May 1, 1971: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, popularly known as Amtrak, begins operation. It takes over intercity passenger rail service from all other railroads, most of them bankrupt.
There had been the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad; the New York Central Railroad; the Pennsylvania Railroad; the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad; the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway; the Southern Railroad; the Seaboard Line; the Illinois Central Railroad; the Rock Island Line, the Burlington Northern; the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe; the Union Pacific, the Central Pacific, and the Southern Pacific; and many others.
But with the growth of the automobile industry, the Interstate Highway System, and the airline industry, railroads lost their market, and most of them went bankrupt. On February 1, 1968, the New York Central and the Pennsylvania, both bankrupt, merged to form the Penn Central. That went bankrupt, too, on June 21, 1970, the biggest bankruptcy in American history until Enron in 2001.
Amtrak is better than bus service on Greyhound. But it is flawed. There are lots of places it doesn't go, including a few big cities like Nashville and Columbus. The food is good in the dining car, but on short trips, the fast food they have is barely tolerable, partly due to being over-microwaved: By the time it cools off, you're at your destination. And in cities with commuter rail lines, Amtrak has precedence, so the commuter lines get backed up. This gets particularly bad at Pennsylvania Station in New York, with residual effects on New Jersey Transit and its Northeast Corridor stations.
In 1976, Conrail took over freight service from the remaining railroads. In the 1987 film Planes, Trains and Automobiles, neither Amtrak nor Conrail wanted their name on the train that breaks down, so the made-up name "Contrack" was used.
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May 1, 1971 was a Saturday. This was also the day the film Billy Jack premiered, and Marvel Comics issued their Spider-Man story about drug use. I have separate entries for those events.
These Major League Baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 1-0 at Yankee Stadium. Lew Krausse Jr., son of another major league pitcher, outpitched Stan Bahnsen. Tommy Harper's 8th inning home run provided the only home run of the game.
* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Larry Dierker outpitched Tom Seaver.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and an RBI. Rod Carew did not play. Luis Aparicio (not really known as a slugger, or as a Red Sock) and Reggie Smith hit home runs in defeat. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-4.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Washington.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-5 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron hit the 601st and 602nd home runs of his career.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Gene Alley singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Willie Stargell went 3-for-5. Roberto Clemente was a late defensive replacement, and went 0-for-1.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4. Willie Mays only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Fergie Jenkins outpitched Rick Wise, although Wise hit a home run. Ernie Banks went 1-for-2 with a walk. Billy Williams went 3-for-3 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs.
* The Montreal Expos and the St. Louis Cardinals were tied, 2-2 after 7 innings, when the game at Busch Memorial Stadium was called due to rain.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with a walk. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
* The California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium). Andy Messersmith went the distance, while Dean Chance got knocked out of the box in the 2nd inning. Al Kaline went 0-for-2, then was hit by a pitch and replaced by a pinch-runner.
* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Steve Dunning outpitched Diego Seguí. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4.
Football was out of season. The NBA Championship had been decided the day before, as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Baltimore Bullets 118-106 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Arena) to complete a 4-game sweep of the Finals. The ABA Playoffs were between the Divisional Finals and the Finals. The Utah Stars would win, defeating the Kentucky Colonels.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs were in the Semifinals. The Montreal Canadiens had eliminated the Minnesota North Stars 2 days earlier, and the Chicago Black Hawks would eliminate the New York Rangers in Game 7 the next night. The Canadiens would win the Cup over the Hawks in 7 games.
And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Staffordshire team Stoke City, 1-0 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury. That should have been their last game of the Football League season. However, an earlier game against their North London arch-rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, had been postponed, and would be played 2 days later. This allowed Arsenal to win the League title at the home of their arch-rivals.
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