December 16, 2013

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Heather Austin!

360 years ago
1653

Britannica
Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

240 years ago
1773

Protest
The Boston Tea Party took place as the Sons of Liberty, disguised as American Indians, boarded three British ships and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard, destroying the entire supply of tea sent by the East India Company in defiance of the American boycott of tea carrying a tax not authorized by the Americans.

175 years ago
1838

War
Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeated Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in the Battle of Blood River in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

170 years ago
1843

Mathematics
The discovery of octonions was announced by John T. Graves, who denoted them with a boldface O, in a letter to his mathematician friend William Hamilton, discoverer of quaternions.

125 years ago
1888

Born on this date
Aleksandar I. King of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia, 1921-1934. Aleksandar I, the grandson of Prince Aleksandar of Serbia, became heir to the Serbian throne when his older brother George renounced his claim in 1909. Aleksandar became prince regent in 1914, and prince regent of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes when they united on December 1, 1918. He acceded to the throne upon the death of his father King Peter I. On October 9, 1934, King Aleksandar I, 45, was on a state visit to France; he and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou were riding through the streets of Marseilles when they were fatally shot by a Bulgarian revolutionary named Velicko Kerin. The assassination was planned in Rome by Ante Pavelić, head of the Croatian Ustaše. Aleksandar I was succeeded on the throne by his son Peter II.

120 years ago
1893

Music
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World", received its premiere performance by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Anton Seidl, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

100 years ago
1913

Born on this date
George Ignatieff. Russian-born Canadian diplomat. Mr. Ignatieff, a native of St. Petersburg, fled to France with his family, and later to Canada. He joined the Canadian Department of External Affairs in 1940, and held numerous positions in a career that spanned more than 40 years. He was Canada's permanent representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1963-1966); Ambassador to the United Nations (1966-1969); and president of the UN Security Council (1968-1969). He died on August 10, 1989 at the age of 75.

80 years ago
1933

Died on this date
Louis Joseph Vance, 54. U.S. author. Mr. Vance was a novelist who was best known for creating the detective character known as the Lone Wolf, who was featured in 8 books and 24 films between 1914 and 1949. Mr. Vance died in a fire that started after he fell asleep while holding a lighted cigarette.

75 years ago
1938

Germanica
Fuehrer Adolf Hitler instituted the Cross of Honour of the German Mother as an order of merit for German mothers.

70 years ago
1943

Politics and government
Iranian Prime Minister Ali Soheily announced the formation of a new government "adapted to new conditions" prevailing after the recent Tehran Conference of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S.S.R. dictator Josef Stalin.

Disasters
73 people were killed and more than 100 injured when the Atlantic Coast Line's southbound Tamiami West Coast Champion was derailed near Buei, North Carolina, throwing wreckage across parallel tracks used by northbound trains into which the Tamiami East Coast Champion crashed a half-hour later.

60 years ago
1953

Boxing
Former world heavyweight champion Ezzard Charles (84-10-1) scored a technical knockout of Coley Wallace (21-3) at 2:43 of the 10th and final round at San Francisco Civic Auditorium.



50 years ago
1963

On television tonight
The Outer Limits, on ABC
Tonight's episode: The Borderland, starring Mark Richman, Nina Foch, Gladys Cooper, Alfred Ryder, Philip Abbott, Barry Jones, and Gene Raymond

40 years ago
1973

Football
NFL
Buffalo (9-5) 34 @ New York Jets (4-10) 14

O.J. Simpson rushed for 200 yards to become the first player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season as the Bills defeated the Jets on a snowy Sunday afternoon at Shea Stadium. Mr. Simpson finished the season with 2,003 yards rushing. The game was the last for Weeb Ewbank, who retired after 20 years as a professional head coach with the Baltimore Colts (1954-1962) and New York Jets (1963-1973). He had led the Colts to NFL championships in 1958 and 1959, and had coached the Jets to the AFL championship in 1968 and subsequent victory over the Colts in Super Bowl III in January 1969.

30 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Uptown Girl--Billy Joel (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Come Back and Stay--Paul Young (6th week at #1)

World events
Argentinian President Raul Alfonsin created a commission to investigate the disappearance of more than 6,000 people during the country's period of military rule from 1976-1982.

25 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Don't Worry Be Happy--Bobby McFerrin (7th week at #1)

At the movies
Rain Man, directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, opened in theatres.



Politics and government
U.S. Vice President and President-elect George Bush announced former U.S. Senator John Tower as his nominee for Secretary of Defense in his forthcoming administration. Mr. Bush said he was "totally satisfied" with the results of a Federal Bureau of Investigation background check on Mr. Tower concerning rumours about his personal life.

Diplomacy
U.S. diplomat Robert Pelletreau, Jr. met in Tunisia with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Such contact had been banned since 1975 as an agreement with Israel, but U.S. President Ronald Reagan had lifted the ban on December 14, 1988 after PLO leader Yasser Arafat had condemned terrorism and called for peace in the Middle East.

Scandal
Perennial U.S. presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche was convicted by a U.S. federal jury in Virginia of conspiracy and mail fraud. Mr. LaRouche and six associates were found guilty on charges relating to $30 million in loans solicited by their organization.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that prices charged by producers of finished goods had risen 0.3% in November.

20 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Maximum Overdrive--2 Unlimited (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Kakuei Tanaka, 75. Prime Minister of Japan, 1972-1974. Mr. Tanaka, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, sat in the House of Representatives from 1947-1990 and held several cabinet posts before serving as Prime Minister. He had a history of taking bribes, and was convicted in two lower court trials in connection with bribes offered by Lockheed Corporation in 1976. Mr. Tanaka's case was before the Supreme Court at the time of his death.

Moses Gunn, 64. U.S. actor. Mr. Gunn was an acclaimed stage actor who won two Obie Awards. He played Booker T. Washington in the movie Ragtime (1981), and was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the television mini-series Roots (1977). Mr. Gunn died of asthma complications.

Politics and government
U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that Admiral Bobby Ray Inman (retired), who had a broad background in U.S. intelligence services, would be his nominee to succeed Les Aspin as U.S. Defense Secretary. Mr. Aspin had announced the previous day that he would be resigning, effective January 1994.

Scandal
U.S. Senator Bob Packwood (Republican--Oregon) surrendered his diaries to Federal District Court Judge Thomas Jackson in Washington, D.C., after Judge Jackson had ordered him to turn them over. Judge Jackson would determine whether Sen. Packwood would have to give the diaries to the Senate Ethics Committee, which was investigating allegations of sexual harassment against him. In a deposition, a secretary for Sen. Packwood stated that the senator had altered some of the diary tapes.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the merchandise trade deficit was $10.46 billion in October.

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Robert Stanfield, 89. Canadian politician. Mr. Stanfield, a Progressive Conservative, was Premier of Nova Scotia from 1956-1967 before he resigned to enter federal politics, serving as leader of the national Progressive Conservative Party from 1967-1976. He led the party through election campaigns in 1968, 1972, and 1974, but failed to unseat the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The PCs almost defeated the Liberals in 1972, winning 107 seats to 109 for the Liberals, but the Liberals were able to win the support of the New Democratic Party to remain in power. By all accounts Mr. Stanfield was a decent man, but he wasn't really a conservative, and agreed with the Liberals on such divisive issues as official bilingualism, which is a major reason he never led his party to victory in a federal election.