July 25, 1956: The Andrea Doria Sinks

July 25, 1956, 70 years ago: The Italian cruiseliner SS Andrea Doria sinks off the coast of Nantucket.

Andrea Doria (1466-1560) was an admiral who reformed the Republic of Genoa, and a figure in what became known as the Italian Renaissance. Today, however, he is mainly remembered as the namesake of this ill-fated ship.

The Italian Line, now known as the Italia Line, launched the SS Andrea Doria in 1951, and it became its country's greatest cruise ship, a symbol of the national pride that had to be rebuilt after World War II and the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. It rivaled Britain's RMS Queen Elizabeth, France's SS Île de France, and America's SS United States in transatlantic sea luxury.

On July 17, 1956, at 11:00 AM local time, Andrea Doria left Genoa, Italy's main western port and hometown of the ship's namesake, on its 51st western crossing of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Later that afternoon, it stopped at Cannes, on the French Riviera. Boarding there was Mike Stoller, who had written "Hound Dog" with Jerry Lieber. As recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, it was the top rhythm & blues song of 1953. Also boarding there were Richardson Dilworth, then the Mayor of Philadelphia; and actress Ruth Roman and her 3-year-old son Richard; and actress Betsy Drake, then married to actor Cary Grant.

The ship then sailed southeast, arriving in Naples, Italy the next day, and that's where the majority of her passengers boarded. On July 20, she stopped at the British colony of Gibraltar on the coast of Spain, picked up a few more passengers, and headed across the Atlantic.

At midday on July 25, the MS Stockholm, a passenger liner of the Swedish American Line, left New York, heading for Gothenburg, Sweden. She was about half the size of Andrea Doria, and faster. There was fog off the coast of Nantucket, an island to the south of Massachusetts. Using radar, the 2 ships were aware of each other that night.

But they each made a critical mistake, independent of each other. Andrea Doria turned left, so that the ships would pass each other on their right, or "starboard" sides. But Stockholm turned right, so that they would pass each other on their left, or "port" sides. In other words, each ship was steered into the other's path. At 11:10 PM, Eastern Time, on July 25, both traveling at over 40 miles per hour, they collided.

Andrea Doria's generator room flooded, knocking out electrical power. Within 30 minutes, the decision was made to abandon ship. But the lifeboats were inaccessible due to the ship's listing: Those on the port side were too high in the air, and those on the starboard side were too low.

The crew and passengers did catch one lucky break: The Île de France had left New York the same day, and was only 44 miles away when her crew received the distress signal. She arrived 3 hours after receiving the signal, and, in another lucky break, the fog lifted.

Also having left New York that day, and nearby, were a U.S. Navy transport, the USNS Private William H. Thomas, and a destroyer, the USS Edward H. Allen. The Cape Ann, a freighter owned by the United Fruit Company, was also nearby. Each of these ships participated in the rescue. Even Stockholm, which was determined not to be in danger of sinking, participated in the rescue operations, launching its own lifeboats.

In all, 1,663 passengers and crew were rescued from Andrea Doria, including Stoller, Dilworth, Mrs. Grant and the Romans. But 46 people died. At 10:00 AM on July 26, the ship fell fully beneath the waves.

When the Stollers got back to New York, they were greeted by Lieber, who told them that "Hound Dog" had become a Number 1 hit for Elvis Presley. Having been in Europe most of the year, and unaware of goings-on back home in that pre-satellite TV, pre-social media world, Stoller said, "Elvis who?" Thanks to Elvis releasing that one recording, neither Lieber nor Stoller ever had to work another day in their lives. They went on to write several more hits, some specifically for Elvis, including "Jailhouse Rock"; plus most of The Coasters' hits, and several of The Drifters' hits.

The Captain of the doomed Italian liner was Piero Calamai, who had been decorated by his country in both World Wars. He retired after the rescue. To make matters worse, the following year, his brother Marco, also an Admiral, was lost at sea. Piero Calamai died in 1972, having said, "Before, I used to love the sea. Now, I hate it."

Stockholm underwent repairs, and returned to service. She was renamed several times, and last sailed in 2019, before COVID began shutting everything down, with cruise ships then being a major carrier of it. Her current name is MV Astoria, and, believed to be the oldest cruise ship afloat (launched in 1948), she is currently being retrofitted as a ferry between the Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Funchal.

But COVID hit the cruise industry hard. Stockholm/Astoria never returned to sea, and was scrapped in 2025.

It's not clear how many survivors of the Andrea Doria are still alive, but a few gathered today for a commemoration of the 70th Anniversary.

June 29, 1956: The Interstate Highway System

June 29, 1956, 70 years ago: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, creating the Interstate Highway System.

"Ike" had wanted such a highway system for America since the Summer of 1919, when, as a 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel, he participated in the U.S. Army's first Transcontinental Motor Convoy across the country. The convoy left the Ellipse south of the White House in Washington on July 7, and went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. From there, it got on the Lincoln Highway, and went to San Francisco. But there were mudpatches that vehicles got stuck in, and bad bridges that the Army rebuilt. The convoy reached San Francisco on September 6 -- 61 days later. Ike thought that was unacceptable.

The Federal Highway System was begun in 1926, with proper paving. But Ike didn't think it was enough: He wanted highways without traffic lights, without having to go through big cities or small towns, rather providing access to local roads leading into them. As a General in World War II, he had seen the Germans' Autobahn system. In a book he wrote after leaving office, he said, "The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land."

Ike got his bill, sponsored in the House of Representatives by George Fallon of Maryland, and in the Senate by Albert Gore of Tennessee, both Democrats.

Though Eisenhower is sometimes described as having advocated for the highways for the purpose of national defense, scholarship has shown that he said relatively little about national defense when actually advocating for the plan, instead emphasizing highway fatalities and the importance of transportation for the national economy. In the event of a ground invasion by a foreign power, the U.S. Army would need good highways to be able to transport troops and material across the country efficiently. Following the completion of the highways, the cross-country journey that took the convoy two months in 1919 was cut down to five days.

The numbered system followed a pattern: North-South highways would be odd-numbered, increasing the further East; while East-West highways would be even-numbered, increasing the further North. Thus, my home State of New Jersey has Interstates 76, 78, 80 and 95.

Three-digited highways have a system as well. If starting with an odd number, they are spurs to main highways: Thus, Interstate 195 extends east from I-95. If starting with an even number, they are "beltways," going around a major city. Thus, Interstate 278 forms the Belt Parkway around Brooklyn and Queens, with an extension into New Jersey; and Interstate 287 loops around New York City within New Jersey, before linking up with I-87, the New York State Thruway; and Interstate 295 loops around Trenton and Philadelphia.

The New Jersey Turnpike is bannered as I-95 from Exit 6 on north. But neither the Garden State Parkway nor the Atlantic City Expressway is part of the Interstate System.

While some older freeways were adopted into the system, most of the routes were completely new. In dense urban areas, the choice of routing destroyed many well-established neighborhoods, often intentionally as part of a program of "urban renewal." In the 20 years following the 1956 Highway Act, the construction of the freeways displaced over 1 million people. This resulted in new forms of racial segregation, as "the wrong side of the tracks" became "the wrong side of the freeway."

The Cross Bronx Expressway cut through Bronx neighborhoods, devastating the Borough. And the New Jersey Turnpike cut sections of Newark and Elizabeth off from the rest of those cities, hurting them badly. Both would become part of I-95. And I-676, the Vine Street Expressway, seriously messed with Center City Philadelphia.

Many of the Interstates paralleled older Federal highways. Examples: I-95, U.S. Route 1; I-87 in New York, U.S. Route 9; I-90 in New York and the Midwest, U.S. Route 20; I-84 in the Northeast, U.S. Route 6; I-5 in California, U.S. Route 101. The famous U.S. Route 66 was essentially replaced by I-10, I-15 and I-40 in California, I-40 from San Bernardino to Oklahoma City, I-44 from OKC to St. Louis, and I-55 from St. Louis to Chicago.

Many communities on Federal highways like Route 66 got bypassed, and suffered economically as a result, since people waited until the next big city to get off and eat and/or use the bathroom, or get a place to stay the night, instead of the next town coming up. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, although some States rebannered their sections as State Route 66. There is an Interstate 66, but it runs mainly in Washington, D.C. and its Virginia suburbs, and again from Kentucky west to Kansas.

*

June 29, 1956 was a Friday. Dominican baseball All-Star Pedro Guerrero was born. And actress Marilyn Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller. Each would end up married 3 times, and divorced 3 times. 

June 13, 1956: The 1st European Cup Final

Francisco Gento with the 1956, 1957, 1958,

1959, 1960 and 1966 European Cups

June 13, 1956, 70 years ago: The Final of the 1st European Champion Clubs' Cup is held at the Parc des Princes in Paris, France.

On April 27, 1895, for the 1st time, the Champions of 2 different European soccer leagues met. It was an All-British affair, played at Tynecastle Park in Edinburgh, Scotland. The hosts, Scottish Champions Heart of Midlothian, a.k.a. "Hearts," took on the English Champions, Sunderland, from the North-East. Actually, it was an All-Scottish contest: Known as "The Team of All Talents," every one of Sunderland's players was Scottish. (The Wearside city is less than 60 miles from the England-Scotland "border.") Sunderland won, 5-3.

In 1897, the Challenge Cup was founded, competed for by teams from across the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which included not just the entirety of present-day Austria and Hungary, but all of present-day Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, and parts of present-day Poland, Ukraine, Romania and Italy. Vienna Cricket and Football Club won the 1st one. The tournament ran until 1911.

The Mitropa Cup was founded in 1927. As the name suggests -- "Mitropa" is an abbreviation of "Mitteleuropa," or "Middle Europe" -- it was played for by teams in Central Europe only. Sparta Prague won the 1st one. This tournament continued despite the rise of the European Cup and other tournaments, until 1992, when the European Cup became the Champions League.

In 1930, the Coupe des Nations was founded, held in Geneva, Switzerland, and was won by Újpest of Budapest, Hungary. But the Great Depression doomed this early effort at a continent-wide soccer championship tournament.

In 1949, with the Depression and World War II behind them, France, Spain, Portugal and Italy came together and founded the Latin Cup. Barcelona won the 1st one. This tournament did not long survive the establishment of the European Cup, being dissolved in 1957.

But the real key came in 1948, with the South American Championship of Champions, won by Vasco da Gama of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gabriel Hanot, editor of the French sports-themed newspaper L'Equipe, wanted such a tournament for Europe.

Once again, Hungary had a major role. After beating England badly, both home and away, and reaching the Final of the 1954 World Cup, Hungary's national team was established as a power. On December 13, 1954, a small measure of revenge was taken when England's titleholders, Wolverhampton Wanderers, beat Hungary's, Honvéd of Budapest, 3-2 in Wolverhampton, outside Birmingham. "Wolves" manager Stan Cullis called his team "Champions of the World."

Since the rest of Europe was sick of hearing England brag about their teams, both club and national, especially after their pathetic performances in the 1950 and '54 World Cups, the "football associations" of the various European countries finally listened to Hanot's request for a real European championship, to be played in the 1955-56 season, by each European country's 1954-55 Champions.

Wolves did not compete in the tournament -- because they didn't win England's Football League Division One in 1954-55. Chelsea, of West London, did. But they also chose not to compete. Of the 4 British "Home Nations," only Scotland sent their Champions. With some irony, it was Hibernian, a.k.a. Hibs, Edinburg rival of Hearts, who set everything in motion 60 years earlier.

Only 16 teams competed. So there were only 4 rounds, with home-and-away legs, of this single-elimination tournament. In the Round of 16, Partisan of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, beat Sporting Clv.ube de Portugal, of Lisbon; Vörös Lobogó of Budapest, now named MTK, beat Anderlecht of Belgium; Real Madrid of Spain beat Servette of Switzerland, hosts of the 1930 Coupe des Nations; Hibernian beat Rot-Weiss Essen of West Germany; Djurgården of Stockholm, Sweden beat Gwardia Warszawa of Warsaw, Poland; Stade de Reims of France beat Aarhus of Denmark; Rapid Wien of Vienna, Austria beat PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands; and AC Milan of Italy beat Saarbrücken, of the Saar Protectorate, a section of Germany then governed by France, but soon returned to West Germany.

In the Quarterfinals, Hibs beat Djurgården; Reims beat Vörös Lobogó; Real Madrid beat Partizan; and Milan beat Rapid. In the Semifinals, Reims beat Hibs, and Real Madrid beat Milan.

The Final was set for June 13, at the Parc des Princes in Paris. The original stadium on the site opened in 1897. This was the 2nd, opening in 1932. A 3rd was built on the site, and opened in 1972. Today, it is the home of the leading "football club" in France, Paris Saint-Germain.

The 1932-1972 version of the Parc des Princes

Reims, wearing red shirts with white sleeves like North London team Arsenal, were managed by Albert Batteux, captained by Robert Jonquet, and featured the best player in France, a son of Polish immigrants, Raymond Kopa.

Raymond Kopa, in uniform for France

at the 1958 World Cup

Real Madrid, dressed in all white, and thus known as Los Blancos and Los Merengues, were even more loaded. Manager José Villalonga could call on Captain Miguel Muñoz, and the man who may have then been the best player in the world, the Argentine forward known as El Saeta Rubia (The Blond Arrow): Alfred Di Stéfano.

Alfred Di Stéfano, in the all-whites of Real Madrid

Arthur Ellis of England, the referee at the Final of the 1950 World Cup, was chosen to officiate at this match as well. With 38,239 paying customers looking on, he blew his whistle at 8:30 PM local time -- also 8:30 PM in Madrid, 7:30 PM in London, and 2:30 PM in New York -- and the match was on.

Reims, with a lineup of all Frenchmen, didn't waste any time showing Real Madrid that they belonged on the same pitch. Michel Leblond scored just 6 minutes into the match. Jean Templin made it 2-0 in the 10th minute. But the Spanish side, all Spaniards except for Di Stéfano, were unfazed: The Arrow himself tallied in the 14th minute. Héctor Rial equalized at the half-hour, and it remained 2-2 at halftime.

Michel Hidalgo, a Normandy native with a Spanish father, gave Reims the lead shortly after the hour. But Marcos Alonzo Imaz, a centreback known as Marquitos, made it 3-3 in the 67th minute. It began to look like a replay might be necessary, until the 79th minute, when Di Stéfano made it 4-3 in Real's favor.

And so it remained when Ellis blew the final whistle. Real Madrid were the 1st true Champions of Europe, and could make a case for being the best side in the world. It would take until 1960 for an Intercontinental Cup to be founded, to be contested by the winners of the European Cup and the South American continental championship, now named the Copa Libertadores.

In 1992, the Union of European Football Associations renamed their signature tournament the UEFA Champions League, although the trophy retains the name "European Cup" (and the nickname "Ol' Big Ears," because of its large handles). In 1998, UEFA began admitting teams that had finished high in their leagues, but had not won them.

Real Madrid won the 1st 5 European Cups, and have won it more than any other team, 15 times, most recently in 2024.

Francisco "Paco" Gento played on each of those 1st 5 winners, and also on their next in 1966. He was the 1st man to play on 6 European Cup winners. He was also the last survivor of both the 1956 and 1957 European Cup winners, living until January 18, 2022.

When Real Madrid won the 2024 Champions League title, it added 4 players to Gento's formerly unique status of playing on 6 European Cup winners: Team Captain Nacho Fernández, Luka Modrić, Dani Cavajal and Toni Kroos. Kroos had won 1 with Bayern Munich, 5 with Real Madrid. The others each won all of theirs with Real Madrid.

May 26, 1956: The Garden State Parkway Opens

May 26, 1956, 70 years ago: The Great Egg Harbor Bridge opens, over Great Egg Harbor Bay in southern New Jersey, connecting Somers Point in Atlantic County with Upper Township in Cape May County. With this opening, the Garden State Parkway is fully open.

A 2nd bridge, taking northbound traffic, was added in 1972. The original, southbound bridge was replaced in 2016; the northbound one, in 2019.

Like the New Jersey Turnpike, which opened in 1951, the Parkway was the brainchild of Alfred E. Driscoll, Governor of New Jersey from 1947 to 1954. Just as the Turnpike was designed to ease the traffic flow of U.S. Route 1 in North and Central Jersey, and U.S. Route 130 in South Jersey, the Parkway was meant to do the same thing for U.S. Route 9.

Of course, it didn't work out that way. The huge growth of New Jersey's suburbs meant that the traffic on both 1 and 9 -- which merge in Woodbridge, Middlesex County, near the interchange that is Turnpike Exit 11 and Parkway Exit 129, and then go up together to the George Washington Bridge -- filled up anyway. But it's still better to have the 2 big superhighways than not. Similarly, the Atlantic City Expressway opened in 1964, but has never really eased Shorebound traffic on U.S. Route 30.

The Parkway runs the spine of New Jersey, paralleling Route 9, at times running concurrent with 9. It starts in Lower Township, Cape May County, with an interchange labeled "Exit 0," 2 1/2 miles north of the beach in Cape May City. The exits, more or less, match the mileposts. Exits 9, 10 and 11 were at-grade interchanges, complete with traffic lights, until grade-separated interchanges replaced them in 2014. (Bumper stickers for Cape May contain the legend "EXIT 0," much as those for Montauk, at the eastern end of New York's Long Island, read "THE END."

It goes from Cape May County to Atlantic County at the aforementioned Great Egg Harbor Bridge, near Exit 29. Atlantic City can be accessed via Exits 37 (U.S. Routes 40 and 322), 38 (the Atlantic City Expressway, that road's Exit 7) and 40 (U.S. Route 30).

Exits 50 and 52 are the only ones in Burlington County. In Ocean County, Exit 63 accesses New Jersey Route 72 and Long Beach Island; and Exit 82, N.J. Route 37 and Seaside Heights. In Monmouth County, Exit 100 is for N.J. Route 33 and Asbury Park; Exit 105 is for N.J. Route 36, the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, and the Monmouth Park horse racing track in Oceanport; and Exit 116 is the only access point for the PNC Bank Arts Center (formerly the Garden State Arts Center) in Holmdel. You can't access this concert facility any way except through the Parkway.

At Exit 120, the Parkway enters Middlesex County. After Exit 125, it crosses the Raritan River, via a bridge named for Driscoll. Exit 127 is an interchange with Interstate 287, U.S. Route 9, and N.J. Route 440, with ramps so tangled, it is known as "Spaghetti Junction." At Exit 129, it connects with the New Jersey Turnpike/Interstate 95 and its Exit 11. It intersects with U.S. Route 1 at Exit 130. At Exit 131 in Woodbridge, it passes under Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, formerly the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Heading southbound, approaching Exit 129

Exits 135 to 142 are in Union County, including Exit 142, an interchange with Interstate 78, which connects the Parkway with Newark Liberty International Airport. Exits 143 to 151 are in Essex County, including 145, in my parents' hometown of Newark, an interchange with Interstate 280; and 148, 149, 150 and 151, in my original hometown of Bloomfield.

Passaic County includes Exits 153, 154, 155 and 156. Exit 153 intersects with N.J. Route 3, providing access to the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Exits 157 to 172 are in Bergen County. Exit 159 is an interchange with Interstate 80. Exit 161 provides access to the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus. Exit 172 is in Montvale. From here, the Parkway continues north, over the State Line, as the Garden State Parkway Connector to the New York State Thruway.

Unlike the Turnpike, which only has toll booths at the exits, the Parkway has 11 toll barriers, leaving drivers "nickel-and-dimed" from Cape May County to Bergen County.

Also unlike the Turnpike, which is bannered as Interstate 95 from Exit 6 northward, the Parkway has never been part of the Interstate Highway System, created the same year that the Parkway opened. As part of the Interstate System, the federal government did not absorb existing state toll roads, as federal funding is typically meant for toll-free, interconnected national routes.

Rather, it is part of the National Highway System, and while there are absolutely no signs along it mentioning it as such, it is officially New Jersey Route 444. This allows New Jersey to collect tolls on the road, but also to ban trucks from any part of its length, and they are banned from Exit 105 northward. By law, an Interstate Highway must allow commercial traffic. And that's why the Parkway is not bannered as part of Interstate 91, 93, 95, 97 or 99.

May 5, 1956: Bert Trautmann Breaks His Neck to Win the FA Cup

May 5, 1956, 70 years ago: Many sports fans have said they would die for their team. Most don't mean it. And most don't expect their players to die for their teams. Well, one man broke his neck to win his team a trophy, and lived to tell about it.

Bernhard Carl Trautmann was born on October 22, 1923 in Bremen, Germany. This was the same month in which Charlton Heston, Glynis Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and New York baseball legend Bobby Thomson were born.

He excelled in multiple sports, including soccer, where he was an expert goalkeeper. Like nearly every German male of his generation, he joined the Army, fighting for the Nazis whether they liked it or not. He became a paratrooper, so he was certainly brave. He would eventually be captured by, and escape from, the Americans, the Soviet Red Army, and the French Resistance. The 4th time, he was captured by the British. This time, he accepted his fate, and was taken to a prisoner-of-war camp near Liverpool.

After The War, he was released, but declined an offer of repatriation, and stayed in England. He played for St. Helens Town, a club near Liverpool. He was allowed to marry Margaret Friar, the daughter of the club secretary. He got the club promoted, and in 1949, he was signed by Manchester City Football Club. This made him the 1st soccer player in England to wear Adidas shoes, since he was a friend of the company's founder, Adolf Dassler. (His nickname was Adi, hence, "Adi Das." His brother Rudolf Dassler founded Puma.)

Man City fans were not happy about the signing. A, Trautmann wasn't just German, he had actually fought for the enemy. B, He was replacing Frank Swift, the greatest goalie in Man City's history to that point. (Swift then became a journalist, and died in the Munich Air Disaster of 1958, covering Manchester United's European Cup run.)

A January 1950 match away to West London club Fulham changed things. He made several great saves, and, although Fulham won 1-0, their fans stopped hurling insults at him, and gave him a standing ovation as he walked off the field.

Man City were relegated to the Football League Division Two at the end of the season, but bounced back up to Division One at the end of the next season. Led by Trautmann and forward Don Revie (later the manager of the great Leeds United team of the late 1960s and early 1970s), they reached the 1955 FA Cup Final, losing to Newcastle United FC.

In 1956, they got back to the Final, and faced Birmingham City FC. The game was 1-1 at the hour, but Bobby Johnstone and Jack Dyson scored in quick succession to make it 3-1 to Man City. In the 73rd minute, Peter Murphy attempted a shot for the Brummies, but Trautmann dove at his feet to win the ball. In the process, Murphy's knee struck Trautmann in the neck.

Trautmann was knocked unconscious. Substitutes were not allowed in English football until the 1965-66 season, so if he could not continue, an outfield player would have to put on the green shirt, and City would be down to 10 men. Trautmann came to, and, with the situation explained to him, he insisted on staying in the game.

The Man City players did what they could to keep the ball away from him, but he had to make 2 more saves, the 2nd of which was another collision with Murphy, resulting in his needing treatment.

The game ended 3-1, and the Man City players climbed the famed Wembley Stadium steps to the royal box, where Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II, handed out the Cup to winning Captain Roy Paul, and the winner's medals to all the players. On the film, Trautmann can be seen rubbing his neck. Prince Philip expressed concern for Trautmann's condition.

After 3 days, the pain didn't go away, so Trautmann went to the doctor. He was told he had dislocated 5 vertebrae, 1 of which was cracked. The 3rd vertebra had lodged against the cracked 2nd, possibly saving his life. He had, quite literally, broken his neck to win the FA Cup.

He missed much of the 1956-57 season, and in 1958, because he had not fully recovered, Man City became the only team in the history of England's Football League (including the post-1992 Premier League) to score 100 goals and allow 100 goals in a single League season. But he continued to play until 1964, and his final match was a testimonial at Maine Road, City's ground from 1923 to 2003. He captained a combined City and United team, with Bobby Charlton and Denis Law guesting from United, against an International XI that had England stars Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Jimmy Armfield.

He was not allowed to play for the West Germany national team, under their rules of the time, because he was playing outside the country, and so he was not on the team that won the 1954 World Cup. He later coached in England, Germany and Spain, and managed the national teams of Burma, Tanzania, Liberia and Pakistan.

He settled in the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia, Spain. He married 3 times, and had 4 children, 1 of whom died in a car crash as a boy, which led to the breakup of his 1st marriage. Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an OBE for his efforts at diplomacy through sport, and, on the occasion, asked him if his neck felt better.

He was honored with a statue outside the City of Manchester Stadium, to which Man City moved in 2003, and is now named the Etihad Stadium.

He died on July 19, 2013, in Valencia, from the effects of a pair of heart attacks earlier in the year, up to which point he was still thought to be in good health. He was 89 years old.

Bert Trautmann was a symbol of courage, perseverance, understanding and sportsmanship. He could have been embittered by either the war he was in or his new country's reaction to his service in it. Instead, he made both his old country and his new country better places to be. That's testimonial enough for anyone.

April 30, 1956: The Boston Celtics Trade for Bill Russell

April 30, 1956, 70 years ago: The NBA Draft is held in New York. With the 1st pick, the Boston Celtics -- having just completed their 1st 10 seasons, and not yet having appeared in an NBA Finals -- selected Tommy Heinsohn, forward from the nearby College of the Holy Cross.

With the 2nd pick, the Rochester Royals selected Sihugo Green, a guard from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. "Si" Green was a decent player, but hardly the kind of star you would expect to go as the 2nd pick overall.

With the 3rd pick, the St. Louis Hawks drafted Bill Russell, a center who had led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back National Championships. It looked like the Hawks had gotten the best player.

But later that day, the Hawks traded the rights to the as-yet-unsigned Russell to the Celtics, for center Ed Macauley and forward Cliff Hagan.

Result: Over the next 13 seasons, Russell would lead the Celtics to 12 NBA Finals, and 11 NBA Championships. The Celtics became the most dominant team in North American sports history -- not winning as many World Championships as Major League Baseball's New York Yankees or the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, but winning more titles in a shorter period of time. 

Meanwhile, the Hawks won just 1 title, and were forced to move out of St. Louis, to Atlanta, where they have been a perennial letdown.

It is the biggest transactional blunder in the NBA's history. How could the Hawks have been so dumb? Well, maybe, they were not as dumb as we've been led to believe. As the biggest star coming out of college basketball, Russell was already believed to be ready to demand big money, which most NBA team owners didn't have. Hawks owner Ben Kerner didn't have it. Celtics owner Walter Brown did, because he also owned his arena, the Boston Garden, and the other team that played there, the NHL's Boston Bruins.

What's more, Brown owned the Ice Capades. At the time, it was a bigger moneymaker than the NBA or the NHL. So was the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It came to New York every April, and so the Madison Square Garden Corporation gave them choicer dates. This forced the Rangers in 1950, and the Knicks in 1951, to play Finals games on the road, possibly costing them titles.

The Royals had a chance to select Russell, but passed on him. Why? Because Brown made a deal with Royals owner Les Harrison: Select somebody other than Russell, and I'll add Rochester to the Ice Capades' tour. It was an offer Harrison couldn't refuse. (And no heads -- human, horse, or otherwise -- were hurt in the process.)

It was a short-term fix for the Royals. But that's the way the NBA had to operate at the time. A year later, Harrison moved the Royals to Cincinnati. They won the NBA Championship in 1951. Through the 2025-26 season, 75 years later, this franchise, now known as the Sacramento Kings, has never been back to the NBA Finals. But Harrison did what he had to do to stay in business, and that meant giving up a chance at a man who could have become one of the NBA's greatest players ever, and did.

But he might not have. Until Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to 6 NBA Championships -- 3 with Bill Cartwright at center, and 3 with Luc Longley -- it was generally believed that you had to have a really good center, a big man in the middle, to win an NBA Championship.

But until Russell, Mikan was the only big man who was able to lead a team to an NBA title. Until Russell, the NBA's best players had been smaller guys who were good outside shooters, guys like Joe Fulks (1947 Philadelphia Warriors), Buddy Jeannette (1948 Baltimore Bullets), Bob Davies (1951 Rochester Royals), Dolph Schayes (1955 Syracuse Nationals) and Paul Arizin and Tom Gola (1956 Philadelphia Warriors).

Before Russell, there were 3 truly great "big men" in college basketball. Mikan, from DePaul University in Chicago, was one. Another was Bob Kurland of Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). He never played pro ball, instead taking a job with Phillips Petroleum, with a great benefits package, including playing for their "semipro" team.

And the other was Clyde Lovellette of the University of Kansas. He had a good pro career, winning titles as Mikan's backup on the Lakers, and later as Russell's backup on the Celtics. But he was never a pro star: He's in the Basketball Hall of Fame, but mainly for what he did in college.

But there was, as yet, no model for what kind of college stars would become pro stars. Like I said, the NBA was only 10 years old at this point. In hindsight, Mikan was the model. Russell admitted that Mikan was his idol. Mikan enjoyed being thought of the progenitor of the NBA's big men.

But at the time, he was seen as a freak of nature, a happy accident that the Lakers had gotten their hands on. Big men were considered to be slow. Mikan was a good shooter and a strong rebounder, but he wasn't fast. Bill Mazer, the great New York sportscaster, compared him to a stampeding elephant. Bob Ryan of The Boston Globe, in a 1996 ESPN appearance celebrating the NBA's 50th Anniversary, said that, in the modern game, he would be "a good backup center. Deserved every accolade he got at the time, but he's Greg Kite with a hook shot." 

In 2021, at the NBA's 75th Anniversary; in 1996, at the 50th; in 1971, at the 25th... Russell seemed like the obvious player to both select and hang onto. In 1956, he wasn't the obvious pick to do that. Maybe he should have been, but he wasn't.

Then there's St. Louis to consider. It's not just that the Hawks were far behind baseball's Cardinals in terms of popularity in the city. It's that St. Louis was a racially segregated city, in Missouri, a racially segregated State. Cardinal stars like Bob Gibson and Curt Flood would chafe under the policies that segregation forced, until federal law broke it.

Russell -- who would eventually, very accurately, title his autobiography Memoirs of an Opinionated Man -- might not have adjusted so well, having been a boy in segregated Louisiana, and grown up in noticeably (but not completely) more racially liberal Oakland. He eventually had problems with race relations in Boston. In St. Louis, it might have been worse. As a result, he might not have won all those titles with the Hawks.

Anyway, it's not as if the Hawks blew it completely. In 1957, the Celtics and Hawks each made the NBA Finals for the 1st time. It went to double overtime of Game 7 before the Celtics won it. In 1958, both teams made it back, and Russell hurt his ankle in Game 3, and was out the rest of the way. The Hawks, led by the men traded for the rights to Russell, Hagan and St. Louis native Macauley, as well as Hall-of-Fame forward Bob Pettit, won the title in 6 games.

The 1958 NBA Champions.

Hagan is Number 16, Pettit 9, and Macauley 20.

In 1959, the Minneapolis Lakers won the Western Conference, and lost to the Celtics in the Finals. In 1960 and '61, the Hawks returned to the Finals, and lost to the Celtics both times. Still, at that point, the players the Hawks got for Russell had gotten them into 4 Finals, winning 1. It could have been better, but it was still better than anybody else except the Celtics were doing.

Still, it was a dumb trade. 

April 18, 1956: Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco

April 18, 1956, 70 years ago: Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III, the monarch and dictator of the tiny nation of Monaco.

Grace Patricia Kelly was born on November 12, 1929 in Philadelphia. Her father, John B. Kelly Sr., won 2 Gold Medals in rowing at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium; and another in 1924 in Paris. Her brother, John B. Kelly Jr., a.k.a. Jack Kelly, never won more than a Bronze Medal -- in 1956, in Melbourne, Australia, a few months after his sister's royal wedding -- but later served as President of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Grace began acting in a school play at age 12. By 1950, she was a star on Broadway. In 1952, she played the female lead opposite Gary Cooper in the classic Western High Noon.

If you remember the film Die Hard, Hans Gruber, played by Alan Rickman, tells John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, that he considers him "just another American cowboy." At the end, when it looks like Gruber has won, he tells McClane, prematurely as it turns out, "This time, John Wayne does not walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly." And McClane tells him, "It was Gary Cooper, asshole!"

She starred opposite Clark Gable in John Ford's film Mogambo, Ray Milland in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock's Rear Window, and Cary Grant in Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief. She was heavily in demand: By directors, by would-be male leads, by the public, and by men in general.

She wasn't a "blonde bombshell" like Marilyn Monroe. Rather, the wealth and sophistication to which she was born gave her an onscreen persona that made her seem, well, graceful, and unattainable, but still very much desirable. In 2006, writing The Great Book of Philadelphia Sports Lists, with some lists having nothing to do with sports, the authors, radio talk-show hosts Big Daddy Graham and Glen Macnow, put her on top of their list of the most beautiful women ever to come from Philadelphia and environs.

(The remainder of their Top 10, in descending order: Dancer Lola Falana, model Gia Carangi, actress Maria Bello, actress-talk show host Kelly Ripa, actress Holly Robinson Peete, rapper Eve, actress Kim Delaney, and singers Lauren Hart and Pink.)

Oh, she was desired. And some of those desires came true. She had an affair with Cooper while filming, even though he was 28 years older. She had an affair with Gable while filming, even though he was also 28 years older. She had an affair with Milland while filming, even though he was 22 years older. She had an affair with Aly Khan, a notorious Pakistani prince who later married another of the era's leading actresses, Rita Hayworth; he was a mere 18 years older than Grace. (He was 7 years older than Rita.)

In 1954, she filmed The Country Girl, playing the wife of a character played by Bing Crosby -- and the mistress of a character played by William Holden. Holden, 11 years older, couldn't resist her, and rumors flew that he was going to leave his wife for her.

But she dumped him for Crosby, 26 years older. He was a strict Catholic with his family. With himself, not so much, although it should be pointed out that, at the time, he was widowed, not married. Grace and Der Bingle had an affair, and it was still ongoing on March 30, 1955, the night of the Academy Awards.

Many people thought the Oscar for Best Actress should go to Judy Garland, for her turn in the remake of A Star Is Born, because they were longtime fans of hers, and knew she had gone through a lot to get to that point. Others thought it should go to Dorothy Dandridge, for starring in Carmen Jones, which would have made her the 1st black actor of either gender to win an Oscar for a leading role.

Instead, it went to Kelly for The Country Girl. It was hardly her best work, and she was not better in it than Garland or Dandridge were in their nominated roles. Sidney Poitier won Best Actor in 1964, for Lilies of the Field. It would take until 2002 for a black woman to win Best Actress: Halle Berry, for playing the title role in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. (Both Dandridge and Berry were natives of Cleveland.)

People began to ask questions like, "Who did Grace Kelly have to sleep with to get that Oscar?" It wasn't Bing Crosby: That night, he expected to, um, celebrate with her. But when he walked into her hotel room, she was, um, celebrating with the night's winner for Best Actor, for On the Waterfront: Marlon Brando. (He was only 5 years older.) In a weird twist of events, Kelly had been offered the female lead in that film, but turned it down. It went to Eva Marie Saint: It was her first film, and she won Best Supporting Actress for it.

Crosby dumped Kelly, but the affairs with him and Holden -- two co-stars in one film -- became the worst-kept secret in Hollywood: Nobody would report on it, but everybody seemed to know about it. She was branded a "homewrecker." 

Kelly had an affair with fashion designer Oleg Cassini, 16 years older. He proposed to her, and she accepted. But her parents said no, because he had been previously divorced. A rumor got out that she had gotten pregnant with Cassini's child, and had an abortion. Was it true? If so, did her parents know? Did these uber-Catholic Kellys arrange the abortion? We will never know: Some secrets were taken to the grave.

And John B. Kelly Sr. was a friend of another fabulously wealthy Irish-American, Joseph P. Kennedy. Maybe Joe's son, Senator John F. Kennedy, and Grace could have kept each other satisfied. But JFK married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953. While hospitalized for back surgery the following year, Grace allegedly visited Jack, and... I'll let your imagination run wild, but the rumor of JFK and Grace is more likely to be true than the rumor of JFK and Marilyn Monroe.

Finally, the Kellys had had enough. It seemed like the only way to keep Grace out of Hollywood's bedrooms was to keep her out of Hollywood, and marry her off to someone far away -- and farther than Washington, D.C. They found someone: Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, the Hereditary Prince of Monaco.

On April 18, 1956, 3 months before the release of her last film, High Society -- about rich Philadelphians like herself, and based on an earlier film titled The Philadelphia Story -- Grace and Rainier married in Monte Carlo, the capital of Monaco. She became Her Serene Highness, Princess Gracia Patricia.

Monaco is 2nd only to Vatican City as the world's smallest country by area: 2 1/2 miles long by 1 mile wide, surrounded on 3 sides by France and 1 by the Mediterranean Sea, and 8 miles from France's southeastern border with Italy. Then as now, it was home to less than 40,000 people, and is known for beaches, lax tax laws that allow rich people to keep much of what they have, and one of the world's foremost gambling casinos. It is ownership of Casino Monte Carlo that makes the House of Grimaldi, the royal family of Monaco, one of the richest families in the world.

The marriage meant the end of her film career, but it was hardly the end of her celebrity. She surpassed Eleanor Roosevelt as the most famous woman in the world. She became perhaps the world's leading charity fundraiser. And she gave the Prince 3 children: Caroline, Albert (now the monarch, Prince Albert II), and Stéphanie.

All 3 children have had complicated love-lives, with the media watching them much more than they watched Grace while she was acting. Albert is believed to have had at least 1 child out of wedlock, who is not in the line of succession. But Stéphanie was the real "wild child," having her mother's libido, but not nearly having her mother's sense of discretion.

Princess Grace, 1982

On September 13, 1982, with Stéphanie in the car, Princess Grace had a stroke while driving back to Monte Carlo from the Grimaldis' country home in Mont Agel, France. Stéphanie suffered a neck injury, but recovered. Grace did not, and died the next day. The following day, USA Today published its 1st edition, and its 1st headline was of an event from outside the U.S.A.: The death of Princess Grace, America's sweetheart and Monaco's. She was only 52 years old.

In his eulogy, Jimmy Stewart -- one of the few co-stars with whom Grace didn't have an affair -- said, "You know, I just love Grace Kelly. Not because she was a Princess, not because she was an actress, not because she was my friend, but because she was just about the nicest lady I ever met. Grace brought into my life, as she brought into yours, a soft, warm light, every time I saw her, and every time I saw her was a holiday of its own."

Prince Rainier never remarried, and lived until 2005.

April 10, 1956: Nat King Cole Is Assaulted Onstage In Birmingham

April 10, 1956, 70 years ago: Nat King Cole, one of the most popular singers in America, is assaulted in mid-concert.

America's favorite black singer -- white adults weren't ready to accept Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Little Richard yet -- was playing piano and singing with the Ted Heath Orchestra at the Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama.

Cole sat at his piano before 4,000 people -- all white, as State law required separate concerts for white and black audiences. Three songs in, three white men rushed the stage and attacked him. He fell backward. His suit was torn, and his body was bruised. The audience screamed as police flooded the stage in chaos. Behind the curtain, the orchestra played "God Save the Queen," a desperate attempt to restore order while one of the greatest voices in America lay shaken backstage.

When Cole finally returned to the microphone, the crowd rose as one. They applauded for 10 straight minutes. Many were crying. Quietly, calmly, he said, "I just came here to entertain you. That was what I thought you wanted. I was born in Alabama."

He couldn't finish the show. But later that night -- injured, shaken, and still sore -- Nat King Cole kept his promise: He returned to the theater, and performed for the black audience waiting for their edition of the segregated concert.

The next day, reporters asked how he felt. "I didn’t think I had an enemy in Alabama," he said. "I''m not mad at a soul."

That grace unsettled people. Some civil rights leaders wanted anger. They wanted fire. They wanted confrontation. Cole chose something else.

Six months later, he made history: On November 5, 1956, The Nat King Cole Show premiered on NBC. It was the first national television program hosted by a Black American. He performed alongside legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Harry Belafonte. He sang. He played. He smiled with dignity in living rooms that had never imagined a Black man at their center. The ratings were strong. The reviews were glowing.

And still, not one major advertiser would sponsor the show. Corporations feared backlash. Executives worried about Southern customers. So for 13 months, NBC paid for the program alone, hoping sponsors would eventually step forward. They never did.

When the show ended in December 1957, Cole finally named the truth: "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."

In 1965, Nat King Cole died of lung cancer, at only 45 years old. He had lived long enough to see the March On Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but not the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

He understood exactly what he had done: "For thirteen months, I was the Jackie Robinson of television."

The Municipal Auditorium, built in 1924, still stands, at 1930 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Boulevard, formerly 8th Avenue, facing Linn Park, and across Interstate 20/59 from the city's main arena, the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center.

It was renamed the Boutwell Auditorium, in memory of Albert Boutwell, elected Mayor in 1963 as a rejection of racist Police Commissioner Eugene "Bull" Connor. He had previously been Lieutenant Governor and a State Senator. He was defeated for re-election in 1967, and died in 1978.

*

That same night, April 10, 1956, the Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, beating the team that had beaten them in the last 2 Stanley Cup Finals, the Detroit Red Wings. The Habs won, 3-1 at the Montreal Forum, to win Game 5 and take the 1st of what turned out to be 5 straight Stanley Cups.

Three days earlier, on April 7, the Philadelphia Warriors won Game 5 of the NBA Finals, beating the Fort Wayne Pistons, to win the NBA Championship.

March 15, 1956: "My Fair Lady" & "Forbidden Planet" Premiere

March 15, 1956, 70 years ago: The musical My Fair Lady premieres at the Mark Hellinger Theatre in New York. Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music) based it on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, itself based on a Greek myth about a sculptor who falls in love with a statue he had carved.

Rex Harrison plays Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor in 1912 London, who bets that he can take Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl one step ahead of homelessness, played by Julie Andrews; and, within six months, pass her off as a Duchess at a ball.

Eliza's Cockney accent makes this the greatest challenge of Higgins' career. He accepts her offer of 1 shilling, thinking it as being like 60 or 70 pounds from a millionaire. In 2026 money, that 1 shilling would be about £8.00, or about $11.20. In contrast, £60 would be about £9,000, or about $12,600.

Ultimately, Eliza applies herself out of spite, because Higgins is a misogynist and an elitist who pushes her so hard. Or, as the man himself puts it, "I find the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. And I find that the moment I make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical." 

Spoiler alert: Higgins was already selfish and tyrannical, as seen in his first song, a bigoted piece that asks, "Why can't the English learn to speak?" In it, he insults the Cockneys of London's East End, Yorkshiremen, Cornishmen, the Scots and the Irish, remarking, "There even are places where English completely disappears: Well, in America, they haven't used it for years!"

Act I of the play is about Eliza's transformation. Act II is about her reaction to it, and Higgins' reaction to that. In the original play, Pygmalion, she chooses to marry Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a well-to-do, well-meaning but not very bright young man who fell for her before the transformation was complete, an "I knew you when" situation.

In the musical, she goes back to Higgins, who will always see her as the flower girl that she was. The play was written for pre-World War I Britain by the egalitarian, socialist Shaw; the musical was written for post-World War II, male-dominant America.

The musical won 6 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and Best Actor for Harrison. It was filmed in 1964, by director George Cukor for Warner Brothers, and won 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, and Best Actor for Harrison.

Audrey Hepburn replaced Andrews as Eliza, because Cukor didn't want an actress who had never acted in a film before. Well, Hepburn became the latest actress to get her singing dubbed by Marni Nixon, and was beaten out for Best Actress by... Andrews, for her 1st film role, Mary Poppins, in which she spectacularly did her own singing.

The Mark Hellinger Theatre was at 237 West 51st Street. In 1989, the building was converted, or so to speak, into The Times Square Church, and is still in use as such today.

George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, Stanley Holloway (Eliza's father, Alfred, in both musical and film) in 1982, Robert Coote (who appeared in the musical as Colonel Hugh Pickering, the linguist who bets that Higgins can't do it, but nonetheless stands up for Eliza) also in 1982, George Cukor in 1983, Alan Jay Lerner in 1986, Frederick Loewe in 1988, Wilfrid Hyde-White (Pickering in the film) in 1991, Audrey Hepburn in 1993, Jeremy Brett (Freddy in the film) in 1995, and John Michael King (Freddy in the musical) in 2008. As of March 15, 2022, Julie Andrews is still alive.

*

Also premiering on March 15, 1956 was the film Forbidden Planet, directed by Fred M. Wilcox. This is the first science fiction film in which humans are depicted traveling in a starship of their own creation, rather than aliens coming to Earth. It is also the first science fiction film set entirely on another world in interstellar space, far away from the planet Earth.

By calling that planet "Altair IV," meaning the 4th planet revolving around the star that Earth astronomers have named Altair, it established the sci-fi concept of doing that for planets, most often used in the Star Trek mythos.

The film marked the debut of Robby the Robot, who would become a science fiction icon, mainly because it was cheaper to put an unknown actor in an already-built robot suit than to design and operate a working robot, or even to make a new robot suit.

Forbidden Planet owes much to William Shakespeare's last great play, The Tempest, with Walter Pidgeon's Dr. Edward Morbius standing in for the wizard Prospero, Anne Francis' Altaira for Miranda, and Robby for Caliban.

It also owes much the writings of psychologist Carl Jung, then still alive. Jung had written of a "collective unconscious." In the film, Dr. Morbius swears he is not the villain, but he proves to be an unwilling one, as his unconscious mind was the main threat. Science fiction had already, in print, tried to challenge the ideas of good and evil, showing that what appears to be the hero might not be, and what appears to be the villain might not be.

And the film reminds us all that Leslie Nielsen, here playing Commander John Adams, was once a great dramatic actor. I am serious, and don't call me "Shirley."

March 12, 1956: The Southern Manifesto

Southern Senators, led by Strom Thurmond of South Carolina

March 12, 1956, 70 years ago: The Declaration of Constitutional Principles is signed, by 19 members of the U.S. Senate and 82 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, all from States that had been in the Confederate States of America.

Since there was not a goddamned thing about it that was constitutional, it became known as the Southern Manifesto, allowing people on the right side of the struggle for civil rights to do what these rednecks had been doing to them for years: Comparing them to Communists.

The main author was Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. In 1948, as his State's Governor, he had briefly left the Democratic Party to run as the nominee for President of the States' Rights Party. From that point onward, Southern Democrats who opposed civil rights were known as "Dixiecrats."

It was written in response to the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, 2 years earlier, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, declaring that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

The Declaration included these words: "The unwarranted decision of the Supreme Court in the public school cases is now bearing the fruit always produced when men substitute naked power for established law."

This was a bald-faced lie: The decision was warranted, and it was a strike against naked power, in the form of "Jim Crow" laws that overturned established law.

It also said: "The original Constitution does not mention education. Neither does the 14th Amendment nor any other amendment. The debates preceding the submission of the 14th Amendment clearly show that there was no intent that it should affect the system of education maintained by the States."

This was true, but it covered up the text of the 14th Amendment: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This is known as the Equal Protection Clause.

It also said: "This unwarranted exercise of power by the Court, contrary to the Constitution, is creating chaos and confusion in the States principally affected. It is destroying the amicable relations between the white and Negro races that have been created through 90 years of patient effort by the good people of both races. It has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding."

This was a lie: There had not been friendship. And the Court's decision didn't create confusion; it clarified the law.

Three Democratic Senators from Southern States did not sign: Albert Gore and Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, and the Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson of Texas. In the House, 16 of 21 Democrats from Texas refused to sign it, including the Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, and a future Speaker, Jim Wright. Also refusing to sign were 3 of the 11 Democrats from North Carolina; and 1 of the 7 from Florida, Dante Fascell.

The following year, Thurmond launched the longest filibuster the Senate had yet seen, in a vain attempt to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1957. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, he became the 1st Dixiecrat to switch to the Republican Party. There would be many more.

Thurmond turned out to be the last-serving member who signed the Southern Manifesto, serving until 2003, shortly after his 100th birthday, and dying a few months later. The last surviving signer was Richard Poff of Virginia, who died in 2011.

The last-serving member who refused to sign was Jack Brooks of Texas, who served until 1994. The last surviving refuser was the aforementioned Jim Wright, who died in 2015.

February 25, 1956: Khrushchev's "De-Stalinization" Speech

February 25, 1956, 70 years ago: Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, addresses the 20th Party Congress in Moscow. It had been less than 3 years since the death of Joseph Stalin, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for 30 years.

Khrushchev gives what became known as the "Secret Speech," laying out some of Stalin's crimes, and the "conditions of insecurity, fear, and even desperation" created by Stalin. He shocked his listeners by denouncing Stalin's dictatorial rule and his cult of personality, as inconsistent with Communism and with Party ideology. Among other points, he condemned the treatment of the Old Bolsheviks, people who had supported Communism before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, many of whom Stalin had executed as traitors.

The speech was shocking. There were reports that some of those present suffered heart attacks, and others later took their own lives, due to shock at the revelations of Stalin's use of terror. The ensuing confusion among many Soviet citizens, raised on permanent praise of the "genius" of Stalin, was especially apparent in Georgia, Stalin's homeland, where days of protests and rioting ended with a Soviet army crackdown on March 9.

In the West, the speech politically devastated organized Communists. The Communist Party USA lost more than 30,000 members within weeks of the speech's revelation to the West. The speech was also later cited as a cause of the Sino-Soviet split, as China's dictator Mao Zedong had been a committed supporter of Stalin.

Khrushchev did stay popular among the Soviet people, and without using cult-of-personality tactics. It could be argued that the country peaked in 1961, with the start of the space program, the building of the Berlin Wall, and their success in international sports. But by 1964, enough Politburo members had had enough of Khrushchev that he was removed from power. He lived in exile until 1971.

 

January 2, 1956: The 1st Integrated Bowl Game In the South

Bobby Grier

January 2, 1956, 70 years ago: The college football season comes to an end, with the traditional New Year's Day bowl games, pushed back a day because January 1 was a Sunday.

This Monday saw the playing of the Sugar Bowl, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. The Georgia Institute of Technology, a.k.a. Georgia Tech, entered the game at 8-1-1, having lost to Auburn and been tied by Tennessee; however, they had beaten the University of Miami, Florida and Duke, each of them ranked at the time. Tech came in ranked Number 7.

However, they were only 3rd in the Southeastern Conference. Mississippi, instead of accepting the usual invitation given by the Sugar Bowl to the SEC Champions, instead accepted an invitation to play in the Cotton Bowl. "Ole Miss" and Tech did not play each other that season. Auburn, who finished 2nd, were not invited by the Sugar Bowl, and ended up losing the Gator Bowl to the 5th-place team in the SEC, Vanderbilt. (Tennessee finished 4th.) So the Sugar Bowl invited Georgia Tech.

Their opponents were the University of Pittsburgh. An Independent, Pitt were only 7-3, losing to Oklahoma, Navy and Miami. However, they had beaten ranked teams Duke and West Virginia, and teams from other regions, Nebraska and the University of California. They came into the game ranked Number 11.

Pitt's best player was Bobby Grier, a fullback and a linebacker, as most college football teams were still sending players to play what was known as "single-platoon football," the same players playing on both offense and defense. Grier, a native of the football-mad town of Massillon, Ohio, was black.

Segregationists didn't want Grier to play in the Sugar Bowl. Governor Marvin Griffin of Georgia sent a telegram to Tech's Board of Regents, in an attempt to pressure the school's president, Blake Van Leer, to pull the team out of the game. Van Leer was already catching heat for pushing through a vote to allow women in Georgia Tech.

But Van Leer, who had held the office since 1944, refused to be bullied by the ignorant redneck Governor: He told a meeting of the Faculty Senate, "Either we're going to the Sugar Bowl, or you can find yourself another damn president of Georgia Tech." The Senate gave him a standing ovation.

This was one month after Rosa Parks refused to stand up on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, with the bus boycott ongoing; 4 months after the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi; and a year and a half after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down public school segregation in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

Grier, supported by his white teammates 

As it turned out, there was no law that could prevent Grier from playing in the game, and, for the 1st time, a bowl game in the South had a black player in it.

Georgia Tech won the game, 7–0. The margin of victory mostly resulted from a disputed pass interference penalty, in the 1st quarter. It was called on Grier, giving Georgia Tech a 1st and goal on the Pitt 1-yard line. The Yellow Jackets scored the game's only touchdown on the next play. Photographic evidence later strongly indicated the referee's call was incorrect.

The irony of the bad call is that it was made by referee Rusty Coles, who was from the Pittsburgh area, and who had no objective in making the wrong call, but simply made a mistake, which he admitted after seeing the game films.

Grier finished the game as its leading rusher with 51 yards. After the game, he protested the pass interference call, but praised the Georgia Tech players, saying, "They were good sportsmen, perhaps the best I've played against all season. They played hard, but clean. It was a good game. But believe me. I didn't push that man."

As it turned out, the State of Georgia needed to find a new president of Georgia Tech, anyway: Blake Van Leer died of a heart attack on January 24, 1956, just 22 days after the game. Edwin D. Harrison was named the new president. In 1960, he oversaw a vote by an overwhelming majority of Tech students to endorse the integration of qualified applicants, regardless of race.

Bobby Grier did not play professional football. Instead, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and later served as an administrator at a community college in the Pittsburgh area. In 2022, he was elected to the Pitt Athletics Hall of Fame. He died in 2024.

January 2, 1956 was, as I said, a Monday. These other bowl games were played that day:

* Oklahoma beat Maryland, 20-6, in the Orange Bowl, at Burdine Stadium in Miami. In 1959, the stadium was renamed the Orange Bowl. This was, effectively, the National Championship Game: Oklahoma, in the middle of their 47-game winning streak, still a college football record, were ranked Number 1, and had won the Big Seven Conference title; while Maryland were ranked Number 3, and had won the Atlantic Coast Conference title.

Oklahoma were favored by 7 points. If Maryland had pulled the upset, it's likely that they would have been awarded the National Championship, regardless of whether Number 2 Michigan State won the Rose Bowl. At the very least, there could have been a split in the polls. But Oklahoma won, making the Rose Bowl academic.

* Michigan State did their part, beating the University of California at Los Angeles, 17-14, in the Rose Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. Michigan State were ranked Number 2, and Champions of the Big Ten Conference. UCLA were ranked Number 4, and Champions of the Pacific Coast Conference. But Oklahoma's 2-touchdown win put the National Championship out of reach for Michigan State.

* Mississippi beat Texas Christian University, 14-13, in the Cotton Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in Dallas. As previously stated, Ole Miss were the SEC Champions, and went into the game ranked Number 10. TCU were the Champions of the Southwest Conference, and were ranked Number 6.

* Wyoming beat Texas Tech, 21-14 in the Sun Bowl, at Kidd Field in El Paso, Texas. Wyoming finished 4th in the Skyline Conference, while Texas Tech were the Champions of the Border Conference.

* Juniata College and Missouri Valley College played to a tie, 6-6 in the Tangerine Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in Orlando, Florida. The Tangerine Bowl game was a showcase for what were then called "small college" teams. Both the game and the stadium would become bigger, and become known as the Citrus Bowl.

Juniata, of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, then an Independent, now competes in NCAA Division III. Missouri Valley, of Marshall, Missouri, were the Champions of the Missouri College Athletic Union, and now compete in the NAIA -- for all intents and purposes, NCAA Division IV.