December 31, 1907: The 1st New Year's Eve Ball Drop

December 31, 1907: Times Square in New York has its 1st New Year's Eve ball drop.

The Commissioner's Plan of 1811 created a street grid for New York City, then consisting only of Manhattan Island. (What we now call the Five Boroughs came as a result of the consolidation of "Greater New York" in 1898.) Below 14th Street, which was where most of the developed part of the City then was, this pattern could not take hold. (It still doesn't. Incidentally, Houston Street -- pronounced "HOW-stin," not "HYOO-stin" like the Texas city -- serves as "Zero Street.") But above it, it does.

Under this plan, the east-to-west streets would be numbered, up to 264th Street in The Bronx. Most of the north-to-south streets would also be numbered, but were named Avenues, from 1st Avenue near the East River to 12th Avenue near the Hudson River. There are exceptions. Above 14th Street, Park Avenue takes the place of 4th Avenue. Lexington Avenue is between 3rd and Park. And Madison Avenue is between Park and 5th.

The other exception is Broadway: It starts out parallel to these Avenues, but curves at 10th Street, leading to "squares" where it intersects with the Avenues: Union Square (where 4th Avenue turns into Park Avenue) at 14th, Madison Square at 23rd and 5th, Herald Square at 34th and 6th, what was originally Longacre Square at 42nd and 7th, Columbus Circle at 59th and 8th, Lincoln Square at 65th and Columbus (known as 9th Avenue below 59th), and a last, unnamed intersection at 71st and Amsterdam (known as 10th Avenue below 59th), before running parallel to the Avenues again.

None of these "squares" actually has a square shape. On April 8, 1904, Mayor George McClellan Jr., son of the infamous Civil War General, noted the opening of the new headquarters of The New York Times on a triangular block bounded by 42nd Street, 7th Avenue and Broadway, and renamed Longacre Square "Times Square."

In 1913, the Times moved to a new building just off the Square, at 229 West 43rd Street, although it didn't sell the old building until 1961, to fund an expansion of the new headquarters. In 2007, the paper moved again, to The New York Times Building -- like the original 1904 structure, nicknamed Times Tower -- at 620 8th Avenue, across from Port Authority Bus Terminal and a block west of Times Square. The old Times Tower is now known simply by its address, 1 Times Square, and is known for his video board and its news banner, a.k.a. "The Zipper," which began operating in 1928.

While the whole stretch of Broadway from 42nd to 50th Streets is usually called "Times Square," that's officially the name of only its southern half, from 42nd to 45th. From 45th to 50th, it's Duffy Square, named after the famous World War I chaplain, Father Francis P. Duffy. Duffy Square includes a statue of an even more famous Irish-American, his contemporary, the leading Broadway star, writer and producer of the early 20th Century, George M. Cohan. Of all the stars in Broadway history, Cohan is the only one with a statue actually on Broadway.

Traditionally, New York's New Year's Eve celebrations had centered around Trinity Church, at Broadway and Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. But on December 31, 1904, Times owner-publisher Adolph Ochs decided to set off fireworks from his building, to ring in the New Year 1905. That brought 200,000 people into the recently-renamed Times Square, and that started a new tradition.

Drawing of the celebration in the next day's Times

In 1907, Ochs wanted an even bigger spectacle. Walter F. Palmer was the paper's chief electrician. He had seen a "time ball," a signaling device, on the nearby Western Union Telegraph Building. Ochs hired sign designer Artkraft Strauss to build such a ball. The result 700 pounds of wood, 5 feet in diameter, with 100 incandescent light bulbs attached -- this was only 28 years after Thomas Edison made such light bulbs practical.

The ball was hoisted on the building's 70-foot flagpole, and was lowered at 10 seconds to midnight on December 31. Once it hit the roof at 12:00 on January 1, 1908, the ball completed a circuit that lit 5-foot-tall signs on the sides of the building, reading "HAPPY NEW YEAR," and triggering fireworks.

In 1919, a 2nd ball was designed, made of iron, which lowered its weight to 400 pounds. For 1942 into 1943, and 1943 into 1944, there was no ball-drop, due to wartime lighting restrictions. Instead, a moment of silence was observed from 11:59 to 12:00, and then the sound of church bells was played from sound trucks, allowing everybody to let loose. In 1954, a 3rd ball design was introduced: Now 150 pounds of aluminum, it was just 6 feet in diameter.

In 1929, bandleader Guy Lombardo began hosting a nationwide radio broadcast on CBS, with his Royal Canadians, from the Roosevelt Hotel at 45 East 45th Street, 2 blocks east of Times Square. These broadcasts popularized Robert Burns' poem "Auld Lang Syne" in musical form. In 1956, CBS began televising Lombardo's New Year's Eve show, and he became known as Mr. New Year's Eve.

In 1960, Lombardo moved operations of the show to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at 301 Park Avenue at 49th Street. (The Roosevelt closed in 2020, due to financial losses from the COVID epidemic. As of December 31, 2022, the building has potential buyers, but there are no permanent plans for it.) Through 1976, there were competing New Year's Eve TV show's: Lombardo's on CBS, with an announcer waiting until 10 seconds before midnight to start counting down; and the ball-drop on every other station, with the ball being lowered at 60 seconds before.

ABC began appealing to a younger generation, with Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on December 31, 1971, live from Times Square (with some acts performing at a pre-recorded show in Hollywood), and it featured the ball-drop. In that New Year of 1972, Johnny Carson moved The Tonight Show from Rockefeller Center a few blocks away to NBC Studios in Burbank, outside Los Angeles, but continued to show the Times Square ball-drop, making New Year's Eve one of his few shows of the year to still be done live. He, announcer Ed McMahon, bandleader Doc Severinsen and the entire band, would wear tuxedos, a New Year's Eve tradition. (Lombardo and Clark also wore them.)

Lombardo died in 1977, and CBS carried on for 2 years with his brother Carmen moving out of the band to lead it, but gave up the ghost for 1979-80, and had new, more up-to-date programming. The Tonight Show has continued to be done live on NBC, with Carson having given way to Jay Leno, and now Leno to Jimmy Fallon. Clark died in 2012, but ABC continues his show with his name on it, hosted by Ryan Seacrest. But until she died in 2006, my grandmother, who grew up with Lombardo, said it was no longer really New Year's Eve without him.

For 1981-82, the ball was modified: The white light bulbs were replaced with red ones, with green "leaves" and a brown "stem," making the ball look like the City's nickname, "The Big Apple." I liked the design, but it proved unpopular, and they went back to white light bulbs for 1988-89.

In 1995, the ball was altered again, with halogen bulbs, strobe lights and rhinestones, making it flashier than ever. The 3rd ball was retired for the Millennium Eve of 1999-2000, leading to the 4th ball, with triangular panels made by Waterford Crystal. And in 2007, for the drop's 100th Anniversary, the 5th and current ball was introduced: It is bigger than ever, 12 feet; heavier than ever, 11,875 pounds (just under 6 tons); flashier than ever, with 2,688 panels with 32,256 LED lamps; and tougher than ever, made waterproof so that it can remain atop 1 Times Square all year long.

For 2020-21, with COVID restrictions in place, the Square was closed off, and only medical personnel, first responders, and their families, all masked, were let in, as was the case with the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. For 2021-22, proof of vaccination was required to be let into the Square, but, otherwise, normal service was resumed.

Usually, people begin arriving in Times Square in the early afternoon of December 31, and the police close it off by 6:00 PM. In other words, if you go to this pickpocket's dreamland, you're going to stand for at least 6 hours with no chance to legally go to the bathroom, and you better bring food, because, despite all the chain restaurants around you, you're not getting into any of them until at least 12:10 AM -- and some will be closed at that hour, anyway, regardless of the holiday.

I often thought about being in that New Year's Eve crowd, which, when the Square is closed off, is over 1 million people. Then, one year, I had to be in Manhattan on a December 31. At about 2:00 PM, I came out of the Times Square subway station, ready to walk the block back to Port Authority and head back to New Jersey, and the place was already packed. What should have been a 5-minute walk from 7th to 8th Avenue took me twice as long. So Times Square on New Year's Eve is one "New York thing" that I will never do.

At 11:59 and zero seconds, the ball begins to drop, and it hits the bottom at 12:00 and zero seconds, at which point a sign illuminating the New Year lights up. Confetti is released, and the recording of "Auld Lang Syne" by Lombardo and his Royal Canadians plays over loudspeakers.

This is followed by Frank Sinatra's version of "Theme from New York, New York," Ray Charles' version of "America the Beautiful," Louis Armstrong's version of "What a Wonderful World," and Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's version of "Over the Rainbow."

That takes the crowd to about 12:10 AM, and the police take the barricades down. By 6:00 AM, not only are all but a few stragglers gone, but the Sanitation Department has cleaned up the Square, removing every last piece of confetti, so that you'd never know that last night wasn't like any other night.

*

December 31, 1907 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football season was over: While there were 2 college games on Christmas Day, there were none on New Year's Eve. Basketball barely existed. And hockey was still all-amateur, and played no games on the day or the night. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 31, 1902: The World Series of Football

 

The 2nd Madison Square Garden, 1891-1925

December 31, 1902: The 1st World Series of Football is held, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

This might be a little confusing. The term "World Series" was first used for a baseball championship in 1884, although the current event of that title did not begin until 1903. And this was the 2nd Madison Square Garden, built in 1891 on the site of the 1st, in 1879, at the northeastern corner of 26th Street and Madison Avenue, overlooking Madison Square Park, closed in 1925.

So the game was held indoors, on a field too short and too narrow for American football as we now understand it: 70 by 35 yards. The event was the idea of Tom O'Rourke, a boxing manager who was then the manager of The Garden, who wanted an event for what was then a slow time of the year for sporting events, as basketball and hockey were not yet major sports in America, much less in New York. 

O'Rourke is 2nd from the right.

2nd from the left is George "Tex" Rickard,

also a boxing promoter, who took over

management of the 2nd Garden, and built the 3rd Garden.

He decided to invite several professional and college teams to The Garden for the series, envisioning a series of games, showcasing the best in college and pro teams, eventually leading to one climactic game, crowning the "champion of the world."

But he had a tough time finding teams to play in the tournament. The colleges refused, due to increased pressure from the Amateur Athletic Association (AAU) to stop participating in professional games. The Philadelphia baseball teams, the Phillies and the Athletics, had sponsored football teams, but had disbanded them.

In the end, only 4 teams competed: The Knickerbocker Athletic Club of Manhattan, the Warlow Athletic Club of Queens, the Orange Athletic Club of New Jersey, and the Syracuse Athletic Club of the city of the same name.

O'Rourke did finally get a fifth team to join the series when some players from the Phillies and Athletics got together and formed what was called the New York Club. In calling them the "New York" team, O'Rourke expected to give his patrons the pleasure of watching a "home team" win.

He was wrong. In the 1st game, on December 29, Syracuse beat "New York," 5-0. On December 30, Knickerbocker beat Warlow, 11-6. On New Year's Eve, December 31, Syracuse beat Knickerbocker, 36-0, and clinched the title. On New Year's Day, January 1, 1903, Syracuse beat Orange, 36-0.

O'Rourke planned another series for 1903, planning 15 football games in a span of 6 days, something that wouldn't be physically possible with players the size the would become in the mid-20th Century. Knickerbocker and Orange returned, but it would be the Franklin Athletic Club, of northwestern Pennsylvania, that won the tournament. With crowds too small to maintain the event, O'Rourke never scheduled another "World Series of Football."

One note of interest: The Orange Athletic Club had been founded in 1887, and in 1929, they entered the NFL, as the Orange Tornadoes. In 1930, they moved a few miles and became the Newark Tornadoes, playing at what became known as Newark City Schools Stadium.

They had to drop out of the NFL due to declining revenue in the Great Depression, and moved back to Orange for the 1931 season. In 1937, the Tornadoes moved back to Newark, and renamed themselves the Newark Bears, after the city's baseball team, in 1939. They remained a semi-pro team, in the Atlantic Coast Football League, through the 1965 season. From 1966 to 1969, they competed in the ACFL as the Orlando Panthers, and then folded.

*

December 31, 1902 was a Wednesday. There were no other scores on this historic day: Baseball was out of season, professional basketball barely existed, and while there was professional hockey, no games were scheduled.

Roy Goodall was born that day. The defender captained Yorkshire soccer team Huddersfield Town to the 1922 FA Cup, and then to 3 straight Football League titles, in 1924, '25 and '26.

December 30, 1903: The Iroquois Theatre Fire

December 30, 1903: The Iroquois Theatre, which had only opened on November 23, catches fire in Chicago's Loop. A total of 602 deaths are attributed to the disaster.

The 1,602-seat theater was hosting a production of the British musical Mr. Blue Beard, starring Eddie Foy, then second only to George M. Cohan among American musical stars. At about 3:15 PM shortly after the beginning of the 2nd act, 8 men and 8 women were performing the song "In the Pale Moonlight,", with the stage illuminated by blue-tinted spotlights to suggest a night scene. Sparks from an arc light ignited a muslin curtain, possibly as a result of an electrical short circuit, although the lamp operator, William McMullen, testified that the lamp was placed too close to the curtain but stage managers failed to offer a solution when he reported the problem.

The main entrance, at 24 West Randolph Street, was the only way into and out of the theater for patrons, a tremendous fire hazard in a city whose "Great Fire" was only 32 years earlier. It was later alleged that fire inspectors were bribed into looking the other way, with free tickets. There were doors for crew, but they were locked. Frank Houseman and Charlie Dexter, both of whom had played for the baseball team recently renamed the Chicago Cubs, forced the doors open, and probably saved some lives.

The building was saved, and reopened 9 months later, as Hyde & Behman's Music Hall. The building later reopened as the Colonial Theater, which was demolished in 1925 to make way for the Oriental Theatre, which was later renamed the James M. Nederlander Theatre, and still carries that name today.

The Iroquois Theatre Fire remained the deadliest single-building fire in American history, until the terrorist destruction of the original World Trade Center in 2001.

*

December 30, 1903 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. No college football games were played. And basketball and hockey did not yet exist on a professional level. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 26, 1908: The Shocking Triumph of Jack Johnson

December 26, 1908: Jack Johnson, a 30-year-old black man from Texas, known as the Galveston Giant, knocks out Canadian fighter Tommy Burns at Sydney Stadium in Sydney, Australia. This makes Johnson the 1st black man to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

Sydney Stadium, built 1908, demolished 1970

(Johnson wasn't really a giant: He was 6 feet even, but a solid 200 pounds at his peak fighting condition.)

It was what we would now call a technical knockout: It was stopped after the 14th round, because Burns, considerably lighter and possibly ill with the flu, was totally outmatched.

Ironically, Burns might well be totally forgotten today had he won the fight. After all, who remembers who he beat for the title? (It was Marvin Hart.)

This "conquest of the white man," and his flamboyant lifestyle, made Johnson the most hated man in America. Even many black people hated him, for making them look bad. He didn't care: He was still going to be Jack Johnson.

So America's white establishment looked for a "Great White Hope" who could beat Johnson. Four times in 1909, a fighter was put up against Johnson:

* Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, the Light Heavyweight Champion, fought him in Philadelphia. It was a draw, but O'Brien didn't want a rematch.

* Tony Ross fought him in Pittsburgh, and Johnson beat him.

* Al Kaufman fought him in San Francisco, and Johnson beat him.

* Stanley Ketchel, the Middleweight Champion, a vicious fighter known as the Michigan Assassin, made a deal with Johnson, the same deal that O'Brien had made with him: They would fight to a draw, and thus split the proceeds from the film rights. It was a good plan. Except Ketchel got greedy, for the title and the money, and knocked Johnson down. All that did was make Johnson mad, and he not only knocked Ketchel out, he knocked out a bunch of his teeth. The film of the fight is clear enough to see Johnson brushing Ketchel's teeth out of his glove.

Now, the search for a Great White Hope became truly intense. Novelist Jack London, tapping into the racism of the time, had a nationally syndicated newspaper column, and used it to address Jim Jeffries, who had been Heavyweight Champion from 1899 to 1904, and retired undefeated to an alfalfa farm outside Los Angeles. London wrote, "Jeff, it's up to you."

Johnson was willing to fight Jeffries. Having waited so long for his shot at the title, he knew he had no right to duck anybody. Jeffries had gotten fat in his retirement. He went on a crash diet and exercise program, and actually got back down to his usual fighting weight. But losing so much weight so soon weakened him. And the fight was the middle of the desert, in Reno, Nevada. Jeffries was used to California heat, but not this kind of heat, and the South Texas native Johnson was used to it. And Johnson was in peak physical condition.

So the fight was a mismatch. It was scheduled for a maximum of 45 rounds, which sounds brutal for the modern era, where the norm became 15, and eventually 12 by the 1980s. Jeffries hung on for 12 rounds, but in the 13th, Johnson did what (it was said -- the records may be wrong) no other fighter had ever done: He knocked Jeffries down. Jeffries got up. He shouldn't have, because Johnson knocked him out in the 15th.

In 1912, Johnson was arrested for violating the Mann Act, which forbade "transporting women across State lines for immoral purposes." The woman in question was Lucille Cameron. Contrary to what is often reported, Cameron was not already Johnson's wife, which would have made the charge impossible to prove in court -- not that an all-white jury would have cared. But she refused to cooperate, and soon married Johnson.

In 1913, Johnson was arrested on the Mann Act again. This time, in a Chicago courtroom presided over by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, later to become the 1st Commissioner of Baseball and the perpetuator of the sport's "color line," Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury, and sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

He skipped bail, and escaped first to Canada, then to France. Having only defended his title once since the Jeffries fight, he could now only do so abroad. On December 19, 1913, in Paris, in the 1st-ever Heavyweight Championship fight between 2 black men, he may have recognized the significance, and held back a little, as he fought Battling Jim Johnson (no relation) to a rather lackluster draw. In 1914, he defeated Frank Moran in Paris. In early 1915, he knocked Jack Murray out in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Finally, it all caught up with him. Jess Willard, a 6-foot-6 Kansan, became the latest "Great White Hope." On April 5, 1915, at Oriental Park, a horse racing track in Havana, Cuba, in a fight scheduled for 45 rounds, and held in heat even worse than in Reno 4 years earlier, perhaps he finally got tired of being Jack Johnson, and threw the fight. Or maybe, at 37, the oldest Heavyweight Champion ever (and he would remain so until Jersey Joe Walcott in 1951), he just wasn't in shape anymore. Willard knocked him out in the 26th round.

Jack and Lucille Johnson continued to live abroad. Finally, on July 20, 1920, Jack crossed the border from Mexico to America, and surrendered to federal agents. He was taken to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas (with some irony, in Willard's home State), and began serving his sentence. He was released early, on July 9, 1921.

Lucille was the 3rd of what turned out to be 4 wives for Jack Johnson. Only the 1st was black. On June 10, 1946, he was driving on U.S. Route 1 near Franklinton, North Carolina, when he crashed into a telegraph pole, and died. He was 68 years old.

*

December 26, 1908 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended. Professional basketball did not exist. And the biggest hockey league of the time, the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association, didn't start its season for another 11 days.

But there were scores. It was Boxing Day, and, in Britain, there was a tradition of soccer teams playing each other on back-to-back days, a home-and-home series on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. On the 25th, Woolwich Arsenal and Leicester Fosse played each other to a 1-1 draw at the Filbert Street stadium in Leicester. On the 26th, they played at The Arsenal's home, the Manor Ground, in Plumstead, South-East London, and Arsenal won, 2-1. Eventually, Woolwich Arsenal would move to North London, and become simply Arsenal Football Club; while Leicester Fosse became Leicester City.

December 25, 1907: College Football In Cuba

December 25, 1907: For the 1st time, a game of American football is played in a foreign country -- Cuba.

The game was known as the Bacaradi Bowl, and was held at La Tropical Stadium in the capital of Havana. The University of Havana, founded in 1728, had invited Louisiana State University, who came into the game at 6-3. Perhaps UH showed LSU a little too much hospitality -- or, perhaps UH drank too much Bacardi. LSU won the game, 56-0.

La Tropical was torn down in 1929, and replaced with a new football/soccer stadium, Pedro Marrero Stadium, which is still in use.

*

December 25, 1907 was a Wednesday. Cabell Calloway III, later known as the jazz singer Cab Calloway, was born.

There was 1 other sporting event that day, and it was also a college football game. Washington State University beat Saint Louis University, 11-0 at Natatorium Park in Spokane, Washington. This was a minor-league baseball park built next-door to a public pool, or a "natatorium."

For those of you from the St. Louis area, this is "Wazzu," from Pullman, in the eastern part of the State of Washington, near Spokane and the Idaho State Line, in "the Palouse"; and it should not be confused with Washington University of St. Louis.

Why the Cougars and the Billikens were playing each other at all, let alone on Christmas, and in a cold-weather place instead of a warmer clime, is information that I don't have. Nevertheless, this was a reasonable substitute for the on-hiatus Rose Bowl, as Wazzu finished the season 7-1, while SLU finished 7-3.

There may have been hockey games that week, but I have no record of them. A few days later, the Montreal Wanderers defended the Stanley Cup at the Montreal Arena, in a two-games-total-goals series with the Ottawa Victorias, winning 9-3 on January 9, 1908, and 13-1 on January 13.  

December 24, 1906: The 1st Radio Broadcast

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden

December 24, 1906: The first radio broadcast for entertainment and music to the general public was transmitted from Brant Rock, in Marshfield, Massachusetts, about 30 miles southeast of Boston.

This pioneering broadcast was achieved after years of development work by Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (1866-1932), who built a complete system of wireless transmission and reception using amplitude modulation (AM) of continuous electromagnetic waves. This technology was a revolutionary departure from the transmission of dots and dashes that was widespread at the time.

It was Christmas Eve, so Fessenden played "O Holy Night" on his violin, read The Gospel of Luke's account of the birth of Christ, and played George Friderich Handel's "Largo" from a phonograph.

*

December 24, 1906 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. Football was played on Christmas Day at the time, but not on Christmas Eve. Basketball barely existed. Later in the week, the Stanley Cup was won. It was a two-games-total-goals series, at the Montreal Arena. The Montreal Wanderers, defending Champions, known as "The Little Men of Iron," beat the New Glasgow Cubs, a team from Nova Scotia, 10-3 on December 27; and again, 7-2, on December 29.

December 22, 1905: "The Dying Swan" Premieres

Anna Pavlova

December 22, 1905: The Dying Swan premieres, at Noblemen's Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia. It closes a troublesome year in that country with a great moment in the history of the performing arts.

The Dying Swan is a four-minute ballet piece by Russian dancer Michel Folkine, based on "The Swan," the 13th of the 14 movements, each dedicated to a particular animal, of Le Carnaval des animaux -- The Carnival of the Animals -- a musical suite written in 1886 by French composer Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns.

Saint-Saëns had originally scored "The Swan" for a solo cello, accompanied by two pianos. Folkine composed The Dying Swan as a pièce d'occasion for Anna Pavlova. Born in St. Petersburg in 1881, she made The Dying Swan not just her signature performance, but one of the most familiar in all of ballet.

Pavlova performed it over 4,000 times, mostly for the Ballets Russes, making her the most famous ballerina in the world. Her fame was helped by the fact that she left Russia for Britain in 1912, and touring America nearly every year from then until 1926, helping spread her fame throughout the English-speaking world.

In 1931, shortly before her 50th birthday, upon arriving in The Hague, the Netherlands, she fell ill with pleurisy. She was told she needed surgery, and that she would never be able to dance again if she went ahead with it. She refused, saying "If I can't dance, then I'd rather be dead." She got her wish on January 23. Her last words were, "Get my swan costume ready."

The next night, for what should have been her premiere, in accordance with old ballet tradition, the show went on, as scheduled, with a single spotlight circling an empty stage where Pavlova would have been. She was buried in London, in her swan costume.

Saint-Saëns died in 1921, Fokine in 1942.

*

December 22, 1905 was a Friday. Kenneth Rexroth, the poet who hosted the 1955 San Francisco poetry reading that is considered the start of the Beat Generation literary movement, was born on this day.

Baseball and football were out of season. Professional hockey didn't really exist, and professional basketball barely did. So there were no scores on this day.

December 22, 1877: The American Museum of Natural History Opens

December 22, 1877: The American Museum of Natural History opens in New York, on land bordered by West 81st Street, Central Park West (8th Avenue), West 77th Street and Columbus Avenue (9th Avenue). President Rutherford B. Hayes attends the dedication ceremony.

The Museum is directly across Central Park, 1 mile away, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Museum complex comprises 20 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to the Rose Center for Earth and Space (formerly the Hayden Planetarium) and a library. The museum collections contain about 35 million specimens of plants, animals, fungi, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time.

The Museum occupies more than 2.5 million square feet, has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about 5 million visits annually. It is a private 501(c)(3) organization. Its mission statement is: "To discover, interpret, and disseminate -- through scientific research and education -- knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe."

The main entrance and lobby, on Central Park West, were built in 1936, as the official New York State Memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. The 26th President of the United States was the 1st President born in New York City -- Donald Trump was the 2nd, but we don't count him -- and the Roosevelt family has been a major benefactor to the museum, dating back to his father, also named Theodore Roosevelt. TR's 1909-10 hunting trip to Africa resulted in hundreds of specimens that he sent back to the Museum.

In 1940, an equestrian statue of TR, sculpted by James Earle Fraser, was placed at the Central Park West entrance. Unfortunately, on either side of the horseborne TR is a Native American man and a sub-Saharan African man. The statue has thus been called racially insensitive. TR's grandson, investment banker Theodore Roosevelt IV, supported the calls for its removal, which was done in 2022.

Part of the dinosaur display. TR was a bit old-fashioned,

and he could be intimidating, but he was not a dinosaur.

When I was a kid, the Museum was my favorite place in the whole world. All those stuffed animals, and the dinosaur skeletons, and the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, opening in 1924, with the giant blue whale suspended from the ceiling. The Planetarium hit my interest in astronomy.

We went there many times between my ages of 4 and 15. I didn't get to go back until my nieces were old enough to go. By that point, my legs were in such bad shape that all that walking on hard floors left me in misery. Fortunately, I've since gotten my hips replaced, and have been to other museums with them without pain.

*

December 22, 1877 was a Saturday. There were no scores on this historic day. 

December 21, 1907: The Santa María School Massacre

December 21, 1907: The Santa María School Massacre occurs. It was the mass murder of striking workers, mostly saltpeter works (nitrate) miners, along with wives and children, committed by the Chilean Army in Iquique, in the South American nation of Chile. The number of victims is undetermined, but is estimated to be over 2,000.

The site of the massacre was the Escuela Domingo Santa María School (Sunday Saint Mary School), where thousands of miners from different nitrate mines in Chile's far north had been camping for a week after converging on Iquique, the regional capital, to appeal for government intervention to improve their living and working conditions.

Rafael Sotomayor Gaete, the Minister of the Interior, decided to crush the strike, by army assault if need be. On December 21, 1907, the commander of the troops at the scene, General Roberto Silva Renard, in accordance with this plan, informed the strikers' leaders that the strikers had one hour to disband or be fired upon.

When the time was up and the leaders and the multitude stood firm, General Silva Renard gave his troops the order to fire. An initial volley that felled the negotiators was followed by a hail of rifle and machine gun fire aimed at the multitude of strikers and their accompanying wives and children.

The massacre occurred during the peak of the nitrate mining era, which coincided with the Parliamentary Period Chilean political history (1891–1925). With the massacre and an ensuing reign of terror, not only was the strike broken, but the workers' movement was thrown into limbo for over a decade.

For decades afterwards, there was official suppression of knowledge of the incident, but in 2007, the government conducted a highly publicized commemoration of its centenary, including an official national day of mourning and the reinterment of the victims' remains.

*

December 21, 1907 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed.

There were games played in England's Football League. In one of them, Everton and Woolwich Arsenal played to a draw, 1-1 at Goodison Park in Liverpool. Woolwich was in South-East London. In 1913, they moved to North London, and became simply Arsenal.

December 19, 1907: The Darr Mine Disaster

December 19, 1907: The Darr Mine Disaster occurs in Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. With 239 deaths, it remains the worst coal mining disaster in the history of America's foremost coal mining State.

The mine was operated by the Pittsburgh Coal Company. It was located on the west side of the Youghlogheny River, and along the route of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad. Most of the miners and other mine laborers lived in the nearby community of Jacobs Creek, and took a "sky ferry" (aerial tramway) across the river to the mine entrance.

Many of the workers were immigrants from central Europe, particularly from the eastern part of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Hungarians, Slovaks and Rusyns. Others were Germans, Poles and Italians.

An inquiry carried out after the disaster determined that the blast was the result of miners carrying open lamps in an area cordoned off the previous day by the fire boss. The Pittsburgh Coal Company was not held responsible, but did abandon the use of open lamps after the disaster.

The Darr Mine blast was the 4th major mine disaster in December 1907, which would become the deadliest mine fatality month in U.S. history. It followed the Yolande mine explosion in Alabama on December 16, the Monongah Mining disaster in West Virginia that killed 362 on December 6, and the Naomi Mine explosion in Pennsylvania that killed 35 people on December 1.

The Darr Mine was abandoned, and is now overgrown with forest.

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December 19, 1907 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 17, 1903: The Wright Brothers Take Flight

December 17, 1903: The brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the 1st verified heavier-than-air flight, at Kill Devil Hill, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Wilbur, 36, and Orville, 32, had been bicycle builders in their native Dayton, Ohio. They took what they learned in aerodynamics from that, and put it to work in building gliders, and finally their first airplane, the Wright Flyer.

They chose Kitty Hawk -- the site is now in the town of Kill Devil Hill, which broke away decades later -- because of the favorable wind conditions. Their 1st flight lasted only 12 seconds, and went just 120 feet. But they did it. By the end of the day, they were able to fly for a full minute.

They made improvements, built new planes, and by 1908, they were ready to show the world -- particularly France, which was challenging them for pioneer status in this regard -- that they had forever put to rest the old saying, "If man was meant to fly, God would have given him wings."

Wilbur died in 1912, from typhoid fever, only 45 years old. No antibiotics in those days. Orville saw how airplanes could be used in warfare, exacting a terrible toll in both World Wars. But he also saw the achievements of people like Charles Lindbergh, Charles Kingsford Smith, Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart, and Chuck Yeager. On January 30, 1948, 3 months after Yeager became the 1st person to fly faster than the speed of sound, Orville died, at 76. It would be another 13 years before man flew in space.

The Wright Flyer is now a featured exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. And because of their achievement, when the Commemorative Quarters for each State were produced by the U.S. Mint, the Wrights were depicted for both Ohio and North Carolina.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, YouTube personalities Rhett McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln "Link" Neal played Wilbur and Orville Wright, respectively; against "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist as Mario and "Nice" Peter Shukoff as Luigi, of the Mario Brothers franchise.

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December 17, 1903 was a Thursday. Erskine Caldwell was born on that day. He wrote the novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre. Although North Carolina, where the Wright Brothers made their 1st flight, is a tobacco-producing State, and its multi-sided basketball rivalry has been nicknamed "Tobacco Road," Caldwell had actually written about his native Georgia.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had ended as well. Basketball did not exist at the professional level. There may have been league hockey games that day, but they weren't professional, either. The Ottawa Hockey Club, nicknamed the Silver Seven and later to be known as the original Ottawa Senators, were the holders of the Stanley Cup, and would play the Winnipeg Rowing Club on December 30, 1903; and January 1 and 4, 1904, to keep the Cup.

December 16, 1907: The Yolande Mine Disaster

December 16, 1907: An explosion at the Number 1 Mine of the Yolande Coal and Coke Company kills at least 75 men in Yolande, outside Birmingham, Alabama. It was 1 of 4 major mining disasters in America in December 1907 alone.

Post-disaster inspectors couldn't even approach the mine for 2 days, as it was still too hot -- in December. From this, they concluded that the explosion was caused by a "windy shot" bringing about a dust explosion.

Among the dead taken out early was Robert Arnold, the bank boss and Assistant Superintendent of the Yolande Company. Such was the nature of the South at the time that even The New York Times' reporter listened the names of the dead white miners, but not those of the dead black miners.

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December 19, 1907 was a Monday. This was also the day the Great White Fleet set sail. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 16, 1907: The Great White Fleet Sets Sail

USS Nebraska

December 16, 1907: The Great White Fleet sets sail. It was Theodore Roosevelt's idea.

The 26th President of the United States was fond of quoting what he called an African proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick. You will go far." He was also a big believer in a big navy: The 1st of the 42 books he wrote, still a record for any President, was The Naval War of 1812, published in 1882, when he was only 23 years old.

After long neglecting the Navy, Congress started generous appropriations in the late 1880s, upon the request of President Benjamin Harrison and Secretary of State James G. Blaine, who famously ran for President the 3 previous times. Beginning with just 90 small ships, over one-third of them wooden and obsolete, the Navy quickly added new steel fighting vessels. 

TR dispatched 16 U.S. Navy battleships of the Atlantic Fleet on a worldwide voyage of circumnavigation from December 16, 1907 to February 22, 1909. The hulls were painted white, the Navy's peacetime color scheme, and decorated with gilded scrollwork with a red, white, and blue banner on their bows. The superstructures were painted buff. These ships later came to be known as the Great White Fleet.

The purpose of the fleet deployment was multifaceted. Ostensibly, it served as a showpiece of American goodwill, as the fleet visited numerous countries and harbors. In this, the voyage was not unprecedented. Naval courtesy calls, many times in conjunction with the birthdays of various monarchs and other foreign celebrations, had become common in the 19th Century. Port calls showcased pomp, ceremony, and militarism during a period of rising prewar nationalism.

Additionally, the voyage of the Great White Fleet demonstrated both at home and on the world stage that the U.S. had become a major sea power in the years after its triumph in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

With the battleship USS Connecticut as flagship, under the command of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, the fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, Virginia for Trinidad, British West Indies; thence to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Punta Arenas, Chile; Callao, Peru; Magdalena Bay, Mexico; and north along the West Coast, arriving at San Francisco on May 6, 1908.

Leaving that port on July 7, the fleet visited Honolulu; Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Melbourne and Albany, Australia; Manila, Philippines; Yokohama, Japan; and Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); then arriving at Suez, Egypt, on January 3, 1909. While there, word was received of an earthquake in Sicily, thus affording an opportunity for the United States to show its friendship to Italy by offering aid to its victims.

Leaving Messina on January 9, 1909, the fleet stopped at Naples, Italy; thence to Gibraltar; arriving at Hampton Roads on February 22, 1909. There, President Roosevelt, in his last 10 days in office, reviewed the fleet as it passed into the roadstead. He was very pleased with the results of the tour.

In 1984, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was launched, named the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Although its official call sign is "Rough Rider," it is nicknamed "The Big Stick."

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December 16, 1907 was a Monday. This was also the day of the Yolande coal mine explosion in Alabama. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day. 

December 16, 1905: Rugby's "Match of the Century"

Illustration for a children's book about the match

December 16, 1905: A rugby union match is played, becoming known as the sport's "Match of the Century."

Rugby was allegedly invented at the prep school of the same name in England's Midlands in 1823. Wales began playing it in 1850, the Welsh Rugby Union was formed in 1881, and the Home Nations Championship, between Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland was first played 2 years later. (France was added in 1910, making it the Five Nations Championship. In 2000, Italy was added, making it the Six Nations Championship.)

The sport was first played in New Zealand in 1870. By 1904, New Zealand was sending its national team on tour. Because of their all-black uniforms, they became known as the All Blacks. (The soccer team eventually became known as the All Whites, and their cricket team as the Black Caps.)

The Original All Blacks, also known simply as "The Originals," were the first New Zealand team to tour outside Australasia. They toured the British Isles, France and the United States during 1905–1906. Their opening game, on September 16, 1905, was against Devon, in England's West Country, whom they defeated 55–4. They defeated every English side that they faced, including a 16–3 victory over English county champions Durham in the North-East, and a 32–0 victory over Blackheath in South-East London.

They defeated the national teams of Scotland, 12-7, easily the closest match on the tour before December 16; Ireland, 15-0; and England, also 15-0. On December 13, they beat Yorkshire in Leeds, 40-0. By the time the tour arrived in Wales, the All Blacks had not conceded a single point in their last 600 minutes of rugby. They had played 27 matches on the tour so far, scoring 801 points and conceding just 22.

The team travelled to Wales by train on 15 December, arriving at Cardiff Station in the evening. Despite the late hour, the visitors received a raucous welcome, a large crowd (contemporary estimates put it crowd at 20,000) had gathered to greet the All Blacks both inside the station and along the neighboring streets, preventing the players from getting to their hotel, and police had to force a path through the crowd for the tourists.

As early as October, the Welsh Match Committee had been observing the All Blacks tour. On October 19, the committee travelled to Gloucester, and say the tourists defeat one of the best club sides in England, 44–0. Rugby historians tend to accept that the scale and manner of this All Blacks victory encouraged the Welsh observers to develop new tactics that could match the tourists' unorthodox style.

As early as 1888, the New Zealand players had been performing a pregame routine that featured the haka, a dance of their native Māori people. They brought it with them to Britain. The Wales team debated how to counter this, and it was agreed that they would simply sing "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" ("Land of My Fathers"). It is believed to be the earliest performance of a National Anthem before a sporting event, and it whipped the crowd at Catdiff Arms Park into a frenzy, charging the players up.

As has become traditional for them, Wales wore all red, which would have been distinctive in person against New Zealand's literal all-black uniforms, but makes it difficult to tell the teams apart in black & white photographs.

Having studied the All Blacks' tactics, Wales concentrated on outside play. This resulted in a defensive struggle, and accounts of the match were unanimous in reporting how unusually poor New Zealand were in the 1st half, conceding an abundance of penalties in the opening 15 minutes. (Rugby union matches are 80 minutes, 2 halves of 40 minutes each.) One reporter stated that the normally free-scoring All Blacks did not get any play inside the Welsh 25 yard line until the very moment before half-time.

In the 23rd minute, a scrum was called, and Dicky Owen saw a chance to call the move he devised in training. As Wales won the ball, Owen ran it down the blindside, with the backline of Percy Bush, Gwyn Nicholls (the team Captain) and Willie Llewellyn following him in support. This initial move drew several New Zealand players. Owen then switched the play, throwing a long pass back to the openside, with Cliff Pritchard having to take the ball at his feet. The long pass gave Pritchard time to draw a covering tackle, before passing to Rhys Gabe, who similarly drew a would-be tackler. Finally, Gabe passed to Teddy Morgan, who sprinted more than 20 yards to touch down in the left corner. It was 3-0 to Wales, the first time that the All Blacks had conceded without first scoring themselves. Wales failed to kick the conversion.

The All Blacks had most of the attacking play in the 2nd half. Billy Wallace crossed the try line, but was called back, having run into touch and a forward pass from Bob Deans prevented an inevitable try for Duncan McGregor.

The closest opportunity came for the All Blacks when Deans was brought down inches from the line. By this point, there was a mist over the field, and it wasn't clear who had made the key tackle, with reports at the time saying it was a combined effort of Morgan and Gabe, but Morgan gave Gabe sole credit.

The mist led the All Blacks to believe that Deans had scored, which would have tied the game, and given them the chance to take the lead on the ensuing conversion. Even some of the Welsh players admitted that they thought he had scored, then been pulled back. But the referee, J.D. Dallas of Scotland, ruled that he never crossed the line, and was 6 to 12 inches short.

The 3-0 score held, and the crowd invaded the pitch after the final whistle, carrying some of the Wales players off on their shoulders. Dave Gallaher, the New Zealand Captain, went into the Wales locker room, congratulated their team, and admitted that the better team had won. He and Captain Nicholls exchanged shirts. Gallaher's shirt is now on display at the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham Stadium, "The Home of Rugby" in South-West London.

The All Blacks continued their tour, and managed narrow wins against 4 Welsh club teams, before opposing the France national team in its 1st-ever test match. On New Year's Day, January 1, 1906, New Zealand beat France, 38-8. They returned to New Zealand via North America, where they played 2 matches against Canadian teams. Overall, they played a total of 35 matches, which included 5 Tests. The Wales Test was their only loss.

The 1905 All Blacks tour of Britain went on to achieve legendary status within the rugby world, and New Zealand in particular. They scored 976 points and conceded only 59, and thus set the standard for future All Blacks sides. The tour also saw the first use of the All Blacks name, and established New Zealand's reputation as a world-class rugby nation. Some of these players eventually defected, to participate in the professional 1907-08 tour of Australia and Great Britain, where they played against Northern Union sides, in the variation on the sport that would eventually become known as rugby league.

Bob Deans died in 1908, only 3 years after the match, from a botched appendicitis operation. He was only 24. To the end, he insisted that he had scored.

Despite the sport's popularity around the world, there wasn't a Rugby World Cup until 1987, a joint hosting by Australia and New Zealand. It's also been hosted by each of those nations separately, England, Wales, a joint British-Irish hosting, France, South Africa and Japan. It's been won by New Zealand in 1987, 2011 and 2015; Australia in 1991 and 1999; South Africa in 1995, 2007 and 2019; and England in 2003. (UPDATE: South Africa repeated in 2023, making them the 1st 4-time winner, surpassing New Zealand with 3.)

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December 16, 1905 was a Saturday. There were no scores in North America: Baseball was out of season, football season had just ended, and basketball and hockey were mostly all-amateur.

England's Football League played that day, among the games being a 2-2 tie between Woolwich Arsenal and Yorkshire team Middlesbrough, at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South-East London. In 1913, the hosts moved to the Highbury section of North London, and dropped the Woolwich locality from their name, becoming simply Arsenal Football Club.

December 12, 1903: The Cardinals Trade Three Fingers -- and Four Pennants

December 12, 1903: The St. Louis Cardinals trade pitcher Mordecai Brown and catcher Jack O'Neill to the Chicago Cubs, for pitcher Jack Taylor and catcher Larry McLean.

Taylor had gone 88-82 for the Cubs, including 42-25 the last 2 seasons. In 1902, he led the National League with a 1.29 ERA. So it looked like the Cardinals were getting a good pitcher in the deal. But he only went 43-49 for them in 2 1/2 seasons, and then they traded him back to the Cubs, where he helped them win NL Pennants in 1906 and 1907. He finished his career 109-90.

McLean played just 22 games for the Cardinals, and later became the starting catcher for the Cincinnati Reds from 1907 to 1912. In 1913, he was re-acquired by the Cards, but, midway through the season, they traded him to the New York Giants, and helped them win the National League Pennant. 

O'Neill was a throw-in. For the Cubs, the key was Brown. Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown in full. "Mordecai" or "Mort" for his uncle, "Peter" for his father, "Centennial" because he was born in 1876, America's Centennial year, in Nyesville, Indiana.

He had two separate injuries to his right hand. The first and more famous trauma came when he was feeding material into the farm's feed chopper. He slipped and his hand was mangled by the knives, severing much of his index finger, and damaging the others. A doctor repaired the rest of his hand as best he could.

While it was still healing, the injury was further aggravated by a fall he took, which broke several finger bones. They were not reset properly, especially the middle finger. Not only did this not stop him from playing baseball, it made him a more effective pitcher: It forced him to throw what would now be called a "knuckle curve," and it curved in such a way that hardly anybody could hit it. He also developed an excellent changeup.

And so, known as "Three-Finger" Brown (or "Three-Fingered"), or "Miner" Brown, for his off-season profession, or "Brownie" to his friends, reached the major leagues in 1903, going 9-13 with a 2.60 ERA for a Cardinal team that went 43-94. They thought the more seasoned Taylor would help them. Not much, he didn't.

In contrast, Brown helped the Cubs get back into contention. They were led by first baseman and manager Frank Chance, 2nd baseman Johnny Evers, and shortstop Joe Tinker. On a staff with Ed Reulbach, Jack Pfeister, Orval Overall and Chick Fraser, he helped them win the Pennant in 1906, 1907, 1908 and 1910; winning the World Series in 1907 and 1908. (The crosstown Chicago White Sox beat them in 1906, the Pittsburgh Pirates won the Pennant in 1909, and the Cubs lost the 1910 World Series to the team that replaced them as the sport's dynastic team, the Philadelphia Athletics.)

In 1906, Brown went 26-6 with a 1.04 ERA, the 2nd-lowest in the 20th Century. (Bob Gibson's 1.12 in 1968 is the lowest in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era.) He went 20-6 with 1.39 in 1907, 29-9 with 1.47 in 1908, 27-9 with 1.31 in 1909, and 25-14 with 1.89 in 1910. Lest you think he was just feasting on the pitching-friendly conditions of the Dead Ball Era, here are his ERA+ ratings for those seasons, remembering that the average is 100, and the higher, the better: 253, 178, 160, 193 and 153.

He became known for his pitching duels with the Giants' Christy Mathewson. They faced each other 26 times, and Brown won 13 of them. What turned out to be the last major league appearance for each of them was on September 4, 1916, in the 2nd game of a Labor Day Doubleheader. The Cubs hosted the Cincinnati Reds, whom Mathewson had joined that season, at Weeghman Park, later to be known as Wrigley Field. Both teams were well out of the race, so it didn't matter that they stayed in the game despite each allowing a lot of runs: It kept fans in the ballpark, buying more food. The Reds, and Mathewson, won, 10-8.

Brown finished with a career record of 239-130, a 2.06 ERA, a 138 ERA+, and a 1.066 WHIP. Not that anyone knew what they were at the time, but he also had 49 career saves, leading the NL in them 4 times in a row.

Following his retirement from the majors, he ran a gas station in Terre Haute, Indiana, and coached local amateur teams. In an exhibition game against the famous House of David touring team in 1928, at the age of 51, he pitched 3 innings as a favor to the local team, and struck out all 9 batters he faced.

He suffered from diabetes, and died in 1948, 71. The next year, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Waiting until he was dead wasn't particularly an insult: Before him, there had been only 13 pitchers elected, and only 7 through the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The other 6, like Brown, were elected through the Veterans' Committee. He joined his Cub teammates, Tinker, Evers and Chance, who were elected as a unit 3 years earlier. A museum dedicated to Brown now stands on Nyesville Road in Rockville, Indiana, a short walk from Nyesville itself.

So when the Cardinals traded him away, they traded away a Hall-of-Famer who won 4 Pennants, and got back little in return. It's a trade nearly as bad as the one they made 68 years later, sending Steve Carlton to the Philadelphia Phillies for Rick Wise.

But they did get revenge on the Cubs, after 60 years: They sent the Cubs pitcher Ernie Broglio, who looked like just what the Cubs needed, but was hurt, and did little for them, for Lou Brock, for whom the Cubs seemed to have no use, but was just what the Cards needed.

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December 12, 1903 was a Saturday. Baseball was out of season. Professional basketball and hockey barely existed. There was one college football game played that day: The University of New Hampshire beat Tufts College (which became Tufts University in 1954), 6-0 at Central Park in Dover, New Hampshire.

And in a match in English soccer's FA Cup, Woolwich Arsenal and Bristol Rovers played to a draw, 1-1 at Eastville Stadium, in Eastville, outside Bristol, in the West Country of England. A replay was held 4 days later, at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, South-East London, and Arsenal won, 1-0. They were knocked out 2 years later, but gained promotion from the Football League's Division Two to its Division One.