On September 6, 1995, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr.
played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking “Iron Horse” Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive games played.
“The Iron Man” was credited with reviving interest in baseball after
a 1994 work stoppage forced the cancellation of the World Series
and soured fans on the national pastime.
Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. (65)
On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shaking
hands at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York,
when a 28-year-old anarchist named Leon Czolgosz approached
him and fired two shots into his chest.
The president rose slightly on his toes before collapsing forward,
saying “be careful how you tell my wife.”
Leon F. Czolgosz
(May 5, 1873 – October 29, 1901)
President McKinley greeting well-wishers at a reception in
the Temple of Music minutes before he was shot.
During the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, in the early
morning of September 5, a group of Palestinian terrorists
stormed the Olympic Village apartment of the Israeli athletes,
killing two and taking nine others hostage.
The terrorists were part of a group known as Black September,
in return for the release of the hostages, they demanded that
Israel release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israeli jails
and two German terrorists.
In an ensuing shootout at the Munich airport, the nine Israeli
hostages were killed along with five terrorists and one West
German policeman. Olympic competition was suspended for
24 hours to hold memorial services for the slain athletes.
In the aftermath of the murders at the ’72 Olympics, the Israeli government, headed by Golda Meir, hired a group of Mossad
agents to track down and kill the Black September assassins.
Jim McKay pictured reporting from the 1972 summer
Olympics in Munich.
The 2005 Stephen Spielberg movie Munich was based
on these events.
