On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, at age 28, became the first
African American player in Major League Baseball’s modern
era when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete
for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier
in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years.

Exactly 50 years later, in 1997, Robinson’s groundbreaking
career was honored and his uniform number, 42, was retired
from Major League Baseball by Commissioner Bud Selig in
a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New York City’s
Shea Stadium. Robinson’s was the first-ever number retired
by all teams in the league.

Jack Roosevelt Robinson
(January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972)

Opening Day welcomes the new spring baseball season each
year, a uniquely American tradition steeped in history and
fanfare.       

On this day in history, April 14, 1910, President William Howard 
Taft (above) became the first U.S. president to throw out the 
first pitch at a Major League Baseball game.       

William Howard Taft (1857 – 1930)

On April 11, 1921, KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcasts the first
live sporting event on the radio, a boxing match between
Johnny Ray and Johnny Dundee. Pittsburgh Daily Post
sports editor Florent Gibson calls the event, about four
months before KDKA’s Harold Arlin announces the first
Major League Baseball game broadcast on radio.

LONDON (TND) – A new version of Scrabble is set to be released
for the first time in 75 years and the updated rendition of the
iconic board game is reportedly aimed at a Gen Z audience.

The updated version, to be released in Europe, will include two
sides, one side with the original game for players who want to
stick to the traditional version and a second, "less competitive"
version to appeal to Gen Z players, BBC first reported.

The second side, called Scrabble Together, will include helper
cards, using a simpler scoring system that will be quicker to
play and allow people to play in teams.

Broadcaster and British Scrabble president, Gyles Brandreth,
told BBC Radio 4 Today that Mattel, the maker of the game,
had done some research and found that younger, Gen Z people
don’t like the "competitive nature" of the game as much as older generations. In response, he said the newer version would be
"easier" and "more inclusive."

FOX NEWS

     
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
On April 9, 1959, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) introduced America’s first
astronauts to the press: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon
Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil “Gus” Grissom,
Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr. and Donald Slayton.

The seven men, all military test pilots, were carefully
selected from a group of 32 candidates to take part in
Project Mercury, America’s first manned space program,
planned to begin orbital flights in 1961.         
    
    
    
    
    

From Top Left: Alan B. Shepard, Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, L.
Gordon Cooper
Bottom Left: Wally Schirra, Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, John
Glenn and Scott Carpenter.