October 28, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis Is Resolved

Herbert Block (Herblock) cartoon in The Washington Post,

November 1, 1962: JFK says, "Let's get a lock for this thing."

October 28, 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis is resolved, as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev

announces that he has ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba, as demanded by President John F. Kennedy.

In a secret deal between them, JFK agrees to the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. The fact that the Turkey part of the deal is not made public makes it look like the Soviets have backed down, rather than that the deal was a true compromise.

On October 25, Adlai Stevenson, the former 2-time Democratic nominee for President who was now the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, attended an emergency session of the U.N.'s Security Council. The Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Zorin, said, "Falsity is what the United States has in its hands, false evidence."

Except it wasn't false. Unlike Colin Powell, addressing the threat of Iraq in the same room 40 years later, Stevenson actually had proof that America's would-be opponent had weapons of mass destruction, only 90 miles from the coast of Florida.

He forcefully asked Zorin if his country was installing missiles in Cuba. Like every delegate, he was wearing a headset, into which someone who spoke both his language and that of the speaker was translating. But Stevenson knew that Zorin spoke English, and demanded an answer, his voice rising:

All right, sir, let me ask you one simple question: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed, and is placing, medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don’t wait for the translation! Yes or no?

Zorin refused to answer. Stevenson said, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over, if that's your decision. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room." Zorin remained silent. Stevenson passed the photos around -- taken by a U-2 "spy plane." It had been nearly 2 1/2 years since the Soviets had shot one down over their territory, casting a pall over the last year in office of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. But "Ike" and JFK had both kept the U-2s flying, and it's a good thing they did.

Everyone was on edge. My mother was a junior in high school, and on the Friday, October 26, one of her teachers gave homework, and said that if you didn't want to do it, that's okay, because we might not have school on Monday -- or ever again. 

There were at least 3 false alarms at U.S. military bases, including a bear that had wandered on and touched a fence, setting off an intruder alert.

Much of the world thought that this was it, that World War III was assured, that the NFL and AFL games of this day might be the last sporting events that they'd ever see, or even that they would be prevented. They weren't, because Kennedy and Khrushchev both understood that nobody "wins" a nuclear war, they settled the Crisis on terms acceptable to both countries, and the world moved on.

One event the world moved on to was the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed on July 26, 1963 by JFK, Khrushchev, and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, banning nuclear testing in the atmosphere -- including above the Arctic Circle.

Another was the establishment of the Hot Line, a direct connection between the White House and the Kremlin, to make for quicker diplomacy, in the hope that something like the Cuban Missile Crisis would never happen again. The Hot Line has been used a few times since, and nothing like the Cuban Missile Crisis has.

*

October 28, 1962 was a Sunday. The baseball season ended on October 16, as the New York Yankees beat the San Francisco Giants 1-0 in Game 7 of the World Series, the 1st Series to be between a team on the Atlantic Coast and a team on the Pacific Coast. (The Dodgers had already been in a World Series since their move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, in 1959, but their opponent was the Chicago White Sox, not a coastal team. The Dodgers won it.)

There was 1 NBA game played that day. The Cincinnati Royals beat the San Francisco Warriors, 131-130 at the Cincinnati Gardens. The Warriors were in their 1st season on the Coast, after playing in Philadelphia. They changed their name to the Golden State Warriors in 1971.

Wilt Chamberlain scored 53 points and grabbed 27 rebounds. Just another day at the office for the greatest basketball player who ever lived. But Oscar Robertson, himself a serious contender for that title, scored 36 to lead the team now named the Sacramento Kings to victory.

For the NHL, this was the "Original Six" era, and 4 of the 6 played. The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins did not play.

And there was football. In the NFL, at the original Yankee Stadium. Y.A. Tittle tied an NFL record with 7 touchdown passes, and the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins 49-34.

Tittle is 1 of 8 NFL quarterbacks to have thrown 7 touchdown passes in a single game. Sid Luckman of the Chicago Bears did it against the Giants in 1943. Adrian Burk of the Philadelphia Eagles did it against the Redskins in 1954. Although it was in the AFL, the NFL counts George Blanda of the Houston Oilers doing it against the New York Titans (the Jets) in 1961. Joe Kapp of the Minnesota Vikings did it against the Baltimore Colts in 1969.

It was done twice in 2013, by Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos against the Baltimore Ravens, and by Nick Foles of the Philadelphia Eagles against the Oakland Raiders. In 2015, the Giants were victimized again, by Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints.

Also on October 28, 1962:

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Baltimore Colts, 17-6 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Johnny Unitas was the greatest quarterback of the era, but Vince Lombardi was the best coach and the best general manager, and had built the best team. From September 24, 1961 to September 13, 1964, the Packers went 38-5-1, including winning the 1961 and 1962 NFL Championship Games.

* The Cleveland Browns beat their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 41-14 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys, 28-24 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, 11-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings, 31-21 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Los Angeles Rams beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, 28-14 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

In the upstart American Football League:

* The New York Titans beat the San Diego Chargers, 23-3 at the Polo Grounds in New York. The Titans changed their name to the New York Jets the next year.

* The Boston Patriots beat the Oakland Raiders, 26-16 at Boston University Field. The stadium would be renamed Nickerson Field in 1964, and the team would be renamed the New England Patriots upon their move to suburban Foxborough, Massachusetts in 1971.

* The Dallas Texans beat the Houston Oilers, 31-7 at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston. The teams would meet again in the AFL Championship Game, and the Texans won. The next year, though, tired of trying to compete for attention with the NFL's Cowboys, they moved, becoming the Kansas City Chiefs.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Denver Broncos, 45-38 at Bears Field in Denver. Bears Field would be expanded and turned into the original Mile High Stadium.

And actress Daphne Zuniga was born.

August 15, 1968: The NBA's Civil Rights Game & Telethon

August 15, 1968: A charity basketball game is played by NBA stars, in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had been assassinated 4 months earlier.

The game was played outdoors, at the Singer Bowl, built in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park as one of the venues of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. Proceeds would be split between Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and New York City Mayor John Lindsay’s Youth and Physical Fitness Fund.

The game became a telethon: Organizer Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals was the president of the players' union, the NBA Players Association. He and Larry Fleisher, the union's director, handling legal matters, convinced New York's WPIX-Channel 11 to broadcast it. On the site, they had operators working a battery of telephones, and, instead of commercial breaks, entertainment personalities appeared on screen to collect pledges throughout the night.

Wilt Chamberlain, newly traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, played on the West team. The East team was captained by Robertson, and featured 2 hometown players, New York Knicks Willis Reed and Walt Bellamy. The West won, 77-61. The game raised $85,000 -- about $715,000 in 2022 money.

“It was the kind of show men of good will or all creeds could appreciate,” Norm Miller wrote in the New York Daily News.

Robertson has said he’s proud to see how players have continued using their platforms: "I think players today are more informed about what's going on, and also they have a great advantage of getting their voices out to people because of the social media and whatnot. I'm so glad that the NBA and the players association have gotten together to try to confront all these issues."

Officially, NBA players began participating in games that were scheduled to celebrate and honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1986, when the federal holiday commemorating the civil-rights leader was observed for the first time.

Robertson knows the tradition dates back long before that: "What happened years ago with Dr. King is still part of our social fiber."

The Singer Bowl became Louis Armstrong Stadium, part of the National Tennis Center, site of the U.S. Open. It was torn down, and in 2018 was replaced on the same site with a new Louis Armstrong Stadium, with a retractable roof.

*

August 15, 1968 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at the Oakland Coliseum. John "Blue Moon" Odom outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. Mickey Mantle, in his final season, hit his 533rd career home run. Reggie Jackson, with the A's and in his 1st full season, hit his 23rd. Mickey would finish with 536, all with the Yankees; Reggie would finish with 563, 144 of them with the Yankees.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Gary Bell pitched a 4-hit shutout. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-2 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Steve Blass pitched a 4-hit shutout. Roberto Clemente did not play. Willie Stargell went 0-for-3 with a walk. Willie Mays went 0-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 8-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Nelson Briles pitched a 7-hit shutout. Ernie Banks did not get any of those hits, going 0-for-4. Mike Shannon went 3-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs.

* A doubleheader was split at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Baltimore Orioles won the opener, 4-3. The Minnesota Twins won the nightcap, 2-1.  Harmon Killebrew did not play in either game. Rod Carew went 1-for-3 with an RBI in the opener, and pinch-hit into a fielder's choice with an RBI in the nightcap. Brooks Robinson hit a solo home run in the opener, but went 1-for-8 overall. Frank Robinson did not play in the opener, and in the nightcap, went 0-for-2 with a walk and an RBI on a fielder's choice.

* The California Angels beat the Washington Senators, 3-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the New York Mets, the Atlanta Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cleveland Indians, and the team that would go on to win the World Series that season, the Detroit Tigers, were not scheduled to play.

May 12, 1974: The End of the NBA's 1st Great Era

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, guarded by

Dave Cowens (left) and Don Nelson (right)

May 12, 1974: The Boston Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 102-87, at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena (The MECCA). This was the Celtics' 12th title, but their first without Bill Russell.

The Bucks were in their 2nd Finals, having won the title in 1971, but it took 50 years for them to get back, before they won the title in 2021. In between, they'd usually been good, but not Finals good.

This was also the last game for Oscar Robertson, closing out his career with the Bucks. In fact, this game was the end of an era for the NBA, as legends Jerry West, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, and Robertson's former Cincinnati Royals teammate Jerry Lucas announced their retirements. So would Wilt Chamberlain, although he hadn't played this season, due to a contract dispute between the NBA and the ABA.

A year and a half later, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar demanded a trade, and got it, going to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Bucks were usually good thereafter, but they would not return to the NBA Finals until 2021.

The 1974 NBA Finals was the end of an era, when men were men, and pretty much only the people in the arena saw the game, because television coverage was so rare. The era of Dr. J, Skywalker, Chocolate Thunder, Magic, Larry, the Human Highlight Film and Air Jordan, an era where substance took a back seat to style, was about to begin. The NBA made a lot more money during that period. But it was not better.

*

May 12, 1974 was a Sunday. The ABA Championship had been won 2 days earlier, by the New York Nets over the Utah Stars.

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals was played that day. The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, and went on to win the series in 7 games. The WHA Playoffs were between the Semifinals and the Finals. The Houston Aeros went on to sweep the Chicago Cougars in 4 straight.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees were swept in a doubleheader by the Milwaukee Brewers, at Shea Stadium, where the Yankees were groundsharing with the Mets while Yankee Stadium was renvoated. The Brewers won the opener, 7-3. Clyde Wright outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. George "Boomer" Scott went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs. Lou Piniella hit a home run.

The Brewers won the nightcap, 5-1. Kevin Kobel outpitched Dick Woodson. Dave May homered for the Brewers. Rick Dempsey, later to be traded to the Baltimore Orioles, where he would not be available to succeed Thurman Munson as the Yankees' catcher (Munson was the designated hitter in this game, after catching the opener.)

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. George Mitterwald singled Matt Alexander home, off Tom Seaver, in the bottom of the 9th. José Cardenal hit a home run for the Cubs, Rusty Staub for the Mets.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-7 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-3 with a walk. Mike Anderson hit a home run. For the Pirates, Willie Stargell went 0-for-4 with a walk, but Richie Zisk went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs, and Al Oliver went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* A doubleheader was split at Atlanta Stadium. (It was renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium the next season.) The Atlanta Braves won the 1st game, 5-1. Hank Aaron went 2-for-3 with a walk and his 721st career home run, before being taken out of the lineup. He did not play in the 2nd game, which the San Francisco Giants won, 6-2.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept the Houston Astros, 5-0 and 4-2 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Fred Norman pitched a 5-hit shutout in the 1st game. Merv Rettenmund hit home runs in both games. Over the 2 games, Pete Rose went 2-for-7 with a walk and an RBI, while Johnny Bench went 2-for-7 with a home run, a walk and an RBI.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Dick McAuliffe, the Tigers' long-time 2nd baseman, doubled Carl Yastrzemski home in the top of the 10th inning, to win the game for the Red Sox. Yastrzemski went 2-for-4 with a walk. Al Kaline went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 15-9 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). The Padre bullpen melted down in the top of the 13th inning, so if new team owner Ray Kroc thought Opening Day was "the most stupid ballplaying I've ever seen," then he hadn't seen anything yet.

* The Kansas City Royals swept a doubleheader from the California Angels, 3-2 and 5-2 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Hal McRae singled Amos Otis home in the top of the 9th to win the 1st game. The Royals scored all 5 runs of the 2nd game in the 8th inning. George Brett did not play in the 1st game, and went 0-for-2 in the 2nd game before being replaced. He may have been injured.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 9-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Reggie Jackson did not play. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-2 with a walk. Rod Carew went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on July 25. The Indians swept, 8-7 and 5-4. They won the 2nd game when Tommy McCraw singled John Ellis home in the bottom of the 13th inning.

* And the Montreal Expos and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Jarry Park in Montreal. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 6. The Cards swept, 5-4 and 9-4.

April 30, 1971: A Title for Oscar Robertson

April 30, 1971: The Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA Championship, in only their 3rd season. It remains a record for the NBA.

It took them half a century to win another.

The Bucks and the Phoenix Suns had both come into the NBA as expansion teams for the 1968-69 season. Like most expansion teams, both of them struggled: The Bucks finished last in the Eastern Division with a record of 27 wins and 55 losses, while the Suns finished with the worst record in the entire league, at 16-66. By all rights, they should have had the top pick in the 1969 NBA Draft.

But, at the time, a coin flip between the teams with the 2 worst records was held to decide who got the rights to the 1st overall pick. The idea was that a team trying to lose in order to get the top pick -- "tanking" would eventually become the expression -- might end up losing it to the team with the 2nd-worst record.

The Bucks won the coin flip, and, naturally, they picked Lew Alcindor, the center who had led UCLA to the last 3 National Championships. Alcindor had already converted to Islam, and, after the 1971-72 season, he announced that he had changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Lew/Kareem immediately turned the Bucks from a 27-55 team into a 56-26 team, and a Division Champion. In the 1970 off-season, the Bucks made a trade with the Seattle SuperSonics, acquiring guard Lucius Allen, Kareem's UCLA teammate.

And they acquired Cincinnati Royals star Oscar Robertson, perhaps the best all-around player the game had ever seen. "The Big O" had come from Indianapolis, and had gotten the University of Cincinnati into what would eventually be called the NCAA Final Four in 1959 and 1960. For 10 years, he starred for the Royals, setting NBA career records for assists and steals (both of them since broken).

In the years to come, having a "triple-double" -- double figures, 10 or more, in points and 2 of 3 other categories, rebounds, assists and steals -- in a single game is considered a big deal. The term wasn't yet in use in 1961-62, but, that season, Robertson averaged a triple-double per game: 30.8 points, 11.4 assists, and 12.5 rebounds. There is no record of how many steals he had, or averaged: He might have averaged a quadruple-double for the season.

But despite having Robertson, rebound specialist Jerry Lucas, and another All-Star, Jack Twyman, the Royals never reached the NBA Finals. In fact, to this day, the franchise, which has been the Sacramento Kings since 1985, has only reached the Finals once, when they won the 1951 NBA Championship as the Rochester Royals.

The closest they got was reaching the Eastern Division Finals, in 1963 and 1964, losing to the Boston Celtics both times. It's also no coincidence that those were the 2 seasons between the move of the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco and the Warriors trading Wilt Chamberlain to the team that replaced them, the Philadelphia 76ers. (The Warriors lost the 1964 NBA Finals to the Celtics.) Indeed, from 1956 to 1969, 14 seasons, the Eastern Division playoff title was won by the Celtics or a Philadelphia team every year.

Finally, before the 1970-71 season, Robertson was traded to the Bucks. Today, we would say that Milwaukee were trying to "build a superteam," with Larry Costello, who played on the 1967 NBA Champion Philadelphia 76ers, coaching Alcindor at center, Bob Boozer and Bob Dandridge at forward, and Robertson and Allen at guard, with good reserves in Jon McGlocklin and McCoy McLemore. Alcindor/Abdul-Jabbar (33), Robertson (1), Dandridge (10) and McGlocklin (14, which had been Robertson's number in Cincinnati) would all get their numbers retired by the Bucks.

The Bucks beat the San Francisco Warriors in the 1st round of the Playoffs, then eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. They would play the Baltimore Bullets, who had beaten the 76ers, and then the defending NBA Champion New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Coached by Gene Shue, the Bullets were favored. They had Earl "the Pearl" Monroe, the flashiest player in the game. They had Gus Johnson, one of the game's early dunk artists. And they had Wes Unseld, one of the NBA's earliest true power forwards. All 3 would make the Basketball Hall of Fame, as would Bucks Robertson and Abdul-Jabbar.

Game 1 was on April 21, at the at the Milwaukee Arena. In 1974, it was renamed the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena. (Kareem's thoughts on that nickname -- and on New York's Madison Square Garden being known as "the Mecca of Basketball" and "the Mecca of Boxing" -- are not publicly known.) The Bucks won, 98-88. Game 2 was 4 days later, at the Baltimore Civic Center. In a stunning results, the Bucks won that game in a blowout, 102-83.

The MECCA

Game 3 was 3 days later, in Milwaukee, and the Bucks won, 107-99. Just 2 nights later, in Baltimore, the Bucks finished the job, 118-106. The Bucks seemed to do better in Baltimore than they did in Milwaukee.

The Baltimore Civic Center

For the great Oscar, it was his one and only title. For Kareem, it was his 1st of 6 – but the only one in Milwaukee. In 1974, the Bucks returned to the Finals, losing to the Celtics. Game 7 of that Finals was Robertson's last game, as he retired.

In 1975, thinking that Milwaukee had become too small for him, or perhaps that he was too big for it, Kareem demanded a trade.  For most athletes, this would be considered a very arrogant thing, but he had proved that he was now too big for them. And so, he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would win 5 more Championships, and become the NBA's all-time leading scorer.

For the 1973-74 season, the Bullets moved to the next-closest city, becoming the Capital Bullets for 1 season, then the Washington Bullets. In 1997, they moved from the suburbs of Washington to the District of Columbia itself, and became the Washington Wizards. The Baltimore Civic Center still stands, under the name of the CFG Bank Arena.

The Bucks were usually a good team after 1974, at one point winning 7 straight Division titles. But they didn't get back to even the Conference Finals until 2001, and finally won another NBA Championship in 2021. They moved from the MECCA to the Bradley Center, across the street, in 1988; and up one more block to the Fiserv Center in 2018. The MECCA is now home to the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and is named the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

Oscar and Kareem were named to the NBA's 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams. So were Bullets Monroe and Unseld.

*

April 30, 1971 was a Friday. The American Basketball Association was between its Division Finals and its Finals. The Utah Stars went on to beat the Kentucky Colonels in 7 games.

Football was out of season. The NHL was in the Stanley Cup Semifinals, with the Montreal Canadiens beating the Minnesota North Stars, and the Chicago Black Hawks beating the New York Rangers.

The day before this, the Rangers won Game 6 on a goal by Pete Stemkowski in the 3rd overtime. I considered making a separate entry for that event, since it's still considered one of the biggest wins in Ranger history. But the Hawks won Game 7 on May 2, so the Stemkowski goal turned out to be, however dramatic, ultimately meaningless, much like the Carlton Fisk home run 4 years later.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Yankee Stadium. Steve Kline went the distance for the win, and got 2 of the Yankees' 5 hits.

* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Ken Boswell singled Bud Harrelson home with the winning run in the top of the 12th inning.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI. Rod Carew did not play.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators, 8-1 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Diego Padres, 5-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell each went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Juan Marichal started for the Giants, but Jerry Johnson ended up as the winning pitcher. Willie Mays went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Johnny Bench hit 2 home runs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Chris Short pitched a 4-hit shutout. Ernie Banks, in his final season, appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. The O's scored a run in the top of the 9th, but Freddie Patek singled Paul Schaal home with the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Frank Robinson appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the California Angels, 7-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Vida Blue went the distance for the win. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

March 21, 1963: Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Closes

March 21, 1963: The United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, is closed after 28 years of operation.

"Alcatraz" is a Spanish word meaning "the gannet," for the pelican-like birds that the original Spanish settlers found on the island. The Island had been home to a U.S. Army fort since 1859, and had included a military prison since 1912. As a military prison, among those housed there were conscientious objectors from serving in World War I, including Philip Grosser, who called it "America's Devil's Island," after the French island prison off the coast of French Guiana in South America.

Alcatraz opened as a civilian federal prison on August 11, 1934, with the first batch of 137 prisoners arrived at Alcatraz from the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. It was intended for prisoners who continuously caused trouble at other federal prisons. It would be a "last resort prison," to hold "the worst of the worst," who had no hope of rehabilitation. The island became adapted and used as a prison after the buildings were modernized and security increased.

Given this high security and the island's location in the cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America's strongest prison. An escape attempt on May 2, 1946 resulted in what became known as "The Battle of Alcatraz": Six men attempted to escape, but, seeing the odds against them, three turned back. The other three were killed by U.S. Marines stationed on the island.

No one ever escaped from Alcatraz. The legend that anyone did comes from an attempt on June 11, 1962: Armed robber Frank Morris, and bank-robbing brothers John and Clarence Anglin, made their way through a ventilation shaft, slid down a kitchen vent pipe, then climbed perimeter fences lined with barbed wire, before making their way to an inflated raft. They tried to reach Angel Island, 2 miles to the north.

On June 14, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter found a paddle about 200 yards off Angel Island. Later that day, in the same area, workers on a private boat found a wallet, whose contents suggested it belonged to one of the Anglins. On June 21, shreds of cloth believed to be remnants of the raft were found on a beach near the Golden Gate Bridge. The FBI's report stated, "The individuals' personal effects were the only belongings they had, and the men would have drowned before leaving them behind." The reason people still cling to the belief that the escape was successful is that the bodies were never found. They are likely at the bottom of the Bay.

A 1959 report indicated that the facility was over 3 times more expensive to run than the average American prison. The problem was made worse by the buildings' structural deterioration from exposure to salt spray, which would require $5 million to fix. Major repairs began in 1958, but by 1961, engineers considered the prison a lost cause. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy submitted plans for a new maximum-security institution at Marion, Illinois. Alcatraz was closed on March 21, 1963, and its prisoners moved to other federal pens.

Alcatraz has been reopened as a public museum. It is one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions, operated by the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area, attracting some 1.5 million visitors annually. Visitors arrive by boat and are given a tour of the cellhouse and island, and a slide show and audio narration with anecdotes from former inmates, guards and rangers on Alcatraz.

As of March 21, 2022, there are 2 men still alive who had been prisoners at Alcatraz: Bill Baker, age 88, convicted of check fraud; and Robert Schibline, also 88, bank robbery.

*

March 21, 1963 was a Thursday. Dutch soccer player and manager Ronald Koeman was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. One game was played in the NBA: The Cincinnati Royals beat the Syracuse Nationals, 133-115 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson was a one-man wrecking crew for the Royals, with 41 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists, what would later be called a "triple-double." The preceding season, he had averaged a triple-double for the entire season, not that anybody kept track of such things at the time. That wouldn't be done again until Russell Westbrook did it in 2017.

And there was 1 game played in the NHL. The New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 2-2 at the Boston Garden. Johnny Bucyk and Ted Green scored for Boston, Camille Henry and former Bruin Don McKenney for New York. The Bruins' Jean-Guy Gendron, a former Ranger, was given a game misconduct (meaning he was thrown out of the game) at 7:07 of the 1st period, but Hockey-Reference.com doesn't say why.

January 27, 1967: The Apollo 1 Fire

Left to right: Ed White, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee

January 27, 1967: America experiences its 1st space program tragedy.

Astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, one of the original "Mercury 7"; Edward H. White II, the 1st American to make a spacewalk; and Roger B. Chaffee, a Navy pilot and engineer who was preparing for his 1st spaceflight, were undergoing a rehearsal for the launch of Apollo 1, meant to launch on February 21. An electrical fire spread through the capsule, killing them.

Grissom was 40 years old, White 36, Chaffee 31.

The tragedy set the U.S. space program back. The 1st manned Apollo flight, Apollo 7, wouldn't get off the ground until October 11, 1968 -- almost 2 years later, and putting President John F. Kennedy's end-of-decade (December 31, 1969) goal in serious jeopardy.

Apollo 8 broke Earth orbit, and orbited the Moon on December 21, 1968. Apollo 9 demonstrated the use of the lunar module on March 7, 1969. Apollo 10 was the "dress rehearsal," as the lunar module got to within 50,000 feet of the Moon's surface on May 22, 1969.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong took his walk, and then Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin took his.

*

January 27, 1967 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. And no NHL games were scheduled. But there were 3 games played in the NBA that night:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 112-106 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Cincinnati Royals, 110-107 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. This game featured possibly the two greatest players in the sport's history. For the Royals, Oscar Robertson had 39 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. But, for the Sixers, Wilt Chamberlain had 17 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. Hal Greer scored 25 for the Sixers.

* And the San Francisco Warriors beat the Baltimore Bullets, 143-116 at the Cow Palace in the San Francisco suburb of Daly City, California. Rick Barry scored 39 for the Warriors.