June 14, 1903: Willow Creek overflows, flooding the town of Heppner, Oregon. It kills 247 people, making it the 2nd-deadliest flood in American history, behind only the Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania in 1889.
After the flood inundated Heppner, two of its residents, Les Matlock and Bruce Kelly, rode on horseback to warn the cities of Lexington and Ione, 9 and 18 miles downstream, respectively. The facts that they made these warnings on horseback, and that one of the towns was named Lexington, is reminiscent of the midnight rides of Paul Revere and his cohorts.
Unfortunately, they were not as successful as Revere. The flood just beat them to Lexington, and several buildings were destroyed. They went on to Ione, and beat the flood. The floodwaters washed raw sewage from Heppner into the wells of both towns. So while nobody in the towns they warned died from the effects of the flood, over the next few months, 18 people died from typhoid fever.
There have been no fatal floods from Willow Creek since. To reduce the possibility further, the Willow Creek Dam was build in 1983.
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June 14, 1903 was a Sunday. Because the States of New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts -- home to half the teams then in the major leagues, 8 out of 16 -- still had "blue laws" that prevented various activities on Sundays, including professional sports, there were only 3 baseball games played:
* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 7-6 at The Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago.
* And the Boston Beaneaters beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-1 at Robison Field in St. Louis. (You've read that right: "Robison" was the name of the brothers who owned the team, not "Robinson.") The Boston team of the National League went through several name changes before settling on "Braves" in 1912.
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