What Happened Today

Matthew Shepard was so lifeless and beat up when he was found that the cyclist that had seen him initially thought he was a scarecrow. Shepard's attackers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, were already in police custody for getting into a fight after beating Shepard. Matthew Shepard would die five days later. Instantly, it became the most famous anti-gay hate crime in American history, with McKinney's own lawyer using a "gay panic defense," saying that McKinney was temporarily driven crazy when Shepard hit on him. Although an argument about drugs or robbery as motivation has been made more recently, Matthew Shepard's homosexuality clearly played a role in the circumstances of his death.

Anwar Sadat was Egypt's third president, and a significant presence in the history of the Middle East. Yet his exact legacy contains many contradictory achievements, most notably leading Egypt in its greatest military victory over Israel and negotiating the most significant treaty between Egypt and Israel. That peace treaty, known as the Camp David Accords, would be lauded by much of the world, leading to Sadat becoming the first Muslim Nobel Laureate when he shared the Peace Prize with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and U.S. President Jimmy Carter. In Egypt and the Arab world, however, there was intense backlash. While Sadat cracked down on Islamist parties, he missed the Jihadist cell in his own army. So during a parade celebrating Egypt's victory in the Yom Kippur War, soldiers assassinated Anwar Sadat.

Monty Python did not invent sketch comedy with Flying Circus, or even use surrealistic, interconnected sketches. Yet Monty Python's Flying Circus influenced all comedy that came after it, their success made them both a cult hit and widely beloved. Three members of the troupe, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle, went to Cambridge University and were members of the Cambridge Footlights. The other two Brits, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, were part of the Oxford Revue at Oxford University. Joined by American cartoonist Terry Gilliam, the troupe created a particular comedic blend of absurdity, slapstick, and intellectualism. Once it made it to America, Monty Python's Flying Circus would reshape English-speaking comedy.

The British Union of Fascists was never that successful as a political party. Their leader, Oswald Mosley, had been a Member of Parliament earlier in life, although he had also managed the rare feat of being elected as both a Liberal and a Conservative. Yet once he had organized the British Union of Fascists, his electoral fortunes took a nosedive. His general popularity cratered after Hitler's extra-judicial executions known as the Night of the Long Knives. So Mosley organized a march through a Jewish neighborhood in London's East End that was home to prominent communists along a road called Cable Street. Instead, they were never able to march due to protesters clashing with police. After the march, Parliament sought to ban organizations like the British Union of Fascists.

The New York Giants should never have been anywhere near their rival Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1951 season, but a 37-7 closing kick by the Giants saw the two teams tied after the regular season. So the two teams played a three game playoff to determine who would win the National League and face the American League's New York Yankees in the World Series. The Dodgers chose to start at their home park, Ebbets Field, but lost that game and faced two games at the Giants' Polo Grounds. After getting a game back, they looked like they had everything settled with a 4-1 lead after eight innings in the third game. Then Bobby Thomson faced Ralph Branca and reversed all of that with one swing.

The ABSCAM scandal would cause one Senator and six Representatives to be brought up on corruption charges. The scheme was fairly simple, as it had FBI agents pose as Arab sheiks or their business associates bribe politicians and government officials, all of which was recorded on videotape. Yet despite all being convicted, only one member of Congress was actually expelled for the scandal. This incredibly rare action, it had not happened since the Civil War, was carried out in the case of Michael Myers because Myers was the only one who refused to resign his seat or not run for reelection.

The Thrilla in Manila was the third fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. It took place in Quezon City, The Philippines, although a boasting rant by Muhammad Ali gave it its nickname. Frazier and Ali were perfectly matched opponents, but they both took circuitous routes to get to their matchups. This third fight was the rubber match between the two men, and the first time Ali would go into a match as the champion. In sweltering heat, the fight went 14 of its scheduled rounds, with Frazier's corner-man Eddie Futch stopping the match. He did it moments before Ali was going to give up himself. This was the last time Ali and Frazier met in the ring. This would also be the last time Ali would dominate sports and culture.

James Dean died at the age of 24 in a car wreck in rural California. He was already a star, having been featured in East of Eden and in the soon to be released Rebel Without a Cause. Dean was driving from Los Angeles to Salinas to compete in a road race. Accompanying him was a mechanic, while following Dean were a stunt man and photographer, ready to produce a photo story about Dean's love of car racing. James Dean's death happened before two of the three movies he starred in were released. Unsurprisingly, the greatest legacy of James Dean's death is a series of what ifs about the career James Dean never had.

Sir Robert Peel created the Metropolitan Police Force as a new way to effect policing in the United Kingdom, focused on London. The Metropolitan Police addressed two different problems, the inadequacy of a constabulary and the opposition to a military police. So Peel hit on concepts known as "The Peelian Principles," but summed up neatly by the concept of policing by consent. The Metropolitan Police were intentionally positioned as civilians in uniform, rather than military figures. They also were meant to reflect the citizenry they were charged to protect. While Peel's ideas were rather naive and hopeful, the notion of policing by consent is a bedrock of most modern police forces.

Alexander Fleming was a well-known scientific researcher when he discovered penicillin. Yet his discovery of the fungus that would lead to antibiotics was almost accidental. Fleming had left his cultures stacked on a bench when he went on holiday, and he returned to find that one of them had grown mold while he was away because he was not as neat as his colleagues. Fleming also noticed that it had killed the bacteria that it was near. Fleming could never isolate or develop penicillin until he went to chemists at Oxford. By the 1940s, this research allowed Allied troops in World War II to survive various bacterial diseases.