November 15, 1948: Canada's Longest-Serving Prime Minister Retires

November 15, 1948: William Lyon Mackenzie King retires as Prime Minister of Canada and as Leader of the country's Liberal Party.

He was born on December 17, 1874 in Berlin, Ontario, a town renamed Kitchener due to anti-German sentiment during World War I. His maternal grandfather was William Lyon Mackenzie, the 1st Mayor of Toronto, and the leader of the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. Within his family, he was known as Willie, but, while at the University of Toronto, he adopted "W. L. Mackenzie King" as his signature, and began using "Mackenzie" as his preferred name with those outside the family.

Influenced by the settlement house movement, he was elected to Parliament in 1908, and was soon appointed the country's 1st Minister of Labour by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. He lost his seat in the 1911 Conservative Party landslide, and was hired by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to work for the Rockefeller Foundation. He was criticized for working for them instead of serving his country, in any capacity, during World War I, though he was 39 years old when the war began.

But King had been working for his Party behind the scenes, and when Laurier died in 1919, leaving the Party Leadership vacant, he ran for it and won, with the aide of prominent Quebec politician Ernest Lapointe Lapointe was aptly-named, because, for the rest of his life, he would be King's point man on Quebec: King never learned how to speak French, but, through Lapointe, he kept Quebec's Liberals on his side. Now, to keep it, he needed to run for a seat in the House of Commons, and won a seat in 1921. Forming a coalition to outflank the Conservatives, he became Prime Minister.

That year, Julian Byng, 1st Baron Byng of Vimy, Canada's leading hero of World War I, was named Governor-General of Canada by King George V. In 1925, Arthur Meighen, the Prime Minister that King had defeated in 1921, returned to power with a coalition government, as he took the Tories to a lead in the Commons, but not a majority.

King, however, thought he could retake the government by peeling off some members of the coalition. He combined the Liberal and Progressive caucuses to gain a plurality, and hung on to power. But the following year, due to a scandal that didn't involve King himself, the coalition fell apart.

King turned to Lord Byng, and asked him to exercise his power and dissolve Parliament, so that a new election could be called. Byng refused, citing the will of the people that had given Meighen the lead in the most recent election, and the right to form his coalition. On June 29, 1926, Byng asked Meighen to form a government, and he did.

King accused Meighen of acting irresponsibly by accepting Byng's appointment, attracting Progressive Party support to take down the fledgling government. The government lost a motion regarding Meighen's acting Ministers by 1 vote, only 3 days after Meighen's appointment. With no other parliamentary leader to call upon, Byng called a new election for September 14.

King effectively campaigned against Byng, instead of against Meighen, and won the most seats in the House of Commons. It became known as "The King-Byng Affair," and Byng returned to Britain at the end of the year, while Meighen resigned as Conservative Leader. King had not only defeated his predecessor: He had, for all intents and purposes, forced the Governor-General to resign, showing the Crown that Canada was its own nation, with its own government, speaking for its own people. Since 1926, no Governor-General of Canada, and no monarch of Great Britain, has tried to impose his or her will on the Prime Minister. All of which makes it weirder that the Prime Minister would be named "King."

He strengthened the Provincial governments of the Western Provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. In collaboration with the Provincial governments, he inaugurated a system of old-age pensions based on need. In February 1930, he appointed Cairine Wilson as the 1st female Senator in Canadian history.

With the Great Depression having started, Mackenzie King was slow to react, and lost the 1930 election to a Conservative Party now led by Richard B. Bennett. But Bennett could not get Canada out of the Depression, and held off calling a new election for as long as he constitutionally could, finally standing for one in 1935. Campaigning under the slogan "King or Chaos," King and the Liberals won it. While there have been other Prime Ministers of Canada who lost the office and regained it, King remains the only one to have held it 3 times.

King not only had an indisputable majority government for the 1st time, he had, like his American counterpart Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the largest majority any party in his country had ever had, and for the same reason: The rejection of the country's conservative party for its handling of the Depression. But King knew he had to respond in 1935, as he had not in 1930. Instead of a "New Deal," which was FDR's term, he promised "a new era, where poverty and adversity, want and misery are the enemies which liberalism will seek to banish from the land."

He and FDR negotiated the Reciprocal Trade Agreement of 1935, aiding both countries. He started youth-work, farm-work, and conservation-work programs, similar to FDR's. His National Housing Act of 1938 led to the federal government building low-rent housing. He established Trans-Canada Air Lines, which became Air Canada in 1965; and nationalized both the Bank of Canada and the nation's railroads, forming the Canadian National Railway.

Canada entered World War II along with Britain in 1939. Despite this, an election was held on time in 1940, and the Liberals slightly increased their majority. Another was held on time in 1945 -- between V-E Day and V-J Day, as it turned out, just as Britain's was -- and the Liberals lost seats, but hung on to enough seats to keep their majority.

King hosted FDR and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference in Quebec City in 1943, though he objected to Churchill seeming to ignore him. The men were the same age, having been born 17 days apart, and had similar back-and-forth electoral histories. But Churchill had served in a combat role in 2 wars, and had that over King. 

It's also worth pointing out that, like FDR, King ordered the internment of citizens of his country of Japanese descent. In some ways, Canada has been ahead of the curve compared to America; but it has had its own moments of bigotry.

He had attended the founding conference of the United Nations at San Francisco in the Spring of 1945, but played only a minor role. He realistically conceded that the major powers would dominate the UN, although he did argue for a "functional principle" that would give such middle powers as Canada an influence based on their contributions to the settlement of disputes.

After World War II, King introduced the Canadian Citizenship Act: Effective January 3, 1947, Canadians were citizens of Canada, not citizens of the United Kingdom. And he began the process of bringing the British Dominion of Newfoundland into Canada, gaining it status as the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador on March 31, 1949.

But King's health was declining, and he announced in May 1948 that he would not be Liberal Leader going in the next election. On August 7, a Party Convention selected Louis St. Laurent, his handpicked successor and his Minister of Justice, as its new Leader. King officially retired on November 15, having served as Prime Minister for 13 consecutive years, and 21 total years, in each case a record.

He did not live long thereafter, dying of pneumonia on July 22, 1950, at the age of 75, at "The Farm," his country estate in Kingsmere, Quebec, outside Ottawa. He bequeathed the estate to the government, which, in 1955, made it the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons. King is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto.

King never married, and is not known to have had any children. Rumors have gone in several places: That he had quiet affairs with prominent women in the capital, some of them married to other politicians; that he satisfied his desires with prostitutes; and that he was gay. None has ever been proven. What was proven, and shocked people, were the publication of his diaries and their content of his interest in the occult, including seances where he tried to contact dead relatives, especially his mother; his dogs, which were known by the public to be a keen interest of his; and even, after 1945, President Roosevelt.

In 1951, the Mackenzie King Bridge opened over the Rideau Canal in the capital city of Ottawa. Since 1975, his portrait has appeared on Canada's $50 bill. In 1997, and again in 2016, Maclean's, Canada's leading newsmagazine, conducted polls that ranked King as the greatest Prime Minister in Canadian history. A 2011 poll ranked him 3rd, behind Wilfrid Laurier and John A. Macdonald, the country's 1st Prime Minister.

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November 15, 1948 was a Monday. Fashion designer Jimmy Choo, famous for his women's shoes, was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. No games were played in the league that became the NBA, or in the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 14, 1935: The Repudiation of R.B. Bennett

October 14, 1935: After refusing to to call a general election for as long as he legally could, because he knew he would lose, Prime Minister Richard B. Bennett of Canada finally faces the voters. Those voters were angry at the way he handled the Great Depression, and the Regina Riot that followed the On-to-Ottawa Trek 4 months earlier. Just as a car pulled by a horse because the owner couldn't afford gasoline was known in America as a Hoover Wagon, it was known in Canada as a Bennett Buggy.

The Conservative Party fell from 134 seats to just 39, while the Liberal Party rose from 90 to 171. This returned their Leader, William Lyon Mackenzie King to the post of Prime Minister, which he had lost to Bennett in the 1930 election.

With Canada still part of the British Empire, Bennett was offered a post in the War Cabinet in 1939, and never returned home. He died in 1947, after World War II, with Mackenzie King still serving as Prime Minister. Bennett was buried in England, and remains the only deceased Canadian Prime Minister not buried on Canadian soil.

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October 14, 1935 was a Monday. Ralph Dupas, briefly the Light Middleweight Champions of the World in 1963, was born on this day.

The World Series ended a week earlier, with the Detroit Tigers beating the Chicago Cubs in 6 games. Football was in midweek: Monday Night Football didn't start for another 35 years. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season didn't start until November 7. So there were no scores on this historic day.

September 14, 1926: The King-Byng Affair

William Lyon Mackenzie King

September 14, 1926: Canada holds a general election. It is won by the Liberal Party, which means that its Leader, former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, will be returned to the job. And that means that the people of Canada were sending a message to their "mother country," Great Britain: We may still be a part of your Empire, but we will decide our own fate.

Since "Confederation" gave Canada a partial independence in 1867, the nation's head of state had been the British monarch, represented in-country by a Governor-General; and the head of government had been the Prime Minister, the Leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons.

In 1921, Julian Byng, 1st Baron Byng of Vimy, was named Governor-General of Canada by King George V. Lord Byng had been the commanding officer of the Canadian Corps at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in Vimy, France during World War I. As a result, he was called Canada's greatest military hero, and he replaced the Duke of Devonshire as Governor-General.

Julian Byng

The titles of the outgoing and incoming Governors-General was not unusual: From 1867 to 1952, the Governors-General included 2 Dukes, 6 Earls, 2 Lords who went on to become Earls after their fathers died, 3 Marquesses, 2 Viscounts, and 2 Barons.

Among them were the donors of the trophies for the championships of ice hockey and Canadian football, respectively: Frederick Stanley, who had to resign as Governor-General because his father had died, and passed to him the title of Earl of Derby; and Albert Grey, the 4th Earl Grey, grandson of Charles Grey, for whom Earl Grey tea was named.

In 1920, Robert Borden, who had been Prime Minister through World War I, retired, and handed the office off to Arthur Meighen. But in the next election, in 1921, his Conservative Party lost to the Liberal Party, and Mackenzie King -- usually referred to by his 3rd and 4th names, not by all 4 -- became the new Prime Minister. On October 29, 1925, Meighen returned to power with a coalition government, as he took the Tories to a lead in the Commons, but not a majority.

Arthur Meighen

King, however, thought he could retake the government by peeling off some members of the coalition. He combined the Liberal and Progressive caucuses to gain a plurality, and hung on to power. But the following year, due to a scandal that didn't involve King himself, the coalition fell apart.

King turned to Lord Byng, and asked him to exercise his power and dissolve Parliament, so that a new election could be called. Byng refused, citing the will of the people that had given Meighen the lead in the most recent election, and the right to form his coalition. On June 29, 1926, Byng asked Meighen to form a government, and he did.

Because of the possibility of losing a vote in the Commons, Meighen advised Byng to appoint the ministers of the Crown in an "acting" capacity only, to avoid triggering the automatic by-elections Ministers faced when accepting their appointments at the time. King used the technique to mock the government, and to further his accusation that Meighen had acted irresponsibly by accepting Byng's appointment, attracting Progressive support to take down the fledgling government. The government lost a motion regarding the "acting" Ministers by one vote, only 3 days after Meighen's appointment. With no other parliamentary leader to call upon, Byng called a new election for September 14.

King effectively campaigned against Byng, instead of against Meighen, and won the most seats in the House of Commons, although his party won a smaller proportion of the popular vote than the Conservatives. However, this was largely because the Liberals did not run candidates in all ridings, and had an informal electoral pact with the Progressives and Liberal-Progressives. In particular, the election results in the Province of Manitoba had the Conservatives capture almost 40 percent of the vote, twice the vote share of any other party, but not finishing 1st in a single riding, so they won no seats. Thus, King's Liberals were able to govern.

It became known as "The King-Byng Affair," and Byng returned to Britain at the end of the year. He was raised to the rank of Viscount. Meighen resigned as Conservative Leader. He ended up being knighted for his service to the British Empire. He was the last Prime Minister of Canada who saw himself as being a member of the British Empire, and so he was the last Prime Minister of Canada to be knighted as a result. He became Sir Arthur Meighen, despite the fact that his 1st government lasted 527 days, and his 2nd government lasted 89 days.

The incoming Prime Minister had not only defeated his predecessor: He had, for all intents and purposes, forced the Governor-General to resign, showing the Crown that Canada was its own nation, with its own government, speaking for its own people. Since 1926, no Governor-General of Canada, and no monarch of Great Britain, has tried to impose his or her will on the Prime Minister. All of which makes it weirder that the Prime Minister would be named "King."

With the Great Depression having started, Mackenzie King would lose the 1930 election, to a Conservative Party now led by Richard B. Bennett. But Bennett could not get Canada out of the Depression, and held off calling a new election for as long as he constitutionally could, finally standing for one in 1935. King and the Liberals won it.

Canada entered World War II along with Britain in 1939. Despite this, an election was held on time in 1940, and the Liberals slightly increased their majority. Another was held on time in 1945 -- between V-E Day and V-J Day, as it turned out, just as Britain's was -- and the Liberals lost seats, but hung on to enough seats to keep their majority. King retired in 1948, as Canada's longest-serving Prime Minister.

Julian Byng died in 1935, Mackenzie King in 1950, Arthur Meighen in 1960. Today, when Lord Byng is remembered, it is mainly as the husband of Evelyn Byng. During her time in Canada, she became a fan of the sport of ice hockey, and the Byngs attended Ottawa Senators games together in the nation's capital.

Evelyn Byng

In 1925, Evelyn donated the Lady Byng Trophy, to be awarded to "the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." After her death in 1949, the NHL changed the trophy's name to the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy.

The process of Canada becoming self-governing was further affirmed in 1982, when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Queen Elizabeth II signed the Constitution Act, "repatriating" Canada's Constitution, meaning that Canada can amend the document as it sees fit, without getting the permission of Britain's Parliament. The British monarch remains Canada's head of state, but has little say over Canada's governance.

In 1952, right after becoming Queen of the United Kingdom, and thus also the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II had to appoint a new Governor-General of Canada. She chose Vincent Massey. He had the diplomatic credentials, but he was not of noble birth, the 1st Governor-General for whom this was true. Indeed, from Massey onward, no Governor-General of Canada has even received a knighthood.

In 1959, upon Massey's retirement, Queen Elizabeth appointed Georges Vanier, the 1st Francophone Governor-General. The Vanier Cup, the championship of Canadian college football, is named for him. In 1984, the Queen appointed Jeanne Sauvé, who became not only the 1st female Governor-General, but also the 1st lifelong civilian.

In 1999, the Queen appointed Adrienne Clarkson, who is of Chinese descent, making her the 1st nonwhite Governor-General. Given the strong Asian presence in Canada, especially in the West, it is not surprising that the country had an Asian head of state before it had a black one. It is also not surprising that the 1st black head of state was a Francophone: In 2005, following Clarkson's retirement, the Queen appointed Michaëlle Jean, who was born in Haiti.

In 2021, the Queen appointed Mary Simon, who is Inuk on her mother's side, making her the 1st Governor-General of Indigenous descent. She was the last of the 13 appointed by Queen Elizabeth. All previous British monarchs had appointed 17.

As of September 14, 2022, 4 of the last 5 Governors-General have been women, including the incumbent, Mrs. Simon.

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September 14, 1926 was a Tuesday. Dick Dale, the lefthanded guitarist whose instrumentals helped launch "surf rock," was born on this day.

Only 3 baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0 at the Polo Grounds. Ray Kremer pitched a 4-hit shutout, backed by a home run from Paul Waner.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known from 1914 to 1931, when Wilbert Robinson managed them) lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 5-1 at Ebbets Field.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

July 1, 1935: The Regina Riot

July 1, 1935: A confrontation between Canadian troops and unemployed demonstrators results in 2 deaths. It becomes known as the Regina Riot.

The Great Depression that began with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 led to the Canadian federal election of July 28, 1930, and the defeat of the Liberal Party. William Lyon Mackenzie King was out as Prime Minister, and Richard Bedford Bennett, Leader of the Conservative Party, was in.

Installed in the national capital at Ottawa, Ontario, R.B. Bennett had sought to stimulate the economy during his first few years through a policy of high tariffs and trade within the British Empire. This didn't work, and voters turned against the Tories.

Bennett had not been in charge when the Depression began, but, like American President Herbert Hoover, he was seen as doing nothing, or at least too little, to alleviate the dire economic conditions. Hitching a horse up to your car, because you couldn't afford gasoline but you didn't dare sell your car, earned the vehicles the nickname Hoover wagons in America. In Canada, they were known as Bennett buggies.

The Bennett government ordered the Department of National Defence to organize work camps where single unemployed men were used to construct roads and other public works at a rate of 20 cents per day. After the 1932 U.S. Presidential election, new President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted similar programs, including the Works Project Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps.

But the men in the Canada relief camps were living in poor conditions with very low wages. They decided to unite and, in 1933, led by Arthur "Slim" Evans, created the Workers' United League. The WUL helped the men organize the Relief Camp Workers' Union. As Bennett stalled as much as he could, refusing to call an election sooner than he legally had to on October 14, 1935, the RCWU called for a strike on April 4, 1935.

The strikers' demands were: “(1) that work with wages be instituted at a minimum of 50 cents per hour for unskilled workers and trade union rates for skilled labour on the basis of a six-hour day, a five-day week with a minimum of twenty work days per month; (2) that all workers in the camps be covered by the Workmen's Compensation Act and that adequate first aid supplies be carried on the jobs at all times; (3) that the National Defence and all military control with the system of blacklisting be abolished; (4) that democratically elected committees be recognized in every camp; (5) that there be instituted a system of noncontributory unemployment insurance; (6) that all workers be given their democratic right to vote; (7) that Section 98 of the Criminal Code, Sections 41 and 42 of the Immigration Act and all vagrancy laws and anti-working class laws be repealed."

With no action taken, they decided to take their grievances to the federal government. On June 3, 1935, hundreds of men began boarding boxcars headed east in what became known as the "On-to-Ottawa Trek." The protesters reached Regina (that's "REJ-ih-nah," not "Reh-JEE-nah"), Saskatchewan on June 14.

Three days later, they met with 2 federal cabinet ministers: Robert Manion, Minister of Railways and Canals; and Robert Weir, Minister of Agriculture. They invited 8 elected representatives of the protest, including Slim Evans, to Ottawa to meet Bennett, on the condition the rest of the protesters stay in Regina, where a large contingent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was stationed. The remaining trekkers stayed in the stadium located on Regina Exhibition Grounds, with food and shelter supplied by townspeople and the Saskatchewan Provincial government.

The meeting was held on June 22, and it was a disaster. Bennett called Evans an "embezzler." Evans called Bennett "a liar." The delegation was escorted out, and arrived back in Regina on June 26. Attempts of the Trekkers to travel east by car or truck or train were thwarted by RCMP. A public meeting was called for July 1, in Market Square in Germantown to update the public on the progress of the movement. It was attended by 1,500 to 2,000 people, of whom only 300 were Trekkers. Most Trekkers decided to stay at the exhibition grounds.

At 8:17 PM on July 1 -- the 68th Anniversary of Canadian independence -- the police, unprovoked, charged the crowd with batons from all 4 sides. The attack caught the people off guard before their anger took over. They fought back with sticks, stones, and anything at hand. Mounted RCMP officers then started to use tear gas and fired guns. Driven from the Square, and with the RCMP blocking the roadway back to the Stadium grounds, the battle continued in the surrounding streets for 6 hours.

Police fired revolvers above and into groups of people. Tear gas bombs were thrown at any groups that gathered together. Plate glass windows in stores and offices were smashed, but with one exception, these stores were not looted, they were burned. The Trekkers who had attended the meeting made their way individually or in small groups back to the exhibition stadium where the main body of Trekkers were quartered.

When it was over, 140 Trekkers and citizens had been arrested. Charles Miller, a plainclothes policeman, died. Nick Schaack, a Trekker, later died in the hospital from injuries sustained in the riot. There were hundreds of injured residents, and Trekkers were taken to hospitals or private homes. Those taken to a hospital were also arrested. The police claimed 39 injuries in addition to the dead police officer, but denied that any protesters had been killed in the melee. The hospital records were subsequently altered to conceal the actual cause of death.

The next day, a barbed-wire stockade was erected around the area. News of the police-instigated riot was front-page news across Canada. About midnight, one of the Trek leaders telephoned Premier James Gardiner of Saskatchewan (equivalent to the Governor of an American State), who agreed to meet their delegation the next morning.

Gardiner sent a wire to Bennett, accusing the police of "precipitating a riot" while he had been negotiating a settlement with the Trekkers. He also told the Prime Minister the "men should be fed where they are and sent back to camp and homes as they request," and stated his government was prepared to "undertake this work of disbanding the men." An agreement to this effect was subsequently negotiated. Bennett was satisfied that he had smashed what he believed was a Communist revolt, and Gardiner was glad to rid his Province of the strikers.

The Federal Minister of Justice, Hugh Guthrie, probably on the orders of his boss, Bennett, lied to the House of Commons on July 2, saying, "Shots were fired by the strikers, and the fire was replied to with shots from the City Police." During the lengthy trials that followed, no evidence was ever produced to show that strikers fired so much as a single shos during the riot.

For his part, Bennett characterized the On-to-Ottawa Trek as "not a mere uprising against law and order but a definite revolutionary effort on the part of a group of men to usurp authority and destroy government."

The voters Canada weren't having it. As Mackenzie King, still the Leader of the Liberal Party, promised reforms to restore economic health, and as the Liberal campaigned under the slogan "King or Chaos," Bennett finally bowed to reality, and called an election for October 14. The Liberals went from 89 seats in the House to 173; the Conservatives, from 137 to 39. It remains the greatest repudiation any sitting Prime Minister of Canada has ever received. (Brian Mulroney had already resigned before he could receive an even greater smacking in 1993, and the defeat the Progressive Conserves suffered under Kim Campbell's leadership was a repudiation of the Party and of Mulroney, not of Campbell herself.)

Bennett remained Leader of the Opposition until 1938, as Mackenzie King's reforms worked. In 1939, Bennett resigned his seat for Calgary West, left the homeland that had rejected him, and moved to England, settling at a mansion in Surrey, outside London.

In 1941, he became the first and only former Canadian Prime Minister to be elevated to the peerage, as Viscount Bennett, Mickleham in the County of Surrey and of Calgary and Hopewell in the Dominion of Canada. He served in the House of Lords until he died on June 26, 1947, just short of his 77th birthday. He is buried in Mickleham, making him the only deceased former Canadian Prime Minister not buried in Canada.

Mackenzie King held power until his retirement in 1948, and then his handpicked successor, Louis St. Laurent, until 1957. Only then, 22 years and a World War later, did the Conservative Party -- by this point renamed the Progressive Conservative Party -- win another election, as John Diefenbaker became the next Prime Minister of their party.

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July 1, 1935 was a Monday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 8-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. The year before, Joe Cronin was the Senators' shortstop, best player, manager, and the son-in-law of team owner Clark Griffith. But with Griffith needing money, and Sox owner Tom Yawkey having lots of it, Cronin was now the Red Sox' shortstop, manager, and, for the moment, best player, before Yawkey began spending more money. He hit a home run in this game.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-1 at Navin Field in Detroit. (That ballpark was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Hank Greenberg went 0-for-4, but a 2-run triple by Marv Owen made the difference.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Billy Herman went 4-for-5, and Ken O'Dea went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the St. Louis Browns, 4-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

June 4, 1939: The MS St. Louis Is Denied Entry to the U.S.

June 4, 1939: The passengers of the MS St. Louis are denied entry into the United States. It becomes known as "The Voyage of the Damned."

Captain Gustav Schröder, the ship's commanding officer, set sail from Hamburg, Germany's 2nd-largest city behind Berlin, and its largest port, to Havana, Cuba on May 13, 1939, carrying 937 passengers, most of them Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution in Germany.

Captain Gustav Schröder

Schröder was a German who went to great lengths to ensure dignified treatment for his passengers. Food served included items subject to rationing in Germany, and childcare was available while parents dined. Dances and concerts were put on, and on Friday evenings, religious services were held in the dining room. A bust of Hitler was covered by a tablecloth. Swimming lessons took place in the pool. Lothar Molton, a boy traveling with his parents, said that the passengers thought of it as "a vacation cruise to freedom."

Bound for Cuba, the ship dropped anchor at 4:00 AM on May 27 at Havana Harbor. Cuba's President Federico Laredo Brú refused to accept the foreign refugees, except for 28. So Schröder set sail for the U.S., circling Florida, and contacting various people by radio to gain admission. But Secretary of State Cordell Hull, in charge of U.S. foreign policy, believed to have been acting on the orders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, refused to allow the St. Louis to dock anywhere in America, and sent U.S. Coast Guard vessels to block the way.

A group of academics and clergy in Canada tried to persuade Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to provide sanctuary to the passengers. The ship could have reached Halifax, Nova Scotia in two days. But Frederick Blair, the director of Canada's Immigration Branch, was hostile to Jewish immigration, and persuaded King not to intervene. So America wasn't the only negligent party.

As Captain Schröder negotiated and schemed to find passengers a haven, conditions on the ship declined. At one point he made plans to wreck the ship on the British coast, to force the government to take in the passengers as refugees. He refused to return the ship to Germany until all the passengers had been given entry to some other country. U.S. officials worked with Britain and European nations to find refuge for the Jews in Europe. The ship docked at Antwerp, Belgium on June 17, 908 passengers.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to take 288 of the passengers, who disembarked and travelled to the United Kingdom via other steamers. After much negotiation by Schröder, the remaining 619 passengers were also allowed to disembark at Antwerp. Of those, 224 were accepted by France, 214 by Belgium, and 181 by the Netherlands. The ship returned to Hamburg without any passengers.

The following year, after the Battle of France, and the Nazi occupations of Belgium, France, and the Netherlands in May 1940, all the Jews in those countries were subject to high risk, including the recent refugees.

Based on the survival rates for Jews in various countries during the war and deportations, historians have estimated that 180 of the St. Louis refugees in France, 152 of those in Belgium and 60 of those in the Netherlands survived the Holocaust. Including the passengers who landed in England, of the original 936 refugees (one man died during the voyage), roughly 709 survived the war, and 227 died. Later research tracing each passenger has determined that 254 -- a little under 30 percent -- of those who returned to continental Europe were murdered during the Holocaust.

The St. Louis was adapted by the Nazi government as a naval accommodation ship in 1940. In 1946, she was converted into a hotel ship at her home port of Hamburg. She was scrapped in 1952.

After World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany awarded Schröder the Order of Merit. He lived until 1959, 7 years after the St. Louis was scrapped. In 1993, he was posthumously named as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Isarel.

In 1974, Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts published the book Voyage of the Damned, which told the story of the St. Louis and her passengers. In 1976, a film of the same title premiered.

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June 4, 1939 was a Sunday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-4 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Red Ruffing outpitched Dizzy Trout. Joe DiMaggio did not play. Red Rolfe went 3-for-4 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Hank Greenberg went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 at the Polo Grounds. Paul Derringer outpitched Carl Hubbell. Mel Ott went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* A doubleheader was split at Ebbets Field. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1st game, 7-3. The Brooklyn Dodgers won the 2nd game, 14-1. Oddly, not only was Paul Waner injured and unable to play in either game, but Lloyd Waner went 0-for-5 in the Pirates' win, and 3-for-5 in the Pirates' loss.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-4 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* A doubleheader was split at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 10-2. Bob Feller was the winning pitcher. The Boston Red Sox won the nightcap, 7-1. Over the 2 games, rookie Ted Williams went 3-for-6 with 2 walks and an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The Chicago White Sox won the 1st game, 14-9. The Philadelphia Athletics won the 2nd game, 11-6.

* The St. Louis Browns swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators, 5-4 and 11-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. It might have been the best day of the year for the Browns, who finished 43-111.

* And the Boston Bees and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at National League Park in Boston. The Bees won the 1st game, 10-4. The Cardinals were leading the 2nd game, 6-5 after 8 innings, when the game was called due to darkness. This was during the Boston team's experiment in rebranding (1936-40). It didn't take, and they went back to the old names for the team, the Boston Braves, and the ballpark, Braves Field.

June 1, 1927: The Peace Bridge Opens

June 1, 1927: The Peace Bridge opens, connecting Buffalo, New York with Fort Erie, Ontario, at the American-Canadian border. It was constructed as a highway bridge to address pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic which could not be accommodated on the International Railway Bridge that was built in 1873.

Representing Canada, and the British Empire of which it was then a part, at the opening ceremonies were Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada and Stanley Baldwin of Britain; Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII; and his brother, Prince George, Duke of Kent; and Premier Howard Ferguson of Ontario (the equivalent of a State's Governor). Representing the U.S. were Vice President Charles Dawes, Secretary of State Frank Kellogg, and Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York.

The Peace Bridge consists of five arched spans over the Niagara River and a Parker deck-type truss span over the Black Rock Canal on the American side of the river. Going into the U.S., the road is bannered as New York State Route 955B. Going into Canada, it is the Queen Elizabeth Way, named for the wife of King George VI, not their daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. 

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June 1, 1927 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that 1st Hardy Boys novel was published. I have a separate entry for that event.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 2-1 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Joe Dugan singled Ben Paschal home with the winning run in the top of the 9th inning. Myles Thomas outpitched Rube Walberg. Babe Ruth went 0-for-4, and Lou Gehrig went 2-for-3 with a walk. Ty Cobb, running out the string with the A's, went 0-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Boston Braves, 6-2 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Washington Senators, 6-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 14-1 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on June 25. The Cards won the opener, 2-1. The Reds won the nightcap, 10-7. Grover Cleveland Alexander, 40 years old and still in the wake of his World Series heroics the year before, allowed 4 runs over the last 2 innings. Over the 2 games, Frankie Frisch went 5-for-8 with 2 RBIs.

* And the New York Giants, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis were not scheduled.