October 13, 1872: The SS Lac La Belle sinks in Lake Michigan, off the coast of Racine, Wisconsin. There are 8 deaths.
The Lac La Belle was a luxury passenger steamer, built in Cleveland in 1864, along with an identical sister ship, SS Ironsides. She was involved in several accidents, including one in Algonac, Michigan in 1866, in which 2 crewmen died.
At 9:00 PM on October 13, 1872, under the command of Captain W.H. Thompson, she left Milwaukee, to cross Lake Michigan to Grand Haven, Michigan. She had 53 passengers and crew, with a cargo of about 19,000 bushels of barley, 1,200 barrels of flour, 50 barrels of pork, 25 barrels of whiskey, 20 tons of animal feed, and various sundries.
The boat began leaking about 25 miles off the coast of Racine, Wisconsin. At around 12:00 Midnight, rising water in the engine room extinguished the fire in the boilers. She sank about 20 miles off the coast. One of the lifeboats capsized, resulting in the deaths of 8 people, while the rest of the lifeboats drifted ashore, or were picked up by passing vessels.
SS Ironsides remained in service for almost another year, until it sank on the same Milwaukee-to-Grand Haven route, taking 28 lives with it.
UPDATE: In 2026, a research crew announced they had found Lac La Belle's wreck in October 2022, about the time of the 150th Anniversary of the sinking.
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October 13, 1872 was a Sunday. The only professional sport in North America at the time was baseball, and Sunday baseball was then prohibited by both the National Association and most State laws. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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