Scores On This Historic Day

Pearl White, 1916. I don't know why she's holding a pig on a car's hood. March 31, 1914: The Perils of Pauline premieres, one of the earliest film serials, starring Pearl White, one of the top film stars of the era. It set the tone for serials to come: Every 2 weeks (eventually serials would be cut to every week), a hero would be put into a seemingly impossible situation, and, there, the installment would end, and you would have to come back and see the next installment to see how he -- or, in this case, she -- would get out of it. White played Pauline, an ambitious young heiress with an independent nature and a desire for adventure. Her wealthy guardian had left her inheritance in the care of his secretary, Raymond Owen, who was legally obligated to release it as soon as she was married. Of course, if she should die before getting married, then the money would go to Owen. So he continually sets her up for calamity. There were 20 chapters, averaging 20 1/2 minutes apiece....

March 31, 1889: The Eiffel Tower opens, on the Left Bank on the River Seine, in the 7th Arrondissement of Paris. It was the centerpiece of the Exposition Universelle, a world's fair celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the French Revolution. Parisian high society hated it. I guess they didn't get the memo: The fair was celebrating the overthrow of the high society of the previous century. Everybody else liked it. Visitors during the Exposition included the great French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII of Britain, who was having an affair with Bernhardt), inventor Thomas Edison, and Buffalo Bill Cody, whose Wild West Show was an attraction at the fair. Gustave Eiffel was 56 years old at the time it opened, and was previously best known for designing railroad bridges, which explains the black iron structure of his tower. It was meant to be torn down after the fair, but it was kept up. This proved to be invaluable in World War I, since its...

Christian Laettner (left) and Grant Hill March 30, 1991: The basketball team of Duke University defeats the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, the defending National Champions, 79-77, in the Semifinal of the NCAA Tournament. It is now hard to imagine Duke being an underdog, but, at the time, it was UNLV who were the big bad villains of college basketball. UNLV were coached by Jerry Tarkanian, a.k.a. "Tark the Shark," known for his bald head and nervously chewing on a white towel while sitting on the sideline. With a starting lineup that included future NBA stars Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and Stacey Augmon, all of whom would return for a senior year, they went 34-5. In the Final, at the McNichols Arena in Denver, they beat Duke, 103-73. Under coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke had lost to Louisville in the 1986 Final. In 1990-91, with stars like Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill, they got back to the Final Four, going 29-7. But UNLV took a 45-game winning streak, sti...

March 30, 1981:  President Ronald Reagan is shot in an assassination attempt. It happens as he's walking to his car outside the Washington Hilton. It was 2:27 PM. A few minutes later, the news reached my mother and me, at the library in East Brunswick, New Jersey. I don't remember why I was there, instead of in school: It was a Monday, not during Spring Break (Easter wasn't until April 19 that year), and I was in the 6th grade, at a school that let out at 2:35. Maybe it was a half-day, due to parent-teacher conferences, or something like that. No President had been assassinated since John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. My mother was in her senior year of high school; my father, in his senior year of college. Both were sent home early. There were 2 assassination attempts against Gerald Ford in September 1975, but neither came close to succeeding. So this was the first close call that I could remember, and it remains the only one. Reagan was at the Hilton to give a speech a...

Guy Charron March 30, 1976: The major league hockey game in Kansas City, to date, is played at the Kemper Arena. The Kansas City Scouts lose 8-6 to the Los Angeles Kings. The Scouts were founded by Edwin G. Thompson, a real estate developer who, through March 30, 2022, still holds Kansas City's record for points scored in a high school basketball game, with 41. The name "Scouts" was chosen as a tribute to the Scout statue that overlooks the city, and was copied for the team's logo. It also served as a nod towards local Boy Scout troops and military personnel stationed at nearby Fort Leavenworth Army Base, both groups considered essential parts of life in K.C. at that period. For 2 years, Kansas City had teams in all of the "Big Four" North American sports: The Royals in MLB, the Chiefs in the NFL, the Kings in the NBA, and the Scouts in the NHL. But it couldn't be sustained, because, like so many sports team owners in the 1970s, Thompson underestimated ...

The original set. Note that the board is on the viewer's right, instead of the left like the modern version. March 30, 1964: Jeopardy! premieres on NBC, a daytime game show created by Merv Griffin. Art Fleming hosts it until it is canceled in 1979. A new version began in syndication in 1984, and was hosted by Alex Trebek until his death in 2020. (Fleming died in 1995, Griffin in 2007.) Art Fleming Trebek's version became the most popular game show in TV history. Ken Jennings, the highest money-winner in the show's history, and actress Mayim Bialik have alternately hosted since. (UPDATE: In 2023, Bialik was dropped, and Jennings became the permanent host.) Alex Trebek Each game  features 3 contestants, competing in 3 rounds: Jeopardy!, Double Jeopardy!, and Final Jeopardy!  In each round, contestants can choose among 6 categories, and are presented trivia clues phrased as answers, to which they must respond in the form of a question that correctly identifies whatever the c...

Left to right: William Holden, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby March 30, 1955: The Academy Awards ceremony is held at the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Bob Hope is the host, and the ceremony is broadcast live on NBC. On the Waterfront was nominated for 12 "Oscars," and received 8, including Best Picture, Best Director for Elia Kazan, Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint. Brando, still only 28 years old, had beaten out some heavyweights: Humphrey Bogart for The Caine Mutiny , Bing Crosby for The Country Girl , James Mason for a remake of A Star Is Born , and Dan O'Herlihy for a new version of Robinson Crusoe . The nominees for Best Actress were, in alphabetical order: Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones (an all-black musical version of the opera Carmen), Judy Garland for A Star Is Born , Audrey Hepburn for Sabrina , Grace Kelly for The Country Girl , and Jane Wyman for Magnificent Obsession . Dorothy Dandridge Dandridge was the 1st...