April 6, 2008

480 years ago
1528

Died on this date
Albrecht Dürer, 56. German artist and mathematician. Mr. Dürer was a painter and printmaker who was known for his portraits and woodcuts, often with religious themes, and influenced future generations of artists. He was also a theorist on geometry, and wrote books on measurement and human proportions.

120 years ago
1888

Died on this date
Thomas Green Clemson, 80. U.S. politician and diplomat. Mr. Clemson served as U.S. Chargé d’affaires to Belgium from 1844-1852, and as U.S. Superintendent of Agriculture in the administration of President James Buchanan from 1860-1861. He resigned his position when the Civil War began and returned to his home state of South Carolina to serve in the Confederate States army. Mr. Clemson left a legacy in his will that established the school now known as Clemson University in South Carolina.

Communications
The New Brunswick Telephone Company was incorporated, and began to take over the telephone system throughout the province.

90 years ago
1918

Died on this date
Newt Halliday, 21. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Halliday played 1 game at first base with the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 19, 1916, striking out in his only plate appearance and making 3 putouts and 1 assist. He joined the U.S. Navy during World War I, and died of tuberculosis contracted while in training with the Navy.

80 years ago
1928

Died on this date
J.H. Oliver, 71. U.S. military officer. In 1904, while commanding the USS Culgoa, Lt. Cdr. Oliver’s ship was involved in a collision with a schooner in Delaware Bay. 29 lives were lost, and Lt. Cdr. Oliver was court-martialed. His trial was delayed for over a year, but he was acquitted "with honor." His sword, which had been stripped from him when he’d been charged, was returned, but at the ceremony, he broke the sword, tossed it into the ocean, and immediately resigned from the Navy. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt formally reinstated Mr. Oliver’s commission, promoting him to Commander. Commenting on Mr. Oliver’s resignation, Mr. Roosevelt reportedly said, "I’d have done the same thing myself." Mr. Oliver was promoted to Captain in 1910 and Rear Admiral in 1916, just prior to the United States entrance into World War I. He was subsequently elevated to Chief of Naval Intelligence by 1917. On March 28, 1917, Rear Admiral Oliver was appointed as Governor of the United States Virgin Islands by President Woodrow Wilson, remaining in the office until 1919. Rear Admiral Oliver was quickly granted a loan of $200,000 by the government of the United States for expenses relating to the occupation, including the building of fortifications on the island and the stationing of troops. Disappointed with the quality of native educators, Rear Admiral Oliver also requested that additional instructors be sent from the mainland. Rear Admiral Oliver served on the Naval Board of Strategy after the war, and retired from the Navy in January 1921. He died of heart disease.

Weather
A 10-inch snowstorm isolated Omaha, Nebraska, and covered Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Religion
A nationwide revivalist campaign by pastor George Jeffreys concluded with 1,000 converts to the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance being baptized in a huge tank of water at Albert Hall in London. 10,000 spectators witnessed the event.

Journalism
The Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury, said to be the oldest newspaper in the United States, was purchased by the Newport Daily News and Weekly News. The Mercury, a weekly, was founded in 1738 by James Franklin, a nephew of Benjamin Franklin.

Oddities
A collie that had lain in a trap for 55 days near Easton, Connecticut was rescued.

Adventure
Toichi Araki (heading east) and Ryvkichi Matsui (heading west) left Tokyo to circle the globe in opposite directions.

60 years ago
1948

On the radio
The Casebook of Gregory Hood, starring Elliott Lewis, on MBS
Tonight's episode: Adventure in Bagdad

Health
The World Health Organization (WHO) was founded.

50 years ago
1958

On the radio
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Part 1, starring Carleton Hobbs and Norman Shelley, on BBC Light Programme

On television tonight
Alfred Hitchcock Presents on CBS
Tonight's episode: Disappearing Trick, starring Robert Horton, Betty von Furstenberg, and Raymond Bailey

Golf
At Augusta, Georgia, Arnold Palmer won his first of four Masters golf tournaments; at 28 he became the youngest Masters winner since 24-year-old Byron Nelson won in 1937. Mr. Palmer shot a final-round 73 to finish with a total of 284 strokes. Fred Hawkins and 1957 Masters winner Doug Ford both missed birdie putts on the final hole that would have forced a playoff, while Mr. Palmer’s playing partner for the fourth round, Ken Venturi, fell out of contention when he missed two-foot putts on the 14th and 15th holes.

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Love is Blue (L'Amour est Bleu)--Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra (4th week at #1)

#1 single in France: Delilah--Tom Jones

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): La tramontana--Antoine (5th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)--Manfred Mann (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Delilah--Tom Jones (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Cinderella Rockefella--Esther and Abi Ofarim (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay--Otis Redding (4th week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 Cinderella Rockefella--Esther and Abi Ofarim (2nd week at #1)
2 Kom Uit De Bedstee Mijn Liefste--Egbert Douwe
3 Lady Madonna--The Beatles
4 Delilah--Tom Jones
5 The Legend of Xanadu--Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich
6 De Kat Van Ome Willem--Wim Sonneveld with Hetty Blok, Leen Jongewaard, De Jonkies, and the Orchestra of Harry Bannink
7 (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay--Otis Redding
8 If I were a Carpenter--Four Tops
9 Prikkebeen--Boudewijn De Groot en Elly Norman
10 Storybook Children--Sandra & Andres
--Billy Vera and Judy Clay
--Nancy and Lee

Singles entering the chart were I've Just Lost Somebody by Golden Earrings (#23); Valleri by the Monkees (#30); (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone by Aretha Franklin (#36); and Belle et Sebastien - Générique L'oiseau by Belle et Sebastien (#39).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Valleri--The Monkees (2nd week at #1)
2 Lady Madonna--The Beatles
3 Young Girl--The Union Gap
4 The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)--Manfred Mann
5 (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone--Aretha Franklin
6 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde--Georgie Fame
7 Cry Like a Baby--The Box Tops
8 (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay--Otis Redding
9 Honey--Bobby Goldsboro
10 Love is Blue (L'Amour est Bleu)--Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra

Singles entering the chart were Tighten Up by Archie Bell & the Drells (#59); Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day by Stevie Wonder (#64); Jumbo by the Bee Gees (#69); I Wanna Live by Glen Campbell (#71); Goin' Away by the Fireballs (#72); Anything by Eric Burdon & the Animals (#74); A Beautiful Morning by the Rascals (#77); Loving You Has Made Me Bananas by Guy Marks (#79); Greasy Heart by Jefferson Airplane (#82); As Long as I Got You by Laura Lee (#85); Paying the Cost to Be the Boss by B.B. King (#87); I Can't Believe I'm Losing You by Frank Sinatra (#88); Does Your Mama Know About Me by Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers (#89); She Wears My Ring by Solomon King (#92); (You Keep Me) Hangin' On by Joe Simon (#94); If You Don't Want My Love by Robert John (#96); and Ain't No Way by Aretha Franklin (#97). Ain't No Way was the B-side of (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone.

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 La-La - Means I Love You--The Delfonics
2 Valleri--The Monkees
3 The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde--Georgie Fame
4 The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)--Manfred Mann
5 Lady Madonna--The Beatles
6 (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone--Aretha Franklin
7 Young Girl--The Union Gap
8 The Unicorn--The Irish Rovers
9 Suddenly You Love Me--The Tremeloes
10 Cinderella Rockefella--Esther and Abi Ofarim

Singles entering the chart were Look to Your Soul by Johnny Rivers (#72); Take Good Care of My Baby by Bobby Vinton (#75); Mony Mony by Tommy James and the Shondells (#78); Jumbo by the Bee Gees (#81); Greasy Heart by Jefferson Airplane (#83); Unwind by Ray Stevens (#88); I Need You by the Emotionals (#89); Every Man Ought to Have a Woman by William Bell (#90); Your Heart is Free Just Like the Wind by Vikki Carr (#91); I Truly, Truly Believe by the Temptations (#92); Come to Me Softly by Jimmy James and the Vagabonds (#93); Up from the Skies by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (#94); Baby You're So Right by Brenda and the Tabulations (#95); Another Place, Another Time by Jerry Lee Lewis (#98); and Up to Your Neck in Muddy Water by the Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt (#100).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 Lady Madonna/The Inner Light--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)
2 The Unicorn--The Irish Rovers
3 The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)--Manfred Mann
4 The Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp--O.C. Smith
5 Jennifer Juniper--Donovan
6 Tapioca Tundra/Valleri--The Monkees
7 Too Much Talk--Paul Revere and the Raiders
8 A Question of Temperature--Balloon Farm
9 Suddenly You Love Me--The Tremeloes
10 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly--Hugo Montenegro, his Orchestra and Chorus

Singles entering the chart were Honey by Bobby Goldsboro (#24); The Unknown Soldier by the Doors (#25); Shalalee by Meddy's People (#27); Does Your Mama Know About Me by Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers (#29); and Scarborough Fair (/Canticle) by Simon & Garfunkel (#30).

Calgary's Top 10 (Glenn's Music)
1 Valleri--The Monkees (2nd week at #1)
2 Lady Madonna--The Beatles
3 Young Girl--The Union Gap
4 The Unicorn--The Irish Rovers
5 The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)--Manfred Mann
6 Summertime Blues--Blue Cheer
7 Playboy--Gene and Debbe
8 Little by Little--Gainsborough Gallery
9 Hey, Hey Bunny--John Fred and his Playboy Band
10 Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition was In)--The First Edition
Pick hit of the week: A Question of Temperature--Balloon Farm

Died on this date
Edward Crocker, 72. U.S. diplomat. Mr. Crocker received the Japanese declaration of war on the United States in 1941. In 1948 he was appointed the U.S.A.’s first Ambassador to Iraq.

Space
The U.S.A. launched the Air Force satellites OV-1-13 and OV-1-14 with the same booster. One of the satellites failed after one week, leaving the other to measure different types of radiation high above the earth's atmosphere.

Abominations
Justice Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau captured the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada on the fourth ballot at the party’s convention at the Ottawa Civic Centre. There were three contenders representing the conservative wing of the party: Robert Winters, Paul Hellyer, and John Turner. Other candidates from the more liberal side of the party were Paul Martin, Allan MacEachen, Joe Greene, and Eric Kierans. Rev. Lloyd Henderson and Ernst Zundel were regarded as fringe candidates; Mr. Zundel withdrew before the first ballot. Mr. Trudeau, who only five years earlier had said of the Liberals, "What idiots they all are," led after every ballot. Mr. Trudeau had 752 votes, 31.5% of the vote in the first ballot. Mr. Hellyer was second with 330 votes, 13.8%, about 200 votes less than he was hoping for. Mr. Martin and Mr. Kierans withdrew, knowing they couldn’t win; so did Mr. MacEachen, but not in time to keep his name off the second ballot. Mr. Henderson was automatically eliminated. On the second ballot, Mr. Trudeau picked up support, improving to 964 (40.5%). Mr. Winters picked up most of the anti-Trudeau support, and moved into second place with 473 votes (19.9%) to Mr. Hellyer’s 465 (19.5%). Great pressure was put on Mr. Hellyer and Mr. Turner to withdraw and throw their support to Mr. Winters, but Mr. Hellyer still thought he had a chance, and Mr. Turner refused to make a deal. Secretary of State Judy LaMarsh was caught on camera urging Mr. Hellyer, "You've got to go to Winters. Don't let that bastard win it, Paul—he isn't even a Liberal." The presence of Mr. MacEachen’s name on the second ballot enabled Mr. Greene to remain on the third ballot. Mr. Hellyer and Mr. Winters agreed that whichever of the two was behind after the third ballot would withdraw and support the other, but most observers figured that the time to stop Mr. Trudeau had passed. The third ballot was similar to the second, as the top two candidates began to pick up votes from the others. Mr. Trudeau stood at 1,051 (44.2%); Mr. Winters had 621 (26.1%); Mr. Hellyer, 377 (15.9%); Mr. Turner, 279 (11.7%); Mr. Greene, 29 (1.2%). Mr. Hellyer now with drew in favour of Mr. Winters, and Mr. Greene threw his support to Mr. Trudeau. Mr. Turner stubbornly remained on the ballot. Mr. Trudeau finally obtained the required majority of votes on the fourth ballot: 1,203, 50.9% of the total of 2,365 votes cast. Mr. Winters polled 954 votes (40.3%), and Mr. Turner 195 (8.2%). The 1968 Liberal leadership convention was the first such convention in Canada in which computers were used to track delegates and votes. The use of computers in voting was a big reason why the four ballots took 7 ½ hours to complete. IBM punch card machines were used to track the votes. Delegates were told not to fold the cards before casting their ballots, but many voters, used to folding paper ballots in previous votes, folded the punch cards, and these folded cards caused the machines to repeatedly jam. To see how much things have changed since 1968, just look at Robert Winters. Mr. Winters promised, if elected, to privatize Crown corporations. He was also critical of Prime Minister Lester Pearson’s fiscal policies, and believed that the new social programs (such as Medicare) would harm the Canadian economy. These positions, coming from a leading Liberal in 1968, would put Mr. Winters far to the right of the so-called "Conservatives" of 2008. He’d be regarded as too much of an extremist to be elected today. An oddity from the convention was the candidacy of Lloyd Henderson. Rev. Henderson, a former mayor of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, had run for the party leadership and 1958, receiving one vote. In 1968 he wasn’t a delegate, and therefore wasn’t entitled to vote. His wife was a delegate, and was therefore entitled to vote. However, Rev. Henderson’s vote total on the first ballot was zero. I suspect that Mrs. Henderson took one look at Mr. Trudeau and voted for him (another reason women should never have been allowed to vote). What happened in the Henderson household after the results came in isn’t a matter of public record. Mr. Trudeau replaced Lester Pearson as Prime Minister of Canada on April 20, and the destruction of Canada followed.

In Czechoslovakia, Gen. Ludvik Svoboda, 72, the country’s newly-elected President, named Oldrich Cernik as Premier. Among Mr. Cernik’s new cabinet members was interior minister Gen. Josef Pavel, a victim of Stalinist purges in the 1950s.

Disasters
A gunpowder explosion and fire in a sporting goods store in Richmond, Indiana, caused by a natural gas leak, destroyed two blocks, with 41 dead, 11 missing, and 100 injured

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Quarter-Finals
Boston 3 @ Montreal 5 (Montreal led best-of-seven series 2-0)
St. Louis 3 @ Philadelphia 4 (Best-of-seven series tied 1-1)
Minnesota 0 @ Los Angeles 2 (Los Angeles led best-of-seven series 2-0)

Terry Sawchuk earned his 12th and last career playoff shutout in goal for the Kings as they blanked the North Stars at the Forum in Inglewood, California.

CPHL
Adams Cup
Quarter-Finals
Dallas 0 @ Fort Worth 3 (Fort Worth won best-of-five series 3-2)

Semi-Finals
Tulsa 2 @ Oklahoma City 3 (Best-of-seven series tied 2-2)

30 years ago
1978

Died on this date
Stephen E. Kelly, 58. U.S. journalist. Mr. Kelly served as publisher of The Saturday Evening Post; Holiday; and McCall’s.

War
French government sources confirmed that at least 150 additional advisors had been sent to Chad to help the Chadian government fight Muslim guerrillas.

Labour
U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed into law a bill to raise the mandatory retirement age to 70 from 65 for most workers, effective January 1, 1979. Private businesses with fewer than 20 employees weren’t affected, nor were voluntary retirements. The law also abolished entirely the mandatory retirement age of 70 for most federal employees.

25 years ago
1983

Labour
U.S. President Ronald Reagan went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to visit a conference on the "dislocated worker" and a class of computer maintenance trainees who had been steelworkers. 4,000 protesters, many of them unemployed steelworkers, demonstrated against Mr. Reagan’s policies. Mr. Reagan said that much unemployment was structural due to changes in technology, but he promised that "smokestack industries" would not disappear.

Weather
Heavy rains, which kept up for a week, began hitting the southern United States. 14 inches fell in Hattiesburg, Mississsippi on April 6, and Governor William Winter declared a statewide emergency. In Louisiana, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Slidell were hard hit. The northeastern states were also hit, and the rain that fell in New York City made April 1983 one of the three wettest months ever recorded there.

Hockey
The Stanley Cup playoffs began. Television viewers in Alberta were able to watch the Edmonton Oilers open at home with a 6-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets. The Calgary Flames defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 in overtime, and the Buffalo Sabres edged the Montreal Canadiens 1-0.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Allt som jag känner--Tone Norum & Tommy Nilsson (8th week at #1)

At the movies
The New Yorker repertory cinema in London, Ontario showed The Wannsee Conference, a 1984 West German-Austrian film just being released in North America. The movie was a powerful, low-key dramatization of the conference in January 1942 in which the "Final Solution" of Nazi extermination of the Jews was decided upon. The movie’s dialogue was taken from the conference minutes, and the film’s running time of 87 minutes matched that of the actual conference.

Died on this date
Tirza Porat, 15. Israeli girl. According to the Israeli army, Miss Porat was accidentally shot by Israeli guards near the West Bank town of Beita. She was the first Israeli civilian to be killed in the occupied territories since the beginning of Palestinian unrest in December 1987.

Terrorism
About half of the 112 hostages aboard a Kuwait Airlines jet that had been hijacked the day before were released at Mashhad, Iran, where the plane had landed.

Politics and government
Televangelist Pat Robertson suspended his campaign, leaving Vice-President George Bush unopposed for the 1988 Republican party nomination for President of the United States.

Crime
Suspected drug dealer Juan Ramon Matta, seized in Honduras by U.S. authorities the day before, was returned to the Marion, Illinois prison from which he’d escaped in 1971 while serving a sentence for entering the U.S. illegally.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Prince of Wales Conference
Division Semi-Finals
Hartford 3 @ Montreal 4 (Montreal led best-of-seven series 1-0)
Buffalo 3 @ Boston 7 (Boston led best-of-seven series 1-0)
New Jersey 3 @ New York Islanders 4 (OT) (New York led best-of-seven series 1-0)
Philadelphia 4 @ Washington 2 (Philadelphia led best-of-seven series 1-0)

Clarence S. Campbell Conference
Division Semi-Finals
Toronto 6 @ Detroit 2 (Toronto led best-of-seven series 1-0)
Chicago 1 @ St. Louis 4 (St. Louis led best-of-seven series 1-0)
Los Angeles 4 @ Calgary 6 (Calgary led best-of-seven series 1-0)
Winnipeg 4 @ Edmonton 7 (Edmonton led best-of-seven series 1-0)

10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Tammy Wynette, 55. U.S. singer and songwriter. Known as "The First Lady of Country Music," Miss Wynette had 20 singles that reached the #1 spot on the U.S. country music chart. Her best-known song, Stand By Your Man (late 1968-early 1969) hit #19 on the pop chart. Many of Miss Wynette’s songs were ballads that reflected her life story: five marriages, bankruptcy, a painkiller addiction, a kidnapping, and 26 major surgeries. Her Greatest Hits album, released in 1969, was the first album by a female country singer to sell a million copies. Other hits by Miss Wynette included D.I.V.O.R.C.E.; Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad; Apartment #9; My Elusive Dreams (a duet with David Houston from 1967, and her first #1 hit); and too many more to mention here. She won Grammy awards for female country vocal for Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad (1967) and Stand By Your Man (1969). One of the last songs she recorded was a version of In My Room with the Beach Boys, whose 1996 album Stars and Stripes Volume 1 featured country singers singing lead vocals on Beach Boys’ songs, with the Beach Boys handling the backing vocals. In My Room was left off the album when it was released, and as far as I know, remains unreleased. Tammy Wynette died of a pulmonary blood clot.

Wendy O. Williams, 48. U.S. rock performer. Miss Williams, "The Queen of Shock Rock," achieved notoriety in the early 1980s as leader of the punk rock group The Plasmatics, whose stage antics included blowing up equipment, chain-sawing guitars, and near-nudity. Miss Williams performed in live sex shows and pornographic movies before joining The Plasmatics in 1978. The group became popular in New York’s underground scene, which is definitely where they belonged. In cities such as Milwaukee and Cleveland Miss Williams was charged with obscenity for simulating sex on stage, but was always acquitted. Miss Williams moved to Storrs, Connecticut in 1991, where she lived with her boyfriend, former Plasmatics’ manager Ron Swenson. Miss Williams worked as a wildlife rehabilitator, and was a natural foods activist. She was, by 1998, "despondent," according to Mr. Swenson. On April 6, Wendy O. Williams went for a walk in the woods near her home and shot herself.

Diplomacy
The government of Austria announced that artworks that been confiscated from Jews by Nazis and kept in Vienna museums as national treasures would be returned to their owners or their families.

Economics and finance
The Dow Jones Industrial Average exceeded 9,000 for the first time. The increase was spurred by news of the biggest corporate merger in history, between Travelers and Citicorp.