April 20, 1999, 25 years ago: A mass shooting kills 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School, in the Denver suburb of Littleton, Colorado. At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting at an American school. Another 21 were wounded, but survived. What made it more chilling is that it was done by 2 of the school's own students, both seniors within weeks of graduation: Eric Harris, who had just turned 18 and had recently moved there after many places as the child of a U.S. Air Force officer; and Dylan Klebold, still 17 and a lifelong resident of the community. Both worked at ..read more

April 20, 1944, 80 years ago: Elmer Gedeon dies in action in World War II. He was 1 of 2 Major League Baseball players lost in "The Big One." Elmer John Gedeon was born on April 15, 1917 in Cleveland. At that city's West High School, he starred in baseball, football and track. His uncle, Joe Gedeon, was a major league 2nd baseman from 1913 to 1920, before he was banned from baseball for "having guilty knowledge" of the Black Sox Scandal. Elmer would not be banned. He went to the University of Michigan, and kept going in all 3 sports, tying a world record in the high hurdles. Graduating ..read more

April 19, 1954, 70 years ago: Dr. Fredric Wertham publishes his book Seduction of the Innocent. It turns the world of comic books on its head. Born on March 20, 1895, in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany, as Friedrich Ignatz Wertheimer, he anglicized his name to Fredric Wertham in 1927, after moving to America and becoming an American citizen. Subsequently, he married an American sculptor, Florence Hesketh. He had studied at the University of Munich and King's College, London. He joined the senior staff at New York's Bellevue Hospital, famous (or infamous) for having America's best-know ..read more

I see the boys of summer in their ruin Lay the gold tithings barren, Setting no store by harvest, freeze the soils. Dylan Thomas wrote that. The great Welsh poet died on November 9, 1953, in New York, from the effects of raging alcoholism. Roger Kahn had just completed 2 seasons as the beat reporter for the Brooklyn Dodgers for the New York Herald Tribune. He would later write a book about the Dodger players that he covered in the 1952 and '53 seasons. The last survivor of the players he looked up while they were in middle age, and profiled in the book The Boys of Summer, was Carl Erskine ..read more

April 17, 1999, 25 years ago: The NFL Draft is held in New York, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden -- formerly known as the Felt Forum, and now as the Hulu Theater. The Draft has had some sour moments. New York Jets fans, especially when the Draft is held in New York, tend to go, and their reactions to their team's 1st round pick is usually vociferous. Like the nursery rhyme about the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead, when it's good, it's very, very good; but when it's bad, it's horrid. But Jet fans have nothing on fans of the Philadelphia Eagles. As NFL Films co ..read more

April 17, 1964, 60 years ago: The 1st game is played at the William A. Shea Municipal Stadium in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park, Queens, New York City. The 55,601-seat stadium, the replacement for the Polo Grounds as home of baseball's New York Mets and football's New York Jets, was supposed to open for the 1963 season. Construction delays pushed that opening back to mid-1963. Then, to Opening Day 1964. And even then, they were still painting the outfield fence an hour before first pitch. Also, due to a labor union dispute, the press box was not wired for telephones and telegraphs, meanin ..read more

April 16, 1954, 70 years ago: Only twice in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals has a Game 7 gone to overtime. They happened within 4 years of each other, and both were won by the Detroit Red Wings. The Wings had won the Cup in 1950, when Pete Babando scored in double overtime of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They won it again in 1952, becoming the 1st team ever to sweep the 2 rounds of the Playoffs in 8 straight. They still had enough talent to start a future Hall-of-Famer at every position: The Production Line of right wing Gordie Howe and left wing Ted Lindsay had a new center ..read more

I don't need reminders of my advancing age. My bones, muscles and joints do that for me, just fine, even after two hip replacements. I certainly don't need news that another member of the first team I ever loved has died, even though I know they're all old now. Kenneth Dale Holtzman was born on November 3, 1945 in St. Louis. Debuting with the Chicago Cubs in 1965, this Jewish lefthander was called "the new Sandy Koufax." In Koufax's 3rd-from-last regular-season appearance, on September 25, 1966, Ken Holtzman's Cubs beat Koufax's Dodgers, 2-1. He didn't become the new Koufax, but he did go ..read more

When I was a kid, the Yankees never, ever lost to the Cleveland Guardians. Of course, when I was a kid, the Yankees never, ever beat the Cleveland Guardians, either. They were known as the Cleveland Indians from 1915 to 2021. The Yankees and the Guardians were supposed to start a 3-game series at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Friday night, but it rained, resulting in a doubleheader on Saturday. Clarke Schmidt started the opener, and allowed 2 runs, 1 of them earned, over 5 innings and change. It was a little worrying that he walked 5 batters, along with allowing 3 hits, but he struck ou ..read more

April 15, 1964, 60 years ago: The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opens, carrying U.S. Route 13 over, and under, the Chesapeake Bay, connecting Cape Charles, on the Delmarva Peninsula ("Del-mar-va": Delaware, Maryland and Virginia), with the resort city of Virginia Beach. It is 17.6 miles long, and replaced a ferry service that had been operating since the 1930s. The company sold their ferry boats to the Delaware Bay Authority, which introduced the Cape May-Lewes Ferry service between New Jersey and Delaware, 3 months later. Theoretically, the span saves people trying to get from the Nort ..read more