December 15, 1975: George Clinton Releases "Mothership Connection"

December 15, 1975: George Clinton, under the name Parliament, releases the album Mothership Connection.

One of the albums in what became known as "The P-Funk Empire" has to be considered the best, the zenith of Clinton's work. I chose this one. Writing for UltimateClassicRock.com in 2020, Michael Gallucci ranked this one Number 2 behind One Nation Under a Groove; but admitted of this one, "Almost everything you need to know about P-Funk can be found in these seven songs." So, even if he can't bring himself to call it their best, that sounds, to me, like a good definition of their definitive work.

Despite being 2 different bands, they had many of the same members, including lead guitarist Michael "Kidd Funkadelic" Hampton, bass guitarist William "Bootsy" Collins and his brother the guitarist Phelps "Catfish" Collins, saxophonist Maceo Parker, keyboard player Bernie Worrell, drummer Jerome "Bigfoot" Braley, and Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns. Clinton hired Walter "Junie" Morrison away from The Ohio Players, to become P-Funk's musical director.

Yvonne Stevens, a.k.a. Taka Boom, was a frequent backup singer, and would later join the Motown vocal group The Undisputed Truth. She is the sister of Yvette Stevens, a.k.a. Chaka Khan. Other backup singers included Dawn Silva and Lynn Mabry, together known as "The Brides of Funkenstein."

Clinton explained the difference between the 2 bands: Parliament was a smoother, rhythm-and-blues-based funk ensemble; while Funkadelic, as the name suggested, merged funk and psychedelic rock.

Say what you want about Clinton, but he knew how to title an album:

* Funkadelic albums include Free Your Mind... and Your Ass Will Follow (as in, once you learn how to think, you will be able to dance better) in 1970, Maggot Brain in 1971, America Eats Its Young in 1972, Cosmic Slop in 1973, Standing on the Verge of Getting It On in 1974, Let's Take It to the Stage in 1975, Tales of Kidd Funkadelic and Hardcore Jollies in 1976, One Nation Under a Groove in 1978, Uncle Jam Wants You in 1979, and The Electric Spanking of War Babies in 1981.

* Parliament albums include Up for the Down Stroke in 1974, Chocolate City and then Mothership Connection in 1975, The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein in 1976, Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome in 1977, Motor Booty Affair in 1978, and Gloryhallastoopid in 1979.

Pedro Bell did the artwork for most of these albums, and was as much a part of the P-Funk Empire as any of its musicians.

"Chocolate City" was Clinton's name for Washington, D.C., which had a majority black population by that point. He even called it "C.C." instead of "D.C." Because of this, any city with a majority black population became known as "a chocolate city," especially Atlanta.

On tour, even after the tour for Mothership Connection, a mockup of a flying saucer would be lowered onto the stage, and Clinton would step out of it, usually wearing some kind of weird outfit. Sometimes, it would be only an adult-sized diaper. On April 17, 1981, at the Capital Centre in the D.C. suburb of Landover, Maryland, George stepped out of the mothership, and he wasn't wearin' nothin' but a smile.

(This might have been a reward for past love from "C.C." On September 16, 1977, onstage at the Cap Centre, George decided he wanted to get high in public, and asked the audience for a joint. Hundreds of reefers were thrown onto the stage.)

So, why a spaceship? George explained: "We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House. I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. I was a big fan of Star Trek, so we did a thing with a pimp sitting in a spaceship shaped like a Cadillac, and we did all these James Brown-type grooves, but with street talk and ghetto slang."

I don't know if black Star Trek actors Nichelle Nichols, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Avery Brooks, Tim Russ, Anthony Montgomery or Sonequa Martin-Green liked Mothership Connection, but it's a hell of a lot better than the TV series Homeboys In Outer Space turned out to be.

In 1980, launched aboard the Soviet capsule Soyuz 38, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, a Cuban pilot, became the 1st black person in space, and also the 1st Latino. In 1983, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, Dr. Guion "Guy" Bluford, an aerospace engineer, became the 1st black American in space. In 1986, Dr. Franklin Chang-Díaz, a Costa Rica-born physicist, became the 1st Hispanic American in space.

As of December 15, 2022, George Clinton is still alive and performing. Prince, Rick James, De La Soul, Digital Underground, Arrested Development, OutKast and the Black Eyed Peas would not be possible without P-Funk. Without them, both Michael and Janet Jackson might have had very different songs. Given their theatricality, it's likely that, without P-Funk, white acts such as the Beastie Boys, Eminem and Pink would have turned out very differently, if they made it at all.

*

December 15, 1975 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. On ABC Monday Night Football, the San Diego Chargers beat the New York Jets, 24-16 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

There were no games in the NBA, the NHL, or the World Hockey Association. In the American Basketball Association, now early in what turned out to be its final season, there was 1 game: The Denver Nuggets beat the Virginia Squires, 131-110 at The Scope in Norfolk, Virginia.

December 8, 1967: The Death of the Would-Be 1st Black Astronaut

December 8, 1967: Major Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., U.S. Air Force, is killed at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. He was 32, and left behind a wife, but no children.

Born on October 2, 1935 in Chicago, he graduated from high school at the age of 16, and from Bradley University of Peoria, Illinois at 20. Lawrence became one of the best training pilots in the Air Force, and had a Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio State University.

NASA and the Air Force hired him to observe the X-15 "rocket-plane," and his notes later contributed heavily to their development of the Space Shuttle fleet. He was selected as an astronaut in June 1967, and, had he lived, he likely would have become the 1st black person to fly in space.

He was the backseat pilot in an F-104, instructing another pilot. The pilot made a mistake, and the plane crashed. The pilot was able to eject, but was badly hurt, and his name has never been publicly revealed. In order to avoid hitting the ejecting pilot, the back seat of the F-104 was designed to eject a full second later. Lawrence's ejection failed.

On September 18, 1980, Colonel Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez of the Cuban Air Force became the 1st black person in space, aboard the Soviet mission Soyuz 38. On September 5, 1983, Colonel Guion "Guy" Bluford, U.S. Air Force, became the 1st black American to fly in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.

*

December 8, 1967 was a Friday. Future NFL quarterback Jeff George was born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Philadelphia 76ers, 117-109 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Baltimore Bullets, 123-108 at the Boston Garden.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-103 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Hawks beat the Cincinnati Royals, 101-95 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

* The San Diego Rockets beat the San Francisco Warriors, 137-107 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. The Warriors had split their games between the Civic Auditorium (now named for rock music promoter Bill Graham) and the University of San Francisco's Memorial Gym (now the Sobrato Gym). This game in Oakland was an experiment. In 1971, they changed their name to the Golden State Warriors, and moved to Oakland on a seemingly permanent basis. In 2019, they moved back across San Francisco Bay, into the Chase Center in San Francisco.

* And the Chicago Bulls beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 115-114 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 2 games in the brand-new American Basketball Association. The Pittsburgh Pipers beat the Kentucky Colonels, 93-89 at the Louisville Convention Center (now named the Louisville Gardens). And the Dallas Chaparrals beat the Anaheim Amigos, 123-110 at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium.

There was 1 game played in the NHL: The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-0. Since their home, The Forum in Inglewood, hadn't opened yet, the game was played at the Long Beach Convention Center.

November 19, 1969: Apollo 12: The Great Anticlimax

Left to right: Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean

November 19, 1969: Apollo 12 lands on the Moon. Charles "Pete" Conrad becomes the 3rd man to walk on the Moon, and Alan Bean becomes the 4th.

Apollo 11 had landed 4 months before. So every Moon landing thereafter was an anticlimax: It was, like, "Right, what else ya got?

All 3 astronauts were in the U.S. Navy, and held the rank of Captain. Conrad, the mission commander, was 39 years old, from Philadelphia, and had been awarded 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses. He had previously flown on Gemini 5 and Gemini 11. Bean, the lunar module pilot, was also a Captain in the Navy, 37 years old, from the Texas Panhandle. It was his 1st spaceflight. And the command module pilot, Richard Gordon, was 40 and from Seattle, and had flown with Conrad on Gemini 11.

The command module was named Yankee Clipper, and the lunar module was named Intrepid. It was launched on November 14, 1969, at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with President Richard Nixon becoming the 1st sitting President to attend a spaceflight launch.

(The site was known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973. It was the Florida legislature, rather than Nixon himself, with his grudge against the Kennedy family, who changed the name back to Cape Canaveral. The Kennedy family raised no objection.)

The Intrepid landed on November 19, near where the probe Surveyor 3 had landed in 1967. While Neil Armstrong had very carefully chosen serious and inspirational words to be the first spoken by a human being on the Moon, Conrad was considerably more flip: As he stepped onto the lunar surface, he said, "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."

He and Bean examined Surveyor 3, and took some parts back with them to Earth to be studied. The Yankee Clipper splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on November 24, the mission a complete success, even if it was the greatest anticlimax in the history of spaceflight -- if not of humanity itself.

Gordon never flew in space again. Conrad flew in space once more, on the Skylab 2 mission. Bean was on Skylab 3. Conrad died in 1999, Gordon in 2017, and Bean in 2018.

*

November 19, 1969 was a Wednesday. Actress Erika Alexander, best known as Maxine Shaw, Attorney-at-Law, on the 1990s sitcom Living Single, was born. This was also the day that Pelé scores the 1,000th goal of his professional soccer career. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 5 games played in the NBA:

* The Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls, 122-106 at the Boston Garden.

* The San Diego Rockets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 125-116 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Despite the loss, Hal Greer of the Sixers led all scorers on the day with 35 points.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Phoenix Suns, 133-118 at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the CFG Bank Arena).

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Cincinnati Royals, 116-103 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

* And the Atlanta Hawks beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 137-116 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 2 games in the American Basketball Association. The New York Nets beat the Miami Floridians, 115-110 at the Island Garden in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York. And the New Orleans Buccaneers beat the Washington Capitols, 122-115 at the Tulane Gym in New Orleans.

And there were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a tie, 1-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings played to a tie, 5-5 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 4-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-0 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Oakland Seals beat the Minnesota North Stars, 4-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers were not scheduled.

November 3, 1957: The Soviets Put a Dog In Orbit

November 3, 1957: Sputnik 2 reaches orbit. On board is Laika, a dog. She is the first living creature from Earth to reach orbit. The Soviet Union brags about it.

They shouldn't have. Laika was a mongrel, found on the streets of Moscow, probably about 3 years old, hardly a volunteer, and the technology to return her to Earth alive simply did not exist at that point.

The U.S. had launched monkeys to heights that would later be defined as being "in space," but not into orbit. It would be years later before either country would send a non-human animal into space and bring it back alive.

The Soviets were unable to display Laika's remains: On April 14, 1958, after 2,570 orbits, Sputnik 2 disintegrated during re-entry.

*

November 3, 1957 was a Sunday. These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat the Green Bay Packers, 31-17 at the new City Stadium, later to be renamed Lambeau Field, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Colts, 19-13 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Washington Redskins, 21-17 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chicago Cardinals, 38-21 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams, 16-10 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* And the San Francisco 49ers beat the Detroit Lions, 35-31 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.

Two games were played in college football. The College of the Holy Cross beat the Quantico Marines, 33-14 at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts. And the University of Utah beat Colorado State, 55-0 at Ute Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Baseball was out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 123-105 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Syracuse Nationals, 113-95 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Detroit Pistons beat the Cincinnati Royals, 94-88 at the Cincinnati Gardens.

And there were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at Chicago Stadium. And the Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0 at the Boston Garden.

November 2, 2000: The International Space Station Is First Occupied

November 2, 2000: Expedition 1, launched 2 days earlier from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, arrives at the International Space Station, carrying American astronaut William Shepherd and Russian "cosmonauts" Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. For the 1st time, the ISS has people on board.

The Russian Federation, and its predecessor, the Soviet Union, had space stations for nearly 30 years by that point, running the Salyut (meaning "Salute") program from 1971 to 1986, and the Mir (meaning "Peace") from 1986 to 2001. The last Mir craft became a component of the ISS.

America's experience with space stations wasn't nearly as successful: Our one and only attempt before this, Skylab, was launched in 1973, and had 2 manned missions that year, and a 3rd that carried over into the new year of 1974, before it was deemed unfit for use, and burned up upon re-entry in 1979.

On the other hand, the U.S. was well ahead of the U.S.S.R. in terms of reusable spacecraft. We had 5 different Space Shuttles, though we eventually lost 2 of them; while their 1 and only, Buran (meaning "Blizzard"), flew only once, unmanned in 1988, was put into storage, and was destroyed when heavy snow caused its hangar's roof to collapse in 2002. So, they had the stations, while we had the means of getting to them.

The 1st module of the ISS was launched on November 20, 1998, a joint projected between NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Roscosmos (Russia), the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), the ESA (European Space Agency), and the JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency).

The ISS averages 260 miles above the Earth, and usually has a crew of 7. In addition to America and Russia, it has hosted astronauts from Canada, Japan, Brazil, and the European nations of Britain, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

Currently, the ISS is projected to be in operation until 2031, at which point it will be directed to fall out of Earth orbit, and splash down into the Pacific Ocean, where it would be least likely to harm any people. However, no serious plan to replace it has yet been suggested.

*

November 2, 2000 was a Tuesday. Baseball season had ended 7 days earlier, when the New York Yankees beat the New York Mets in the World Series. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks, 94-69 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Indiana Pacers, 94-88 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 115-93 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 103-91 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Golden State Warriors, 101-97 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 108-82 at the America West Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* And the Vancouver Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 99-91 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

And there were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Ottawa Senators, 6-5 at the Corel Centre in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata, Ontario. (It's now the Canadian Tire Centre. The town was absorbed into Ottawa proper in 2001.)

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-2 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Washington Capitals, 2-0 at the Savvis Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

October 4, 1957: Sputnik, Little Richard, and "Leave It to Beaver"

October 4, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the world's 1st artificial satellite. This terrifies Americans into thinking, not so much that the Communists are ahead of us in any prestigious "space race," but that, soon, they will be able to attack us from space.

Well, it's been 65 years, and they've never attacked us from anywhere. (Spy-on-spy crime excepted, of course.) Time magazine had named Khruschchev its Man of the Year for 1957.

The Space Age has begun. Particularly related to this is satellite technology that allows us to see sporting events from anywhere in the world.

The launch of Sputnik 1 was seen by rock and roll pioneer Richard Penniman, a.k.a. Little Richard. This was only 3 days after a flight between the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney, where he saw the plane's red-hot engines and thought "angels were holding it up." He saw the launch after his Sydney concert, and described it as "a bright red fireball flying across the sky," and said he was "deeply shaken."

He took it as "a sign from God" to repent from his wild life and secular music. According to one legend, he threw all his jewelry into Sydney Harbour. He went home, gave a farewell concert at New York's Apollo Theater, and went into the ministry. He was determined to only perform gospel music from then on, and no less a practitioner of that art than Mahalia Jackson said he "sang gospel the way it shouldn't be sung."

It didn't take. By 1962, he was singing rock and roll again, touring Europe, and The Beatles opened for him. They copied his trademark "Woo!" on songs like "She Loves You" and "Please Please Me." With Paul McCartney singing lead, they covered his "Long Tall Sally," and that ended up being the last song in their last concert, at Candlestick Park in 1966. He was a charter inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and lived until 2020.

Also on this day, Leave It to Beaver premieres on ABC. Somebody once pointed out that the show was a lot less naive than it first appeared, and that the worries of Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver, played by Jerry Mathers, mirrored those of the times; that the show premiered on the day Sputnik 1 was launched, and aired its last episode on June 20, 1963, right after President John F. Kennedy stared down George Wallace over integration at the University of Alabama and proposed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 2 months before Martin Luther King spoke at the March On Washington, and 5 months before Kennedy was assassinated.

Jerry Mathers, then 9 years old, as The Beaver

Mathers eventually enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He was never stationed outside the country, but a rumor went around that he was killed in action in Vietnam. Instead, he served his hitch without a scratch, graduated from the University of California, made money in real estate, became a disc jockey in Anaheim, and brought together the surviving members of the cast to produce The New Leave It to Beaver from 1983 to 1989 – as many seasons as the original show ran.

Since 2008, he has limited his acting to stage productions, frequently alongside his TV brother Tony Dow, with whom he ran a production company until Dow's death on July 27, 2022, at the age of 77. At that point, Mathers was 74.

*

October 4, 1957 was a Friday. It was a travel day between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series, which the Milwaukee Braves would win over the Yankees in Game 7. Football was in midweek. The NHL season didn't begin until October 8. And the NBA season didn't begin until October 22. So there were no scores on this historic day.

One note, tangentially connected to sports: Bill Fagerbakke, who played assistant coach Michael "Dauber" Dybinski on the ABC sitcom Coach, was born on this day.

September 28, 1980: "Cosmos" Premieres

September 28, 1980: Cosmos premieres on PBS, a limited series hosted by astronomer Carl Sagan. Like fellow PBS stars Fred Rogers, Julia Child and Louis Rukeyser, and later Bob Ross and Bob Vila, Sagan explained difficult things in a way that the average viewer could understand, without treating them like a child (or, in Mr. Rogers' case, he was talking to children, but treated them as though their feelings mattered.)

Sagan began the series by holding up a dandelion seed, and letting it fly away into the wind off an unidentified coast. This became his "Ship of the Imagination," which he used to travel through the stars. 

There were 13 parts, airing on succeeding Sundays, with titles like "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean" (the 1st episode), "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue," "Blues for a Red Planet" (an episode devoted to the planet Mars and how Earthlings have perceived it), and "Who Speaks for Earth?" (the finale).

The series inspired impersonators, who latched onto Sagan's expression, "Picture if you will... " and his use of the word "billions," with the heavy emphasis on the B.

The show would be updated in 2014, by Neil deGrasse Tyson, a former student of Sagan's at Cornell University. But it aired on Fox, which meant commercials. It seemed like every time Tyson said, "Come with me," Fox would break for commercial.

*

September 28, 1980 was a Sunday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The winning run scored in the bottom of the 10th inning, on an error by Bob Watson. Reggie Jackson entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and went 1-for-2. Bobby Brown hit a home run.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0 at Shea Stadium. Mike Scott pitched an 8-hit shutout, and Joel Youngblood hit a home run.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Pete Rose went 0-for-3 with a walk. These teams would meet again in Montreal the next weekend, with whoever winning 2 out of 3 winning the National League East title. The Phillies did, and went on to win their 1st World Series.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-3 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Carl Yastrzemski did not play.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Palmer was the winning pitcher. Ken Singleton and Doug DeCinces hit home runs, but Eddie Murray went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Willie Stargell did not play.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. George Brett hit a pinch-hit grand slam, raising his batting average to .385. He had been above .400 earlier in the month, and finished at .390, the highest in a full season since Ted Williams batted .406 in 1941. The Royals faced the Yankees in the American League Championship Series for the 4th time in 5 years, and finally got their 1st win.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Astros, 8-5 at the Astrodome in Houston. Johnny Bench did not play.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-5 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the California Angels, 8-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Rod Carew went 2-for-4.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Rickey Henderson went 0-for-4. Robin Yount and Paul Molitor each went 1-for-4.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* And the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants were rained out at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The game was never made up.

In the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Los Angeles Rams, 28-7 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets lost to the Baltimore Colts, 35-21 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Washington Redskins, 14-0 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the New Orleans Saints, 21-16 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 34-27 at Tampa Stadium.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Oakland Raiders, 24-7 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Chicago Bears, 38-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 13-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings, 27-7 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers, 28-7 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-14 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas city Chiefs, 24-7 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Atlanta Falcons beat the San Francisco 49ers, 20-17 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And on ABC Monday Night Football, the New England Patriots beat the Denver Broncos, 23-14 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

July 21, 2011: The Last Space Shuttle Mission

July 21, 2011: The Space Shuttle Atlantis touches down at the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, ending STS-135, the last shuttle mission, ending the program after 30 years.

It launched from the Cape Canaveral on July 8, with a crew of 4: Captain Christopher Ferguson, U.S. Navy; Colonel Douglas Hurley, U.S. Marine Corps; Colonel Rex Walheim, U.S. Air Force; and a civilian, Dr. Sandra Magnus, a thermochemical engineer. They docked at the International Space Station on July 10, and made a delivery, staying over until July 19. Aside from its planned status as the last shuttle mission, there was little to distinguish this mission from any other.

Here are the Shuttles, and their fates:

* Enterprise, OV-101, first flew on August 12, 1977, within Earth's atmosphere, but never actually flew into space. It was taken on an international tour. It was considered as Challenger's replacement, but this idea was discarded.

In 2003, it was put on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Házy Center, an annex of the Smithsonian Institution, at Dulles International Airport in the Washington suburb of Chantilly, Virginia, a facility to display aircraft too big to display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington. (Udvar-Házy, a Hungarian immigrant, is a billionaire who made his money in leasing aircraft, and donated the $66 million necessary to build the annex.) 

In 2012, Enterprise was moved to the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, as part of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

* Columbia, OV-102, first launched on April 12, 1981. It broke apart upon re-entry from a mission on February 1, 2003, killing all 7 astronauts. It was never officially replaced.

* Challenger, OV-099, first launched on April 4, 1983. It exploded shortly after launch for a mission on January 28, 1986, killing all 7 astronauts.

* Discovery, OV-103, first launched on August 30, 1984. In 2012, it took Enterprise's place on display at the Udvar-Házy Center.

* Atlantis, OV-104, first launched on October 3, 1985. In 2012, it was put on display at the John F. Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral, in Merritt Island, Florida.

* Endeavour, OV-105, first launched on May 7, 1992. Already under construction when Challenger exploded, it became that Shuttle's replacement. In 2012, it was put on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, in Exposition Park, adjacent to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Total flights: Discovery 39, Atlantis 33, Columbia 28, Endeavour 25, Challenger 10, Enterprise 5 flights, none into space itself.

The first replacement for the Shuttle program, the unmanned Artemis I, is planned for late Summer 2022. If all goes well, a manned Artemis II will launch in May 2024, and will loop around the Moon. If that succeeds, Artemis III will launch in 2025, and land human beings on the Moon for the 1st time since 1972.

UPDATE: Artemis I launched on November 16, 2022. Delays have pushed Artemis II back to February 2026. It will have a crew of 4, already selected, including the 1st woman to go to, if not set foot on, the Moon. Artemis III will launch no sooner than mid-2027.

*

July 21, 2011 was a Thursday. Only 8 of a possible 15 Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-1 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Evan Longoria's home run and Sam Fuld's triple enabled James Shields to outpitch CC Sabathia. Derek Jeter went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2 at Citi Field.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Florida Marlins, 5-3 at what's now named Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

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

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-2 at Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-6 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 4-0 at Chase Field in Phoenix. Ian Kennedy pitched 7 innings of shutout ball, outpitching Zack Greinke.

* And the Los Angeles Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 1-0 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Jered Weaver pitched 7 innings of 7-hit shutout ball.

July 21, 1961: The Unsinkable Gus Grissom

July 21, 1961: Project Mercury launches America's 2nd manned space mission, a capsule called Liberty Bell 7. Aboard is Lieutenant Colonel Gus Grissom of the U.S. Air Force.

Born in 1926 in Indiana, he was an aviation cadet in World War II and a fighter pilot in the Korean War. He was chosen as one of America's original astronauts, "The Mercury Seven," all of whom -- except for Donald "Deke" Slayton, who was initially grounded for a medical reason -- would fly aboard Mercury capsules with the number 7 on their missions.

Some people at NASA weren't happy that Grissom went by his nickname, Gus. But his real first name was Virgil, and that seemed a big too nerdy. So they asked him what his middle name was. It was Ivan. That wasn't going to work at the height of the Cold War. So they allowed Virgil Ivan Grissom to be listed as "Gus Grissom."

Like his only American predecessor, Alan Shepard aboard Freedom 7, Grissom's flight was only meant to be suborbital: Up, then down, taking about 15 minutes. The flight went as expected until just after splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, when the hatch cover, designed to release explosively in the event of an emergency, accidentally blew. Grissom was at risk of drowning, but was recovered safely via a U.S. Navy helicopter. The spacecraft sank into the Atlantic and was not recovered until 1999.

Before airplane flights that crossed the "Karman Line" were retroactively listed as "spaceflights," Grissom was the 1st American astronaut to be given a 2nd spaceflight. It was aboard Gemini 3, the 1st manned flight of Project Gemini, so named because it would have 2 men aboard.

On March 23, 1965, Grissom and John Young made 3 orbits of the Earth aboard a capsule that was nicknamed Molly Brown, after the heroic socialite who saved some of the Titanic's passengers in 1912, and lived to be called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." The idea was, this capsule wouldn't sink after splashdown, and it didn't. The mission was a complete success. (In another odd connection with Grissom, "Molly" was a nickname: Her real name was Margaret.)

Grissom was meant to fly a 3rd time, aboard the 1st Apollo mission. But in 1967, he, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were killed during an engine test for Apollo 1. It was the world's 1st space program tragedy. Grissom was 40 years old, and died not by water, as had once been feared, but by fire.

In the 1983 film The Right Stuff, he was played by Fred Ward.

*

July 21, 1961 was a Friday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 11-8 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Yankees scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th inning to win it, including a grand slam by Johnny Blanchard, making Luis Arroyo a winning pitcher in relief of Whitey Ford. Ford went 25-4 that season, winning the Cy Young Award, but, on this day, allowing 7 runs in 4 innings, this may have been his worst start of the season.

Roger Maris hit his 36th home run of the season, Mickey Mantle his 37th, and Yogi Berra his 12th. Blanchard's slam was his 10th homer. Maris would end the season with 61, Mantle with 54, Berra with 22 and Blanchard with 21.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Tony González hit a home run to win it in the bottom of the 10th inning. Ernie Banks did not play for the Cubs, but Billy Williams hit a home run.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Hank Aaron hit 2 home runs. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-5.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-1 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Al Kaline went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Washington Senators, 16-5 at the Los Angeles version of Wrigley Field.

* The Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago White Sox were rained out at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The White Sox swept, 7-4 and 11-4. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-5 in each game.

* And the Cincinnati Reds and the San Francisco Giants were rained out at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 22. The Giants swept, 12-2 and 5-3. Over the 2 games, Willie Mays went 6-for-10 with a home run and 4 RBIs, and Willie McCovey went 5-for-10 with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs. Frank Robinson went 0-for-3 with a walk in the opener, and appeared only as a pinch-hitter in the nightcap, not reaching base.

July 17, 1975: The Apollo-Soyuz Mission

Back row, left to right: Tom Stafford and Alexei Leonov.

Front row, left to right: Deke Slayton, Vance Brand and Valeri Kubasov.

July 17, 1975: For the 1st time, the only 2 nations that have yet sent human beings into space team up.

The 1972 arms talks between American President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, and the subsequent end of the Vietnam War, improved relations between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a condition that became known as Détente, a French word meaning "relaxation."

But a meeting of American and Soviet spacecraft, in space? There were issues beyond politics. Engineering, for one. Each side had concerns over the way the others' craft were designed, and whether they could actually work together. By 1975, these concerns were alleviated, and the combined Apollo-Soyuz flight could go forward.

The American commander was Thomas P. Stafford, who had flown on Gemini 6 and Gemini 9, and commanded Apollo 10. The command module pilot was Vance Brand, making his 1st spaceflight. And the docking module pilot was Donald K. Slayton.

"Deke" Slayton had been one of the original Mercury 7, the only one who hadn't flown in Project Mercury, as he was grounded for health reasons. He was cleared for spaceflight in 1972, but, by then, Project Apollo was winding down, and he didn't fly on any of the Skylab missions, either.

The Soviet commander was Alexei Leonov. In 1965, aboard Voskhod 2, he became the 1st person to make a spacewalk. He was chosen to be the 1st "cosmonaut" on the Moon, but mechanical issues led to the cancellation of the Soviet Moon-landing program. The "flight engineer" was Valery Kubasov, who had flown on Soyuz 6.

Soyuz 19 launched on July 15, 1975, at 8:20 AM U.S. Eastern Time, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan. Apollo 18 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 3:50 PM the same day. On July 17, at 12:12 PM Eastern, the capsules docked. At 3:17, Stafford and Leonov entered their respective docking capsules, opened the door between them, and shook hands, with the docked craft over Metz, France.

A few minutes later, Slayton and Leonov

posed for this zero-gravity picture.

Mission Control at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston patched in a phone call from President Gerald Ford. The Soviet equivalent read a message from Brezhnev. Music from each country was played: "Tenderness," a 1966 hit by Maya Kristalinskaya; and "Why Can't We Be Friends?" a recent hit with an ironic title by the funk band War.

Scientific experiments were conducted aboard each capsule, which couldn't have been easy, since each capsule had a seating capacity of three. Because of Stafford's drawl, Leonov said 3 languages were spoken on the mission: English, Russian and "Oklahomski."

They separated on July 19, both having stayed in Earth orbit without heading for the Moon. Soyuz 19 landed (the Soviets always landed on land) on July 21, and Apollo 18 splashed down (the Americans always landed on water) on July 24.

This was the end of Project Apollo. The decay of Skylab's orbit and delays on the Space Shuttle program meant that America did not return to spaceflight for 6 years.

The Apollo 18 command module is on display at the California Science Center, next-door to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Space Shuttle Endeavour is also there. The Soyuz 19 descent module is at the RKK Energiya museum in Korolyov, outside Moscow. An Apollo module and a Soyuz module, but not the ones from this mission, are at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

In the 1983 film The Right Stuff, Slayton was played by Scott Paulin.

Kubasov was the only member of the Apollo-Soyuz crew who ever flew in space again, aboard Soyuz 36 in 1980. Slayton died in 1993, Kubasov in 2014, Leonov in 2019. As of July 17, 2022, Stafford is still alive, age 91; as is Brand, 90. Stafford delivered one of the eulogies at Leonov's funeral. (UPDATE: Stafford died in 2024.)

*

July 17, 1975 was a Thursday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Texas Rangers, 7-2 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Pat Dobson got knocked out of the box in the 2nd inning, while Ferguson Jenkins limited the Yankees to 3 baserunners, all singles, by Thurman Munson, Roy White, and Rich Coggins, whose hit drove in both Yankee runs.

* The New York Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. Rusty Staub, Dave Kingman and Joe Torre hit home runs for the Metropolitans.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-0 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Steve Rogers (6 innings) and Dale Murray (3) combined on a 7-hit shutout. Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan went 0-for-11 between them. Pepe Mangual and Pete Mackanin hit home runs for the Expos.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 8-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-5, but Cecil Cooper and Rick Burleson hit home runs for the Sox. George Brett went 0-for-3 with a walk, and Harmon Killebrew, playing for the Royals in his final season, went 2-for-2 with a walk.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 6-5 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt and Tim McCarver homered for the Phils, but the winning run came in the bottom of the 11th, when Jay Johnstone bunted and Astro 2nd baseman Larry Milbourne made a bad throw, allowing Larry Bowa to score. Tug McGraw got the win in relief of Steve Carlton.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 6-3 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Elrod Hendricks won it with a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning. Lee May also homered for the Birds, and Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4. Dan Ford homered for the Twins, and Rod Carew went 1-for-5.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Reggie Jackson and Sal Bando homered for the A's. Indians manager Frank Robinson, still active as a player, did not put himself into the game.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the opener, 4-0. Wilbur Wood pitched a 2-hit shutout, to outpitch Mickey Lolich. The Detroit Tigers won the nightcap, 9-1.

* The California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron went 0-for-3 with a walk. Robin Yount went 0-for-4.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 6-5 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium).

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Dave Parker and Willie Stargell homered for the Bucs.

* And the St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 1-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Ted Simmons won the game in the top of the 9th with an RBI double.

July 11, 1979: The Fall of Skylab

July 11, 1979: Skylab falls from Earth orbit, ending its troubled 6-year voyage.

Skylab was launched on May 14, 1973, by the modified Saturn V. The launch is sometimes referred to as Skylab 1. Severe damage was sustained during launch and deployment, including the loss of the station's micrometeoroid shield/sun shade and one of its main solar panels. Debris from the lost micrometeoroid shield further complicated matters by becoming tangled in the remaining solar panel, preventing its full deployment and thus leaving the station with a huge power deficit.

The first crewed mission, Skylab 2, launched on May 25, 1973, atop a Saturn IB, and involved extensive repairs to the station. The crew -- Apollo 12 commander Pete Conrad, Joseph Kerwin and Paul Weitz -- deployed a parasol-like sunshade through a small instrument port from the inside of the station, bringing station temperatures down to acceptable levels and preventing overheating that would have melted the plastic insulation inside the station and released poisonous gases. The crew conducted further repairs via two spacewalks. The crew stayed in orbit with Skylab for 28 days, returning on June 22.

Skylab 3 was launched on July 28, 1973, with Apollo 12 lunar module pilot Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma. They returned on September 25, having conducted several successful experiments, including one which eventually led to a Nobel Prize.

Skylab 4 was launched on November 16, 1973, with he 1st-ever American spaceflight of more than 1 person to made up entirely of spaceflight rookies: Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue. In fact, this was the only spaceflight for all 3.

But they made up for lost time, not only conducting even more successful experiments than had the Skylab 3 crew, but returning on February 8, 1974, 84 days after arrival, marking the longest U.S. spaceflight ever to that point, the 1st to span a New Year; and the 2nd, after Apollo 8, to include a Christmas Day.

But it was also the last time men were aboard Skylab. The 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission didn't use it. And Americans did not return to space after that until the 1st Space Shuttle, the Columbia, was launched in 1981.

In the interim, it was determined that Skylab's orbit was decaying, and that it would crash into the Indian Ocean, far from any habited place and thus with no risk to humanity, on July 11, 1979. The prediction turned out to be correct.

Skylab was a disappointment, but neither a failure nor a waste: It proved that humanity could stay in space for more than a few days at a time, with no ill effects; and the work done there has benefited humanity in many ways.

For comparison's sake, the Soviet Union did manage to get it right, but their 1st attempt at a permanent space station was even worse than ours. Their space agency, Kosmicheskaya programma, had wanted to launch Salyut 1, the 1st intended-permanent space station, on April 12, 1971, to coincide with the 10th Anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the 1st man in space, but had to delay it until April 19. ("Salyut" means "salute" or "fireworks.")

The 1st mission launched toward it, Soyuz 10, was unable to dock with it. Soyuz 11 did, but it malfunctioned upon re-entry to Earth, killing its 3-man crew, still the worst disaster in the history of the Soviet or Russian space program. Kosmicheskaya programma decided to start over, and cut off Salyut 1's support, allowing it to fall to Earth on October 11, not even 6 months later.

Salyut 2 only lasted 55 days in 1973, before malfunctioning and falling to Earth, never having hosted a crew. Salyut 3 was launched in 1974, and lasted 6 months, hosting just 1 successful mission, Soyuz 14. Salyut 4 was also launched in 1974, and lasted 2 years, hosting Soyuz 17 and 18. Salyut 5 was launched in 1976, lasted a little over a year, and hosted Soyuz 21 and 23.

Salyut 6 was launched in 1977, and lasted almost 5 years -- the Soviets' best attempt yet, but still not as long as Skylab. It hosted Soyuz 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 and 40 (but not 33, which failed to dock and had to abort its mission).

Salyut 7 topped this by being launched in 1982, and lasted until 1991, almost 9 years. It hosted 6 missions, labeled Soyuz T-5, T-9, T-10, T-13, T-14 and T-15. Soyuz T-15 remains the only spacecraft, from any country, to dock at 2 different space stations: It was the 1st to dock at the Soviets' new Mir, on March 15, 1986; and then became the last to dock at Salyut 7, on May 6.

Mir would be far more successful than either Skylab or the Salyut series, lasting until 2001. By that point, the International Space Station was in use.

*

July 11, 1979 was a Wednesday. These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees fell apart almost as badly as Skylab did, losing to the Seattle Mariners, 16-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. No matter how good or bad either team was, the Yankees never seemed to do well at the Kingdome, where the Mariners played from their 1977 inception until their move to Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in 1999.

The M's scored 9 runs in the 1st inning, shelling veteran Tommy John and prospect Ken Clay. They got home runs from Ruppert Jones, Bruce Bochte and Leon Roberts. Floyd Bannister went the distance for the win, allowing only 3 hits: A home run by Lou Piniella, and singles by Thurman Munson and Willie Randolph. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 at Shea Stadium. John Stearns singled home Lee Mazzilli in the bottom of the 10th inning. Elliott Maddox went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Montreal Expos, 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The only run of the game came on a home run by Mike Ivie in the top of the 7th. John Curtis pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Padres got home runs from Dave Winfield, Gene Tenace and Jerry Turner. The Phillies got one from Garry Maddox. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Pete Rose drew a walk as a pinch-hitter.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-1 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Robin Yount tripled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 9-8 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. George Brett went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4. Lou Brock went 0-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Darrell Jackson had a 4-hit shutout going after 6 innings, but allowed a double and a walk in the bottom of the 7th, and manager Gene Mauch panicked and brought in Pete Redfern. He finished the 6-hit shutout. In contrast, Sparky Anderson, in his 1st year managing the Tigers after being known as "Captain Hook" for his frequently relieving of pitchers while managing in Cincinnati, led Jack Morris pitch a complete game, but while he only allowed 3 hits, he was the losing pitcher.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 5-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 5-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Willie Stargell and Dave Parker hit home runs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the California Angels, 9-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). They did this despite Carl Yastrzemski going 0-for-5.

* And the Baltimore Orioles beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-1, in front of only 2,586 fans at the Oakland Coliseum. Eddie Murray went 3-for-4 with a solo home run.