitched a 6-hit shutout in the 2nd game.

* The Cleveland Indians swept the Washington Senators, 3-1 and 3-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Athletics swept the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 and 9-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* There was a split at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Browns won the 1st game, 8-1. The Boston Red Sox won the 2nd game, 9-3. Ted Williams was serving in the Korean War, and unavailable for the Red Sox.

July 16, 2018: Donald Trump Meets With His Master, Vladimir Putin

Left: A man who knows he's owned

by the man on the right.

July 16, 2018: A summit meeting is held at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, between the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the man who made sure he would get that job, and was now expecting something for it, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

With Trump were Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Kelly's Deputy Zachary Fuentes, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr., and Presidential Advisor Fiona Hill.

Among those with Putin was Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, whom Trump had met with in the Oval Office, along with Russia's Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, on May 10, 2017. That meeting had Russian reporters and photographers present, but no Americans were in the room, other than Trump himself. As of July 16, 2022, no one in America knows what was said, but it is suspected that Trump gave Lavrov and Kislyak classified information.

Trump and Putin met privately for 2 hours, without aides or note-takers, accompanied only by their respective interpreters. The private meeting was followed by a working lunch that included senior advisors. No agenda was published for their discussion, and no communique was issued afterward.

Jonathan Lemire of the Associated Press asked this of Trump: "Just now, President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you sir is, who do you believe? My second question is would you now, with the whole world watching, tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016? And would you want him to never do it again?

Trump's response:

So, let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven't they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months, and I've been tweeting it out, and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server, and what is the server saying?

With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me, and some others, they said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia.

I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be. But I really do want to see the server, but I have, I have confidence in both parties.

I have great confidence in my intelligence people,, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer. Okay? Thank you.

(Dan Coats was then the Director of National Intelligence, and had previously served Indiana in both houses of Congress, and had been U.S. Ambassador to Germany.)

Jeff Mason, of Reuters, asked Putin whether he had wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, and had he directed any of his officials to help him do that. Putin replied: "Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal." Clearly, this was an admission to the 1st half of the question. Whether it was an admission to the 2nd half, an admission of interference in the election, was less clear.

Ever since, Trump has insisted that the evidence proves that there was no collusion between him and Russia, on anything. It does not prove the negative. It doesn't prove the affirmative, either, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest it. Had the evidence suggested implication of the Democrats, Trump would have argued words to the effect of, "Where there's smoke, there's fire."

Upon becoming President, Trump removed President Barack Obama's economic sanctions on Russia, and offered no opposition to anything Putin did. Someone, I forget who, asked a potent question: If Trump is not an active Russian asset, would he be acting any differently if he were one?

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July 16, 2018 was a Monday. The only major league sport in season at the time was baseball, which was in its All-Star Break. So there were no scores on this historic day.

May 15, 1918: The Finnish Civil War Ends

May 15, 1918: The Finnish Civil War ends. The conservative White Guards, with assistance from Germany, defeat the communist Red Guards, with assistance from the Russian Bolsheviks.

From 1580 to 1809, the King of Sweden also held the title of Grand Duke of Finland. But the Finnish War, a subsidiary of the Napoleonic Wars, threw Finland to Russian control, and the Czar of Russia was the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 until 1917, when Czar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated, and the Russian monarchy came to an end.

In the years before the conflict, Finland had experienced rapid population growth, industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of a labor movement. The socio-economic condition and education of the population had gradually improved, and national awareness and culture had progressed. These phenomena, as well as Norway's peaceful separation from Sweden in 1905, gave Finns hope for their own independence.

World War I caused Russia's February Revolution in 1917, which led to a power vacuum in Finland, and the subsequent struggle for dominance led to militarization and an escalating crisis between the left-leaning labor movement and the conservatives.

With the October Revolution leading to the Bolshevik victory in Russia, Finland's Reds sided with Russia, and its Whites with the more conservative German Empire. The Whites won the Battle of Tampere on April 6, 1918, and the Battle of Viipuri on April 29. German troops won the Battle of Helsinki, the national capital, on April 13, and the Battle of Lahti on April 29.

The war ended on May 15, when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from the Russian troops. White Finland celebrated the victory with a large military parade in Helsinki on May 16.

But the German plan to install Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse, brother-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II, as Frederik Kaarle I, King of Finland, fell apart as the U.S. Army turned the tide of World War I. Finland has been a parliamentary republic ever since, currently home to about 5.5 million people.

Unlike the other major Scandinavian nations -- Norway, Sweden and Denmark -- Finland, as an independent nation, has never had a monarch. The comedy film King Ralph imagined it having one, but that was just a movie.

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May 15, 1918 was a Wednesday. Actor Joseph Wiseman was born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the St. Louis Browns, 5-4 at the Polo Grounds. Les Nunamaker singled Ray Demmitt home with the winning run in the top of the 12th inning. George Sisler went 2-for-5 with a walk.

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at Redland Field (later Crosley Field) in Cincinnati.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known while Wilbert Robinson managed them from 1914 to 1931) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Rube Marquard went the distance for the win. Zack Wheat was 0-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Babe Ruth went the distance for the win, and went 1-for-3 with a walk -- the hit being a single, not a home run. Ty Cobb went 0-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Indians scored a run in the top of the 13th inning, but in the bottom half, a Tillie Walker grounder resulted in a force play that scored Rube Oldring, and George Burns (not the comedian, or the better-known Giants outfielder) singled home Merlin Kopp. Winning pitcher Elmer Meyers and losing pitcher Stan Coveleski both went the extended distance. Tris Speaker went 0-for-5.

* The Washington Senators beat the Chicago White Sox, 1-0 at National Park (later Griffith Stadium) in Washington. This game was a scoreless duel between Walter Johnson and Lefty Williams for 18 innings, before Williams finally tired in the bottom of the 18th, allowing a single to Eddie Ainsmith, a single to Johnson himself that got Ainsmith to 3rd base, and a wild pitch with Burt Shotton at the plate, scoring Ainsmith with the winning run.

Shoeless Joe Jackson did not play: He missed most of the 1918 season working in a shipyard, thinking it would keep him from being drafted into World War I. It worked.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-3 at Weeghman Park (later Wrigley Field) in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Braves, 3-2 at Robison Field in St. Louis. Doug Baird singled Mike González home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Rogers Hornsby went 1-for-4.

March 13, 1940: The Winter War Ends

March 13, 1940: The Moscow Peace Treaty is signed, ending a war between the Soviet Union and neighboring Finland, a sub-conflict of World War II that had been known as the Winter War.

From the 13th Century until the Finnish War of 1808-09, Finland was a part of the Kingdom of Sweden. From that war until 1917, the Grand Duchy of Finland had been part of the Russian Empire. After the Russian Revolution, on December 6, 1917, Finland declared its independence.

When World War II started on September 1, 1939, Finland knew it faced an attack from the Soviet Union, especially since Leningrad (the once and future St. Petersburg) was only 20 miles from the Soviet-Finnish border. Indeed, when Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia to launch his Bolshevik Revolution, it was by train at St. Petersburg's Finland Station.

The Soviets made several demands, mostly the cessation of some border territories. The Finns refused, and, on November 30, 1939, the Soviets invaded.

But just as the cold and the snow would prove to be the Soviets' ally once Nazi Germany attacked them in 1941, it was Finland's ally on this occasion, as temperatures dropped to less than 40 degrees below zero (the point at which the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales meet).

The Finns were able to use cold to their advantage, but also heat. They filled jars with alcohol, put wicks in them, lit the wicks, and threw them at the Soviets. In Britain, this was already known as a "petrol bomb." In Finland, they named it after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, the man who had presented the Soviets' demands to them: The Molotov Cocktail.

The war turned into a stalemate, and the Soviets took heavy losses: Over 160,000 dead, another 140,000 wounded, and over 60,000 removed from action due to frostbite. Finland, outnumbered 2-1 in total manpower, lost 26,000 dead and 43,000 wounded.

Simo Häyhä, often referred to by his nickname, "The White Death," for his white uniform that blended in with the snow, is believed to have killed more than 500 enemy soldiers during the conflict, the highest number of sniper kills in any major war. On March 6, 1940, the tables were turned, and a Soviet sniper hit him in the face. He recovered, but remained disfigured for the rest of his life -- until 2002, at the age of 96.

A peace treaty was signed. The Soviets got some of what they wanted: Finland ceded 9 percent of its territory, and the war was over. The Finns got the main things they wanted: Peace and the retention of their independence.

The Finns were hailed all over the world for their resistance. Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany took note of the Red Army's poor performance, and would launch his attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. But he couldn't get either Moscow or Leningrad before the Winter set in, and this would be the beginning of his end.

Hostilities resumed in June 1941 with the Continuation War, when Finland allied itself with Germany in an attempt to regain the territory lost to the Soviets barely a year earlier. Finnish troops occupied Eastern Karelia from 1941 to 1944, and assisted the German army in the Siege of Leningrad. The massive Soviet Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive in the Summer of 1944 led to a breakthrough until the Finns finally repulsed it at Tali-Ihantala. This partial Soviet success led to a stalemate and later an armistice. This was followed by the Lapland War of 1944-45, when Finland fought retreating German forces in northern Finland. In other words, the Finns were with the Nazis before they were against them.

As a result of the three wars, Finland lost 12 percent of its land area; 20 percent of its industrial capacity; its second-largest city, Viipuri, which the Soviets renamed Vyborg, a name it still has today; and the ice-free port of Liinakhamari. The Finns lost around 97,000 soldiers, and were forced to pay war reparations initially set at $300 million in 1938 prices, later adjusted to $226.5 million.

However, the country avoided occupation by Soviet forces, and managed to retain its independence. Along with Great Britain, Finland emerged from the war as one of the only European countries to have taken part in hostilities that was never occupied and managed to preserve its democracy throughout. In 2022, Finland remains a democracy, home to about 5.6 million people. And, alone among the four mainland Scandinavian countries, it is the only one without a monarchy. (I say, "mainland," because Iceland, unlike Norway, Sweden and Denmark, does not have a monarch.)

UPDATE: In 2025, the YouTube comedy series Epic Rap Battles of History paired Simo Häyhä, played by "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist, with Manfred von Richtofen, the German pilot of World War I known as the Red Baron, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff. Lloyd cleverly rhymed the brand of rifle the White Death used, Mosin-Nagant, with "frozen savant."

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March 13, 1940 was a Wednesday. Soul singer Candi Staton was born on this day.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA had not yet been founded. There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat their tenants at the old Madison Square Garden, 4-2. It was considered a Ranger home game. Neil Colville scored twice for the Broadway Blueshirts, while former Toronto superstar Charlie Conacher scored twice for the Amerks. Exactly on month later, on April 13, the Rangers would win the Stanley Cup.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Boston Bruins were not scheduled.