November 1, 1950: The Attempted Assassination of President Harry Truman

November 1, 1950: President Harry Truman faces an assassination attempt. The Truman family is staying at Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, while the White House is being renovated. Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, Puerto Rican independence activists, approached Blair House with guns, hoping that killing Truman would help their cause.

Blair House

Collazo shot D.C. police officer Donald Birdzell. He survived, and lived until 1991. Secret Service Agent Vincent Mroz heard this, came outside, and shot Collazo in the chest. He survived. Torresola shot White House Police Officer Leslie Coffelt. He then shot Officer Joseph Downs, but Downs was able to get up and secure a door into the house. He survived, and lived until 1978.

Torresola was reloading when Truman, having heard the shots, made a potentially terrible mistake, and looked outside his 2nd floor window, exposing him to the shooters. Secret Service Agents shouted at him to get away. He did.

Coffelt managed to return fire, hitting Torresola in the head and killing him instantly. But Coffelt was mortally wounded, and died 4 hours later. He was the 1st person ever to, as the Secret Service's saying goes, "take a bullet for the President."

Officer Leslie Coffelt

Had the attempt succeeded, Vice President Alben Barkley would have become President. Next in line would have been the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn of Texas.

Collazo was convicted and sentenced to death. Truman, a World War I veteran who said he wasn't scared, because had already "been shot at by professionals," commuted Collazo's sentence to life imprisonment. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter further commuted his sentence to time served, which turned out to be 29 years. He returned to Puerto Rico, continued to support its independence, and died in 1994.

Truman served out his term until January 20, 1953, did not run for another, and retired to his home in Independence, Missouri, outside Kansas City. He died on December 26, 1972. Agent Mroz, who had played football at the University of Michigan, was the last survivor of the incident, living until 2008.

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November 1, 1950 was a Wednesday. There were 3 NBA games played on the day:

* The Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Boston Celtics, 107-84 at the gymnasium of North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That's right: A high school gym. The NBA was still trying to gain its footing as a "major league." It would be 2 more years before the Pistons moved into a real arena, and another 5 before they moved to Detroit.

Chuck Cooper, the 1st black player drafted by an NBA team, made his NBA debut, the night after Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols became the 1st black player to appear in an NBA game. Cooper scored 9 points for the Celtics, and Bob Cousy scored 16, but they got clobbered. Larry Foust of the Pistons led all scorers with 19.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 81-71 at the Baltimore Coliseum. This version of the Bullets, who won the NBA Championship in 1948, folded in 1954, and bore no connection besides name to the Baltimore Bullets who began play in 1963, and are now the Washington Wizards. George Mikan, the dominant player of the pre-24-second shot clock era (1946-54), scored 34, but it wasn't anywhere near enough.

* And the Washington Capitols beat the Indianapolis Olympians, 100-84 at the Uline Arena, later renamed the Washington Coliseum. Although it hasn't been used for sporting events since 1971, this building still stands. The aforementioned Earl Lloyd scored 8 points. Despite having reached the NBA Finals in 1949, the Capitols only lasted until the end of this season.

The Olympians lost players Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, when the NBA banned them for life due to their role in the college basketball point-shaving scandal while they were at the University of Kentucky. Their former Kentucky, now Indianapolis, teammates Cliff Barker and Wallace "Wah Wah" Jones were not implicated, but each only lasted 1 more season in the NBA, and the Olympians lasted only 1 more after that.

And there was 1 NHL game played on this day, the League's biggest rivalry: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Maurice Richard of the Canadiens and Max Bentley of the Leafs -- nicknamed "the Rocket" and "the Dipsy Doodle Dandy from Delisle" (his hometown in Saskatchewan), respectively -- each scored 2 goals. There were 5 goals in the 3rd period, 3 by Toronto and both of Richard's goals.

September 24, 1955: President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Heart Attack

September 24, 1955: President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a heart attack, while vacationing with his wife Mamie's family in Colorado. Unlike previous Presidents who had long-term illnesses, like Woodrow Wilson with his 1919 stroke, and Franklin Roosevelt with his battle with heart disease and high blood pressure in 1944 and '45, he allows his Administration to give the public regular updates on his recovery.

Eisenhower began chain-smoking cigarettes while he was a Cadet at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York in the early 1910s. Like many smokers, he tried and failed to quit several times. By the time of his heart attack, he was nearly 65 years old, already one of the oldest Presidents in the country's history. Being bald made him look even older, and a country that held him in very high esteem became gravely concerned -- not just for his health, but for what his unavailability, either temporary or permanent, might mean for the nation and the world.

The heart attack required 6 weeks' hospitalization, at Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, during which time Vice President Richard Nixon, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and White House Chief of Staff Sherman Adams assumed administrative duties and provided communication with the President.

(John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for President, was born at Fitzsimmons in 1943, because his father, Richard, was serving there at the time. During his speech accepting the nomination, he mentioned, "I was born in the West Wing." The facility was closed in 1999, and was converted into the University of Colorado's medical school.) 

Dulles and Adams were appointees that no one had voted for (although Adams had previously been elected Governor of New Hampshire), and Nixon, while popular with mainstream Republicans, was already seen by a majority of the country as a very dishonest man, and considerably more conservative than Eisenhower, making such people nervous that he might end up running the country.

"Ike" was treated by Dr. Paul Dudley White, a cardiologist with a national reputation, who regularly informed the press of the president's progress. The next Presidential election was less than 14 months away, and Ike hadn't yet said whether he was running for re-election. Instead of discounting him as a candidate for a 2nd term, White recommended a 2nd term as essential to his recovery.

Furthermore, it was deemed essential that the American people see that he was recovering. So he was taken up to the roof of the hospital, for photographs and film with hospital staff, so the people could see him, in a wheelchair to save his strength, but smiling and mentally engaged.

He recovered, but developed Crohn's disease, and on June 9, 1956, he underwent surgery for an intestinal blockage, having about 10 inches of his small intestine removed. This was downplayed.

Through the 1956 campaign, the Democratic Party, seeking to elect his 1952 opponent, former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, stressed the fact that Nixon was still the Vice President, and that, given the history of Presidential health, there was a 50-50 chance that Nixon could become President when, or even before, Eisenhower's term ended. And, unlike every other Presidential nominee since FDR in 1932, Eisenhower did not campaign widely. He won in a landslide, anyway.

On November 25, 1957, Ike suffered a stroke during a Cabinet meeting.  He recovered fairly quickly from this, as well, with Nixon, Adams and Dulles, to use a metaphor that would later be used by President Ronald Reagan, "minding the store." On August 29, 1959, on a visit to Britain, Ike complained of dizziness, and had his blood pressure checked. His condition was considered well enough to continue the trip. He left office on January 20, 1961, alive, and 70 years old, at the time the oldest President in the nation's history.

Had Ike died in office at any time from 1955 onward, Nixon would have become President. The next man in line would have been the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sam Rayburn of Texas.

He had another heart attack in 1965, which pretty much ended his public life. He had his gallbladder removed in 1966 -- as did, the same year, the man who was then President, Lyndon B. Johnson. Like Ike, LBJ had had a heart attack in 1955, then being the Senate Majority Leader.

When Nixon ran for President on his own in 1960, he moved away from his conservative base, and ran as an Eisenhower-style moderate. He lost a close election to John F. Kennedy. In 1962, he published his 1st book, Six Crises, and included his time as unofficial Acting President after Eisenhower's heart attack. The others were the Alger Hiss case, what became known as the Checkers Speech, his troubled 1958 tour of South America, his 1959 "Kitchen Debate" with Nikita Khrushchev, and his loss to Kennedy.

In 1968, he again ran as an Eisenhower-style moderate. He won a close election against Hubert Humphrey. A little more than 2 months into Nixon's term, Eisenhower died of what was later revealed to be his 7th heart attack. He was 78.

It's also worth noting that Nixon's daughter Tricia married Eisenhower's grandson David. And that Dr. White lived until 1973, at the age of 87.

*

September 24, 1955 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The Brooklyn Dodgers were swept in a doubleheader by the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 and 6-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. In the opener, Dick Hall went the distance for the win. Carl Erskine started for the Brooks, and was shaky. The Dodgers blew a 3-0 lead, and Gene Freese hit what turned out to be a game-winning home run off Don Bessent in the bottom of the 8th inning. Jackie Robinson went 1-for-4, and then did not play in the nightcap.

In that game, Bob Friend went the distance for the win. Billy Loes started for Dem Bums, but it would be a rookie named Sandy Koufax who turned out to be the losing pitcher.

* The Baltimore Orioles swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators, 8-5 and 1-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Bill Wight pitched a 9-hit shutout in the 2nd game. Neither the Senators' Harmon Killebrew, in his 2nd major league season, nor the Orioles' Brooks Robinson, in his 1st, appeared in either game.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Redlegs, 3-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. In 1954, due to Cold War paranoia, The Cincinnati Reds changed their name to "Redlegs." In 1959, they realized that this was monumentally stupid, and changed back to "Reds." Ernie Banks went 1-for-4 with an RBI in this game.

* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers, 8-2 and 7-0 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) In the 1st game, American League Rookie of the Year Herb Score outpitched Frank Lary. Hank Aguirre had an unusual shutout in the 2nd game: He allowed only 3 hits, but walked 10 batters, and only struck out 3. Al Kaline went 2-for-7 over the 2 games.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 4-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Dick Donovan pitched a 5-hit shutout. Nellie Fox went 4-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Braves, 4-3 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews each went 2-for-4, and Mathews had a 2-run homer. Ken Boyer doubled home Red Schoendienst to win it in the bottom of the 9th.

* And it rained in New York, postponing both games that were to be played. The New York Yankees made up their game with the Boston Red Sox the next day, the last day of the regular season, as part of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees won the opener, 9-2. Two unlikely players had 3 RBIs for the Pinstripes, both rookies 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson, who would go on to become an All-Star but not a great hitter; and 1st baseman Marv Throneberry, who had just helped the Yankees' top farm team, the Denver Bears, win the American Association Pennant, and was considered their top prospect. But he never impressed them at the major league level, and was included in the trade for Roger Maris in 1959. In 1962, he returned to New York, and became a symbol of the early Mets' ineptitude.

Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams each only appeared in the 1st game as pinch-hitters. Ted reached base, Mickey didn't.

The Red Sox won the nightcap, 8-1. George Susce pitched a complete game, and Rip Coleman only lasted 3 innings. Williams went 1-for-1 with a walk, and was removed for a pinch-runner. Mantle was, again, only a pinch-hitter, and didn't reach base.

* And the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies made up their rainout as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Giants won the 1st game, 5-2. Pete Burnside outpitched Robin Roberts, who finished 23-14 on the season. The Phils won the 2nd game, 3-1. This would be the last game that Leo Durocher managed for the Giants. Willie Mays went 4-for-8 on the day, with a home run, his National League-leading 51st on the season, and 3 RBIs.

There was 1 game played in the NFL: The Philadelphia Eagles beat the New York Giants, 27-17 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

Among the notable college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 UCLA was upset by Number 5 Maryland, 7-0 at Byrd Stadium (now SECU Stadium) in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland.

* Number 2 Georgia Tech beat Number 19 Florida, 14-7 at Florida Field (now Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) in Florida.

* Number 3 Oklahoma beat North Carolina, 13-6 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

* Number 4 Michigan beat Missouri, 42-7 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

* Number 6 Ohio State beat Nebraska, 28-20 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus.

* Number 7 University of Pittsburgh beat Syracuse, 22-12 at Archbold Stadium in Syracuse, New York.

* Number 8 Mississippi were upset by Kentucky, 21-14 at McLean Stadium in Lexington, Kentucky.

* Number 9 Navy beat William & Mary, 7-0 at Thompson Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.

* The day before, Number 10 University of Southern California (USC) beat Oregon, 42-15 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* Number 11 Notre Dame beat Southern Methodist University (SMU), 17-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 12 Texas Tech were upset by Texas Christian University (TCU), 32-0 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock.

* Number 13 Rice beat Alabama, 20-0 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

* Number 14 Army beat Furman, 81-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York.

* Number 16 Louisiana State were upset by Texas A&M, 28-0 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.

* And in New Jersey, Princeton beat Rutgers, 41-7 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal went to the North-East of England, and lost to Sunderland, 3-1 at Roker Park.

July 18, 1947: The Presidential Succession Act

July 18, 1947: The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 is signed into law by President Harry S Truman. He believed that, the way it was structured, it was the right new law, even though it puts his Democratic Party at a notable disadvantage.

Since 1886, the line of succession had been: President, Vice President, and then the Cabinet secretaries by order of their establishment, starting with Secretary of State. Truman thought that, after the Vice President, the next person should be an elected official, not an appointed one.

So the new order was, and remains: President, Vice President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and then the Cabinet secretaries.

Truman signed the bill even though Congress was then controlled by the Republicans, and his own rise from Vice President to President meant that the Vice Presidency was vacant. And that meant that, if anything happened to him before January 20, 1949, the next President would be Joseph W. Martin, a very conservative Republican from Massachusetts.

Fortunately, Truman was alive and well on the next Inauguration Day, and had won a term of his own, with outgoing Senate Minority Leader Alben Barkley of Kentucky elected as his Vice President; and had a Democratic Congress, too, led by Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas.

*

July 18, 1947 was a Friday. Magazine publisher Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr., a.k.a. 1996 and 2000 Republican Presidential candidate Steve Forbes, was born.

This was also the day that Britain's Royal Navy refused Exodus 1947, a ship full of Jewish refugees, entry into the port of Haifa, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine. I have a separate entry for that event.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 8-0 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Fred Hutchinson pitched a 2-hit shutout, walking none, and striking out 8. The hits were a single by Joe DiMaggio in the 2nd inning, and a bunt single by George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss in the 7th. Hutchinson also went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs in his own cause.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-3 at the Polo Grounds. Willard Marshall went 3-for-4 with 3 home runs and 5 RBIs. Johnny Mize and Bobby Thomson also homered for the Giants.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-0 at Ebbets Field. Ralph Branca had a perfect game for 7 innings, until he allowed a single to Enos Slaughter and a walk to Whitey Kurowski the 8th. Stan Musial, who normally came through at Ebbets Field, to the point where Dodger fans would say, "Uh-oh, that man is back in town!" leading to his nickname, "Stan the Man," went 0-for-3 this time. Jackie Robinson went 2-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBIs.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Braves, 2-1 at Braves Field in Boston. Kirby Higbe outpitched Bill Voiselle. Hank Greenberg went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Ralph Kiner went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Washington Senators, 6-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Don Black pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Early Wynn.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-8 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Ted Williams went 5-for-5 with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.

March 12, 1956: The Southern Manifesto

Southern Senators, led by Strom Thurmond of South Carolina

March 12, 1956: The Declaration of Constitutional Principles is signed, by 19 members of the U.S. Senate and 82 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, all from States that had been in the Confederate States of America.

Since there was not a goddamned thing about it that was constitutional, it became known as the Southern Manifesto, allowing people on the right side of the struggle for civil rights to do what these rednecks had been doing to them for years: Comparing them to Communists.

The main author was Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. In 1948, as his State's Governor, he had briefly left the Democratic Party to run as the nominee for President of the States' Rights Party. From that point onward, Southern Democrats who opposed civil rights were known as "Dixiecrats."

It was written in response to the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, 2 years earlier, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, declaring that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

The Declaration included these words: "The unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court in the public school cases is now bearing the fruit always produced when men substitute naked power for established law."

This was a bald-faced lie: The decision was warranted, and it was a strike against naked power, in the form of "Jim Crow" laws that overturned established law.

It also said: "The original Constitution does not mention education. Neither does the 14th Amendment nor any other amendment. The debates preceding the submission of the 14th Amendment clearly show that there was no intent that it should affect the system of education maintained by the States."

This was true, but it covered up the text of the 14th Amendment: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This is known as the Equal Protection Clause.

It also said: "This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding."

This was a lie: There had not been friendship. And the Court's decision didn't create confusion; it clarified the law.

Three Democratic Senators from Southern States did not sign: Albert Gore and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, and the Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas. In the House, 16 of 21 Democrats from Texas refused to sign it, including the Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, and a future Speaker, Jim Wright. Also refusing to sign were 3 of the 11 Democrats from North Carolina; and 1 of the 7 from Florida, Dante Fascell.

The following year, Thurmond launched the longest filibuster the Senate had yet seen, in a vain attempt to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1957. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, he became the 1st Dixiecrat to switch to the Republican Party. There would be many more.

Thurmond turned out to be the last-serving member who signed the Southern Manifesto, serving until 2003, shortly after his 100th birthday, and dying a few months later. The last surviving signer was Richard Poff of Virginia, who died in 2011.

The last-serving member who refused to sign was Jack Brooks of Texas, who served until 1994. The last surviving refuser was the aforementioned Jim Wright, who died in 2015.

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March 12, 1956 was a Monday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. No games were scheduled for the NHL. There was 1 game played in the NBA: The Syracuse Nationals beat the St. Louis Hawks, 97-92 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.