December 21, 1918: The Death of Hobey Baker

December 21, 1918: Hobey Baker, America's 1st great hockey player, is killed in a plane crash. He was only 26 years old.

Hobart Amory Hare Baker was born on January 15, 1892 outside Philadelphia in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. His family was rich, and could have gotten him into any college he wanted. Instead of the nearby University of Pennsylvania, he chose Princeton University, helping them win National Championships in football in 1911, and in hockey in 1912 and 1914.

He graduated in 1914, and moved to New York where he went to work for J.P. Morgan Bank and helped the St. Nicholas Hockey Club win the national amateur championship in 1915.

In 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service, a precursor of the U.S. Air Force. By the time the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, he held the rank of Captain, and was commander of the 141st Aero Squadron.

On December 21, 1918, 40 days after the Armistice, and the day before he was set to return to America, he was test-piloting a plane in Toul, France, when the engine failed, and crashed nose-first. He was pulled out of the wreckage, but died in the ambulance.

In 1921, Princeton opened the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink. He was the only American among the 1st 9 inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945. In 1975, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1980, the Hobey Baker Award was introduced, a hockey version of the Heisman Trophy.

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December 21, 1918 was a Saturday. Born on this day were Kurt Waldheim, the Austrian diplomat who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations 1972 to 1981, and President of Austria from 1986 to 1992, but was later exposed as having committed war crimes during World War II; and Donald Regan, who served President Ronald Reagan as Secretary of the Treasury during his 1st term and White House Chief of Staff for the 1st half of his 2nd, before his resignation over the Iran-Contra scandal.

Baseball was in the off-season. Football season was also over, except for the Rose Bowl, which was an all-military affair: George Halas led the Great Lake Naval Training Station, north of Chicago, to a 17-0 win over the Mare Island Marines, based outside San Francisco, led by former Washington State quarterback Dick Hanley. Both teams went into the game undefeated. Hanley would coach Marine teams in World War II. Halas, of course, went on to found the team that became the Chicago Bears, and co-found the NFL.

There was no serious professional basketball league. But the NHL season opened on this date, with 1 game: The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-2 at the Jubilee Arena in Montreal.

November 11, 1918: The Armistice Ends World War I

November 11, 1918: At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, an armistice was declared, ending what was then called "The Great War," or "The World War," and nicknamed "The War to End All Wars."

It wasn't, of course. Over the next 4 years, there would be, or already were, wars of independence going on in Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; wars fought by Poland against both Russia and Ukraine; and civil wars in Germany, Russia, Finland, Turkey and Ireland.

And then, in 1936, there was the Spanish Civil War, in which Germany and Italy aided their fellow fascists in taking over Spain. And when the fascists weren't stopped, it meant that this war was a warmup: There would be a World War II.

The German Empire, as a country, was on the verge of collapse. The Army was besieged with several mutinies. Civilians were starving. On November 9, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his throne, and fled to the neutral Netherlands. (November 9 has become "Germany's Day of Destiny": In the years to come, on that date would came the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Kristallnacht in 1938, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.)

The Armistice was signed in a train car in Compiègne, France. The site is now known as the Glade of the Armistice. When the Nazis conquered France's Third Republic in World War II, which the Second Reich couldn't do in World War I, Adolf Hitler had the original train car found, brought back from Paris to the same location, and had the surrender signed in it. Then it was brought back to Berlin, put on display in a museum, and later destroyed in an Allied air raid. A replica now stands in the Glade.

The Republic of Poland was also founded on the day of the Armistice, with Russia having withdrawn, and the Germans having retreated from their formerly occupied territories. For the first time since the Third Partition in 1795, there was a country named Poland, not just a "Duchy of Poland" or a "Congress Poland." I have a separate entry for this event.

My father served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, though not in Vietnam itself. Both of my grandfathers served in World War II, one in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, the other with George S. Patton's 3rd Army in North Africa and Italy. I have no information about any of my 4 great-grandfathers in World War I, but I do know that, while all 4 were already in America at the time that it broke out on August 1, 1914, only 1 of them was both American-born and then of draft age. (Another was of draft age but not a U.S. citizen, and the other 2 were too old to be drafted.)

The last surviving American veteran of World War I was Army Corporal Frank Buckles of Walker, Missouri, who ended up serving in World War II, and becoming a prisoner of war. He lived until February 27, 2011, at age 110.

The last surviving veteran of any country was Florence Green of North London, a nurse in the Women's Royal Air Force, who lived until February 4, 2012, 95 years after the war's end.

Ever since the Armistice, every 11th of November, at 11:00 AM, London time, the British monarch, or another member of the royal family, has laid a wreath at the Cenotaph, near the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

Every British soccer team, in their home game nearest but not after November 11, holds a minute's silence before kickoff. And everyone in the stadium honors it. Every player wears an emblem of a red poppy on their shirt, although some -- particularly players from Ireland, whose homeland was fighting a separate war for independence against their British colonizers at the time -- have controversially refused.

For many years, North London's Arsenal traveled to France, hit harder by the war than Britain was, and played a "friendly" against Racing Club Paris, which is no longer a major team. On November 11, 2011, the U.S. national team played France at the Stade de France in Paris, and lost 1-0.

In America, the tradition is for the President of the United States to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Unless, of course, there is an anniversary commemoration in Paris, in which case, the President of France invites him to come and participate.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-- Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, Canadian Expeditionary Force, M.D., May 3, 1915. He died -- not from combat injuries, but from meningitis, caught from one of his patients -- on January 28, 1918, 10 months before the war's end, at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. He was 45 years old.

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November 11, 1918 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. There was no NBA yet. The NHL season wouldn't start for another month. And there was no Monday Night Football, or even an NFL, back then. So there were no scores on this historic day.

The prominent people born on this day include comedian Stubby Kaye; Alabama politician and civil rights attorney Richmond Flowers; and Louise Tobin, a jazz singer, known for singing with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Her hits included "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and "There'll Be Some Changes Made." Once married to another bandleader, Harry James, she turns 104 on November 11, 2022. (UPDATE: She died on November 26, 2022.)

November 11, 1918: The Return of Poland

November 11, 1918: On the same day as the Armistice that ends World War I, the Second Polish Republic is founded. Russian troops have withdrawn from Russian soil, which they had controlled for over 100 years, and the Germans have retreated from their formerly occupied territories. For the first time since the Third Partition in 1795, there was a country named Poland, not just a "Duchy of Poland" or a "Congress Poland."

My father's ancestors came from Poland: In 1909, his grandfather, then 18 years old, left in Borki Wielkie, Warmia-Masuria and found his way to Newark, New Jersey.

Józef Piłsudski had led the Polish Legions in fighting with Austria-Hungary against Russia during the war. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia (which became the centerpiece nation of the Soviet Union in 1922) dropped out of the war, and Piłsudski switched his efforts to diplomatic ones, to re-establish the nation. America's President, Woodrow Wilson, had the establishment of a new nation of Poland as one of his "Fourteen Points" for postwar peace.

With independence secured, Marshal Piłsudski served as the nation's Chief of State from 1918 to 1922, and then as Prime Minister from 1926 to 1928. In effect, though, his effect on the nation's elected leaders meant that he was, if not written into the law as such, then in practice, the nation's dictator from 1918 until his death in 1935.

Apparently, all dictators, even the enlightened ones,

feel the need to wear an epic mustache.

Keeping the nation going would not be easy. Over the next few years, Poland fought wars with 2 neighbors, Russia and Ukraine, surviving as a nation counting as "winning." In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded from the west, the Soviet Union from the east, each taking roughly half the land, with the result that Poland existed in name only.

After World War II, the Soviets held effective control over the country. In 1980, the country's labor movement showed the Communists what a real "workers' revolution" looked like, and the Soviets withdrew their troops in 1989. The Communist Party was outlawed, and Poland has been a democracy ever since.

On March 14, 1916, Piłsudski's Polish Legions founded a sports club. After independence in 1918, the club became known as Wojskowy Klub Sportowy Legia Warszawa -- Military Sports Club Legia Warsaw -- the official sports club of the Polish Army. Their soccer team is the most famous, most successful, most popular, and most hated sports team in their country.

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November 11, 1918 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. There was no NBA yet. The NHL season wouldn't start for another month. And there was no Monday Night Football, or even an NFL, back then. So there were no scores on this historic day.

The prominent people born on this day include comedian Stubby Kaye; Alabama politician and civil rights attorney Richmond Flowers; and Louise Tobin, a jazz singer, known for singing with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Her hits included "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and "There'll Be Some Changes Made." Once married to another bandleader, Harry James, she turns 104 on November 11, 2022. (UPDATE: She died on November 26, 2022.)

November 9, 1918: Kaiser Wilhelm II Abdicates

November 9, 1918: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates his imperial throne, ending the German Empire. This "Second Reich" had lasted not quite 53 years.

He started life with so much promise on January 27, 1859, at the Kronprinzen Palais (Crown Prince's Palace), in Berlin, as Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert Hohenzollern. His great-uncle was King Frederick William IV of Prussia, but was incapacitated by strokes. The child's grandfather, Wilhelm, was Prince Regent until his brother's death in 1861. That made him König Wilhelm I -- in English, King William I.

In 1871, after defeating France in the Franco-Prussian War, the elder Wilhelm declared the German Empire, unifying all the German principalities under his crown, and became Deutscher Kaiser, Emperor of Germany. (As with the Russian title "Czar" or "Tsar," "Kaiser" comes from the Roman title "Caesar.") Wilhelm I ruled until his death in 1888. Unfortunately, his son was already dying of cancer, and only reigned as Kaiser Friedrich III for 3 months. He died on June 15, 1888, and his son became Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Because of various intermarriages between the royal houses of Europe, Wilhelm was connected to most of them. His mother, Victoria, was a daughter of Queen Victoria of Britain. He was a 1st cousin of both King George V of Britain and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. He and Nicholas would correspond, signing their names "Willy" and "Nicky."

They were friendly. Their governments were not. Wilhelm alienated a lot of Germans by dismissing the man who really won the Franco-Prussian War and united the empire, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, and making himself a virtual dictator with what he called the "New Course." He alienated Britain and France with a major naval buildup, by taking new colonies in Africa and Asia, and by building a railroad through their Middle East colonies. Soon, his only allies were the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also German-speaking; and the Ottoman Empire. And both of those were in serious decline.

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated in Serbia. Austria declared war on Serbia. The alliances kicked in, and the dominoes fell: To stand up for Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria; to stand up for Austria, Germany declared war on Russia; and to stand up for Russia, Britain and France declared war on Germany. It became known as the Great War. It would end up being known as the World War, and, eventually, World War I. It would also be called -- first with hope, then with mockery -- "The War to End All Wars."

Fighting on 2 fronts -- against Britain and France to the West, and against Russia to the East -- plus on the high seas stretched even Germany, the strongest nation on the European Continent, to the limit. They were about to lose the war when Russia broke out into revolution, and left. This allowed Germany to concentrate on the Western Front. But the United States got into the war, with a seemingly endless supply of fresh troops, in 1918, and Germany, physically and mentally exhausted, was doomed.

Wilhelm was at the Imperial Army headquarters in Spa, Belgium, when the uprisings in Berlin and other centres took him by surprise in late October 1918. Mutiny among the ranks of his beloved Imperial Navy profoundly shocked him.

He accepted that he would likely have to give up the imperial crown, but still hoped to retain the Prussian kingship. He believed that, with this status, making him the ruler of 2/3rds of Germany as it then stood, he would still be a key player in any new system. However, this was impossible under the imperial constitution. Wilhelm thought he ruled as emperor in a personal union with Prussia. In truth, the constitution defined the empire as a confederation of states under the permanent presidency of Prussia. The imperial crown was thus tied to the Prussian crown, meaning that Wilhelm could not renounce one crown without renouncing the other.

General Wilhelm Groener told Wilhelm that the Army would march back in good order under the command of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, but would not fight for Wilhelm's throne. The monarchy's last and strongest support had been broken, and finally even Hindenburg, himself a lifelong monarchist, was obliged, after polling his generals, to advise the Emperor to give up the crown. Wilhelm crossed the border by train, and went into exile in the Netherlands, which stayed neutral. The Weimar Republic was proclaimed.

The war resulted in the deaths of about 10 million military men, and probably at least that many civilians. And that doesn't count the deaths from the Spanish Flu epidemic that arrived in the last year of the war. In the words of a German nobleman, Count Henry Kessler:

This rabbit roaring like a lion would be history's most ridiculous monster if his performance had not resulted in such suffering and rivers of blood. The mendacity of his behavior undermined policy and the state, substituted sham and show for sound Prussian tradition, and distorted the perspective of almost the entire nation.

He had a point: Before the World Wars, when people outside Germany thought of things that were "German," they tended to think of things that were Prussian: The militarism, but also the efficiency, the scientific know-how, and literature like that of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Between 1914 and 1945, outsiders still tended to think of things that were Prussian, but remade in Wilhelm's self-broadcast image: Still the militarism, but also the certitude, the stubbornness, and the sense of invincibility that was, admittedly, partly due at times to spectacularly good luck. 

Since the World Wars, when people outside Germany think of things that are "German," they tend to think of things that are Bavarian, from the south of the country: Men in lederhosen, women in drindl dresses, beer, bratwurst, "oom-pah" music, and Oktoberfest.

Millions of people all over the world wanted the Kaiser prosecuted as a war criminal. But both President Woodrow Wilson and Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain thought this might destabilize the peace. So Wilhelm was allowed to live out his life in exile in the Dutch city of Doorn.

He died on June 4, 1941, at the age of 82. Despite losing his crown and his country, he actually outlived most of his opponents: President Wilson; Canada's Prime Minister Robert Borden; Britain's King George and Marshal Douglas Haig; Russia's Czar Nicholas and their main military commander, his 2nd cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas; and France's President Raymond Poincaré, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, and Marshals Joseph Joffre and Ferdinand Foch. And his allies: Hindenburg, Austria's Emperor Franz Joseph, and the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Mehmed V. He did not outlive Lloyd George, but he did live Herbert H. Asquith, who was Prime Minister of Britain when the war began.

He also lived long enough to see Germany rise again, and conquer Europe, including France. He did not, however, get along with Adolf Hitler, or think much of him. The Chancellor of the Third Reich, recognizing the potential propaganda value, wanted to give the Kaiser a state funeral with full military honors, but he turned it down: He refused to be buried in Germany unless the monarchy was restored. So he was buried at Huis Doorn, where he lived, and his remains have never been repatriated.

His wife, Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, died in 1921, in exile with him. Their eldest son, Kronprinz Wilhelm, fought for the Nazis, and died in 1951, having never become Kaiser Wilhelm III -- perhaps lucky for Germany, because he was an incompetent alcoholic.

His son, Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, was the head of the House of Hohenzollern until his death in 1994. His son, also Louis Ferdinand, was killed in an accident in 1977. So, his son, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia, is the head of the House as of November 9, 2022, at age 46.

A marketing executive living in the suburbs of Berlin, the great-great-grandson of the last Kaiser has made no effort to restore the monarchy of either Germany or Prussia; but he has strenuously tried, with some success, to regain much of his family's lost property, including artworks.

November 9 has become Germany's "Day of Destiny": On that date, in 1918, the Kaiser abdicated and the 1st German Republic was proclaimed; in 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch failed; in 1938, Kristallnacht was carried out by the Nazis; and in 1989, the Berlin Wall was rendered legally moot.

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November 9, 1918 was a Saturday. Spiro Agnew, who would be elected Vice President of the United States in 1968 and 1972, but resign the office in disgrace in 1973, was born on this day.

For most of the world, competitive sports was on hold. In North America, baseball season was cut short due to the war, the NHL season didn't start until December 21, professional basketball barely existed, and professional football was only on a regional, minor-league level.

But there were some notable college football games:

* The team at the U.S. Naval Academy beat the team from Hampton Roads Naval Training Station (now Naval Station Norfolk), 37-6 at Worden Field in Annapolis, Maryland. The team at the U.S. Military Academy, at West Point, New York, played only 1 game that season, and it wasn't that week. World War I meant that 1917 and 1918 are the only seasons since 1898 that there has not been an Army-Navy Game.

* Notre Dame played to a 7-7 tie, at Cartier Field in South Bend, Indiana, with the Great Lakes Navy team. They were based at Naval Station Great Lakes, in North Chicago, Illinois. They went on to play another military base team, the Vallejo, California-based Mare Island Marines, in the Rose Bowl. Great Lakes' best player was former University of Illinois end George Halas. A year and a half later, Halas and some friends founded the NFL.

* Michigan beat the University of Chicago, 13-0 at Stagg Field in Chicago.

* In a rivalry that would become bigger in the years to come, Iowa beat Minnesota, 6-0 at Iowa Field in Iowa City.

* Vanderbilt beat Tennessee, 76-0 at the original Dudley Field in Nashville. Vanderbilt clobbering arch-rival Tennessee was not a big deal at the time.

* The University of California beat fellow East Bay school St. Mary's, 40-14 at California Field in Berkeley.

* Rutgers beat Penn State, 26-3 at Beaver Field in State College, Pennsylvania. This was the 1st time these 2 teams ever played. They didn't play each other again until 1950, and didn't start playing each other regularly until 1977. From 1918 to 2021, Penn State is 30-2 against Rutgers. RU's only other win has been in 1988. Princeton played only 3 times that season, and this week was not one of them. 

November 8, 1918: Larry Chappell Dies In Service

November 8, 1918: For the 8th and last time, and just 3 days before the Armistice ending it, a Major League Baseball player dies as a result of serving in World War I.

La Verne Ashford "Larry" Chappell was born on February 19, 1890, outside St. Louis in McCluskey, Illinois. An outfielder, he played for the Chicago White Sox in 1913, '14 and '15; the Cleveland Indians in 1916; and the Boston Braves in 1916 and '17. His lifetime batting average was .226, with 26 RBIs, but no home runs.

In 1917, he batted .325 after 77 games with the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League, when he left them to enlist in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He was assigned to Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco. On November 8, 1918, he died there, a victim of the Spanish Flu epidemic that he had been treating in many soldiers. He was 28 years old.

There is no memorial to him at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, home of the White Sox; Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Guardians; Fenway Park in Boston, home of the Red Sox; or Truist Park outside Atlanta, to which the Braves have moved.

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November 8, 1918 was a Friday. The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Football was in midweek. Professional basketball barely existed. And hockey season hadn't started yet. So there were no scores on this historic day.

November 4, 1918: The Death of Wilfred Owen

November 4, 1918: Lieutenant Wilfred Owen, having already survived enough encounters with death in World War I to make most people think he was invincible, is killed in action as his unit crosses the Sambre-Oise Canal in northern France. The native of Oswestry, Shropshire in the West Midlands of England was just 25. Had he lived just 7 more days, he would have made it.

He and Siegfried Sassoon were regarded as the greatest British poets whose work was based on the events of that war. Certainly, both were better than the leading American poet killed in that war, Joyce Kilmer.

I knew Owen's name before I knew his story: He was one of the poets for whom streets were named in Greenbriar, the retirement community my grandparents moved to in Brick, Ocean County, New Jersey. Also among them was Rupert Brooke, who died on April 23, 1915, not from a battle wound, but from septicemia, from an infected mosquito bite. No antibiotics in those days. Sassoon and Kilmer were not among the Greenbriar poets, even though Kilmer was from New Jersey.

Owen had written:

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, 
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

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November 4, 1918 was a Monday. Actors Art Carney and Cameron Mitchell were born on this day.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. Professional basketball barely existed. And hockey season wouldn't start for another few weeks. So there were no games on this historic day. 

November 1, 1918: Disaster at Malbone Street

November 1, 1918: The worst rapid transit accident in American history occurs at 6:42 PM, under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, not far from Ebbets Field. A total of 93 deaths are ascribed to the Malbone Street Wreck.

Conditions were ripe for a wreck. That morning, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) had gone on strike. Short of motormen, a crew dispatcher named Edward Luciano was sent by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) to drive a train on the Brighton Beach Line.

His only experience in moving trains had been in a train yard. At the time, a motorman was supposed to receive 60 hours of training. Under these emergency conditions, how many hours was Luciano given? Only 2.

What's more, the Spanish Flu epidemic was raging. Luciano had caught it, but recovered. Three of his daughters did not. That morning, he buried the second of them.

The train he was driving consisted of 3 motor cars and 2 trailer cars, all made mostly of wood. He had to take it into a single-track tunnel, newly opened. It had a sharp reverse curve, designed to take Coney Island-bound trains around a new mainline, which was under construction. Before that, trains entered Prospect Park station through an older, straighter tunnel.

That reverse curve had a speed limit of 6 miles per hour. Luciano was going at least 30 MPH when he entered it, and had already overshot some stations. The trailing truck of the 1st car derailed, and the 2 cars behind it left the tracks completely, tearing off their roofs and their left-hand sides. The 1st and 4th cars only took minor damage, the 5th none at all. Luciano himself was not injured. But the people in the 2nd and 3rd cars never had a chance.

Mayor John Hylan had Luciano and BRT officials indicted for manslaughter. On the witness stand, Luciano said the train did not respond properly to his control. The BRT's report contradicted this, showing that the brakes were in good shape, and no attempt was made to slow the train.

The BRT was held liable for damages in the deaths of the passengers, but no one was convicted. Luciano quit his job, and became an architect, living until 1985. When interviewed by The New York Times for a 100th Anniversary article, his granddaughter, then 67 years old, said she never knew her grandfather had ever driven a train.

So deep was the name "Malbone Street" embedded in the minds of New Yorkers, the street's name was changed: It became Empire Boulevard. A small street named Malbone Street remains, between New York Avenue and Clove Road, 7 blocks east of the site in Crown Heights.

Today, the tunnel is part of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, an "S" train that connects the stations at Prospect Park in Flatbush (the B and Q lines) with Franklin Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant (the A and C lines). In 1974, there was another accident at the site: A switching mistake led to a derailment. No one was injured, though.

This disaster occurred just 4 months after the worst rail disaster in American history, the Dutchman's Curve wreck in Nashville on July 9, which killed 101.

Here are all the other fatal incidents in the history of the New York City rail system:

* September 11, 1905: The Ninth Avenue Elevated Line has a train derail at the intersection of 9th Avenue and 50th Street, where the building we now know as "the old Madison Square Garden" would be built 20 years later. Deaths: 13. The motorman was blamed, and served time for manslaughter. This was the 1st New York disaster to occur on a September 11.

* August 24, 1928: An express train derails at the Times Square station on the IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line now the 1 Train. Deaths: 18. The towerman was blamed for letting the train through when he shouldn't have, and served time for manslaughter.

* August 27, 1938: A pair of IRT Seventh Avenue Line trains collide at the 116th Street station. Deaths: 2. I can't find any record of determination of culpability.

* September 26, 1957: An empty IRT train crashes into another empty train at the 230th Street station of the Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line in The Bronx. The motorman was the only death. This was 2 days after the last game at Ebbets Field, and 3 days before the last Giants game at the Polo Grounds.

* May 20, 1970: A Brooklyn-bound GG train (pronounced "Double-G," and it would be a G today) crashes into another just west of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens. Deaths: 2. There was plenty of blame to go around, but no one was convicted of any crime. This was 2 weeks after the Knicks won their 1st NBA Championship.

* August 1, 1970: A fire breaks out in a tunnel near Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan, on the 4 and 5 Train lines. A woman went back onto a train to retrieve her purse, but died of smoke inhalation.

* August 28, 1973: A concrete chunk falls from a ceiling duct in the Steinway tunnel near 1st Avenue, and crashes through the 1st car of a Queens-bound 7 train, killing a man. Over 1,000 passengers are stuck on the train, where the temperature reached 115 degrees. Given that heat, it's a wonder no one else died.

* July 3, 1981: The motorman is killed and 135 passengers were injured when an IRT train crashes into a stopped train in a Brooklyn tunnel.

* April 25, 1986: A motorman trying to turn an empty F train around near 179th Street station in Jamaica, Queens suffers a heart attack and dies, causing his train to derail. He was the only fatality, but, for him, it gave a whole new meaning to "the end of the line."

* August 28, 1991: A 4 Lexington Avenue Express derails entering 14th Street-Union Square. Deaths: 5. The motorman was drunk, and served time for manslaughter.

* June 5, 1995: A J train crashed into a stopped M train on the Williamsburg Bridge. Only the J train's motorman was killed. The crash was blamed on his fatigue.

* April 24, 2007: A 3 train hits a track worker setting up flagging lanterns, killing him. Just 5 days later...

* April 29, 2007: A Queens-bound G train hits 2 track workers at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station in downtown Brooklyn. One of them was killed, while the other was seriously injured, but recovered.

So, in the 118-year history of the New York Subway system, there have been 141 deaths, with 93 of them coming in 1 crash. Since 1938, there have been 17; since 1973, 10; since 2007, none.

As far as I can tell, no Subway passengers were killed as a result of damage done by the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, but it took 7 years to reopen the Cortland Street station on the 1 train. And, as far as I can tell, no Subway passengers were killed as a result of damage done when Hurricane Sandy struck on October 29, 2012, but repair work to several stations and the 14th Street tunnel under the East River took years.

*

November 1, 1918 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. There was no NFL, and college games were not played on Fridays. There was hardly any professional basketball. And the NHL season wouldn't begin for another month. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 21, 1918: Harry Chapman Dies In Service

Harry Chapman

October 21, 1918: Harry Chapman dies of the Spanish Flu epidemic at a U.S. Army base in Nevada, Missouri. He was 30 years old, and 1 of 8 Major League Baseball players to die in the service during World War I -- in his case, in Nevada, Missouri, having been returned to the U.S. to treat combat injuries, unsuccessfully as it turns out.

A native of Severance, Kansas, Chapman was a catcher, who played for the Chicago Cubs in 1912, the Cincinnati Reds in 1913, the St. Louis Terriers of the Federal League in 1914 and 1915, and the St. Louis Browns in 1916. Only in the FL was he anything like a regular player. His lifetime batting average was just .198, with 1 home run and 44 RBIs.

There is no memorial to him at Wrigley Field in Chicago, home of the Cubs; Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, home of the Reds; or Busch Stadium in St. Louis, home of the Cardinals.

Eugene Mayer also dies while serving in World War I on this day. The former halfback, sprinter, long jumper, shot putter and law school graduate at the University of Virginia, a native of Norfolk, never gets to play in the nascent NFL, because he dies at Camp Joseph E. Johnston in Jacksonville, Florida, a casualty of the Spanish Flu Epidemic. "Buck" Mayer was 26, and was posthumously elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Buck Mayer

*

October 21, 1918 was a Monday. The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Football was in midweek. Professional basketball barely existed. And hockey season hadn't started yet. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 12, 1918: Harry Glenn Dies In Service

October 12, 1918: Harry Glenn, a former major league baseball player, dies while serving in the U.S. Army during World War I.

Harry Melville Glenn was born on June 9, 1890 in Shelburn, Indiana. Nicknamed "Husky," he played as a catcher in the minor leagues from 1910 to 1918. In 1915, he played 6 games for the St. Louis Cardinals, appearing in 6 games, getting 5 hits in 16 at-bats for a .313 batting average. He also had a run batted in.

He was drafted to serve in the U.S. Army in August 1918, while still playing for the St. Paul Saints of the American Association. He was stationed in St. Paul, as an aviation mechanic. He caught pneumonia, and these were the days before antibiotics were developed. On October 12, 1918, just 1 month before the Armistice ended the war, Glenn died at the age of 28.

He was 28 years old. There is no memorial to him at Busch Stadium, current home of the Cardinals. He was 1 of 8 major league players to die in "The War to End All Wars." Another, former New York Yankees outfielder Alex Burr, died in a "friendly fire" incident in France, on the same day as Glenn. I have a separate entry honoring him.

*

October 12, 1918 was a Saturday. Another former player, Alex Burr, also died on this day. And the Cloquet Fire broke out in Minnesota. I have a separate entry for these events.

The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Hockey season hadn't started yet. Professional basketball barely existed.

And even college football was affected by the manpower drain of the war. That day, the following schools played military teams: The Universities of California, Chicago, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas; Lehigh University; and Texas A&M.

These intercollegiate games were played that day:

* Georgia Tech beat Furman, 118-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta. It had been 2 years and 5 days since Tech had beaten Cumberland College 222-0, college football's all-time biggest blowout.

* Ohio State beat Denison University, 34-0 at Ohio Field in Columbus. Before coaching Ohio State to glory, Woody Hayes would graduate from Denison in 1935.

* Michigan State beat Hillsdale College, 66-6 at College Field in East Lansing, Michigan. Hillsdale, of Hillsdale, Michigan, no longer fields sports teams.

* Iowa beat Coe College, 27-0 at Iowa Field in Iowa City. Coe is now an NCAA Division III school.

* And the Multnomah Athletic Club, a semi-pro team, beat the University of Oregon, 20-0 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

October 12, 1918: The Yankee Who Died In War

October 12, 1918: A player for the New York Yankees dies for America in a war. And, most likely, you've never heard of him.

Alexander Thomson Burr was born on November 1, 1893 in Chicago. Usually listed as "Alex Burr" in baseball reference sources, but known as "Tom Burr" to his friends, he went east to attend the Choate prep school (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, and became a star pitcher. He then attended Williams College in Williamstown, in the Berkshire Mountains, in the northwestern corner of Massachusetts, bordering the States of New York and Vermont.

He signed a pro contract before ever appearing in a college game, so he never played for Williams. But he didn't last long. Frank Chance, the legendary Chicago Cubs manager now struggling to lift the Yankees to success, was impressed with him in Spring Training, and brought him north with the club.

But Tom Burr appeared in exactly 1 major league game, on April 21, 1914, at the Polo Grounds, and not as a pitcher. He played center field for the New York Yankees -- not yet an exalted position. He only played in the field, in the 10th inning, had no fielding chances, and never came to bat -- a true "Moonlight Graham." The Yankees went on to beat the Washington Senators 3-2.

He was soon released, and never reached the majors again. He played 7 games for the Jersey City Skeeters of the International League. He went back to Williams, but when the U.S. got into World War I in April 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army without getting his degree, and became a pilot.

On October 12, 1918, just 1 month before the Armistice ended the war, Tom Burr was killed in action in a plane crash, in Cazaux, France. It was an accident: Rather than being shot down, another U.S. pilot crashed into him -- what became known as "friendly fire." His plane caught fire, and crashed into a lake. It took 12 days to find his body.

He wasn't quite 25 years old, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was 1 of 8 major league players killed in "The War to End All Wars." Another, former St. Louis Cardinals catcher Harry Glenn, died of pneumonia the same day as Burr. I have a separate entry honoring him.

For all their history, and for all their attention to it, the Yankees make no mention at Yankee Stadium of the one and only player from their ranks to have died in military service. This becomes all the more glaring when you remember how much longtime team owner George Steinbrenner, whose prep school was Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, pandered to patriotism and to our armed forces, down to the Monument to the 9/11 victims and rescuers in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

Where did The Boss go to college? Williams, also the alma mater of Tom Burr. You'd think he would have seen some kind of memorial there, and remembered it.

*

October 12, 1918 was a Saturday. Another player, Harry Glenn, also died in service on this day, albeit from pneumonia rather than a combat wound. And the Cloquet Fire broke out in Minnesota. I have separate entries for these events.

The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Hockey season hadn't started yet. Professional basketball barely existed.

And even college football was affected by the manpower drain of the war. That day, the following schools played military teams: The Universities of California, Chicago, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas; Lehigh University; and Texas A&M.

* Georgia Tech beat Furman, 118-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta. It had been 2 years and 5 days since Tech had beaten Cumberland College 222-0, college football's all-time biggest blowout.

* Ohio State beat Denison University, 34-0 at Ohio Field in Columbus. Before coaching Ohio State to glory, Woody Hayes would graduate from Denison in 1935.

* Michigan State beat Hillsdale College, 66-6 at College Field in East Lansing, Michigan. Hillsdale, of Hillsdale, Michigan, no longer fields sports teams.

* Iowa beat Coe College, 27-0 at Iowa Field in Iowa City. Coe is now an NCAA Division III school.

* And the Multnomah Athletic Club, a semi-pro team, beat the University of Oregon, 20-0 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

October 12, 1918: The Cloquet Fire

October 12, 1918: The Cloquet Fire breaks out in northern Minnesota. It is the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history, and the 2nd-deadliest wildfire in American history, after the Peshtigo Fire in 1871.

It was really 50 or more fires that combined in a single incident. It had two major theaters, one called the Cloquet–Duluth Fire and the other the Moose Lake Fire.

The Cloquet-Duluth Fire began before noon on October 10 when a Great Northern Railroad locomotive ignited a small fire at Milepost 62 northwest of Cloquet. It smoldered for two days, then came alive when a cold front brought stiff winds and a steep drop in humidity.

At about 1:30 PM, this fire began to move and joined with others. It reached the Fond du Lac Ojibwe reservation around 7:15, and the city of Cloquet around 8:00. Winds had by then risen to 60 miles per hour or better.

The Moose Lake fire, at least 5 fires combined, started on October 4 along railroad tracks near Tamarack in Aitkin County. It stayed small till the increasing winds and falling humidity of October 12 whipped it up early that afternoon. It burned southeast toward the towns of Kettle River and Moose Lake, combining with other fires along the way.

As the fire neared Moose Lake around 7:30 that evening, relief trains rescued a few hundred people. Most who survived, however, did so by taking refuge in Moose Head Lake.

In total, 453 people are known to have died, and 52,000 people were injured or displaced. Thirty-eight communities were destroyed, with 250,000 acres burned, and $73 million in property damage. Over $13 million in federal aid was disbursed.

*

October 12, 1918 was a Saturday. World War I was raging, though -- not that most people yet had any idea -- it was coming to an end. Two former major league baseball players died on this day, Alex Burr in combat in France, and Harry Glenn of pneumonia in a stateside Army hospital. I have separate entries for their deaths.

The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Hockey season hadn't started yet. Professional basketball barely existed.

And even college football was affected by the manpower drain of the war. That day, the following schools played military teams: The Universities of California, Chicago, Illinois, Minnesota and Texas; Lehigh University; and Texas A&M.

* Georgia Tech beat Furman, 118-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta. It had been 2 years and 5 days since Tech had beaten Cumberland College 222-0, college football's all-time biggest blowout.

* Ohio State beat Denison University, 34-0 at Ohio Field in Columbus. Before coaching Ohio State to glory, Woody Hayes would graduate from Denison in 1935.

* Michigan State beat Hillsdale College, 66-6 at College Field in East Lansing, Michigan. Hillsdale, of Hillsdale, Michigan, no longer fields sports teams.

* Iowa beat Coe College, 27-0 at Iowa Field in Iowa City. Coe is now an NCAA Division III school.

* And the Multnomah Athletic Club, a semi-pro team, beat the University of Oregon, 20-0 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

October 8, 1918: The Heroics of Sergeant York

October 8, 1918: In Chatel-Chéhéry, in the Argonne Forest in northeastern France, near the border with Belgium, Corporal Alvin C. York attacks a German machine gun position, killing several soldiers with his rifle and then, having run out of ammunition, with his pistol. The commander of the German position surrendered it to him.

York was 30 years old at the time. He had been a pacifist growing up on a Tennessee farm, an his application for conscientious objector status was denied. He was assigned to the U.S. Army's 82nd Division, which later became an Airborne division and one of the Army's most famed units. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He became a hero among the Allies of World War I, and was later promoted to the rank of a full Colonel in the Tennessee National Guard.

He later worked as an official for the Civilian Conservation Corps and as superintendent of Cumberland Mountain State Park. In 1941, with patriotism on their mind as America approached World War II, Warner Brothers made the film Sergeant York, and Gary Cooper won an Academy Award for his portrayal. The real Alvin York lived until 1964.

It has been noted that, on the 1960s TV show Bewitched, the character of Darrin Stephens was played first by Dick York (no relation), then by Dick Sargent, and that this can be rearranged as "Sargent York."

*

October 8, 1918 was a Tuesday. The baseball season had been cut short due to the war. Football was in midweek. It was too soon for the NHL season to start. And professional basketball barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 7, 1918: Bun Troy Is Killed In Action

October 7, 1918: A man born in Germany, who played major league baseball in America, is killed in battle, for his new country, against his old one.

Robert Gustave Troy was born on August 27, 1888 in Bad Wurzach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As a boy, he moved with his family to McDonald, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. I can find no record of why he was nicknamed "Bun."

A pitcher, he played in the minor leagues from 1910 to 1914. He appeared in only 1 major league game, pitching for the Detroit Tigers, on September 15, 1912. He started the game, against the Washington Senators, at the new Navin Field in Detroit. (It would be renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) The opposing pitcher was the best pitcher in the American League at the time, Walter Johnson. For 6 innings, they both pitched shutout ball. But the Senators scored 6 runs in the 7th inning, and ended up winning, 6-3.

It's not clear why he never pitched in the major leagues again, especially since the Federal League opened up major league jobs in 1914 and 1915. But when America got into World War I, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was probably safer at an Army base than in civilian life, as discrimination against people of German descent got very nasty.

He was a Sergeant in the Army's 80th Infantry Division, a.k.a. the Blue Ridge Division, when he was shot in the chest outside Verdun, France, just 35 days before the Armistice ended the war.

There is no mention of this single-day Tiger's service, in baseball or in the Army, at Comerica Park.

*

October 7, 1918 was a Monday. The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Hockey season hadn't started yet. Professional basketball barely existed. And football was in midweek. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 5, 1918: Eddie Grant Is Killed In Action

October 5, 1918: One of the last men you would have expected to die in one of America's wars does so -- and, for years, his legacy was lost.

Edward Leslie Grant was born on May 21, 1883, outside Boston in Franklin, Massachusetts. He went to Harvard University, where he played baseball and basketball. He got his undergraduate degree there in 1905, and his law degree there in 1909.

A 3rd baseman, he had debuted in baseball's major leagues in 1905, with the Cleveland Naps. The team was named after their star 2nd baseman and manager, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. They would be renamed the Cleveland Indians in 1915, and the Cleveland Guardians in 2022.

He played only 2 games that season, and spent the 1906 season in the minor leagues. In 1907, he got back to the majors to stay, with the Philadelphia Phillies. As most players who had gone to college had their college's name as their nickname, he became known as "Harvard Eddie." He amplified this by refusing to call for a fly ball by saying the traditional, "I got it!" Instead, he said it with grammatical correctness: "I have it!"

He remained with the Phils through 1910. He played for the Cincinnati Reds in 1911, 1912 and 1913, then was traded to the New York Giants, allowing him to play in the 1933 World Series, his only postseason appearance. He remained with the Giants through 1915. He batted .249 for his career, with 5 home runs, 277 RBIs, and 153 stolen bases.

He went to Boston, and set up a law practice. But when America declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, he was among the earliest men to enlist in the U.S. Army. He rose to the rank of Captain. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that began on September 26, 1918, all of his superior officers in the 77th Division were killed or wounded.

On October 2, 4 battalions of the 77th's 154th Infantry Brigade attacked a Germany line. Contact with them was lost, and Grant was sent to command a unit to look for what became known as "The Lost Battalion."

On October 5, while on search, Grant's unit faced a German attack. A shell landed near him, exploding, and killed him. He was 35 years old.

It took until October 8 to find the Lost Battalion. Out of over 500 men, only 194 of them were found alive. The rest were killed, missing, or captured.

Grant's story was over. But the story of his commemoration is even more interesting. On Memorial Day, May 30, 1921, a monument to Grant was placed in center field of his former home ballpark, the Giants' Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. This was the 1st time something like this had been done in baseball, and preceded the Miller Huggins Monument, the beginning of what became the Yankees' Monument Park, by 11 years. Also in The Bronx, a section of University Avenue was named the Edward L. Grant Highway.

The monument would later be joined on the wall of the center field clubhouse by plaques in memory of Giants legends John McGraw, Christy Mathewson and Ross Youngs; football Giants Al Blozis and Jack Lummus, both of whom were killed in World War II; and Jimmy Walker, New York's raffish, corrupt 1920s Mayor who was a big sports fan and a Giants supporter.

After the baseball Giants' last game there in 1957, the plaque was pried from the monument, to keep it from falling in the hands of souvenir hunters. When the Mets debuted at the Polo Grounds in 1962, the marble slab was still in center field, but the plaque was long gone. Despite a claim by a former New York cop that he had it in his house in Ho-Ho-Kus, Bergen County, New Jersey, the real thing has never been found.

The Giants, who hadn't won a World Series since moving to San Francisco, dedicated a replacement plaque in 2006, at what is now named Oracle Park. They have since won 3 World Series, thus ending what some called "The Curse of Captain Eddie." As for the whereabouts of the other 6 Polo Grounds plaques, your guess is as good as mine.

*

October 5, 1918 was a Saturday. The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Hockey season hadn't started yet. Professional basketball barely existed.

And even college football was affected by the manpower drain of the war. That day, the following schools played military teams: The University of California, Kansas State University, Rice University, and Texas Christian University (TCU). The University of Minnesota played a team of their school's alumni to a 0-0 tie, at Northrop Field in Minneapolis.

These intercollegiate football games were played that day:

* Georgia Tech beat Clemson, 28-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta.

* Arkansas played the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, winning 6-0 at The Hill in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Based in Rolla, and now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology -- usually called "Missouri S&T" rather than "Missouri Tech" -- they now play sports in NCAA Division II.

* Ohio State beat Ohio Wesleyan, 41-0 at Ohio Field in Columbus. Ohio Wesleyan, based in Delaware, Ohio, now compete in NCAA Division III.

* Michigan beat Case School of Applied Science, 33-0 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1967, Case merged with its fellow Cleveland school, Western Reserve University, to become Case Western Reserve University. They now compete in NCAA Division III.

* Michigan Agricultural College beat Albion College, 21-6 at College Field in East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan Agricultural became Michigan State College in 1925, and Michigan State University in 1955. Albion, based in the Michigan city of the same name, now competes in NCAA Division III.

* In what would become a notable rivalry, more so in basketball than in football, Kentucky beat Indiana, 24-7 at Jordan Field in Bloomington, Indiana.

* And Iowa beat Nebraska, 12-0 at Nebraska Field in Lincoln. This neighboring-States game was a regular feature on the college football schedule from 1891 to 1946. But Nebraska was a member of the Big Eight Conference (later the Big Twelve), and Iowa was a member of the Big Ten Conference, so from 1947 to 1998, they only played each other from 1979 to 1982. The rivalry was restarted in 1999, and was boosted by Nebraska's entry into the Big Ten in 2011.