May 21, 1927: Charles Lindbergh Lands In Paris

Photograph taken a few minutes before takeoff

at Roosevelt Field

May 21, 1927: Charles Lindbergh lands his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris, France, becoming the 1st person to fly from the North American continent to the European continent. And he did it alone.

Previous attempts had been two-man teams, and the 1st true transatlantic flight had been 8 years earlier, between much-closer islands, Newfoundland (then a British colony, in 1949 made a Province of Canada) and the west coast of Ireland.

Lindbergh, a 25-year-old airmail pilot from Minnesota, son of a Republican Congressman, had taken off from Roosevelt Field in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. He took off at 7:52 AM U.S. Eastern Time, and landed at 10:22 PM Western Europe Time (4:22 PM U.S. Eastern), flying for 33 hours and 30 minutes.

Lindbergh became the biggest hero in the world. He was a bigger hero in the "Roaring Twenties" than Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Al Jolson or the late Rudolph Valentino. He received a massive ticker-tape parade on his return to New York. At the end of the year, Time magazine named him their 1st Man of the Year. He married Anne Morrow, the daughter of his financial adviser. They had 6 children, and settled in a farmhouse in East Amwell, New Jersey.

In 1932, their 1st child, Charles Jr., was kidnapped from the farmhouse, and a national panic ensued. The boy was found dead 2 months later. Bruno Hauptmann was arrested for "The Crime of the Century." While the Lindberghs' mailing address was Hopewell, which is in Mercer County, the house was in East Amwell, which is in Hunterdon County, and so "The Trial of the Century" was at the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington. In 1935, Hauptmann was convicted, and executed a year later. His guilt is still debated.

Lindbergh decided America wasn't safe for his family, and moved to Europe, where he fell enamored of Nazi Germany. Upon returning to America, he told people the country should stay out of World War II, and blamed Jews for agitating for war. His anti-Semitism and association with the Nazis ruined his public reputation, and it never recovered. When he died on August 26, 1974, it was barely even news. (Of course, it was still the aftermath of Watergate, which may have had something to do with the coverage.)

A shopping mall named Westbury Plaza is now on the site of Roosevelt Field. To the west, across the Meadowbrook Parkway, is the indoor mall named Roosevelt Field. To the south, also across the curving Meadowbrook, are the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Hofstra University, and the Nassau Coliseum.

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May 21, 1927 was a Saturday. It was in football's off-season. There was no NBA yet. And the NHL had completed its season. But there was a full slate of Major League Baseball games:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at League Park in Cleveland. The Yankees took a 3-0 lead in the 1st inning, and Emil "Dutch" Levsen was almost immediately replaced by Willis Hudlin. But they blew it, as Yankee starter Walter "Dutch" Ruether didn't have good stuff, and Hudlin pitched 11 1/3rd innings in relief. Wilcy Moore blew the lead in the 8th inning, partly due to an error by Babe Ruth, and walked Charlie Jamieson with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th.

This would be an unusual occurrence: With Ruth hitting 60 home runs, the Yankees won 110 games, setting a new American League record, and lost just 44.

"Dutch" was then a common nickname for men of German descent. Note the difference in spelling: The Yankees' Walter Ruether was no relation to the famed union executive Walter Reuther.

* The Brooklyn Robins -- the once and future Dodgers so named because their manager was Wilbert Robinson -- dropped both ends of a doubleheader to the Chicago Cubs at Ebbets Field. The Cubs won the 1st game 6-4, and the 2nd game 11-6.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 at the Polo Grounds. So the New York teams went 0-4 on the day.

* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Boston Braves at Braves Field. The Cards won the 1st game 5-3, and the 2nd game 6-2.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. The Reds won the 1st game 6-5, and the 2nd game 5-2.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-5 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. 

May 13, 1976: The Last ABA Game

David Thompson (left) and Julius Erving

May 13, 1976: The New York Nets beat the Denver Nuggets, 121-106 at the Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Hempstead, New York, and win the American Basketball Association Championship in 6 games.

(The Nassau Coliseum is in the Town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, on Long Island, but its mailing address is Uniondale, NY.)

For the Nets, coached by Kevin Loughery; Julius Erving, known as Dr. J, scored 31 points, John Williamson 28, Brian Taylor 24, Jim Eakins 15, Bill Melchionni and Tim Bassett each scored 4, Al Skinner 3, Rich Jones 2, and Ted McClain 1.

For the Nuggets, coached by Larry Brown (with some irony, a Nassau County native): David Thompson, known as "Skywalker" before there was a Star Wars, led all scorers with 42 points, Dan Issel 30, Chuck Williams 14, Monte Towe 6, Ralph Simpson and Bobby Jones 4 each; and Byron Beck, Marvin Webster and Gus Gerard 2 each.

This turns out to be the last game in ABA history. It is also the last game that Erving plays for the Nets.

Before the 1975-76 season began, the Memphis Sounds, who had been the Memphis Tams (1972-74), the Memphis Pros (1970-72), and the New Orleans Buccaneers (1967-70), moved again, becoming the Baltimore Claws, but only played 3 exhibition games before being folded by the league for nonpayment of fees. The San Diego Conquistadors became the San Diego Sails, but folded 11 games into the season; the Utah Stars, only 2 seasons removed from a Finals berth and the 1971 ABA Champions, folded 16 games in.

So only 7 teams completed the season: The Nets, the Nuggets, the San Antonio Spurs, the Indiana Pacers, the Kentucky Colonels, the Spirits of St. Louis and the Virginia Squires. The ABA required the remaining teams to each put up $75,000 before merger talks with the NBA, and the Squires didn't, folding, and ending what remains Virginia's last sports team with major league pretensions. (The Washington Commanders have their offices and training camp in Virginia, but, as of the 2022 season, their stadium is in Maryland.)

Despite being 1 of only 2 teams, the Pacers being the other, to play every ABA season under the same name and in the same metro area, and being only 1 season removed from an ABA Championship, the Colonels folded. Team owner John Y. Brown Jr., who bought Kentucky Fried Chicken from "Colonel" Harland Sanders and made it a nationwide brand, took a $3.3 million payoff from the NBA.

Brown took the money he received for the Colonels and used part of it to purchase the NBA's Buffalo Braves, which he later parlayed into ownership of the Boston Celtics. In 1979, he was elected Governor of Kentucky. To this day, no major league team in any sport has called Kentucky home, unless you count Racing Louisville FC of the National Women's Soccer League.

The Spirits' demise was a bit more interesting. The team known from 1967 to 1969 as the Houston Mavericks, and from then until 1974 as the Carolina Cougars, were owned by brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silva, textile magnates, who had previously tried to buy the NBA's Detroit Pistons. They had planned to move the Spirits to Salt Lake City if the NBA would accept them. It didn't, thinking both St. Louis and Salt Lake City too small as markets. However, in 1979, the NBA did not stop the New Orleans Jazz from moving to Salt Lake City.

In June 1976, the ABA owners agreed, in return for the Spirits of St. Louis ceasing operations, to pay the Silnas $2.2 million in cash up front, in addition to a 1/7th share of the 4 remaining teams' television revenues in perpetuity. As the NBA's popularity exploded in 1980s and 1990s, the league's television rights were sold to CBS, and then NBC, and additional deals were struck with the cable networks TBS and TNT, league television revenue soared into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

From 1976 to 2012, the Silnas collected approximately $255 million from the NBA, despite the fact that the Spirits never played an NBA game. (Nor has the NBA placed a new team in St. Louis since the Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.) In 2014, the Silnas reached agreement with the NBA to greatly reduce the perpetual payments, and take a lump sum of $500 million. Ozzie died in 2016, at the age of 83. As of May 13, 2022, Dan is still alive, 77 years old, and still receiving money from the NBA, even though he hasn't owned a pro basketball team in 46 years.

When the 1976-77 season begins, the Nets, the Nuggets, the Pacers and the Spurs were in the NBA. But, as a result of having to pay an entry fee and a territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks, the Nets sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets went from the best team in their old league to the worst in their new one, while Dr. J helped the Sixers reach 4 NBA Finals, including in that 1st season, winning the title in 1983.

The Nets changed their name to the New Jersey Nets in 1977, moved to the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, then to the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford in 1981, then to the Prudential Center in Newark in 2010, and finally to the Barclays Center in 2012, becoming the Brooklyn Nets. They reached the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, but, for the most part, due to poor drafts, poor trades, and internal dissension that occasionally breaks them up, they have been an NBA failure.

However, it should also be noted that the 1976 ABA title is the last league championship won by a basketball team in the New York Tri-State Area. The Knicks won the NBA in 1970 and 1973, the Nets won the ABA in 1974 and 1976. Since then, between them, they are 0-4 in NBA Finals, winning just 6 Finals games in 40 years. The Nuggets haven't even reached the NBA Finals.

The NBA never adopted the ABA's red-white-and-blue ball, keeping their traditional orange. But in 1979, they adopted the 3-point field goal, which the ABA had, as had the American Basketball League of 1961-62.

UPDATE: The Nuggets finally reached the NBA Finals in 2023, and won. The New York Liberty won the WNBA Championship in 2024, finally succeeding the '76 Nets.

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May 13, 1976 was a Thursday. The NBA Playoffs were in progress, but no games were played on this date.

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, and won Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They completed the sweep 3 days later. The World Hockey Association Playoffs were in the Semifinals, and the Houston Aeros beat the New England Whalers, 4-2 at The Summit in Houston. (Televangelist Joel Osteen later turned the arena into the Central Campus of his Lakewood Church.)

Football was out of season. And these 6 Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Vern Ruhle outpitched Rudy May. Rusty Staub hit a home run for the Tigers, and Chris Chambliss hit one for the Yankees.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-5 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Luis Tiant outpitched Jim Kern. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Indians player-manager Frank Robinson did not put himself into the game.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs, 9-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Jim Palmer outpitched Bill Travers. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3, but had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Reggie Jackson, in his only season with the Orioles, went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Robin Yount went 1-for-4.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox, 13-2 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 3-for-4 with a solo home run.

* And the California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 7-5 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).