March 22, 2008

1,770 years ago
238

Politics and government
Gordian I and his son Gordian II were proclaimed Roman Emperors.

370 years ago
1638

Religion
Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony and excommunicated from the Boston church for religious dissent, even after she had read a recantation of her alleged heresies during her church trial. With her children and some followers, Mrs. Hutchinson walked for six days until reaching Providence, Rhode island.

100 years ago
1908

Born on this date
Jack Crawford. Australian tennis player. Mr. Crawford was one of the top players in the world in the 1930s. He was ranked number one in the world in 1933, when he won the Australian, French, and Wimbledon men's singles title, and was runner-up in the U.S. national championships. He also won the men's singles title in the Australian Championships in 1931, 1932, and 1935, and won 11 men's and mixed Grand Slam doubles titles from 1929-1935. Mr. Crawford was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1979, and died on September 10, 1991 at the age of 83.

80 years ago
1928

At the movies
Spione (Spies), directed and co-written by Fritz Lang, and starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge and Gerda Maurus, opened in theatres in Germany.



Law
The Quebec Legislative Assembly passed a law restricting admission to motion pictures to people 16 years of age or older. The law was passed almost seven months after the report of Judge Louis Boyer, who conducted an investigation into the January 9, 1927 fire at Laurier Palace in Montreal, in which 77 children perished.

75 years ago
1933

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Mr. Pattle's Secret Profession

70 years ago
1938

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Quarter-finals
New York Americans 2 New York Rangers 1 (2OT) (Americans led best-of-three series 1-0)

Johnny Sorrell scored the winning goal at 1:25 of the 2nd overtime period at Madison Square Garden to give the Americans their win.

50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): April Love--Pat Boone (6th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Der lachende Vagabund--Fred Bertelmann (9th week at #1)

#1 single in France (IFOP): Hello, le soleil brille--Annie Cordy (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): Magic Moments/Catch a Falling Star--Perry Como (4th week at #1)

U.S. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Tequila--The Champs (2nd week at #1)
2 Sweet Little Sixteen--Chuck Berry
3 Catch a Falling Star--Perry Como
4 26 Miles (Santa Catalina)--The Four Preps
5 Lollipop--The Chordettes
--Ronald and Ruby
6 Who's Sorry Now--Connie Francis
7 It's Too Soon to Know--Pat Boone
8 Short Shorts--The Royal Teens
9 Sail Along Silvery Moon--Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra
10 Oh Julie--The Crescendos

Singles entering the chart were Arrividerci, Roma by Mario Lanza (#38, charting with the version by Roger Williams); There's Only One of You by the Four Lads (#45); Book of Love by the Monotones (#49); A Very Precious Love by the Ames Brothers (#53); The Marching Saints by Harry Belafonte (#57); We Belong Together by Robert and Johnny (#58); I Met Him on a Sunday (Ronde-Ronde) by the Shirelles (#60); and Been So Long by the Pastels (also #60).

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Bend Me, Shape Me--The American Breed (2nd week at #1)

Edmonton's top 10 (CJCA)
1 Playboy--Gene and Debbe
2 Love is Blue (L'Amour est Bleu)--Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra
3 The Unicorn--The Irish Rovers
4 Too Much Talk--Paul Revere and the Raiders
5 Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition was In)--The First Edition
6 (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay--Otis Redding
7 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde--Georgie Fame
8 Thank U Very Much--The Scaffold
9 Valleri--The Monkees
10 Lady Madonna--The Beatles
Pick of the Week: Hey Joe--The Nomads
New this week: Forever Came Today--Diana Ross and the Supremes
I Will Always Think About You--New Colony Six
Red Red Wine--Neil Diamond
A Hundred Men--Glenn Yarbrough
The Importance of the Rose--Rod McKuen

The Nomads were an Edmonton group who recorded on the Damon label (for education students, that's nomad spelled backwards). Hey Joe was a staple of 1960s bands--although the lyrics are politically incorrect by 2000s standards. The B-side, The Letter, was one of the biggest hits of the '60s, having been a huge hit the previous fall for the Box Tops. It was a hit again for The Arbors in 1969, and yet again (as a B-side, at that) for Joe Cocker in 1970.

War
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson named General William Westmoreland to the post of Army chief of staff. Contingent upon confirmation by the Senate, General Westmoreland was scheduled to give up his command in Vietnam and assume his new duties in Washington on July 2.

Politics and government
Antonin Novotny resigned as President of Czechoslovakia, the day after a National Assembly committee had demanded his resignation. The ouster of Mr. Novotny was viewed by many as marking the end of Stalinism in Czechoslovakia.

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Wuthering Heights--Kate Bush (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Sonora Dodd, 96. U.S. activist. Mrs. Dodd’s suggestion for a "Father’s Day" was adopted in 1910, and was first observed in Spokane, Washington on June 19 that year. Mrs. Dodd wanted to honour her father, William Smart, a U.S. Civil War veteran who had raised his six children as a widower when his wife died giving birth to Sonora, the youngest child. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge supported the idea of a National Father’s Day, but it wasn’t until 1966 that President Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation declaring the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Mrs. Dodd died in Spokane.

Karl Wallenda, 73. German-born acrobat. Mr. Wallenda was the founder of The Flying Wallendas, an internationally known daredevil circus act famous for performing death-defying high-wire stunts without a safety net. Mr. Wallenda started performing at age six with his family. He founded his own four-person act in 1922; the act moved to the United States in 1928 and began an association with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Circus. Later they performed as freelancers, and in 1947 they developed the unequalled three-tier 7-Man Pyramid. The pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit in 1962, killing two members of the act and seriously injuring two others. However, in keeping with show business tradition, the Flying Wallendas continued performing, despite the loss of other members in subsequent accidents.
On March 22, 1978, Mr. Wallenda attempted a walk between the two towers of the ten-story Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on a wire stretched 37 metres (121 feet) above the pavement; he fell to his death when winds exceeded 48 kilometres per hour (30 miles per hour). The Wallenda family attributed the tragedy to "several misconnected guy ropes along the wire" and not the windy conditions. A film crew from WAPA-TV in San Juan filmed the fall, and the video, featuring anchorman Guillermo Jose Torres' anguished narration of the fall, circled the world.

War
A vanguard of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), about 100 men, arrived in Lebanon to begin enforcing a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists. French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing announced that France would be part of the force because of traditional French links with the Lebanese people. France had traditionally avoided participation in peacekeeping activities.

Hockey
CHL
Tulsa 5 @ Dallas 4
Fort Worth 6 @ Salt Lake City 2

25 years ago
1983

Died on this date
Blanton Collier, 76. U.S. football coach. Mr. Collier was head coach of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League from 1963-1970, and led the Browns to the NFL championship in 1964. Mr. Collier began his professional coaching career as an assistant under Paul Brown when the Browns began play in the All-America Football Conference in 1946. The Browns won the AAFC championship in all four years of the league’s existence, then moved into the NFL, where they won the title in 1950, and made it to the championship game in each of the next three seasons. Mr. Collier left the Browns after the 1953 season to become head coach at the University of Kentucky; in eight seasons (1954-1961) he produced a record of 41 wins, 36 losses, and 3 ties, but was fired in January 1962. No Kentucky head coach since Mr. Collier has left the school with a winning record. Paul Brown welcomed Mr. Collier back as an assistant with the Browns in 1962; when Mr. Brown was fired after posting a 7-6-1 record that season, Mr. Collier was chosen as his replacement by owner Art Modell, but wouldn’t accept the job until he had first discussed it with Mr. Brown. Mr. Collier allowed his players, such as quarterback Frank Ryan, more input into play selection, and the results paid off with a string of winning records. Running back Jim Brown, who had failed to win the NFL rushing title in 1962 for the first time in his 6-year career, came back in 1963 with a then-record 1,863 yards. The Browns improved to 10-4 that year, and posted a 10-3-1 record in 1964, capping the season with a 27-0 win at home over the heavily-favoured Baltimore Colts in the championship game. From 1965-1969 the Browns never won fewer than 9 games in each season (they played 14-game seasons then), but always fell just short of the title. They played in the NFL championship games in 1965, 1968, and 1969. In 1970 the Browns dropped to 7-7, and missed the playoffs. Mr. Collier had been growing increasingly deaf, and he decided after that season that the hearing loss was making it too difficult for him to continue coaching. Mr. Collier managed one achievement in 1970 that served as a footnote in the history books: He became the winning coach in the first game ever played on Monday Night Football when the Browns defeated the New York Jets in their season opener on September 21. Mr. Collier retired with a professional head coaching record of 76-34-2. He continued with the Browns organization as a college scout. According to one of his players, defensive end Paul Wiggin, "We had the greatest teacher in football in Blanton Collier. He was a gentleman, he was a great coach...There were no flaws. He could have run for president. If someone put together a committee to find holes in his life, they wouldn’t have found any. He was a good human being." In the words of Browns’ owner Art Modell, "God never created a finer human being than Blanton Collier."

20 years ago
1988

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Swingers

10 years ago
1998

Oil
Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Mexico announced a cut in oil production, a move which was expected to reverse a sharp drop in world prices.