June 4, 1967: Britain's Deadliest Day In the Air

June 4, 1967: The Stockport Air Disaster kills 72 people outside Manchester, England. It remains the 3rd-worst air disaster ever in England, and the 4th-worst in Britain as a whole.

The plane was a Canadair C-4 Argonaut, owned by British Midland Airways, flying as British Midland Flight 542, crashing at Stockport, then part of Cheshire, now part of Greater Manchester. Somehow, 12 passengers survived.

And it wasn't even the worst crash involving a British flight on that day: Less than 12 hours earlier, 88 people on an Air Ferry Limited flight died in a crash in the Pyrenees mountains in France. The plane was a Douglas DC-4, which was in service from 1942 to 1991, and this was its deadliest crash.

The Stockport crash killed more than 3 times as many people as the plane crash most often associated with Manchester, the 1958 one that killed 23 people, including 8 Manchester United players, in Munich.

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June 4, 1967 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won the opener, 5-0. Al Downng pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Mickey Lolich. Joe Pepitone and Bill Robinson hit home runs.

The Tigers won the nightcap, 11-7. The starting pitchers were Fritz Peterson and Hank Aguirre, and neither one got out of the 5th inning. John Kennedy and Jake Gibbs homered for the Yanks. Over the 2 games, Mickey Mantle went 2-for-7 with 2 walks. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 in the 1st game, and walked as a pinch-hitter in the 2nd game.

* The New York Mets were shut out in a doubleheader by the San Francisco Giants, 7-0 and 5-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Joe Gibbon allowed 4 hits in the 1st game, and Mike McCormick allowed 8 in the 2nd game. Willie Mays went 1-for-3 in the 1st game, and didn't play in the 2nd. Willie McCovey hit a home run in the 1st game.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 7-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. This game went to the bottom of the 19th inning, before Brooks Robinson singled and Andy Etchebarren hit a home run. Brooks went 3-for-8, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-7 with a walk.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Steve Hargan pitched a 5-hit shutout. Carl Yastrzemski got 2 of those hits. Leon Wagner hit a home run.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Hank Aaron went 2-for-4, including his 457th career home run.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game, 2-0. Tommy John, using the fine fastball he had before the surgery that now bears his name forced him to switch to a sinker, pitched a 5-hit shutout. The Kansas City Athletics won the 2nd game, 5-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the California Angels, 8-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Bob Allison singled Ted Uhlaender home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Harmon Killebrew went 3-for-3 with a home run and 2 walks.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Busch Memorial Stadium. Lou Brock went 2-for-5 with a home run, a stolen base, and 2 RBIs. Roger Maris went 0-for-3 with a walk. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 6-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Bob Veale outpitched Don Drysdale. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs. Willie Stargell went 0-for-4.