January 9, 2008

Born on this date
Richard Nixon would have been 95 today. I always observe 18 1/2 minutes' silence in honour of the occasion.

230 years ago
1778

Born on this date
Hammamizade İsmail Dede Efendi. Turkish composer. Dede Efendi wrote hundreds of songs and works in all genres of Turkish classical music. He composed about 500 works, 300 of which survive. Dede Effendi died on November 29, 1846 at the age of 68.

160 years ago
1848

Died on this date
Caroline Herschel, 97. German-born U.K. astronomer. Miss Herschel, the younger sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel, moved to England in 1772, and joined her brother, running his household, singing in accompaniment to his performances as a church organist, and eventually joining him in his astronomical work. She helped William compile a catalogue of their discoveries, which included eight comets that she discovered from 1786-1797. Miss Herschel was the first female scientist to receive a salary, and received numerous honours.

110 years ago
1898

Born on this date
Gracie Fields. U.K. entertainer. Miss Fields, born Grace Stansfield, had a career spanning almost 70 years on stage and in recordings, performing as a music hall entertainer and as a dramatic actress. She spent much of her life on the Isle of Capri, and was there when World War II began; she spent the war entertaining Allied forces, almost entirely outside the British Isles. Miss Fields resumed performing in England in 1948, and toured various countries, while residing in Capri until her death on September 27, 1979 at the age of 81, shortly after contracting pneumonia while performing an open-air concert.

50 years ago
1958

Football
NFL
Frank "Pop" Ivy resigned as head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos to take the same position with the National Football League's Chicago Cardinals. In four seasons in Edmonton, he compiled a record of 61 wins and 18 losses, and led the team to Grey Cup championships in his first three years. Mr. Ivy was returning to the team for which he'd played in the 1940s. He began his NFL playing career with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1940. Before that season was over, he'd been picked up by the Cardinals, with whom he played until 1947 (minus military service in 1943-1944). Mr. Ivy concluded his playing career as an end with the Cardinals' championship team of 1947. He was an assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma under head coach Bud Wilkinson when he was hired by the Eskimos in 1954 to replace Darrell Royal, who had departed for the U.S. college ranks.

10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Sam Perrin, 96. U.S. radio and television writer. Mr. Perrin was one of the writers of The Jack Benny Program on radio and television in the 1950s and '60s. He was nominated for Emmy Awards seven times from 1955-1963, sharing the Emmies with George Balzer, Al Gordon, and Hal Goldman for Best Writing of a Single Program of a Comedy Series (1959) and Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy (1960).

Kenichi Fukui, 79. Japanese chemist. Professor Fukui became the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry when he and Roald Hoffmann shared the 1981 Prize "for their theories, developed independently, concerning the course of chemical reactions."

Hockey
NHL
Wayne Gretzky was named the best player in National Hockey League history by a panel of The Hockey News voters. 1 year ago
2007

Music
James Brown was scheduled to perform at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he didn't make it.