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On the evening of August 2, 1923, Warren G. Harding, the 29th president of the United States, died suddenly in a room at the Palace Hotel in San Francsico. He was 57 years old. Harding was in the midst of a west coast trip, but he had taken ill as his train rolled through Seattle. Almost immediately, the rumors surrounding his passing began. There was no official cause of Harding's death. Some sources claim it was a fatal case of food poisoning; others claim it was a heart attack or a stroke. Despite his wife and his nurses being frequently in and out of the room, the time of Harding's death could not be pinned down any more specifically than between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Florence Harding had her husband's body embalmed and ready for a funeral train back to Washington within an hour of the president's death, thus no autopsy could be performed. (California had no mandatory autopsy laws at the time.) Although Harding was a perfect candidate for poor health--he was a heavy smoker and drinker, plagued by stress, who rarely exercised--there are those who think Mrs. Harding had something to do with her husband's demise. According to the conspiracy theorists, Mrs. Harding either wanted to spare Warrren G. the shame of the scandals about his administration that were soon to surface--or she took revenge over her hubby's numerous extra-marital trysts. Those who don't think anything was amiss point to Harding's declining health at the hands of a quack homeopathic physician and Harding's generally poor living habits. Maybe Harding himself sensed the end was near: Before leaving for the west coast, Harding had written a new will. He had also curiously sold the Marion (OH) Star, his hometown newspaper, which he had bought with the intent of running it after he retired from politics.
Tags:
Warren
Harding
death
scandal
Added: 25th January 2009
Views: 1458
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
 
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The Seattle Pilots were an American League baseball club that lasted just one season--1969. This is the official team logo. The Pilots began play the same year as the Kansas City Royals, the San Diego Padres, and the Montreal Expos. The Pilots' owners were granted a team because they assured Major League Baseball a domed stadium would be built in Seattle within two years. That didn't happen. Instead they played at an antiquated minor league park called Sick's Stadium. The venue was so shoddy that seats were still being renovated on Opening Day. Visiting teams hated playing in Seattle because the ballpark's plumbing was horribly inadequate, forcing them to shower at their hotel. The stadium's toilets often failed when more than 10,000 people came to games. (That seldom happened; the Pilots drew just 677,944 fans for their 74 home dates. Still, the Pilots outdrew four other MLB clubs in 1969.) The team alienated potential supporters by having no local TV deal and charging as much as (gasp!) $6 per ticket--the highest price in MLB at the time. After finishing in last place in the American League West with a 64-98 record, and incurring losses of about $250,000, the team uprooted and moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Brewers. Oddly enough, there is more interest in the Pilots now than when they were around. Mainly it is because of pitcher Jim Bouton's irreverent book, Ball Four.
Tags:
Seattle
Pilots
baseball
Added: 18th May 2009
Views: 1130
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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Marian Mercer, whose five-decade career also included dozens of television appearances, has died in California at age 75.
Her husband, Patrick Hogan, tells the Los Angeles Times that Mercer died April 27 of Alzheimer's disease complications in the Newbury Park area of Thousand Oaks, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Besides her 1969 Broadway hit "Promises, Promises," Mercer won praise for the 1978 revival of "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" co-starring Sammy Davis Jr.
On television, she starred in the ABC-TV comedy "It's a Living" from 1980 to 1982. She also had roles on "St. Elsewhere," ''Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and "Love, American Style."
Besides her husband of 31 years, Mercer is survived by a daughter, Deirdre Whitaker, of Seattle.
Tags:
Marian
Mercer
,
Its
A
Living,
Love
American
Style,
Broadway
hit
Promises,
Promises,
Stop
the
World,
I
Want
to
Get
Off,
Mary
Hartman,
Mary
Hartman
Added: 10th May 2011
Views: 1143
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Posted By: Old Fart |
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LAS VEGAS (AP) - Former heavyweight champion Ken Norton, who beat Muhammad Ali and later lost a controversial decision to him in Yankee Stadium, died Wednesday at a local care facility. He was 70.
Ken Norton Jr., a coach with the Seattle Seahawks, confirmed the death to The Associated Press before handing the phone to his wife, too distraught to talk.
Norton, the only heavyweight champion never to win the title in the ring, had been in poor health for the last several years after suffering a series of strokes, a friend of the fighter said.
"He's been fighting the battle for two years," said Gene Kilroy, Ali's former business manager. "I'm sure he's in heaven now with all the great fighters. I'd like to hear that conversation."
Tags:
heavyweight
champion
Ken
Norton
Muhammad
Ali
Added: 18th September 2013
Views: 568
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Posted By: pfc |
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Commercial airliners vanishing are not new. On the night of June 23, 1950, Northwest Orient Airlines flight 2501 departed from New York City en route to its final destination of Seattle with a scheduled stopover in Minneapolis. It never made it to either stop. Sometime around 1:13 a.m. the DC-4 vanished over Lake Michigan near Benton Harbor, MI not long after its captain, Robert Lind, requested permission from air-traffic control to lower its altitude by 1000 meters to avoid stormy conditions. That permission was denied due to heavy air traffic. The airplane should have been spotted on radar near Milwaukee shortly thereafter, but instead it vanished. It was filled to capacity with 55 passengers and a crew of three. Some debris--including small body fragments--washed ashore but the plane itself has never been found, despite sonar-assisted searches and trawlers dragging the lake bottom. Thus no one knows what really happened to it. Researchers in 2008 discovered that the human remains were buried secretly in an unmarked grave without the victims' families being notified. At the time it was the worst airline disaster in American history.
Tags:
airplane
aviation
missing
plane
Northwest
2501
Added: 16th February 2015
Views: 1172
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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When Affirmed won the thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown in 1978, the feat did not receive near as much publicity in the mainstream sports media as it should have, perhaps with good reason. There had been three Triple Crown champions in six years, including one just the year before (Seattle Slew). However, it would be 37 years before another horse (American Pharaoh) repeated the achievement. Here is Affirmed's narrow victory in the 1978 Belmont Stakes. Renowned CBS announcer Chic Anderson calls the race--the last major one of his career as he died of a heart attack the following March at age 47. Runner-up Alydar finished second in all three Triple Crown races in 1978.
Tags:
Affirmed
Triple
Crown
horse
racing
Belmont
Stakes
Added: 8th June 2015
Views: 640
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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The 1950s are often described as the golden age of boxing--when depth and talent were supposedly at their finest in the sweet science. People tend to forget that the heavyweight division was rather weak for much of the decade. Contenders for the world heavyweight title were so scarce that Pete Rademacher, the 1956 Olympic gold medalist, got a coveted shot at world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson's title in his pro debut! Having won the heavyweight laurels in Melbourne in 1956 by scoring three knockouts in his only three bouts, Rademacher, a Washingtonian, somehow persuaded the powers that be that it would be a great idea if he could fight Patterson in Seattle' Sick Stadium in a unique amateur-versus-pro matchup. Patterson agreed if the promoters could guarantee him $250,000. They did--so the fight was set for August 22, 1957. Surprisingly, Rademacher did well in the first two rounds, pressing the action and even scoring a knockdown with a hard right hand. By the fourth round, however, Patterson's class began to show. He scored one of what would be seven knockdowns of the game challenger. Eventually Rademacher was knocked out in the fifth round. The promotion barely generated financial enough interest to meet Patterson's guaranteed payday. Depending on which source you believe, Rademacher got either absolutely nothing or a laughable $1.75 for his losing effort. Undaunted, Rademacher fought hard-hitting Zora Folley in his next bout--and was knocked out again. Rademacher ended his pro boxing career with a 15-7-1 record. All seven of his defeats came at the hands of world-class fighters. As of August 2015, Pete was still alive and kicking at age 86.
Tags:
Pete
Rademacher
boxing
amateur
Floyd
Patterson
Added: 17th August 2015
Views: 886
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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From a 1996 episode of Frasier: Diane Chambers returns! The show's plot has Diane--who heartlessly jilted Frasier in their previous sitcom (Cheers)--travelling to Seattle to stage a play that she wrote. Diane invites Frasier to a dress rehearsal...and he sees some very familiar characters onstage. His reactions and tirade are priceless.
Tags:
Frasier
Diane
Chambers
Cheers
Added: 26th April 2017
Views: 512
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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