On This Day in American History — Oct 31: Lincoln Makes Nevada a State, Earl Lloyd Breaks the NBA Color Line

Host 1: Good morning. Welcome to On This Day in American History. Today is Saturday, October 31st, 2026. Um today we're basically looking at three historic Halloween milestones that really pushed boundaries in politics, sports, sports and you know human exploration.

Host 2: Yeah and it's it's really a look at what happens when your margin for error drops to absolute zero. Like to set the stage we we actually have to jump back 162 years connecting wartime desperation to well literally redrawing the map.

Host 1: Right, because this is is 1864.

Host 2: Exactly. President Lincoln is trying to get Nevada admitted as the 36th state, just days before the election. The territorial delegates had actually mailed their new state constitution to Washington, but the physical copy vanished.

Host 1: Like lost in the mail.

Host 2: Completely lost. And Lincoln absolutely refused to make it official without seeing the text.

Host 1: Which is crazy, but I mean, I still don't entirely get the math here. You hear this old myth that he just wanted Comstock silver, right? But he's managing this massive civil war. So why panic over Nevada's three electoral votes?

Host 2: Well, his internal polling was pretty grim. He was projecting he might only win the Electoral College by like a razor thin 117 to 114 margin.

Oh, wow.

Host 1: Oh, wow.

Host 2: Yeah. But more importantly, he didn't just need a need a second term. He needed congressional votes to pass the 13th Amendment to to abolish slavery. He basically needed Nevada to make the math work.

Host 1: So with the election just days days away, they can't mail it again. they decide to use the telegraph

Host 2: Right. They telegraph the entire 16,543 word constitution.

Host 1: I mean that's like trying to download a massive massive software update over a 90s dial up modem you know while your battery is at 1%

Host 2: That is exactly what it was like. It took two full days of continuous transmission through relay stations it cost over $4,300 $4,300 and it's actually still the longest telegram in the National Archives

Host 1: Wait, really?

Host 2: Right.

Host 1: The longest one.

Host 2: Yep. But it worked. The state delivered for Lincoln. The amendment passed, and Nevadans actually still celebrate Nevada Day on October 31st because of it.

Host 1: That's incredible. And it's interesting how breaking political barriers barriers in 1864 kind of links up with breaking racial barriers barriers in 1950.

Host 2: Oh, absolutely. Taking that extreme lack of margin for error and placing it entirely on one 21 year old guy

Host 1: Earl Lloyd.

Host 2: Right. 76 years ago today, Earl Lloyd Lloyd steps onto the court for the Washington Capitals and he becomes the first black black player in an NBA game.

Host 1: And he was sort of a coincidental pioneer, wasn't he? Because like Chuck Cooper and Nat Clifton were drafted too, but Lloyd's team just played first. first.

Host 2: Yeah, purely random scheduling. But that thrust this immense psychological weight onto him. I mean, he grew up up under Jim Crow in Virginia, and suddenly he's the solitary test case for integration in pro basketball.

Host 1: In a totally hostile environment.

Host 2: Right. While they were reading the starting lineups, a white guy in the the front row screamed a slur at him. Another fan reportedly spat on him.

Host 1: Gosh. But then years later, Lloyd described the game as, quote, unequivocally uneventful, except for the date.

Host 2: which is wild, right? But he he meant that by completely refusing to react to the ugliness, he proved a player could withstand this horrific social environment without letting it ruin their performance.

Host 1: Just absolute composure.

Host 2: And that totally opened the door for door for generations in a league that's now defined by black athletes.

Host 1: Exactly. So So from overcoming those extremes in society, we jump ahead just six years to 1956 to conquering absolute extremes in the in the environment.

Host 2: Yes. 70 years ago today, a Navy plane named Kesarasara makes the very first airplane first airplane landing at the South Pole.

Host 1: Where it was what minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit?

Host 2: Minus 60. And the physical mechanics of the aircraft just started failing immediately. the second they landed the skis froze instantly to the ice

Host 1: instantly

Host 2: yeah the pilot compared it to putting a wet hand on a freezer wall he was just bonded they had to fire 15 JTO rockets these jet assisted takeoff takeoff rockets all at once just to to violently rip the plane free

Host 1: that sounds terrifying and they couldn't even document it properly right I read the cameras froze

Host 2: Two of their three three cameras froze completely solid. The navigator only managed to get photos because he he hid the last camera inside his heavy parka to use his body heat.

Host 1: Wow. All that just to prove planes could reach the pole

yeah and

Host 2: Yeah, and that treacherous layover paved the way for the Amundsen Scott Station and basically all modern Antarctic science

Host 1: incredible. Well a few quick also on this day extras before we wrap up in 1926 so 100 years ago today Harry Houdini died of a ruptured appendix also 1941 was a was a busy day Mount Rushmore was declared complete and the USS Reuben James was Rubin James was sunk by a U-boat

Host 2: you know hearing all this it really leaves you with something to something to mull over like if extreme pressure whether whether it's a looming civil war or systemic racism or minus 60 degree ice if that forces our greatest breakthroughs what happens to human progress when our technology makes life perfectly comfortable

Host 1: Thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow