December 31, 1907: The 1st New Year's Eve Ball Drop

December 31, 1907: Times Square in New York has its 1st New Year's Eve ball drop.

The Commissioner's Plan of 1811 created a street grid for New York City, then consisting only of Manhattan Island. (What we now call the Five Boroughs came as a result of the consolidation of "Greater New York" in 1898.) Below 14th Street, which was where most of the developed part of the City then was, this pattern could not take hold. (It still doesn't. Incidentally, Houston Street -- pronounced "HOW-stin," not "HYOO-stin" like the Texas city -- serves as "Zero Street.") But above it, it does.

Under this plan, the east-to-west streets would be numbered, up to 264th Street in The Bronx. Most of the north-to-south streets would also be numbered, but were named Avenues, from 1st Avenue near the East River to 12th Avenue near the Hudson River. There are exceptions. Above 14th Street, Park Avenue takes the place of 4th Avenue. Lexington Avenue is between 3rd and Park. And Madison Avenue is between Park and 5th.

The other exception is Broadway: It starts out parallel to these Avenues, but curves at 10th Street, leading to "squares" where it intersects with the Avenues: Union Square (where 4th Avenue turns into Park Avenue) at 14th, Madison Square at 23rd and 5th, Herald Square at 34th and 6th, what was originally Longacre Square at 42nd and 7th, Columbus Circle at 59th and 8th, Lincoln Square at 65th and Columbus (known as 9th Avenue below 59th), and a last, unnamed intersection at 71st and Amsterdam (known as 10th Avenue below 59th), before running parallel to the Avenues again.

None of these "squares" actually has a square shape. On April 8, 1904, Mayor George McClellan Jr., son of the infamous Civil War General, noted the opening of the new headquarters of The New York Times on a triangular block bounded by 42nd Street, 7th Avenue and Broadway, and renamed Longacre Square "Times Square."

In 1913, the Times moved to a new building just off the Square, at 229 West 43rd Street, although it didn't sell the old building until 1961, to fund an expansion of the new headquarters. In 2007, the paper moved again, to The New York Times Building -- like the original 1904 structure, nicknamed Times Tower -- at 620 8th Avenue, across from Port Authority Bus Terminal and a block west of Times Square. The old Times Tower is now known simply by its address, 1 Times Square, and is known for his video board and its news banner, a.k.a. "The Zipper," which began operating in 1928.

While the whole stretch of Broadway from 42nd to 50th Streets is usually called "Times Square," that's officially the name of only its southern half, from 42nd to 45th. From 45th to 50th, it's Duffy Square, named after the famous World War I chaplain, Father Francis P. Duffy. Duffy Square includes a statue of an even more famous Irish-American, his contemporary, the leading Broadway star, writer and producer of the early 20th Century, George M. Cohan. Of all the stars in Broadway history, Cohan is the only one with a statue actually on Broadway.

Traditionally, New York's New Year's Eve celebrations had centered around Trinity Church, at Broadway and Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. But on December 31, 1904, Times owner-publisher Adolph Ochs decided to set off fireworks from his building, to ring in the New Year 1905. That brought 200,000 people into the recently-renamed Times Square, and that started a new tradition.

Drawing of the celebration in the next day's Times

In 1907, Ochs wanted an even bigger spectacle. Walter F. Palmer was the paper's chief electrician. He had seen a "time ball," a signaling device, on the nearby Western Union Telegraph Building. Ochs hired sign designer Artkraft Strauss to build such a ball. The result 700 pounds of wood, 5 feet in diameter, with 100 incandescent light bulbs attached -- this was only 28 years after Thomas Edison made such light bulbs practical.

The ball was hoisted on the building's 70-foot flagpole, and was lowered at 10 seconds to midnight on December 31. Once it hit the roof at 12:00 on January 1, 1908, the ball completed a circuit that lit 5-foot-tall signs on the sides of the building, reading "HAPPY NEW YEAR," and triggering fireworks.

In 1919, a 2nd ball was designed, made of iron, which lowered its weight to 400 pounds. For 1942 into 1943, and 1943 into 1944, there was no ball-drop, due to wartime lighting restrictions. Instead, a moment of silence was observed from 11:59 to 12:00, and then the sound of church bells was played from sound trucks, allowing everybody to let loose. In 1954, a 3rd ball design was introduced: Now 150 pounds of aluminum, it was just 6 feet in diameter.

In 1929, bandleader Guy Lombardo began hosting a nationwide radio broadcast on CBS, with his Royal Canadians, from the Roosevelt Hotel at 45 East 45th Street, 2 blocks east of Times Square. These broadcasts popularized Robert Burns' poem "Auld Lang Syne" in musical form. In 1956, CBS began televising Lombardo's New Year's Eve show, and he became known as Mr. New Year's Eve.

In 1960, Lombardo moved operations of the show to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at 301 Park Avenue at 49th Street. (The Roosevelt closed in 2020, due to financial losses from the COVID epidemic. As of December 31, 2022, the building has potential buyers, but there are no permanent plans for it.) Through 1976, there were competing New Year's Eve TV show's: Lombardo's on CBS, with an announcer waiting until 10 seconds before midnight to start counting down; and the ball-drop on every other station, with the ball being lowered at 60 seconds before.

ABC began appealing to a younger generation, with Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on December 31, 1971, live from Times Square (with some acts performing at a pre-recorded show in Hollywood), and it featured the ball-drop. In that New Year of 1972, Johnny Carson moved The Tonight Show from Rockefeller Center a few blocks away to NBC Studios in Burbank, outside Los Angeles, but continued to show the Times Square ball-drop, making New Year's Eve one of his few shows of the year to still be done live. He, announcer Ed McMahon, bandleader Doc Severinsen and the entire band, would wear tuxedos, a New Year's Eve tradition. (Lombardo and Clark also wore them.)

Lombardo died in 1977, and CBS carried on for 2 years with his brother Carmen moving out of the band to lead it, but gave up the ghost for 1979-80, and had new, more up-to-date programming. The Tonight Show has continued to be done live on NBC, with Carson having given way to Jay Leno, and now Leno to Jimmy Fallon. Clark died in 2012, but ABC continues his show with his name on it, hosted by Ryan Seacrest. But until she died in 2006, my grandmother, who grew up with Lombardo, said it was no longer really New Year's Eve without him.

For 1981-82, the ball was modified: The white light bulbs were replaced with red ones, with green "leaves" and a brown "stem," making the ball look like the City's nickname, "The Big Apple." I liked the design, but it proved unpopular, and they went back to white light bulbs for 1988-89.

In 1995, the ball was altered again, with halogen bulbs, strobe lights and rhinestones, making it flashier than ever. The 3rd ball was retired for the Millennium Eve of 1999-2000, leading to the 4th ball, with triangular panels made by Waterford Crystal. And in 2007, for the drop's 100th Anniversary, the 5th and current ball was introduced: It is bigger than ever, 12 feet; heavier than ever, 11,875 pounds (just under 6 tons); flashier than ever, with 2,688 panels with 32,256 LED lamps; and tougher than ever, made waterproof so that it can remain atop 1 Times Square all year long.

For 2020-21, with COVID restrictions in place, the Square was closed off, and only medical personnel, first responders, and their families, all masked, were let in, as was the case with the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. For 2021-22, proof of vaccination was required to be let into the Square, but, otherwise, normal service was resumed.

Usually, people begin arriving in Times Square in the early afternoon of December 31, and the police close it off by 6:00 PM. In other words, if you go to this pickpocket's dreamland, you're going to stand for at least 6 hours with no chance to legally go to the bathroom, and you better bring food, because, despite all the chain restaurants around you, you're not getting into any of them until at least 12:10 AM -- and some will be closed at that hour, anyway, regardless of the holiday.

I often thought about being in that New Year's Eve crowd, which, when the Square is closed off, is over 1 million people. Then, one year, I had to be in Manhattan on a December 31. At about 2:00 PM, I came out of the Times Square subway station, ready to walk the block back to Port Authority and head back to New Jersey, and the place was already packed. What should have been a 5-minute walk from 7th to 8th Avenue took me twice as long. So Times Square on New Year's Eve is one "New York thing" that I will never do.

At 11:59 and zero seconds, the ball begins to drop, and it hits the bottom at 12:00 and zero seconds, at which point a sign illuminating the New Year lights up. Confetti is released, and the recording of "Auld Lang Syne" by Lombardo and his Royal Canadians plays over loudspeakers.

This is followed by Frank Sinatra's version of "Theme from New York, New York," Ray Charles' version of "America the Beautiful," Louis Armstrong's version of "What a Wonderful World," and Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of "Over the Rainbow."

That takes the crowd to about 12:10 AM, and the police take the barricades down. By 6:00 AM, not only are all but a few stragglers gone, but the Sanitation Department has cleaned up the Square, removing every last piece of confetti, so that you'd never know that last night wasn't like any other night.

*

December 31, 1907 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football season was over: While there were 2 college games on Christmas Day, there were none on New Year's Eve. Basketball barely existed. And hockey was still all-amateur, and played no games on the day or the night. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 25, 1907: College Football In Cuba

December 25, 1907: For the 1st time, a game of American football is played in a foreign country -- Cuba.

The game was known as the Bacaradi Bowl, and was held at La Tropical Stadium in the capital of Havana. The University of Havana, founded in 1728, had invited Louisiana State University, who came into the game at 6-3. Perhaps UH showed LSU a little too much hospitality -- or, perhaps UH drank too much Bacardi. LSU won the game, 56-0.

La Tropical was torn down in 1929, and replaced with a new football/soccer stadium, Pedro Marrero Stadium, which is still in use.

*

December 25, 1907 was a Wednesday. Cabell Calloway III, later known as the jazz singer Cab Calloway, was born.

There was 1 other sporting event that day, and it was also a college football game. Washington State University beat Saint Louis University, 11-0 at Natatorium Park in Spokane, Washington. This was a minor-league baseball park built next-door to a public pool, or a "natatorium."

For those of you from the St. Louis area, this is "Wazzu," from Pullman, in the eastern part of the State of Washington, near Spokane and the Idaho State Line, in "the Palouse"; and it should not be confused with Washington University of St. Louis.

Why the Cougars and the Billikens were playing each other at all, let alone on Christmas, and in a cold-weather place instead of a warmer clime, is information that I don't have. Nevertheless, this was a reasonable substitute for the on-hiatus Rose Bowl, as Wazzu finished the season 7-1, while SLU finished 7-3.

There may have been hockey games that week, but I have no record of them. A few days later, the Montreal Wanderers defended the Stanley Cup at the Montreal Arena, in a two-games-total-goals series with the Ottawa Victorias, winning 9-3 on January 9, 1908, and 13-1 on January 13.  

December 21, 1907: The Santa María School Massacre

December 21, 1907: The Santa María School Massacre occurs. It was the mass murder of striking workers, mostly saltpeter works (nitrate) miners, along with wives and children, committed by the Chilean Army in Iquique, in the South American nation of Chile. The number of victims is undetermined, but is estimated to be over 2,000.

The site of the massacre was the Escuela Domingo Santa María School (Sunday Saint Mary School), where thousands of miners from different nitrate mines in Chile's far north had been camping for a week after converging on Iquique, the regional capital, to appeal for government intervention to improve their living and working conditions.

Rafael Sotomayor Gaete, the Minister of the Interior, decided to crush the strike, by army assault if need be. On December 21, 1907, the commander of the troops at the scene, General Roberto Silva Renard, in accordance with this plan, informed the strikers' leaders that the strikers had one hour to disband or be fired upon.

When the time was up and the leaders and the multitude stood firm, General Silva Renard gave his troops the order to fire. An initial volley that felled the negotiators was followed by a hail of rifle and machine gun fire aimed at the multitude of strikers and their accompanying wives and children.

The massacre occurred during the peak of the nitrate mining era, which coincided with the Parliamentary Period Chilean political history (1891–1925). With the massacre and an ensuing reign of terror, not only was the strike broken, but the workers' movement was thrown into limbo for over a decade.

For decades afterwards, there was official suppression of knowledge of the incident, but in 2007, the government conducted a highly publicized commemoration of its centenary, including an official national day of mourning and the reinterment of the victims' remains.

*

December 21, 1907 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed.

There were games played in England's Football League. In one of them, Everton and Woolwich Arsenal played to a draw, 1-1 at Goodison Park in Liverpool. Woolwich was in South-East London. In 1913, they moved to North London, and became simply Arsenal.

December 19, 1907: The Darr Mine Disaster

December 19, 1907: The Darr Mine Disaster occurs in Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. With 239 deaths, it remains the worst coal mining disaster in the history of America's foremost coal mining State.

The mine was operated by the Pittsburgh Coal Company. It was located on the west side of the Youghlogheny River, and along the route of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. Most of the miners and other mine laborers lived in the nearby community of Jacobs Creek, and took a "sky ferry" (aerial tramway) across the river to the mine entrance.

Many of the workers were immigrants from central Europe, particularly from the eastern part of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Hungarians, Slovaks and Rusyns. Others were Germans, Poles and Italians.

An inquiry carried out after the disaster determined that the blast was the result of miners carrying open lamps in an area cordoned off the previous day by the fire boss. The Pittsburgh Coal Company was not held responsible, but did abandon the use of open lamps after the disaster.

The Darr Mine blast was the 4th major mine disaster in December 1907, which would become the deadliest mine fatality month in U.S. history. It followed the Yolande mine explosion in Alabama on December 16, the Monongah Mining disaster in West Virginia that killed 362 on December 6, and the Naomi Mine explosion in Pennsylvania that killed 35 people on December 1.

The Darr Mine was abandoned, and is now overgrown with forest.

*

December 19, 1907 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 16, 1907: The Yolande Mine Disaster

December 16, 1907: An explosion at the Number 1 Mine of the Yolande Coal and Coke Company kills at least 75 men in Yolande, outside Birmingham, Alabama. It was 1 of 4 major mining disasters in America in December 1907 alone.

Post-disaster inspectors couldn't even approach the mine for 2 days, as it was still too hot -- in December. From this, they concluded that the explosion was caused by a "windy shot" bringing about a dust explosion.

Among the dead taken out early was Robert Arnold, the bank boss and Assistant Superintendent of the Yolande Company. Such was the nature of the South at the time that even The New York Times' reporter listened the names of the dead white miners, but not those of the dead black miners.

*

December 19, 1907 was a Monday. This was also the day the Great White Fleet set sail. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 16, 1907: The Great White Fleet Sets Sail

USS Nebraska

December 16, 1907: The Great White Fleet sets sail. It was Theodore Roosevelt's idea.

The 26th President of the United States was fond of quoting what he called an African proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick. You will go far." He was also a big believer in a big navy: The 1st of the 42 books he wrote, still a record for any President, was The Naval War of 1812, published in 1882, when he was only 23 years old.

After long neglecting the Navy, Congress started generous appropriations in the late 1880s, upon the request of President Benjamin Harrison and Secretary of State James G. Blaine, who famously ran for President the 3 previous times. Beginning with just 90 small ships, over one-third of them wooden and obsolete, the Navy quickly added new steel fighting vessels. 

TR dispatched 16 U.S. Navy battleships of the Atlantic Fleet on a worldwide voyage of circumnavigation from December 16, 1907 to February 22, 1909. The hulls were painted white, the Navy's peacetime color scheme, and decorated with gilded scrollwork with a red, white, and blue banner on their bows. The superstructures were painted buff. These ships later came to be known as the Great White Fleet.

The purpose of the fleet deployment was multifaceted. Ostensibly, it served as a showpiece of American goodwill, as the fleet visited numerous countries and harbors. In this, the voyage was not unprecedented. Naval courtesy calls, many times in conjunction with the birthdays of various monarchs and other foreign celebrations, had become common in the 19th Century. Port calls showcased pomp, ceremony, and militarism during a period of rising prewar nationalism.

Additionally, the voyage of the Great White Fleet demonstrated both at home and on the world stage that the U.S. had become a major sea power in the years after its triumph in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

With the battleship USS Connecticut as flagship, under the command of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, the fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia for Trinidad, British West Indies; thence to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Punta Arenas, Chile; Callao, Peru; Magdalena Bay, Mexico; and north along the West Coast, arriving at San Francisco on May 6, 1908.

Leaving that port on July 7, the fleet visited Honolulu; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Melbourne and Albany, Australia; Manila, Philippines; Yokohama, Japan; and Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); then arriving at Suez, Egypt, on January 3, 1909. While there, word was received of an earthquake in Sicily, thus affording an opportunity for the United States to show its friendship to Italy by offering aid to its victims.

Leaving Messina on January 9, 1909, the fleet stopped at Naples, Italy; thence to Gibraltar; arriving at Hampton Roads on February 22, 1909. There, President Roosevelt, in his last 10 days in office, reviewed the fleet as it passed into the roadstead. He was very pleased with the results of the tour.

In 1984, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was launched, named the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Although its official call sign is "Rough Rider," it is nicknamed "The Big Stick."

*

December 16, 1907 was a Monday. This was also the day of the Yolande coal mine explosion in Alabama. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day. 

December 6, 1907: America's Worst Mining Disaster

December 6, 1907: The Fairmont Coal Company's Number 6 and Number 8 mines explode, in Monongah, West Virginia, 25 miles southwest of Morgantown, and about 100 miles south of Pittsburgh. The disaster claimed 362 lives, making it the worst mining accident in American history.

Of the miners who died, 171 were Italian immigrants. There were 4 Italians who managed to escape alive, and 1 Polish miner was successfully rescued. But for most of those who died, it was instantaneous. The rescue attempts were dangerous due to gas buildup, and would have been pointless even if perfectly safe.

Beyond the men who died, 216 women were widowed, and the miners left behind 475 children, with a further 31 born after the disaster.

The public began demanding additional oversight to help regulate the mines. In 1910, Congress created the United States Bureau of Mines, under the control of the U.S. Department of the Interior, with the goal of investigating and inspecting mines, to reduce explosions and to limit the waste of human and natural resources. In addition, the Bureau of Mines set up field officers that would train mine crews, provide rescue services, and investigate disasters.

Housing has been built on the site.

*

December 6, 1907 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. Professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 1, 1907: The Naomi Mine Explosion

December 1, 1907: The Naomi Mine explosion kills 35 people outside Fayette City, in the southwest corner of Pennsylvania.

The Naomi Mine was operated by Hillman Coal and Coke Company, on the Monongahela River. The mine was built to exploit the Pittsburgh coal seam, which was positioned at a depth of 160 feet below the surface of the mine. Coal was hauled out of the mine with carts that were equipped with electric motors. From 1870, the earliest year records were kept, to December 1, 1907, a total of 63 men were killed in the Naomi Mine.

The explosion happened at about 7:15 on a Sunday night. Inadequate ventilation allowed pockets of explosive gas to accumulate in the interior of the mine. The gas was most likely ignited by an open light or electric arc, both of which would have been present at the time.

Several miners who lost their jobs in the closing of the Naomi Mine would soon find work in the Darr Mine located in nearby Westmoreland County. Just 18 days later, many of these displaced miners would be killed in the deadliest coal mining disaster in Pennsylvania history.

The Naomi Mine blast was the 1st of 4 major mine disasters in December 1907, which would become the deadliest mine fatality month in U.S. history. It was followed by the Monongah Mining disaster in West Virginia that killed 362 on December 6, the Yolande mine explosion in Alabama on December 16, and the Darr Mine explosion in Pennsylvania that killed 239 people on December 19.

*

December 1, 1907 was a Sunday. Baseball season was over. Professional football, basketball and hockey barely existed. And college football's regular season was over. So there were no scores on this historic day.

November 16, 1907: Oklahoma Is Admitted As the 46th State

November 16, 1907: Oklahoma is admitted to the Union as the 46th State.

Oklahoma, depending on your point of view, is either in the Midwest, the Southeast, or, most apparent to me, the Southwest. It had been acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, moving from the Louisiana Territory to the Arkansas Territory in 1819. It was set aside as "Indian Territory" in 1824.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 uprooted "The Five Civilized Tribes" -- the Cherokee Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole -- from the Southeastern U.S. to the Indian Territory. With the end of the American Civil War, land-hungry people sought land in the West. European Americans pressed their legislators to open the Indian Territory.

On March 2, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed the Indian Appropriations Act of 1889, which officially opened the Unassigned Lands to non-native settlers nunder tenets of the Homestead Act. Uder a section in this original Act, those who entered these unassigned lands illegally, before their respective racing times as designated in the President's opening proclamation, would be denied the rights to the lands they claimed. These people were termed "Sooners," with this section of the act being termed as the "sooner clause."

But there was growing political pressure to open these unassigned lands to settlement quickly. Thus, later in 1889, an amendment to the Act allowed President Benjamin Harrison to be involved in this historical bill as well, proclaiming unassigned lands were open for settlement under much less stringent rules.

This led to hundreds of legal contests that were decided, first at local land offices, and eventually by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Arguments included what constituted the "legal time of entry." While some people think that the settlers who entered the territory at the legally appointed time were known as "Boomers," the term actually refers to those who campaigned for the opening of the lands.

Harrison made the declaration that, on April 22, 1889, at 12:00 Noon, the Unassigned Land in Indian Territory would be open for settlement. At the time of the opening, which was indicated by gunshot, the line of people on horse and in wagons dispersed into a kaleidoscope of motion and dust and oxen and wagons. The chase for land was frenzied and much chaos and disorder ensued. The rush did not last long, and by the end of the day, nearly 2 million acres of land had been claimed. By the end of the year, 62,000 settlers lived in the Unassigned Lands located between the Five Tribes on the east and the Plains Tribes on the west. Oklahoma was admitted as the 46th State on November 16, 1907.

Oklahoma became known for oil, ranching and mining. It produced humorist Will Rogers, country singer Gene Autry, Native American all-around sports legend Jim Thorpe. and baseball legends Mickey Mantle and Johnny Bench. Politically, it has fallen victim to evangelical Protestantism, with Republican U.S. Senators pushing racist, pro-gun and anti-environment policies. Their highest-ranking politician has been Patrick J. Hurley, Secretary of War under President Herbert Hoover.

The University of Oklahoma was founded in Norman, outside the capital of Oklahoma City, on December 19, 1890, just 20 months after the Land Rush. Just 6 days later, on Christmas Day, the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College was founded. It was renamed Oklahoma State University in 1957. Both preceded Statehood by nearly 17 years.

Although the Oklahoma Sooners have had great success in football, and Oklahoma State in basketball and wrestling, major league sports teams in Oklahoma have been few and far between. From 1978 to 1984, the Tulsa Roughnecks played in the North American Soccer League, and won the title in 1983. The Oklahoma Outlaws of the United States Football League played in Tulsa in the 1984 season. From 2010 to 2015, the Tulsa Shock played in the WNBA. In 2008, the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics were moved, becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder, reaching the NBA Finals in 2012. (UPDATE: They won the title in 2025.)

*

November 16, 1907 was a Saturday. There were college football games played, including these:

* Army beat Tufts, 21-0 on The Plain at West Point, New York.

* Navy beat Penn State, 6-4 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland.

* Dartmouth beat Harvard, 22-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston.

* The University of Alabama and the Alabama Polytechnic Institute played to a tie, 6-6 at Lakeview Park in Birmingham, Alabama. The rivalry was stopped for bureaucratic reasons. It was not played again until 1948, when the State legislature threatened to withhold funding from both schools unless they began playing each other again. In 1960, Alabama Tech was renamed for its location: Auburn University. In 1964, the game became known as the Iron Bowl.

* The University of Pennsylvania beat the University of Michigan, 6-0 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Not only was this Michigan's 1st loss of the season, but Penn were the 1st team to even score on them. After their Thanksgiving Day win over Cornell, Penn were recognized as the National Champions.

* Yale beat Princeton, 12-10 at Yale Field in New Haven, Connecticut.

* And New Jersey's team, Rutgers, lost to Jefferson Medical College, 27-0 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick. Located in Philadelphia, JMC became Thomas Jefferson University.

October 27, 1907: Union Station Opens In Washington

October 27, 1907: Union Station opens in Washington, D.C., 6 blocks north of the U.S. Capitol, replacing 2 earlier stations. It hosts service for the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (a.k.a. the B&O).

The New Jersey Avenue Station opened in 1851, 2 blocks north of the U.S. Capitol Building. It was the city's terminal for the B&O. The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station opened in 1872, 5 blocks west of the Capitol. It was the city's terminal for the railroad of the same name, and also for the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was there that President James Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881.

Both stations were phased out when Union Station opened. The Senate Fountain now stands on the site of New Jersey Avenue Station, and the National Gallery of Art, a unit of the Smithsonian Institution, is on the site of the Baltimore and Potomac Station.

In 1971, in the wake of the bankruptcies of most of America's passenger railroads, it becomes the headquarters of Amtrak. In 1976, Washington's subway system, the Metro, opened, with Union Station being a stop on its Red Line. In 1988, a hall was converted into the District of Columbia's premier upscale shopping center.

In 1984, MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) began operating there, providing service to Baltimore, and to western Maryland, all the way to Martinsburg, West Virginia. In 1992, VRE (Virginia Railway Express) began service to Manassas and Fredericksburg, both sites of Civil War battles. In 2012, Greyhound moved its intercity bus service to a station in the Station's parking deck.

*

October 27, 1907 was a Sunday. Baseball season was over. Pro football and hockey records from this era were sketchy. Pro basketball did not exist. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 24, 1907: The Panic of 1907

J.P. Morgan

October 24, 1907: The Panic of 1907 hits the New York Stock Exchange, sending stock prices tumbling, and triggering fears of a depression.

The panic was triggered by the failed attempt to corner the market on the stock of the United Copper Company. When the bid failed, banks that had lent money to the cornering scheme suffered runs that later spread to affiliated banks and trusts, leading a week later to the downfall of the Knickerbocker Trust Company, New York City's 3rd-largest trust.

The collapse of the Knickerbocker spread fear throughout the city's trusts as regional banks withdrew reserves from New York City banks. The panic then extended across the nation, as vast numbers of people withdrew deposits from their regional banks, causing the 8th-largest decline in U.S. stock market history.

The panic might have deepened if not for the intervention of financier John Pierpont Morgan, one of the richest men in America, who pledged large sums of his own money, and convinced other New York bankers to do the same, to shore up the banking system. The idea was, if J.P. Morgan was willing to put his fortune and his reputation on the line, they should be willing to do the same. They were.

That highlighted the limitations of the U.S. Independent Treasury system, which managed the nation's money supply, but was unable to inject sufficient liquidity back into the market. By November, the financial contagion had largely ended, only to be replaced by a further crisis due to the heavy borrowing of a large brokerage firm using the stock of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TC&I) as collateral.

Collapse of TC&I's stock price was averted by an emergency takeover by U.S. Steel Corporation, owned by Morgan since he paid Andrew Carnegie $492 million for it in 1901. (About $17.1 billion in 2022 money.) This move was approved by President Theodore Roosevelt, who, despite having previously picked a policy fight with Morgan and won, knew that letting Morgan have what he wanted was the right move this time. Morgan was pleased to have won one over "the Trust-Buster."

Morgan died in 1913. That same year, United Copper went out of business, and the Federal Reserve Board was established, to help steady the American economy, so that no future panics would cause an economic downturn. It usually works. In 1929, it did not: That crash was so bad, even the Fed couldn't do much about it. Nor could J.P. Morgan Jr., who tried to repeat his father's attempt to prop up the market, and ended up losing 40 percent of his personal fortune as a result. (He lived until 1943.)

*

October 24, 1907 was a Thursday. The only sport currently in season in North America was football, and only one game was played: Mississippi A&M beat Mercer, 75-0 at the Columbus Fairgrounds in Columbus, Mississippi.

A&M would be renamed Mississippi State College in 1932, and Mississippi State University in 1958. Mercer University, based in Macon, Georgia, dropped football after the 1941 season due to World War II, and didn't start playing again until 2013, in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, formerly known as Division I-AA).

October 12, 1907: The Cubs Win In the Snow

Opposing managers Frank Chance (left) and Hughie Jennings.

It hadn't started snowing yet, but a sweater was a good idea.

October 12, 1907: The Chicago Cubs win the World Series. Having lost it the year before to the crosstown White Sox, this is sweet redemption for them.

It wasn't quite revenge, as the opponents were the Detroit Tigers. But it was a dish served cold. There was no choice: Temperature-wise, this was the coldest World Series ever.

Game 1 was played at the West Side Grounds in Chicago, and no winner could be found: It went 12 innings before the umpires called it due to darkness. There was some retroactive appropriateness to this: The Cubs were the last team in the major leagues to put lights up at their home stadium, in 1988; while the Tigers were the last team in the American League to do so, in 1948.

This was the 1st World Series game for Tigers superstar Ty Cobb, 2 months shy of his 21st birthday. "Wild" Bill Donovan of the Tigers struck out 12 batters, matching the Series record set by Ed Walsh of the White Sox the year before. That record stood until 1929, when Howard Ehmke of the Philadelphia Athletics struck out 13 Cubs. The record was raised to 14, by Carl Erskine of the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers; 15, by Sandy Koufax of the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers; and the current mark of 17, by Bob Gibson of the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals.

Game 2 was also played in Chicago. For the 1st, and perhaps only, time in World Series history, the "hidden-ball trick" is successfully tried. In Game 2 at the West Side Grounds, Detroit Tigers 3rd baseman Bill Coughlin tags out Cub center fielder Jimmy Slagle, who is leading off the base.

It didn't help the Tigers much. Their 2nd baseman Herman "Germany" Schaefer was caught stealing, and Tiger manager Hughie Jennings, the star shortstop of the 1890s Baltimore Orioles dynasty, argued the call, becoming the 1st manager to be thrown out of a World Series game, by umpire Hank O'Day. The Cubs won, 3-1. Game 3 was also played in Chicago. With considerably less controversy, the Cubs won again, 5-1.

The Series shifted to Bennett Park in Detroit for Game 4. A triple by Cobb led to the Tigers' 1st run, but it turned out to be the only run, as the Cubs won, 6-1. And in a chilly Game 5, with snow falling, and the lowest attendance in World Series history, only 7,370 fans, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown pitched a 7-hit shutout to outpitch George Mullin, and the Cubs won, 2-0.

Frank Chance, the Cubs' manager and 1st baseman known as "The Peerless Leader," was only 30 years old. He remains the youngest manager ever to win the World Series.

There would not be snow at a World Series game again for 90 years, until Game 4 in 1997, in Cleveland. That Series had the greatest extremes of temperature: While the 3 games in Cleveland were cold, the 4 games in the Miami suburbs were hot.

*

October 12, 1907 was a Saturday. Among the notable college football games played that day were these:

* Army beat Trinity College of Connecticut, 12-0 on The Plain on the U.S. Military Academy grounds in West Point, New York.

* Navy and Vanderbilt played to a tie, 6-6 at Worden Field on the Naval Academy grounds in Annapolis, Maryland.

* The Carlisle Indian School beat Syracuse, 14-6 at Archbold Stadium in Syracuse, New York.

* Rutgers lost to Lehigh, 16-6 at Neilson Field in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

* Princeton beat Villanova, 45-5 at University Field in Princeton, New Jersey.

* The Western University of Pennsylvania beat their neighbors, Carnegie Tech, 6-0 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. In 1908, WUP became the University of Pittsburgh. In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, and became Carnegie-Mellon University.

* In what would later become a major rivalry, the University of Michigan beat Michigan State Agricultural College, 46-0 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor. MSAC became Michigan Agricultural College in 1909, Michigan State College in 1925, and Michigan State University in 1955.

* In what was already a major rivalry, Texas and Texas A&M played to a tie, 0-0 at Gaston Park, the Texas League baseball park in Dallas.

And in English soccer, Woolwich Arsenal, the South-East London team that would later become Arsenal F.C., the North London team I support, went to Birmingham in the West Midlands, and beat Aston Villa, 1-0 at Villa Park.

September 30, 1907: Ty Cobb's Greatest Day

September 30, 1907: The Philadelphia Athletics and the Detroit Tigers play for 17 innings at Columbia Park in Philadelphia, before the game is called due to darkness. A rainout the day before meant that a doubleheader was supposed to be played. They almost got 2 full games' worth of baseball in, but no result.

The A's led 3-0 after the 1st inning, 7-1 after 6, 8-4 after 7, and 8-6 after 8. But Ty Cobb, still only 20 years old, hit a home run in the 9th to tie the game. Each team scored in the 11th, but that was it. Wild Bill Donovan went all 17 innings for the Tigers. Cobb finished the day at 3-for-8 with a home run, a walk, and 3 RBIs.

It was a 3-team race, and the 3rd team in it was the Chicago White Sox. But their game that day also couldn't find a winner: They played the Boston Red Sox at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston, and were tied at 3-3 after 14 innings, when this game, too, was called due to darkness.

The Tigers now led the A's by a game and a half, and the White Sox by two and a half. The Tigers and A's each had 7 games left, the White Sox only 5. The Tigers clinched the Pennant on October 3, with a 9-3 win away to the Washington Senators. Cobb finished the season batting .350.

In an interview for John P. Carmichael's 1945 book My Greatest Day in Baseball, Cobb named this game as his greatest day: "The Athletics made 20 hits that day to our 15, and we had 17 runners left on base to their 13. They made 6 errors, so during the long afternoon, there was just about everything to be found in baseball." In his 1981 book Baseball's 10 Greatest Games, John Thorn included this game as his 1st, chronologically.

For, at least, a majority of the 20th Century, Cobb held the career records for batting average, at .367; hits, 4,191; runs scored, 2,445; and stolen bases, 892. He also held the single-season record for stolen bases, 96, in 1915.

A later check of the record books would lead to an adjustment of Cobb's totals, to show 4,189 hits, a .366 average, and 897 steals; and that this steals total, while a career record for the American League, was not a career record for all of Major League Baseball. He still holds the MLB record for career batting average, and the AL records for hits and runs.

When the 1st election for the Baseball Hall of Fame was held in 1936, Ty Cobb got the most votes. That makes him not just the 1st member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but the 1st member of any Hall of Fame in any sport. In 1999, The Sporting News chose their 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and ranked Cobb 3rd, behind only Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. In 2022, ESPN chose their 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and ranked Cobb 4th, behind only Ruth, Mays and Hank Aaron.

There are 2 marks against Cobb. One is his overall personality, which suggests that he was generally mean. Late in life, he admitted, "I would have done things differently. I would have had more friends."

The other is his racism, as someone who grew up in rural Georgia in the late 19th Century. By 1952, in an interview with The Sporting News, he said, "Certainly, it is okay for them to play. I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man. In my book, that goes not only for baseball but in all walks of life... The Negro should be accepted, and not grudgingly, but wholeheartedly."

Ty Cobb was far from perfect, but the true record shows that it is long past time to get off his back.

*

September 30, 1907 was a Monday. These other baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders lost to the St. Louis Browns, 4-2 at Hilltop Park in Manhattan. Willie Keeler, one of the best hitters of his generation, went 0-for-5 for the Highlanders. They became the Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Cubs, 6-0 at West Side Park in Chicago. Ed Reulbach pitched a 3-hit shutout. The Cubs went on to beat the Tigers in the World Series. The rivalry between the Cubs and Giants got truly ugly the next season, but, again, the World Series would be the Cubs over the Tigers.

* The Brooklyn Superbas lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3 at the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. The Superbas, named for their former manager, Ned Hanlon, and a popular circus troupe of the era, Hanlon's Superbas, became the Dodgers in 1911. After that season, the Palace of the Fans was torn down, and what became Crosley Field was built on the site.

* The Washington Senators beat the Cleveland Naps, 6-0 at American League Park in Washington. Hank Gehrig pitched a 4-hit shutout for the Senators, beating future Hall-of-Famer Addie Joss. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the 2nd baseman and manager for whom the future Indians and Guardians were then named, did not get any of those 4 hits. Bill Kay, the Senators' right fielder, got 4 hits all by himself, plus 2 RBIs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner did not play for the Pirates in this game.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Doves, 5-1 at Robison Field in St. Louis. The Doves were named for their owner, George Dovey. In 1912, they became the Boston Braves.

August 31, 1907: The Triple Entente

August 31, 1907: The Anglo-Russian Convention is signed in St. Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire. This completes a three-way alliance between the Russian Empire, the British Empire, and the French Third Republic. It becomes known as the Triple Entente. An "entente" is defined as a "friendship," an "understanding," or an "agreement." 

It was built upon the Franco-Russian Alliance, signed in 1894; and the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France, signed in 1904.

It was designed not just to settle previous disputes between Britain and Russia, which had included the Crimean War of 1853-56, but to unify these 3 leading nations against the Triple Alliance. That had been concluded in 1882 between the German Empire, the Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy.

Now, all 6 nations understood: An attack on one nation on one side by a nation on the other side would be considered an attack by all three against all three.

Seven years later, the dominoes fell: A Serbian nationalist assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia assisted its Serbian ally and declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany assisted its ally and declared war on Russia, France declared war on Germany, and Britain followed. What would become known as World War I had begun.

When it was over, the German, Austrian, Russian and Ottoman Empires were no more; Britain had been seriously weakened; and France had lost nearly an entire generation of young men to death, disfigurement, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Even America, which got into the war later, was irrevocably changed in many ways, and not all of them for the better. Even the winners had lost something.

That does not mean that it would have been better to simply let Germany have its way. The world found that out 20 years later.

*

August 31, 1907 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Highlanders lost to the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0 at Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan. Charles "Chief" Bender pitched a 3-hit shutout to beat Jack Chesbro. Danny Murphy of the A's got 3 hits (and an RBI) all by himself. Willie Keeler got 1 of the Highlanders' hits. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants swept a doubleheader from the Boston Doves, 3-2 and 9-6 at the 1894-1914 version of the South End Grounds in Boston. Christy Mathewson pitched all 12 innings to win the opener. The nightcap was called due to darkness in the 7th inning, with Joe McGinnity as the winning pitcher. The Doves were named for their owner, George Dovey. In 1912, they became the Boston Braves.

* The Brooklyn Superbas were leading the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia, when the game was called due to rain. The Superbas, named for their former manager, Ned Hanlon, and a popular circus troupe of the era, Hanlon's Superbas, became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Americans, 1-0 at American League Park in Washington. Hank Gehring pitched a 2-hit shutout, while 2 Boston pitchers allowed only 3. The Americans became the Red Sox the next season.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 in 13 innings at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 3-for-5 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Naps were tied, 2-2 in the 8th inning, at the 1891-1909 version of League Park in Cleveland, when the game was called due to rain. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the 2nd baseman and manager for whom the future Indians and Guardians were then named, went 2-for-3 with a walk.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at The Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati.

* And the Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 5-0 at Bennett Park in Detroit. Ty Cobb went 2-for-3.

August 1, 1907: The Founding of the Scouting Movement

August 1, 1907: Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell of the British Army opens a boys' camping event on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, in Dorset, on the South Coast of England. The idea was to test his ideas for a book he was writing, Scouting for Boys.

On his return from serving in the Boer War in Africa in 1903, Baden-Powell found that his military training manual, Aids to Scouting, had become a best-seller, and was being used by teachers and youth organizations. Following his involvement in the Boys' Brigade as a Brigade Vice-president and Officer in charge of its scouting section, Baden-Powell decided to re-write Aids to Scouting to suit a youth readership.

The camp lasted through August 8, and and included instructions, for boys from different social backgrounds, in camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Baden-Powell considered it a success, and published his book in January 1908. The camp is regarded as the origin of the worldwide Scout movement.

A rally of Scouts was held at the Crystal Palace in London in 1909, at which Baden-Powell met some of the first Girl Scouts, of whom 6,000 had already been officially registered as Scouts. The Girl Guides were subsequently formed in 1910, under the auspices of Baden-Powell's sister, Agnes Baden-Powell.

*

August 1, 1907 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders lost to the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan. "Wild" Bill Donovan outpitched Al Orth, "The Curveless Wonder." Ty Cobb went 2-for-4. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.

* The Boston Americans beat the Cleveland Naps, 14-1 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the 2nd baseman and manager for Cleveland, did not play. The Americans became the Red Sox the next season. The Naps became the Indians in 1915, and the Guardians in 2022.

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-7 in 10 innings at Robison Field in St. Louis.

* The Brooklyn Superbas lost to the Chicago Cubs, 7-2 at the West Side Grounds in Chicago. The Superbas, named for their former manager, Ned Hanlon, and a popular circus troupe of the era, Hanlon's Superbas, became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 2-0 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia. Eddie Plank pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 7-3 at American League Park in Washington.

* The Boston Doves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 2-for-4. The Doves were named for their owner, George Dovey. In 1912, they became the Boston Braves.

* And a doubleheader was split at The Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 4-0. Lew Morin pitched a 3-hit shutout. The Cincinnati Reds were leading the nightcap, 1-0 after 7 innings, when the game was called due to darkness.

July 21, 1907: The Loss of the SS Columbia

July 21, 1907: The SS Columbia, an American cargo and passenger steamship, is lost in a collision with the lumber schooner San Pedro, off Shelter Cove, in the northwest corner of California. There were 88 lives lost.

Launched in 1880 by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, by 1907, Columbia was owned by the San Francisco and Portland Steamship Company. It was the first ship to carry a dynamo powering electric lights, instead of oil lamps; and the first commercial use of electric light bulbs outside of Thomas Edison's laboratory in the Menlo Park section of the New Jersey township that now bears his name. Henry Villard, president of the ORNC, had witnessed Edison's demonstration at Menlo Park, and was inspired to outfit a ship with his "incandescent lamps."

Columbia had good luck until 1906, when things began to regularly go wrong. It was berthed in San Francisco during the April 18, 1906 earthquake, and it took 2 months to make it seaworthy again. Soon after returning to service, on January 17, 1907, the Columbia became trapped in an ice pack on its namesake, the Columbia River, for 4 days near St. Helens, Oregon.

On July 20, 1907, Columbia set sail from San Francisco with 251 passengers and crew, intending to reach Portland, Oregon. It was 12 miles off Shelter Cove that night, when fog rolled in. Her crew heard the steam whistle of the San Pedro, which was going from Eureka in Northern California to its namesake town in Southern California, but neither ship slowed down. They collided at 12:21 AM, Pacific Time, on July 21.

Magnus Hanson, Captain of the San Pedro, launched all his ship's lifeboats, taking on many of the Columbia's survivors as well as his own. The steamers Roanoke and George W. Elder got the rest. No one on the San Pedro died, but 88 people on the Columbia did, including all of the children on board.

The Columbia could not be salvaged. The San Pedro was, but sank in 1920, with no casualties.

*

July 21, 1907 was a Sunday. With professional sports still illegal on Sundays in some States, there were only 3 baseball games played:

* The New York Highlanders, forerunners of the Yankees, beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-2 in 11 innings at the 1898-1908 version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And a doubleheader was split at South Side Park in Chicago. The Boston Americans, forerunners of the Red Sox, won the opener over the Chicago White Sox, 3-0. George Winter pitched a 6-hit shutout, to beat Ed Walsh. The White Sox won the nightcap, 4-2.

July 8, 1907: The 1st "Ziegfeld Follies"

July 8, 1907: The Follies of 1907 premieres, at the Olympia Theatre, on New York's Broadway. They were the first "Ziegfeld Follies."

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was a Chicago native, the son of a German immigrant who wanted to bring European classical music to the Midwest. But the son hated it, and, in 1885, 18 years old, ran off to join Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show, impressing Cody himself by beating him in a trick-shot contest. Everything Flo Ziegfeld learned about show business, he learned from Buffalo Bill.

In 1896, on a visit to London, he met Anna Held, a French-Polish singer. She took him to the Folies Bergère in Paris, giving him the model for the stage show he wanted to put on in New York. He rewarded her by promising to make her the biggest musical star in America.

She had the face and the body for it.

Sadly, I can't find a recording of her voice.

He kept that promise by casting her as the lead in The Follies of 1907. He took the Paris idea of the sexiest chorus girls he could find, but making them appear as wholesome as possible, so that high-class people would be willing to see them, and willing to be seen while going in to see them. Before radio, let alone television, could begin broadcasting, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was America's greatest entertainment impresario, surpassing even actor, singer, dancer, writer, producer and director George M. Cohan, who nonetheless remained the king of Broadway performers.

Once, onstage, Ziegfeld and Held "married each other." But there was never a legal marriage. By 1909, as most Broadway producers have tended to do, Flo was cheating on her with other actresses in the show. She held out hope that he would drop them all and return to her, but that hope was every bit as futile as that of Flo's friends that he give up gambling. Anna died of myeloma in 1918, only 46 years old. Flo did not attend her funeral, not because of his infidelity, but because he had a fear of funerals.

Having discovered such performers as Anna Held and Billie Burke (whom he married in 1914), raised Fanny Brice from a comedian on New York's Yiddish-language stage to English mainstream stardom, and provided a venue for Bert Williams, the leading black entertainer of the time, Ziegfeld continued to run his various Follies productions until 1931. He died the next year, from pleurisy, at the age of 65. His last words may or may not have been a hallucination: "Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show looks good! The show looks good!"

In 1936, the film The Great Ziegfeld was made, beginning a trend of composer biographies that lasted well into the 1940s. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture. William Powell played Ziegfeld, Luis Rainer won an Academy Award for playing Anna Held, and Myrna Loy played Billie Burke.

Burke was not only still acting at that point, her most famous role was yet to come: She would go on to play Glinda, "the Good Witch," in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, a film whose color-TV broadcasts ensured that she would be remembered long after Flo Ziegfeld was treated as a relic of a past that, for the most part, wasn't even capture on black & white silent film. She lived on until 1970. Her daughter with Ziegfeld, Patricia Ziegfeld Stephenson, became a journalist, living until 2008. She had 4 children, so the Ziegfeld family line continues.

The Olympia Theatre was at 1514 Broadway, at 44th Street. It was demolished in 1935, and retail occupies the space today.

*

July 8, 1907 was a Monday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Cleveland Naps, 5-4 at League Park in Cleveland. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, the 2nd baseman and manager for whom the future Indians and Guardians were then named, went 3-for-4 with a walk. The Highlanders became the Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 at the Polo Grounds. Ed Karger pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Brooklyn Superbas lost to the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown pitched a 6-hit shutout. The Superbas, named for their former manager, Ned Hanlon, and a popular circus troupe of the era, Hanlon's Superbas, became the Dodgers in 1911.

* A doubleheader was split at the 3rd and final version of the South End Grounds in Boston. The Boston Doves won the opener, 2-0. Vivan "Vive" Lindaman pitched a 4-hit shutout. The Cincinnati Reds won the nightcap, 4-0. Roy Hitt pitched a 7-hit shutout. The Doves were named for their owner, George Dovey. In 1912, they became the Boston Braves.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Sam Leever pitched an 8-hit shutout. Honus Wagner went 0-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at South Side Park in Chicago. Charles "Chief" Bender was the winning pitcher.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Americans, 6-5 in 14 innings at Bennett Park in Detroit. Ty Cobb went 4-for-5, and Sam Crawford went 4-for-6. The Americans became the Red Sox the next season.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Washington Senators, 3-2 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.