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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And there were 8 games in the NHL:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 7, 1983: The U.S. Senate Bombing

November 7, 1983: A bomb explodes on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington. There were no injuries.

The Senate adjourned at 7:02 PM. For the next 2 hours, a well-attended reception was held near the Senate Chamber. At 10:58, there was an explosion on the 2nd floor of the Capitol's north wing. The adjacent hallways were mostly unoccupied at the time.

A few minutes before the explosion, a tape-recorded message was telephoned to The Washington Post news desk and the Capitol switchboard, claiming to represent the Armed Resistance Unit, and warning that a bomb was about to be detonated near the Senate Chamber, in retaliation for recent U.S. military involvement in Lebanon and Grenada. The "Armed Resistance Unit" also plotted to murder former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

The force of the explosive device, placed beneath a bench at the eastern end of the corridor outside the Chamber, blew off the door to the office of Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the Senate Minority Leader. Byrd was an active supporter of involvement in Grenada, and had recently made attempts to garner support for retaliating against recent attacks against U.S. Marines stationed in Lebanon.

The bomb blast also tore a hole in a wall partition, sending pulverized brick and plaster into the Republican cloakroom. The cloakroom's glass windows were shattered.^[7] Major damage was done to arches, walls, and the glazed-tile floor near the blast.

A grandfather clock that had in been place by the Senate chamber since 1859 was destroyed, and 6 paintings were ripped, shredded or damaged, including a portrait of early 19th Century Senator and Secretary of State Daniel Webster. A conservator worked for months to restore the painting to a semblance of the original. While the explosion caused no structural damage to the Capitol Building, officials calculated damages of $1 million.

The group Resistance Conspiracy was a United States-based branch of the wider communist organization known as the May 19th Communist Order. This group existed from its first attack in 1976 until later attacks in 1985. Throughout the lifespan of the organization, 20 incidents of domestic terrorism were committed, including one murder. The organization is also known as the Armed Resistance Unit, the Red Guerilla Resistance, and the Revolutionary Fighting Group.

The group mailed a recorded communique to National Public Radio stating, "We purposely aimed our attack at the institutions of imperialist rule rather than at individual members of the ruling class and government. We did not choose to kill any of them this time. But their lives are not sacred."

After a 5-year investigation, federal agents arrested 6 members of the Armed Resistance conspiracy group on May 12, 1988, and charged them with bombing the Capitol, as well as Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard.

The area outside the Senate Chamber, previously open to the public, was permanently closed after the 1983 bombing. Congressional officials also set up a system requiring staff ID cards for entry and installed metal detectors at building entrances. These metal detectors were in addition to those already in place at the Chamber Gallery doors following a prior Capitol bombing in 1971.

*

November 7, 1983 was a Monday. Actor Adam DeVine, known for his roles in the Pitch Perfect films and his role as Andy Bailey on the TV show Modern Family, was born on this day. This was also the day that the NATO military exercise titled Able Archer 83 began, triggering a close call between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Despite the lucky fact that nothing ended up happening, I have a separate entry for this event.

The baseball season was over. There were no NBA or NHL games scheduled. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Detroit Lions beat the New York Giants, 15-9 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

October 27, 2019: Trump Booed at the World Series On His Best Day as President

October 27, 2019: Donald Trump has his best day as President of the United States, with the news of U.S. Special Forces having killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of "The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," or ISIL (often incorrectly called "The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria," or ISIS) in Barisha, Syria.

Born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai in Samarra, Iraq, al-Baghdadi deserved it. He was a mass murderer, a serial rapist and pedophile, and had waged war against America. He had led ISIL since June 29, 2014. He was 48 years old. 

Of course, as Trump does with everything, he screwed it up. He staged a photograph with generals in the White House Situation Room, with a time-stamp about 2 hours after it happened. When it actually happened, he was engaging in his favorite pastime: Playing golf. And he may not even have been told about it before it happened, so he didn't even get to make the order himself.

Unlike Barack Obama with Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011. Naturally, Trump's 50-minute speech on the matter made it sound like al-Baghdadi was a bigger kill than bin Laden. Trump had this desperate need to be seen as bigger and better than Obama. Mainly because, the day before bin Laden was killed, Obama both released his birth certificate and humiliated Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

bin Laden killed a hell of a lot more Americans than al-Baghdadi did. What's more, Trump said that nobody knew who bin Laden was before 9/11. This is a lie. There were news reports about his terrorist activities as early as 1996. In 1998, when al-Qaeda bombed 2 U.S. Embassies in Africa, it was known and publicized that bin Laden ordered it.

In contrast, I never heard of al-Baghdadi until the night he was killed. I literally never knew he was alive until I knew he was dead. ISIL/ISIS, sure, everyone's heard of them. And nearly every American had no problem with our military killing their leader. But ask any American to name their leader before October 27, 2019, and they would draw a blank. Come to think of it, most Americans would have trouble naming their leader after that date.

That would be Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. On February 3, 2022, a U.S. raid on Atme, Syria sealed his fate. Unlike al-Baghdadi, he refused to be taken alive: He set off a bomb, killing himself and 12 others, including members of his family. There were no U.S. casualties. He was 45. He was succeeded by his brother, Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.  

(UPDATE: He lasted 8 months. On November 30, 2022, after this posting, ISIL announced that, like Abu Ibrahim, Abu al-Hasan blew himself up to avoid a sure capture by U.S. forces. His age is not known to the U.S. He was succeeded by Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, apparently another brother. On April 29, 2023, Turkish intelligence tracked him down and killed him. His age was also unknown. He was succeeded by yet another brother, Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.)

Back to October 27, 2019: That night, Trump went to Game 5 of the World Series, at Nationals Park, 2 miles from the White House. The host Washington Nationals had never asked him to throw out the ceremonial first ball before a game, and this game was no exception. The team's choice was Washington-based celebrity chef José Andrés, an immigrant from Spain whom Obama had once awarded a National Humanities Medal for his charity work.

Trump took Melania to the game. He did not take Barron, his 13-year-old son who is a known sports fan.

The World Series was 2 miles from his house, and he had tickets, and he didn't take his 13-year-old son.

Yeah, sure, it's a school night. I think a note from the President of the United States would carry some weight.

Well, it would, if it were any other President.

When a group of veterans was shown on the scoreboard, the sellout crowd of 43,910 cheered them. When the image shifted to Trump, it was about 60-40 boos, and the boos were louder than the cheers. Fans chanted, "Lock him up!" The scoreboard operator had to switch back to the camera on the veterans, and the crowd went back to cheering.

Nobody booed Franklin Roosevelt on D-Day. Nobody booed John F. Kennedy after he solved the Cuban Missile Crisis. Nobody booed Obama after he ordered the bin Laden raid. Even George W. Bush didn't start getting booed until well after that dumb "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" stunt.

This was Trump's best day as President, and he got the hell booed out of him, anyway.

The truth hurts, doesn't it, Donald? In fact, on this day, the Number 1 song in America was "Truth Hurts," by Melissa Viviane Jefferson, a.k.a. Lizzo. A strong, outspoken black woman. He's not a fan.

The Nationals, Champions of the National League, lost the game, 7-1, to the American League Champions, the Houston Astros. But the Nationals went on to win the Series in Game 7, in Houston, 3 nights later.

And their fans booed Trump on his best day as President. Washington Nationals fans, you have my thanks forever.

Thirteen days later, in college football, Louisiana State University played the University of Alabama at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. LSU was ranked Number 2 in the country, 'Bama was Number 3. With his never-ending need for praise, Trump figured, surely, at a football game, in the South, he would get cheered by the fans. So he went. And he was cheered.

Alabama hadn't lost at home in 4 years. They lost, 46-41, but still went on to win the Southeastern Conference and National Championships.

*

October 27, 2019 was a Sunday. Obviously, that was the only baseball game played that day. These were the day's NFL games: 

* The New York Jets lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars, 29-15 at TIAA Bank Field (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonvillle.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-10 at Wembley Stadium in London.

* The New England Patriots beat the Cleveland Browns, 27-13 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Atlanta Falcons, 27-20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

* The Tennessee Titans beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-23 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Arizona Cardinals, 31-9 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Houston Texans beat the Oakland Raiders, 27-24 at NRG Stadium (as Reliant Stadium was then known) in Houston.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Buffalo Bills, 31-13 at New Era Field (formerly Rich Stadium and Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Miami Dolphins, 27-14 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Denver Broncos, 15-13 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

* The Los Angeles Chargers beat the Chicago Bears, 17-16 at the new Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-24 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* And the San Francisco 49ers beat the Carolina Panthers, 51-13 at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Santa Clara, California.

(The next day, on ESPN Monday Night Football, the Detroit Lions beat the New York Giants, 31-26 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The preceding Thursday, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Washington Redskins, 19-9 at FedEx Field -- now Northwest Stadium -- in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. And the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys had a bye.)

There were 5 games played in the NBA that day: 

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, 134-133 in overtime at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. (The New York Knicks were not scheduled.)

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Miami Heat, 116-109 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Golden State Warriors, 120-92 at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 121-119 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Charlotte Hornets, 120-101 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And there were 7 games played in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 7-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the San Jose Sharks, 5-2 at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. David Perron scored the winning goal, 1:28 into overtime.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-1 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Anaheim Ducks, 5-2 at the T-Mobile Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

* And the Florida Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

October 23, 1983: The Beirut Barracks Bombing

October 23, 1983: Two truck-borne suicide bombs strike buildings in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War.

One attack, on an American barracks, kills 241: 220 U.S. Marines, 18 U.S. Navy personnel, and 3 U.S. Army personnel. This remains the deadliest single-day death toll for the Marine Corps since the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, and the deadliest for America's armed forces overall since the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War, in 1968. Another attack, on a French base, killed 58 French military personnel and 6 civilians.

The Lebanese Civil War had begun in 1975, and tore apart a nation that had once been a jewel among France's colonies, before independence in 1946, albeit with an intervention by the U.S. and France in 1958. The war continued until 1990, and Lebanon has recovered somewhat. Today, with Israeli, Syrian, American and French troops withdrawn, it is a democratic nation of 5.3 million people, 58 percent Muslim, 36 percent Christian.

Two days later, President Ronald Reagan launched an invasion of the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Some people believed it was an attempt to cover up the debacle in Beirut. As it turned out, the Grenada plan was in motion well before the Beirut attack: Reagan had flown his National Security Council to his ranch outside Santa Barbara, California to discuss it.

*

October 23, 1983 was a Sunday. This was also the day that NBC News weekend anchorwoman Jessica Savitch died in a car crash. I have a separate entry for that event.

The baseball season had ended a week before, when the Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series. The NBA season began 5 days later. The NHL season had gotten underway, and 4 games were played that day:

* The New York Rangers beat the New York Islanders, 6-5 at Madison Square Garden. Peter Sundstrom scored the winning goal, 1 minute and 13 seconds into overtime.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 8-5 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Calgary Flames, 7-4 at Chicago Stadium.

And there was a full slate of NFL games:

* The New York Jets lost to the Atlanta Falcons, 27-21 at Shea Stadium. This would be their last season at Shea, or in New York City, for that matter. They moved to the Meadowlands the next season.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 7-6 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Baltimore Colts, 21-7 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. This would be the Colts' last season in Baltimore. They moved to Indianapolis the next season.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Detroit Lions, 38-17 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-21 at Tampa Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Buffalo Bills, 31-0 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns, 28-21 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers, 20-17 in overtime at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Dallas Cowboys, 40-38 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 13-10 in overtime at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 14-6 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 45-35 at Anaheim Stadium.

* And the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 27-21 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The next night, on Monday Night Football, the New York Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals played to a 20-20 tie at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. 

October 16, 1970: The War Measures Act Wins Canada's October Crisis

"Just watch me!"

October 16, 1970: Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act, in an effort to fight what became known as the October Crisis. It is a story that most Americans don't know about. It could have become much bigger.

The War Measures Act became law on August 22, 1914, in the 1st month of World War I, which provides for the types of emergency measures that the Canadian federal government could take in the event of a Declaration of War, an invasion of the country, or an insurrection within the country.

It should be noted that this was less than 30 years after Louis Riel led people of the First Nations (what Canada calls its indigenous peoples, instead of "Indians" or "Native Canadians") in the North-West Rebellion of 1885, which certainly counted as an insurrection, and would have fallen under the grounds of the War Measures Act had it been in place at the time. It was still fresh in Canadians' minds.

As with some American measures during World War I, the Act was questioned for some suspensions of civil liberties. During World War II, the Act was used to do what the American government also regrettably did: Start internment camps for Canada residents of Japanese descent, even if they were native-born citizens. After that war, it was widely believed that the Act would not have to be used again, barring a World War III.

The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) were leftist Quebec separatists, hoping to use violence to establish a socialist, Francophone-only Republic of Quebec. In 1963, they committed several terrorist attacks in and around Montreal, leading Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to ask, "Is this Ireland?" Arrests were made, but there would be more attacks through the 1960s, though with few deaths.

On October 5, 1970, an FLQ cell kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner in Montreal. The federal government in Ottawa chose not to give in to their demands. On October 10, another cell kidnapped Pierre Laporte, Vice Premier and Minister of Employment and Labour for the Province of Quebec. They allow Laporte to write a letter to the Premier of Quebec (equivalent to an American State's Governor), Robert Bourassa, telling him he was being treated well, and asking him to negotiate for his release.

On October 13, Prime Minister Trudeau, who as Justice Minister under his predecessor, Lester Pearson, had been a champion of civil liberties, was walking into a meeting when he was stopped by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Tim Ralfe. This exchange followed:

Ralfe: What you're talking about to me is choices, and my choice is to live in a society that is free and democratic, which means that you don't have people with guns running around in it.

Trudeau: Correct.

Ralfe: And one of the things I have to give up for that choice is the fact that people like you may be kidnapped.

Trudeau: Sure, but this isn't my choice, obviously. You know, I think it is more important to get rid of those who are committing violence against the total society and those who are trying to run the government through a parallel power by establishing their authority by kidnapping and blackmail.

And I think it is our duty as a government to protect government officials and important people in our society against being used as tools in this blackmail. Now, you don't agree to this, but I am sure that, once again with hindsight, you would probably have found it preferable if Mr. Cross and Mr. Laporte had been protected from kidnapping, which they weren't, because these steps we're taking now weren't taken. But even with your hindsight, I don't see how you can deny that.

Ralfe: No, I still go back to the choice that you have to make in the kind of society that you live in.

Trudeau: Yeah, well there's a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed, but it's more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a soldier's helmet.

Ralfe: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?

Trudeau: Well, just watch me.

Ralfe: At reducing civil liberties? To that extent?

Trudeau: To what extent?

Ralfe: Well, if you extend this and you say, ok, you're going to do anything to protect them, does this include wire-tapping, reducing other civil liberties in some way?

Trudeau: Yes. I think the society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power in this country and I think that goes to any distance. So long as there is a power in here which is challenging the elected representative of the people I think that power must be stopped and I think it's only, I repeat, weak-kneed bleeding hearts who are afraid to take these measures.

And so, the people of Canada took Trudeau at his word, and just watched him. On October 14, he convened a meeting of his Cabinet, to discuss measures to end the crisis. The Provincial government had received a public statement, signed by 16 prominent Quebec residents, asking them to negotiate the liberation of the hostages, no matter the cost, and no matter what the federal government thought.

On October 15, Bourassa requested that Trudeau send Canadian Armed Forces troops to protect politicians and public buildings, which Trudeau would have had the right to do under the National Defence Act, passed in 1922. Trudeau assented, and by nightfall, they were on the streets of Montreal.

On October 16, at 4:00 AM, North American Eastern Time, the Cabinet proclaimed the existence of an "apprehended insurrection," and issued a decree granting exceptional powers powers to the police and the Canadian Armed Forces under the War Measures Act. 

On October 17, the police found Laporte, in the drunk of a car near the Saint-Hubert airport, south of Montreal. He had been strangled to death. Under a man with less compunction than Trudeau, this could have led to Canada becoming a genuine police state, if only temporarily. Under a man with less wisdom than Trudeau, the terrorists could have escaped with the still-prisoner Cross, over the U.S.-Canadian border, just 40 miles away.

But the presence of the police and the army were enough to stop any more terrorist attacks and kidnappings. On November 6, police raided a cell's hiding place. Bernard Lortie was arrested, and charged with the kidnapping and murder of Laporte.

On December 3, realizing that the game was up, the FLQ released Cross, unharmed. His kidnappers -- Marc Carbonneau, Yves Langlois, Jacques Lanctôt, his sister Louise Lanctôt, her husband Jacques Cossette-Trudel -- were granted safe passage to Cuba by the federal government, approved by Cuba's dictator, Fidel Castro.

On December 23, Trudeau announced that all troops stationed in Quebec would be withdrawn on January 5, 1971. On December 28, arrests were made in Saint-Luc, Quebec: Paul Rose, Jacques Rose and Francis Simard.

Ultimately, 497 people were arrested, but 465 were released without being charged with anything. Lortie was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and served 7; Paul Rose and Simard served 10, Jacques Rose 5. Jacques and Louise Lanctôt, and Jacques Cossette-Trudel returned to Canada in 1979, and each served 2 years in prison. Carbonneau returned to Canada in 1981, Langlois in 1982. Neither was imprisoned.

The FLQ did not give up, and, when things settled down, committed more terrorist acts throughout 1971. But the tide of public opinion had turned against them. A few more acts were committed in 1972 and '73, but that would be it.

Three biographies of Trudeau have used the title Just Watch Me: Larry Zolf's, published in 1984 after Trudeau left office; Ron Coleman's 2003 book, subtitled Trudeau's Tragic Legacy; and Volume 2 of John English's 2009 book, the 1st volume going up to 1967, titled Citizen of the World. Director Catherine Annau made a documentary in 1999, titled Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the '70s Generation.

In 1988, the Emergencies Act was passed, repealing the War Measures Act and providing for actions more in line with Canada's wider embrace of civil liberties than America's.

Pierre Trudeau died in 2000. So did Tim Ralfe. Paul Rose died in 2013, Fancis Simard in 2015, James Cross in 2021. As of October 16, 2022, Marc Carbonneau, Yves Langlois, Jacques Lanctôt, Louise Lanctôt, Jacques Cossette-Trudel, Bernard Lortie and Jacques Rose are still alive.

In 2015, Trudeau's son, Justin Trudeau, was elected Prime Minister. As of October 16, 2022, he still holds the post.

*

October 16, 1970 was a Friday. The baseball season had ended the day before, when the Baltimore Orioles won Game 5 of the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Football was in midweek. 

There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Diego Rockets, 127-119 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Elvin Hayes scored 34 for the Rockets, but the Sixers had 6 players score at least 14 points. The Rockets moved to Houston the next year.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 106-102 at the Chicago Stadium. Jerry West scored 29 points, while Wilt Chamberlain had 26 points and 31 rebounds.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the San Francisco Warriors, 120-106 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Jerry Lucas scored 31 points and had 16 rebounds for the Warriors, to no avail.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers, in the 1st game in franchise history, beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, another expansion team, playing its 2nd game, 115-112 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Jim Barnett led all scorers with 31 points. A 3rd expansion team, the Buffalo Braves, had debuted 2 days earlier. They are now the Los Angeles Clippers.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The New York Nets beat the Miami Floridians, 105-92 at the Island Garden in West Hempstead, Long Island. And the Indiana Pacers beat the Denver Rockets, 115-103 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum). Anticipating their acceptance into the NBA, where Houston already had the Rockets, in 1974, the Denver Rockets became the Denver Nuggets.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The Boston Bruins beat the California Golden Seals, 5-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Bobby Orr scored 2 goals, while Phil Esposito had a goal and 2 assists.

October 12, 2000: The USS Cole Is Attacked

October 12, 2000: The American destroyer USS Cole is attacked in Aden Harbor, Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others. al-Qaeda, the Islamic fundamentalist terrorism group led by Osama bin Laden, claims credit.

President Bill Clinton wanted to take action against al-Qaeda for this, as he had 2 years earlier when they bombed U.S. Embassies in 2 African nations. But he was already in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and feared he would ruin that if he took action. So he didn't. And the Palestinians walked out anyway.

It was Clinton's foreign policy biggest mistake. It played into the hands of the Republicans, with the election for his successor just 25 days away. And it emboldened bin Laden to try something bigger. On September 11, 2001, he did.

The Cole, named for Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a Marine who died in the Battle of Iwo Jima, was repaired, was returned to active duty 3 years later, and remains in service.

*

October 12, 2000 was a Thursday. It was a travel day in the American League Championship Series, with the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners tied 1-1. The Yankees won the series in 6 games. Game 2 was played in the National League Championship Series, at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Jay Payton had an RBI single in the top of the 9th inning, and the New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5, to take a 2-0 lead. The Mets won the series in 5 games, setting up what remains the only World Series between them and the Yankees -- the only true Subway Series since 1956.

The NFL was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start for another 19 days. There were 5 games in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Detroit Red Wings beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-0 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The San Jose Sharks beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 2-1 at the San Jose Arena (now the SAP Center).

* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Vancouver Canucks, 5-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

October 12, 1984: The Brighton Hotel Bombing

October 12, 1984: At 2:54 AM, a bomb planted by the Provisional Irish Republican Army explodes in Room 629 of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, Sussex, on England's South Coast. There was a Conservative Party meeting there, and 5 people were killed. But the main target, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, escaped serious injury.

The victims were Anthony Berry, a Member of Parliament; Donald Maclean, the President of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party; his wife, Muriel; Lady Jeanne Shattock, the wife of the Western Area chairman of the Conservative Party, Sir Gordon Shattock, who was injured but survived; and Roberta Wakeham, wife of John Wakeham, then the Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons, who has since been created a Baron.

(Both Shattock and Wakeham would remarry. In the latter's case, he married his secretary, Alison Ward -- who had previously served as Thatcher's secretary.)

The explosion caused several floors a wing of the hotel to collapse. Norman Tebbit, then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, recalled:

The ceiling came crashing down on us and then, in a hail of debris, the floor collapsed, catapulting us down under an avalanche of bricks, timber and plaster. The force of the impact was indescribable, blow after blow as the debris smashed on to my left side. Something tore into my abdomen with a terrible blow, and I heard my very guts sloshing inside me. There was a colossal impact tearing a great hole in my side, then I stopped falling, with no idea where, nor even which way up I was, as the debris cascaded down.

But he survived. His wife, Margaret, fell through 4 floors, and was wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life. Thatcher's room was below the Tebbits'. Her bathroom was badly damaged but she, her husband Denis, and Robin Butler, her personal private secretary, were all uninjured.

According to Rory Carroll, then 12 years old and living in Dublin, but later the Ireland correspondent for English newspaper The Guardian and the author of a book on the bombing, the bomb "did not even scratch her. But it came very, very close." He theorized that if she had still been in the bathroom, "she would have been cut to ribbons, perhaps fatally."

The Provisional IRA released this statement: "Mrs. Thatcher will now realise that Britain cannot occupy our country and torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it. Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war."

Thatcher responded with her usual bluntness: "That is the scale of the outrage in which we have all shared, and the fact that we are gathered here now -- shocked, but composed and determined -- is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail."

The man who planted the bomb was Patrick Magee, then a 33-year-old Provisional IRA member who had previously served 2 years in prison. He was sentenced to 8 life terms, but was released in 1999 as part of the Good Friday Accord. As of October 12, 2022, he is still alive, and has written a book about his experiences.

If the Provisional IRA thought this bombing would rally people to their cause, they were wrong. Support for Thatcher only grew, as she achieved the rare distinction of being both strong leader and victim at the same time.

Thatcher had led the Conservative Party to victory in the national elections of 1979 and 1983, and would do so again in 1987. But an intraparty squabble forced her out in 1990. Tebbit was among those considering running to support her, but, still needing to look after his wife, he retired from the Commons instead, and John Major became Prime Minister. Like Wakeham, Tebbit was later created a Baron, and sat in the House of Lords.

Thatcher was loved by conservatives for her toughness and her belligerence, but hated by the poor, labor unions, and especially the Irish, for being bigoted and openly harmful to them. She was renowned for her alliance with Ronald Reagan, whose entire Presidency was during her Premiership. When Reagan died, the half of America that hated him held its tongue out of respect; when Thatcher died, the half of Britain that hated her rejoiced.

*

October 12, 1984 was a Friday. Game 3 of the World Series was played at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Detroit Tigers beat the San Diego Padres, 5-3. Milt Wilcox outpitched Tim Lollar. Marty Castillo hit a home run for the Tigers, who would win the Series in 5 games.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season hadn't started yet, but there were 2 games played in the NHL. The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Islanders, 7-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. And the Edmonton Oilers beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.  

October 7, 2023: Hamas Starts a War With Israel

October 7, 2023: Palestinian militant groups, led by Hamas, launch a large-scale invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip.

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

It began with an early-morning rocket barrage of over 3,000 missiles, killing at least 1,200 people in one day. It was the largest murder of Jewish people in a single day since the end of the Holocaust, 78 years earlier. It included a massacre at the Re'im Music Festival, 6 miles in from the border with Gaza, in which over 260 people were killed.

To put this in perspective: As of 2023, Israel is home to 9.8 million people, about 1/34th that of the U.S. Proportionally, 1,200 times 34 = 40,800. Not only is that proportionally equivalent to over 13 "9/11s," but it's about 2/3rds of what the U.S. lost over 8 years in Vietnam -- in one day.

The Gaza Strip is about 25 miles long, and about 4 miles wide. Not that Israel is a large nation: They are about 300 miles north-to-south, and 43 miles east-to-west from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. Jerusalem traffic is notoriously bad, but, theoretically, a driver can cross Israel in less than an hour.

Because Israel has limited the Palestinians to Gaza, and to parts of the West Bank, people all over the world accuse Israel of being an "apartheid state." This is a lie. Arabs living in Israel have more rights there than they do in countries where they are the overwhelming majority.

But the Arabs living in Gaza, which Israel willingly gave up in 2005, elected Hamas to lead them the following year. The Arabs living in the West Bank subsequently elected a Palestinian government without Hamas.

"Hamas" is an Arabic word meaning "zeal," "strength" or "bravery." It is also an acronym of the Arabic phrase "Harakah al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah," meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement." The terrorist organization with the name was founded in 1987, with the First Intifada. They are Islamic fundamentalists, and have no interest in the freedom of anyone: Not the Palestinians, and certainly not the Israelis.

It has long been said that if the Arabs laid down their arms, the would be no more war; but if the Israelis laid down their arms, there would be no more Israel. Hamas, and their affiliated groups like the Iranian-backed Hezbollah (meaning "Army of God"), have long wanted to "drive them into the sea." Which is ironic, because, if Israel really wanted to, it could do that to the people of Gaza.

With the war that began on October 7, 2023, it became clear: The Israeli position is, "This is our land, and as soon as you begin to leave us alone, we will do the same to you": while the Hamas position is, "This is our land, and we are going to kill you all until those of you who are left leave it." Hamas has released videos showing what the BBC called "ISIS-level savagery."

Why did Hamas act now? It has been suggested that it was because Israel was moving closer to a diplomatic agreement with Saudi Arabia, the capital of the Islamic world, and Hamas couldn't handle that.

Benjamin Netanyahu, in his 3rd go-round as Prime Minister, and the longest-serving -- and most corrupt -- holder of that post, had made Israel's security his reason for staying in office. He failed in a spectacular way. Yet he had the country convinced that only he could protect the country from then on. Americans had seen this before, with George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks.

The Saudis stayed quiet. The only nation openly on Hamas' side was Iran -- the government, that is. The people of Iran, as they demonstrated at a soccer game, were not. Most of the world has sided with Israel. Even the Federal Republic of Germany, the successor state to the perpetrator of the Holocaust, has expressed support, putting a hologram of the Israeli flag on the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Berlin.

Israel, of course, retaliated. For the 1st time since the Yom Kippur War, 50 years to the week earlier, the nation declared war on an enemy. At the time of this writing, the war was in its early stages.

UPDATE: Eventually, the propaganda campaign launched by Hamas convinced much of the world that the Palestinians were innocent victims of acts of genocide -- not the guilty perpetrators of them, as they were on October 7, 2023.

The world turned against Israel, and a wave of anti-Semitism swept over America. Millions of people refused to support first Joe Biden, then Kamala Harris, in the 2024 Presidential election, because they "supported genocide," which was a pernicious and stupid lie. It probably cost Kamala the election, and led to the re-installation of Donald Trump.

Back in office, Trump announced plans for the redevelopment of Gaza, to do to it what he couldn't do to Atlantic City: Turn it into a personal fiefdom. Netanyahu was not willing to go along with this. But Netanyahu wanted to launch a war against Iran, and Trump was willing to go along with this, to distract Americans from the declining economy and the Epstein Files scandal.

On February 28, 2026, with most but not all of the hostages having been returned -- some alive, some dead -- and the Gaza War having no end in sight, Trump and Netanyahu started a war with Iran. Over its 1st month, it had done neither country any good.

It has never occurred to the people who refused to vote for Harris that they bear some responsibility for this. They loved the Palestinians more than they loved their fellow Americans, but Trump was far worse for both peoples than Harris would have been.

*

October 7, 2023 was a Saturday. Baseball began all 4 of its Division Series. In the American League, the Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore; 

and the Houston Astros beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-4 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-0 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia; and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 11-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

Some of the notable college football games that were played that day:

* Number 1 Georgia beat Number 20 Kentucky, 51-13 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* In the rivalry known as, with a trophy named, the Little Brown Jug, Number 2 Michigan beat Minnesota, 52-10 at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

* In the Red River Rivalry, Number 3 Texas were upset by Number 12 Oklahoma, 34-30 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* Number 4 Ohio State beat Maryland, 37-17 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 5 Florida State beat Virginia Tech, 39-17 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.

* Number 9 University of Southern California (USC) needed overtime to beat Arizona, 43-41 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 10 Notre Dame were upset by Number 25 Louisville, 33-7 at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium in Louisville.

* Number 11 Alabama won a hard-fought contest against nearly-ranked Texas A&M, 26-20 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. As good as Nick Saban's Crimson Tide have been the last few years, the Aggies are one of the few teams to regularly give them trouble.

* Number 13 Washington State were upset by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), 25-17 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California.

* Number 17 Miami were upset by Georgia Tech, 23-20 at Hard Rock Stadium in suburban Miami Gardens, Florida.

* Number 21 Missouri were mildly upset by Number 23 Louisiana State University (LSU), 49-39 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

* And Rutgers lost to Wisconsin, 24-13 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

October 6, 1981: The Assassination of Anwar Sadat

October 6, 1981: Also on this day, Anwar Sadat is assassinated while reviewing a military parade in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. President of Egypt since 1970, and negotiator of the Camp David Peace Accords with President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978, he was 63.

The assassin, Army Lieutenant Khalid Islambouli, claimed he did it because of the peace with Israel. He was tried, convicted, and executed the following April.

Vice President Hosni Mubarak becomes President, and resumes the repression of Sadat's predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser. until his overthrow in 2011. But the promise of the "Arab Spring" falls short, and Egypt remains a repressive country.

Earlier in the year, on March 30, President Ronald Reagan was shot, but survived. And on May 13, Pope John Paul II was shot, but survived. Sadat did not.

*

October 6, 1981 was a Tuesday. Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start until October 30.

Game 1 of the AL Division Series, forced by the strike season's split-season format, was played. Billy Martin, now managing the Oakland Athletics, becomes the 1st manager to take 4 franchises into the postseason. He had previously done so with the 1969 Minnesota Twins, the 1972 Detroit Tigers, and the 1976 and 1977 New York Yankees.

The A's are facing the Kansas City Royals, at Royals Stadium (later Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City, and due to his exile there from the Yankees in 1957 and his 1976 and '77 Playoff battles against them, Martin hates Kansas City, and, more than usual, wants to win there.

No problem: Mike Norris tosses a 6-hit shutout, and the A's win 4-0, their 1st win in a postseason game in 7 years.

On the same day, Game 1 of the NL Division Series is played. Alan Ashby, a light-hitting catcher, hits a walkoff home run to give the Astros another big win over the Dodgers, 3-1. Rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela was the winning pitcher. The pitcher who gave up the home run was Dave Stewart. Both he and the Dodgers would have more luck as the postseason went on, first together, then apart. 

The other ALDS, between the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Brewers, started the next day. So did the other NLDS, between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Montreal Expos.

This was also the Opening Night of the 1981-82 NHL season, and 5 games were played:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the New York Rangers lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Hartford Whalers, 6-5 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 6-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. The next season, the Rockies moved to the Meadowlands, and became the New Jersey Devils.

September 16, 1920: Terrorism On Wall Street

September 16, 1920: Wall Street is bombed. The explosion kills 38 people, and injures over 400.

Although Mario Buda, an Italian anarchist, and an associate of the recently-arrested Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, is now believed to have been the man who dropped off the bomb, this was not figured out until he had escaped back to his native Italy.

Buda continued his anarchist activities until the 1930s, switching sides to help the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini find his former friends. After World War II, he switched back to anarchism, though it's not clear why any side would have trusted him at that point, since any side he was on ended up betrayed and defeated. He died in 1963.

It's not clear when the new decade began to be called "The Roaring Twenties," but this was the kind of roar that no one needed.

To this day, there are still gouges from the shrapnel in the outer wall on the Wall Street side of the House of Morgan, then the headquarters of the company founded by J.P. Morgan, at 23 Wall, across Broad Street from the New York Stock Exchange. The building is mainly empty now, and is basically a monument to the victims of the bombing. However, despite the New York Stock Exchange being literally right across Broad Street, 23 Wall stood in for the Gotham Stock Exchange in the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.

*

September 16, 1920 was a Thursday. Johanna "Hannie" Schaft, a leading figure in the Dutch Resistance to Nazi Germany in World War II, was born on this day.

And these games were played in what would eventually be called Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 8-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Babe Ruth went 2-for-5, and Shoeless Joe Jackson went 3-for-5. When the season was over, Ruth had a new record of 54 home runs, while Jackson would never play in "organized ball" again.

* A doubleheader was played at the Polo Grounds in New York. The New York Giants lost the 1st game to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1. The Giants won the 2nd game, 4-0.

* The Brooklyn Robins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. (The Brooklyn team was known as the Robins in honor of their manager, Wilbert Robinson. He was fired after the 1931 season, and one of their former names was restored: The Brooklyn Dodgers.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-5 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* A doubleheader was played at Braves Field in Boston. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 1st game, 4-3. The Boston Braves won the 2nd game, also 4-3. Rogers Hornsby went 2-for-6 with an RBI over the 2 games.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 1-0 at League Park in Cleveland. Tris Speaker went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-6 in 10 innings, at Navin Field in Detroit. (It would be renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938 and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Ty Cobb went 2-for-5.

* And the Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-5 in 11 innings, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. George Sisler went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

September 11, 2001: The World Trade Center Is Destroyed and the Pentagon Is Attacked

 

September 11, 2001: I woke up that warm, sunny Tuesday morning, unemployed and with no reason to get up early, and, as was always the case at the time, the first thing I did was turn on the radio. It was after 10:30, so it had already all happened. And the announcer -- a woman whose name I never learned -- on WCBS, 880 on the AM dial, said, "The World Trade Center is gone."

What? What do you mean, "gone"? The World Trade Center is gone? A pair of 110-story skyscrapers -- actually, a seven-building complex -- doesn't just disappear. Gone? What, did aliens come along and beam it up, like on Star Trek?

If it had, there would still, theoretically, have been a chance to get it back. But, no, that was not the case.

Did I hear it right? I had just gotten up. I was still half-asleep. Maybe I misunderstood. I went to the TV, turned it on, and... nothing. Of course. Every station had its transmitter on 1 World Trade Center. Except one, WCBS, Channel 2. Theirs was, and remains, at the Empire State Building. If you didn't have cable TV, then they were the only ones broadcasting. And all that was left of the World Trade Center was a cloud of black smoke.

The planes:

* American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, with 92 people on board, took off from Logan International Airport in Boston at 7:59 AM, meant for Los Angeles International Airport, and hit 1 World Trade Center, the North Tower, between the 93rd and 99th floors, at 8:46.

* United Airlines Flight 175, also a Boeing 767, with 65 people on board, took off from Logan at 8:14, also meant for Los Angeles, and hit 2 World Trade Center, the South Tower, between the 77th and 85th floors, at 9:03.

* American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, with 58 people on board, took off from Dulles International Airport in Loudoun County, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., at 8:20, also meant for Los Angeles, was turned back toward Washington, and hit the west wall of the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, also across the Potomac River from Washington, in Arlington, at 9:37. Victims: 184.

* And United Airlines Flight 93, another Boeing 757, with 44 people on board, took off from Newark International Airport in New Jersey at 8:42, meant for San Francisco International Airport. The passengers, having heard on their cell phones about the other planes, decided to fight back, and stopped the hijackers from reaching their target, which U.S. intelligence later decided was the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington. Instead, at 10:03, the plane crashed into a field in rural Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, usually identified by its mailing address of Shanksville, about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and 130 miles northwest of Washington.

The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 AM. In 2003, in commemoration of the magazine's 50th Anniversary, TV Guide listed "South Tower Falls" as the most memorable televised moment ever, topping the 1st manned Moon landing in 1969. The North Tower followed at 10:29 -- mere seconds before I woke up.

There's an overpass about a mile from where I was living at the time, where State Route 18 goes over the New Jersey Turnpike. It's next to the Tower Center complex, the 23-story "minor league twin towers," as I called them, where the bus takes me into Manhattan. From that overpass, on a clear day, you could see the World Trade Center. On 9/11/01, all you could see was a plume of black smoke, going back seemingly forever.

Three days later, I stood on that overpass again, and it was a plume of white smoke. No, it didn't mean there was a new Pope, or that the Towers would be back.

My father worked at the World Trade Center, as an engineering consultant for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the complex's operator, for six months, before he decided that the commute was too long, and he quit. That was two years before the attack. It was a week before he found out that everyone he worked with got out all right.

Not so lucky were, depending whose figures you believe, and whether you count people who got sick from working the rescue and salvage jobs afterward, about 2,750 people. Eight of them were from my hometown of East Brunswick, New Jersey. As far as I know, I never met any of them.

East Brunswick's memorial

There were 1,747 who, at the time, were living in the State of New York. Of those, 1,147 lived in New York City. There were 694 from New Jersey, including 3 from my parents' hometown of Newark, and 3 from next-door Bloomfield, where they lived when I was born.

There were 92 from Massachusetts, 81 from Virginia, 65 from Connecticut, 50 from Maryland, 49 from California, 30 from Pennsylvania, 11 from the District of Columbia, 10 from New Hampshire, 9 from Illinois, 6 from Texas; 5 each from Florida and Rhode Island; 4 each from Alabama, Georgia and Maine; 3 each from Louisiana, North Carolina and Ohio; 2 each from Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Oklahoma; and 1 each from Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

There were 13 from Britain, 6 from Germany, 5 from Canada, 3 from Australia, 3 from Japan, 2 from China, and 1 each from Bermuda, El Salvador, Grenada, Ireland, Israel and Sweden.

At first, we didn't know how bad it would be. The front page of the New York Daily News on September 13 suggested 10,000 people had died. It was quickly revised to 5,000, and then, when records were checked to see who was in the Twin Towers and hadn't been found alive, and checking against duplicate entries, down to 3,000, still the worst one-day loss of life on American soil since the American Civil War.

Among the notable people who died as a result of the 9/11 attacks were television producer David Angell, conservative TV legal analyst Barbara Olson, and hockey player-turned-scout Garnet "Ace" Bailey, each of them on board one of the planes intended for Los Angeles. (Bailey was no relation to the old-time hockey star Irvine "Ace" Bailey.) Alice Trillin, a teacher and film producer, and wife of author Calvin Trillin, also died that day, but her death was separate from the attacks.

In 2001, smartphones were few and far between, a lot of us still hadn't really figured out the Internet, and for those of us in the New York Tri-State Area who still didn't have cable TV, Channel 2 was the only station we had left. So we had one channel, and the same damn thing on, for an entire week.

And that's all we watched: Images of the carnage, updates from police and fire department leaders, politicians making statements, pundits speculating about America's response to al-Qaeda and its allies. The parallel was made to the 4 days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. But distractions were few. No regular TV programming. Certainly, no sports, for an entire week, before the various leagues started up again.

Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of New York, put his municipal counter-terrorism center in 7 World Trade Center. They had to evacuate it. He and the others inside nearly died when the North Tower collapsed. He bounced back from this blunder to represent the City and its recovery before the public, and Time magazine named him its Person of the Year, ahead of President George W. Bush -- and Osama bin Laden, who approved and ordered the attacks.

For reasons that aren't worth getting into here, it took until May 1, 2011 for the victims to be avenged. The official memorial at the site was opened on September 11, 2011, the 10th Anniversary of the attacks. And the new One World Trade Center opened on November 3, 2014, with a height purposely set to match the year of America's independence: 1,776 feet.

A temporary memorial at the Pentagon, for the lives lost there, was dedicated on September 12, 2002. A permanent memorial was dedicated on September 11, 2008. The Flight 93 National Memorial was dedicated at the Pennsylvania field on September 10, 2011, the day before the 10th Anniversary. The names of the victims at these sites are also inscribed at the main memorial in Manhattan.

For those of us too young to remember the JFK assassination -- and maybe for those of us who are old enough -- 9/11 remains the most shocking event of our lifetimes. It shouldn't be.

After all, a foreign foe killed 3,000 of us, and our government said it would do whatever it took. And it lied. But the next government did what it took.

*

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 happened in the morning, so there was time to decide to take what was, then as now, the obvious step of postponing most professional sports indefinitely.

Minor League Baseball was already in its Playoffs, and canceled the rest of them. This enabled the Brooklyn Cyclones, a 1st-year farm team of the Mets, to be declared Co-Champions of the Class A New York-Penn League, along with the other team in the Final, the Pennsylvania-based Williamsport Crosscutters. They won their 1st full Pennant in 2019.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced that games would resume the following week, on Monday, September 17.

The games that were scheduled for Tuesday, September 11 through Sunday, September 16 were moved to the week after the end of the regular season, thus pushing the postseason back a week, resulting in the 1st-ever November games that counted in MLB.

These are the games that were supposed to be played on September 11, and got pushed back to Monday, October 1:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-1 at the old Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-1 at Shea Stadium in Queens.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 1-0 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

* The Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Boston Red Sox, 10-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. (The Tampa Bay team is now named simply the Rays.

These are the games that were supposed to be played on September 11 that got pushed back to Tuesday, October 2:

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Turner Field in Atlanta.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Montreal Expos, 4-3 at what was then named Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens. (The Expos are now the Washington Nationals, the Marlins are the Miami Marlins, they play in Marlins Park, and Pro Player Stadium is now named Hard Rock Stadium.)

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-4 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies, 10-1 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. (Now named Chase Field.)

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 5-2 at what was then named Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. (It's now SDCCU Stadium, and the Padres now play at Petco Park.)

* The Seattle Mariners beat the team then known as the Anaheim Angels, 14-5 at Edison International Field. (The team is now known as the Los Angeles Angels, and their ballpark as Angel Stadium.)

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 9-4 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Not in the country affected by the attacks, UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, decided that the day's Champions League matches would go ahead as scheduled, in spite of some of the teams objecting:

* Arsenal lost to Real Mallorca, 1-0 at Estadio Son Moix on Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain.

* Liverpool and Boavista of Portugal played to a draw, 1-1 at Anfield in Liverpool.

* FC Nantes beat PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, 4-1 at Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes, France.

* Panathinaikos of Athens, Greece beat Schalke 04, 2-0 at Parkstadion in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

* Real Madrid beat AS Roma, 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

* Dynamo Kyiv and Borussia Dortmund of Germany played to a draw, 2-2 at Olimpiyskiy Natsionalnyi Sportovyi Kompleks in Kyiv, Ukraine.

* Lokomotiv Moscow and Anderlecht of Belgium played to a draw, 1-1 at the Central Dynamo Stadium of Moscow.

* And Galatasaray beat SS Lazio of Rome, 1-0 at Al Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.

By September 11, 2022, we can determine that there are already two famous people who were born on September 11, 2001: Nicholas Robertson, a left wing for the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs; and actress Mackenzie Aladjem.