March 15, 2008

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Walker Morrow!

170 years ago
1838

Born on this date
Karl Davydov. Russian musician and composer. Mr. Davydov was nicknamed the "czar of cellists" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and composed several dozen works, mainly for cello. He died on February 26, 1889, 17 days before his 51st birthday.

120 years ago
1888

War
The Anglo-Tibetan War began when Tibet refused to withdraw its troops from Sikkim according to the ultimatum imposed by Great Britain.

90 years ago
1918

Died on this date
Lili Boulanger, 24. French composer. Miss Boulanger, the younger sister of composer Nadia Boulanger, wrote symphonic poems and choral works, but was dogged by illness throughout her life, and died of "intestinal tuberculosis" (perhaps Crohn's disease).

80 years ago
1928

World events
General Macario Gaxiola, Secretary of the "Obregon for President" organization in the Mexican state of Sinaloa and himself a candidate for governor of that state, escaped assassination at the Obregon headquarters in Culiacan.

Politics and government
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, in a letter (made public) to Puerto Rico Governor Horace Towner, responded to the demand by the Puerto Rican legislature that Puerto Rico be constituted a "Free State" by declaring that the island now had greater liberty than ever befoe in its history, and its residents enjoyed all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States.

Europeana
In Oslo, King Haakon VII opened Norway's Ibsen Exposition and centenary of the birth of playwright Henrik Ibsen.

75 years ago
1933

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Death at Stonehedge

70 years ago
1938

Died on this date
Nikolai Bukharin, 49. U.S.S.R. revolutionary and politician. Mr. Bukharin was a leading figure in the Bolshevik revolution and the Soviet government who eventually opposed dictator Josef Stalin's economic policies and was executed after one of the "Show Trials" of Mr. Stalin's opponents within the Communist Party.

Genrikh Yagoda, 46. U.S.S.R. bureaucrat. Mr. Yagoda, born Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda, was a Bolshevik official who moved up through the ranks of the Soviet secret police organization Cheka, and was director of the NKVD (1934-1936). He supervised arrests, show trials, and executions of the Old Bolsheviks Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, and also supervised construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal with Naftaly Frenkel, using slave labor from the GULAG system, during which 12,000–25,000 laborers died. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin became disenchanted with Mr. Yagoda, and in September 1936 demoted him to People's Commissar for Posts and Telegraphs. In April 1937, Mr. Yagoda was removed from that post, and ultimately fell victim to the very system he used against others. He was a defendant in the Trial of the Twenty-One, the last of the major Soviet show trials of the 1930s. Mr. Yagoda confessed under torture, and after his conviction, was summarily shot. He was the only defendant not to be posthumously rehabilitated.

60 years ago
1948

War
Nationalist Chinese forces reported losing Kinn and Szepingkai in Manchuria and the former Communist capital of Yenan in Shensi Province.

Defense
U.S. State Secretary George Marshall testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urging an additional $275 million in military aid to Greece and Turkey.

Politics and government
The British government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee barred Communists and suspected sympathizers from civil service positions affecting national security.

Japanese rightist groups merged into a single conservative party--the Democratic Liberal Party--with 251 members in Parliament. Former Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida was named party president.

Crime
A U.S. federal court in Washington sentenced General Bennett Meyers, second-ranking Air Force procurement officer during World War II, to 20 months-5 years in prison for persuading an employee to lie in testimony before the Senate War Investigating Committee.

Labour
A U.S. federal court in Washington ruled the Taft-Hartley Act's ban on union political activity unconstitutional, dismissing charges against Congress of Industrial Organizations President Philip Murray for violating the ban.

206,000 coal miners in 11 U.S. states struck in a dispute with operators over the miners' welfare fund.

Hockey
The University of Toronto defeated Dartmouth College 5-0 to win the Alexis Thompson international collegiate trophy.

50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): April Love--Pat Boone (5th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Der lachende Vagabund--Fred Bertelmann (8th week at #1)

#1 single in France (IFOP): Hello, le soleil brille--Annie Cordy

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): Magic Moments/Catch a Falling Star--Perry Como (3rd week at #1)

U.S. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Tequila--The Champs
2 Catch a Falling Star--Perry Como
3 Sweet Little Sixteen--Chuck Berry
4 26 Miles (Santa Catalina)--The Four Preps
5 Get a Job--The Silhouettes
6 Sail Along Silvery Moon--Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra
7 Oh Julie--The Crescendos
8 Who's Sorry Now--Connie Francis
9 Don't--Elvis Presley
10 Sugartime--The McGuire Sisters

Singles entering the chart were Dinner with Drac (Part 1) by John Zacherle (#42); Wishing for Your Love by the Voxpoppers (#46); Now and for Always by George Hamilton IV (#47); Lonely Island by Sam Cooke (#50); He's Got the Whole World (In His Hands) by Laurie London (#51); Don't You Just Know It by Huey (Piano) Smith and the Clowns (#55); I'm Gonna Love You Too by Buddy Holly (#56); Corrido Rock (Part 1) by "Handsome" Jim Balcom (#59); Uh-Huh, Oh Yeah by Steve Lawrence (#60); and Wiggle-Tail (Parts 1 and 2) by Googie Rene (also #60).

Diplomacy
The U.S. State Department rejected as "wholly unacceptable" U.S.S.R. proposals linking international control of outer space with elimination of U.S. overseas bases.

Politics and government
Egyptians and Palestinian refugees inaugurated a 30-member Gaza Legislative Council to advise the Egyptian Governor General of the Gaza Strip.

French Communist Party Secretary Maurice Thorez proposed a Socialist-Communist alliance to seek a truce in Algeria and fight "fascism" in France.

A Gallup Poll reported that 65% of Republicans surveyed wanted U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon to head the party ticket in the U.S. presidential election in 1960.

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Bend Me, Shape Me--The American Breed

Edmonton's top 10 (CJCA)
1 The Unicorn--The Irish Rovers
2 Playboy--Gene and Debbe
3 Love is Blue (L'Amour est Bleu)--Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra
4 Too Much Talk--Paul Revere and the Raiders
5 Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition was In)--The First Edition
6 (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay--Otis Redding
7 Simon Says--1910 Fruitgum Company
8 Words--The Bee Gees
9 Itchycoo Park--Small Faces
10 Everything that Touches You--The Association
Pick of the Week: Valleri--The Monkees
New this week: One Hundred Years--Nancy Sinatra
One--Nilsson
The Impossible Dream--Hesitations
Hey Joe--The Nomads
The Legend of Xanadu--Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich

Politics and government
U.K. Foreign Minister Michael Stewart resigned in a dispute over the gold market; he was replaced by George Brown.

Economics & finance
Speculation drove the price of gold on the Paris market to an all-time high of $44.36 U.S. per ounce.

Disasters
26 people were killed and 80 injured when a trolley and train collided in Santa Maria De La Alameda, Spain.

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Wuthering Heights--Kate Bush (2nd week at #1)

War
Representatives of Somalia and Ethiopia signed a truce to end the Ethio-Somali War.

World events
The Soviet Union announced that it had revoked the citizenship of cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, former Bolshoi Opera soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. The couple had been living abroad since 1974, not intending to return to the U.S.S.R. until full artistic freedom was achieved there.

Hockey
NHL
Pittsburgh 4 @ Vancouver 6

20 years ago
1988

Politics and government
United States Vice President George Bush defeated Senator Bob Dole 55%-36% in the Illinois Republican primary for his party's presidential nomination. In the Democratic primary, Illnois Senator Paul Simon won his home state with 43% of the vote; Jesse Jackson took 31%, and Michael Dukakis 17%.

World events
Soviet deputy prosecutor general Alexander Katusev was quoted in an Azerbaijani newspaper as saying that the mistreatment of Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait constituted a pogrom. As many as 300 had been killed during disturbances on February 28.

Panamanian troops stormed the country's largest hospital, firing tear gas and bird shot, after doctors and nurses demonstrated against the regime of Gen. Manuel Noriega.

War
Iran claimed to have taken the Iraqi town of Halabja, a stronghold of Kurdish separatists.

10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Benjamin Spock, 94. U.S. pediatrician. Dr. Spock's book Baby and Child Care, published in 1946 just as the post-World War II baby boom was beginning, became one of the best-selling books ever. The permissive approach to parenting favoured by Dr. Spock has been blamed for creating a generation of spoiled brats. In his later years, Dr. Spock admitted that he'd been wrong in a lot of his advice; it's unfortunate that he'd ever given such advice in the first place.

Scandal
Former White House Assistant Kathleen Willey, 51, stated in a television interview that she had been the victim four years earlier of an unwanted sexual advance by President Bill Clinton.

Curling
The Ontario rink, skipped by Wayne Middaugh, defeated Guy Hemmings of Quebec 7-4 in the final of the Brier at Winnipeg Arena. The game was interrupted by a power blackout; when power was restored, the Winnipeg crowd was amused to see that Mr. Hemmings had changed the scoreboard. I think this may have been the last major sporting event to take place at the Winnipeg Arena, which closed in November 2004, and was torn down in March 2006.