December 21, 1988: The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103

December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. It is one of the most notorious cases of terrorism to date, and remains the deadliest ever to occur in the British Isles.

A Boeing 747, it had taken off from Frankfurt, Germany at 4:19 PM, and stopped over at Heathrow Airport in London at 5:40. At 6:25, it took off again, heading for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. After a refueling, it would then have taken off for Detroit, its final stop.

But at 7:03 PM, Greenwich Mean Time -- 2:03, U.S. Eastern Time -- the plane exploded over Lockerbie, about 15 miles northwest of the Scotland-England "border," 74 miles south of Edinburgh, 72 miles southeast of Glasgow, and 341 miles northwest of Central London.

The bombing and crash claimed the lives of all 259 individuals on board the plane, and 11 people on the ground below. The victims were citizens of 21 countries. Of those killed, 190 were United States citizens, making the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 the deadliest terrorist attack against American civilians prior to September 11, 2001. It remains the deadliest attack in the history of the United Kingdom.

The bombing didn't just kill 270 people. Essentially, it killed Pan American World Airways as well: Already in financial trouble, Pan Am never recovered, and went out of business on December 4, 1991, just under 3 years later.

The bombing hung over the Christmas season in both America and Britain. On December 23, 2 days later, reports surfaced that the U.S. Embassy in Finland received bomb threats against a Pan Am flight. On December 28, 5 days after that, British investigators reported that a bomb in the luggage compartment caused the explosion.

The bombing came 2 1/2 years after President Ronald Reagan retaliated for Libyan terrorist attacks that had killed American soldiers stationed in Europe, by bombing targets in Libya, including a palace owned by dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Conservatives used to tell me that once Reagan bombed Libya, Gaddafi left Americans alone. He did – until he gave Reagan, who was to leave office a month later due to term limits, something dictators don't officially have, this going-away present.

Arrest warrants were issued for two Libyan nationals in November 1991. After protracted negotiations and United Nations sanctions, on April 5, 1999, Gaddafi handed over the two men for trial at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands. On January 31, 2001, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was found guilty of 270 counts of murder in connection with the bombing. He remains the only person ever convicted of involvement. The other man handed over, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, was found not guilty, and released.

On November 2, 2009, having been diagnosed with cancer, the Scottish government released him on compassionate grounds. He had been in custody for 10 1/2 years, for murdering 270 people. He lived until May 20, 2012.

In 2003, Gaddafi accepted Libya's responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing, and paid over $1 billion dollars in compensation to the families of the victims, a very unusual outcome for a terrorist bombing. He maintained that he had never personally given the order for the attack.

He finally answered for his crime on October 20, 2011. His former Minister of Justice, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, claimed that Gaddafi had personally ordered the attack.

As of December 21, 2022, Lamin Khalifah Fhimah is still alive.

*

December 21, 1988 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in midweek, and there were no college bowl games that day. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Dallas Mavericks, 122-120 in overtime at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics, 115-114 at the Boston Garden.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Washington Bullets, 98-82 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 112-100 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Miami Heat, 109-101 at the Miami Arena.

* And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings, 125-107 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils and the Winnipeg Jets played to a tie, 5-5 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat their Provincial rivals, the Quebec Nordiques, 6-4 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins beat their fellow New Englanders, the Hartford Whalers, 4-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And The Los Angeles Kings beat the Minnesota North Stars, 8-6 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

October 20, 2011: The Death of Muammar Gaddafi

September 26, 1987: The Fox Network debuts the sitcom Second Chance. The opening scene of the pilot episode takes place in an office in Heaven, where St. Peter determines who gets in. The date is July 29, 2011, and the dictator of the North African nation of Libya, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, shows up, apparently having been killed in a coup. St. Peter's choice is easy: Send him to Hell.

It was a throwaway joke, on a bad show that got canceled after 9 episodes. The biggest thing anybody remembers, other than the Gaddafi reference, is that it was the 1st sitcom to star future Friends star Matthew Perry. Sadly, Kiel Martin, who played the 2011 version of Perry's character, who gets sent back to Earth to keep his younger self on the straight and narrow, died of cancer in 1990, only 46 years old. (UPDATE: It gets worse: Perry died from a drug relapse in 2023, at 54.)

If only Gaddafi had died in 1987, at 45 or so. Better yet, even earlier.

Here's the kicker: This lousy show predicted Gaddafi's death. It got the how right, which wasn't that hard. But as for the when, it was only off by 86 days. Pretty good for a throwaway joke on a sitcom with, as it turned out, 24 years of lead time.

*

October 20, 2011: Muammar Gaddafi is killed by Libyan rebels during the Battle of Sirte. Having been deposed 3 months earlier from his brutal, weird rule of the country that had begun in 1969, the ex-dictator was believed to be 69 years old.

Little is known of his early life, including his full name. It appears to have been Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi. The spelling is unclear, as the Arabic alphabet doesn't really translate well to the Roman alphabet. Hence, his surname had often appeared as "Khadafy," "Qaddafi," and variations thereof; and his given name had often appeared as "Moammar."

The indeterminate spelling of his surname even worked its way into the pilot of the TV show The West Wing in 1999: The first lines spoken by John Spencer as White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry are in response to Gaddafi being a clue in the renowned New York Times Crossword Puzzle. McGarry said the dictator's name did not, as the puzzle said, have seven letters, even though the now-accepted version, "Gaddafi," does.

Because his family, as was usually done in nomadic Bedouin tribes, kept no birth records, his age was not known for certain. Most sources say he was born sometime in 1942, or in the Spring of 1943. Some who have studied the available evidence suggest he could have been born before 1940.

His birthplace was probably outside Qasr Abu Hadi, about 300 miles east along the Mediterranean Sea's coast from the capital of Tripoli. It is a rural area outside the town of Sirte, in the deserts of Tripolitania, in western Libya, then controlled by Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy. His upbringing in Bedouin culture influenced his personal tastes for the rest of his life: He preferred the desert over the city, and would retreat there to meditate. (His later arch-nemesis, Ronald Reagan, who liked going to his ranch outside Santa Barbara to get away from first Hollywood, then Washington, could probably have related on this one level.)

Italy had been trying to regain Libya, across the Mediterranean, since the end of the Roman Empire. (Arch-rival Carthage was in present-day Tunisia, adjacent to Libya.) It did so in 1934, but lost control in 1943, during World War II. The Libyan city of Benghazi, familiar to Americans for the 2012 attack on their consulate there, has been fought over many times, and 2 battles there in World War II were won by the Allies, forcing Axis forces out of the country.

Britain and France considered dividing the nation between their empires, but the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) decided that the country was to be granted political independence, and in 1951 created the United Kingdom of Libya, a federal state under the leadership of a pro-Western monarch, King Idris, who banned political parties and centralized power in his own hands. So, still, the country was not "free" as Americans understand the term, paving the way for future dictators.

In secondary school, Gaddafi had Egyptian teachers, and, from them, he received stories, both word-of-mouth and newspaper, about the overthrown of the corrupt King Farouk and the Socialist, pan-Arab dictatorship of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who outwitted Britain and France during the Suez Crisis of 1956.

With his good looks, cult of personality, and his adaptability -- appearing as a Western businessman, a soldier, or a pious Muslim, whichever he needed to seem to be at the time -- Nasser became the template for Middle Eastern dictators such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the Assads in Syria, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and, of course, Gaddafi. But Gaddafi was a voracious reader, and also came to admire Abraham Lincoln, Chinese leader Sun Yat-sen, and the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. 

He enlisted in the Libyan Army, and rose through its ranks. In April 1966, he was assigned to Britain for further training. He learned English, but hated the place, claiming that British officers were racist to him. He later related that while he travelled to England believing it more advanced than Libya, he returned home "more confident and proud of our values, ideals and social character."

Libya's pointless participation in the Six-Day War against Israel in 1967 weakened King Idris, and resentment against him increased.

On September 1, 1969, while Idris was in Turkey, a group of Libyan Army officers under the leadership of Gaddafi launched a coup from Benghazi, and quickly established control over the country. The coup was bloodless, and received enthusiastic support from the public. Libya was declared a free and sovereign republic by the Revolutionary Command Council. Colonel Gaddafi, in his capacity as RCC chairman, became the de facto head of state.

He continued to call himself "Colonel Gaddafi" for the rest of his life. I remember thinking, "If he's all-powerful within his country, why doesn't he promote himself to General?" The British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen apparently agreed with me: While the events of Gaddafi's 2011 fall were going on, he was making a film titled The Dictator, and he named his character "Admiral-General Haffaz Aladeen." The parallels to Gaddafi were obvious, down to the Amazonian martial-arts-expert female bodyguards that Gaddafi preferred.

When Iran had its Islamic Revolution in 1979, he allied Libya with it. He made Libya pretty much the only nation that took Iran's side in its 1980-88 war with Iraq. Like Iran, he made Libya a state sponsor of terrorism against America. This resulted in President Ronald Reagan ordering a bombing attack on Libya in 1986. Gaddafi responded with the suicide bombing that destroyed an American airliner, Pan Am Flight 103, in 1988.

On a 1980 TV special, the Jewish American comedian Alan King used a map, photos and a pointer to try to explain the situation in the Middle East, which was confusing to so many Americans, who couldn't tell the difference between Iran and Iraq. Iraq had a President named Hussein, Jordan had a King named Hussein, Morocco had a King named Hassan, Finally, King (Alan, not Hussein or Hassan) said, "Now, who's on the side of rich little Iran? Not Rich Little! We have Libya. Libya, which is run by Colonel Gaddafi. And they gotta throw a net over this guy. Colonel Gaddafi makes the Ayatollah look like Donny Osmond!"

But after Pan Am 103, America and Libya pretty much left each other alone for a while. Osama bin Laden, the leader of terrorist group al-Qaeda, became the prime focus of American attention on the Middle East. With that attention taken off him, Gaddafi was free to continue to rule absolutely, his whims allowing him to do things that would make people in free countries shudder -- or laugh.

But as he got older, his hold on power became more tenuous. There were protests in Zawiya on August 8, 2009. That paved the way for a new round of protests that began in Benghazi on February 15, 2011. The forces opposing Gaddafi established a "shadow" governing body, the National Transitional Council (NTC). On February 26, the United Nations Security Council froze the assets of Gaddafi and his inner circle, restricted their travel, and referred their case to the International Criminal Court for investigation.

In August, rebel forces launched an offensive, backed by a wide-reaching NATO bombing campaign, taking back territory lost months before, and ultimately capturing Tripoli. On September 16, the NTC was recognized by the UN as the legal representative of Libya.

Muammar Gaddafi evaded capture until October 20, when he was captured and killed in Sirte. The NTC declared "the liberation of Libya" and the official end of the war on October 23.

There was a low-level insurgency by former Gaddafi loyalists, and this led to a second civil war that lasted until 2020, including the 2012 storming of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed 4 Americans. As of October 20, 2022, there is no active fighting, but a new government has been slow to gain traction in acceptance. Libya remains in turmoil, and it cannot seriously be considered a "free country."

*

October 20, 2011 was a Thursday. Game 2 of the World Series was played, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Texas Rangers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1. Back-to-back sacrifice flies by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young won the game in the top of the 9th inning. Albert Pujols went 0-for-4 for the Cardinals.

There were 2 major college football games played that night. The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) beat the University of Central Florida (UCF), 26-24 at Legion Field in Birmingham. And the University of Arizona (the abbreviation "UA" is usually not used) beat the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 48-12 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.

The NBA team owners locked the players out, so the season didn't start until December 25, Christmas Day. There were 11 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary. Ryan McDonagh scored the winning goal with 2 seconds left in overtime, preventing a shootout.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-2 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Florida Panthers, 3-0 at the BankAtlantic Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-1 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 2-0 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 in a shootout at Rexall Place (as the Northlands Coliseum was known at the time) in Edmonton.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Nashville Predators, 5-1 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

February 11, 2012: The Curse of Aaron Ramsey

February 11, 2012: Arsenal beat Sunderland, 2-1 at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, in the North-East of England. Thierry Henry, in his brief loan return to Arsenal, scored the winning goal in stoppage time. It was his 228th and last goal for the team, a record.

The earlier Arsenal goal was scored by Aaron Ramsey. Seven hours later, Whitney Houston died, and this led to jokes about "The Curse of Aaron Ramsey." (I have a separate entry for Whitney's death.)

This bizarre series of events began on October 16, 2009, when he scored his 1st goal for the Wales national team. Just hours later, Spanish journalist Andrés Montes died. Most people in the English-speaking world, not familiar with Montes, didn't notice. But a pattern did emerge, with some caveats:

* May 1, 2011: Ramsey scored the only goal in Arsenal's 1-0 win over Manchester United. Within hours, SEAL Team Six killed Osama bin Laden, who was famously hard to find, let alone kill.

* October 2, 2011: Ramsey scored the only Arsenal goal in a 2-1 loss to North London arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Three days later, computer pioneer Steve Jobs died. Jobs was known to have terminal cancer, and 3 days is a bit of a stretch, so I'm not sure this one can be counted.

* October 19, 2011: Ramsey scored the only goal in Arsenal's 1-0 Champions League win over Olympique de Marseille. The next day, former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed. Like bin Laden, he was famously hard to find and kill, but having been deposed earlier in the year made it somewhat easier.

* February 11, 2012: The Ramsey-Houston combination. Arsenal fans began to joke about who was going to be next. Queen Elizabeth II? Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe? A few angry, ungrateful Arsenal fans suggested the manager, Arsène Wenger.

* November 30, 2013: After nearly 2 years of no such occurrences, which led to many people forgetting about it, and which should have put an end to it, Ramsey scored against his former team, his hometown team, Cardiff City, in a 3-0 Arsenal win in Cardiff. Later that day, actor Paul Walker was killed in a car crash. The "curse" story was revived.

* May 17, 2014: Ramsey scored in extra time to win the FA Cup Final, giving Arsenal a 2-1 win over Hull City. The next day, singer Jerry Vale died. He was 83 years old, but was not known to be sick, so, you make the call.

* August 10, 2014: Ramsey scored in Arsenal's 3-0 Community Shield win over Manchester City. The next day, Robin Williams died. This certainly shouldn't be counted, as it was a suicide, and Williams could no longer take the strain of an illness that was making his life miserable.

* January 9, 2016: After nearly a year and a half of no occurrences, Ramsey scored in Arsenal's 3-1 FA Cup 3rd Round win over Sunderland. The next day, David Bowie died. The legendary rocker was known to have terminal cancer, so this one shouldn't be counted, either. However, in Arsenal's very next game:

* January 13, 2016: Ramsey scored in Arsenal's 3-3 draw with Liverpool. The next day, actor Alan Rickman died. He was just short of turning 70, and was not widely known to be ill. But it was revealed that he had been battling cancer for years, and had also recently had a stroke. So this is another that shouldn't be counted.

* March 5, 2016: Ramsey scored in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham. The next day, former First Lady Nancy Reagan died. This one absolutely should not be counted, since she was 94 years old.

* May 27, 2017: Once again, Ramsey scored the winning goal in the FA Cup Final, which Arsenal won, in this case 2-1 over Chelsea. Two days later, former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega died. But he was 86 and already sick.

So, 12 instances, over a period of 8 years. And most of them were hardly a surprise. Perhaps it's time to put this myth to rest.

*

February 11, 2012 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 8 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 100-98 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 103-89 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Charlotte Bobcats, 111-86 at the Time Warner Cable Arena (now the Spectrum Center) in Charlotte.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 97-94 in double overtime at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-84 the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers, 113-109 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 99-94 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-84 at the Power Balance Pavilion (now the Sleep Train Arena) in Sacramento.

And there were 12 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 at the Nassau Coliseum. Mark Streit scored the winning goal, 1:36 into overtime.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Florida Panthers, 3-1 at the Prudential Center in Newark. 

* In the opener of the weekly Saturday night CBC broadcast Hockey Night In Canada, the NHL's original rivalry was held at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-0.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Nashville Predators, 4-3 in a shootout at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-3 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 at the First Niagara Center (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Winnipeg Jets, 8-5 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2 at the Scottrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis. Carlo Colaiacovo scored the winning goal with 1:42 left in overtime.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-0 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* In the nightcap of Hockey Night In Canada, the Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in a shootout at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Detroit Red Wings, the Dallas Stars, the Washington Capitals, the Carolina Hurricanes, the San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks were not scheduled.