December 24, 1944: The Agana Race Riot

Black sailors at Guam

December 24, 1944: The Agana Race Riot breaks out in Agana, Guam. It was one of the most serious incidents between African-American and white military personnel in the U.S. armed forces, segregated during World War II.

The U.S. Marine Corps retook Guam from Japan in July 1944, and then used it as a station for the 3rd Marine Division. Racial tensions heightened in late August when the African-American Marine 25th Depot Company arrived to start loading operations at the newly constructed naval supply depot. White Americans of the 3rd Marine Division, some new to the area, tried to prevent African-American Marines from visiting nearby Agana and its native women.

Over the next 3 months, racially-motivated incidents and a pervasive pattern of discrimination caused tensions to rise between the two groups. A white American sailor shot and killed a black Marine of the 25th Depot Company in a quarrel over a woman; and a sentry from the 27th Marine Depot Company reacted to harassment by fatally wounding his tormentor, a white Marine. Both men were eventually court-martialed for voluntary manslaughter.

A race riot erupted on Christmas Eve, when rumors spread that an African-American sailor had been shot and killed by a white Marine. There was fighting throughout Christmas Day, and it was finally put down by Military Police on December 26.

A total of 43 Marines were court-martialed, convicted, and received prison terms of several years. The NAACP later successfully campaigned with the Department of the Navy, and ultimately the White House, to have the black Marines' guilty verdicts overturned, and they were released from prison in 1946.

*

December 24, 1944 was a Sunday. Daniel Johnson Jr., who, like his father Daniel Sr. and his brother Pierre-Marc, would serve as Premier (Governor) of Quebec, was born.

Baseball was out of season. College football was between the end of the regular season and the New Year's Day bowl games -- no games on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The NFL season had ended a week earlier, when the Green Bay Packers beat the New York Giants in the NFL Championship Game. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. One game was played in the NHL: The New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 3-3 at the old Madison Square Garden.

December 14, 1949: “Sands of Iwo Jima” Premieres

December 14, 1949: Sands of Iwo Jima premieres, cementing John Wayne as the toughest guy the U.S. Marine Corps never actually had.

It uses footage from an earlier documentary about the battle, which ran from February 19 to March 26, 1945, and re-enacts the famous flag-raising of February 23. The 3 men then believed to be the survivors among the 6 actual flag-raisers – Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes and John Bradley – appear as extras. (Michael Strank, Harlon Block and Franklin Sousley never made it off the island alive. Harold Schultz, misidentified as Bradley, was, ironically, the last survivor, living just past the 50th Anniversary, in 1995.)

Wayne's starring role in this film, as Sergeant John M. Stryker, indelibly linked him with the U.S. military effort in World War II, and with the Marines in particular, even though he hadn't served in the war: He was classified 3-A, meaning he had a deferment as his family's sole means of support. In the Vietnam War era, Wayne despised draft dodgers, but while he didn't serve himself, it should be noted that he did not dodge: He simply wasn't drafted.

In spite of all the characters killed, including Stryker -- usually the hero, Wayne rarely died in his films -- Sands of Iwo Jima became the greatest propaganda the Marine Corps had ever had, at least until the 1970s, when they began filming recruitment commercials: "Maybe you can be one of us: The few, the proud, the Marines."

*

December 14, 1949 was a Thursday. Bill Buckner was born.

Baseball was out of season. Football's regular season was over, with only the college bowl games and the NFL Championship Game (which the Philadelphia Eagles won over the Los Angeles Rams) remaining. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 94-84 at the old Madison Square Garden. Carl Braun led the Knicks with 26 points. Braun's contribution to NBA lore is that, when practicing free throws, if one went through, hitting "nothing but net," he would imitate the sound it made, saying, "Swish!" Knicks broadcaster Marty Glickman picked it up, and popularized it. For a later generation, New York sportscaster Warner Wolf used it.

For the defending, and soon to be again, Champion Lakers, George Mikan scored 38 points, but no other player scored more than 8. The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960.

* The Washington Capitols beat the St. Louis Bombers, 79-61 at the Uline Arena (later the Washington Coliseum). The Bombers folded at the end of this 1949-50 season, while the Caps lasted 1 more season.

* The Syracuse Nationals beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 96-83 at the State Fair Coliseum in Syracuse, New York. The Pistons moved to Detroit in 1957, and the Nats became the Philadelphia 76ers in 1963.

* The Tri-Cities Blackhawks beat the Chicago Stags, 73-68 at the Wharton Field House in Moline, Illinois. The Stags folded at the end of the 1949-50 season.

Moline and Rock Island, Illinois, formerly the home of a charter NFL franchise, the Rock Island Independents, and Davenport, Iowa, right across the Mississippi River, had called themselves the "Tri-Cities" since World War I.

In the 1930s, East Moline, Illinois had grown to the point that the term "Quad Cities" began to be used, but it wasn't fully accepted. In 1948, Alcoa opened a plant in Bettendorf, Iowa, and the city grew to the point where the term "Quint Cities" began to be used. That didn't catch on, but Bettendorf could no longer be ignored, so Moline, Rock Island, Davenport and Bettendorf are the "Quad Cities."

In 1951, the Blackhawks moved, becoming the Milwaukee Hawks. They moved again, becoming the St. Louis Hawks in 1955, and the Atlanta Hawks in 1968. Today, the Quad Cities metropolitan area is home to about 475,000 people, much too small for a major league sports franchise.

The Quad Cities River Bandits are a Class A baseball team (3 steps below the major leagues) playing in Davenport, and the Quad City Thunder were a minor-league basketball team, playing at the Blackhawks' old venue, the Wharton Field House, which still stands.

* And the Philadelphia Warriors beat the Waterloo Hawks, 73-70 at the McElroy Auditorium in Waterloo, Iowa. The Hawks -- not to be confused with the Blackhawks-turned-Hawks -- folded in 1951, and remain the only major league sports team Iowa have ever had. The Warriors moved to San Francisco in 1962, taking on the name "Golden State Warriors" in 1971.

And the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 5-2 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs played to a tie, 2-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

November 21, 1934: The "Business Plot" Is Exposed

Smedley Butler

November 21, 1934: The New York Post and the Philadelphia Record break the story of what came to be known as "The Business Plot," a rich men's plan to launch a military coup and take over the American government.

The story is broken by Paul Comly French, a reporter who had once been the private secretary of Smedley Butler, a retired Major General (2 stars) in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Smedley Darlington Butler was born on July 30, 1881, in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania. His father, Thomas Stalker Butler, was a Republican Congressman. His maternal grandfather, Smedley Darlington, had previously held the same seat in Congress. Three earlier Darlingtons had served in Congress. Smedley's aunt, Isabel Darlington, was the 1st woman to practice law in Chester County.

He enlisted in the Marines, and served with distinction in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Campaign and the Boxer Rebellion. His participation in the so-called "Banana Wars" in Central America caused him to look at war and its conduct differently.

He received his 1st Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the American occupation of Veracruz, Mexico in 1914. He offered to return it, saying he had done nothing to earn it. He was ordered to keep it. He received a 2nd Medal of Honor for his role in repelling an ambush during the American occupation of Haiti in 1915.

He received his General's stars during World War I, and was appointed commanding officer of the Marine barracks at Quantico, Virginia, now the "home base" of the Corps (and of the FBI). In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge gave him leave from active duty so that he could become Director of Public Safety for Philadelphia.

He said, "Cleaning up Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in." He brought crime down significantly, but his tactics were a bit heavy-handed. Still, there were many people who liked that, and they remembered it, thinking that Butler was their kind of man. He held the job for 2 years, returned to the Corps, and retired from the service in 1931.

He ran for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 1932, but, with the tide turning against Prohibition, which he supported, he lost the Republican Primary. He opposed the Bonus Army in a public statement that year, and there were many people who liked that.

That year, Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, a Democrat, was elected President of the United States. His "New Deal" lifted millions out of poverty, increasing taxes on rich people in order to do it. America's wealthiest men were furious, and some were not willing to wait until November 3, 1936, the next election, to do something about it.

In November 1934, Butler testified before a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He told them that he was visited by Gerald P. MacGuire, a prominent Connecticut businessman. MacGuire had visited Germany and Italy, and saw how veterans' groups had aided the Fascist movements there, movements that had stopped Communist uprisings. He told Butler that he viewed FDR and his advisors, the so-called "Brain Trust," as Communists, and said they had to be stopped.

He told Butler that a group of businessmen had $50 million to spend, and a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers, many of them members of the American Legion, ready to march on Washington, to remove Roosevelt from power, and establish a Fascist dictatorship. MacGuire told Butler that the group wanted him to be the dictator.

Butler said that he later met with Robert Sterling Clark, an heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Clark told him about some of the other men backing the plan:

* Irénée du Pont, head of the DuPont Corporation, which had recently bought the Remington Arms company, which would produce the weapons and the ammunition for the coup.

* Thomas W. Lamont, running J.P. Morgan & Company on behalf of J.P. Morgan Jr., son of the company's founder, and an adviser to every President since Woodrow Wilson, including FDR, thus giving the group an "inside man." 

* Grayson Murphy, a director of Goodyear Tire, Anaconda Copper, and Bethlehem Steel, all companies capable of supplying the coup effort with necessary materiel.

* And the last 2 Democratic Party nominees for President before FDR: John W. Davis, a former Congressman from West Virginia and U.S. Ambassador to Britain, who was always more conservative than the mainstream of the Party; and Alfred E. Smith, who was also FDR's predecessor as Governor of New York, had lost very badly to Herbert Hoover in 1928, saw FDR beat Hoover even worse in 1932, and was intensely jealous of FDR's early success and popularity as President.

About all of this, Butler told French, whom he trusted due to his service. French did some digging, and found evidence that the plot was real, not just MacGuire and Clark blowing off steam at a President they hated. Armed with this knowledge, Butler met with MacGuire again, and said, "If you get 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more, and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home." And then he went to Congress, and spilled the beans.

French broke the story in the New York Post and the Philadelphia Record on November 21. On November 22, The New York Times wrote about it, calling it a "gigantic hoax." All the parties alleged to be involved publicly said there was no truth in the story, calling it a joke and a fantasy. Roosevelt's reaction to it is not known to have been recorded.

If the coup ever got beyond the talking stage, it was doomed without a leader -- or, more likely, a figurehead. It has been alleged that Hugh S. Johnson, a retired Army Brigadier General who had been running the National Recovery Administration for FDR, and had been named Man of the Year for 1933 by Time magazine, had also turned the plotters down.

In 1935, Butler published a book titled War Is a Racket, comparing what Dwight D. Eisenhower would later call "the military-industrial complex" to organized crime. He wrote, "I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business... a gangster for capitalism" who "might have given Al Capone a few hints." That book, all by itself, showed that the big business boys were looking to the wrong man for their goal.

Plaque honoring Butler, Philadelphia City Hall:

"He enforced the law impartially,

he defended it courageously, he proved incorruptible."

MacGuire died of pneumonia shortly before Butler published his book. Grayson Murphy died in 1937, Smedley Butler in 1940, Hugh Johnson in 1942, Al Smith in 1944, Thomas Lamont in 1948, John W. Davis in 1955, Robert S. Clark in 1956, Paul French in 1960, and Irénée du Pont in 1963.

In 2018 and 2022, Thomas Lamont's great-grandson, Edward Miner Lamont Jr., a.k.a. Ned Lamont, was elected Governor of Connecticut -- as a liberal Democrat. He has conducted the office very differently from what his ancestor would have hoped.

*

November 21, 1934 was a Wednesday. This was also the day the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes, starring Ethel Merman, debuted on Broadway. I have a separate entry for that event.

This was also the day that the Yankees purchased the contract of Joe DiMaggio from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season began on November 8, there were no games scheduled for this day. So there were no scores.

November 15, 1958: Tyrone Power Dies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were 4 games in the NBA:

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 11, 1921: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

November 11, 1921: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The Tomb faces east, overlooking the national capital.

It is 3 years to the day after the Armistice that ended World War I. An unidentified soldier from World War I is buried there on the day. Every day since, regardless of weather, a team of U.S. Army Sergeants, in dress uniform, known as "Sentinels," has walked a guard along a black mat in front of the Tomb, one at a time until relieved by another. The Sentinel does the following:

1. Marches 21 steps south down the 21-yard-long black mat laid across the Tomb.
2. Turns and faces east, toward the Tomb, for 21 seconds.
3. Turns and faces north, changes weapon to the outside shoulder, and waits 21 seconds.
4. Marches 21 steps up the mat.
5. Turns and faces east for 21 seconds.
6. Turns and faces south, changes weapon to the outside shoulder, and waits 21 seconds.
7. Repeats the routine until the soldier is relieved of duty at the Changing of the Guard.

The temporary Tomb was replaced by the permanent design in 1932, with a Memorial Amphitheater around it. People are asked to view with quiet and respect. The Sentinel will remind the audience of this if there is noise.

In 1958, coffins containing unidentified remains of soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean War were added. In 1984, one from the Vietnam War was added. In 1998, a reporter looked at evidence and decided he had identified the Vietnam "Unknown" as Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Blassie. The remains were exhumed, tested, and his identity confirmed. Blassie’s coffin was taken back to his hometown of St. Louis, where he was buried with full honors.

Rather than fill the space at Arlington where Blassie had rested with another "Unknown" from the Vietnam era, the space has been left empty, as an official tribute to those who never made it home, alive or dead.

Each day, on November 11, the President of the United States, or the Vice President if the President is unavailable due to a foreign trip or illness, lays a wreath at the Tomb, with assistance from a member of the Sentinel corps not walking the guard.

President Barack Obama, November 11, 2013

And all active-duty military personnel salute the Tomb, because they don't know the men's ranks: Each of the three remaining "Unknowns" could be a buck private, or a General, although the likelihood of a General having been unaccounted for, in any war, is slim. While they are all definitely men, no one knows their ranks, their races, their religions, their places of origin, or their branches of the service. The idea is that each could be anyone, and could have been anyone -- including veterans or future servicepeople.

*

November 11, 1921 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. The start of the NHL season was over a month away. And no games were played in the NFL. But there were 8 college football games played that day:

* Virginia Tech beat North Carolina State, 7-3 on (mostly) neutral ground at League Park in Norfolk, Virginia.

* Trinity College beat Wake Forest, 17-0 at Riddick Field in Raleigh, North Carolina. Trinity was renamed Duke University in 1925.

* Birmingham-Southern beat Chattanooga, 14-7 at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Despite being the team that opened the city's famed Legion Field in 1929, and winning 3 Southern Conference titles in the 1930s, Birmingham-Southern College discovered that they couldn't compete with Alabama, Auburn, or even the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and so they dropped their program in 1939. They returned in 2007, playing in NCAA Division III, but folded the program again in 2023.

The University of Chattanooga was absorbed into the University of Tennessee system in 1969, and was renamed the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. They began playing a small-college schedule in 1956, were assigned to NCAA Division II in 1973, were promoted to Division I-A in 1977, but were dropped to Division I-AA, since renamed the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), where they remain.

* Florida beat Alabama, 9-2 at Denny Field in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

* Texas beat Mississippi A&M, 54-7 at Clark Field in Austin, Texas. The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi was renamed Mississippi State College in 1932, and Mississippi State University in 1958.

* Texas A&M and Rice played to a tie, 7-7 at Rice Field in Houston.

* Iowa State beat Kansas State, 7-0 at Ahearn Field in Manhattan, Kansas.

* And Idaho beat Wyoming, 31-3 on (mostly) neutral ground at Public School Field in Boise, Idaho.

November 10, 2018: Donald Trump Calls American War Victims "Losers" and "Suckers"

November 10, 2018: It is the day before the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I in victory for America and her allies. Representing America, Donald Trump had been scheduled to lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence Saturday at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial, located adjacent to Belleau Wood, about 60 miles northeast of Paris.

Trump had his appearance there canceled. Officially, the White House office cited weather conditions that grounded the Presidential helicopter, Marine One, for the cancellation.

Attending the cemetery event in Trump's place were the White House Chief of Staff, retired Marine General John Kelly; the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joe Dunford; and several members of the White House staff. The Battle of Belleau Wood was a critical conflict in the war, the 1st-ever battle between American troops and European troops in Europe, and the victory is regarded as a pivotal encounter in Marine Corps history. So, if Trump couldn't go, these were appropriate people to send.

The truth: Trump could have gone, and should have. He chose not to. He wasn't advised not to go: He made the choice. A report in The Atlantic, penned by the magazine's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, said Trump had refused to visit the cemetery because "he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain."

Donald Trump was worried about his hair. Have you seen Trump's hair?

As if those soldiers, and their comrades from other countries, especially Britain and France, who had been doing it a lot longer, hadn't gone through horrible conditions.

"In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, 'Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers,'" the article said.

Donald Trump called Americans who died serving their country in war "losers."

"In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as 'suckers' for getting killed," The Atlantic added, citing four unnamed people it said had firsthand knowledge of the discussions.

Not one person, not two people, not three people. Four different people, who all heard him say it.

Donald Trump called Americans who died serving their country in war "losers" and "suckers."

Trump slammed the report, after his aides earlier called the allegations "disgusting, grotesque, reprehensible lies."

According to The Atlantic, Trump asked aides on his trip to France, "Who were the good guys in this war?" and could not understand why the United States had come to the aid of the Allies.

When asking Congress for a Declaration of War on April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson said, "The world must be made safe for democracy."

Wilson's hypocrisy on the issue of democracy became clear after the war, when he continued policies that were terribly undemocratic toward black Americans. Nevertheless, he at least understood democracy. Trump doesn't even try to understand it.

The truth: Donald Trump doesn't understand anything beyond his own selfish desires. He was not fit to be President of the United States, and commander-in-chief of our armed forces, and our representative to the world, when he ran for President in 2016. He was not fit to serve in those posts in 2018. He was not fit when he ran for re-election in 2020.

UPDATE: He was not fit while running again in 2024.

*

November 10, 2018 was a Saturday. Among the college football games played were these:

* Number 1 Alabama beat Number 18 Mississippi State, 24-0 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 'Bama won the Southeastern Conference title.

* Number 2 Clemson beat Number 17 Boston College, 27-7 at Alumni Stadium in the Boston suburb of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Clemson won the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

* Number 3 Notre Dame beat Florida State, 42-13 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame were invited to the Cotton Bowl, where they lost to Clemson.

* Number 4 Michigan beat Rutgers, 42-7 at High Point Solutions Stadium (now SHI Stadium) in Piscataway, New Jersey.

* Number 5 Georgia beat Auburn, 27-10 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia.

* Rivalry: Number 6 Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State, 48-47 at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman. Oklahoma won the Big 12 Conference title, and were invited to the Orange Bowl, where they were beaten by Alabama. 'Bama went to the National Championship Game, where they lost to Clemson.

* Number 7 West Virginia beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 47-10 at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia.

* Number 8 Ohio State beat Number 24 Michigan State, 26-6 at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, Michigan. Ohio State went on to win the Big Ten Conference title.

* Number 9 Louisiana State University (LSU) beat Arkansas, 24-17 at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

* Number 10 Washington State beat Colorado, 31-7 at Folsom Field in the Denver suburb of Boulder, Colorado.

* Rivalry: Number 12 Kentucky were upset by Tennessee, 24-7 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.

* The University of Washington were unranked at this point, and were idle this week. They went on to upset Washington State and Utah, ranked 8th and 17th at the time, respectively, and win the Pacific-12 Conference title. Washington went to the Rose Bowl, and lost to Ohio State.

* Rivalry: Duke beat North Carolina, 42-35 at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.

* Rivalry: Kansas State beat Kansas, 21-17 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas.

* And among the service academies, Army beat Lafayette, 31-13 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; Navy lost to Number 11 University of Central Florida (UCF), 35-24 at Spectrum Stadium (now FBC Mortgage Stadium) in Orlando; and Air Force beat New Mexico, 42-24 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. UCF went to the Fiesta Bowl, where they lost to LSU, ending their dream of an undefeated season and a possible challenge to the winner of the official National Championship Game. (The highest-ranked team they beat was the University of Cincinnati, then ranked Number 24. Any pretensions they had to being on the same level as Clemson and Alabama were laughable.)

There were 10 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Toronto Raptors, 128-112 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Golden State Warriors, 116-100 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).

* The Washington Wizards beat the Miami Heat, 116-110 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 112-106 in overtime at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. Mike Conley scored 32 points to lead all scorers on the night.

* The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Phoenix Suns, 119-99 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 99-98 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 111-96 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Houston Rockets, 96-89 at the AT&T Center (now the Frost Bank Center) in San Antonio.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 128-126 in overtime at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings, 101-86 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

And there were 11 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-4 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Florida Panthers, 4-2 at the BB&T Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Vegas Golden Knights, 5-4 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-0 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3 at the PNC Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 6-4 at the Amalie Arena (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 in a shootout at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Arizona Coyotes, 4-0 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.  

* The Nashville Predators beat the Dallas Stars, 5-4 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Mattias Ekholm scored the winning goal, with 2:33 left in overtime.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings, 1-0 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

October 25, 1983: The Grenada Invasion

October 25, 1983: American troops and a coalition of 6 Caribbean nations invade the island nation of Grenada.

That country had gained independence from Britain in 1974, but the New Jewel Movement, a Communist group led by Maurice Bishop, seized power in 1979. By October 1983, there was a power struggle that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, and could have led to a civil war. Not that America was predisposed to like Bishop: He was a leftist, and an ally of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Bishop (left) and Castro

Bernard Coard took power, but he lasted just 5 days, from Bishop's execution on October 14 to 19, when he was deposed by General Hudson Austin, who formed a military dictatorship.

 

Hudson Austin

There were over 600 American citizens on the island, mostly medical students. President Ronald Reagan was afraid of another hostage crisis, less than 3 years after the end of the one in Iran. To make matters worse, on October 23, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon was attacked by a suicide bomber, killing 241 Americans.

His plan to invade Grenada, which he had discussed while at his ranch outside Santa Barbara, California, was deemed necessary, even if it ended up appearing that it was a distraction from the Beirut debacle.

Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, the American portion included the Army's famed 82nd Airborne Division, its 75th Ranger Regiment, and its Delta Force; Navy SEALs, and Marine units. Vice Admiral Joseph Metcalf III was the operation's commanding officer. Among his subcommanders was Major General Norman Schwarzkopf, later to rise to 4 stars and command American ground troops during the Persian Gulf War.

Admiral Joseph Metcalf

The operation was an overwhelming success: Within 4 days, the island was secured. But not a complete success: 19 American servicemen were killed, and another 152 wounded or injured. Still, it was seen as "a win for America," which Reagan needed, as he was up for re-election in a little over a year.

The following year, democratic elections were held in both America and Grenada. Today, Grenada is a free country, home to 112,000 people, 96 percent of them black, and 96 percent of them Christian. And it celebrates October 25 as its annual Thanksgiving Day.

Coard and Austin were sentenced to death, but their sentences were commuted to life. Austin was released from prison in 2008, and died on September 24, 2022. As of that date, Bernard Coard was still alive. He had been released in 2009, and said he did not want to be involved in politics any further. Admiral Metcalf died in 2007.

*

October 25, 1983 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that Microsoft introduced Microsoft Word, which became the most popular word processing program ever. I have a separate entry for that event.

It was the middle of the week, so there were no football games. The baseball season had ended 9 days earlier, when the Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win the World Series. The NBA season began 3 days later. The NHL season had gotten underway, and 7 games were played that day:

* The New York Islanders were the only team in the New York Tri-State Area in action, and lost to the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-2 at the Colisee de Quebec.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 1-0 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins, 5-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 8-5 at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

September 23, 2003: “NCIS” Premieres

Standing, L to R: Pauley Perrette, Sean Murray

Cote de Pablo and Rocky Carroll.

Seated, L to R: Michael Weatherly, Mark Harmon,

Brian Dietzen and David McCallum.

September 23, 2003: NCIS premieres on CBS, with the episode "Yankee White." This is real-life code for the highest security clearance that the federal government gives.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, based at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., investigates crimes committed by or against, or on the bases of, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps (which is a part of the U.S. Department of Defense's Department of the Navy). The equivalent unit for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force is the CID, the Criminal Investigation Division.

The series NCIS tells of a fictionalized version of the real thing, in a world with slight differences from ours: While George W. Bush was still President at the time of the show's premiere (stock footage shows the real thing, but an actor plays him on the Air Force One stage set), and a portrait of Osama bin Laden is hung on the NCIS office wall as part of their most wanted fugitives (with a red banner across him after his real-life 2011 Navy SEAL-induced death), no other real-life politicians are mentioned.

The NCIS Director, and his or her superiors, the Secretary of the Navy, a.k.a. "SecNav," and the Secretary of Defense, a.k.a. "SecDef," are fictional characters. And plenty of fictional Senators and Congressmen have been portrayed. And, since they couldn't get the rights to use footage from CNN, the news network shown on TV screens in their office "bullpen" is named ZNN. There are also fictionalized versions of magazines, and it is later established that the show takes place in the same "universe" as CBS' rebooted versions of Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum, P.I.

It also takes place in the same universe as the established CBS military drama JAG, and an episode in that show's 2002-03 season served as a "backdoor pilot." It introduced the characters of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (played by Mark Harmon), leader of the Service's Major Case Response Team; his second-in-command, Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly); Dr. Donald "Ducky," Mallard (David McCallum), their Scottish medical examiner; and Dr. Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette), their "Goth Girl" forensic specialist.

The NCIS pilot introduces Caitlin "Kate" Todd (Sasha Alexander), then a Secret Service Agent that Gibbs hires after she’s fired at the end of the episode; and FBI Agent Tobias Fornell (Joe Spano, who becomes a recurring character rather than a series regular).

The pilot also introduces the 1st 3 of what came to be known as "Gibbs’ Rules":

1. Never let suspects stay together.

2. Always wear gloves at a crime scene.

3. Don't believe what you're told: Double-check.

The number of Rules varies, depending on who's telling. Gibbs would later reveal there's another Rule #1 that supersedes all the others: "Never screw over your partner." DiNozzo would later reveal there's also a duplicate for #3: "Never be unreachable," a Rule that Gibbs himself violated a few times.

The most oft-quoted Rules are #9, "Never go anywhere without a knife"; #10, "Never get personally involved in a case," which becomes the one Rule that Gibbs gets rid of; and #12, "Never date a co-worker." This is emphasized by DiNozzo constantly hitting on Kate and, after she is killed in the Season 2 finale, her replacement, Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), formerly an agent with Israel's national security agency, the Mossad. Tony and Ziva finally become a couple after she leaves NCIS.

In a Season 2 episode, DiNozzo cites Rule #13: "Never, ever involve a lawyer." He says, "Gibbs has 7 Rules about lawyers, none of them pretty. In the Season 7 finale, having just narrowly avoided prison for a crime most people would say he was justified in committing -- the former Marine sniper had killed the drug lord who ordered the deaths of his wife and his 8-year-old daughter while he was serving in the Persian Gulf War -- Gibbs looked through the box where he kept the slips of paper on which he'd written the Rules, and found Rule #13. He turned it over, and, on the other side, he wrote: "#51 SOMETIMES YOU'RE WRONG."

The show has changed a lot, but it is still on the air after 20 years. It has also inspired spinoff series, set in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Hawai'i.

*

September 23, 2003 was a Tuesday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. José Contreras allowed 4 hits over 8 innings, and Mariano Rivera completed the 5-hit shutout, outpitching Mark Buehrle. Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera and Jason Giambi hit home runs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 at Shea Stadium. Al Leiter allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout. Timo Pérez grounded out in the bottom of the 4th inning, allowing Mike Piazza to score the game's only run.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. David Ortiz and his steroids hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, after Todd Walker (and his steroids?) hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Montreal Expos, 2-0 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. The Braves needed 3 pitchers to shut the Expos out: Shane Reynolds allowed 7 hits over the 1st 7 innings, Jaret Wright pitched a hitless 8th and became the winning pitcher, and John Smoltz struck out the side in the 9th to get the save.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 8-5 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Kerry Wood took a no-hitter into the 7th inning, striking out 12 and walking 2. But he walked Russell Branyan and then gave up a single to Wily Mo Peña, and walked Ray Olmedo, before working out of it. Kyle Farnsworth pitched a perfect 8th, and Mike Remlinger allowed a leadoff single to Sean Casey in the 9th, but completed the shutout.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 15-6 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 10-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Barry Bonds went 1-for-3.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 20-9 at Coors Field in Denver. Yes, that's baseball, not football. The Rockies scored 6 runs in the 1st inning, 4 in the 5th, 2 in the 6th, 5 in the 7th and 3 in the 8th.

The ball was flying out of Coors Field. The Rox got home runs from Larry Walker, Ronnie Belliard and Todd Helton; while the D-backs got them from Raúl Mondesí, Shea Hillenbrand and Chad Moeller.

* The team then known as the Anaheim Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Tim Salmon won it with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 2-1 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. The Padres played 5 more games at the facility known as San Diego Stadium from 1967 to 1980, and Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997, before moving into Petco Park the next season.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum). Adam Melhuse singled Eurbiel Durazo home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

September 16, 1940: America's 1st Peacetime Draft

September 16, 1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 into law, marking America’s 1st peacetime draft.

He does this even though he's running for an unprecedented 3rd term, and that it will lose him votes of draft-age men and the people who care about them. He doesn't yet know when America will have to get into World War II, but he wants us ready when we do need to face Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

More than 16 million Americans would serve in the war, with about 10 million of them entering the armed forces through the draft. Over 400,000 of them would die in service, although not all of those would be from battle wounds and injuries: The total includes accidents and illnesses.

*

September 16, 1940 was a Monday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the St. Louis Browns, 16-4 at Yankee Stadium. Vern Kennedy went the distance for the Browns, while Marius Russo didn't even get out of the 1st inning, when the Browns tagged him and then Bump Hadley for 7 runs. Johnny Lucadello hit 2 home runs. The Yankees got 6 hits, including a home run and a single by Joe DiMaggio.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-6 at the Polo Grounds. Mel Ott hit 2 home runs, but they were solo shots.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Ebbets Field. Bill Baker got Mike McCormick home on a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning.

* A doubleheader was split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 3-2. The St. Louis Cardinals won the nightcap, 7-1.

* A doubleheader was split at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Cleveland Indians won the 1st game, 8-3. The Philadelphia Athletics won the 2nd game, 3-2.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 9-2 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Hank Greenberg went 2-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. The Tigers went on to win the American League Pennant, the only one not won by the Yankees between 1936 and 1943.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ted Williams went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Jimmie Foxx went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Boston Bees and the Chicago Cubs had agreed on a schedule change, which was occasionally done in the era before air travel, to give players more rest. So their game that was scheduled for this day, at National League Park in Boston, was moved back to be part of a doubleheader the previous day -- the opposite procedure from a rainout. The Bees won the 1st game, 7-3. The Cubs won the 2nd game, 7-4.

This was the last of 5 seasons in which the Boston team of the National League, following a disastrous 1935 season, was known as the Bees, also renaming their ballpark. The new names never caught on, and, in 1941, the team went back to the former name, the Boston Braves, and restored the Braves Field name to their ballpark.

September 14, 1963: "The Lieutenant" Premieres on NBC

September 14, 1963: The Lieutenant premieres on NBC. It was the 1st TV show created by Gene Roddenberry, up until then known as a writer, especially for the TV Western Have Gun -- Will Travel.

Gary Lockwood played 2nd Lieutenant William Tiberius Rice, a recent graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. The Naval Academy trains officers for both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, and Rice had chosen the Marines. As the series begins, he is a rifle platoon leader and a training instructor at Camp Pendleton, a Marine base outside San Diego.

Robert Vaughn, who had been one of The Magnificent Seven, played Rice's company commander, Captain Raymond Bainbridge. Unlike Annapolis graduate Rice, he came up through the ranks. Richard Anderson had a recurring role Lieutenant Colonel Steve Hiland, the battalion commander. Linda Evans appeared as his daughter, Nan, who flirted with Rice, but nothing ever happened between them.

The series focused primarily on Rice's various assignments as a junior officer, which often involved special details or difficult situations. Several of the later episodes featured Rice becoming an undercover investigator with military intelligence, allowing for plots and scenarios which Rice would otherwise not be involved with as a second lieutenant.

On February 22, 1964, NBC shelved an episode of the show that it had intended to air that evening, titled "To Set It Right." It was directed by Vincent McEveety. The plot concerned a black Marine who was persecuted by a Corporal, played by Dennis Hopper. A year earlier, Hopper had played a neo-Nazi guided by the ghost of Hitler on a Twilight Zone episode titled "He's Alive."

The black Marine, Private Ernest Cameron, was played by Don Marshall, later to star on Land of the Giants. Making her TV debut as his girlfriend, Norma Bartlett, was a 31-year-old cabaret singer named Nichelle Nichols.

NBC said its advertisers wouldn't like the episode. Roddenberry went to the NAACP, and showed it to some executives. But they also objected, because Private Cameron appeared to be a stereotype they couldn't stand, the angry black man. With blowback from both racists and civil rights advocates, NBC dropped the episode, and announced the series' cancellation a week later. The final episode aired on April 18, 1964.

The series ended with the Rice character being restationed to a fictional country that was clearly an analogue to Vietnam. If it had lasted longer, it might have run into trouble with the way stories about that country were told. Also, an officer as bright as 2nd Lieutenant Rice might have been promoted to 1st Lieutenant, but he would have risen through the ranks beyond that, rendering the show's title out of date. Given the Department of the Navy's use of "Mr." as a title for officers, regardless of rank, adopted from Britain's Royal Navy, perhaps the show, had it continued, would have been renamed Mister Rice.

The experience of not being able to talk about race, war, and other important things on that show led Roddenberry to discuss such topics in allegory form on his next show, Star Trek. For that show's 2nd attempt a pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," he hired the star of The Lieutenant, Gary Lockwood, as Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell, First Officer and Navigator of the starship USS Enterprise.

Mitchell was written as the best friend-turned-antagonist of the show's lead character, William Shatner's Captain James Kirk. A tombstone created by Mitchell in that episode had him listed as "James R. Kirk." But in the Season 1 episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday," the Captain gives his name as "James T. Kirk." Trek fans have come up with a few explanations for that changed middle initial since. And in 1973, Star Trek: The Animated Series gave his middle name as "Tiberius," same as William Rice.

Also joining Roddenberry from The Lieutenant to Star Trek were Nichols; McEveety, who would direct 6 Trek episodes; his girlfriend (later wife), Majel Barrett; Marshall, who played Lieutenant Boma in a one-shot appearance in the Season 1 episode "The Galileo Seven"; and series guest stars Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig and Ricardo Montalban.

The Lieutenant was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and after its cancellation, they gave Vaughn the lead role in a new series, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Anderson would later have a key role on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Evans would star on Dynasty. And Lockwood would be forever remembered as ill-fated astronaut Dr. Frank Poole in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

*

September 14, 1963 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the Minnesota Twins at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Twins won the opener, 6-2. Dick Stigman outpitched Bill Stafford. Vic Power, whom general manager George Weiss traded 10 years earlier, rather than allow to become the 1st black Yankee, went 4-for-5 with an RBI for the Twins. Elston Howard, who did become the 1st black Yankee, and who would soon be named the American League's Most Valuable Player, hit a home run. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4, before leaving with an injury. 

The Yankees won the nightcap, 3-1. Ralph Terry outpitched Gerry Arrigo. Tom Tresh hit a home run. Mantle did not play. Roger Maris did not play in either game. The Yankees had clinched the Pennant by beating the Twins the day before, so there was little reason to risk either of "The M&M Boys." Over the 2 games, Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-8 with an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Colt .45s, 4-0 at the Polo Grounds. Ken Johnson pitched a 4-hit shutout. Carl Warwick hit a home run. Four days later, the Mets lost to the Phillies in the last baseball game at the Polo Grounds. The next year, they moved into the new Shea Stadium. The year after that, the Colt .45s moved into the new Astrodome, and became the Houston Astros.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 7-5 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Willie Mays went 2-for-5. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-5. Willie Stargell went 2-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Former Oriole Gus Triandos won it with a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, off Robin Roberts. Al Kaline went 0-for-3 with a walk. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Neither Frank Robinson of the Reds nor Ernie Banks of the Cubs appeared in the game.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Bob Gibson was the winning pitcher. Bill White hit a home run. Stan Musial, in his last month as an active player, went 0-for-3. Joe Torre hit a home run. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Dick Stuart hit 2 home runs. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels were groundsharing while waiting for their Anaheim stadium to be built.

It was the opening week for the college football season, and 2 games were played by teams that we would now recognize as "major colleges." Georgia Tech beat Florida, 9-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta. And Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) beat Southern Mississippi, 28-7 at Mississippi Memorial Stadium in Jackson.

It was the opening week for the NFL season, and 2 games were played on this Saturday rather than Sunday. The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys, 34-7 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. And the Detroit Lions beat the Los Angeles Rams, 23-2 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

It was the 2nd week of the season for the AFL, and 1 game was played: The Houston Oilers beat the Denver Broncos, 20-14 at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal crossed town to beat Fulham, 4-1 at Craven Cottage in West London.