Chicago Cubs history unpacked, April 27

Cubs Birthdays: Michael Rucker, Joey Gathright, Rogers Hornsby* HOF. Other notables, Enos Slaughter HOF.

Today in history:

• 1392 – Korean Confucian scholar and statesman Jeong Mong-ju is assassinated on the Sonjuk Bridge in Gaeseong (now North Korea). A brown spot on the bridge is still said to be his blood.
• 1859 – US Congressman Daniel E. Sickles is acquitted in the murder of Philip Barton Key on grounds of “temporary insanity,” the first time this defense is used successfully in the US.
• 1865 – Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders remaining forces to Union General William T. Sherman at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina, ending the American Civil War.
• 1905 – Cubs Jack McCarthy becomes only major league player to throw out 3 runners at plate in 1 game, all were ends of a double play.
• 1954  – “Seven Samurai”, Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune, is released
• 1954 – Mass trials of Jonas Salk‘s anti-polio vaccine begin; the first shot is delivered in Fairfax County, Virginia; more than 443,000 children receive shots over three months.
• 1986 – The world’s worst nuclear disaster occurs when the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union explodes, resulting in 31 deaths and radioactive contamination spreading to much of Western Europe.
• 2021 – US Census results shows its population growth second slowest in recorded history, population at 331,449,281 with only 7.4% increase on 2010.

*pictured.