February 1, 2008

75 years ago
1933

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

60 years ago
1948

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on MBS, starring John Stanley and Alfred Shirley
Tonight's episode: The Case of the Avenging Blade

At the movies
Call Northside 777, directed by Henry Hathaway, and starring James Stewart, Richard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, and Helen Walker, opened in theatres.





Reaching from Heaven, directed by Frank Strayer, and starring Hugh Beaumont, Cheryl Walker, and John Qualen, opened in theatres.



50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Diana--Paul Anka (7th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Der lachende Vagabund--Fred Bertelmann (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in France (IFOP): Only You (And You Alone)--The Platters (12th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): Jailhouse Rock--Elvis Presley (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 At the Hop--Danny and the Juniors (5th week at #1)
2 The Stroll--The Diamonds
3 Get a Job--The Silhouettes
4 La Dee Dah--Billy and Lillie
5 Stood Up--Ricky Nelson
6 Peggy Sue--Buddy Holly
7 Sail Along Silvery Moon--Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra
8 Don't--Elvis Presley
9 Great Balls of Fire--Jerry Lee Lewis
10 Sugartime--The McGuire Sisters

Singles entering the chart were Magic Moments by Perry Como (#41); This Little Girl of Mine by the Everly Brothers (#46); Ballad of a Teenage Queen by Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two (#52); Little Pigeon by Sal Mineo (#53); Click-Clack by Dickey Doo and the Don'ts (#56); and So Tough by the Original Casuals (#59). Magic Moments was the other side of Catch a Falling Star, charting at #22.

Died on this date
Clinton Davisson, 76. U.S. physicist. Dr. Davisson shared the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics with George Paget Thomson "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals."

World events
The United Arab Republic, a union of Egypt and Syria, came into effect. The union was driven by the government of Syria, controlled by a combination of Army officers and the Ba'ath party. Government leaders were concerned about increasing Communist activity in Syria, and saw a union with Egypt a way of avoiding Communist domination. Egyptian President Gamal Nasser was respected for his ability to get what he wanted from the Soviet Union without giving in to Communism, and was viewed (and promoted himself) as the one man who could unite the Arab people.

Politics and government
Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker kept the House of Commons in suspense when he departed for a lengthy absence. He made a trip to Quebec City, where Governor General Vincent Massey was temporarily residing, in order to obtain the consent of the Queen's representative to dissolve Parliament. Mr. Diefenbaker returned to the House later in the day to announce that Parliament had been dissolved, and a federal election would be held on March 31.

Defense
General Olaf Keyster, chief United Nations delegate to the Korean Joint Military Armistice Commission, rejected Communist protests against UN introduction of atomic weapons into South Korea.

Economics and finance
Moroccan National Economy Minister Abderahim Bouabid announced in Rabat a French-Moroccan agreement giving Morocco economic autonomy within the franc zone.

Disasters
Two large U.S. military planes collided in flight over Norwalk, California, killing 48 people. 41 of the dead were on a transport plane, and 6 more were on a Navy bomber. The other person killed was Edith Hernandez, 23, a housewife who had rushed outside to find out what the noise was, when she was hit by debris and decapitated. Two crew members from the Navy bomber were rescued.

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Kaette Kita Yopparai--The Folk Crusaders (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Am I that Easy to Forget--Engelbert Humperdinck (2nd week at #1)

On television tonight
Dragnet 1968, starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Starlet



At the movies
Sergeant Ryker, directed by Buzz Kulik, and starring Lee Marvin, Bradford Dillman, Vera Miles, Peter Graves, and Lloyd Nolan, opened in theatres.





Died on this date
Lawson Little, 57. U.S. golfer. Mr. Little won the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur championships in 1934 and 1935, when they were both major tournaments, and remains the only player to have won both titles in the same year more than once. He turned professional in 1936, and won nine professional tournaments, including the U.S. Open in 1940. Mr. Lawson carried as many as 26 clubs in his bag, prompting the United States Golf Association to introduce the 14-club limit in 1938. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1980.

Nguyễn Văn Lém, 35 or 36. Viet Cong military officer. Captain Lém killed South Vietnamese Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Tuan, along with Lt. Col. Tuan's wife, 80-year-old mother and six of his seven children during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War. Captain Lém was summarily executed on a Saigon street by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brigadier General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan. The execution was recorded on motion picture film, as well as in a famous still photograph taken by Eddie Adams.

Echol Cole; Robert Walker. U.S. sanitation workers. Messrs. Cole and Walker were crushed to death in Memphis in a garbage compactor where they were taking shelter from the rain. Their deaths sparked the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, which began 11 days later.

Abominations
Unification of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, and Royal Canadian Air Force into the Canadian Armed Forces took effect. This was the brainchild of Defence Minister Paul Hellyer, almost 40 years before he made headlines by alleging that the United States was preparing for war against space aliens.

Politics and government
Former U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon formally declared his candidacy for the 1968 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.

30 years ago
1978

At the movies
Coma, directed by Michael Crichton and starring Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, and Elizabeth Ashley, opened in theatres.



Football
NFL
George Allen was rehired by the Los Angeles Rams as head coach. Allen was the Rams' head coach from 1966-1970, where he had good records, but failed to win a championship. He was fired by then-owner Dan Reeves, and spent the next 7 years as head coach of the Washington Redskins, leading the Redskins to the National Football Conference title in 1972. Shortly after Reeves fired Allen, he and Baltimore Colts' owner Carroll Rosenbloom swapped franchises, and it was Rosenbloom who brought Allen back to Los Angeles.

25 years ago
1983

World events
About 1,600 U.S. military personnel and 4,000 Honduran soldiers began six days of war games in Honduras near the border of Nicaragua, whose Sandanista government had been the recent target of criticism by Mr. Reagan. The U.S. forces didn't engage in the mock combat, but Nicaragua charged that the games were a training exercise for an invasion of Nicaragua.

Diplomacy
Soviet leader Yuri Andropov rejected U.S. President Ronald Reagan's proposal that they meet and sign a ban on all intermediate-range, land-based missiles. Mr. Andropov proposed removing all nuclear weapons from Europe. Western European leaders supported Mr. Reagan's proposal, but Mr. Reagan undercut his own offer by saying that he was merely responding to the Soviet peace offensive.

20 years ago
1988

Died on this date
Georgi Malenkov, 86. Premier of the U.S.S.R., 1953-1955. Mr. Malenkov was one of those who filled in the vacuum after the death of Josef Stalin, before Nikita Khruschchev centralized power in his own hands.

Heather O'Rourke, 12. U.S. actress. Miss O'Rourke appeared in all three of the Poltergeist movies. She had Crohn's Disease, and her sudden death from septic shock as a result of a bowel obstruction contributed to the legend that the Poltergeist movies were cursed. Poltergeist III was released four months after her death.