Day Tripping: May 8
No Cause, New Coaster, No Coal
Struck Out
Jackie Robinson had only been playing as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Major Leagues for about a month when players from their next opponent, the St Louis Cardinals attempted to stage a strike in 1947. It was reported in the New York Herald the following day, “Some of the Cardinals had schemed to organize other teams to refuse to take the field against Robinson in the hope of driving him out of the league and preserving major-league baseball for White men only”.
There were reports that Stanley Woodward’s article was untrue, but club owners memoirs substantiated at least, that there was considerable grumbling among white players refusing to play baseball with Robinson. Fortunately, smarter heads prevailed and the game went on.
In The Loop
Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park in California unveiled a steel coaster featuring a vertical loop in 1976. Named American Revolution in honour of the country’s Bicentennial celebration, the New Revolution rollercoaster design was not actually the first of its kind.
As far back as 1911, a park in Buenos Aires featured a steel coaster called Looping the Loop. On Coney Island in New York in the early 20th century, another rollercoaster called Loop The Loop was in use. Werner Stengel and Anton Schwarzkopf’s New Revolution was the first to use a clothoid or euler spiral.
No Lumps For Now
This day in 2019 marked one full week that the United Kingdom had been powered without a coal-fired station burning, marking the first time in 137 years England was powered with another type of renewable resource. Proving it could be done is the first step to major changes in where Britain derives its electric energy from.
From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, Britain’s coal factories had sprung up like weeds across the landscape. Today represents less than 10% of the UK’s power consumption and plans are in the works to eliminate the pollutant entirely by the year 2025. Britain does still rely on gas, but there is a demand to reduce that fossil fuel by 80% before 2050.
Musical Milestones
A single filmed longshot of Bob Dylan flipping flashcards of lyrics for his song Subterranean Homesick Blues in 1965 is considered to be the earliest version of a music video.
Narratives
After using a daguerreotype reflector camera to create the world’s first photograph, Alexander Wolcott patented the photographic process and mirror camera in 1840, the first American photography patent.
Remembrance
Dubbed as the next great in motor racing, Gilles Villeneuve died in 1982 when his Ferrari crashed with the slower moving March car of Jochen Mass during qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix. As a child, Villeneuve began his career as a snowmobile racer and his son Jacque went on to become the only Canadian World Formula 1 champion. He was thirty-two at the time of his death.
Notable Births
1884 — Former President of the United States, Harry S. Truman.
1945 — Jazz piano great, Keith Jarrett
1977 — Blues guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa
K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray Maryam Merchant Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, PhD. Terry Trueman Dr Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS Amy Pierovich David Acaster Nora Thewriteyard David Perlmutter Joe Luca
The Story Of Day Tripping Through History What’s Past Is Often Present
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