Oct 25: Benjamin O. Davis Becomes First Black General, Buckner's Game 6 Error

Host 1 good morning morning welcome to on this day in American history history today is Sunday October 25th 2026

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Host 2 good morning

Host 1 so for this deep dive we're really setting out on a mission to explore how everyday moments long struggles and just you know split second errors shape American history

Host 2 yeah it's a it's a fantastic lineup for you today we're looking at three historical October 25th where a playful demand for a kiss laid the the groundwork for a revolution. A political stunt quietly integrated the military and a single ground ball broke an entire city's heart.

Host 1 Right. Let's start with that first one we are going back to 1764 it is the wedding day day of a 29 year old lawyer named named John Adams and a 19 year old woman named Abigail Smith.

Host 2 A pretty historic day.

Host 1 Very much so but what always strikes me about Abigail is that she had she had like absolutely zero formal schooling she just brilliantly educated herself by devouring her father's library.

Host 2 And thank goodness she did honestly because she became one of the best read women in 18th century America.

Host 1 Oh without a doubt

Host 2 and their relationship was largely defined by distance you know which which forced them to write to each other constantly constantly if you look at the archives today they exchanged around 1200 letters using the pen names Lysander and Diana

Host 1 which is wild reading through those letters it really it really doesn't feel like a standard standard 18th century courtship I always think of it as less of a romantic you know text thread and more like a private two person think tank

Host 2 That is exactly what it was.

Host 1 Right. like it's where the foundational ideas of the American Republic were basically being beta tested

Host 2 Yeah Abigail wasn't just a supportive spouse in the background she was John's primary intelligence source in Massachusetts while he was away in Philadelphia

Host 1 Oh for sure

But

Host 2 but they also had this incredible spark too there's a letter John drafted on October 4 1762 and it's structured as a highly formal legal contract addressed to Miss Adorable

Host 1 Oh, wow. Miss Adorable.

Right.

Host 2 Right. And in it, he playfully demands she give the bearer as many kisses and as many hours of of her company after nine o'clock as he desires.

Host 1 That's amazing. And it's crazy how a a legacy can be built quietly over over thousands of private letters like those, like those, which by the way, now anchor the Massachusetts Historical Society's collections.

Host 2 They absolutely do.

Host 1 But you know, from fighting for fighting for American independence, we transition to fighting for equality within America's own ranks. Sometimes a legacy is forged by a sudden highly public maneuver. Which brings us to Benjamin O. Davis Senior in 1940.

Host 2 Yes. So on this day in 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted Davis Davis to become the US Army's first first black general.

Host 3 A huge deal.

Host 2 Massive. Now, if you try to look up his exact age at the time, you'll actually hit a a wall. His birth year is disputed disputed. It's listed as either 1877 or 1880. But he had been serving since 1898.

Host 1 Wow. So decades.

Host 2 Decades. Yeah. And for a lot of that time, the army army intentionally sidelined him. They sent him to posts far away from command like, you know, making him a military attache in Liberia.

Host 1 which is just wild when you look at his at his actual record and capabilities, when Davis was a young enlisted man, he was mentored by Lieutenant Charles Young, who was the army's only black officer at officer at the time.

Host 2 Right, exactly.

Host 1 And Davis was so sharp that he passed his officer's exam in just two years. He had all the credentials.

Host 2 But to understand why the promotion finally happened when it did, you have to look at the political calendar. It's late October 1940, right on the eve of a presidential election. FDR DR needed to win over black voters

Host 1 Ah, so it was a political calculation.

Host 2 It was. But what started as a political calculation inadvertently planted the seed for total military integration.

Host 1 because Davis used that rank to inspect black units during during World War II right and he's the one who proposed integrating them

Host 2 exactly he sparked the desegregation of the entire military and his own son even went on to lead the famous Tuskegee Airmen

Host 1 Such a monumental decades long victory But from from a slow hard fought triumph triumph we have to shift to a dramatic split second disaster

Host 2 Oh no

Host 1 Yeah 1986 today is the 40th anniversary of World Series game six the Boston Red Sox are leading the Mets and they are just one single out away from their first title in 68 years

Host 2 The tension must have been unbelievable

Host 1 Oh the championship champagne is literally on ice in the clubhouse

Host 2 And then chaos ensues. I mean earlier in the night a skydiver diver actually parachuted right onto the infield

Host 1 Wait really

Host 2 Yes.

Host 1 A skydiver

Host 2 Yes. But the real But the real disaster came in the 10th inning. A wild pitch ties the game then Mookie Wilson hits a slow grounder that famously rolls right through the legs of Boston's first baseman Bill Buckner

Host 1 See wait I'm confused about this part why was Buckner even on the field because if he was playing hurt and his ankles were notoriously destroyed by that point and they had Dave Stapleton on the bench specifically for late game defensive replacements what on earth was Buckner doing at first base in the 10th inning

Host 2 It was a purely sentimental managerial blunder. Manager John McNamara wanted his veteran on the field for the final out to celebrate for the cameras.

Host 1 Oh, you're kidding.

Host 2 No, he prioritized the photo op over defense and it cost them a World Series. what cements it in our minds is Vince Scully's iconic broadcast call behind the bag

Host 1 Oh yeah

Host 2 and then Scully just stays completely completely silent for three agonizing minutes minutes letting the roar of the Shea Stadium crowd tell the story

Host 1 it's just tragic because Buckner was an incredible player he had 2700 career hits yet he was entirely defined by this single error until a massive healing standing ovation at Fenway Park in 2008 finally brought him some peace

Host 2 It really is something. And just to round out the day, if you were flipping through the history history books for October 25th, you'd also find the 1812 capture of HMS Macedonian Adley Stevenson's 1962 until hell freezes over UN speech speech and the 1983 Grenada invasion

Host 1 It really makes you you consider how one split second mistake fielding a baseball or one playful handwritten note to Miss Adorable can permanently define an entire legacy. Thanks for tuning in. See you back here tomorrow.