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© Copyright 2003 EPICS TCHA Team at Purdue University, All Rights Reserved.
The Cleveland Indians arrived March 20 at Purdue University for another three weeks of "spring training" under wartime restrictions. Rain and cold forced cancellation of Columbian Park exhibition games against the Pittsburgh Pirates April 4 and the Indianapolis Indians April 8-9.
The nation's Fourth War Loan drive began. Tippecanoe County faced a quota of $4 million in war bond sales.
Fire at the National Homes Corporation plant killed three men and injured three. Firemen fought it for more than 42 hours. Dead were janitor Herman Gilbert, 68, lacquer sprayer Frank Richardson, 23, and Dallas Ruch, 70.
A memorable night fire consumed the Rund Packing Company plant on South First Street.
George Ade, author, playwright, Purdue University graduate and benefactor, died at age 78 at Hazelden, his home at Brook, Ind.
Baseball great Rogers Hornsby, at age 48, played second base for the Lafayette Red Sox in an exhibition game in Columbian Park.
BACKGROUND: The day after the Allied invasion of France, or "D-Day," the Journal Courier told how a glider piloted by Lafayette native, and stunt flier Lt. Col. Mike Murphy, was the "first to touch French soil." Murphy's biography was given. A story on June 21 said the crash-landing broke both of Murphy's legs, and a story on June 26 mentioned his return to the U.S. to recuperate.
BACKGROUND: Another "D-Day" story in the Journal Courier detailed the exploits of First Lt. Robert Arman, Lafayette, who led a company up a cliff, losing half his 200 men. A June 30 story told more about Arman.
Tippecanoe County took on a $4.8 million quota in war bond sales as the nation's Fifth War Loan campaign began.
A Columbian Park Stadium record crowd estimated at 6,000 saw the Great Lakes Navy team, filled with former major league baseball stars, defeat the semipro Lafayette Red Sox 15-4. Pitcher "Schoolboy" Rowe hit a 500-foot home run that crossed Main Street and bounced against the wall of Oakland School.
Duke Ellington's famous orchestra played an open-air concert in the Columbian Park Stadium. [The Count Basie band also played there during the summer of '44.]
Republican Thomas E. Dewey, New York governor, lawyer and crime-busting prosecutor, challenged Franklin D. Roosevelt for U.S. President. But Roosevelt won a fourth term 25,602,504 to 22,006,285, and by 432 electoral votes to 99. Tippecanoe County typically backed Republican Dewey 15,888 to 10,229, as Republican candidates swept all local election contests.
The Catholic Church created a Lafayette Diocese from part of the Fort Wayne Diocese. Lafayette's would contain 47 parishes, 100 priests, 25 schools, and serve 40,000 Catholics. [Right Rev. Monsignor John G. Bennett, pastor of a church at Garrett, Ind., became the new diocese's first bishop, consecrated at Fort Wayne Jan. 10, 1945, and installed at Lafayette in ceremonies in St. Mary's Cathedral on Jan. 18, 1945.]
The Sixth War Loan campaign began, and Tippecanoe County set out to meet a war bond sale goal of $4.1 million.
Lafayette Mayor A.R. Killian said he would resign Dec. 31 to head the Indiana State Police in the administration of Governor-elect Ralph Gates. City Controller Ferdinand Fischer would, by law, succeed Killian as mayor.