Yesterday in La Crosse
A famous Republican was warning against one-party rule, 53 years ago
Former Congressman Robert Taft Junior of Ohio told a GOP dinner in La Crosse in October of 1965 that more Republicans needed to be elected the following year, or else the two-party system would be in “great danger.” Taft was the grandson of President William Howard Taft, and he charged that the Democratic Congress was a rubber stamp for President Lyndon Johnson. The dinner was a fundraiser for local GOP House member Vernon Thomson.
Meanwhile, LBJ was in Washington recovering from surgery to remove a kidney stone and his gallbladder.
Pope Paul became the first pontiff to visit the United States that October. Paul made a one-day trip to New York to speak at the United Nations, and to 90 thousand people gathered at Yankee Stadium for a “mass for peace.”
And a new Saturday morning cartoon show starred the Beatles, getting into adventures with spies and monsters. The show used actual hit songs by the Fab Four, but they didn’t play themselves in the cartoons. Actor Paul Frees provided the voices of John and George…while Lance Percival voiced Paul and Ringo. The cartoon Beatles were a hit in 1965…yesterday in La Crosse.