February 10, 2010

170 years ago
1840

Britannica
Queen Victoria married Prince Albert.

90 years ago
1920

Baseball
The major leagues outlawed doctored pitches, including the spitball, the shine ball and the emery ball, in order to bring more hitting into the game. The Brooklyn Dodgers' Burleigh Grimes and 16 others who used the forbidden pitches were allowed to do so for the rest of their careers under a grandfather clause.

75 years ago
1935

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC

40 years ago
1970

War
High officials in Amman confirmed that a Pakistani infantry regiment was in Jordan. The Jordanian government also reasserted orders banning the carrying of arms in public by Palestinian commandos. The directive, which also banned demonstrations, unauthorized publications, all political party activity, and called for a surrender of weapons and explosives, was criticized by Al Fatah, largest of the 10 Palestinian commando groups operating in Jordan, as a U.S.-supported move to disarm the guerrillas to ease a settlement with Israel. Three days of clashes between King Hussein’s troops and the commandos began near Amman.

Terrorism
One Israeli was killed and 23 wounded by three Arabs in an attack on a bus and passenger lounge at the Munich airport. Asaf Dayan, the son of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, was unhurt in the attack, but Israeli actress Hanna Meron lost a leg.

Environment
U.S. President Richard Nixon asked Congress to pass 37 measures for control of water and air pollution, disposal of solid wastes, and expansion of parklands and public recreation areas. Not all of the requested measures were new, but observers were struck by the immense authority the President would give to the federal government to enforce the anti-pollution effort. He requested $4 billion for the federal share of a proposed $10-billion plan for building municipal waste-treatment plants.

Disasters
At least 39 skiers in a student chalet at the Alpine resort of Val d’Isere were killed and 37 injured in what was believed to be the worst avalanche in French history.

30 years ago
1980

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 2 Winnipeg 2

25 years ago
1985

On television tonight
Surviving, on ABC

Surviving was a made-for-television movie about teenage suicide. The cast included Molly Ringwald; Zach Galligan; Ellen Burstyn; Len Cariou; Paul Sorvino; Marsha Mason; Heather O'Rourke; River Phoenix; and William Windom. Although Miss Ringwald and Mr. Galligan played the teenagers who died, in real life it was Miss O'Rourke (in 1988, at age 12) and Mr. Phoenix (in 1993 at age 23) who died young.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 3 Montreal 2 (OT)

20 years ago
1990

Diplomacy
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev met in Moscow. Afterward, Mr. Kohl said that Soviet leaders supported "the right of the German people alone" to choose their form of relationship.

10 years ago
2000

War
Russian forces began attacking Chechen rebel strongholds in the mountains from the air.

World events
The Irish Republican Army issued another statement asserting its commitment to disarmament.

Terrorism
Four days after an Afghan jetliner carrying more than 180 people had been hijacked shortly after takeoff from Kabul, and three days after it landed in London, the hijackers released the last of their hostages.

Politics
Two days after finishing third in the Delaware primary, publisher Steve Forbes withdrew from the contest for the Republican party nomination for President of the United States. In two unsuccessful campaigns, Mr. Forbes had spent nearly $70 million of his own money.

February 9, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Heather Blacklock!

60 years ago
1950

Scandal
U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican--Wisconsin) made a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia in which he accused the U.S. State Department of being riddled with Communists.

40 years ago
1970

On the radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight’s episode: A Clapper for the Bell

World events
Five Arab states meeting in Cairo issued a communiqué in which they promised to continue fighting for the recovery of lands occupied by Israel, and blamed the United States for Israel’s refusal to give up the lands. Alluding to profitable American oil investments, the statement warned that the Arabs would not let their "resources and wealth" be exploited to aid Israel.

Society
U.S. Senator Abraham Ribicoff (Democrat--Connecticut) called on northern liberals to drop their "monumental hypocrisy" and concede that de facto segregation existed in the north. The speech, considered one of the strongest denunciations of northern segregation by a northern Democrat, was hailed by Senate conservatives of both parties.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Rock With You--Michael Jackson (4th week at #1)

Diplomacy
As it was trying to coordinate the Western response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S.A. criticized France for "rapid shifts" in policy. Tensions between the U.S. and Europe were worsening as the U.S. was pressuring Europe to give up some of the benefits of détente with the U.S.S.R. by cutting exports. Western European governments were criticizing the erratic character of recent U.S. policy, and the failure of the U.S. to consult European nations.

Hockey
NHL
Vancouver 4 Montreal 3

25 years ago
1985

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 6 Montreal 2

20 years ago
1990

Scandal
Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan agreed to give videotaped testimony for use in the trial of John Poindexter, his former national security adviser, who was on trial for his role in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that producer prices for finished goods had risen 1.8% in January, the largest monthly increase since November 1974. The sharp rise was primarily the result of a jump in heating oil prices during very cold weather.

10 years ago
2000

World events
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which had been engaged in a 15-year struggle for Kurdish independence from Turkey, announced that it had abandoned efforts to win its goal by force, and said that it would work peacefully for independence. The party’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who was in prison under a death sentence, had appealed for an end to armed resistance.

Crime
Disruption of the activities of several popular U.S. web sites ended after two days. The FBI began an investigation.

Labour
Half of the social service workers in Newfoundland walked off the job illegally to protest low wages and a crushing workload. The strike came less than a week after the province’s private ambulance operators had parked their backup vehicles for a day to push for a better budget proposal from the government.

February 8, 2010

140 years ago
1870

Weather
The National Weather Service was established under the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: The Tanbark Trail

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Teen Angel--Mark Dinning

Scandal
The payola (pay for broadcast airplay) hearings opened in the U.S. House of Representatives.

40 years ago
1970

War
Egyptian officials said that 12 civilians had been wounded when two Egyptian MiG-21 jets were downed by Israeli jets near Cairo. Officials in Jerusalem said that it was the first time that Israeli jets had encountered aerial resistance since they had begun deep penetration raids a month earlier.

Politics
Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, addressing a noisy rally in Birmingham, urged Southern governors to defy federal court integration orders. Mr. Wallace, the 1968 presidential candidate of the American Independence Party, promised to run for president in 1972 "if Nixon doesn’t do something about the mess our schools are in."

30 years ago
1980

World events
France announced that it would not attend a scheduled allied conference regarding the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan because it was not "of a nature to reduce international tension."

Scandal
U.S. consumer advocate Ralph Nader criticized the leaks to the press several days earlier of names of U.S. public officials being investigated in the FBI’s Operation Abscam. Mr. Nader called the leaks of information to the press prior to its presentation to a grand jury "damned offensive," adding, "In the mind of millions of people these guys are guilty, and they haven’t even been charged."

It was reported that a nine-month FBI undercover investigation, nmed Brilab for "bribery-labor," had recorded several southwestern U.S. politicians and labour leaders taking bribes. A phony insurance company paid the bribes in order to obtain city and state employee insurance programs.

Track and field
Mary Decker set a world indoor record for the 1,500-metre run with a time of 4 minutes 0.8 seconds at the Wanamaker Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York.

20 years ago
1990

Died on this date
Del Shannon, 55. U.S. musician. Mr. Shannon, known for his falsetto voice, was born Charles Westover in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His first single, Runaway, spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and was the #5 single of the year. Additional hits included Hats Off to Larry (#5, 1961); Little Town Flirt (#12, 1963); and Keep Searchin’ (#9, 1964-1965). The Swiss Maid (1962) only reached #64 in the U.S.A., but hit #2 in Britain, and helped to boost the career of its composer, Roger Miller. Another single from 1962, Cry Myself to Sleep (#99 U.S.; #29, U.K.) reportedly served as the inspiration for Elton John’s falsetto refrain on Crocodile Rock (1972-1973). Mr. Shannon became the first artist to cover a Beatles’ composition when he recorded From Me to You, which went to #77 in the U.S.A. in the late summer-early fall of 1963, several months before Beatlemania hit America. On November 14, 1963 Mr. Shannon appeared with Bobby Vinton and Gene Pitney in the first rock and roll concert to be held at the Jasper Place Arena in Jasper Place, Alberta (then a suburb of Edmonton). He produced Brian Hyland’s version of Gypsy Woman, which hit #3 on the Hot 100 in late 1970. Mr. Shannon worked with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in the early 1980s, and the album Drop Down and Get Me produced the single Sea of Love, which hit #33 in 1982, Mr. Shannon’s first top 40 hit in the U.S. since 1965. A collaboration with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne led to the single Walk Away in 1989, which failed to chart. Mr. Shannon had been prescribed Prozac for depression, and became another apparent victim of the drug when he shot himself. His last interview, given a short time before, gave no hint that he was about to commit suicide. He had just finished the vocals for an album, consisting mainly of new songs that he’d written. The album--Rock On--included Walk Away, and was released in the fall of 1991. It’s well worth listening to, and proved that Del Shannon still had talent. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 1999.

Crime
U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler ruled that former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega had to stand trial in Miami, Florida on drug-trafficking charges.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Sid Abel, 81. Canadian-born U.S. hockey player, coach, and executive. Mr. Abel, Gordie Howe, and Ted Lindsay comprised the "Production Line" with the Detroit Red Wings in the 1940s and early 1950s. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player in 1949, and coached the Chicago Black Hawks from 1952-54; the Red Wings from 1958-68 and 1969-70; the St. Louis Blues in 1971; and the Kansas City Scouts in 1976, while serving as general manager for the latter three teams. His record as a head coach was 382-427-155, with a playoff record of 32-44. Mr. Abel was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 1969.

Derrick Thomas, 33. U.S. football player. Mr. Thomas was a linebacker with the Kansas City Chiefs from 1989-1999. He was regarded as one of the best pass rushers of his time, and appeared in nine Pro Bowls. His seven sacks in one game in 1990 set a single-game NFL record. Mr. Thomas died of a pulmonary embolism two weeks after being paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident. He was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

World events
The Irish Republican Army began issuing statements asserting its commitment to disarmament.

Politics
Texas Governor George W. Bush won the Republican party presidential primary in Delaware. U.S. Senator John McCain, who made no effort in the state, finished second, with publisher Steve Forbes finishing third.

February 7, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Sherri Pierce and Nikki Quitazol!

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The Chicken Murder Case

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes--Edison Lighthouse (2nd week at #1)
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Venus--The Shocking Blue

Calgary’s top 10
1 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
2 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
3 Whole Lotta Love--Led Zeppelin
4 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
5 Sunday Mornin’--Oliver
6 Venus--The Shocking Blue
7 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
8 No Time--The Guess Who
9 La La La (If I Had You)--Bobby Sherman
10 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
Pick hit of the week: We Were Happy--Trials of Jason Hoover

War
American bombers ignored a Viet Cong cease-fire for Tet, the lunar new year, and unloaded up to 600 tons of bombs in South Vietnam. A U.S. and South Vietnamese cease-fire had ended the day before.

Politics
Italian Premier Mariano Rumor and his Christian Democratic minority cabinet resigned amid social unrest and political uncertainty, provoking the nation’s 30th government crisis since World War II.

Basketball
NCAA
Louisiana State University’s Pete Maravich scored 69 points in a 106-104 loss to the University of Alabama. It was the highest total ever by an NCAA Division I player in a single game, breaking the record of 68 points set by Niagara’s Calvin Murphy 14 months earlier.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 20 (CHED)
1 I Don’t Like Mondays--The Boomtown Rats
2 Coward of the County--Kenny Rogers
3 Crazy Little Thing Called Love--Queen
4 The Long Run--Eagles
5 Don’t Do Me Like That--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
6 Jane--Jefferson Starship
7 Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles
8 Yes I’m Ready--Teri DeSario
9 Tiny Thing--Jenson Interceptor
10 Why Me--Styx
11 Do That to Me One More Time--The Captain and Tennille
12 A Night to Remember--Prism
13 An American Dream--The Dirt Band
14 Message in a Bottle--The Police
15 Janine--Trooper
16 Sara--Fleetwood Mac
17 Chiquitita--Abba
18 Longer--Dan Fogelberg
19 I Wanna Be Your Lover--Prince
20 Romeo’s Tune--Steve Forbert

The Dirt Band were formerly known as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and they reverted to the earlier name several years later. I Wanna Be Your Lover was Prince’s first hit; I don’t remember ever hearing it, although I was listening to the radio a lot in those days. Steve Forbert, in contrast to Prince, was a one-hit wonder.

World events
Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was named head of the regime’s Revolutionary Council.

Business
Chrysler Corporation reported losses for 1979 of $1.1 billion, believed to be the largest yearly loss in American corporate history. Chrysler’s 1979 car and truck sales fell 18.8% as buyers switched to smaller, more fuel-efficient models. The company said that it could return to profitability when the 1981 model cars were introduced.

20 years ago
1990

World events
The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party endorsed President Mikhail Gorbachev’s proposal to change the constitution and end the party’s monopoly on political power in the U.S.S.R.

Diplomacy
The United States Congress approved $42 million in emergency aid to Panama and lifted economic sanctions against Panama.

Law
Donald Marshall, a Micmac Indian who had served 11 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, received an apology from the government of Nova Scotia. Provincial Attorney General Tom McInnis told a news conference that he agreed with a royal commission’s conclusion that the justice system had failed Mr. Marshall, and that part of the reason for the failure was that Mr. Marshall was an Indian. Mr. McInnis also said that the provincial government would introduce many of the commission’s recommendations, including the establishment of a cabinet committee on race relations; the scheduling of provincial court sessions on Indian reserves; and the establishment of a native criminal court as a pilot project. It was also announced that there would be a further judicial inquiry into the conduct of five Court of Appeal judges who concluded in 1983 that , although he was innocent, Mr. Marshall had been partly to blame for his conviction.

Hockey
NHL
New York Rangers 5 Edmonton 2

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Doug Henning, 52. Canadian magician. Mr. Henning became famous with Spellbound, a combination rock opera and magic show. A believer in transcendental meditation, he ran for parliament in the Canadian general election of 1993 for the Natural Law Party, but like every other NLP candidate, didn’t come close to getting elected.

Politics
Stipe Mesic was elected President of Croatia in a runoff election with 56% of the vote. Although he was a former Communist leader, Mr. Mesic declared a commitment to Western-style policies. Mesic was not a Croatian nationalist, unlike his late predecessor, Franjo Tudjman.

Diplomacy
Middle East peace talks broke down again when the Palestinian National Authority froze talks with Israel. In January, Israel had missed a deadline for handing over more land on the West Bank, and the parties subsequently failed to agree on what land would be transferred.

Terrorism
The Afghan jetliner that had been hijacked the day before soon after takeoff from Kabul landed in London. British police began negotiations with the hijackers, who began releasing hostages in groups.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Bill Clinton submitted his budget for the 2001 fiscal year. The budget projected revenues at $2.019 trillion and outlays of $1.835 trillion, for a surplus of $1.84 billion, the third consecutive surplus and the highest ever. Much of the Social Security surplus, pegged at $160 billion, would be used to reduce the $5.7-trillion national debt. The budget proposed $351 billion in tax cuts over 10 years, mostly for low- and middle-income Americans. $45 billion over 10 years would go to lowering the extra tax obligations of married couples (the so-called marriage penalty). Mr. Clinton also backed expansion of the earned income tax credit for low-income workers.

Politics
Texas Governor and Republican party U.S. presidential candidate George W. Bush adopted a new slogan--"A Reformer with Results"--emphasizing his record in education and tax reform as Governor of Texas.

Technology
Three days of disruption on the World Wide Web began when unknown hacker(s) swamped such popular sites as those of CNN, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay with thousands of spam messages, thereby preventing the sites from providing their services.

Business
Pfizer Inc. announced plans to buy Warner-Lambert Company. The merger would form the world’s second-largest drug company, keeping the Pfizer name. The biggest drug company had been created in January by the merger of two British companies, Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline.

Protest
About 150 angry farmers occupied the Saskatchewan legislature building demanding financial help.

Golf
Tiger Woods overcame a seven-stroke deficit with seven holes to play today to win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by two strokes over Matt Gogel and Vijay Singh for his sixth consecutive win on the PGA tour.

February 6, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Bob Powless and Brian Poluk!

75 years ago
1935

Popular culture
The board game Monopoly® went on sale for the first time.

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Why--Anthony Newley (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
Jesse Belvin, 26. U.S. singer. Mr. Belvin was the lead singer of the Penguins, whose single Earth Angel was a major rhythm and blues hit in 1954. As was the common practice in those days, the song was covered by a white artist, in this case the Crew Cuts, whose version hit #3 on the Billboard U.S. pop chart. Mr. Belvin later embarked on a career as a solo artist, reaching #31 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1959 with Guess Who. His promising career was shortened when he was killed in a car accident. Mr. Belvin’s records are among the most sought among aficionados of 1950s-1960s male rhythm and blues singers.

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10
1 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
2 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
3 Jennifer Tomkins--Street People
4 Venus--The Shocking Blue
5 Groovy Grubworm--Harlow Wilcox and the Oakies
6 No Time--The Guess Who
7 Walk a Mile in My Shoes--Joe South and The Believers
8 When Julie Comes Around--The Cuff Links
9 Ma Belle Amie--The Tee Set
10 Honey Come Back--Glen Campbell

Diplomacy
The European Economic Community’s first commercial treaty with an eastern European country was concluded with Yugoslavia. The three-year trade agreement could help Yugoslavia expand exports to the west, but the significance of the accord was seen as at least party political.

War
In a television interview, former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson said that enemy exhaustion after the Tet offensive of early 1968, and not domestic political considerations, led him to offer a partial halt to the bombing of North Vietnam. He added that the 206,000 additional American troops that U.S. military leaders had requested at that time reflected not a sense of weakness but rather a fear of Communist-inspired trouble elsewhere. Meanwhile, both sides observed a cease-fire for Tet in 1970: the U.S. and South Vietnamese for 24 hours, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong for four days. U.S. and S.V. troops stayed on guard against any repetition of the 1968 offensive. Each side accused the other of cease-fire violations, and the U.S. command posted 113 "enemy initiated" incidents, with a death toll of 3 Americans, 5 South Vietnamese, and 137 Communists.

Egyptian frogmen sank an Israeli naval vessel at Elath. 15 hours later, Israeli jets retaliated by bombing and sinking an Egyptian minelayer in the Red Sea. Both sides unleashed air strikes the same day.

Politics
U.S. Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma, explaining that he wanted to free himself from the "restraints" of the job, resigned as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Sen. Harris, who had held the job for about a year, told aides that he was weary of factional sniping from both right and left.

Economics and finance
The U.S. Labor Department reported that unemployment had risen in January by 0.5% to 3.9%, which was still below the rates from 1957-1966.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr denounced the student militants holding hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran as "self-centred children" who were behaving like a "government within a government." The Revolutionary Council ordered the state broadcasting system to stop granting the militants automatic air time to publicize their views.

Science
Elwyn Simmons of Duke University announced the discovery of the oldest primate fossils in the chain of alleged human hereditary lineage found to date. In the previous three years, more than two dozen skeletal fossils of monkey-like primates the size of a house cat had been found at the edge of the Sahara Desert in Egypt. The primate, alleged to be an ancestor of both apes and humans, was named Aegyptopithecus. It was thought to have roamed Africa 30 million years ago and to have had a complex social structure defended by males.

25 years ago
1985

Died on this date
Kevin Lapa, 24. Canadian football player. Mr. Lapa, a native of Kamloops, British Columbia, played linebacker at Weber State University and was chosen by the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League in the second round of the 1983 CFL college draft. After returning to Weber State for one more year, he reported to the Lions, where he played defensive end, wearing #70. He saw some action in pre-season games, but cancer was discovered in his mouth during the pre-season. he underwent surgery and spent the entire 1984 season on the Lions’ disabled list, although he was able to practice with the team on occasion. Mr. Lapa succumbed to cancer in his native Kamloops.

20 years ago
1990

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: She, My Friend and I

Politics
Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov, responding to calls for a multiparty political system, said that a multiparty system, in effect, already existed. Hard-liners on the Communist Party Central Committee warned that any moves toward a multiparty system or free enterprise could lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Hockey
NHL
New Jersey 2 Edmonton 2

10 years ago
2000

Terrorism
Hijackers seized control of an Afghan passenger jet with more than 180 aboard, soon after takeoff from Kabul. Some hostages were released during landings in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and 9 were released when the plane landed in Moscow.

War
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian troops had captured the last rebel stronghold in the Chechen capital of Grozny. The city was little more than a pile of rubble after a six-month bombardment that left no home intact and much of the city booby-trapped or littered with unexploded Russian shells.

Politics
Tarja Halonen became the first woman to be elected President of Finland, taking 51.6% of the vote. Voter turnout was 80.2%.

U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton announced that she would be seeking a seat in the United States Senate in New York in 2000. Speaking in Purchase, New York, she said she was a "new Democrat" who supported a significant role for government, but with financial responsibility. She said, "I may be new to the neighbourhood, but I’m not new to your concerns." New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani went on five Sunday morning television programs to promote his candidacy.

Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard said that Quebec must solve its health care crisis before calling another sovereignty referendum.

Protest
Police raided a university in Mexico City and arrested 632 striking students, ending a nine-month occupation.

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl
NFC 51 AFC 31 @ Honolulu

Randy Moss of the Minnesota Vikings caught 9 passes for 212 yards and a touchdown and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Mr. Moss’s touchdown came on a 25-yard pass from Steve Beuerlein. Mike Alstott rushed for three NFC touchdowns, while other NFC touchdowns were scored by Aeneas Williams (62-yard interception return) and Derrick Brooks (20-yard interception return). Jason Hanson converted all 6 and added 3 field goals. Jimmy Smith of the Jacksonville Jaguars caught 3 touchdown passes for the AFC: 5 yards from Mark Brunell, 21 yards from Peyton Manning, and 52 yards from Mr. Manning. Tony Gonzalez scored the other AFC touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Rich Gannon. Olindo Mare converted all 3 and added a field goal. Tony Dungy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the winning head coach over Tom Coughlin of Jacksonville.

February 5, 2010

70 years ago
1940

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Abbey Grange

50 years ago
1960

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Last Flight, starring Kenneth Haigh

This was the first episode written by Richard Matheson to be produced and broadcast.

Basketball
Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics grabbed a record 51 rebounds to lead his team over the Syracuse Nationals 124-100 at Boston Garden. Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors broke the mark with 55 rebounds, the current record, nine months later against the Celtics.

40 years ago
1970

Health
In the first experiment in which large animals developed malignant tumours after exposure to cigarette smoke, two scientists reported that of dogs they trained to smoke, 12 were later found to have lung cancer. The scientists claimed that their study "effectively" refuted the tobacco industry’s contention that there was no link between cigarettes and cancer.

Society
A dozen southern U.S. Senators, led by John Stennis (Democrat--Mississippi) and Strom Thurmond (Republican--South Carolina), took the Senate floor to demand that the new federal school desegregation guidelines be applied to northern as well as southern schools, or be abandoned altogether. Their protest opened Sen. Stennis’s campaign to restore "freedom of choice" and bar compulsory busing for school integration via an amendment for the $35-billion education bill that had been passed by the House of Representatives.

30 years ago
1980

Diplomacy
The foreign ministers of France and West Germany called for the U.S.S.R. to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.

Scandal
U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti was objecting that Congressional investigations into the recently-revealed FBI Operation Abscam, in which FBI agents disguised as businessmen and Arab sheiks had offered bribes to selected U.S. public officials, could jeopardize criminal charges that the government might want to pursue.

20 years ago
1990

Scandal
Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan refused Judge Harold Greene’s direction to provide excerpts from his diaries to the attorneys of former national security adviser Admiral John Poindexter, on trial for his role in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal. Mr. Reagan, through his attorneys, asserted a claim "to the constitutionally protected privacy of his diaries." Judge Greene agreed with Adm. Poindexter that Mr. Reagan possessed information that was unavailable from any other source, and ordered Mr. Reagan to give videotaped testimony.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Ward Cornell, 75. Canadian sportscaster. Mr. Cornell, a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, was intermission host of Hockey Night in Canada’s Toronto broadcasts from 1959-1972. He also was the play-by-play broadcaster for the football games of the University of Western Ontario Mustangs and the London Lords in the late 1950s. After leaving Hockey Night in Canada he was appointed agent-general in England for the government of Ontario, and later a deputy minister in the provincial government.

February 4, 2010

40 years ago
1970

Space
The New York Times Service reported that American and British experts believed that the Soviet Union had built and successfully tested a satellite capable of intercepting and destroying other orbiting spacecraft. From tracking data gathered on Soviet spacecraft and from secret intelligence reports, the experts deduced that 16 months earlier the U.S.S.R. had launched an "interceptor-inspector-destroyer" satellite, officially named Cosmos 248, which had homed in on Cosmos 249 and Cosmos 252 and destroyed them. Radars of the United States Air Force originally saw the two Cosmos target satellites and their carrier rockets in orbit. According to officially published reports, the radars later detected 25 pieces of each spacecraft, indicating that an explosion had occurred. The experts noted that the explosions, which could have been caused by small onboard missiles with conventional warheads such as the Sidewinder type, occurred about the time the target satellites were near Cosmos 248. For more than a year, it was said, the Soviets successfully masked the tests by conducting them in October 1968 while public attention and private radars were focused on the U.S.A.’s Apollo 7 manned flight and the U.S.S.R.’s Soyuz 3 manned mission.

The U.S.A. launched SERT II, a satellite whose purpose was to demonstrate the capability of an electric ion thruster to operate in space.

Environment
An executive order by U.S. President Richard Nixon called for the elimination of all air and water pollution caused by federal agencies. The directive provided $359 million to carry out the task and a three-year deadline to meet the requirements of state pollution standards.

Journalism
The U.S. Justice Department disclosed that it would not insist on obtaining all the material asked from newsmen in a recent series of subpoenas. A spokesman for the department said that investigators had breached a long-standing policy of agreeing with newsmen on the information to be demanded through a subpoena.

Disasters
All 39 aboard were killed when an Argentinian airliner crashed in a northeastern swamp.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Dissident Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov, recently exiled to Gorky, said that he had been threatened with a pistol and had been warned that he faced harsher exile or commitment to a psychiatric hospital if his wife, Yelena Bonner, continued to carry his written statements to Moscow.

20 years ago
1990

Protest
100,000 people demonstrated in Moscow on behalf of democracy.

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl
NFC 27 AFC 21 @ Honolulu

Los Angeles Rams’ cornerback Jerry Gray was the game’s Most Valuable Player.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Doris Kenner-Jackson, 58. U.S. singer. Ms. Kenner-Jackson was an original member of the Shirelles, who recorded such hit singles as Dedicated to the One I Love (1960-1961); Will You Love Me Tomorrow (1960-1961); Mama Said (1961); Baby It’s You (1962); Soldier Boy (1962); and Foolish Little Girl (1963).

Politics
Austria’s coalition government, with 12 ministers--6 from the People’s Party and 6 from the Freedom Party--was sworn in. People’s Party leader Wolfgang Schussel became Chancellor; Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider was not named to the cabinet, but his private secretary, Susanne Riess-Passer, became the country’s first Vice-Chancellor.

Three days after taking just 1% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, Gary Bauer withdrew from the contest for the Republican party nomination for President of the United States for 2000.

Diplomacy
The United States recalled its Austrian ambassador "for consultations.

February 3, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Louise Taylor!

140 years ago
1870

Law
The 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. It reads:
1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

75 years ago
1935

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: Cherchez La Femme

50 years ago
1960

World events
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, in an address to the South African parliament in Cape Town, delivered his "Wind of Change" speech, acknowledging the increasing desire of Negro peoples in Africa to govern themselves, and offering a rebuke to South Africa’s apartheid system. He had delivered the "Wind of Change" speech in Accra, Ghana on January 10, but it had gone unnoticed at that time. Part of the text of the speech may be found here.
An audio clip may be found here.

30 years ago
1980

Scandal
It was reported that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had been conducting a two-year undercover operation called Operation Abscam (for Arab Scam), where undercover agents posing as businessmen and Arab sheiks had met with various public officials and offered bribes for political favours. The meetings were surreptitiously videotaped. The 31 officeholders under investigation included U.S. Senator Harrison Williams (Democrat--New Jersey) and Congressmen John Murphy (D.--New York); Frank Thompson, Jr. (D.--New Jersey); Michael Myers (D.--Pennsylvania); John Murtha (D.--Pennsylvania); Raymond Lederer (D.--Pennsylvania); John Jenrette (D.--South Carolina); and Richard Kelly (Republican--Florida). Sen. Larry Pressler (R.--South Dakota) had met with FBI agents posing as Arab businessmen, but had spurned the bribe offer. When he heard of the investigation, he said, "I’m a little upset because I’m clean. My campaign records are kept perfectly. Why would they want to test me out?"

Crime
The 36-hour riot and hostage-taking at New Mexico state penitentiary in Santa Fe concluded when more than 250 state police and National Guardsmen recaptured the prison without firing a shot. New Mexico Governor Bruce King had spoken with inmates over the telephone, and according to officials, this act and negotiations with prison spokesmen enabled the peaceful retaking of the prison. 33 inmates were killed in the incident. Witnesses said that execution squads of prisoners armed with axes and blowtorches had tortured and murdered fellow prisoners, especially those purported to be informers. Some of the deaths were from overdoses of drugs obtained from the prison infirmary, and smoke inhalation from fires that were set. About 600 of the prison’s 1,1366 inmates eventually fled the building but remained in the prison yard. The 11 hostages taken when the siege began were released one by one until only three remained when police entered the prison. Prison officials made public 11 demands by inmates, including less crowding, better food, and improved recreation and education facilities. The prison held 1/3 more prisoners than it was designed for.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 5 Los Angeles 3

20 years ago
1990

Politics
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev told the Communist Party’s Central Committee, "We should abandon the ideological dogmatism that became ingrained during the past decades."

The Bulgarian parliament confirmed Andrei Lukanov as the country’s new premier.

Baseball
Darryl Strawberry's career took a dramatic turn for the worse when the 27- year-old five-time all-star outfielder for the New York Mets entered a centre for drug and alcohol abuse in Manhattan to treat what the team described as a drinking problem.

Hockey
NHL
Pittsburgh 4 @ Toronto 8

Horse racing
Bill Shoemaker, 58, the greatest jockey in history, rode in his last race, finishing fourth at Santa Anita Park. He retired with 8,833 victories in 40,350 races.

10 years ago
2000

World events
Austrian President Thomas Klestil approved the new coalition government of the People’s Party and the Freedom Party, but persuaded People’s Party leader Wolfgang Schussel and Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider to support democratic principles and renounce Austria’s past ties to the Nazis.

Diplomacy
Austria’s European allies froze bilateral ministerial contacts, while Israel recalled its ambassador from Austria.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met, but failed to make any headway in discussions over which additional land on the West Bank was to be transferred to the Palestinian National Authority.

Politics
The Toronto police union called off a controversial fund-raising campaign aimed at financing bids to defeat politicians the union leadership didn’t like.

Business
A record for the biggest corporate merger was set when Britain’s Vodafone Airtouch Group PLC said it would acquire Mannesmann AG. Vodafone was the biggest wireless telephone company in the world, while Mannesmann was Germany’s largest. The all-stock transaction was valued at the equivalent of $183 billion U.S. Vodafone had attempted a hostile takeover, and after it appeared that Mannesmann’s shareholders would favour a merger, negotiations led to a superficially amicable agreement. The merged company would have 42 million subscribers.

Music
Bobby Vee and the Crickets performed in Mr. Vee's home town of Fargo, North Dakota. Also on the bill was Del Shannon, giving what turned out to be his last live performance; he shot himself five days later while under the influence of Prozac.

February 2, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Simon O’Byrne and Sandy Ting!

140 years ago
1870

Scandal
The Cardiff Giant, a 10-foot-tall petrified man discovered on the Cardiff, New York farm of William Newell in 1869, was revealed to be a hoax. The giant was a block of gypsum carved into the likeness of a man, artificially aged, and buried on Mr. Newell’s farm, where it was "discovered" by workmen. The giant was purported to be an example of those mentioned in the sixth chapter of Genesis, and Mr. Newell’s neighbour George Hull, who had concocted the scheme, charged visitors 25c each to see it. P.T. Barnum attempted to buy the giant, and when he was rebuffed, he had his own version made, and declared Mr. Hull’s giant to be phony. It was at this point that Mr. Hull confessed to the hoax. One of Mr. Hull’s partners, David Hannum, said that the incident proved that "there’s a sucker born every minute." Mr. Barnum then appropriated the phrase and made it his own.

120 years ago
1890

Music
Antonin Dvorak's 8th Symphony received its premiere performance in Prague, with the composer conducting the orchestra.

50 years ago
1960

Weather
Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog, failed to see his shadow for the first time.

40 years ago
1970

On the radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight’s episode: The New Colonisers

Died on this date
Bertrand Russell, 97. U.K. philosopher. Lord Russell won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950 "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought." Rabi Maharaj, in his autobiography Death of a Guru (1977, p. 129) offered the following comment on one of Lord Russell’s best-known books: "Why I Am Not a Christian had turned out to be a disappointment...Russell’s arguments were weak and contrived, and the more I read of why he had not become a Christian, the more convinced I became that I must become one--the evidence demanded it." Lord Russell was known for campaigning against nuclear arms, but it was less well-known that for several years in the late 1940s he advocated a pre-emptive nuclear strike by the U.S.A. against the U.S.S.R. Malcolm Muggeridge said of Lord Russell: "He had no heart at all." Paul Johnson included a chapter on Lord Russell in his book Intellectuals (1988), which I recommend.

Crime
Pre-trial hearings of 13 Black Panthers charged in April 1969 with having conspired to bomb police stations, department stores, and other structures; possession of illegal weapons; attempted murder; and attempted arson began in New York City with several disruptions by the defendants--who called the judge "pig," gave the clenched fist salute, shouted "all power to the people"--and their supporters. State Supreme Court Justice John Murtagh frequently warned that such behaviour may bring disciplinary measures, and twice ordered the courtroom cleared.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Richard Nixon submitted a $200.8-billion budget for fiscal 1971 to Congress, with a blueprint for a $1.3-billion surplus he said would combat inflation while beginning the necessary process of "reordering our national priorities." In his surplus plan, Mr. Nixon combined a series of spending cuts, particularly a $6.3-billion slash in space and defense outlays, with a speedup in collection of excise and corporate withholding taxes. He also appealed to Congress to enact revenue and postal reforms sent to it in 1969.

Religion
The head of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles announced that most of the sisters in the order would abandon formal religious life and become a secular community. The group, believed to be the largest to leave the Roman Catholic Church en masse, would continue to devote its efforts to teaching and social concerns.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Rock With You--Michael Jackson (3rd week at #1)

Crime
During the night, two inmates at New Mexico state penitentiary in Santa Fe overpowered a guard who had discovered them drinking homemade whiskey. 400 inmates then took over the five wings of the main building, and rioters turned on their fellow inmates. The riot and hostage taking went on for 36 hours.

Hockey
NHL
Chicago 5 @ Toronto 4

20 years ago
1990

World events
South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted the 30-year ban on the African National Congress and announced that convicted terrorist Nelson Mandela would soon be freed from prison.

The U.S. Justice Department announced that deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and one of his co-defendants would be treated as prisoners of war. The department noted, however, that the Geneva Convention provides that "prisoners of war may be prosecuted in the civilian courts of the detaining country."

A military court in Romania convicted four former top aides to deposed President Nicolae Ceausescu of complicity to commit genocide. Those convicted included Emil Bobu, third-ranking figure in the government. The men were sentenced to life in prison.

Politics
Alexander Lilov was elected as leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party, succeeding Petar Mladenov. Mr. Lilov was seen as a compromise candidate, who was not identified with the ousted hard-line regime of President Todor Zhivkov, and who could better lead the party in upcoming elections.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate had fallen to 5.2% in January.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 2 @ Detroit 5
Pittsburgh 6 @ Edmonton 3

10 years ago
2000

Crime
The trial of four New York City policemen accused of murder in the February 1999 death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed native of Guinea, began in Albany. The original charges were two counts of second-degree murder: intentional killing and depraved indifference to human life. Mr. Diallo had been struck by 19 of 41 shots fired at him in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building. As the policemen approached him, Mr. Diallo had begun to remove a wallet from his pocket; police said they thought it was a gun.

Protest
More than 1,500 students demonstrated on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to protest the lack of money for university students in Canada and the high debt load they faced.

Disasters
The cockpit voice recorder from the Alaska Airlines jet that had crashed off the California coast two days earlier with the deaths of all 88 people aboard was recovered.

February 1, 2010

220 years ago
1790

Law
The Supreme Court of the United States convened for the first time, in New York City.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: The Case of the Frightened Matriarch

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Running Bear--Johnny Preston (3rd week at #1)

Society
Four Negro college students began a series of sit-ins at a white-only lunch counter in Woolworth’s department store, Greensboro, North Carolina. The four--Franklin McCain; Joseph McNeil; Ezell Blair, Jr.; and David Richmond--were freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University. They took seats at the segregated lunch counter of F. W. Woolworth's, were refused service, and sat peacefully until the store closed. They returned the next day, along with about 25 other students, and their requests were again denied.

40 years ago
1970

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Snejka!

Religion
In his first direct response to a request by a Dutch Roman Catholic council that celibacy for priests be made optional, Pope Paul VI said that the principle of celibacy was so fundamental that it could not be questioned, let alone dropped. He said that abandoning the doctrine would violate Christ’s injunction to hid disciples to leave all else and follow Him.

Society
The deadline for total desegregation of southern U.S. schools set by the Supreme Court was defied by officials of 20 districts in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. While two Alabama districts ignored the order, other administrators closed the schools temporarily and others supported boycotts by white parents and students.

Disasters
An Argentine express train rammed a stalled commuter train near Buenos Aires, killing 136 and injuring 179.

Hockey
NHL
Pittsburgh 0 @ New York 6

Terry Sawchuk got a rare start in goal for the Rangers and recorded his first shutout in two years and his 103rd and final career regular season NHL shutout.

30 years ago
1980

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 9 Winnipeg 2

20 years ago
1990

World events
East German Premier Hans Modrow, addressing a press conference in East Berlin, outlined a plan for reunifying East and West Germany. He described an approach for integrating economic and governmental institutions into a country that would become militarily neutral. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he would not begin any negotiations until after East German elections in March.

Politics
Bulgarian Premier Georgi Atanasov and his cabinet resigned. The Communist Party of Bulgaria ratified a manifesto that endorsed democratic ideals but kept its Marxist-Leninist ideology.

The National Salvation Front agreed to a power-sharing arrangement prior to elections in Romania. It was agreed that the interim legislative body would be increased in size and would include representatives of 30 registered political parties.

Scandal
Albert Hakim was sentenced to two years’ probation and fined $5,000 for illegally supplementing the salary of former U.S. National Security Council staff member Oliver North.

U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh recommended that an independent counsel be appointed to investigate Samuel Pierce, Jr. and other former high officials in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In compliance with procedures established by law, Mr. Thornburgh made his recommendations to a special three-judge panel. He said that the counsel would investigate charges that Mr. Pierce, a former secretary of HUD, and other officials had awarded grants to developers backed by well-known Republicans.

10 years ago
2000

Politics
Austrian People’s Party leader Wolfgang Schussel announced that his party and the Freedom Party would form a coalition government. The Freedom Party was led by Joerg Haider, who in the past had made remarks that had been widely interpreted as showing Nazi sympathies, though he later apologized for them. Mr. Schussel, who would become chancellor in the new government, deplored the threat by the European Union to impose sanctions if the Freedom Party joined the coalition.

The first primary votes took place in the contests for the Democratic and Republican party nominations for President of the United States. Vice-President Al Gore defeated U.S. Senator Bill Bradley in the Democratic primary 50% to 46%. Sen. John McCain won the Republican primary with 48%, defeating Texas Governor George W. Bush, who took 30%, by a surprisingly large margin. Publisher Steve Forbes captured 13% of the vote; Alan Keyes took 6%, and Gary Bauer 1%.

War
Rebel forces in Chechnya announced that they were pulling out of the capital city of Grozny after sustaining heavy losses fighting against Russian forces.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Bill Clinton cited several reasons for the longest peacetime boom in American history, 107 consecutive months of economic expansion dating back to March 1991: the anti-inflationary policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board; his administration’s success in reducing and eliminating federal budget deficits; advances in technology, and free-trade policies supported by himself and Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Disasters
Search teams found the remains of four victims of the crash of an Alaska Airlines jet that had gone down off the California coast the previous day, killing all 88 people aboard.

January 31, 2010

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The Sterling Corpse Murder Case

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes--Edison Lighthouse
#1 single in the U.S.A.: I Want You Back--The Jackson 5

Politics
Lesotho’s Prime Minister, Chief Leabua Jonathan, declared the election of four days earlier invalid and ordered the counting of ballots stopped, saying, "I have seized power and I am not ashamed of it." This was a typical example of Winston Churchill’s description of black African politics: "One man, one vote--one time."

In a showdown with supporters of former Governor George Wallace, Alabama Democrats loyal to the national party pushed through a "statement of principles" that was seen as an effort to seek rapprochement with the state’s Negroes. The restructuring of the internal machinery of the state party’s executive was expected to open the way for Negroes to become party members.

Diplomacy
West German Chancellor Willy Brandt concluded his two-day visit to Paris, receiving approval of his "Ostpolitik" initiative from French leaders.

Defense
U.S. Senator Mike Mansfield (Democrat--Montana) said "Where the hell is it going to end?" in response to President Richard Nixon’s proposed expansion of the Safeguard antiballistic missile system. Sen. Mansfield predicted that the system would cost more than $50 billion.

Labour
A U.S. federal judge ordered the railroad shopcraft unions to end their day-old strike against the Union Pacific Railroad, and ordered the country’s railroads to postpone their planned nationwide lockout for at least 10 days.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 20 (CHED)
1 I Don’t Like Mondays--The Boomtown Rats
2 Coward of the County--Kenny Rogers
3 Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles
4 Crazy Little Thing Called Love--Queen
5 The Long Run--Eagles
6 Jane--Jefferson Starship
7 Don’t Do Me Like That--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
8 Yes I’m Ready--Teri DeSario with K.C.
9 Do That to Me One More Time--The Captain and Tennille
10 Tiny Thing--Jenson Interceptor
11 Why Me--Styx
12 Chiquitita--Abba
13 Message in a Bottle--The Police
14 Babe--Styx
15 A Night to Remember--Prism
16 Rock With You--Michael Jackson
17 Janine--Trooper
18 This is It--Kenny Loggins
19 Sara--Fleetwood Mac
20 Please Don’t Go--K.C. and the Sunshine Band

World events
Bella Akhmadulina, a leading Soviet poet, spoke out on behalf of recently-exiled dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov, as Soviet intellectuals grappled with the banishment of one of the 231 full members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, a distinguished body relatively immune from politics.

25 years ago
1985

Music
The Beach Boys, with k.d. lang and the reclines as the opening act, performed at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. This blogger was in attendance, and enjoyed the company of a lovely lady. I paid $15.75 for my ticket.

20 years ago
1990

Politics
U.S. President George Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address. He proposed a ceiling of 225,000 on the number of U.S. and Soviet troops that could be deployed in Europe. Under his plan, no more than 195,000 could be deployed by each side in the central zone of Europe. At present, the U.S. had 300,000 troops in Europe and the U.S.S.R. had 565,000.

Economics and finance
The U.S. Commerce Department reported that the index of leading economic indicators had risen 0.8% in December 1989.

Hockey
NHL
Detroit 7 Edmonton 5

10 years ago
2000

Politics
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, speaking for the other 14 member nations of the European Union, warned against the emergence of the Freedom Party and its leader Joerg Haider as a force in Austrian politics. Mr. Guterres said that "behaviour of a racist or xenophobic character will not be tolerated within the European Union." He stated that Austria faced diplomatic isolation if it allowed the Freedom Party to join a new government. In October 1999 the Freedom Party had won 27% of the vote in Austrian elections, placing second behind the Social Democrats and ahead of the People’s Party. Those two parties had shared power, but the coalition had broken down after the election. Mr. Haider had then explored forming a coalition with the People’s Party. The Freedom Party was opposed to immigration, and Mr. Haider had drawn criticism for making inflammatory remarks.

Law
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that criminals who commit violent crimes should be eligible for conditional sentences, rejecting calls from the federal and provincial governments to increase prison sentences.

Business
The government of Canada approved the $8-billion takeover of Canada Trust by Toronto Dominion Bank.

Disasters
An Alaska Airlines jetliner with 88 aboard crashed while en route from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to San Francisco. The National Transportation Safety Board reported the next day that at about 4:15 P.M. the crew had advised air traffic controllers that the plane’s stabilizer--a device that controlled the plane’s up-and-down movement--had jammed. The controllers cleared the flight to land at Los Angeles International Airport, but at 4:21 the plane disappeared from the radar screen. It went into the ocean northwest of Los Angeles, and there were no survivors.

January 30, 2010

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Why--Anthony Newley (3rd week at #1)

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10
1 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
2 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
3 Venus--The Shocking Blue
4 Groovy Grubworm--Harlow Wilcox and the Oakies
5 Whole Lotta Love--Led Zeppelin
6 Jennifer Tomkins--Street People
7 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
8 I’ll Never Fall in Love Again--Dionne Warwick
9 No Time--The Guess Who
10 I Want You Back--The Jackson 5

World events
Chief Leabua Jonathan, Prime Minister of Lesotho, suspended the constitution, declared a state of emergency, and ordered a curfew in Maseru, the capital, after Lesotho’s first election since independence. The main opposition party leader, Ntsu Mokhehle, who had been claiming victory in the election three days earlier, was arrested.

Protest
Two students were killed and more than 100 wounded after about 2,000 young people tried to storm the Philippine presidential palace. Police and army units used tear gas, bullets, rifle butts, fire hoses, nightsticks, and wicker shields in a running battle with the demonstrators, who hurled stones and gasoline bombs after the assault on the palace was repulsed.

Widespread arson and violence erupted in Haryana state after the Indian government awarded the disputed city of Chandigarh to Punjab state. Mobs in Haryana set fire to buses, trains, government offices, and the homes of government officials. The police opened fire, and at least six deaths were reported.

Diplomacy
West German Chancellor Willy Brandt began a two-day visit to Paris. Meanwhile, his State Secretary Egon Bahr met in Moscow with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to discuss a possible mutual renunciation-of-force accord.

Economics and finance
In his first Economic Report to Congress, U.S. President Richard Nixon predicted a growth in the national economy of about $50 billion in 1970 and a drop in inflation from 1969. He said that if Congress supported his "prudent" fiscal policy, "overly long and overly severe restraint" in monetary policy could be avoided.

30 years ago
1980

World events
South African troops left Zimbabwe Rhodesia after British and Patriotic Front representatives reached an agreement.

20 years ago
1990

Diplomacy
After meeting with East German Premier Hans Modrow, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev indicated that German reunification was to be expected, adding, "No one casts any doubt upon it."

10 years ago
2000

Disasters
A Kenya Airways jet carrying 169 passengers and 10 crew members crashed into the sea one minute after taking off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, bound for Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya. 10 survivors were pulled from the water.

Football
NFL
Super Bowl XXXIV
St. Louis 23 Tennessee 16 @ Atlanta

Kurt Warner passed for a Super Bowl record 414 yards to lead the Rams to their first Super Bowl win and their first NFL championship since 1951, when the team was based in Los Angeles. Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair brought the Titans back from a 16-0 deficit, and Al Del Greco’s 43-yard field goal tied the game 16-16 with 2:12 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Rams scored just 18 seconds later on a 73-yard touchdown pass from Mr. Warner to Isaac Bruce. The Titans weren’t finished, however, and they drove to the St. Louis 10-yard line with time for one more play in regulation time. Mr. McNair completed a pass to Kevin Dyson, who was tackled by Mike Jones at the 1-yard line as time expired. 72,625 were in attendance at the Georgia Dome.

January 29, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Ken Dies!

160 years ago
1850

Politics
Henry Clay (Whig--Kentucky) introduced the Compromise of 1850 into the United States Senate. The compromise included: the admission of California as a free state; the organization of New Mexico and Utah territories without mention of slavery, the status of that institution to be determined by the territories themselves when they were ready to be admitted as states; the prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; a more stringent fugitive slave law; and the settlement of Texas boundary claims by federal payment of $10 million on the debt contracted by the Republic of Texas.

70 years ago
1940

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
Tonight’s episode: The Second Stain

50 years ago
1960

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Fever, starring Everett Sloane and Vivi Janiss

30 years ago
1980

World events
American and Canadian officials announced the successful escape from Iran the previous day of six U.S. diplomats who were not among those who had been taken hostage in the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. Canadian diplomats led by Ken Taylor had protected the Americans and aided in their flight.

War
A Conference of Islamic States passed a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Disasters
In the worst peacetime disaster in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard, Coast Guard vessel Blackthorn collided with the oil tanker Capricorn in Tampa Bay, off the coast of Florida, killing 23 seamen.

25 years ago
1985

Politics
Oxford University dons, by a vote of 738-319, voted to deny British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher an honourary degree. Academics led a campaign against honouring Mrs. Thatcher in protest against the government's cuts in funding for education.

20 years ago
1990

Canadiana
Former Progressive Conservative MP and cabinet minister Ray Hnatyshyn was sworn in as Canada’s 24th Governor General, succeeding Jeanne Sauve.

World events
A judge investigating the violence in December 1989 in Timosoara, Romania, said that only 95 civilian deaths had been verified, contrary to earlier reports that there had been thousands of victims.

It was announced that former Bulgarian Communist Party leader Todor Zhivkov, under house arrest since January 18 on charges of malfeasance in office and misuse of government property and money, had been transferred to a prison.

Politics
A congress of Poland’s United Workers’ (Communist) Party in Warsaw voted overwhelmingly to disband and create at once a new Social Democracy Party. Some former Communist Party members bolted and formed yet another new group, the Social Democratic Union.

Diplomacy
U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle concluded a three-day visit to Panama, Honduras, and Jamaica. His purpose was to explain the Latin American policy of the administration of U.S. President George Bush.

Scandal
Marilyn Harrell, a private escrow agent, pled guilty in U.S. federal court to embezzling $4.5 million that was supposed to go to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She also admitted underreporting income on her tax return for 1987. Ms. Harrell had previously claimed that she had given much of the money to charities and the poor, and had been nicknamed "Robin HUD." Prosecutors said that Ms. Harrell had been "her own biggest charity."

Economics and finance
U.S. President George Bush submitted a budget for the 1991 fiscal year to Congress that called for no increase in taxes. The $1.23-trillion budget included a small cut in real spending for defense--a 1.9% increase in outlays that was below the rate of inflation. Larger cuts were proposed for some domestic programs, but not for environmental programs, the war on drugs, and space projects. Overall, the budget adhered to the deficit limitation of the Gramm-Rudman law, but the Congressional Budget Office and some economists said that the deficit projections were based on economic forecasts that were far too optimistic.

Bank of Canada Governor John Crow told a Canadian Senate banking committee that any reduction in interest rates would have to be done cautiously and gradually.

10 years ago
2000

Boxing
The dismal professional boxing career of American heavyweight Isaac Poole, which had begun in 1988, ended when he was knocked out in the 1st round by Reynaldo Minus (15-5) in Nassau. Those who wish to see professional boxing abolished can use Mr. Poole as evidence for their case. In 23 professional fights he won 2 and lost 21. He was knocked out 16 times, with 8 of his knockout losses coming in the first round and 6 in the second round. One of his two wins was a 4-round decision in Hialeah, Florida on January 22, 1999 over 58-year-old Levi Forte, who was coming off a 21-year layoff, and whose six most recent fights from 1969-1977 had ended in defeat. Mr. Poole was 38 when he fought Mr. Forte.

January 28, 2010

40 years ago
1970

Politics
The United States House of Representatives failed by 52 votes to override President Richard Nixon’s veto of the $19.7-billion health, education, and welfare bill. The vote in favour of the bill was 226-191.

Czechoslovakian Premier Oldrich Cernik, 49, resigned at a meeting of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party in Prague and was replaced by pro-Soviet hard-liner Lubomir Strougal, 45. Seven others resigned in a meeting regarded by many observers as a showdown between moderate conservative Gustav Husak, who had succeeded Alexander Dubcek as party leader the year before, and U.S.S.R. hard-liners, who were demanding the purge of all leaders responsible for trying to liberalize Czechoslovakian Communism. After the session, the resignation of Mr. Dubcek, who had left the country three days earlier to take up a new position as Ambassador to Turkey, of his seat on the Central Committee, was announced. Deputy Prmier Josef Kempny, who quit with Mr. Cernik, was named to succeed Mr. Strougal as head of the Czechoslovakian Bureau.

Law
A bill coupling an intensified U.S. federal attack on illicit drug traffic and use with a reduction of penalties for possession of some drugs was passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate. The bill included a modified version of the controversial "no knock" provision allowing federal agents to break into a home without warning if they had reason to believe that narcotics would be destroyed if notice were given.

Crime
Judge Julius Hoffman ruled that former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark could make "no relevant or material contribution" to the conspiracy trial of the "Chicago Seven," and refused to permit him to testify as a defense witness. Defense attorney William Kunstler said that he could recall no American criminal case in which a defense witness was barred from testifying.

A jury in Newark found reputed Mafiosos Angelo "Gyp" DeCarlo and Daniel "Red" Cecere guilty on all six charges of violations of the Extortionate Transactions Statute. Two other co-defendants, Peter Landusco and Joseph Polverino, had been granted severance and postponement of trial for medical reasons. The accused each ended up being sentenced to 12 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The trial concerned the influence of the Mafia over every facet of business, political, and social life in New Jersey.

Society
The South African government announced that Arthur Ashe, the Negro American tennis star, would be refused a visa to play as an individual in the South African open championships, but said that it would permit him to visit as a member of an American Davis Cup team if the team should play in South Africa.

Boxing
Emile Griffith won a 10-round decision over Doyle Baird in a middleweight bout in Cleveland.

Disasters
A train and bus crash near Johannesburg killed 23 children and injured 13.

A commuter plane flying from Cleveland to Detroit plunged into Lake Erie, killing all 9 aboard.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Canadian diplomats led by Ken Taylor enabled six American diplomats in Iran, not among those being held hostage in the U.S. embassy, to fly out of the country. After hiding for three months in diplomatic residences in Tehran, the Americans posed as Canadian diplomats and carried forged Iranian visas when they boarded regular commercial flights out of Iran. Five of the diplomats had escaped out of a back door when the embassy had been taken over by student militants on November 4, 1979. The sixth, who had been with friends when the embassy was attacked, called the Canadians on November 22 and joined the others that day. As a precautionary measure, the small Canadian embassy staff remaining in Tehran also left the country.

The New York Times reported that dissident Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov, recently exiled to Gorky, was under police supervision and had been forbidden to communicate by telephone or mail with foreigners or even relatives abroad. His wife, Yelena Bonner, brought a written statement from Dr. Sakharov saying that he wanted a public and open trial and did not need a "gilded cage."

Politics
U.S. Senator and Democratic party presidential candidate Ted Kennedy, attempting to recover from his loss to President Jimmy Carter in the previous week’s Iowa caucuses, proposed an immediate six-month wage freeze followed by mandatory wage and price controls; immediate gasoline rationing to help free the nation from dependence on Middle East oil; and the immediate establishment of a United Nations commission to investigate Iranian grievances against the deposed Shah, to begin work as soon as the 50 U.S. hostages in the embassy in Tehran were freed.

Labour
The school system in Chicago shut down when teachers went on strike to protest proposed layoffs and delinquent paycheques. The fiscal crisis of the Chicago school board had been apparent since November 13, 1979 when its credit rating plummeted; it was estimated that the board needed $500-700 million to avoid bankruptcy.

20 years ago
1990

Protest
Tens of thousands of Romanian pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets of Bucharest to protest against the interim government of Premier Ion Iliescu.

Football
NFL
Super Bowl XXIV
San Francisco 55 Denver 10 @ New Orleans

Joe Montana completed 22 of 29 passes (including 13 straight completions at one point) for 297 yards and 5 touchdowns in leading the 49ers to their second straight Super Bowl win, which was basically over at halftime, when the 49ers led 27-3. Mr. Montana was the game’s Most Valuable Player. Jerry Rice, who caught 7 passes for 148 yards, was on the receiving end of 3 of Mr. Montana’s touchdown passes, with the others going to Brent Jones and John Taylor. Tom Rathman rushed for 2 touchdowns on short runs, and Roger Craig rushed 1 yard for the game’s final major score. Mike Cofer was successful on 7 of 8 convert attempts. Denver quarterback John Elway scored the Broncos’ only touchdown on a 3-yard run in the third quarter. David Treadwell, who had kicked a 42-yard field goal in the first quarter, converted. Mr. Craig led all rushers with 69 yards, and caught 5 passes for 34. Mr. Rathman rushed for 38 yards and caught 4 passes for 43. Mr. Taylor caught 3 passes for 49 yards and returned 3 punts for 38. The 49ers amassed 461 yards in net offense. Mr. Elway completed just 10 of 26 passes for 108 yards and 2 interceptions. Bobby Humphrey led the Broncos with 61 yards rushing and 38 yards on 3 pass receptions. George Seifert, who had replaced the retired Bill Walsh, won the Super Bowl in his first season as an NFL head coach. 72,919 witnessed the slaughter at the Louisiana Superdome.

January 27, 2010

130 years ago
1880

Technology
Thomas Edison was granted a patent for his incandescent light.

75 years ago
1935

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC

40 years ago
1970

Disasters
Snow avalanches in Iran’s Elburz Mountains killed 43 people and injured 100.

Boxing
Al Jones (29-1-2), one of the top contenders for the world heavyweight title, fought a 10-round draw with Luis Faustino Pires (13-5-1) at Miami Beach Auditorium in Miami Beach, Florida. Mr. Jones broke his right hand in the first round; it was an injury that was to recur in later bouts and curtail a fine career.

30 years ago
1980

Abominations
Rhodesian opposition leader Robert Mugabe made a triumphant return to his home country after five years in exile. Cheering crowds greeted Mr Mugabe's arrival in the capital, Salisbury, from Mozambique where he had been gathering support for his Zimbabwe African National Union party.

Diplomacy
Newly-elected Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr took a tough stand and charged the United States with the major responsibility for ending the crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, where 50 people had been held hostage by Iranian militants since November 4, 1979.

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl
NFC 37 AFC 27 @ Honolulu

This was the first Pro Bowl to be held at Aloha Stadium. New Orleans Saints’ running back Chuck Muncie was the Most Valuable Player. John McKay of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the winning head coach over Bum Phillips of the Houston Oilers.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 3 @ Philadelphia 5

25 years ago
1985

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl
AFC 22 NFC 14 @ Honolulu

New York Jets’ defensive end Mark Gastineau was the Most Valuable Player. Chuck Noll of the Pittsburgh Steelers was the winning head coach over Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears.

20 years ago
1990

Diplomacy
U.S. Vice-President Dan Quayle began a three-day visit to Panama, Honduras, and Jamaica to explain the policy of the administration of President George Bush on Latin America.

Politics
A congress of Poland’s United Workers’ (Communist) Party opened in Warsaw, with 1,600 delegates in attendance.

Hockey
NHL
Montreal 5 Toronto 3

10 years ago
2000

Politics
The Reform Party of Canada opened the convention in Ottawa that was destined to change its course (and its name) and lead to the creation of the Canadian Alliance party.

U.S. President Bill Clinton delivered his annual State of the Union address. He boasted that the country had never been in better shape, noting that crime, teen births, and welfare rolls were down, and adoptions were up. Mr. Clinton also offered various proposals for the future, including support for a limited tax cut, with special emphasis on help for married couples. He advocated state licensing for all handguns. His many spending proposals included more for Head Start; school construction; teacher salaries; and prescription drug benefits under Medicare. Mr. Clinton urged the removal of remaining trade barriers and asked Congress to establish "normal trade relations" with China by opening China’s markets to the U.S. He also made frequent mention of Vice-President Al Gore, who was seated behind him, and whom he endorsed to succeed him as President.

Weather
Northern lights were visible in Edmonton.

January 26, 2010

60 years ago
1950

World events
The independent Republic of India was officially born, after nearly 100 years of British rule. In Delhi, the capital, the day began with the 34th and last Governor-General of India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, reading out a proclamation announcing the birth of the Republic of India. The new President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, then took the oath of office.

50 years ago
1960

Football
NFL
Pete Rozelle, the 33-year-old general manager of the Los Angeles Rams, was elected commissioner of the NFL, succeeding Bert Bell, who had died on October 11, 1959. Mr. Rozelle was named on the 23rd ballot after others, including Marshall G. Leahy, a San Francisco lawyer, and Austin H. Gunsel, a former FBI man who had temporarily succeeded Mr. Bell, were considered and rejected.

40 years ago
1970

On the radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight’s episode: The Way Back

Politics
Before a nationwide television audience, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed a veto message sending the $19.7-billion health, education, and anti-poverty appropriations bill back to Congress. Mr. Nixon called the measure untimely, misdirected, and most important, inflationary.

Law
Two key points of the U.S. Selective Service law were settled when the Supreme Court ruled that students who lost their draft deferments because of antiwar activities could challenge their reclassification in court, and that the Selective Service System lacked the legal authority to declare students delinquent for turning in their draft cards.

Television
More than 120 models of colour television sets were termed extraordinary fire hazards by the U.S. National Commission on Product Safety. A federal fact-finding agency, the commission called on the 11 manufacturers of the models to repair or replace them.

Boxing
Heavyweight contender George Foreman earned his 15th win in as many professional fights (and 13th knockout) with a 5-round knockout of Jack O’Halloran (18-6-2) at Madison Square Garden in New York. On the undercard, Chuck Wepner (20-5-2) won a unanimous 10-round decision over Manuel Ramos (23-10-2) in another heavyweight bout.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Rock With You--Michael Jackson (2nd week at #1)

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 8 @ Toronto 3

20 years ago
1990

Law
A Canadian inquiry’s report said that the justice system that was supposed to protect him "failed Donald Marshall at every turn." Mr. Marshall, a Micmac Indian, spent 11 years in prison for a 1971 murder that he did not commit. The inquiry into his wrongful conviction and the subsequent mishandling of appeals found that Nova Scotia’s justice system was both incompetent and racist in the handling of his case. False testimony was given at Mr. Marshall’s trial by the police chief in charge of the case, who also pressured young witnesses to falsify stories. The investigation also found that crucial evidence that could have exonerated Mr. Marshall was kept from his lawyer, who was preparing an appeal. The report was also highly critical of a 1983 Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruling which, although it found Mr. Marshall innocent of the crime, said he was partly to blame for the false conviction because he had lied to police.

World events
U.S. District Court Judge William Hoeveler ordered former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega held in custody in Florida without bail.

Politics
Romanian Vice-President Dumitru Mazilu resigned and accused the regime of the National Salvation Front of using "Stalinist practices."

Economics and finance
The U.S. Commerce Department reported that the gross national product grew 2.9% (later revised to 3.0%) for 1989, down from 4.4% for 1988.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Don Budge, 84. U.S. tennis player. Mr. Budge was the first player to win the Grand Slam, winning in Australia, France, England (Wimbledon), and U.S.A.

Politics
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch withdrew from the contest for the Republican party presidential nomination for 2000 after taking just 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucuses two days earlier. Sen. Hatch endorsed Texas Governor George W. Bush. The remaining candidates in the Republican and Democratic parties debated in Manchester, New Hampshire. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley criticized Vice-President Al Gore on a broad front and accused him of not telling the truth in charges he made during the campaign.

January 25, 2010

120 years ago
1890

Adventure
Nellie Bly, a reporter for the New York World, bested Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days by completing her circumnavigation in 72 days.

Labour
United Mine Workers of America was founded.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: The Case of the Interrupted Voyage

Crime
Four days after being convicted of two counts of perjury, U.S. diplomat and accused Soviet spy Alger Hiss was sentenced to five years in prison.

50 years ago
1960

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Zlata Antunovic!

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Running Bear--Johnny Preston (2nd week at #1)

40 years ago
1970

Politics
Former Czechoslovakian Premier Alexander Dubcek, whose "Prague Spring" reform movement had been crushed by an invasion of Soviet tanks in August 1968, left the country to take up his new position as Ambassador to Turkey.

Disasters
25 people were killed when a bus plunged into a ravine near San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

A plane carrying Mexican reporters crashed near Poza Rica, killing 19 of 20 aboard.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Two days after dissident Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov had been sent into exile, the Soviet news agency Tass reported that, "for humane considerations and taking Sakharov’s previous services into account," he would not be put on trial.

Politics
Finance Minister Abolhassan Bani-Sadr was elected President of Iran with 75% of the vote. He had been the only revolutionary leader to openly criticize the militants who had seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.

Economics and finance
The U.S. Labor Department reported that consumer prices rose 13.3% in 1979, the largest annual increase in 33 years. Since the beginning of such record-keeping in 1912, only 1917-1919 and 1946 had shown greater rises. The December increase in the Consumer Price Index was 1.2%, the highest in nearly a year. Large increases in the cost of energy and housing led the increases for both the month and the year. It was reported that the purchasing power of workers for the year had declined by 5.3%.

20 years ago
1990

Diplomacy
U.S. President George Bush announced his support for a $1 billion package of cash, loans, and other types of aid to help rebuild the devastated economy of Panama.

Weather
Hurricane-force winds caused the deaths of at least 39 people in England and Wales and at least 21 people elsewhere in Europe.

Disasters
A Colombian jetliner apparently ran out of fuel over Long Island in New York and crashed into a wooded area in the community of Cove Neck. 73 of the 161 people aboard were killed and the rest injured. The plane, en route from Bogota via Medellin, was to have landed at Kennedy International Airport. The landing was delayed for more than an hour because of bad weather. About 50 minutes before the crash, the pilot told the air traffic controllers that he needed a priority landing because of low fuel.

10 years ago
2000

Crime
Shannon Murrin, who had spent five years in prison awaiting trial, was found not guilty in Vancouver, British Columbia of murdering 8-year-old Mindy Tran of Kelowna, B.C. in 1994.

January 24, 2010

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The Music Box Murder Case

50 years ago
1960

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Diana Ganske!

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris (6th week at #1)
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas (4th week at #1)

Calgary’s top 10
1 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
2 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
3 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
4 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
5 No Time--The Guess Who
6 La La La (If I Had You)--Bobby Sherman
7 Venus--The Shocking Blue
8 Jam Up Jelly Tight--Tommy Roe
9 I Want You Back--The Jackson 5
10 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
Pick hit of the week: Sunday Mornin’--Oliver

Died on this date
James "Shep" Sheppard, 34. U.S. singer and songwriter. Mr. Sheppard was the lead singer of the doo-wop group The Heartbeats, who released a number of singles in the 1950s, the most successful of which was A Thousand Miles Away, which reached #5 on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart in 1956, #53 on the Top 100 pop chart in 1957. The group disbanded in 1959, and two years later, Mr. Sheppard founded Shep and the Limelites, who recorded a sequel to A Thousand Miles Away: Daddy’s Home hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the spring of 1961. The group’s only other major chart success came with Our Anniversary, which went to #7 on the r&b chart (#59 pop) in 1962. Shep and the Limelites disbanded in 1966, but reunited in early 1970 to perform on the oldies circuit. The reunion ended when Mr. Sheppard was found shot to death in his car on the Long Island Expressway.

World events
Reports indicated that incidents of pillaging, brutality, and indiscipline among Nigerian troops in the southern portion of the former Biafran enclave had reached such proportions that they were becoming a serious problem to the Nigerian government, which was using savage punishments against the rampaging troops.

Crime
The U.S. Defense Department disclosed that another soldier was under investigation for the March 16, 1968 My Lai massacre in South Vietnam. There were now 33 men facing charges or under investigation--an increase of seven since November 1969--in the incident. Besides the four already charged, ten were still in the service and 19 had become civilians.

Diplomacy
Although they were theoretically still at war, it was announced that Greece and Albania agreed to re-establish trade relations that had been broken 30 years earlier. Details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Disasters
The explosion of an army truck carrying munitions in the Israeli port of Elath killed 18 Israeli soldiers and injured 42 others. Army authorities said that nothing had been discovered so far to indicate sabotage.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 20 (CHED)
1 I Don’t Like Mondays--The Boomtown Rats
2 Coward of the County--Kenny Rogers
3 Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles
4 Jane--Jefferson Starship
5 Do That to Me One More Time--The Captain and Tennille
6 Crazy Little Thing Called Love--Queen
7 Don’t Do Me Like That--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
8 The Long Run--Eagles
9 Chiquitita--Abba
10 Yes I’m Ready--Teri DeSario with K.C.
11 Rock With You--Michael Jackson
12 Babe--Styx
13 Tiny Thing--Jenson Interceptor
14 Message in a Bottle--The Police
15 Why Me--Styx
16 Please Don’t Go--K.C. and the Sunshine Band
17 Say Hello--April Wine
18 This is It--Kenny Loggins
19 Find Your Way--Surrender
20 A Night to Remember--Prism

Jenson Interceptor was a group from Edmonton.

Defense
In a major policy change linked to the recent Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States announced that it was willing to sell military equipment to China for the first time.

Business
The heirs of Joan Whitney Payson, who had owned the New York Mets since the National League team’s creation in 1962, sold the franchise to Nelson Doubleday of the book publishing family and Fred Wilpon, a Long Island real estate developer, for a reported $21.1 million, the most ever paid for a major league baseball franchise at the time.

20 years ago
1990

Abominations
The Canadian federal government introduced its Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the House of Commons. The GST, which would replace the existing 13.5% manufacturing sales tax with a 9% tax on most goods and services, had been widely criticized since Finance Minister Michael Wilson had announced it as part of the previous year’s budget. Both the Liberal and New Democratic opposition parties vowed to fight the GST, which the governing Progressive Conservatives said would take effect on January 1, 1991.

Protest
The Romanian government outlawed unauthorized demonstrations.

10 years ago
2000

World events
Thai security forces stormed a hospital and killed 10 heavily-armed insurgents from a Myanmarese rebel group who had taken 700 patients, visitors, and staff hostage.

Politics
The 2000 U.S. presidential race got under way with the Iowa caucuses in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Texas Governor George W. Bush won the Republican caucus with 41% of the vote, followed by publisher Steve Forbes (30%); former ambassador Alan Keyes (14%); conservative activist Gary Bauer (9%); U.S. Senator John McCain, who did not campaign in the state (5%); and Sen. Orrin Hatch (1%). Vice-President Al Gore won the Democratic caucus with 63% of the vote to 35% for Sen. Bill Bradley.

The first round of elections for the presidency of Croatia took place. Stjepan Mesic, executive vice-president of the Croatian People’s Party, led over Drazen Budisa. The election was necessitated by the death of President Franjo Tudjman on December 10, 1999.

Crime
James Kopp, an American Roman Catholic anti-abortion terrorist, was named in a Canada-wide warrant charging him with the attempted murder in 1995 of Hugh Short, an abortionist from the Hamilton, Ontario area. Mr. Kopp, a fugitive, was already wanted in the U.S.A. for the 1998 murder of Barnett Slepian, an abortionist who practiced in Buffalo, New York.

January 23, 2010

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Why--Anthony Newley (2nd week at #1)

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10
1 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
2 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
3 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
4 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
5 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
6 Whole Lotta Love--Led Zeppelin
7 Up on Cripple Creek--The Band
8 Groovy Grubworm--Harlow Wilcox and the Oakies
9 Venus--The Shocking Blue
10 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary

War
Israel announced that its troops had withdrawn from Shadwan Island, an Egyptian island that guarded the entrance to the Gulf of Suez, after completely neutralizing it as a military installation. A radar base and other equipment--and 62 prisoners--were taken by the Israelis. 70 Egyptians were killed during the 30-hour operation which had begun the previous day.

World events
Human suffering and devastation in the northern area of the territory that was Biafra were reported to be widespread. Relief efforts in the region were said to be slow and inadequate, but Nigerian Army soldiers were reported to be behaving well.

Ivory Coast announced that General Odumegwu Ojukwu, who had led Biafra’s unsuccessful attempt to secede from Nigeria before fleeing the country on January 12, had been granted asylum. It was said that he would refrain from political activities.

Space
The United States launched ITOS-I, a second-generation weather satellite, carrying television, automatic picture transmission, and scanning radiometers for global cloud data and local readout both day and night.

Law
Israel’s High Court ruled, by a 5-4 vote, that Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Shalit, an Israeli naval officer, could register his children, whose mother was not Jewish, as Jewish by nationality rather than by religion. According to Jewish practice, a child’s religious affiliation is determined by that of the mother.

Religion
Building on youth, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints chose 93-year-old Joseph Fielding Smith, a grand-nephew of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, to be their new Prophet, Seer, and Revelator. Mr. Smith was the author of 20 books and was considered the church’s leading expert on theology. He succeeded David O. McKay, who had died five days earlier at the age of 96.

30 years ago
1980

Politics
U.S. President Jimmy Carter delivered his annual State of the Union address, saying, "It has never been more clear that the state of our union depends on the state of the world." The crises in Iran and Afghanistan dramatized how "our excessive dependence on foreign oil is a clear and present danger to our nation’s security." President Carter warned that the United States was prepared to go to war if necessary to protect the oil supply routes of the Persian Gulf region; he said he would soon submit legislation providing incentives for electric utilities to convert from oil and natural gas to other fuels, especially coal. In preparation for an emergency, an improved standby program for gasoline rationing would also be proposed. To improve the country’s readiness for international action, Mr. Carter asked Congress to remove "unwarranted restraints" on U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities, and said that he would seek the authority to resume Selective Service registration to insure that the nation could "meet future mobilization needs rapidly if they arise." Few new domestic goals were outlined in Mr. Carter’s message. "Restraining inflation remains my highest domestic priority," he said. He proposed spending an additional $2 billion over the next two years to provide job training for unemployed young people. He said he would propose extending general revenue-sharing at the current levels for another five years. Mr. Carter said he would also ask Congress to reorganize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and would press for a "comprehensive program" for safe disposal of nuclear waste.

World events
The U.S.S.R. government newspaper Izvestia accused dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov, who had been sent into exile in Gorky the previous day, of divulging state secrets to foreign diplomats and journalists and slandering the Soviet Union.

20 years ago
1990

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: The Powers that Be

War
Three days after Soviet forces had invaded the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, the death toll stood at 93.

Hockey
NHL
New York Rangers 4 Edmonton 3

10 years ago
2000

World events
Gustavo Noboa Bejarano, installed as Ecuador’s President the previous day in a return to civilian rule the day after President Jamil Mahuad Witt had been forced out of office, said that military officers who had taken part in the overthrow of Mr. Mahuad would face criminal charges.

Weather
Northern lights were visible in Edmonton.

Football
NFL
AFC Championship Playoff
Tennessee 33 @ Jacksonville 14

NFC Championship Playoff
Tampa Bay 6 @ St. Louis 11

January 22, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Nancy Lear!

70 years ago
1940

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Cardboard Box

50 years ago
1960

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Hitch-Hiker, starring Inger Stevens and Leonard Strong

This was the only episode of The Twilight Zone that was based on a radio play. Lucille Fletcher wrote the original drama, which was performed on The Mercury Theatre on the Air in 1941, starring Orson Welles. A shorter version was later broadcast as an episode of Suspense, again starring Mr. Welles. Rod Serling adapted The Hitch-Hiker for television.

40 years ago
1970

World events
Eight army officers and three civilians were executed in Iraq--following 16 executions the previous day--as the repercussions of an unsuccessful right-wing coup attempt began to spread. In addition, seven Iraqis convicted of spying were hanged.

Defense
The French press almost universally condemned the government’s announcement of the previous day that 100 Mirage fighter jets would be sold to Libya. The newspapers felt they had been deceived, and reacted with shock over what they interpreted as a policy of putting oil and trade above morality.

Politics
U.S. President Richard Nixon delivered his first State of the Union address, committing himself to achieving world peace, including a "just" settlement of the Vietnam War, saying that the chance for peace was now "far greater" than it was the previous January. He cited talks with the U.S.S.R. and Communist China as examples of the relations required to assure peace for the next generation. Mr. Nixon emphasized an improved quality of life and proposed a $10-billion program to clean up the nation’s waters--but its annual cost would be less than Congress had already authorized. He also called for a stepped-up fight against crime and pollution.

Crime
Paul Gilley, Claude Vealey, and Buddy Martin, arrested in Cleveland the day before, were formally charged with the murders of United Mine Workers of America official Jock Yablonski and his wife and daughter, whose bodies were discovered in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania home on January 5.

Disasters
Eight people were killed in a plane crash near Aspen, Colorado.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Andrei Sakharov, one of the U.S.S.R.’s best-known dissidents, was arrested and sent from Moscow into internal exile in Gorky, an industrial city 250 miles east of Moscow. He was also stripped of his title Hero of Socialist Labour and all other Soviet awards. The Soviet news agency Tass charged that Dr. Sakharov "has been conducting subversive activities against the Soviet state for a number of years" and "lately embarked on the road of open calls to reactionary circles of imperialist states to interfere in the U.S.S.R.’s internal affairs."

Golf
The PGA's Tournament Policy Board approved plans to create a new Senior PGA Tour for players 50 years of age and over.

20 years ago
1990

World events
The Azerbaijani parliament threatened to secede from the U.S.S.R. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, in a televised address, used the John Turner "I had no option" defense to justify the use of Soviet troops to invade the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, which had begun two days earlier.

10 years ago
2000

World events
The day after a mass protest had forced Ecuadorean President Jamil Mahuad Witt out of office, General Carlos Mendoza, acting Defense Minister and leader of the three-man junta that had replaced Mr. Mahuad, dissolved the junta in order to allow Vice-President Gustavo Noboa Bejarano to take power and preserve civilian rule. Congress approved Mr. Noboa as President.

War
Russian President Vladimir Putin brought in a new commander of Interior Ministry troops attempting to clear rebels from Grozny, capital of the rebellious republic of Chechnya.

Protest
One million people gathered in Madrid to protest a car-bomb attack that had been blamed on Basque separatists.

Weather
Heavy rain and high seas, backed by gale-force winds, caused major flooding and extensive property damage on the south coast of Newfoundland. The largest of the waves was between
50 and 60 feet travelling at about 55-70 miles per hour. Environment Canada said it was the largest set of waves to strike Newfoundland since the 1929 tsunami in the Burin Peninsula.

January 21, 2010

60 years ago
1950

Died on this date
George Orwell, 46. U.K. author. The author of Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949) died after a three-year battle with tuberculosis.

Crime
Former U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss was found guilty of two counts of perjury by a jury in New York. It was his second trial, the first having ended with a hung jury in July 1949. Mr. Hiss had been accused by Time magazine editor and former Communist Whittaker Chambers, in testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities in 1948, of having been a member of a Communist Party underground and a spy for the Soviet Union. Mr. Hiss denied the charges, and since the statute of limitations on espionage had expired, Mr. Hiss was charged with perjury instead. The conviction of Hiss was a boost to the political career of California Congressman Richard Nixon, who had continued to press the case when many others wanted to give up.

40 years ago
1970

Defense
French Defense Minister Michel Debre disclosed that France was selling 100 Mirage jet fighter planes to Libya, twice the number originally announced on January 9. The deal included an additional 30 ultrasophisticated Mirage 3s. Israeli officials were bitter about the sale, particularly since the French had imposed an arms embargo and refused to ship 50 Mirages for which Israel had already paid. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban voiced his country’s fear that the planes would be given to Egypt to use against Israel upon delivery in 1972-1973, since the Libyan government lacked pilots to fly the advanced jets. The sale also caused tension between France and the United States, where the U.S. State Department warned French Ambassador Charles Lucet that the arms deal could upset the Middle East arms balance. Both the French press and the opposition denounced the action.

World events
Peru seized an American tuna fishing boat and exacted a fine for invasion of Peru’s 200-mile "territorial waters" limit.

Crime
The December 4, 1969 slaying of Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark by Chicago police in a predawn raid was ruled "justifiable" by a special coroner’s jury.

Law
U.S. Supreme Court nominee G. Harrold Carswell of Florida disavowed a speech he’d made in 1948 during a campaign for the Georgia legislature in which he’d said that he would always be governed by the "principles of white supremacy."

Business
Stockholders of American Telephone and Telegraph Company were asked to support a 30-year financing package worth a total of $3.1 billion so that the company could meet its expansion needs. If successful, it would be the largest corporate financing ever.

Aviation
The inaugural transatlantic commercial flight of the Boeing 747, the first of a new generation of jumbo jets, started almost 7 hours late. Engine trouble a few minutes before the scheduled takeoff forced Pan American World Airways to substitute a second plane for the flight from New York to London.

Disasters
A U.S. Navy cargo ship crashed through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel after strong winds ripped the vessel from its mooring 2,500 yards away. There were no reported injuries, but damage was heavy.

30 years ago
1980

Politics
Precinct caucuses in Iowa gave U.S. President Jimmy Carter 59% of the vote to U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy’s 31% in the contest for the Democratic party nomination for President for 1980. In the Republican party, George Bush took 32% to 29% for Ronald Reagan and 16% for Senator Howard Baker. The votes represented the preferences of delegates chosen for the next stage of the delegate selection process, the county caucuses. The results were an unexpected blow to Sen. Kennedy and a boost to Mr. Bush.

Disasters
An Iranian jetliner on a domestic flight from the eastern city of Meshed to Tehran crashed about 20 miles northeast of Tehran, killing all 128 people aboard.

25 years ago
1985

Politics
The public ceremony to mark the inauguration of Ronald Reagan’s second term as President of the United States took place in Washington. Since the official inauguration date of January 20 had fallen on a Sunday, Mr. Reagan had taken the oath of office privately that day.

20 years ago
1990

Hockey
NHL All-Star Game
Prince of Wales Conference 12 Clarence S. Campbell Conference 7 @ Pittsburgh

Mario Lemieux of the hometown Penguins scored 4 goals, including 3 on his first 3 shots, and was voted the game’s Most Valuable Player. The score indicated that the All-Star Game was no longer a true hockey game, but simply a pathetic exhibition of no-body-contact offense. As a measure of how seriously it was regarded in the U.S.A., the NHL All-Star Game, which used to be televised in prime time on a Tuesday, took place on a Sunday afternoon. 17,503 were in attendance at Pittsburgh Civic Arena.

Tennis
John McEnroe threw his racquet and a tantrum at the Australian Open and became the first player to be disqualified from a Grand Slam event for misconduct since 1963.

10 years ago
2000

World events
A protest movement led by Ecuador’s indigenous population forced President Jamil Mahuad Witt out of office. Mr. Mahuad’s plan to end the nation’s economic crisis--inflation was 60% in 1999--included a proposal to replace the sucre, Ecuador’s plummeting currency, with the U.S. dollar. Opponents of the plan feared the move would hurt poor people. As thousands of protesters massed at the Congress building, troops allowed them to pour inside. Mr. Mahuad fled his palace, and a three-man junta was established, led by acting Defense Minister General Carlos Mendoza.

Politics
The government of Canada rescinded its offer of tax breaks to keep National Hockey League teams in Canada. The offer had been made on January 18 and had set off a storm of protest across the country.

Weather
Atlantic Canada was hit by almost 2 feet of snow. In Charlottetown, the combination of hurricane-force winds and the highest tides of the season caused harbour water to surge ashore, prompting city work crews to build snowbanks to hold back the rising sea water.

January 20, 2010

75 years ago
1935

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Case of the Dual Personality

Born on this date
Happy birthday, Milt Plum!
Mr. Plum was a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns (1957-1961); Detroit Lions (1962-1967); Los Angeles Rams (1968); and New York Giants (1969). While with the Browns he became the first quarterback to receive instructions from his coach (Paul Brown) by means of a radio receiver in his helmet. Mr. Plum’s best season was 1960, when he completed 60% of his passes and threw 21 touchdown passes and just 5 interceptions. He was one of the Lions’ quarterbacks in 1963, the year George Plimpton attended the team’s training camp as a quarterback, which led to the book and movie Paper Lion.

60 years ago
1950

Football
NFL
The National Football League Rules Committee voted to allow unlimited free substitution of players, quickly opening the way for the era of two-platoon football and specialization of positions such as field goal kickers.

40 years ago
1970

Diplomacy
In what was described as a useful and businesslike meeting, the U.S.A. and Communist China resumed formal talks in Warsaw after a two-year suspension. American Ambassador Walter Stoessel said that "a number of matters of mutual interest" had been discussed.

U.S. Ambassador Charles Yost told the U.S.S.R. that the U.S.A. would stand by its latest proposals for a Middle East peace settlement and make no further concessions.

U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew met with Australian cabinet ministers in Canberra. A small crowd of anti-Vietnam war protesters gathered outside the parliament building shouting "Go home, CIA."

Economics and finance
The U.S. Federal Reserve Board authorized sizeable increases in the interest rates paid by commercial banks on both passbook and corporate accounts. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced similar changes for savings banks.

Space
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced budget cuts that would result in the layoff of 50,000 workers, reduction in Saturn V rocket production, and the stretching out of lunar landing schedules. NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine told a news conference that the program "contains the basic ingredients needed for an effective space program in the 1970s." Mr. Paine said that he had ordered: Suspension of production of the Saturn V rocket for an indefinite period after the completion of Saturn V 515; A stretching out of Apollo lunar missions to six-month launch intervals, with deferment of lunar expeditions entirely during orbital flights of the so-called AAP (Apollo Applications) space station in 1972; postponement of launch of the Viking Mars unmanned landing spacecraft from 1973 to the next Mars opportunity in 1975. Mr. Paine announced that the Apollo expeditions to the moon would continue through Apollo 19; that one Saturn V previously scheduled for an Apollo lunar flight would be used to launch the first experimental AAP space station into earth orbit in 1972; and that NASA would begin design of a reusable space shuttle. He also said that two unmanned spacecraft would be sent to orbit Mars in 1971; the first probe to Jupiter would be sent in 1972; and a spacecraft would be sent past Venus and Mercury in 1973.

Politics
The U.S. Senate, controlled by the Democratic party, challenged the administration of President Richard Nixon by voting 74-17 to pass a $19.7-billion health, education, and anti-poverty appropriations bill that Mr. Nixon said he would veto as inflationary. The bill, already passed by the House of Representatives, provided $1.1 billion more than the administration requested.

Society
U.S. Senator George McGovern (Democrat--South Dakota), a critic of President Richard Nixon’s welfare plan, said that the federal government should pay parents an allowance of $50-$65 per month for each child, regardless of the family’s income level.

30 years ago
1980

Olympics
Declaring that "it is very important for the world to realize how serious a threat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is," U.S. President Jimmy Carter said that if Soviet troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan in a month, he would ask the United States Olympic Committee to urge the International Olympic Committee to transfer or cancel the summer games, scheduled to be held in Moscow. Failing that, Mr. Carter said he would suggest to the USOC that it formally withdraw American athletes from the games.

Politics
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, challenging President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic party presidential nomination, suggested that Mr. Carter’s reversal of policy over a Soviet combat brigade in Cuba in September 1979 may have influenced the U.S.S.R.’s decision to invade Afghanistan. Sen. Kennedy’s comments were made the day before the Iowa caucus votes on presidential candidates of both the Democrats and Republicans.

Disasters
While 40,000 fans cheered scores of men in a bullring in Sincelejo, Colombia who were running from several bulls, five sections of overcrowded wooden bleachers collapsed, killing at least 222 people and injuring at least 500 more. Heavy rains had softened the ground beneath the bleachers until their wooden supports slipped under the weight of 3,000 spectators. "In 30 seconds the stands crashed down like a castle of cards," a newsman at the scene reported.

Football
NFL
Super Bowl XIV
Pittsburgh 31 Los Angeles 19 @ Pasadena

Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw completed 14 of 21 passes for 309 yards and 2 touchdowns in leading the Steelers to their second straight Super Bowl win and fourth in the last six years. A 41-yard field goal by Matt Bahr gave the Steelers an early 3-0 lead, but the Rams came back with a 1-yard touchdown rush by Cullen Bryant, converted by Frank Corral, to take a 7-3 lead. The Steelers were driving as the first quarter ended, and the drive finished early in the second quarter with a 1-yard touchdown run by Franco Harris, converted by Mr. Bahr, to give Pittsburgh a 10-7 lead. The Rams came back with 2 field goals by Mr. Corral to take a 13-10 halftime lead. The Steelers struck early in the third quarter when Lynn Swann made a spectacular catch for a 47-yard touchdown, converted by Mr. Bahr, to give Pittsburgh a 17-13 lead. Los Angeles replied with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Vince Ferragamo to Ron Smith. Mr. Corral missed the convert, leaving the Rams with a 19-17 lead. The Steelers mounted drives deep into Los Angeles territory before the third quarter ended, but both drives ended with interceptions by the Rams. Ken Clark’s 59-yard punt backed the Steelers up at their own 25-yard line, but on a third down and 8 yards to go, Mr. Bradshaw connected with John Stallworth for a 73-yard touchdown, converted by Mr. Bahr, to go ahead 24-19. Mr. Ferragamo later brought the Rams back downfield, but Pittsburgh linebacker Jack Lambert snuffed out the drive with an interception at his own 32 with just under 6 minutes remaining. Mr. Bradshaw again connected with Mr. Stallworth for a big gain, 45 yards to the Los Angeles 22. Several plays later, Mr. Harris scored on another 1-yard run, with Mr. Bahr converting to make the score 31-19. The Rams drove to the Pittsburgh 37-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs with 39 seconds left. Mr. Stallworth finished with 121 yards on 3 receptions, while Mr. Swann caught 5 for 79. Mr. Harris caught 5 for 66 and rushed for 44 yards and 2 touchdowns. Mr. Ferragamo completed 15 of 25 passes for 212 yards. Billy Waddy led the Rams with 3 catches for 75 yards. Wendell Tyler of Los Angeles led all rushers with 60 yards. 103,985 were in attendance at the Rose Bowl.

25 years ago
1985

Politics
Ronald Reagan began his second term as President of the United States. Because it was a Sunday, Mr. Reagan took the oath of office in private. The public ceremony took place the next day.

Television
This year’s Super Bowl telecast marked the first time that television commercials ran for a million dollars per minute. It was the first Super Bowl to be televised on ABC: Frank Gifford called the play-by-play--the only time he did so for a Super Bowl--and Don Meredith, in his last game as a broadcaster, provided colour commentary along with Washington Redskins’ quarterback Joe Theismann.

Football
NFL
Super Bowl XIX
San Francisco 38 Miami 16 @ Stanford

San Francisco quarterback Joe Montana completed 24 of 35 passes for 331 yards and 3 touchdowns, and rushed 5 times for 59 yards and a touchdown to earn the nod as the game’s Most Valuable Player. Roger Craig caught 2 of Mr. Montana’s touchdown passes, with the other going to Carl Monroe. Mr. Craig also rushed for a touchdown, becoming the first player ever to score 3 touchdowns in a Super Bowl. He finished with 58 yards rushing and 77 yards receiving. Ray Wersching kicked 5 converts and a field goal for the 49ers. Miami quarterback Dan Marino completed 29 of 50 passes for 318 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions; his touchdown pass was a 2-yard completion to Dan Johnson in the first quarter. Uwe von Schamann converted and added 3 field goals to complete the Dolphins’ scoring. Most of the action came in the first half, as the 49ers built up a 28-16 lead. 84,059 were in attendance at Stanford Stadium.

20 years ago
1990

War
Soviet troops, led by tanks, forced their way into Baku, the capital of the dissident republic of Azerbaijan.

10 years ago
2000

At the movies
This blogger attended a preview screening of Sweet and Lowdown, written and directed by Woody Allen and starring Sean Penn and Samantha Morton. The movie was a considerable improvement over Mr. Allen’s most recent movie, Celebrity, released in 1998.

Space
There was a lunar eclipse tonight, visible in Edmonton.

January 19, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Inese!

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
NHA
Montreal Canadiens 4 @ Renfrew 9
Newsy Lalonde scored 3 goals for the Canadiens in their first official game.

40 years ago
1970

World events
United Nations Secretary-General U Thant flew to Paris after a one-day visit to Nigeria, apparently satisfied that conditions of distress in the former Biafra region were not as serious as reported. He said there was "need for relief," and that the UN would help.

Health
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration urged the nation’s physicians to pay close attention to the risks said to be involved in the use of birth control pills. In letters sent to more than 300,000 doctors, he agency referred to new labelling that warned of blood clot problems and told doctors to inform their patients of the hazards.

Law
U.S. President Richard Nixon nominated Judge Harrold Carswell of Florida to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court caused by the resignation of Abe Fortas the previous year. Judge Carswell was regarded as a conservative.

Economics and finance
The U.S. Labor Department reported that national consumer prices had risen 6.1% in 1969, by far the worst inflation since 1951.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Rock With You--Michael Jackson

Died on this date
William O. Douglas, 81. U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1939-1975. Mr. Douglas was chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1937-1939 and was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He served the longest term in that court’s history, making his mark as an advocate of civil liberties. Perhaps his best-known ruling was in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), where he invented a so-called "right to privacy." Mr. Douglas appears to have been an earlier version of Bill Clinton: an inveterate womanizer who survived impeachment attempts, and whose life story was largely fabricated--with the added feature of being a heavy drinker. For more on this slimy individual, go here.

Economics and finance
The United States government agreed to buy another 2.5 million tons of undelivered grain not affected by the decision 12 days earlier to embargo grain from delivery to the U.S.S.R., under a separate 1976 agreement to deliver 8 million tons a year to the Soviets for five years. Price levels of corn had returned to what they were before the announcement of the embargo; soybean prices were higher, and wheat prices were rapidly recovering.

Hockey
NHL
Montreal 7 Toronto 2
Edmonton 5 Pittsburgh 2

20 years ago
1990

Crime
Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arraigned in U.S. District Court on a misdemeanour charge of wilfully possessing cocaine, the day after his arrest at the Vista International Hotel in downtown Washington.

Eight Salvadoran military officers and soldiers plus a ninth still being sought were indicted for the murders of six Jesuit priests and two other people in San Salvador in November 1989. The eight in custody pled not guilty.

Protest
Several hundred people showed up at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg to protest the arrival of rebel cricketers from England who were defying a ban on playing in South Africa.

Society
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. cancelled its plan to test-market Uptown, a new brand of cigarette aimed at Negro consumers, saying that "the unfair and biased attention the brand had received" would invalidate the results of the test. The announcement was made the day after U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan had made a speech to medical students at the University of Pennsylvania sharply criticizing the plan.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Hedy Lamarr, 86. Austrian-born actress and inventor. Miss Lamarr shot to fame with a nude appearance in the Czech film Ecstasy (1933); she made the move to Hollywood, where her movies included Samson and Delilah (1949) and My Favorite Spy (1951). In 1942 Miss Lamarr and composer George Antheil received a patent for a radio-signalling device, a forerunner of today’s "spread spectrum."

Bettino Craxi, 65. Prime Minister of Italy, 1983-1987. Mr. Craxi was Italy's first Socialist Prime Minister after World War II; he ended his career tainted by corruption.

Boxing
Lazaro Almanza (3-8) won a unanimous 4-round decision over Isaac Poole (2-20) in a heavyweight bout at the Four Ambassadors Hotel in Miami.

January 18, 2010

175 years ago
1835

Born on this date
César Cui. Russian military officer and composer. Mr. Cui, who rose to the rank of general, studied and wrote about military fortifications. As a composer, he wrote 15 operas, and is also remembered for songs and chamber works. He died in 1919.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden, on ABC

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Running Bear--Johnny Preston

Running Bear was written by J.P. Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper, who was killed with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens in the famous plane crash of February 3, 1959. Mr. Richardson can be heard supplying some of the background vocals on the recording.

40 years ago
1970

Died on this date
David O. McKay, 96. U.S. religious figure; President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1951-1970. During his presidency and his 64 years as one of the Mormon Church’s general authorities, Mr. McKay stressed the importance of the church’s educational institutions, and popularized the phrase "every member a missionary." During his presidency, membership in the pseudo-Christian movement of darkness increased from 1.1 million to 2.8 million. He was outspoken in opposition to Communism, and softened, but did not abolish, the prohibition on admission of Negroes of verifiable African descent to the priesthood. In fact, the ban was upheld by Mormon leaders in a statement distributed around the world just 10 days before Mr. McKay’s death.

Disasters
A truck and bus crash near Monlevade, Brazil killed 15 and injured 20.

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl
West 16 East 13 @ Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears was voted the game’s outstanding back; George Andrie of the Dallas Cowboys was the top lineman. Norm Van Brocklin of the Atlanta Falcons was the winning head coach, while Tom Fears of the New Orleans Saints took the loss.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Lord Soames, the British Governor General of Rhodesia, extended the state of emergency in the country until the installation of a new government.

The U.S. government reaffirmed American support for "the unity, independence and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia."

Economics and finance
The price of gold closed at $802 U.S. in New York, $159 more than at the beginning of the week.

The U.S. government announced that the economy had grown a modest 1.4% during the last quarter of 1979, making the growth rate 2.3% for the year.

20 years ago
1990

Crime
The longest and costliest trial in American history concluded in Los Angeles when Peggy McMartin Buckey and her son Raymond Buckey were acquitted on 52 counts of child molestation and conspiracy. The jury was deadlocked on one remaining count against Mrs. Buckey and on 13 counts against her son. The trial lasted 33 months, filled 60,000 pages of transcript, and cost the state of California about $15 million. Based on accounts by young children, seven people had originally been indicted on child molestation charges--incidents that had allegedly occurred at the McMartin Pre-School in Manhattan Beach. Charges against the other five defendants had been dropped for lack of evidence. Raymond Buckey had spent 5 years in jail and his mother 22 months in jail. Some jurors who were interviewed after the verdict said that they had reservations about the technique used to interview children who may have been molested, especially the practice of asking them leading questions. The remaining count against Mrs. Buckey was dismissed, while a mistrial was declared on the remaining counts against David Buckey. The case took place during the era (approximately 1988-1992) of "Satanic panic," when sensationalistic media figures such as Geraldo Rivera and Bob Larson and "Christian" psychotherapists such as Richard Fluornoy were promoting the idea that there was an epidemic of satanic ritual abuse. The McMartin case helped to turn the light on "False Memory Syndrome," where alleged victims have memories planted in them by unethical psychotherapists and then recall events that couldn’t possibly have happened.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arrested by city police and FBI agents on a drug charge. According to reports, law enforcement officials used a former model and friend of Mr. Barry’s to lure him to the Vista International Hotel in downtown Washington. There, according to the FBI, Mr. Barry bought a small amount of crack cocaine from an undercover agent, put it in a pipe, and smoked it. The incident was videotaped, and Mr. Barry was arrested.

Scandal
It was reported that Todor Zhivkov, former Communist Party leader of Bulgaria, had been put under house arrest on charges of malfeasance in office and misuse of government property and money.

Society
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan criticized a plan by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to test-market a new cigarette brand, Uptown, to Negro Americans in Philadelphia. Mr. Sullivan, speaking to medical students at the University of Pennsylvania, said, "At a time when our people desperately need the message of health promotion, Uptown’s message is more disease, more suffering, and more death..." Surveys had found that smoking was more common among Negroes than whites.

Health
This day’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that Harvard University researchers had conducted a study that failed to show that oat bran had any special ability to lower blood serum cholesterol levels. Based on the study of 20 adults, the researchers concluded that bran or any other starchy carbohydrate was beneficial primarily because people who ate it tended to eat less high-fat food. Manufacturers of oat bran products said the Harvard study sample was too small to be accepted. The oat bran fad had caught on after a previous study had shown that it lowered cholesterol.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that consumer prices had risen 4.6% in 1989, the highest rate since 1981.

The Bank of Canada allowed its trend-setting interest rate to drop 0.29%. The decline was attributed to speculation in the money markets that Bank of Canada Governor John Crow intended to let interest rates fall, reducing the large spread between Canadian and American rates.

10 years ago
2000

Business
The government of Canada offered tax breaks to keep National Hockey League clubs in Canada.

January 17, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Tanya Sokolova!

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The Talking Corpse Murder Case, aka The Catty Corpse Murder Case

50 years ago
1960

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl
West 38 East 21 @ Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Baltimore Colts’ quarterback was voted the game’s outstanding back, while his Baltimore teammate Eugene "Bid Daddy" Lipscomb was voted the top lineman. Red Hickey of the San Francisco 49ers was the winning head coach over Buck Shaw of the Philadelphia Eagles.

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris (5th week at #1)
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas (3rd week at #1)

Calgary’s top 10
1 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
2 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
3 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
4 No Time--The Guess Who
5 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
6 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
7 Something--The Beatles
8 Venus--The Shocking Blue
9 La La La (If I Had You)--Bobby Sherman
10 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
Pick hit of the week: I Want You Back--The Jackson 5

I Want You Back was the first hit for The Jackson 5.

War
The U.S. Command in Saigon disclosed that the bodies of two Americans found in a shallow grave by Marines in Thua Thien Province in the northernmost 1st Corps area of South Vietnam were those of Captain David R. Devers and Master Sergeant John H. O’Neill, who had been paraded as prisoners by the Viet Cong through several villages and then executed in front of a village church north of Hue. Captured on August 13, 1966, they were killed on September 30, 1966, after 49 days.

Law
A report published by a joint U.S. Congressional subcommittee on economy in government accused the departments of Interior and Justice of depriving Indians of their water rights. The report, written by William H. Veeder, an Interior Department expert on Indian water resources, concluded that Indians had suffered "irreparable" damage.

Oddities
Michael James Brody, 21, a self-proclaimed millionaire who had been giving away money, showed an empty wallet to some of the people who had accosted him near his father’s Manhattan apartment, shouted obscenities at others, and then left by private plane for Puerto Rico. His bank said that Mr. Brody’s account was insufficient to cover cheques he’d written.

Football
AFL All-Star game
West 26 East 3 @ Houston

San Diego Chargers’ quarterback John Hadl, who handed off to fellow Charger Dickie Post for a 1-yard touchdown and completed a 21-yard pass to another San Diego teammate, Lance Alworth, for another--both in the first quarter--was the Most Valuable Player in the American Football League’s final game. Jan Stenerud of the Kansas City Chiefs converted one of the touchdowns and kicked a 38-yard field goal in the third quarter to make the score 16-0. Jim Turner of the New York Jets responded with a 44-yard field goal to cut the West’s lead to 16-3 at the end of the third quarter. Mr. Stenerud kicked a 30-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to make the score 19-3, and then Mike Livingston of the Kansas City Chiefs, who had dressed in place of injured teammate Len Dawson, drove the West downfield, and rushed 12 yards for the AFL’s final touchdown. Mr. Stenerud’s convert made the final score 26-3. 30,170 were in attendance at the Astrodome. Lou Saban of the Denver Broncos was the winning head coach, while George Wilson of the Miami Dolphins took the loss in what turned out to be his final game as a professional head coach. The game also marked the end of the career of veteran Buffalo Bills’ quarterback Jack Kemp, who retired to pursue a career in politics. He shared the quarterbacking duties for the East with Mike Taliaferro of the Boston Patriots. Mr. Hadl completed 18 of 26 passes for 224 yards, but also threw 3 interceptions. The game was telecast on NBC, with Charlie Jones calling the play-by-play and Al DeRogatis providing colour commentary. The AFL merger with the NFL, which had been agreed to in 1966, was to take effect with the 1970 season.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 20 (CHED)
1 Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles
2 I Don’t Like Mondays--The Boomtown Rats
3 Coward of the County--Kenny Rogers
4 Do That to Me One More Time--The Captain and Tennille
5 Jane--Jefferson Starship
6 Chiquitita--Abba
7 Don’t Do Me Like That--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
8 Rock With You--Michael Jackson
9 Babe--Styx
10 The Long Run--Eagles
11 Crazy Little Thing Called Love--Queen
12 Please Don’t Go--K.C. and the Sunshine Band
13 Yes I’m Ready--Teri DeSario with K.C.
14 Say Hello--April Wine
15 We Don’t Talk Anymore--Cliff Richard
16 Message in a Bottle--The Police
17 Escape (The Pina Colada Song)--Rupert Holmes
18 Cool Change--Little River Band
19 Find Your Way--Surrender
20 This is It--Kenny Loggins

Defense
Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq dismissed the U.S. offer of $400 billion in economic and military aid over the next two years as "peanuts," and said that his country needed much more than that amount.

20 years ago
1990

World events
The Romanian government lifted the ban on the Communist Party that had been announced five days earlier, and cancelled a referendum that was to decide the party’s fate.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the merchandise trade deficit for November was $10.5 billion, the largest for any month in 1989.

10 years ago
2000

War
With thousands of civilians still in the Chechnyan capital of Grozny, Russian forces opened an intense air and artillery bombardment of the city.

Politics
U.S. Senator and Democratic party presidential candidate Bill Bradley challenged Vice-President Al Gore to appeal to President Bill Clinton to issue an executive order that would ban racial profiling by police.

Weather
Saint John, New Brunswick was hit by about 2 feet of snow with winds gusting to about 45 miles per hour.

January 16, 2010

90 years ago
1920

Law
A year after it was ratified, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, went into effect. The amendment didn’t prohibit drinking alcohol, or even buying it.

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Why--Anthony Newley

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10
1 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
2 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
3 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
4 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
5 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
6 Up on Cripple Creek--The Band
7 Whole Lotta Love--Led Zeppelin
8 Groovy Grubworm--Harlow Wilcox and the Oakies
9 Venus--The Shocking Blue
10 Come Together/Something--The Beatles

Harlow Wilcox was apparently no relation to the Harlow Wilcox who was the announcer on the CBS radio series Suspense in the 1940s and ‘50s, although I suspect he may have been named after him.

War
Striking to within 37 miles of Cairo, a commando force made Israel’s deepest penetration by ground troops since the Six-Day War in 1967. The raiding party destroyed electricity and telephone pylons on the main road between Cairo and Port Suez.

Politics
Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, 27-year-old leader of the military officers who had seized control of Libya on September 1, 1969, assumed the post of prime minister and appointed four members of the revolutionary command council to his new 12-man cabinet.

Economics and finance
U.S.S.R. Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev was reported to have told the party’s Central Committee that serious difficulties in the Soviet economy required tighter state control over planning, increased austerity measures, and stricter work discipline.

Business
Bethlehem Steel Corporation announced a 5% increase effective March 1 in prices of important categories of steel used in the construction of commercial and industrial buildings, ships, bridges, and heavy machinery.

Law
Outfielder Curt Flood, who had recently refused to accept a trade from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies, filed suit in U.S. federal court in New York City charging baseball with violation of the antitrust laws and requesting Mr. Flood’s immediate release from the reserve clause, which tied a player to one team indefinitely. The suit had the potential of affecting all major professional team sports in the United States.

Crime
Warren Kimbro, head of the Black Panther chapter in New Haven, Connecticut, pled guilty to the killing in May 1969 of fellow Panther Alex Rackley. Mr. Kimbro faced a mandatory life sentence.

Boxing
Carlos Marks knocked out Tom Bethea in 6 rounds in a middleweight bout at the Felt Forum in New York.

30 years ago
1980

War
An estimated 85,000 Soviet troops were in Afghanistan, and international concern was aroused by reports that many of them were in western Afghanistan near the border of Iran.

Chinese officials said that they were ready to increase a covert flow of Chinese small arms to the Afghan insurgents fighting the Soviets.

British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington visited Pakistan and its border with Afghanistan to dramatize British support for the country.

Medicine
Scientists and officers of Biogen, S.A., an international genetic research concern, announced that human interferon, a natural disease-fighting substance, had been made successfully in the laboratory by gene-splicing techniques. Scarce and prohibitively expensive, interferon was thought to hold great potential for curing a wide variety of virus diseases and some forms of cancer. Further improvements in the gene-splicing technique would enable the large-scale commercial production of the substance.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 5 Washington 2
Montreal 3 Chicago 1

20 years ago
1990

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: Don’t You Know Anything About Women?

Hockey
NHL
Detroit 6 Edmonton 4

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
John Morris Rankin, 40. Canadian musician. Mr. Rankin, originally a fiddler, played piano for the Nova Scotia group The Rankin Family. He died when his car plunged into the frigid Gulf of St. Lawrence near his Cape Breton home; his son and two friends escaped unharmed.

Politics
Ricardo Lagos Escobar, who had been an ally of slain Chilean President Salvador Allende in the 1970s, won a runoff election to become the first Socialist to win the country’s presidency since Mr. Allende’s election in 1970. Mr. Lagos Escobar, who most recently had served as minister of education and of public works, took 51% of the vote. He defeated Joaquin Lavin, a former aide to military dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Mr. Lavin made the strongest showing in years for a right-wing candidate.

Football
NFL
AFC Divisional Playoff
Tennessee 19 @ Indianapolis 16

NFC Divisional Playoff
Minnesota 37 @ St. Louis 49

January 15, 2010

140 years ago
1870

Politics
The donkey was first used as symbol of the Democratic Party in the U.S.A. in Harper's Weekly.

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
CHA
Montreal Le National 11 @ Quebec 12

This was the last game played in the Canadian Hockey Association, a professional league that had been formed a few weeks earlier and had begun play on December 30, 1909.

NHA
A meeting between National Hockey Association club owners and those of the Canadian Hockey Association was supposed to discuss amalgamation, but that was not discussed. Instead, the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Shamrocks were admitted to the NHA. Montreal Le National of the CHA were offered the Montreal Canadiens’ franchise, but declined. No offer to join the NHA was extended to All-Montreal or the Quebec Bulldogs, and the CHA ceased operations.

70 years ago
1940

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Greek Interpreter

60 years ago
1950

Hockey
NHL
Detroit 1 @ New York 0

Rookie Red Wings’ goaltender Terry Sawchuk recorded the first of his 103 career regular season NHL shutouts at Madison Square Garden.

50 years ago
1960

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: I Shot an Arrow Into the Air, starring Dewey Martin and Edward Binns

40 years ago
1970

War
Nigeria’s civil war officially ended with Biafra signing a surrender statement. The area again became Central Eastern State, one of 12 making up Nigeria, and once the best-developed area in all of Negro Africa. The 31-month war had shrunk the enclave, which once had a population of 12 million--2/3 of them of the Ibo tribe, the most capable tribe in Africa--at the outset, to 3.5 million, existing mostly on butterflies and roots when they could find them, and to 1,500 square miles from the original 30,000 square miles. A red Cross spokesman estimated that there were 5 million starving Biafran refugees behind federal Nigerian military lines at the time of the collapse of Biafra on January 12.

North Vietnam’s representatives at the Vietnam peace talks in Paris rejected U.S. President Richard Nixon’s three criteria for the withdrawal of American troops (progress in the peace talks; reduction of the level of fighting; and evidence that South Vietnamese forces could assume the burden of national defense) because they "in fact can never be met," and charged that the real policy of the U.S.A. was an indefinite military occupation of South Vietnam. The American delegate assailed the other side’s speech as one-sided, distorted, and valueless.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the nation’s economic growth had halted in the last three months of 1969 in keeping with the policy of restraint of the administration of President Richard Nixon. Prices continued to rise strongly, but not, the report said, so strongly as they might have without the policy.

Environment
Construction of a major international jetport near the Florida Everglades was banned for conservation reasons in an agreement announced by the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq appealed for international aid and support.

Defense
Yugoslavia placed its army on partial alert.

Law
A judge in New Delhi dismissed two cases against Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi arising from her rule in 1975.

Economics and finance
The price of gold passed $700 U.S. per ounce.

20 years ago
1990

War
With guerrillas fighting in the Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan in what had virtually become an ethnic civil war, the Soviet government sent troops into the area. The Azerbaijanis resisted, destroying or blockading bridges, roads, and rail lines. Some troops were killed.

Protest
100,000 people gathered outside the headquarters of the East German state security service, and the peaceful rally soon turned violent. Many in the crowd stormed the headquarters, generally tore up the interior, and destroyed or threw out thousands of documents.

Transportation
Major reductions in VIA Rail service took effect, eliminating half of the railway’s 38 routes and more than 2,500 jobs. The nationwide cuts had been announced in October as part of a Canadian government plan to cut subsidies to VIA from $641 million in 1988 to $350 million in 1992.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 7 Chicago 6

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Arkan (Zeljko Raznatovic), 47. Serbian warlord. Head of the paramilitary Tigers, Arkan was accused of war crimes in the Bosnian and Croatian wars between 1991 and 1995. He was on Interpol’s most-wanted list for crimes including bank robbery and extortion. Arkan was assassinated in a Belgrade hotel.

Protest
150,000 people in Cuba rallied to protest the U.S. refusal to return 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba. The boy was in the temporary custody of relatives in Florida pending a court ruling on whether he should be returned to his father in Cuba.

Politics
Candidates for the Republican party U.S. presidential nomination for 2000 debated in Johnston, Iowa. Senator John McCain claimed that Texas Governor George W. Bush’s tax cut plan would endanger Social Security, while Alan Keyes, who wanted the income tax eliminated altogether, called it a "slave tax."

Football
NFL
AFC Divisional Playoff
Miami 7 @ Jacksonville 62

NFC Divisional Playoff
Washington 13 @ Tampa Bay 14

January 14, 2010

70 years ago
1940

Football
NFL All-Star Game
Green Bay 16 NFL All-Stars 7 @ Gilmore Stadium, Los Angeles

40 years ago
1970

Diplomacy
Countries and agencies that were "studiously hostile" toward Nigeria during its civil war were banned by Nigeria’s federal government from providing relief to the war’s victims. Joint Church Aid, Caritas, Canairelief, and the Nordic Red Cross were named in the announcement. American offers of relief aid had drawn a statement of "warm appreciation" from Nigeria’s head of state, Major General Yakubu Gowon, according to the U.S. State Department.

West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, stressing that "we are not foreign countries to each other," offered to negotiate a non-aggression pact with East Germany in his first state-of-the-nation address to the Bundestag. He added, however, that West Germany had no intention of granting international recognition to the East German regime of President Walter Ulbricht.

Politics
Japan’s House of Representatives, convening in a new session after the previous month’s national election, re-elected Eisaku Sato as Prime Minister in a vote that followed party lines. Prime Minister Sato announced a new cabinet that emphasized his belief in the continuation of pro-American foreign policies and moderately conservative domestic policies.

Society
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that integration of 14 school districts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas had to take place no later than February 1. The decision, with Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justice Potter Stewart dissenting, overturned a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that had allowed a delay until September. The ruling also turned down a U.S. Justice Department request that the September deadline be approved. The ruling would affect 300,000 pupils.

Space
The U.S.A. launched Intelsat III F-6, the first of three global telecommunications satellites to be launched in 1970 to complete an eight-satellite commercial system operated by the multinational International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium.

Science
The Zale Corporation of New York City, one of the largest jewellery concerns in the world, announced the discovery of a 435-carat rough diamond. A 150-carat pear-shaped diamond that would be the second-largest such gem in the world was to be cut from the stone.

Music
Diana Ross and the Supremes performed their last concert together, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. Miss Ross was about to embark on a solo career, and her replacement, Jean Terrell, was introduced at the concert.

Disasters
10 were killed and 140 injured in a train derailment in northern Brazil.

30 years ago
1980

Diplomacy
The United Nations General Assembly voted 104-18 to condemn the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and demand that the U.S.S.R. withdraw its forces immediately.

Iran ousted all U.S. journalists from the country after reports had been filed about domestic unrest that had occurred in Tabriz on January 4-6.

Politics
Indira Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister of India, just over a week after being returned to power in national elections. Her cabinet had 14 members.

Health
U.S. Surgeon General Julius Richmond warned that lung cancer among women was increasing dramatically and that within three years it could overtake breast cancer as the leading cancer killer of women. The rate of lung cancer death for women had increased three fold from 5 per 100,000 in the early 1960s to 15 per 100,000 in 1978. Scientists projected that by 1983 the rate would approach 25 deaths per 100,000. The report stated, "...the first signs of an epidemic of smoking-related disease among women are now appearing." The report also said that pregnant women who smoked ran an increased risk of problems before, during, and after childbirth. Most previous reports on smoking had concentrated on men, since women didn’t begin smoking in large numbers until after World War II.. As the women grew older and continued to smoke, doctors were able to trace the same symptoms and problems as those experienced by men.

20 years ago
1990

Disasters
On the last day before huge cuts in VIA Rail service took effect, the Canadian, VIA’s transcontinental train, collided with a pickup truck and killed two people at a level crossing near Pembroke, Ontario.

About 100 people were killed when a ferry collided with another vessel in a river near Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Football
NFL
AFC Championship
Cleveland 21 @ Denver 37

NFC Championship
Los Angeles Rams 3 @ San Francisco 30

10 years ago
2000

Energy
A shipment of weapons-grade plutonium from the United States arrived at a laboratory in Chalk River, Ontario by helicopter, thwarting protesters’ plans to block highways along its route.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 3 Edmonton 2 (OT)

January 13, 2010

120 years ago
1890

Ballet
Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty was performed for the first time, at the Mariensky Theatre in St. Petersburg.

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
CHA
Ottawa 15 @ All-Montreal 5

75 years ago
1935

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Armchair Solution

40 years ago
1970

War
Israeli jets raided the suburbs of Cairo for the second time in a week, striking at a major air force supply base about nine miles from the city, as well as at Egypt’s largest military base, farther from the city.

Space
Citing an "austere" budget, Dr. Thomas O. Paine, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said that 50,000 jobs would be cut from NASA programs to save money. Dr. Paine also said that the manned lunar landing programs would be stretched out, but that flights to other planets and work on a manned space station would continue with available funds.

Diplomacy
Swedish Foreign Minister Torsten Nilsson announced Sweden had earmarked $15 million U.S. in aid to North Vietnam in the 1970-71 budget and $45 million over three years.

Society
A three-judge U.S. federal district court panel in Washington, D.C. ordered the Internal Revenue Service to stop giving tax exemptions to segregated private schools in Mississippi that had been set up to circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s order for the immediate integration of the state’s public school system.

Protest
The first complete study of 1969 student protests, done by the Urban Research Corporation of Chicago, showed that most were non-violent and did not interrupt college routine. The report, which covered 232 campuses, also showed that the New Left was less in evidence than was thought, and that protesters were more concerned with campus conditions than with the Vietnam War.

Disasters
All 30 aboard a DC-3 were killed in a crash after takeoff from Western Samoa’s Faleolo Airport in heavy rain.

30 years ago
1980

World events
More than 100,000 people greeted Patriotic Front leader Joshua Nkomo on his return to Zimbabwe Rhodesia after three years of exile. He returned under the recently negotiated peace accord in order to campaign in the upcoming national election.

Diplomacy
The U.S.S.R. vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose economic sanctions upon Iran. The U.S.A. and some of its allies vowed to continue to seek sanctions.

20 years ago
1990

Politics
Before ending his visit to Lithuania, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev expressed a willingness to accept a multiparty system in the U.S.S.R.

Crime
Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani announced that a colonel, two lieutenants, and five other soldiers had been arrested for the murders of six Jesuit priests and two others in San Salvador in November 1989.

In Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, youths went on a rampage through the Armenian section of town, and 30 people, mostly Armenians, were reported killed.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 6 Calgary 5

10 years ago
2000

Economics and finance
The Canadian government announced that it would pay $1 billion C. over the next two years to help farmers through the latest crisis in agricultural prices. Critics complained that the promised aid wasn’t enough.

Politics
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that he would run for president in the March election.

Crime
Nathaniel Abraham, who was just shy of his 14th birthday, was sentenced to 7 years in a maximum-security juvenile detention centre for a murder that he committed at the age of 11. He was the youngest American ever convicted of murder as an adult, under a law in Michigan that allowed a child of any age to be tried as an adult. Mr. Abraham killed 18-year-old Ronnie Greene.

January 12, 2010

100 years ago
1910

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Luise Rainer! The German-born actress won the Academy Award for Best Actress in consecutive years for The Great Zigfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937).

40 years ago
1970

On the Radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight’s episode: The Centauries

War
Fighting in the 31-month Nigerian civil war ended with the surrender of breakaway Biafra when Biafra’s leader, General Odumegwu Ojukwu, fled with his family on one of the last flights out of the beleaguered Uli airstrip. Major General Philip Effiong took over from Gen. Ojukwu and capitulated in a brief broadcast over Biafra’s mobile radio, declaring, "I am convinced now a stop must be put to the bloodshed." Eight hours later, and shortly after the Nigerian government announced the capture of the Uli airstrip, Maj. Gen. Yakubu Gowon accepted the surrender in another broadcast, and urged all Nigerians to treat the defeated rebels as brothers.

Diplomacy
The U.S.S.R. rebuffed American proposals for a Middle East peace settlement as "one-sided and pro-Israel." The rejection withdrew acceptance of certain key points that the U.S. State Department thought had been settled in past negotiations.

Scandal
A U.S. federal grand jury in New York City indicted Nathan M. Voloshen, a reputed influence peddler, and Dr. Martin Sweig, the suspended administrative aide to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John W. McCormack, on charges of fraud and conspiracy to defraud government agencies.

Disasters
All 23 men on a Greek military plane were killed in a crash during a parachute practice drop northwest of Athens.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Escape (The Pina Colada Song)--Rupert Holmes (3rd week at #1)

World events
Yugoslavian dictator Josip Broz Tito, 87, underwent an operation, ultimately unsuccessful, for removal of a blocked artery from his left leg.

Defense
In order to help strengthen Pakistan’s security after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S.A. offered Pakistan $400 million in economic and military aid over the next two years. U.S. aid to Pakistan had been cut off on April 6, 1979 after it was learned that Pakistan was constructing a uranium enrichment facility that could produce material for an atomic bomb. Half of the new aid would be military credits and would be limited to defensive arms, such as anti-tank weapons; antiaircraft systems; infantry weapons; and artillery and armour.

Hockey
NHL
Philadelphia 3 @ Montreal 4

20 years ago
1990

World events
East German Premier Hans Modrow said that no new national security force would be formed before national elections, and admitted that secret police had continued to spy on the political opposition.

Protest
A large crowd gathered in Bucharest to protest the perceived influence of Communists in the leadership of Romania. Ion Iliescu, chairman of the National Salvation Front and interim President, managed to calm the crowd somewhat by announcing that the Communist Party had been outlawed.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that producer prices for all of 1989 had risen 4.8%, the highest rate since a 7.1% increase in 1981.

The Canadian dollar hit 86.5 c U.S.

10 years ago
2000

Law
Beverley McLachlin was officially sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno acknowledged that only federal courts could make a determination in the custody battle over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who had been ordered by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to be returned to his father in Cuba. Temporary custody had been granted to the boy’s Florida relatives on January 10.

Weather
A rare winter thunderstorm boomed over British Columbia’s lower mainland, bringing a variety of precipitation, including rain, hail, and snow.

January 11, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Kristi!

125 years ago
1885

Born on this date
Alice Paul. U.S. suffragist. Miss Paul, who, if her photograph is any indication, was better looking than most feminists, wrote the first version of the Equal Rights Amendment, which finally failed when the 1982 deadline came without ratification by the required ¾ of the states. Miss Paul died in 1977.

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
CHA
Montreal Le National 8 @ Montreal Shamrocks 17

Only 800 fans were in attendance.

75 years ago
1935

Aviation
Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden, on ABC

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: El Paso--Marty Robbins (2nd week at #1)

40 years ago
1970

War
Nigeria announced that its troops had captured Owerri, provisional capital of secessionist Biafra, and it was reported that Biafra’s last major airstrip, at Uli, was out of action.

Disasters
A train struck a bus near Santa Marta, Colombia, killing 36 people.

Football
Super Bowl IV
Kansas City (AFL) 23 Minnesota (NFL) 7 @ New Orleans

The Chiefs’ offense used a balanced attack and their defense forced five Minnesota turnovers as the American Football League won its second straight Super Bowl. Kansas City’s Jan Stenerud kicked a 48-yard field goal in the first quarter and added 32- and 25-yard field goals in the second quarter to give the Chiefs a 9-0 lead, which became a 16-0 lead by halftime when Mike Garrett rushed 5 yards for a touchdown, converted by Mr. Stenerud. Minnesota quarterback Joe Kapp drove the Vikings 69 yards downfield to start the third quarter, and Dave Osborn finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run, converted by Fred Cox. The Chiefs came back before the end of the quarter, and Len Dawson completed a short pass to Otis Taylor, which he broke for a 46-yard touchdown. Mr. Stenerud’s convert made the score 23-7, and there was no further scoring. Mr. Dawson, who was voted the game’s Most Valuable Player, completed 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards, while the Chiefs rushed 42 times for 151 yards. Mr. Kapp completed 16 of 25 passes for 183 yards, but gave up 2 interceptions. Gary Cuozzo, who relieved Mr. Kapp late in the game, was 1 for 3 for 16 yards and an interception. Mr. Taylor led the Chiefs’ receivers with 6 receptions for 81 yards. Frank Pitts caught 3 for 33 and rushed 3 times for 37 yards. John Henderson of the Vikings led all receivers with 7 catches for 111 yards. The Minnesota rushing game was held to just 67 yards on 19 attempts. For Mr. Kapp, it was his last game as a Viking. 80,562 were in attendance at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.

20 years ago
1990

World events
The end of martial law in Beijing took effect, but had little practical impact because other laws introduced since the June 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square had curtailed unauthorized political activity.

Armenia’s parliament asserted Armenia’s right to override national (i.e., Soviet) laws that affected Armenia. This was in response to the presidium of the national Supreme Soviet declaring Armenia’s vote to integrate the economy of Nagorno-Karabakh into that of Armenia unconstitutional.

Protest
250,000 people demonstrated in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on behalf of independence as Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in an attempt to persuade the Lithuanian Communist Party to rescind its break with the national (i.e., Soviet) party. In a walk through the streets of the city, Mr. Gorbachev denounced independence as a dead end, and said the U.S.S.R. could not afford to lose its Baltic ports.

10 years ago
2000

World events
British Home Secretary Jack Straw announced that 84-year-old General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, was medically unfit to stand trial in Spain. Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon had sought to extradite Gen. Pinochet to Spain to confront charges of human rights violations allegedly committed during his reign in Chile from 1973-1990.

Politics
U.S. Senator and Republican party presidential candidate John McCain detailed his tax plan. He proposed $237.5 billion in tax cuts over five years, benefiting mainly middle-class and lower-income people. He favoured eliminating tax breaks for big corporations and "other powerful special interests."

Business
Inco Ltd. announced that it was shelving plans to construct a nickel processing facility in Newfoundland to handle the oree from the Voisey’s Bay deposit.

Weather
A loud, booming winter thunderstorm was heard across Nova Scotia. Some houses in Halifax shook and windows rattled.

Disasters
Seven young fishermen drowned off the Scottish coast when their scallop dredger sank in force nine gales.

January 10, 2010

90 years ago
1920

World events
The League of Nations came into existence.

Hockey
NHL
Newsy Lalonde of the Montreal Canadiens set a National Hockey League single-game record with six goals as Montreal defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 14-7.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The Left-Handed Murder Case

50 years ago
1960

World events
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, on a visit to Accra, Ghana, delivered his "Wind of Change" speech, acknowledging the increasing desire of Negro peoples in Africa to govern themselves. The speech went unnoticed at the time, but became a major event when he reiterated it before the South African parliament in Cape Town on February 3, including a rebuke to South Africa's apartheid system.

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris (4th week at #1)
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas (2nd week at #1)

Calgary’s top 10
1 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
2 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
3 No Time--The Guess Who
4 Something--The Beatles
5 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
6 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
7 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
8 Venus--The Shocking Blue
9 Life is a Song--Gainsborough Gallery
10 Cherry Hill Park--Billy Joe Royal
Pick hit of the week: Fancy--Bobbie Gentry

Died on this date
Pavel Belyayev, 44. U.S.S.R. cosmonaut. Colonel Belyayev commanded the Voskhod 2 mission of March 18-19, 1965, in which Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space. Col. Belyayev died from peritonitis after an operation for a stomach ulcer.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 20 (CHED)
1 Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles
2 I Don’t Like Mondays--The Boomtown Rats
3 Coward of the County--Kenny Rogers
4 Chiquitita--Abba
5 Do That to Me One More Time--The Captain and Tennille
6 Babe--Styx
7 Please Don’t Go--K.C. and the Sunshine Band
8 Rock With You--Michael Jackson
9 Jane--Jefferson Starship
10 Don’t Do Me Like That--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
11 We Don’t Talk Anymore--Cliff Richard
12 The Long Run--Eagles
13 Escape (The Pina Colada Song)--Rupert Holmes
14 Cool Change--Little River Band
15 Say Hello--April Wine
16 No More Tears (Enough is Enough)--Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer
17 Crazy Little Thing Called Love--Queen
18 Heartache Tonight--Eagles
19 Yes I’m Ready--Teri DeSario with K.C.
20 Find Your Way--Surrender

War
The New York Times reported that Soviet military units in Afghanistan appeared to be concentrating on securing newly established bases and staging areas. Soviet military transports loaded with troops and equipment were reported landing in Kabul at a rated of a dozen a day.

25 years ago
1985

Transportation
The Sinclair C5, an electric tricycle capable of a top speed of 15 miles per hour, drove into a safety row on its first day on the road.

Disasters
Eight people were killed and dozens injured when an explosion demolished Newnham House, a three-storey block of six flats in Putney, south-west London.

20 years ago
1990

World events
Chinese Premier Li Peng announced that martial law would be lifted in Beijing. In a televised speech, he said that order had been restored and "a great victory has been won in checking the turmoil and quelling the counter-revolutionary rebellion." He presumably said this in Chinese.

A party in the ruling coalition of East Germany confirmed that the government was forming a new secret security agency.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
John Newland, 82. U.S. television producer and director. Mr. Newland was best-known as producer, director, and host of Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond, which ran on ABC from 1959-1961.

War
Russian forces resumed a full-scale offensive on Grozny, capital of the rebellious republic of Chechnya.

Diplomacy
A week of peace talks in Shepherdstown, West Virginia between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara ended without any significant breakthrough.

Law
The Miami-Dade Circuit Court granted temporary custody of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to the boy’s Florida relatives, five days after the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services had ordered the boy returned to his father in Cuba.

Politics
Russian President Vladimir Putin elevated Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov to Deputy Prime Minister, the number two position in the government. He also demoted two Kremlin officials who had been allied with Mr. Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.

During a debate in Grand Rapids, Michigan of Republican party candidates for the 2000 U.S. presidential nomination, U.S. Senator John McCain charged that Texas Governor George W. Bush’s tax-cut plan unduly favoured the wealthy.

Business
America OnLine (AOL) announced that it would buy Time Warner for $165 billion U.S., creating a media and entertainment giant merging old and new media. At the time, 22 million people subscribed to AOL and 130 million read 33 Time Warner magazines. Other components of the two companies included New Line Cinema; Warner Brothers; Cable News Network; Home Box Office and nine other cable television channels; and Warner Music Group. AOL would assume a $17-billion debt. The value of the companies, measured in their stock prices, was $342 billion, though AOL’s stock subsequently declined. AOL’s Steve Case was to become chairman of the board of the new AOL Time Warner, which would be the fourth-biggest company in the world. Shareholders and regulators had yet to approve the merger.

January 9, 2010

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?--Emile Ford

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10
1 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
2 Come Together/Something--The Beatles
3 One Tin Soldier--The Original Caste
4 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
5 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
6 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
7 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
8 Midnight Cowboy--Ferrante and Teicher
9 Up on Cripple Creek--The Band
10 Arizona--Mark Lindsay

Space
The U.S.S.R. launched Cosmos 318.

War
Evidence that South Korean soldiers in South Vietnam murdered "hundreds" of civilians was found by interviewers for a private research project, according to its former director, A. Terry Rambo. Mr. Rambo also stated that an American army officer had ordered him to stop making inquiries and to leave the allegations out of his report.

Defense
France acknowledged that her arms deal with Libya announced two days earlier included an agreement to sell 50 Mirage jet fighters. The French government stated that resale of the jets to third parties--Arab countries directly involved in hostilities with Israel, for instance--was prohibited.

Officials in Washington confirmed that Nationalist China (Taiwan) would be provided with a squadron of U.S. F-104 Starfighter fighter-bombers from "excess stocks." The U.S. Congress had been embroiled in a controversy over an amendment to foreign aid legislation granting Taiwan a squadron on the newer Phantom planes.

Disasters
A nursing home fire in Marietta, Ohio killed 27 people.

All 50 aboard a ferry were lost when it sank in shark-infested Guayaquil Gulf, Ecuador.

30 years ago
1980

World events
U.S. President Jimmy Carter warned the American public that it could take months to gain the release of the hostages from the U.S. embassy in Iran. "There is no legitimate political bargaining leverage that can be exerted on" the Iranian militants, Mr. Carter warned, and "there is no entity there with whom one can negotiate."

Defense
U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown concluded several days of talks with Chinese military officials.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 2 @ Quebec 3

20 years ago
1990

Economics and finance
The parliament of Armenia voted to integrate the economy of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh into the economy of Armenia.

Personal
This blogger began a two-month job with Musee Heritage Museum in St. Albert, Alberta.

10 years ago
2000

Football
NFL
NFC Wild Card Playoff
Dallas 10 @ Minnesota 27

AFC Wild Card Playoff
Miami 20 @ Seattle 17

January 8, 2010

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
CHA
All-Montreal 5 @ Quebec 1
Ottawa 14 @ Montreal Le National 4

75 years ago
1935

Born on this date
Elvis Presley. U.S. musician. The King of Rock and Roll. Click on the links to see Mark Steyn's comments on Elvis; Sam Phillips; Rock-A-Hula Baby; and It's Now or Never.

70 years ago
1940

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
Tonight’s episode: The Adventure of the Priory School

50 years ago
1960

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: Third From the Sun, starring Fritz Weaver, Joe Maross, and Edward Andrews

40 years ago
1970

Space
A four-day conference on lunar science concluded in Houston. Dr. Robert Jastrow of the Institute of Space Study in New York told the 800 scientists in attendance that a fiery cataclysm in the solar system more than 3.5 billion years ago melted much of the moon and incinerated the Earth, and that if life had begun to evolve on Earth, it was wiped out by this catastrophe and had to begin again. Dr. Jastrow said that more than 1 billion years of Earth's history disappeared in the explosion: "Chemical evolution must have begun again at 3,500,000,000 years after being wiped out." He continued, "The moon contains earlier records of the solar system's history than are found on the Earth. The moon can roll back the curtains of history of the solar system and our own planet...that have been concealed from our view up to now."

War
American negotiators at the Paris peace talks on the Vietnam War proposed that formal sessions alternate with informal restricted talks. The Communists rejected the suggestion as a "perfidious maneuver" and asked for private meetings between the Americans and Viet Cong.

Private Gerald A. Smith, 22, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Sergeant Charles E. Hutto, 21, stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, were charged with premeditated murder in the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968.

Religion
In a statement distributed to Mormon leaders around the world, the top leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints reaffirmed its ban on Negroes in the priesthood. All other Mormon men were expected to join the priesthood.

Society
Negroes were reported to be organizing boycotts of white merchants charged with supporting all-white private schools being set up in some Mississippi counties to avoid the public school desegregation ordered by the courts.

Disasters
A bus and truck crash near Montes Calaros, Brazil, killed 23 and injured countless others.

30 years ago
1980

Defense
U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown announced that the United States would sell China a ground station for receiving information from the Landsat Earth Resources Satellite, a move with possible military applications.

Labour
The International Longshoremen’s Association told its members to stop handling Soviet ships.

20 years ago
1990

World events
An official of the East German government disclosed that 60,000 of an original 85,000 secret police personnel were still on the government payroll despite a promise in December that they would be disbanded.

Economics and finance
In the first shift downward in six months, major banks in the United States lowered their prime lending rate by 0.5% to 10%.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 8 Washington 6

10 years ago
2000

Football
NFL
AFC Wild Card Playoff
Buffalo 16 @ Tennessee 22

Kevin Dyson took a cross-field lateral from Frank Wycheck and returned a kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown with 3 seconds remaining in regulation time to give the Titans the victory before 66,782 fans at Adelphia Stadium in Nashville. The dramatic play came after Steve Christie kicked a 41-yard field goal with 16 seconds remaining to give the Bills a 16-13 lead.

NFC Wild Card Playoff
Detroit 13 @ Washington 27

January 7, 2010

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
Stanley Cup challenge
Game 2 (2-game, total goals series)
Galt (OPHL) 1 @ Ottawa (CHA) 3 (Ottawa won series 15-4)

Mr. Stuart, Mr. Lake, and Mr. Ridpath scored for the Senators, formerly of the Eastern Canada Hockey Association and now playing as a founding member of the new professional league known as the Canadian Hockey Association, as they retained the Stanley Cup with their second straight win at The Arena over Galt, champions of the Ontario Professional Hockey League. Mr. Charlton scored for Galt.

40 years ago
1970

Space
On the third day of a conference on lunar science in Houston, Dr. Harold C. Urey of the University of California admitted that scientists had learned a great deal from studying moon rocks brought back by Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 that upset the theories they held to before man went to the moon: "All of us will admit tht we have been wrong." Dr. Urey said that he no longer believed that the lunar "mare"--seas--were necessarily lava flows or the beds of dried-up oceans: "These smooth dust plains have apprently not been made by any process we see on earth." The theory that lunar material was jarred from the moon's surface by meteors and landed on Earth in the form of tektites--rounded, marble-like stones--was shaken when Dr. Elbert King of the University of Houston said that studies that he and others conducted on Apollo 11 samples "make it seem impossible that tektites come from the moon."

War
Israel launched a steady jet barrage against military targets deep inside Egypt to ease the pressure along the Suez Canal, according to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. Prime Minister Golda Meir declared the purpose was to demonstrate to Egyptian President Gamal Nasser "that either it’s quiet on both sides or there’s bombing on both sides." The better-trained pilots, dubbed "Moshe’s Marauders," hit close to Cairo.

Defense
France announced a commercial agreement and arms deal with Libya, extending French influence in north Africa. It was reported that Mirage jet fighters were among the weapons to be provided the new Libyan regime.

Politics
Major General Emile Bustani, commander-in-chief of the Lebanese armed forces, who had been under criticism since Israeli raiders had captured 22 Lebanese the previous week, was removed from the cabinet and replaced by Major General Jean Njaim, who had a reputation for toughness.

Crime
FBI tapes made between 1961 and 1965 were released in the conspiracy-extortion trial in Newark of reputed Mafia boss Angelo "Gyp" De Carlo and three others. The electronic ears had picked up conversations between mobsters in which they boasted that their shadow government had virtually run New Jersey, dominating almost every facet of business, political and social life. Mr. De Carlo and his name-dropping associates bragged about their power to corrupt political figures and law enforcement officers on all levels, from petty local officials to powerful Trenton legislative leaders. Despite jealous local "family" controls, the mobsters alleged that their influence had even reached to New York. The illegally-obtained recordings affected scores of others not indicted, and since their names were made public as part of an unsworn record, many offered denials.

Religion
A representative assembly of the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands voted to allow priests to marry and for the admission of women to the priesthood, thus moving the Dutch church closer to a confrontation with the Vatican. The eight Dutch bishops, who held the power of decision at the assembly, abstained on the issue of allowing priests to marry. On admission of women to the priesthood, the votes were one in favour and four against, with three abstentions.

30 years ago
1980

Died on this date
Larry Williams, 44. U.S. rock and roll musician. Mr. Williams’ song Just Because reached #11 on the Billboard rhythm and blues chart in the spring of 1957. Short Fat Fannie hit #1 on the R&B chart and #5 on the Billboard pop chart that summer; the B-side, High School Dance, was the first composition of Sonny Bono to be released on record. The follow-up single, Bony Maronie, reached #14 late in the year. He was a close associate of Little Richard, and the Beatles recorded several of Mr. Williams’ compositions, including Dizzy Miss Lizzie; Bad Boy; and Slow Down. In the 1960s and ‘70s, Mr. Williams descended into a lifestyle of drug use and drug dealing. He died in Los Angeles of a gunshot wound to the head; it was ruled a suicide, but there was much speculation otherwise.

World events
A confrontation in Zimbabwe was averted when 450 of Patriotic Front leader Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) guerrillas were persuaded to surrender and report to assembly points. It was reported that 20,000 guerrillas had gathered at 16 assembly points in the bush where they were to be monitored by a Commonwealth force during the election campaign. At least 2,000 guerrillas were thought to be still at large, most of them thought to be followers of Mr. Mugabe.

Diplomacy
The United Nations Security Council voted 13-2 to condemn the U.S.S.R. for its invasion of Afghanistan and demanded that it withdraw its forces immediately.

UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim told the Security Council that Iran’s student militants "make their decisions independently" and were a power centre independent of the Revolutionary Council.

Economics and finance
In order to prevent the dumping of large quantities of grain on the market at disastrous prices, the U.S. federal government announced that it would buy the contracts for an estimated 14.5 million tons of wheat, corn, and soybeans that had been embargoed on January 4 from delivery to the U.S.S.R. The government’s purchase of $2.5 billion-3 billion worth of grain would be made with Commodity Credit Corporation funds. Due to the possible market disruption resulting from the grain embargo, trading in grains for future delivery was suspended on January 7 and 8.

Politics
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy charged President Jimmy Carter with "lurching" from crisis to crisis in domestic and foreign policy.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 3 @ Montreal 4

20 years ago
1990

World events
President Alfredo Cristiani of El Salvador said that the military had been involved in the murder of six Jesuit priests and two other people in San Salvador in November. The Jesuits had criticized human rights abuses by the government and had supported a negotiated settlement of the civil war with Communist guerrillas.

Protest
Thousands of Romanians demonstrated nationwide against the prominence of Communists in the provisional regime.

Football
NFL
NFC Divisional Playoff
Los Angeles Rams 19 @ New York Giants 13 (OT)

The Giants lost on Jim Everett's stunning 30-yard touchdown strike in overtime. Willie "Flipper" Anderson caught the pass in midstride and ran it straight into the Giants Stadium tunnel. 76,325 were in attendance.

AFC Divisional Playoff
Pittsburgh 23 @ Denver 24

Hockey
NHL
Calgary 3 Edmonton 1

10 years ago
2000

War
Slowed by bad weather and choosing to give residents of Grozny a chance to escape, the Russian army suspended its advance on the capital of the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

World events
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public for the first time in 800 years amid speculation the structure was on the verge of toppling over.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Bill Clinton, who attended some of the talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara at Shepherdstown, West Virginia, presented a paper that sought to define the positions of both sides.

Lazaro Gonzalez, great-uncle of Elian Gonzalez, the six-year-old boy who had been ordered by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to be returned from Florida to his father in Cuba, filed a court petition in Miami asking for temporary custody and a delay in the boy’s return to Cuba. Congressman Dan Burton (Republican--Indiana) subpoenaed Elian to testify before a House of Representatives Committee.

Crime
Former British Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, chief secretary to the Treasury in the Conservative government of Prime Minister John Major, was released from jail after serving less than half of his 18-month sentence. Mr. Aitken, 57, was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice in June 1999 after the collapse of his libel action against The Guardian newspaper and Granada television in 1997.

January 6, 2010

Born on this date
Happy birthday, Sherlock Holmes!

470 years ago
1540

Brittanica
King Henry VIII of England married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.

75 years ago
1935

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Singular Affair of the Aluminum Crutch

70 years ago
1940

Born on this date
Van McCoy. U.S. musician. Mr. McCoy wrote songs and produced records for a number of artists in the 1960s and ‘70s, but is best remembered for his one big hit as an artist, The Hustle, one of 1975’s biggest hits. He died of a heart attack on July 6, 1979.

50 years ago
1960

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Sheila Hellevang and Johanna Wegner!

40 years ago
1970

Space
On the second day of a four-day conference on lunar science in Houston, Dr. Robert Pepin of the University of Minnesota told the 800 scientists in attendance that an unknown component, perhaps the radioactive decay product of a now-extinct "big nuclei" element which had disappeared some time after the Earth was formed, may be responsible for the amount of krypton discovered in meteorites and, to a lesser degree, in moon rocks brought back by Apollo 11. Dr. Pepin favoured the proposal that the mystery component was formed in an exploding star billions of years ago elsewhere in the Milky Way, and that the shock waves from the explosion pushed fine dust particles across light years to reach our solar system. According to Dr. Pepin's model, the maverick meteorites and perhaps the moon's surface picked up some of the mysterious component, which over eons decomposed into the special varieties of krypton which had been causing the puzzle.

Crime
1,200 pages of transcripts and logs compiled by FBI of conversations among reputed Mafia leaders were made public at the opening session of the trial of Angelo "Gyp" De Carlo in U.S. federal court in Newark. The tapes disclosed boasts by Mafiosi of dealings with politicians and law enforcement officials.

Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Len Dawson, who was preparing to lead his team into the Super Bowl against the Minnesota Vikings in New Orleans five days hence, was reported to be linked to a U.S. federal investigation of gambling improprieties in Detroit. He was eventually cleared of any charges.

Boxing
Australia's Johnny Famechon (55-4-6) retained his World Boxing Council featherweight title with a 14-round knockout of Fighting Harada (55-7) at Metropolitan Gym in Tokyo. Mr. Famechon had won a 15-round decision over Mr. Harada in a title defense on July 28, 1969 in Sydney. For Mr. Harada, who had been the World Boxing Association flyweight champion from October 1962-January 1963 and WBA and WBC bantamweight champion from May 1965-February 1968, this was his last fight.

Heavyweight contender George Foreman improved his record to 14-0 with 12 knockouts with a 4-round knockout of Charley Polite (11-15-3) at Sam Houston Coliseum in Houston.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Afghan President Babrak Karmal reportedly released 2,000 political prisoners. The United Nations reported that 15,000 Afghan refugees had fled to Pakistan in the last two weeks of December 1979, bringing to 402,000 the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Three days of domestic unrest in Tabriz, Iran concluded with at least 43 deaths.

Defense
U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown began several days of talks with Chinese military officials.

Politics
Indira Gandhi led her Congess-I Party to an overwhelming victory in India’s parliamentary elections, taking 351 of 542 seats. Although Congress-I won nearly 70% of the seats, they took just 42% of the vote. A division of opposition votes among the Janata (32 seats), Lok Dal (41 seats), and Congress (13 seats) Parties was held responsible for Mrs. Gandhi’s victory. Mrs. Gandhi’s son Sanjay, who had been blamed for many of the excesses of Mrs. Gandhi’s emergency rule in the late 1970s, won a seat. During the campaign, Mrs. Gandhi had stressed the need to cut inflation and restore law and order within India and called for recognition of the new Vietnamese-backed Heng Samrin government in Cambodia, and closer relations with Third World countries. It was expected that she would crack down on hoarders of sugar and kerosene, important commodities in India.

Football
NFL
AFC Championship Playoff
Houston 13 @ Pittsburgh 27

NFC Championship Playoff
Los Angeles 9 @ Tampa Bay 0

25 years ago
1985

Personal
This blogger was one of those in attendance at the CPR Stockholders of Edmonton Sherlock Holmes birthday dinner at 9th Street Cafe.

Football
NFL
AFC Championship Playoff
Pittsburgh 28 @ Miami 45

Miami quarterback Dan Marino completed 21 of 32 passes for 421 yards and 4 touchdowns in front of an Orange Bowl crowd of 76,029.

NFC Championship Playoff
Chicago 0 @ San Francisco 23

20 years ago
1990

Personal
This blogger was one of those in attendance at the CPR Stockholders of Edmonton Sherlock Holmes birthday dinner at the Faculty Club.

Diplomacy
Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, visiting Romania, said that the U.S.S.R. would support any kind of political system that emerged in Romania.

Football
NFL
AFC Divisional Playoff
Buffalo 30 @ Cleveland 34

NFC Divisional Playoff
Minnesota 13 @ San Francisco 41

Hockey
NHL
Los Angeles 4 @ Toronto 7

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Don Martin, 68. U.S. cartoonist. Mr. Martin joined Mad magazine in the mid-1950s, and eventually was rewarded with his own department in the magazine and became known as "Mad’s Maddest Artist." He was known for using unusual words in his cartoons to represent sound effects, e.g., "Kloon!;" "Sploidoing!;" "Shpritz!" In the early 1980s he had a falling out with Mad over royalties and jumped to Cracked magazine.

Abominations
As hundreds of Cuban Americans in Miami protested, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno backed the decision of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to return six-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba.

Crime
A mother and son were charged with trying to smuggle 10 teenage Chinese girls into the United States. Their van was stopped in Wallaceburg, Ontario on its way to Detroit.

Politics
At a debate in Durham, New Hampshire among Republican party candidates for the 2000 U.S. presidential nomination, Texas Governor George W. Bush pledged to cut taxes if elected, and also argued that Senator John McCain’s plan to do away with so-called "soft money" in campaigns would "hurt Republicans."

January 5, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Laura-Belle Robinson and Nadia!

130 years ago
1880

Born on this date
Nikolay Karlovich Medtner. Russian composer and pianist. A close friend of Sergei Rachmaninov, Mr. Medtner taught at Moscow Conservatory and then fled his homeland in 1921. He and his family lived in several European cities over the year before finally settling in London. He died in 1951 at the age of 71. Mr. Medtner was best-known for his piano concertos; as I type this post I'm listening to a recording of his First and Third Piano Concertos, and they're excellent examples of late Romantic piano music.

100 years ago
1910

Defense
The dreadnought Minas Geraes was commissioned by the Brazilian Navy.

Hockey
Stanley Cup challenge
Game 1 (2-game, total goals series)
Galt (OPHL) 3 @ Ottawa (CHA) 12

Marty Walsh scored 6 goals to lead the defending champion Senators, formerly of the Eastern Canada Hockey Association and now a founding member of the new professional league known as the Canadian Hockey Association, to victory at The Arena. Mr. Stuart and Mr. Shore each scored twice for the Senators, with single goals coming from Mr. Lake and Mr. Ridpath. Mr. Doherty, Mr. Manson, and J. Mallen scored for Galt, champions of the Ontario Professional Hockey League.

NHA
Cobalt 6 @ Montreal Canadiens 7 (OT)

The Canadiens started their history on a winning note as Didier Pitre scored 5 minutes into overtime against the Silver Kings at Jubilee Arena on the first day of play in the new professional league known as the National Hockey Association. The league had 5 teams: Montreal Canadiens; Montreal Wanderers; Renfrew Creamery Kings; Cobalt Silver Kings; and Haileybury Comets. On January 15 the NHA admitted the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Shamrocks from the rival Canadian Hockey Association, and the season began anew with 7 teams. The results of all games played prior to January 15, including the Canadiens’ win over the Silver Kings, were thrown out.

90 years ago
1920

Baseball
The Boston Red Sox sold outfielder and pitcher Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000. Mr. Ruth had set a single-season record with 29 home runs in 1919.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
Springbok Radio, South Africa’s first commercial station, began broadcasting.

Dragnet, starring Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: Big Escape

40 years ago
1970

On the radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight’s episode: The Seven Ages of Man

Space
A four-day conference on lunar science opened in Houston with 800 scientists in attendance. Studies of the moon rocks brought back by the Apollo 11 and 12 astronauts had led to the revision of theories of the moon's origin. Professor Harold C. Urey, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist from the University of California who for decades had argued that the moon had been formed as a dead body and had been dead ever since, now said that he wanted to think about a new model for the formation of the moon. University of Chicago mineralogist Joseph C. Smith proposed that the moon was formed much like the Earth from a molten core of iron and titanium-rich liquid. Dr. Smith described his discovery of an unnamed mineral, a yellowish substance unknown on Earth in any natural form, that had been found in the moon rocks.

Crime
The bodies of Jock Yablonski, his wife, and their 25-year-old daughter were found shot to death in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania home. It was estimated that the murders had taken place on December 31. Mr. Yablonski, 59, had lost a bitterly-fought election on December 9 to Tony Boyle for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America. The election was widely believed to be corrupt, and on December 18, Mr. Yablonski had asked the United States Department of Labor to investigate. Mr. Yablonski’s two sons, both lawyers, charged that the murders were committed by "professional assassins." An FBI investigation of the crime was ordered after demands from Mr. Yablonski’s lawyer. The UMWA denied any connection with the killings and offered $50,000 for capture and conviction of the killer or killers.

U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy spent nearly two hours testifying under oath about his movements before and after the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne the previous July, as a long-delayed inquest into Miss Kopechne’s death on Chappaquiddick Island began in Edgartown, Massachusetts. The inquest was closed to the public and press.

War
The South Vietnamese Senate decided that the My Lai massacre in March 1968 was "an isolated act by an American unit and not the policy of the United States armed forces." Despite a committee report that at least 47 people had been killed in the village, the senators did not label the incident a massacre.

Society
As 30 Mississippi schools began to end their dual school systems under orders of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, many white parents shifted their children from the integrated schools in predominantly Negro areas to private, all-white schools.

Weather
The Edmonton Journal reported that the federal Department of Transport’s meteorological branch had opened its first Meteorological Automatic Reporting Station (MARS) at Liard River on the Alaska Highway. Data including hourly changes in cloud, visibility, temperature, dewpoint, windspeed and direction, barometer reading and precipitation was carried by the Canadian National Telecommunications system 134 miles to the main terminal at Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, and then was relayed to Toronto.

Disasters
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported that 7 had drowned during a boat outing in the Georgia Strait in British Columbia.

At least 36 perished when a dam broke and flooded Mendoza, Argentina.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Please Don’t Go--K.C. and the Sunshine Band

Hockey
Chicago 4 @ Montreal 3
Edmonton 3 Los Angeles 3

25 years ago
1985

World events
Press leaks forced the Israeli government to admit that about 8,000 Ethiopians fleeing their famine-struck country had arrived in Israel. Operation Moses, which had been taking place in secret since November 21, 1984, was suspended when news of the covert airlift became public.

Hockey
NHL
Vancouver 4 @ Toronto 1

This match between two terrible teams may have been the worst NHL game ever televised (it gets my vote). It was the national Hockey Night in Canada telecast, and at the end Dave Hodge said "Thanks for watching" in a way that sounded as if he wondered why or if anyone still would be watching.

20 years ago
1990

Died on this date
Arthur Kennedy, 75. U.S. actor. Mr. Kennedy was a dependable supporting actor who usually played morally upright characters. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the supporting actor category for Champion (1949); Trial (1955); Peyton Place (1957); and Some Came Running (1958). Mr. Kennedy was nominated in the Best Actor category for one of his few starring roles, in Bright Victory (1951). He also enjoyed a fine career on Broadway, earning a Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Dramatic) for Death of a Salesman (1949).

War
General Colin Powell, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that with Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega in custody, American troops could be withdrawn from Panama within a few weeks.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate had held steady in December at 5.3%.

Politics
Many parties had declared their intention to run candidates in Romanian elections scheduled for April. Today was the deadline that had been imposed by the government for declaring such intentions.

10 years ago
2000

Abominations
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered that six-year-old Elian Gonzalez be returned to his father in Cuba, stating that "U.S. and international law recognize the unique relationship between parent and child.." U.S. President Bill Clinton said that he supported the ruling. The boy had been one of the few survivors of a boat that had capsized on the way from Cuba to Florida several months earlier. Elian’s mother, who had taken him along, was one of those who died.

Politics
U.S. Vice-President Al Gore and U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, his main challenger for the Democratic party nomination for President of the United States in 2000, debated in Durham, New Hampshire. Both supported the right of sodomites to serve openly in the military. Mr. Gore said that he would insist that his appointees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff support his position, but later said this would not be a "litmus test."

January 4, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Angela Ieriti, Agness Nyambe, and Aydee Ramirez!

125 years ago
1885

Medicine
Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is thought to be the first appendectomy.

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
CHA
Montreal Shamrocks 6 @ All-Montreal 3

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: The Case of the Unholy Three

Journalism
The New York World-Telegram merged with the New York Sun to form the New York World-Telegram and The Sun.

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: El Paso--Marty Robbins

40 years ago
1970

War
The second investigation in four months into charges of censorship on the military radio and television network in Vietnam was begun by the American command after an Army broadcaster unexpectedly ended a news report with the statement that he and his colleagues were "not free to tell the truth." Specialist Robert Lawrence, 27, of Atlanta and Marine Corporal Thomas Sinkovitz, 21, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania both claimed that they had been ordered not to discuss the case publicly until the investigation was completed.

Disasters
Fire swept through a house in St. Roche de L’Achigan, Quebec, killing 13 at a family reunion.

A driver blinded by a snowstorm in Vercelli, Italy plowed into a funeral procession, killing 5 and injuring 17.

Football
NFL Championship
Cleveland 7 @ Minnesota 27

The Vikings used the 8 degree F. cold to their advantage, scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions, and coasting to an easy victory for their first NFL title. Joe Kapp rushed 7 yards for the first Minnesota touchdown 3:48 into the game. Just 3 minutes and 19 seconds later Mr. Kapp completed a 75-yard touchdown bomb to Gene Washington. Fred Cox converted both scores and added a 30-yard field goal 1:07 into the second quarter to make the score 17-0. Dave Osborn, who rushed 18 times for 108 yards, ran 20 yards for a touchdown, converted by Mr. Cox, at 10:15 to give the Vikings a 24-0 halftime lead. Mr. Cox added a 32-yard field goal at 11:18 of the third quarter to make the score 27-0. The Browns finally scored on a 3-yard pass from Bill Nelsen to Gary Collins at 1:24 of the fourth quarter. Don Cockroft’s convert made the final score 27-7. The Vikings rushed 45 times for 222 yards. Mr. Kapp rushed 8 times for 57 yards, while completing 7 of 13 passes for 169 yards. Bo Scott picked up just 17 yards on 6 carries for the Browns, but caught 5 passes for 56 and returned 4 kickoffs for 60. His teammate Leroy Kelly carried 15 times for 80 yards, caught 2 passes for 17, and returned 2 punts for 10. Mr. Nelsen completed 17 of 33 passes for just 181 yards and 2 interceptions. 46,503 were in attendance at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota.

AFL Championship
Kansas City 17 @ Oakland 7

Charlie Smith rushed 3 yards for a touchdown, converted by George Blanda, with 46 seconds remaining in the first quarter to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead, but they were unable to generate much offense after that. Kansas City quarterback Len Dawson threw 7 straight incomplete passes in the first half, but late in the second quarter he completed a 41-yard bomb to Frank Pitts to the Oakland 1-yard line. Wendell Hayes carried from there for the touchdown at 13:10 of the second quarter; Jan Stenerud’s convert made the score 7-7 at halftime. Oakland quarterback Daryle Lamonica hurt his passing hand early in the third quarter when he banged it against the helmet of Chiefs’ defensive end Aaron Brown and had to leave the game. Mr. Blanda, who had thrown only 13 passes during the regular season and 5 in the previous week’s playoff victory over the Houston Oilers, completed just 2 of 6 passes and gave up an interception in the Chiefs’ end zone before Mr. Lamonica, the AFL’s Most Valuable Player, re-entered the game. Mr. Blanda also missed 3 field goals, which didn’t help the Raiders’ cause. Mr. Blanda’s interception was returned by Emmitt Thomas to the Chiefs’ 6-yard line, from where Mr. Dawson moved the team downfield. Robert Holmes finished the 94-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown run at 11:17 of the third quarter; Mr. Stenerud’s convert made the score 14-7. Mr. Lamonica, unable to throw effectively because of his injury, gave up 3 interceptions in the fourth quarter. Mr. Stenerud kicked a 22-yard field goal with 4:48 remaining in the game to make the score 17-7. 53,564 were in attendance at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to see the Raiders suffer just their second loss of the season in the final game of the 10-year existence of the American Football League. In a game that featured little offense, Mr. Holmes rushed 18 times for just 14 yards. He added 16 yards on 2 pass receptions and returned 1 kickoff for 28. Mr. Hayes carried 8 times for 35 yards and picked up 17 yards after taking a lateral from Dave Hill on a kickoff return. Otis Taylor led the Chiefs in receiving with 3 receptions for 62 yards. Mr. Dawson completed 7 of 17 passes for 129 yards. Mr. Thomas made 2 of the Chiefs’ 4 interceptions and picked up 69 yards in returns. Mr. Smith led the Raiders with 86 yards on 8 pass receptions and 31 yards on 12 rushes. Hewritt Dixon carried 12 times for 36 yards. Warren Wells, who had led the AFL with 1,260 yards receiving and 14 touchdown receptions during the regular season, was held to 1 reception for 24 yards. George Atkinson of the Raiders returned 3 kickoffs for 95 yards, but lost 1 yard on 2 punt returns. Mr. Lamonica completed just 15 of 39 passes for 167 yards. Both punters had excellent games: Oakland’s Mike Eischeid punted 6 times for a 48.5-yard average, while Kansas City’s Jerrel Wilson punted 8 times for a 42.9-yard average.

30 years ago
1980

Diplomacy
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced a cutoff of high technology sales to the U.S.S.R.; a limitation of fishing privileges; a grain embargo; and a deferral of any new cultural and economic exchanges between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.

Hockey
NHL
Exhibition
Super Series ‘80
Moscow Dynamo 4 @ Edmonton 1

25 years ago
1985

Crime
Scotland Yard began investigating a surrogate mother in London following reports she was to receive £6,500 for her baby from a childless couple.

20 years ago
1990

Died on this date
Charles Stuart. U.S. murder suspect. Mr. Stuart jumped to his death from a bridge in Boston Harbor after learning he had become the prime suspect in the murder of his wife. In October 1989, Mr. Stuart called from a phone in his car to report that his pregnant wife Carol had been shot and that he had been shot. The tapes of his pleas for help were played on radio and television stations, and attracted widespread sympathy. Mr. Stuart recovered from a serious wound but Carol died in hospital. Her baby, delivered prematurely, also died. Mr. Stuart said that a Negro man was their assailant; the Stuarts were white. On January 3, Mr. Stuart’s brother Matthew told investigators that he had driven to the neighbourhood where the shooting occurred and that Charles had given him his wife’s bag and a gun, which Matthew threw into the Pines River. Matthew said he had decided to come forward after his brother had identified a Negro man in a police lineup as resembling the gunman. Based on Matthew’s information, police divers recovered both the handbag and a .38 calibre revolver from the river. It was reported that Charles Stuart had taken out large insurance policies on his wife. Some Negro leaders objected to the intensity with which police had conducted investigations in Negro neighbourhoods when it was believed that a Negro was the culprit.

Abominations
A rebel radio broadcast in Sudan reported that a pro-government Arab militia had killed 2,000 Negro villagers at the end of December 1989. Reportedly, two members of the Shilok tribe killed their Muslim employer in a dispute, and local militiamen armed with machine guns then destroyed the entire village. Western diplomats and relief officials put the death toll at 300-1,500. The Muslim central government of Sudan was in a sustained war against Negro Christians and animists.

Disasters
A passenger train crashed into a stopped freight train in Sangi, Pakistan, killing 307 people and injuring 700 others.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Tom Fears, 77. U.S. football player and coach. Mr. Fears was a star receiver with the Los Angeles Rams from 1948-1956. His 77 receptions in 1949 and 84 in 1950 were NFL records at the time, and his 18 receptions in one game on November 12, 1950 still stands as a record. His 73-yard touchdown on a pass from Norm Van Brocklin midway through the fourth quarter gave the Rams a 24-17 win over the Cleveland Browns in the 1951 NFL championship game. He spent several years as an assistant coach under Vince Lombardi with the Green Bay Packers, and became the first head coach of the New Orleans Saints in 1967. Mr. Fears was fired midway through the 1970 season, leaving with a record of 13-34-2. He was head coach of the Southern California Sun in the World Football League in 1974-1975. Mr. Fears was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1970 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1976.

Crime
Larry Fisher was sentenced to life in prison for the Canadian 1969 sex-slaying of Gail Miller, a crime for which David Milgaard had been wrongly convicted and for which he had served more than 20 years in prison.

Adventure
The first British women to walk across Antarctica to the South Pole arrived safely, more than two months after starting their record-breaking journey.

Economics and finance
Alan Greenspan was nominated by U.S. President Bill Clinton for a fourth term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Diplomacy
Israeli Prime Minister and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara, meeting in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, agreed to simultaneous consideration of the securing of Israel’s borders and the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, to Syria.

Football
U.S. university
Sugar Bowl
Florida State 46 Virginia Tech 29

The teams, both unbeaten going into the game, was for the championship of the Bowl Championship Series. Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke passed for 329 yards and 4 touchdowns. Peer Warrick of the Seminoles caught touchdown passes of 64 and 43 yards and returned a punt 59 yards for another touchdown. Georgia Tech quarterback Michael Vick passed for 229 yards and rushed for 97. The Hokies trailed 28-7 at one point before rallying to take a 29-28 lead. For Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden, it was the first undefeated season in his 34 years as a head coach.

January 3, 2010

410 years ago
1600

Canadiana
Pierre de Chauvin, Sieur de Tonnetuit, founded the first trading post in what is now Quebec, on Indian territory that they named Tadoussac.

140 years ago
1870

Americana
Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began.

60 years ago
1950

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The Tip Top Murder Case

50 years ago
1960

On the radio
Ungdomsteatern, on Sveriges Radio
Today's episode: Den guldbagade pincenen, starring Georg Arlin as Sherlock Holmes and Ragnar Falck as Dr. Watson

This was a Swedish adaptation of A. Conan Doyle's story The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez.

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris (3rd week at #1)
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas

Calgary’s top 10
1 Something--The Beatles
2 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
3 Cherry Hill Park--Billy Joe Royal
4 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
5 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
6 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
7 Venus--The Shocking Blue
8 Whole Lotta Love--Led Zeppelin
9 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
10 The Rainmaker--Tom Northcott
Pick hit of the week: No Time--The Guess Who

Music
The Beatles went into the recording studio for the last time as a group to record I Me Mine, a song written by George Harrison, with George singing lead. The song appeared on the Let it Be album, released four months later.

Society
After a six-month legal struggle, the body of Private Bill Terry was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama, within sight of the soldier’s boyhood home. Private Terry, who had been killed in Vietnam, was originally denied burial in the cemetery because he was a Negro.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 12 (CHED)
1 Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles
2 Chiquitita--Abba
3 Please Don’t Go--K.C. and the Sunshine Band
4 Babe--Styx
5 Coward of the County--Kenny Rogers
6 We Don’t Talk Anymore--Cliff Richard
7 I Don’t Like Mondays--The Boomtown Rats
8 No More Tears (Enough is Enough)--Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer
9 Escape (The Pina Colada Song)--Rupert Holmes
10 Do That To Me One More Time--The Captain and Tennille
11 Cool Change--Little River band
12 Heartache Tonight--Eagles

World events
The new President of Afghanistan, Babrak Karnal, made his first public appearance since the previous week’s coup, and told foreign journalists that Soviet troops were defending his country against "outside threats."

Diplomacy
United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim concluded three days of meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran in an attempt to increase Iranian confidence in the UN as a mediator in the seizure of the U.S. embassy. Although Mr. Waldheim was not allowed to visit the hostages or Ayatollah Khomeini during his visit, he did meet with Iran’s Revolutionary Council.

Economics and finance
The price of gold in Hong Kong reached a high of $660 U.S.

Hockey
NHL
Exhibition
Super Series ‘80
Central Red Army (U.S.S.R.) 1 @ Buffalo 6

25 years ago
1985

Weather
The temperature hit 46 F. in Edmonton.

20 years ago
1990

War
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. authorities and agreed to give himself up after being assured that he would not face the death penalty. After leaving the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Panama, where he had been since December 24, Gen. Noriega was taken to a U.S. military base in Panama City and arrested on drug-trafficking indictments by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Hockey
NHL
Chicago 3 Edmonton 2

10 years ago
2000

Politics
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed several members of his staff, including Tatyana Dyachenko, daughter of Mr. Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin. She and her husband had been linked to possible financial irregularities.

The ruling nationalist party was swept from power by the opposition in parliamentary elections in Croatia.

Diplomacy
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara began several days of talks in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Popular culture
The last daily panel of the comic strip Peanuts was published in newspapers.

Football
NFL
San Francisco (4-12) 29 @ Atlanta (5-11) 34

January 2, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Kathy Fincham!

60 years ago
1950

Football
U.S. university
Orange Bowl
Santa Clara 21 Kentucky 13

Sugar Bowl
Oklahoma 35 Louisiana State 0

Cotton Bowl
Rice 27 North Carolina 13

Sun Bowl
Texas Western 33 Georgetown 20

Rose Bowl
Ohio State 17 California 14

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: What Do You Want?--Adam Faith (6th week at #1)

Died on this date
J.-M.-Paul Sauve, 52. Canadian politician; Premier of Quebec, 1959-1960. Mr. Sauve, first elected to the Quebec National Assembly as a Conservative in 1930, was defeated in 1935, but helped to create the Union Nationale Party and served as an MNA from 1936 on. He became Premier in September 1959 upon the death of Maurice Duplessis, and used the word "desormais" (henceforth) to serve notice that things would be changing in Quebec. Mr. Sauve’s "hundred days" were seen as the beginning of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution of modernization. Hospital insurance and university subsidies were among the matters "on hold" that were settled by his government. Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker took Mr. Sauve’s death from a stroke as a great blow.

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10
1 Come Together/Something--The Beatles
2 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
3 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
4 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
5 One Tin Soldier--The Original Caste
6 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
7 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
8 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
9 Take a Letter, Maria--R.B. Greaves
10 That’s Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family

Society
U.S. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, in his year-end report for 1969, cited more than 100 attacks on police by black extremists in the second half of 1969 and warned: "Extremist, all-Negro, hate-type organizations, such as the Black Panther party, continued to fan the flames of riot and revolution." At least 7 of the police officers attacked died and more than 120 were injured in the six-month period. Mr. Hoover noted a changing pattern in racial turmoil from "large-scale riots of previous years," to "attacks on police officers and disturbances in high schools and even elementary schools." Stressing the growth of revolutionary militancy among student agitators, Mr. Hoover pointed out that there had already been 215 campus demonstrations in the current school year, as compared to 225 in the entire 1968-1969 period.

Crime
U.S. federal authorities announced that raids the previous day on what was said to be a nationwide gambling syndicate involving widely known sports figures had netted gambling records, more than $450,000 in cashier’s and business cheques, and $172,000 in cash. Ten men were arrested. The operation was said to have taken bets on horse races and football, basketball, baseball, and hockey games.

30 years ago
1980

World events
Babrak Karmal, installed as President of Afghanistan after the U.S.S.R. invaded the country and assassinated his predecessor, Hafizullah Amin, six days earlier, appealed for public support of the change of government.

Nobel Prize-winning Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov, in an interview, called for the United Nations to put pressure on the U.S.S.R. to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, and came out in support of boycotting the summer Olympic games, scheduled to be held in Moscow. The Soviet news agency Tass charged that Dr. Sakharov "has been conducting subversive activities against the Soviet state for a number of years," and "lately embarked on the road of open calls to reactionary circles of imperialist states to interfere in the U.S.S.R.'s internal affairs."

Diplomacy
U.S. President Jimmy Carter recalled the U.S. Ambassador from Moscow and said he would ask the Senate to delay consideration of the SALT-II arms limitation treaty.

Economics and finance
The International Monetary Fund held its monthly gold auction and sold its gold at $562.85 U.S. per ounce, $136.48 per ounce higher than at its previous auction on December 5, 1979.

Labour
British steelworkers staged their first national strike in over 50 years.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 3 Hartford 3

20 years ago
1990

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: Rock ‘n’ Roll

Died on this date
Alan Hale, Jr., 71. U.S. actor. Mr. Hale played the skipper on the popular television comedy series Gilligan's Island (1964-1967).

Economics and finance
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at an all-time high of 2810.15.

10 years ago
2000

Crime
25 Chinese men were discovered aboard a cargo ship in Vancouver, British Columbia; the illegal migrants were locked inside two canvas-covered containers buried beneath thousands of tons of other cargo. The men, who were en route to Seattle when they were discovered, had been on the boat for two weeks.

Football
NFL
Indianapolis (13-3) 6 @ Buffalo (11-5) 31
Arizona (6-10) 24 @ Green Bay (8-8) 49
Baltimore (8-8) 3 @ New England (8-8) 20
New Orleans (3-13) 13 @ Carolina (8-8) 45
Tampa Bay (11-5) 20 @ Chicago (6-10) 6
Cincinnati (4-12) 7 @ Jacksonville (14-2) 24
New York Giants (7-9) 18 @ Dallas (8-8) 26
San Diego (8-8) 6 @ Denver (6-10) 12
Detroit (8-8) 17 @ Minnesota (10-6) 24
Miami (9-7) 10 @ Washington (10-6) 21
Seattle (9-7) 9 @ New York Jets (8-8) 19
Oakland (8-8) 41 @ Kansas City (9-7) 38 (OT)
St. Louis (13-3) 31 @ Philadelphia (5-11) 38
Tennessee (13-3) 47 @ Pittsburgh (6-10) 36

January 1, 2010

410 years ago
1600

Britannica
Scotland adopted January 1 as New Year's Day.

100 years ago
1910

Hockey
CHA
Quebec 7 @ Montreal Shamrocks 6

This was the first game for both teams in the new Canadian Hockey Association.

80 years ago
1930

At the movies
Party Girl, starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., opened with a screening shortly after midnight as 1929 passed into 1930.

Football
U.S. university
Rose Bowl
Southern California 47 Pittsburgh 14

75 years ago
1935

Football
U.S. university
Orange Bowl
Bucknell 26 U of Miami 0

Sugar Bowl
Tulane 20 Temple 14

Sun Bowl
El Paso All-Stars 25 Ranger (Texas) 21

These were the first Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and Sun Bowl games ever played.

Rose Bowl
Alabama 29 Stanford 13

70 years ago
1940

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Blue Carbuncle

Football
U.S. university
Orange Bowl
Georgia Tech 21 Missouri 7

Cotton Bowl
Clemson 6 Boston College 3

Sun Bowl
Arizona State 0 Catholic 0

Sugar Bowl
Texas A&M 14 Tulane 13

Rose Bowl
Ohio State 17 California 14

50 years ago
1960

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Four of Us are Dying, starring Harry Townes, Ross Martin, Philip Pine, and Don Gordon

Football
U.S. university
Orange Bowl
Georgia 14 Missouri 0

Cotton Bowl
Syracuse 23 Texas 14

Sugar Bowl
Mississippi 21 Louisiana State 0

Rose Bowl
U of Washington 44 Wisconsin 8

40 years ago
1970

Yellowknifiana
As the centennial year of the Northwest Territories began, Yellowknife officially became a city, and her first traffic lights began operating.

Abominations
The price of a chocolate bar in Canada increased from 10c to 15c, prompting this blogger to stop buying them.


War
U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew interrupted a 10-nation, 23-day tour of Asia by making a side trip from Manila, his first stop, to South Vietnam for a 24-hour stay. He visited American troops, including the wounded at an evacuation hospital, and said that his day "confirms to me the wisdom of our policies" and that he is leaving "with the feeling that the new year will bring us closer to our common goal."

Israeli jets knocked out the East Ghor Canal in Jordan for the third time.

World events
The government of France suspended two French officials involved in the December 25 theft of five French gunboats from Cherbourg by an Israeli crew, and expelled an Israeli diplomat said to have negotiated the boats’ sale through a non-existent Norwegian concern.

Religion
Pope Paul VI denounced powerful nations basing their stability on "trading arms to poor nations lacking plows, schools, and hospitals" and "giant industries" prospering on their "capacity to produce arms" in the most spontaneous and fervent peace plea of his papacy.

Society
The age of majority in Great Britain dropped from 21 to 18 as legislation passed in 1969 went into effect. An estimated 2.25-3 million young people were now eligible to vote, marry without their parents’ consent, and enjoy other rights. The Labour government also announced the abolition of the money limit for travel outside Britain.

Environment
U.S. President Richard Nixon signed a bill creating a Council on Environmental Quality, pledging a fight against pollution so that "the decade of the seventies will be known as the time when this country regained a productive harmony between man and nature." Without such a fight, he said, areas such as the one around his California home "will be unfit to live in" by 1980.

Economics and finance
In line with an agreement signed between the government of Chile and Anaconda Co. in June 1969, the first of two stages of "negotiated nationalization" of the firm’s subsidiaries in the country went into effect.

Football
U.S. university
Cotton Bowl
Texas 21 Notre Dame 17

Sugar Bowl
Mississippi 27 Arkansas 22

Orange Bowl
Pennsylvania State 10 Missouri 3

Rose Bowl
Southern California 10 Michigan 3

30 years ago
1980

Died on this date
John "Shorty" Powers, 57. U.S. Air Force officer. Colonel Powers acted as a public relations liaison on behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the early U.S. astronauts, and became known as the voice of Project Mercury. He was best known for coining the phrase "A-OK."

War
There was heavy fighting between Soviet forces and Afghan army units at the town of Bala Zhar in Afghanistan. Soviet forces killed or interned 700 soldiers of the Afghan Army’s 26th Parachute Regiment when they refused a Soviet request to disarm. The U.S.S.R. said it had sent troops to Afghanistan to help repel "reactionary bands" armed, trained, and directed by the U.S.A. and China. The Soviets also accused Pakistan of training officers to command Afghan Muslim groups to fight in Afghanistan.

Law
A constitutional provision went into effect providing for royal succession by absolute, or equal, primogeniture. It meant that King Carl XVI Gustaf's infant son Carl Philip was now displaced as heir by the king's daughter Victoria, who was two years older than the prince.

Disasters
44 were reported killed when fire swept through a crowded social club in Chapais, Quebec at a New Year’s Eve party.

An earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale hit Portugal’s Azore Islands, crumbling building, killing at least 52 people, and injuring more than 300.

Football
U.S. university
Cotton Bowl
Houston 17 Nebraska 14

Rose Bowl
Southern California 17 Ohio State 16

Orange Bowl
Oklahoma 24 Florida State 7

Sugar Bowl
Alabama 24 Arkansas 9

Hockey
International exhibition
Czechoslovakia 1 @ Canadian Olympic Team 5

25 years ago
1985

Football
U.S. university
Fiesta Bowl
U of California at Los Angeles 39 U of Miami 37

Cotton Bowl
Boston College 45 Houston 28

Rose Bowl
Southern California 20 Ohio State 17

Orange Bowl
U of Washington 28 Oklahoma 17

Sugar Bowl
Nebraska 28 Louisiana State 10

20 years ago
1990

Football
U.S. university
Fiesta Bowl
Florida State 41 Nebraska 17

Cotton Bowl
Tennessee 31 Arkansas 27

Rose Bowl
Southern California 17 Michigan 10

Orange Bowl
Notre Dame 21 Colorado 6

Sugar Bowl
U of Miami 33 Alabama 25

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Y2K. Worldwide crisis. A computer programming problem that was supposed to threaten the existence of us all, it died and was quickly forgotten when January 1, 2000 came and nothing unusual happened, even in countries that had done little or nothing to prepare for it. Governments and industry had spent $350 billion U.S. to prepare. It was reported that The Gambia had experienced some problems, but I have it on good authority that even that report was bogus. U.S. authorities did lose contact with a spy satellite for two or three hours.

World events
Shirley Macklin of Winnipeg and 154 other hostages were freed after an eight-day kidnapping ordeal that had begun on Christmas Eve when an Indian Airlines flight from Katmandu to New Delhi had been hijacked by terrorists linked to the separatist movement in Kashmir. The hostages were freed after India agreed to release two Kashmiri terrorists and a Pakistani Muslim cleric.

Football
U.S. university
Cotton Bowl
Arkansas 27 Texas 6

Rose Bowl
Wisconsin 17 Stanford 9

Orange Bowl
Michigan 35 Alabama 34 (OT)

December 31, 2009

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Mike Matson!

130 years ago
1879

Technology
Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of the incandescent light bulb.

80 years ago
1929

Popular culture
Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The performance was carried on a coast-to-coast radio broadcast, and the band's rendition of Auld Lang Syne helped to popularize the song as a New Year's Eve anthem.

50 years ago
1959

Football
U.S. university
Sun Bowl
New Mexico State 28 North Texas State 8

40 years ago
1969

Died on this date
Jock Yablonski, 59. U.S. labour leader. Mr. Yablonski, his wife, and their 25-year-old daughter were shot to death in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania home. The bodies weren't discovered until January 5, 1970. Mr. Yablonski had lost a bitterly-fought election on December 9 to Tony Boyle for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America. The election was widely believed to be corrupt, and on December 18, Mr. Yablonski had asked the United States Department of Labor to investigate.

World events
An Israeli crew that had defied a French arms embargo and spirited five gunboats out of the port of Cherbourg on December 25 reached the Israeli port of Haifa.

Yellowknifiana
A pyrotechnics display in Petitot Park on Yellowknife’s last night as a town fizzled when most of the fireworks didn’t work, as a large number of people (including this blogger and his father) stood there freezing.

30 years ago
1979

War
A brief gun battle broke out in Kabul between dissident elements of the Afghan army and the Soviets, but the Afghan capital stayed firmly under Soviet control. Islamic rebels, who had been fighting the Afghan government for two years and were thought to control perhaps 2/3 of the countryside, fought skirmishes with Soviet troops at scattered points throughout the country. They were aided and often armed by Afghan army deserters.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter accused Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev of "not telling facts accurately" in a December 28 cable in which Mr. Brezhnev claimed that Afghanistan had invited the U.S.S.R. to intervene. According to Mr. Carter, Mr. Brezhnev’s explanation was "obviously false, because the person he claimed invited him in, President Amin, was murdered or assassinated after the Soviets pulled their coup."

World events
The United Nations Security Council voted 11-0 to give Iran one week to release the hostages being held at the United States embassy in Tehran before deciding on economic sanctions. UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim left for Tehran in an effort to negotiate the release of the hostages.

Hockey
In Super Series ‘80, the Montreal Canadiens defeated Central Red Army 4-2 at the Montreal Forum.

20 years ago
1989

Football
NFL
NFC Wild Card Playoff
Los Angeles Rams 21 @ Philadelphia 7

AFC Wild Card Playoff
Pittsburgh 26 @ Houston 23 (OT)

Hockey
NHL
Moscow Dynamo 7 @ Toronto 4 (exhibition)
Winnipeg 3 Edmonton 2

10 years ago
1999

Died on this date
Elliott Richardson, 79. U.S. politician. Mr. Richardson was the U.S. Attorney General under President Richard Nixon, and he resigned rather than carry out Mr. Nixon's order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox on October 20, 1973, in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre."

Abominations
The United States officially transferred control of the Panama Canal to Panama.

Politics
Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia and appointed his Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin as his successor. In a televised New Year’s Eve address, Mr. Yeltsin said it was time for "new politicians...new personalities...and new smart, strong, and energetic people."

Crime
A painting by Paul Cezanne titled Auvers-sur-Oise was stolen from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.

Football
U.S. university
Sun Bowl
Oregon 24 Minnesota 20

Hockey
NHL
Brett Hull of the Dallas Stars became the 12th player in NHL history to score 600 career goals when he netted two shots in a 5-4 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at Reunion Arena in Dallas. He reached the milestone in his 900th game; only Wayne Gretzky (718th game) and Mario Lemieux (719th) got there faster.

December 30, 2009

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Michael Nesmith, Davy Jones, and Gladys Lucy Pomazongo!

100 years ago
1909

Canadiana
Gold was discovered at Porcupine, Ontario.

Hockey
CHA
All-Montreal 7 @ Montreal Le National 2

This was the first game played in the new professional league known as the Canadian Hockey Association.

75 years ago
1934

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Today’s episode: The Case with Two Solutions

Born on this date
Del Shannon. U.S. musician and singer. Mr. Shannon was best known for his first and biggest hit single, Runaway, which spent 4 weeks as the #1 single in the U.S.A. in the spring of 1961. Other hits included Hats Off to Larry (#5, 1961); Little Town Flirt (#12, 1963); Handy Man (#22, 1964); Keep Searchin' (#9, 1964-1965); and Sea of Love (#33, 1982). He shot himself to death while under the influence of Prozac on February 8, 1990.

40 years ago
1969

War
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegates at the Paris peace talks criticized as perfidious a U.S. appeal bidding the Communists, as a humanitarian gesture, to indicate whether the 1,046 men on a list of missing in action in Vietnam were prisoners of war or dead. Chief North Vietnamese negotiator Xuan Thuy boycotted the final sessions.

Diplomacy
U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew, as part of his tour of Asia, was in Manila, and attended the inauguration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos for his second term.

Crime
A three-judge Israeli court ruled that Dennis Michael Rohan was mentally ill when he set fire to the El Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on August 21, and ordered him confined to a hospital for treatment. The court held that the 28-year-old Australian had acted on an "irresistible impulse" in setting the blaze and was not punishable unde Israeli law.

30 years ago
1979

War
The Soviet newspaper Pravda said that the U.S.S.R. had sent a "limited" military contingent to Afghanistan due to "imperialist interference" in Afghan affairs that was "taking form and acquiring a scale that placed the very existence of the republic in danger." The U.S.S.R. justified the invasion on the basis of its defense treaty with Afghanistan and article 51 of the United Nations Charter, which grants any country the right to provide military aid to a member that appeals for such help.

Religion
Pope John Paul II and five West German prelates who had been summoned to Rome upheld the censure of Rev. Hans Kung, a Swiss theologian teaching at the University of Tubingen in West Germany, for teaching views contrary to the doctrines of the Roman catholic Church.

Football
NFL
AFC Divisional Playoff
Miami 14 @ Pittsburgh 34

NFC Divisional Playoff
Los Angeles 21 @ Dallas 19

25 years ago
1984

Football
NFL
NFC Divisional Playoff
Chicago 23 @ Washington 19

AFC Divisional Playoff
Pittsburgh 24 @ Denver 17

20 years ago
1989

Football
U.S. university
Sun Bowl
Pittsburgh 31 Texas A&M 28

December 29, 2009

75 years ago
1934

Basketball
The first college basketball doubleheader was held at Madison Square Garden in New York by the promoter Ned Irish, who popularized the game. He rented the Garden for $4,000 and watched 16,000 fans show up. NYU defeated Notre Dame 25-18 in the opener, and Westminster (Pennsylvania) upended St. John's 37-33 in the nightcap.

50 years ago
1959

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Christine Gotaas!

40 years ago
1969

On the radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight’s episode: Ergot

30 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Escape (The Pina Colada Song)--Rupert Holmes (2nd week at #1)

Football
NFL
NFC Divisional Playoff
Philadelphia 17 @ Tampa Bay 24

AFC Divisional Playoff
Houston 17 @ San Diego 14

Basketball
This blogger was in attendance at a wheelchair basketball tournament at the University of Alberta main gym, which included men’s teams from major cities in the United States and Canada. The Vancouver Cable Cars were one of the teams, and one of their players was Terry Fox (several months before he began his cross-Canada run).

Hockey
NHL

The Toronto Maple Leafs, in a deal that shocked their fans, traded popular right wing Lanny McDonald and defenseman Joel Quenneville to the Colorado Rockies for right wing Wilf Paiement and left wing Pat Hickey. In 35 games with the Maple Leafs that season, Mr. McDonald had 15 goals and 15 assists; Mr. Quenneville had 1 goal and 4 assists in 32 games with Toronto that season. Mr. Paiement had 10 goals and 16 assists in 34 games with Colorado, while Mr. Hickey, who had started the season with the New York Rangers, scored 7 goals and 9 assists in 24 games with the Rockies. The trade prompted Toronto captain Darryl Sittler to rip the "C" off his uniform prior to that night’s game at Maple Leaf Gardens against the Winnipeg Jets.

Winnipeg 1 @ Toronto 6

Bob Stephenson, wearing #15 for the Maple Leafs, scored a goal and was named the third star in his first NHL game on the national Hockey Night in Canada telecast.

25 years ago
1984

Politics
The Congress Party, led by Rajiv Gandhi, won 401 of 508 seats in the Indian general election. The election occurred two months after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv’s mother.

Football
NFL
AFC Divisional Playoff
Seattle 10 @ Miami 31

NFC Divisional Playoff
New York Giants 10 @ San Francisco 21

20 years ago
1989

War
The United Nations Security Council voted 75-20, with 39 abstentions, to "strongly deplore" the U.S. invasion of Panama.

Politics
The Czechoslovakian parliament elected Vaclav Havel, leader of the opposition group Civic Forum, President, without opposition.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the leading economic indicators had edged upward 0.1% in November. The stock exchanges closed on the last day of trading for the year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 2753.20, up 27% for the year. Standard & Poor’s index of 500 stocks was also up 27% for the year. The American Stock Exchange index was up 23%, and the Nasdaq over-the-counter market composite index posted a 19% gain for 1989.

December 28, 2009

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Heather Pick!

140 years ago
1869

Technology
William F. Semple patented chewing gum.

130 years ago
1879

Disasters
Gales plunged a railway bridge and passenger train on the Tay Bridge over the Silvery Tay, near Dundee, Scotland, into icy waters, killing 75. The bridge collapsed after the central spans gave way.

80 years ago
1929

Born on this date
Terry Sawchuk. Canadian hockey goaltender. Mr. Sawchuk played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League with the Detroit Red Wings (1949-55; 1957-64; 1968-69); Boston Bruins (1955-57); Toronto Maple Leafs (1964-67); Los Angeles Kings (1967-68); and New York Rangers (1969-70). He played for 4 Stanley Cup championship teams (Detroit, 1952; 1954; 1955; Toronto, 1967), and made the first or second NHL all-star team seven times. In his first 5 full seasons (1950-55), he never had a goals against average of higher than 1.98. Probably the peak of his career was the 1951-52 season, when he played all 70 regular season games, recording 12 shutouts, and added 4 shutouts and posted a goals against average of 0.62 as the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup with an 8-game sweep of the 2 playoff rounds. Mr. Sawchuk’s total of 103 regular season shutouts seemed unbeatable until Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils passed him in December 2009. Mr. Sawchuk was still active with the New York Rangers when he died on May 31, 1970, reportedly after being injured during a bout of "horseplay" with teammate Ron Stewart shortly after the Rangers had been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round.

60 years ago
1949

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Ben Wright and Eric Snowden
Tonight’s episode: The Case of the Bandaged Bridegroom

50 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Why--Frankie Avalon

40 years ago
1969

Football
NFL
Inter-Divisional Playoff
Dallas 14 @ Cleveland 38

Bill Nelsen completed 18 of 27 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown as the Century Division champion Browns easily beat the Capitol Division champion Cowboys in front of a disappointed crowd of 69,321 at the Cotton Bowl. Bo Scott scored twice on 2-yard runs, and Leroy Kelly rushed 1 yard for a Cleveland touchdown. Mr. Nelsen threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Milt Morin, and Walt Sumner returned an interception 88 yards for another Cleveland touchdown. Don Cockroft converted all 5 and added a field goal. Dallas quarterback Craig Morton rushed 2 yards for a touchdown, and backup quarterback Roger Staubach completed a 5-yard touchdown pass to Lance Rentzel late in the game for another touchdown, both of which were converted by Mike Clark. Mr. Morton had a terrible game, completing just 8 of 24 passes for 92 yards and 2 interceptions, while Mr. Staubach was 4 for 5 for 44 yards. Paul Warfield of the Browns led all receivers with 8 receptions for 99 yards, while Mr. Kelly rushed 19 times for 66 yards.

30 years ago
1979

War
15,000 more Soviet troops entered Afghanistan, two days after an initial force of 5,000 had invaded. Two overland routes were used by several mechanized Soviet divisions to cross the border. Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev sent a cable to U.S. President Jimmy Carter in which he said that Afghanistan had invited the U.S.S.R. to intervene.

Politics
U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced his withdrawal from a forum with his rivals for the 1980 Democratic party presidential nomination that had been scheduled for January 7 in Des Moines prior to the Iowa caucus on January 21. Mr. Carter said that the hostage crisis in Iran made an appearance at a partisan political event inappropriate. California Governor Jerry Brown and Senator Ted Kennedy charged that President Carter had withdrawn in order to keep attention away from them and from economic issues.

Lord Soames, British Governor General of Rhodesia, who had been commissioned to guide the country to majority Negro rule, set national elections for February 1980.

Oil
Several countries, including Venezuela, Libya, Indonesia, and Iraq, announced price increases of 10-15%. Experts estimated the aggregate increases in prices for the month at about 8%, making the increase for the year of 1979 approximately 80%.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 5 Vancouver 3

25 years ago
1984

On television today
The Edge of Night, the only soap opera that this blogger ever regularly watched, was broadcast for the last time on ABC. The show had its origin with the Perry Mason radio series; when the move was made to television, it split into two shows. Perry Mason emphasized the legal and crime-solving aspects of the show, while The Edge of Night which made its television debut on April 2, 1956, remained as a soap opera, although with more of an emphasis on crime and mystery than the usual soap opera. The show moved to ABC on December 1, 1975. From 1968-1983 the head writer was Henry Slesar, who had written scripts for Alfred Hitchcock’s TV shows, as well as stories for Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Mr. Slesar won an Emmy Award for his efforts in 1974. The series was carried for many years in Canada on CBC, but that network broadcast its last episode on September 10, 1982. If I’m not mistaken, The Edge of Night was the last soap opera to occupy a half-hour time slot.

20 years ago
1989

Hit parade
Canada's top 10 singles of 1989
1 Straight Up--Paula Abdul
2 She Drives Me Crazy--Fine Young Cannibals
3 The Look--Roxette
4 Like a Prayer--Madonna
5 Wild Thing--Tone Loc
6 Buffalo Stance--Neneh Cherry
7 On Our Own--Bobby Brown
8 Wind Beneath My Wings--Bette Midler
9 Cold Hearted--Paula Abdul
10 You Got It--Roy Orbison

Canada's top 10 albums of 1989
1 The Raw and the Cooked--Fine Young Cannibals
2 Forever Your Girl--Paula Abdul
3 Girl You Know it's True--Milli Vanilli
4 Like a Prayer--Madonna
5 Volume One--Traveling Wilburys
6 Don't be Cruel--Bobby Brown
7 Appetite for Destruction--Guns 'n' Roses
8 Full Moon Fever--Tom Petty
9 Alannah Myles--Alannah Myles
10 Mystery Girl--Roy Orbison

Politics
The parliament of Czechoslovakia elected Alexander Dubcek as its speaker.

10 years ago
1999

Died on this date
Clayton Moore, 85. U.S. actor. Mr. Moore, a bit player in movies for a decade, became famous playing the Lone Ranger on television from 1949-1952 and 1953-1957. He was fired from the series in a salary dispute in 1952, but was brought back a year later. Mr. Moore also played the character in two feature films.

December 27, 2009

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Marilyn Draper!

60 years ago
1949

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The Identical Murder Case

World events
The Netherlands transferred sovereignty to Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule.

50 years ago
1959

On the radio
Ungdomsteatern, on Sveriges Radio
Today's episode: De tre studenterna, starring Georg Arlin as Sherlock Holmes and Ragnar Falck as Dr. Watson

This adaptation of A. Conan Doyle’s story The Adventure of the Three Students was reportedly the first Sherlock Holmes radio broadcast in Sweden.

Football
NFL Championship
New York 16 @ Baltimore 31

Quarterback Johnny Unitas passed for 2 touchdowns and rushed for another to lead the Colts to their second straight championship game win over the Giants. Mr. Unitas hooked up with Lenny Moore for a 60-yard touchdown, converted by Steve Myhra, 4:55 into the first quarter to give Baltimore a 7-0 lead. New York came back with field goals by Pat Summerall in each of the first 3 quarters to take a 9-7 lead. Late in the third quarter, Giants’ running back Alex Webster was stopped on a fourth down- and inches-to-to gamble on the Colts’ 28, and that changed the momentum of the game. Mr. Unitas rushed 4 yards for the touchdown that put the Colts ahead at 2:42, and completed a 12-yard pass to Jerry Richardson for another major score at 7:21. Johnny Sample returned an interception 42 yards for another touchdown at 9:31. Mr. Myhra converted all 3 and kicked a 25-yard field goal at 12:40 to make the score 31-9. The Giants finally scored a touchdown when Chuck Conerly passed 32 yards to Bob Schnelker, converted by Mr. Summerall, with just 32 seconds remaining. Mr. Unitas finished with 18 completions in 29 passes for 265 yards; Mr. Moore had 127 yards on 3 catches. Mr. Schnelker led all receivers with 9 receptions for 178 yards. Mr. Sample had 2 interceptions on the day for 76 yards, returned 2 punts for 23, and 1 kickoff for 8. The Giants lost the services of offensive end Kyle Rote for the second half when he left with a concussion. 57,545 were at the only NFL championship game to be played at Memorial Stadium.

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris (2nd week at #1)
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Someday We’ll Be Together--Diana Ross and the Supremes

Diplomacy
Leaders of Egypt, Sudan, and Libya concluded a three-day summit in Tripoli and announced after the last session that the Arab western front against Israel had been extended from Libya through Cairo to Khartoum.

Disasters
A Montreal apartment house fire killed 6.

Zambian officials reported that rampaging hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) had killed 9 people by overturning their boats on the Namwala River.

Football
NFL
Conference Playoff
Los Angeles 20 @ Minnesota 23

Minnesota quarterback Joe Kapp rushed 2 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter--converted by Fred Cox--and defensive end Carl Eller sacked Los Angeles quarterback Roman Gabriel for a safety touch to give the Central Division champion Vikings the win over the Coastal Division champion Rams. The Rams led 17-7 at halftime on short touchdown passes from Mr. Gabriel to Bob Klein and Billy Truax. Bruce Gossett converted both and added a field goal. Dave Osborn rushed 1 yard for a Minnesota touchdown in the first quarter, and did the same in the third quarter. Both were converted by Mr. Cox. Mr. Gossett kicked another field goal in the fourth quarter to give Los Angeles a 20-14 lead. Mr. Gabriel completed 22 of 32 passes, but for just 150 yards; he also rushed 4 times for 26 yards. Mr. Kapp was 12 for 19 in passing for 196 yards, and led the Minnesota ground game with 7 carries for 42. Gene Washington of the Vikings led all receivers with 90 yards on 4 receptions. The loss was the fourth straight for the Rams, who had started the season with 11 straight wins. 47,900 were in attendance at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota.

30 years ago
1979

Died on this date
Hafizullah Amin, 50. President of Afghanistan. Mr. Amin, a Marxist opposed to excessive Soviet influence, had come to power in a coup on September 16. He was murdered the day after 5,000 Soviet troops invaded the country.

War
Following four hours of heavy street fighting in Kabul and the death of President Hafizullah Amin, a new Afghan government led by Babrak Karmal was installed. Mr. Karmal, a former deputy to Mr. Amin’s Marxist predecessor, Nur Mohammad Taraki, had been in exile in East Germany and Czechoslovakia after his pro-Moscow faction had been purged from the Afghan government.

Disasters
A fire broke out in a 150-year-old prison in Lancaster County, South Carolina, killing 10 inmates and injuring 8 other people.

Hockey
NHL
Exhibition
Central Red Army 5 @ New York Rangers 2

This was the first game of Super Series ’80.

St. Louis 3 @ Detroit 2

This was the first NHL game at Joe Louis Arena.

20 years ago
1989

War
American military officials released casualty figures regarding the U.S. invasion of Panama which had begun on December 20. 23 U.S. soldiers, 3 American civilians, 297 Panamanian soldiers, and at least 400 Panamanian civilians were killed. 322 U.S. soldiers, 1 American civilian, 123 Panamanian soldiers, and at least 2,000 Panamanian civilians were wounded or injured.

10 years ago
1999

Terrorism
Indian negotiators opened talks with five hijackers who had seized a plane on December 24 after takeoff from Katmandu, Nepal, and had taken it to Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Weather
It was warm enough in Edmonton for this blogger to go out at night wearing shorts.

Football
NFL
New York Jets (7-8) 38 @ Miami (9-6) 31

December 26, 2009

50 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: What Do You Want?--Adam Faith (4th week at #1)

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10
1 Come Together/Something--The Beatles
2 One Tin Soldier--The Original Caste
3 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
4 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
5 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
6 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
7 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
8 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
9 Take a Letter, Maria--R.B. Greaves
10 Midnight Cowboy--Ferrante and Teicher

John Barry’s original version of Midnight Cowboy, from the movie, had been released as a single in the summer of 1969 but had failed to chart. The B-side of Mr. Barry’s version, another song from the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack called Fun City, was used as the theme for a Ralph Lauren TV commercial almost 25 years later.

Diplomacy
U.S. Vice-President Spiro Agnew left Washington for a 23-day goodwill trip to 11 Asian countries, taking with him samples of moon rocks as gifts for his hosts.

Disasters
11 were killed and many others injured when fire swept through a 16th Century hotel in Saffron Walden, England.

30 years ago
1979

War
The U.S.S.R. airlifted at least 5,000 troops to Kabul, Afghanistan in an effort to shore up that country’s Marxist government against increasingly effective Islamic resistance, beginning a war that was to last almost a decade.

World events
96 Patriotic Front guerrillas were flown in from Lusaka, Zambia to join 1,500 peacekeepers from across the Comonwealth, as well as government soldiers from the Rhodesia Security Force, to monitor the cease-fire due to start at midnight on December 28.

Energy
A group investigating the accident earlier in the year at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, tentatively recommending that serious consideration be given to closing any reactor whose operator was unable to develop plans to evacuate everybody living within a 30-mile radius of the reactor.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 4 Colorado 3

20 years ago
1989

World events
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev used the word "illegitimate" to describe the Lithuanian Communist Party’s declaration of its independence from the Soviet party on December 20, and ruled out secession by any of the U.S.S.R.’s 15 republics.

Politics
The day after the execution of Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena, Ion Iliescu, a former party official, was named interim President.

10 years ago
1999

Died on this date
Curtis Mayfield, 57. U.S. musician. Mr. Mayfield was the lead singer, songwriter and producer for the Impressions in the 1960s and '70s. His best-known compositions for the group included Gypsy Woman (1961); It's All Right (1963); People Get Ready (1965); and We're a Winner (1968). He also wrote hits for artists such as Major Lance (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um (1964)) and Jan Bradley (Mama Didn't Lie (1963)), and worked with the Impressions' original lead singer, Jerry Butler, after Mr. Butler left to pursue a solo career in the early 1960s. Mr. Mayfield left the Impressions to pursue his own solo career in the early 1970s, founded his own label--Curtom--and struck gold with the soundtrack for the 1972 movie Superfly. Mr. Mayfield didn't like the movie's apparent pro-drug message, and wrote lyrics for the song (originally an instrumental) Freddie's Dead to reflect his views. Freddie's Dead and Superfly both reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Mr. Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down in a freak accident in 1990 when he was performing outdoors at an oldies show in Brooklyn, and a gust of wind blew a light standard down on top of him. He recorded the vocals to his last album, New World Order, while lying on his back in his hospital bed. The album, released in 1997, is well worth listening to.

Weather
Winds of up to 220 kmh (137.5 mph) killed 60 people in France.

Football
NFL
Arizona (6-9) 14 @ Atlanta (4-11) 37
Cincinnati (4-11) 0 @ Baltimore (8-7) 22
Buffalo (10-5) 13 @ New England (7-8) 10
Carolina (7-8) 20 @ Pittsburgh (6-9) 30
Chicago (6-9) 12 @ St. Louis (13-2) 34
Indianapolis (13-2) 29 @ Cleveland (2-14) 28
Green Bay (7-8) 10 @ Tampa Bay (10-5) 29
Jacksonville (13-2) 14 @ Tennessee (12-3) 41
Kansas City (9-6) 14 @ Seattle (9-6) 23
Minnesota (9-6) 34 @ New York Giants (7-8) 17
Oakland (7-8) 20 @ San Diego (7-8) 23
Washington (9-6) 26 @ San Francisco (4-11) 20 (OT)

December 25, 2009

70 years ago
1939

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Three Garridebs

A recording of half of this episode is available.

50 years ago
1959

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: What You Need, starring Ernest Truex and Steve Cochran

40 years ago
1969

World events
In defiance of a French arms embargo, five French gunboats were spirited from the port of Cherbourg late at night by an Israeli crew.

Diplomacy
Leaders of Egypt, Sudan, and Libya gathered in Tripoli for the beginning of a three-day summit.

30 years ago
1979

Died on this date
Joan Blondell, 73. U.S. actress. Miss Blondell co-starred with James Cagney in several movies, including Sinner’s Holiday (1930); The Public Enemy (1931); Blonde Crazy (1932); and The Crowd Roars (1932). Other movies included Bullets or Ballots (1936); A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945); Nightmare Alley (1947); and The Blue Veil (1951), for which she received an Academy Award nomination. Miss Blondell acted in many television shows from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Football
U.S. university
Fiesta Bowl
Pittsburgh 16 Arizona 10

25 years ago
1984

Basketball
NBA
New Jersey 120 @ New York 114

Bernard King of the Knickerbockers set a team single-game scoring record with 60 points.

20 years ago
1989

Died on this date
Nicolae Ceausescu, 71. President of Romania, 1967-1989. Mr. Ceausescu and his wife Elena, his chief deputy in the government, were given a brief trial by a military tribunal on charges of genocide, abuse of power, and theft, and they were both executed by a firing squad at an undisclosed location.

Football
NFL
Cincinnati (8-8) 21 @ Minnesota (10-6) 29

10 years ago
1999

War
After a night of heavy shelling, Russian forces began entering Grozny, capital of the rebellious province of Chechnya, where they met fierce resistance.

Terrorism
A Taliban spokesman said that the five hijackers who had seized a plane after takeoff from Katmandu, Nepal and now sat at Kandahar had demanded the release of a Muslim cleric, and of several Kashmiri guerrillas held in Indian jails. The Taliban refused to negotiate, but refuelled the plane and provided food.

Football
NFL
Denver (6-9) 17 @ Detroit (8-7) 7

December 24, 2009

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Hilary Hahn!

40 years ago
1969

World events
Two weeks after a military coup in Dahomey, all political prisoners in the country were freed.

Baseball
Outfielder Curt Flood wrote a letter to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn saying that his trade from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies should be voided and that he should be made a free agent. "After 12 years in the major leagues," he said, "I do not feel I am a piece of property to be bought and sold irrespective of my wishes."

30 years ago
1979

Space
The first European-built rocket, Ariane 1, successfully completed its maiden flight. The space launcher finally took off from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana on its third attempt.

World events
The hostages in the U.S. embassy in Iran had endured 50 days of captivity, and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini allowed three useful idiots American clergymen to visit the embassy for Christmas. The three were William Sloane Coffin of Riverside Church in New York City; William Howard of the National Council of Churches; and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a Roman Catholic leader from Detroit. All three were known for their liberal views.

20 years ago
1989

World events
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega took refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic refuge in Panama City. When this news came, most of the remaining resistance to the U.S. invasion collapsed. The mission had the right to grant Gen. Noriega asylum, and negotiations began among American, Vatican, and Panamanian diplomats as to his future. U.S. officials argued that because Gen. Noriega had been indicted in the United States for drug trafficking, he was not eligible for asylum.

Football
NFL
Detroit (7-9) 31 @ Atlanta (3-13) 24
Chicago (6-10) 0 @ San Francisco (14-2) 26
Green Bay (10-6) 20 @ Dallas (1-15) 10
Denver (11-5) 16 @ San Diego (6-10) 19
Indianapolis (8-8) 6 @ New Orleans (9-7) 41
Kansas City (8-7-1) 27 @ Miami (8-8) 24
Los Angeles Raiders (8-8) 17 @ New York Giants (12-4) 34
Los Angeles Rams (11-5) 24 @ New England (5-11) 20
Phoenix (5-11) 14 @ Philadelphia (11-5) 31
Pittsburgh (9-7) 31 @ Tampa Bay (5-11) 22

Only 7,092 showed up at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to see the Falcons lose to the Lions.

10 years ago
1999

Terrorism
An Indian Airlines jet with 189 people aboard was hijacked after it took off from Katmandu, Nepal, and was held for seven days. The five hijackers, whose nationalities were unknown, were armed with rifles, grenades, and knives. The plane, originally bound for New Delhi, landed at Amritsar, India; Lahore, Pakistan; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for refuelling, then at Kandahar, Afghanistan. In Dubai, 27 hostages, mostly women and children, were released, and the body of a man killed by the hijackers (a newlywed whose wife was another passenger on the plane) was taken away. In Kandahar, the plane was surrounded by soldiers of the Taliban, the Islamic militia in control of Afghanistan.

Football
NFL
Dallas (7-8) 24 @ New Orleans (2-13) 31

December 23, 2009

75 years ago
1934

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Today’s episode: The Case of the Poisoned Stick

40 years ago
1969

Diplomacy
The three-day Arab summit meeting in Rabat, Morocco ended when Egyptian President Gamal Nasser walked out after Kuwait and Saudi Arabia refused to hike war funds for Arab forces fighting Israel. Although Mr. Nasser returned for closing ceremonies, Syrian, Iraqi, and Southern Yemeni delegates boycotted it.

30 years ago
1979

Football
NFL
NFC Wild Card Playoff
Chicago 17 @ Philadelphia 27

AFC Wild Card Playoff
Denver 7 @ Houston 13

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 4 @ Montreal 8
Boston 4 @ New York Rangers 3

At the end of the Bruins' win at Madison Square Garden, a spectator named John Kaptain hit Stan Jonathan of the Bruins with a rolled-up program and grabbed Mr. Jonathan's stick and hit him with it, prompting the entire Boston team except for goalie Gerry Cheevers to go into the stands after Mr. Kaptain. Video of the incident can be seen here.

Disasters
About 100 were reported killed when a bus went over a cliff near Yerevan, Soviet Armenia.

25 years ago
1984

Football
NFL
NFC Wild Card Playoff
New York Giants 16 @ Los Angeles Rams 13

20 years ago
1989

War
The U.S. Defense Department announced that secret radar-evading F-117A Stealth bombers had been used in combat for the first time in Panama, and had dropped two bombs near a barracks.

Football
NFL
Buffalo (9-7) 37 @ New York Jets (4-12) 0
Cleveland (9-6-1) 24 @ Houston (9-7) 20
Washington (10-6) 29 @ Seattle (7-9) 0

Only 21,148 were in attendance at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey to see the Bills rout the Jets.

10 years ago
1999

Weather
It was warm enough in Edmonton for this blogger to wear shorts outside.