November 21, 1969: The Haynsworth Rejection

November 21, 1969: Judge Clement Haynsworth, President Richard Nixon's nominee to succeed Abe Fortas on the U.S. Supreme Court, is rejected by a Senate vote of 55-45. The South Carolina native was seen as having made judicial rulings unfair to black people and organized labor. It was the Senate's 1st rejection of a Supreme Court nominee since 1930. Strike one for Nixon.

Nixon would then nominate Harrold Carswell. He would also be rejected by the Senate, on April 8, 1970, because he was a segregationist and an anti-Semite. Strike two for Nixon.

Nixon would then nominate Harry Blackmun. He would be approved on May 12, 1970, but would join the unanimous ruling that would force the release of Nixon's Oval Office tapes in 1974, forcing his resignation 4 days later. Strike three, Tricky Dick, you're out.

Ironically, Nixon died in 1994, just a few days after Blackmun announced his retirement from the Court.

*

November 21, 1969 was a Friday. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ken Griffey Jr. was born outside Pittsburgh in Donora, Pennsylvania. Eventually, his father, George Kenneth Griffey Sr., despite becoming a 3-time All-Star and a 2-time World Series winner, would become only the 3rd-best baseball player from that town. He was surpassed by his son, and it's debatable as to who was better, Junior or Stan Musial -- who was also born on a November 21, in 1920. The town was home to about 14,000 people at the time, only about 5,000 now.

Baseball was out of season. Two college football games were played. The University of Miami beat Wake Forest, 49-7 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. And the University of Chattanooga beat The Citadel, the military school in Charleston, South Carolina, by the unusual score of 10-5 at The Citadel's Johnson Hagood Stadium.

There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 98-94 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Phoenix Suns, 126-116 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

* The Cincinnati Royals beat the Chicago Bulls, 133-119 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson scored 41 points.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 118-106 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Diego Rockets, 100-98 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The San Francisco Warriors beat the Boston Celtics, 118-115 at the Cow Palace in the San Francisco suburb of Daly City, California.

* And the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 117-115 at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Bob Rule scored 35 points in defeat for the Sonics.

There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Los Angeles Stars, 94-83 at the Island Garden in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York.

* The Carolina Cougars beat the Washington Capitols, 122-112 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.

* The Pittsburgh Pipers beat the Kentucky Colonels, 112-108 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Denver Rockets beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 103-100 at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Boston Bruins played the Chicago Black Hawks to a tie, 2-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

September 3, 1995: Jacksonville & the Carolinas Go Major League

September 3, 1995: The Jacksonville Jaguars play their 1st game, at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium (now EverBank Field). Ironically, it's against a team that had, in the late 1980s, threatened to move to Jacksonville, the Houston Oilers. The Oilers win, 10-3. After starting 0-4, the Jags won their 1st game on October 1, away to the Oilers, 17-16.

The irony was deepened when, after the Oilers did move to become the Tennessee Titans, the 2 franchises developed a regional rivalry, and played each other in the 1999 AFC Championship Game, which the Titans won.

Jacksonville is far from the most famous city in the State of Florida, but it is by far the most populous, with just under 1 million people according to the 2020 Census, to Miami with 442,000, Tampa with 403,000, Orlando with 308,000, St. Petersburg (part of Tampa Bay) with 258,000. But in terms of metropolitan areas, it's Miami 6.5 million, Tampa Bay 3.4 million, Orlando 2.9 million, Jacksonville 1.8 million. Meaning Jacksonville is the 4th-largest market in its own State. It's also the smallest market in the AFC South Division, compared with Houston at 7.8 million, and Indianapolis and Nashville both at 2.1 million.

This comparatively small size carries over to other sports. Jacksonville has only had minor-league teams: They have Class AAA in baseball, only recently promoted from AA; they have the ECHL, generally considered to be a 2nd-class team even by the standards of minor-league hockey; and in basketball, they recently lost their NBA G-League team. In college sports, Jacksonville University only moved up to what would now be classified as NCAA Division I in 1969, and the University of North Florida only got there in 2009, with both schools being in what's known as "mid-major" conferences.

Which is not to say that Jacksonville doesn't have football tradition. The Gator Bowl has been played in the city since 1946, at the old Gator Bowl Stadium until 1993 and at the new stadium since 1995. The annual rivalry game between the universities of Florida and Georgia, a.k.a. "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," has been played on the site since 1933. The exceptions were 1994, when both games were moved to UF's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium while the old stadium was torn down and the new one built on the site; and 1995, when, to be fair, the WLOCP was played at UGa's Sanford Stadium.

The Gator Bowl stadium previously had the Jacksonville Sharks in the World Football League in 1974, and the Jacksonville Bulls in the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985. Neither team made its league's Playoffs.

Not surprisingly, the Jags struggled in their 1st season, going 4-12. But in their 2nd, they went 9-7, and made it all the way to the AFC Championship Game. They've won Division Championships in 1998 and 1999 in the AFC Central, and in 2017 in the AFC South; and reached the AFC Championship Game in 1996, 1999 and 2017. But they have yet to reach a Super Bowl.

They hosted Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, with the New England Patriots beating the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21. But complaints about insufficient hotel room capacity and poor access to the stadium made it a fiasco, and the city has never again been seriously considered as a Super Bowl host.

Attendance has been an issue, and the Jaguars have been convinced -- which might be a polite way of putting it -- to give up home games to play 9 games at the new Wembley Stadium in London. (UPDATE: Through the 2025 season, that number has grown to 14, and they are scheduled to play 1 more game there in both the 2026 and 2027 seasons.)

*

The Carolina Panthers made their regular-season debut on the same day as the Jaguars, against their newly-installed geographical rivals, the Atlanta Falcons, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. They lost, 23-20 in overtime, having blown a 10-0 lead. Blowing a big lead and letting the Falcons come back, can you believe that?

The Panthers played their 1st season's home games at Clemson University's Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina, and their st home game was on September 17, a 31-10 loss to the newly-moved St. Louis Rams. After starting 0-5, the Panthers won their 1st game on October 15, home to the New York Jets, 26-15, and were a surprisingly respectable 7-9 in their 1st season.

Opening Ericsson Stadium (now Bank of America Stadium) in downtown Charlotte the next season, their 1st regular-season home game there was a 29-6 win over the Falcons. Their 2nd season was a stunning success, winning their Division and beating the Dallas Cowboys to reach the NFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Green Bay Packers.

The Carolinas had previously had the Charlotte Hornets of the World Football League, the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association, and an NBA team borrowing the Hornets name starting in the 1988 season. That team moved to New Orleans in 2002, was replaced by the expansion Charlotte Bobcats in 2004, and the Hornets name was restored in 2014 after the New Orleans team gave it up, becoming the Pelicans.

Having an NBA team or an NHL team is one thing, but a city, a metropolitan area, or a region is generally not considered to be "major league" until it gets an MLB team, or at least an NFL team. So the NBA Hornets didn't raise Charlotte, or the Carolinas as a whole, to that level. The Panthers did.

The Hartford Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997, playing 2 years at the Greensboro Coliseum before their arena in the State capital of Raleigh opened in 1999. They remain the only major league team in the Raleigh-Durham area.

Both Carolinas have long been home to multiple minor-league baseball teams, but no major-league team. Charlotte, which has become a major banking center, has about 900,000 people; Raleigh, about 500,000. In metro area terms, Charlotte has about 2.9 million; Raleigh, about 1.5 million. North Carolina has about 10.5 million; South Carolina, about 5.1 million. The total of around 15.6 million is enough of a market to sustain an NFL team 8 times a year, and an NBA team and an NHL team 41 times a year each; but not an MLB team 81 times a year.

Add in the fact that the Atlanta Braves seem to have a hammerlock on MLB fandom in South Carolina, and it seems unlikely that Charlotte, whose metro area stretches into South Carolina -- and whose Class AAA team, the Charlotte Knights, played over the State Line in Fort Mill from 1989 to 2013, before moving to downtown Charlotte, close to both Bank of America Stadium and the new Hornets' Spectrum Center -- will ever get an MLB team.

The Panthers have won Division titles in 1996, 2003, 2013, 2014 and 2015; reached the NFC Championship Game in 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2015; and, unlike their expansion brethren in Jacksonville, they have reached the Super Bowl, losing Super Bowl XXXVIII to the New England Patriots and Super Bowl 50 to the Denver Broncos.

UPDATE: The Jaguars have a team hall of fame, called Pride of the Jaguars. Its members include quarterback Mark Brunell, running back Fred Taylor, receiver Jimmy Smith, offensive tackle Tony Boselli, founding owners Wayne and Delores Weaver, and head coach Tom Coughlin. Boselli and Coughlin have also been elected to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.

The Panthers also have a team hall of fame, called the Carolina Panthers Hall of Honor. They have honored quarterback Jake Delhomme, receivers Steve Smith Sr. and Muhsin Muhammad, tight end Wesley Walls, offensive tackle Jordan Gross, defensive end Julius Peppers, linebacker Sam Mills, original general manager Mike McCormack, and the Personal Seat License owners who made the building of Bank of America Stadium possible. Smith, Peppers and Mills have also been elected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

*

September 3, 1995 was a Sunday. This was also the day that the Oakland Raiders played their 1st game back in their former city, after 13 seasons in Los Angeles. They beat the San Diego Chargers, 17-7 at the Oakland Coliseum. I have a separate entry for that event.

These other NFL games were played:

* The New York Jets lost to the Miami Dolphins, 52-14 at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The New England Patriots beat the Cleveland Browns, 17-14 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 21-6 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Arizona Cardinals, 27-7 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Detroit Lions, 23-20 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Indianapolis Colts, 24-21 at the RCA Dome (formerly the Hoosier Dome) in Indianapolis.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings, 31-14 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Rams, representing St. Louis for the 1st time after 48 seasons representing Los Angeles, beat the Green Bay Packers, 17-14 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the New Orleans Saints, 24-22 at the Superdome in New Orleans.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills, 22-7 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Seattle Seahawks, 34-10 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants, 35-0 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics, 10-9 at Yankee Stadium. So both outdoor Oakland teams won on this day. Rickey Henderson went 2-for-6 with the game-winning home run in the top of the 10th inning, a stolen base, and 2 RBIs. David Cone started for the Yankees, but John Wetteland gave up the homer. Tony Fernández went 4-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs for the Yankees. Don Mattingly went 3-for-6.

* The New York Mets beat the San Francisco Giants, 11-6 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Carl Everett went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs for the Mets. Barry Bonds and Deion Sanders each hit home runs for the Giants.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 8-1 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles, 9-6 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Ken Griffey Jr. only appeared as a late defensive replacement, and did not come to bat. Alex Rodriguez, then a rookie, did not appear at all. Cal Ripken Jr. went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-0 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Jason Schmidt pitched 8 innings of 6-hit shutout ball, and Mark Wohlers completed the 6-hit shutout.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-8 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Omar Vizquel singled Wayne Kirby home with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-5 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-6 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Joe Girardi singled Andrés Galarraga home with the winning run in the top of the 11th inning.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Texas Rangers, 8-5 at The Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Houston Astros, 8-7 at the Astrodome in Houston. The Marlins scored 2 runs in the top of the 11th, and the Astros only 1 in the bottom of the 11th.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos, 6-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

August 29, 1957: The Longest Senate Filibuster

August 29, 1957: Strom Thurmond spends 24 hours making a racist ass of himself.

That was not his goal. He failed to achieve his goal.

Thurmond was born in 1902, was elected to the South Carolina State Senate in 1934, and a State judge in 1938. In World War II, he served with the U.S. Army's famed 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In 1946, he was elected Governor.

In 1948, he was one of the Southern members of the Democratic Party who formed the States' Rights Party that split over the issue of civil rights, and was nominated by them for President. In an interview late in life, he said he thought the Republican nominee, Governor Thomas E. Dewey in New York, would win, because he would win the Southern States, taking them from the Democratic incumbent, President Harry S Truman. Truman won anyway, and Thurmond finished a distant 3rd.

In 1954, Thurmond became the 1st person elected to the U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate. In 1956, he co-wrote the Southern Manifesto, with Southern members of both houses of Congress promising "massive resistance" to federal laws backing up the U.S. Supreme Court's decision striking down State laws segregating public schools.

In 1957, the Administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower introduced a civil rights bill, imposing expansion of federal supervision of integration in Southern States. It would establish the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. On June 18, the U.S. House of Representatives passed it, by a vote of 286-126. On August 7, the Senate passed an amended version, 72-18. On August 27, with the differences worked out, the House passed it again, 279-97. It became the Senate's turn to try again.

To block even a vote on the bill, Thurmond began a filibuster: A a tactic used in the Senate to delay or block a vote on a measure by preventing debate on it from ending. The Senate's rules place few restrictions on debate: In general, if no other Senator is speaking, a Senator who seeks recognition is entitled to speak for as long as they wish. Only when debate concludes, whether naturally or using a "cloture" vote, can the measure be put to a vote. One Senator can "hand off" a filibuster to another Senator, to further delay a vote, or to convince the sponsor to withdraw it.

Before 1957, the record for the longest filibuster was set on April 24, 1953, when Wayne Morse a Republican-turned-Independent (and eventually a Democrat) from Oregon spoke for 22 hours and 26 minutes, in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the Submerged Lands Act. That broke the 1908 record of 18 minutes and 23 seconds, by Robert La Follette Sr., Republican of Wisconsin, trying to stop the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, which established the National Monetary Commission.

On May 27, 1935, the Supreme Court struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act as unconstitutional. On June 12, Democrats tried to pass an amendment they believed would make it constitutional. But one Democrat, Huey Long of Louisiana, opposed it, and spoke for 15 hours and 30 minutes, filling the time by, among other things, reading recipes from a cookbook he had written: "Now, I come to pot likker... "

Thurmond shattered all records, going more than one full day: 24 hours and 18 minutes, spewing invective against the federal government and anti-racist crusaders, and reading aloud from The Case for the South, by W.D. Workman Jr., a reporter and a friend of his. 

Other Southern Senators, who had agreed as part of a compromise not to filibuster this bill, were upset with Thurmond, because they thought his defiance made them look incompetent to their constituents. Thurmond sent copies to each of his 95 Senate colleagues, and also to Vice President Richard Nixon,

Finally, the Senate invoked cloture, ending his filibuster, and approved the bill, 60-15. President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law on September 9. Just 15 days later, he sent the U.S. Army to enforce the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

New Civil Rights Acts were passed in 1960, 1964, 1965 (the Voting Rights Act) and 1968 (the Fair Housing Act). After a multi-Senator filibuster was broken to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Thurmond switched to the Republican Party, the 1st major American politician to do so.

Southern Democrats' switch to the Republicans over the issue of race would be a long process. However, by the time Thurmond finally retired from the Senate in 2002 -- at the age of 100, dying a few months later, on June 26, 2003 -- nearly every Southern State had 2 Republican Senators, including some who had previously been Democrats, and nearly every State had no white Democrats in the House, only white Republicans and black Democrats.

Republicans used the filibuster to stop 2 notable Supreme Court nominations, in the hopes that they could delay until after a Presidential election, when a Republican President would give them a Justice more to their liking: In 1968, to stop President Lyndon Johnson's intended promotion of Associate Justice Abe Fortas to Chief Justice, resulting in President Nixon's appointment of Earl Warren; and in 2016, to stop President Barack Obama's appointment of Merrick Garland, resulting in Donald Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch.

Alfonse D'Amato, Republican of New York, twice tried to break Thurmond's record: On October 17, 1986, against the Defense Authorization Act, getting to 23 hours and 30 minutes, within 48 minutes of the record; and on October 5, 1992, against the Revenue Act, getting to 15 hours and 14 minutes.

On September 24, 2013, Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, tried to stop a Continuing Appropriations Act to keep the government funded, because it included funding for the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. "Obamacare." He went 21 hours and 18 minutes, and included reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss aloud.

The point he wanted to make is that he didn't like "socialized medicine" here or there, he did not like it anywhere. It was pointed out to him that he had completely missed the point of this book that was so simple, a child could understand it: The point was that, if you try something new, however weird it might seem, you might like it. The move deepened Cruz's already-established reputation as a buffoon, who could not get elected outside a Southern State.

UPDATE: On March 31 and April 1, 2025, Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, gave a speech lasting 25 hours and 5 minutes, protesting the policies of Republican President Donald Trump. That broke Thurmond's record for the longest Senate speech. But, since it was not done to block a vote on a Senate bill, Thurmond still holds the record for the longest Senate filibuster.

*

August 29, 1957 was a Thursday. Jockey Jerry Bailey was born. There were only 3 scores on this historic day, all in baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Enos Slaughter, 41 years old, hit a home run in the top of the 11th inning. "Country" wasn't really known as a hitter: He retired after the 1959 season, with just 169, but also with a .300 lifetime batting average.

Whitey Ford was the winning pitcher, pitching 5 shutout innings in relief of Tom Sturdivant. Hank Bauer also hit a home run. Mickey Mantle went 2-for-5, and Yogi Berra went 1-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 13-4 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Tribe scored 6 runs in the 1st inning and 3 in the 2nd, and never looked back. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-2 with a walk.

* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-1 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (The ballpark was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Ted Williams went 0-for-1 -- with 4 walks. Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

July 15, 1870: The Reunion of the Union Is Completed

The Flag of the United States, with 37 Stars,

in use from July 4, 1867 to July 4, 1877,

including when most of the former Confederate States

were readmitted to the Union.

July 15, 1870: The last of the States that had seceded from the United States of America to form the Confederate States of America is readmitted, completing the reunion of the Union.

Those States seceded over what they called "States' Rights," but each one's Ordinance of Secession mentioned slavery as one of those "rights." The secessions began after the election of Abraham Lincoln, who opposed the future expansion of slavery, as the President of the United States on November 6, 1860.

This was the order of secession:

1. December 20, 1860: South Carolina.

2. January 9, 1861: Mississippi.

3. January 10, 1861: Florida.

4. January 11, 1861: Alabama.

5. January 19, 1861: Georgia.

6. January 26, 1861: Louisiana.

7. February 23, 1861: Texas.

Lincoln was Inaugurated on March 4. On April 12, Confederate ships fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, starting the American Civil War. This was followed by more secessions:

8. May 6, 1861: Arkansas.

9. May 20, 1861: North Carolina.

10. May 23, 1861: Virginia.

11. June 1, 1861: Tennessee.

On January 3, 1861, Delaware voted not to secede. On January 29, Kansas was admitted as the 34th State in the Union. On March 19, Missouri overwhelmingly vote to remain in the Union. On April 29, Maryland voted not to secede.

This was key: The District of Columbia, the seat of the Union's government, was between Maryland and Virginia, and Virginia was already considering secession. If both had seceded, the federal government would be trapped. As it was, when Virginia seceded, the U.S.A. literally had its capital on the border with an enemy nation. Fortunately, the C.S.A. didn't have engineers capable of building a bridge across the Potomac River to invade. Nor did they have cannons capable of reaching the U.S. Capitol or the White House.

On May 20, Kentucky declared its neutrality. But on November 18, delegates from 68 of Kentucky’s 110 Counties met, passed an ordinance of secession, adopted a new state seal, and elected a secessionist as Governor. Kentucky was admitted to the Confederacy on December 10. However, the elected State government did not secede, and Kentucky remained in the Union.

Still, the Confederate Flag -- and its variation that is more familiar today, the Confederate Battle Flag -- had 13 stars, one for each State that had seceded, and one each for Kentucky and Missouri, which had not. So the States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri remained in the Union, despite still keeping slavery legal within their borders.

Several Western Counties in Virginia voted to secede from the rest of the State, and on June 20, 1863, those Counties, collectively, were admitted to the Union as West Virginia, the 35th State. This included Harpers Ferry, home to the federal arsenal that abolitionist John Brown tried and failed to capture in 1859.

The idea that Virginia went to the Confederacy and West Virginia stayed loyal to the Union will seem strange to people whose experience watching those States only goes back far enough to know Virginia as a State regularly voting Democratic and West Virginia as one regularly voting Republican.

Nevada was admitted as the 36th State on October 31, 1864. Because it was admitted during the Civil War, and immediately sent troops to the Union Army, the State’s motto is "Battle Born."

The Confederate States of America surrendered, piece by piece, in the Spring of 1865. This was the order of readmission to the Union, based on acceptance of the Constitution of the United States, including the Reconstruction Amendments: The 13th, prohibiting slavery; the 14th, guaranteeing citizenship and equal protection of the laws to all people born in the United States; and the 15th, guaranteeing the right to vote to all male American citizens age 21 and up:

1. July 24, 1866: Tennessee.

2. June 22, 1868: Arkansas.

3. June 25, 1868: Florida.

4. July 4, 1868: North Carolina.

5. July 9, 1868: Louisiana.

6. July 9, 1868: South Carolina (same day as Louisiana).

7. July 13, 1868: Alabama.

8. January 26, 1870: Virginia.

9. February 23, 1870: Mississippi.

10. March 30, 1870: Texas.

11. July 15, 1870: Georgia.

During this process, another State was admitted to the Union: Nebraska, the 37th State, on March 1, 1867. The 38th wouldn’t come until 1876, Colorado.

Of the 33 States in the Union when South Carolina became the 1st to secede, slavery had been banned in 18. Of the 37 States in the Union when Georgia became the last to rejoin, it had been banned in all 37.

So 1870 marked the final reunion of the Union. On October 12, Robert E. Lee, the leading General of the CSA, died from the effects of a stroke, in Lexington, Virginia. He was 63 years old. Jefferson Davis, the one and only President of the C.S.A., previously a U.S. Senator from Mississippi and Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, lived on until 1889.

*

July 15, 1870 was a Friday. By an odd coincidence, this was also the day that Manitoba became a Province of Canada, ending the Red River Rebellion. I have a separate entry for this event.

The only organized team sport in America at this point was baseball, and it was just starting the professional era. The difference between those teams that had turned pro and those that hadn't became stark. The only score I can find for this historic day involves the 1st team to openly turn pro, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, who beat the Eagle Base Ball Club of Louisville, Kentucky, 39-8. That season, against pro teams, the Red Stockings went 27-6; against amateur teams, they went 40-0.

June 25, 2009: The Mark Sanford Scandal

June 25, 2009: Mark Sanford resigns as Governor of South Carolina, over a sex scandal. Except, this time, it wasn't really about the sex. It was about dereliction of duty.

He grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and went to high school in Beaufort on the South Carolina coast between Charleston and Savannah. He got degrees from South Carolina's Furman University and the University of Virginia, reached the rank of Captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, and founded a real estate firm. He married Jennifer Sullivan, an investment banker, and they had 4 sons.

In 1994, he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from a Charleston-based district, finishing 2nd in the Republican Primary, and then winning the runoff. Re-elected in 1996 and 1998, he was a part of Speaker Newt Gingrich's conservative "revolution." He had promised to be a "citizen legislator," and to serve no more than 3 terms, and kept that promise, refusing to run again in 2000.

The libertarian Cato Institute ranked him as the most fiscally conservative member of Congress. The National Taxpayers Union and the American Conservative Union gave him some of their highest ratings. But he angered some people by voting against some overwhelmingly popular items, including improvements for Charleston's U.S. Navy base, and a bill to preserve sites linked to the Underground Railroad -- thus reminding us that he was a white politician from South Carolina, the 1st State to secede from the Union in the run-up to the Civil War.

In 2002, he was elected Governor. Despite a contentious relationship with the State legislature, he was re-elected in 2006, because, well, he was a white conservative Republican in South Carolina. Except, on Election Day, he went to vote in the wrong place: His driver's license listed his residence as the State capital of Columbia, and he was actually living in the Governor's Mansion; but his official voter registration had him living elsewhere, and he had to go there to vote. He didn't actually break the law, he just made a mistake, and told the State media, "I hope everybody else out there is as determined to vote as I was today."

For a while, that mistake was what he was best known for. He should have remained so lucky.

From June 18 until June 24, 2009, the whereabouts of Sanford were unknown to the public, his wife, and the State Law Enforcement Division, which provides security for the Governor. The mystery surrounding Sanford's whereabouts garnered nationwide news coverage. Lieutenant Governor André Bauer announced that he could not "take lightly" that Sanford's staff had not communicated with him "for more than four days, and that no one, including his own family, knows his whereabouts."

Before his disappearance, Sanford told his staff that he would be "hiking on the Old Appalachian Trail." While he was gone, he did not answer 15 cell phone calls from his chief of staff. He also failed to call his family on Father's Day.

On the MSNBC show Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Olbermann addressed the absurdity of the hiking excuse: "Had this better be the truth? Because, if this is a cover story, my God, what did he actually do?"

On June 24, Sanford arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, on a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Gina Smith, a reporter for The State, the Columbia-based largest newspaper in South Carolina, was there on a hunch, and intercepted him. She began digging. So did other reporters. Sanford knew the game was up, and he had to come clean.

In 2001, he had met María Belén Chapur, at a dance in Uruguay. In 2008, he began an affair with her. Jenny had known about his previous infidelities, but he had told her, and now told the media, that Chapur was "my soul mate." He and Jenny had been to marriage counseling, and she had asked for a trial separation about 2 weeks before his disappearance.

South Carolina to Argentina is some separation. Apparently, good old American mistresses were no longer good enough for Sanford.

And then, just when it looked like the whole world was laughing at Mark Sanford, he caught a break. Actress Farrah Fawcett died of cancer. And, within 3 hours of that announcement, Michael Jackson died. (I have a separate entry for that event.) Suddenly, everyone stopped paying attention to Sanford. It was like the whole sordid, ridiculous thing never even happened.

The State legislature threatened him with impeachment and removal if he did not resign. Knowing that he was term-limited, and couldn't run again in 2010, anyway, Sanford refused to resign, and hand the Governorship over to Bauer, who was even further to the right than he was. The legislature dropped the impeachment inquiry, deciding on the lesser punishment of censure.

In 2010, Bauer embraced his inner white South Carolinian, and made racist remarks. He lost the Republican Primary to Sanford's handpicked successor, State Representative Nikki Haley, who was elected Governor in November. (As far as is known, the relationship between Sanford and Haley was strictly political.)

Also in 2010, the Sanfords divorced. Sanford and Chapur became engaged in 2012, but the engagement was broken in 2014. Jenny Sanford married again in 2018. Mark has never remarried.

In 2012, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina resigned. Governor Haley appointed Representative Tim Scott to his seat. That opened up Scott's House seat. Sanford ran for it, and, less than 4 years after his scandal, was elected with 54 percent of the vote -- against a woman, no less: Elizabeth Colbert Busch, an economist, and the sister of politically-themed comedian Stephen Colbert.

South Carolina. Where you can abandon your job, your wife, and your country to go be with your mistress, and still win an election.

South Carolina. Where it's better to lie about being a Christian, but tell the truth about being a Republican, than to tell the truth about being a Christian and a Democrat.

Oh well, at least you can't propose an anti-gay rights bill because you want to "preserve the institution of marriage," and then get caught violating your marriage vows with a prostitute, and still claim to be following the teachings of a God of brotherly love, and get re-elected. Nope, you can't do that in South Carolina.

To do that, you have to be in Louisiana. Ask Senator David Vitter.

Apparently, another thing you can't do in South Carolina is oppose Donald Trump. In a February 2017 interview, Sanford said that Trump "at some level... represents the antithesis, or the undoing, of everything I thought I knew about politics, preparation and life."

And yet, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, only 4 Republican House members voted less frequently with Trump than Sanford. After getting attacked by Trump, Sanford ran 2018 re-election campaign ads saying he'd voted with Trump 89 percent of the time. It wasn't enough: He lost the Republican Primary.

On September 8, 2019, Sanford announced he would challenge Trump in the Republican Primaries for President. On November 12, he suspended his campaign.

*

June 25, 2009 was a Thursday. This was the off-season for the NFL. The NBA season had wrapped up a few days earlier, with the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Orlando Magic for the title. The NHL season had also recently concluded, as the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup, reversing the result of the previous year's Finals by beating the Detroit Red Wings.

There were 13 Major League Baseball games played: 

* The New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-7 at Turner Field in Atlanta. Alex Rodriguez, in the middle of a big hot streak, hit a home run, to help Alfredo Aceves be the winning pitcher in relief of Andy Pettitte, who did not have good stuff.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at the new Citi Field in Queens.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-3 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-5 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-4 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 11-3 at what's now called Hard Rock Stadium in the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-5 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-5 in 13 innings at U.S. Cellular (now Rate) Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-4 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

* The Houston Astros beat the Kansas City Royals, 5-4 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-8 in 12 innings at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the San Diego Padres, 9-3 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle.

* The Colorado Rockies, the Los Angeles Angels, the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants were not scheduled for that day.

June 17, 2015: The Charleston Church Massacre

June 17, 2015: A white supremacist opens fire during a Bible study at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a place of worship in American history.

To make matters worse, that record stood for only 3 years.

Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, known as Mother Emanuel, was founded in 1817. Though not the oldest continuously-operating black church in America -- that would be First Bryan Baptist Church, founded in 1788 in Savannah, Georgia -- it is the oldest AME church in America. In 2015, its pastor was Clementa C. Pinckney, who was also a member of the State Senate.

Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old native of the State capital of Columbia, espoused racial hatred in both a website manifesto which he published before the shooting, and a journal which he wrote from jail afterward. On his website, Roof posted photos of emblems which are associated with white supremacy, including a photo of the Confederate battle flag.

Pinckney had held rallies after the shooting of Walter Scott by a white police officer two months earlier, in nearby North Charleston. As State Senator, Pinckney pushed for legislation requiring police to wear body cameras.

During the hour preceding the attack, 13 people, including the shooter, participated in the Bible study. According to the accounts of people who talked to survivors, when Roof walked into the historic African-American church, he immediately asked for Pinckney, and sat down next to him, initially listening to others during the study. He disagreed with some of the discussion of Scripture.

After other participants began praying, he stood up, and aimed a gun he pulled from a fanny pack at 87-year-old Susie Jackson. Jackson's nephew, 26-year-old Tywanza Sanders, tried to talk him down and asked him why he was attacking churchgoers. The shooter said, "I have to do it. You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." 

In the aftermath, Jamelle Bouie wrote in Slate, "Make any list of anti-black terrorism in the United States, and you'll also have a list of attacks justified by the specter of black rape." He cited the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, the Rosewood Massacre in Florida in 1923, and the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955 as examples.

When Roof said he intended to shoot them all, Sanders dove in front of Jackson and was shot first. Roof fired at the other victims, shouting racial epithets. He reportedly said, "Y'all want something to pray about? I'll give you something to pray about." Roof reloaded his gun five times. Sanders' mother and his five-year-old niece, who also attended the study, survived the shooting by pretending to be dead on the floor. In total, 9 people were killed, and 1 other was injured.

The day after the shooting, President Barack Obama visited Charleston, and said, "Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun... We as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries."

Nothing was done about gun control, of course. But on July 9, the South Carolina legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from display outside the State House, and Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill. The flag was taken down the next day.

Roof was found to have targeted members of this church because of its history and status. On December 15, 2016, Roof was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges. On January 10, 2017, he was sentenced to death. He was separately charged with nine counts of murder in State court. He pleaded guilty to all nine state charges in order to avoid receiving a second death sentence, and as a result, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

As of June 17, 2022, he remains in United States Penitentiary Terre Haute in Indiana. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed there in 2001. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving bomber of the 2013 Boston Marathon, is also there.

UPDATE: Robert Bowers, who broke Roof's record with 11 shooting deaths at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, joined him on Death Row at Terre Haute in 2023.

*

June 17, 2015 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. The NBA Championship had been won the night before, when the Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in 6 games. The Stanley Cup had been won the night before that, when the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Miami Marlins, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Michael Pineda was the winning pitcher. Alex Rodriguez went 2-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* The New York Mets lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-0 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. How many pitchers does it take to pitch a 6-hit shutout? This time: Drew Hutchison (4 hits over 5 2/3rds innings, winning pitcher), Steve Delabar (1 1/3rd hitless), Liam Hendriks (1 over 2/3rds), Aaron Loup (1 batter, 1 out), and Ryan Tepera (1 over 1).

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Washington Nationals, 5-0 at Nationals Park in Washington. How many pitchers does it take to pitch a 2-hit shutout? This time, 5, as the Rays, as they frequently do, went with an "opener game: Steve Geltz for 2 innings, Matt Andriese for 4 (he allowed both hits), Kevin Jepsen for 1, Brandon Gomes left the game with an injury while warming up, and Ronald Belisario for 2.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians, 17-0 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Tsuyoshi Wada pitched 7 innings of 4-hit shutout ball, and Yoervis Medina finished the 4-hit shutout. Addison Russell,  Anthony Rizzo, Chris Denorfia and Kris Bryant hit home runs.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-4 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Todd Frazier hit a grand slam to win the game in the bottom of the 13th inning.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Houston Astros beat the Colorado Rockies, 8-4 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-2 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the San Diego Padres, 16-2 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the O.co Coliseum).

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the San Francisco Giants, 2-0 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Felix Hernández pitched 4 innings of 8-hit shutout ball, and the M's still needed 2 relievers to finish the shutout.

June 16, 1944: A Southern State Executes a Black 14-Year-Old

June 16, 1944: George Junius Stinney Jr. is executed for murder, in the electric chair, at the South Carolina Penitentiary, in the State capital of Columbia.

Who was the murder victim? He was. Because he was innocent.

And he was 14 years old.

He was born on October 21, 1929 in Pinewood, South Carolina. On March 23, 1944, he was 5-foot-1 and 95 pounds. On that day, the bodies of Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7, were found in a ditch on the African-American side of Alcolu, South Carolina, after the girls failed to return home the night before.

Unusually, a combined unit of white and black men, including George Stinney Sr., searched for the girls. They had been found beaten with a weapon, variously reported as a piece of blunt metal or a railroad spike. According to a report by the medical examiner, these wounds had been "inflicted by a blunt instrument with a round head, about the size of a hammer."

George Jr. and his older brother John were arrested on suspicion of murdering the girls. John was released by police, but George was held in custody. He was not allowed to see his parents, George Sr. and Aimé, until after his trial and conviction.

According to a handwritten statement, his arresting officer was H.S. Newman, a Clarendon County deputy, who stated, "I arrested a boy by the name of George Stinney. He then made a confession and told me where to find a piece of iron, about 15 inches where he said he put it in a ditch about six feet from the bicycle." Aside from this statement, there is no evidence of the confession: If it was written down, it disappeared.

Following George Jr.'s arrest, George Sr. was fired from his job at the local sawmill, and the Stinney family had to immediately vacate their company housing. George Jr. had no support during his 81-day confinement and trial. He was detained at a jail in Columbia, 50 miles from Alcolu, due to the risk of lynching. He was questioned alone, without the presence of his parents or an attorney. Although the 6th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees legal counsel, this was not routinely observed until the U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright that explicitly required representation through the course of criminal proceedings.

The entire trial, from jury selection to sentencing, occurred on April 24, 1944. The boy's court-appointed counsel was Charles Plowden, a tax commissioner who was running for office, and didn't want to risk being seen as a supporter of civil rights. He challenged none of the prosecution's evidence, and called no witnesses. The trial portion took only 2 1/2 hours. The jury was all white, since jurors were chosen from voter rolls. Their deliberation lasted 10 minutes, and they found the boy guilty. Judge Philip H. Stoll sentenced him to death. Plowden made no appeal.

Appeals for clemency were made to Governor Olin Johnston. They came from the NAACP, and they came from churches, white and black alike. Some appeals came from people who admitted that they were white supremacists, but didn't think someone so young should be executed. His parents were allowed to see him once after the trial, when he was held in the Columbia penitentiary. Under the threat of lynching, they were not allowed to see him any other time.

He was put into the electric chair. He was too short to fit into the apparatus, so a Bible was used as a booster. The mask was too big for him, and it slipped off as the chair was activated. He was buried in an unmarked grave.

In 2014, following a review of the evidence, a circuit court judge vacated George's conviction. Suspicion has fallen on George Washington Burke Jr., a white man, known during his lifetime as a womanizer and a thief, who had made advances on George's mother Aimé, and she had refused him.

George Washington Burke Sr. was a wealthy local businessman. He was the owner of the sawmill where George Stinney Sr. worked. And he was the foreman of the grand jury that indicted George Stinney Jr. It appears that he engineered the boy's indictment in order to cover up for his son's crime.

George Burke Jr. died in 1947 -- I can't find a cause -- and thus was conveniently unavailable for later investigation. George Burke Sr. died in 1982, and never confessed to engineering the cover-up. The story that George Burke Jr. made a deathbed confession in 1947 remains as unproven as George Stinney Jr.'s confession.

*

June 16, 1944 was a Friday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 6-1 at Yankee Stadium. Hank Borowy outpitched Bobo Newsom, and helped his own cause with a 2-RBI triple.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Milo Candini pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 14-1 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 10-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The New York Giants and the Boston Braves were rained out at Braves Field in Boston. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Braves won the opener, 4-1. The Giants won the nightcap, 6-5. Mel Ott, by this point also the Giants' manager, went 2-for-6 with 3 walks and a home run over the 2 games.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on the following Sunday. The Cards won the 1st game, 12-2. The Bucs won the 2nd game, 3-1. Stan Musial went 3-for-4 with a walk and 4 RBIs in the 1st game, then sat out the 2nd game.