[Nixons corporate funders guilty (in 1973). Worlds first video
game (1958). Raves for Robesons Othello (1943). Saturday Night
Massacre (1973). Demonstrators shut down Tokyos trains (1968). The
truth hurts (1963). Fortress Germany (1938).]
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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLE’S HISTORY, OCT. 17–23  
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_ Nixon's corporate funders guilty (in 1973). World's first video
game (1958). Raves for Robeson's Othello (1943). Saturday Night
Massacre (1973). Demonstrators shut down Tokyo's trains (1968). The
truth hurts (1963). Fortress Germany (1938). _

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Nixon's Corporate Funders Guilty of Making Illegal Contributions 
_October 17, 1973 (50 years ago). _Watergate Special Prosecutor
Archibald Cox obtains Watergate's first campaign-finance convictions,
with guilty pleas from American Airlines, Goodyear Tire and Rubber and
3M. Each corporation pled guilty to having made illegal unreported
contributions to President Nixon's reelection campaign. The three
convictions are the first in a long list, including many of the Fotune
500.
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World's First Video Game Unveiled 
_October 18, 1958 (65 years ago). _The world's first video game debuts
at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, NY, at the lab's
annual Visitors' Day. The game is a Pong-like 2-player amusement
called "Tennis for Two,"  played on a  7-inch diameter oscilloscope
screen. It is the brainchild of 48-year-old nuclear physicist William
Higinbotham, who is head of the lab's instrumentation division.  He
says he produced it for Visitors' Day because he realized how static
most of the exhibits were and thought “it might liven up the place
to have a game that people could play, and which would convey the
message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society." The
game is a hit, attracting long lines for three days.
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Raves (and a Place in History) for Paul Robeson's Othello 
_October 19, 1943  (80 years ago).__ _The Theater Guild's production
of Shakespeare's tragedy Othello opens on New York City's Broadway,
starring Paul Robeson, Uta Hagen and Jose Ferrer as Iago. The next day
the New York Times reports  "Not for several seasons has a play
received the tumultuous applause that was accorded last night's
presentation of Shakespeare's "Othello," starring Paul Robeson. Cries
of "Bravo!" echoed through the packed Shubert Theatre, while from the
galleries higher-pitched notes of approbation were directed toward the
stage. At least ten curtain calls were demanded." The production
closed after 296 performances, which made it the longest-running
Shakespeare play on Broadway, a record it still holds.
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Saturday Night Massacre 
_October 20, 1973 (50 years ago).__ _Most of the world is gobsmacked
when Pres. Richard Nixon stages what is known as the Saturday Night
Massacre.  Despite the event's nickname, no blood is actually shed,
but observers are so startled it is as if Nixon had used a machine
gun. 
    Very briefly, Nixon orders Attorney General Elliott Richardson
to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox (see October 17,
above), whose investigation is getting close to hitting pay dirt.
(Under the law, only the Attorney General had the authority to fire a
special prosecutor.) Richardson refuses and resigns. Assistant
Attorney General William Ruckleshaus automatically has the authority
to fire Cox. Nixon orders him to do so. Ruckleshaus refuses and
resigns. U.S. Solicitor General Robert Bork now has the authority to
fire Cox. Bork, for reasons we can only guess, carries out Nixon's
order. 
    Nixon's desperate effort to save himself misfires badly. More
than fifty thousand telegrams pour into Washington calling for Nixon's
impeachment. Within 10 days, Congress begins impeachment proceedings.
Less than 42 weeks later, Nixon's grip on power is so diminished that
he resigns, the only U.S. President to have done so.
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Anti-Vietnam-War Demonstrators Shut Down Tokyo's Transit Hub 
_October 21, 1968 (55 years ago)._ Activists in Japan stage
coordinated International Anti-War Day demonstrations involving at
least 800,000 people throughout the country (nearly one percent of the
population). The target of the demonstrations is the Japanese
government's whole-hearted support of the U.S. war against Vietnam.
    Militant actions take place all over Japan, but the largest and
most memorable is in Tokyo's giant Shinjuku Station, where some 3
million people transfer between a dozen separate train lines on a
normal weekday. Twenty thousand demonstrators halt all train
operations by occupying station platforms and railbeds. 
    The first effort by more than 3000 riot police to restore order
fails when the demonstrators overwhelm the police and take possession
of many of the cops' sidearms. The authorities are forced to invoke
Japan's draconian Anti-Riot Law for the first time in 16 years. Even
so, it takes more than 12,000 police more than 12 hours to take
control of the building.
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The Truth about Vietnam Hurts 
_October 22, 1963 (60 years ago)._ On this day, when both the U.S.
Embassy and the U.S. Army are stumbling disastrously in Vietnam, the
White House perceives that a New York Times reporter's work is the
problem.
    President Kennedy and the diplomatic and military brass are
alarmed that David Halberstam is, on an almost daily basis, shredding
the rosy story they are trying to project. So Kennedy asks the editors
of the Times to transfer Halberstam to another country, anyplace but
Vietnam.The Times editors ignore the president's request, which is
secret at the time.
    During the six months before Kennedy asked the Times to give
their man in Saigon a new assignment, Halberstam had filed no less
than 40 major articles describing a diplomatic and military effort
that was going much worse than the U.S. would admit. Halberstam's
articles ran under headlines like Complexities Cloud Battle in
Vietnam, U.S. Policy Clash With Diem Hinted, and Failure to Solve
Political Problems May Erode Will of People to Press War.
    Not long afterwards Halberstam was awarded the Pulitzer Prize
for the very reporting that Kennedy tried to suppress.
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Fortress Germany Unveiled
_October 23, 1938 (85 years ago)._ Less than a year before the
beginning of World War 2, German magazines and newspapers
simultaneously publish lavishly illustrated descriptions of a
 previously secret line of fortifications under construction near
Germany's border with the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France,
consisting of thousands of tank traps, machine-gun and artillery
bunkers, underground passages with railroad tracks, and underground
living quarters. The fortified line stretches 390 miles from the North
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* U.S. history
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* Watergate scandal
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* video games
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* Paul Robeson
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* Anti-Vietnam War movement
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* Vietnam War
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* German rearmament
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