November 16, 1902: The 1st Teddy Bear

November 16, 1902: The Washington Post publishes a political cartoon, drawn by Clifford Berryman, showing a black bear lassoed and set up to be shot by a hunter. A very particular hunter, famous for shooting wild animals.

Except this time, the hunter in question is shown refusing to shoot. He is Theodore Roosevelt, the current President of the United States.

The cartoon was the by-product of a bear-hunting trip that Roosevelt had taken to Mississippi earlier in the month, along with that State's Governor, Andrew H. Longino (Yes, an Italian-American served as Governor of the most racist State in the Union at the dawn of the 20th Century), and an ally of Longino's, noted lawyer LeRoy Percy, later to be elected to the U.S. Senate. (His son, Walker Percy, became a best-selling novelist.)

After most of the other hunters involved had already killed at least one bear, a party of Roosevelt's attendants, led by Holt Collier, a 54-year-old former slave noted for his hunting skill, cornered, clubbed, and tied an American black bear to a willow tree after a long and exhausting chase with hounds. They called Roosevelt to the site, and suggested that he should shoot the bear dead, although Collier told Roosevelt not to shoot the bear while it was tied. Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to be put out of its misery.

Morris Michtom, who ran a toy store in Brooklyn, saw the cartoon, and created a stuffed bear, putting it in the window of his store, calling it "Teddy's bear." Roosevelt didn't mind being referred to by his initials, "TR," but hated being called "Teddy." Nevertheless, the term "teddy bear" caught on, and similar bears became the thing that every kid wanted that Christmas.

Clifford Berryman had drawn for the Post since 1891. In 1898, he coined the slogan, "Remember the Maine!" asking Americans to think of the destruction of the battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba (which was almost certainly the result of an accidental boiler explosion, not sabotage) as a reason to fight the Spanish-American War.

He moved to The Washington Star in 1907, and continued to draw for them until his death in 1949, at the age of 80.

By 1907, teddy bears were so popular that the song "Teddy Bears Picnic" was written, and became a hit. That same year, Michael G. Esper, a Catholic priest in Michigan, declared them to be "horrible monstrosities," which, by supplanting the "good old dolls," would cause girls to lose the urge to nurture babies, leading to declining birth rates among the white population, and thus "race suicide." The suggestion attracted widespread but short-lived attention, and Father Esper drifted back into well-deserved obscurity.

In 1908, as Roosevelt was leaving office, and William Howard Taft was running as his handpicked successor, word got out that he liked opossums, and so "Billy Possum" stuffed toys were produced. Taft won, but the opossum dolls named for him did not catch on.

A teddy bear owned by his son Christopher Robin Milne inspired British writer A.A. Milne to create Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926. In 1958, another British writer, Michael Bond, created Paddington Bear. The cartoon Care Bears debuted in 1983, and Seth MacFarlane's foul-mouthed Ted debuted in 2012.

In 1957, a rumor got around that Elvis Presley loved teddy bears, and that he even had a collection of them. It wasn't true, but he soon got a collection, because girls began throwing them onstage at his concerts. Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe wrote a song for him, "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear," and it was Number 1 on Billboard magazine's pop music charts for 7 weeks.

*

November 16, 1902 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. Professional football existed on only a minor-league level. Basketball was barely even on that level. And hockey was still all-amateur, unless guys were getting paid under the table. So there were no scores on this day. 

October 22, 2001: "Pardon the Interruption" Premieres

Tony Kornheiser (left) and Michael Wilbon

October 22, 2001: ESPN premieres its show Pardon the Interruption. Just as I would later describe Around the Horn, which debuted on the network a year later, as "The McLaughlin Group for sports," PIT is to sports what Crossfire was the politics.

Tony Kornheiser, from Lynbrook, Long Island, New York, was 53 years old when the show began, although his advancing age would become a running gag. Michael Wilbon, from the South Side of Chicago, was about to turn 43, although, as the show went on and he became, in his own words, "an old man," he seemed to enjoy telling younger athletes and fans, "Get off my lawn!"

Both were sportswriters at The Washington Post, Kornheiser from 1979 to 2008, Wilbon from 1980 to 2010, both eventually becoming regular columnists before getting bought out. Kornheiser grew up as a fan of the New York Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers; Wilbon, of the Chicago Cubs (despite growing up in White Sox territory), Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks. But both retain affection for the D.C.-area teams, including the teams of the University of Maryland and Georgetown University, due to having covered them for the Post.

The show begins with "Headlines": They discuss three major sports stories of the day. Each segment has a clock, usually no more than 2 minutes. After a commercial break, they might do more Headlines. Or they might do a short in-depth interview with another ESPN expert on a particular sport, calling the segment "Five Good Minutes."

Or they might play a game. Sometimes it's "Toss-Up," where they choose between two preferences: Who's likelier to win a game, who's the better performer at a particular event, which coach is on a hotter "hot seat," etc. Sometimes, it's "What's the Word?" where they choose a word to describe an occurrence in sports. Sometimes, it's "Mail Time," where they read questions sent in by viewers, and answer them.

Long-since discarded games were "Odds Makers," in which their former assistant, Tony Reali -- known as "Stat Boy," before (and, for a few more years, after) becoming host/moderator of Around the Horn -- would ask what were the odds of something happening; "Over/Under," in which Reali would give them a number of something, like how many games a team would win, and they had to guess over it or under it; "Role Play," where they would hold up a picture of an athlete or coach, and the other man would ask him a question, and he had to answer it in his perception of that person's character; "Good Cop, Bad Cop," in which one would be nice about an issue and the other would be mean; and "Food Chain," where they would rank certain items, leading to Tony creating a catchphrase that has survived the segment: "That's it, that's the list!"

Then, another commercial break. Then, "Happy Time." First, they wish a sports figure a Happy Birthday, and talk about them for about 30 seconds. If it's an old guy, Tony will said, "History lesson, kids!" Then, "Happy Anniversary" -- or, sometimes, "Not-So-Happy Anniversary." Finally, "Happy Trails" to a coach getting fired, a player retiring, or a seemingly likely event failing to happen. If a sports figure has died, "Happy Trails" is replaced by "A Melancholy Trails" and a considerably more respectful discussion.

By this point, the clock will show under 2 minutes left to do the show. This is followed by "Errors and Omissions." Finally, the Big Finish: Tony will say, "We're running out of show! It's time for the big finish!" and Mike will say, "Let's do it!" Five brief segments, Tony introducing the 1st, 3rd and 5th, Mike the 2nd and 4th.

After Mike responds to the last, Tony says, "We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser!" And Mike says, "And I'm Mike Wilbon. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads!" Unless it's a Friday, in which case, it's "Have a great weekend, knuckleheads!" Or, if they're pre-empted, "We're bumped by basketball/golf/tennis 'til (whatever the day is), knuckleheads!" Followed by Mike introducing the show at 6:00: "Here's SportsCenter!" Or, if it's Monday night, "Here's Monday Night Countdown!"

Frequent references are made to their colleges: Tony's Binghamton University in New York State, and Mike's Northwestern University north of Chicago. Mike refers to Tony's bias toward New York, or at least to the Northeast, referring to the main Interstate highway, I-95, as opposed to his own Midwest, or "Big Ten" or I-94 region.

Less frequent than usual are Wilbon's references to guys Tony likes as "Your boy!" Tony began to fire back when Wilbon waxed about Chicago-adjacent personalities, and called them "Your boy!"

They dress up for Halloween, and, on their last show before Thanksgiving Day, they do "The Turkeys of the Year." Tony says, "Wilbon, tell them the rules" (for deciding them). Mike says, "There ain't none." And then they show bloopers, and athletes, coaches and owners who made fools (or "turkeys") of themselves in other ways.

When the show was suggested to them, because they had such great chemistry together when talking about sports, both of them thought the show, airing weekdays at 5:30 PM Eastern Time on ESPN and repeated at least once a day on ESPN2, would last a few weeks at most. Nobody is more surprised than they are that, as of October 22, 2022, it is still on the air, and they're still the ones doing it.

But they don't always do it in the D.C. studio where it is taped, usually broadcast live. Wilbon frequently does it from the arenas where he covers NBA games for the network. Sometimes, he's back home in Chicago, doing it from ESPN's studio there. Sometimes, he's at ESPN's studio in Phoenix, because he has a house in suburban Scottsdale, Arizona -- Phoenix being to Chicagoans what Florida is to New Yorkers: Where you go to retire. Except Wilbon has no intention of retiring.

Likewise, when COVID hit in March 2020, Tony started doing the show from his house in the Chevy Chase section of Northwest Washington (which borders the city of Chevy Chase, Maryland). Even after restrictions were lifted, the joke is that he does the show from his attic. It took about 2 years for him to once again do the show from his studio -- and on the day that he did it, Wilbon was on assignment, covering a Lakers-Warriors game in Los Angeles!

Occasionally, one or both will be out -- the joke is that Tony is tired, or that either one of them is indulging in their golf fetish -- and replaced by a substitute. For years, a regular sub was Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald, and both Tony and Mike pretended that they hated him. Sometimes, it's Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, a.k.a. "Fill-In Frank." Sometimes, it's another ESPN correspondent, such as Pablo Torre (whom Tony jokes is "my son") or Mina Kimes.

In 2004, CBS tried to build a sitcom around Tony, titled Listen Up. It starred Jason Alexander of Seinfeld as Philadelphia-based sportswriter Tony Kleinman, who hosts a talk show titled Listen Up with Bernie Widmer, a former NFL player played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner of The Cosby Show. Like Home Improvement, it tried to balance the protagonist's work life with the TV show and his home life with his wife and kids in the suburbs, but it didn't work, and was canceled after 1 season.

*

October 22, 2001 was a Monday. NFL Pro Bowl safety Brian Branch was born. Also on this day, tennis had its "royal wedding": Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi got married at their home, in Agassi's hometown of Las Vegas. The private ceremony happened in their courtyard, where they exchanged vows barefoot in jeans, with only their mothers and a Nevada judge present. Between them, they have a son, a daughter, and 30 Grand Slam singles titles (Steffi 22, Andre 8).

This was also the day that the American League Pennant was decided. The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 12-3 at Yankee Stadium, in Game 5 of the AL Division Series. The Mariners had tied the major league record with 116 regular-season wins, but flopped in the Playoffs. I have a separate entry for this occurrence.

The National League Pennant was also decided on this date. The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 in Game 5 of the NL Championship Series, to win the Pennant in record time, their 4th season of existence. Randy Johnson outpitched Tom Glavine, and Erubiel Durazo hit a home run.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, a rivalry was played out: The Philadelphia Eagles beat the New York Giants, 10-9 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

June 17, 1972: The Watergate Break-In

June 17, 1972: There is a burglary at the offices of the Democratic National Committee, at the Watergate complex on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

Built in stages between 1963 and 1971, the Watergate consists of 6 buildings, including 2 office buildings, 1 of them at 2600 Virginia Avenue NW, where the burglary took place. There are also 3 apartment buildings, and a hotel.

Five men are arrested. As it turns out, they were hired by The Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP -- or, to the Democrats, "Creep"), as part of the "Special Investigations Unit," nicknamed the "Plumbers" because they were meant to stop "leaks," information getting out of the White House to the media.

They are:

* Bernard Barker, born in Cuba in 1917, to a Cuban father and a Jewish mother. In World War II, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force, serving as a bombardier on a B-17 bomber. He was shot down, and held as a prisoner of war by the Nazis for 15 months. He returned to Cuba, working for the secret police of dictator Fulgencio Batista, and for the FBI, and for the CIA. When Fidel Castro took over Cuba, Barker participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion that failed to overthrow him.

* Eugenio Martínez, born in Cuba in 1922. He was a real estate agent, and I didn't find a reference to him having participated in the Bay of Pigs.

* James McCord, born in Oklahoma in 1924. Like Barker, he was an Army Air Force bombardier in World War II. Also like Barker, he served with the FBI and the CIA, although not with the pre-Castro Cuban secret police. He appears not to have participated in the Bay of Pigs.

* Frank Sturgis, born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1924, and grew up in Philadelphia. A Marine in World War II, he later returned to Norfolk, and served in the city's police department, quitting when he saw how corrupt it was. He opened a bar that catered to the city's Cuban community. He infiltrated Castro's movement on behalf of the CIA, and claimed to have participated in the Bay of Pigs. 

* Virgilio Gonzalez, born in Cuba in 1926. A locksmith, he also joined the anti-Castro movement among Cuban exiles in America. He also participated in the Bay of Pigs.

Sturgis cooperated with the federal prosecutors, served a little over a year in prison, and went on to aid anti-Communist rebels in Africa and Central America. He was the 1st of the burglars to die, in 1993. Barker pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 6 years in prison, served 1, moved to Miami, worked as a city building inspector, and died in 2009. Gonzalez also pleaded guilty, served just 1 year in prison, and also moved to Miami, again working as a locksmith, and then as a mechanic. He died in 2014.

McCord cooperated with the investigators more than any of the other burglars, and was sentenced to 1 to 5 years, but was released after just 6 months. He founded a private security firm, and died in 2017. Martínez pleaded guilty, and served 15 months. He turned out to be the last survivor of the burglars, dying on January 30, 2021.

When asked about the crime, Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary to President Richard M. Nixon, called it "a third-rate burglary." And, for most of the 1972 Presidential campaign, few people seemed to care about it. In his acceptance speech for the Presidential nomination at the Democratic Convention on July 14, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota said, "From secrecy and deception in high places, come home, America." Like everything else he said, it fell on deaf ears, and Nixon went on to win re-election in a landslide.

Two men who definitely cared about it were the reporters that The Washington Post sent to cover the story before anybody realized how big it would become: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Advised by a man he initially identified only with the code name "Deep Throat" (after a recent pornographic movie), later identified as high-ranking FBI official Mark Felt, Woodward chose to "follow the money." 

He and Bernstein got closer and closer, until the tide began to turn against Nixon. On April 30, 1973, 3 months into his 2nd term, and with U.S. Senate hearings on the horizon, Nixon decided to get rid of the men who seemed to be involved. He fired his White House Chief of Staff, H.R. "Bob" Haldeman; his Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, John Ehrlichman; his White House Counsel, John Dean; and his Attorney General, Richard Kleindienst. He thought that this would stop the bleeding.

It didn't. The Senate began hearings into what was being called "The Watergate Matter" on May 17, chaired by Sam Ervin, a Democrat from North Carolina. On that first day, Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee, asked the key question about the burglary: "What did the President know, and when did he know it?"

A key to the answer was provided on July 17. Alexander Butterfield, then the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), but previously a Deputy White House Chief of Staff, testified that he had installed a tape-recording system in the Oval Office at the White House.

The tapes could prove Nixon's guilt. Or, they could prove his innocence. Or, they could provide reasonable doubt as to his guilt. They could prove that he didn't know about the burglary beforehand, or that he was presented with the idea and approved it, or that he even thought it up himself and ordered it. Or, they could prove absolutely nothing.

If Nixon were innocent of any crime connected to Watergate, he would have released all the tapes immediately. Instead, he did everything possible to stop the Special Prosecutor investigating the case, Archibald Cox, from getting his hands on them.

On October 20, he told his new Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, the man who had hired Cox and had the power to fire him, to fire him. Richardson refused, because he thought it would spark a Constitutional crisis. Nixon said do it or you're fired. Richardson did the honorable thing, and resigned his post.

So Nixon went to the next man in line, Richardson's Deputy Attorney General, William Ruckelshaus.  He told Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. He refused. Nixon said do it or you're fired. Ruckelshaus still refused, but did not resign. Nixon fired him. So with the top 2 men in the U.S. Department of Justice now gone, Nixon went to the Number 3 man, the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, and told him to fire Cox. He did.

Word quickly got out, and the Washington press corps quickly dubbed these events "The Saturday Night Massacre." People woke up the next morning to bold headlines in their Sunday papers. The Sunday morning news shows -- NBC's Meet the Press, CBS' Face the Nation, and ABC's Issues and Answers (the predecessor program to This Week) -- talked about nothing else.

The pressure on Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Nixon vastly increased. Within days, Nixon realized what a blunder he had committed, and told Bork to appoint a new Special Prosecutor. That man would be Leon Jaworski. He kept pushing, and on August 5, 1974 -- 9 days after the House Judiciary Committee approved 3 Articles of Impeachment against Nixon -- the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously granted his request to order Nixon to turn over the tapes.

One tape became known as the "Smoking Gun," because it revealed that, on June 23, 1972, just 6 days after the break-in, Nixon told Haldeman to tell the FBI to drop its investigation of the break-in, due to the CIA being involved. That was obstruction of justice, one of the charges in the Articles of Impeachment.

Nixon's guilt was now beyond doubt. On August 7, the Republican leaders of Congress -- showing more love of country than their 2019 counterparts would when it was proven that Donald Trump was a criminal President -- went to see Nixon at the White House, and told him they couldn't prevent his impeachment by the full House of Representatives, and they couldn't stop his conviction and removal from office by the Senate.

The evening of the next day, Nixon announced he would resign the Presidency the next day. He did, the 1st President ever to do so, and still the only one.

There are so many weird things about Watergate, and its aftermath. The Chairman of the Republican National Committee at the time of the break-in was Bob Dole, then also a Senator from Kansas. Eventually, he would move into the Watergate apartments, and run for President himself, 3 times, winning his Party's nomination in 1996, losing to Bill Clinton. His successor as RNC Chairman was George H.W. Bush, elected President in 1988, but defeated by Clinton in 1992. As far as is publicly known, neither Dole nor Bush was involved in the Watergate break-in or its cover-up.

In 1998, Clinton was impeached, although he was acquitted, the result of a sex scandal with a former White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. When the scandal broke, she was living at the Watergate apartments.

The Watergate complex is practically next-door to the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing arts. Kennedy and Nixon are linked in so many ways, so it's not that surprising that JFK's official D.C. memorial and Nixon's unofficial one are next-door to each other.

To the end of his life, Nixon stood by his story that he didn't know about the break-in until he was told the next morning, June 18, 1972, while vacationing at Key Biscayne, Florida. If that was true, and he had told his aides to come clean, and he had then done so himself, there would have been no "Smoking Gun" tape, and he likely would have served out his 2nd term. What could he have done from January 20, 1973 to January 20, 1977?

Instead of focusing on staying in office, he could have focused on the economy. Due to his support for Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, OPEC raised oil prices, starting the high inflation and recession that dogged the rest of the Nixon/Ford term. But, as a fully re-elected, albeit "lame duck," President, not an appointed one like Gerald Ford, Nixon would have had more sway in Congress, and might have been able to do more.

In addition, Watergate remaining "a third -rate burglary" would have meant much smaller losses for the Republicans in the 1974 Congressional elections. Nixon might have been able to get his health care reform plan passed, a plan that, as it turned out, was further to the left than the plan proposed by Bill Clinton in 1993, and the one approved and then signed into law by Barack Obama in 2010.

Furthermore, Nixon staying in office into 1975 might have helped to accelerate the Israeli-Egyptian peace process, and there might have been a Camp David Accord in 1976. Nixon could have shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Menachem Began and Anwar Sadat.

And, still being the leader of the Republican Party in 1976, Nixon could, essentially, have named his own successor. His 1st Vice President, Spiro Agnew, had resigned in criminal disgrace. His 2nd, Ford, probably would not have run for President on his own had he not already been President: In his memoirs, he said that, had he remained House Minority Leader, he would retired from Congress before the 1976 elections had the Republicans not taken control in 1974, making him Speaker. So he probably wouldn't have run, either.

This would likely have made former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, the darling of the conservative moment, the front-runner. But, as an actual Californian (Reagan had grown up in Illinois), Nixon had never really gotten along with Reagan, and might have tried to keep him from being nominated. But who? Bush? He would have been qualified. Dole? Not nearly as much. John Connally, the former Governor of Texas who had served as Nixon's Secretary of the Treasury? No way, because, however conservative, he had once been a Democrat. Former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, who, in this timeline, would not have become Ford's Vice President? Not a chance: The conservatives never trusted him, and his best chance was probably in 1968, before Nixon wrapped up so many Delegates early. Somebody else? Who knows?

And would that man have beaten the Democratic nominee? And who would that have been? I can guarantee you: Without Watergate, there's no way former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia would have gotten any traction. Put it all together, and the 1976 Presidential campaign would have started out as a big question mark, with both parties.

Either way, Richard Nixon would have gone down in history as a much better President -- with several black marks against his name, but no Watergate, and a few accomplishments. Instead, he panicked, and tried to cover it all up. Watergate entered many phrases into the American lexicon, including the adding of the suffix "-gate" to every scandal -- but none has been more telling than, "It's not the crime that gets you, it's the cover-up."

*

June 17, 1972 was a Saturday. The NFL, the NBA and the NHL were in their off-seasons. But a full slate of Major League Baseball games was played, and then some:

* The New York Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Texas Rangers at the old Yankee Stadium. They won the 1st game 2-0, as Steve Kline pitched a 5-hit shutout, and helped his own cause in the 6th inning when his sacrifice bunt attempt was thrown away, allowing a run to score. They won the 2nd game 3-2, with Mel Stottlemyre getting the win.

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game 5-4, and the Boston Red Sox won the 2nd game 10-8.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Clay Kirby allowed 9 hits and 2 walks, but still pitched a shutout, backed by a home run from Nate Colbert.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Montreal Expos, 3-2 at Atlanta (later Atlanta-Fulton County) Stadium. Rico Carty singled home the winning run off Mike Marshall in the 10th inning.

* The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-5 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock won it with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

June 13, 1971: The Pentagon Papers Are Published

June 13, 1971: The New York Times and The Washington Post publish The History of U.S. Decision-Making in Vietnam, 1945–1968. The document becomes known as The Pentagon Papers.

Written up by the U.S. Department of defense, it was considered classified. Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst for the RAND Corporation who worked on the document, thought it important enough to leak them to the press.

One thing the document made clear was that the Administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson -- in office from November 22, 1963 to January 20, 1969 -- "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress."

The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War, with coastal raids on North Vietnam and Marine Corps attacks, none of which were reported in the mainstream media.

For his disclosure of the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property. Those charges were later dismissed.

Although it was the Johnson Administration that looked bad as a result of the document's text, the next and current President, Richard Nixon, fought hard to keep it from being made public, since they thought it would undermine support for the war. Nixon officials pressured the Times and the Post not to publish it. They did so, anyway, and support for the war, already having slipped to a minority status in America, slipped further.

The articles were published a little at a time, over a few days, until the Administration filed suit to stop it. On June 30, in New York Times Co. v. United States, in a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Administration was violating the papers' rights of freedom of the press, as guaranteed by the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and the publication resumed until its completion. The papers would later collaborate on a paperback collection.

Nixon was a pioneer, inventing the Republican Party strategy of, when being faced with something that makes them look bad, rather than changing their behavior, they actively attempt to discredit the messenger. On September 3, 1971, Nixon sent some "Plumbers," so named because they "prevented leaks," to rob the office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, Ellsberg's psychiatrist.

Daniel Ellsberg

The burglary was conducted by G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard Barker and Felipe de Diego. They found Ellsberg's file, but it apparently did not contain the potentially embarrassing information they sought, as they left it discarded on the floor of Fielding's office.

This burglary turned out to be a warmup for the action for which the Plumbers unit would become best known: Martinez and Barker would go on to become 2 of the 5 "Watergate Burglars."

Harry Blackmun was the last Justice from New York Times Co. v. U.S., serving until 1994. Byron White was the last surviving Justice, living until 2002. As of June 13, 2022, Daniel Ellsberg is still alive. (UPDATE: Ellsberg died on June 16, 2023, at the age of 92.)

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June 13, 1971 was a Sunday -- published on that day of the week to guarantee their papers' maximum readership. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Fritz Peterson outpitched John "Blue Moon" Odom. Roy White went 3-for-3 with a walk and 3 RBIs. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Shea Stadium. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with a walk. Ken Singleton drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning, scoring Bud Harrelson. Tug McGraw was the winning pitcher, in relief of Gary Gentry. Juan Marichal started for the Giants.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos, 7-1 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-8 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Mike Cuellar outpitched Tommy John. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3. Frank Robinson did not play.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 11-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Sam McDowell pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 9-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 2-for-4. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-1 with 3 walks. Rod Carew went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Lee May singled Pete Rose home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. Johnny Bench did not play. Fergie Jenkins went the distance for the Cubs, but lost.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Pirates won it with 5 runs in the top of the 9th inning, including a home run from Richie Hebner, off Chuck Taylor, who had relieved Steve Carlton. Roberto Clemente went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-1 with 3 walks.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 9-0 at the Astrodome in Houston. Pat Jarvis pitched a 5-hit shutout. Earl Williams hit 2 home runs. Hank Aaron hit a home run, the 611th of his career.

* The Washington Senators beat the California Angels, 5-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

April 3, 1996: The Unabomber Is Caught

April 3, 1996: The Unabomber is arrested at his cabin in rural Montana, ending a bombing spree that began in 1978, killing 3 people and injuring 23 others.

He had promised to stop his bombing campaign if The Washington Post published his anti-technology "manifesto," titled Industrial Society and its Future. The Post's board decided to publish it. A lot of conservatives derided it as the rantings of a leftist wacko. They didn't read it. I did: It included a chapter titled "The Dangers of Leftism."

Publishing it turned out to be the right decision: David Kaczynski recognized the writing style of his brother Theodore, a 53-year-old former mathematics professor, and ratted him out to the FBI. He was arrested at his cabin outside Lincoln, Montana.

It truly was isolated: About 40 miles west of the nearest Interstate highway, I-15 in Wolf Creek, Montana; 50 miles northwest of the State capital, Helena; 275 miles northwest of Yellowstone National Park, in northwestern Wyoming; 530 miles northeast of Boise, Idaho; 285 miles east of Spokane, Washington; and 170 miles south of the U.S.-Canadian border. The closest city with a major league sports team? Not Denver, not Salt Lake City, not Seattle: Calgary, Alberta, Canada, about 350 miles to the north.

Theodore insisted that he was sane, fired his lawyers when they wanted him to plead insanity, pleaded guilty to all charges, and is still alive, incarcerated at the federal "supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado.

Soon after the arrest, Saturday Night Live introduced Will Ferrell's Unabomber character, complete with orange jumpsuit and unkempt hair: "Ted Kaczynski, what have you been doing with yourself?" "Well, I've been doing a lot of writing." "Have you gotten anything published?" "Yeah, one thing."

Actually, he had several articles on mathematics published in scholarly journals between 1964 and 1971, after which his mental illness led him away from his work and into his crimes. While in prison, with little else to do, Kaczynski wrote 3 full-length books: The Road to Revolution in 2008, Technological Slavery in 2010, Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How in 2016.

UPDATE: Kaczynski developed cancer, and was transferred to a federal prison hospital in North Carolina. His treatment did little good. and he committed suicide by hanging on June 10, 2023, at the age of 81.

*

April 3, 1996 was a Wednesday. This was also the day U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown was killed in a plane crash. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-1 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. Andy Pettitte outpitched Jack McDowell. Rookie Derek Jeter went 3-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3 at Shea Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies, 3-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 15-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Tom Glavine was the winning pitcher. Ryan Klesko and Javy López hit home runs, and Fred McGriff went 3-for-4 with 6 RBIs. Barry Bonds went 1-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 16-7 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Tony Gwynn went 4-for-4, while Ken Caminiti went 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* The California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Gary Disarcina singled Garret Anderson home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics, 10-4 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

Football was out of season. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Orlando Magic, 98-85 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 100-94 at the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 102-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 105-89 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Charlotte Hornets, 98-83 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Sacramento Kings, 117-96 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets, 118-103 at Key Arena in Seattle.

* And the Vancouver Grizzlies beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 105-103 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

There were 10 games in the NHL:

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-2 at the ThunderDome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers, 3-2 at the Corel Centre (now that Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Dallas Stars, 3-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Colorado Avalanche, 6-3 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Edmonton Oilers, 1-0 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

* The Detroit Red Wings and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 2-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders, the New Jersey Devils, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the San Jose Sharks were not scheduled.