NOVEMBER 20 — 1925 Happy Birthday Robert F. Kennedy; 1895 Frederick Blaisdell patents the pencil; 1982 The Play (as in….The Play)
NOVEMBER 20
1925 – Happy birthday Bobby Kennedy!
Robert Francis, one of the youngest of seven Kennedy children, was born in Brookline Massachusetts to Joe Sr. and Rose Kennedy. As a young boy, Joe Sr. actually wrote him off, saying he was too soft and generous, and the only thing they had in common was the color of his eyes. As a result, Bobby carried a tough guy persona as he got older to appease his father, but deep down was the generous Bobby who would later fight for racial injustice, the poor, and against organized crime. He attended Harvard, but when his older brother Joseph Jr. died in World War II, Bobby joined the navy, finished his service and returned to Harvard and earned a degree in government.
He then attended Virginia Law School, where he met and married Ethel Skakel who was his sister’s roommate. The couple would have electvejn children together. However, it’s unlikely their marriage was monogamous, according to the dailymail.uk, Bobby didn’t just cheat on Ethyl, legend has it, and he was a serial cheater a la Tiger Woods. In fact, supposedly, he not only slept with famous actresses Kim Novak and Lee Remick, he also had an icky affair brother John’s wife Jackie! Ewww!
Anyway, upon passing the bar, Bobby got straight to work at the Department of Justice briefly, then resigned his post in order to help Brother John, or Jack as he was known, with his senatorial campaign. After winning the election, underneath Joseph “Wipe those damn commies off the face of the Earth” McCarthy at the Senate Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations, he resigned there after only six months, disagreeing with McCarthy’s tactics. Later on Bobby became chief counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field, where he shed a nice bright light on the corruption of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. In 1960 he helped brother Jack once again, this time for the presidential campaign.
When JFK was elected, RFK was nominated attorney general. In 1962, he sent in military troops to the University of Mississippi to ensure that the school’s first African American student James Meredith had safe passage. He was Jack’s closest advisor throughout his presidency, especially during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, after which Bobby wrote a book about it called 13 Days. After JFK was assassinated, Bobby continued his role as cabinet advisor to Lyndon Johnson, though their relationship was beyond, shall we say, frosty. In 1964 he resigned his role as attorney general ran successfully for the senate seat in New York. During his tenure he continued to champion civil rights and equality for minors, and opposed escalations leading to the Vietnam War.
In 1965, Bobby joined a team to be the first humans to climb a giant 14,000’ rock named after brother Jack in the Yukon. Three years later, he would attempt to climb yet a bigger obstacle – the United States Presidency. However he didn’t make it. After his victory in the California primaries, on June 5 1968, he was shot four times by Serhan Serhan, who took issue with Bobby’s involvement in the Jewish and Palestinian 6-day War. Bobby died the next day, and Serhan received a life sentence. During his eulogy, Ted Kennedy discussed his brother’s endearing traits, explaining he was “a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”
1962 – JFK announces Fair Housing legislation.
Executive order 11063 mandated an end to discrimination in housing and prohibited federally funded housing agencies from denying housing or funding for housing to anyone based on their race, color, creed or national origin. Since 1866 after the Civil War, the 13th amendment was passed to put an end to slavery and to give Congress the authority to enact legislation to enforce the abolishment. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 provide that all citizens have equal rights, including housing whether the citizen is inheriting, purchasing or selling real estate and personal property. Well over a hundred years later the problem still existed with discrimination in federal housing agencies. So much for the American Dream.
Minorities, mainly African Americans, were squished into unsanitary dwellings in overcrowded and unsafe neighborhoods. When Kennedy took office in 1960, he was determined to do more for civil rights than his predecessors. Kennedy would not live to see enforcement of this law. After he was shot, and LBJ took over as president, Johnson was able to get a majority of Congress to support a fair housing law in 1968.
1895 – Frederick Blaisdell patents the pencil. Now, the pencil was long into existence as you no doubt can imagine. The English had a monopoly on the product since the 16th century. But in the late 1800s, the Blaisdell pencil was introduced. When the tip of this pencil dulled out, all one had to do is unwrap a little more of a pencil, and like magic, another tip is made! And why yes, I am amused easily. Thanks for asking.
1982 – The Play. I know I pick on Berkeley a lot but that’s because deep down inside I have a certain affection, if you will for that campus and its students. Even though a lot of those students are a little too proud of how little sense they make about reality. Politics aside, this is probably my favorite sports story of all time, possibly because it was epic, or maybe because I watched it happened from the stands. Cal bears v Sanford Cardinals. And man did future NFL star and Denver Bronco QB John Elway want this bowl game. Almost had it too, if it weren’t for his team’s marching band.
Late in the game Cal was up 19-17 but Elway was able to lead the cards up the field, overcoming a 4-17 from the 13 yard line. Eight seconds left in the game. Elway wanted to run the clock down to 4 seconds, but Coach Paul Wiggin had him call a timeout at eight seconds. Big mistake. Stanford kicked the field goal, and the game was apparently over, Cal 19, Stanford 20.
Stanford started celebrating and coming out on the field! But wait, game not over yet, and that celebration would cost Stanford a 15 yard penalty at the kickoff. Still one more play. Stanford kicker Mark Harmon had to now kick from the 25 with four seconds to play. Cal Bear Kevin Moen scrambled to retrieve it at the cal 46-yard line. He considered trying to run the ball for a touchdown, but instead pitched the ball behind him to teammate Richard Rodgers, who tossed it to freshman Dwight Garner, who returned it just as two Stanford defenders barreled into him. Then Rodgers lobbed the ball to Mariet Ford, who returned it to Moen by flinging the ball backwards over his shoulder just as he was about to get pummeled by three panicking Stanford defenders. Moen caught the ball and raced to the end zone. Meanwhile, Stanford’s band, thinking they had already won the game, got on the field playing the song All Right Now and for some reason didn’t see 22 football players running right for them. Moen zigzagged his way through the horn section, made it to the end zone for a touchdown, and slammed into trombone player Gary Tyrell.
The Cal Berkley Bears did the seemingly impossible and won the game25-20. If you’re not familiar with this story, all you need to do is google The Play and you’ll see it in all its glory.