October 21, 1967: Flower Power at the Pentagon

October 21, 1967: An antiwar protest hits Washington, D.C. The marchers head across the Potomac River to the Pentagon, and, to this day, some marchers claim they actually "levitated" the building. Uh-huh.

This was the day of the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning "Flower Power" photograph, taken by Bernie Boston of The Washington Star, of the long-haired (but not Hippie-length-haired) kid in the turtleneck sweater sticking a carnation in the barrel of a rifle held by a soldier "protecting" the Pentagon from the demonstrators.

The kid is usually identified as George Harris, then an 18-year-old actor from New York. He later took the stage name Hibiscus, and formed a drag troupe in San Francisco, and died in the 1st wave of the AIDS epidemic in 1982. Bernie Boston lived until 2008.

Novelist Norman Mailer, though already 44 years old and thus old enough to be the father of many of the demonstrators, covered the demonstration for Harper's Magazine, titling his article The Armies of the Night. Perhaps inspired by the publication the previous year of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, he took the idea of "Journalism is the first draft of history" seriously. It was published in book form the next year, and won Mailer the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and the National Book Award for Arts and Letters.

Although there was not a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial that day, it's been suggested that this was the day of the demonstration shown in the film Forrest Gump, which Forrest (Tom Hanks) wanders into after leaving the White House, where he'd just been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson. A cop pulled the microphone cable out to prevent people far away from hearing Forrest as he spoke. So filmgoers never heard it.

The script has Forrest saying, "Sometimes, when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mamas without any legs. Sometimes, they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing." That's when the cable gets plugged back in, and Forrest concludes, "That's all I have to say about that." And an activist, obviously meant to make the viewer think he's Abbie Hoffman (Richard D'Alessandro, making Abbie the only historical figure in the film portrayed by an actor rather than being digitally inserted in), says, "That's okay, man: You said it all."

At the start of the scene, a woman can be heard yelling the name, "Hillary!" Obviously, this is meant to suggest that Hillary Clinton, the First Lady at the time the film was released, was at the demonstration. However, while Hoffman was definitely at the Pentagon that day, and has been suggested as the source of the "levitate the Pentagon" idea, there is no indication that Hillary Rodham, then a 20-year-old junior at Wellesley College in the Boston suburb of Wellesley, Massachusetts, was there.

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October 21, 1967 was a Saturday. There were college football games played on this day:

* Number 1-ranked USC beat the University of Washington, 23-6 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Their Los Angeles arch-rivals, Number 3 UCLA, beat Stanford, 21-16 at the old Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto. They were on a collision course, and would play one of those periodic "Games of the Century."

It was the 3rd Saturday in October, and by this point, Alabama was used to beating Tennessee on the day. This time, though, Number 7 Tennessee beat Number 6 'Bama, 24-13 at Legion Field in Birmingham.

Notre Dame beat Illinois, 47-7 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. Ohio State beat Northwestern, 6-2 at Dyche Stadium in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. Indiana upset Michigan, 27-20 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

Penn State beat West Virginia, 21-14 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. Rutgers lost to Army, 14-3 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. And Princeton beat Colgate, 28-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

The baseball season had ended 9 days earlier, when the St. Louis Cardinals ended the "Impossible Dream" of the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the World Series. There were 6 games played in the NBA that day:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-106 at the old Madison Square Garden. The new Garden opened 4 months later. Willis Reed scored 30 for the Knickerbockers, but Elgin Baylor and Archie Clark each scored 25 for the Lakers.

* The Philadelphia 76ers, defending NBA Champions, beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-111 at the new South Philadelphia arena, The Spectrum. Wilt Chamberlain only scored 17 points, but Hal Greer scored 41 for the Sixers.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 125-109 at the Baltimore Civic Center. (The building still stands, and is named the CFG Bank Arena.) Sam Jones scored 31 for the C's.

* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Chicago Bulls, 109-107 at the Cincinnati Gardens. For the Royals, Happy Hairston scored 30, and Oscar Robertson scored 28.

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 115-110 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. This would be the Hawks' last season in St. Louis. For 1968-69, they moved to Atlanta.

* And in a battle between 2 expansion teams, the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Diego Rockets, 117-110 in overtime, at the San Diego Sports Arena. The Rockets moved to Houston in 1971. Of course, the Sonics moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.

* And one game was played in the brand-new American Basketball Association: The Indiana Pacers beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 114-111 at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. Jimmy Jones scored 35 in defeat for the Bucs.

There were 5 games played in the newly-expanded NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Vic Hadfield scored 2 goals for the Broadway Blueshirts against the Leafs, then defending Stanley Cup Champions, which they have never been since the 1967-68 season.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Oakland Seals, 3-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Los Angeles Kings played the St. Louis Blues to a tie, 3-3 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The only NHL teams that didn't play were the Detroit Red Wings and the Philadelphia Flyers.

Also, my high school, East Brunswick in Middlesex County, New Jersey, beat Perth Amboy, 18-13 at what would become known as Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick.

Arsenal, for some reason, did not play. Their next game was 2 days later, and they lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers, 3-2 at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton, outside Birmingham, in England's West Midlands. 

August 30, 1963: The Moscow-Washington Hot Line

August 30, 1963: The Moscow-Washington Hot Line goes into operation. It was put in place in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis the previous year, to make for quicker diplomacy.

In American popular culture, the Hot Line usually appears as a red telephone on the desk of the President of the United States. It has never been a phone, it has never been in the White House, and it doesn't link the 2 countries' respective heads of state.

Rather, it was originally a Teletype machine, became a fax machine in 1986, and a secure computer link in 2008. Its Washington end is actually across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, while the Russian end is in the General Staff Building, home of the Russian Federation's Ministry of Defense. Of course, the respective Presidents do have secure phone lines that they can use to talk directly to each other, through translators.

Through August 30, 2022, it has been used 11 times:

* In 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

* 1967, during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War.

* 1971, during the India-Pakistan War.

* 1973, during another Arab-Israeli conflict, the Yom Kippur War.

* 1974, during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

* 1979, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

* 1981, when the Soviets were threatening to invade Poland.

* 1982, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

* 1991, during the Persian Gulf War.

* 2003, during the Iraq War.

* And, most recently, on October 31, 2016, when Barack Obama told Vladimir Putin he'd better not interfere in the Presidential election that was happening 8 days later. Putin interfered anyway.

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August 30, 1963 was a Friday. This was also the day that the modern audio cassette tape, and the tape recorder that used it, were both introduced to the public by the Philips Company. I have a separate entry for that event. Actor Michael Chiklis was born that day.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Al Downing outpitched Steve Barber. Barber's arm probably wasn't sore, just a little stiff. (Ball Four reference.) Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Yogi Berra were all held out of this game. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Braves, 3-1 at the Polo Grounds. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4. Duke Snider appeared as a pinch-hitter for the Mets, but did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-6 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. In his final season, Stan Musial got the day off.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Claude Osteen pitched a 5-hit shutout. Carl Yastrzemski did not play for the Sox.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4. So did Pete Rose, soon to be named National League Rookie of the Year. So did Roberto Clemente, who also had an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks did not play. The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew and Bob Allison hit home runs.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 3-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Don Drysdale outpitched Juan Marichal. Willie Mays went 2-for-4, and drove in the Giants' only run.

July 26, 1947: The National Security Act

July 26, 1947: President Harry S Truman signs the National Security Act into law. It turns the Department of War into the Department of the Army. It separates the U.S. Air Force from the U.S. Army, and gives it its own Department. It protects the U.S. Marine Corps as an independent service under the Department of the Navy.

And it puts all 4 departments under the new Department of Defense (DOD), headed by a Secretary of Defense. James Forrestal was confirmed as the 1st "SecDef" on September 18, 1947.

The Act also creates the U.S. National Security Council, run by the President, which includes the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the nation's top active-duty military officer).

Later added to it have been the National Security Advisor (a post created in 1953), the White House Chief of Staff, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director National Intelligence, the Administrator of the Agency for International Development, and the Director of National Drug Control Policy. On occasion, other officials, whose expertise may apply to a situation, may be asked to attend: The White House Counsel, the U.S. Trade Representative, medical advisors, and so on.

The National Security Act also establishes the Central Intelligence Agency. This turns out to be beneficial in some cases, problematic in others, as later Presidents used the CIA to help organize coups in various countries, to topple governments seen as too friendly to the Soviet Union. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter was appointed as the 1st Director of Central Intelligence.

The legislation creating the Act was already going through Congress when the Roswell incident happened earlier in July.

The current headquarters of the U.S. Department of State, built in 1941, was named the Harry S Truman Building in 2000. Its address is 2201 C Street NW. The CIA's headquarters, now named for the 41st President and the only one to be a former CIA Director, the George Bush Center for Intelligence, is in Langley, Virginia (and is sometimes nicknamed "Langley"), 10 miles northwest of downtown Washington.

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July 26, 1947 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Eddie Lopat outpitches Bill Bevens, and helps his own cause with an RBI single. He impresses the Yankees so much that they trade for him the next year. Tommy Henrich hit a home run, but Joe DiMaggio went 0-for-4.

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-4 with a 2-run homer. Hank Greenberg, in his final season, went 0-for-3 with a walk. Earlier in the season, he crashed into Robinson at first base, helped him up, apologized, and, as the man who had faced more prejudice than any player until Robinson, told him he was doing all right and that he supported him all the way.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 12-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams hit 2 home runs.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 13-0 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. I guess 84-year-old Connie Mack forgot to tell his A's that you have to come out of the clubhouse to play the ballgame. George Kell and Eddie Lake hit home runs for the Tigers, while center fielder Roger "Doc" Cramer, a native of New Jersey's Long Beach Island, went 3-for-5 with 6 RBIs. Virgil Trucks pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Washington Senators beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-4 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Bucky Walters pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Braves, 9-5 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

May 22, 1949: The Death of James Forrestal

May 22, 1949: James Forrestal dies at Bethesda Naval Medical Center. He was only 57 years old, and the circumstances of his death are still debated.

James Vincent Forrestal was born on February 15, 1892 in Beacon, Dutchess County, New York. He attended Princeton University, but did not graduate. He became a Wall Street financier, and married Joseph Ogden. Both of them would be plagued by mental health issues.

He acted as a publicist for the Dutchess County Democratic Party, putting him in position to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1940, FDR appointed him to a position that he, himself -- and also his distant cousin, President Theodore Roosevelt -- had previously held: Undersecretary of the Navy. In 1944, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox died, and Forrestal rose to his position.

Following the victory in World War II, the new President, Harry Truman, reorganized the country's national security apparatus. The National Security Act of 1947 created the Department of Defense, and Forrestal was appointed the 1st Secretary of Defense.

But he clashed with Truman on several issues: While Forrestal was happy to assist with the desegregation of the armed forces, he wanted to streamline them, cutting out several weapons systems, while, at the same time, wanting a tougher tone with the Soviet Union. He also opposed Truman's recognition of the independence of Israel, for fear that it would anger the Arab nations selling America their oil. (Truman knew that it would, but knew it was the right thing to do, anyway.)

Shortly before the 1948 Presidential election, he met with the Republican nominee for President, Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, who assured Forrestal that he would remain at his post in the new Administration. Washington Post columnist Drew Pearson heard about this, and published it in his "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column. Truman hit the roof. He also hit the campaign trail, and won the election. On March 28, 1949, 2 months into what amounted to his 2nd term, he asked for, and received, Forrestal's resignation.

Shortly thereafter, Forrestal was diagnosed with "severe depression, of the type seen in operational fatigue during the war." He checked into the National Naval Medical Center in suburban Bethesda, Maryland (now part of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center), with his room on the 16th floor of the 20-story tower.

He seemed to be on the road to recovery, having regained 12 pounds since his admission into the hospital. However, in the early morning hours of May 22, his body, wearing only in the bottom half his pajamas, was found on a 3rd-floor roof below the 16th-floor kitchen across the hall from his room. By his beside was a piece of paper on which he had written words from a recent translation of the ancient Greek play Ajax by Sophocles, and this was considered to be a suicide note.

He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and an aircraft carrier was named USS Forrestal in his memory, in service from 1955 to 1993.

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May 22, 1949 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants split a doubleheader with the St. Louis Cardinals at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The Cardinals won the opener, 3-2. The Giants won the nightcap, 13-4. Over the 2 games, Stan Musial went 3-for-8 with a home run, a walk and 3 RBIs.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers also split a doubleheader, with the Cincinnati Reds, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Dodgers won the 1st game, 3-0. Don Newcombe pitched a 5-hit shutout. The Reds won the 2nd game, 2-0. Ken Raffensberger allowed just 3 baserunners: a single by Gil Hodges, and walks by Hodges and Mike McCormick. But Dodger pitcher Joe Hatten allowed only 4, a double and 3 singles. Over the 2 games, Jackie Robinson went 2-for-6 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams went 1-for-5 with a walk. Mel Parnell not only pitched all 12 innings for the win, but singled home the winning run.

* A Philadelphia Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 and 7-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. In the 1st game, the A's knocked Gene Bearden out of the box in the 1st inning, and Satchel Paige pitched 6 2/3rd innings of relief, but still got the loss.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 6-4 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Danny Murtaugh, later to manage the Pirates to win 2 World Series, hit a home run. So did Ralph Kiner.

* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* And the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Yankee Stadium. It was made up on an off-day, 2 days later. The Yankees won, 13-3, scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the 5th inning. Bobby Brown and Yogi Berra hit home runs. Yogi had 4 RBIs, while Bobby and Phil Rizzuto, who had 3 hits, each had 3 RBIs. Vic Raschi started and won. Joe DiMaggio was injured, and did not play.

January 15, 1943: The Pentagon Opens

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January 15, 1943: The Pentagon opens, as the headquarters building of the U.S. Department of War, renamed the Department of Defense in 1947. A symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase "The Pentagon" is often used as a stand-in for the DOD and its leadership.

The War Department was 1 of the 1st 3 departments created by the executive branch of the federal government, along with the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury. Those 3 made sense: Preparation for war, guidance of overall foreign policy, and management of the economy.

The Department's original home was on Pennsylvania Avenue between 21st and 22nd Streets, 5 blocks from the White House. This building burned down in 1800. Its replacement was built next-door to the White House at 19th & F Streets. The Department of State moved into it, too.

Between 1871 and 1888, a new building was constructed on the site, the State, War and Navy Building, That building became known as the Old Executive Office Building, among other things, some of them very unpleasant. Author Mark Twain called it "the ugliest building in America." Over half a century later, his fellow Missourian, President Harry S Truman, called it "the greatest monstrosity in America."

Truman's successor as President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, considered demolishing it. He didn't, and, since 1999, it has borne his name: The Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It houses the offices of the Vice President, the National Security Council, and the Office of Management and Budget.

In 1918, during World War I, the Main Navy and Munitions Building opened on the National Mall, at Constitution Avenue and 19th Street. The War Department moved there on a temporary basis in 1939. Once the Pentagon opened, the building was turned back over to the U.S. Navy, and it was demolished in 1970. Constitution Gardens, including an artificial pond, is now on the site.

The coming of World War II meant that the War Department needed a new, much larger headquarters. Needing steel for the war, it would be built of concrete, and no more than 4 stories high, meaning it would spread out, not up. This ended up making the Pentagon the building with more office space than any in the world, a record it still holds.

The site originally chosen was Arlington Farms, in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, near Arlington National Cemetery. The site had an asymmetric, roughly pentagonal (five-sided) shape, so the building was planned accordingly. But President Franklin D. Roosevelt thought it would obstruct the view of D.C. from the Cemetery, and chose a nearby airfield instead. He kept the Pentagon design, not just because coming up with a new design would have been costly, but because he was a history buff, and liked that it resembled "star forts" constructed during the gunpowder age.

It was built by John McShain, Inc., of Philadelphia, which had also designed the nearby Washington National Airport (now named for President Ronald Reagan), the Jefferson Memorial, and the National Naval Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Maryland.

About 26,000 people, several thousand of them civilians, work in the Pentagon. It ended up having 5 floors above ground, 2 below it, and 5 "ring corridors." It is the largest office building in the world: Apple Park in Cupertino, California (outside San Jose) is larger, but has less occupied office space.

As the home of what Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex," the Pentagon has become a location for antiwar protests. There were 3 in 1967 alone, with the one on October 21 attracting 35,000 people, and some people claiming they were there to "levitate the Pentagon" -- and some insisted, against all evidence, that they actually succeeded. It was at this protest that one of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War era was taken, the "Flower Power" photo: A student in a sweater, later identified as George E. Harris III, placed a carnation in the gun barrel of a soldier protecting the building.

On May 19, 1972, the Weather Underground placed a bomb in a women's bathroom on the 4th floor. No one was hurt. On September 11, 2001 -- 60 years to the day after the building's groundbreaking ceremony, although that was almost certainly irrelevant to the attack -- recognizing the building's symbolism, the terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked an airliner, and crashed it into the Pentagon, killing the 64 passengers, and 125 people inside the building. It could have been much worse: A renovation of the building had begun in 1998, and fewer people than usual were working where it was hit.

The most recent antiwar protest at the Pentagon was against the Iraq War, with 15,000 people converging there on March 17, 2007.

The building is bounded by Interstate 395, the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway; Virginia Route 110, the Richmond Highway; and Virginia Route 27, Washington Boulevard.

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January 15, 1943 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA had not yet been founded. And no NHL games were scheduled. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.