April 2, 2008

220 years ago
1788

Born on this date
Rama III. King of Siam, 1824-1851. Rama III aka Nangklao acceded to the throne upon the death his father Rama II despite being the son of a concubine rather than of a queen. The establishment of Siam's military hegemony occurred during his reign. King Rama III died on April 2, 1851, two days after his 63rd birthday; he fathered 51 children but hadn't raised any of his consorts to the position of queen, and the throne passed to his half-brother Prince Mongkut, who became King Rama IV.

80 years ago
1928

Died on this date
T.W. Richards, 60. U.S. chemist. Dr. Richards, head of the chemistry department at Harvard University since 1903, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1914 for his table of atomic weights.

Georgia O’Ramey, 41. U.S. actress. Miss O’Ramey was a comedy actress who performed in 14 Broadway productions between 1908 and 1926. Her best-known role was probably that of Pauline in No, No, Nanette, which she played from September 1925 to June 1926. Her lone movie appearance was in The $5,000,000 Counterfeiting Plot (1914). Miss O’Ramey died of a heart attack in New Haven, Connecticut, just two hours before the opening performance of Nize Girl, in which she had a leading role.

Music
Nikolai Myaskovsky's Symphony No. 10 was given its premiere performance in Moscow by the conductorless orchestra Persimfans. The complexity of the music reportedly defeated the musicians somewhat, and the work was cautiously received.

60 years ago
1948

At the movies
B.F.'s Daughter, directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Charles Coburn, opened in theatres.

Defense
Soviet troops maneuvered and began digging fortifications along the U.S.-U.S.S.R. demarcation line in Korea.

World events
Indian police arrested Communist Party leader S.A. Dange in Bombay.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Harry Truman vetoed the $4.7-billion income tax reduction bill, but was immediately overridden by Congress.

Basketball
BAA
Quarter-Finals
Chicago 81 @ Boston 74 (Chicago won best-of-three series 2-1)

50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
U.S.A. Top 10 (Music Vendor)
1 Tequila--The Champs
--Eddie Platt and his Orchestra
--Stan Kenton and his Orchestra
2 Who's Sorry Now--Connie Francis
3 Lollipop--The Chordettes
--Ronald & Ruby
4 He's Got the Whole World (In His Hands)--Laurie London
--Barbara McNair
--Mahalia Jackson
--J. March
5 26 Miles--The Four Preps
6 Are You Sincere--Andy Williams
7 Billy--Kathy Linden
8 It's Too Soon to Know--Pat Boone
9 Lazy Mary--Lou Monte
10 Oh Lonesome Me--Don Gibson
--The Swallows

At the movies
The Young Lions, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Dean Martin, opened in theatres.





Space
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower asked Congress to authorize the creation of a civilian National Aeronautics and Space Administration to conduct U.S. non-military spece research and exploration projects.

Diplomacy
The Moroccan government renewed its claims on Spanish West African territories, including Ifni Saguia el Hamra and Spanish Sahara.

West German Economic Minister Ludwig Erhard, ending a 10-day visit to the United States, warned against American tendencies to "hurry" German unification without prior agreement on East-West disarmament.

World events
The Sumatran insurgent government announced the arrest of four Indonesian Parliament members and 67 Communists for plotting a counter-revolutionary coup.

The outlawed Cuban Communist Party issued a manifesto pledging its support to Fidel Castro's guerrillas and calling for a "broad, democratic coalition government."

Basketball
NBA
Finals
Boston 108 @ St. Louis 111 (St. Louis led best-of-seven series 2-1)

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade): Lady Madonna--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)

At the movies
2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, received its world premiere screening at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C.



Africana
The African countries of Congo (Kinshasa), Chad, and the Central African Republic formed the United States of Central Africa in an effort to join economic and defense forces. The new, loosely-knit federation covered 1,637,757 square miles, with a population of 21.4 million.

Defense
The Liberal government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced a program to boost the use of French in the Canadian Armed Forces. Under the program both French- and English-speaking bases would be set up throughout the country, with the ultimate goal being at least 20% of each base being composed of those whose mother tongue was the other official language. At the time the announcement was made, only 16,000 of the 103,000 members of the Forces had French as their mother tongue, and the Royal 22nd Regiment (Van Doos) was the only all-Francophone unit.

Politics and government
U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy won the Democratic Party U.S. presidential primary in Wisconsin with 57.6% of the vote to President Lyndon Johnson’s 35.4%. The primary was held two days after President Johnson announced that he would not seek or accept his party’s nomination. The win gave Mr. McCarthy 52 of Wisconsin’s 60 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Former Vice-President Richard Nixon won the Republican primary with 81.3% of the vote, taking all 30 delegates.

Economics and finance
Montréal Mayor Jean Drapeau created Canada's first modern lottery, to help pay the $250 million deficit from Expo '67.

Hockey
CPHL
Adams Cup
Quarter-Finals
Memphis 4 @ Kansas City 7 (Kansas City led best-of-five series 2-0)
Dallas 1 @ Fort Worth 3 (Fort Worth led best-of-five series 2-1)

Basketball
NBA
Western Division Semi-Finals
St. Louis 106 @ San Francisco 111 (San Francisco won best-of-seven series 4-2)

This was the last game for the St. Louis Hawks; the team moved to Atlanta after the season.

30 years ago
1978

Journalism
The Edmonton Sun published its first edition.

Diplomacy
U.S. president Jimmy Carter, continuing his visit to Nigeria, announced that the United States and Great Britain were attempting to convene a meeting of all parties involved in the Rhodesian situation, including the Patriotic Front guerrillas and the Ian Smith government.

Baseball
Dave Bergman batted in 5 runs to help the Houston Astros outlast the Texas Rangers 11-9 in a spring training game at Driller Park in Tulsa. The Astros scored 10 straight runs--3 in the 5th inning, 3 in the 6th, and 4 in the 7th--to overcome a 5-1 deficit, but the Rangers rallied for 4 in the 9th. John Lowenstein and Al Oliver hit home runs for Texas.



25 years ago
1983

Diplomacy
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko rejected U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s offer of an interim solution on intermediate-range missiles in Europe, arguing that Mr. Reagan hadn’t included British and French nuclear weapons in his proposal.

Spain expelled a Soviet diplomat whom they accused of espionage.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy: Perdere l'Amore--Massimo Ranieri (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car--Billy Ocean

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Tell it to My Heart--Taylor Dayne

#1 single in France (SNEP): Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You--Glenn Medeiros (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Could've Been--Tiffany

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Don't Turn Around--Aswad (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Don't Turn Around--Aswad (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Man in the Mirror--Michael Jackson (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Man in the Mirror--Michael Jackson (2nd week at #1)
2 Never Gonna Give You Up--Rick Astley
3 Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car--Billy Ocean
4 Endless Summer Nights--Richard Marx
5 Out of the Blue--Debbie Gibson
6 I Want Her--Keith Sweat
7 Rocket 2 U--The Jets
8 Father Figure--George Michael
9 Devil Inside--INXS
10 Where Do Broken Hearts Go--Whitney Houston

Singles entering the chart were Nightime by Pretty Poison (#81); I Still Believe by Brenda K. Starr (#84); Presence of Love by Alarm (#86); Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil (#87); Kiss Me Deadly by Lita Ford (#88); Promise Me by Cover Girls (#89); and Jack the Lad by 3 Man Island (#90).

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 Never Gonna Give You Up--Rick Astley (3rd week at #1)
2 Father Figure--George Michael
3 Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car--Billy Ocean
4 I Get Weak--Belinda Carlisle
5 Man in the Mirror--Michael Jackson
6 Pump Up the Volume--M/A/R/R/S
7 She's Like the Wind--Patrick Swayze (featuring Wendy Fraser)
8 Just Like Paradise--David Lee Roth
9 Endless Summer Nights--Richard Marx
10 Check it Out--John Cougar Mellencamp

Singles entering the chart were I'm Still Searching by Glass Tiger (#77); Anything for You by Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (#80); Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil (#84); Pink Cadillac by Natalie Cole (#86); Always on My Mind by Pet Shop Boys (#89); Love Changes Everything by Honeymoon Suite (#92); Somewhere Down the Crazy River by Robbie Robertson (#95); I Wish I Had a Girl by Henry Lee Summer (#96); and Heatseeker by AC/DC (#97).

Canada's top 8 (The Record)
1 Pump Up the Volume--M/A/R/R/S
2 Never Gonna Give You Up--Rick Astley
3 Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car--Billy Ocean
4 Father Figure--George Michael
5 She's Like the Wind--Patrick Swayze (featuring Wendy Fraser)
6 Man in the Mirror--Michael Jackson
7 Just Like Paradise--David Lee Roth
8 I Get Weak--Belinda Carlisle

Died on this date
Vernon W. Thomson, 82. U.S. politician. Mr. Thomson, a Republican, was Governor of Wisconsin from 1957-1959. He defeated William Proxmire in the 1956 gubernatorial election, but lost to Gaylord Nelson in 1958. Mr. Thomson was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1960, and sat there from 1961-1975. He was one of many Republicans to go down to defeat in the anti-Watergate backlash of 1974.

Politics and government
The contest for the 1988 U.S. presidential nominations moved to the Virgin Islands, with Jesse Jackson winning the Democratic party caucus.

In El Salvador, the Central Electoral Council announced the official results of the March 20 national election. The National Republican Alliance (ARENA) was given 30 seats in the 60-seat Assembly, one less than a majority. 23 seats went to the Christian Democratic Party, and 7 to the National Conciliation Party.

Hockey
NHL
Detroit 3 @ Toronto 5

At Maple Leaf Gardens, the Maple Leafs came back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Red Wings in their final regular season game of the 1987-88 season. The win put them one point ahead of the Minnesota North Stars for the final playoff spot.

10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Rob Pilatus, 32. U.S.-born music video performer and pseudo-singer. Mr. Pilatus was (along with Fab Morvan) half of the pop music duo Milli Vanilli, who were forced to relinquish their 1989 Grammy Award for Best New Artist when it was revealed that they hadn’t actually done any of the singing on the album. The two had been dancers appearing in music videos when they were recruited by producer Frank Farian to front Milli Vanilli. Their debut album Girl You Know It’s True, released in the U.S.A. by Arista Records, sold 14 million copies, and spawned 5 singles which made the U.S. top 5 from early 1989-early 1990. A new album was being prepared in the fall of 1990 (which Mr. Pilatus and Mr. Morvan insisted they be allowed to sing on) when Mr. Farian revealed that they hadn’t actually sung on their debut album. Their Grammy was quickly withdrawn. It doesn’t say much for their singing ability that their producer would rather expose them as frauds than to allow them to actually sing on their records. Mr. Pilatus never recovered from his public humiliation; it was reported that even children who recognized him would point fingers and make faces at him. Even Andy Rooney poked fun at Milli Vanilli in one of his 60 Minutes commentaries. Mr. Pilatus attempted suicide in 1990, and later spent time in rehab after pleading no contest to assault charges. He died in Frankfurt, Germany after reportedly overdosing on drugs and alcohol.

Abominations
The blackshirts in black robes known as the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Vriend vs. Alberta that sodomites couldn't be excluded from provincial human rights legislation. The case was instigated by former lab instructor Delwin Vriend, who was fired by The King's University College because his voluntarily chosen lifestyle violated the college's code of behaviour. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the exclusion of sodomites from provincial human rights legislation was a violation of Section 15 of the Orwellian-named Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The fact that the politicians who cobbled together the Charter deliberately left sodomite rights out made no impression on the court. The ruling was widely misunderstood as being a ruling against The King's University College's right to fire Mr. Vriend; in fact, that wasn't the case at all. All Mr. Vriend won was the right to have sodomites included in provincial human rights legislation. By the way, I have it on good authority that The King's University College's position regarding Mr. Vriend wasn't as purely Biblical as they made it out to be. It seems the college knew about Mr. Vriend's lifestyle and made no attempt to enforce discipline, but a local Christian who wasn't affiliated with the college heard about this, and wrote a letter to The King's University College threatening to notify all the churches who supported the college, and ask these churches if they knew about the situation. When The King's University College received the letter, they were suddenly shocked--shocked!--to find that they had an unrepentant, active sodomite in their employ.