December 14, 1947: Estadio Santiago Bernabéu Opens

December 14, 1947: Real Madrid Club de Fútbol opens its new stadium, named Estadio Chamartín like the old one. In 1955, it was renamed after the man who got it built, team president Santiago Bernabéu.

Bernabéu the man is not to be celebrated: He was a dedicated follower of Fascist dictator Francisco Franco, which allowed him to fix results in favor of his team until his death in 1978, even after Franco died and Spain became free.

Santiago Bernabéu, with an early version of the European Cup

But the 84,744-seat stadium (it went as high as 129,690 before its conversion to all-seater) is one of the world's great sports palaces. It hosted the Finals of the 1964 European Nations Cup and the 1982 World Cup, making it the 1st to host the Final of both.

It's also hosted 4 Finals of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, which Real Madrid have won a record 14 times:

* 1957: Real Madrid won it on home soil, beating Fiorentina of Florence, Italy, 2-0.

* 1969: AC Milan beat Ajax Amsterdam, 4-1.

* 1980: Nottingham Forest beat Hamburger SV, 1-0.

* 2010: Internazionale Milano of Milan, Italy, beat Bayern Munich, 2-0.

In 2018, CONMEBOL, the governing body for soccer in South America, moved the Final of its version of the Champions League, the Copa Libertadores, to the Bernabéu, because it was the biggest club soccer rivalry on the continent, and the Bernabéu would be, for them, a neutral site. River Plate beat their Buenos Aires, Argentina arch-rivals, Boca Juniors, 3-1.

In 2019, Real Madrid began a renovation of the stadium, expanding concourses and installing wider seats and a retractable roof.

(UPDATE: It reopened on December 23, 2023, with a seating capacity of 83,186. In 2025, the stadium was renamed simply "The Bernabéu." Apparently, old man Santiago was now considered too much of a symbol of Fascism to allow his name to remain on the stadium, but the Bernabéu name was too lucrative to remove it entirely.)

*

December 14, 1947 was a Sunday. Dilma Rousseff, who would later serve as President of the soccer-mad nation of Brazil, was born.

Baseball was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Los Angeles Rams, 34-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers, 28-14 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Boston Yanks -- yes, Yankee fans and Red Sox fans, such a sports team actually existed -- 40-13 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* And the Chicago Cardinals beat the Chicago Bears, 30-21 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

And the All-America Football Conference held its Championship Game. The Cleveland Browns beat the football version of the New York Yankees, 14-3 at Yankee Stadium.

No games were scheduled for the Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA. But the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 1-1 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 1-1 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

November 23, 2002: The Pig's Head In El Clásico

November 23, 2002: El Clásico, the biggest sports rivalry in Spain, is played. It becomes the most famous game in the rivalry, but not for anything that was part of the actual game.

The country's 2 biggest soccer teams are Real Madrid Club de Fútbol and Futbol Club Barcelona. Real Madrid, the more successful of the two, became identified with the national government of Fascist leader Francisco Franco. Barcelona became identified with the resistance of the people of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, which opposed Franco and the Fascists, and were seriously oppressed. They are so deeply engrained in Catalan culture that they have adopted the slogan "Mes Que Un Club" (More Than a Club). It's even "written" into the seats at their stadium, the 98,000-seat Camp Nou.

As a result, Real Madrid have been seen as a "cheating" club, somehow turning draws into wins and losses into draws, with dives for penalties and "horror tackles" overlooked by the referees. Eventually, Barcelona learned how to do that, too, especially in European tournaments like the UEFA Champions League, to the point where they became known as "UEFAlona."

Luís Figo was a winger from outside Lisbon, Portugal. He had starred for Sporting Clube de Portugal (a.k.a. "Sporting Lisbon") before Barcelona bought him in 1995. He helped "Barça" win La Liga in 1998 and 1999, and became their most popular player.

Former Real Madrid captain Manolo Sanchis said Figo was his stiffest opponent, even more of a handful than Diego Maradona: "All by himself, he drove us crazy, dribbling us. He was a tremendous player, a crack."

Real Madrid, who had won the UEFA Champions League in 1998 and 2000, had a new club president, Florentino Pérez. He didn't just want the team to reassert themselves: He wanted to send Barça a message, and metaphorically stab their fans in the heart. So he promised Real fans that he would sign Figo, who had a buyout clause of €62 million. (If he could get it done, it would be a world record for a transfer fee for a "footballer": About $68 million, or about 21 times what Barça had paid for him 5 years earlier.)

Contrasting this stance with that of outgoing club president Lorenzo Sanz, ousted in a club election in favor of Pérez, Diego Torres, writing for Madrid newspaper El Pais (The Country), in Madrid, said, "This promise fulfilled all the superpower fantasies of Madridistas. Will he destroy Barcelona with a single cheque? They didn't give a shit for Lorenzo Sanz and his European Cups." In other words, Pérez was going to make it personal, and Real's fans ate it up.

Figo had been trying to renegotiate his Barcelona contract, but the club was stalling. This made him receptive to a move. But he was stuck: He couldn't tell anyone the deal was done until it was legal to announce it. But word got out, and he denied it. In other words, he lied. And the Cules believed him. When the deal was announced on July 25, 2000, the reaction in Catalonia was fury and a sense of betrayal: Not only had he gone to their arch-rivals, but he had lied about it.

Luís Figo

(Cules is a nickname for Barcelona supporters. At the stadium they used from 1922 to 1957, fans made an artificial last row of the stands by sitting on the ledge, with their rear ends, or "cules" in Romance languages, over the edge. So the most common name for Barcelona fans is, literally, "asses.")

The next game between the teams was at the Camp Nou in Barcelona on October 21, 2000 -- the same day as Game 1 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, but even Met fans don't hate the Yankees as much as the Cules hate the Madridistas and their team. Every time Figo touched the ball, the booing and whistling (often equivalent to booing in Europe) was intense. One banner in the stands read, "We hate you so much, because we loved you so much." Barcelona won, 2-0. 

But the Figo signing began the "Galácticos" era of Real Madrid, signing the best players in the world, and not caring how much it cost. They already had Raúl (González), Guti (real name: José María Gutiérrez), Fernando Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Fernando Morientes, Míchel Salgado, and goalkeeper Iker Casillas. To these were added Figo, Claude Makélélé, Zinedine Zidane, and finally Ronaldo (the Brazilian one, not the later Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, although Real did eventually sign him, too). It worked, as Los Blancos won the Champions League in 2002.

Raúl wore Number 7. He became known as "El Siete." The Seven. Even Figo, who wore 7 for Barcelona and for the Portugal national team, knew that he couldn't talk Raúl into giving the number up. So he switched to 10.

On November 23, 2002, a few days after Figo's 30th birthday, Real Madrid returned to the Camp Nou. It was a 9:00 PM start, so the fans had more time to have pregame drinks than usual. Every time Figo came within throwing range of Barça fans, objected rained down on him: Beer cans, bottles, golf balls, even cigarette lighters. In the 2nd half, with the score 0-0, Figo, the team's regular taker of corner kicks, went to take one. More objects fell near him. He turned around, smiled, and made a thumbs-up gesture, to let them know that they weren't going to stop him.

But the referee, Luis Medina Cantalejo, had seen enough, and he decided the game had to stop, long enough for the throwing to stop and the debris to be cleared. For 16 minutes, there was no action. At one point, a pig's head was found on the edge of the pitch, preserved the way it would be if the entire pig were to be roasted. The message was clear: "Figo, you're a pig." The TV cameras caught the image, and the whole world saw it.

The game was finally resumed, and Figo's corner came to nothing. At 11:08 PM, the final whistle was blown, and the game remained goalless.

Figo, Zidane, and the rest helped Real Madrid win La Liga in that 2002-03 season, Figo's 2nd league title with them, along with the 2 he won at Barcelona. In 2005, he left for Internazionale Milano, and won 4 Serie A (Italian league) titles with them, then retired.

Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, and each team's fans, still hate each other's guts. And Barça fans still have not forgiven Figo. I suppose it hasn't occurred to them that if their own team had renegotiated his contract like he'd asked, he might not have gone.

*

November 23, 2002 was a Saturday. In English soccer, Arsenal traveled to Hampshire, and lost to Southampton, 3-2 at the St. Mary's Stadium.

El Clásico wasn't the only major rivalry being played that day. It was the beginning of Rivalry Week in American college football. Actually, no: The beginning was 3 days earlier, on Wedneasday night, when West Virginia upset Number 13 Virginia Tech, 21-18 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. On Thursday night, Number 1 Miami beat Number 17 Pittsburgh, 28-21 at the Orange Bowl stadium in Miami. This clinched the Big East Conference title.

But among the games played on that Saturday:

* Rivalry: Number 2 Ohio State beat Number 12 Michigan, 14-9 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus. Ohio State thus won the Big Ten Conference title, and beat Miami in a controversial Fiesta Bowl to win the Bowl Championship Series National Championship.

* Rivalry: Number 3 Washington State were upset by Washington, 29-26 in the "Apple Cup" at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington. "Wazzu" still won the Pacific-Ten Conference title.

* Number 4 Oklahoma beat Number 24 Texas Tech, 60-15 at Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. Owen Field, in Norman, Oklahoma. Oklahoma then beat Colorado in the Big 12 Conference Championship Game, and, since Ohio State was Number 2 and locked into the BCS title game, were invited to the Rose Bowl as the now-Number 3 team. They beat Washington State.

* Number 5 Iowa had completed its regular season. They tied Ohio State for 1st in the Big 10, but they didn't play each other, and Ohio State had the higher ranking, so they went to the BCS title game.

* Number 6 Georgia had the week off, in preparation for next week's game against arch-rival Georgia Tech. They won that game, then beat Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game.

* Rivalry: Number 7 USC, the University of Southern California, beat Number 25 UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles, 52-21 at the Rose Bowl outside Los Angeles in Pasadena, California. USC thus finished in a tie with Washington State for the Pac-10 title. But since Wazzu had beaten USC head-to-head, this would be the only game USC would play at the Rose Bowl stadium that season. USC went to the Orange Bowl, where they beat Iowa.

* Number 8 Notre Dame beat Rutgers, 42-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Rivalry: Number 9 Alabama were upset by Auburn, 17-7 in the "Iron Bowl" at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. 'Bama still finished 1st in the SEC Western Division, but were on probation, and not permitted to play in the SEC Championship Game.

* Number 10 Kansas State beat Missouri, 38-0 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

* Number 14 Florida State were upset by North Carolina State, 17-7 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, North Carolina. FSU still won the Atlantic Coast Conference title, but lost the Sugar Bowl to Georgia.

* Rivalry: Number 18 Maryland were upset by Virginia, 48-13 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia.

* Rivalry: North Carolina beat Duke, 23-21 at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

* Rivalry: Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, 24-0 at Vanderbilt Stadium (now First Bank Stadium) in Nashville.

* Rivalry: Purdue beat Indiana, 34-10 for the "Old Oaken Bucket" at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

* Rivalry: Illinois beat Northwestern, 31-24 at Ryan Field outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois.

* Rivalry: Wisconsin beat Minnesota, 49-31 for "Paul Bunyan's Axe" at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Rivalry: Utah beat Brigham Young, 13-6 in the "Holy War" at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah.

* Rivalry: The University of California beat Stanford, 30-7 in "The Big Game" at the original California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.

* Rivalry: Oregon State beat Oregon, 45-24 in "The Civil War" at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon.

* And among the service academies, Army lost to the University of Memphis, 38-10 at the Liberty Bowl (now Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium) in Memphis; Navy lost to Wake Forest, 30-27 at Groves Stadium (now Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Air Force lost to San Diego State, 38-34 at Falcon Field in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Baseball was out of season. There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 96-82 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks, 109-99 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Washington Wizards, 85-74 at the Great American Pyramid in Memphis.

* The New Orleans Hornets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 97-84 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Indiana Pacers, 106-91 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 115-105 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-90 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Phoenix Suns, 80-79 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 95-94 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.

And there were 13 games in the NHL:

* Speaking of rivalries, the New York Islanders beat the New York Rangers, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Montreal Canadiens, 7-3 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-2 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 6-3 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-0 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-1 at the Mellon Arena (as the Pittsburgh Civic Arena was then known).

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Nashville Predators, 4-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the Savvis Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Edmonton Oilers played to a 1-1 tie at the Skyreach Centre (as the Northlands Coliseum was then known) in Edmonton.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

November 15, 1958: Tyrone Power Dies

November 15, 1958: Tyrone Power dies of a heart attack in Madrid, where he had been filming the Biblical movie Solomon and Sheba with Gina Lollobrigida. He was filming a dueling scene with George Sanders when he was stricken. He was only 44 years old.

Yul Brynner, who had turned the role of King Solomon down, was a friend of Power's, and accepted it in tribute, putting his planned film about Spartacus on hold, which allowed Kirk Douglas to make his planned version of Spartacus unopposed.

Tyrone Edmund Power III was born on May 5, 1914 in Cincinnati. He graduated from Marian High School (now Purcell Marian), which also produced Tom and Charlie Luken, a father and son who both became Mayors of Cincinnati; and football legend Roger Staubach.

He became a star with In Old Chicago in 1938, playing Dion O'Leary, owner of the barn where the Great Fire of 1871 began. He became a legend in 1940 in The Mark of Zorro, defining the role until Guy Williams played it on TV in the late 1950s, and typecasting him as a swashbuckler type.

Had somebody figured out how to make him fly, he might have been the right actor to be the 1st to play Superman. (Superheroes Batman, Captain Marvel and Captain America were filmed in the early 1940s.) But he found a way to become a real hero, flying rescue missions in the Pacific Theater for the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II. He stayed in the Marine Corps Reserves for the rest of his life, rising to the rank of Major.

He went on to play Suez Canal developer Ferdinand de Lesseps, Wild West desperado Jesse James, Ernest Hemingway's "hero" Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises, and bandleader Eddy Duchin, who also died young. His last completed role was defendant Leonard Vole in Witness for the Prosecution.

But, like so many people of his generation, including movie stars, he was a heavy smoker, and it is suspected that he had hereditary heart disease. Throw in the physicality of so many of his roles, and it's not surprising that he died while filming an action scene.

He had 3 daughters, including actress and singer Romina Power, and actress Taryn Power. Two months after his death, his 3rd and last wife, Deborah Jean Montgomery, gave birth to a son, Tyrone William Power IV, who acts under the name Tyrone Power Jr. His first film was Cocoon, with Tahnee Welch, Raquel's daughter.

*

November 15, 1958 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Among the college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 Louisiana State University beat Mississippi State, 7-6 at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson. LSU went undefeated, won the Southeastern Conference title, and beat Number 12 Clemson in the Sugar Bowl to win the National Championship.

* Number 2 Iowa were upset by Number 16 Ohio State, 38-28 at Iowa Stadium (now Kinnick Stadium) in Iowa City. This would be Iowa's only loss, as they went on to win the Big Ten title, and beat the University of California in the Rose Bowl. But despite wins over 5 ranked teams, this loss and a tie against Air Force, both at home, cost them the National Championship. They ended up ranked Number 2.

* Number 3 Army beat Villanova, 26-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. Led by Heisman Trophy-winning running back Pete Dawkins, Army finished 8-0-1, their only blemish a draw away to the University of Pittsburgh. But they did not accept a bowl bid, and were not seriously considered for the National Championship, finishing 3rd in the rankings.

* Number 4 Auburn beat Georgia, 21-6 at Memorial Stadium in Columbus, Georgia. Auburn finished 9-0-1, their only blemish a tie away to Georgia Tech, then an SEC team. This cost them the SEC title, and they were not invited to a bowl game. So they were not seriously considered for the National Championship, finishing 4th in the rankings.

* Number 5 Wisconsin beat Illinois, 31-12 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.

* Number 6 Oklahoma beat Missouri, 39-0 at Memorial Stadium in Norman, Oklahoma. OU won the Big Seven Conference title, and beat Syracuse in the Orange Bowl. Their only loss was to Texas in Dallas.

* Number 7 Mississippi were upset by Tennessee, 18-16 at Shields-Watkins Field (now Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* Number 8 Purdue beat Number 13 Northwestern, 23-16 at Dyche Stadium in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

* Number 9 Texas Christian University beat Texas, 22-8 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. TCU won the Southwest Conference title, and advanced to the Cotton Bowl, where Air Force held them to a tie.

* Number 10 Air Force beat Wyoming, 21-6 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

* Number 11 North Carolina were upset by Notre Dame, 34-24 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 14 University of Pittsburgh were upset by Nebraska, 14-6 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.

* Number 15 Southern Methodist University (SMU) were upset by Arkansas, 13-6 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

* Number 17 Rice were upset by Texas A&M, 28-21 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

* Number 19 Rutgers -- a rare moment for Rutgers to be ranked in the 20th Century -- were upset by the Quantico Marines, 13-12 at Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey. It would be RU's only loss, and they were not invited to a bowl game. They ended the season ranked Number 20. The other New Jersey team, Princeton, beat Yale, 50-14 at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.

As for the Marines, they dropped the team from the Quantico base in the town of the same name in Virginia after the 1972 season.

* Number 20 Georgia Tech were upset by Alabama, 17-8 at Grant Field in Atlanta.

* Navy beat George Washington University, 28-8 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* In a rivalry game, Boston College beat Boston University, 18-13 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

There were 4 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 96-92 at the Onondaga County War Memorial Auditorium (now the Upstate Medical University Arena) in Syracuse, New York.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 130-105 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 106-101 at the Philadelphia Civic Center.

* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 102-91 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Bob Pettit led all scorers on the day with 36 points.

The NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action. The New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden. The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest, 3-1 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.

November 5, 1937: The Piedrafita Massacre

November 5, 1937: In the Spanish Civil War, 35,000 Republican supporters are massacred by Francisco Franco's fascist Nationalists in Piedrafita de Babia, near León in northwestern Spain. It was part of what became known as La Terror Blanco: The White Terror.

For the most part, as they had in regard to the war thus far, the world's democracies do nothing. The America media, controlled then as now by conservatives, openly root for Franco, because he is Catholic and thus anti-Communist.

This, of course, did not stop the Fascists of Nazi Germany and Italy from aiding Franco. Result: A year and a half later, he had won the war, and Spain lived under tyranny until his death in 1975.

*

November 5, 1937 was a Friday. Actor Harris Yulin was born.

Baseball season was over. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were no games scheduled in the NHL. There were 3 college football games, each of them with 1 team, but none of them with 2, that are now in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, formerly Division I-A):

* The University of Mississippi, a.k.a. "Ole Miss," beat George Washington University, 27-6 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. GWU dropped its football program in 1966, and has never resumed it.

* The University of Miami beat Stetson University, 25-13 at Burdine Stadium, which will later be renamed the Orange Bowl. Stetson, in DeLand, Florida, dropped its football program in 1956, restoring it in 2013, in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, formerly Division I-AA).

* And Texas Tech beat Loyola, 25-6 at Loyola University Stadium in New Orleans. Loyola dropped its football program in 1939, and has never resumed it. There are also Loyola Universities in Baltimore and Chicago, and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

October 22, 1926: "The Sun Also Rises" Is Published

October 22, 1926: The Sun Also Rises, written by Ernest Hemingway, is published by Charles Scribner's Sons. Although Hemingway had previously been a journalist, and had published short stories, this was his 1st novel, and it set the tone for a writing style that would change literature.

The novel is a roman à clef: The characters are based on real people in Hemingway's social circle, and the action is based on real events, particularly Hemingway's life in Paris in the 1920s, and a trip to Spain in 1925 for the "running of the bulls" festival in Pamplona and fishing in the Pyrenees.

Hemingway, then 27 years old, presented his notion that what was already being called the "Lost Generation," considered to have been decadent, dissolute, and irretrievably damaged by their experiences in World War I, which had ended just 8 years earlier, was, instead, resilient and strong. Hemingway investigated the themes of love and death, the revivifying power of nature, and the concept of masculinity.

However, in his treatment of women, art imitated life: The character of Lady Brett Ashley is promiscuous and untrustworthy. Hemingway married 4 times, and it's been suggested that he mistreated all 4 wives, but got a great novel out of each: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms (a version of his experience in World War I, published in 1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (a version of his experience in the Spanish Civil War, published in 1940), and The Old Man and the Sea (based on stories he heard from fishermen in Cuba, published in 1952).

Along with The Great Gatsby, by his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, The Sun Also Rises is 1 of 3 definitive novels of the "Roaring Twenties" and the "Lost Generation." But it has not really stood the test of time: Not only does Lady Brett look bad in an era of feminism, but the character of Robert Cohn is treated badly, leading to the charge the Hemingway was anti-Semitic; and bullfighting, which Hemingway celebrated in this book and in several short stories, has come to be seen by the wider world as barbaric.

Hemingway himself, though an incredibly talented writer, was a barbaric man, who never met a human being, man or woman, that he didn't want to hit; never met a woman that he didn't want to have sex with; and never met an animal he didn't want to shoot. On July 2, 1961, he shot and killed the most dangerous animal he ever faced: Himself. He was his own worst enemy, and he was just short of turning 63.

*

October 22, 1926 was a Friday. This was also the day that Harry Greb, a former Light Heavyweight Champion of the World, died. I have a separate entry for that event.

The baseball season had just ended, with the St. Louis Cardinals beating the Yankees in the World Series. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't yet been founded. And the NHL season wouldn't begin until November 16. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 21, 1940: Ernest Hemingway Publishes "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

October 21, 1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway is published. It is a tale of the International Brigades, aiding the leftist Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. The novel was far more successful than those to whom it paid tribute.

The title is taken from a 1624 poem by Englishman John Donne, which has put 3 famous sayings into our lexicon. Hemingway left the original spelling in his epigraph, but I'll render it in modern English:

No man is an island, entire of itself.

Every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.

If a Cloud be washed away by the Sea, Europe is the less

as well as if a Promontory were,

as well as if a Manor of thy friends or thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me

because I am involved in Mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for thee.

The International Brigades -- Brigadas Internacionales in Spanish -- were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. It is estimated that, during the entire war, there were some 32,000 Brigaders, yet at no single moment were there more than 18,000 actually deployed. among them were Americans who named their group the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

The novel tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerilla unit. As a demolitions expert, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.

The novel was made into a film in 1943, directed by Sam Wood, starring Gary Cooper as Jordan, and Ingrid Bergman as María, a guerilla he falls in love with. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Cooper, and Best Actress for Bergman. But the only winner was Greek actress Katina Paxinou, for Best Supporting Actress.

Both Cooper and Bergman tended to have affairs with their co-stars, and this film was no exception. Hemingway, who had recently made journalist Martha Gellhorn the 3rd of his 4 wives, would have approved.

*

October 21, 1940 was a Monday. Jimmy Beaumont, the lead singer of the Pittsburgh-based doo-wop group The Skyliners, was born.

The baseball season ended 13 days earlier, when the Cincinnati Reds won Game 7 of the World Series over the Detroit Tigers. The NFL was 30 years away from Monday Night Football. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season was 30 days away from starting. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 7, 2000: "Queen of Swords" Presents a Female Zorro

October 7, 2000: Queen of Swords premieres on American television, in syndication. It provides an answer for this question: "What if Zorro was a woman?"

Tessie Marie Santiago was born on August 10, 1975 in Miami. After appearing onstage in South Florida, London and Europe, her first on-screen acting job was a starring one, in Queen of Swords, a drama about, essentially, a female Zorro -- explicitly nodding to Batman's not-so-secret connection to that character by having noblewoman Maria Theresa "Tessa" Alvarado become the Queen (named for the tarot card, usually representing a widow or a woman otherwise in mourning) to avenge her father's death in colonial California in 1817, 4 years before Mexico gained its independence from Spain, temporarily taking California with it.

Like Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro and Bruce Wayne/Batman, Tessa Alvarado pretends to be the wealthy privilege-protector, professing sympathy for the downtrodden but too timid to do anything about it, and then going all-out in costume. To further show the contrast, Tessa usually dressed in white before putting on the black costume.

The blouse was loose for easier swordfighting. The pants were a bit tight, leading to a guest character, seeing her ride off being chased by Spanish soldiers, to say, "Nice saddle." But since, like Batman, she usually wore the costume at night, it didn't show off her figure much. And her civilian clothes were not especially revealing. The point was that Tessa was heroic first, and beautiful second.

It was a fantastic show, also featuring Valentine Pelka, an English actor of Polish and Irish parentage, as a charismatic but truly nasty villain, Colonel Luis Montoya, Spain's military governor of Tessa's hometown of Santa Helena.

Canadian actor Anthony Lemke played Captain Marcus Grisham, Montoya's second-in-command, who deserted the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 after killing his commanding officer to cover up an act of fraud. He led the pursuit of Don Alvarado for a trumped-up charge, and fired the shot that killed him. It is never made clear whether Montoya knows this -- certainly, he knows that Don Alvarado wouldn't do business with him, and was killed by one of his men -- but he only partially trusts Grisham.

Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, who later married Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, played Vera Hidalgo, wife of the weak-minded and weak-willed Don Gaspar Hidalgo (Spanish actor Tacho Gonzalez). She cheats on him with Grisham, and "plays both sides" to her advantage.

Paulina Gálvez, born in Chile to Spanish parents and raised in Spain, played Marta, a Romani (described on the show as a "Gypsy," but that term is now considered a slur) who was hired by Don Alvarado to look after Tessa -- essentially, a female "Alfred" to her "Batman," or "Bernardo" to her "Zorro." She uses tarot cards to see the future, and inspires the Queen of Swords persona.

Not appearing in the pilot was Dr. Robert Helm, a British physician in Santa Helena, who is intrigued by both Tessa and the Queen, but not fully trusting either, and not suspecting that they are the same woman. He was played by Welsh actor Peter Wingfield, who was a qualified anesthesiologist. So he was a real doctor, he didn't just play one on TV.

Left to right: Tacho Gonzalez, Elsa Pataky, Peter Wingfield,

Anthony Lemke, Tessie Santiago, Paulina Gálvez and Valentine Pelka

The show had a great theme song, "Behind the Mask," written by Spencer Proffer and Steve Plunkett, and sung by José Feliciano: "Everyone wears a disguise. We've all got secrets to hide." This was true for every character in the main cast.

Like Clint Eastwood's "spaghetti westerns," it was filmed in Spain, because its coastal area resembled old California more than modern California did. As a result, many British and Spanish actors got their first (some, so far, their only) American exposure. (The show was a Canadian production, and the French version made for Quebec was titled Tessa: At the Point of the Sword.)

The show never got good ratings, and only lasted one season. The last episode to air was a regular one, with no cliffhanger. She righted some wrongs, but didn't get her full revenge: Viewers knew the full truth, but she never found it out. Nor was the romantic tension between Tessa and Peter settled.

Queen of Swords was often shown in tandem with Tia Carrere's Relic Hunter, and I hoped for a crossover in which a descendant of Tessa's looked up Carrere's Dr. Sydney Fox, and together they could solve Don Alvarado's nearly 200-year-old murder, and clear the Queen's name, with a descendant of Montoya's trying to stop them. No such luck.

Tessie Santiago hasn't had much luck in acting since then, either. Her next series, the sitcom Good Morning, Miami, in which she played the co-host of a local morning news show, lasted just 11 episodes in the 2002-03 season. Twentysixmiles, named for the distance between its setting, Santa Catalina Island, and the coast of California, lasted only 6 episodes in 2010. She played the Vice President in 9 episodes of Scandal in 2017.

*

October 7, 2000 was a Saturday. The American League Division Series were already over, with the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners both advancing. In the National League Division Series, the New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 in Game 3 at Shea Stadium. Benny Agbayani hit a home run in the bottom of the 13th inning. The Mets wrapped up the series the next day.

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-1 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta, completing a 3-game sweep. Met fans, knowing that they were still in, and the team that had been stopping them lately, the Braves were out, thought this was their year: They would win the Pennant, and that they would beat the Yankees in the World Series to reclaim New York. They were right on the former, but not the latter.

The last event was held in the 77-year history of the original Wembley Stadium in London. The England national soccer team lost to Germany, 1-0. I have a separate entry for that event.

On the same day, the Columbus Blue Jackets bring the NHL back to Ohio after 22 years, and give the State capital its 1st-ever major league team, unless you count Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew, or the Columbus Bullies who won the only titles of the 1940-41 American Football League.

Their 1st game is at home against the Chicago Blackhawks, who win, 5-3 at Nationwide Arena, still the Jackets' home. Their 1st goal is scored by Bruce Gardiner. I have a separate entry for this game.

It is also the night of the 1st game for another expansion team, the Minnesota Wild. They open on the road, at the America West Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix, and lose to the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-1.

Elsewhere in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 2-1 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes play to a tie, 3-3 at the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena (now the Lenovo Center).

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Dallas Stars, 3-1 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 2-0 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Nashville Predators, 3-1 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-3 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* And the Colorado Rockies and the Edmonton Oilers play to a tie, 1-1 at the Skyreach Centre, as the Northlands Coliseum was then known, in Edmonton.

And there was college football on the day, including the following games:

* Number 1 Florida State were upset by Number 7 Miami, 27-24 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The Hurricanes won the Big East Conference title. Florida State still won the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

* Number 2 Nebraska beat Iowa State, 49-27 at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, Iowa.

* Number 3 Virginia Tech beat Temple, 35-13 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.

* Number 4 Kansas State beat their arch-rivals, Kansas, 52-13 at Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.

* Number 5 Clemson beat North Carolina State, 34-27 at Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

* Number 6 Michigan lost to Purdue, 32-31 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue won the Big 10 Conference title.

* Number 8 Ohio State beat Number 24 Wisconsin, 23-7 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Number 10 Oklahoma beat Number 11 Texas, 63-14 in the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Sooners went on to win beat Kansas State for the Big 12 Conference title, and Florida State in the Orange Bowl, and won the National Championship.

* Number 12 Florida beat Louisiana State, 41-9 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators went on to beat Auburn for the Southeastern Conference title, but lost the Sugar Bowl to Miami.

* Number 13 Washington beat Number 23 Oregon State, 33-30 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Washington won the Pacific-10 Conference title, and beat Purdue in the Rose Bowl.

* Number 15 Auburn were upset by Number 20 Mississippi State, 17-10 at Scott Field in Starkville, Mississippi.

* Number 18 Southern California were upset by Arizona, 31-15 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 19 Georgia beat Number 21 Tennessee, 21-10 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. Tennessee still ended up going to the Cotton Bowl, but lost it to Kansas State.

* Number 25 Notre Dame beat Stanford, 20-14 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame went to the Fiesta Bowl, but lost to Oregon State.

* Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) beat arch-rival Nevada, 38-7 at Sam Boyd Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Whitney, Nevada.

* In a battle between service academies, Air Force beat Navy, 27-13 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

* Army lost to New Mexico State, 42-23 at Aggie Memorial Stadium in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

September 24, 1957: The Camp Nou Opens In Barcelona

September 24, 1957: Futbol Club Barcelona open a new stadium, the Camp Nou. The opening event is a Catholic Mass, attended by 90,000 people, not a soccer game (football match).

From 1926 to 1957, FC Barcelona had played at Camp de Les Corts, having expanded it to 60,000 seats. But their post-World War II success meant that they needed more seats, and it was impossible to expand the stadium any further. Camp Nou would eventually hold over 120,000 fans, before its conversion to all-seater brought capacity down to 98,000, meaning it was still the biggest club soccer stadium in Europe.

Barcelona became identified with the resistance of the people of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, which opposed Francisco Franco and the Fascists, and were seriously oppressed. They are so deeply engrained in Catalan culture that they have adopted the slogan "Mes Que Un Club" (More Than a Club). It's even "written" into the seats at their stadium, the 98,000-seat Camp Nou.

As a result, Real Madrid have been seen as a "cheating" club, somehow turning draws into wins and losses into draws, with dives for penalties and "horror tackles" overlooked by the referees. Eventually, Barcelona learned how to do that, too, especially in European tournaments like the UEFA Champions League, to the point where they became known as "UEFAlona."

Since moving into the Camp Nou, Barça have won Spain's La Liga 20 times, for a total of 26 (UPDATE: They won a 21st in 2023, making 27); the Copa del Rey, the King's Cup, Spain's version of the FA Cup, 19 times, for a total of 31; and won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League 5 times: In 1992, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015. (They've also lost the Final in 1961, 1986 and 1994.)

In addition, the Camp Nou has hosted 2 Champions League Finals: 1989, with A.C. Milan beating Steaua București; and 1999, with Manchester United coming from behind in stoppage time to beat Bayern Munich. It also hosted 5 games in the 1982 World Cup, and the soccer games for the 1992 Olympics.

A renovation plan was approved in 2022. Barça will play the 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, the main stadium for the 1992 Olympics. 

*

September 24, 1957 was a Tuesday. It was the day that President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce the law desegregating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. I have a separate entry for that.

American football was in midweek. And the starts of the NBA and NHL seasons were a month away. But a full slate of Major League Baseball games was played:

* The most significant was, as already widely believed but not yet officially confirmed, the last game  at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. I also have a separate entry for that.

The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 on a 5-hit shutout by rookie lefthander Danny McDevitt. The Dodgers would have the next 2 days off, and close their history as a Brooklyn-based team away to the Philadelphia Phillies, losing the finale.

Two nights earlier, Duke Snider had hit the last 2 home runs at the ballpark. The last play was Dee Fondy grounding to short, where, appropriately, Pee Wee Reese, a Dodger since 1940, threw to Gil Hodges for the last out.

* The New York Giants, who had already announced their move to San Francisco for the 1958 season, lost to the Phillies, 5-0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Curt Simmons pitched a 4-hit shutout. Willie Mays went 0-for-3. Five days later, on Sunday, September 29, the Giants would play their last game at the Polo Grounds, and lost to the Pirates, 9-1.

For the next 4 seasons, New York's National League baseball fans, unwilling to give up baseball, but unwilling to switch to the American League's New York Yankees, took the Pennsylvania Railroad from Penn Station in New York to the North Philadelphia station, and walked the 7 blocks from Broad Street down Lehigh Avenue to 21st Street, and walked into Connie Mack Stadium to watch the Phillies play the Los Angeles Dodgers or the San Francisco Giants.

If they were feeling particularly adventurous, they would drive down, and risk their cars, parking in the North Philly ghetto. Some would cheer their old heroes. Some would boo them.

In 1962, the New York Mets arrived, and the former fans of the Dodgers and the Giants would join in a "marriage of convenience" -- one which produced "The New Breed," the Met fans too young to really remember the former teams.

* The Yankees? They didn't play that night. Nor did the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, or the Detroit Tigers.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 2-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Ted Williams hit a home run.

* The Cincinnati Redlegs -- from 1954 to 1958, the Reds used that name due to the stupidity of the Red Scare -- swept a doubleheader from the Chicago Cubs, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Reds won the opener 4-3, and the nightcap 11-9. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 2-for-9 with a home run and 2 RBIs for the Cubs; while, for the Reds, Frank Robinson went 1-for-6 with an RBI, and Wally Post homered in both games.

* The Milwaukee Braves, having clinched their 1st NL Pennant the night before on an 11th-inning home run by Hank Aaron, beat the St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee County Stadium again, this time 6-1 in the regulation 9 innings. In this game, Aaron went 1-for-5, but the hit was a grand slam. Stan Musial went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 7-6 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. 

August 29, 1947: The Death of Manolete

August 29, 1947: Manolete, the most popular bullfighter in Spanish history, dies after being gored in the ring in Linares, Andalucía. He was only 30 years old. It has been speculated that it wasn't his injury alone that killed him, but rather receiving a transfusion of the wrong blood type.

He was born Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez on July 4, 1917, in Córdoba, Andalusia, in southern Spain. Like his father, from whom he inherited the stage name Manolete, and died when the boy was only 5 years old, he took up this brutal sport, which is now limited to Spain and Mexico.

He made his professional debut in 1931, only 14 years old, and continued to compete through the years of the Spanish Civil War. His greatness in the ring was one of the few things that Republicans (left) and Nationalists (right) could agree on.

But on August 29, 1947, in Linares, Andalusia, he was fighting alongside the rising star Luis Miguel Dominguín. He was facing a Islero, a Miura bull, a breed known for its size and ferocity, Islero's horn gored Manolete in his right thigh.

Many bullfighters had died due to infection, since bulls tended to stick their horns in their own excrement. The use of antibiotics was relatively new, which is why the speculation about the blood type has persisted: Manolete could have been saved, but he wasn't.

He was played by Jack Palance in the 1957 Playhouse 90 episode "The Death of Manolete," directed by John Frankenheimer; and Adrien Brody (he certainly had the nose for it) in the 2008 film Manolete. He was mentioned in the 1961 Twilight Zone episode "A Game of Pool," among men who were the best ever at various crafts. He was mentioned in the songs "The Great Manolete" by Herb Alpert in 1962 and "The Death of Manolete" by 10,000 Maniacs in 1983.

There has been one bullfighter since Manolete who has caught the Spanish public's attention on the same level, and was able to do so through the medium of television, in the 1960s. He was born Manuel Benítez Pérez, and, because he also came from the province of Córdoba (Palma del Río, about 35 miles southwest of the city of Córdoba), he was known as El Cordobés. As of August 29, 2022, he is still alive.

*

August 29, 1947 was a Friday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. George McQuinn hit a sacrifice fly off Early Wynn, to score Tommy Henrich in the bottom of the 10th inning. Joe Page was the winning pitcher, in relief of Bob Newsom. Joe DiMaggio went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 6-3 at Ebbets Field. Ralph Branca went the distance for the win, advancing to 19-9 on the season. He would end up winning 21 games at age 21. Sadly, he peaked then. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, and a steal of home plate.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-2 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 5-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* The Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 3. The White Sox won the opener, 8-3. The Indians won the nightcap, 6-5. The South Siders led 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th, but George "Catfish" Metkovich led off with a single, Dale Mitchell bunted him over, Hank Edwards tripled him home to tie it, and Hal Peck singled Edwards home to win it.

* And the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.

There was also a game in the All-America Football Conference: The Los Angeles Dons beat the Chicago Rockets, 24-21 at Soldier Field in Chicago.