This Week: Alexander, 61*, Black Hawk Down, The Social Network

Based on a True Story

BOATS THIS WEEK (SEP 30-OCT 6, 2024) — Thousands of years ago this week, Alexander the Great fought his final decisive battle against Darius III so we'll start our journey by comparing the true story of Gaugamela with the battle in 2004's Colin Farrell movie. Then we'll hop onto the baseball field because tomorrow, October 1st, 1961, is when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's MLB home run record. We'll learn about the Billy Crystal-directed movie called 61* (we'll learn about the * in the movie's title in the episode).

For our third event from this week in history according to the movies, we'll learn about the Battle of Mogadishu—or, as it's commonly called, the Black Hawk Down Incident. That happened on Thursday this week, October 3rd, 1993. Then, after a few historical birthdays from this week in history, we'll wrap up today's episode by comparing history with 2010's The Social Network.

Until next time, here's where you can continue the story.

Events from this week in history

• Monday: Alexander | BOATS #157
• Tuesday: 61*
• Thursday: Black Hawk Down | BOATS #105

Birthdays from this week in history

• Wednesday: Paul von Hindenburg in Hitler: Rise of Evil
• Wednesday: Mahatma Gandhi in Gandhi
• Saturday: Ray Kroc in The Founder

Historical movies releasing this week in history

• Tuesday: The Social Network

Mentioned in this episode

• Steven Bertoni's article on Sean Parker
• Wall Street Journal article on Peter Thiel and Facebook's political ads
• Baseball this week: See "The Whammer" in The Natural
• Baseball this week: Say Hey, Willy Mays!

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