|
| 1955 |
July: DiMaggio enters the Baseball Hall of Fame.
|
| 1965 |
May: Cassius Clay floors Sonny Liston in 48 seconds in the first round after beating Liston the year before. Clay, a Muslim, wears a robe marked "Muhammad Ali" and calls his upset a triumph of the "righteous life."
|
| 1967 |
November: Joe spends seventeen days and nights touring American positions in Vietnam with Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds, Tony Conigliaro of the Boston Red Sox and Jerry Coleman, his former teammate on the Yankees. "Let me assure you," he said upon returning. "Those kids out there have guts." |
| 1968 |
Paul Simon pens the song "Mrs. Robinson," which is released with the movie "The Graduate." The lines, "Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?/Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you" become part of the Yankee Clipper’s legend. DiMaggio later confides to a friend, "I’ve never been able to figure out what that song means."
April: The Yankee Clipper begins two years of service as a coach and consultant for the Oakland A’s.
|
| 1969 |
 Spring: For baseball’s 100th anniversary, a nationwide vote is taken among fans and sportswriters to choose baseball’s "Greatest Living Player." They pick DiMaggio. (The greatest player of all time goes to Babe Ruth.) During the same year, the Yankees add a DiMaggio plaque in center field next to two other Yankee immortals: Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
|
| 1972 |
DiMaggio does his first Bowery Savings Bank ad for television. He follows it soon after with ads for Mr. Coffee and their coffee-making machines. Kids on the street call him "Mr. Coffee." |
| 1974 |
April: Hank Aaron hits home run 715 at the age of 40, breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs. His mother and father watch in the stands. Aaron is the last major league player to have played in the Negro Leagues. |
| 1980 |
 September: Ronald Wilson Reagan is elected the 40th president of the United States. He is 69-years-old, three years DiMaggio’s senior. |
| 1986 |
December: DiMaggio agrees to attend a state dinner at the White House. He sneaks in a baseball and asks Maureen Reagan if Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will sign the ball. The next day, DiMaggio watches as Reagan appears on television with a baseball in his hands. Reagan and Gorbachev sign the ball. DiMaggio says of the event, "I was a witness to history." |
| 1998 |
September: DiMaggio makes his last appearance at Yankee Stadium. Former teammate Phil Rizzuto presents him with replacements for the eight World Series rings that were stolen from DiMaggio’s hotel room in 1960.
|
| 1999 |
March: Following a five-month battle with lung cancer, DiMaggio dies in his Hollywood, Florida, home on March 8, 1999. He is 84 years old.
|
