November 7, 1962: Richard Nixon's "Last Press Conference"

November 7, 1962: The results of the previous day's elections are in. Normally, the Party that holds the White House loses the Congressional elections in Year 2 of a Presidency. But the Democratic Party, led by President John F. Kennedy, doesn't do so badly. In the U.S. House of Representatives, they lost 4 seats, but the Republican Party only gained 1.

As a result, the Democrats will have 258 seats in the 88th Congress, whose term will begin on January 3, 1963 (although they won't have their swearing-in ceremony until January 9). The Republican Party will have 176. One seat remains vacant for the time being.

In the U.S. Senate, the Democrats actually gained 4 seats. Among the new Senators are the President's brother, Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy, but that's not a Democratic gain: That's the seat that JFK had to resign after being elected President.

Also newly elected were Democrats George McGovern of South Dakota, Abe Ribicoff of Connecticut, Birch Bayh of Indiana, Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. 

But the most interesting election is that for Governor of California. The Democratic incumbent, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown went into the election thinking that the Republican nominee was going to be Mayor George Christopher of San Francisco. (That's right: As late as January 8, 1964, San Francisco had a Republican Mayor.) Instead, Christopher was nominated for Lieutenant Governor, and the nominee for Governor was Richard Nixon, who had been Dwight D. Eisenhower's Vice President, and had previously served California in both houses of Congress.

Why did Nixon want to be Governor? Wouldn't that be a step down? Actually, he didn't want to be Governor, but California Republican officials talked him into it. Still, he wanted to win, especially since it would confirm him as the nation's leading Republican politician, rather than Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, who was expected to win re-election easily (and did), or Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, leader of the Party's conservative wing.

When the final vote was tallied, Brown had a little over 3 million votes, or about 51.9 percent. Nixon had around 2.7 million, or 46.8 percent. Scattered other candidates got 1.3 percent. It was close, but Brown was the definitive winner.

Nixon became the 1st notable Republican politician to publicly blame his defeat on negative coverage by the media. At a press conference that morning, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, the man known as Tricky Dick said, "I leave you gentlemen now. And you will now write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you, I want you to know: Just think how much you're going to be missing. You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference."

Nixon did not keep that promise. It took nearly another 12 years before America truly didn't have Nixon to kick around anymore.

One person who would definitely not be giving any more press conferences was former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who died on this day, at her apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, of heart failure, at age 78. 

*

November 7, 1962 was a Wednesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 3 NBA games played on this day:

* The New York Knicks beat the St. Louis Hawks, 122-112 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Richie Guerin scored 33 points for the Knicks, while Bob Pettit scored 37 in defeat for the Hawks.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 106-105 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson scored 42 points in defeat.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 132-108 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. For the Lakers, Elgin Baylor scored 30, and Jerry West scored 28. For the Warriors, in their 1st season by the Bay after moving from Philadelphia, Wilt Chamberlain scored 38 points and grabbed 29 rebounds, to no avail.

There were 2 games played in the NHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers, 5-1 at the old Madison Square Garden. The Leafs got 2 goals from Billy Harris.

And the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a 3-3 tie at the Chicago Stadium. The Bruins' John Bucyk scored a shorthanded goal with 1:07 left in the game to forge the tie. (There was no overtime in NHL regular-season games from 1942 to 1983.)

At the 10:21 mark of the 1st period, Hawks goaltender Glenn Hall had to leave the game with an injury, and Dennis DeJordy was in goal the rest of the way. This ends Hall's streak of 502 consecutive games, playing every minute of every game for the last 5 years -- and although he also did so when the Hawks made the Playoffs, those games are not counted in his total. If they are, then he really played 536 straight games, never missing a minute.

True, teams played 70 games a season back then, not 82 like they do now. But no goalie, not even Martin Brodeur, has ever come close to matching that. I have a separate entry for this event.

November 4, 1979: Ted Kennedy's Disastrous Interview

November 4, 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis begins. Islamic militants take over the U.S. Embassy in Iran, and take 80 hostages, a number that will drop to 52. At first, the nation rallies around President Jimmy Carter, as the nation tends to rally around the President when a crisis occurs.

It helps Carter that, on this same day, CBS Reports airs "Teddy," an hourlong program focusing on Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is rumored to be running for President. (He confirms the rumor by announcing his candidacy 3 days later.) Ted made the huge mistake of making what turned out to be his only run for President in the 1 election between 1972 and 1996 when the incumbent President was a fellow Democrat.

He hurts himself further by taking the simple question of host and interviewer Roger Mudd, "Why do you want to be President?" and, unlike his brothers Jack in 1960 and Bobby in 1968, coming up with an answer that is neither direct nor brief.

Roger Mudd

And while both Jack and Bobby had made their announcements in the Senate Caucus Room at the Capitol, Ted literally had the home-field advantage: He was at his house in the so-called "Kennedy Compound" in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Then 47 years old, older than either of his brothers lived to be, he was seated, and apparently relaxed. He seemed prepared to answer The Question.

He even agreed to do the interview, because he thought it would help Mudd in his bid for a higher office: The choice to succeed Walter Cronkite, who had famously interviewed Jack across the compound on Labor Day 1963, as anchor of The CBS Evening News was down to Mudd and Dan Rather.

Here's how the announcements went:

Jack, January 2, 1960: "The Presidency is the most powerful office in the Free World. Through its leadership can come a more vital life for our people."

Bobby, March 16, 1968: "I run for the Presidency not merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policy. I run to seek new policies, because I believe our country is on a perilous course, and I feel obliged to do all that I can."

Ted, November 4, 1979: Well, I, uh, were I to, to make the announcement to run, the reasons I would run is because I have a great belief in this country, that it is, there's more natural resources than any nation in the world, has the greatest educated population in the world, the greatest technology of any country in the world, the greatest capacity for innovation in the world and the greatest political system in the world.

And yet, I see at the current time that most of the industrial nations of the world are exceeding us in terms of productivity, or doing better than us in terms of meeting the problems of inflation, that they're dealing with their problems of energy and their problems of unemployment.

It just seems to me that this nation can cope and deal with its problems in a way that it has in the past. We're facing complex issues and problems in this nation at this time, but we have faced similar challenges at other times and the energies and the resourcefulness of this nation, I think, should be focused on these problems in a way that brings a sense of restoration in this country by its people to, in dealing with the problems that we face, primarily the issues on the economy, the problems of inflation and the problems of energy, and I would basically feel that it's imperative for this country either move forward, but it can't stand still or otherwise it moves backward.

• MUDD: What would you do different from Carter?
• KENNEDY: Well, in which particular areas?
• MUDD: Well, just take the question of leadership.
• KENNEDY: Well, it's, on what, on, you know, you have to come to grips with the different issues that we're facing. I mean we can, we'd have to deal with each of the various questions that we're talking about, whether it's in the questions of the economy, whether it's in the areas of energy.
• All he had to do was say pretty much the same thing either of his brothers had said. Instead, he stammered, he rambled, and he sounded more like one of the George Bushes than he did like a Kennedy.
• He also seriously mishandled Mudd's question about the 1969 Chappaquiddick Incident that cast a shadow over his life and career from that moment onward.
• His campaign never really got off the ground. On February 26, 1980, in the Primary in the next-door State of New Hampshire, he got 37 percent of the vote, to Carter's 47 percent. It shattered his aura of invincibility: If a Kennedy couldn't win New Hampshire, what chance did he have nationally?
• By April 25, 1980, when the failed "Desert One" rescue attempt occurred, Carter had the Democratic nomination for a 2nd term sewed up, and people (including some Republicans crossing over) started voting for Kennedy as a protest vote, knowing he could no longer win the nomination, but the Primaries he might win could, and did, damage Carter.

Cronkite's last broadcast as anchor was on March 6, 1981. The following Monday, March 9, the new anchor was Rather. Mudd would be forgotten, except for the Ted Kennedy interview. He died in 2021.

*

November 4, 1979 was a Sunday. The baseball season was over. But the NFL held games:

* The New York Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 16-14 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Green Bay Packers, 27-22 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-19 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 26-6 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Washington Redskins, 38-7 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 38-28 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 17-14 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 35-7 at the old Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings, 37-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-14 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the New Orleans Saints, 10-3 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the San Francisco 49ers, 23-10 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks, 24-0 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Houston Oilers beat the Miami Dolphins, 9-6 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

There were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Kansas City Kings, 101-98 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena)

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 114-101 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 127-124 in overtime at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. George Gervin led all scorers on the night, with 32 points.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Rangers trailed 2-1 with 4:16 left in regulation, but they got an equalizer on the power play from Anders Hedberg at that point, a go-ahead goal from Phil Esposito with 3:07 to go, and an empty-netter at the end from Don Maloney.

* The New York Islanders played the Winnipeg Jets to a tie, 4-4 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

November 4, 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis Begins

November 4, 1979: The Iran Hostage Crisis begins. Islamic militants, inspired by the Islamic Revolution 9 months earlier, led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a fundamentalist Shia Muslim cleric, take over the U.S. Embassy in Iran, and take 80 hostages, a number that will drop to 52. At first, the nation rallies around President Jimmy Carter, as the nation tends to rally around the President when a crisis occurs.

By April 25, 1980, when the failed "Desert One" rescue attempt occurred, Carter had the Democratic nomination for a 2nd term sewed up, and people (including some Republicans crossing over) started voting for Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy as a protest vote, knowing he could no longer win the nomination, but the Primaries he might win could, and did, damage Carter.

As the Crisis dragged on and on, with ABC News starting its late-night broadcast Nightline, hosted by Ted Koppel, and that show and Walter Cronkite on The CBS Evening News both counting the days up and up and up -- Day 50, Day 100, Day 200, Day 365, and so on -- and as the economy continued to struggle as it had begun to do in 1979, people got more and more fed up with Carter.

The 1980 election was held exactly one year to the date after the Crisis began, and Carter lost very badly to Ronald Reagan.

As the great politically-themed comedian Mort Sahl put it: "Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. Had he run unopposed, he would have lost."

The hostages:

* From the U.S. Army: Colonels Leland Holland and Charles W. Scott, military attachés; Chief Warrant Officer 3rd Class Joseph M. Hall, USA, military attaché; Master Sergeant Regis Ragan, defense attaché’s office; Staff Sergeant Joseph Subic, military police; Specialist 1st Class Donald Hohman, medic.

* From the U.S. Navy: Commander Donald Sharer and Lieutenant Commander Robert Engelmann, military attachés; IS1 Duane Gillette, communications and intelligence specialist.

* From the U.S. Air Force: Colonel Thomas Schaefer, Air Force attaché; Lieutenant Colonel David Roeder, deputy Air Force attaché; Captain Neal Robinson, military intelligence officer; Captain Paul Needham, logistics staff officer; Master Sergeant Joseph Vincent and Sergeant James Hughes, administrative managers.

* From the U.S. Marine Corps: Staff Sergeant Michael Moeller, head of the Marine Corps guard unit, as every U.S. Embassy is guarded by Marines; Sergeants William Gallegos, Kevin Hermening, Paul Lewis, James Lopez, Ladell Maples, John McKeel, Gregory Persinger, William Quarles, Rodney Sickmann, David Walker and Westley Williams, and Corporal Steven Kirtley, embassy guards.

* From the CIA (their roles since declassified): William J. Daugherty, secretary of the U.S. mission; Jerry Miele and Phillip Ward, communications officers.

* Civilians: Richard Morefield, consul general; Thomas Ahern, narcotics control officer; Clair Cortland Barnes, communications specialist; William Belk, records officer; Robert Blucker, economics officer; Donald Cooke and Richard Queen, vice consuls; Bruce German, budget officer; Alan Golacinski, chief of embassy security; John Graves, public affairs officer; Michael Howland, assistant regional security officer; Charles A. Jones Jr., teletype operator; Malcolm Kalp and Moorhead Kennedy, commercial officers; Kathryn Koob, cultural officer; Frederick Kupke, electronics specialist; Bruce Laingen, chargé d'affaires; Gary Lee, administrative officer; John Limbert and Michael Metrinko, political officers; Bert Moore, administration counselor; Robert Ode, retired foreign service officer on temporary duty in Tehran; Jerry Plotkin, civilian businessman visiting Tehran; Lloyd Rollins, administrative officer; Barry Rosen, press attaché; William Royer, assistant director of the Iran-American Society; Elizabeth Ann Swift, deputy head of political section; Victor Tomseth, counselor for political affairs; Kathy Gross, Lillian Johnson, Elizabeth Montagne, Terri Tedford and Joan Walsh, secretaries.

Kathy Gross, Ladell Maples and William Quarles were released on November 19, 1979. James Hughes, Lillian Johnson, Elizabeth Montagne, Lloyd Rollins, Neal Robinson, Terri Tedford, Joseph Vincent, David Walker, Joan Walsh and Westley Williams were released on November 20. Richard Queen, for health reasons, was released on July 11, 1980. The remaining 52 had to wait until the end, January 20, 1981, 444 days.

Joan Walsh and Michael Howland married each other in 1982. William Keough died in 1985, Leland Holland in 1990, John McKeel in 1991, Robert Ode in 1995, Jerry Plotkin in 1996, Bert Moore in 2000, Michael Kalp and Richard Queen in 2002, Elizabeth Cronin (formerly Elizabeth Swift) in 2004; Bruce German, Richard Morefield and Gary Lee in 2010, Phillip Ward in 2012, Thomas Schaefer in 2016, Neal Robinson in 2017, Bruce Laingen in 2019, Westley Williams in 2020, Donald Sharer and Donald Hohman in 2021, and Duane Gillette in 2022. As of November 4, 2022, the others are still alive.

UPDATE: Moorhead Kennedy died in 2024.

*

November 4, 1979 was a Sunday. The baseball season was over. But the NFL held games:

* The New York Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 16-14 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Green Bay Packers, 27-22 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-19 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 26-6 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Washington Redskins, 38-7 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 38-28 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 17-14 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions, 35-7 at the old Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings, 37-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-14 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the New Orleans Saints, 10-3 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the San Francisco 49ers, 23-10 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Los Angeles Rams beat the Seattle Seahawks, 24-0 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Houston Oilers beat the Miami Dolphins, 9-6 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

There were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Kansas City Kings, 101-98 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It's now named the Jersey Mike's Arena)

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 114-101 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 127-124 in overtime at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. George Gervin led all scorers on the night, with 32 points.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Rangers trailed 2-1 with 4:16 left in regulation, but they got an equalizer on the power play from Anders Hedberg at that point, a go-ahead goal from Phil Esposito with 3:07 to go, and an empty-netter at the end from Don Maloney.

* The New York Islanders played the Winnipeg Jets to a tie, 4-4 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

October 23, 1987: Robert Bork Is Rejected for the Supreme Court

October 23, 1987: The U.S. Senate rejects the nomination of federal Judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court of the United States, by a vote of 58-42, the sharpest rejection of a nominee in the High Court's history. It is a stinging rebuke for the President who nominated him, Ronald Reagan.

Reagan had been elected President in 1980, and re-elected in 1984, in a landslide each time, which he considered mandates to reshape the federal judiciary for conservative means: Restricting civil rights, loosening regulations on business, and pandering to an evangelical brand of Christianity that Jesus would never have recognized as his own.

During his time in the White House, 4 seats opened up on the Court. In 1981, Justice Potter Stewart retired, and Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor for his seat, the 1st woman ever nominated to the Court. Although she was very conservative, she had no problem getting confirmed, receiving a 99-0 vote, and a written apology from the one Senator who was unable to be present for the vote, Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana.

In 1986, Chief Justice Warren Burger retired, and Reagan decided on a 2-at-once deal: He promoted Justice William Rehnquist to Chief Justice, and appointed Antonin Scalia to Rehnquist's former seat. Both men were more conservative than O'Connor, let alone Burger. But while Rehnquist's vote was closer, 65-33, Scalia was confirmed, 98-0.

1987, Lewis Powell retired. This was Reagan's chance to make nearly half of the Court his appointees. His choice was Bork. Born in 1927 in Pittsburgh, and a Marine veteran of the Korean War, he left private practice in 1962 to join the faculty of Yale Law School. Among his students were Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham (the couple met in the Yale Law Library), Clinton's Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, future California Governor Jerry Brown, future U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, and Anita Hill, whose testimony would feature in another Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Bork left Yale in March 1973, when President Richard Nixon appointed him to be the Solicitor General of the United States. The Solicitor General is the Number 3 official in the U.S. Department of Justice, with the job of arguing the federal government's side of cases before the Supreme Court, when the federal government is sued. The role of Solicitor General is often seen as a stepping-stone for the Supreme Court.

On October 20, 1973, with Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox closing in, President Richard Nixon decided that, in order to survive in office, he had to fire Cox. So he instructed Attorney General Elliot Richardson, the man who had hired Cox and had the power to fire him, to fire him. Richardson refused, because he thought it would spark a Constitutional crisis. Nixon said to do it, or you're fired. Richardson did the honorable thing, and resigned his post.

So Nixon went to the next man in line, Richardson's Deputy Attorney General, William Ruckelshaus.  He also refused to fire Cox, and Nixon fired him. So with the top 2 men in the U.S. Department of Justice now gone, Nixon went to the Number 3 man, Bork, now the Acting Attorney General, and he fired Cox, because he valued Nixon more than he valued the Constitution. The series of events became known as "The Saturday Night Massacre."

Bork stayed on as Solicitor General for the rest of the Presidential term, after Nixon's 1974 resignation and Gerald Ford's defeat to Jimmy Carter. He returned to Yale Law, and stayed until 1982, when Reagan appointed him to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit -- another occasional stepping stone to the Supreme Court.

Reagan did appoint him to the Supreme Court, on July 1 -- right in the middle of the Iran-Contra hearings, when he needed help shoring up his conservative base. Bork's selection pleased them. But it horrified liberals, and they were determined to make it horrify moderates, too.

Republicans were worried that Democrats would bring up Bork's role in the Saturday Night Massacre, thus questioning his commitment to the Constitution. Which they did. But Republicans were hoping Bork's status as one of America's leading "Constitutional scholars" would overcome that.

Maybe it would have, but it ended up not being the key issue. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, a member and former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, fired the Democrats' opening shot:

Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is, and is often the only, protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy...

The damage that President Reagan will do through this nomination, if it is not rejected by the Senate, could live on far beyond the end of his Presidential term. President Reagan is still our President. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate, and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No Justice would be better than this injustice.

Bork had clearly stated that the Constitution did not grant a "general right to privacy," which suggested that not only would he vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's decision accepting a woman's right to an abortion, but also Griswold v. Connecticut, the Court's decision accepting a woman's right to birth control. Suddenly, for millions of women of child-bearing years, Bork's nomination was downright scary.

A political cartoon showed the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Joe Biden of Delaware, with a chunkier-than-in-reality Kennedy sitting next to him, telling Bork, "Your views are from another century!" And Bork said, "Precisely." In his hand was a piece of paper that read, "U.S. CONSTITUTION, 1787." The cartoonist blew it with the date: There was no Bill of Rights, added 1789.

The Judiciary Committee voted to not send a recommendation for confirmation to the full Senate. On October 23, the Senate voted 58 to 42 against Bork's confirmation. The 42 votes for included 2 Democrats: Ernest "Fritz" Hollings of South Carolina and David Boren of Oklahoma. The 58 votes against included 6 Republicans: Robert Stafford of Vermont, John Chafee of Rhode Island, Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, John Warner of Virginia and Bob Packwood of Oregon.

Never had a Justice-Appointive lost by such a numerical margin. Not since 1845, when George Washington Woodward was rejected 29-20, had one lost by such a proportional margin.

On October 29, Reagan appointed Douglas H. Ginsburg, another D.C. Court of Appeals Judge, who had been on that bench for only a year, and whose resumé was otherwise rather thin. It got out that he had used marijuana when he was younger, including while as a professor at Harvard Law School, which was still considered a big deal in 1987. He could have weathered that storm, but a conflict of interest from his earlier job as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division was exposed, and he withdrew his name from consideration on November 7.

On November 11, Reagan's 3rd time turned out to be the charm: He nominated Anthony M. Kennedy (no relation to Ted and his family), from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which includes the West Coast and some Rocky Mountain States. On February 3, 1988, Kennedy was confirmed by a vote of 97-0.

Judge Bork resigned from the federal bench shortly thereafter, and worked at right-wing think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute and the Hudson Institute. He wrote several books, most of them doom-and-gloom tomes about how America's morality was going down the tubes, with titles like The Tempting of America, Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, and A Country I Do Not Recognize: The Legal Assault on American Values. He died in 2012, at the age of 85.

Judge Ginsburg remained on the federal bench until 2011, and, as of October 23, 2022, teaches at George Mason University, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, at a law school named for Justice Scalia. Justice Kennedy retired from the Supreme Court in 2018, having been a "swing vote," and was replaced when Donald Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh, an alcoholic rapist who committed perjury during his confirmation hearing.

In 2000, the Supreme Court, with Kennedy (holding the seat intended for Bork) voting with 4 other Justices appointed by Republican Presidents, voted in Bush v. Gore to stop the recount of the Florida Presidential votes, installing George W. Bush as President even though he lost the popular vote.

In 2010, the Supreme Court, with Kennedy (holding the seat intended for Bork) voting with 4 other Justices appointed by Republican Presidents, voted in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to strike down campaign finance laws. 

In 2022, the Supreme Court, with Justice Clarence Thomas appointed by George H.W. Bush; Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito appointed by George W. Bush; and Kavanaugh (holding the seat intended for Bork), Neil Gorsuch and Amy Comey Barrett appointed by Trump, giving it a 6-3 archconservative majority, voted in Dobbs v. Jackson to overturn Roe v. Wade. Thomas has already said that the Court needs to overturn Griswold v. Connecticut and the case that struck down laws against same-sex marriage, Obergefell v. Hodges.

In the end, the 1987 rejection of Robert Bork did not prevent what has already happened, it merely delayed it.

*

October 23, 1987 was a Friday. It was a travel day in the World Series, with the St. Louis Cardinals leading the Minnesota Twins 3 games to 2. But the Twins won the last 2 games to win the Series.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season started 14 days later. There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 7-3 at Madison Square Garden. Ulf Dahlén scored a hat trick for the Rangers.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Islanders, 5-3 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. Claude Loiselle scored 2 goals for the Devils.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-4 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The Oilers blew a 4-1 lead in the 3rd period, but won anyway when Charlie Huddy scored with 2:09 left in overtime.

August 12, 1980: Regrets at the Democratic Convention

August 12, 1980: The Democratic National Convention is underway at Madison Square Garden in New York. In 1976, it also met at The Garden, nominating former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia for President, and Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota for Vice President. It was a highly successful Convention, the Democrats' least contentious since 1936, and spurred the Carter-Mondale ticket on to victory in November.

Four years later, it was the same venue, and the same ticket. But so much had changed. The Iran Hostage Crisis dragged on. Inflation and interest rates were rising. In each case, with no end in sight. Carter had enforced an American boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow, in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan -- in hindsight, the right thing to do; but, at the time, a highly unpopular decision.

He had even signed signs Proclamation 4771, in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It retroactively re-established the Selective Service registration requirement for all male U.S. citizens between the ages of 18 and 26, born on or after January 1, 1960.

In other words, it was a first step toward reinstituting the military draft, which President Richard Nixon had eliminated on January 27, 1973, at the end of the Vietnam War. Of all the reasons that Carter lost the election, this is one of the less-remembered, but most important. He essentially threw away the votes of anyone subject to the bill.

The month before, the Republican Party had held their Convention. They had a lot of guts, as a racially divisive, union-busting party, holding it in a majority-black city known for its labor unions, Detroit, in a a building named for a black man, the Joe Louis Arena.

For President, they had nominated former Governor of California, and former actor, Ronald Reagan, who had seemed like his time had come and gone in 1976. For Vice President, they had nominated George H.W. Bush, former Congressman from Texas, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, former Director of the CIA, and former Chairman of the Republican National Committee. They were absolutely united.

The Democrats were not. Despite the fact that, for what turned out to be the only time between 1964 and 1996, the Presidency was held by a Democrat running for re-election, Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts -- brother of a former President, brother of a noted Presidential candidate, both of them assassinated -- made what turned out to be his only run for President. He didn't think Carter was strong enough on liberal issues like the cities, labor rights, and health care, issues on which he had excelled in drafting legislation for the Senate.

Despite coming from a State next door, Carter beat Kennedy solidly in the New Hampshire Primary, and wrapped up the nomination fairly early. But as things got worse on the job for Carter, something interesting happened: Even though Democratic Primary voters knew Kennedy couldn't catch Carter in Delegates, they started voting for Kennedy anyway, as a protest. This weakened Carter further.

Kennedy spoke on the 2nd night of the Convention. For a moment, people forgot all about his flaws -- the marital infidelities, the drinking, the Chappaquiddick incident of 1969, and his embarrassing interview with Roger Mudd the preceding November, when he couldn't seem to properly answer the question of why he was running -- and saw him as he had hoped to be seen all along, as the heir to the Kennedy legacy.

After a few opening platitudes, he went after the opposition:

The 1980 Republican Convention was awash with crocodile tears for our economic distress, but it is by their long record, and not their recent words, that you shall know them.

The same Republicans who are talking about the crisis of unemployment have nominated a man who once said, and I quote, "Unemployment insurance is a prepaid vacation plan for freeloaders." And that nominee is no friend of labor.

The same Republicans who are talking about the problems of the inner cities have nominated a man who said, and I quote, "I have included in my morning and evening prayers every day the prayer that the Federal Government not bail out New York." And that nominee is no friend of this city and our great urban centers across this nation.

The same Republicans who are talking about security for the elderly have nominated a man who said, just four years ago, that "Participation in Social Security should be made voluntary." And that nominee is no friend of the senior citizens of this nation.

The same Republicans who are talking about preserving the environment have nominated a man who, last year, made the preposterous statement, and I quote, "Eighty percent of our air pollution comes from plants and trees." And that nominee is no friend of the environment.

And the same Republicans who are invoking Franklin Roosevelt have nominated a man who said in 1976, and these are his exact words, "Fascism was really the basis of the New Deal." And that nominee, whose name is Ronald Reagan, has no right to quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

For those few minutes, in spite of his Boston accent, Edward Moore Kennedy sounded like not just the proper heir to John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but the proper heir to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He closed with words that not only invoked his brothers, but made him sound like them:

Someday, long after this Convention, long after the signs come down, and the crowds stop cheering, and the bands stop playing, may it be said of our campaign that we kept the faith. May it be said of our Party in 1980 that we found our faith again.

May it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now: "I am a part of all that I have met. Too much is taken, much abides. That which we are, we are: One equal temper of heroic hearts, strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die!

For a 10-year-old boy, growing up within an hour's bus ride of Midtown Manhattan, who had heard his parents wax poetic about Jack and Bobby, but only knew them himself as historic figures already dead, this was a taste of what they knew well.

Maybe "my Kennedy" was Teddy, but, after this, every 4 years, up to and including 2008, Teddy -- along with Jesse Jackson, Mario Cuomo, and sometimes Bill Bradley -- could always be counted on to deliver the goods at a Democratic Convention.

Unless you were working for Jimmy Carter on this occasion. Carter's White House Chief of Staff, Hamilton Jordan, wrote in his memoir:

For a long year, Ted Kennedy had been the enemy... but it was difficult for me to see him in the Convention setting without thinking of his family and its tragedies... Ted Kennedy’s words triggered open the floodgates of memories: Camelot, magic rhetoric, and the shock of the assassinations.

Carter's acceptance speech on Thursday night was terrible. He messed up the name of the late Democratic icon Hubert Horatio Humphrey, calling him "Hubert Horatio Hornblower." He mentioned his move to bring back the draft, and became the 1st sitting President ever to get booed at his own Party's Convention.

(A lot of people switched their votes to Ronald Reagan, who didn't say he would keep the Proclamation; or stayed home, because they thought it made both candidates "war hawks." In 2022, the Proclamation is still in effect: While we have never again had a draft, every male citizen has to register when he turns 18. My 18th birthday fell on a Friday, and I registered at the East Brunswick Post Office the following Monday.)

When Carter's speech was over, he sought Kennedy out, to do the traditional gesture of the victorious candidate with all the defeated candidates, arms raised, united in victory. As Ted worked his way to the podium, shaking hands with First Lady Rosalynn Carter, First Daughter Amy Carter, Vice President Mondale, Second Lady Joan Mondale, and pretty much everybody he could reach, Carter just stood there, as if he were a foreign dignitary waiting for the President of the United States to come down the steps of Air Force One. Kennedy was the one who looked like the President at that moment.

Over the next few minutes, 5 times, Carter and Kennedy could be seen shaking hands. But not once would Kennedy raise his and Carter's arms, nor would he allow Carter to do so. Carter didn't get the gesture he so desperately needed.

Few political figures have been identified with sincere Christianity as much as Jimmy Carter. But Ted Kennedy was one political figure he found it very difficult to forgive.

Just as, 4 years earlier, Republicans heard Reagan's speech after Ford's, and thought it, Democrats had seen Carter and Kennedy, separately and together, and left the Convention hall, or turned off their TV sets, thinking, "We nominated the wrong guy."

Did they? Would Kennedy have beaten Reagan in 1980? No: The Republicans' campaign slime machine, which stayed in low gear against Carter, because it didn't need to go any higher, would have taken Ted's nostalgia-driven popularity into account, and harped on his personal failings, as well as calling his liberal stands outdated and out of touch.

Indeed, one prominent commercial showed two men in a car, the driver looking like Ted's Boston ally, Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, the passenger looking like a typical lobbyist in a cheap suit. They were lost, and the lobbyist suggested pulling over to a gas station for directions, and the driver refused, until they were in the middle of nowhere, and out of gas. The voiceover said, "The Democrats are out of gas. Vote Republican."

Had Ted been the nominee, the Republicans would have portrayed him as a drunken, philandering Sixties liberal, out of touch with America, and Reagan would still have won in a landslide, though perhaps not as big of one as he got against Carter. And the Kennedy dream that Ted spoke of would have been as dead and buried as his brothers.

Instead, Carter took the loss, and the Kennedy dream lived on. Later Democrats tried to copy the Kennedys, especially Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, but he ended up copying the Kennedys in the bedroom as well. So did Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, but he handled the questions better, and was elected in 1992. Had Ted Kennedy been nominated in 1980, the next Democrat to get elected might have taken until 1992, or even later, and he certainly would not have been a Kennedy-style Democrat.

No member of the Kennedy family has made a serious run for President since. (UPDATE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran a 3rd-party campaign in 2024, but his run cannot be called "serious." He won 756,000 votes for 0.49 percent.) 

*

August 12, 1980 was a Tuesday. Actress Maggie Lawson was born. And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-4 at Yankee Stadium. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Ruppert Jones hit a walkoff grand slam off Ed Farmer in the bottom of the 10th inning, to make a winning pitcher out of Doug Bird, in relief of Luis Tiant.

It didn't look right: Tiant had starred for the Yankees' arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox; Bird had been a key figure in the Yankees' 1977 and 1978 Playoff wins over the Kansas City Royals; and Jones had been the 1st-ever All-Star for the expansion Seattle Mariners in 1977. He was a good pickup, but on August 25, he crashed into the center field fence in Oakland making a great catch, and was out for the season.

Just before the next season started, the Yankees traded him to the San Diego Padres, for a package that included his replacement in center field, Jerry Mumphrey, who helped the Yankees win the American League Pennant that year. Jones recovered enough to make the All-Star Game again in 1982, and helped the Detroit Tigers win the 1984 World Series and the California Angels win the 1986 AL Western Division title.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Steve Henderson hit a home run, in support of Ray Burris. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4. Mark Fidrych was the losing pitcher. It was the injury-riddled former phenom's 1st major league appearance of the season. He would make only 8 more that season, and never made another.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. For the Phils, it was "Win Day": Steve Carlton went the distance for the victory, despite giving up a home run to the opposing pitcher, Mike Krukow. Mike Schmidt (who seemed to own Wrigley Field as much as the Wrigley family did) and Bob Boone (son of Ray, father of Bret and Aaron) hit home runs for the Phils. Pete Rose went 1-for-4.

* The Toronto Blue Jays swept a doubleheader from the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1 and 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Paul Molitor went 0-for-3 with a walk in the opener, but did not play in the nightcap. Robin Yount went 2-for-3 with a home run, 2 walks and 2 RBIs in the nightcap, but did not play in the opener.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-5.

* The Montreal Expos beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Fred Norman allowed 4 hits over 6 shutout innings, and Elias Sosa and Woody Fryman allowed no hits the rest of the way.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. He was batting .389. He got up to .407 on August 26, and was still at .400 on September 19, but finished the season on October 4 at .390. Eddie Murray went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk. So did Dave Winfield.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 2-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Allen Ripley allowed 6 hits over 7 innings, and Gary Lavelle 1 over 2, to complete a 7-hit shutout.

* And the California Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-6 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

July 26, 1990: The Americans With Disabilities Act

July 26, 1990: President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law at the White House.

Note: Since then, when someone in Washington uses the initials "ADA," they mean this Act. Previously, starting in 1947, it usually meant Americans for Democratic Action, a liberal advocacy group, which had lobbied for, among other things, this Act. Although the earlier ADA is still in operation, it has faded into the background since the 1960s, when its influence peaked.

In 1986, the National Council on Disability had recommended the enactment of an Americans with Disabilities Act, and drafted the first version of the bill which was introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1988.

It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and other characteristics illegal. In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations.

The main group supporting the bill was the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). Its co-founder, Justin Dart Jr., is known as "The Godfather of the ADA." That's him in the hat at the right of the photo. He and his brother Peter both contracted polio as boys, and Justin ended up in a wheelchair. Their father, Justin Dart Sr., was the president of pharmaceutical company Dart Industries. Their mother, Ruth, was the daughter of Charles Walgreen, founder of the chain of drugstores that bears his name.

A broad bipartisan coalition of legislators supported the ADA, while the bill was opposed by business interests, who argued the bill imposed undesirable costs on business; and conservative evangelicals, who opposed protection for individuals with HIV.

But the bill proved to have bipartisan support. It was introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa; and co-sponsored by, among others, Senators Bob Dole, Republican of Kansas, then the Minority Leader, who was himself partially disabled, losing the use of his right arm while serving in World War II; and Ted Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, whose son, Ted Jr., had lost a leg due to cancer.

On July 12, 1990, the House approved it, 377-28, with 27 members not voting. The next day, the Senate approved it, 91-6, with 3 members not voting. All 6 Senators voting against it were Republicans: The old segregationists Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Jesse Helms of North Carolina; alleged budget hawk (but fond of tax cuts) Phil Gramm of Texas; Ted Stevens of Alaska, William L. Armstrong of Colorado and Steve Symms of Idaho.

It was a different time: Among the people invited to the ceremony was my mother, who worked to lobby for it with The Arc of New Jersey -- and I got to go as her "plus-one." That's right: A Republican was President, and I was on the grounds of the White House.

It was an outdoor ceremony, and a very hot day. First Lady Barbara Bush was there. So was Vice President Dan Quayle. George W. Bush was not there: He was then the owner of the Texas Rangers, and I was a baseball nut, so if he had been there, I would have recognized him.

In his speech before the signing, the elder George Bush said:

I know there may have been concerns that the ADA may be too vague or too costly, or may lead endlessly to litigation. But I want to reassure you right now that my Administration and the United States Congress have carefully crafted this Act. We've all been determined to ensure that it gives flexibility, particularly in terms of the timetable of implementation; and we've been committed to containing the costs that may be incurred...

Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.

Bush the son ran for President in 2000 on a theme of "compassionate conservatism." By making this statement, and signing the bill into law, Bush the father actually showed it.

In the photo above, he was flanked by wheelchair users Evan Kemp, Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on the left; and Justin Dart, Chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, and a businessman who advocated extensively for the ADA. Behind him were the Reverend Harold Wilke, a prominent figure in the disability rights movement, who was born without hands, and delivered an opening prayer at the ceremony; and Sandra Parrino, Chairperson of the National Council on Disability, a federal agency heavily involved in the development and passage of the ADA. 

Watching the ceremony, with a recession beginning but not yet as bad as it would become, with the Cold War over, and with Bush working with the Democrats in Congress to address the federal budget deficit, I then thought that maybe I was wrong about him when he was elected in 1988, and that he would have a good Presidency after all.

But there was a troubling headline in that day's Washington Post, one I glanced over, and only saw as significant in hindsight: Iraq was massing troops on its border with Kuwait, threatening to invade. Just 7 days later, they did. So began the Persian Gulf War, the event by which Bush hoped his Presidency would be judged. Instead, it would be the recession, costing him re-election in 1992.

In 2008, the Americans with Disabilities Act was amended, due to the U.S. Supreme Court having made certain rulings on the definition of "disability" that called parts of the Act into question. The amended bill clarified things, and George W., in the final days of his Presidency, signed it into law.

Yes, it was a different time: Such a bill could never get passed today. Even if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had a disability as noticeable as that of Dole, he wouldn't allow it to be passed through his Senate.

In 2018, a Republican-controlled House voted to approve a bill that would have gutted the protections of the ADA, so that big business could scale back on accommodations. It was a typical Trump-era "The cruelty is the point" move. Though the Democrats were the minority in the Senate, they managed to bottle the bill up, killing it.

*

July 26, 1990 was a Thursday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The Texas Rangers, owned by the aforementioned George W. Bush, were not scheduled, so he could have come to Washington to watch his father sign the bill. Also not scheduled that day: The New York Yankees, the Baltimore Orioles, the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians and the Milwaukee Brewers.

* The New York Mets split a doubleheader with the St. Louis Cardinals at Shea Stadium, making up a rainout from June 18. The Mets won the opener, 6-1. Ron Darling went the distance for the win. Daryl Boston went 4-for-4. The Cards won the nightcap, 3-1. Ken Hill allowed only 3 hits, outpitching Bob Ojeda.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Tim Raines singled Delino DeShields home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-5 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. George Brett went 2-for-3. For the Jays, Mark Whiten hit his 1st major league home run. Three years later, with the St. Louis Cardinals, he would hit 4 home runs in 1 game. But he retired with just 105.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 12-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Barry Bonds went 0-for-2 before leaving the game due to an injury.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 10-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey Jr. hit home runs.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Houston Astros, 8-2 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Donnie Hill hit a 2-run home run off Dennis Eckersley in the top of the 11th inning.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

July 18, 1969: The Chappaquiddick Crash

July 18, 1969: A tragic accident ends a life, and possibly prevents a Presidency.

Mary Jo Kopechne worked for Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, including on his campaign for President in 1968. She was devastated by his assassination on the night of his win in the California Primary, but returned to politics, working on campaigns in late 1968 and early 1969.

RFK's brother, Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts, was every bit as close to Bobby as Bobby was to their older brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. Bobby's wife, Ethel, said of him in the days after the assassination, "You couldn't reach him. The wound was too deep." So it was true for Ted after Bobby was killed. At one point, he drove all the way from the compound of family homes at Hyannis Port, on Massachusetts' Cape Cod, to his apartment in Washington, D.C., only to drive all the way back, because he couldn't yet face public life again.

By the following Summer, he had recovered enough that he decided to honor Bobby's campaign workers, by holding a party at a house, owned by his friend Sidney K. Lawrence, a lawyer for the Massachusetts Department of Labor, on Chappaquiddick Island, a small island just off the larger island of Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Cape Cod.

Mary Jo, 8 days short of her 29th birthday, and not yet married, was one of the invitees. She was staying at the Katama Shores Motor Inn, about 2 miles south of the ferry between the Vineyard and Chappaquiddick. At about 11:15 PM, she asked the Senator to give her a ride back to her hotel. This required making the last ferry of the night, at 12:00 Midnight.

They got into Ted's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88, and he drove north on Chappaquiddick Road. What he should have done was turn left at the first crossroads. This would have sent him west on a road also labeled Chappaquiddick Road, and taken him to the ferry slip at Chappaquiddick Point. Had he done this, Mary Jo would have made the ferry with plenty of time to spare.

Instead, he turned right, onto Dike Road, a dirt road. (Going straight ahead would have put him on a dead-end street labeled Willett Lane.) He approached the Dike Bridge. The entire island is only about 3 miles wide. And the Dike Bridge only connects to a narrow sandbar. Even if Ted had negotiated it correctly, he might have crashed into a fence on East Beach, possibly through it into Nantucket Sound.

But there was no lighting on the bridge. And it was wooden, single-lane, with no guardrails, and at an angle from the road. By his own testimony, by the time Ted realized what he was driving onto and hit the brakes, it was too late: The car went off the bridge into a water channel.

Investigators on the bridge. Note the narrowness,

and the lack of guardrails.

Ted had survived a plane crash in 1964, though his back was badly injured. This time, he was able to get out of the car and get on land. But Mary Jo was not. He later claimed to have dived in 7 or 8 times to try to rescue her, but was unable to; and that he then stayed at the scene for 15 minutes before walking the mile or so back to the house, bypassing houses that could have been approached for help.

When he got there, he talked to his cousin, Joe Gargan, and Gargan's college friend Paul Markham. Both men had served as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, and had planned on competing with Ted in a boat race the next morning -- hence, Ted's choice of date for the party, as he would be there for both events. Both men told Ted he had to report the accident immediately. He talked them into driving back to the site of the crash to see if they could rescue Mary Jo themselves. This would likely have been useless, as the car would already have been filled with water. They went back, and were unable to get her out.

Again, they told Ted to report the accident. Still, he didn't. Why not? There are 3 theories, running from most to least likely:

1. He sustained a concussion in the crash, and wasn't thinking straight.

2. He was thinking that maybe the police would think Mary Jo was driving, and alone in the car, and that, when they asked Ted about it, he could simply say he lent her the car. So, instead of being impaired, he was a coward.

3. President Richard Nixon, paranoid as ever, always suspicious of the Kennedy family, wanted to eliminate the biggest threat to his re-election in 1972: Ted, who was very popular, more because of his martyred brothers than in his own right; and that he had people "take care of the situation," making it look like Ted had committed a crime. This was before it was widely known just how dirty "Tricky Dick" and his "dirty tricks" could truly be, so any claim that Ted could make about it would be completely implausible, and he dare not try it, and so he'd have to take the fall.

The car was found at 8:00 AM on July 19. The medical examiner, Dr. Robert Nevin, said there was no sign of foul play, and the cause of death was accidental drowning. He said that Mary Jo's blood-alcohol content was 0.09 percent -- just below the legal limit for driving.

The car's registration was found, and it was discovered to be Ted's car. The police found him, and there was no further escape: He gave a statement, admitting he was the driver.

To the end of his life, Ted insisted that he had not been drinking that night, that the crash was a complete accident, and that there was no relationship between him and Mary Jo, not even a professional one as there was between her and Bobby.

Enemies of the Kennedy family, and conservatives inclined to believe them, have spread rumors to the contrary: That Ted was drunk; or that he made a pass at her, and that's why he made the wrong turn or why he crashed; or that he had gotten her pregnant, and killed her to cover it up. Given Ted's history of drinking, and his history of womanizing and that of other members of the family, these rumors, while having absolutely no evidence to them whatsoever, were plausible.

On July 20, 2 days after the crash, Neil Armstrong became the 1st human being to walk on the Moon, fulfilling the goal made 8 years earlier by Ted's brother, JFK. But the President making the congratulatory phone call from the White House to Mission Control in Houston to the Moon was Richard Nixon.

And if Ted was paralyzed by indecision, considering maintaining his viability for the 1972 Presidential election, Nixon, too, was obsessed over it. One of his speechwriters, Patrick J. Buchanan -- himself later to be a candidate for President -- met with Nixon late that night, after that phone call, and wanted to know the President's thoughts about it. Nixon knew that Buchanan was perhaps the most partisan of his staff, and, as Buchanan recalled after Nixon's death in 1994, the first thing Nixon said to him after he sat down was, "You think this guy's gonna get away with this, Teddy?"

On July 22, 4 days after the crash, wearing a suit but also a cervical collar, Ted, along with his wife Joan, attended Mary Jo's funeral in Plymouth, Pennsylvania. Mary Jo's parents never forgave him, but neither did they tell him to stay away from the funeral.

On July 25, 7 days after the crash, Ted reported to Edgartown District Court on Martha's Vineyard, and pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident that had caused bodily injury. Judge James Boyle sentenced him to the minimum sentence for the crime, 2 months in prison, but suspended the sentence: It would appear on the record, but he wouldn't actually have to serve it. Boyle told the witnesses in his courtroom, "He has already been, and will continue to be, punished far beyond anything this court can impose."

That night, at 7:30 PM Eastern Time, having bought half an hour of national network TV time, Ted read a statement to the country, written by Ted Sorensen, who had written speeches for both of his brothers. He stuck by his story, adding that he engaged in no "immoral conduct." However, he said, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately."

Finally, he addressed the voters of his home State, as he had to face re-election to the Senate in 1970, before considering whether to run for President in 1972:

It has been seven years since my first election to the Senate. You and I share many memories. Some of them have been glorious. Some have been very sad. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile.

And so I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it, I seek your prayers -- for this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own.

While much of the country felt that Ted had not been sufficiently punished for what he did, the phone calls, telegrams and mail that came in from Massachusetts was overwhelmingly supportive. In the 1970 election for U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, Ted was opposed by Josiah Spaulding, a businessman who had served 2 years as Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. Ted won 62 percent of the vote, Spaulding 37 percent.

But there was no way Ted could run for President in 1972. It was too soon. And his friend and colleague, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, was nominated, and got clobbered. Going into the 1976 race, with no other obvious candidate, the nomination -- if not the general election -- was probably Ted's for the asking, but he wouldn't run. Jimmy Carter, a former Governor of Georgia, won.

In 1979, with millions of people, including Democrats, unhappy with Carter's leadership, Ted made his 1st run for President. But before he made his official announcement, he was interviewed by Roger Mudd for the news program CBS Reports. Mudd asked him the obvious question: "Why do you want to be President?"

When Jack made his announcement in 1960, he had a great short answer: "The Presidency is the center of action." When Bobby made his announcement in 1968, he had a longer, but no less telling, answer: "I run to seek new policies, because I believe our country is on a perilous course, and I feel obliged to do all that I can." Ted's answer was long, rambling, and not the least bit definitive. He made himself look like the only reason he was running was because he felt he had to live up to his brothers' legacy.

What's more, Mudd asked him about the Chappaquiddick crash. At various times in his life, Ted answered that question with sadness and remorse. This time, he gave an answer so soft it was barely even human. He sounded not the least bit sympathetic to the memory of Mary Jo Kopechne. Anybody who was still doubtful about him because of the crash now, at the very least, their doubts deepened.

By and large, Democrats stuck with Carter. At the 1980 Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York, Ted gave a much better speech than Carter. It wasn't the first time, nor was it the last, that Convention attendees saw a defeated candidate give a better speech than the nominee, leaving them thinking they'd nominated the wrong guy. Carter lost badly to former Governor Ronald Reagan of California.

Ted's personal life was in shambles. He had divorced Joan, and his drinking was getting worse. His kids urged him not to run in 1984, because, since the nomination would again be open, it would be his for the asking, thus he'd have to face the hard questions all the way until November 6, and he couldn't beat Reagan, and it would be the end of the Kennedy political story.

He didn't run, and never did again. Various family members have since run for office, including both of Ted's sons: Patrick was elected to the Rhode Island legislature and then to Congress; and, after Ted's death, Ted Jr. served a term on Connecticut's State Senate. Ted remarried, got his life under control, and was still re-elected to the Senate every 6 years, and still spoke at the Democratic Convention every 4 years, until his death in 2009.

If Ted Kennedy had become President? On the one hand, there might have been universal health coverage by the end of his term(s), and possibly an earlier end to the Cold War. Depending on when he was elected... 

* In 1972? Watergate wouldn't have mattered much, since Nixon would already have been gone.

* In 1976? He would have been in office in 1979, and he probably wouldn't have blundered into the Iran Hostage Crisis the way Carter did.

* In 1980? The Reagan tax cuts, the decapitation of the American labor movement, and the Iran-Contra scandal wouldn't have happened. He might have put the 1st woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, as Reagan did, but he wouldn't have put Anthony Kennedy (no relation) there, and he certainly wouldn't have promoted Nixon appointee William Rehnquist from Associate Justice to Chief Justice.

* Possibly in 1984 (if re-elected in 1988)? Definitely in 1988? He wouldn't have put Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, we might have had our 1st President to have the First Lady leave him while in office, and we might have had our 1st genuine active alcoholic as President since Franklin Pierce left in 1857. (Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant were known for their drinking, but weren't regularly drunk as President. Warren Harding and Franklin Roosevelt liked their cocktails, Lyndon Johnson loved beer and bourbon, and George W. Bush was a recovering alcoholic, but they weren't active alcoholics in the White House. Nixon? Toward the end, it seemed like it, but we can't be sure.)

And if the Republicans gained control of Congress at any time while he was in office, he might have gotten impeached for something far short of what Donald Trump did.

But Ted Kennedy never got close to the Presidency. And the crash haunted him to the end. So did the rumors, and the sick jokes. The year before, when Nixon ran against Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon's reputation for dishonesty led to a joke comparing him to a profession with the same reputation: "Would you buy a used car from this man?" Republicans now repeated the question, and said, "Yes, but I wouldn't let Teddy Kennedy drive it." Gun-rights advocates would say, "Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my gun." (Then you're not a very good shot, are you?)

National Lampoon magazine, based at Harvard University, alma mater to all the Kennedy brothers and their father, published a picture of a Volkswagen Beetle bobbing in water, mimicking a magazine print ad, saying, "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today." Somebody at the magazine should have done some fact-checking: Mary Jo's own car was a Volkswagen Beetle. But it wasn't the Kopechnes, or the Kennedys, who sued the Lampoon: It was Volkswagen, for copyright infringement. The case was settled out of court.

In 2018, running for re-election to the Senate from Texas, Ted Cruz pointed out that his Democratic opponent, Beto O'Rourke, had Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, Bobby's grandson, campaigning with him, even driving him, and Cruz said, "It may be the first time in history anyone's ever asked a Kennedy to drive."

(For the record, Joe's father, Joseph P. Kennedy II, was also involved in a bad crash, in 1973. While his injuries were minor, his female passenger was paralyzed. But Joe II still went on to serve 10 years in Congress; Joe III, whose driving record is clean, served 8.)

The Dike Bridge eventually got guardrails, warning signs that motor vehicles are prohibited, and a small plaque memorializing Mary Jo. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. died 4 months after the crash, believing that his last chance to see one of his sons become President had disappeared. Sidney Lawrence, owner of the house that hosted the party, died of cancer in 1970, just over a year after the crash.

Joe Gargan, the cousin and lawyer that Ted asked to help him after the crash, published an unflattering book about it in 1988, and was cut off by the main branch of the Kennedy family. He died in 2017. Paul Markham, the other man Ted contacted that night, died in 2019.

In 2017, shortly before Gargan's death, the film Chappaquiddick premiered, starring Jason Clarke as Ted, and Kate Mara as Mary Jo. It took a lot of liberties with the story, including having old Joe Kennedy, played by Bruce Dern, lead the damage control, when he was in no condition to do anything about it accept lament it.

*

July 18, 1969 was a Friday. These games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 5-0 at Yankee Stadium. Fritz Peterson pitched a 6-hit shutout, and was backed by a home run from Frank Fernandez.

* The New York Mets beat the Montreal Expos, 5-2 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Art Shamsky and Jerry Grote hit home runs in support of Jerry Koosman.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4 for the Sox, but Mike Andrews hit a home run. For the O's, Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4, and Frank Robinson went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-5 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Ernie Banks, Jim Hickman and Randy Hundley hit home runs.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente hit a 3-run home run off Bob Gibson, in support of Dock Ellis. Willie Stargell, Lou Brock and Joe Torre each went 1-for-4, and Torre added an RBI.

* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. For the Reds, Tony Pérez and Lee May hit home runs, Pete Rose went 1-for-4, and Johnny Bench went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Denny McLain pitched a 7-hit shutout. Bill Freehan and Willie Horton hit home runs. Al Kaline was injured, and did not play.

* The Atlanta Braves swept a doubleheader from the San Diego Padres, 6-2 and 6-3 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron went 1-for-4 in the opener, and had the nightcap off.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the California Angels, 6-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4, and Rick Monday hit a home run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Manny Mota went 3-for-4, Wes Parker went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and Maury Wills went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Willie Mays only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* Hold on to your hats, Ball Four fans: The Seattle Pilots swept a doubleheader. And it was against, as Pilot pitcher Jim Bouton put it, "The Fat Kid and his wrecking crew." The Pilots beat the Minnesota Twins, 2-1 and 3-2 at Sick's Stadium in Seattle. Bouton did not enter either game.

"Tennis Ball Head" himself, Steve Hovley, had probably his best day in the major leagues. He drove in the winning run in the 1st game, by drawing a bases-loaded walk against Ron Perranoski in the bottom of the 9th. Diego Seguí went the distance for the win. In the 2nd game, Hovley hit a 2-run homer off Dave Boswell, in support of Fred Talbot. Bouton quoted Pilot pitcher John Gelnar as saying, "You know, one good thing about having Hovley up there, he's too goony to be scared.

Tommy Davis had 2 hits in each game. Over the 2 games, "The Fat Kid," Harmon Killebrew, went 2-for-6 with 2 walks. Rod Carew went 5-for-9. Bouton quoted Pilot catcher Jerry McNertney as saying of Carew, "He can't miss. If I were him I'd go looking for wallets."