Behind the Battle of the Sexes

Plus: Rosh Hashanah and the Beatles |

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. SUBSCRIBE to TIME Magazine September 21, 2017 By Lily Rothman With the movie 'Battle of the Sexes' hitting theaters this week — and the actual anniversary of that famous 1973 tennis match having passed on Tuesday — we decided to take a look at TIME's original coverage of the day Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs. One point that the 1973 report makes exceedingly clear is that, while Riggs was the showman whose hustle got him on the cover of TIME about a week before they played, King took the actual match more seriously. Not only was she younger and fitter than her opponent, but she also trained for it. In hindsight, it was no surprise that, as the magazine put it, "the psycher seemed to become the psychee." You can click here to read more about how she won. Here's more of the history that made news this week: HISTORY ON TIME.COM 50 Years Ago This Week: The Beatles Change the World Also in this issue: Space experiments and Rockettes on strike A Berlin Synagogue's First Rosh Hashanah After World War II When the U.S. Army helped arrange the first Rosh Hashanah service at a Berlin synagogue after World War II, LIFE Magazine captured the event Blaming 'Bad Dudes' Masks the Women of White Nationalism The president's choice of words—placing blame on "bad dudes"—sheds light on the forgotten role of women in the history of white nationalism A True Constitutional Crisis Is Rare in U.S. History. Here's Why Constitutional crisis is a term that's been thrown around a lot lately in American politics. But, as fans of the founding document celebrate Constitution Day on Monday — in honor of Sunday's 230th anniversary of its signing — they have an additional reason to celebrate: true examples of such crises have been relatively rare in the nation's history Behind the Truman Quote in President Trump's U.N. Speech What to know about the Truman quote that President Donald Trump used in his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly as president FROM THE TIME VAULT 55 Years Ago: Revisiting the Monroe Doctrine “But doing ‘whatever must be done’ is not a policy; it is a taken-for-granted imperative for any Administration in any crisis. Kennedy's statement failed to still voices that had been raised against his inaction in the Cuba crisis. And in the absence of a more positive policy, there was increasing talk about a solid rock upon which current U.S. action against Cuba might be based. That rock is the Monroe Doctrine.” (Sept. 21, 1962) Read the full story Today in 1998: The Starr Report “You could almost hear the country go quiet as it started to turn the pages. After eight months of watching a grand jury at work, we've become one. Court is in session around the dining-room table, at work and at church and, ultimately, in the halls of Congress. For month after month as this story unfolded, the American people have shown their sense of fairness: pressed for their judgments by pollsters, they said, again and again, let's give him the benefit of the doubt until all the evidence is in. They know that juries are supposed to go slow, weigh the arguments and do justice, no matter how long it takes. When the defendant is the President and the charges without precedent, the ultimate test for him is no less a test of us." (Sept. 21, 1998) Read the full story 70 Years Ago This Week: Jackie Robinson “Jackie's daring on the baselines has been matched by shrewd Branch Rickey's daring on the color line. Rickey gave Robinson his chance. As boss of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Rickey is a mixture of Phineas T. Barnum and Billy Sunday, who is prone to talk piously of the larger and higher implications of what he is doing. There were large implications, of course, in signing Jackie Robinson, but the influence on the box office was a lot easier to figure. Jackie Robinson has pulled about $150,000 in extra admissions this season.” (Sept. 22, 1947) Read the full story HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB Something to Celebrate In honor of this week’s ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day,’ William Cummings at USA Today took a look at the long history of fake holidays, which are an older gimmick than you might think. (National Raisin Day, for example, goes back to 1909.) Consciousness Raising This recent Retro Report video from the New York Times compares the way women’s bodies are discussed in popular culture today to the way things were a few decades ago. Making the Grade The Washington Post presents an op-ed from three academics in the Stanford History Education Group, making the case that the so-called “nation’s report card” doesn’t provide a helpful way of measuring student knowledge of history. Where the Heart Is In a post at Smithsonian.com, Richard White examines how the concept of “home” has shaped American identities throughout the nation’s history. Crystal Ball Vanity Fair asked six presidential historians how they think the Trump presidency will be regarded in the future. To Unsubscribe Unsubscribe here if you do not want to receive this newsletter. Update Email Click here to update your email address. Privacy Policy Please read our Privacy Policy. All products and services featured are based solely on editorial selection. TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. For Further Communication Please email history@time.com TIME Customer Service 3000 University Center Drive Tampa, FL 33612-6408 Connect with TIME Find TIME on Facebook Follow TIME on Twitter Subscribe to more TIME Newsletters Get TIME on your Mobile Device Get TIME on your iPad Subscribe to RSS Feed