December 7, 1970: The Kneefall In Warsaw

December 7, 1970: The Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany makes a deeply symbolic apology to Poland, a nation that Germany so deeply hurt in World War II.

Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm was born in 1913 in the German Empire. His family survived World War I, and he joined a socialist party as a teenager. To cover his tracks as the Nazi Party took control of Germany, he adopted the pseudonym "Willy Brandt." He escaped the Nazis in 1940, reaching neutral Sweden, and remained there for the duration of World War II, returning in 1946, and adopting "Willy Brandt" as his legal name in 1948.

In 1949, the Allied occupation forces began to draw back. The American, British and French sectors were united as the Federal Republic of Germany, a.k.a. West Germany. The Soviet sector became the German Democratic Republic, known in the West as East Germany. That same year, Brandt was elected to the FRG's national legislature, the Bundestag.

In 1957, he was elected Mayor of West Berlin, and was at the side of President John F. Kennedy at City Hall on June 26, 1963, when Kennedy gave the speech where he declared, "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. Therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'"

In 1965, Brandt ran for Chancellor, but lost. But the victorious government fell apart the following year, and Brandt resigned as Mayor to accept the post of Foreign Minister. In 1969, he ran for Chancellor again, and won.

Brandt wanted to normalize relations between his side of Germany and Eastern Europe, a policy he called Ostpolitik. On August 12, 1970, 25 years after the end of World War II, he signed the Treaty of Moscow with the Soviet Union.

And on December 7, he visited Warsaw, the capital of Poland. He signed the Treaty of Warsaw, and laid a wreath at a monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Then he got down on his knees, and knelt there for about 30 seconds.

It became known as Der Kniefall von Warschau (The Kneefall in Warsaw). Brandt later said that he believed, at that moment, "Just laying the wreath is not enough." He added, "At the abyss of German history, and under the weight of millions of murdered people, I did what people do when language fails."

Der Spiegel (The Mirror), Germany's leading news magazine, took a poll: 48 percent thought the gesture was excessive, 41 percent said it was appropriate, and 11 percent had no opinion. But the international reaction was highly supportive. Time magazine named Brandt its Man of the Year. The Nobel Peace Prize for 1970 had already been awarded, to American food scientist Norman Borlaug. But Brandt was awarded it in 1971. And in 1972, Brandt's Social Democratic Party won its biggest election victory ever, to this day.

Brandt had to resign in 1974, when it was revealed that one of his aides had been compromised by East Germany. He lived until 1992, long enough to see the Berlin Wall fall and Germany reunited.

On December 6, 2000, just short of the 30th Anniversary of the event, a monument to Brandt was unveiled near the monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

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December 7, 1970 was a Monday. This was the 1st NFL season of ABC Monday Night Football, and, on that night, the Cleveland Browns beat the Houston Oilers, 21-10 at the Astrodome.

There was 1 NBA game played. The Cincinnati Royals beat the San Francisco Warriors, 124-113. This game was played on neutral ground, at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska. The Royals' organization must have had their interest piqued, because, 2 seasons later, they moved, and became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, playing most of their home games at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium, but a few at the Civic Auditorium. This arrangement held for 3 seasons, and then they played only in Kansas City from 1975 to 1985, before moving to Sacramento.

There were no games played in the American Basketball Association. There were 5 played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the expansion Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The expansion Buffalo Sabres beat the Minnesota North Stars, 1-0 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-3.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 6-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Montreal Canadiens, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Los Angeles Kings and the California Golden Seals were not scheduled. 

November 24, 1932: The Pulaski Skyway Opens

November 24, 1932: The Pulaski Skyway opens, connecting the downtowns of Newark and Jersey City via an ugly bridge that carries U.S. Routes 1 & 9 over the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers.

The "Black Beast" is a 3.5-mile long, ugly iron monstrosity, a steel deck truss cantilever bridge that connects the downtowns of Newark and Jersey City, over the New Jersey Turnpike, the Passaic River and the Hackensack River.

When the New Jersey Turnpike was being designed in the 1940s, there was a dilemma. Building it under the Skyway would have been a tight fit, especially for the kind of trucks that would be going under it. Building it over the Skyway would have been safer, but it would have required a very high bridge, costing a lot more money and taking a lot more time. They decided to build the Turnpike under the Skyway. There's never been a problem.

At only 56 feet wide, its 4 lanes of traffic are too narrow. By the dawn of the 21st Century, it was in bad shape. It underwent a major renovation between 2014 and 2018, as it was considered too expensive to build a new bridge and demolish the old one.

Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski was born on March 6, 1745 in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. He became one of the leading defenders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but was driven into exile after the First Partition of Poland in 1772.

He escaped to France, where he met Benjamin Franklin. He recommended Pulaski to the Continental Congress. He served alongside George Washington, saving his life at the disastrous Battle of Brandywine outside Philadelphia in 1777. He survived the frigid encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in 1777-78.

On Washington's direction, he reformed the Continental Army's cavalry units, and is recognized as "The Father of the American Cavalry" and "The Soldier of Liberty." He was killed at the Battle of Savannah in Georgia, dying on October 11, 1779, 2 days after being shot. He was only 34 years old.

Although Pulaski lived as a man -- he had a mustache that made him look a bit like later American author Edgar Allan Poe -- an examination of his bones in 1996 showed features that suggested that the person buried under the Pulaski Monument in Savannah was female. And yet, other factors, such as age, locations of wounds, and a DNA match to a Pulaski relative, conclusively proved the bones were his.

This led to a theory that Pulaski may have been transgender, "a woman living as a man," as has been the case with a few soldiers who later gained fame; or that he may have been "intersex," having both male and female features; or may simply have had an adrenal deficiency that would explain the female features of his bones. The organizations celebrating Pulaski since have treated him as exclusively male.

Along with Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko, he is the top hero of Polish-Americans, and Pulaski Day is a holiday in many places with high concentrations of Poles, on the 1st Monday in March (near his birthday), or on the 2nd Sunday in October (near the anniversary of his death, which is when New York holds its parade, usually the day before the big Italian-American parade on Columbus Day).

Pulaski is 1 of 8 foreign citizens to have been granted honorary U.S. citizenship by an act of Congress. Fellow Revolutionary heroes Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, of France, and Bernardo de Gálvez, of Spain, are among them. Not so included, as yet, are Kościuszko; French hero Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau; and German hero Friedrich von Steuben of Prussia (Germany). The others are Pennsylvania founders William and Hannah Penn, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands from the Holocaust of World War II.

Another bridge, the Pulaski Bridge, built in 1954, connects the highly-Polish Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn with Long Island City in Queens, over Newtown Creek. Another connector, the Kościuszko Bridge, part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), built in 1939 and replaced in 2017, is also over Newtown Creek, between Greenpoint and the Queens neighborhood of Maspeth.  

The Pulaski Bridge, Brooklyn to Queens

Both Newark and Jersey City once had large Polish populations, but no longer. Two of my great-grandparents came from Borki Wielke, in the northeast of Poland, to Newark, where my grandfather and father were born. On the Waterfront at Jersey City's Exchange Place, where a major Pennsylvania Railroad station once stood, and there is now a PATH station, stands the Katyń Memorial, a 34-foot-high statue that stands as a tribute to Polish soldiers massacred by the Soviet Union's Red Army in 1940.

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November 24, 1932 was a Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. There were 3 games in the NFL:

* The New York Giants and the Staten Island Stapletons played to a tie, 13-13 at Thompson Stadium on Staten Island.

* There were then 3 NFL teams in New York City, including 1 named the Brooklyn Dodgers. They lost to the Green Bay Packers, 7-0 at Ebbets Field.

* And the Chicago Bears beat the Chicago Cardinals, 24-0 at Soldier Field.

Among the college football games played that day were these:

* New York University beat Carnegie Tech, 13-6 at before 30,000 at Yankee Stadium. NYU were the only New York City school playing that day, or even that week. Nor did either of New Jersey's teams, Rutgers or Princeton, play that week.

NYU dropped its football program after the 1952 season. In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with another Pittsburgh school, the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research, and the combined school became Carnegie Mellon University. The following year, its athletic program was dropped to what's now called NCAA Division III.

* The University of Pennsylvania beat Cornell, 13-7 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* Maryland beat Johns Hopkins, 23-0 at Municipal Stadium in Baltimore. Memorial Stadium would be built on the site in 1954. Johns Hopkins now play in Division III.

* Oklahoma and George Washington University played to a tie, 7-7 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. GWU dropped football after the 1966 season.

* Virginia beat North Carolina, 14-7 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia.

* Virginia Tech beat Virginia Military Institute, 26-0 at Maher Field in Roanoke, Virginia. VMI now play in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, formerly known as Division I-AA).

* The University of Richmond beat the College of William & Mary, 18-7 at City Stadium in Richmond, Virginia. Both schools now play in the FCS.

* Tennessee beat Kentucky, 26-0 at Shields-Watskins Field (now Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee finished undefeated.

* Alabama beat Vanderbilt, 20-0 at Dudley Field in Nashville.

* The University of Mississippi (a.k.a. Ole Miss) beat Mississippi State, 13-0 in the "Egg Bowl" at Scott Field (now Davis Wade Stadium) in Starkville, Mississippi.

* Texas beat Texas A&M, 21-0 at Memorial Stadium in Austin.

* Nebraska beat Missouri, 21-6 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* In a traditional Rocky Mountain rivalry, Colorado A&M beat Wyoming, 23-0 at Colorado Field in Fort Collins, Colorado. A&M was renamed Colorado State in 1957.

* Washington State beat UCLA, 3-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The University of Southern California beat the University of Washington, 9-6 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. USC finished undefeated, beat the University of Pittsburgh in the Rose Bowl, and were awarded the National Championship.

* Two days later, Notre Dame beat Army, 21-0 in front of 80,000 fans at Yankee Stadium.

Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 3 games in the NHL, which was then based in Canada, whose Thanksgiving is held on the 2nd Monday in October:

* The New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 1-1 at the old (but then relatively new) Madison Square Garden.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Maroons, 6-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

November 11, 1918: The Armistice Ends World War I

November 11, 1918: At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, an armistice was declared, ending what was then called "The Great War," or "The World War," and nicknamed "The War to End All Wars."

It wasn't, of course. Over the next 4 years, there would be, or already were, wars of independence going on in Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; wars fought by Poland against both Russia and Ukraine; and civil wars in Germany, Russia, Finland, Turkey and Ireland.

And then, in 1936, there was the Spanish Civil War, in which Germany and Italy aided their fellow fascists in taking over Spain. And when the fascists weren't stopped, it meant that this war was a warmup: There would be a World War II.

The German Empire, as a country, was on the verge of collapse. The Army was besieged with several mutinies. Civilians were starving. On November 9, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his throne, and fled to the neutral Netherlands. (November 9 has become "Germany's Day of Destiny": In the years to come, on that date would came the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Kristallnacht in 1938, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.)

The Armistice was signed in a train car in Compiègne, France. The site is now known as the Glade of the Armistice. When the Nazis conquered France's Third Republic in World War II, which the Second Reich couldn't do in World War I, Adolf Hitler had the original train car found, brought back from Paris to the same location, and had the surrender signed in it. Then it was brought back to Berlin, put on display in a museum, and later destroyed in an Allied air raid. A replica now stands in the Glade.

The Republic of Poland was also founded on the day of the Armistice, with Russia having withdrawn, and the Germans having retreated from their formerly occupied territories. For the first time since the Third Partition in 1795, there was a country named Poland, not just a "Duchy of Poland" or a "Congress Poland." I have a separate entry for this event.

My father served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, though not in Vietnam itself. Both of my grandfathers served in World War II, one in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, the other with George S. Patton's 3rd Army in North Africa and Italy. I have no information about any of my 4 great-grandfathers in World War I, but I do know that, while all 4 were already in America at the time that it broke out on August 1, 1914, only 1 of them was both American-born and then of draft age. (Another was of draft age but not a U.S. citizen, and the other 2 were too old to be drafted.)

The last surviving American veteran of World War I was Army Corporal Frank Buckles of Walker, Missouri, who ended up serving in World War II, and becoming a prisoner of war. He lived until February 27, 2011, at age 110.

The last surviving veteran of any country was Florence Green of North London, a nurse in the Women's Royal Air Force, who lived until February 4, 2012, 95 years after the war's end.

Ever since the Armistice, every 11th of November, at 11:00 AM, London time, the British monarch, or another member of the royal family, has laid a wreath at the Cenotaph, near the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

Every British soccer team, in their home game nearest but not after November 11, holds a minute's silence before kickoff. And everyone in the stadium honors it. Every player wears an emblem of a red poppy on their shirt, although some -- particularly players from Ireland, whose homeland was fighting a separate war for independence against their British colonizers at the time -- have controversially refused.

For many years, North London's Arsenal traveled to France, hit harder by the war than Britain was, and played a "friendly" against Racing Club Paris, which is no longer a major team. On November 11, 2011, the U.S. national team played France at the Stade de France in Paris, and lost 1-0.

In America, the tradition is for the President of the United States to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Unless, of course, there is an anniversary commemoration in Paris, in which case, the President of France invites him to come and participate.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-- Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, Canadian Expeditionary Force, M.D., May 3, 1915. He died -- not from combat injuries, but from meningitis, caught from one of his patients -- on January 28, 1918, 10 months before the war's end, at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. He was 45 years old.

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November 11, 1918 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. There was no NBA yet. The NHL season wouldn't start for another month. And there was no Monday Night Football, or even an NFL, back then. So there were no scores on this historic day.

The prominent people born on this day include comedian Stubby Kaye; Alabama politician and civil rights attorney Richmond Flowers; and Louise Tobin, a jazz singer, known for singing with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Her hits included "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and "There'll Be Some Changes Made." Once married to another bandleader, Harry James, she turns 104 on November 11, 2022. (UPDATE: She died on November 26, 2022.)

November 11, 1918: The Return of Poland

November 11, 1918: On the same day as the Armistice that ends World War I, the Second Polish Republic is founded. Russian troops have withdrawn from Russian soil, which they had controlled for over 100 years, and the Germans have retreated from their formerly occupied territories. For the first time since the Third Partition in 1795, there was a country named Poland, not just a "Duchy of Poland" or a "Congress Poland."

My father's ancestors came from Poland: In 1909, his grandfather, then 18 years old, left in Borki Wielkie, Warmia-Masuria and found his way to Newark, New Jersey.

Józef Piłsudski had led the Polish Legions in fighting with Austria-Hungary against Russia during the war. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia (which became the centerpiece nation of the Soviet Union in 1922) dropped out of the war, and Piłsudski switched his efforts to diplomatic ones, to re-establish the nation. America's President, Woodrow Wilson, had the establishment of a new nation of Poland as one of his "Fourteen Points" for postwar peace.

With independence secured, Marshal Piłsudski served as the nation's Chief of State from 1918 to 1922, and then as Prime Minister from 1926 to 1928. In effect, though, his effect on the nation's elected leaders meant that he was, if not written into the law as such, then in practice, the nation's dictator from 1918 until his death in 1935.

Apparently, all dictators, even the enlightened ones,

feel the need to wear an epic mustache.

Keeping the nation going would not be easy. Over the next few years, Poland fought wars with 2 neighbors, Russia and Ukraine, surviving as a nation counting as "winning." In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded from the west, the Soviet Union from the east, each taking roughly half the land, with the result that Poland existed in name only.

After World War II, the Soviets held effective control over the country. In 1980, the country's labor movement showed the Communists what a real "workers' revolution" looked like, and the Soviets withdrew their troops in 1989. The Communist Party was outlawed, and Poland has been a democracy ever since.

On March 14, 1916, Piłsudski's Polish Legions founded a sports club. After independence in 1918, the club became known as Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Legia Warszawa -- Military Sports Club Legia Warsaw -- the official sports club of the Polish Army. Their soccer team is the most famous, most successful, most popular, and most hated sports team in their country.

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November 11, 1918 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. There was no NBA yet. The NHL season wouldn't start for another month. And there was no Monday Night Football, or even an NFL, back then. So there were no scores on this historic day.

The prominent people born on this day include comedian Stubby Kaye; Alabama politician and civil rights attorney Richmond Flowers; and Louise Tobin, a jazz singer, known for singing with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Her hits included "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and "There'll Be Some Changes Made." Once married to another bandleader, Harry James, she turns 104 on November 11, 2022. (UPDATE: She died on November 26, 2022.)

November 4, 1956: The Hungarian Revolution Is Crushed

Time with a collective "Man of the Year" for 1956.

Note the Communist seal cut out of the flag.

November 4, 1956: Soviet troops enter Hungary to end the Hungarian Revolution that started on October 23. Thousands are killed, more are wounded, and nearly a quarter of a million people leave the country. (Today, the population is about 10 million.)

Cardinal József Mindszenty, the leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary, having previously been imprisoned by the Nazis, was arrested in 1949, and imprisoned and tortured for his anti-Communist activities. He was freed during the Revolution, and given asylum in the U.S. Embassy in Budapest. He became a hero of the movement, remained there until 1971, and died in 1975.

József Mindszenty

The city of New Brunswick, New Jersey once had a large Hungarian community, and their St. Ladislaus Roman Catholic Church has a memorial to the Revolution and a statue of Mindszenty out front.

Imre Nagy, Chairman of the Council of Ministers (effectively, the Prime Minister) from July 4, 1953 to April 18, 1955, wasn't so lucky. He was forced out of office by hardliner András Hegedüs, who was forced out by the Revolution on October 24, fleeing to the Soviet Union. Nagy was reappointed, dissolved the secret police (ÁVH), and withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact on November 1.

Imre Nagy

When the Soviet tanks rolled in, he fled to the Yugoslavian Embassy, hoping that country's leader, Josip Broz Tito, a fellow anti-Moscow Communist, could protect him. He was lured out of the embassy under false promises on November 22, was arrested, and was deported to Romania. On June 16, 1958, Nagy was tried and executed for treason alongside his closest allies, and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. His remains would be repatriated to Hungary after the 1989 revolution. (Hegedüs returned to Hungary thereafter, but taught at a university rather than return to governing, and lived until 1989.)

Soccer team Budapest Honvéd FC was out of the country at the time of the Revolution, playing Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup. Eliminated, they managed to get their families out of the country. Their stars, the bulk of the "Magnificent Magyars" team that won the 1952 Olympics, embarrassed England at Wembley Stadium in 1953, and reached the 1954 World Cup Final, went elsewhere, including some staying in Spain: Ferenc Puskás to Real Madrid, and Sándor Kocsis and Zoltán Czibor to FC Barcelona. 

Since that year's Olympics were given to Melbourne, Australia, in the Southern Hemisphere, they began on November 22 so the weather would be warm. Throughout the Olympics, Hungarian athletes were cheered by fans from the host nation and other countries. Many of them gathered in the boxing arena when Laszlo Papp won a Gold Medal.

A few days later, the crowd was with the Hungarian water polo team in its match against the Soviet Union which became known as "the Blood In the Water Match." The game became rough and, when a Hungarian player, Ervin Zador, was forced to leave the pool with blood streaming from a cut over his eye, a riot almost broke out. But police restored order, and the game was called early, with Hungary leading 4–0. The Hungarians went on to win the Gold Medal.

At the end of the calendar year, Time magazine named the Hungarian Freedom Fighters their Men of the Year. This was before they made the distinction "Person (or People) of the Year," although women had been recognized as such before.

At the same time as the Hungarian Revolution, the "Polish October" was taking place. President

Bolesław Bierut, a Stalinist dictator, had died on March 12. On June 28, a demonstration by workers in Poznań was crushed, leading to at least 57 and possibly more than 100 deaths. In October, a reform faction took over, led by Władysław Gomułka. However, Gomulka's administration ended up getting more and more repressive until his removal in 1970. As Hungary, Poland, and the rest of Eastern Europe found out, post-Stalin Communism was only a slight improvement over Stalinist Communism.

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November 4, 1956 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-14 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-17 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Green Bay Packers, 24-7 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams, 35-24 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The Detroit Lions beat the San Francisco 49ers, 17-13 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

* And the Baltimore Colts and the Washington Redskins had a bye week.

Three games were played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 96-83 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (It still stands.)

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 78-76 at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse, New York. (It still stands, as the Upstate Medical University Arena.) Dolph Schayes had 28 points and 25 rebounds for the Nats, but it wasn't enough.

* And the Minneapolis Lakers beat the Rochester Royals, 88-87 at the Minneapolis Auditorium. (This venue does not still stand.)

Two games were played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 4-1 at the Boston Garden. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 1-0 at the Chicago Stadium. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.

November 3, 1943: Operation Harvest Festival

November 3, 1943: The Nazis carry out Aktion Erntefest -- in English, Operation Harvest Festival. Across Poland and Ukraine, they kill 43,000 Jews.

After a series of Jewish uprisings in ghettos and extermination camps, SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered the murder of the remaining Jewish forced laborers in the Lublin District of German-occupied southeastern Poland. Jewish laborers in the camps had to dig zigzag trenches, supposedly for air defense, in late October. Thousands of SS and police personnel arrived in Lublin on November 2. That day, SS and Police Leader Jacob Sporrenberg, who was in charge of the operation, held a conference to plan it.

The killings began on the morning of November 3 at Majdanek, outside Lublin, where Jewish prisoners were separated from non-Jewish prisoners, and encompassed the Lipowa 7 and Lublin airfield camps, which imprisoned Jews in the city. A total of 18,400 people were shot by the early evening. The same day, 6,000 people were murdered at Trawniki, including some from Dorohucza.

After finishing the Majdanek operation, several of the involved units proceeded to Poniatowa, where they murdered the camp's 14,500 prisoners on November 4. In all three camps, Jews were forced to strip naked and walk into the previously dug trenches, where they were shot. Loud music was played to cover the sound of gunfire.

After the operation, about 10,000 Jews were left alive in various labor camps in the Lublin District. The bodies of the victims were burned by other Jews, who had been spared temporarily from death. With around 40,000 victims, Operation Harvest Festival was the largest single massacre of Jews by German forces during the Holocaust.

In May 1945, shortly before V-E Day, Sporrenberg and his staff were captured by British forces. Sporrenberg was extradited to Poland in October 1946, and sentenced to death by a Polish court in Warsaw in 1950. He was hanged on December 6, 1952. He was 50 years old.

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November 3, 1943 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season had started, there were no games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 23, 1943: The Last Dance of Franceska Mann

October 23, 1943: Franceska Mann is executed at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. She was 26 years old. A Pole, a Jew, and a famous ballerina in her time, she served as the distraction for an escape attempt, doing a striptease. Down to just one shoe, she held the other shoe in her hand, and used its sharpened heel to stab a guard. She was shot, but the guard died, too.

Born on February 4, 1917 in Warsaw as Franceska Manheimer, she was considered one of the most beautiful and promising dancers of her generation in Poland, both in the classical and modern repertoire.

At the beginning of the Second World War, she was a performer at the Melody Palace nightclub in Warsaw. But she became a prisoner, first in the Warsaw Ghetto, then at Auschwitz.

According to some versions of the story, the new arrivals were not registered, but were told that they had to be disinfected before crossing the border into Switzerland. They were taken into the undressing room next to the gas chamber and ordered to undress. Other versions of the story mention the events that follow taking place at either the selection ramp or a labor area of the camp.

Regardless of location, what is confirmed is that she fatally wounded the roll call, officer, Oberscharführer Josef Schillinger, using a pistol (many accounts say his own), and fired two shots, wounding him in the stomach. Then she fired a third shot, which wounded another SS Sergeant named Emmerich.

Many Resistance heroes of World War II, including women, have had their stories told in films. As of October 23, 2022, Franceska Mann has not been one of them. (UPDATE: In 2024, she was the subject of a documentary, titled Francesca, directed by Lena Chaplin -- no relation to Charlie Chaplin.)

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October 23, 1943 was a Saturday. Baseball season had ended 12 days earlier, when the New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season started a week later.

Among the college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 Notre Dame beat Illinois, 47-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 2 Army beat Yale, 39-7 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.

* Number 3 Navy beat Georgia Tech, 28-14 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Number 4 Purdue beat Iowa, 28-7 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Number 5 University of Pennsylvania beat Columbia, 33-0 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* Number 6 College of the Pacific were defeated by Number 7 University of Southern California, 6-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Rivalry, the Little Brown Jug: Number 10 Michigan beat Number 11 Minnesota, 49-6 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Number 13 Texas A&M were held to a 0-0 tie by the University of Texas at Arlington (not the main campus in Austin), at Kyle Field in College Stadium.

* Number 14 March Field, the team fielded by what was then designated the U.S. Army Air Forces' 4th Air Force at Riverside, California, were upset by the University of Washington, 27-7 at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

* Rivalry: Number 18 Colorado College beat the University of Colorado, 16-6 at Colorado Stadium (now Folsom Field) in Boulder, Colorado.

* Among New Jersey's teams, Princeton had the week off, and, due to the wartime manpower drain, Rutgers only scheduled 5 games, and didn't start until the next week.

October 17, 1973: Poland's Glory & the Fall of Alf Ramsey

October 17, 1973: The England national soccer team plays Poland, in a qualifying match for the next year's World Cup, at England's national stadium, Wembley Stadium in West London.

England had won the World Cup in 1966, led by manager Alf Ramsey. For 1970, he made some changes due to the aging of some players, and England reached the Quarterfinals. By 1973, even the best of the Class of '66 was getting older, and it was showing.

England were put in a qualifying group with neighboring Wales, and Poland, each team playing the other home and away. Against Wales, England managed a 1-0 win in Cardiff, but had to come from behind just to gain a 1-1 draw at Wembley.

Wales then beat Poland, 2-0 in Cardiff; and, on June 6, 1973, Poland beat England 2-0 in Chorzów. On September 26, Poland beat Wales, 3-0. This meant that England had to beat Poland at Wembley on October 17: A draw would do them no good, as only the team that won the group would qualify.

A full house of 100,000 was on hand. Although they wore red for the '66 World Cup Final, England usually wear white at home, and did so on this occasion, allowing Poland to wear red. Early on, Martin Chivers of Tottenham Hostpur had a shot saved by Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski of ŁKS Łódź. Just as he let to ball go to start an attack, he realized he had to fall on the ball to prevent Allan Clarke of Leeds United from jumping on it, and probably scoring.

Tomaszewski injured his hand on the play, but stayed in, saving back-to-back shots by Roy McFarland of Derby County and Colin Bell of Manchester City. Shortly thereafter, he had to save off Clarke again, and off Mick Channon of Southampton.

In the 57th minute, Jan Domarski of FKS Stal Mielec put Poland on the board. BBC announcer Brian Moore said, "The tragedy that England might have expected! The Poles going mad around the scorer, Domarski!"

Shortly thereafter, Channon appeared to have tied the game, but the referee, Vital Loraux of Belgium, waved it off: The play began when Chivers' throw-in was taken by Clarke, who was offside before he passed to Channon. Shortly after that, Adam Musiał of Wisła Kraków tripped Martin Peters, then of Tottenham, in the box. Loraux correctly awarded a penalty, and Clarke converted it. (Despite going on to play in America toward the end of his career, Adam Musiał, pronounced "Moo-SHAL," was not related to baseball legend Stan Musial, pronounced "MYOO-zee-al."

England fought hard for half an hour to find a winner. Tomaszewski was beaten by Kevin Hector of Derby, and later by Bell, but Polish defenders stopped the balls from crossing the goal line. It ended 1-1, and England were eliminated from eligibility for the 1974 World Cup. Moore called it, "For England, one of the blackest days they've ever had. Sir Alf Ramsey must be a very disheartened man."

This was followed by 2 further disheartening friendlies: On November 14, a 1-0 loss at home to Italy; and on April 3, 1974, a 0-0 draw away to Portugal. The World Cup soon began, with Scotland in the tournament, but not England, which was terribly embarrassing: While England had refused to participate in the tournament until 1950, this was the 1st time they had attempted to qualify for it, and failed.

On May 11, Ramsey was fired. He remains the one and only manager ever to lead England to victory in a major tournament -- either the World Cup or the Euros -- but there were some in the FA who held grudges against him, for whatever reason. It may have been time to go, anyway: It was time for England to bring in a new generation of players, and, at the age of 54, he might not have been the man to do it.

Leeds United manager Don Revie was hired, and his tenure was a disaster. England flopped at Euro '76, and didn't qualify for the 1978 World Cup, either. They did qualify for 1982, 1986 and 1990, missed for 1994, and have made it every time since, but have never, despite their national media hype. looked like winning it.

Poland went on sweep their group in the 1st Group Stage at the World Cup, beating Italy, Argentina and Haiti. In the 2nd Group Stage, they beat Sweden and Yugoslavia, but lost to West Germany, the hosts, and were 2nd in the group. They beat Brazil in the 3rd-place Playoff, their best performance ever. They would match that in 1982, but have yet to surpass it.

*

October 17, 1973 was a Wednesday. On the same day, Motorola engineer Marty Cooper was granted the patent for the handheld mobile telephone. And the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, announced an embargo. I have a separate entry for that event.

It was midweek for the NFL and college football. But Game 4 of the World Series was played at Shea Stadium. The New York Mets evened the Series at 2 games apiece with a 6-1 win over the Oakland Athletics at Shea Stadium. In support of Met starting pitcher Jon Matlack, Rusty Staub went 4-for-4 with a homer and 5 RBI. The New Orleans chef was really cooking that night.

A's manager Dick Williams was tired of team owner Charlie Finley's meddling, and told his players that, win or lose, he would resign when the Series was over. In the 8th inning, as a pinch-hitter, he sent Mike Andrews, the 2nd baseman whose 2 errors in the 12th inning of Game 2 at the Oakland Coliseum gave the Mets a win, and whom Finley had unsuccessfully tried to have removed from the World Series roster. The Met fans, showing an intelligence for which I tend credit them, gave him a standing ovation. He grounded out. It turned out to be his last major league at-bat.

There were 2 NBA games played that day:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors, 109-95 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 108-106 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 ABA games played:

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Virginia Squires, 116-106 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Memphis Tams, 108-95 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* And the Denver Rockets beat the Utah Stars, 112-97 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver. The Rockets would become the Denver Nuggets at the start of the 1974-75 season.

There were 6 NHL games played:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-0 at Madison Square Garden. Eddie Giacomin had the shutout, and was backed by goals from Bruce MacGregor, Steve Vickers, Rod Gilbert and Jim Neilson.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-0 at the Chicago Stadium. The team's name was always written as 2 words, "Black Hawks," until 1986, when their original NHL charter document was found, and it was seen that the name had been written as 1 word, "Blackhawks," and that's how they've officially written it since.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the California Golden Seals, 5-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Finley owned them, too, and they went out of business, but not before playing the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons as the Cleveland Barons.

There were 2 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Houston Aeros, with 44-year-old Gordie Howe leading a line with his sons Mark and Marty, beat the Vancouver Blazers, 7-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. 

October 17, 1973: The OPEC Oil Shock

October 17, 1973: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) proclaims an oil embargo at its meeting in Vienna, Austria. It is targeted at nations perceived as supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War, which was ongoing at this point. (OPEC's headquarters has been in Vienna since 1965, even though Austria is not a member.)

The OPEC member nations are the Middle East nations of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Libya; the East Asian nation of Indonesia; and the South American nation of Venezuela. For those of you old enough to remember the 1990s, it may seem shocking to see Iraq and Kuwait working together. For those of you, like me, old enough to remember the 1980s (if not quite 1973), it may seem shocking to see Iraq and Iran working together. But it would take until 1979 for the Islamic Revolution to take over in Iran, and the same year for Saddam Hussein to do so in Iraq.

The targeted nations are America, Britain, Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. It is later extended to Portugal, and the apartheid nations of South Africa and Rhodesia.

In America, this drives the price of gasoline way up, and they had already gone up a lot this year, as a general inflation jacked up the prices of everything. It didn't help that President Richard Nixon was paying more attention to defending himself in the Watergate scandal than to the economy. Three days later came his firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, and of 2 aides who refused to help him do it, an event known as "the Saturday Night Massacre."

The embargo ended in March 1974, with the price of oil per barrel having gone up from $3 to almost $12. This had such an effect on the American economy that, when Time magazine named its Man of the Year for 1974, 9 months after the end of the embargo and 4 months after Nixon was forced to resign the Presidency, it didn't name Nixon; or his replacement, Gerald Ford; or any of Nixon's opponents, such as the new Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, or House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino, or, collectively, the U.S. Supreme Court. It named King Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

One of the ways America dealt with the gas shortage was to institute the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit. Another was to ration gas: If your license plate ended with an odd number, you could buy gas on an odd-numbered day; if it ended with an even number, you could buy it on an even-numbered day. This policy would be adopted again in 1979, the next time an oil embargo was launched.

But there was another way America dealt with the oil embargo, which had nothing to do with cars: An additional reliance on nuclear energy. In 1979, a near-disaster at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania showed why that idea was so dumb.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much oil, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

*

October 17, 1973 was a Wednesday. On the same day, Motorola engineer Marty Cooper was granted the patent for the handheld mobile telephone.

It was midweek for the NFL and college football. But Game 4 of the World Series was played at Shea Stadium. The New York Mets evened the Series at 2 games apiece with a 6-1 win over the Oakland Athletics at Shea Stadium. In support of Met starting pitcher Jon Matlack, Rusty Staub went 4-for-4 with a homer and 5 RBI. The New Orleans chef was really cooking that night.

A's manager Dick Williams was tired of team owner Charlie Finley's meddling, and told his players that, win or lose, he would resign when the Series was over. In the 8th inning, as a pinch-hitter, he sent Mike Andrews, the 2nd baseman whose 2 errors in the 12th inning of Game 2 at the Oakland Coliseum gave the Mets a win, and whom Finley had unsuccessfully tried to have removed from the World Series roster. The Met fans, showing an intelligence for which I tend credit them, gave him a standing ovation. He grounded out. It turned out to be his last major league at-bat.

There were 2 NBA games played that day:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Golden State Warriors, 109-95 at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Kansas City-Omaha Kings beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 108-106 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 ABA games played:

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Virginia Squires, 116-106 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Memphis Tams, 108-95 at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis.

* And the Denver Rockets beat the Utah Stars, 112-97 at the Auditorium Arena in Denver. The Rockets would become the Denver Nuggets at the start of the 1974-75 season.

There were 6 NHL games played:

* The New York Rangers beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-0 at Madison Square Garden. Eddie Giacomin had the shutout, and was backed by goals from Bruce MacGregor, Steve Vickers, Rod Gilbert and Jim Neilson.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-0 at the Chicago Stadium. The team's name was always written as 2 words, "Black Hawks," until 1986, when their original NHL charter document was found, and it was seen that the name had been written as 1 word, "Blackhawks," and that's how they've officially written it since.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the California Golden Seals, 5-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Finley owned them, too, and they went out of business, but not before playing the 1976-77 and 1977-78 seasons as the Cleveland Barons.

There were 2 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the New England Whalers, 3-1 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Houston Aeros, with 44-year-old Gordie Howe leading a line with his sons Mark and Marty, beat the Vancouver Blazers, 7-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

There was one more sporting event on this day that I should mention: The England national soccer team can only manage a 1-1 draw against Poland in a European qualifying match for the 1974 World Cup at the old Wembley Stadium in London. It means that England won't even qualify for the World Cup, and manager Sir Alf Ramsey, who guided them to the 1966 World Cup, is soon fired. Poland will go on to reach the Semifinals, their best performance ever. (They would match that in 1982, but have yet to surpass it.)

I have a separate entry for that event.

October 17, 1944: The Near-Destruction of Warsaw

October 17, 1944: Having successfully put down an uprising in the Polish capital of Warsaw for the 2nd year in a row, Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler gives an order: "The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation."

Himmler's boss, Adolf Hitler, had been considering this since 1939: He wanted to tear the city down, and replace it with a modern city in the German style. He specifically said to get rid of historical monuments and the Polish national archives. Hitler didn't just want genocide, he wanted to completely wipe Poland from public memory.

By January 1945, 85 percent of the buildings that had stood in Warsaw before the initial German invasion of September 1, 1939 had been destroyed. In 2005, an estimate was made that the value of the damage was, in current U.S. dollars, $54.6 billion.

With Poland a client state after World War II -- the Eastern European version of the West's NATO was founded in 1955 as "The Warsaw Pact" -- the Soviet Union funded the rebuilding of the city, but in the Communist style. As a result, it is not considered an architectural marvel. No, if you want to see a classical Polish city, the only one left is Kraków, which was always the country's home of culture.

The 778-foot, 42-story Palace of Culture and Science was erected in 1955, a copy of the Moscow State University Building. It has nicknames of both genders: Since the State University Building is one of Moscow's "Seven Sisters," the Palace is called "The Eighth Sister"; but it's also known as "Stalin's Dick." (Also, "Stalin's Syringe.")

You've heard of Polish jokes? Here is an actual Polish joke, from Poland: Where is the best view of the city of Warsaw? From the Palace of Culture and Science. Why? Because, from there, you can't see the Palace of Culture and Science.

Much like Colonial Williamsburg in America, Warsaw's "Old Town" was reconstructed. The project was the world's first attempt to resurrect an entire historic city core, and was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1980. 

Today, Warsaw is a thriving national capital, a metropolis of 1.8 million people, the 8th-largest in the European Union behind Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Bucharest, Paris, Vienna and Hamburg. 

*

October 17, 1944 was a Tuesday. The baseball season ended 8 days earlier, when the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, beating the St. Louis Browns in 6 games. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't being for another 11 days. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 14, 1944: The Death of Tadeusz Gebethner

October 14, 1944: Tadeusz Gebethner dies at Stalag XI-A, a prisoner-of-war camp in Altangrabow, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. He was 46 years old.

He was born on November 18, 1897 in Warsaw, the capital of what was then "Congress Poland," part of the Russian Empire. He would live just 21 years of his life in a free Republic of Poland. In 1911, he joined Klub Sportowy Polonia, the club now known as Polonia Warszawa. In 1915, only 17 years old, he was a co-founder of its soccer team, which became the 2nd-largest in Warsaw behind Legia, the Army team. He played with them through 1925, and served as team president.

Never drafted by the Russian Army to serve in World War I, he was patriotic enough to fight in the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. After ending his playing career, he joined the family bookselling and publishing company, Gebethner and Wolff.

When World War II broke out, he found himself fighting against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Captured by the Soviets, he escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp, and led the Home Army to organize camp rescues. From 1942 to 1944, he hid the Jewish Abrahams family in his home, and was able to get them to safety. But he was badly hurt in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, losing an arm and a leg before being captured by the Nazis. They didn't have to execute him: His wounds did their job for them.

In 1981, Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the Holocaust, gave Tadeusz Gebethner its highest honor for a non-Jew: "Righteous Among the Nations."

*

October 14, 1944 was a Saturday. Also dying in Nazi custody on this day was Erwin Rommel, Germany's most honored living military leader, who had come to oppose the Nazi government. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball season was over, ending 5 days earlier with the all-St. Louis World Series, with the Cardinals beating the Browns in 6 games. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NHL season didn't start for another 2 weeks.

There were college football games that day, including the following:

* Number 1 Notre Dame beat Dartmouth, 64-0 at Fenway Park in Boston, making it, technically, a "home game" for the Hanover, New Hampshire-based Dartmouth.

* Number 3 Army beat the University of Pittsburgh, 69-7 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. Army later beat Notre Dame and, unsurprisingly, would win the National Championship.

* Number 4 Randolph Field beat Southern Methodist (SMU), 41-0 at Alamo Stadium in San Antonio. Randolph Field was a base of the U.S. Army Air Forces, predecessor to the U.S. Air Force that was separated from the Army in 1947. Their team included University of Virginia star "Bullet Bill" Dudley, who had already played a pro season with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was eligible to play against collegiate opposition for Randolph Field because Randolph Field was not a college team.

They finished 12-0 and ranked Number 3, but didn't face ranked opposition until their last 2 games: A 20-7 win over Number 14 March Field (Air Force, Riverside, California) at the Los Angeles Coliseum on December 10, and a 13-6 win over Number 20 Second Air Force (Colorado Springs, later the site of the Air Force Academy) at the Polo Grounds on December 16. They were good, but almost certainly not good enough to beat Number 1 Army or Number 2 Navy.

* Number 5 Great Lakes Naval Training Station beat Western Michigan, 38-0 at Ross Field in Chicago. Great Lakes, whose baseball team included Bob Feller and Phil Rizzuto, and was good enough to be called "the 17th Major League Team," went 9-2, losing only to Ohio State, ranked Number 4 at the time; and Notre Dame, Number 9.

* Number 6 Navy beat Duke, 7-0 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. Navy would beat Notre Dame, but, ranked Number 2 at the time, would lose to Army at Municipal Stadium in Baltimore.

* Number 7 Purdue lost to Number 11 Iowa Pre-Flight, 13-6 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. Iowa Pre-Flight was the Navy flying school set up at the University of Iowa, even though that school kept its team for the duration of The War. On that day, they lost to Number 14 Illinois, 40-6 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Iowa Pre-Flight beat Iowa, 30-6 at Iowa Stadium, which would later be renamed Kinnick Stadium, after Nile Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner, who was killed in a Navy training flight in 1943.

* Number 8 Ohio State beat Number 19 Wisconsin, 20-7 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Number 9 Pennsylvania beat William & Mary, 46-0 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. To someone whose memory of college football only goes back to the 1978 split of NCAA Division I into Division I-A and I-AA (now FBS and FCS, respectively), it seems strange to see an Ivy League team ranked at all, let alone in the Top 10.

* Among teams in the New York Tri-State Area: Columbia lost to Yale, 27-10 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut; New York University lost to Temple, 25-0 at Ohio Field in The Bronx; City College of New York played the day before, and lost to Boston College, 33-0 at Braves Field in Boston; Rutgers did not start its season until October 28, playing only 5 games, 2 against Lafayette, 2 against Lehigh, and 1 against their own ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program) team; Princeton, until November 11, playing only 3 games; and Fordham had suspended its program entirely.