Yesterday in La Crosse
“Hey, we’ve got a problem here”…47 years ago
On this day in 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft was halfway to the moon when a fuel tank exploded, causing the three astronauts on board to abort their planned lunar landing and find a way back to Earth. NASA and the crew figured out a way to have the spacecraft loop around the moon and return to the earth a few days later. Sparta native Deke Slayton was the director of flight crew operations for NASA during the Apollo 13 mission. The story was told in a 1995 movie starring Tom Hanks as flight commander Jim Lovell.
Minnesota Judge Harry Blackmun was being considered for a vacancy on the U-S Supreme Court. The Democratic Senate had just rejected President Nixon’s second nominee for the seat formerly held by Abe Fortas. Blackmun was approved by the Senate, and went on to write the court’s opinion in the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973.
Wisconsin had a major league baseball team again that April, when the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers, only a week before the start of the season. The Brewers lost their first three games before picking up their first victory, over the White Sox…in 1970, 47 years ago, Yesterday in La Crosse.
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