November 15, 1959: The "In Cold Blood" Murders

November 15, 1959: Four members of the Clutter family are murdered in their farmhouse, just outside the town of Holcomb, Kansas. The case was detailed by novelist Truman Capote in what he called a "non-fiction novel," In Cold Blood, published in 1966.

Perry Smith and Richard Hickock were recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary. Floyd Wells, a former cellmate of Hickock's had been a farmhand for Herb Clutter, and told him that Clutter kept large amounts of cash in a safe. So Hickock and Smith decided to steal the safe, and use the contents to start a new life in Mexico. Hickock told Smith it was "a perfect score."

After driving all night on November 14 and 15, they drove 400 miles across Kansas, got to Holcomb early in the morning, and entered the Clutter house through an unlocked door. They woke the family up, and pushed Herb's wife Bonnie, their daughter Nancy, and their son Kenyon into a 2nd-floor bathroom. At gunpoint, they took Herb downstairs to his office.

But when they got there, they discovered there was no safe. Herb told them the conducted all of his business by personal check. Their heist having gone wrong, Smith took a knife, and slit Herb's throat, then took his shotgun, and shot him in the head. Smith then shot Kenyon, then Nancy, and finally Bonnie. He later told the police that he talked Hickock out of raping Nancy. Herb was 48 years old, Bonnie 45, Nancy 16 and Kenyon 15.

Hickock and Smith took the only things they could find that they considered to be of any value: Herb's binoculars, Kenyon's portable radio, and $50 in cash. They were arrested in Las Vegas on December 30, and were extradited back to Kansas. They were found guilty of 4 counts of 1st degree murder and sentenced to death. Smith first claimed that Hickock had committed 2 of the murders, then changed his story, saying that he had done all 4, because Hickock's mother was still alive, and he didn't want her to think of her son as a murderer.

Capote, at this point best known for writing Breakfast at Tiffany's (which had not yet been made into a film), learned of the murders, and traveled to Kansas with childhood friend Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Capote interviewed everybody he could, including the defendants, making a nuisance of himself, which was, far above writing, his greatest talent.

Smith and Hickock were executed by the State of Kansas on the same day, April 14, 1965. Smith was 36, Hickock 33. The next year, Capote published his account, In Cold Blood. It became the biggest-selling true crime book ever, and has been surpassed only by Helter Skelter, Vincent Bugliosi's book about the Charles Manson murders.

In Cold Blood was filmed in 1967, with Robert Blake as Smith, Scott Wilson as Hickock, and John McLiam as Herbert Clutter. CBS made a miniseries out of it in 1996, with the roles played by Eric Roberts, Anthony Edwards and Kevin Tighe.

In 2005, the film Capote premiered, with Clifton Collins Jr. as Smith, Mark Pellegrino as Hickock, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote, and Catherine Keener as Harper Lee. A competing film, Infamous, was released in 2006, with those roles being played by Daniel Craig, Lee Pace, Toby Jones and Sandra Bullock.

*

November 15, 1959 was a Sunday. Baseball season was over. These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 14-9 at Yankee Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chicago Cardinals, 27-17 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Washington Redskins, 31-17 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Los Angeles Rams, 23-17 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* The Chicago Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers, 14-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* And the Baltimore Colts beat the Green Bay Packers, 28-24 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

Two games were played in the NBA. The Boston Celtics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 134-128 at the Cincinnati Gardens. And the Minneapolis Lakers beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 106-100 at the St. Paul Auditorium (now the Roy Wilkins Auditorium).

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

* The New York Rangers played the Toronto Maple Leafs to a tie, 2-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 4-1 at the Boston Garden. 

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

October 21, 1918: Harry Chapman Dies In Service

Harry Chapman

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

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

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

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

Buck Mayer

*

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

September 17, 2020: The Eisenhower Memorial Is Dedicated

September 17, 2020: The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. It is located on Independence Avenue, between 4th and 6th Streets Southwest, between the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education.

"Ike" became only the 5th President to receive a memorial in the District of Columbia, following George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Other Presidents have statues, Theodore Roosevelt has an island in the middle of the Potomac River, John F. Kennedy has the Center for the Performing Arts on the Washington bank of the Potomac, Lyndon Johnson has a Memorial Grove on the Virginia bank, and other Presidents have had buildings in D.C. named for them.

But the Memorial is less a tribute to Eisenhower's Presidency (1953-1961) than it is to his role as the commanding General of World War II, including his command of the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944. It shows Ike in uniform, talking to 6 soldiers -- a re-creation of this famous photograph -- and includes this quote of his, inscribed in the marble above: "The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!"

He had 4 stars at the time. He would later receive a 5th star.

 

Congress created a commission to design and build a memorial to him in 1999, but it took years to decide on a design. Ike himself once suggested that he didn't need a memorial; and that, if they insisted, it be no bigger than his desk. He was posthumously overruled.

The dedication ceremony was originally set for May 8, 2020, the 75th Anniversary of V-E Day. The COVID pandemic pushed it back to September 17, 2020.

Eisenhower's Presidential Library is in his hometown of Abilene, Kansas, about 150 miles west of Kansas City, and 90 miles north of Wichita. His left profile appeared on the $1.00 coin from 1971 to 1978. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, CVN-69, nicknamed the Ike, has been in service since 1975. There are high schools named after him in the States of California, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Interstate 290 in Chicago and its suburbs is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway, or "The Ike." (The Cook County section of Interstate 55 is named the Adlai E. Stevenson Expressway, for Ike's 1952 and 1956 opponent.) Essex County Route 509 in northern New Jersey is the Eisenhower Parkway.

Eisenhower was the 1st President born in Texas, and remains the only one to represent Kansas in politics.

Harry Carey Jr. played Ike in The Long Gray Line in 1955, Henry Grace in The Longest Day in 1962, James Flavin played Ike in Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident. All in 1979, Robert Duvall starred in Ike, Andrew Duggan in Backstairs at the White House, and Richard Dysart in Churchill and the Generals.

Robert Beer played him twice, in The Right Stuff in 1983 and My Science Project in 1985. Keene Curtis played him in IQ, a film about Albert Einstein, in 1994. Tom Selleck, almost unrecognizable with his head and mustache shaved, starred in Ike: Countdown to D-Day in 2004. Even more improbably, Robin Williams played him in The Butler in 2013.

William P. Rogers was the last surviving member of Eisenhower's Cabinet, serving as Attorney General for Ike's 2nd term. He was also Secretary of State for President Richard Nixon's 1st term. He lived until 2001.

*

September 17, 2020 was a Thursday. There was 1 NFL game played that day, a Battle of Ohio: The Cleveland Browns beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 35-30 at Cleveland Browns Stadium (then named FirstEnergy Stadium).

Basketball and hockey were out of season. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 10-7 at Yankee Stadium. Masahiro Tanaka was supported by home runs from Brett Gardner, DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres and Gary Sánchez -- pretty much everybody but Aaron Judge, who was injured and unable to play.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-6 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Tampa Bay Rays swept the Baltimore Orioles in one of those COVID-aided 7-innings-per-game doubleheaders at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, 10-6 and 3-1.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Miami Marlins, 5-3 at LoanDepot Park in Miami.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Houston Astros beat their arch-rivals, the Texas Rangers, 2-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-3 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 7-3 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Seattle Mariners, 6-4 at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

* And the Atlanta Braves, the Chicago Cubs, the Cincinnati Reds, the Kansas City Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Oakland Athletics, the San Diego Padres and the Washington Nationals were not scheduled.

September 8, 1963: The Birth of the Chiefs and the Death of Stone Johnson

September 8, 1963: Stone Johnson -- his real name -- dies as a result of an injury sustained in an exhibition game for the Kansas City Chiefs. He was only 23 years old.

Stone Edward Johnson was born on April 26, 1940 in Dallas. He suffered a back injury as a high school freshman football player that nearly left him unable to walk. "The doctor who operated on my back told me I might not walk again," Johnson told The Dallas Morning News in an interview before the 1960 Olympics in Rome. "One day, I decided I was going to get up and take a step. I did. After a while, I was walking again and then running. And a funny thing about my running: I was a lot faster. Before I was crippled, I couldn't even make the sprint relay team." In the Olympics, he finished 5th in the 200 meters.

He played football and ran track at Grambling State University in Louisiana, and was an all-Southwestern Athletic Conference football player as a junior in 1961. He son left Grambling before playing his senior season in 1962. He returned to Dallas, and regularly spent time that fall with the AFL Texans, who won the league championship that season.

The Texans drafted him in the 14th of 25 rounds, only weeks before team owner Lamar Hunt moved the franchise to Kansas City, because of poor attendance in competition with the NFL's Cowboys. Used as a receiver and returner, Johnson caught his first preseason touchdown pass a week before a game against the Houston Oilers, at Cessna Stadium in Wichita, home of Wichita State University.

On August 30, 1963, Johnson, 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, was blocking on a kickoff return midway through the 1st quarter. He dove into an opposing Houston Oilers lineman and lay motionless on the field. Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson recalled no ambulance being present: "It must have taken 25, 30 minutes to get one there."

It was determined Johnson had fractured his fifth cervical vertebrae, and he underwent surgery. Hunt hired a plane to bring Johnson's parents from Dallas to Wichita. But his condition did not improve. On September 8, the day the Chiefs opened the season, he died. The game was played anyway, and the Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos, 59-7 at Bears Stadium in Denver. (It was renamed Mile High Stadium in 1968.)

The Johnsons took him home by train. Amid racially segregated Dallas, the six pallbearers for his funeral at the Munger Avenue Baptist Church were all members of the Chiefs organization, and included four white men: Head coach Hank Stram, Dawson, receiver Chris Burford and defensive tackle Jerry Mays, along with running back Curtis McClinton, and another product of Dallas' black high schools, running back Abner Haynes.

"What happened to Stone was tremendously tragic," said the Chiefs' quarterback then, Len Dawson, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "He was just getting started." Although he was only on the team's active roster during preseason, his Number 33 was retired.

The Chiefs have had a sad history. In 1965, Mack Lee Hill, essentially drafted to fill the hole left by Johnson's death, died on the operating table during what should have been routine knee surgery. He was only 25.

In 1980, former All-Pro offensive tackle Jim Tyrer, going through business failures, shot and killed his wife, and then killed himself. He was 41. In 1983, running back Joe Delaney, having played 2 All-Pro seasons, drowned in a failed attempt to save 2 drowning boys. He was 24. In 2000, Derrick Thomas, then one of the best linebackers in the game, crashed his car, was paralyzed, and died a few days later of a blood clot, at 33. In 2012, linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend and killed himself. He was later found to be suffering from football-related head trauma.

Stone Johnson remains 1 of 4 NFL players (including AFL players) to have died as a result of an in-game condition, along with Stan Mauldin of the 1948 Chicago Cardinals, Aaron Glenn of the 1960 New York Titans (Jets), and Chuck Hughes of the 1971 Detroit Lions.

*

September 8, 1963 was a Sunday. These other AFL games were played:

* The New York Jets lost to the Boston Patriots, 38-14 at Alumni Stadium, on the campus of Boston College, just outside Boston in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Houston Oilers, 24-13 at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston.

* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Buffalo Bills, 14-10 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.

The NFL opened its schedule the next weekend. The NBA and the NHL were out of season. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Yankee Stadium. Al Downing went the distance for the win. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Roger Maris and Joe Pepitone hit home runs. For the Tigers, Al Kaline went 1-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Frank Robinson did not play. Pete Rose, about to be named National League Rookie of the Year, went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Hank Aaron went 0-for-5, but drove in a run with a groundout.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 6-2 at District of Columbia Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium) in Washington.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Stan Musial, in his last month as an active player, went 0-for-3. Roberto Clement went 2-for-4.

* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Minnesota Twins, 5-2 and 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew went 3-for-8 with an RBI over the 2 games.

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Ernie Banks did not play. The Colt .45s became the Houston Astros in 1965.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. (The Angels groundshared with the Dodgers until their stadium in Anaheim opened in 1966.)

* And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Orlando Cepeda hit a home run, and Willie Mays went 2-for-4 with a walk.

August 25, 1939: "The Wizard of Oz" Premieres

Left to right: Jack Haley, Judy Garland, Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr

August 25, 1939: The Wizard of Oz premieres, a film musical based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Victor Fleming directed it.

Judy Garland -- at 16 years old when the movie was filmed, too old for the part -- plays Dorothy Gale, living in rural Kansas during the Great Depression. (This does reflect the novel, for which the depression of 1893-98 was recent). A tornado takes her out of that milieu, and deposits her in Oz, with the film going from black and white to color.

One thing leads to another, and she goes on an adventure with a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), a Tin Man (Jack Haley) and a Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), in search of the titular Wizard (Frank Morgan). But in their way is the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton).

The film was a critical success, nominated for 6 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It won Best Original Score and Best Original Song, for "Over the Rainbow," written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer boss Louis B. Mayer wanted the song dropped, because it slowed the film down. The producers threatened to quit, and Mayer backed down.

Over the 30 years remaining to Garland's life and career, it became her signature song. In 1999, a poll named it the Number 1 Song of the Century.

But the film didn't make a profit at first. It was re-released in 1949, and that's when it finally got into the black. In 1956, CBS broadcast it for the 1st time, and broadcast it once a year until the 1990s, by which point pretty much anybody who wanted to could buy it on video. It is the most-viewed movie in history.

*

August 25, 1939 was a Friday. The NFL and the NHL were in the off-season, and the NBA hadn't been founded yet. And only 5 Major League Baseball games were played that day, 2 of them as a doubleheader:

* The New York Yankees swept the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. They won the opener 11-0, as Steve Sundra pitched a 4-hit shutout, Joe Gordon hit 2 home runs and had 5 RBIs. Gordon, Frank Crosetti and Red Rolfe each had 3 hits. They won the nightcap 8-2, supporting Left Gomez with 2 hits each by Crosetti, Joe DiMaggio, Bill Dickey and Charlie Keller.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-0 at League Park in Cleveland. Harry Eisenstat pitched a 6-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 5-2 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. It would be renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

So the entire American League played that day, but the entire National League didn't.

May 17, 1954: Brown v. Board of Education

Thurgood Marshall in front of the Supreme Court Building, 1954

May 17, 1954: In a unanimous 9-0 vote, the Supreme Court of the United States decides, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation in public schools -- from kindergarten all the way up to State universities -- is unconstitutional.

Hail the wise men:

* Earl Warren, 63, from Oakland, California, the Chief Justice, formerly his State's Governor and Attorney General, and the Republican Party's nominee for Vice President in 1948. Appointed by the current President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican.

* Hugo Black, 68, from from Ashland, Alabama, formerly a Democratic U.S. Senator from his State. His was the most surprising vote of all: He was not only a Southerner, but a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Serving on the Court from 1937 until his death in 1971, his decisions seemed to be an effort to make up for his KKK membership. Appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat.

* Stanley F. Reed, 69, from Minerva, Kentucky, formerly U.S. Solicitor General under FDR, who appointed him to the Supreme Court. Another Southerner who turned his back on white supremacy.

* Felix Frankfurter, 71, born in Vienna, Austria, but grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He had previously been among the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, and an adviser to FDR and his Administration. FDR appointed him, as well.

* William O. Douglas, 55, from Yakima, Washington, formerly Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He remains the longest-serving Justice in the Court's history, 36 years from 1939 to 1975. The current longest-serving Justice, Clarence Thomas, would have to serve until late 2027 to surpass him. Another FDR appointee.

* Robert H. Jackson, 62, from Frewsburg, Western New York, formerly U.S. Attorney General and Solicitor General, having succeeded Reed in that latter office. Another FDR appointee. He died only 5 months later, on October 9, 1954.

* Harold H. Burton, 65, from Boston, formerly U.S. Senator from Ohio and Mayor of Cleveland. FDR crossed Party lines to appoint Burton, a Republican, to the Court.

* Thomas C. Clark, 54, from Dallas, another former Attorney General under FDR. Another Southerner voting to strike down segregation. Appointed by President Harry S Truman, a Democrat.

* Sherman Minton, 64, from Georgetown, Indiana, formerly U.S. Senator from his State. Appointed by Truman.

The full name of the case was Oliver Brown et al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The named plaintiff, Oliver Brown, was a welder working for a railroad, and an assistant pastor. His daughter, Linda Carol Brown, was in the 3rd grade, and had to walk 6 blocks to her school bus stop to ride to Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, an all-black school, 1 mile away. Sumner Elementary School, all-white, was just 7 blocks away -- 1 block longer than the walk to the bus.

Linda Brown

(Ironically, the all-black school was named for James Monroe, a President who had been a slaveholder; while the all-white school was named for Charles Sumner, who had been the U.S. Senate's leading abolitionist.)

Thurgood Marshall argued the case for the plaintiffs, as the general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The ruling overturned the case of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which ruled that "separate but equal" facilities be provided in public places. In Brown v. Board, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

Marshall had been hired by the NAACP's first special counsel, Charles Hamilton Houston. His strategy was to attack segregation by legally forcing the South's hand on the "separate but equal" doctrine. He orchestrated a campaign to force Southern districts to build facilities for blacks equal to those for whites, or to integrate their facilities. He focused on law schools because, at the time, mostly males attended them. He believed this would obviate the fears whites expressed that integrated schools would lead to interracial dating and marriage.

In the 1938 case of Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, Houston argued that it was unconstitutional for Missouri to exclude blacks from the State's university law school when, under the "separate but equal" provision, no comparable facility for blacks existed within the State.

In other words, he put Missouri in a corner: Either spend the money to build a separate all-black law school, or compromise your principle of bigotry and take the cheaper option of integrating the law school you already have. They chose the latter. For this reason, Houston became known, if prematurely, as "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow." Sadly, he died in 1950, only 54 years old, from a heart attack, and did not live to see Brown v. Board, or the later gains of the Civil Rights Movement. Had he lived long enough to see Marshall on the Supreme Court, he would have been 72.

Oliver Brown died of a heart attack in 1961, only 42 years old. Linda Carol Brown grew up to become a teacher and a civil rights advocate, and lived until 2018. Douglas was the last of the 9 Brown Justices to still be serving, in 1975; while Reed was the last survivor of those Justices, dying in 1980, 74 days after Douglas. Marshall lived until 1993.

*

May 17, 1954 was a Monday. It was the off-season for the NFL, and the NBA and the NHL had already completed their seasons. And Monday is often a travel day in Major League Baseball. As a result, only 3 games were played that day, and none of them involved the New York teams:

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Joe Presko pitched a 7-hit shutout, outpitching Robin Roberts.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-6 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium in Detroit. 

April 12, 1955: Kansas City Goes Major League

April 12, 1955: The Kansas City Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. It was the 1st home game for the A's after moving from Philadelphia. Their new hometown was back in the major leagues after 40 years.

Former President Harry S Truman, from nearby Independence, Missouri, threw out the ceremonial first ball. For the Tigers, Al Kaline went 2-for-4, and Red Wilson hit the ballpark's 1st major league home run. For the A's, Bill Wilson hit a home run, and Alex Kellner was the winning pitcher.

Previously, Kansas City had these major league teams in baseball: The Kansas City Cowboys of the Union Association, a league which only played the 1884 season; the Kansas City Cowboys of the National League, a team which only played the 1886 season, with none of these teams have any official connection with the other; the Kansas City Cowboys of the American Association, a team which only played the 1888 and 1889 seasons; and the Kansas City Packers of the Federal League, a league which only played the 1914 and 1915 seasons. And, in football, the Kansas City Blues entered the NFL in 1924, became the Kansas City Cowboys in 1925, and folded after the 1926 season.

The Kansas City Blues won 10 American Association Pennants: 1888, 1890, 1898, 1901, 1918, 1923, 1929, 1938, 1952 and 1953. The Kansas City Monarchs won 11 Negro League Pennants: 1923, 12 1924, 1925, 1929, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946 and 1953.

Both teams played at Muehlebach Field, built in 1923 by, and named for, George E. Muehlebach, who owned the Blues and a number of other Kansas City businesses, including Muehlebach Beer and the Muehlebach Hotel. The previous Kansas City ballpark, Association Park, was owned by a railroad, which decided to build a new line through it, creating the need for a new ballpark.

In 1937, the New York Yankees bought the Blues, made them their top farm team, and renamed the ballpark Ruppert Stadium, in honor of team owner Jacob Ruppert. Ruppert died in 1939, and the ballpark was renamed Blues Stadium in 1943.

Knowing that the Philadelphia Athletics had been purchased by Arnold Johnson, and were being moved to Kansas City for the 1955 season, the city added an upper deck to Blues Stadium, and renamed it Kansas City Municipal Stadium. It now seated 35,020 people. When the American Football's League's Dallas Texans became the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963, the addition of football bleachers raised seating capacity to 51,000.

When Johnson died in 1960, the A's were bought by Charles O. Finley. He wanted a bigger ballpark, and when the city wouldn't build him one, he flirted with moving the A's to Dallas and Louisville, before finally moving to Oakland, California for the 1968 season. Kansas City then got an expansion team, and the Royals played there from 1969 to 1972.

Unusual for that era, instead of building one stadium for both baseball and football, Kansas City built a stadium for each. Arrowhead Stadium opened in 1972, Royals Stadium opened in 1973, and the complex was named the Harry S Truman Sports Complex. Missouri's favorite son had died the day after Christmas, 1972.

When the Royals' original owner, pharmaceutical magnate Ewing Kauffman, died in 1993, the stadium was renamed Kauffman Stadium for him. Despite a major renovation in 2009, the Royals are looking to build a new stadium, downtown. (UPDATE: In 2024, the Royals released plans for a new stadium, tentatively set to open in 2028.) The Chiefs renovated Arrowhead Stadium at the same time, and have no plans to replace it.

The Chiefs won the AFL Championship in 1966 and 1969, losing Super Bowl I but winning Super Bowl IV. The Royals won the World Series in 1985 and 2015, having lost it in 1980 and 2014. The Chiefs have since won Super Bowl LIV, while losing Super Bowl LV. (UPDATE: They have since won Super Bowls LVII and LVIII.)

In soccer, the Kansas City Spurs won the 1969 North American Soccer League title, playing home games at Municipal Stadium. But they only lasted 1 more season. The Kansas City Wizards won the 2000 MLS Cup. In 2010, they rebranded as Sporting Kansas City, and moved from Arrowhead to a new stadium in nearby Kansas City, Kansas. They won the MLS Cup again in 2013.

A women's team, FC Kansas City, only lasted from 2013 to 2017, but won the National Women's Soccer League title in 2014 and 2015. In 2021, they were replaced by the Kansas City Current.

The area has been less successful in the indoor sports. In 1972, the NBA's Cincinnati Royals moved in, but, since the baseball team was already called the Royals, they became the Kansas City Kings. In 1974, they moved from the Municipal Auditorium to the new Kemper Arena. That same year, the NHL placed an expansion team there, the Kansas City Scouts.

The Scouts were lousy, and moved after 2 seasons. The Kings won a Division title in 1979 and reached the Western Conference Finals in 1981, but never drew well, and moved to Sacramento in 1985. In 2018, the Kemper Arena was downsized and rebranded as the Hy-Vee Arena. In 2007, the Sprint Center opened downtown, but it has failed to attract and NBA, WNBA or NHL team.

No matter: Kansas City still has MLB and the NFL, the 2 sports that mark a city and its metropolitan area as "major league." And while the A's left, the Royals and the Chiefs aren't going anywhere.

*

April 12, 1955 was a Tuesday. This was also the day on which Dr. Jonas Salk announced that the vaccine he had been testing against polio was effective and safe. I have a separate entry for that event

These other baseball games were played:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Ted Williams did not play that day.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 14-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. For the Cubs, Randy Jackson hit a home run, and Ernie Banks went 2-for-4 with an RBI. For the Cards, Ken Boyer hit a home run, and Stan Musial went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Cincinnati Redlegs, 4-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. It was the 2nd of 5 seasons when, in the wake of anti-Communist hysteria, the Cincinnati team was known as the Redlegs, not the Reds. Warren Spahn was the winning pitcher, future World Series-winning manager Chuck Tanner hit a home run on the 1st pitch he ever sees in the major leagues, and Hank Aaron went 1-for-4, the hit an RBI triple.

The next day, April 13:

* The New York Yankees and the Washington Senators opened the season at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won, 19-1.

* The New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies opened the season at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Phillies won, 4-2.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates opened the season at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers won, 6-1. Nobody knew it yet, but the "Next Year" that their fans had long waited for had finally come.

Football was out of season. The NBA season had ended 2 days earlier, when the Syracuse Nationals beat the Fort Wayne Pistons in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals was played at the Montreal Forum that night, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3. But the Wings would win the Cup in Game 7 in Detroit, 2 nights later.

March 31, 1931: Knute Rockne Is Killed

March 31, 1931: Knute Rockne is killed in a plane crash. At that point, he was probably the most famous American ever to suffer that fate.

It happened to aviator Wiley Post and entertainer Will Rogers in 1935, on the same flight, in America's northernmost city, Barrow, Alaska. It probably happened to pioneering aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, in the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

It happened to early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens in Iowa in 1959; to soul singer Otis Redding in Wisconsin in 1967; to rock singer Jim Croce in Louisiana in 1973; to country-rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd in Mississippi in 1977; to early rock singer Ricky Nelson in Texas in 1985; pop singer John Denver off California in 1997; pop singer Aaliyah in the Bahamas in 2001; and banda singer Jenni Rivera in Mexico in 2012.

It happened to labor leader Walter Reuther in Michigan in 1970; to Congressmen Hale Boggs and Nick Begich in Alaska in 1972; to Senator John Heinz outside Philadelphia and former Senator John Tower in Georgia, on back-to-back days in 1991; to John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn, and her sister Lauren Bessett off Massachusetts in 1999; to Governor Mel Carnahan in Missouri in 2000; and to Senator Paul Wellstone in Minnesota in 2002.

It happened to the Cal Poly football team in Ohio in 1960, and to the U.S. figure skating team in Belgium in 1961. It happened to 2 college football teams within a few weeks in 1970: Wichita State, not in their native Kansas but in Colorado; and Marshall University, near their base of Huntington, West Virginia. It happened to the University of Evansville basketball team near their home base in Indiana in 1977, and to the U.S. boxing team in Poland in 1980.

It happened to baseball players Ken Hubbs in Utah in 1964, Roberto Clemente in Puerto Rico in 1972, Thurman Munson in Ohio in 1979, Cory Lidle in New York in 2006, and Roy Halladay in Florida in 2017; 1920 Olympic sprint champion Charley Paddock in Alaska in 1943; former Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano in Iowa in 1969; basketball star Wendell Ladner at Kennedy Airport in New York in 1975. Kobe Bryant's death in Los Angeles in 2020 was in the crash of an aircraft, but it was a helicopter, not an airplane.

Knute Rockne, an immigrant from Norway, grew up on the Northwest Side of Chicago. He had been a star player at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, served in World War I, and then as head football coach at Notre Dame starting in 1918. He led them to National Championships in 1919, 1920 (with George Gipp), 1924 (with a backfield known as "The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame"), 1929 and 1930. He was already being hailed as the greatest coach football had ever known.

On March 31, 1931, Rockne, only 43 years old, and still Notre Dame's head coach, boarded a Fokker F-10 (and that's pronounced "FOH-ker") belonging to Transcontinental and Western Air, at Kansas City Municipal Airport. (It's now named Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport.) Having visited his sons Bill and Knute Jr. at their boarding school in Kansas City, he was on his way to Los Angeles to assist in the production of the film The Spirit of Notre Dame.

The plane crashed in Bazaar Township, Kansas, 142 miles to the southwest of its takeoff point. Rockne, the other 5 passengers, and both crewmen were killed. Rockne left behind a wife, 4 children, and the admiration of an entire nation. President Herbert Hoover called it "a national loss," and King Haakon VII of his birthplace of Norway posthumously knighted him.

The Spirit of Notre Dame premiered on October 13, 1931. Lew Ayres starred as a player, Sally Blane as his love interest, and several former Notre Dame players had cameos, including all of the Four Horsemen: Harry Stuhldreher, Jim Crowley, Don Miller and Elmer Layden.

In 1940, the film Knute Rockne, All American was released, though it took some liberties with his story. He was played by Pat O'Brien.

*

March 31, 1931 was a Tuesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was in the off-season. The NBA hadn't yet been founded. And only 1 game was played in the NHL.

It was a Stanley Cup Playoff game. The Chicago Black Hawks beat the New York Rangers, 1-0 at the old (but then, relatively new) Madison Square Garden. Tom Cook scored the only goal of the game. It was a two-games, total-goals series, and it was the 2nd game of the series, and the Rangers were out. The Hawks advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost to the Montreal Canadiens.