On January 19, 1952, Professional Golfers Association president Horton Smith announces that a seven-man committee “almost unanimously” votes to allow Black golfers to compete in PGA co-sponsored events. With the announcement, Smith hopes that Black golfers participate in the next two events, the Phoenix Open and Tucson Open. “I shall feel our efforts here will have gone for little if the plan doesn’t work out the next two events,” he says.

The push for inclusion into a sport dominated by white players came after pressure from former boxing champion Joe Louis, a talented amateur golfer.

At the San Diego Open on January 17, 1952, Louis competed in the PGA-sanctioned event as an invited amateur. (As an amateur golfer, Louis wasn’t governed by PGA rules.) But professional Bill Spiller, a Black golfer, was denied entry in the tournament.

In response, Louis criticized the PGA, telling the New York Times, “I want people to know what the PGA is… We’ve got another Hitler to get by.” Louis told the Los Angeles Sentinel, “This is the last major sport in America in which Negroes are barred.”

The pressure from Louis worked, and Louis, Spiller, Ted Rhodes and Eural Clark would go onto break the PGA’s color barrier at the Phoenix Open.

But it would take years for the sport to approach full integration. In 1961, Charles Sifford became the first Black golfer to earn a PGA Tour card. He won the 1967 Greater Hartford Open Invitational and 1969 Los Angeles Open.

Source: hisotry.com for the complete article

EL PASO, Texas, Jan. 17 — A circular received in this city indicates that the Yaqui Indians have attempted to establish a form of civil government and proclaim the independence of Sonora. The circular is in the form of an appeal to the American people, and is signed by Manuel Sauveda, President, and Teresa Duryea, Jesus Escalente, Harry Herbot, John Dwyer, Tenebanto, and Julian Villa, members of the Junta. View Full Article in Timesmachine

INDIANS SEEK INDEPENDENCE.; The Yaquis Offer Inducements to Americans to Come to Their Aid in Sonora.
Special to The New York Times.
Jan. 18, 1900

nytimes.com

1419 – Rouen surrendered to Henry V, completing his conquest of Normandy.

1764 – John Wilkes was expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

1793 – King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine.

1825 – Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City patented a canning process to preserve salmon, oysters and lobsters.

1861 – Georgia seceded from the Union.

1883 – Thomas Edison’s first village electric lighting system using overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ.

1907 – The first film reviews appeared in “Variety” magazine.

1915 – George Claude, of Paris, France, patented the neon discharge tube for use in advertising signs.

1915 – More than 20 people were killed when German zeppelins bombed England for the first time. The bombs were dropped on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn.

1937 – Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record. He flew from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

1942 – The Japanese invaded Burma (later Myanmar).

1944 – The U.S. federal government relinquished control of the nation’s railroads after the settlement of a wage dispute.

1949 – The salary of the President of the United States was increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional $50,000 expense allowance for each year in office.

1952 – The National Football League (NFL) bought the franchise of the New York Yankees from Ted Collins. The franchise was then awarded to a group in Dallas on January 24.

1953 – Sixty-eight percent of all TV sets in the U.S. were tuned to CBS-TV, as Lucy Ricardo, of “I Love Lucy,” gave birth to a baby boy.

1955 – U.S. President Eisenhower allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time.

1957 – Philadelphia comedian, Ernie Kovacs, did a half-hour TV show without saying a single word of dialogue.

1966 – Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.

1969 – In protest against the Russian invasion of 1968, Czech student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague’s Wenceslas Square.

1971 – At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome murders, the words “helter skelter” were written on a mirror.

1971 – “No, No Nanette” opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City.

1977 – U.S. President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D’Aquino (the “Tokyo Rose”).

1979 – Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.

1981 – The U.S. and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months and for arrangements to unfreeze Iranian assets and to resolve all claims against Iran.

1983 – China announced that it was bannning 1983 purchases of cotton, soybeans and chemical fibers from the United States.

1993 – IBM announced a loss of $4.97 billion for 1992. It was the largest single-year loss in U.S. corporate history.

1995 – Russian forces overwhelmed the resistance forces in Chechnya.

1996 – U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. The investigation was concerning the discovery of billing records related to the Whitewater real estate investment venture.

1997 – Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years. He joined 60,000 Palestinians in celebration over the handover of the last West Bank city in Israeli control.

2000 – In New York’s Time Square, the first WWF restaurant opened.

2001 – Texas officials demoted a warden and suspended three other prison workers in the wake of the escape of the “Texas 7.”

2006 – NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft was launched. The mission was the first to investigate Pluto.

2013 – In Scottsdale, AZ, the original Batmobile for the TV series “Batman” sold at auction for $4.6 million. It was the first of six Batmobiles produced for the show.

on-this-day.com

John Mitchell, in full John Newton Mitchell, (born Sept. 15, 1913, Detroit, Mich., U.S.—died Nov. 9, 1988, Washington, D.C.), U.S. attorney general during the Nixon administration who served 19 months in prison (1977–79) for his participation in the Watergate Scandal.

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