On This Day: Jackie Robinson is first black Major League Baseball player

OCTOBER 30, 1945: Jackie Robinson became the first black baseball player to sign for a U.S. Major League side in the modern era on this day in 1945 and end segregation in the sport.

The star, who scored 137 home runs for Brooklyn Dodgers, broke the 'colour line' imposed after the African American Moses Walker played one season in 1884.

Dodgers coach Branch Rickey, who had long wanted to tap the talent of the Negro leagues, selected Robinson chiefly because of his stoic temperament.

Robinson was not the best back player even at the Kansas City Monarchs - as hotheaded Satchel Paige was reputed to be a pitcher who could outclass anyone.

But Rickey saw in the then 26-year-old a player who could withstand the inevitable racial abuse and someone 'with guts enough not to fight back'.

He first tested Robinson – who was the subject of recent movie 42, after his shirt number – at the Dodgers’ minor league 'farm side', the Montreal Royals.

Despite protests from his own team’s coaching staff and hostility from rival players, who would deliberately throw the ball at him, Robinson was a sensation.

During his debut on April 18, 1946, he scored scored four runs, drove in three, and stole two bases in the Royals' 14–1 victory over the Jersey City Giants.

He minor league’s first black star went on to become its most valued player and boosted Montreal’s attendance to an unprecedented one million fans that season.

His success convinced Rickey that it was time break the Major League colour line – which was only a gentlemen’s agreement in effect and had no force in law.

Robinson made his debut for Brooklyn, New York’s perennial underdog, on April 15, 1947 in front of 26,623 fans – including 14,000 black people – at Ebbets Field.

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The second baseman, who was best at bat, went on to score 125 runs and was named Major League Rookie of the Year.

A Warner Pathé shows him preparing to bat in the opening game in 1950 after having become the league’s most valued player the previous season.

He went on to help the Dodgers win their first ever World Series in 1955 and played in the annual MLB All-Star game six times before retiring in 1956.

The following year, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles.

Robinson’s achievement helped bring hundreds of other African American players into the game, although the Boston Red Sox resisted desegregation until 1959.

Among the new black recruits were his old teammate Paige, who at age 42 became the oldest man to debut in the major leagues and retired as the oldest when 59.

Some incredible young stars also entered the game thanks to Robinson pioneering effort to end segregation.

Hank Aaron, who joined the MLB aged 20 in 1954, went on to smash the legendary Babe Ruth’s 'unbeatable' 715 career home run record after hitting 755.

Another black man, Barry Bonds, finally beat that with 756 in August 2007, although the record is tainted after becoming a central figure in that decade’s steroids scandal.

But both feats were eclipsed by Josh Gibson, who hit 800 during his career in the Negro leagues and is perhaps the saddest example of a talent wasted by segregation.

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As for Robinson, the stress of breaking open this closed world is believed to have led him to become almost blind and die early from a heart attack at age 53 in 1972.