December 24, 1906: The 1st Radio Broadcast

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden

December 24, 1906: The first radio broadcast for entertainment and music to the general public was transmitted from Brant Rock, in Marshfield, Massachusetts, about 30 miles southeast of Boston.

This pioneering broadcast was achieved after years of development work by Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (1866-1932), who built a complete system of wireless transmission and reception using amplitude modulation (AM) of continuous electromagnetic waves. This technology was a revolutionary departure from transmission of dots and dashes widespread at the time.

Fessenden played "O Holy Night" on his violin, read the Gospel of Luke's account of the birth of Christ, and played George Friderich Handel's "Largo" from a phonograph.

*

December 24, 1906 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. Football was played on Christmas Day at the time, but not on Christmas Eve. Basketball barely existed. Later in the week, the Stanley Cup was won. It was a two-games-total-goals series, at the Montreal Arena. The Montreal Wanderers, defending Champions, known as "The Little Men of Iron," beat the New Glasgow Cubs, a team from Nova Scotia, 10-3 on December 27; and again, 7-2, on December 29.

December 21, 1891: The Invention of Basketball

December 21, 1891: Basketball is invented by Dr. James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts. Unlike baseball, football and hockey, we have definitive answers as to the invention of basketball: We know who, when, where, how... and even why.

For those of you born in the 21st Century: No, basketball was not invented by LeBron James. For those of you born in the 1990s: No, it was not invented by Kobe Bryant. For those of you born in the 1980s: No, it was not invented by Michael Jordan. Maybe Wilt Chamberlain re-invented it, but he did not invent it.

James Naismith (no middle name) was born on November 6, 1861 in Almonte (now part of Mississippi Mills), Ontario, outside the Canadian capital of Ottawa. He graduated from Montreal's McGill University, where he lettered in lacrosse, gymnastics, soccer, rugby, and the Canadian version of gridiron football. He was hired as McGill's athletic director in 1890, but, just a year later, he was hired by the Young Men's Christian Association International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, the facility that is now Springfield College.

The YMCA's directors asked him to invent a game that could be played indoors in the Winter, when baseball and football couldn't be played. It would not be volleyball, but that would be close. Literally: William G. Morgan invented that sport in 1895, just 4 years later, and only 10 miles away in Holyoke, Massachusetts. And he would use the Springfield school for its 1st demonstration.

Naismith knew he should start with a ball, but with a large, soft one, like a soccer ball; not a small, hard one like a baseball, which would be dangerous in the confined space of a gymnasium. Morgan would follow this suggestion, and so, to this day, a standard volleyball now resembles an old-time soccer ball more than does a current soccer ball, or a current basketball, for that matter.

Naismith noted that most of the rough action of a sport took place around its goal: The goal in soccer, hockey or lacrosse; the end zone in football or rugby; or home plate in baseball. So he thought he could reduce the danger by raising the height of the goal.

He asked the school's custodian, a Mr. Stubbins, to get him two boxes, which he could use as goals. He was ready to name his sport "boxball." The custodian could only find peach baskets. So Dr. Naismith had invented basketball instead. The date was December 21, 1891.

In his handwritten report, Naismith told of the first game. Teams were nine-a-side, as opposed to the eventual standard of five-a-side. A soccer ball was used, as there was, as yet, no such thing as a basketball. The peach baskets, which would eventually be replaced by netting, were secured to the inside of the railing of the gymnasium's gallery, about 10 feet from the floor, setting a standard which has never changed.

Naismith had written 13 rules, and put them on a bulletin board on the gym wall. He said that the class did not show much enthusiasm. He said that most of the fouls were called for running with the ball, and some for tackling the ballcarrier like in football. There was, as yet, no dribbling: The ball could only be moved up the court by passing. And after every goal (later to be called a basket), another jump ball was taken (a rule eliminated in 1938). 

Through the influence of the YMCA's worldwide organization, the word was spread. Naismith earned his medical degree, and in 1898 became the head coach at the University of Kansas, which became one of the great college basketball programs. He remained head coach until 1907, and continued to teach at their Lawrence campus until his death on November 28, 1939, at the age of 78.

Within the last 4 years of his life, he had seen the debut of sold-out doubleheaders involving national powers at Madison Square Garden, the debut of basketball as an official medal sport at the Olympic Games, and the foundation of the NIT and the NCAA Tournament.

One of Naismith's players at Kansas was Forrest "Phog" Allen, who later became their head coach, and for whom their Allen Fieldhouse is named. Allen's players included Adolph Rupp, who turned the University of Kentucky into a national power; and Dean Smith, who did the same at North Carolina. One of Smith's players, Roy Williams, became head coach at Kansas, and excelled there before going back to North Carolina and winning National Championships there.

It all goes back to 1891, and James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1968, on the campus of Springfield College, which had been the YMCA school, the first Basketball Hall of Fame building opened. It was, and remains officially, named the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The growth of the sport required a new building in Springfield in 1985, and yet another in 2002.

There had been a Hall of Fame organization since 1959, prior to the construction of the first building. Naismith was one of the Hall's 15 charter inductees.

*

December 21, 1891 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season, which is why basketball was invented, anyway. Hockey was still all-amateur. So the only score of significance on this historic day is the score of that very first game of basketball.

And only one goal was scored: One of the intramural teams beat the other, 1-0. In 1896, the rule was changed so that a single basketball goal was credited with the now-familiar 2 points.

December 12, 1982: The Snowplow Game

December 12, 1982: The New England Patriots host the Miami Dolphins at what was then named Schaefer Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts. The Dolphins had dominated the AFC Eastern Division since the AFL-NFL merger of 1970, although the Patriots had had their moments. This game would feature another.

The weather heavily favored the Pats. It rained before the game, soaking the AstroTurf. Then, on the day of the game, a cold snap came, freezing the water on the field. Finally, it snowed on the morning of the game, and it kept snowing during the game.

The Patriots had occasionally played in Winter weather, but, this far in their history, nothing like this. The Dolphins, used to playing in the warmth of South Florida, were totally unsuited to this.

An emergency ground rule was put into play, where the officials could call time-out and allow the ground crew to use a snowplow to clear the yard markers. Despite this rule, the ground crew could not plow often enough to keep the field clear. With today's weather forecasting and NFL scheduling policy, a decision would have been made ahead of time to postpone it to Monday night.

Neither team's players could get a good footing on the field, and the game remained scoreless, late in the 4th quarter. With 4:45 left in regulation, Patriots coach Ron Meyer wanted to kick a field goal. He later told the media that it was quarterback Steve Grogan who suggested asking for the snowplow to clear the ground for the kick. (Grogan only attempted 5 passes all game long, completing 2, for 13 yards.)

It wasn't actually a snow plow: It was a small John Deere tractor with a shovel attached to it. The driver was Mark Henderson, a convicted burglar out of prison on a work-release program. He knew why he was there, and that it was within the rules. He told the media that his reaction was, "What are they going to do, throw me in jail?"

A path was clear for John Smith, the left-footed kicker from Oxfordshire, England, to attempt a 33-yard go-ahead field goal. It was good.

Dolphin coach Don Shula was furious: “I wanted to go out there and punch him out,” Shula told The Boston Globe, meaning Henderson. “In retrospect, I should have laid down in front of the snowplow.” And he told the Los Angeles Times, “I think it’s the most unfair thing I’ve ever been associated with in coaching. It’s the most unsportsmanlike act that I’ve ever been around.”

It wasn't. Late in the game, when the Dolphins could have tried a game-winning field goa, they were also offered the use of the snowplow by the head referee. Shula refused. The Patriots held on to win, 3-0. It became instantly known as The Snowplow Game, and it remains the most famous touchdown-less game in NFL history.

With the history of the Patriots having changed considerably in the intervening 40 years, with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady leading them to victory with proven accusations of cheating, it is easy to say that the Patriots' cheating goes back to The Snowplow Game. In fact, the rule, agreed upon by both organizations before the game, meant that Henderson's actions, and Meyer's request thereof, were legal at the time.

But the Patriots' organization was wary: Shula, already one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game, was on the NFL's Competition Committee, and there was concern that he might lead Commissioner Pete Rozelle to overturn the result. It didn't happen: No NFL result has ever been overturned in the League's 100+-year history. But Shula did get the rule changed for the next season, so such a thing could never happen again.

"Mark Henderson" is a common name, common enough that, when the Patriots wanted to invite the plow driver to the final regular-season game at Schaefer Stadium, which became Sullivan Stadium in 1983 and Foxboro Stadium in 1989, to be held on December 22, 2001, they discovered, incorrectly, that he was dead. It was another Mark Henderson who lived in New England and had a criminal record. When they kept digging and found the right one, they brought him onto the field -- by then, real grass -- and he received a standing ovation.

Mark Henderson, 2007, on the 25th Anniversary

Looking him up for this post, I found the same problem: Multiple Mark Hendersons who had passed away, including 2 in 2022. All I can say for sure about Mark Henderson the plow driver is that he lived long enough to give an interview to The Boston Globe in 2010, had a son also named Mark, and that the son confirmed that the father had never been in legal trouble again after his release.

What I can confirm is that the John Deere tractor was preserved, and now sits in the New England Patriots Hall of Fame, a museum at the north end of Gillette Stadium, which was built next-door to the old stadium in Foxborough.

*

December 12, 1982 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Jets beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 32-17 at Shea Stadium.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat their arch-rivals, the New Orleans Saints, 35-0 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 13-0 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 23-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers, 30-10 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Baltimore Colts, 13-10 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Washington Redskins beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 12-7 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 21-16 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Los Angeles Rams, 27-24 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Chicago Bears, 20-14 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The day before, the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 23-7 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* Also the day before, the San Diego Chargers beat the San Francisco 49ers, 41-37 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Houston Oilers, 37-7 at the Astrodome in Houston.

Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Denver Broncos, 126-112 at the Boston Garden. Larry Bird scored 36 points and grabbed 19 rebounds.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Indiana Pacers, 120-108 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 99-94 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 6 NHL games that day:

* The New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils, 4-0 at Madison Square Garden. It would be years before the neighbors would be on the same level, enough to make it a real rivalry.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat their in-State rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Calgary Flames, 7-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Quebec Nordiques, 7-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

November 26, 1947: Boston's Jailbird Mayor Comes Home

November 26, 1947: Jim Curley is released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, his prison sentence commuted by President Harry S Truman. Upon his return to his hometown that day, the quintessential Boston politician is met with an adoring crowd.

James Michael Curley was born on November 20, 1874 in Roxbury, then a mostly-Irish neighborhood south of downtown Boston. His immigrant father died when James was 10 years old, and he went to work at menial jobs.

In the 1880s and 1890s, Boston politics were marked by growing Irish political power in opposition to traditional Yankee Protestantism. Curley involved himself in the local Roman Catholic Church and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a fraternal benefit society that assisted Irish immigrants.

He acquired a reputation as a hustler who was willing to help others get ahead. Curley gained experience in the traditional practices of ward politics such as knocking on doors, drumming up votes, and taking complaints. He ran for a seat on the Boston Common Council in 1897 and 1898, and finally won in 1899. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1901, and to the upper house of the city legislature, the Board of Aldermen, in 1904.

He won that last election while he was in prison. He and Thomas Curley, no relation, had each impersonated an applicant for postal service jobs by taking the civil service examinations for them. The Boston Irish saw him as a man who stepped up for his own people. In baseball terms, he took one for the team. Everybody else in Boston saw him as a crook.

In 1909, he wanted to run for Mayor. So did a former Mayor and former Congressman named John F. Fitzgerald. And "Honey Fitz" had more political I.O.U.s than Curley. Fitzgerald struck a deal with Curley: He promised not to run for re-election as Mayor, and would support Curley for the U.S. House of Representatives. Each man won his respective election.

But Fitzgerald did run for re-election in 1913, and in Irish-American politics, breaking your word was simply not accepted. Curley wasn't having it. Thanks to a campaign aide, he found out that Honey Fitz had fooled around with a cigarette girl known as "Toodles," and threatened to reveal it. Fitzgerald dropped out, and Curley won election as Mayor for the 1st time. It wasn't all a bad year for Fitzgerald: His daughter, Rose -- at 24, the same age as the cigarette girl -- married the ambitious son of a behind-the-scenes Boston political figure: Joseph P. Kennedy.

Curley ran things like many big-city political "bosses" did: Doing favors for those neighborhoods, or even streets, that voted for him, and not for those who didn't. If your block voted for him, you got your garbage picked up, your potholes filled, and your snowy street plowed, all on time. If not, not. He became known as "the Mayor of the Poor" for how he got jobs for them.

But an older Irish politico and the State's Republican Protestant establishment teamed up, and another Irish Catholic politician opposed him in the 1917 election, and they split the vote, and a Republican won. Then the State legislature passed a law saying no Mayor of Boston could succeed himself. So when Curley won a 2nd term in 1921, he couldn't seek a 3rd in 1925. He could in 1929, and took office just as the Great Depression took hold, and his underhanded dealings were a godsend for Boston's poor.

In 1934, he ran for Governor of Massachusetts. He won. The idea was that he would not only use the office to teach the State's Republican Yankee Protestants a lesson, but also that it would be a springboard for a Senate run in 1936, and that would be a springboard to make him, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt would no doubt be leaving office after 2 terms, to become the 1st Irish Catholic to be elected President in 1940.

Of course, Joe Kennedy had the same idea for himself. And as a local boy who made good with the establishment, a North Ender who became a Harvard graduate, and the 1st Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, he thought he could work his way into the 1940 nomination.

But while he was every bit the able administrator that Curley was, Kennedy -- unlike his father-in-law, and, as it turned out, like his sons -- was no politician. Curley was much better organized, and had the common touch that Kennedy simply didn't have. At the 1936 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, Curley led the Massachusetts delegation in a parade, with signs for his Senate campaign, and some signs saying, "WATCH 1940." (At this point, the idea of FDR running for a 3rd term had occurred to no one, not even to FDR.)

But while Curley's political skills made him ideal for the office of Mayor of Boston, or a Congressman for a Boston-based District, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a whole was a very different constituency, and his skills were not a match for the Governorship. His tenure was a disaster, and even Massachusetts Democrats knew it.

Despite FDR being re-elected with a record 61 percent of the vote, Curley got just 41 percent in the Senate vote against Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., grandson of a famed Republican Senator. Of the State's 14 Counties, he won only Suffolk, which includes Boston. He almost cost the Democratic nominee to succeed him as Governor, State Treasurer Charles F. Hurley, the election: He won by only 28,000 votes, compared to Curley's 109,000-vote win 2 years earlier.

Still, for the rest of his life, while everyone called him "Mayor Curley," he was entitled to be called "Governor." An aide named William Kelly became known as "Up-Up Kelly," because, at every rally, he would take the stage, and tell the audience, "Up, up, for the Governor!"

He ran for Mayor again in 1937, but lost to Maurice Tobin. He ran for Governor again in 1938, defeating Hurley in the Primary, but lost the general election to future Senator Leverett Saltonstall. In 1940, with Nazi Germany posing an existential threat to democracy all over the world, FDR ran for a 3rd term, and, due to various circumstances, it was clear that, if there was ever going to be a Catholic President, it wasn't going to be either Jim Curley or Joe Kennedy. With the City Charter having been changed again, allowing Mayors to succeed themselves, Tobin ran for re-election in 1941, and Curley ran him, but lost.

In 1942, Curley ran for Congress again, and won. He was re-elected in 1944. In 1945, he and Kennedy made peace: Kennedy agreed to support Curley in yet another bid for a 4th term as Mayor, and pay off some of his debt, if Curley would refuse to run for re-election to Congress in 1946, opening the House seat for Joe's son, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Curley's race came first, so Joe didn't have a chance to double-cross him the way his father-in-law, John F. Fitzgerald, did 32 years earlier.

Running on a campaign of "Curley Gets Things Done," 67-year-old Jim Curley won his race in November 1945. Running on a campaign of "The New Generation Offers a Leader," 29-year-old Jack Kennedy won his primary in June 1946, and his general election in November 1946 -- while Maurice Tobin was elected Governor.

In June 1947, Curley was accused of accepting $60,000 from the Engineers Group, a firm Curley headed which was under investigation for war profiteering. He was found guilty of mail fraud and sentenced to 6 to 18 months in federal prison. Under current conditions, the American media and the Republican Party would have demanded his resignation. Curley did not resign: He remained Mayor while in prison.

Under pressure from the Massachusetts Congressional delegation, and in consideration of Curley's poor health, Truman commuted his sentence after only 5 months, and he came home to a hero's welcome. He had beaten the system once again -- if not fully.

City Clerk John B. Hynes served as acting Mayor during Curley's time in prison. Hynes ran against Curley in 1949, saying, "We cannot afford the city bosses anymore," and won. A new city charter was passed, moving the mayoral elections to the year before a Presidential election, instead of the year after. Hynes was re-elected in 1951, beating Curley again. Curley had first run for public office at the age of 24; he last did so just short of turning 77. He died on November 12, 1958, 8 days short of his 84th birthday.

He outlived his 1st wife and 7 of his 9 children, 2 of them dying on the same day. And that wasn't due to childhood illnesses, either, because these 2 weren't children anymore: Leo became so distraught at the death of Mary from a stroke that he had one, too. Curley had groomed his son James Jr. as a successor, but, while a student at Harvard Law, in the days before antibiotics, he died from a postsurgical infection. Two sons, George and Francis, survived him, but neither had children of their own. Francis couldn't: He was a priest. When he died in 1992, the Curley bloodline ran out.

But the Curley legacy did not. Much of what he built, including the expanded City Hospital, remains. In 1956, Edwin O'Connor published a novel titled The Last Hurrah, about Frank Skeffington, an old big-city Mayor and Governor running for Mayor one last time, and dying shortly after his defeat.

The novel was widely presumed to be about Curley, who told O'Connor he enjoyed the book, especially "The part where I die." It featured a priest telling the Skeffington family that the old man had made his peace with God, and that, if he had it to do over again, he would do things differently. And the old man opens his eyes, and says his last words: "The hell I would!" A film version, starring Spencer Tracy, premiered on October 22, 1958, a few days before the real Curley died.

There are not one, but two statues of Curley outside Faneuil Hall, across Congress Street from the new City Hall that Curley did not live to see. One shows him standing up, the other has him sitting on a bench.

Mayor Fitzgerald got an expressway named after him; Mayor Hynes, the city's Convention Center; Mayor/Governor Tobin, a bridge. Kevin White, the 2nd man to be elected to 4 terms as Mayor of Boston, and the 1st one allowed to do so consecutively, has a much taller statue a few feet away from Curley's. Yet he seems to be looking over his shoulder at Curley and Curley.

Aside from Fiorello La Guardia in New York, few big-city Mayors from as far back as the 1940s are fondly remembered by their cities today. But then, that's Curley's 4th term. His 1st began in 1910. And yet those statues are there, to remind everyone that, while they aren't very tall, they represent a giant of the city.

*

November 26, 1947 was a Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. Roger Wehrli, a Hall of Fame cornerback for the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. Two games were played in the Basketball Association of America, the league that became the NBA 2 years later. The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 81-59 at the Philadelphia Arena. And the Baltimore Bullets beat the Providence Steam Rollers, 76-61 at the Rhode Island Arena in Providence.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Boston Bruins, 5-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

November 22, 1875: Vice President Henry Wilson Dies

November 22, 1875: Henry Wilson dies in Washington, suffering the latest in a series of strokes that had left him him in ill health for his entire term in office.

President Ulysses S. Grant was good at some things, but picking Vice Presidents was not one of them. In 1868, he ran with Schuyler Colfax, a Representative from Indiana and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who had to drop out of the run for re-election in 1872, when it was revealed he was one of the politicians caught up in the Crédit Mobilier railroad-construction scandal.

So Grant and the Republican Party turned to Wilson. Born on February 16, 1812 in Farmington, New Hampshire, as Jeremiah Jones Coldbath, he was indentured to a nearby farmer, giving him a lifelong hatred of slavery. When he turned 21, in 1833, he legally changed his name. He chose the name Henry Wilson, inspired either by a biography of a Philadelphia teacher, or a portrait from a book on English clergymen.

He couldn't find work in New Hampshire, and walked all the way to Natick, Massachusetts, where he trained as a shoemaker. He made enough money as one to go to law school. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in the Whig Party's William Henry Harrison landslide of 1840. He was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1843, and again in 1850, serving as its President.

In 1854, having become one of the founders of the Republican Party, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. In 1861, just before the American Civil War began, he was named Chairman of the Senate Military Affairs Committee (now known as the Committed on Armed Services). In 1866, he wrote the bill that became the Civil Rights Act of 1866. He seemed an ideal running mate for Grant in 1872.

But on February 13, 1873, as Vice President-elect, Wilson was implicated in Crédit Mobilier. In testimony before a Senate committee, he admitted that he had bought stock from Representatives Oakes Ames of Massachusetts, the leading figure in the scandal, but developed concerns about the propriety of the whole thing, and returned the money. Ames backed this testimony up. Congress took no action against Wilson, who remained popular, but censured Ames.

Both men soon suffered strokes: Ames died from his on May 5, while Wilson suffered his on May 19, just 76 days into his term. His health improved somewhat, and he was able to preside over the Senate. But he wasn't able to give speeches: He was expected to do on December 16, 1873 in Boston, on the 100th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, but, while he attended, he did not give a speech.

In March 1874, he attended the funeral of his former Senate colleague from Massachusetts, the great abolitionist Charles Sumner. On February 27, 1875, he cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate for the Civil Rights Act of 1875 -- which turned out to be the last law to bear the name "Civil Rights Act" until 1957.

On November 10, 1875, he suffered a stroke at the Capitol. His health soon improved to the point where it was thought he had completely recovered. However, on November 22, back at the Capitol, he had another stroke, and died. His remains were accorded the honor of lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda. He was buried at Old Dell Park in Natick, a town now best known as the hometown of football quarterback Doug Flutie.

Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, with Wilson's death, the man next in line for the Presidency from Wilson's death on November 22, 1875 until the Inauguration of the next President and Vice President on March 4, 1877 was the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Thomas Ferry of Michigan.

Schuyler Colfax lived on until 1885, outliving Henry Wilson by a little over 9 years, and almost outliving Grant.

*

November 22, 1875 was a Monday. There were no scores on this historic day: Baseball season was over, football was in midweek, basketball hadn't yet been invented, and hockey barely existed.

November 8, 1966: The 1st Elected Black U.S. Senator

November 8, 1966: For the 1st time since the Reconstruction Era, the 1st time since the 17th Amendment allowed voters to directly elect them, voters of a State elect a black person as their U.S. Senator.

Edward William Brooke III was born on October 26, 1919 in Washington, D.C. After earning a Bronze Star in World War II, he went to Boston for law school, and never left. Starting in 1950, running as a Republican -- black Americans still thought of it as the Party of Lincoln, and the Democrats as the party of segregation -- he ran for several offices in Massachusetts, but lost every time, until 1962, when he was elected his State's Attorney General, the 1st black person elected to that office in any State. (Most States elect their Attorneys General. My home State of New Jersey does not: There, the office is appointed by the Governor.)

In 1966, following the retirement of 4-term Senator Leverett Saltonstall, Ed Brooke ran for the Republican nomination to succeed him. Alan MacKay, a conservative activist, opposed Brooke, for refusing to endorse Senator Barry Goldwater's hard-right campaign for the Presidency 2 years earlier. But Goldwater understood which of them stood a better chance of winning the general election, and endorsed Brooke.

The Republicans gained 3 seats in that election, and 47 in the House, wiping out the huge Congressional advantage that President Lyndon B. Johnson had used to pass much of his Great Society agenda. Among the other new Senators the Republicans added were Howard Baker of Tennessee, joining John Tower of Texas as only the 2nd Republican Senator ever elected by popular vote in the South; and also Charles Percy of Illinois and Mark Hatfield of Oregon. Most of the Democrats elected were re-elected.

Civil rights had no bearing on the election: Less than 3 percent of Massachusetts voters were black, and his Democratic opponent, former Governor Endicott Peabody, had a good record on civil rights. Brooke won 60 percent of the vote, having united the State's Republicans, and peeled off enough Democrats, who were never especially enthusiastic about Peabody.

Brooke was among the authors of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, better known as the Fair Housing Act, and was a major supporter of Title IX, aiding women's participation in college sports. He was re-elected in 1972, and a year later, became the 1st Republican in either house of Congress to publicly suggest that President Richard Nixon resign over Watergate.

He lost his bid for a 3rd term in 1978, because he angered the State's Catholic majority due to his divorce and his pro-choice stance on abortion. He had also been investigated for improprieties in the divorce case, by Middlesex County Prosecutor John Kerry. He found insufficient evidence to charge Brooke with a crime, and dropped the case. The Democratic winner was Congressman Paul Tsongas, who chose not to run for re-election in 1984. Kerry then ran for the seat, and won it.

Brooke returned to his hometown of Washington, and to the practice of law. In 2000, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts named a courthouse after him. In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He died in 2015. At 95, he had been the oldest living former U.S. Senator.

*

November 8, 1966, as are most modern American Election Days, was a Tuesday. Scottish celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was born.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the St. Louis Hawks, 135-121 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Detroit Pistons, 118-100 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 112-101 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. This was the Bulls' 1st season of play. The next season, they moved to the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Baltimore Bullets beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 104-102 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

November 6, 1990: A Tough Choice In Massachusetts

William Weld (left) and John Silber

November 6, 1990: It is Election Day, and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Senator John Kerry wins a 2nd term. The Democrat wins 57.0 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican nominee, Jim Rappaport, who gets 42.9 percent.

Note: Future President John Adams wrote the Constitution of Massachusetts in 1780. He used the term "Commonwealth," because he wanted a word that meant a "republic," and showed that the power belongs to the people; rather than using the word "State," which could mean rule by a monarch. As far as the U.S. federal government is concerned, there is no difference.

Three other States use "Commonwealth of... " rather than "State of... " for their official names. The founders of Pennsylvania and Virginia used the traditional English term "Commonwealth" in their Constitution, to show that the government was founded for the common good, and derived its power from the people, not a king. And Kentucky used the word because it separated from Virginia.

A real estate developer, Rappaport was soon named Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party. In 2002, he ran for Lieutenant Governor, but lost the Republican Primary. Kerry was re-elected in 1996, 2002 and 2008; was nominated for President in 2004; and served as Secretary of State in President Barack Obama's 2nd term.

Kerry's re-election was never in doubt. More interesting was the election for Governor. The usual party persuasions were flipped: The Democratic nominee was seen as a conservative, and the Republican nominee was thought of as a liberal.

John Silber was born in 1926 in San Antonio, Texas, without a right hand. Unashamed of the deformity, he had his suits tailored to expose the arm. Although his parents were practicing Presbyterians, his father had been born Jewish, in Germany, and lost a sister at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Silber graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, where he met his wife, with whom he had 8 children.

He earned a Ph.D. at Yale University, and a Fulbright Scholarship, allowing him to teach at the University of Bonn, in what was then the capital of West Germany. It was then that he learned of his family's Jewish history.

He became Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Texas from 1962 to 1967, and then as Dean of UT's College of Arts and Sciences. This meant that he was at the Austin campus when coach Darryl Royal led their football team to the National Championship in 1963 and 1969; but also was there in 1966, when Charles Whitman turned the bell tower of the Main Building into a sniper's nest, killing 17 people before being shot and killed himself.

While at UT, Silber was well known for his support of liberal causes, having founded the Texas society to abolish capital punishment, and being a supporter of civil rights. He was fired in a dispute with Regents Chairman Frank Erwin, for whom UT's sports arena is named.

But in 1971, he was named President of Boston University, and held that post until 2003. He settled the school's messed-up finances, and brought Nobel Prize laureates Saul Bellow and Elie Wiesel onto the BU faculty. But he also feuded with leftist history professor Howard Zinn, and was court-ordered to give Zinn back pay. He was accused of racism in 1986, for suppressing a protest of the apartheid policies of South Africa.

According to a friend of mine who attended BU at the time of the 1990 election, "He also made a name for himself as BU President by enacting increasingly archaic rules relating to dormitory social visits." You might remember the line from the song "Dirty Water" by The Standells, which came out in 1966, and told of various sordid goings-on in Boston: "Frustrated women, have to be in by 12:00. Aw, that's a shame."

In 1990, following his unsuccessful 1988 campaign as the Democratic nominee for President, and the collapse of his economic "Massachusetts Miracle," Michael Dukakis dropped out of the race for a 4th term as Governor. Raymond Flynn, the popular Mayor of Boston, had been considered as a Primary challenger to Dukakis, but he also declined to run. Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Murphy seemed like Dukakis' natural successor, and she was challenged by Silber and Francis Bellotti, a former Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General of the State.

Silber's campaign for the nomination was marked by a series of caustic, "politically incorrect" statements, which came to be called "Silber Shockers." He angered black voters by calling the State a "welfare magnet," and proposed the termination of public benefits for unmarried mothers who have a second child while still on public aid. He said white supremacists, but also Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and feminist leader Gloria Steinem, were "the kind of people I wouldn't appoint as judges."

He urged prioritizing care for children over the elderly and terminally ill, saying, "Shakespeare was right when he said, 'Ripeness is all.'  When you've had a long life and you're ripe, then it's time to go." Quoting King Lear might have won him some votes from academics at schools like BU, Boston College, Harvard, Northeastern, Tufts, Amherst, the University of Massachusetts and Springfield College; but it turned off older voters, and did him no favors with working-class voters.

Bellotti's television advertising put him in the lead in the polls in January 1990, and by May, Silber had passed Murphy for 2nd place. At the State's Democratic Convention, Bellotti won the Party's endorsement, but that guaranteed nothing for the Primary. Murphy dropped out, and endorsed Bellotti. But, by this point, Dukakis and Murphy were so unpopular, her endorsement hurt Bellotti, and Silber won the Primary, 53 percent to 43.

The Party coalesced around Silber, as he got the nominations of both Senators, Kerry and Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy; Ted's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy's son, Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II; and Mayor Flynn.

The Republican nomination went to William Weld. Born in 1945 in Smithtown, Long Island, New York, he was the epitome of old money: His father was an investment banker and a descendant of one of the earliest students at what became Harvard University; and his mother was a descendant of William Floyd, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the original members of Congress from the State of New York. Weld could be tone-deaf about his blue-blood status: When asked if his ancestors came to Massachusetts on the Mayflower, he decided to make a joke, and said, "No, but their servants did."

Weld earned undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, and earned a fellowship to Oxford University, although he failed to gain a Rhodes scholarship from the iconic British school. He married Susan Roosevelt, a great-granddaughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, and they had 5 children.

Weld became legal counsel to the the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary, including during its 1974 impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon. In 1978, he ran for Attorney General of Massachusetts, winning the Republican nomination, but losing to Bellotti.

President Ronald Reagan appointed him the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts in 1981. He won convictions in 109 out of 111 cases, specializing in prosecuting bank fraud. In 1986, he was appointed to be the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division -- an appointment Reagan may have regretted when Weld investigated his immediate boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese, a longtime friend and ally of Reagan's. Weld could not find enough evidence to charge Meese with any crimes, and resigned his post in protest of Meese's ethics.

Weld's liberal stands on social issues made him a viable candidate for Governor, and he easily won the Republican nomination. But despite his promise to cut the taxes that had gotten the State the unfortunate nickname "Taxachusetts," there seemed not to be enough Republican voters in the State to get him over the finish line. A Republican hadn't been elected Governor there since Frank Sargent in 1970. Polls showed Weld anywhere from a "statistical dead heat" (Silber's edge being within the margin of error) to 10 points behind. Liberals switching sides to support Weld, and conservatives doing the same to support Silber, made things unpredictable.

What really turned out to be unpredictable was Silber's mouth. Later in the campaign, he called Weld a "back-stabbing son of a bitch" for resigning to protest Meese's leadership. He followed this comment by going on local television and claiming that the proliferation of working mothers had led to an increase in child neglect.

On October 29, he was interviewed at his house, on WCVB-Channel 5, the ABC affiliate in Boston, by Natalie Jacobson, co-anchor of the evening news with her husband, Chet Curtis. (They were married from 1975 to 2001, and co-anchors from 1982 to 1999.) Silber pushed back on questions about feminism and his earlier remarks on child neglect and abuse. He threatened to end the interview, saying, "If I'm into another one of these 'Silber Shocker' things, then to hell with this damn program, because I don't need that."

It got worse: When Jacobson asked him to reflect on his personal strengths and weaknesses, he snapped, "You find the weakness. I don't have to go around telling you what's wrong with me. The media have manufactured about 16,000 non-existing qualities that are offensive and attributed them all to me. Let them have their field day." The entire interview made Silber look hostile, especially to women, not just to Jacobson.

After the interview, The Boston Globe, New England's largest and most influential newspaper, broke with its tradition, and endorsed a Republican. It may have made the difference: Weld won 1,175,817 votes, or 50.2 percent. Silber won 1,099,878, or 46.9 percent. Weld's margin of victory was 76,000, fairly close.

Weld won the Counties of Franklin, Barnstable (Cape Cod), Hampshire, Worcester (including the City of the same name), Middlesex (including Cambridge, Lexington and Concord), Essex (the North Shore), Norfolk (including Brookline and Foxborough), Plymouth (the South Shore) and Nantucket (made up entirely of the island of the same name).

Silber won Suffolk (most of which is Boston), Berkshire (including Pittsfield), Hampshire (including Springfield), Bristol (including New Bedford and Fall River) and Dukes (Martha's Vineyard).

Silber never ran for office again. But he continued to court controversy, especially when canceled the BU football program after the 1997 season. He stepped down in 2003, and died in 2012, at the age of 86.

Weld was re-elected in 1994. Thinking he was the only Republican who could beat Senator Kerry in 1996, he ran against him, but lost, 52 percent to 44. Apparently, Massachusetts voters had decided they liked having Kerry (and Ted Kennedy) in the Senate, and liked having Weld as Governor, and chose to keep each man in his current office.

In 1997, President Bill Clinton crossed party lines to appoint Weld to be U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. He resigned as Governor, but his nomination was torpedoed by Senator Jesse Helms, due to Weld's disloyalty to Meese (and, by association, disloyalty to Reagan), and also for his pro-choice stance on abortion, which should have been absolutely irrelevant to the post he was seeking.

Weld's Lieutenant Governor, Paul Cellucci, became Governor, and won a term in his own right in 1998. He resigned in 2001, when President George W. Bush appointed him to be U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Helms made no objection to this. Cellucci's Lieutenant Governor, Jane Swift, became the 1st female Governor of Massachusetts.

But the State's Republicans never trusted her, and recruited businessman Mitt Romney, son of a former Governor of Michigan and the man Ted Kennedy beat for re-election to the Senate in 1994, and she dropped out. Romney won, making it 4 straight gubernatorial elections that the Republicans had won. Romney declined to run for re-election, and Democrat Deval Patrick won in 2006 and 2010. Republican Charlie Baker won in 2014 and 2018, and Democrat Maura Healey won in 2022.

In 2002, Bill and Susan Weld divorced. The following year, Weld married Leslie Marshall, a journalist and a former daughter-in-law of Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. It must have been true love, because, by that point, he certainly didn't need more connections.

Weld moved back to New York State, and ran for Governor in 2006, but lost the Republican Primary. In 2016, he left the Republican Party to become the Libertarian Party's nominee for Vice President, under former Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico. In 2020, he challenged Donald Trump in the Republican Primaries, but won just 1 Delegate. He endorsed Joe Biden, who beat Trump. As of November 6, 2022, Weld is a lobbyist for ML Strategies.

*

November 6, 1990 was a Tuesday. In another notable election on this day, Jesse Helms was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. Already an icon of religious conservatism, the Republican defeated the Democratic nominee, Mayor Harvey Gantt of Charlotte. Gantt's loss was blamed on the fact that the State's most popular resident, basketball star Michael Jordan, refused to endorse him, saying, "Republicans buy sneakers, too." I have a separate entry for that event.

Also on that day, German soccer star André Schürrle and Saturday Night Live performer Bowen Yang were born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 11 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 96-91 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Charlotte Hornets, 113-105 at the Charlotte Coliseum.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Orlando Magic, 102-95 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 106-94 at the Miami Arena.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 98-96 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 110-108 at the Chicago Stadium. Jordan scored 33.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets, 145-135 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) Kevin Smith scored 35 for the Rockets.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 130-109 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 125-123 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Sacramento Kings, 102-85 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Detroit Pistons, 100-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Quebec Nordiques, 4-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Chicago Blackhawks and the Hartford Whalers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Calgary Flames, 6-5 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3 at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. 

October 28, 1991: The Perfect Storm

October 28, 1991: A storm hits the Northeastern U.S., and Canada's Maritime Provinces. It becomes known as the 1991 Perfect Storm, The No-Name, and the Halloween Gale.

Initially an extratropical cyclone, the storm absorbed Hurricane Grace to its south, and evolved into a small, never-named hurricane later in its life.

Damage from the storm totaled over $200 million, and 13 people were killed in total, 6 of which were an outcome of the sinking of a commercial fishing vessel, F/V Andrea Gail, off the coast of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. The boat had left Gloucester, Massachusetts on September 20, and was heading for the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

The Andrea Gail

The boat's loss inspired a book, published in 1997, by Robert Case, a forecaster for the National Weather Service based in Boston, and journalist Sebastian Junger. They called it The Perfect Storm, after an expression used for a combination of meteorological phenomena that produces destructive results. It was made into a movie in 2000. Since then, the phrase "perfect storm" has come to mean any combination of events that forms any unusual result.

This Northeastern storm also caused another storm to, literally, stop cold over the Midwest, resulting in a Halloween Blizzard that dumped up to 3 feet of snow and killed 22 people.

*

October 28, 1991 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended the day before, when the Minnesota Twins won Game 7, and thus the World Series, over the Atlanta Braves. Football was in midweek. The NBA season began 4 days later. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 24-21 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

There were 2 games in the NHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 1-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

October 8, 1945: Patenting the Microwave Oven

Percy Spencer and the 1st Radarange

October 8, 1945: The Raytheon Company, one of America's largest defense contractors, files an application for 2 U.S. patents: For a microwave cooking process, and an oven that heats food using microwave energy from a magnetron.

The process was one of many "great discoveries" that have been made by accident. Percy Spencer, a 51-year-old engineer, was employed by Raytheon, assigned to the Radiation Laboratory (or "Rad Lab") at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston. He noticed that microwaves from an active radar set he was working on started to melt a Mr. Goodbar candy bar that he had in his pocket.

The first food deliberately cooked with Spencer's microwave oven was popcorn, and the second was an egg, which exploded in the face of one of the experimenters. However, the expression "egg on your face," meaning an embarrassment, had already been in wide use for about 50 years.

In 1947, Raytheon built the "Radarange," the 1st commercially available microwave oven. It was almost 6 feet tall, weighed 750 pounds, and cost about $5,000 -- about $66,000 in 2022 money. It consumed 3 kilowatts, about 3 times as much as today's microwave ovens, and was water-cooled. The name was the winning entry in an employee contest. As with every other new machine on the market, the device would eventually get smaller and cheaper, and sell better.

Percy Spencer lived until 1970, age 76. In 2020, The Raytheon Company changed its name to Raytheon Technologies Corporation.

UPDATE: In 2023, they changed their name again, to RTX Corporation. They remain headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

In 1985, Sid Caesar revived his "Professor" character to do a commercial for Saran Wrap. He said, "Saran Wrap was designed for the microwave!" The offscreen announcer said, "But Saran Wrap came before the microwave. How did they know?" Sid said, "I don't know, but they knew!" Technically, whoever wrote the commercial was right: Although S.C. Johnson & Son Co. discovered polyvinylidene chloride the material that became Saran Wrap -- also by accident -- in 1933, they didn't market it as Saran Wrap until 1949.

Similarly, in 2021, singer Paul Anka competed on the Fox TV series The Masked Singer as "Broccoli," and one of his clues was that he was, unlike most of the show's performers, older than the microwave oven. This was true: He was born in 1941.

*

October 8, 1945 was a Monday. There was only 1 score on this historic day, and it was in Game 6 of the World Series. The Chicago Cubs beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Tigers led 1-0 going into the bottom of the 5th, but the Cubs scored 4 runs in the inning. The Cubs led 7-3 going into the top of the 8th, but they scored 4 runs, including on a home run by Hank Greenberg, their star slugger who was recently discharged from the U.S. Army.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 12th inning, the Cubs' Frank Secory singled off Dizzy Trout, and Bill Schuster was sent in to pinch-run for him. Stan Hack doubled to left field, and Schuster came around to score the winning run.

This tied the Series at 3 games apiece. But the Cubs did not win another World Series game until Game 2 of the 2016 Series -- 71 years later.