November 4, 1995: I got home from watching my alma mater, East Brunswick High School, defeat neighboring Sayreville, 36-29, at Jay Doyle Field in East Brunswick. I turned on the TV, and began watching a college football game. I don't remember which one it was. It was on ABC, so I think it was Michigan State defeating arch-rival Michigan, then ranked Number 7 in the country, 28-25 in East Lansing.
The game was interrupted by a Special Report from ABC News. There was no music over the announcement. I knew from experience that this announcement was not going to be one of good news.
The announcer, Kevin Newman -- apparently, anchor Peter Jennings hadn't yet gotten to the studio -- announced that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel had been assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
Rabin, a 73-year-old native of Jerusalem, was one of the founding fathers of the State of Israel in 1948. He was Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War. He then served as Israel's Ambassador to the United States, and as Minister of Labor. In 1974, upon the retirement of Golda Meir, he was named Leader of the Labor Party and thus Prime Minister, but fell into a corruption scandal, and lost the 1977 election as a result.
Slowly but surely, he returned to influence. He was named Minister of Defense in 1984, serving until 1990, and then became Labor's leader again. In 1992, he led them to victory, and returned to the Premiership. He served as his own Minister of Defense, and negotiated the Oslo Accords with Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat in 1993. The following year, he negotiated a peace treaty with King Hussein I of Jordan, ending an official status of war (though not a continuous shooting) between those nations that had lasted from Israel's independence.
The process of implementing the Oslo Accords was not going well in 1995, so he called the rally in Tel Aviv, hoping to show the nation that the peace process should be supported. But he was shot by Yigal Amir, a 25-year-old extremist who was part of a right-wing movement that considered any concession to the Palestinians, no matter how small, to be treason. He remains in prison 26 years later, serving a life sentence, and both he and the leaders of the movement remain unrepentant.
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November 4, 1995 was a Saturday. The baseball season was over. In addition to the Michigan vs. Michigan State game I mentioned, these other noteworthy college football games were played:
* Number 1 Nebraska beat Iowa State, 73-14 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. They won the Big Eight Conference title -- the last one, before the league took on half the Southwest Conference and became the Big Twelve -- and went on to win their 2nd straight National Championship.
* Number 3 Florida beat Northern Illinois, 58-20 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida. They went on to beat Number 6 Florida State, which had played 2 days before the Rabin assassination, and lost, but still went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title. Florida then beat Georgia in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, rising to Number 2 in the country, but got walloped by Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl, 62-24.
* Number 4 Ohio State beat Minnesota, 49-21 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. But they blew the Big Ten title by losing to Michigan, and then lost the Citrus Bowl to Tennessee..
* Number 6 Northwestern beat Number 12 Penn State, 21-10 at Dyche Stadium (a.k.a. Ryan Field) in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern won their 1st Big Ten title since 1936, and made their 1st Rose Bowl since the 1948 season.
* Number 8 Notre Dame beat Navy, 35-17 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. They ended up losing to Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
* Number 13 Texas beat Number 23 Texas Tech, 48-7 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas. They won the last Southwest Conference title.
* Number 14 USC beat Stanford, 31-30 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC went on to win the Pac-10 title, and beat Northwestern in the Rose Bowl.
* Number 16 Alabama beat Louisiana State, 10-3 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
* Virginia Tech beat Number 20 Syracuse, 31-7 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia. This got Tech into the Top 20, and they won the Big East Conference Championship, and then beat Texas in the Sugar Bowl.
* Rutgers lost to West Virginia, 59-26 at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia.
* And Princeton beat Penn, 22-9 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. They went on to win the Ivy League title.
There were 10 games played in the NBA that day:
* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 84-71 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 100-89 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 119-108 at the Charlotte Coliseum.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Orlando Magic, 124-91 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The Miami Heat beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 85-71 at the Miami Arena.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Golden State Warriors, 99-84 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the expansion Toronto Raptors, 97-89 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Boston Celtics, 107-85 at the United Center in Chicago. Michael Jordan only played 21 minutes and scored 15 points, while Scottie Pippen led all scorers with 21.
* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Denver Nuggets, 116-108 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. Sean Elliott scored 32.
* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 103-89 at the KeyArena in Seattle.
And there were 9 games played in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2 at The Forum in Inglewood, California, outside Los Angeles. The Stanley Cup holders got 2 goals from Neal Broten, and 1 each from Mike Peluso and Captain Scott Stevens. Stevens, Martin Brodeur, and the rest of the New Jersey defense held Wayne Gretzky to an assist and no goals.
* The New York Islanders lost to the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at the Nassau Coliseum.
* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 4-1 in one of the last games at the Montreal Forum. Within a few weeks, it was replaced with what's now named the Bell Centre.
* The Hartford Whalers beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-4 at the Corel Centre in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario. (It's now named the Canadian Tire Centre.)
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Dallas Stars, 5-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The Vancouver Canucks and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 4-4 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Edmonton Oilers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
* And the San Jose Sharks beat the St. Louis Blues, 7-3 at the San Jose Arena. (It's now named the HP Pavilion at San Jose.)