2/09/10 Today in history

February 9, 1971
Satchel Paige nominated to Baseball Hall of Fame

On this day in 1971, pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that year, Paige, a pitching legend known for his fastball, showmanship and the longevity of his playing career, which spanned five decades, was inducted. Joe DiMaggio once called Paige "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced."
Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama, most likely on July 7, 1906, although the exact date remains a mystery. He earned his nickname, Satchel, as a boy when he earned money carrying passengers' bags at train stations. Baseball was segregated when Paige started playing baseball professionally in the 1920s, so he spent most of his career pitching for Negro League teams around the United States. During the winter season, he pitched for teams in the Caribbean and Central and South America. As a barnstorming player who traveled thousands of miles each season and played for whichever team met his asking price, he pitched an estimated 2,500 games, had 300 shut-outs and 55 no-hitters. In one month in 1935, he reportedly pitched 29 consecutive games.

In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier and became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. The following year, Paige also entered the majors, signing with the Cleveland Indians and becoming, at age 42, baseball's oldest rookie. He helped the Indians win the pennant that year and later played for the St. Louis Browns and Kansas City A's.

Paige retired from the majors in 1953, but returned in 1965 to pitch three innings for the Kansas City A's. He was 59 at the time, making him the oldest person ever to play in the Major Leagues. In addition to being famous for his talent and longevity, Paige was also well-known for his sense of humor and colorful observations on life, including: "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you" and "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

He died June 8, 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri.






February 9, 1942
Normandie burns in New York

The Normandie, regarded by many as the most elegant ocean liner ever built, burns and sinks in New York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship.

Built in France in the early 1930s, the Normandie ruled the transatlantic passenger trade in its day. The first major liner to cross the Atlantic in less than four days, its masterful engineering was only surpassed by its design excellence. The 1,000-foot ship's distinctive clipper-ship bow was immediately recognizable, and its elaborate architecture and decorations popularized the Moderne style. After the American entrance into World War II, it was seized by the U.S. Navy for the Allied war effort and renamed the U.S.S. Lafayette. However, on February 9, 1942--just days before it was to be completed for trooping--a welder accidentally set fire to a pile of flammable life preservers with his torch, and by early the next morning the ship lay capsized in the harbor, a gutted wreck. It was later towed south to New Jersey and scrapped.






February 9, 1950
McCarthy accuses State Department of communist infiltration

Joseph Raymond McCarthy, a relatively obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, announces during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he has in his hand a list of 205 communists who have infiltrated the U.S. State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a publicity stunt, suddenly thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight.

Asked to reveal the names on the list, the reckless and opportunistic senator named officials he determined guilty by association, such as Owen Lattimore, an expert on Chinese culture and affairs who had advised the State Department. McCarthy described Lattimore as the "top Russian spy" in America.

These and other equally shocking accusations prompted the Senate to form a special committee, headed by Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, to investigate the matter. The committee found little to substantiate McCarthy's charges, but McCarthy nevertheless touched a nerve in the American public, and during the next two years he made increasingly sensational charges, even attacking President Harry S. Truman's respected former secretary of state, George C. Marshall.

In 1953, a newly Republican Congress appointed McCarthy chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of Governmental Operations, and "McCarthyism" reached a fever pitch. In widely publicized hearings, McCarthy bullied defendants under cross-examination with unlawful and damaging accusations, destroying the reputations of hundreds of innocent citizens and officials.

In the early months of 1954, McCarthy, who had already lost the support of much of his party because of his bullying tactics, finally overreached himself when he took on the U.S. Army. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed for an investigation of McCarthy's conduct, and the televised hearings exposed the senator as a reckless and excessive tyrant who never produced proper documentation for any of his charges. In December, the Senate voted to condemn him for misconduct. By the time of his death from alcoholism in 1957, the influence of Senator Joseph McCarthy in Congress was negligible.
-----[i think he and sarah palin would be good running mates.]-----






February 9, 1909
The Brickyard is founded
On this day, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation incorporated with Carl G. Fisher as president. The speedway was Fisher's brainchild, and he would see his project through its inauspicious beginnings to its ultimate glorious end. The first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway took place on August 19, 1909, only a few months after the formation of the corporation. Fisher and his partners had scrambled to get their track together before the race, and their lack of preparation showed. Not only were lives lost on account of the track, but the surface itself was left in shambles. Instead of cutting losses on his investment in the speedway, Fisher dug in and upped the stakes. He built a brand new track of brick, which was the cheapest and most durable appropriate surface available to him. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway would later be affectionately called "the Brickyard." Fisher's track filled a void in the international racing world, as there were almost no private closed courses in Europe capable of handling the speeds of the cars that were being developed there. Open course racing had lost momentum in Europe due to the growing number of fatal accidents. Recognizing the supremacy of European car technology, but preserving the American tradition of oval-track racing, Fisher melded the two hemispheres of car racing into one extravagant event, a 500-mile race to be held annually. To guarantee the attendance of the European racers, Fisher arranged to offer the largest single prize in the sport. By 1912, the total prize money available at the grueling Indy 500 was $50,000, making the race the highest paying sporting event in the world. However, the Brickyard almost became a scrap yard after World War II, as it was in deplorable condition after four years of disuse. The track's owner, Eddie Rickenbacher, even considered tearing it down and selling the land. Fortunately, in 1945, Tony Hulman purchased the track for $750,000. Hulman and Wilbur Shaw hastily renovated the track for racing in the next year, and launched a long-term campaign to replace the wooden grandstand with structures of steel and concrete. In May of 1946, the American Automobile Association ran its first postwar Indy 500, preserving an American tradition. Today, the Indy 500 is the largest single-day sporting event in the world.
-----[it is awesome to watch it live.]-----






February 9, 1864
George Custer married

Union General George Armstrong Custer marries Elizabeth Bacon in Monroe, Michigan, while the young cavalry officer is on leave. "Libbie," as she was known to her family, was a tireless defender of her husband's reputation after his death at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1876, and her work helped establish him as an American hero.

The two met in November 1862 at a party in Monroe. They courted while George was on winter furlough. After he retuned to service in 1863, Custer became, at 23 years old, the youngest general in the Union army. George and Libbie continued their correspondence, and when he returned to Monroe that winter, their relationship intensified. George recognized that Libbie's good judgment balanced the young general's brash and impulsive behavior. They were engaged by Christmas.

The bride wore a white satin dress for the nuptials, which were held in Monroe's packed First Presbyterian Church. They honeymooned in New York, where they visited West Point, Custer's alma mater. After spending time in New York City, they settled in Washington and the attractive couple soon became darlings of the social scene. While her husband was in the field, Libbie worked to advance his career by hobnobbing with prominent Republican politicians. Her influence with some prominent members of Congress was helpful, and possible crucial, for Custer's promotion to major general on April 15, 1865.

After the war, Custer became a lieutenant colonel in the downsized postwar frontier army. On June 25, 1876, he and the 210 men under his command were wiped out by Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana. Libbie spent the remainder of her life building Custer's reputation and defending his actions during his last battle. Not until after her death in 1933 did the first iconoclastic biography of her husband appear. The enduring legend of George Custer was due in large part to the tireless efforts of his widow.






February 9, 2001
U.S. sub collides with Japanese fishing boat in Pearl Harbor

On this day in 2001, a United States military submarine collides with a Japanese fishing boat in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing four students and five other people. The USS Greenville was hosting a cruise for VIPs at the time, some of whom were actually at the controls of the sub when the collision occurred.

Scott Waddle was the commander of the Greenville, a 7,000-ton nuclear submarine. As part of the Distinguished Visitor program, 16 civilians were on board the sub on the morning of February 9. The last maneuver that was to be shown to the VIPs was the Emergency Ballast Tank Blow that brings the submarine to the surface very quickly.

It was at this point that proper procedures broke down completely. Commander Waddle gave orders that could not be completed properly in the time assigned. Appropriate sonar and periscope sweeps to determine the safety of surfacing were not completed. In addition, the crew failed to communicate its intentions properly in part because civilians were sitting at the sub controls. It also failed to notice that the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel, was above them on the surface.

The Greenville’s rudder sliced right through the Ehime Maru’s engine room as it rose to the surface. The fishing boat, used as a training vessel for high school students, was damaged so severely that it sank within 10 minutes. Nine people, including four students, drowned. A week later, the boat was found resting on the ocean floor 2,000 feet below the surface and was carried (still underwater) closer to the island of Oahu for salvage operations. Divers recovered eight bodies in October and, later, a memorial was established at Kakaako Park in Honolulu.

Despite the failures of Commander Waddle, Navy administrators did not pursue a court-martial. Waddle received only a reprimand and was allowed to keep his rank and pension.

The Greenville went on to be involved in two other incidents the following year: In August, it ran aground in a Saipan port, and on January 27, 2002, it collided with the USS Ogden near Oman. Commanding officer David Bogdan was removed from duty following the Saipan incident but there were no disciplinary measures taken after the Ogden collision.
-----[kind of sounds like, "got ya back"]-----






February 9, 1933
Mae West and Cary Grant open in She Done Him Wrong

She Done Him Wrong, starring Mae West and Cary Grant, opens on this day in 1933. The movie featured West as "one of the finest women who ever walked the streets." The racy film provoked demand for more conservative movie censorship.






February 9, 1951
Greta Garbo becomes a U.S. citizen

Swedish actress Greta Garbo, 46, becomes an American citizen on this day. Garbo came to the United States in 1926 after several successful movies in Sweden and quickly became a success in both silent and talking pictures. She retired from film in 1941 and lived a famously reclusive life before dying in 1990.






February 9, 1973
Max Yasgur dies

Max Yasgur, owner of the 600-acre farm where the original Woodstock took place in August 1969, dies on this day. More than 400,000 people attended the three-day festival. Concert organizers had expected only 50,000 to show up.






February 9, 1981
Bill Haley dies

Rock pioneer Bill Haley dies at age 56 on this day in 1981. Haley brought the existing genre of rock and roll into the spotlight with his chart-topping single "Rock Around the Clock," in 1955.

Although rock and roll had been around since the late 1940s, the sound didn't penetrate into the white American mainstream until Haley drew attention to the style, paving the way for future rock and roll artists of all races. He made his first record, Candy Kisses, when he was 18 and spent four years on the road with a series of country-western bands. He worked as a disc jockey under the name "The Ramblin' Yodeler" and performed regularly on the radio with his band, The Four Aces of Western Swing. But the band's songs never hit it big.

In the early 1950s, Haley changed direction. He found a name for his band--Bill Haley and His Comets-and a new upbeat, rock and roll sound. The group recorded a cover of Jimmy Preston's "Rock the Joint," which sold 75,000 copies. The following year, Haley's original "Crazy Man, Crazy" became the first rock and roll record to make the Billboard Top 10. "Rock Around the Clock," a No. 1 hit, was selected as the theme song for The Blackboard Jungle (1955), the first film to feature rock music. "Rock Around the Clock" was also featured on the television dance show American Bandstand.

By the mid-1950s, Haley was the world's most popular performer, and he piled up 12 Top 40 hits in 1955-56, including "See You Later, Alligator." His last Top 40 hit was "Skinny Minnie," recorded in 1958, but throughout the 1970s Haley and his band traveled with the "Rock 'n' Roll Revival" shows documented in the 1973 film Let the Good Times Roll. He had sold an estimated 60 million records by the time he died of a heart attack in 1981. Five years later, he became one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.






February 9, 1944
Alice Walker is born

On this day in 1944, Alice Walker is born in Eatonton, Georgia, the youngest of eight children born to sharecroppers. In their poor, rural community, Walker's mother set an example of generosity and community support by taking in children whose families couldn't care for them. Walker treasured her close relationship with her mother for many years.

A shooting accident when Walker was eight left her blind in one eye. She attended Spelman College in Atlanta on a scholarship for the disabled and traveled to the Soviet Union and Africa as part of study programs. She transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York and graduated in 1965. She moved to Mississippi, became a civil rights activist, and wrote poetry. Her first collection was published in 1968. She married a fellow activist, Mel Leventhal, but the marriage dissolved. In 1970, she published her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, about emotional dynamics through three generations of an African-American family. Her second novel, Meridian(1976), follows a young woman in the civil rights movement.

In the mid-'70s, Walker moved to Northern California, where she wrote her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple (1982; film, 1985), about an abused and uneducated black woman. Her later novels include The Temple of My Familiar (1989) and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992).






February 9, 1942
Daylight saving time instituted

On this day, Congress pushes ahead standard time for the United States by one hour in each time zone, imposing daylight saving time--called at the time "war time."

Daylight saving time, suggested by President Roosevelt, was imposed to conserve fuel, and could be traced back to World War I, when Congress imposed one standard time on the United States to enable the country to better utilize resources, following the European model. The 1918 Standard Time Act was meant to be in effect for only seven months of the year--and was discontinued nationally after the war. But individual states continued to turn clocks ahead one hour in spring and back one hour in fall. The World War II legislation imposed daylight saving time for the entire nation for the entire year. It was repealed Sept. 30, 1945, when individual states once again imposed their own "standard" time. It was not until 1966 that Congress passed legislation setting a standard time that permanently superceded local habits.





WEATHER BUREAU DAY

In 1870, the United States Weather Bureau was authorized by Congress. We think people always just sat around and talked about the weather, but it took an act of Congress to do something about it! The weather bureau is officially known as the National Weather Service (NWS) and is a department of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The National Weather Service protects the life and property of U.S. citizens by issuing forecasts and warnings for natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and severe weather conditions. NWS communicates this information to the populace through an intricate and varied network. The NOAA Weather Wire Service or NWWS is the primary satellite communications system for NWS transmission. Warnings and other services are delivered in this manner to newspapers, radio and TV stations and emergency agencies. More than 6400 individual products are transmitted every day.

NWS also generates data to be delivered to the public over a nationwide network of FM radio transmitter sites. Most of the U.S. including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa can receive these broadcasts. Cable TV weather channels and AM radio channels also broadcast this information.

No matter how you learn the weather forecast, the age old question still seems to be, “So how’s the weather?”

Events




1963 - The very first Boeing 727 took off. It became the world’s most popular way to fly. 1,832 of the aircraft were built before production stopped in 1984.




1964 - Several days after their arrival in the U.S., the Beatles made the first of three record-breaking appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show. The audience viewing the Fab Four was estimated at 73,700,000 people in TV land. The Beatles sang She Loves You and I Want to Hold Your Hand. One could barely hear the songs above the screams of the girls in the audience.



1966 - Liza Minnelli brought her night club act to the Big Apple. She opened in grand style at the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel in New York.



1969 - The Boeing 747 flew its inaugural flight this day. The milestone ushered in the age of the jumbo jet.



1970 - Sly and The Family Stone received a gold record for the single, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin). Sly (Sylvester) Stewart was a DJ in Oakland, CA.



1987 - Twenty years after the first woman was admitted to the New York Stock Exchange, the Exchange Luncheon Club decided to install a ladies rest room! Wow! What did those women do for twenty years? Walk across Wall Street? No, actually, the women had to walk down a flight of stairs.



1996 - Broken Arrow opened in the U.S. The thriller stars John Travolta and Christian Slater in a “a no-holds-barred race to recover a lost nuclear weapon -- a broken arrow.”



1997 - The Simpsons became the longest-running prime-time animated series. The record was previously held by "The Flintstones".



2001 - These movies debuted in the U.S.: Hannibal, with Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore, continues the story begun in The Silence of the Lambs; and Saving Silverman, starring Steve Zahn and Jack Black as buddies conspiring to save their best friend, Darren Silverman (played by Jason Biggs), from marrying the wrong woman.





Birthdays




1866 - George Ade
journalist: Chicago Morning News/Record; playwright: The Sultan of Sulu, Peggy from Paris, The College Widow; humorist: Fables in Slang; died May 16, 1944



1874 - Amy Lowell
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet: What’s O’Clock [1926]; Sword Blades and Poppy Seeds; died May 12, 1925



1891 - Ronald (Charles) Colman
actor: Lost Horizon, Prisoner of Zenda, Around the World in 80 Days, Romola; died May 19, 1958



1901 - (Waldo) Brian Donlevy
actor: Destry Rides Again, Wake Island, Arizona Bushwackers, Five Golden Dragons, Jesse James, Dangerous Assignment; died Apr 5, 1972



1909 - Carmen Miranda (Maria do Carmo Miranda Da Cunha)
‘Brazilian Bombshell’: singer: Mama Eu Quero, The Lady with the Tutti Frutti Hat; dancer, actress: Copacabana, Springtime in the Rockies, Down Argentine Way; Chiquita Banana; died Aug 5, 1955



1914 - Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Hovick)
actress, dancer, stripper: You Can’t Have Everything, The Trouble with Angels, The Stripper, My Lucky Star; subject of Broadway show & film: Gypsy; sister of actress, June Havoc; died Apr 26, 1970



1914 - Ernest Tubb
Country Music Hall of Famer: Walking the Floor Over You; headlined 1st country music show at Carnegie Hall; died Sep 6, 1984



1922 - Kathryn Grayson (Zelma Hednick)
actress: Kiss Me Kate, Show Boat, The Kissing Bandit, It Happened in Brooklyn, Anchors Aweigh



1923 - Brendan Behan
Irish dramatist: The Quare Fellow [prison drama: 1956], The Hostage [1958], Borstal Boy [autobiography: Borstal Boy: 1958], Brendan Behan’s Island [1962], Hold Your Hour and Have Another [1964], The Scarperer [1964]; jailed for Irish Republican Army activities; died Mar 20, 1964



1931 - Robert Morris
sculptor: Observatory, Transcendence, The Fallen and the Saved, Kansas City’s Bull Wall at the American Royal Arena



1939 - Barry Mann
songwriter: with Cynthia Weil on dozens of ’60s & ’70s ‘Brill Building’ hits; singer: Who Put the Bomp [in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp]



1939 - Janet Suzman
actress: Nicholas and Alexandra, A Dry White Season, Voyage of the Damned, The House on Garibaldi Street



1940 - Brian Bennett
musician: drums: group: The Shadows: Don’t Cry for Me Argentina



1942 - Carole King (Klein)
songwriter, singer: Loco-motion, It Might as Well Rain Until September, It’s Too Late, Jazzman



1943 - Joe Pesci
Academy Award-winning actor: Goodfellas [1990]; Raging Bull, My Cousin Vinny, Hey, Let’s Twist!, Star Time Kids, Half Nelson



1944 - Barbara Lewis
singer: Make Me Your Baby, Hello Stranger, Baby I’m Yours



1944 - Alice Walker
author: The Color Purple, The Temple of My Familiar, Possessing the Secret of Joy, Meridian



1945 - Mia Farrow (Maria de Lourdes Villers)
actress: Peyton Place, Hannah and Her Sisters, Rosemary’s Baby; ex-Mrs. Frank Sinatra; ex-Mrs. Woody Allen



1949 - Judith Light
actress: One Life to Live, Who’s the Boss, Phenom



1955 - Charles Shaughnessy
actor: The Nanny



1963 - (James) Travis Tritt
Grammy Award-winnning singer: vocal collaboration w/Marty Stuart [1993]; Anymore, Can I Trust You with My Heart, Help Me Hold On; appeared in: Rio Diablo, The Cowboy Way, Sgt. Bilko, Tales From The Crypt, half-time show at 1993’s Super Bowl





Chart Toppers




1944--My Heart Tells Me - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
Shoo, Shoo, Baby - The Andrews Sisters
No Love, No Nothin’ - Ella Mae Morse
Pistol Packin’ Mama - Al Dexter

1952--Slowpoke - Pee Wee King
Cry - Johnnie Ray
Anytime - Eddie Fisher
Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses) - Lefty Frizzell

1960--Teen Angel - Mark Dinning
Where or When - Dion & The Belmonts
Handy Man - Jimmy Jones
He’ll Have to Go - Jim Reeves

1968--Green Tambourine - The Lemon Pipers
Spooky - Classics IV
Love is Blue - Paul Mauriat
Skip a Rope - Henson Cargill

1976--50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
Love to Love You Baby - Donna Summer
You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate
Sometimes - Bill Anderson & Mary Lou Turner

1984--Karma Chameleon - Culture Club
Joanna - Kool & The Gang
Running with the Night - Lionel Richie
Show Her - Ronnie Milsap