December 2, 1927: Ford Introduces the Model A

December 2, 1927: The Ford Motor Company introduces the Model A, the successor to its legendary Model T.

Ford had previously sold a car named the Model A in 1903 and 1904, but this was before the assembly line, so it couldn't be mass-produced, and it never caught on with the public.

Henry Ford had introduced the Model T in 1908, and it became the best-selling car of all time. But Henry was set in his ways. He said, "You can have any color car you want, as long as it's black." He saw no reason to mess with success.

Except the Model T wasn't as successful as it had been. It was basic, with few amenities. It was mocked as "The Tin Lizzie." It had been surpassed in popularity by several cars.

In contrast, his son, Edsel Ford, was very much into style: In 1927, practically behind his father's back, he led the design of the replacement for the Model T: The Model A. Henry approved it, and also approved a major advertising campaign for it, taking advance of the dawn of "talking pictures," complete with what later be called a commercial jingle: "Henry's made a lady out of Lizzie!"

The Model A was the first Ford to use the standard set of driver controls with conventional clutch and brake pedals, throttle, and gearshift. Previous Fords used controls that had become uncommon to drivers of other makes. It was the 1st car to have safety glass in the windshield. And, of course, it was available in multiple colors.

Price: $385. (About $6,475 in 2022 money.) It sold pretty well, but Ford replaced it with the Model B in 1932.

*

December 2, 1927 was a Friday. Ralph Beard, a basketball star who won National Championships at the University of Kentucky and an Olympic Gold Medal, but was banned from pro ball in a point-shaving scandal, was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't yet been founded. And while the NHL season was underway, no games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 22, 1954: Ford Introduces the Thunderbird

October 22, 1954: Ford Motor Company introduces the Ford Thunderbird, as part of its 1955 models. Originally a 2-seat sports coupe, a convertible with a removable hardtop with "portholes," a rear seat was added in 1958, making it more of a luxury car.

From 1968 to 1998, Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division marketed "rebadged" variants, as the Mercury Cougar; and the Lincoln Continental Marks III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII. Ford stopped making the Thunderbird after the 1997 models, but brought it back in 2002. In 2005, in celebration of the car's 50th Anniversary, Ford brought it back as a special edition, complete with the '55 original's "portholes." This remains the last model year for the Thunderbird.

The "T-bird" was popular enough to become a watchword in popular culture. In 1962, in his song "Oh, Boy!" (to the tune of "Las Chiapanecas"), Thunderbirds and Cadillacs as the kind of cars that made parodist Allan Sherman give an enthusiastic, "Oh, boy!"

The Beach Boys mentioned the car in 2 songs: In "Little Deuce Coupe," they said the title car would "walk a Thunderbird like she's standing still"; and in "Fun, Fun, Fun," that's what the narrator's girlfriend will have, "'til her daddy takes the T-bird away." And a 1966 Thunderbird was the roadtrip/getaway car in the 1991 film Thelma & Louise.

*

October 22, 1954 was a Friday. Baseball season had ended 20 days earlier, when the New York Giants swept the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. The NBA season didn't start for another 8 days. The NHL season was underway, but no games were scheduled.

There were 6 college football games that night:

* The University of Miami, ranked Number 16, beat Maryland, 9-7 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* The University of Houston beat Villanova, 28-7 at Municipal Stadium (later renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium) in Philadelphia.

* Furman University beat Davidson College, 19-7 on neutral ground at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

* George Washington University and the College of William & Mary played to a 13-13 tie at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The University of Detroit beat Tulsa, 28-18 at University of Detroit Stadium.

* And the University of Denver beat Wichita State, 27-14 at Hilltop Stadium in Denver.

October 1, 1908: Ford Introduces the Model T

October 1, 1908: The Ford Motor Company begins producing the Model T, a.k.a. "The Tin Lizzie." By 1913, Henry Ford would use the assembly line to crank out a near-continuous stream of them, saying, "You can have any color car you want, as long as it's black." 

He offered his workers $5.00 a day -- $159 in 2022 money. That works out to about $800 a week -- before taxes. He believed that a man should be able to buy the very thing his labor built. Ford was unusual in that he gave his black workers the same pay rate as his white workers.

But he wasn't as enlightened as this would suggest: He was a notorious anti-Semite. He was also a micromanager who tried to run his workers' lives. And when they tried to unionize, he hired a security firm to beat up striking workers. He eventually caved in.

In 1913, Ford started using an assembly line to build his cars. He was not the first executive to adopt the idea, nor even the first in the American automobile industry. But he was the popularizer of it, because it reduced the time to produce a single car from 12 hours and 30 minutes to 2 hours and 40 minutes.

He sold over 1 million Model Ts in 19 years, helping to make Detroit the automotive capital of the world. In 1927, he introduced a successor, a nicer car called the Model A. The song he commissioned to introduce it said, "Henry's made a lady out of Lizzie."

*

October 1, 1908 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Washington Senators, 2-1 at Hilltop Park in Manhattan. It was a bad season for the team that officially became the Yankees in 1913, but, on this occasion, a battle of Hall-of-Famers was won by Jack Chesbro over Walter Johnson.

* The New York Giants, in a furious 3-way race for the National League Pennant, split a doubleheader with the Philadelphia Phillies at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The Giants won the 1st game, 4-3, with Christy Mathewson going the distance. The Phillies won the 2nd game, 6-2.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Boston Doves, 2-1 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Superbas? They had been managed by Ned Hanlon, and there had been a famous circus troupe known as Hanlon's Superbas. They became the Dodgers in 1911. Doves? Their owner was John Dovey. They became the Braves in 1912.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago Cubs, in that 3-way fight with the Giants for the Pennant, beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-0 at the Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati. Ed Reulbach pitched a 2-hit shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates, the 3rd team in that Pennant fight, and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled to play that day.

* The the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Naps (who became the Indians in 1915), the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Browns were also not scheduled. The White Sox, Naps and Tigers were in a tight 3-way race for the American League Pennant.

September 4, 1957: Ford Introduces the Edsel

A 1958 Edsel Corsair

September 4, 1957: It is "E-Day" at the Ford Motor Company. They introduce a new line of cars, added to their established Ford, Mercury and Lincoln lines: The Edsel.

Under Henry Ford II, grandson of the company's founder -- the day also happened to be his 40th birthday -- the company's management came to realize that the Lincoln line really wasn't competing with General Motors' luxury Cadillac, as they had intended. Rather, people seemed to be comparing it to GM's middle-class Oldsmobile and Buick, and Chrysler's DeSoto.

So the plan was to emphasize Lincoln's luxury, and introduce a new line that, along with Ford and Mercury, would compete with GM's middle line. They decided to name it the Edsel, after Edsel B. Ford, the original Henry's son and intended successor, who had predeceased his father, dying of stomach cancer in 1943, only 49 years old. Henry II, Edsel's son, objected, but, with the company having become publicly traded in 1956, he was now answerable to a board of directors.

(His brother, William Clay Ford, was on that board, bought the NFL's Detroit Lions in 1961, owning them until his death in 2014. They didn't win a single NFL Championship in that time. His son, William Clay Ford Jr., owns the Lions now, and has been CEO of Ford Motor Company since 1999. Like his father, he produces a better product on the assembly line than he does on the gridiron.)

On E-Day, the Edsel was described as a "reborn LaSalle." That was a brand that GM had folded in 1940, although most of us not around at that time only know it from its mention in the theme song to the sitcom All In the Family.

Ford also bought an hourlong special (at the time, they were usually called "spectaculars"), The Edsel Show, that aired on CBS on October 13. Appearing were Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Bob Hope, Rosemary Clooney, and the decidedly non-rock vocal group The Four Preps. With the addition of television to the traditional sales methods of print and movie newsreels, the Edsel was the most-hyped line the history of the automotive industry.

But nobody wanted it. Someone saw the "horse-collar" grille, and thought it "resembled an Oldsmobile sucking a lemon." Otherwise, it seemed little different from other Ford cars: If you're going to buy a Ford, why buy one that looked like this?

There was also bad timing: Several car lines went under in that era: Studebaker and Hudson in 1954, Packard in 1958, and Nash and DeSoto in 1961.

It sold terribly, and in 1959, following the introduction of the 1960 models, the line was canceled. The Edsel was one of the biggest bombs in the history of American consumerism. Only 118,287 were made, and it is believed that, in 2022, only 6,000 are left.

*

September 4, 1957 was a Wednesday. Actress Khandi Alexander was born.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 7-5 at Yankee Stadium. Pete Daley won it with a home run in the top of the 11th inning, with a home run off Tommy Byrne. Ted Williams did not appear, and Mickey Mantle only did so as a pinch-hitter, failing to reach base. Oddly, Yogi Berra played right field, going 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 at Forbes Field. Bob Friend pitches a 7-hit shutout. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4, but so did Willie Mays.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 12-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Gil Hodges hit a home run. He, Pee Wee Reese, Carl Furillo, Charlie Neal and Don Zimmer each had 2 hits, in support of Don Newcombe.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 1-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Joe Ginsberg won it with a sacrifice fly off Camilo Pascual in the bottom of the 10th inning. Jerry Walker pitched a 10-inning, 4-hit shutout. Brooks Robinson did not play.

* A doubleheader was split at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Chicago Cubs won the opener, 1-0. Moe Drabowsky, later better known as a relief pitcher, pitched a 2-hit shutout. The Cincinnati Redlegs (as the Reds were known from 1954 to 1958) won the nightcap, 7-2. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks and Frank Robinson both went 2-for-7 with an RBI, but Banks' RBI was a home run.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Braves, 5-4 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Right fielder Bob Hazel made an error that cost the Braves the game in the bottom of the 12th inning. Hank Aaron went 1-for-5, and Eddie Mathews and Del Rice both hit home runs. Stan Musial did not play.

* And the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Athletics were not scheduled.

June 16, 1903: Ford Motor Company Is Founded

June 16, 1903: The Ford Motor Company is founded in Detroit, by Henry Ford. On June 23, Ford, one week short of his 40th birthday, sells his 1st car.

In 1908, he introduced the Model T, leading to his saying, "You can have any color car you want, as long as it's black." In 1913, he combined this cheap car with the assembly line, and the rest is history.

As historian James Fell put it:

Because of Ford, the motor vehicle went from being an expensive method of transportation for rich people to something the middle class could afford, which is why we have gridlock, pollution, and 3,700 global deaths a day from car accidents. Well, if Ford hadn’t done it, someone else would have.

But there are admirable things about the way he did it. He was committed to lowering manufacturing costs and the price of his cars, coupled with aggressive marketing, to grow the company into a behemoth. Ford became one of the richest men in America.

And he shared the wealth. Ford abhorred employee turnover, hiring and endeavoring to retain quality workers by paying them a generous wage that many considered exorbitant and coupling it with a shortened (five-day) workweek. The best mechanics flocked to his company. He also hired Black workers, women, and people with disabilities at a time when few others did.

He also launched the Ford Foundation, dedicated to improving human welfare. The foundation is one of the wealthiest charitable organizations in the world, donating to the arts, the fight for civil rights, microloans, and fighting the AIDS epidemic.

But yeah, that antisemitism though...

Ford died in 1947. In the years to come, his company would produce the Thunderbird (popular), the Edsel (not), the Mustang (very). the Pinto (not only unpopular, but dangerous), the Escort (popular), the Taurus (popular), and the F-150 pickup truck (very popular).

The slogans would run from "Ford has a better idea" to "Quality is Job 1." At times, the company has acted like they believe these slogans.

But not always. Some people, especially fans of the brand which became Ford's main rival, Chevrolet, have said that "FORD" stands for "Fix Or Repair Daily," or "Found On Road, Dead."

And, yeah, that anti-Semitism, though... At least his heirs have not continued it. Not publicly, anyway.

A 2023 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History featured "Nice" Peter Shukoff playing Henry Ford, and "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist playing Karl Marx.

*

June 16, 1903 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders beat the Chicago White Sox, 1-0 at Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan. Clark Griffith, also the proto-Yankees' manager, pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 in 12 innings at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Naps beat the Boston Americans, 7-0 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Gus Dorner pitched a 7-hit shutout. The Cleveland team was named for its manager and 2nd baseman, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. They became the Cleveland Indians in 1915, and the Cleveland Guardians in 2022. The Boston team became the Red Sox in 1908.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-3 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-1 at Boundary Park in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 1-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Superbas and the Boston Beaneaters were rained out at the South End Grounds in Boston. It was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 25. The Beaneaters swept, 4-3 and 13-10. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911. The Beaneaters became the Braves the next year.

* And the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals were not scheduled.

May 26, 1943: Edsel Ford Dies

May 26, 1943: Edsel Ford dies of stomach cancer in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, changing the history of the automobile industry in ways at which we can only guess. He was just 49.

Edsel Bryant Ford was born on November 6, 1893 in Detroit, the only child of a not-yet-famous, and certainly not-yet-rich, Henry Ford and his wife Clara. Henry named his son after one of his closest childhood friends, Edsel Ruddiman, who became a chemist and a writer.

Henry made Edsel the President of the Ford Motor Company in 1919, at just 25. When it came to cars, Henry only cared about building and selling as many as possible, not at all about style: He was credited as saying, "The people can have any color car they want, as long as it's black."

Edsel was very much into style: He bought the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922, and converted it into a luxury brand. In 1927, he led the design of the replacement for his father's beloved Model T: The Model A. In 1932, he created the Ford Model 18, which became known as the Deuce Coupe -- because "1932" ends with the Number 2, or "Deuce." In 1938, he founded the Mercury division. In 1940, he designed the original Lincoln Continental. He also introduced hydraulic brakes to American cars.

Henry Ford was anti-Semitic, anti-Communist, and corporatist. He unwittingly served as an inspiration for Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, then came to admire him. It's not clear whether Edsel shared this admiration. But, with World War II coming, he had enough patriotism to convince his father to halt the production of automobiles and start building airplanes.

The Ford plant at Willow Run in Ypsilanti, Michigan cranked out B-24 bombers at a rate of one per day. But Edsel developed cancer, and it's been suggested that the stress of wartime production led him to disregard his health until it was too late. Surgery was unsuccessful, and he did not live to see his various vehicles help the Allies win the war.

Edsel was outlived by both of his parents: Old Henry died in 1947, Clara in 1950. The Michigan section of Interstate 94 is named the Edsel Ford Freeway in his memory.

Old Henry named Henry Ford II the company's President in 1945, and, while he did preside over the development of the Thunderbird and the Mustang, he also created the ill-fated division he named Edsel after his father, and later the (literally) explosive Pinto. It was during that period that people began joking that "FORD" stood for "Fix Or Repair Daily" or "Found On Road, Dead." Knowing this, Henry II developed better slogans: "Ford Has a Better Idea" in 1968 and "Quality is Job 1" in 1978.

Henry Ford II

Henry II also made amends between "FoMoCo" and the Jewish community. When the 1st Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, toured the U.S. in 1951, Henry II invited him to tour the Company's facilities. In 1973, he gave Israel vehicles for use in the Yom Kippur War. He died in 1987.

Another of Edsel's sons, William Clay Ford, bought the NFL's Detroit Lions in 1961, and turned them from a proud old team that was usually at least competitive into a joke. And his son, Bill Ford (William Clay Ford Jr.), took over both the Company and the Lions, and proved to be bad for both cars and football. Old Henry wouldn't have approved financially, and Edsel wouldn't have approved artistically.

*

May 26, 1943 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Mel Ott, by this point also the Giants' manager, went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 17-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Bucs scored 5 runs in the 2nd inning and 9 in the 3rd to put the game away early. Ex-Pirate Arky Vaughan went 3-for-5 for the Dodgers, but Vince DiMaggio (Joe's older brother) hit 2 home runs.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 1-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Dutch Leonard pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Bucky Walters pitched a 4-hit shutout, but needed his own single, a balk, and Eddie Miller singling him home in the bottom of the 9th to win the game.

* The Boston Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Chuck Workman singled Eddie Joost home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning. Stan Musial went 1-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Fenway Park in Boston. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Red Sox swept, 2-0 and 4-3. Tex Hughson pitched a 5-hit shutout in the 1st game.

* The Chicago White Sox and the Philadelphia Athletics were rained out at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 31. The White Sox swept, 7-1 and 4-3.

* And the New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers were rained out at Yankee Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 3. The Tigers won the opener, 4-0. Virgil Trucks (5 2/3rds innings) and Roy Henshaw (3 1/3rd) combined on a 3-hit shutout. The Yankees won the nightcap, 12-4.

May 26, 1937: The Battle of the Overpass

May 26, 1937: An even that becomes known as the Battle of the Overpass occurs, a turning point in the American labor movement. It might have been the last time the American people put up with attempts to suppress the movement.

The United Auto Workers had gotten recognition from General Motors and Chrysler. The Ford Motor Company held out: It was still run by old Henry Ford, and he was one of these rich guys who was good to you if you did what he told you to do, but if you objected to his conditions, you were worthless to him.

In 1937, the UAW planned a leaflet campaign entitled "Unionism, Not Fordism" at the pedestrian overpass over Miller Road at Gate 4 of the River Rouge Plant complex in Dearborn, Michigan, 7 miles west of downtown Detroit. At the time, Ford gave its workers an 8-hour day at $6 a day (equivalent to $124 in 2022 money). The UAW wanted a 6-hour day at $8 a day (about $165 now). The campaign was planned for shift change time on May 26, with an expected 9,000 workers both entering and leaving the plant.

At around 2:00, several of the leading UAW organizers, including Walter Reuther, Richard Frankensteen and Richard Merriweather, were asked by Detroit News photographer Scotty Kilpatrick to pose for a picture on an overpass, with the Ford sign in the background. While they were posing, men from Ford's Service Department, an internal security force under the direction of Harry Bennett, came from behind, and began to beat them. The number of attackers is disputed, but may have been as many as 40.

Frankensteen had his jacket pulled over his head, and was kicked and punched. Merriweather suffered a broken back. Reuther described some of the treatment he received:

Seven times, they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms... and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down the second flight. On the ground, they beat and kicked me some more.

 
Bennett told the media, "The affair was deliberately provoked by union officials... They simply wanted to trump up a charge of Ford brutality.. I know definitely no Ford service man or plant police were involved in any way in the fight." The photographs proved him a liar, and the incident greatly increased support for the UAW and hurt Ford's reputation. Still, it took 3 more years before Ford signed a contract with the UAW.

*

May 26, 1937 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-0 at Yankee Stadium. So, not a good day for Detroit. Lefty Gomez allowed 9 hits, but kept the shutout. George Selkirk and Tony Lazzeri it home runs, Lou Gehrig went 1-for-4 with an RBI, and Joe DiMaggio went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Hank Greenberg went 2-for-4 for the Tigers.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 11-9 at Fenway Park in Boston. Jimmie Foxx went 3-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 8-6 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Bees, 6-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. This was during the experiment of the Boston National League team trying to get away from the name "Braves," but it didn't take.

* And the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates were rained out at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on June 20. The Pirates won the opener, 4-2. The Dodgers won the nightcap, also 4-2.

May 9, 1970: The Death of Walter Reuther

May 9, 1970: Walter Reuther, America's greatest leader of labor unions, is killed in a plane crash. He was 62 years old.

Walter Philip Reuther was born on September 1, 1907 in Wheeling, West Virginia. His father Valentine was a horse-drawn beer wagon driver and a Socialist union organizer who had emigrated from Germany at age 11. Reuther later recalled, "At my father's knee ,we learned the philosophy of trade unionism. We got the struggles, the hopes and the aspirations of working people every day." As a child, he and his brother Victor accompanied their father on a visit to a jail to meet the top American labor leader of the era, Eugene V. Debs, who was being incarcerated for his pacifism during World War I.

One day, the Reuther brothers saw local boys throwing rocks at black people being transported north through their hometown in open railways cars. Their father gave them a stern warning to never treat another human being like that. The Reuther boys never forgot that lesson, spending the rest of their lives fighting for racial and economic equality for all people.

In 1927, at the age of 19, Reuther left Wheeling for Detroit, and argued himself into an expert tool and die maker job at Ford Motor Company, a job that required 25 years experience. The foreman was baffled that at his young age he could read blueprints and dies, becoming one of the highest paid mechanics in the factory. In 1932, he was fired for organizing a rally for Norman Thomas, who was running for President of the United States as the nominee for the Socialist Party of America. His official Ford employment record states that he quit voluntarily, but Reuther himself maintained that he was fired for his increasingly visible socialist activities.

In 1934, he joined the United Auto Workers. By 1937, he had gotten General Motors and Chrysler to recognize the union. Ford, the other member of the "Big Three," refused, so he organized a strike. He and others were beaten by a private army hired by Henry Ford. It became known as the Battle of the Overpass, and led to the American public beginning to side with unions. Ford recognized the UAW in 1940.

That same year, Reuther organized a deal between the UAW, Ford and the federal government to produce 500 planes a day for the Department of War, in preparation for America's inevitable entry into World War II. Reuther was of German descent, but he knew that Nazi Germany was not only bloodthirsty and racist, but anti-union, and he wanted them defeated as much as President Franklin D. Roosevelt did. (Henry Ford did not: He admired Adolf Hitler, who had mentioned him in Mein Kampf as someone he thought held the same ideals. Henry never contradicted that.)

Walter and May Reuther were married on March 13, 1936, after meeting on a streetcar in Detroit only six weeks earlier. She was a teacher, and had organized a teachers' union. They had 2 daughters: Linda, born in 1942; and Elisabeth, in 1947. Reuther led a simple, austere lifestyle. He neither smoked nor drank alcohol, because he felt it sapped a person's vitality. For his daily lunch in his office, he had the same menu: A sandwich and a cup of tea.

In April 1938, 2 masked gunmen attempted to abduct Reuther at a party he was hosting. However, one guest managed to flee and alert the authorities, leading to their arrest. At the trial, the defense argued that the Reuther staged the entire event as a publicity stunt. Links between the gunmen and Harry Bennett, a union-busting enemy of the UAW, were not disclosed to the jury.

Reuther was elected President of the UAW in 1946, and was continually re-elected for the rest of his life. He won praise from liberals for standing up for good jobs at good wages, and for civil rights, demanding equal pay for black workers. He won praise from conservatives for purging Communists from the UAW's ranks.

In 1947, he was among the founders of Americans for Democratic Action, the leading liberal lobbying group of the post-World War II era. He was elected President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1952, and held the post until it was reconsolidated with the American Federal of Labor, as the AFL-CIO, in 1955, negotiating it with AFL leader George Meany.

On April 20, 1948, Reuther barely survived a double-barrel shotgun blast that ripped through his kitchen window as he was preparing a late evening snack. As the gunshot went off at 9:48 PM, he turned toward his wife, and was hit in his right arm instead of the chest and heart. Four slugs shattered his right arm into 150 pieces of bone. Another slug pierced his back, and exited out his stomach. The assailant “fled in a bright red four-door Ford sedan," police said.

Reuther did not lose consciousness, and cursed his attacker as he was initially being treated by his next-door-neighbor, a doctor, as he lay on the kitchen floor. The doctor reported Reuther as saying, "Those dirty sons of bitches! They have to shoot a man in the back. They won't come out in the open and fight."

As doctors fought to save his life, he became infected with malaria and hepatitis from blood transfusions. Through months of therapy, he regained partial use of his right arm, but for the rest of his life had to train himself to write and shake with his left hand.

Attorney General Tom Clark requested J. Edgar Hoover to get the FBI to investigate the shooting. Hoover refused. I won't post what he said. It was that vile. The shooting was never solved.

Following the Bay of Pigs incident in 1961, President John F. Kennedy sent Reuther to Cuba to negotiate a prisoner exchange with Fidel Castro. He was instrumental in spearheading the creation of the Peace Corps. When Lyndon Johnson became President, he met with Reuther regularly, and Reuther got the UAW to support the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, Medicare and Medicaid.

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and some of his supporters were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 -- leading to King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" -- Reuther raised $160,000 for their release. What became known as simply "The March On Washington" was, in full, The March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and Reuther not only helped organize it, but spoke at it, shortly before King's "I Have a Dream" speech. He served on the board of the NAACP, and was responsible for bringing the struggle of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers to the attention of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

The Republicans hated him as much as the Democrats liked him. During the 1960 election, then-Vice President Richard Nixon said about JFK, "I can think of nothing so detrimental to this nation than for any President to owe his election to, and therefore be a captive of, a political boss like Walter Reuther." The next Republican nominee for President, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, said Reuther "was more dangerous to our country than Sputnik or anything Soviet Russia might do."

A lifetime environmentalist, Reuther played a critical role in funding and organizing the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Denis Hayes, the principal national organizer of the first Earth Day, said, "Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!" So Reuther was important in many liberal causes.

But the struggles for women's and gay rights, and reproductive freedom, would not gain momentum in his lifetime. On May 9, 1970, 17 days after that 1st Earth Day, Walter and May Reuther, their bodyguard William Wolfman, architect Oscar Stonorov, pilot George O. Evans and co-pilot Joseph U. Karaffa boarded a chartered Learjet 23 in Detroit. In rain and fog, they were approaching Pellston Regional Airport in Pellston, Michigan, near the UAW's recreational and educational facility at Black Lake, Michigan. The plane crashed at 9:33 PM, and everyone on board was killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board discovered that the plane's altimeter was missing parts, some incorrect parts were installed, and one of its parts had been installed upside down. This has led to speculation of sabotage, that Reuther may have been murdered -- assassinated. Given the previous attempts on his life, it's not far-fetched. But the weather was almost certainly to blame.

The Spring of 1970 was the Winter of Discontent for "Sixties People." The dream seemed to be over: Nixon had been elected President, the Smothers Brothers had been canceled, there had been murder at Altamont, The Beatles had broken up, the Kent State Massacre and the Hard Hat Demonstration had just happened, and now, Walter Reuther had passed into legend along with the Kennedy brothers and Dr. King. And the Vietnam War, which Reuther had also opposed, was still going, with no end in sight.

However, shortly after his death, the State of Michigan named Interstate 696, a 28-mile highway in the northern suburbs of Detroit, the Walter P. Reuther Freeway. In 1999, Time magazine named him the most important labor union leader of the 20th Century.

*

May 9, 1970 was a Saturday. Dennis Coles, the Wu-Tang Clan member known as Ghostface Killah, was born on this day.

Football was out of season. The NBA season ended the night before, when the New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the Finals. The American Basketball Association, however, had far from decided its title. The Los Angeles Stars beat the Denver Rockets, 109-107 at the Denver Auditorium Arena, to win the Western Division Finals, 4 games to 1. Spencer Haywood scored 37 points in defeat for the Rockets, who became the Denver Nuggets in 1974. The Stars would lose the Finals to the Indiana Pacers.

The NHL season would end the next day, when Bobby Orr scored in overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 4-3 win over the St. Louis Blues, and a sweep of the Stanley Cup Finals, ending a 29-year Cup drought for the Bruins.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the California Angels, 11-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Andy Messersmith went the distance for the win, and hit a home run.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 14-5 at Shea Stadium. Jerry Koosman was the winning pitcher. Art Shamsky hit a home run. Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Montreal Expos, 6-0 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Danny Coombs pitched a 2-hit shutout, allowing only singles by Don Hahn and Bob Bailey. This game was between the 2 National League expansion teams of 1969, and it was probably the best-pitched game in Padres history to that point, and possibly for many years to come.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-4 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Phils scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th, including a home run Byron Browne, to send the game to extra innings. But first Dick Selma, and then Joe Hoerner, melted down in the top of the 14th, allowing 5 runs. Manny Mota went 4-for-7 with 2 RBIs.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson hit a home run. Frank Robinson did not play.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron hit his 567th career home run, and Orlando Cepeda hit his 323rd. Lou Brock went 2-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4, and Rod Carew went 0-for-5, but Tony Oliva and Paul Ratliff hit home runs for the Twins.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 7-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4, Willie Horton hit 2 home runs, and Bill Freehan hit 1.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks hit his 499th home run. Three days later, he hit his 500th. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Washington Senators, 3-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Ted Kubiak singled Mike Hegan home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 6-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Roberto Clemente went 4-for-5 with an RBI. Willie Stargell went 2-for-5 with a walk.

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. Carl Yastrzemski hit 2 home runs, and Tony Conigliaro won it with a home run in the 9th inning. Reggie Jackson only appeared as a pinch-runner.

April 17, 1964: Ford Introduces the Mustang

April 17, 1964: The Ford Motor Company introduces the Ford Mustang, which began as a little sports car.

It was designed by John Najjar, who also named it, because he was a fan of a fighter plane from World War II, the P-51 Mustang. The introduction of the car was made by the Ford division's chairman, who would become better known later as the chairman of the Chrysler Corporation: Lee Iacocca. He approved the name, over the objection of Henry Ford II, chairman of the company, and grandson and namesake of the company's founder.

In 1969, Iacocca also introduced the Lincoln Continental Mark III, one of the greatest luxury cars in American history. Unfortunately, in 1971, he also introduced the Ford Pinto, the name chosen as a smaller version of the Mustang. But while the Mustang exploded into American consciousness, the Pinto had a habit of simply exploding.

The Mustang was introduced 16 days after Chrysler introduced the Plymouth Barracuda. But it outsold the 'Cuda, selling 400,000 in a little over 8 months in 1964, and mover 2 million by its 2nd anniversary. Competitors soon abounded. In 1967, General Motors introduced the Chevrolet Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird. In 1968, American Motors introduced the AMC Javelin. In 1969, Chrysler introduced the Dodge Challenger. By 1968, to compete with these, the Mustang was built bigger, as a "muscle car."

The Mustang caught on immediately: In 1964, one appeared in the film The Troops of St. Tropez, and later in the James Bond film Goldfinger, both proving that the car was popular in Europe as well as in America. In 1965, Wilson Pickett had a hit with the R&B song "Mustang Sally." The same year, in the TV series The F.B.I., Efrem Zimbalist Jr. drove a Mustang as Inspector Lewis Erskine. In the 1968 film Bullitt, Steve McQueen drove one on the streets of San Francisco, in one of the great car chases in movie history.

Like the Chevrolet Corvette, its rival for the title of America's greatest sports car, it is still produced today, and is an American automotive legend.

*

April 17, 1964 was a Friday. A full slate of games was played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3. This was the 1st game ever played at Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow, Queens, which would remain the Mets' home through the 2008 season. I have a separate entry for that event.

* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Russ Snyder won the game with a single off Pete Mikkelsen in the bottom of the 11th inning. Mickey Mantle went 3-for-5 with an RBI. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. Tony Conigliaro, just 19 years old and from nearby Lynn, Massachusetts, made his major league debut the day before, and hit a home run in this game. But Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3.

This was the White Sox' 1st away game of the season. It marked the debut of their new road uniforms, the 1st of many bad uniform choices they've made. It was the 1st time a Major League Baseball team wore powder blue uniforms on the road. The addition of uniform numbers on the sleeves, however, were an assist for television viewers.

* The Washington Senators beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969.)

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 for the Tigers.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 10-8 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Rookie Richie Allen (not yet "Dick") went 3-for-5 with a 2-run home run. The Cubs got home runs from Billy Williams (2 of them), Ron Santo, Billy Cowan and Lou Brock (soon to be traded), but it wasn't enough. Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Houston Colt .45s, 5-2 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Braves won despite Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews going a combined 0-for-8. The next season, the Colts would move into the Astrodome, and change their name to the Houston Astros.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with a 3-run home run.

Football was out of season. The NBA Finals would start the next day, and the Boston Celtics would beat the San Francisco Warriors in 5 games. And it was an off-day in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Detroit Red Wings led the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2 games to 1. But the Leafs would win in 7 games, for their 3rd straight Cup.  

March 7, 1932: The River Rouge Massacre

March 7, 1932: On a bitterly cold day, 5,000 unemployed auto workers started a march in Detroit, and headed for the Ford Motor Company's main assembly plant in nearby Dearborn.

They had a list of 14 demands that they wanted to present to Henry Ford himself. Among them were the rehiring of laid-off workers, providing money for health care, ending racial discrimination in hiring and promotions, providing Winter fuel for the unemployed, abolish the use of company spies and private police against workers, and giving workers the right to organize labor unions.

But when they got to the Dearborn City Limits, the Dearborn police firing tear gas into the crowd, and started hitting marchers with billy clubs. One officer fired a gun. The marchers scattered, grabbed whatever objects they could find, and started throwing them. Fire engines sprayed cold water from an overpass. Ford security guards joined the Dearborn police in shooting.

There were 25 people shot, and 4 of them died: Joe York, Coleman Leny, Joe DeBlasio, and 16-year-old Joe Bussell. Three months later, a 5th man, Curtis Williams, died from his injuries. Being black, he couldn't be buried next to the previous 4 victims.

What had been named the Ford Hunger March became known as the Ford Massacre, the River Rouge Massacre, and the Battle of the Overpass. Despite the fact that one more person died, and in a much bigger city, than in the Kent State Massacre of 1970, this killing isn't as well known, because there was no television to report it. Of course, Henry Ford had his thumb on the local media, so those who did report it didn't call it a "massacre": They blamed the marchers, and called it a "riot," as in the Detroit Free Press front page printed above.

It also was forgotten because, 5 years later, there was another clash between Ford workers and police -- official and private. This one would also be called the Battle of the Overpass.

It would take until 1941 before Henry Ford, by then age 78, accepted the United Auto Workers.

*

March 7, 1932 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And there were no NHL games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.

January 5, 1914: Ford Announces the 8-Hour, $5 Workday

A $5 bill was called a "fiver," and the Model T a "flivver."

January 5, 1914: The Ford Motor Company announces that all of its employees will be given an eight-hour workday, and a daily wage of five dollars. That's about $140 in 2022 money.

This followed, about a month earlier, on December 1, 1913, Ford's introduction of the assembly line for his cars. Henry Ford didn't invent the automobile or the assembly line, but putting them together was a stroke of genius.

I could have added a separate entry for that event, but chose not to, especially since that one didn't have any scores, either.

Henry believed that a man should be paid enough to afford to buy the products he built. In 1914, his Model T Runabout cost $440. At $5 day, one of his employees could afford to buy it in 88 days -- provided he spent money on nothing else. But at $5 a day, $25 a week, $1,300 a year, a Ford employee could afford to buy a new car every year.

Did it work? Absolutely: In just 2 years, Ford's profits doubled, from $30 million to $60 million. By the end of the 1910s, pretty much anybody who wanted to buy a car could afford to do so. In 1927, just as Ford was phasing the Model T out in favor of the Model A, the company sold the one millionth Model T.

Other companies began to see that, if Ford could limit its employees to 8 hours, and pay good wages, and see their productivity and profits increase, maybe they could, too.

Back to 1914: When that $5 a day was announced, it was announced for all employees, regardless of race. As black people were already escaping the poor, segregated South to look for industrial jobs in the North, Ford was paying his black employees the same rate as his white employees. This was huge.

As would later be found out, Ford wasn't so liberal when it came to religion. Or to labor unions.

*

January 5, 1914 was a Monday. George Reeves, star of the 1952-58 TV series The Adventures of Superman, was born on this day.

Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. The National Hockey Association was in business, but it had no games scheduled. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.