March 6, 2008

75 years ago
1933

Died on this date
Anton Cermak, 59. U.S. politician. Mr. Cermak, the mayor of Chicago, died 19 days after being shot while standing near President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami. See the post for February 15, 2008 for more information.

60 years ago
1948

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard) (Best Seller): I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover--Art Mooney and his Orchestra (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Now is the Hour (Maori Farewell Song)--Bing Crosby
--Gracie Fields
--Eddy Howard and his Orchestra
--Margaret Whiting
2 I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover--Art Mooney and his Orchestra
--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra
--The Three Suns
--Uptown String Band
3 Ballerina--Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra
--Bing Crosby with the Rhythmaires
--Buddy Clark
4 Serenade of the Bells--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
--Jo Stafford
--Kay Kyser and his Orchestra
5 Golden Earrings--Peggy Lee
6 How Soon (Will I Be Seeing You)--Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra
--Bing Crosby and Carmen Cavallaro
--Jack Owens
--Dinah Shore
7 Manana (Is Soon Enough for Me)--Peggy Lee
8 I'll Dance at Your Wedding--Ray Noble and his Orchestra with Buddy Clark
--Peggy Lee
9 Beg Your Pardon--Francis Craig and his Orchestra
--Frankie Carle and his Orchestra
--Larry Green and his Orchestra
10 Pianissimo--Perry Como
--Buddy Clark

Singles entering the chart were How Lucky You Are by the Andrews Sisters (#32) and Love is So Terrific, with versions by Ernie Filice and his Quartet, and Vic Damone (#36). How Lucky You Are was the other side of Near You (charting at #23, with the versions by Francis Craig and his Orchestra; Larry Green and his Orchestra; Alvino Rey and his Orchestra; and Elliot Lawrence and his Orchestra).

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): Cinderella Rockefella--Esther and Abi Ofarim (2nd week at #1)

Australia's Top 10 (Go-Set)
1 Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)--John Fred and his Playboy Band
2 Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)--Johnny Farnham
3 Bottle of Wine--The Fireballs
4 Tin Soldier/I Feel Much Better--Small Faces
5 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde--Georgie Fame
6 Love is Blue (L'Amour est Bleu)--Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra
7 You Only Live Twice/Oh Lonesome Me--Nancy Sinatra/Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood
8 Woman, Woman--The Union Gap
9 Am I that Easy to Forget--Engelbert Humperdinck
10 Different Drum--Stone Poneys

Singles entering the chart were Simon Says by the 1910 Fruitgum Company (#19); Lapland by the Baltimore & Ohio Marching Band (#32); The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo) by Manfred Mann (#36); Soothe Me by the Groove (#37); Bend Me, Shape Me by the American Breed (#38); Sunshine of Your Love by Cream (#39); and Elevator Driver by Masters Apprentices (#40).

Curling
At the Brier in Kelowna, British Columbia, the Alberta rink, skipped by Ron Northcott of Calgary, extended their record to 5-0 with a 17-6 rout over Saskatchewan, skipped by Bob Pickering of Milestone. The loss was Saskatchewan's first after three wins.

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): It's a Heartache--Bonnie Tyler (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Canada Kara no Tegami--Masaaki Hirao & Yōko Hatanaka (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Te Amo--Umberto Tozzi (2nd week at #1)

Canadiana
In Toronto, Julie Simoneau of Quebec City was named Miss Teen Canada for 1978. The runner-ups, in order, were: Geneviève Moineau (Ottawa-Hull); Andrée Morrison (Cape Breton Island); and Dawn Rutherford (Saskatoon). The remaining semi-finalists were: Sylvie Hétu (Montréal); Naomi Gotts (Regina); Ginette Rivet (Sudbury); and Brenda Kulik (Winnipeg). Yellowknife was represented by Tracy Stangier, a former classmate of this blogger.

Crime
Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, in Lawrenceville, Georgia to testify in his own defense on charges of distributing obscene material, was shot by an unknown assailant. Unfortunately, Mr. Flynt survived, although he was paralyzed from the waist down. The judge declared a mistrial--not the last time that the legal system worked in Mr. Flynt's favour. Ruth Carter Stapleton, evangelist sister of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, flew to Mr. Flynt's bedside to pray for his recovery. Mr. Flynt had credited Mrs. Stapleton with his becoming a born-again Christian. Ultimately, the conversion of both of them turned out to be fraudulent. Mr. Flynt continued to publish his pornography and eventually ended up in the atheist camp. Mrs. Stapleton died of pancreatic cancer in 1983 as a dedicated New Ager who thought she could visualize her cancer away; she was mistaken.

25 years ago
1983

On the radio
Stories of Sherlock Holmes, on Springbok Radio
Tonight's episode: The Young Visitor

Died on this date
Donald MacLean, 69. U.K. diplomat and traitor. Mr. MacLean, son of a former leader of the British Liberal Party, was one of the Cambridge Five--Cambridge University students who were recruited as Soviet spies, and then entered the British diplomatic service upon graduation. Mr. MacLean has been blamed for contributing to the 1948 Soviet blockade of Berlin and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950. Along with fellow Cambridge traitor Guy Burgess, Mr. MacLean fled the United Kingdom on May 25, 1951, three days before he was to be interrogated by MI5 about his activities. He made his way to Moscow, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Politics and government
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl retained his office as his centre-right coalition of his own Christian Democratic party, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria, and the Free Democrats, won about 55% of the vote and 278 of 498 seats in the Bundestag election. The rival Social Democratic party, headed by Hans-Jochen Vogel, received 38% of the vote and 193 seats, a decline from the previous election. World attention was focused on the debate over planned deployment of new missiles by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Mr. Kohl favoured deployment of medium-range nuclear missiles if disarmament talks in Geneva failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion. Mr. Vogel held out the possibility of rejecting the missiles. A new party, the Green party, which opposed the missiles and campaigned on environmental issues, took 6% of the vote and 27 seats. The West German economy was also a major election issue. U.S. President Ronald Reagan and other American leaders expressed delight at the outcome of the election.

Football
USFL
Boston (0-1) 17 @ Tampa Bay (1-0) 21





Chicago (1-0) 28 @ Washington (0-1) 7



Oakland (1-0) 24 @ Arizona (0-1) 0



Philadelphia (1-0) 13 @ Denver (0-1) 7



New Jersey (0-1) 15 @ Los Angeles (1-0) 20

The United States Football League, another professional league that was going to put the Canadian Football League out of business (I've seen a few come and go in my time), and the first professional football league to play its games in the spring, began play. In the game that was telecast on ABC on the west coast, the hometown Los Angeles Express, coached by Hugh Campbell (who was just coming off five straight Grey Cup wins with the Edmonton Eskimos) defeated the New Jersey Generals (owned by Donald Trump) at a mostly-empty Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. University of Georgia alumnus Herschel Walker, making his professional debut for the Generals, was held to 65 yards rushing, and was outplayed by Express running back Tony Boddie. The game served as an example of why the USFL quickly became known as the "US Awful." The telecast dragged on for about 3½ hours, with much of the slow pace resulting from delays by the officials, who took forever to decide on their calls. The calibre of play wasn't much better than that of the officiating.



20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Heaven is a Place on Earth--Belinda Carlisle (2nd week at #1)

War
U.S. reconnaissance helicopters were fired on from Iranian boats and an oil platform, while an Iranian mob attacked the Soviet embassy in Tehran.

Terrorism
In the conclusion of Operation Flavius, U.K. Special Air Service forces killed three Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers in Gibraltar in order to prevent an IRA bomb attack.