Katharine Lee Bates
July 4, 1895: The Congregationalist, a church magazine, publishes a poem titled "America," written by poet Katharine Lee Bates.
Born in 1859 in the Cape Cod community of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Bates was the daughter of a Congregationalist minister. She graduated from Wellesley College outside Boston, and taught English there. She contributed her writings to several magazines, but her poem became the only thing that would be remembered after her death in 1929. She had written it after being atop Pike's Peak in Colorado, hence, "purple mountains' majesties."
In 1882, Samuel A. Ward, the organist at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, wrote a melody. He died in 1903, having never met Bates. In 1910, someone -- it's not clear who -- combined Ward's melody with Bates' poem, and the title to "America the Beautiful," even though that combination of words never appears in the poem.
Along with "God Bless America," "America the Beautiful" is more popular than "The Star-Spangled Banner," America's actual National Anthem. The best-known version is by Ray Charles, recorded in 1972 for his album A Message from the People, produced by his old friend Quincy Jones. His version was included in the 1993 film The Sandlot, and is played right after Midnight on New Year's Even in New York's Times Square, following the playing of Robert Burns' "Auld Lang Syne" and Frank Sinatra's version of "Theme from New York, New York."
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July 4, 1895 was a Thursday. Baseball's National League was the only professional sports league in North America at the time. The 4th of July was already considered a day for doubleheaders, and these games, some of them twinbills, were played:
* The New York Giants beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-4 at the 1890-1911 version of the Polo Grounds.
* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms beat the Boston Beaneaters, 7-1 at Eastern Park in Brooklyn.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Washington Senators, 4-3 at the Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds, later renamed Baker Bowl.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Spiders, 6-2 and 10-5 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. At the time, Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland was not considered a big rivalry. It would take the NFL, and the 1950s, to make that happen.
* The Chicago Colts swept a doubleheader from the Cincinnati Reds, 8-7 and 9-5 at West Side Park in Chicago.
* A doubleheader was split at an early version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, later to be renamed Robison Field. The St. Louis Browns won the opener, 12-6. The Louisville Colonels won the nightcap, 3-1.
The Orioles, the Senators, the Spiders and the Colonels would be phased out after the 1899 season. The Browns became the St. Louis Cardinals in 1900. The Colts became the Chicago Cubs in 1903. The Bridegrooms became the Brooklyn Superbas in 1899 and the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1911. The Beaneaters became the Boston Braves in 1912.
