A Veep, a Poet, a Drive-in & a Ball Player

Today in New Jersey history:
Today in NJ history:

June 3, 1844: Garret “Gus” Hobart was born in Long Branch. Hobart became a successful and very wealthy attorney and rose through the crony culture of 19th century New Jersey politics, serving in the legislature and as chairman of the Republican State Committee. He was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 1896 and then vice president of the United States. Hobart died of an apparent heart attack in 1899 and was replaced on the Republican ticket by Theodore Roosevelt in the election of 1900. Had he not died he would have ascended to the presidency when President McKinley was assassinated.

June 3,1926: Irwin Allen Ginsburg, famed “Beat Generation” poet who would win a landmark acquittal in an obscenity case brought by the federal government, was born in Paterson.

June 3, 1948: Wall Township airport operator Ed Brown announced a combination drive-in/fly-in movie theater. Small planes could land on his adjacent runway and be towed the short distance to the outdoor theater.

June 3, 2012: More than 3,000 people assembled to dedicate an eight-foot-high statue of major league baseball player Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, while delivering aid to victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua. Admirer Louis Lopez, founder of Newark’s Roberto Clemente Little League in 1977, joined forces with Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo, a fellow Little League organizer and Clemente fan, to raise the $110,000 to pay for the statue.