April 5, 1974: Carrie is published. It is the 1st novel by Stephen King. The 1st of many.
Stephen Edward King was born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine. His father left the family when he was a toddler, and he later saw one of his friends being hit and killed by a train, later saying he had no memory of it. He has written of how New England seemed to be left behind by the passing of time, how the poor climate leads to bleak feelings, and how the region's baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, contributed to this. It led to his serious drinking and cocaine problems. But it also led him to write some of the most renowned horror stories of the 20th Century.
Carrie is about Carrie White, a friendless, bullied high-school girl from an abusive religious household, who discovers she has telekinetic powers. Feeling guilty for harassing Carrie, Sue Snell invites Carrie to the senior prom with Tommy Ross, but a humiliating prank during the prom by Chris Hargensen leads to Carrie destroying the town with her powers.
The joke is that King has published hundreds of books. In 1987, on Saturday Night Live, he was played by Jon Lovitz, interviewed by Dennis Miller on the "Weekend Update" segment. He types throughout, even while answering questions, then stops, and says, "Wait a minute, I'm blocked." He pauses for 3 seconds, and then says, "Okay," and goes back to typing. In fact, through April 5, 2002, he has published 63 novels.
Carrie was followed in print by 'Salem's Lot, about vampires; The Shining, about mental illness; The Stand, about an apocalyptic virus; The Dead Zone, about precognition; Cujo, about a rabid dog; The Running Man, about a dystopian TV game show; Christine, about a killer car; It, about a killer alien clown; and Misery, about a mentally ill woman who kidnaps an author, claiming to be his biggest fan. He's also deviated from horror to write the prison-themed novels The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.
Many of King's stories have been filmed, including Carrie 3 times, the 1st being the most notable, with Sissy Spacek. King isn't always happy with the film adaptations: Stanley Kubrick turned The Shining into a Jack Nicholson epic in 1980, but King said Kubrick totally missed the point: It was about how alcohol and mental illness can turn a good man bad, not about the nature of evil itself.
King survived his struggle with substance abuse, and has even lived to see the Red Sox win 4 World Series. He writes novels that are popular, but not necessarily great literature. He is under no illusion about this, having once said, "I'm a salami writer. I try to write the best salami I can, but there's no use in trying to pretend that it's filet mignon."
In a 2014 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, King was played by George Watsky, against Edgar Allan Poe, played by George Watsky. King saw the battle and, on Twitter, paid proper respect to the original master of horror by admitting that "he" had lost.
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April 5, 1974 was a Friday. The Major League Baseball season opened the previous day. One of those was a 7-6 win by the Cincinnati Reds over the Atlanta Braves, in which the Braves' Hank Aaron hit his 714th career home run, to tie Babe Ruth's all-time record. Those teams did not play on April 5, and Aaron broke the record with his 715th on April 8.
These 7 games were played on this day:
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jim Palmer outpitched Mickey Lolich. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3. Al Kaline went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Nolan Ryan outpitched Wilbur Wood. Frank Robinson went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI for the Angels.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-8 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Pirates scored a run in the top of the 10th inning, but the Cards scored 2 in the bottom of the 10th, on RBI singles by Tim McCarver and Ted Sizemore. Al Hrabosky was the winning pitcher, in relief of Bob Gibson. Lou Brock went 2-for-6. For the Bucs, Richie Hebner hit 2 home runs, and Willie Stargell went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-5, but Rod Carew went 3-for-6 with 2 RBIs, including singling home the winning run in the top of the 11th inning.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 8-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Don Sutton pitched a 6-hit shutout.
* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 5-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
Football was out of season. There were 2 games played in the NBA Playoffs. The New York Knicks beat the Capital Bullets, 101-93 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The next season, the Bullets renamed themselves the Washington Bullets. In 1997, they moved into a new arena in the District, and became the Washington Wizards.
And the Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons, 84-83 at the Chicago Stadium.
There was 1 game played in the American Basketball Association Playoffs: The Kentucky Colonels beat the Carolina Panthers, 99-96 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. Artis Gilmore scored 34 points and grabbed 20 rebounds.
The World Hockey Association was between its regular season and its Playoffs. There were 2 regular-season games played in the NHL. The Atlanta Flames beat the California Golden Seals, 4-2 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 5-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
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