Looking Back: 10 moments from Milwaukee's past from March

March 1, 1964:

The sound of MUSIC

Frustrated with resistance to integration of Milwaukee Public Schools, members of the Milwaukee NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality and the Near Northside Nonpartisan Conference, along with local parents and ministers, formed the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee, or MUSIC. The group, with Lloyd Barbee as chairman, planned a one-day boycott in May to protest inaction on integration; although the organization was dismissed by the school district, as many as 60% of the district's African-American students took part in the boycott, attending "freedom schools" at churches and other sites instead.

March 1, 1985:

Keeping the Bucks home

Herb Kohl, part of the family that built the Kohl's retail empire, bought the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise for $18 million, with the intent of keeping the team in Milwaukee. Three years later, Kohl was elected to the first of four terms in the U.S. Senate. (Kohl sold the team in 2014 for $550 million to New York hedge-fund investors Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens.)

March 2-5, 1881:

The blizzard of blizzards

Milwaukee has had its share of memorable blizzards — 1947 still looms largest, although that dust-up in 2011 is lingering as a painful memory, too — but they all pale in comparison to the snow tsunami of 1881. According to the National Weather Service, three of the city's heaviest snow totals in the past 140 years were in this four-day stretch, including the two biggest snowfalls ever in back-to-back days: 26.6 inches on March 4, and 27.4 inches on March 5.

March 5, 1900:

The birth of a major league

Milwaukee attorney Henry Killilea, his brother Matt Killilea, Philadelphia A's owner-manager Connie Mack, Western League President Byron (Ban) Johnson and Charles Comiskey, soon-to-be czar of the Chicago White Sox, met to plot a new league they hoped would compete with the only "major league" of the day, the National League. At the Republican House — a hotel at what was then 3rd St. and Kilbourn Ave., now a Journal Sentinel parking lot — they agreed to the formation of the American League. (The league declared itself "major" in 1901.)

March 6, 1961:

No more BYOB at ballpark

Reacting to concerns about drunken fans and incidents involving flying beer bottles, the Milwaukee County Board approved a measure banning fans from bringing beer, liquor or soda into County Stadium. An outcry from fans and the Milwaukee Braves, who claimed the ban was hurting the club's attendance, led to the ban being rescinded in June 1962.

March 11, 1854:

Freedom for Joshua Glover

Joshua Glover, a fugitive slave, had sought asylum in Racine, but his Missouri slave owner pursued him using the Fugitive Slave Act, and Glover was captured and taken to a jail in what is now Milwaukee's Cathedral Square Park. A group of abolitionists, led by Sherman Booth, stormed the jail and freed Glover, who escaped to Canada.

March 18, 1953:

Home of the Braves

National League owners voted unanimously to allow the struggling Boston Braves to move to Milwaukee to start the 1953 season — which was less than four weeks away. In Boston, the Braves drew about 281,000 fans in 1952; in Milwaukee their first year, the team drew nearly 1.83 million, setting a major-league record.

March 28, 1836:

A beer baron is born

Frederick Pabst was born on this date in what was then Prussia. Twelve years later, he emigrated with his parents to the United States — first in Milwaukee, then Chicago and, then back to Milwaukee when he married the daughter of brewery owner Phillip Best. A ship captain, he later bought into his wife's family business and changed its name to Pabst Brewing Co. (Pabst died in 1904.)

March 28, 1977:

Seashells and balloons

No one was better than seizing the spotlight than Al McGuire, and the Marquette University basketball coach seized the biggest one of all when Marquette ended its Cinderella season — and McGuire's last — with a 67-59 victory over North Carolina to win the NCAA championship.

March 29-31, 1960:

Thaw + storm = flood

A sudden spring thaw coupled with a string of violent thunderstorms triggered severe flooding all over Milwaukee and Ozaukee counties, forcing evacuations of neighborhoods, including along the Milwaukee River in Glendale, plant closings throughout the industrialized Menomonee Valley and flooding along the Menomonee River and Lincoln Creek. Lessons learned from the flooding led to the development of a watershed plan for the Milwaukee River basin — a plan that included recommendation of a deep tunnel to reduce pollution caused by sewer overflows during severe rainstorms.

Sources: Journal Sentinel files, "Educating Milwaukee: How One City's History of Segregation and Struggle Shaped Its Schools" by James K. Nelsen; wisconsinhistory.org; "Greater Milwaukee's Growing Pains, 1950-2000: An Insider's View" by Richard W. Cutler

ABOUT THIS FEATURE

Every month, history is made and passes through Milwaukee. On the first Monday of each month, the Green Sheet takes a look at 10 moments from our past — not an exhaustive or complete list, but a mix of incidents, happenings and events that have helped make Milwaukee Milwaukee.