By Zola Elder
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Joan Whitney Payson (February 5, 1903 – October 4, 1975) was an American heiress, businesswoman, philanthropist, patron of the arts and art collector, and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was also co-founder and majority owner of Major League Baseball‘s New York Mets baseball franchise, and was the first woman to own a major league team in North America without inheriting it.
New York Mets
Joan was a sports enthusiast who was a minority shareholder in the New York Giants Major League Baseball club. She and her husband opposed moving the team to San Francisco in 1957. After the majority of the shareholders approved the move, Mrs. Payson sold her stock and began working to get a replacement team for New York City. They teamed up with M. Donald Grant, who had represented the Paysons on the Giants board and had been the only board member to oppose the Giants’ move, to win a New York franchise in the Continental League, a proposed third major league. The National League responded by awarding an expansion team to Payson’s group, which became the New York Mets.
Payson served as the team’s president from 1962 to 1975. Active in the affairs of the baseball club, she was much admired by the team’s personnel and players. She was inducted posthumously into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1981. She was also the first woman to buy majority control of a team in a major North American sports league, rather than inheriting it.
Payson was instrumental in the return of Willie Mays to New York City baseball in May 1972 by way of trade and cash from the Giants.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) was the founder of the Franciscan Order. The son of a wealthy merchant named Pietro di Bernardone, he publicly denounced his father’s wealth in 1206 and dedicated his life to prayer and serving the poor. Pope Innocent III eventually gave Francis and his followers permission to preach, and he ordained Francis a deacon. The followers of Francis were called Friars Minor, or “the lesser brethren.” Francis died on October 3, 1226, and was canonized in 1228. Read the text from his Sermon to the Birds: “My little sisters, the birds, much bounden are ye unto God, your Creator, and always in every place ought ye to praise Him, for that He hath given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and hath also given you double and triple rainment; moreover He preserved your seed in the ark of Noah, that your race might not perish out of the world; still more are ye beholden to Him for the element of the air which He hath appointed for you; beyond all this, ye sow not, neither do you reap; and God feedeth you, and giveth you the streams and fountains for your drink; the mountains and valleys for your refuge and the high trees whereon to make your nests; and because ye know not how to spin or sow, God clotheth you, you and your children; wherefore your Creator loveth you much, seeing that He hath bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto God.” -Saint Francis of Assisi (c.1220)
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
My first is company; my second shuns company; my third assembles company; my whole amuses company. (What’s the word? Each clue is a syllable!)
Co-nun-drum
Born
- Eliza Johnson (U.S. First Lady) –
- Jean Francois Millet (artist) –
- Rutherford B. Hayes (19th U.S. president) –
- Frederic Remington (artist) –
- Edward L. Stratemeyer (author, publisher) –
- Buster Keaton (actor) –
- Charlton Heston (actor) –
- Jackie Collins (author) –
- Anne Rice (author) –
- H. Rap Brown (civil rights activist) –
- Susan Sarandon (actress) –
- Armand Assante (actor) –
- Liev Schreiber (actor) –
- Alicia Silverstone (actress) –
- Rachael Leigh Cook (actress) –
Died
- Janis Joplin (singer) –
- Joan Whitney Payson (athlete) –
- Glenn Gould (pianist) –
- Graham Chapman (actor) –
- Gordon Cooper (astronaut who circled the globe 22 times in 34 hours and 20 minutes and became the first astronaut in a space flight of more than 24 hours. He was also the first astronaut to sleep in space, and he successfully carried out a beacon experiment that made him the first man to launch a satellite in space.) –
- Loretta Lynn (American country music singer-songwriter ) –
Events
- Dr. Benjamin Church investigated for espionage–
- Battle of Germantown resulted in a British victory, due to Washington’s disorganized troops and thick fog–
- The first U.S. Open golf championship was held in Newport, Rhode Island–
- Pigeon Cher Ami’s message saved 194 U.S. soldiers during World War I–
- The comic strip Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould, made its debut–
- Ruth Allen won Long Island horseshoe championship–
- Leave it to Beaver made its television debut–
- Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite, launched from the Soviet Union–
- Russia’s Luna 3 was launched toward the Moon, where it later became the first vehicle to send back images of the Moon’s far side–
- Barbara Walters joined Harry Reasoner at the anchor desk of ABC’s Evening News and became the first woman to anchor a network evening newscast–
- In Boston, Massachusetts, the bronze Mallard Family Sculpture, in honor of Robert McCloskey’s story Make Way for Ducklings, was dedicated–
- Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty signed, 1991–
- SpaceShipOne climbed into space for the second time in one week to claim a $10 million Ansari X Prize–
- Astronomers Adam Riess, Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies on the expansion of the Universe. By studying exploding stars, they found that the rate of expansion is accelerating due to a force known as dark energy.–
- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw his 500th career regular-season touchdown pass.–
Weather
- Saxby’s Gale caused flooding all over New England–
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