November 1, 1950: The Attempted Assassination of President Harry Truman

November 1, 1950: President Harry Truman faces an assassination attempt. The Truman family is staying at Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, while the White House is being renovated. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, Puerto Rican independence activists, approached Blair House with guns, hoping that killing Truman would help their cause.

Blair House

Collazo shot D.C. police officer Donald Birdzell. He survived, and lived until 1991. Secret Service Agent Vincent Mroz heard this, came outside, and shot Collazo in the chest. He survived. Torresola shot White House Police Officer Leslie Coffelt. He then shot Officer Joseph Downs, but Downs was able to get up and secure a door into the house. He survived, and lived until 1978.

Torresola was reloading when Truman, having heard the shots, made a potentially terrible mistake, and looked outside his 2nd floor window, exposing him to the shooters. Secret Service Agents shouted at him to get away. He did.

Coffelt managed to return fire, hitting Torresola in the head and killing him instantly. But Coffelt was mortally wounded, and died 4 hours later. He was the 1st person ever to, as the Secret Service's saying goes, "take a bullet for the President."

Officer Leslie Coffelt

Had the attempt succeeded, Vice President Alben Barkley would have become President. Next in line would have been the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn of Texas.

Collazo was convicted and sentenced to death. Truman, a World War I veteran who said he wasn't scared, because had already "been shot at by professionals," commuted Collazo's sentence to life imprisonment. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter further commuted his sentence to time served, which turned out to be 29 years. He returned to Puerto Rico, continued to support its independence, and died in 1994.

Truman served out his term until January 20, 1953, did not run for another, and retired to his home in Independence, Missouri, outside Kansas City. He died on December 26, 1972. Agent Mroz, who had played football at the University of Michigan, was the last survivor of the incident, living until 2008.

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November 1, 1950 was a Wednesday. There were 3 NBA games played on the day:

* The Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Boston Celtics, 107-84 at the gymnasium of North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That's right: A high school gym. The NBA was still trying to gain its footing as a "major league." It would be 2 more years before the Pistons moved into a real arena, and another 5 before they moved to Detroit.

Chuck Cooper, the 1st black player drafted by an NBA team, made his NBA debut, the night after Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols became the 1st black player to appear in an NBA game. Cooper scored 9 points for the Celtics, and Bob Cousy scored 16, but they got clobbered. Larry Foust of the Pistons led all scorers with 19.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 81-71 at the Baltimore Coliseum. This version of the Bullets, who won the NBA Championship in 1948, folded in 1954, and bore no connection besides name to the Baltimore Bullets who began play in 1963, and are now the Washington Wizards. George Mikan, the dominant player of the pre-24-second shot clock era (1946-54), scored 34, but it wasn't anywhere near enough.

* And the Washington Capitols beat the Indianapolis Olympians, 100-84 at the Uline Arena, later renamed the Washington Coliseum. Although it hasn't been used for sporting events since 1971, this building still stands. The aforementioned Earl Lloyd scored 8 points. Despite having reached the NBA Finals in 1949, the Capitols only lasted until the end of this season.

The Olympians lost players Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, when the NBA banned them for life due to their role in the college basketball point-shaving scandal while they were at the University of Kentucky. Their former Kentucky, now Indianapolis, teammates Cliff Barker and Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones were not implicated, but each only lasted 1 more season in the NBA, and the Olympians lasted only 1 more after that.

And there was 1 NHL game played on this day, the League's biggest rivalry: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Maurice Richard of the Canadiens and Max Bentley of the Leafs -- nicknamed "the Rocket" and "the Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle" (his hometown in Saskatchewan), respectively -- each scored 2 goals. There were 5 goals in the 3rd period, 3 by Toronto and both of Richard's goals.