On December 6, 1961, Syracuse running back Ernie Davis
became the first African American player to win the
Heisman Trophy, college football’s top individual award,
beating Ohio State fullback Bob Ferguson. Earlier in day,
Davis met with President John Kennedy at the Waldorf-
Astoria Hotel in New York. "I never thought I’d ever be
shaking the hand of the President of the United States,"
he says.   

As a senior in 1961, Davis rushed for 823 yards and scored
14 touchdowns. The previous season, he rushed for 877
yards.

Davis was the first pick in the 1962 NFL draft, by Washington,
which traded him to the Cleveland Browns. But he never
played in the NFL. Davis was diagnosed with leukemia later
in 1962, and died on May 18, 1963. He was only 23.         

At 2:10 p.m. on December 5, 1945, five U.S. Navy Avenger
torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 took off from the Ft.
Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-
hour training mission.

After having completed their objective, the flight was to go
due east for an additional 67 miles, then turn north for 73
miles, and back to the air station after that, totaling a
distance of 120 miles. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron,
who had been flying in the area for more than six months,
reported that his compass and backup compass had failed
and that his position was unknown.

After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers,
a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was
heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare
to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

Terry Alan Anderson (October 27, 1947 – April 21, 2024)

Anderson was an American journalist and combat veteran. He
reported for the Associated Press.

In 1985, he was taken hostage by Shia Hezbollah militants of
the Islamic Jihad Organization in Lebanon and held until this 
day in 1991. 

Anderson being welcomed home to Lorain, Ohio, on June 21, 1992.

On December 3, 1979, the last Pacer rolled off the assembly
line at the American Motors Corporation (AMC) factory in
Kenosha, Wisconsin.

On December 3, 1967, 53-year-old Louis Washkansky received
the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in
Cape Town, South Africa.

Washkansky, a South African grocer dying from chronic heart
disease, received the transplant from Denise Darvall, a 25-year-
old woman who was fatally injured in a car accident. 

The new heart recipient died eighteen days later of pneumonia,
largely brought on by the anti-rejection drugs that suppressed
his immune system.

Surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who trained at the University of Cape    
Town and in the United States, performed the revolutionary medical      
operation.

Christiaan Neethling Barnard (1922 – 2001)