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Vol 8, No 335

December 1, 1955

Thursday Evening

Montgomery woman refuses give up seat on Bus

Today in Sports
A New Name for the Colt .45s - Will be the Astros
HOUSTON  (1964)   On this date in 1964, owners of the Houston Colt .45s announced the team name change to the Houston Astros. With the completion of the world's first indoor stadium, the Harris County Domed Stadium, and the location of the Manned Spacecraft Center, also in Houston, the stadium took on a new name, the Astrodome, and their first tenant, the Colt .45s took on a new name as well, "The Astros".
   During the previous three seasons as the Colt .45s, the Colt Firearms Company was a little uneasy with the club using their trademarked name, especially when it came to giving out mineature toy pistols to young baseball fans. For this reason, and the opening of the new stadium, the new named seemed a perfect match for the team.
  

Born This Date
Actress, Singer Mary Martin born in Weatherford
WEATHERFORD   (1913)   On this date in 1913, Mary Virginia Martin was born in Weatherford. Her rendition of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" in the Broadway production of Cole Porter's play "Leave it to me" endeared her to her New York audiences. For the next 15 years she was a headliner in Broadway, television and movies including South Pacific. But it was her television roll as Peter Pan in 1960 that gave her a permanent place in the hearts of children of all ages. She continued acting late into life, dying at her home in California in 1990. In 1931, she gave birth to Larry Hagman, star of the television series "Dallas".   

Montgomery Bus Boycott
MONTGOMERY AL  (1955)   On this date in 1955, 42 year old Rosa Parks, a black seemstress in Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested for not giving up her seat on a city bus to a white rider. The Jim Crow laws of the time required that black persons sit in the back of the bus. Other laws provided separate waiting rooms, water fountains, restrooms, and schools.
   Rosa Parks was arrested, triggering a bus boycott which lasted 381 days. In November 1956, The United States Supreme Court declared Alabama and Montgomery's segregation laws unconstitutional. An injunction was issued and on December 21, 1956, Dr Martin Luther King and a friend rode in the front seat of a Montgomery city bus. Legal Segregation ended.
    Rosa Parks and the Montgomery boycott, changed America, but she was not the first black to risk freedom to end segregation. Among the many who risked arrest and imprisonment was Lieutenant Jackie Robinson, who, in 1944, refused to move to the back of an officially non-segregated bus at Fort Hood Texas. He was arrrested, court martialled and later acquitted, eventually becoming the first black man to break the major league "color barrier". Jackie played his final baseball game just six weeks before the Supreme Court outlawed segregation.

Business Desk
Dr Pepper receives US Patent
WACHINGTON DC  (1885)    On this date in 1885, Dr Pepper received a US Patent.
    Invented by Charles Alderton, a pharmacist in Waco, and named for the father of a girl he admired earlier in life, Dr Pepper became the first soft drink in America, soon followed by Coca Cola. Originally, it was called ""the Waco".
   Dr Pepper was first Marketed in 1904, and today, is sold in every corner of the world.   

Political Desk
Mirabeau Lamar sworn in as 2nd President
SAN FELIPE  (1838)   On this date in 1838, Mirabeau B Lamar was inaugurated as the second President of the Republic of Texas. Sam Houston could not run for a second term, but Houston's first and second pick for President died before the election; One committed suicide, and another drown.

Weather Desk
Storm and Flooding Kill 177
DALLAS   (1913)    On this date in 1913, and for 5 days, torential storms brought extensive flooding throughout central and north Texas killing 177 and causing over $8 million in damages.