December 29, 1975: The LaGuardia Airport Bombing

December 29, 1975: At 6:33 PM, during rush hour, a bomb explodes in a locker at the baggage reclaim terminal for Trans World Airlines (TWA) baggage at LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Contrary to the New York Daily News headline above, the death toll turned out to be 11, and the injuries numbered 74.

This bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in New York City between the 1920 Wall Street bombing and the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001.

The perpetrators were never officially identified or charged, although the most common consensus is that it was either anti-Yugoslavian Croats that were part of Otpor, meaning "Resistance"; or Yugoslavia's Communist Belgrade's own State Security Administration, the UDBA, working to malign Otpor through sabotage, which was a common strategy of theirs. Another suspect was the FALN, terrorists seeking independence for Puerto Rico.

Since Yugoslavia, though Communist, was opposed to the Soviet Union, and wasn't making efforts to expand its influence to neighboring nations, and Puerto Rico was still a sensitive issue, President Gerald Ford chose not to press the issue, and no arrests were made.

As of December 29, 2022, Puerto Rico is still a "freely associated state," but not a State, of the United States of America. Yugoslavia held together until 1991, before breaking up into a savage civil war. Mostly at peace since 1999, it is now 7 separate nations: In alphabetical order, Bosnia and Herzegovina (that's one country), Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia (including the former Yugoslav capital of Belgrade), and Slovenia.

*

December 29, 1975 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in the middle of its Playoffs. There was 1 college football bowl game: Maryland beat Florida, 13-0 in the Gator Bowl, at the stadium of the same name in Jacksonville, Florida.

There was 1 game played in the NBA: The New York Knicks beat the Chicago Bulls, 94-93 at the Chicago Stadium. Earl "the Pearl" Monroe scored 37 points. And there was 1 game played in the ABA: The New York Nets lost to the Kentucky Colonels, 110-102 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

No games were scheduled for the World Hockey Association, but there were 3 games in the NHL:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Washington Capitals, 6-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Atlanta Flames, 6-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

November 21, 1995: The Dayton Agreement

November 21, 1995: The Dayton Agreement is reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, outside Dayton, Ohio, ending the Bosnian Civil War. It was signed there on December 14.

It took the leadership of the President of the United States to stop it. A President who, just hours earlier, was fighting to get his own government reopened.

Taking down Slobodan Milošević and Newt Gingrich in the same week is a very impressive feat, and Bill Clinton simply doesn't get the credit he deserves.

Among the Republican politicians opposing the agreement were Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, a bigot who hated anyone who wasn't white and, by his definition, "Christian"; and Representative Robert Dornan of California, a Korean War bomber pilot who so loved war that he was known as "B-1 Bob," but suddenly became a pacifist when it was a liberal Democrat enforcing a peace.

What does it say about Helms and Dornan that they were less reasonable than Slobodan Milošević? A man who killed more people in 5 years than Saddam Hussein killed in 25 years, more than Fidel Castro killed in 50 years?

Just in this war, about 31,000 soldiers died, and an equal number of civilians, many of them in concentration camps, because of their religion -- in this case, Eastern Orthodox Catholic Serbs killing Bosnians for being Muslims. It had been half a century since the Holocaust, and "Never again" had happened again, on the same continent.

Finally, after 3 years of being begged to do something, and remembering how he did nothing to end the Rwandan Genocide in Africa the year before, President Clinton met with his fellow NATO leaders, and united them, and convinced President Boris Yeltsin of Russia to stay out of it. On August 30, Operation Deliberate Force began, with NATO planes bombing "Bosnian Serb" artillery positions. On November 1, Milosevic realized he could beat the Bosnians, but he couldn't beat NATO, and let peace talks begin.

As of November 21, 2022, the peace still holds. The Nobel Committee has given the Nobel Peace Prize to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama -- but not, as yet, Bill Clinton.

*

November 21, 1995 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The expansion Toronto Raptors beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 102-97 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Dallas Mavericks, 108-102 in overtime at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Michael Jordan led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 107-99 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 109-108 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And there were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 9-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Florida Panthers, 4-3 at the Miami Arena.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-4 at the brand-new FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-2 at The Spectum in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Capitals beat the San Jose Sharks at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Calgary Flames, 3-2 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

July 10, 1960: The 1st European Nations' Soccer Tournament

Igor Netto with the trophy. Lev Yashin behind him.

July 10, 1960: The Final of the 1st European Nations Cup (now called simply the European Championships or just "The Euros") is held at the Parc des Princes in Paris. It was a natural extension of the European Cup, the continental championship for soccer clubs, which started in 1955. (In 1992, it was renamed the UEFA Champions League.)

The Soviet Union beats Yugoslavia, 2-1 in extra time. The winning goal is scored in the 113th minute, by Viktor Ponedelnik. He is the last surviving member of this team, and the team for which he played his club soccer, SKA Rostov-on-Don, has a statue of him outside their stadium. But the star of the series is considered to be Lev Yashin of Dynamo Moscow, considered by some to be the greatest goalkeeper in the sport's history.

The tournament would be renamed "Euro (year)," starting with the next one, in 1964. It's been held every 4 years since, except for 2020, when Euro 2020 was delayed a year due to the COVID pandemic. (Like the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, it was still given the 2020 designation despite being played in 2021.)

The Soviets would lose the Final in Euro 64, and reach the Semifinals of the 1966 World Cup. Then the team got old: The best performance by a Soviet or Russian team since is reaching the Final of Euro 88.

Igor Netto, a left half of Italian and Estonian descent who played his club football for Spartak Moscow, was the Soviet Captain. But it would be Yashin that everyone remembered. He was a goaltender for both the soccer and ice hockey teams at Dynamo Moscow.

With their soccer team, he won 5 Soviet league championships and 3 Soviet Cups, and led the USSR to the 1956 Olympic Gold Medal. In 1963, he received the Ballon d'Or (Golden Ball) as World Footballer of the Year, and he remains the only goalkeeper ever to receive this award.

His black hair, dark complexion, and black warmup tracksuit, and his dexterity, won him the nickname The Black Spider. He played for the Soviets at the 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970 World Cups, reaching the Semifinals in the latter 2, and winning the admiration of the entire world, even among those who despised Communism.

In 1967, while still an active player, he was awarded the Order of Lenin. In 1971, his testimonial match brought over 100,000 fans to the Lenin Stadium (now the Luzhniki Stadium), and Pelé, Eusébio and Franz Beckenbauer attended.

By an amazing coincidence, he shared a birthday with Western Europe's greatest goalkeeper of that era, Bert Trautmann, the German who starred for English team Manchester City: Trautmann was born on October 22, 1923; Yashin, on October 22, 1929.

Yashin died of cancer in 1990, only 60 years old. In 2000, FIFA named him the goalie on their World Team of the 20th Century. In 2003, in celebration of its 50th Anniversary, UEFA named a "Golden Player" for each member nation, designating them as that country's best-ever footballer, and Yashin was posthumously so awarded for Russia.

A statue of him was erected outside Central Dynamo Stadium in Moscow, and has been reinstalled at the new stadium on the site, the VTB Arena.

*

July 10, 1960 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 9-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Neither starting pitcher, Ralph Terry or Frank Sullivan, was able to finish the 3rd inning. Billy Muffett ended up as the winning pitcher. Willie Tasby and Vic Wertz hit home runs for the Red Sox. Ted Williams went 0-for-2 with 3 walks and an RBI on a groundout. For the Yankees, Bill "Moose" Skowron went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs. Yogi Berra went 1-for-5. Roger Maris went 0-for-4 with a walk. Mickey Mantle was injured, and did not play.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Harvey Haddix outpitched Robin Roberts. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4.

* The Washington Senators beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 6-2. The Chicago White Sox won the nightcap, 6-4.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with a walk. Wes Covington went 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs. Frank Robinson went 0-for-4.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Athletics, 12-10 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Rocky Colavito hit 2 home runs, Eddie Yost hit a home run, and Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sandy Koufax, who pitched to 2 batters, and failed to get either out. But the Cardinal bullpen collapsed, with Bob Gibson, also not yet a star, coming out of the bullpen and stopping the bleeding. Stan Musial went 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago cubs, 5-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The Giants scored all 5 runs in the 7th inning. Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk. Ernie Banks went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

June 28, 1949: Tito Rebukes Stalin

June 28, 1949: Marshal Josip Broz Tito, leader of Yugoslavia, sends a letter to Premier Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union, essentially telling him he's had enough of Stalin's crap.

He was born with the name Josip Broz on May 7, 1892, in Kumrovec, a village in Zagorje, in northern Croatia. At the time, it was part of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, a client state of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He trained as a locksmith, before serving in the Austrian Army in World War I. He was wounded and held as a prisoner of war by the Russians. In the POW camp, he became a Communist, and escaped.

Between the World Wars, he rose through the ranks of the Communist Party in the new nation of Yugoslavia, and was in de facto control of it from 1937 to 1980. When the Nazis invaded, he led the Partisan movement to kick them out. He had stood up to Adolf Hitler, and won.

(On October 4, 1945, 5 months after V-E Day, former members of this movement founded a sports club, JSD Partizan. Their soccer team, FK Partizan, or Partizan Belgrade, won 11 league titles in Yugoslavia; and, since the country's breakup, has won 16 titles in Serbia's top league.)

His leadership against the Nazis led to his admiration by all the ethnicities in his cobbled-together country, partly because he never lost the common touch. American journalist George Seldes, who lived to be 104 years old (1890-1995), had covered the rise and fall of many world leaders. He thought he had been friends with both Tito and Benito Mussolini, once a fellow journalist who had written him a letter calling him "Dear Colleague." But upon becoming dictator of Italy in 1922, Mussolini acted like he no longer cared about all the people who helped him get there. Tito never forgot: According to Seldes, "Mussolini... acted like we had never met. Tito greeted me as an old friend."

But while he was a Communist, Tito was also a nationalist. He wasn't interested in spreading Communism throughout the Balkans. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin was, and managed to turn Romania, Bulgaria and Albania red, and had designs on Greece and Turkey as well.

President Harry Truman's Truman Doctrine provided aid to Greece and Turkey, preventing both from turning Communist, and he discovered that Tito was willing to work with him. On May 4, 1948, Stalin publicly admonished both Tito and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.

In 1949, Stalin put Soviet, Romanian and Hungarian troops and the border between southern Hungary and northern Yugoslavia (present-day Croatia). On June 28, the other member countries of the Cominform expelled Yugoslavia, citing "nationalist elements" that had "managed in the course of the past five or six months to reach a dominant position in the leadership" of the CPY.

The assumption in Moscow was that once it was known that he had lost Soviet approval, Tito would collapse. Stalin said, "I will shake my little finger, and there will be no more Tito." He took Tito's resistance as a personal affront, and arranged several assassination attempts on Tito's life. None of them succeeded.

Tito sent a letter to Stalin. In it, he wrote, "Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb, and another with a rifle." He added, "If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second."

There were no further attempts. Stalin died on March 5, 1953. This letter was found in his desk. In 1955, the man who succeeded Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, visited Belgrade, apologized to Tito for Stalin's assassination attempts, and congratulated him on his survival: "You did well in protecting yourself. You had good guards and good informants who informed you about everything Stalin was planning for you."

Tito lived on until May 4, 1980. Both his country and Stalin's collapsed and broke into smaller nations in 1991.

Josip Tito was the only man to stand up to both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, and live to tell about it. He was no saint. But he was a hero, to both East and West.

*

June 28, 1949 was a Tuesday. Baseball player Don Baylor and football running back Clarence Davis were born that day. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Fenway Park in Boston. This was the season debut of Joe DiMaggio, who had missed the season's 1st 65 games with a bad heel. He hit a home run in this game, 2 in the next, and another in the next, in a 3-game Yankee sweep of the BoSox. Hank Bauer also hit a home run in this game, in support of Allie Reynolds. Bobby Doerr hit a home run for the Red Sox, and Ted Williams went 2-for-5.

* The New York Giants beat the Boston Braves, 2-1 at the Polo Grounds. The Giant runs come on solo home runs by Sid Gordon and Clint Hartung. Hartung, "the Hondo Hurricane," was also a pitcher, a pitcher who could hit, and was one of the most-hyped prospects in baseball history. It never worked out, although, on this day, he was not only the hero, but he outpitched a future Hall-of-Famer, Warren Spahn.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Preacher Roe outpitched Robin Roberts. He was supported by a home run from Duke Snider. Jackie Robinson went 1-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 6-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Bob Lemon outpitched Virgil Trucks.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-6 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Gerry Priddy singled home the winning run in the top of the 12th inning.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Howie Pollet allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout. Stan Musial went 1-for-4.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up on September 6. The Reds won, 6-3, scoring 4 runs in the top of the 10th inning, while the Pirates could only retaliate with 1.

June 20, 1976: The Panenka Penalty

June 20, 1976: The Final of the 1976 UEFA European Football Championship is held at Red Star Stadium in Belgrade, Yugoslavia -- now the Rajko Mitić Stadium in Belgrade, Serbia. This was the only time UEFA the Union of European Football Associations, ever held a tournament, or the Final of a club tournament, in a Communist country. (It has since held them in former Communist countries.)

England did not qualify. Nor did France, nor Italy. Under the format then in place, only 4 teams did, including Yugoslavia, who did so only because they were the hosts, although they usually had a good team. In one Semifinal, Czechoslovakia beat the Netherlands, 3-1. In the other, West Germany, who had won the last 2 major tournaments, the 1974 World Cup and Euro 72, beat Yugoslavia, 4-2. Both games went to extra time.

The Final also went to extra time. Czechoslovakia led, 2-0 after just 25 minutes, but West Germany came back, and the game ended, 2-2. So it went to penalty kicks. Stereotypically, Germany usually win those. With the Czechs up, 4-3, Ivo Viktor, goalkeeper for Dukla Prague was ready to try to stop Bayern Munich star Uli Hoeneß, but he missed his shot completely, sending it over the crossbar.

It was now up to Antonín Panenka to face the best goalie in the world at the time, Bayern's Josef "Sepp" Maier. Taking a short and stuttering run-up, he gently struck the ball in an arcing parabola up the middle, while Maier had already dived and was resting on his knees. The Czechs had won, 5-3.

It remains the only major tournament ever won by either a united Czechoslovakia, or by the Czech Republic (a.k.a. Czechia) or Slovakia separately, although they reached the Final of the 1962 World Cup, and finished 3rd at Euro 1980.

Such a penalty attempt has been known as a "Panenka" ever since, but a stuttering run-up is almost a giveaway that this is what the player is going to do, and it gets stopped more than most shots.

A midfielder, Antonín Panenka played for Bohemians Prague from 1967 to 1981, never winning a major trophy -- except Euro 76 for his country. He then went to Rapid Wien, and helped the Vienna club win the Austrian Bundesliga in 1982 and '83; and the Austrian Cup in 1983, '84 and '85. He continued to play professionally until 1993, at age 44. He later served as team president for Bohemians. As of June 20, 2022, he is still alive.

*

June 20, 1976 was a Sunday. Juliano Belletti, of Brazil's 2002 World Cup winners, was born that day. So was Carlos Lee, the Panamanian-born All-Star left fielder for the Houston Astros.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Dock Ellis outpitched Ken Brett. The Yankees scored 5 runs in the 3rd inning, including 2 on a bases-loaded single by Thurman Munson.

* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 9-2 at Shea Stadium. Ed Halicki was the winning pitcher, as the Giants tagged Jon Matlack for 5 runs before the Mets even came to bat, and never looked back. Halicki even went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs in his own cause.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Jarry Park in Montreal.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Jim Kaat outpitched Don Gullett. Mike Schmidt went 3-for-5. Pete Rose went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Johnny Bench went 0-for-4.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-0at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Dick Ruthven pitched a 4-hit shutout. Darrel Chaney went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs.

* The Houston Astros beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Astros scored 5 runs in the top of the 8th. Willie Stargell went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 11-8 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Royals scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning, but the Tribe came right back with 8 runs in the top of the 4th. Rico Carty went 3-for-5 with a solo home run. George Brett went 2-for-5.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Mark Fidrych outpitched Bill Singer. Rod Carew went 1-for-5.

* The San Diego Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Willie McCovey hit his 461st career home run for the Padres. Dave Winfield went 1-fo-r3 with a walk. Lou Brock went 1-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base, and 2 RBIs.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 2-0 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Mike Cuellar pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Gaylord Perry -- screwball over spitball. Brooks Robinson, in his last full season, went 2-for-4. Reggie Jackson, in his only season with the O's, went 0-for-3.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 4-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Rick Burleson singled Bobby Darwin home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. Carl Yastrzemski entered the game late, and went 0-for-1 with a walk.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-5 at the Oakland Coliseum. Don Baylor hit a home run for the A's. Robin Yount went 4-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs for the Brewers.

March 7, 1970: The Agony of Defeat for Vinko Bogataj

March 7, 1970: Vinko Bogataj achieves an unusual kind of fame, and he doesn't even know it. And it wasn't by winning. It was by losing, disastrously.

The 22-year-old native of Brezovica, in what is now the independent nation of Slovenia, was competing for Yugoslavia in the World Ski Flying Championships in Oberstdorf, in the Bavarian Alps of what was then West Germany, on the border of Austria. (Such was the nature of the multiethnic, multireligious Yugoslavia that Bogataj's hometown was closer to Oberstdorf than it was to the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade, now in Serbia.)

The event was covered by American network ABC, for its program Wide World of Sports, even though there were no American competitors. The show's introduction was narrated by the show's host, Jim McKay, and written by Stanley Ralph Ross, who later wrote for the TV shows Batman and The Monkees, and co-created the 1975-79 Wonder Woman TV show:

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport: The thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat, the human drama of athletic competition! This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

Going into the March 21, 1970 broadcast, the scene used to symbolize "the agony of defeat" in their opening montage was of a downhill skier falling. Perhaps this was foreshadowing. That day, they broadcast the World Ski Flying Championships, contested 2 weeks earlier. 

A light snow had begun falling at the start of the competition, and by the time Bogataj was ready for his third jump on the Heini Klopfer Hill, the snow had become quite heavy. Midway down the inrun for his jump, Bogataj realized that the conditions had made the ramp too fast. He attempted to lower his center of gravity and slow his jump. Instead, he lost his balance completely, and hurtled out of control off the end of the inrun, tumbling and flipping wildly, and crashing through a light retaining fence near a crowd of spectators before coming to a halt.

ABC's announcer was Bud Palmer, a Princeton graduate who played for the early New York Knicks before moving into broadcasting. He said, "Lot of speed on that track now. Look out! Look at him go! Oh! Oh, baby! What a terrible fall!"

Bogataj suffered a mild concussion and a broken ankle, and was competing again 6 weeks later. By that point, WWOS had begun using Bogataj's fall to represent "the agony of defeat" in the opening montage, a decision made by coordinating producer Dennis Lewin. The show kept that sequence as such until the end of its run in 1998.

When the show was preparing to celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 1981, they found him in Lesce, Slovenia, and invited him to come to America -- not an easy thing to do, since Yugoslavia was a Communist country. He was long retired from competition, a ski instructor, a forklift operator, and a painter, and had no idea that he was famous in America. When he was introduced at the anniversary dinner, he got a longer standing ovation than anyone -- even Muhammad Ali, who asked him for his autograph.

In 1991, for the show's 30th Anniversary, while on his way to an interview with Wide World of Sports about the incident, he got into a small automobile collision. His first line to the reporter was, "Every time I'm on ABC, I crash."

Vinko with one of his paintings

In his own country, he became known for his painting. He married and had 2 daughters. As of March 7, 2022, he is still alive.

*

March 7, 1970 was a Saturday. Actress Rachel Weisz was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 111-104 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Billy Cunningham scored 36 points and grabbed 20 rebounds for the Sixers. But the Knicks got 29 points from Willis Reed, and 25 from Dave Stallworth.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the San Diego Rockets, 134-126 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* And the Cincinnati Royals beat the San Francisco Warriors, 121-119 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California.

There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The Washington Capitols beat the Denver Rockets, 144-128 at the Washington Coliseum. Rick Barry scored 45 points for the Caps.

* The Dallas Chaparrals beat the Kentucky Colonels, 129-124  at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas. Louie Dampier scored 55 points for the Colonels. But the Chaps, who became the San Antonio Spurs in 1973, got 34 from Manny Leaks and 33 from Glen Combs.

* And the Carolina Cougars beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 116-102 at the Loyola Fieldhouse in New Orleans. Bob Verga scored 41 for the Cougars.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 5-5 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Yes, The Spectrum hosted both the NBA and the NHL on the same day.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 2-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 8-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Oakland Seals (for the time being, their arch-rivals), 5-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers were not scheduled.

February 8, 1943: The Partisan Courage of Lepa Radić

February 8, 1943: When people call the generation that fought World War II "The Greatest Generation," they usually cite the fact that, at the time, these people whom they only knew as elderly were then little more than kids. Some were still teenagers. As historian James Fell put it, "When faced with the most vicious and inhumane of enemies invading their homelands, they did not cower."

In 1940, the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia, as a way of protecting their southern flank for the forthcoming invasion of the Soviet Union. Lepa Radić, a Bosnian Serb, was then 15, and, like most Yugoslavs of her generation, had no reason to care about what the Soviets were going to do: They just wanted to survive. That would not be easy, as the entire Radić family, including Lepa, was arrested for having ties to the local Communist group.

A few weeks later, they were broken out by the Yugoslav Partisans, a Communist resistance group led by Josip Tito, who would consolidate the country's disparate groups under his postwar rule. Lepa and her sister Dara joined the Partisans, transporting the wounded from the battlefield, and helping people flee the occupation.

During the Battle of Nerevta, Lepa was helping approximately 150 women and children escape the Battle of Neretva. SS troops, the nastiest of the Nazis, were advancing. Lepa sacrificed herself to cover their retreat, firing on the SS until she ran out of ammunition and being captured.

For days, they tortured her for information. This 17-year-old girl endured it, and told the fascist cunts nothing. On February 8, 1943, in Bosanska Krupa, in what is now the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they put a noose around her neck.

Did she beg for her life? Not a chance: Seeing a crowd gathered, she yelled, "Fight, people, for your freedom! Do not surrender to the evildoers! I will be killed, but there are those who will avenge me!" The Nazis gave her one last chance, offering to spare her life if she would name names. She said, "I am not a traitor of my people! Those whom you are asking about will reveal themselves when they have succeeded in wiping out all you evildoers, to the last man!"

Some of the hardest fighting of the war happened in Yugoslavia. In the end, the Nazis were kicked out, and Tito united the nation, becoming the only man ever to stand up to both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and win. The Yugoslav Partisans were perhaps the most effective resistance group during the war. On October 4, 1945, in the Yugoslav capital of Belgrade (now the capital of Serbia), Jugoslovensko sportsko društvo Partizan -- Yugoslav Sports Society Partizan -- was founded as a sports club for former Partisans. Despite the breakup of Yugoslavia, the name remains. Their soccer team, FK Partizan, is one of the most successful teams in the Balkans.

*

February 8, 1943 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And no games were scheduled for the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.