October 20, 1968: Jacqueline Kennedy Marries Aristotle Onassis

October 20, 1968: A year of shocking events hasn't run out of them yet. This one disturbed people on a level they didn't know they had.

Jacqueline Kennedy, former First Lady of the United States, widow of the martyred President John F. Kennedy, the most popular person in America, married Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping tycoon, on Skorpios, a private island that Onassis owned in the Ionian Sea.

In his 1988 book 1968 in America, journalist Charles Kaiser called it "the final shock." Kennedy fans couldn't believe that she was remarrying, especially to someone seen to be, in spite of his great wealth, a low-class person. Catholics couldn't believe she was marrying a man who was not only was divorced, but from a woman who was still alive. And people who may not have liked the Kennedys, but considered themselves to be American patriots, were infuriated that she would be living abroad with Onassis.

No one was willing to see it from her perspective. She had lost her husband, and had just lost his brother, who was both Jack's and Jackie's best friend, both to senseless acts of violence, on American soil. The great America could not protect its President or one of its Senators. Jackie had 2 small children. What was she supposed to think? That her children were safe?

This was not about love. Living abroad with "Ari," she, Caroline and John Jr. would have both financial security, about which she had always worried, personal security.

Her saintly image shattered, the woman now known as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, or Jackie Onassis, or "Jackie O," was now fair game for comedians. The NBC variety show Laugh-In had sketches showing Jackie as a flighty, free-spending fool, while Ari was oblivious to everything.

But, for the first time, the real Jackie was living on her own terms. She even took her kids and her new husband to Shea Stadium for the 1969 World Series between the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles.

While they were married, they lived on Skorpios, Onassis' house in the Greek capital of Athens, Onassis' apartment in central Paris, Jackie's 5th Avenue apartment in Manhattan, Jackie's horse farm in Peapack, New Jersey, and on Onassis' yacht, named Christina O for his daughter, who was 17 at the time of the marriage. By maintaining her friendships with Bobby's widow Ethel, and the last surviving brother, Ted, Jackie remained part of the Kennedy orbit.

Aristotle Onassis died in 1975. His financial legacy was severely limited under Greek law, which dictated how much a non-Greek surviving spouse could inherit. After 2 years of legal wrangling, Jackie accepted a settlement of $26 million from Christina, his sole heir, and waived all other claims to the Onassis estate. (Christina died in 1988, from a heart attack, only 37 years old.)

A two-time widow at 46, Jacqueline did not marry a third time, although, in 1980, she was often seen in the company of Maurice Tempelsman, a Belgian-born diamond merchant. They were together for the rest of her life. She lived mostly in New York, became a book editor, and led the effort to save Grand Central Terminal from replacement and destruction. She died in 1994, 64 years old, from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She was buried next to President Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery.

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October 20, 1968 was a Sunday. This was also the day that Dick Fosbury won the Gold Medal in the high jump at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. In so doing, he changed the event forever, using the technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop. I have a separate entry for that event.

In the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 26-10 at Yankee Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 29-16 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts, 30-20 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 16-12 at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions played to a tie, 14-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Minnesota Vikings, 20-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Redskins, 41-14 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-14 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

And in the American Football League:

* The New York Jets beat the Houston Oilers, 20-14 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Boston Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 230-6 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-22 at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat their arch-rivals, the Oakland Raiders, 24-10 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos, 55-24 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

The baseball season ended 10 days earlier, with the Detroit Tigers beating the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 of the World Series. There were no games in the NHL. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-96 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Lakers got 36 points from Elgin Baylor, 20 from Jerry West, but only 15 from Wilt Chamberlain. The Sixers got 35 points from Hal Greer.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 106-88 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 116-107 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the San Diego Rockets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 123-108 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Elvin Hayes had 32 points and 24 rebounds for the Rockets, who moved to Houston in 1971.

And there was 1 game played in the American Basketball Association: The Oakland Oaks beat the Indiana Pacers, 144-133 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

October 12, 1944: The Nazis Retreat From Athens

Restoring the flag used in Greece

from 1822 to 1969 to the Parthenon

October 12, 1944: The Nazis evacuate the Greek capital of Athens, ending their occupation of Greece.

The occupation of Greece by the Axis Powers began in April 1941 after Nazi Germany invaded, to assist its ally, Italy, in their ongoing war that had started in October 1940. Following the conquest of Crete on June 1, 1941, the entirety of Greece was occupied.

The occupation of the mainland lasted until Germany and its ally Bulgaria withdrew under Allied pressure in early October 1944, with Crete and some other islands in the Aegean Sea being surrendered to the Allies by German garrisons in May and June 1945, after the end of World War II in Europe.

The occupation reduced the Greek economy, and brought hardships to the Greek civilian population. Much of Greece's economic capacity was destroyed, including 80 percent of industry, 28 percent of infrastructure (ports, roads and railways), 90 percent of its bridges, and 25 percent of its forests and other natural resources.

Along with the loss of economic capacity, an estimated 7 to 11 percent of Greece's civilian population died as a result of the occupation. In Athens alone, 40,000 civilians died from starvation, and tens of thousands more died from reprisals by Nazis and their collaborators. The Jewish population of Greece was nearly eradicated. Of its pre-war population of about 75,000, around 11,000 survived, often by joining the resistance or being hidden.

The Greek Resistance was formed during this occupation. These resistance groups launched guerrilla attacks against the occupying powers, fought against collaborationist Security Battalions, and set up espionage networks. By late 1943, the resistance groups began to fight amongst themselves. At the end of occupation of the mainland in October 1944, Greece was in a state of political polarization, which soon led to the outbreak of the Greek Civil War. This war gave an opportunity to many prominent Nazi collaborators to escape punishment because of their anti-communism, and to eventually rule postwar Greece after the communist defeat.

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October 12, 1944 was a Thursday. At the time, Columbus Day was celebrated on the actual anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World, October 12, 1492. Since 1971, America has observed the holiday on the 2nd Monday in October -- which is also Canada's Thanksgiving Day.

This was also the day that of the Frank Sinatra concert that became known as the Columbus Day Riot. I have a separate entry for that event.

The baseball season ended with the World Series 3 days earlier. It was a Thursday, so there were no NFL scores. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the 1944-45 NHL season didn't begin until October 28. So there were no scores on this historic day.

August 30, 1904: 25 Miles of Insanity

Thomas Hicks

August 30, 1904: Perhaps the craziest sporting event ever held on American soil takes place. No movie studio would buy a script containing this story. But it all happened.

The 1st modern Olympic Games, in Athens, Greece in 1896, were a smashing success. Not least because its signature event, the marathon race, was won by a Greek, Spyridon Louis, who became, and perhaps remains, his nation's greatest sporting hero.

The founder of the International Olympic Committee, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, wanted them held every 4 years, just like they were in ancient Greece. Understandable. And he wanted the next one to be in his hometown: Paris, France. Also understandable, given his role in their establishment, given France's status as one of the world's leading countries, and given Paris' status as one of the world's most beloved cities.

But the 1900 Olympics were practically a sideshow to the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair. It was so haphazard that some competitors, upon receiving their medals, were unaware that the events they had just won were part of the Olympic Games. About the only thing that can be said in favor of the Games of the IInd Olympiad is that they were the 1st to include women.

Things got worse in 1904. America wanted to be the next host. But the city with the winning bid was St. Louis, Missouri. Not being a coastal city, and not being as large a city as Athens or Paris, it was hard to get to. Throw in various worldwide tensions, including the Russo-Japanese War, and only 62 out of the 651 athletes who competed were from outside North America. Only 15 countries sent athletes.

And, again, they were attached to a World's Fair: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the launch of the Lewis & Clark expedition. This Fair would popularize several foods we now take for granted, though none were actually invented there: The hamburger, the hot dog, peanut butter, iced tea, cotton candy, the waffle-style ice cream cone, and Dr. Pepper soda. The Fair would be the setting of the 1944 film Meet Me In St. Louis, starring Judy Garland and directed by Vincente Minnelli, who married shortly thereafter.

The 1904 Olympics were the 1st to feature boxing, freestyle wrestling, and the decathlon. Most events took place on the campus of Washington University, including on their Francis Field, which is still in use, although the current stadium on the site dates to 1984.

The Francis Field complex in recent years

George Eyser, born in Germany, but a naturalized American citizen living in St. Louis, had lost a leg in a railroad accident. Nevertheless, he competed in gymnastics, and won 3 Gold Medals, 2 Silvers and a Bronze. As he had 4 years earlier, Ray Ewry won all 3 standing jumps: High, long and triple. Only 2 athletes representing Great Britain won medals, and both were, rather inconveniently, from Ireland.

And then there was the marathon. The race had not yet been standardized at 26.2 miles. This one was 24.85 miles, in 90-degree heat, on unpaved roads that tended to kick up dust. It should never have been approved as the marathon course. The race began with 32 competitors from 6 countries: America, Canada, France, Greece, South Africa and Cuba.

The Canadian was Billy Sherring, of Hamilton, Ontario. He did not finish the race. Two years later, in the so-called Intercalated Games in Athens, he won the marathon, competing in a singlet with a large shamrock on it. It is said that this inspired the Athens-based soccer team Panathinaikos to adopt the shamrock as their logo, even though they have nothing to do with Ireland.

The South Africans were Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani, the 1st 2 black Africans to compete in the Olympics. Aside from his participation in this race, little is known of Taunyane. It is not known when he was born. He participated in the Boer War, and was part of an exhibit on that war at the Fair. Having been a dispatch runner in the war, he decided he could run in the marathon. Despite the strict segregation of the State of Missouri, he was allowed to try.

But the organizers couldn't understand his thick accent, which made it hard for them to understand him even as he spelled his name. So he went into the books as "Len Tau," competing for the Zulu nation, because, as yet, there was no nation of South Africa. And he wasn't a member of the Zulu tribe: He was a Tswana. He ran barefoot, and at one point was chased off course by dogs. He still managed to finish 9th. He returned to his homeland, and, from there, history lost track of him: We don't know what he did after 1904, or when he died.

Even less is known of Mashiani, who finished 12th. Taunyane's part of the story would be distinctive enough. But it was far from the craziest part.

The Cuban was Félix de la Caridad Carvajal y Soto, known as Andarín Carvajal. He was a mailman, used to walking long distances. Once, he ran the entire length of the island on which Cuba lies. When he learned of the Olympics coming to America, he decided to run in the marathon.

He took a boat ride from Havana to New Orleans, and then lost all of his remaining money gambling. He had to walk and hitchhike the 683 miles up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. He showed up just in time to register, wearing street clothes, including long pants. A sympathetic official cut the pants so that they would feel more like shorts, and give him more ventilation.

Along the race course, he stopped several times to talk with spectators. He saw a car with a basket full of peaches, and swiped a few of them, to keep himself hydrated in the brutal St. Louis heat. The course included an apple tree, and he grabbed some apples. They turned out to be rotten, and he threw up. He stopped to take a nap. He got up, and resumed. So, what, it took him a week to finish the race? No: He finished 4th, in under 4 hours.

In 1907, he famously defeated American runner Henry W. Shelton in a 6-hour race. In 1909, a 6-laps-per-mile track was installed for a race around the Polo Grounds in New York, but he finished last. He lived until 1949.

You might think Carvajal's role was the craziest part of the event. But you would be thinking wrong.

Frederick Lorz was a 20-year-old bricklayer in New York. He competed in a long-distance race at Celtic Park in what's now Sunnyside, Queens, that was a precursor to the New York City Marathon. The 8 top finishers would be admitted to the Olympic marathon in St. Louis, all expenses paid. He was 1 of the 8, competing for the Mohawk Athletic Club.

He entered the race, but dropped out after 9 miles. His manager pulled up to him in a car -- still a novelty at that point -- and drove him 11 miles. Then he got back onto the course, ran into Francis Field, and broke the tape, purporting to be the winner. His time was 3 hours, 13 minutes even.

He was called out: No one had seen him at the halfway mark. He admitted his deception, and the Amateur Athletic Union banned him for life from all competitions they oversaw. After 1 year, the ban was lifted, and he won the 1905 Boston Marathon. He died in 1914, of pneumonia in those pre-antibiotic days, only 29 years old.

So that's the strangest part of this story, right? No, it's not.

Only 14 of the 32 runners who started finished. One who did not was William Garcia, a 27-year-old runner from Oakland, California. He got to the 19-mile mark before the St. Louis heat did him in. He fell, and coughed up blood. A bystander saw this, and got him medical attention. Garcia nearly became the 1st person to die as a result of competing in the Olympic Games.

(Aside from the Israeli athletes murdered by terrorists in Munich in 1972, only 1 athlete ever has: Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luger from the Republic of Georgia, who was killed in a practice run in Vancouver in 2010.)

Finally, we come to the strangest part. Thomas John Hicks was born in England in 1876. By August 30, 1904, he was a 28-year-old brass worker living outside Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1904, he finished 2nd at the Boston Marathon. Four months later, he was ready to compete in the Olympic Marathon. Or so he thought.

Midway through the race, he was well behind the leaders. His assistants gave him 1/60th of a grain -- about 1 milligram -- of strychnine, and some brandy. Historically, small doses of strychnine were given to people to strengthen muscle contractions, to stimulate the heart, and to aid in bowel movements. In doses larger than that, it had been used as poison, as a murder weapon. It had also been used as a pesticide.

The 1st dose didn't help Hicks much. So he was given another dose. That did the trick: With Lorz having already been disqualified, Hicks crossed the finish line officially 1st, in 3 hours, 28 minutes and 53 seconds -- nearly 16 minutes after Lorz. Albert Corey of France finished 2nd, at 3:34:52. Arthur Newton of the U.S. was 3rd, and, as I said, Carvajal finished 4th, oddly, but legitimately.

The strychnine was, literally, a "performance-enhancing drug." At the time, though, it was legal. Eventually, it was banned. A good thing, too: Hicks collapsed at the finish line, and it is believed that a 3rd dose would have killed him. Instead, he moved to Canada, joined his brothers working in a mine near Winnipeg, and lived until 1952.

Thomas Hicks had won a race that can legitimately be called 25 miles of insanity.

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August 30, 1904 was a Tuesday. A full slate of games, and then some, was played in what would later be called Major League Baseball:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Cleveland Naps, 1-0 at Hilltop Park in Manhattan. Al Orth, known as "The Curveless Wonder," outpitched future Hall-of-Famer Addie Joss, known as "The Human Hairpin" because of his pitching motion. Jimmy Williams singled home Norman "Kid" Elberfeld to win the game in the bottom of the 9th.

In 1913, the Highlanders renamed themselves the Yankees. Cleveland's 2nd baseman, manager and namesake was Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, who went 0-for-4 in this game. After he left in 1914, the team was renamed the Cleveland Indians. In 2022, they renamed themselves again, the Cleveland Guardians.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-1 at the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. Crosley Field was built on the site in 1912. Christy Mathewson got the win over Frank "Noodles" Hahn, advancing to 28-9 on the season.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-4 at West Side Park in Chicago. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Boston Americans beat the Detroit Tigers, 13-0 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Cy Young not only pitched a 6-hit shutout, but went 3-for-5, including a 2-RBI triple.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia. Roy Patterson pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* A doubleheader was split at League Park in Washington. The St. Louis Browns won the opener, 3-2. The Washington Senators won the nightcap, 4-1.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 1-for-2 with a walk in a losing cause.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at Robison Field in St. Louis. 

July 23, 1974: The Restoration of Greek Democracy

Konstantinos G. Karamanlis

July 23, 1974: After 7 years of a right-wing military dictatorship, democracy is restored to the birthplace of the concept, Greece.

On April 21, 1967, a group of colonels in the Greek Army overthrew the caretaker government, a month before scheduled elections which Georgios Papandreou's Centre Union party was favored to win. King Constantine II and his family fled to England, and the monarchy was never restored.

King Constantine II, 2019

The military dictatorship was led by Georgios Papadopoulos, and was characterized by policies such as anti-communism, restrictions on civil liberties, and the imprisonment, torture and exile of political opponents. In other words, the kind of things the Greek people had fought so hard against in World War II, only a generation before. The coup is believed to have been heavily influenced by America's CIA, in a bid to ward off Communist influence, spilling over from neighboring Albania and Bulgaria.

As internal dissatisfaction grew in the early 1970s, and especially after an abortive coup by the Navy in early 1973, Papadopoulos attempted to legitimize the regime by beginning a gradual "democratization." On June 1, 1973, he formally abolished the monarchy, and declared Greece a republic, with himself as President. He was confirmed in office via a controversial referendum. He furthermore sought the support of the old political establishment, but secured only the cooperation of Spiro Markezinis, who became Prime Minister.

Concurrently, many restrictions were lifted, and the Army's role significantly reduced. An interim Constitution created a presidential republic, which vested sweeping, almost dictatorial, powers in the hands of the President. The decision to return to at least nominal civilian rule, and the restriction of the Army's role, was resented by many of the regime's supporters, whose dissatisfaction with Papadopoulos would become evident a few months later.

On November 14, 1973, students at the Athens Polytechnic University went on strike, and started protesting against the junta. An assembly formed spontaneously, and decided to occupy the Polytechnic. On the 15th, thousands of people from Athens poured in to support the students. On the 16th, the demonstrators proclaimed that the students were aiming to bring down the junta. During the afternoon, demonstrations and attacks against neighboring ministries took place. Central roads closed, fires erupted, and Molotov cocktails were thrown.

In the early hours of November 17, the transitional government sent a tank crashing through the gates of the Polytechnic. Soon after that, Prime Minister Markezinis asked President Papadopoulos to reimpose martial law.

An official investigation undertaken after the fall of the junta declared that no students of the Athens Polytechnic were killed during the incident. However, 24 civilians were killed outside the campus, including a 5-year-old boy caught in crossfire.

It was the end of the line for Papadopoulos: On November 25, he was overthrown by a hardliner, Dimitrios Ioannidis. This began a string of events that would culminate in the fall of the regime, sparked by Ioannidis' ill-advised invasion, on July 15, 1974, of the island nation of Cyprus, which inflamed tensions with neighboring Turkey, which invaded on July 20.

Ioannidis could not survive such a humiliation, and was pushed out by "The Coup of the Generals" on July 23. They invited Konstantinos Karamanlis, who had served as Prime Minister 3 times between 1955 and 1963, to return from exile, and end the military rule.

Papadopoulos was sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1999, at the age of 80. Ioannidis was sentenced to life, and died in prison in 2010, at 87. Karamanlis served as Prime Minister until the election of 1980, making him President, holding the office until his resignation in 1985. Despite being 81 years old, he was elected again in 1990, and retired again in 1995. He died in 1998, at 91. His nephew, Konstantinos A. "Kostas" Karamanlis, served as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2009.

King Constantine II, as his opponents reminded him, was not ethnically Greek. He was German and Danish. He was a grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and a great-grandson of both Queen Victoria of Britain and King Christian IX of Denmark -- which made him a 3rd cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, who allowed him and his family to settle in London after the 1967 coup.

He married another 3rd cousin, Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark. They were permitted to return to Greece in 2013, although there was no chance of the monarchy ever being legally restored.

UPDATE: The King died in 2023. The former Queen is still alive. The current head of the royal family, the House of Glücksburg, is Crown Prince Pavlos, 57, who runs an investment firm in London, and would be King Paul II in the incredibly unlikely event that the monarchy was restored. He is a 4th cousin of King Charles III of Britain, and a 1st cousin of King Felipe VI of Spain (who had been his roommate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.) and King Frederik X of Denmark.

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July 23, 1974 was a Tuesday. Maurice Greene was born on this day, a sprinter who won the Gold Medals in the 100 meters and the 4-by-100-meter relay in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia; and would win the Silver Medal in the 4-by-100 and the Bronze Medal in 2004 in... Athens, Greece. Actresses Kathryn Hahn and Stephanie March were also born on this day.

There was only 1 score on this historic day: Major League Baseball held its All-Star Game, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The National League beat the American League, 7-2. The starting pitchers were Andy Messersmith of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Gaylord Perry of the Cleveland Indians. Ken Brett of the host Pittsburgh Pirates was the winning pitcher, and Luis Tiant of the Boston Red Sox was the losing pitcher. The only home run was hit by Reggie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals, off Jim "Catfish" Hunter of the Oakland Athletics.

June 19, 1963: "Jason and the Argonauts" Premieres

June 19, 1963: The film Jason and the Argonauts premieres. Directed by Don Chaffey, it received a musical score by Bernard Herrmann, and special effects from the master of stop-motion photography, Ray Harryhausen. Herrmann, best known for his work on the films of Alfred Hitchcock, had previously teamed with Harryhausen on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, and Mysterious Island.

Set around 1300 BC, in the Mycenaean Age of Greece, over a century before the Trojan War, and perhaps around the time of the Biblical Exodus, it is based on The Argonautica, an epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd Century BC. Pelias (played by Douglas Wilmer) usurps the throne of Thessaly, in what is now northern Greece, killing King Aristo. A prophecy states that one of Aristo's children will avenge him. Aristo's infant son Jason is spirited away by a soldier. Pelias, thinking it will eliminate a possible answer to the prophecy, slays one of Aristo's daughters after she seeks sanctuary in the temple of the goddess Hera (Honor Blackman). Because the murder has profaned her temple, Hera becomes Jason's protector. She warns Pelias to beware of "a one-sandaled man."

Twenty years later, Jason (played as an adult by Todd Armstrong) saves Pelias from drowning, an "accident" orchestrated by Hera, losing his sandal in the process. Pelias recognizes his enemy. Not knowing who he has saved, Jason intends to seek the legendary Golden Fleece, to rally support against Pelias. The Golden Fleece is wool from Chrysomallos, a winged ram, and a symbol of authority and kingship. Hoping Jason will die on the quest, thus eliminating another threat, Pelias encourages him to set forth.

Hermes (Michael Gwynn), messenger of the Greek gods, takes Jason to Mount Olympus, their home, where Zeus (Niall MacGinnis) rules over all, with his wife, Hera, by his side. (The film, with the Hays Code still in effect, doesn't mention the part of Greek mythology that says that Zeus frequently cheated on Hera, with goddesses and mortal women alike.) Zeus decrees that Hera can help him only five times, the same number of times that Jason's murdered sister called on her for protection.

He has a ship built, by Argus (Laurence Naismith). In his honor, Jason names the ship the Argo, and calls his crew the Argonauts. and recruits a crew. Among them are Hercules (Nigel Green), the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, and thus said to be the strongest man in the world. Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, has made armor for the Argonauts.

En route to finding the Fleece, the Argonauts have several adventures, including the rescue of Medea (Nancy Kovack), high priestess of the goddess Hecate. She falls in love with Jason. Jason faces the Hydra, a multiheaded beast, where if one head is cut off three more rise in its place. He prevents this by burning the stumps, until they were all gone.

In the film's most familiar scene, seven armed skeletons charge the Argonauts. Jason, Phalerus (Andrew Faulds) and Castor (Ferdinando Poggi) fight the skeletons long enough for Medea and Argus to take the Fleece and get back in the Argo. Phalerus and Castor are killed by the skeletons, but Jason gets away, back to the Argo, and the remaining Argonauts sail home.

There, the film ends. But the myth goes on. The Argonauts -- including Peleus (not to be confused with Pelias, and he does not appear in the film), King of Phthia, who turns out to be the father of Trojan War hero Achilles; and Laertes, King of Cephalonia, who turns out to be the father of Trojan War hero Ulysses, a.k.a. Odysseus -- make it home safely, and Pelias ends up killed not by Jason, or any other child of Aristo, but by his own daughters, who are nonetheless inspired by Jason and Medea, thus sort-of fulfilling the prophecy. But because of this, Jason is told he cannot become King of Thessaly.

He and Medea settle in Corinth, becoming that city's King and Queen. They are together for 10 years, after which Jason betrays Medea by announcing he will divorce her and marry Glauce, daughter of King Creon. According to the tragedy written by Euripides, Medea, daughter of the sorceress Circe and thus granddaughter of the Sun god Helios, uses her magic to kill Creon, Glauce, and even the children she had with Jason.

The most successful team in the Canadian Football League was named the Toronto Argonauts, in honor of the myth. In the Hercules/Xena media franchise, Jeffrey Thomas played Jason, and his friendship with fellow Argonauts Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) and Iolaus (a character created for the TV series, played by Michael Hurst) is alluded to a few times. In the Argonauts' honor, Xena (Lucy Lawless) named her horse Argo.

In 2000, NBC remade the story as a miniseries, with Jason London as Jason, Jolene Blalock as Medea, and an all-star cast that also included Frank Langella, Natasha Henstridge, Derek Jacobi, Olivia Williams, Angus Macfadyen, Dennis Hopper and Ciarán Hinds.

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June 19, 1963 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Jim Bouton outpitched Claude Osteen. Mickey Mantle was injured, and did not play. Roger Maris did, and hit a home run. Other than that, the Yankees only had 4 hits, and Bobby Richardson had 3 of them.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-4 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Bill White hit a home run for the Cards. Stan Musial, in his last season, went 2-for-3 with a walk. Duke Snider drew a pinch-hit walk for the Mets.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs. Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 5-4. The Baltimore Orioles won the nightcap, 6-2. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4, then 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Leo Cárdenas singled Frank Robinson home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Robinson had walked in the inning, but otherwise went 0-for-4. Rooke Pete Rose went 1-for-5.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Colt .45s, 9-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 3-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs. The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Braves 6-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5. Hank Aaron hit his 328th career home run.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 12-4 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run.

* A doubleheader was split at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Angels were groundsharing until their stadiumin Anaheim could be built. The Angels won the 1st game, 4-2. The Kansas City Athletics won the 2nd game, 4-3.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Juan Marichal outpitched Don Drysdale, and went 1-for-3 in his own cause. Willie Mays did not play, but Willie McCovey and Chuck Hiller hit home runs.

April 23, 1915: The Death of Rupert Brooke

April 23, 1915: Rupert Brooke, already an admired poet, dies in the service of the Royal Navy, on a hospital ship in the Aegean Sea -- not from combat injuries, but from an infected mosquito bite. This was the era before antibiotics. He was only 27, and was buried on the nearby Greek island of Skyros.

Rupert Chawner Brooke was born on August 3, 1887 in Rugby, Warwickshire, England -- the town with the private school of the same name, where the sport of the same name was allegedly invented. Brooke attended the Rugby School, and King's College of Cambridge University.

At Cambridge, the Bloomsbury Group of writers was formed in 1912. Many of them, including Brooke, E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf, were gay, some of them entering marriages of convenience that both parties understood to be open marriages.

He enlisted in the Royal Navy when World War I broke out in 1914. Having already had poems published in The Westminster Gazette, The Times Literary Supplement -- with the approval of the British government, which might have censored them had they not been complementary to the nation and its troops -- began publishing his war poems.

Brooke sailed with the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on February 28, 1915, but developed severe gastroenteritis while stationed in Egypt, followed by streptococcal sepsis from an infected mosquito bite. Antibiotics, which could have saved so many in World War I, had not yet been discovered.

French surgeons carried out two operations to drain the abscess, but he died of septicemia on April 23, on a French hospital ship. As the expeditionary force had orders to depart immediately, Brooke was buried in an olive grove on Skyros. His brother, William Alfred Cotterill Brooke, was killed on the Western Front on June 14.

Yes, that photo really is of Brooke. It's not Hugh Grant playing him in a movie. In fact, as of 2022, there is no film biography of him. Which is a little odd, since he was one of the earliest well-known creative artists to have died at the specific age of 27.

Among those that preceded him in the "27 Club" were Brazilian composer Alexandre Levy, of an unknown illness in 1892; Louis Chauvin, a ragtime composer from St. Louis, of neurosyphilitic sclerosis in 1908; and George Trakl, an Austrian poet, of a cocaine overdose in 1914.

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April 23, 1915 was a Friday. This was early in the 2nd of the 2 seasons of 3 major leagues. In the American League:

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-4 at League Park in Cleveland. Ty Cobb went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and a stolen base. Shoeless Joe Jackson went 0-for-5 for the Indians.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Eddie Collins went 0-for-1 with 3 walks.

* The Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Athletics were rained out at Fenway Park in Boston. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on June 30. The Sox swept, 10-5 and 10-7. Over the 2 games, Tris Speaker went 4-for-6 with 3 walks and an RBI. Babe Ruth, a rookie at the time, did not appear in either game.

* And the New York Yankees and the Washington Senators were rained out at the Polo Grounds. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 3. The Senators won the opener, 8-7. George McBride hit a home run in the top of the 11th inning, and Walter Johnson came in to pitch the bottom of the 11th, getting the save, not that anybody knew what a "save" was back then. Johnson then started the nightcap, which the Yankees won, 4-1, as "The Big Train" was outpitched by Ray Caldwell.

In the National League:

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Boston Braves, 2-1 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. George "Possum" Whitted went 3-for-3, but both Phils runs came in the 3rd inning, on a double by Fred Luderus.

It was the Phillies' 8th straight win to open the season. The Braves beat them the next day, but the Phils went on to win their 1st Pennant, succeeding the Braves as NL Champions.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ivan "Ivy" Olson went 3-for-3 with a walk. Honus Wagner went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base. He was 41 years old.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-4 at Robison Field in St. Louis. The interregnum where the Cubs' biggest rivals were the Giants had ended, and the Cards retook their former place as such.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known during Wilbert Robinson's managing of them, 1914 to 1931) and their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, were rained out at Ebbets Field. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 3. The Robins won the 1st game, 2-1. The Giants won the 2nd game, 4-3.

And in the Federal League:

* The FL's 2 New York Tri-State Area teams played each other, with the Brooklyn Tip-Tops beating the Newark Peppers, 9-5 at Harrison Park in Harrison, New Jersey, across the Passaic River from Newark. Steve Evans went 3-for-5 with 2 RBIs for Brooklyn.

* The Baltimore Terrapins beat the Buffalo Blues, 6-5 at Federal League Park in Buffalo.

* The Pittsburgh Rebels beat the St. Louis Terriers, 5-2 at Handlan's Park in St. Louis. Former Detroit Tigers star Davy Jones went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* And the Chicago Whales and the Kansas City Packers were rained out at Gordon and Koppel Field in Kansas City. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader 2 days later, a Sunday. The Whales won the 1st game, 10-3. The Packers won the 2nd game, 4-2.

April 10, 1896: The 1st Marathon Race

Spyridon Louis

April 10, 1896: The first marathon race is held, as part of the first modern Olympic Games, in Athens, Greece.

It celebrated the Battle of Marathon, on September 10, 490 BC, when a united army from several Greek city-states defeated a far larger force from the Persian Empire, ending that empire's best chance at conquering Greece.

Legend has it that a courier named Pheidippides ran from Marathon all the way back to Athens, and told the governing archons, "Joy, we win!" Or, depending on your translation, "Rejoice, we conquer!" And then he dropped dead. September 10 is at the end of Summer, and Greece is in the Mediterranean. Whether or not Pheidippides was just a courier, or a soldier wearing armor for the entire run, depends on who's telling the story.

The distance from Marathon to Athens is about 25 miles, and a statue of Pheidippides now stands on the highway between the cities, at about the halfway mark. At the 1908 Olympics in London, the race started at Windsor Castle, home of King Edward VII, and ended at the King's box at the Shepherd's Bush Stadium in West London. That distance was 26 miles, 385 yards, and that has been the official distance for marathon races ever since.

These days, several American cities have marathons, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. But Boston was the 1st city to run one regularly, starting in 1897, about a year after the Athens Olympics. They hold it annually on the 3rd Monday in April, which is celebrated as Patriots Day in New England, to celebrate the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

The 1st modern Olympic Games, in Athens, Greece in 1896, were a smashing success. Not least because the marathon was won by a Greek, Spyridon Louis, who became, and perhaps remains, his nation's greatest sporting hero.

For much of the race, it was led by Edwin Flack, who had already won the 800 meters and the 1,500 meters. Word was telegraphed ahead to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens that Flack led. But Louis took the lead, and this was announced to the stadium. A chant went up: "Hellene! Hellene!" (A Greek! A Greek!)

When Louis entered the stadium, he was joined for the final lap by Crown Prince Constantine and his brother Prince George. His winning name 2 hours, 58 minutes, 50 seconds. He was taken to meet the Princes' father, King George I, who enthusiastically shook his hand. For the rest of his life, he received gifts ranging from jewelry to livestock to a lifelong free shave at a barbershop. He lived until 1940. The stadium Athens built for the 2004 Olympics was named for him.

The 1896 stadium, an update of one that was built in 144 BC, still stands, and has been refurbished, and was used for the archery competitions when Athens hosted the Games again in 2004. It seats about 60,000.

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April 10, 1896 was a Friday. There were no scores on this historic day: The baseball season didn't start for another 6 days, and there was no other professional team sport in America at that point.

March 12, 1947: The Truman Doctrine

March 12, 1947: President Harry S Truman speaks before a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress, announcing a joint aid package to Greece and Turkey, both then threatened by the specter of the extension of Communist ideology by the Soviet Union.

He said, "It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." It was his belief that, because totalitarian regimes coerced free peoples, they automatically represented a threat to international peace and to America's national security. This became known as the Truman Doctrine.

This policy cannot be underestimated. As a student of history, Truman knew that the places now named Greece and Turkey had been trying to kill each other for over 3,000 years, since the Mediterranean coast of present-day Turkey was the front line of the Trojan War. (While it probably didn't happen the way the ancient Greeks said it did, archaeologists have discovered a considerable amount of evidence of a besieged city on the site where Troy is said to have stood.)

If both Greece and Turkey fell to Red influence, it would be a huge loss for the Western democracies. If one fell and the other didn't, it might well be even worse, especially due to religion: Turkey, though constitutionally having a secular government, has a population that is almost entirely Muslim; while Greece is 90 percent Greek Orthodox Catholic. Throw the hatreds of religious conflict into a political one, and a war would have been certain. With one country allied with the U.S. and the other with the Soviets, that's where World War III would have started. And the world was still weary from the effects of World War II.

So Truman had to support both countries this way, even though Greece was in the middle of a civil war in which the Communist troops had been making gains, and Turkey was not in one. Turkey was, however, across the Black Sea from the Soviet Union, and susceptible to naval attacks. To make matters worse, Greece's closest ally in the West, Great Britain, was nearly bankrupt after World War II, and couldn't keep its support going.

Two things came out of the Truman Doctrine: An expansion of the idea for Western Europe, which was named the Marshall Plan after its originator, Secretary of State George C. Marshall; and a military alliance of Western Europe, where "An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us." Founded in 1949, this was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Having been so named for his Army directions in 1943, Marshall was named Time magazine's Man of the Year again in 1947.

The founding members of NATO, established on August 24, 1949, were America, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Portugal. On February 18, 1952, with the Truman Doctrine having proven successful, and with both nations having participated in the United Nations' effort to protect South Korea during the Korean War, Greece and Turkey were admitted to NATO.

The word "Doctrine" had only been officially applied to the foreign policy of one previous President of the United States: James Monroe. The Monroe Doctrine, issued in 1823 by his Secretary of State -- and, as it turned out, his successor as President -- John Quincy Adams, forbade European powers from involving themselves in the affairs of any independent nation in the Western Hemisphere, though it did not affect those places that were still their colonies.

Theodore Roosevelt didn't have a Doctrine, but, in his State of the Union Message to Congress, delivered (by mail, not a live speech) on December 6, 1904, he added what became known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: He would not let one Latin American nation oppress another. Woodrow Wilson didn't have a Doctrine, but in his address (live) to Congress on April 2, 1917, he asked for a Declaration of War against the German Empire, coining the phrase, "The world must be made safe for democracy." In another address to Congress, on January 8, 1918, he outlined his "Fourteen Points" for the settlement of World War I.

The three Republican Presidents who followed the Democratic Wilson issued no Doctrines. Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were so isolationist, each of them barely had a foreign policy at all. The next President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, didn't call his foreign policy guide a "Doctrine," but rather "Four Freedoms": He said the United States should seek the right of people to have freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear, everywhere and anywhere in the world.

Some later Presidents have had their own Doctrines:

* Eisenhower Doctrine: On January 5, 1957, in response to the Suez Crisis in October 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower told Congress that a Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance, or American military aid, if it was being threatened by "overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international Communism."

* President John F. Kennedy never proclaimed one, but in his commencement address at American University in Washington on June 10, 1963, he spoke words that could, in hindsight, be called the Kennedy Doctrine: "What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana, enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave, or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope, and to build a better life for their children. Not merely peace for Americans, but peace for all men and women. Not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time."

President Lyndon B. Johnson made many big speeches, but none that can be said to have outlined a "Johnson Doctrine."

* Nixon Doctrine: On July 25, 1969, in a press conference in Guam, President Richard Nixon stated that each nation that was an ally of America was in charge of its own security in general, but America would act as a "nuclear umbrella" when requested. This was a hint of the "Vietnamization" policy that would change the running of the Vietnam War.

President Gerald R. Ford had no doctrine.

* Carter Doctrine: In his State of the Union Address on January 23, 1980, President Jimmy Carter told Congress that America would use military force, if necessary, to defend its national interests in the Persian Gulf. This was in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the previous month.

In a sentence written by his National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter said, "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force."

Carter ended up not using his Doctrine, but both George Bushes, father and son, did.

* Reagan Doctrine: Another policy issued in a State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of Congress. On February 6, 1985 (which happened to be his 74th birthday, and Congress sang "Happy Birthday" to him as he came in), President Ronald Reagan said, "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives -- on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua -- to defy Soviet-supported aggression, and secure rights which have been ours from birth."

Unfortunately, his implementation of that doctrine involved, in Afghanistan, selling weapons to groups who later formed al-Qaeda and the Taliban; and, in Nicaragua, giving the anti-Communist, and fascist, Contra rebels money from the sale of military weapons to Iran, which was done in exchange for the release of some hostages. This became the Iran-Contra Scandal, and it could have led to an impeachment inquiry for Reagan.

* Clinton Doctrine: President Bill Clinton never used the phrase himself. But, in The Nation on April 1, 1999 -- and not as an April Fool's joke -- Michael T. Klare used the phrase to describe Clinton's handling of the Serbian invasion of Kosovo, which was similar to his intervention against Serbia for its war crimes during the Bosnian Civil War, something Clinton felt he had to do in light of his failure to do anything to stop the genocide in the civil war in Rwanda in 1994.

Clinton did make a statement in early 1999 that could accurately describe what Klare called his doctrine: "Genocide is, in and of itself, a national interest where we should act," and, "We can say to the people of the world, whether you live in Africa, or Central Europe, or any other place, if somebody comes after innocent civilians, and tries to kill them en masse because of their race, their ethnic background or their religion, and it's within our power to stop it, we will stop it."

* Bush Doctrine: Unlike his father, President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush had a docrtine. On September 17, 2002, a little over a year after the 9/11 attacks, this phrase was used by his Vice President Dick Cheney, in a document titled The National Security Strategy of the United States, to describe the Administration's policy, that America had the right to secure itself against countries that harbor or give aid to terrorist groups.

* Obama Doctrine: After hearing the phrase used very loosely for the 1st 6 years of his Presidency, President Barack Obama said in an interview with New York Times foreign policy columnist Thomas L. Friedman on April 5, 2015, "You asked about an Obama Doctrine, the doctrine is: We will engage, but we preserve all our capabilities."

Donald Trump never issued a "Doctrine," nor had one issued on his behalf. This was odd, because it was the kind of thing one would expect from such an ignorant blowhard: A big, bold statement with his name attached to it.

He did tell the audience at a rally, "I'm a nationalist," and he and his supporters frequently used the phrase, "America First" -- a phrase he proved to be a lie in the way he caved in to Vladimir Putin of Russia, Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, and Kim Jong Un of North Korea, all dictators (or, in Netanyahu's case, nearly so) that he admired as "strong men," wishing that he had their kind of power.

In his 1st year in office, January 20, 2021 to March 12, 2022, President Joe Biden has not officially announced a Doctrine, either.

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March 12, 1947 was a Wednesday. Mitt Romney was born on this day. He was the Republican Party's nominee for President in 2012. Before that, he served as Governor of Massachusetts; after it, he was elected U.S. Senator from Utah. He had also organized the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was in the off-season. This was the 1st season of the Basketball Association of America, which became the National Basketball Association in 1949. Two BAA games were played that night. The Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Huskies, 69-57 at the Boston Garden. And the Cleveland Rebels beat the Detroit Falcons, 89-81 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Of these, only the Celtics would still be playing the next season.

Two games were played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 8-3 at the Chicago Stadium. Clare Martin had 2 goals. Bill Cowley had a goal and 4 assists. Bill Gadsby had 2 goals for the Hawks. The Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.

March 9, 2007: The Film “300” Premieres

I'm not sure anything could properly prepare a viewer for this film.

March 9, 2007: The film 300 premieres, based on the 1998 graphic novel by Frank Miller, and directed by Zack Snyder -- who should have been thrown over a cliff, because his style is sickly.

In 490 BC, the Persian Empire invaded Greece under King Darius I, but an Athens-led force beat them at the Battle of Marathon. Ten years later, Darius' son, King Xerxes I, brought 120,000 soldiers to try again. Athenian general Themistocles suggested that the pass of Thermopylae by land, and the Straits of Artemisium by sea, both be blocked.

Contrary to legend, it wasn't just 300 soldiers from Sparta, whose strict military culture gave us the adjective "spartan," facing off against thousands upon thousands of Spartans in a suicide mission. King Leonidas I of Sparta had his 300, but commanded an All-Greek army of about 7,000. It was, indeed, a last stand for them, 7 days of heroism ending with their annihilation on September 10, 480 BC. But the actions at Thermopylae and Artimisium made possible the victory at the Battle of Salamis on September 29, and the Persians had to go back home all over again.

There had previously been the film The 300 Spartans, in 1962, filmed on location in Greece. Snyder's 300 was focused not on the available historical facts -- which, given a gap of over 2,500 years, aren't as many as history buffs would like -- but on making the film look like the graphic novel, with chroma-key superimposition.

In this version, Gerard Butler played Leonidas, who epitomized Spartan courage by fighting and dying with his troops. Lena Headey played his wife, Gorgo, a far nobler queen than she later played on Game of Thrones. The film is typical Snyder: Full of death, and very long. It runs just under 2 hours, so, to paraphrase Gorgo, while you might enjoy this, it will not be over quickly.

The film helped deepen the image of the Spartans as ultimate warriors, not caring if they die as long as the war is won. Edith Hamilton, who wrote extensively on ancient societies, and the mythology and other literature they produced, said that this made them unusual among Greeks: "The Romans thought it was a great thing to die for your country. The Greeks didn't think it was a good thing to die for anything."

In 2008, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who specialized in parodies, having already done Spy Hard, Scary Movie, Date Movie and Epic Movie, released Meet the Spartans. It was trash. But then, so was the movie it was lampooning. In 2014, 300: Rise of an Empire premiered, serving as both prequel, telling of the Battle of Marathon, and sequel, telling of the Battle of Salamis. Headey returned as Gorgo, and Rodrigo Santoro returned as Xerxes.

The battlefield of Marathon is slightly more than the 26.2 miles, to the northeast, from downtown Athens than the modern marathon race is. The battlefield of Thermopylae is about 120 miles to the northwest of Athens. The monument for Salamis is just 15 miles to the west.

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March 9, 2007 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Houston Rockets, 112-91 at the Toyota Center in Houston. Tracy McGrady scored 34 points.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 118-103 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 108-92 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 106-105 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Miami Heat beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 105-91 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Shaquille O'Neal scored 32 points for the Heat.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets, 95-82 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, 104-103 at the US Airways Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 99-89 at the Oracle Arena (as the Oakland Coliseum Arena was then known).

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-1 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Mikael Samuelsson scored the winning goal with 1:34 left in overtime.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the San Jose Sharks, 2-1 at the HP Pavilion (now the SAP Center) in San Jose. Henrik Sedin scored the winning goal with 1:30 left in overtime.