December 7, 1903: "The Great Train Robbery" Premieres

December 7, 1903: The Great Train Robbery premieres in vaudeville houses. It is a Western, produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, which was run by Thomas Alva Edison. It is directed by Edwin S. Porter, and stars Justus D. Barnes, Walter Cameron, and Gilbert M. Anderson, better known as "Broncho Billy," the 1st movie action hero, Western or otherwise.

It was the 1st American feature film to have a real plot, following the French film A Trip to the Moon the year before. The plot gets wrapped up in just 13 minutes. Filming was done the month before, at the South Mountain Reservation in West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, near Edison's laboratory.

The plot is pretty much summed up in the title: A team of bandits forces the stoppage of a train, they rob it, and make their escape to their horses. A posse catches up to them, and the bandits are killed in the ensuing shootout. The film ends with Barnes, despite his character having bitten the dust, firing his gun straight into the camera. It's a blank, of course, but Porter wanted to give the audience the sensation that they were being fired at.

The film was a runaway success, and inspired lots of parodies. Porter even made one himself, in 1905: The Little Train Robbery, with children robbing candy and dolls from a miniature railroad car. The final gun-to-the-camera scene was copied by Martin Scorcese with Joe Pesci for the end of Goodfellas in 1990. It's also been suggested that Maurice Binder's "gunbarrel sequence" openings to the James Bond films are an homage.

Another American film titled The Great Train Robbery was made in 1941, but, aside from also being a Western, it has no connection to the 1903 film. The 1963 robbery of a Royal Mail train in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, England, was called "The Great Train Robbery." In 1855, there had been a robbery near London that became known as "The Great Gold Robbery," and in 1978, a British film was released about it, titled The First Great Train Robbery. In America, it was released with the shorter title The Great Train Robbery, but had no other link to the 1903 film.

Edwin S. Porter lived until 1941, Walter Cameron until 1942, Justus Barnes until 1946, and Gilbert Anderson until 1971.

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December 7, 1903 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. Basketball barely existed, and hockey had only started to become professional. So there were no games on this historic day.

At the end of the month, the Ottawa Hockey Club, a.k.a. the Silver Seven, and later renamed the original version of the Ottawa Senators, began challenges for the Stanley Cup, which they successfully defended.

August 8, 1963: England's Great Train Robbery

August 8, 1963: A Royal Mail train headed from Glasgow to London is robbed at Bridego Railway Bridge in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, about 45 miles northwest of London. It becomes known as the Great Train Robbery.

A gang of 16 men, led by Bruce Reynolds, without using firearms, escaped with £2.61 million pounds -- about £63.1 million in 2022, or $80.5 million with the current exchange rate --  mostly in £1 and £5 notes. The police soon cracked the case, and most of the gang was convicted, with the ringleaders were sentenced to 30 years in prison.

The year 1963 was a wild one for Britain: Beatlemania, the start of the Swinging London fashion scene, this robbery, and the sex scandal that was already underway and would force the resignation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in October.

As of August 8, 2022, only 1 of the 16 men in on it is still alive: Bob Welch, no relation to the baseball pitcher or the rock singer of the same name, nor to the Robert Welch who founded the far-right political group The John Birch Society.

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August 8, 1963 was a Thursday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 3-1 at District of Columbia Stadium. (It was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in 1969.) Ralph Terry went the distance for the win. Phil Linz hit a home run. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Roger Maris did not play. It was a day game after a night game, but of the three, only Maris played the night before.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds. Al Jackson outpitched future Met Ray Sadecki. Duke Carmel hit a home run for the Mets in the bottom of the 8th inning. Duke Snider walked as a pinch-hitter. So did Stan Musial, in his last 2 months as an active player.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-3 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Frank Robinson and Tommy Harper hit home runs. Pete Rose, soon to be named the National League's Rookie of the Year, went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Dick Donovan pitched a 3-hit shutout, allowing a double to Jackie Brandt, and singles to Luis Aparicio and Russ Snyder. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Milwaukee Braves, 1-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Friend pitched a 6-hit shutout. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 9th, when Donn Clendenon singled home Bill Mazeroski with the winning run. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4. So did Hank Aaron.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Red Sox led 2-1 going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Tigers scored 4 runs. The Sox scored 3 in the top of the 9th to tie it, but Rocky Colavito singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Al Kaline went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Carl Yastrzemski went 2-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ron Santo hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Ernie Banks did not play.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 5-3 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-0 at Dodger Stadium, where the Angels groundshared with the Dodgers until Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium) opened in 1966. Dick Stigman pitched a 6-hit shutout. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with 2 walks.

* And the Houston Colt .45s (renamed the Astros in 1965) and the San Francisco Giants were not scheduled.