On this day, commemorating its 50th year in Los Angeles, the Dodgers played one game in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Dodgers had played in the Coliseum for a few seasons when they moved in to LA. This exhibition game had a crowd of 115, 300 the largest baseball attendance in baseball history in any country or league.
This game saw the Dodgers lose to the Boston Red Sox by a score of 7-4. Due to renovations and stadium dimensions, the Coliseum's left field corner was shortened to only 190 feet.
March 29, 2008 Dodgers vs Boston Red Sox record setting 115,300
Dodgers playing at the Los Angeles Merorial Coliseum in 1959
On this date at exactly 5:55 PM an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 struck Long Beach. Damage to buildings was widespread throughout Southern California. A roughly estimated fifty million dollars' worth of property was damage and 120 lives were lost.
More than two-thirds of the 120 deaths occurred when people ran outside
and were struck by falling bricks, and structure debris.
Among the buildings severely damaged or destroyed in the earthquake were
many schools in and around Long Beach. Had the quake occurred a
few hours earlier, while children were still in these schools, the deaths
might have numbered in the thousands. The poor performance of school buildings
in withstanding the shaking led to the passage of the Field Act. This piece of legislature analyzed schools all over California, to whether they could withstand a severe earthquake.
The cities of Compton, Long Beach and Huntington Park suffered
the most in the earthquake as they were collapsed buildings and structural damages. Many of these cities were left without water for days. This major earthquake reshaped the City of Long Beach.
On March 9, 1963, Los Angeles police officers Ian Campbell and Karl
Hettinger pulled over a vehicle in Hollywood with a broken tail light.
The occupants of the car, Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith had been involved in numerous amounts of bank robberies. The suspects managed to
disarm both officers and take them hostage. They drove from Hollywood to a remote
onion field near Bakersfield, California where Campbell was shot and
killed, while Hettinger managed to get away and run four miles to a farm
house to get help.
The Onion Field
Powell was arrested on the night of the murder, after being spotted
driving a stolen vehicle by California Highway Patrol officers. The
following day, Smith was apprehended as well. Both suspects were convicted of
murder and sentenced to death.
The Onion Field tragedy is very important in police work, as police officers are told to never give up their weapons regardless of the situation. This accident was documented in a 1973 book by Joseph Wambaugh tittle the The Onion Field.
Just recently a TV series show Southland (based on LAPD officers) used this accident as their series finale. I became interested in this accident due to that show and immediately read the book.
In late 1967 East Los Angeles housed a school system entrenched in racism. The Mexican American community had the highest high school dropout rate and lowest college attendance among any ethnic group. 1 out of 4 students successfully graduated from high schools, and Mexican Americans were "pushed out" of public education. The poor facilities and constant underestimation of student capabilities by teachers created an atmosphere hostile to learning. Many students believed in better education and demanded bilingual bi-cultural education; more Latino teachers and administrators; smaller class sizes and better facilities.
During the Spring of 1968, organizers decided to call for action by walking out of classrooms and protesting for equal educational rights. Many schools were aware of the situation and had police stationed outside of East LA campuses just in case students decided to walk out. On many occasions in March, students were beaten up and arrested for trying to walk out of their classrooms. Despite police and administrative efforts to control walkouts, students gathered and walkout of schools to protest these injustices.
On March 31, thirteen of the walkout organizers were arrested for conspiracy to disturb schools and the peace (which was considered a felony charge). Included in those 13 was a teacher Sal Castro, this created a community uproar which led to even more protest and gatherings in City Hall. All these events were known as the Chicano Blackouts. Check out these 2 YouTube videos:
Just yesterday when I was looking into air raid sirens in Los Angeles. I came across an interesting article about a moment when panic landed in the streets of Los Angeles.
In the early morning hours of February 25, 1942, residents of Los Angeles were waken up by loud screaming air raid sirens and thundering anti-aircraft gunfire. Thousands of residents, ignoring blackout invasion rules, (Rules that were set right after Pear Harbor) left their beds and went into the streets to watch sweeping searchlights and orange tracer shells streaming into the night sky.
Pictures of the actual event from the Los Angeles Time
Trained volunteer air wardens grabbed helmets and boots to rush into action. Frightened drivers, speeding through darkened streets, collided with one another, resulting in traffic fatalities. Gunners expended more than 1,400 rounds of ammunition that caused quite a bit of damage to structures on the ground.
Many residents believed that they were going to see a Japanese invasion force lying offshore when daylight broke. Although explanations for what had spooked military gunners ranged from a false alarm to UFOs, an investigation could not clearly determine the exact cause. The incident turned out to be the only serious military action to occur over a continental U.S. metropolitan area during World War II.
To this date, this event which is now known as the Battle of Los Angeles has theories ranging from false alarms that led to chaos to an alien invasion.
During my last semester at Cal State Long Beach, I took a
Sociology class in Pop Culture and my final project was to give out a full day
class lecture on a decade and connect some sociological framework that we had
learned. During my research, I was in charge of the historical and political
aspects of the 1950's. As some might know during the late 1940's, early 1950's,
President Eisenhower’s political agenda was basically to contain Communism
creating this "Red Scare". The 1950's brought in the beginning of a
Cold War between the United States and Russia. In my presentation I
discussedthe style of living due to
this Cold War and talked about intriguingbomb shelters and air raid sirens that existed inLos Angeles.
Like many aspects of
the Cold War, Civil Defense Sirens became part of people’s daily lives all throughout
the United States.In Los Angeles,
sirens were tested in unison at 10 a.m. on the last Friday of every month.
Typically these sirens were placed atop tall fire stations or attached to
30-foot steel poles; residents would hear a loud blast from the sirens. More
than 250 civil defense siren towers were activated throughout the streets of
LA. These sirens were supposed to alert people about a Russian attack so they
could find shelter.
By 1980, then-Sheriff Peter J. Pitchess reported that the sirens were
"virtually useless." The federal government stopped providing for the
sirens' upkeep. Officials discovered that parts were hard to find, that
many sirens no longer worked, and that removing them would cost more
than $250,000.
Monthly siren tests were silenced in January 1985
by order of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Then-Supervisor
Kenneth Hahn said the system gave citizens a "false sense of security"
and false alarms "panic[ked] people at 2 o'clock in the morning
There are around 150 sirens still visible within city limits
of Los Angeles, just the other day as I was driving home from work, I looked up
in one of street lights and realized there was one up there. (I have yet had the
opportunity to take a picture of it)
Here is a link to a map with all the locations of air raid sirens in Los Angeles.
http://wirechief.com/sirens/map.htm
On March 3, 1991, Rodney
King was caught by the Los Angeles police after a high-speed chase. The officers pulled him out of the car and beat brutally assaulted him, while someone caught it all on
videotape. The four L.A.P.D. officers involved were indicted on charges
of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police
officer. However, after a three-month trial, a predominantly white jury
acquitted the officers, inflaming citizens and sparking the violent 1992
Los Angeles riots
The month of March
always brings joy to every baseball fan out there. The beginning of the new
season begins with spring training (practice games before season starts in April)
While Florida and Arizona now host all Major League Baseball
teams for spring training, this has not always been the case. Before the Dodgers and Giants made their cross country move to the west coast some Major League baseball teams held their spring training in California. Here are 5 teams who trained in Southern California during Spring Training
White Sox (1933-1952)
In 1933, the White Sox took up residence at Pasadena's Brookside Park. The White Sox enjoyed many celebrities during their stay including Marilyn Monroe
Chicago Cubs (1966)
The Chicago Cubs trained in Long Beach during their spring training season in 1966. They occupied Blair Field (home of Cal State Long Beach baseball) for just one season. The Chicago Cubs held spring training and played eight exhibition games at the ballpark. Long before training in Long Beach the Chicago Cubs practice in the Catalina Island from 1921-1951.
Pittsburgh Pirates (1937-1942, 1949-1952)
One of the most interesting teams that played in the Southern California were the Pittsburgh Pirates who played in San Bernardino
In 1937, San Bernardino civic leaders brought Pittsburgh Pirates to their town with offers of a custom-built spring training facility at Perris Hill Park.
Philadelphia Athletics 1940-1943
In 1940, the city of Anaheim welcomed the Philadelphia Athletics to a newly built facility at La Palma Park for 3 years. This is the only team to have ever had play a spring training game in Orange County
California Angels 1961-1992
The California Angels were the last and final team to ever have a spring training facility in California. The Angels trained and played their spring training games in Palm Springs'. The Polo Grounds, later
renamed Angels Stadium in recognition of the longstanding association left to Tempe Arizona after 1992.
When you think about natural disasters in LA, the first thing that pops to your head are earthquakes or landslides but how about tornadoes?
The last major tornado of any account taking place in Los Angeles occurred exactly 32 years ago day, on March 1, 1983.
This Los Angeles tornado was classified in the tornado spectrum as “significant damage". Roofs torn off frame
houses; mobile homes demolished; boxcars overturned; large trees snapped
or uprooted; highrise windows broken and blown in; light-object
missiles generated.” Wind speeds were approximately from 113–157 mph. The tornado began from 7:40 to 8:05 a.m. The tornado injured a total of 30 people in South Los Angeles, and destroy a total of 60 homes.
This tornado has been classified as the last tornado to have ever hit Downtown Los Angeles and be classified as an F2 (Classification of Tornadoes which means it can cause significant damage)
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