July 18, 1984: A mass shooting occurs at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego. There were 40 people wounded, and 21 of them died.
The shooter was James Huberty, age 41, from Canton, Ohio. His mother had left the family when he was little, and he never recovered, taking up target shooting at a young age. By 1984, he was living in San Diego, married with 2 daughters, and had been charged with domestic violence against them and his wife.
In the Summer of 1984, there seemed nothing amiss. But on July 17, he called a local mental health clinic, and left his contact information. Unfortunately, the receptionists had misspelled his name, and she noted that he was calm when he called, and had admitted that he had never been hospitalized for psychiatric issues, so she didn't see any urgency.
The police responded to the shooting, and one of their snipers killed Huberty. McDonald's suspended all advertising. In an act of solidarity with their arch-rivals, Burger King did the same.
At the time, it was the deadliest mass shooting in American history, and stunned people. Times have changed, and the willingness of America's leaders to let mentally unstable people have firearms has led to so many mass shootings, a few worse than this one.
*
July 18, 1984 was a Wednesday. The Major League Baseball season had just restarted following the All-Star Game in San Francisco, a 3-1 win for the National League 8 days earlier. Here are the day's MLB games:
* The New York Yankees beat the Texas Rangers, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Don Baylor hit a home run in support of Ron Guidry.
* The New York Mets beat the Houston Astros, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Montreal Expos 3-2 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Ken Oberkfell won the game with a double in the 10th inning.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-5 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-6 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 4-1 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Darrell Porter hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 11th inning.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 2-1 at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. (It was renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1993.)
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the California Angels, 8-2 at Anaheim Stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California. (The team is now named the Los Angeles Angels, and the ballpark is named Angel Stadium of Anaheim.)
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2 at the Oakland Coliseum.
* And the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Seattle Mariners, 5-2 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
The NFL, the NBA and the NHL were out of season. This was during the brief experiment with Spring pro football, the United States Football League. The USFL title game had been played 3 days earlier, and the Philadelphia Stars beat the Arizona Wranglers, 23-3 at Tampa Stadium.