October 21, 1967: An antiwar protest hits Washington, D.C. The marchers head across the Potomac River to the Pentagon, and, to this day, some marchers claim they actually "levitated" the building. Uh-huh.
This was the day of the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning "Flower Power" photograph, taken by Bernie Boston of The Washington Star, of the long-haired (but not hippie-length-haired) kid in the turtleneck sweater sticking a carnation in the barrel of a rifle held by a soldier "protecting" the Pentagon from the demonstrators.
The kid is usually identified as George Harris, then an 18-year-old actor from New York. He later took the stage name Hibiscus and formed a drag troupe in San Francisco, and died in the 1st wave of the AIDS epidemic in 1982.
Although there was not a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial that day, it's been suggested that this was the day of the demonstration shown in Forrest Gump, which Forrest (Tom Hanks) wanders into after leaving the White House, where he'd just been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson. A cop pulled the microphone cable out to prevent people far away from hearing Forrest as he spoke. So filmgoers never heard it.
The script has Forrest saying, "Sometimes, when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mamas without any legs. Sometimes, they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing." That's when the cable gets plugged back in, and Forrest concludes, "That's all I have to say about that." And an activist obviously meant to be Abbie Hoffman (Richard D'Alessandro, making Abbie the only historical figure in the film portrayed by an actor rather than being digitally inserted in), says, "That's okay, man: You said it all."
At the start of the scene, a woman can be heard yelling the name, "Hillary!" Obviously, this is meant to suggest that Hillary Clinton, the First Lady at the time the film was released, was at the demonstration. However, there is no indication that Hillary Rodham, then a 20-year-old junior at Wellesley College in the Boston suburb of Wellesley, Massachusetts) was there.
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October 21, 1967 was a Saturday. There were college football games played on this day:
* Number 1-ranked USC beat the University of Washington, 23-6 at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Their Los Angeles arch-rivals, Number 3 UCLA, beat Stanford, 21-16 at the old Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto. They were on a collision course, and would play one of those periodic "Games of the Century."
It was the 3rd Saturday in October, and by this point, Alabama was used to beating Tennessee on the day. This time, though, Number 7 Tennessee beat Number 6 'Bama, 24-13 at Legion Field in Birmingham.
Notre Dame beat Illinois, 47-7 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. Ohio State beat Northwestern, 6-2 at Dyche Stadium in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. Indiana upset Michigan, 27-20 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
Penn State beat West Virginia, 21-14 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. Rutgers lost to Army, 14-3 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York. And Princeton beat Colgate, 28-0 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.
The baseball season had ended 9 days earlier, when the St. Louis Cardinals ended the "Impossible Dream" of the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the World Series. There were 6 games played in the NBA that day:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 114-106 at the old Madison Square Garden. The new Garden opened 4 months later. Willis Reed scored 30 for the Knickerbockers, but Elgin Baylor and Archie Clark each scored 25 for the Lakers.
* The Philadelphia 76ers, defending NBA Champions, beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-111 at the new South Philadelphia arena, The Spectrum. Wilt Chamberlain only scored 17 points, but Hal Greer scored 41 for the Sixers.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 125-109 at the Baltimore Bullets. (The building still stands, and is named the Royal Farms Arena.) Sam Jones scored 31 for the C's.
* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Chicago Bulls, 109-107 at the Cincinnati Gardens. For the Royals, Happy Hairston scored 30, and Oscar Robertson scored 28.
* The St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 115-110 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. This would be the Hawks' last season in St. Louis. For 1968-69, they moved to Atlanta.
* And in a battle between 2 expansion teams, the Seattle SuperSonics beat the San Diego Rockets, 117-110 in overtime, at the San Diego Sports Arena. The Rockets moved to Houston in 1971. Of course, the Sonics moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.
* And one game was played in the brand-new American Basketball Association: The Indiana Pacers beat the New Orleans Buccaneers, 114-111 at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. Jimmy Jones scored 35 in defeat for the Bucs.
There were 5 games played in the newly-expanded NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Vic Hadfield scored 2 goals for the Broadway Blueshirts against the Leafs, then defending Stanley Cup Champions, which they have never been since the 1967-68 season.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Oakland Seals, 3-1 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.
* And the Los Angeles Kings played the St. Louis Blues to a tie, 3-3 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The only NHL teams that didn't play were the Detroit Red Wings and the Philadelphia Flyers.