August 6, 1966: The Beatles "Get Canceled" by America's Religious Right

The Beatles, on their 1966 World Tour,

looking uneasy, maybe even shellshocked.

Which would have been understandable.

August 6, 1966: What would later be called "cancel culture" hits the biggest act in world entertainment at the time: The Beatles.

On March 4, 1966, The Evening Standard, a London-based newspaper but, like many, serving Great Britain nationally, published an article titled "How Does a Beatle Live?" written by Maureen Cleave. She had interviewed all 4 group members regularly, and accompanied them on their 1st visit to America in February 1964. She is widely believed to have had an affair with John, and to have been the subject of his song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)."

In her latest interview with John Lennon, she portrayed him as restless and searching for meaning in his life. The year before, he had written the song "Help!" While most American teenagers thought it was just a great rock and roll song, it was more than that: John was physically and mentally exhausted from 2 years of nonstop Beatlemania, and all the money he'd made hadn't reduced his stress. So he really was looking for help and meaning.

He and bandmate George Harrison had been reading about religion. Unlike George, who found a connection with Eastern, especially Indian, faiths, John found no comfort in it. Cleave quoted him as saying:

Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

People in Britain barely noticed: The article provoked no controversy there. Church attendance there was in decline, and Christian churches were attempting to transform their image, to make themselves more "relevant to modern times."

At first, that was also the case in America. Later in March, Newsweek printed the quote. In May, Detroit magazine printed the interview. On July 3, The New York Times Magazine printed it. Still, there was no reaction worth mentioning.

On July 29, Datebook magazine published the interview, and also Cleave's most recent interview with Paul McCartney, in its September 1966 "Shout-Out" issue, which was dedicated to controversial youth-orientated themes, including recreational drugs, sex, long hair, and the Vietnam War.

Although only Paul was shown on the cover, Art Unger, the magazine's editor, put a quote from Lennon's interview on the cover: "I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity!" In author Robert Rodriguez's description, the editor had chosen what he thought would be Lennon's "most damning comment" for maximum effect.

Except that wasn't the quote that upset people: It was the line, "We're more popular than Jesus now."

And he was right. Granted, 2,000 years from now, if human civilization survives, there will likely be more Bibles sold than Beatle albums. But, at the time, kids were more interested in 4 young men from current Liverpool than in 1 young man from ancient Israel and his 12 disciples.

The people that freaked out over John's remarks shouldn't have asked, "How dare he say that?" They should have asked, "What can we do to make Jesus, once again, more popular than The Beatles?" (Disclaimer: I don't have an answer now, and I probably wouldn't have had an answer had I been around then.)

In Birmingham, Alabama, WAQY disc jockey Tommy Charles said, on the air, "That does it for me. I am not going to play The Beatles anymore." He destroyed their records on the air. Local UPI reporter Al Benn filed a news report in New York City, culminating in a major story in The New York Times on August 5. Radio stations all over the country, including in supposedly liberal cities like New York and Boston, announced that they would no longer play Beatle songs.

On August 6 came the kind of event that one would have expected in Nazi Germany: In Reno, Nevada, station KCBN announced a public bonfire for that night, where the band's albums would be burned.

Many stations in Southern cities followed. Paul compared it to what the Nazis did with books they didn't like, and called it "hysterical low-grade American thinking."

Brian Epstein, the group's manager, who was Jewish, shrugged it off at first. saying, "If they burn Beatles records, they've got to buy them first." But then the press office at the Vatican -- though not Pope Paul VI himself -- weighed in, issuing this statement: "Some subjects must not be dealt with profanely, not even in the world of beatniks." Now, it wasn't just a bunch of ignorant, bigoted, archconservative Southern Baptists that were angry at the Fab Four: It was, officially, the Roman Catholic Church.

What's more, there were death threats. Now, John was scared: He had put his bandmates, and even their loved ones -- by this point, all but Paul were married, and John and Ringo Starr each had one son -- at physical risk. And so, for what turned out to be the only time in his public life, John Lennon ate crow, and apologized for something he'd said or done.

On August 11, the Beatles flew from London to Chicago, where the North American leg of their World Tour was to begin. That night, at the Astor Tower Hotel, at a press conference in front of TV cameras, John said, "I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have got away with it. I'm sorry I opened my mouth. I'm not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I was not knocking it. I was not saying we are greater or better."

He stressed that he had been remarking on how other people viewed and popularized the band. He described his own view of God by quoting the Bishop of Woolwich, "not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us."

He was adamant that he was not comparing himself with Christ, but attempting to explain the decline of Christianity in the UK. He closed with what could be considered a halfhearted apology: "If you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then, okay, I'm sorry." (Shades of more recent "I'm sorry if I offended anyone" statements.)

Most American journalists accepted this. A New York Times editorial said that the matter was over. Even the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano (The Roman Observer), decided that the apology was sufficient.

But it wasn't over. On August 13, in South Carolina, the Ku Klux Klan "crucified" a Beatles record on a large wooden cross, which they burned. On the same night, radio station KLUE in Longview, Texas held a Beatles bonfire. The next day, a lightning bolt struck its transmission tower, briefly knocking it off the air. Maybe this was God confirming that He had accepted John's apology as well.

It still wasn't over. On August 15, The Beatles played District of Columbia Stadium in Washington (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium), and the KKK picketed the concert. On August 19, The Beatles played their only scheduled concert in the South, at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis. The Klan picketed this show, too. During the concert, a spectator threw a firecracker onstage, and all 4 members later said that they thought someone had fired a gun.

(Memphis was, of course, the hometown of Elvis Presley. If anyone asked Elvis for his thoughts on the matter, they've never been made public.) 

To make matters worse, John couldn't keep his mouth shut. On August 17, before their concert at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, he gave his approval to Americans fleeing to Canada to avoid the military draft. At a press conference in New York before their concert at Shea Stadium on August 22, John said the Vietnam War was "wrong." The year before, they had filled all 55,000 available seats at the Flushing Meadow stadium. This time, "only" 40,000 showed up, with pickets both for and against them facing off against each other.

It was their most stressful tour ever, and George said he'd rather leave the band than ever go on another tour. They decided they wouldn't, and would be only a recording band from that point onward, although they did not publicly announce it yet. George agreed to stay -- for now.

The last concert on the tour was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29. They were supported by The Ronettes, The Cyrkle, Bobby Hebb, and The Remains. (The Cyrkle were also managed by Epstein's company.) Attendance: 25,000, meaning about 17,000 empty seats. (In 1971, the NFL's San Francisco 49ers joined baseball's San Francisco Giants there, leading to an expansion to 69,000 seats.)

As usual, they roared through their set, playing 11 songs in 33 minutes, unable to hear themselves over all the screaming, partly due to the fact that, in spite of having a year pass since their first round of stadium concerts, no one had yet figured out how to stage a rock concert in a ballpark. (By the 1970s, that problem would be solved.) The last song they played was a cover of Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally," sung by Paul.

While they'd decided not to tour again, even the four of them did not know that this would be their last paying concert together, ever. There would be the concert on the roof of the building where Apple Records was based, on January 30, 1969. And each of them would have notable solo gigs, with Paul and Ringo living and continuing to tour into the 2020s. But The Beatles would never have another official concert.

In 1970, for his solo album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John recorded a song titled "God," in which he rattled off things and people he didn't believe in: Magic, the I-Ching, the Bible, tarot cards, Adolf Hitler, Jesus, John F. Kennedy, Buddha, mantras, Gita, yoga, kings, Elvis, Zimmerman (meaning Bob Dylan), and, finally, The Beatles. He said, "I just believe in me. Yoko and me. And that's reality." In 1971, for his album Imagine, he recorded a song of the same title, asking people to imagine there's no Heaven or Hell, "and no religion, too."

In contrast, in 1970, for his solo album All Things Must Pass, George recorded "My Sweet Lord," in which he seemed to want to get to know God better -- but the background singers, after chanting, "Hallelujah," began chanting, "Hare Krishna," and moved on to chanting the names of the Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Maureen Cleave, who wrote the original article, died in 2021, at the age of 87.

*

August 6, 1966 was a Saturday. Back in Britain, a preseason exhibition game, or "friendly," was played between two of the most popular soccer teams in the country. Arsenal Football Club of North London traveled to Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, home of Rangers Football Club.

Arsenal were in a transition, having just survived relegation the season before, and had hired a new manager, Bertie Mee. He would build them into England's greatest team once again. But that would take 5 seasons. In contrast, Rangers were, as usual, one of the better teams in Scotland, and had won the Scottish Cup the last season. Rangers won this match, 2-0.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Bouton and Sam McDowell started, but, in relief, it was Whitey Ford who was the winning pitcher, and Luis Tiant the losing pitcher. Clete Boyer and Horace Clarke hit home runs. Neither Mickey Mantle nor Roger Maris played.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-8 at Shea Stadium. The Cardinals led 5-0 after 3 innings, then the Mets led 8-4 after 4, but the Cards won. Lou Brock went 2-for-4 with a walk, a stolen base and an RBI. Ken Boyer hit a home run for the Mets over the team he had captained to a World Championship, and won a Most Valuable Player award for, just 2 years earlier.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 6-5 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Hank Aaron went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Joe Torre went 2-for-5.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 4-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Dave McNally pitched a 7-hit shutout. Frank Robinson went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4, but had an RBI on a bases-loaded walk. Willie Stargell did not play. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Tony Conigliaro went 1-for-5. Al Kaline went 1-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Robin Roberts started for the Cubs, but only pitched 3 innings, and made just 5 more major league appearances before retiring. Willie Mays went 2-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-0 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Jim "Mudcat" Grant pitched a 4-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at the Astrodome in Houston. Don Drysdale outpitched Mike Cuellar.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 7-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

August 3, 1958: The Jehovah's Witnesses Produce Yankee Stadium's Biggest Crowd

August 3, 1958: The original Yankee Stadium has its biggest crowd ever. And it has nothing to do with baseball, or even with sports.

The Jehovah's Witnesses International Convention was held there, and the announced attendance was 123,707. Every permanent seat in the Stadium, 67,224, was filled. And there were temporary seats set up on the field. Across the Harlem River, at the Polo Grounds, the speakers from Yankee Stadium were piped in, and that old ballpark was also full, more full: 130,215. And while there were officials on hand, the main speakers were across the River, in The Bronx. Total: 253,922

Yankee Stadium had begun hosting the group in 1950, and continued there until 1989. Tony Morante, a teenage usher at the 1958 event (his father had also been a Stadium usher), and eventually the director of tours at Yankee Stadium, recalled that, at the end of every event, the Jehovah's Witnesses would clean up after themselves even better than the Stadium's grounds crew, as if no event had even been held.

In 1957, Billy Graham, the country's leading evangelist, brought 100,000 to his Crusade at Yankee Stadium, and The New York Times called it "the largest crowd in stadium history." The Archbishop of New York, Francis Cardinal Spellman, held a Mass there the same year, with a similarly large crowd. But the following year, the Jehovah's Witnesses put the record out of reach.

Not as big in terms of crowds, but perhaps more important, Yankee Stadium hosted the Masses of 3 Popes: Paul VI in 1965, the 1st Papal Mass ever held in the Western Hemisphere; John Paul II in 1979, and he subsequently held Mass at Shea Stadium and Madison Square Garden; and Benedict XVI in 2008, the Stadium's last year. (As of August 3, 2022, Pope Francis has been to America, but has not held Mass at the new Yankee Stadium.)

On September 23, 2001, Yankee Stadium hosted a memorial service for victims of the terrorist attacks of 12 days earlier, with speakers from several faiths, including Graham, and the Archbishop of New York at the time, Edward Cardinal Egan.

*

August 3, 1958 was, appropriately given the event, a Sunday. As was common at the time, all teams played doubleheaders on this Sunday:

* The New York Yankees, naturally, were on the road. They were swept in a doubleheader by the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 and 4-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. In the opener, Dick Donovan outpitched White Ford. Moose Skowron hit a home run. In the nightcap, Ray Moore pitched a 5-hit shutout, to beat Johnny Kucks. Over the 2 games, Mickey Mantle went 0-for-6 with a walk, and Yogi Berra went 1-for-7 with a walk.

* There was a split at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies won the 1st game, 8-2. The Chicago Cubs won the 2nd game, 12-10. Ernie Banks went 2-for-7 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates swept the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0 and 2-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. In the 1st game, Bob Friend allowed 9 hits, but kept the shutout. The losing pitcher was former New York Giants ace Sal Maglie, who pitched 4 more times that season, and retired. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 in each game. Stan Musial flew out as a pinch-hitter in the 1st game, and went 0-for-2 in the 2nd game before being replaced for defensive purposes.

* The Boston Red Sox swept the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 and 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Ted Williams went 1-for-3 with a home run and a walk in the 1st game. In the 2nd game, he first got the game off, then appeared as a pinch-hitter, and flew out.

* There was a split at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Redlegs in the 1st game, 8-6. John Roseboro hit 2 home runs, and Duke Snider hit 1. Sandy Koufax started for the Dodgers, but, not yet having found his control, didn't make it out of the 5th inning. Each team scored in the 9th inning. The Dodgers scored 2 runs in the top of the 10th, and the Redlegs (as the Reds were known from 1953 to 1959) couldn't score in the bottom of the 10th.

The Redlegs won the 2nd game, 3-1. Alex Kellner outpitched Don Drysdale. (The Koufax-Drysdale combination would go on to have better times.) Frank Robinson went 1-for-8 with a walk in the doubleheader.

* The Detroit Tigers swept the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2 and 4-1 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with an RBI in each game. Brooks Robinson grounded out as a pinch-hitter in the 1st game, and went 0-for-4 with a 2nd game.

* The Milwaukee Braves swept the San Francisco Giants, 4-3 and 6-0 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Warren Spahn pitched a 4-hit shutout in the 2nd game. Over the 2 games, Hank Aaron went 3-for-6 with 2 walks and an RBI. Willie Mays went 1-for-7 with a walk.

* There was a split at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. The Kansas City Athletics won the 1st game, 12-0. Once-and-future Yankee Ralph Terry pitched a 5-hit shutout. The Washington Senators won the 2nd game, 4-3. Eddie Yost singled Neil Chrisley home with the winning run in the top of the 15th inning. So the fans paid for 9 innings, and got 24 innings.

Another future Yankee, Roger Maris, went 4-for-5 with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs for the A's in the 1st game, but 0-for-5 with 2 walks in the 2nd game. Harmon Killebrew, then with the Senators, and still with them long after they moved to become the Minnesota Twins, was injured, and did not play in either game. 

April 8, 1966: Time Magazine's "Is God Dead?" Cover

April 8, 1966: Time magazine prints its most famous cover, asking a big question: "Is God Dead?"

Why did the question come up? The question was already steeped in German philosophy in the 19th Century. In 1797, German writer Jean Paul wrote Siebenkäs (Sevencheese), in which a character says, "'The Dead Christ Proclaims That There Is No God." Philipp Mainländer and George Hegel had also written on the subject. In 1862, French writer Victor Hugo had his character Gerard de Nerval say, "God is dead, perhaps" in Les Misérables.

In his 1882 book The Gay Science (sometimes translated as "The Joyful Science," it has nothing to do with homosexuality), Friedrich Nietzsche came right out and said it: "Gott ist tot." He said, "The belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable," adding that everything that was "built upon this faith, propped up by it, grown into it," including "the whole of European morality," is bound to "collapse." He repeated the line "God is dead" in his next and most-known book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

The World Wars of the 20th Century, in which both Germany as aggressor and the nations defending themselves used God as justification, would likely have convinced him that he was right, at least about the collapse part.

What's more, Nietzsche believed it was a good thing: He often wrote of an "overman" who was "beyond good and evil," superseding established concepts of what was moral and what was not. And that was part of the problem: After his death in 1900, this belief in an Übermensch was twisted into the official beliefs of the aggressors of the World Wars, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

It was an American of German descent, Otto Fuerbringer, who, as editor of Time, released that cover, the magazine's first without a photograph in its 43 years of publishing to that point. But the issue did not attempt to answer the question. In more recent terms, the cover was "clickbait."

The article accompanying the magazine cover, titled "Toward a Hidden God" and written by the magazine's religion editor, John T. Elson, mentioned the so-called "God Is Dead" movement only briefly in its introduction. In a footnote, it identified the leaders of the movement, and explained how those theologians had been trying to construct a theology without God.

Otto Fuerbringer

The article pointed out that, while this movement had roots in the philosophy of Nietzsche, it also drew on a broader range of thinkers, who had expressed concerns about the role of God in an increasingly secularized world. The immediate reality did not indicate a death of God, or a death of religion, and the article pointed out that the recent Second Vatican Council had done much to revitalize Christianity, and the Roman Catholic Church in particular.

The article cited a poll in which 97 percent of Americans declared a belief in God, but only 27 percent called themselves "deeply religious."

Time received around 3,500 letters to the editor, still the largest number of responses to any one story in the history of the magazine. In its issue of December 26, 1969, Time ran a follow-up cover story asking, "Is God Coming Back to Life"?

A month before the controversial cover, John Lennon of The Beatles gave an interview in which he said, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now." When it was published in the American magazine Datebook on July 29, evangelical Americans lost their minds, and convinced radio stations to ban the Beatles, and even held record burnings, as if it was Nazi Germany. Lennon had to apologize.

On November 29, 1993, Time did a cover story on psychology, discussing how people were moving away from the teachings of Sigmund Freud. Freud had died in 1939, and was famously atheist: He wouldn't have said God was dead, he would have said God never existed in the first place. But the 1993 cover showed a painting of Freud, with his head coming apart like pieces of a puzzle, asking, "Is Freud Dead?"

And on April 3, 2017, with Donald Trump having become President, despite so many of his statements having been proven to be lies, Time printed this cover.

Trump was defeated in 2020, so the answer was, "No, but it sure was sick for a while." (UPDATE: Trump was returned to the Presidency in 2024, indicating that truth remains seriously ill.)

Otto Fuerbringer died in 2008; John T. Elson, the following year.

*

April 8, 1966 was a Friday -- indeed, it was Good Friday, the traditional date of the Crucifixion of Jesus, with Easter to follow on Sunday. Actresses Cynthia Nixon and Robin Wright were born on this day.

The baseball season started 3 days later. Football was out of season. The NBA Playoffs were in the Divisional Finals, but both were between games. The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers in 5 games, while the Los Angeles Lakers needed 7 games to beat the St. Louis Hawks. The Celtics then beat the Lakers in the Finals.

And the Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but both Semifinal series were between games. The Montreal Canadiens would sweep the Toronto Maple Leafs in 4 straight, while the Detroit Red Wings would need 6 games to finish off the Chicago Black Hawks, and then the Canadiens would beat the Wings for the Cup. So there were no scores on this historic day.

February 2, 1942: C.S. Lewis Publishes "The Screwtape Letters"

February 2, 1942: C.S. Lewis publishes The Screwtape Letters, playing "Devil's advocate" -- more literally than most authors ever do.

Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He taught at Oxford University, where he became close friends with his colleague J.R.R. Tolkien, to whom The Screwtape Letters was dedicated. In 1937, Tolkein published The Hobbit, establishing himself as a prominent fantasy writer, and would write sequels in the 1950s, which became the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Tolkien was a Catholic. Lewis had been raised in largely-Catholic, but Protestant-controlled, Ireland as an atheist, but Tolkien's influence led him to Christianity. Except it was to the Protestant Church of England, so, from a certain point of view, Tolkien's efforts backfired somewhat.

Lewis' writings would be heavy with Christian imagery, including his own 1950s fantasy stories that would be collected under the title The Chronicles of Narnia. But before writing those, he wrote The Screwtape Letters.

The book consists of 31 letters by Screwtape, a senior demon, to his nephew, Wormwood, whose job it is to attain for Hell the soul of a British man identified in the text only as "The Patient." In these letters, Screwtape gives his opinions -- apparently, the official positions of Hell on these things -- of Christianity, the Bible, and God Himself. As employees of the Devil, whom Screwtape calls "Our Father Below," it seems neither uncle nor nephew understands how God can love humans.

In the 3rd letter, Screwtape reacts poorly to Wormwood having told him that The Patient has accepted Christ as his Savior. He also doesn't like Wormwood's ideas of how to tempt the man, telling his nephew, "the safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

In this telling of religion, for demons, human souls are food, as Screwtape explains in the 6th letter: "We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons." During the course of the letters, World War II breaks out, and Wormwood is delighted. Screwtape also is, except that the possibility that The Patient could be killed as a result means that, for the moment, he's headed up, not down, and warns Wormwood that he must provide food, or he will, himself, become food.

In the 31st and last letter, the reader learns that The Patient has been killed in the London Blitz, and, from Screwtape's perspective, The Patient wins, and God wins; but the demons also win, since they're about to get a feast. The loser is the feast: Wormwood.

C.S. Lewis died on the same day as another renowned British writer, Aldous Huxley. Hardly anybody noticed, because that day was November 22, 1963, the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Tolkien lived another 10 years. Tributes and parodies to Screwtape have abounded, with such titles as From One Devil to Another, The Devil's Inbox, and E-mails from Hell.

*

February 2, 1942 was a Monday. This was also the day the film King’s Row premiered. It's often regarded as Ronald Reagan's finest film role. His character loses his legs in an accident halfway through, and his reaction became the title of Reagan's 1st memoir: Where's the Rest of Me?

He was not nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, which went to James Cagney for Yankee Doodle Dandy. Maybe if Reagan had gotten that Oscar, would have gotten so many big roles, he never would've gone into politics.

Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And no NHL games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.