Hirschi Law Group PLLC

September 4 - 11

This Week in History 
Never a Day Off  
 

SEPTEMBER 6, 1995 - Cal Ripken, Jr., short stop for the Baltimore Orioles, broke Lou Gehrig's iron man record by playing in his 2,131st straight Major League Baseball game. The game became official when the third out was recorded in the bottom of the fifth inning. Play was suspended for over 20 minutes as fans gave Ripken an extended standing ovation. Ripken went on to play in an additional 502 straight games to extend his streak to 2,632 before he voluntarily removed his name from the lineup for the final Orioles home game of the 1998 season. Ripken's illustrious 20-year baseball career was spent entirely with the Orioles. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1982, won a World Series ring in 1983, and was selected to be a part of MLB All Star game for 19 consecutive years. You can watch Ripken's entire 2,131st game here, or you can skip to the moment it became official at 1:45:47.

 

The Umbrella Assassin
  

September 7, 1978 - Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident living in London, was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police while waiting at a bus stop near the Waterloo Bridge. Markov originally worked as a playwright and novelist before defecting from Bulgaria in 1969. He then moved to London where he took a job with the BBC as a broadcaster and journalist. He frequently criticized the Bulgarian regime over the radio, which motivated members of the Bulgarian government to dispose of him. As Markov stood at the bus stop on the morning of September 7 he described feeling a slight sharp pain, similar to a bee sting, on the back of his right thigh. He turned to see a man behind him picking an umbrella up off the ground. The man then hurried across the street and got in a waiting taxi. By the time Markov arrived at work a red pimple had formed at the site of the "sting" and within a few hours he had developed a fever. He was admitted to the hospital that evening and died three days later. A subsequent autopsy revealed that the cause of death was poisoning from a ricin-filled pellet, the size of a pinhead, shot into Markov's leg by means of a specialized umbrella gun. A PBS documentary about the still-unsolved murder can be viewed here.  

 

Olympic Massacre
  

September 5, 1972 - Eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September at the Munich Olympic Games. The terrorists were able to gain access to the Olympic Village, where security was lax, by posing as athletes. After capturing the hostages the terrorists demanded the release of 234 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. While two of the Israelis were killed in the initial attack, the other nine were killed in a botched rescue attempt on September 6. After the disaster the Israeli government covertly launched an operation, known as Wrath of God, to hunt down and kill the members of Black September responsible for the attack.

 

"God has given him great health and a great work ethic and he has been lucky enough to avoid the kinds of problems that could have very easily ended the streak. Will this record ever be broken again? Well, I know I sure won't be around to see it if it ever is."
 
-- Broadcaster Ernie Harwell on Cal Ripken, Jr.'s streak.
 
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