November 2, 1917: The Balfour Declaration

November 2, 1917: Arthur Balfour, Foreign Secretary to Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain, writes a letter to Walter, 2nd Baron Rothschild, a leader of the country's Jewish community, to give to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. It was published on November 9:

His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Whether the British government truly did "use their best endeavours," what becomes known as the Balfour Declaration was a big step forward in the process that led to the establishment and the independence of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, the day the British Mandate of Palestine ran out.

Arthur Balfour served in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1922. He had previously served as Prime Minster from 1902 to 1905, and First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915 and '16 (succeeding a young Winston Churchill). He left the House of Commons upon being named First Earl of Balfour in 1922, and served in the House of Lords for the rest of his life, until 1930.

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November 2, 1917 was a Tuesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. Hockey season hadn't started yet. And professional basketball barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 29, 1956: The Suez Crisis

October 29, 1956: On the orders of dictator Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt closes the Suez Canal, triggering a crisis that could have blown up into World War III.

However, President Dwight D. Eisenhower refuses to take sides, hoping that isolating Britain and France will prevent war, and also prevent the crisis from affecting Israel. "Ike" turns out to be right, and this is often seen as the end of Britain and France as true world powers. The Suez Crisis was a major factor in the fall of France's Fourth Republic, and its replacement with the Fifth Republic, in 1958.

But stuff like this is why the rest of the Middle East doesn't trust Israel. Since 1974, even though it is on the continent of Asia, Israel's national sports teams have been denied entry into Asian tournaments, because Muslim countries in Asia refuse to allow Israeli athletes onto their soil. Since 1992, they have competed in European tournaments.

The Suez Crisis was a huge regional boost for Nasser. A key figure in the coup that overthrew King Farouk in 1952, he set the standard for Middle East dictators to follow, with his cult of personality, his prominent mustache, and his willingness to wear whatever was required for the occasion, be it business suit, military uniform or religious attire.

But he lost the next war with Israel, the Six-Day War of June 1967. And his health was poor: He was a heavy smoker, and by this point had arteriosclerosis and diabetes. He died in 1970, only 52 years old. He was succeeded by his Vice President, Anwar Sadat, who would launch yet another war against Israel in 1973, lose it, and then do something unthinkable to Nasser: Make peace.

Also on this day, NBC debuts its new evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report. With the Suez Crisis beginning that day, the Hungarian Revolution, and a Presidential election campaign entering its final stages, the timing was excellent.

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October 29, 1956 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. There was no Monday Night Football in those days, nor were any college football games played. The NBA and NHL seasons had just started, but there were no games scheduled for this day in either league. So there were no scores on this historic day.

Boxer Wilfredo Gómez was born on that day. The Puerto Rican known as "Bazooka" was the Super Bantamweight Champion from 1979 to 1983, the Featherweight Champion in 1984, and the Super Featherweight Champion in 1985 and 1986.

October 23, 1983: The Beirut Barracks Bombing

October 23, 1983: Two truck-borne suicide bombs strike buildings in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War.

One attack, on an American barracks, kills 241: 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy personnel, and 3 U.S. Army personnel. This remains the deadliest single-day death toll for the Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and the deadliest for America's armed forces overall since the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, in 1968. Another attack, on a French base, killed 58 French military personnel and 6 civilians.

The Lebanese Civil War had begun in 1975, and tore apart a nation that had once been a jewel among France's colonies, before independence in 1946, albeit with an intervention by the U.S. and France in 1958. The war continued until 1990, and Lebanon has recovered somewhat. Today, with Israeli, Syrian, American and French troops withdrawn, it is a democratic nation of 5.3 million people, 58 percent Muslim, 36 percent Christian.

Two days later, President Ronald Reagan launched an invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Some people believed it was an attempt to cover up the debacle in Beirut. As it turned out, the Grenada plan was in motion well before the Beirut attack: Reagan had flown his National Security Council to his ranch outside Santa Barbara, California to discuss it.

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October 23, 1983 was a Sunday. This was also the day that NBC News weekend anchorwoman Jessica Savitch died in a car crash. I have a separate entry for that event.

The baseball season had ended a week before, when the Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series. The NBA season began 5 days later. The NHL season had gotten underway, and 4 games were played that day:

* The New York Rangers beat the New York Islanders, 6-5 at Madison Square Garden. Peter Sundstrom scored the winning goal, 1 minute and 13 seconds into overtime.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 8-5 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames, 7-4 at Chicago Stadium.

And there was a full slate of NFL games:

* The New York Jets lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 27-21 at Shea Stadium. This would be their last season at Shea, or in New York City, for that matter. They moved to the Meadowlands the next season.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 7-6 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Baltimore Colts, 21-7 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. This would be the Colts' last season in Baltimore. They moved to Indianapolis the next season.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Detroit Lions, 38-17 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-21 at Tampa Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 31-0 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns, 28-21 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers, 20-17 in overtime at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Dallas Cowboys, 40-38 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 13-10 in overtime at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 14-6 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 45-35 at Anaheim Stadium.

* And the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 27-21 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next night, on Monday Night Football, the New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals played to a 20-20 tie at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. 

October 12, 2000: The USS Cole Is Attacked

October 12, 2000: The American destroyer USS Cole is attacked in Aden Harbor, Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others. al-Qaeda, the Islamic fundamentalist terrorism group led by Osama bin Laden, claims credit.

President Bill Clinton wanted to take action against al-Qaeda for this, as he had 2 years earlier when they bombed U.S. Embassies in 2 African nations. But he was already in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and feared he would ruin that if he took action. So he didn't. And the Palestinians walked out anyway.

It was Clinton's foreign policy biggest mistake. It played into the hands of the Republicans, with the election for his successor just 25 days away. And it emboldened bin Laden to try something bigger. On September 11, 2001, he did.

The Cole, named for Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a Marine who died in the Battle of Iwo Jima, was repaired, was returned to active duty 3 years later, and remains in service.

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October 12, 2000 was a Thursday. It was a travel day in the American League Championship Series, with the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners tied 1-1. The Yankees won the series in 6 games. Game 2 was played in the National League Championship Series, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Jay Payton had an RBI single in the top of the 9th inning, and the New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5, to take a 2-0 lead. The Mets won the series in 5 games, setting up what remains the only World Series between them and the Yankees -- the only true Subway Series since 1956.

The NFL was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start for another 19 days. There were 5 games in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wings beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-0 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 2-1 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

October 7, 2023: Hamas Starts a War With Israel

October 7, 2023: Palestinian militant groups, led by Hamas, launch a large-scale invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip.

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

It began with an early-morning rocket barrage of over 3,000 missiles, killing at least 1,200 people in one day. It was the largest murder of Jewish people in a single day since the end of the Holocaust, 78 years earlier. It included a massacre at the Re'im Music Festival, 6 miles in from the border with Gaza, in which over 260 people were killed.

To put this in perspective: As of 2023, Israel is home to 9.8 million people, about 1/34th that of the U.S. Proportionally, 1,200 times 34 = 40,800. Not only is that proportionally equivalent to over 13 "9/11s," but it's about 2/3rds of what the U.S. lost over 8 years in Vietnam -- in one day.

The Gaza Strip is about 25 miles long, and about 4 miles wide. Not that Israel is a large nation: They are about 300 miles north-to-south, and 43 miles east-to-west from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Jerusalem traffic is notoriously bad, but, theoretically, a driver can cross Israel in less than an hour.

Because Israel has limited the Palestinians to Gaza, and to parts of the West Bank, people all over the world accuse Israel of being an "apartheid state." This is a lie. Arabs living in Israel have more rights there than they do in countries where they are the overwhelming majority.

But the Arabs living in Gaza, which Israel willingly gave up in 2005, elected Hamas to lead them the following year. The Arabs living in the West Bank subsequently elected a Palestinian government without Hamas.

"Hamas" is an Arabic word meaning "zeal," "strength" or "bravery." It is also an acronym of the Arabic phrase "Harakah al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah," meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement." The terrorist organization with the name was founded in 1987, with the First Intifada. They are Islamic fundamentalists, and have no interest in the freedom of anyone: Not the Palestinians, and certainly not the Israelis.

It has long been said that if the Arabs laid down their arms, the would be no more war; but if the Israelis laid down their arms, there would be no more Israel. Hamas, and their affiliated groups like the Iranian-backed Hezbollah (meaning "Army of God"), have long wanted to "drive them into the sea." Which is ironic, because, if Israel really wanted to, it could do that to the people of Gaza.

With the war that began on October 7, 2023, it became clear: The Israeli position is, "This is our land, and as soon as you begin to leave us alone, we will do the same to you": while the Hamas position is, "This is our land, and we are going to kill you all until those of you who are left leave it." Hamas has released videos showing what the BBC called "ISIS-level savagery."

Why did Hamas act now? It has been suggested that it was because Israel was moving closer to a diplomatic agreement with Saudi Arabia, the capital of the Islamic world, and Hamas couldn't handle that.

Benjamin Netanyahu, in his 3rd go-round as Prime Minister, and the longest-serving -- and most corrupt -- holder of that post, had made Israel's security his reason for staying in office. He failed in a spectacular way. Yet he had the country convinced that only he could protect the country from then on. Americans had seen this before, with George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks.

The Saudis stayed quiet. The only nation openly on Hamas' side was Iran -- the government, that is. The people of Iran, as they demonstrated at a soccer game, were not. Most of the world has sided with Israel. Even the Federal Republic of Germany, the successor state to the perpetrator of the Holocaust, has expressed support, putting a hologram of the Israeli flag on the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Berlin.

Israel, of course, retaliated. For the 1st time since the Yom Kippur War, 50 years to the week earlier, the nation declared war on an enemy. At the time of this writing, the war was in its early stages.

UPDATE: Eventually, the propaganda campaign launched by Hamas convinced much of the world that the Palestinians were innocent victims of acts of genocide -- not the guilty perpetrators of them, as they were on October 7, 2023.

The world turned against Israel, and a wave of anti-Semitism swept over America. Millions of people refused to support first Joe Biden, then Kamala Harris, in the 2024 Presidential election, because they "supported genocide," which was a pernicious and stupid lie. It probably cost Kamala the election, and led to the re-installation of Donald Trump.

Back in office, Trump announced plans for the redevelopment of Gaza, to do to it what he couldn't do to Atlantic City: Turn it into a personal fiefdom. Netanyahu was not willing to go along with this. But Netanyahu wanted to launch a war against Iran, and Trump was willing to go along with this, to distract Americans from the declining economy and the Epstein Files scandal.

On February 28, 2026, with most but not all of the hostages having been returned -- some alive, some dead -- and the Gaza War having no end in sight, Trump and Netanyahu started a war with Iran. Over its 1st month, it had done neither country any good.

It has never occurred to the people who refused to vote for Harris that they bear some responsibility for this. They loved the Palestinians more than they loved their fellow Americans, but Trump was far worse for both peoples than Harris would have been.

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October 7, 2023 was a Saturday. Baseball began all 4 of its Division Series. In the American League, the Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore; 

and the Houston Astros beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-0 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia; and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 11-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Some of the notable college football games that were played that day:

* Number 1 Georgia beat Number 20 Kentucky, 51-13 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* In the rivalry known as, with a trophy named, the Little Brown Jug, Number 2 Michigan beat Minnesota, 52-10 at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

* In the Red River Rivalry, Number 3 Texas were upset by Number 12 Oklahoma, 34-30 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* Number 4 Ohio State beat Maryland, 37-17 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 5 Florida State beat Virginia Tech, 39-17 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.

* Number 9 University of Southern California (USC) needed overtime to beat Arizona, 43-41 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 10 Notre Dame were upset by Number 25 Louisville, 33-7 at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium in Louisville.

* Number 11 Alabama won a hard-fought contest against nearly-ranked Texas A&M, 26-20 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. As good as Nick Saban's Crimson Tide have been the last few years, the Aggies are one of the few teams to regularly give them trouble.

* Number 13 Washington State were upset by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 25-17 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California.

* Number 17 Miami were upset by Georgia Tech, 23-20 at Hard Rock Stadium in suburban Miami Gardens, Florida.

* Number 21 Missouri were mildly upset by Number 23 Louisiana State University (LSU), 49-39 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

* And Rutgers lost to Wisconsin, 24-13 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

September 23, 1932: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Is Decreed

King Ibn Saud

September 23, 1932: Following the amalgamation of the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is decreed by its founder, Abdulaziz ibn Saud.

The word "Saudi" is derived from the element as-Suʿūdīyya in the Arabic name of the country, which is a type of adjective known as a nisba, formed from the dynastic name of the Saudi royal family, the Al Saud. Its inclusion in the country's name expresses the view that the country is the personal possession of the royal family.

Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning "family of" or "House of," to the personal name of an ancestor. In the case of Al Saud, this is Saud ibn Muhammad ibn Muqrin, the father of the dynasty's 18th Century founder, Muhammad bin Saud.

The country was, and remains, an absolute monarchy. It treats dissenters badly, as Jamal Khashoggi found out. And it treats women like property rather than people. But America puts up with Saudi Arabia, because of oil. We want it, and they have it.

Ibn Saud died in 1953, and was succeeded by his son, King Saud. He was unable to control the country's debt, and in 1964 was deposed by his half-brother, King Faisal. In 1975, Faisal was assassinated by a nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musaid, and succeeded by his half-brother, King Khalid, who ordered the nephew's execution.

Khalid died in 1982, succeeded by his half-brother, King Fahd, who led America into opposition against Saddam Hussein and Iraq in 1990 and '91. Fahd died in 2005, and was replaced by his half-brother Abdullah. Abdullah died in 2015, and was replaced by another half-brother, King Salman.

In 2017, Salman issued a royal decree allowing Saudi women to drive cars. However, since that year, the real power behind the throne has been Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a.k.a. MBS, the eldest son of Salman and his 3rd wife. For the 1st time since 1953, the operating head of Saudi Arabia is not a son of King Ibn Saud.

*

September 23, 1932 was a Friday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Walter "Jumbo" Brown pitched a 7-hit shutout. Babe Ruth went 0-for-3 with a walk. Lou Gehrig went 0-for-2 with a walk, before being replaced at 1st base by Lyn Lary in the 7th inning.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 8-4 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Lefty Grove got the save (not that anyone knew what a save was at the time) for Larry Mahaffey. Mule Haas and Al Simmons hit home runs. Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 13-6 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Wes Ferrell outpitched Ed Walsh Jr.

* The Detroit Tigers swept a doubleheader from the St. Louis Browns, 6-2 and 12-0 at Navin Field (later renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Earl Whitehill pitched a 3-hit shutout in the nightcap.

While the entire American League was in action that day, only 1 game was played in the National League: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

September 14, 1982: The Assassination of Bachir Gemayel

September 14, 1982: President-elect Bachir Gemayel of Lebanon is assassinated by a car bomb in the national capital of Beirut, at the height of the country’s civil war. He was only 34 years old.

For 6 years, he had led the Lebanese Forces, the military wing of the social-democratic Kataeb Party, founded by his father, Pierre Gemayel. His older brother, Amine Gemayel, had been elected to Lebanon's national legislature. Bachir had united the country's Christian groups, and had more of an electoral base than the country's Muslims did, resulting in his election as the youngest President in the country's history.

Habib Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which was aiding Lebanon's Muslims in an attempt to unite that country in a "Greater Syria," was arrested for the crime. He confessed that he did it because he thought Gemayel had sold Lebanon out to Israel. He served 8 years in prison before being broken out by Syrian thugs during Syria's final offensive in the civil war. He is now 64 years old, and still at large.

Amine Gemayel was elected in his brother's place, with support from America and Israel. He became the country's youngest President, a record he still holds. He served 6 years, and was constitutionally barred from running again. He is still alive, age 80. However, his son, Pierre, who had become Kataeb Party Leader, was assassinated in 2006.

The Civil War raged from 1975 to 1990. It killed about 120,000 people, and caused another 1 million people to leave the country. Today, Lebanon is a country of about 5.3 million people: 57 percent Muslim (almost evenly divided between Sunni and Shi'a), 38 percent Christian (the majority of that being Maronite Catholic), and 5 percent Druze. It is again considered a democratic nation.

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September 14, 1982 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly the actress Grace Kelly, was killed in a car crash. I have a separate entry for that event.

Football was in midweek. The NBA and the NHL were out of season. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees were swept by the Baltimore Orioles, in a doubleheader at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The O's won the opener, 5-4. Willie Randolph and Lee Mazzilli hit home runs in support of Shane Rawley, but Dave Winfield went 0-for-3 with a walk. The O's won the nightcap, 5-3. Andre Robertson hit a home run in support of Mike Morgan. Dave Winfield appeared only as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base. Storm Davis got the win.

Rookie Don Mattingly did not appear in either game. Eddie Murray went 1-for-8 with an RBI, but Cal Ripken went 2-for-7, including a grand slam in the 2nd game.

* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 3-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 12-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski, 43, did not play. Wade Boggs went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. John Stuper needed a 5-out save from Bruce Sutter to complete a 5-hit shutout. Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose each went 1-for-4.

* The Houston Astros beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-0 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Mike LaCoss needed a 6-out save from Frank LaCorte to finish a 2-hit shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 15-5 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Robin Yount went 2-for-5. Paul Molitor went 1-for-5 with a walk.

* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Bruce Kison pitched a 7-hit shutout. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Rod Carew went 1-for-5.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-2 at Royals Stadium (later Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the Oakland Athletics and the Toronto Blue Jays were rained out at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Jays swept, 3-2 and 12-11. Dave Baker won the nightcap with a single in the bottom of the 9th. In that game, Jeff Burroughs went 2-for-4 with a home run and 6 RBIs for the Jays, but was taken out for a pinch-runner, Rickey Henderson, in what turned out to be Henderson's only appearance in the series.

August 24, 1929: The Hebron Massacre

August 24, 1929: Incited to violence by a lie that Jews were planning to seize control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, 30 miles away, a group of Arab thugs kills 67 Jews in Hebron in what was then Mandatory Palestine.

Stirred up by the lies of Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Jewish homes were pillaged, and synagogues were ransacked. It was one of many pogroms committed by the Arabs against the Jews before 1948, proving that the existence thereafter of the State of Israel is a convenient excuse for their crimes against humanity, but not the truth.

And yet, some of the 435 Jews who survived were hidden by local Arab families, proving that there was still hope for peaceful co-existence. However, the Hebron Massacre revealed the resentments that have made such coexistence incredibly difficult.

Soon after, all Hebron's Jews were evacuated by the British authorities. It sent shock waves through Jewish communities around the world. It led to the re-organization and development of the Jewish paramilitary organization, the Haganah, which later became the nucleus of the Israel Defense Forces.

Amin al-Husseini died in 1974. He lived to see the Munich Massacre and the Arab oil embargo -- but he also lived to see the independence of Israel, and to see his people start 4 wars with the new nation, and lose them all.

*

August 24, 1929 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the St. Louis Browns, 4-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Alvin Crowder -- nicknamed "General," after Enoch Crowder, the U.S. Provost Marshal during World War I -- pitched a 2-hit shutout, allowing 2 hits, both by Gene Robertson, the Yankees' 3rd baseman that day. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig both went 0-for-3.

* The New York Giants swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 14-8 and 7-6 at the Polo Grounds. Fred Fitzsimmons won the opener, Carl Hubbell the nightcap. Over the 2 games, Bill Terry went 5-for-8 with a home run, a walk, and 4 RBIs, Mel Ott went 2-for-6 with 2 walks and 3 RBIs, Fred Lindstrom went 5-for-9 with 2 RBIs, Paul Waner went 4-for-10 with 2 RBIs, and Lloyd Waner went 4-for-10 with 1 RBI.

* A doubleheader was swept at Ebbets Field. The Cincinnati Reds won the 1st game, 5-2. The Brooklyn Dodgers -- or the Brooklyn Robins, as they were officially known while Wilbert Robinson was their manager, 1914 to 1931 -- won the 2nd game, 8-0. Ray Moss pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Braves, 3-1 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-6 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* A doubleheader was split at League Park in Cleveland. The Boston Red Sox won the 1st game, 5-2. The Cleveland Indians won the 2nd game, 6-2.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-6 at Navin Field in Detroit (later renamed Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium).

* And the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Al Simmons went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Mickey Cochrane also went 3-for-4. Jimmie Foxx went 1-for-2 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

June 10, 1967: Israel Wins the Six-Day War

June 10, 1967: One of the most stunning victories in the history of warfare occurs. Israel defeats its Arab neighbors in just 6 days.

Those nations -- Egypt, Syria and Jordan -- had declared war on Israel at the moment of its independence in 1948, and lost. They had fought Israel again in 1956, and lost. The third time would not be the charm, either.

In April 1967, Syria shot at an Israeli tractor ploughing in the demilitarized zone, which Syria considered an ongoing practice of Israeli encroachment on contested land. The event occasioned an escalation into a prewar aerial clash.

In May 1967, following misinformation about Israeli intentions provided by the Soviet Union, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt expelled United Nations peacekeepers who had been stationed in the Sinai Peninsula since the Suez Crisis of 1956-57, which included the 2nd Arab-Israeli War. Nasser announced a blockade of Israel's access to the Red Sea, which was international waters, via the Straits of Tiran. Israel considered this an act of war. Both sides' armies were mobilized.

In early June, Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban flew to Washington, to tell President Lyndon B. Johnson of what was going on. LBJ had intelligence on each side's capabilities, and, despite the numerical advantage for the Arabs, he knew the Israelis were better-equipped to win a war. He told Eban, "You'll lick 'em. If you attack first, you'll lick 'em in 7 days. If they attack first, you'll lick 'em in 10. But if you attack first, we can't help you."

The implication was that the Arab nations had the support of the Soviet Union. And, for the 1st time since its installation in 1963, as a better means of communication after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Washington-Moscow "hot line" was used. LBJ spoke to Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, and asked him to stay out of it, and wait and see what developed.

Kosygin agreed: He was 14 years old when World War I broke out, and a People's Commissar when World War II began. He realized that the falling of alliance "dominoes" had led to those wars, and he knew the damage that was caused in them. He did not want a World War III any more than Johnson did.

On June 5, Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Egyptian airfields, catching Egypt by surprise: Nearly its entire air force was wiped out at a stroke. At the same time, Israel launched ground offensives into the Sinai, and into the Gaza Strip, which Egypt also controlled. Nasser quickly realized that both positions were untenable, and ordered both territories evacuated.

A week earlier, Nasser and King Hussein I of Jordan had signed a defense treaty. The idea was that, if Israel attacked, Jordan would not attack, but would be the main defensive force, tying Israeli forces down. After Egypt was attacked, Egyptian commanders ordered the Jordanian commanders to attack. They did, and it was an absolute fiasco. It took years for relations between Egypt and Jordan to recover.

Syrian troops attacked from the north, and got clobbered, to the point where Israel took Syrian territory, the Golan Heights. It cannot be emphasized enough: It's not just that the Israelis -- in command and in the theater of war -- knew what they were doing, it's that the Arab forces didn't know what they were doing. It was proper training and well-retained know-how vs. near-complete incompetence.

On June 8, the 4th day, Egypt and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire. On June 9, the 5th day, Syria agreed as well. On June 10, Israel had the Sinai, Gaza, the Golan, and, most importantly from their perspective, the West Bank region of Jordan, from the Jordan River to the previous Israeli border. This included the entirety of the city of Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism. "Next year in Jerusalem" was finally possible. They lost fewer than 1,000 personnel; the Arabs, over 20,000.

In the tradition of generals becoming heads of government, Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, and Ariel Sharon, the leading field commander of the Six-Day War, each eventually won election as Prime Minister.

Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel at the time, died in office in 1969. He was succeeded by Golda Meir, the country's 1st female head of government. Nasser died in 1970, replaced by his Vice President, Anwar Sadat. In 1973, Egypt and Syria tried again, without Jordan: King Hussein wanted no part of another war with Israel.

Sadat and Syrian President Hafez Assad thought that the element of surprise made the difference against them in '67, so it could make the difference for them in '73: They attacked on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, thinking they could catch Israeli soldiers in temple and away from their posts. It didn't work: After initial gains, the war turned into a dangerous stalemate, and American mediation ended it on terms favorable to the Israelis after 3 weeks.

Now, Sadat had had enough, too. In 1977, with Menachem Begin having ended Rabin's 1st tenure as Prime Minister, Sadat approached Begin about a peace treaty. With negotiations led by President Jimmy Carter, the Camp David Accords were signed on the White House lawn in 1978. That peace still holds. It involved Israel returning the Sinai Peninsula -- but not the Gaza Strip -- to Egypt.

A state of war still officially existed between Israel and Jordan. But, following the Gaza-Jericho Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1993, signed by Rabin, who had been elected back into office, King Hussein and Rabin signed a peace treaty in 1994. That peace still holds, after the assassinations of Sadat and Rabin, and the natural deaths of Meir, Sharon, Hussein and Assad. However, Assad was succeeded by his son, Bashar Assad, and he has been an even more brutal dictator than his father. And, at least officially, a state of war still exists between Syria and Israel.

*

June 10, 1967 was a Saturday. Darren Robinson, of the rap group The Fat Boys, was born. This was also the day that the Gateway Arch opened in St. Louis. I have a separate entry for that event.

These games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees lost nearly as badly as the Arab nations did -- and, like them, on home soil. They lost 9-0 to the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium. Gary Peters went the distance for the Pale Hose, giving up just 4 hits, all singles: To Mickey Mantle, Joe Pepitone, Horace Clarke and Charlie Smith, for whom the Yankees traded Roger Maris to St. Louis, even-up. Dumb trade, although Roger was happier.

Thad Tillotson didn't get out of the 5th inning, giving up home runs to Don Buford and to Peters himself. Peters got 2 hits, and Pete Ward reached base 5 times: 2 doubles, a single and 2 walks.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Senators got 2 home runs, both from Frank Howard. The Red Sox got 2 home runs, from George Scott and Rico Petrocelli. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-2 with 2 walks, while Tony Conigliaro went 0-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4 at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1975.) The Giants got homers from Willie McCovey, Tom Haller and Jim Ray Hart. Willie Mays went 1-for-4. The Braves got homers from Felipe Alou and Gary Geiger. Hank Aaron went 3-for-4, but Joe Torre went 0-for-4.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-4, and Willie Stargell went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 9-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-4 with an RBI. For the Astros, Jimmy Wynn, a Cincinnati native, hit a home run over the left-field scoreboard, and onto Interstate 75, the Mill Creek Expressway.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. 

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-1 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rich Rollins hit 2 home runs, Tony Oliva hit 1, and Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-2, but drew 3 walks. The only Oriole run came on a solo homer by Boog Powell. Frank Robinson went 0-for-4, and Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3.

* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-0 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison International Field in 1997, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2004.) Clyde Wright pitched 7 innings of 4-hit ball, and Minnie Rojas went 2 perfect to finish the shutout. Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

* And the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs were rained out at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Since a doubleheader was already scheduled for the next day, this game was moved to August 31. The Cubs won, 2-1. Rookie Tom Seaver pitched 9 innings, to no avail. Ernie Banks went 1-for-5, and was replaced for a pinch-runner -- Fergie Jenkins, usually a pitcher. Al Spangler singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

May 26, 1908: The 1st Discovery of Oil In the Middle East

May 26, 1908: At Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia, the 1st major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.

As a result, one of the major fronts of World War I turned out to be in the Middle East, where Britain and France sided with local leaders who were already rebelling against the Ottoman Empire. This resulted in the creation of several new nations that were home to old civilizations, including Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and the modern nations of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Persia changed its name to Iran in 1935. But post-World War II intervention by the Soviet Union led to Britain and America assisting in a coup that removed the apparently (but not actually) Soviet-friendly elected President, Mohammed Mossadegh, and the re-installation of the monarch, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. This would have consequences with which the West would have to deal with well into the 21st Century.

Calendar year 1908 featured not only the Masjed Soleyman discovery, but also the start of Ford Motor Company producing the Model T. This combination helped make the modern automobile industry, and the modern oil industry, possible.

The Persian discovery of 1908 was followed by the discovery of oil in other Middle Eastern nations, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1938. The world, already addicted to the automobile, became addicted to oil, and the Middle East, particularly the Persian Gulf, has been a key part of the world ever since, subject to the whims of monarchs who pretended not to be dictators, of dictators who pretended not to be monarchs, and of religious tyrants who pretended to be neither monarchs nor dictators.

*

May 26, 1908 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Highlanders lost to the St. Louis Browns, 5-3 in 10 innings at Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan. The Highlanders were renamed the Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-4 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago. These teams would play 1 game for the National League Pennant at the end of the season.

* The Brooklyn Superbas lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2 at The Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. The Superbas, while their manager was Ned Hanlon, were named for a circus troupe called Hanlon's Superbas. They became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 16-5 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 1-0 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia. "Wild" Bill Donovan pitched a 6-hit shutout, to outpitch Eddie Plank, who allowed a run on 3 hits. Ty Cobb went 0-for-3.

* The Washington Senators beat the Cleveland Naps, 3-2 at American League Park in Washington. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the manager and slugging 2nd baseman for whom the Cleveland team was named, went 3-for-4, but the Naps only got 1 other hit. The team became the Cleveland Indians in 1915, and the Cleveland Guardians in 2022.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Doves, 8-1 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 1-for-5 with an RBI. The Doves were named for their owners, the Dovey brothers. William H. Russell bought them in 1911, and renamed them the Boston Rustlers. He died after his first season, and they were bought by James Gaffney, who was an official, a "Brave," in New York's Tammany Hall political organization. He renamed the team the Boston Braves.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at Robison Field in St. Louis.

March 4, 1938: Oil Is Discovered In Saudi Arabia

March 4, 1938: Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. The world will never be the same.

The Saudis didn't know if there was any oil under the land of their recently-founded kingdom. But in 1908, another Middle Eastern monarchy, Iran, struck oil. In 1932, so did another Middle Eastern monarchy, the neighboring island nation of Bahrain. And, as the capital of the Islamic world, the Saudis wanted control of that world, which would depend on having oil. So they began drilling.

Their 1st 6 oil wells, labeled Dammam Numbers 1 through 6, had all failed to develop by November 1937. So King Ibn Saud ordered a halt to all drilling except at Damman Number 7, which was twice as deep as the level at which Bahrain discovered theirs. On March 4, 1938, Number 7 drilled even deeper, and struck: 1,585 barrels of oil that day. Within a week, it was putting out 3,810 barrels a day.

With the demand for oil reaching a new high in World War II, Saudi Arabia became one of the most important countries in the world. After the war, both America and Britain were, essentially, addicted to oil. And the House of Saud acted like drug dealers, and the King like a drug lord.

In 1960, Saudi Arabia was a founding member of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. In 1973, led by the Saudis, OPEC cut back on oil production, in retaliation for the West's support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. This threw America and much of the world into recession, causing massive lines at gas stations. In 1974, despite everything that happened in the Watergate scandal, it was King Faisal of Saudi Arabia that Time magazine chose as its Man of the Year. In 1979, OPEC retaliated against America again, for accepting the dying, exiled Shah of Iran into the country for medical treatment.

In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and thus controlled 10 percent of the world's oil. It was feared that Saudi Arabia would be next, which would have given Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein control of 20 percent of the world's oil. After decades of military aid, due to the Saudis siding with the West during the Cold War, they should have been able to defend themselves if Iraq invaded. Instead, they called on America to do their job for them, and the Persian Gulf War resulted in Iraq being kicked out of Kuwait.

But American troops remained in Saudi Arabia. This led to terrorist group al-Qaeda attacking America, including, in 1996, bombing the U.S. base at the Khobar Towers, within 2 miles of the still-producing Dammam Number 7 well. On September 11, 2001, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi natives, as was their leader, Osama bin Laden. In 2002, President George W. Bush abandoned the search for bin Laden, and concentrated on kicking Saddam out of power in Iraq, so the U.S. could control their oil, and thus need Saudi oil less. This turned out to be a very stupid thing to do.

In the 21st Century, in spite of the move toward electric cars, America is still held hostage by the oil industry, mostly by Saudi Arabia.

*

March 4, 1938 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL had no games scheduled. So there were no games on this historic day.

February 28, 2026: Donald Trump Starts a War He Can't Finish

NOTE: Although this entry is from after 2022, I have backdated all entries from after that year to the corresponding date in 2022.

February 28, 2026: Donald Trump starts a war. With his usual bluster, he says he will win it quickly. Quickly, he says he has won it.

Except he didn't win it quickly. Six months into the war, he hadn't won it at all.

With the American economy in tatters due to his incompetence, and his name connecting with heinous crimes in the Epstein Files, Trump needed a distraction. What better distraction than a war? Oh, sure, just as he had campaigned in 2024 on lowering prices and had instead raised them, he had campaigned all three times he ran for President on "ending wars." Instead, he started one.

In 2015, President Barack Obama and his diplomats negotiated a deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, in which that country promised to never build a nuclear weapon, and would allow verification by outside sources. In return, the U.S. would never attack Iran first. Angry that a black President had done this, the racist Trump violated the agreement, and attacked Iran.

Trump, lying as usual, claimed that Iran was mere weeks away from building a nuclear weapon, and that both America and its ally, Israel, were in danger; and so, his attacks were justified. On the 1st night of attacks, the supreme leader of the country, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. He had ruled Iran since the death of the similarly-named Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, 37 years earlier. (Khomeini had 2 sons, but both died relatively young, and would not succeed their father.)

Khamenei was a protégé of Khomeini, who had led the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and had ruled with an iron fist for 10 years. Khamenei ruled the same way, crushing all dissent -- and there was plenty of dissent to his hardline rule. He was 86 years old, and said to be in ill health. If Trump had simply waited a while, he might have been able to deal with a less hardline successor, and work something out. (Then again, this is Trump we're talking about, so, maybe not.)

Instead, he was succeeded by his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 56 years old, and believed to be even more conservative than his father, and certainly inclined to want to avenge him rather than be scared into negotiating for peace.

Iran responded by attacking U.S. military bases in the Middle East: In Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. And Iran cut off foreign access to the Strait of Hormuz, effectively strangling access to the region's oil for everyone but themselves and their allies.

Through the end of June 2026, the cost of the war to the US was estimated at $113.3 billion. By August 18, the official count -- which some have speculated has been kept as low as the Pentagon dares -- is 19 soldiers and 1 civilian contractor killed, and 624 wounded. And the choking off of the Strait of Hormuz has meant that oil prices, and thus gasoline prices, and thus the prices of everything residually affected by those prices, has gone up, higher (though not yet with a higher rate of inflation) Trump than it ever was under President Joe Biden.

And the main American unit in the region, the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, has been at sea since late 2025. Reports have reached American shores, detailing severely depleted supplies on board, and mental health issues for the sailors aboard, including suicide attempts. On August 11, Iranian media reported that seven navy personnel died during a brawl on the ship.

The Trump Administration, of course, has denied all of these reports. When asked on August 14 if the ship had been at sea too long, he said, "No. no. no. Not nearly long enough." This is the man who had 5 draft deferments during the Vietnam War, and who previously called live American military personnel "suckers," and those who died in service "losers." 

Even if Trump stopped the Iran War at any time in its 1st 6 months, this would still be absolutely the dumbest war in American history -- not for the lives lost, but for the effect on "the home front." And if Trump does get an end to it, America will still be worse off: The nuclear deal he rejected would be restored, but Iran would still control the Strait of Hormuz, which it didn't before.

But Trump won't finish the war. Because he still needs the distraction from the bad economy and the Epstein Files. Except the war is not distracting people from how bad the economy is: It's making the economy worse, which is usually the opposite of what a war does for America. Plus, ending the war would make him "look weak." And if there's one thing Trump hates more than nonwhite people, it's people who look weak -- especially making himself look weak.

Steve Schmidt is a Republican campaign operative, who helped get George W. Bush into the White House in 2000 and 2004, and ran the 2008 campaign of Presidential nominee John McCain. That campaign lost, but no one blames Schmidt for it. In 2019, he founded The Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans opposed to Trump. It ran ads against him in the 2020 and 2024 campaigns.

On August 15, 2026, a year and a half into Trump's 2nd term, and nearly 6 months into the war, Schmidt was interviewed on cable news network MSNOW, formerly MSNBC. In response to a very general question regarding the Trump Presidency, he said this:

Donald Trump has been the worst president this country has ever had. And, I don't say that hyperbolically. He is. But he is a consequential president. And, he has brought this country in three short years to a place of weakness that is simply unimaginable if you were pondering where we are today from the day where Barack Obama left office. And there were a lot of us on that day who were deeply skeptical and very worried about what a Trump Presidency would be. But this is a moment of unparalleled national humiliation, of weakness.

When you listen to the President, these are the musings of an imbecile. An idiot. And I don't use those words to name-call. I use them because they are the precise words of the English language to describe his behavior, his comportment, his actions. We've never seen a level of incompetence, a level of ineptitude, so staggering on a daily basis by anybody in the history of the country who's ever been charged with substantial responsibilities.

It's just astonishing that this man is President of the United States. The man, the con man, from New York City. Many bankruptcies, failed businesses, a reality show, that branded him as something that he never was. A successful businessman.

Well, he's the President of the United States now, and the man who said he would make the country great again. And he's brought death, suffering, and economic collapse on truly an epic scale.

And, let's be clear: This isn't happening in every country around the world. This place. Our place. Our home. Our country. The United States. We are the epicenter. We are the place where you're the most likely to die from this disease. We're the ones with the most shattered economy. And we are, because of the fool that sits in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk.

If a President who belonged to the Democratic Party had done any one of a dozen things that Trump has done, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would have impeached him, and the Republican majority in the Senate would have gotten enough Democratic Senators to break ranks to form a two-thirds majority, 67 out of 100, to convict him and thus remove him from office.

The Republican-controlled Congress has made no effort to impeach and remove Trump. Because they approve of what he is doing. But millions of people who supported him in 2024 because they believed in him on the issues of the economy and keeping America out of war have abandoned him. Opinion polls released in August 2026 show Trump at 33 to 36 percent approval. The people who said Biden was too old and not good for the economy had joined with Trump's true believers to put him back into office.

They are now experiencing buyer's remorse, and even a few of the true believers have broken away.

*

February 28, 2026 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 5 games in the NBA:

* The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards, 134-125 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 109-93 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

* The Miami Heat beat the Houston Rockets, 115-105 at the Kaseya Center in Miami.

*  The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Utah Jazz, 115-105 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Golden State Warriors, 129-101 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

And there were 13 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 in a shootout at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Simon Holmström scored the winning goal with 3:13 left in overtime.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Washington Capitals, 6-2 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-2 at the Benchmark International Arena in Tampa.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Nashville Predators, 3-2 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Jason Robertson scored the winning goal with 3:13 left in overtime.

* The Ottawa Senators beat their arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the Ball Arena in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Calgary Flames, 2-0 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-4 at the SAP Center in San Jose.

* The Seattle Kraken beat their arch-rivals, the Vancouver Canucks, 5-1 at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.

* And the Winnipeg Jets, the Anaheim Ducks, the Florida Panthers, the Minnesota Wild, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Utah Mammoth were not scheduled.