November 10, 1982: Leonid Brezhnev "Has a Cold"

November 10, 1982: Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev dies of a heart attack in Zarechye, outside Moscow, 3 days after his last public appearance, at a parade commemorating the 65th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

His health, like his government, had been failing for years. Soviet media tried to cover up his final illness, by saying that he had a cold. Hosting The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson made a lot of jokes about this, and did so again when Brezhnev’s successor, Yuri Andropov, died just 15 months later; and again when Andropov's successor, Konstantin Chernenko, died 13 months after that. Even President Ronald Reagan said, "How can I make peace with the Russians, when they keep dying on me?"

No one knew it at the time, but Brezhnev’s nearly "absentee boss" governance was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. Over the last 10 years of his dictatorship, roughly from the time he and President Richard Nixon signed their 1972 treaties, the Soviet Union had deteriorated almost as much as his health -- something ignored by fans of Reagan, who wanted us to believe that the Soviet state was never stronger than under its enabler (they alleged), Jimmy Carter.

His funeral was, typical for a totalitarian nation putting its leader to rest, over the top. Clips of it would be used on Saturday Night Live the next year, for the funeral of Buckwheat, assassinated by John David Stutts (both characters played by Eddie Murphy) -- with the Reagans and a sad-looking Princess Diana in attendance.

More notable to me in this photo of Brezhnev than his 5 "Hero of the Soviet Union" medals are his oversize glasses, like Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, and singer-actor Dean Martin in his last few years, unable to hide just how bad he was looking.

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November 10, 1982 was a Wednesday. Actress Heather Matarazzo was born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the New York Knicks, 99-90 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 145-108 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Despite the high team point total, the Sixers' highest scorer was Moses Malone with 22 points.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 105-101 at the Boston Garden.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers, 115-91 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Dallas Mavericks, 94-91 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Denver Nuggets, 125-119 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Adrian Dantley led all scorers on the night with 43 points.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Kansas City Kings, 106-100 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors, 132-120 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Lloyd "World B." Free scored 38 points in defeat.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils, in their 1st season, lost to the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 7-5 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 8-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* In another "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

* And the Boston Bruins, the Minnesota North Stars and the Winnipeg Jets were not scheduled.

September 11, 1969: The Sino-Soviet Border Conflict Is Settled

The Soviet Union in purple, China in gold.

With neighboring Mongolia in stripes,

North Korea in red, and Japan in orange.

September 11, 1969: This may well have been the most consequential September 11 in human history, more so even than in 2001. Because there was a Sino-Soviet Border Conflict, and it was getting bad.

On August 13, 1969, President Richard Nixon received a President’s Daily Briefing. In it, the CIA described the conflict, also known as the Ussuri River Conflict, as having "explosive potential," and that "the potential for a war between them clearly exists," including a Soviet attack on Chinese nuclear facilities; while China "appears to view the USSR as its most immediate enemy."

In other words, at this point, each is the other's biggest enemy at the moment, not America or any other Western democracy in either case. For the moment, there seemed little Nixon could do except keep an eye on things.

On September 11, returning from the funeral of North Vietnamese dictator Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin lands in Beijing, and meets with his Chinese counterpart, Zhou Enlai. They manage to straighten things out. In the conflict, the Chinese lost about 100 men; the Soviets, about 300.

But, knowing that the Sino-Soviet split was that bad, Nixon realized that he could "triangulate" them off each other. In 1971 and 1972, he set up meetings with the leaders of both countries, and visited first Beijing in February 1972, meeting Zhou and Mao Zedong; then Moscow, meeting Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev. He got agreements from both sides: The SALT and Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaties with the Soviet Union, and an "opening" with China that included their assistance in the peace talks between their ally, North Vietnam, and America's ally, South Vietnam.

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September 11, 1969 was a Thursday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Washington Senators, 7-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. Jim Hannan outpitched Stan Bahnsen. Mike Epstein and Brant Alyea hit home runs for the Senators, while Joe Pepitone and Bobby Murcer hit them for the Yankees. Rookie catcher Thurman Munson went 3-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 4-0 at Shea Stadium. Gary Gentry pitched a 6-hit shutout. The Mets were 2 days past "The Black Cat Game," 13 days short of their 1st-ever 1st-place clinch, 25 days short of their 1st Pennant, and 35 days short of completing their "Miracle."

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Dick Allen, getting booed every day by the home fans, hit a home run. Ernie Banks and Willie Smith homered for the "September Swooning" Cubs. On October 7, Allen would be traded for Curt Flood, and, for once, he wouldn't be the most controversial player involved in an action.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Dave McNally outpitched Lee Stange. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4. Rico Petrocelli hit a home run for the Red Sox, while Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-3 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Willie McCovey hit 2 home runs. Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk. For the Braves, Hank Aaron hit his 551st career home run.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Veale outpitched Steve Carlton. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-3 with a walk. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Luis Tiant outpitched Denny McLain. Al Kaline did not play for the Tigers.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 6-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Joe Horlen pitched a 3-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 1-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Claude Osteen pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Don Wilson.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the California Angeles, 3-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Wally Bunker allowed only 1 hit, a single to Jay Johnstone in the 7th.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Pilots, 6-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. Sal Bando and Bob Johnson homered for the A's. Reggie Jackson did not play.

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.

May 26, 1972: The SALT I Treaty Is Signed

May 26, 1972: The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement is signed in Moscow. It becomes known as the SALT I Treaty.

Negotiations began on November 17, 1969, mostly in Helsinki, Finland, a location agreed upon by the Soviet Union as favorable and the United States as acceptable. After a long deadlock, the first results of SALT I came in May 1971, when an agreement was reached over Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems.

Further discussion brought the negotiations to an end in Moscow in 1972, when Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the interim agreement that became the SALT I Treaty.

The two sides also agreed to a number of basic principles regarding appropriate conduct. Each recognized the sovereignty of the other; agreed to the principle of noninterference; and sought to promote economic, scientific, and cultural ties of mutual benefit and enrichment.

Nixon had been engaging in "triangulation," playing the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, the world's 2 Communist superpowers, against each other. Having visited China in February, Nixon showed the Soviets that it would be better for them if they came to an agreement. They did. Thus, it could be argued that Nixon did more to end the Cold War in victory for the West in 3 months than Ronald Reagan did in 40 years.

Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter would sign SALT II in 1979. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush and the last Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, signed a superseding agreement, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I. The Russian Federation honored that treaty until it expired on December 5, 2009. In 2010, President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed "New START," which remains in effect.

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May 26, 1972 was a Friday, the start of a Memorial Day Weekend. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 8-2 at Yankee Stadium. Tom Timmerman outpitched Mike Kekich. Al Kaline went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Rick Wise outpitched Tom Seaver. Joe Torre and Ted Simmons hit home runs. Willie Mays, recently traded to the Mets, did not play.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski did not play.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 2-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Mike Cuellar pitched a 4-hit shutout. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 9-4 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Ron Reed outpitched Juan Marichal. Hank Aaron hit his 646th career home run. On June 10, he hit his 649th, passing Mays for 2nd place on the all-time list. On April 8, 1974, he hit his 715th, passing Babe Ruth for 1st.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 4-for-5 with an RBI. Willie Stargell did not play. Steve Carlton fell to 5-5 on the season. He went 22-5 the rest of the way.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 4-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Gary Nolan pitched a 5-hit shutout. Pete Rose went 1-for-4 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 7-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Bert Blyleven pitched a 5-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4. Rod Carew went 2-for-3 with a walk and 3 RBIs.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Frank Robinson, in his only season with the Dodgers, went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-5 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Nolan Ryan did not get out of the 6th inning, allowed 5 hits, walked 9, and struck out only 2 -- but was the winning pitcher.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Reggie Jackson went 2-for-3 with a solo home run and a walk.