December 27, 1949: Indonesia Is Recognized as Independent

December 27, 1949: The Kingdom of the Netherlands recognizes the independence of its colony, formerly the Dutch East Indies. For over 4 years, it had been operating as the independent Republic of Indonesia.

On August 17, 1945, in the wake of the Japanese surrender in World War II, the Dutch East Indies, devastated by the War, declared their independence as the Republic of Indonesia, under nationalist leader Sukarno (his entire name was just the one word) as President. It would take another 4 years of armed struggle before the Netherlands gives up and accepts their independence.

Today, the island nation is a democracy with, after the 1998 fall of dictator Suharto, who had overthrown Sukarno in 1970, an elected President. It is home to 255 million people, more than any except China, India and America. Most of them are ethnic Asians and Muslims, and it is the most populous majority-Muslim nation. Its flag, red on top and white on bottom, is identical to that of Monaco, and the reverse of that of Poland.

Since 1950, the nation's capital has been Jakarta, home to 10.7 million people, and a metropolitan area of over 35 million, on Java, the most populous island in the world, with 157 million, or about 61 percent of Indonesia's population.

But in 2019, President Joko Widodo officially announced that, due to climate change resulting in the slow sinking of the part of Java on which Jakarta stands, the national capital would be moved to East Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. Most of that island belongs to Indonesia, but portions of it belong to Malaysia, and the Sultanate of Brunei is also on the island.

UPDATE: Due to construction delays, including due to COVID, the new capital city, named Nusantara, about 800 miles to the northeast, and already being promoted as "A global city for all," is set to open on August 17, 2028.

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December 27, 1949 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football season was over, except for a few bowl games. No games were scheduled for the NHL. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics, 97-78 at the Boston Arena (now the Matthews Arena).

* The Rochester Royals beat the Washington Capitols, 96-72 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York.

* And the Indianapolis Olympians beat their fellow Indianans, the Anderson Packers, 89-82 at the Butler Fieldhouse (now the Hinkle Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

December 26, 2004: The Boxing Day Earthquake and Tsunami

December 26, 2004: An earthquake, measured at 9.2 on the Richter scale, occurs under the Indian Ocean, near the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

The result is one of the largest tsunamis ever observed, which flowed east to west, with waves up to 30 feet high crashing into the coastal regions of the surrounding nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

It remains the deadliest natural disaster of the 21st Century, and the worst on Earth since the 1976 Tangsun Earthquake in China. Its death toll is estimated at 227,898. More than half, 167,540, occurred in Indonesia. There were 35,000 deaths in Sri Lanka, 1,000 of them in a single train wreck caused by the tsunami. It is believed that 1.75 million people, roughly the population of Philadelphia, were left  homeless.

Among the notable people killed in the disaster were Jane Attenborough, British arts activist and a member of the show-business Attenborough family; Troy Broadbridge, an Australian Rules Football star who was on his honeymoon, though his wife survived; Poom Jensen, a grandson of the then-reigning King of Thailand; and Sujeewa Kamalasuriya, a Sri Lankan cricket star. 

The earthquake became known as the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake. Another name, given that some of these nations were once part of the British Empire, and still retain some British traditions, including celebrating the day after Christmas as "Boxing Day," is the Boxing Day Tsunami.

Aid came in from all over the world: $820 million from nearby Australia, $660 million from Germany, $500 million from Japan, $350 million from the United States, $343 million from Canada, $250 million from the World Bank, $183 million each from Norway and the Netherlands, and $113 million from Italy.

*

December 26, 2004 was a Sunday. Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Reggie White and longtime New York Yankees organist Eddie Layton died that day.

Baseball was out of season. And the NHL team owners had locked the players out. These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-22 at Paul Brown Stadium (now Paycor Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The New York Jets lost to their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, 23-7 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The Houston Texans beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 21-0 at Alltel Stadium (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonville. The Texans and the Jags are in the same Division, the AFC South, as the Tennessee Titans. The irony of this is that the Titans used to be the previous Houston team, the Houston Oilers; and, before moving to Nashville, threatened to move to Jacksonville if they didn't get the lease concessions they wanted in Houston. They got them, but later decided it wasn't enough, and moved, anyway.

* The Carolina Panthers bear the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 37-20 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Cleveland Browns, 10-7 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The New Orleans Saints beat their arch-rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, 26-13 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat their arch-rivals, the Washington Redskins, 13-10 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens, 20-7 at Heinz Field (now Acrisure Stadium) in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, 19-13 at Ford Field in Detroit.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the San Diego Chargers, 34-31 at the RCA Dome (formerly the Hoosier Dome) in Indianapolis.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the San Francisco 49ers, 41-7 at Candlestick  Park (then named Monster Park) in San Francisco.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Arizona Cardinals, 24-21 at Qwest Field (now Lumen Field) in Seattle.

* The day before, Saturday, Christmas Day, The Kansas City Chiefs beat their arch-rivals, the Oakland Raiders, 31-30 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* Also on Christmas Day, the Denver Broncos beat the Tennessee Titans, 37-16 at The Coliseum (later renamed Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.

* The day before that, Friday, Christmas Eve, the Green Bay Packers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 34-31 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* And the night after, on ABC Monday Night Football, the St. Louis Rams beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 20-7 at the Edward Jones Dome (now The Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis.

There were no college football bowl games. There were no games in the NHL: The team owners locked the players out for the entire season. There were 9 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the expansion Charlotte Bobcats (later to reclaim the Hornets name), 91-82 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 96-79 at the Toyota Center in Houston.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New Orleans Hornets (later to be renamed the Pelicans), 100-91 at the Gund Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls, 99-92 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Michael Redd scored 39 points.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Washington Wizards, 109-74 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Denver Nuggets, 102-88 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Dirk Nowitzki scored 36 points.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Boston Celtics, 107-90 at the SBC Center (now the Frost Bank Arena) in San Antonio.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Toronto Raptors, 106-94 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings, 98-94 at the ARCO Arena in Sacrmamento.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal beat West London team Fulham, 2-0 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury.

November 19, 1961: The Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller

November 19, 1961: Michael Rockefeller, a member of one of the nation's leading families in business, banking and politics, disappears in Dutch New Guinea.

Michael Rockefeller was born on May 18, 1938, the 5th and last child of Nelson Rockefeller and his 1st wife, the former Mary Todhunter. He had a twin sister, Mary. He went to the Buckley School in Manhattan, and Philips Exeter Academy of New Hampshire. He graduated from Harvard University, and served in the U.S. Army.

Following his military service, Rockefeller went on an expedition for Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to study the Dani tribe of western Dutch New Guinea. The expedition filmed Dead Birds, an ethnographic documentary film for which Rockefeller was the sound recordist.

His great-grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, had built America's 1st billion-dollar fortune, through oil. His grandfather, John D. Rockefeller Jr., had expanded the family fortune into banking, and had become America's leading philanthropist. His sons, including Michael's father Nelson, had further expanded the businesses and philanthropic efforts, and had begun to run for public office. So Michael's generation could afford to stick to philanthropic and other humanitarian efforts. As he put it, "It's the desire to do something adventurous, at a time when frontiers, in the real sense of the word, are disappearing."

On November 17, 1961, he and Dutch anthropologist René Wassing were overturned in their double pontoon boat. Their two local guides swam for help, but it was slow in coming. After drifting for some time, early on November 19, Rockefeller said to Wassing: "I think I can make it." According to Wassing, Rockefeller created a float for himself out of a jerry can and the boat's gas tank, took a compass and knife, and set off for the shore between 7 and 8 AM on the 19th. Wassing's last sight of him was about 30 minutes later: "I saw him in a straight line going towards shore until I just saw three dots: The two cans and his head."

Wassing was rescued the next day, but Rockefeller was never seen again, despite an intensive and lengthy search effort. According to Rockefeller's surviving twin Mary Morgan, who accompanied her father to South Papua to participate in the search for her brother, "The Dutch and Australian naval and air units had been sending out helicopters and boats to participate in the search, along with the local Dutch control officers. And many of the Asmat villagers were valiantly combing the small rivers in their canoes for some evidence of Michael."

But he was never found, either dead or alive, and was declared legally dead in 1964. Theories included drowning, murder by villagers, or him surviving and adopting a "white modern god ruling over primitive people" role, similar to that of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.

He never married, and left no known children. Some of the artifacts he gathered were taken to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and placed in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, named in his memory, and home to native art from the Pacific, Africa and Latin America.

In 1963, the Kingdom of the Netherlands transferred Dutch New Guinea to the Republic of Indonesia.

*

November 19, 1961 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 42-21 at Yankee Stadium.

* The Baltimore Colts beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 16-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 45-24 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 35-17 at the new Green Bay City Stadium, later renamed Lambeau Field.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings, 37-10 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys played to a tie, 28-28 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* And the San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 41-31 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

There were 3 games in the AFL:

* The New York Titans, forerunners of the Jets, lost to the Houston Oilers, 49-13 at Jeppesen Stadium (later Robertson Stadium) in Houston.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Denver Broncos, 23-10 at Bears Stadium (later Mile High Stadium) in Denver.

* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Dallas Texans, forerunners of the Kansas City Chiefs, 24-14 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.

There were 2 games in the NBA. The Cincinnati Royals beat the Detroit Pistons, 128-112 at the Cincinnati Gardens. And the Philadelphia Warriors beat the Chicago Packers, 122-114. Just another day at the office for Wilt Chamberlain: 51 points.

Yes, football fans: "Chicago Packers." Fans didn't like that combination of names, and the team was a lousy expansion team besides, and they didn't show up to support them. The next season, the name was changed to the Chicago Zephyrs, and fans still didn't show up. The next season, they moved, becoming the Baltimore Bullets. They are now known as the Washington Wizards.

And the NHL's entire "Original Six" was in action:

* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Boston Bruins, 6-2 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, played to a tie, 3-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

October 1, 2022: The Kanjuruhan Stadium Disaster

October 1, 2022: A crush of fans kills 131 people after a soccer game at the Kanjuruan Stadium in Malang Regency, on the island of Java, in Indonesia.

Stadion Kanjuruhan opened in 2004. It seats 42,449 fans, and is 545 miles east of the national capital of Jakarta. It is the home field of Arema, a team in Indonesia's Liga 1, named for a legendary knight in the kingdom that ruled present-day Indonesia in the Middle Ages. Founded in 1987, and nicknamed "the Mad Lions," they have won the top league if Indonesian soccer in 1993 and 2010, and the Piala Indonesia (that country's version of the FA Cup) in 2005 and 2006.

On October 1, 2022, Arema were scheduled to play a Liga 1 match against Persebaya Surabaya. A much older team, founded in 1927, it is based in Surabaya, 482 miles east of Jakarta. Nicknamed "the Green Crocodiles," Persebaya have won top-league titles in 1951, 1952, 1978, 1988, 1997 and 2004; and the Cup in 1990. When they play Arema, 85 miles to the south, it is a rivalry known as the Super East Java Derby.

Unfortunately, as with most countries where soccer is the top sport, Indonesia has a history of hooliganism. Riot police have to be deployed at some matches. In 2018, a game at Kanjuruhan between Arema and Persib Bandung resulted in a fan's death after the police dispersed the crowd with tear gas. A riot squad was prepared for action on the day of the October 1, 2022 match -- or so they thought.

The game itself, and the leadup to it, had no reports of violent conduct. And the game itself was unremarkable, aside from the fact that Arema had lost at home to Persebaya for the 1st time, 3-2. But after the game, 4 fans got onto the field, hoping to take pictures with some Arema players.

Had the police simply allowed this peaceful action to happen, there would have been nothing for anyone outside Indonesia to care about. Unfortunately, as police sometimes do, they overreacted, chasing the fans, pulling their shirts off, and beating them.

This caused about 3,000 fans to come to their aid, and fight the police. This caused the police to unleash the tear gas, and fans all ran to Gates 12, 13 and 14. This led to a crowd crush, asphyxiating fans. The injury toll has been reported as 547, with 131 deaths.

This makes it either the 2nd-worst, or 3rd-worst, sports-related disaster in human history, depending on whose version of the 1982 Luzhniki Stadium Disaster you believe: If it's the 66 that the Russian government has since said it was, then the Kanjuruhan Stadium Disaster is the 2nd-worst, trailing only the 1964 Estadio Nacional Disaster in Peru, with 328, and easily surpassing the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium Disaster at 97; if it's the 340 that some speculated at the time, then it's Luzhniki 1st, Estadio Nacional 2nd, Kanjuruhan 3rd.

President Joko Widodo of Indonesia told the Football Association of Indonesia (in their language, Persatuan Sepakbola Seluruh Indonesia or PSSI) to suspend all Liga 1 matches until an "evaluation of improvement of security procedures" was completed. The PSSI did so, and also banned Arema from hosting matches for the rest of the season: All home matches to follow would be rescheduled for neutral sites. Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa of East Java announced that his government would financially compensate the victims' relatives.

Listyo Sigit Prabowo, the head of the national police, removed Ferli Hidayat, the Head of Police of Malang, from his post. The policemen shown assaulting fans were also criminally charged.

*

October 1, 2022 was a Saturday. In England, a North London Derby was played at the Emirates Stadium. Hosts Arsenal beat arch-rival Tottenham Hotspur, 3-1.

In America, the NBA and the NHL were in the preseason. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 8-0 at Yankee Stadium. Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka hit home runs, in support of Nestor Cortés. Aaron Judge, with 61 home runs on the season, went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves, 4-2 at Truist Park in the Atlanta suburb of Cumberland, Georgia.

* A doubleheader was split at Nationals Park in Washington. The Washington Nationals won the opener, 13-4. The Philadelphia Phillies won the nightcap, 8-2.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox, 10-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. It took 5 Toronto pitchers to pitch a 5-hit shutout.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Guardians, 7-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Miami Marlins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-3 at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 13-3 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Houston Astros beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 6-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-4 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-1 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

And there were college football games, including the following:

* Number 1 Georgia beat Missouri, 26-22 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

* Number 2 Alabama beat Number 20 Arkansas, 49-26 at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

* Number 3 Ohio State beat Rutgers, 49-10 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 4 Michigan beat Iowa, 27-14 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. 

* Number 5 Clemson beat Number 10 North Carolina State, 30-20 at Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

* Number 6 Southern California (USC) beat Arizona State, 42-25 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 7 Kentucky were upset by Number 14 Mississippi, 22-19 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi.

* Number 9 Oklahoma State beat Number 16 Baylor, 36-25 at McLane Stadium in Waco, Texas.

* Number 11 Penn State beat Northwestern, 17-7 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Number 17 Texas A&M were upset by Mississippi State, 42-24 at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi.

* Number 18 Oklahoma were not only upset, but annihilated, by Texas Christian (TCU), 55-24 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Number 21 Minnesota lost to Purdue, 20-10 at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

* Number 22 Wake Forest beat Number 23 Florida State, 31-21 at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.

* Number 24 Pittsburgh lost to Georgia Tech, 26-21 at Acrisure Stadium (formerly Heinz Field) in Pittsburgh.

* In a battle of service academies, Air Force beat Navy, 13-10 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

* Army lost to Georgia State, 31-14 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* And Notre Dame had a bye week.

October 1, 1965: The Indonesia Coup Attempt

October 1, 1965: Members of the 30 September Movement assassinate 6 Indonesian Army Generals in an abortive coup d'état in the national capital of Jakarta.

At 7:00 AM, Radio Republik Indonesia broadcast a message from Lieutenant-Colonel Untung Syamsuri, the commander of the Presidential guard, stating that the 30 September Movement, an internal army organization, had taken control of strategic locations in Jakarta, with the help of other military units, in order to forestall a coup attempt by a "General's Council" aided by America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intent on removing President Sukarno on 5 October, which Indonesia celebrates as "Army Day."

Sukarno took up residence in the Bogor Palace, a presidential palace in Bogor, East Java, while Omar Dhani and D.N. Aidit, implicated in the coup, fled the country. Led by Suharto, commander of the Army's Strategic Reserve, the army regained control of all the installations previously held by forces of the 30 September Movement.

In the days and weeks that followed, the army, socio-political, and religious groups blamed the coup attempt on the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). Soon, a mass purge was underway, which resulted in the imprisonment and deaths of actual or suspected Communist Party members and sympathizers. It is believed that at least 500,000 people were killed as a result of these reprisals. (The country's population was about 100 million at the time; in 2022, it's about 275 million.)

The United States and other Western states have steadfastly denied any responsibility for the terrible violence that followed the attempted coup of October 1, 1965. That violence, they have maintained, was the product of domestic political forces over which outside powers had little, if any, influence. Later evidence proved this to be a lie.

In 1978, Australian novelist Christopher Koch published The Year of Living Dangerously, about the experiences of his brother, journalist Philip Koch, during those events. In 1982, another Australian, director Peter Weir, filmed a movie version.

The legacy of Kusno Sosrodihardjo, a.k.a. Sukarno, the 1st President of Indonesia, is, to say the least, complicated. He sided with Japan in World War II, because they were fighting the natives' Dutch colonial overlords. Once The War ended, he declared independence, with himself as President, but it took 4 years for the Netherlands to agree to let what they called "the Dutch East Indies" go.

But it was hard to keep such a large, diverse, spread-out island nation together. In 1959, Sukarno introduced what he called "Guided Democracy," which was a lot more guided than democratic. The 1965 coup sent the nation into chaos. Finally, in 1967, General Suharto removed Sukarno from power, and he was still under house arrest when he was hospitalized prior to his death in 1970. Suharto was even worse, and had to resign under pressure in 1998, living until 2008.

*

October 1, 1965 was a Friday. Basketball and hockey seasons were a few days away. No games were played in the NFL or the AFL. There was 1 notable college football game played: The University of Southern California (USC) beat Oregon State, 26-12 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

And these baseball games were played:

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4.

* A doubleheader was split at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Baltimore Orioles won the opener, 2-0. Dave McNally pitched a 2-hit shutout. The Cleveland Indians won the nightcap, 3-2. Between the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 2-for-7 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 6-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Lou Brock went 0-for-4. Steve Carlton pitched a scoreless 8th inning.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Denny Lemaster pitched a 5-hit shutout. Hank Aaron went 0-for-1 with 2 walks. The next day, though, the Dodgers beat the Braves, and clinched the National League Pennant.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 17-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. A bad loss for the Giants, worse in terms of the Pennant chase than it was in terms of the final score. The Reds got home runs from Frank Robinson, Gordy Coleman, Deron Johnson and Pete Rose. 

For the Giants, Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with a walk. Warren Spahn pitched to 3 batters in the top of the 17th inning. He walked Johnny Edwards, Leo Cardenas reached on an error, and Sammy Ellis singled. Those would be the last batters Spahn ever faced.

* The New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies were rained out at Shea Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Phillies won the 1st game, 6-0. Jim Bunning pitched a 2-hit shutout. The 2nd game went 18 innings, before the rain came back and the umpires called it. In other words, in 1 day, the Mets played 27 innings, and didn't score 1 single solitary run.

* The Detroit Tigers and the Washington Senators were rained out at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.) The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Tigers swept, 9-1 and 6-2. Al Kaline was injured, and did not play in either game.

* And the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Los Angeles Angels and the Minnesota Twins were not scheduled.

August 27, 1883: The Eruption of Krakatoa

A more recent eruption of Krakatoa.

August 27, 1883: Krakatoa, a volcano on an island between the larger islands of Sumatra and Java, erupts. It is one of the biggest volcanic eruptions ever, equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT. In comparison, it was 13,000 times the yield of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945; and 4 times that of the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated, the 1961 Soviet test of "Tsar Bomba."

The explosion was heard in Alice Springs, Australia, 2,200 miles to the southeast; and on the island of Rodrigues off the coast of Madagascar, nearly 3,000 miles to the west.

Today, Krakatoa, along with Sumatra and Java, is part of the island nation of Indonesia. At the time, it was part of the Dutch East Indies, a colony of the Netherlands. Dutch authorities estimated that over 36,000 people died in the resulting lava flows, earthquake and tsunamis.

Enough ash was thrown into the air to create a "volcanic winter." Temperatures all over the world dropped in 1883 and 1884. It also created more rainfall than the world was used to: The California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego received the most rain in their respective histories.

It also led to the world's skies being darker for a few years. People in several American cities saw orange skies, presumed there were fires, and called fire departments, who found no fires. It's been suggested that Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream reflected the orange sky over his hometown of Oslo, Norway. This was 10 years after the eruption, although he wrote that the inspiration was closer in time to the eruption.

It has been postulated that a previous eruption of Krakatoa, in AD 535, was responsible for a global climate change that led to the period known as the Dark Ages. Ilopango, a volcano in El Salvador, has also been investigated as being the volcano responsible for that.

*

August 27, 1883 was a Monday. Baseball was the only real professional sport at this time, and 3 games were played:

* In the National League, the Cleveland Blues beat the Detroit Wolverines, 7-4 at Recreation Park in Detroit. The Blues only lasted one more season. The Wolverines won the Pennant in 1887, but found their title-winning players' salary demands too much, and folded after just 1 more season.

* In the American Association, the St. Louis Browns beat the New York Metropolitans, 8-3 at the original Polo Grounds. These "original Mets" won the AA Pennant in 1884, and lost a postseason series to the Providence Grays. But they went out of business after the 1887 season.

The Browns won the AA Pennant in 1885, 1886, 1887 and 1888. In 1892, they joined the NL. In 1900, they became the Cardinals, and an AL team would be named the St. Louis Browns. That team became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954.

* Also in the AA, the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Columbus Buckeyes, 13-8 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. These Athletics would win the AA Pennant in 1883, but went out of business in 1890, and bear no relationship to the AL team of the same name, now in Oakland. The Buckeyes went out of business after the 1884 season.