Gary Powers
Note: I must give credit, and say that this text is slightly adapted from Wikipedia's entry on the subject.
May 1, 1960: An American U-2 spy plane is shot down by the Soviet Air Defense Forces while performing photographic aerial reconnaissance, deep inside Soviet territory.
The single-seat aircraft was flown by Captain Francis Gary Powers, a Korean War veteran, now a pilot for the CIA. It was hit by an S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile, and crashed near Sverdlovsk (the city now named Yekaterinburg). Powers ejected and parachuted to the ground safely, where he was subsequently captured by Soviet forces.
Initially, U.S. authorities acknowledged the incident as the loss of a civilian weather research aircraft operated by NASA. (They never said it was a "weather balloon," as it is widely remembered.) They were forced to admit the mission's true purpose a few days later, when the Soviet government presented the captured pilot and parts of the U-2's surveillance equipment, including photographs of Soviet military bases taken during the mission.
The incident occurred on May 1, or May Day, a holiday in the Soviet Union. It was around 2 weeks before the scheduled opening of an East-West summit in Paris, where President Dwight D. Eisenhower was going to meet with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev canceled the summit, and was able to claim a propaganda victory in the Cold War.
The U-2 Incident cast a shadow over the last year of the Eisenhower Presidency -- the Ike Age -- and the subsequent election of Senator John F. Kennedy over Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard Nixon, would have been next to impossible without it.
Powers was convicted of espionage. It was a show trial -- the Soviet Union specialized in those -- but he was unquestionably guilty, as the U.S. admitted. He was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment, plus 7 years of hard labor. But he was released on February 10, 1962, after less than 2 years, in a prisoner exchange for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel. Powers became a helicopter pilot for a Los Angeles TV station, and was killed in a crash in 1977.
May 1, 1960 was a Sunday. Both the NBA and the NHL had completed their seasons, with the Boston Celtics and the Montreal Canadiens, respectively, surprising no one, again winning the titles. And the NFL was in its off-season.
In spite of it being Sunday, there wasn't even a full slate of games played in Major League Baseball. The Boston Red Sox were supposed to host the Washington Senators at Fenway Park, but it was rained out. It was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on June 2, and the Senators swept it.
Most strangely, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, who had played the previous 2 days at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, didn't play. There's no notation that the game was scheduled and then rescheduled.
I find it hard to believe that the Giants, who struggled for attendance in their entire Candlestick era (which had only begun a few days earlier), would willingly accept not having the revenue from a Sunday afternoon game, especially against their arch-rivals. I find it even harder to believe that Dodger owner Walter O'Malley, the personification of greed in baseball, would be willing to give up his share of the gate receipts.
This was in the interregnum between the move of the Dodgers and the Giants, and before the Mets began play, so the Yankees were then the only MLB team in the New York Tri-State Area.
* The New York Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 9-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Elston Howard hit a home run, and he and Moose Skowron each had 3 hits. But starting pitcher Ralph Terry had nothing, allowing 2 runs in 2 innings; Bobby Shantz was worse, allowing 3 in less than 2; and John Gabler allowed 3 without even getting an out, blowing the lead and ending up as the losing pitcher. Chuck Estrada went the distance for the O's.
* The Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the Kansas City Athletics at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Tribe won the 1st game 6-4, and the 2nd game 3-1.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 13-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.
* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The South Siders won the 1st game 6-3, and the 2nd game 5-2.
* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.