December 26, 1947: The Northeast Blizzard of '47

December 26, 1947: The North American Blizzard of 1947 -- or the Northeast Blizzard of '47 -- falls on the Northeastern United States. When it's over, the snowfall at New York City's official measuring point, in Central Park, reads 26.4 inches. (While it was a record, that Daily News headline was a tad premature as to the total amount.)

The previous iconic blizzard in New York, from March 11 to 14, 1888, paralyzed the City for days, and led to the construction of the Subway system, and to the City's electric company, Consolidated Edison, moving most electrical lines underground as well. The snowfall was officially measured at 21 inches, so the Blizzard of '47 broke this record. Fortunately, by 1947, snow removal equipment was mechanized, so the City's paralysis didn't last nearly as long.

The '47 record would hold until January 6 to 8, 1996, 30 inches. That remains the record. But the Blizzard of '47 gained a life of its own. My mother was a baby at the time, and she told me that, for the rest of her life, her mother griped about having to take care of a baby in that Blizzard.

*

December 26, 1947 was a Friday. The day after Christmas is celebrated as Boxing Day in Britain, and England's Football League plays games on the day. But not every team did this time. Liverpool F.C., defending Champions, and North London team Arsenal, who would go on to win the title, played each other the day before, on Christmas, at Liverpool's home of Anfield, and Arsenal won, 3-1. But on the 27th, at Arsenal's home of Highbury, Liverpool avenged that defeat, winning 2-1.

It was the off-season for Major League Baseball. The NFL Championship Game was played 2 days later, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, and the Chicago Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-21. The Eagles beat the Cardinals in the Championship Game the next year. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960 and Arizona in 1988, but have never won another NFL Championship, either before or after the title game began to be called the Super Bowl.

There were no games scheduled for the National Hockey League that day. There was 1 game played that night in the Basketball Association of America, the league that became the National Basketball Association in 1949, upon its merger with the National Basketball League. It was in the Northeast, but in Philadelphia, where the snowfall wasn't nearly as severe: 6 1/2 inches.

So the game was played. The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Providence Steamrollers, 89-61 at the Philadelphia Arena, at 46th & Market Streets in West Philadelphia. No attendance is listed in the box score.

Joe Fulks scored 24 points for the Warriors, who moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1962, and are now known as the Golden State Warriors. The Rollers, named for the football team that won the NFL Championship in 1928 before being doomed by the Great Depression, folded in 1949, and never entered the merged NBA. They remain the last major league sports team based in Rhode Island.

Also on this day, Carlton Fisk, later to be the Hall of Fame catcher for the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, was born, in Bellows Falls, Vermont -- because that town had the closest hospital to his parents' home in Charlestown, New Hampshire.

March 12, 1888: The Blizzard of 1888

Note all the snow-covered above-ground power lines,

not something seen in modern American cities.

March 12, 1888: The Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, paralyzes the Northeastern U.S., from Chesapeake Bay to Maine.

Places in Massachusetts and Connecticut got up to 50 inches of snow -- over 4 feet. New York City (then just Manhattan and part of The Bronx) got 22 inches, which would be a City record until 1947.

Over 400 fatalities were attributed to the storm, among them Roscoe Conkling, the legendarily corrupt U.S. Senator from New York, from pneumonia. Fire stations were immobilized, and, despite temperatures nearly dropping below zero, fire damage alone was estimated at $25 million (about $720 million in 2022 money).

Transportation was hopeless. Horses couldn't get through the snow to draw carriages, and railroads couldn't operate. The City was at a standstill. It took the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad -- including what's now the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Commuter Railroad -- 8 days to start operating again.

Just as a freezing-over of the East River led to the desire to build the Brooklyn Bridge, so too did the Blizzard of '88 lead to the Northeast beginning to build underground railway systems. Boston opened the Western Hemisphere's 1st subway line in 1897, New York followed in 1904, and Philadelphia in 1907. Telegraph and telephone lines were also brought down, and this led to cities putting those underground as well.

*

March 12, 1888 was a Monday. Baseball season had yet to begin. Football was out of season. Hockey was still all-amateur. And basketball hadn't yet been invented. So, regardless of the weather, there were not going to be any scores on this historic day.

February 11, 1983: The Megapolitan Blizzard

Manhattan, February 12, 1983

February 11, 1983: A blizzard hits the Northeastern U.S. It becomes known as the Megapolitan Blizzard.

It was a Friday, and I was in the 8th grade in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Snow began to fall around 11:00 AM, and they let us out around 12:00 Noon. I spent much of the night dipping a yardstick into the backyard to get measurements. By the time I went to bed, it was 22 inches. That would be the most that East Brunswick got between the day-after-Christmas blizzard of 1947 and the big one of January 1996.

New York reported 24 inches, or 2 full feet, in some spots. Philadelphia reported 21. Even southwestern Virginia reported 20. Glen Cary, West Virginia reported the most: 35 inches, or an inch under 3 feet. A total of 46 deaths were attributed to the blizzard.

And yet, by Monday morning, February 14, we were back in school. We only missed a shade over 2 hours. We got gypped. At that age, you think of snow as fun. As you get older, and snow means you lose a day's pay because you don't go to work, you realize that "snow" is a four-letter word.

*

February 11, 1983, as I said, was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA was lucky: They were in their All-Star Break, so they didn't get any games postponed due to the snow. On Sunday, February 13, at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California, the East beat the West, 132-123. Julius Erving, "Dr. J," was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

The NHL wasn't so lucky, as some games were postponed. Only 1 game was played: The Edmonton Oilers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 7-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. It was 2-1 Nords 8 minutes into the 2nd period. Then Jari Kurri scored his 2nd of the game to tie it. In the 3rd period, the Oilers just unloaded, getting goals from Laurie Boschman, Mark Messier, Ken Linseman, Dave Semenko and Wayne Gretzky.

Also on this day, Dutch soccer star Rafael van der Vaart was born.

February 10, 1969: The Lindsay Snowstorm

February 10, 1969: A severe Winter storm hits the Northeastern U.S. Although the heaviest snowfalls, up to 32 inches, are recorded in Maine, it hits hardest in New York City. Depths were reported at 15 inches in Central Park, and 20 inches at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Of the 94 deaths that were attributed to the storm, 42 were in the City, 3 of them at JFK Airport, found trapped and frozen in a car.

The Airport estimated that 6,000 travelers were stranded there. Drivers became trapped on the highways. As with the massive traffic jam caused by the Woodstock concert 6 months later, the New York State Thruway was closed, man. Cars were abandoned on the Tappan Zee Bridge. The Long Island Rail Road suspended service.

All the financial exchanges closed. It was the 1st time the New York Stock Exchange had ever closed due to bad weather. The bulk of the snow fell on a Sunday, but schools were still closed the next day. Buses, taxis, delivery vehicles, mail trucks and garbage trucks couldn't get through. Nor could food delivery trucks get to the stores. Comedian Vic DiBitetto had just turned 8 years old, and was living in Brooklyn. This may have been the original storm that inspired his famous 2013 video: "They said snow! I gotta get the bread and milk!"

Mayor John Lindsay got the streets of Manhattan cleared fairly quickly. But the "Outer Boroughs"? The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island? It was almost as if Lindsay forgot they were part of the City. And the people living there were furious, especially in Queens. He tried to go there to apologize, but in the neighborhood of Kew Gardens, he got booed. It got worse: In Rego Park, his limousine got stuck. It became known as the Lindsay Snowstorm.

It was an election year, and Lindsay was running for re-election. The City's Republican Party ran John Marchi, a State Senator from Staten Island, against him in the primary, and beat him. Marchi also got the nomination of the City's Conservative Party.

The Democratic nominee was the City Comptroller, Mario Procaccino, and he turned out to be a conservative Democrat. Remembering Lindsay's limo trouble, he coined the expression "limousine liberal," to describe liberals who loved humanity in concept, but were out of touch with real people. But he also made some racist remarks, and it looked like the City had a choice between an Italian version of a Strom Thurmond-style "Dixiecrat" and a Barry Goldwater-style Republican. After all, while Lindsay did manage to keep the nomination of the City's Liberal Party, nobody wanted him for 4 more years.

As it turned out, enough people wanted Lindsay that he won the general election anyway.

*

February 10, 1969 was a Sunday. Baseball and football were out of season. No games were scheduled in either the NBA or the NHL. One game was scheduled in the American Basketball Association: The Miami Floridians beat the Los Angeles Stars, 126-112 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

February 7, 2013: Vic DiBitetto Posts "Bread & Milk"

February 7, 2013: Vic DiBitetto posts a video to YouTube: "Bread & Milk."

A Brooklyn native, Vic started doing comedy in the early 1980s, doing not well enough to become a star, but doing just well enough to keep doing it, while he made a living as a garbage truck driver, and then a school bus driver, on Staten Island. In 1991, he and his son Michael won $10,000 on America's Funniest People, for a home video of a mock ventriloquist act.

The coming of YouTube inspired Vic to make his own channel, and bring his comedy to the masses, a few minutes at a time. Frequently, he would open with, "Hey, whattaya say, my Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Google Plus, your sister's ass, the Pony Express? A very ticked-off Vic here. You know what ticks me off?" And then he would explain what was ticking him off at the moment. Usually, it was something really annoying and stupid, instead of something actually dangerous. Such is life when you live in the New Jersey suburbs of New York. (I understood completely: At the time, we lived 16 miles apart.)

By early February 2013, he had turned 52, and had appeared in exactly one feature film -- and it was Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. He got raves for this brief appearance in an otherwise forgettable movie, but he was still no closer to becoming a star than he was in 1991. Still, people were liking his videos and telling him he was funny. Again, he was getting just enough encouragement to continue.

Then came a weather report: A storm was going to dump a lot of snow on the Northeastern United States. Words like "blizzard," "nor'easter," "extratropical cyclone" and "bomb cyclone" were used.

When warnings of a big storm come, people tend to panic, and head to stores to get food. And paper products, such as toilet paper and paper towels. And, in case power is lost, fuel for portable generators, and candles. Runs on stores' supplies of bread and milk are common.

It's worth pointing out that this was just 14 weeks after Hurricane Sandy had ravaged the Northeast, so that was still on people's minds. There was no snow on that occasion. But if the snow that was being predicted for this occasion had turned out to be deep -- say, 2 feet (24 inches) or more, it might be days before you could get to the store again, so you'd better get what you need now, before the snowfall starts.

And so, Vic posted a 28-second video of himself running out of his house, and getting into his car to go to the store, getting more and more worried as he goes along:

Gotta get the bread and milk. I gotta get the bread and milk. I gotta get the bread and milk. Gotta get the bread and milk, oh my God! I gotta... I gotta get the bread and milk! I gotta get the bread and... They said snow! I gotta get the bread and milk! Oh my God! I gotta get the bread... I gotta get the bread and milk! I gotta get the bread and milk, oh my God!

Within a year of posting it, this video got over 12 million views. By 2022, it was up to 20 million. It was shown on CNN, NBC's The Today Show, and ABC's The View.

And the parodies of it came up fast. Within 5 days, a man recorded what he called "Bread & Milk (black version)": "I gotta get the sugar and Kool-Aid!" In January 2014, with snow already falling, another guy went through the whole shebang of saying he's gotta get the bread and milk, and closed with, "I'm gettin' Dunkin Donuts, screw this." In January 2016, with Shopkins being a toy craze, a woman taped her daughter, probably around 8 years old, getting into the car's driver's seat, and saying, "I gotta get the Shopkins!"

Vic said, "Thirty seconds of stupidity brought me more recognition than thirty years of stand-up." He now occasionally gets parts in comedy movies, usually playing guys like himself: Italians who yell a lot.

He parodies this with his character, Tony Gaga. That's with the accent on the 2nd syllable, Ga-GA, not like Lady Gaga (who is also Italian and from New York). Tony Gaga, whom Vic claims is his cousin, wears shades, an undershirt, and Bermuda shorts, and doesn't know the meaning of the words "inside voice." Whatever you're talking about, he says, "You gotta guy? You gotta go to the guy I go to! He'll get it for ya for two dollars! Two dollars!"

Vic as Tony Gaga

He also does videos pretending to be the manager of the New York Yankees, the head coach of the New York Giants (keeping his own personality for both, not pretending to be the actual field boss), Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa, Al Pacino's Tony Montana of Scarface, Marlon Brando's Don Vito Corleone of The Godfather, Robert Shaw's Quint from Jaws, or the late, great comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who was a friend of his. Sometimes, he's himself, Tony Gaga, Rocky, Tony Montana, Don Corleone, Quint and Rodney, all in the same video.

But he's still best known as "The Bread and Milk Guy." In 2021, after a year of COVID, with its runs on store supplies, one commenter wrote, "This man was living in 2020 before 2020 was even a thing." Around that time, Vic actually did get COVID. He was miserable for 4 days, but survived, and, as of February 7, 2022, shows no ill effects, but minces no words: You don't want it.

As for the storm in question: New York got 11 inches of snow, and most of New Jersey got around that as well. New England was hit much worse: Boston got 25 inches; Portland, Maine set a city record with 32 inches; and Hamden, Connecticut got hit the worst, 40 inches -- that's 3-foot-4. Both New England and Atlantic Canada (the Maritime Provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador) got hit with waves much higher than usual. Over 700,000 people lost power, some only briefly, others for days; and 18 deaths were attributed to the storm.

And, just so you know, he did get the bread and milk.

This head-tilt and glare is known to his fans as "Doing The Look."

*

February 7, 2013 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The football season had just ended with Super Bowl XLVII, in which the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31.

Only 2 NBA games were played. That was what was scheduled; it wasn't due to the storm. The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 116-95 at the TD Garden in Boston; and the Denver Nuggets beat the Chicago Bulls, 128-96 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

There were 12 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat their arch-rivals, the New York Islanders, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2 at the Prudential Center.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 in a shootout at the Wells Fargo Arena (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-0 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-2 in overtime at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-4 in a shootout at the First Niagara Center (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3 in overtime at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-1 at the Scottrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota Wild, 4-1 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2 at the MTS Centre (now the Canada Life Centre) in Winnipeg.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 6-2 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* And the Anaheim Ducks, the Boston Bruins, the Colorado Avalanche, the Dallas Stars, the Edmonton Oilers and the San Jose Sharks were not scheduled.

February 6, 1978: The Northeast Blizzard of '78

That's Boston's New City Hall in the background.

February 6, 1978: A blizzard hits the Northeastern United States. The storm killed about 100 people, mostly in car crashes.

This came just 12 days after "The White Hurricane," the Midwest's version of the Blizzard of '78, struck the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes, killing 70 people.

The biggest snowfall hit Woonsocket, Rhode Island: 38 inches; or 3 feet, 2 inches. Records for snowfall hit Boston with 27 inches; Providence, Rhode Island with 27 inches; and Atlantic City with 20 inches.

Not records, but bad enough: New York, 20 inches; Hartford, Connecticut, 17 inches; Philadelphia, 16 inches; Baltimore, 12 inches. Washington, D.C. was comparatively lucky: Only 4 inches.

February 6 was the date scheduled for the annual Beanpot Tournament, contested between hockey teams from 4 local colleges in Boston: Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, and Northeastern University. But instead of postponing the tournament, it was played on February 6. The 11,666 fans who showed up actually got more hockey than they expected: The opening game went to overtime, and Harvard beat Northeastern, 4-3. In the nightcap, BU beat BC, 12-5.

And they couldn't get out. They were snowed in. They were stuck in the Boston Garden. Fortunately, there were bathrooms inside -- even if they were the kind of bathrooms you would expect in an arena that opened in 1928. And there was food inside, as the concession stands remained open until it ran out. The Celtics' famed parquet floor was put down over the ice, to provide sleeping space. Even the locker rooms were opened, to provide more.

The next day, the Garden was dug out, and people were able to leave. Traditionally, the Beanpot is held on the 1st and 2nd Mondays in February. This time, the 2nd round wasn't held until Wednesday, March 1: BC beat Northeastern, 3-2 in overtime; and BU won the tournament, beating Harvard, 7-1.

If Boston sports fans thought February 1978 was rough, they hadn't seen nothin' yet. The Celtics had the worst season, record-wise, in their history. The Bruins lost the Stanley Cup Finals. The Red Sox led the American League Eastern Division by 9 1/2 games, and were 14 games ahead of the arch-rival New York Yankees, then collapsed, and lost a Playoff for the Division title on October 2. And the Patriots won the AFC East title, but fell out of the Playoffs when they lost at home on New Year's Eve to the Houston Oilers.

*

February 6, 1978 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA was in it's All-Star Break, holding the Game the day before, with the East beating the West, 133-125 at the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta.

Only 1 NHL game was scheduled: The Philadelphia Flyers beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-0 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. And there were no games scheduled in the World Hockey Association.

February 2, 2011: The Groundhog Day Blizzard

February 2, 2011: A Winter storm peaks in intensity over the Midwestern United States, becoming known as the Groundhog Day Blizzard and "Snowmageddon."

It was preceded by an ice storm, which made things much worse. The blizzard actually started in the Southwest, dropping snow on places not used to it: Las Cruces, New Mexico; El Paso, Texas, on the State Line with New Mexico and the border with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Chicago, normally used to bad Winter weather, was hit particularly hard, getting 21 inches of snow and winds over 60 miles per hour. Other Midwestern cities hard hit included (going from west to west) Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Detroit and Cleveland.

The storm moved east, and also hit Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal, and Albany, New York, before hitting the Northeast Corridor: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. And then it socked Canada's Maritime Provinces, before heading out to sea. At least 36 deaths were attributed to the storm, most of them from car crashes or heart attacks while shoveling snow.

*

February 2, 2011 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. The football season was about to end, with Super Bowl XLV 4 days later: The Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25.

In spite of the bad weather, 11 NBA games were started, and all were played to their conclusion, including some in the affected cities:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 113-97 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 106-92 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 117-112 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland. Attendance: 18,877, close to a sellout. And this was in the 1st season of LeBron James' Miami sojourn, so that's extraordinary.

* The Charlotte Bobcats beat the Detroit Pistons, 97-87 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Stephen Jackson scored 39 points for the Bobcats. Attendance: 14,376.

* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102-84 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Attendance: 12,662.

* The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the New Orleans Hornets, 104-93 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena (now the Paycom Center) in Oklahoma City. Attendance: 17,849, close to a sellout.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Toronto Raptors, 100-87 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta. Joe Johnson scored 37 points.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 109-90 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz, 97-96 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City (then named the EnergySolutions Arena).

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 92-77 at the the US Airways Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 106-88 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-0 at the Consol Energy Center (now the PPG Paints Arena) in Pittsburgh. The New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils were not scheduled.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Florida Panthers, 3-2 at the Bell Center in Montreal. Attendance: Same as always, 21,273.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Ottawa Senators, 7-5 at Scotiabank Place (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa. Attendance: 18,011, a sellout.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 6-0 at the Jobing.com Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at Rexall Place (as the Northlands Coliseum was temporarily known) in Edmonton.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Anaheim Ducks, 4-3 at the Honda Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California.

January 26, 1967: The Chicago Blizzard of '67

January 26, 1967: The Chicago Blizzard of '67 hits. It drops 23 inches of snow on the biggest city in the Midwest: Just short of 2 full feet. It remains the greatest single-storm snowfall in the city's history.

It took people by surprise, because the forecast for this day, on the day before, was for rain or snow, because a cold front was predicted to stall there. Later on the night of the 25th, the forecast was changed to 4 inches of snow. Please, Chicago is a city used to nasty weather, both in Summer and in Winter. Chicagoans? They can handle 4 inches of snow in their sleep.

On the morning of the 26th, a Thursday, the accumulation prediction was revised to 4 to 8 inches. Knowing that, the kids should not have been sent to school. But they were.

Snow fell continuously from 5:02 AM on Thursday until 10:10 AM on Friday. It messed up 2 morning rush hours and 1 evening rush hour. Both major airports, O'Hare and Midway, were closed. People were stranded in schools, offices, 1,100 buses and 20,000 cars. It was estimated that 50,000 cars were, at least temporarily, abandoned. For a 50th Anniversary newspaper feature in 2017, some people recalled their half-hour commutes to get home taking 6 hours. There were 26 deaths reported, mainly from car accidents and heart attacks while shoveling snow.

But the city's sense of community kicked in. People shoveled each other's walks. People not stranded got food and blankets to those who were.

Although Chicago's highest snowfall ever isn't close to New York's -- 30 inches in 1996, topping 26 inches in 1947 -- like an earthquake, it had "aftershocks." The following Wednesday, February 1, another 4 inches fell. The Sunday after that, February 5, they got another 8 1/2. 

But Mayor Richard J. Daley's herculean response to digging the city out, clearing the streets and the elevated railroad tracks, was a welcome sign that the city's slogan, "The City That Works," wasn't just words. He was overwhelmingly elected to a 4th term that Spring. In contrast, his eventual successor, Michael Bilandic, did not sufficiently respond to the blizzard of 1979, and it cost him the election.

*

January 26, 1967, as I said, was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. Only 1 game was played in the NBA, and it did not involve the Chicago Bulls, then playing their 1st season: The Detroit Pistons beat the Cincinnati Royals, 118-110 -- at the Cleveland Arena.

The Royals were trying to broaden their base. Oscar Robertson scored 35 points for them. But Dave Bing scored 32 for the Pistons, and future Knick legend Dave DeBusschere added 27 points and 17 rebounds.

The Chicago Black Hawks did play that night, but not at home. Detroit managed to avoid a major snowfall, and the Olympia Stadium hosted the Hawks' 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Also that night, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 at the Montreal Forum. The New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs, the other two of the "Original Six," were not scheduled to play.

January 13, 1979: The Chicago Blizzard of '79

January 13, 1979: A major blizzard hits the Chicago metropolitan area. Over the course of the 13th and the 14th, 29 inches fall, nearly two and a half feet. To make matters worse, wind gusts reach speeds of 39 miles per hour. Five people are killed as a result.

O'Hare International Airport was closed, and all flights were grounded for 96 hours. The elevated railway (or "L") tracks. Buses were overloaded, and had trouble getting through anyway.

It takes longer than it should to get the snowplows out, and thus many people couldn't get onto the buses and the L, anyway. The blame fell on Michael Bilandic, who had won the special election for Mayor following the death of longtime Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1976.

Many Republicans, knowing that their Party hadn't elected a Mayor since Big Bill Thompson in 1927, saw their chance to punish the Democratic machine that had won 12 straight elections (the last 6 by Daley), and crossed over to vote for the city's former chairwoman of consumer affairs, Jane Byrne. She was also endorsed by the best-known black person in Chicago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. She needed all of this support: She beat Bilandic in the Primary by less than 17,000 votes, and then overwhelmingly won the general election, to become Chicago's 1st female Mayor.

Parallels were drawn to the 1969 New York blizzard to which Mayor John Lindsay had a slow response, and thus was denied renomination by the Republican Party. But he won on a 3rd-party ticket. Bilandic did not politically survive his slow response. If he had acted faster, he could, like Daley, have been Mayor for the rest of his life: He lived until 2002. 

As it was, in 1990, Governor Jim Thompson (no relation to corrupt old Big Bill) appointed him to the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1990, and the next Governor, Jim Edgar, promoted him to Chief Justice in 1993. Bilandic served as Chief Justice until retiring in 1997.

*

January 13, 1979 was a Saturday. It was the off-season for Major League Baseball. It was the off-week between the NFC and AFC Championships and Super Bowl XIII, which the Pittsburgh Steelers would win over the Dallas Cowboys, 35-31 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

There were 5 games played in the NBA that day. Neither the New York Knicks nor the New Jersey Nets were involved in them:

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the San Diego Clippers, 124-119 at The Omni in Atlanta. Lloyd Free, nicknamed "All-World," scored 46 for the Clippers, but it wasn't enough, as John Drew's 36 led a more successful Hawks attack. Free would legally change his name to "World B. Free" in 1981. The Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1984.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Golden State Warriors, 114-109 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan. Bob Lanier, the man with "the two biggest feets in basketball," but also a man who would rightly be named to the Hall of Fame and the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players, scored 36 for the Pistons.

* The Houston Rockets beat the New Orleans Jazz, 117-106 at The Summit in Houston. For the Rockets, future head coach Rudy Tomjanovich scored 26 points, and Moses Malone added 25. Spencer Haywood led the Jazz with 23 points. Pistol Pete Maravich did not play.

The Summit has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch." The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City the next season, trading the logical name "New Orleans Jazz" for the shake-your-head name of "Utah Jazz."

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 117-103 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. George Gervin, "the Iceman," scored 29 for the Spurs, while James Silas, "Captain Late," scored 27.

* And the Indiana Pacers beat the Phoenix Suns, 102-99 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

The Chicago Bulls were lucky. They played at home at the Chicago Stadium the night before the blizzard, losing 100-93 to the Hawks, and were able to reach Milwaukee, just 90 miles away but not nearly as affected by the snowstorm, to play on the 14th. They lost to the Bucks, 104-99.

There were 6 games played in the NHL. Neither the New York Rangers nor the New York Islanders were involved in them:

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Boston Bruins, 5-3 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Rockies would move in 1982, becoming the New Jersey Devils. A baseball team named the Colorado Rockies began play in Denver in 1993.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Detroit Red Wings, 7-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-3 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. At least the Black Hawks -- written as two words until 1986 -- were on the road, and didn't have to postpone any games due to the blizzard.

* And the Vancouver Canucks and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 3-3 at the St. Louis Arena, then known as the Checkerdome in honor of the "Checkerboard Square" logo of the Blues' owners, the St. Louis-based Ralston-Purina Company.

The 1978-79 season was the last one for the World Hockey Association:

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the New England Whalers, 3-0 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Whalers were playing there while repairs were being made to the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Whalers and the Oilers were admitted to the NHL the next season, as were the Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordiques. The Whalers changed their name to the Hartford Whalers, and moved back into the Hartford Civic Center in 1980, staying until 1997, when they moved to North Carolina, becoming the Carolina Hurricanes.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Birmingham Bulls, 3-1 at the Jefferson County Civic Center in Birmingham, Alabama.

* The Nordiques and the Cincinnati Stingers were not scheduled to play that day.

Also Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest, 2-1 at Highbury in North London. 

January 10, 1949: Snow In Southern California

January 10, 1949: The Blizzard of '49... in Southern California! As far as anyone knows, this is the 1st time snow has ever fallen on Los Angeles, and the 1st time on San Diego since 1850.

Actually, there is a scientific definition of "blizzard," and this storm did not meet it. A "blizzard" is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time, typically at least three or four hours. In other words, the amount of snowfall has nothing to do with it. Yet any major snowfall tends to get called a "blizzard," whether it meets the definition or not. And any snowfall in Southern California would feel like a "blizzard" to people living there who never lived anywhere else, and weren't used to it.

And, on January 10, 1949, a snowstorm hit Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. It was caused by a weather pattern that brought cold air from Canada and Alaska down to Southern California, where it met with a low-pressure system moving in from the Pacific Ocean.

The result was a snowstorm that dropped up to 4 inches of snow in some areas, and even more in some of the surrounding mountains. The snow caused widespread disruption and excitement, with schools closing, highways becoming blocked, and people flocking to parks and hillsides to play in the snow.

Many residents, especially those who had never experienced snow before, were thrilled by the novelty of the event, while others were less happy about the disruption to their daily lives.

The newspapers of the time reported extensively on the snowstorm, with headlines such as "Snowstorm Paralyzes Southland," "Southland Shivers Under Blanket of Snow," and "Record Snowfall Delights and Inconveniences Angelenos."

It was not unprecedented. It snowed in parts of Los Angeles in 1913, 1921, 1922, 1926 and 1944. But not since 1882, when the Los Angeles Herald was moved to print the headline, "How's That for Semi-Tropical?" had never been as widespread, or as deep, as it was in 1949.

Trace amounts of snow would fall on L.A. again in 1957 and 1962. I wonder what Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, used to the weather in New York, thought about that. At any rate, it hasn't happened since.

UPDATE: In 2025, when discussing Los Angeles weather and its effects that caused the devastating wildfires of the start of that year, Bill Pazeet, a climatologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, also addressed the city's long snow drought. He blamed it on the urban heat island effect -- paved surfaces are hotter than the natural ground -- and climate change.

Winter temperatures, particularly average daily lows, have risen dramatically over the past 75 years. While he said it's not impossible for it to snow again in Los Angeles, he thinks, based on prediction models, "by 2050, no way."

*

January 10, 1949 was a Monday. Future heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman was born.

Baseball and football were out of season. And no NHL games were scheduled. There was 1 game in the Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA the next season: The Washington Capitols beat the Boston Celtics, 94-83 at the Boston Garden. The Caps would reach the BAA Finals, losing to the Minneapolis Lakers. Their coach would later coach the Celtics. His name was Arnold Jacob Auerbach, nicknamed Red even though his red hair was now mostly gone.

January 6, 1996: The Northeast Blizzard of '96

January 6, 1996: The New York Tri-State Area is hit with its biggest snowfall since official measurements began, 30 inches. That's two and a half feet.

The City had been hit by big blizzards before. The most celebrated one was from March 11 to 14, 1888: It paralyzed the City for days, and led to the construction of the Subway system, and to the City's electric company, Consolidated Edison, moving most electrical lines underground as well. The snowfall was officially measured at 21 inches.

This record held until December 26, 1947, 26 inches. Fortunately, by then, snow removal equipment was mechanized, so the City's paralysis didn't last nearly as long.

A "nor'easter" dropped 20 inches on New York from February 8 to 11, 1969. This one was terribly mishandled by Mayor John Lindsay, who got Manhattan plowed fairly quickly, but not the Outer Boroughs. People there were outraged, and when the Republican Primary for the Mayoral election was held that year, Lindsay was dumped for John Marchi, a State Senator from Staten Island.

The Democrats nominated the City's Comptroller, Mario Procaccino, but he made racist statements, and it looked like any chance for social progress in The City was doomed. But due to New York State's unusual 4-party system, Lindsay was nominated by the Liberal Party, and narrowly won re-election, partly because he had tied his fortunes to those of the Mets, who won the World Series 19 days before the general election. (The 4th party, the Conservative Party, nominated Marchi.) Lindsay won 42 percent of the vote, Procaccino 36, and Marchi 22.

The 1st big blizzard that I can remember struck on February 11, 1983. I was in the 8th grade in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and we were let out at 12:00 Noon instead of the usual 2:05 PM. I spent much of the night dipping a yardstick into the backyard. When the snow topped out, I had it measured at 22 inches. Fortunately, that was a Friday, so most people who worked Monday-to-Friday jobs didn't miss much time, or pay.

That would also be the case with the Blizzard of '96. Still, it was, at least at first, beyond The City's capacity to get people out. Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. were clobbered as well, getting 18, 30, 22 and 24 inches, respectively. Topping it out was eastern West Virginia, at 48 inches -- 4 feet.

Janice Huff had recently become the main weathercaster on WNBC-Channel 4 in New York. She seemed to enjoy this "baptism by ice" a little too much. My father called her "the Weather Witch."

The federal government was paralyzed politically, as President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and the Republican-controlled Congress couldn't agree on a budget, so the government was shut down for a while, before Clinton's public popularity forced the Republicans to cave.

Kids sledding on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building.

A better January 6 for the building than would happen in 2021.

That same day, Willie Brown, long the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the State of California, forced to leave that post because of a stupid newly-passed term limits law, was sworn in as Mayor of San Francisco. After his Inaugural Address, he got a congratulatory phone call from Clinton. Brown told him, "Mr. President, you'd love it here: There's no snow, and no Republicans!" As Brown laughed, a big cheer went up from the crowd in what is, perhaps, America's most liberal city.

Sure, New York has to worry about snow, and extreme heat in the Summer. And San Francisco doesn't. But look at the bright side: We don't have to worry about earthquakes.

*

January 6, 1996 was a Saturday. The Tri-State Area's basketball teams were lucky: Neither the New York Knicks nor the New Jersey Nets were scheduled, and neither had to postpone a game. There were 7 games played in the NBA that day:

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 96-90 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic, 105-94 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named the Rocket Arena.)

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Washington Bullets, 90-82 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. 

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 113-84 at the United Center. Michael Jordan scored 32 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Indiana Pacers, 99-87 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Miami Heat beat the Denver Nuggets, 88-86 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver. Alonzo Mourning scored 38 for the Heat.

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Golden State Warriors, 115-106 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

There were 10 games played in the NHL. Amazingly, both the Devils and the Islanders got their games in before the worst of the blizzard hit, while the Rangers had the day off:

* The New Jersey Devils beat the Washington Capitals, 3-1 at the Brendan Byrne Arena. Reid Simpson scored a goal for the defending Stanley Cup Champions, and Bill Guerin scored 2. The attendance was listed as a full 19,040, but that may be tickets sold, not people actually showing up.

* The New York Islanders beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-4, before 12,175 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens, 7-6 at the Montreal Forum. The Forum closed 2 months later, replaced by the Bell Centre.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Hartford Whalers, 5-2 at the FleetCenter in Boston. (It's now the TD Garden.)

* In the opener of the CBC's Saturday night broadcast of Hockey Night In Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-0 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Kiel Center in St. Louis. (It's now the Enterprise Center.)

* The Calgary Flames beat the Florida Panthers, 2-0 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the San Jose Sharks, 7-5 at The Forum in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, California.

* And in the nightcap of Hockey Night In Canada, the Vancouver Canucks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 9-2 at General Motors Place in Vancouver. (It's now Rogers Place.)

Also, Arsenal drew with Sheffield United, 1-1 at Highbury in North London. This was in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, so a replay was required. On January 17, at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, Yorkshire, Sheffield United won, 1-0.