Lou Gehrig Dies in the Bronx at 37

Lou Gehrig, born in East Harlem and the Yankees' first baseman for seventeen seasons, died at his home at 5204 Delafield Avenue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx at 10:10 p.m. on June 2, 1941, seventeen days short of his 38th birthday. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic had confirmed two years earlier that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that destroys the nerves controlling muscle movement while leaving the mind untouched. He had already made his goodbye to the game at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, telling 61,808 fans he considered himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth even as the illness was visibly taking his strength. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia ordered the city's flags flown at half staff, ballparks around the country followed, and thousands filed past his casket before funeral services in Riverdale. The disease that killed him still carries his name.