September 18, 1926: The Great Miami Hurricane

September 18, 1926: What becomes known as the Great Miami Hurricane makes landfall. Hurricanes didn't start to be identified with girls' names until 1953, and with boys' names until 1979. This one was the 7th of the Atlantic hurricane season, so its name would have started with a G.

The extension of passenger rail service to Key West in 1912, and the development of commercial air-conditioning in the early 20th Century, made living in Florida palatable. In the 1920s, particularly from 1924 onward, the "Florida Land Boom" was underway, taking advantage of the "paper prosperity" of the "Roaring Twenties," leaving behind entirely new, planned developments incorporated into towns and cities. Of course, being that Florida was a Southern State, these places were racially segregated.

This helped to make Miami and surrounding South Florida a major tourist destination. It gave Miami a rare status, enjoyed by possibly no other city in the Eastern U.S., besides New Orleans: It was a "major city" without having a major league baseball team.

But a lack of knowledge about storm frequency, and poor building standards, made these buildings, including houses, as susceptible to hurricanes as many buildings in San Francisco were to earthquakes and fires prior to that city's 1906 disaster.

There was warning, as the hurricane had already devastated the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos. When it made landfall on September 18, the waves were as high as 15 feet. Although South Florida would be hit by damaging hurricanes in the interim, these would remain the highest waves there until Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Miami and Miami Beach were flooded, knee-deep. The County Causeway, connecting the two since 1920 (and later renamed for General Douglas MacArthur), was submerged under 6 feet of water. Yachts and other large vessels were carried out to sea. Power lines were downed, cutting off communication with the rest of the country. Most wooden buildings were either blown down or lost their roofs. Concrete and steel buildings were warped at their bases.

The hurricane moved inland, and caused damage on the Gulf Coast of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The number of deaths is uncertain, but is believed to be over 500. With inflation factored in, it remains the most damaging hurricane in American history.

And that's just in the short term. In the long term, Florida took a long time to recover, economically and culturally. The land speculators went bankrupt. Historians in Florida have suggested that the State fell into a depression 3 years sooner than the country as a whole did. Additional hurricanes in 1928 and 1935 didn't help.

Among the structures ruined by the hurricane was one on which construction was begun just the previous day: A new 8,000-seat football stadium for the University of Miami, on its campus in suburban Coral Gables.

By October 30, a temporary structure was in place at Tamiami Park, and, coached by former University of Wisconsin and Green Bay Packers star Howard "Cub" Buck, "The U" was ready to play its 1st game: At home, they beat Rollins College, 7-0.

The team was, naturally, named the Hurricanes, and went 8-0 that first season. In 1937, they left Tamiami Park for the new Burdine Stadium, which was renamed in 1959 for its best-known event, the Orange Bowl.

Rollins, in nearby Winter Park, Florida, dropped its football program in 1949, and now competes in other sports in NCAA Division II.

*

September 18, 1926 was a Saturday. These baseball were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 3-1 at League Park in Cleveland. George Uhle outpitched Urban Shocker. Indians player-manager Tris Speaker went 1-for-3 with a walk. So did Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 at the Polo Grounds. Bill Terry went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Frankie Frisch went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known when Wilbert Robinson managed them from 1914 to 1931) beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1 at Ebbets Field. Paul Waner went 3-for-4, while the Robins as a team only got 4 hits, but errors doomed the Bucs.

* A doubleheader was split at Braves Field in Boston. The Boston Braves won the opener, 3-2. The Chicago Cubs won the nightcap, 6-0. Joe "Sheriff" Blake pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* A doubleheader was split at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The St. Louis Cardinals won the 1st game, 7-3. The Philadelphia Phillies won the 2nd game, 3-2, with Hal Carlson outpitching Grover Cleveland Alexander, although Art Reinhardt was the losing pitcher. Rogers Hornsby 1-for-8 with a walk and an RBI.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. With the Senators leading, 5-4 in the bottom of the 9th, Tigers player-manager Ty Cobb sent himself up as a pinch-hitter, and he tripled Johnny Neun home with the tying run. Harry Heilmann then singled Cobb home with the winning run.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the Philadelphia Athletics beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. George Sisler went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

And there were 4 college football games:

* Virginia Military Institute (VMI) beat Wofford College, 20-0 at Alumni Field in Lexington, Virginia.

* Davidson College beat Elon University, 26-0 at Richardson Field in Davidson, North Carolina.

* Clemson College (now Clemson University) beat Erskine College, 7-0 at Riggs Field in Calhoun, South Carolina.

* And Stanford University beat Fresno State, 44-0 at the old, but then-new, Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.

July 23, 1997: The Death of Andrew Cunanan

July 23, 1997: Andrew Cunanan kills himself, rather than be taken alive by the law. He was a few weeks short of turning 28.

The son of a Filipino father and an Italian mother, Cunanan grew up outside San Diego, showing early signs of antisocial personality disorder. He became a compulsive liar, and went to gay nightclubs. When his mother confronted him about his behavior, he threw her against a wall, and left for San Francisco.

He gained his income from selling drugs, and from being a "trophy boyfriend" to older, wealthy gay men. Essentially, he was looking for what straight women of a previous generation would have called a "sugar daddy," one after another. He became an alcoholic and was addicted to painkillers.

On April 27, 1997, he went to Minneapolis, and killed a former friend, Jeffrey Trail, 28. He then moved in with ex-boyfriend David Madson, 21, who was also living in Minneapolis. They had met in San Francisco, but Madson had broken it off and moved back. On May 3, in Rush City, Minnesota, Madson was found, shot to death.

That same day, Cunanan went to Chicago, and killed real estate developer Lee Miglin. He was much older, 72, and there had been no known contact between the men, nor any apparent motive. It was a vicious murder: Cunanan bound Miglin's hands and feet, stabbed him repeatedly with a screwdriver, and slit his throat with a hacksaw, before stealing his car, a green 1994 Lexus LS sedan. Cunanan was suspected because the car left in the driveway was Madson's red Jeep.

The FBI began tracking the phone in Miglin's car. By May 8, it was in Philadelphia. On May 9, it crossed the Delaware Memorial Bridge into Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey. At Finn's Point National Cemetery, Cunanan shot and killed the 45-year-old caretaker, William Reese. Again, there appeared to be no connection between them, and no motive. Nevertheless, Cunanan again switched vehicles, taking Reese's red 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck.

He took it to Miami Beach, and checked in at the Normandy Plaza Hotel. But the FBI didn't know that, having lost track of him. On June 12, he was put on their list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. He had somehow gotten enough cash to live large on South Beach, until July 7. Having used some fake names to pawn things before, this time, he used his own name to do so, and since police regularly review pawn shop records, his location was soon discovered. On July 14, he checked out of the Normandy Plaza without paying for his last night.

On the morning of July 15, Italian designer Gianni Versace, 50, one of the biggest names in the world's fashion industry, walked out of his Miami Beach mansion, Casa Casuarina. It means "House of the Australian Pine." It was built in 1930, and when Versace bought it in 1992, its name had been changed to Amsterdam Place. He restored the original name.

Gianni Versace and his sister Donatella

He walked to the News Cafe, where international magazines were available. (This was the dawn of the Internet Age, so reading such publications online was not yet practical. Thus, out-of-town newsstands like News Cafe, Out of Town News at Harvard Square outside Boston, and lots of places in New York did good business.) At 8:45, Versace returned to the mansion, and was walking up the front steps, when Cunanan shot him twice in the head. Versace was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, and pronounced dead at 9:21.

Reese's pickup was found in a nearby parking garage, with Cunanan's clothes, and newspaper clippings about the previous murders. Like so many other killers, he wanted to see the reaction to his crimes. Despite the fact that Versace fit the profile of previous boyfriends -- older, incredibly rich, and gay -- there was, yet again, no known connection between killer and victim. Barring further evidence, it's possible that Cunanan simply saw a rich man's house, tracked the rich man, waited for his opportunity, and killed him without knowing who he was -- or caring if he did know.

Now that he was known as the murderer of one of the most famous people in the world, on top of already being on the Ten Most Wanted List, there seemed little chance of him getting out of Greater Miami any way other than jailed or dead. Realizing the authorities were closing in, he found his way to a luxury houseboat. On July 23, a caretaker heard a gunshot and called the police. When they got there, they found that Cunanan had shot himself in the head. He had used Trail's gun. When they looked at the ballistics, they determined that Trail's gun was also used to kill Madson, Reese and Versace.

There was no suicide note at the scene of his death, nor any "manifesto" at any of his former residences, or at the sites of the murders. To this day, Cunanan's motive for killing any of his victims remains unknown.

Versace's funeral was attended by Elton John, a close friend who had a home in Miami Beach. Also attending, having worn Versace's designs, and sitting next to Elton and comforting him, was Diana Spencer, the former Princess of Wales. Six weeks later, Elton would perform at Diana's funeral.

In 2000, the Versace mansion was bought and renovated. It is now a boutique hotel, with a gourmet restaurant named Gianni's.

*

July 23, 1997 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the team then known as the Anaheim Angels, 5-4 at Yankee Stadium. Chad Curtis led off the bottom of the 9th inning with a double, and Jorge Posada hit a grounder that Angel 2nd baseman Luis Alicea mishandled, allowing Curtis to score. Jeff Nelson was the winning pitcher, in relief of Dwight Gooden. Charlie Hayes hit a home run, and Derek Jeter went 1-for-2 with a walk, and was also hit by a pitch.

* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

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

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 8-0 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto. Roger Clemens pitched 8 innings of 7-hit shutout ball.

* The Seattle Mariners bear the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-1 at Cinergy Field (formerly Riverfront Stadium) in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-6 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Jeff Reboulet singled home the winning run in the top of the 12th.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-1 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 16-4 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco.

* And the Colorado Rockies and the Montreal Expos were not scheduled to play.

July 13, 1972: The Democrats Cut Loose In Miami Beach

July 13, 1972: The Democratic Convention concludes at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The Democrats blew it, big-time.

First, they may have nominated the wrong guy. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was a "prairie populist," in the tradition of William Jennings Bryan and the man who finished 2nd this time, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. As the incumbent Vice President, Humphrey had been the nominee in 1968, and had nearly won.

Humphrey's running mate that time had been Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, who ran for President this time, but got torpedoed by Republican dirty tricks in the New Hampshire Primary, and, though he won it, his campaign never recovered. Mayor John Lindsay of New York, previously a Republican, had switched to the Democrats in 1971, and everybody knew it was so he could run for President. He flopped completely.

Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York, the 1st black woman elected to Congress, made the 1st serious run for President by either a black person or a woman, with the slogan "Unbought and unbossed," but didn't get very far. She later said she got more resistance to her gender than to her race.

At the other end of the spectrum was Governor George Wallace of Alabama. The infamous segregationist, who had run a 3rd-party campaign in 1968 and won 5 Southern States, had won the Florida Primary. Then, he campaigned in the North on racial resentment, and finished 2nd in Wisconsin, 2nd in Pennsylvania, and 2nd in Indiana. He was shot and paralyzed while campaigning in Maryland on May 15, then won that State and Maryland the next day, possibly as a sympathy vote.

He had to drop out of the race, but was given 9 minutes to speak to the Convention from his wheelchair, while Chisholm only got to make a few brief remarks. This helped to depress the black vote for the Democrats.

Unlike Franklin Roosevelt, he couldn't fully stand,

but he could lean forward from his wheelchair.

And the most popular Democrat in the country? Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts did not run, because of the cloud that hung over him from the incident on Chappaquiddick Island 3 years earlier.

A big part of McGovern's appeal was his close friendship with Ted's brother, the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, and, before that, a strong working relationship with their brother, President John F. Kennedy. If Ted wasn't going to be the standard-bearer for the Kennedy fans' dream, McGovern was a convenient stand-in.

But everything that seemed to work for McGovern in the Primaries worked against him for the general election campaign. He had brought in young voters by running against the old Party bosses, such as Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, and union leaders like AFL-CIO President George Meany. Men like that saw the McGovern delegates as long-haired mods, longer-haired Hippies, feminists, Black Panthers and gay activists -- an exaggeration, but close enough to the truth for old-line Democrats to either stay home or switch to the Republican incumbent President, Richard Nixon.

I call this the McGovern Effect. I probably should call it the Goldwater Effect, but Barry Goldwater had problems beyond this tactic in 1964 that George McGovern did not have in 1972. Later Presidential nominees have fallen victim to it: Walter Mondale for the Democrats in 1984, Michael Dukakis for the Democrats in 1988, George H.W. Bush (despite being the incumbent) for the Republicans in 1992.

Once McGovern won the California Primary on June 6, there was no question that he would have a majority of the Delegates on the 1st ballot. He got 1,729, for 57 percent. Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson of Washington, running as a foreign policy hawk, thinking he could get the support of people who still supported the Vietnam War while everyone else split the antiwar vote, didn't seem to count on prowar people also supporting Wallace, and Jackson got just 525 Delegates. Wallace, despite no longer being in the race, got 382, basically a protest vote against the McGovern "Hippies" and "kids."

Chisholm finished 4th, with 152. Former Governor Terry Sanford of North Carolina got 78. Humphrey, in his 3rd and last run for President, got just 67. Representative Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, the powerful Chairman of the House's tax-writing Committee Ways and Means, got 34. Muskie got 25. Ted Kennedy, who wasn't even running, got 13. Representative Wayne Hays of Ohio got 5. Former Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, who had run in 1968, got 2. And former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota each got 1.

Both Mills and Hays would face sex scandals, and, not being members of the Kennedy family, saw their political careers come to an end.

McGovern was officially nominated on Wednesday, July 12. Now, he needed a Vice Presidential nominee. Up until 1984, when Mondale announced Geraldine Ferraro a week before the Convention began, running mates were usually not chosen until there was a Presidential nominee. The deadline for filing such candidates was 4:00 PM on Thursday, July 13.

McGovern's aides practically begged Kennedy to accept the Vice Presidential nomination. He refused, and instead suggested either Mills or Mayor Kevin White of Boston. But Mills was a Southerner, and White had been a Muskie supporter, and both were thus unacceptable to most McGovern Delegates.

Humphrey was approached to accept the Vice Presidential nomination, as he had under Lyndon Johnson in 1964. So was the man who then won his seat that year, Mondale. So was McCarthy, the man who left the Senate, opening it for Humphrey. All three Minnesotans turned it down.

With 5 minutes left before their deadline – not quite literally at the last minute, but close enough – McGovern accepted another suggestion: Senator Thomas Eagleton. He was a moderate, a Catholic, a former Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General of Missouri, who would (it was presumed) bring in moderates, Catholics, and "law and order" fans.

What they didn't know was, a few weeks earlier, with a promise of anonymity, Eagleton had told conservative newspaper columnist Robert Novak that nominating McGovern was a sure defeat. (Novak promised not to reveal who'd said it as long as they were both still alive, and he kept that promise.) What they also didn't know was, Eagleton had received electroshock therapy for treatment of clinical depression.

To make matters worse still, the McGovern delegates decided to have a little fun with their votes for Vice President. There were nominating speeches for 8 candidates, also including Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska; former Governor Endicott Peabody of Massachusetts; and a member of the House of Representatives of Texas, Frances "Sissy" Farenthold, who had just forced, but lost, a runoff for the Democratic nomination for Governor of her State. Gloria Steinem, co-founder of Ms. magazine and the leader of the new wave of feminism, gave Farenthold's nomination speech.

The delayed roll call of the States for this nomination has been compared to a last day of school. There were 79 separate people mentioned as receiving at least 1 delegate:

* Senators: Eagleton, 1,742 Delegates; Gravel, 226; Birch Bayh of Indiana, 62; Kennedy, 15; Fred Harris of Oklahoma; Harold Hughes of Iowa, 10; Joseph Montoya of New Mexico, Hispanic, 9; Adlai Stevenson III of Illinois, son of the 2-time Presidential nominee and great-grandson of a Vice President, 8; McCarthy (former), 3; Sanford, 3; Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, 3; Muskie, 2; Ernest Gruening of Alaska, 2; Abe Ribicoff of Connecticut, 2; Jackson, 1; Frank Church of Idaho, 1; Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Asian, 1.

* Members of the House of Representatives: Peter Rodino of New Jersey, 57; Chisholm, 20; Mills, 5; Robert Bergland of Minnesota, 5; Ron Dellums of California, black, 4; Herman Badillo of New York, Hispanic, 3; Claude Pepper of Florida, 2; Robert Drinan of Massachusetts, an antiwar priest, 1; Nick Galifianakis of North Carolina, 1; Martha Griffiths of Michigan, 1; Allard Lowenstein of New York, Jewish, 1; Phillip Burton of California, 1; William Barrett of Pennsylvania, 1; Bill Chappell of Florida, 1; and 1 to John Z. Goodrich of Massachusetts -- a protest vote, for a man who died in 1885, and was a Republican.

* Governors: Peabody (former), 108; Jimmy Carter of Georgia, 30; Ned Breathitt of Kentucky (former), 18; William L. Guy of North Dakota, 8; Wendell Anderson of Minnesota, 4; Reubin Askew of Florida, 3; Wallace, 1; Lawton Chiles of Florida, 1.

* Lieutenant Governors: Roberto A. Mondragón of New Mexico, Hispanic, 4; Hoyt Taylor of North Carolina, 2.

* Mayors: Moon Landrieu of New Orleans, 19; Richard Hatcher of Gary, Indiana, black, 11; Daley, 2.

* State legislators: Farenthold, 405; Clay Smothers of Texas, black 74; Stanley Arnold of California (former, by this point a judge), 4; John J. Houlihan of Illinois, 4; Julian Bond of Georgia, black, 1; Joseph F. Smith of Pennsylvania, 1.

* Other State-level politicians: Bruno Agnoli, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Ocean County, New Jersey, 2; Charles Hamilton, Treasurer of Massachusetts, 1.

* Cabinet members: Clark (former), 2.

* Labor union leaders: Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers, Hispanic, 5; Leonard Woodcock of the United Auto Workers, 2; George Norcross Jr. of the South Jersey AFL-CIO, 1.

* Aides to other politicians: John DeCarlo, a campaign aide to Wallace, 2; Patrick Tavolacci, an aide to Kennedy; Michael Griffin, another Wallace aide, who was already dead, 1; Hargrove "Skipper" Bowles, an aide to Governor Sanford, 1; Jim Hunt, a North Carolina political operative who was running for Lieutenant Governor, and was elected to that office and Governor, 1.

* Journalists: Hodding Carter, a white journalist from Louisiana who nonetheless had been a crusader for civil rights in Mississippi, and a 3rd person to receive at least 1 Delegate despite being already dead, 5 Delegates; Roger Mudd of CBS News, who had been critical of Nixon, 2;

* And these people who were not in any public office each received 1 Delegate. Eleanor McGovern, the would-be First Lady; Patricia Roberts Harris, black, a former Ambassador who later served in President Carter's Cabinet Ralph Nader, consumer advocate who later ran for President with disastrous results; Daniel Berrigan and Philip Berrigan, brothers and radical priests, 1 each; Benjamin Spock, the famed pediatrician who'd run an independent campaign for President; Jerry Rubin, agitator and one of the Chicago Seven; Fred Seaman, John Lennon's personal assistant; Martha Mitchell, loudmouthed wife of John Mitchell, Nixon's campaign chairman and former Attorney General, who wound up going to prison for Watergate; Mao Zedong, dictator of China, and thus ineligible to accept the nomination1; Ernest Albright and Robert Kariss, on whom I can find no information, 1 each; and Archie Bunker.

That's right: Someone cast a vote for a fictional character, the lead figure of the CBS situation comedy All in the Family, and a Republican, and a bigot. Mad magazine had printed a fake campaign poster with his face, saying, "NIXON AND BUNKER IN '72!" The Democrats would have been better off with Archie's portrayer, Carroll O'Connor, who was a liberal in real life, and knew all the conservatives' prejudices, the smart ones and the stupid ones alike.

As the vote went on -- and on, and on, and on -- Farenthold began to attract an unexpected level of support, eventually leading to something of a grassroots campaign to nominate her over Eagleton. However, this ultimately proved too late, and too disorganized to have any serious chance of denying Eagleton the nomination.

The whole thing looked disorganized. To use an expression that New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin had given to a group of mobsters, the Democrats looked like "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight." They looked like a bunch of hippies, feminists, Black Panthers and gay activists, making McGovern's supporters look as nutty on the left as Barry Goldwater's looked on the right 8 years earlier. Or, as Leo McGarry (played by John Spencer) said of the Democratic Convention on the TV show The West Wing decades later, "One night of this is great theater. Two, and we look like idiots."

Eagleton finally had the nomination secured at 1:40 AM. The process took so long that McGovern's acceptance speech didn't begin until 2:50 AM on the 14th. Theodore H. White, author of the Making of the President book series that concluded with the 1972 edition, noted in that edition, "Only in Guam was George McGovern speaking in prime time under the American flag." So nobody except political junkies and insomniacs saw McGovern's speech.

Too bad, because it was a good one. Introduced by Kennedy, his remarks included the following:

My nomination is all the more precious and that it is a gift of the most open political process in all of our political history.

It is the sweet harvest of the work of tens of thousands of tireless volunteers, young and old alike, funded by literally hundreds of thousands of small contributors in every part of this nation.

Those who lingered on the brink of despair only a short time ago have been brought into this campaign, heart, hand, head and soul, and I have been the beneficiary of the most remarkable political organization in the history of this country.

It is an organization that gives dramatic proof to the power of love and to a faith that can literally move mountains.

As Yeats put it, "Count where man's glory most begins and ends, and say: My glory was I had such friends."

This is the people's nomination and next January we will restore the government to the people of this country.

Unfortunately, as I said, so much of what worked for the McGovern campaign from January through June worked against them from July to early November. He paid tribute to his competitors for the nomination:

I treasure this nomination, especially because it comes after vigorous competition with the ablest men and women our party has to offer: My old and treasured friend and neighbor, Hubert Humphrey; a gracious and a good man from the State of Maine, Ed Muskie; a tough fighter for his own convictions, Scoop Jackson of Washington; and a brave and spirited woman, Shirley Chisholm; a wise and effective lawmaker from Arkansas, Wilbur Mills; and the man from North Carolina who over the years has opened new vistas in education and public excellence, Terry Sanford; the leader who, in 1968, combined both the travail and the hope of the American spirit, Senator Eugene McCarthy.

And I was as moved as well by the appearance in the Convention Hall of the Governor of Alabama, George Wallace. His votes in the primaries showed clearly the depth of discontent in this country, and his courage in the face of pain and adversity is the mark of a man of boundless will, despite the senseless act that disrupted his campaign. And, Governor, we pray for your full recovery so you can stand up and speak out for all of those who see you as their champion.

He knew they looked disorganized and divided, but tried to reassure voters at home:

To anyone in this hall or beyond who doubts the ability of Democrats to join together in common cause, I say: Never underestimate the power of Richard Nixon to bring harmony to Democratic ranks. He is the unwitting unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign. And all of us are going to help him redeem a pledge made ten years ago: That, next year, you won't have Richard Nixon to kick around anymore!

He went on:

We must now show that peace and prosperity can exist side by side. Indeed, each now depends on the existence of the other. National strength includes the credibility of our system in the eyes of our own people as well as the credibility of our deterrent in the eyes of others abroad.

National security includes schools for our children as well as silos for our missiles. It includes the health of our families as much as the size of our bombs, the safety of our streets, and the condition of our cities, and not just the engines of war. If we someday choke on the pollution of our own air, there will be little consolation in leaving behind a dying continent ringed with steel.

So while protecting ourselves abroad, let us form a more perfect union here at home. And this is the time for that task.

He spoke of putting Americans back to work after the recession of 1970-71, of a fairer tax system, and of national health insurance. And he spoke of ending the American role in Vietnam. He did not, as his critics said he believed in, speak of peace at all costs, amnesty for draft evaders, the re-legalization of banned drugs, or abortion on demand.

He did speak of patriotism, but a just patriotism: "And this is the time to stand for those things that are close to the American spirit. We are not content with things as they are. We reject the view of those who say, 'America: Love it or leave it.' We reply, 'Let us change it, so we may love it the more.'" From there, he closed:

It is time to live more with faith and less with fear, with an abiding confidence that can sweep away the strongest barriers between us and teach us that we are truly brothers and sisters.

So join with me in this campaign. Lend Senator Eagleton and me your strength and your support, and together we will call America home to the ideals that nourished us from the beginning.

From secrecy and deception in high places, come home, America.

From military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation, come home, America.

From the entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism, from the waste of idle lands to the joy of useful labor, from the prejudice based on race and sex, from the loneliness of the aging poor, and the despair of the neglected sick, come home, America.

Come home to the affirmation that we have a dream. Come home to the conviction that we can move our country forward. Come home to the belief that we can seek a newer world. And let us be joyful in that homecoming, for this "is your land, this land is my land, from California to New York island, from the redwood forest to the gulf stream waters, this land was made for you and me."

So let us close on this note: May God grant each one of us the wisdom to cherish this good land and to meet the great challenge that beckons us home. And now is the time to meet that challenge.

Good night, and Godspeed to you all.

"This Land Is Your Land" had been written by Woody Guthrie in 1945. The line "To seek a newer world" had come from the 1842 poem Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, whom the Kennedy brothers admired, and Bobby had used it as the title of a book published in 1967. It also evoked Jack's "New Frontier," Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal," and, for the oldest of living Democratic voters at the time, Woodrow Wilson's "New Freedom."

If the speech had ended at 11:00 PM or so, as most Presidential nominees' speeches tend to do, with pretty much anybody wanting to see it still awake to do so, would it have made a difference? We'll never know. Instead, the speech ended at 3:40 AM. It was impossible for the Democrats' poll numbers to receive the usual "Convention bounce." And with the Eagleton selection turning into a fiasco a week later, it began to seem like Nixon was running unopposed -- or running not against McGovern, a war hero who believed the war in Vietnam war wrong, but against his loopy, disorganized supporters.

Indeed, despite having previously been so paranoid as to order the bugging of the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, at the Watergate complex in Washington, Nixon barely had to mention McGovern's name: Most of his TV commercials were pro-self, and not really anti-anybody.

Despite being beaten as badly as any major-party Presidential nominee ever has, George McGovern remains the South Dakota native who has come the closest to becoming President.

*

July 13, 1972 was a Thursday. This was also the day that Carroll Rosenbloom, owner of the Baltimore Colts, and Robert Irsay, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, made a deal to trade their entire NFL franchises for one another. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Gary Nolan allowed 9 hits over the 1st 8 innings, and Clay Carroll allowed a hit in the 9th, but the shutout was kept. Pete Rose went 1-for-4. Johnny Bench went 1-for-3. Roberto Clemente did not play. Willie Stargell went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Mickey Lolich went the distance for the win, while Paul Splittorff got knocked out of the box in the 1st inning. And the Tigers did this without Al Kaline, who did not play.

* The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Boston Red Sox, 10-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Ray Corbin pitched a 6-hit shutout. Carl Yastrzemski did not get any of those hits, though he did draw a walk. Tommy Harper got 3 of them. Harmon Killebrew did not play. Rod Carew went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 2-0 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Reggie Cleveland pitched a 2-hit shutout. Hank Aaron did not get one of those hits. Lou Brock went 0-for-2 with 2 walks and a stolen base. Joe Torre went 0-for-4.

* And the Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-0 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Rich Hand pitched a 6-hit shutout.

March 13, 1961: Patterson vs. Johansson III

Floyd Patterson (left) and Ingemar Johansson

March 13, 1961: For the 3rd time, Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johansson fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

Johansson was born on September 22, 1932 in Gothenburg (or Göteborg), Sweden's 2nd-largest city behind its capital, Stockholm. Patterson was born on January 4, 1935 in Brooklyn. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, Patterson won the Gold Medal for the U.S. in the Middleweight division, while Johansson won a Silver Medal for Sweden in the Heavyweight division.

Johansson became the Scandinavian heavyweight champion, but mandatory military service and a broken hand kept him from fighting for a year. But in 1956, he won the Heavyweight Championship of Europe, and knocked out American contender Eddie Machin in 1958, earning him a shot at the world title.

When Rocky Marciano announced his retirement as Heavyweight Champion of the World on April 27, 1956, Patterson was one of the fighters entered into a unification tournament. On November 30, he won recognition as Champion by beating Marciano's last opponent, the man then Light Heavyweight Champion, Archie Moore, knocking him out in the 5th round at Chicago Stadium.

A few weeks short of his 22nd birthday, Patterson was the youngest Heavyweight Champion ever. His trainer was Constantine "Cus" D'Amato. Cus would later take another troubled kid from Brooklyn, Mike Tyson, and make him a great professional fighter. Cus died in 1985, so he didn't live to see Tyson break Patterson's record as the youngest Heavyweight Champ.

Patterson had beaten Tommy "Hurricane" Jackson in his last match before facing Moore, and won a rematch against him with a knockout. He then knocked out Pete Rademacher, won a decision against Roy Harris, and knocked out British contender Brian London. Next on his schedule was Johansson, who had become the Number 1 contender according to The Ring magazine, a.k.a. "The Bible of Boxing." Johansson was 21-0 as a professional; Patterson, 35-1, his only loss being a decision to former Light Heavyweight Champion Joey Maxim in 1954.

"Ingo" spoke English, and, to the American press, he called his right hand "Thunder" -- or, in his accent, "Toonder" -- and his left hand "Lightning." (His right was also nicknamed "Ingo's Bingo," and, in a nod to his Scandinavian heritage, "The Hammer of Thor.") When he climbed into the ring at Yankee Stadium on June 26, 1959, he showed everyone, especially Patterson, what he meant. He knocked Floyd down 7 times, before referee Ruby Goldstein, himself once a welterweight contender known as "The Jewel of the Ghetto," mercifully stopped the fight in the 3rd round.

The sports world was stunned. Floyd hadn't been considered unbeatable, but nobody expected Ingo to dispatch him so easily. Sports Illustrated named him its Sportsman of the Year, and he received the Hickok Belt as athlete of the year.

The S. Rae Hickok Professional Athlete of the Year award, known as the Hickok Belt, is a trophy that was awarded from 1950 to 1976. It was created by Ray and Alan Hickok, in honor of their father, Stephen Rae Hickock, who had died unexpectedly in 1945, and had founded the Hickok Manufacturing Company of Rochester, New York, a leather-producing company that made belts, hence the choice of a belt for the trophy. The winners were limited to 4 sports, and that's if you count golf as a sport, which I don't:

Boxing: Marciano in 1952, Carmen Basilio in 1957, Johansson in 1959, and Muhammad Ali in 1974.

Baseball: Phil Rizzuto in 1951, Allie Reynolds in 1951, Willie Mays in 1954, Mickey Mantle in 1956, Bob Turley in 1958, Roger Maris in 1961, Maury Wills in 1962, Sandy Koufax in 1963 and 1965, Frank Robinson in 1966, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, Tom Seaver in 1969, Brooks Robinson in 1970, Steve Carlton in 1972, and Pete Rose in 1975.

Football: Otto Graham in 1955, Jim Brown in 1964, Joe Namath in 1968 (probably awarded after Super Bowl III in January 1969), O.J. Simpson in 1973, and Ken Stabler in 1976

Golf: Ben Hogan in 1953, Arnold Palmer in 1960, and Lee Trevino in 1971.

No European had taken the Heavyweight Championship from an American since Primo Carnera beat Jack Sharkey in 1933. Johansson remains the last European to be the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World -- unless you count British fighters as "European," in which case it's Lennox Lewis. Johansson is also the last white man to be the undisputed Heavyweight Champ.

At that point, no former Heavyweight Champion had ever regained the crown. Many had tried, including Jim Jeffries against Jack Johnson in 1910, Jack Dempsey against Gene Tunney in 1927, Max Schmeling against Joe Louis in 1938, Louis against Ezzard Charles in 1950, Jersey Joe Walcott against Marciano in 1953, and Charles against Marciano twice in 1954.

On June 23, 1960, Patterson got a rematch against Johansson, at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, across the Harlem River from the site of his defeat. This time, with what boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar called the greatest left hook anyone had ever thrown before Joe Frazier, Floyd walloped Ingo in the 2nd round, and left him sprawled on the canvas. Floyd saw Ingo's leg twitching, and thought he'd killed him. It took 5 minutes for Ingo to regain consciousness. Floyd hadn't killed him, and had regained the title.

So there had to be a 3rd fight. This one wouldn't be in New York City. It was set for March 13, 1961, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The action started right away, with Patterson seeming to jump at Johansson in the 1st round, and Johansson knocked him down. Patterson got up at the count of 3. and later in the round, Johansson knocked him down again. He got up at the count of 2. Under today's rules, 2 knockdowns in 1 round would have meant, for the fighter's own safety, the fight was over.

But just 14 seconds after Patterson got up, he threw the left hook, and Johansson went down. He got up at the count of 2, and it was no longer clear that Ingo had won the round.

Things settled down a bit, but Floyd dominated the 4th and 5th rounds. Still, Ingo opened a cut over Floyd's left eye. At 1:52 of the 6th round, a left and a pair of rights put Ingo down, face-first, and he couldn't get up. Referee Bill Reagan counted him out, and Floyd had won.

At the time, a standard heavyweight prizefight was limited to 15 rounds. These 2 great fighters fought 3 times, and they totaled less than 11 rounds.

While SI named Ingo, a white man, its Sportsman of the Year for 1959, it did not name Floyd, a black man, for 1960 or 1961. However, 1960 was an Olympic year -- but, instead of Floyd, or any of the many black people who starred at the Olympics in Rome, they gave it to a white golfer, Arnold Palmer. And while they could have given their 1961 award to Floyd, or to home run record-breaker Roger Maris, who was white, they gave it to Jerry Lucas, a white college basketball star, who'd led his Ohio State team to the National Championship the year before, but, this time, had lost the NCAA Tournament Final.

Johansson fought only 4 more times, finishing 26-2, his only losses being to Patterson. Patterson kept going, and successfully defended the title once more, beating Tom McNeeley. But on September 25, 1962, Sonny Liston destroyed Patterson in the 1st round at Comiskey Park in Chicago, and took the title. Nine months later, in Las Vegas, Liston did it again: 1st round.

Patterson won 5 straight fights, then faced Muhammad Ali in Las Vegas in 1965. Ali had taken the title from Liston in Miami Beach, then beat him again in Lewiston, Maine. Patterson decided to turn Ali's famed mind games around on him, publicly referring to him by his birth name, Cassius Clay. It worked: Ali was really mad.

But it also backfired: Instead of going for the early knockout, like he usually did, Ali carried Patterson, pounding away but refusing to throw a genuine knockout punch, all the while asking him, "What's my name, fool?" Finally, the referee stopped the fight in the 12th round. Both men came away looking worse: Ali looked like a bully, Patterson like, as Ali put it, a fool.

Patterson kept fighting, until September 20, 1972, when, at age 37, he fought Ali for a 2nd time. In his interregnum between stripped of the title and regaining it, they fought at Madison Square Garden, and, seeing a bad cut over the eye of a heavily overmatched Patterson, the referee stopped the fight in the 7th round. Patterson retired at 55-8-1.

Patterson and Johansson remained friends, and occasionally flew across the Atlantic Ocean to visit each other. Patterson was named Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, which oversees boxing  in the State. By an odd coincidence, Tom McNeely once held the accompanying position in Massachusetts. And McNeely's son, "Hurricane" Peter McNeely, fought Tyson, who had broken Patterson's record for youngest Heavyweight Champion.

Patterson ran the 1983 New York City Marathon in 3 hours and 35 minutes, an extraordinary time for a 49-year-old man. He adopted a son, Tracy Harris Patterson, who won the WBC Super Bantamweight title in 1992, holding it for a little over 2 years; and the IBF Junior Lightweight title in 1995, holding it for 5 months. Although not biological, they were the 1st father & son to both be recognized as World Champions by at least one major boxing organization.

Unfortunately, boxing took its toll on both Johansson and Patterson. They both suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Patterson died on May 11, 2006; Johansson on January 30, 2009. Patterson lived his adult life in the Hudson Valley suburb of New Paltz, New York, and New Paltz High School named its stadium for him. A statue of Johansson stands outside the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, which, in 1958, hosted not only one of his fights, but 7 games of the World Cup.

*

March 13, 1961 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. And no games were scheduled by either the NBA or the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.

February 25, 1964: Muhammad Ali Becomes Heavyweight Champion of the World

February 25, 1964: The Miami Beach Convention Center hosts a fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

Neither fighter is popular. The Champion is Charles "Sonny" Liston, who had won the title in 1962, by knocking out the popular Floyd Patterson in the 1st round, then doing it again in the rematch. Liston was big, moody, nasty-looking, had served 2 years in prison for armed robbery, and wasn't exactly friendly with the media, or with anyone else.

The challenger is Cassius Clay. On the surface, the 22-year-old Clay seemed like the perfect antidote. He had won a Gold Medal for America at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He was a stylish fighter, already known for "dancing" in the ring. He made himself accessible to the media, predicting the round in which he would knock out his opponent (and frequently turning out to be right), and reciting poetry made up on the spot. He may have been the original battle-rapper.

And he was a good-looking guy. As he said himself, comparing himself to Liston, "He's too ugly to be the world's champ! The world's champ should be pretty, like me!"

Still, a lot of people didn't like Clay. They saw him as a young upstart, a braggart, an egomaniac. The native of Louisville, Kentucky was nicknamed the Louisville Lip. If he'd been white, they might have called him "the Mouth of the South." Being black didn't help: Lots of white people didn't like that a black man was talking so big. Liston was also black, so bigots didn't like either man.

An interviewer asked Clay what percentage of the fans were coming to see him, as opposed to coming to see Liston. He said, "Well, 100 percent are coming to see me, but 99 percent are coming to see me get beat. Because they think I talk too much."

Liston was 35-1 as a professional fighter, his only loss a split decision 10 years earlier. His last 3 fights, including his dethroning of Patterson and a rematch with him, had all ended in 1st-round knockouts. Twice, he had beaten rising contender Cleveland Williams, in a total of 5 rounds. He had knocked out rising contender Zora Folley in the 3rd round. Of his last 8 fights, only 1 had gone beyond the 4th round.

The Las Vegas oddsmakers posted 8-1 odds in Liston's favor. Hardly anybody was willing to publicly say that Clay would win.

But Clay was sure he could. He had been trained to believe that by his trainers, Angelo Dundee and Drew Brown. Brown -- whom Ali always called "Bodini," a variation on his middle name, Bundini -- gave the boxing starlet his first big quote:

Float like a butterfly,
sting like a bee!
The hand can't hit
what the eye can't see!

Sometimes, to psych Clay up, Brown would look him in the eye, and, together, they would yell, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! Ahhhh! Rumble, young man, rumble! Ahhhh!" Clay was telling people, "I am the greatest!" Brown was telling him, "Born the champ in the crib!" Dundee wasn't yelling or creating quotes, but he and Brown were both getting him ready.

So when the fight with Liston for the title came, everyone wanted to know when he was going to knock out Liston. He said:

For those of you unable to watch the Clay-Liston fight, here is the 8th round, exactly as it will happen:

Clay comes out to meet Liston, and Liston starts to retreat!
If Liston backs up any further, he'll end up in a ringside seat!
Clay swings with his left! Clay swings with his right!
Look at young Cassius carry the fight!
Liston keeps backing, but there's not enough room!
It's just a matter of time: There! Clay lowers the boom!
Liston crashes through the roof with a terrible sound!
But the ref can't start counting until Sonny comes down!
Liston disappears from view! The crowd is getting frantic!
But our radar stations have picked him up: He's somewhere over the Atlantic!
Who would've thought when they came to the fight
that they'd witness the launching of a human satellite!
The crowd did not dream when they put down their money
that they would see a total eclipse of the Sonny!

Like Star Wars character Han Solo, this was a man you would never tell the odds. He'd tell anyone who would listen, especially Liston, "If you'd like to lose your money, be a fool and bet on Sonny!"

Clay was in Liston's head, citing his appearance, his courage, and his age: "You're 40 years old, if a day, and you don't belong in the ring with Cassius Clay!" (Like Archie Moore, whom Clay had demolished in 4 rounds, 2 years earlier, nobody really knew how old Liston was. Officially, he was 31, but nobody believed he was that young.) Sportswriter Bert Sugar, who knew more about boxing than any man alive, said, "Liston could handle anything except crazy people. And Clay, then his name, struck Liston as a crazy person."

In the 1st 4 rounds, Clay danced around the ring, and Liston hardly laid a glove on him. With advantages in height, reach and speed, Cassius messed Sonny's face up. Liston knew he was in trouble, and that cheating might get him out of it. In the 5th, he got his glove into Clay's eye, and suddenly, Clay started blinking. He couldn't see. And Liston finally started landing punches.

When Clay got back to his stool, he was, for the first time in his boxing career, scared. He told Dundee, "I can't see! Cut the gloves off!"

History -- that of boxing, and that of American culture -- hung in the balance at that moment. Everything this boxing contender would become, and everything he would come to mean to anyone, might not have happened.

Dundee saw a white powder on Clay's glove, from where he'd wiped it out of his eye. Dundee washed Clay's eyes out, and, acting as "bad cop" to Brown's "good cop," told him that he was too close to winning the title to give up now. He told Clay to use his great footwork to stay out of Liston's way until his eyes cleared, and then go after him again.

He did. The film shows Clay pretty much dancing away from Liston's blows in the 5th and 6th rounds. Late in the 6th, Clay's eyes cleared, and he resumed his methodical demolition of Liston's face.

The bell rang for the 7th round, and Clay was ready to finish the job. Liston decided that, his cheating unsuccessful, the job was finished. He quit on his stool. Cassius Clay was the Heavyweight Champion of the World.

On the surviving TV broadcast, he can be heard yelling, "I just knocked out Sonny Liston, I don't have a mark on my face, I just became the world's champ, and I'm only 22 years old! I must be the greatest! He wanted to go to heaven, so I knocked him out in seven! I am the king of the world! I'm pretty! I'm a bad man! I shook up the world! I shook up the world! I shook up the world!"

Certainly, he'd thrilled the world. But the shakeup was yet to come.

"I'm young, I'm handsome, I'm fast, I'm pretty, and can't possibly be beat!"

As it turned out, there was one man who could beat Cassius Clay. He even wiped him out of existence. And his name was Muhammad Ali.

Over the next 10 years, the world would change tremendously, and Ali would be one of the reasons why. He would become perhaps the most hated man in America, including by many people who would have been expected to be among his biggest fans. But times would change, and the general perception of him changed with them. When he won the title for the 2nd time, on October 30, 1974, he would be the most popular man in the world.

The comedy team of Key & Peele appeared in a 2013 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, with Keegan-Michael Kay playing Michael Jordan, and, with some irony, Jordan Peele playing Muhammad Ali.

*

February 25, 1964 was a Tuesday. Baseball was about to start Spring Training, and football was in its off-season, so no games were played in those sports. And there were no NHL games scheduled for that day. But 3 NBA games were scheduled:

* At Madison Square Garden in New York (the old one, at 49th Street & 8th Avenue), the Boston Celtics beat the New York Knicks, 114-102.

* At the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center, the St. Louis Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 115-107. (The Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.)

* And at the Cow Palace in the San Francisco suburb of Daly City, California, the San Francisco Warriors beat the Cincinnati Royals, 117-108. Wilt Chamberlain scored 52 points for the Warriors. (They changed their name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971, upon their move across the Bay to Oakland. In 1972, the Royals moved, becoming the Kansas City Kings. In 1985, they moved to Sacramento.)