April 8, 2008

150 years ago
1858

Died on this date
Anton Diabelli, 76. Austrian composer and publisher. Mr. Diabelli was best known in his own time as a music publisher, but he wrote vocal music and works for piano and guitar, and is best known today for the waltz he composed that served as the basis for Ludwig van Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. Mr. Diabelli died after a long battle with atherosclerosis.

90 years ago
1918

Born on this date
Betty Ford. U.S. First Lady. Mrs. Gerald Ford, originally Betty Bloomer, was born in Chicago. She’s best remembered for founding the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic which has served as a second home for many a celebrity.

75 years ago
1933

Hockey
The New York Rangers defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 at Madison Square Garden to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Stanley Cup finals.

70 years ago
1938

Born on this date
Kofi Annan. Ghanaian diplomat. Mr. Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations from 1997-2006, is a corrupt man who led a corrupt organization. Man and organization shared the Nobel Peace Prize for 2001.

50 years ago
1958

Hockey
The Stanley Cup finals opened at the Montreal Forum with the hometown Canadiens defeating the Boston Bruins 2-1, as Dickie Moore scored the winning goal on a pass from Jean Beliveau.

40 years ago
1968

Politics
From Lubor Zink’s column in the Toronto Telegram:

When it was all over, I listened for comment amid the roar of Trudeau worshippers.
A delegate from Quebec said: "Good-bye Canada."
A Soviet delegate said: "Excellent choice. Trudeau will make Canada progressive."
A Cabinet minister muttered: "The Seven Days boys are in charge now."
A woman, taking off her delegate’s badge, said: This isn’t my party any more. God help us all."

If you want a crash course in where and when Canada went fatally wrong, all you need to do is to read Mr. Zink’s 1972 book Trudeaucracy (especially the first two chapters), or find a library that has back issues of the Toronto Telegram, and read his columns from the first four months of 1968.

War
Three days after Operation Pegasus had succeeded in lifting the siege of the U.S. Marine base at Khesanh, the main relief column arrived. Meanwhile, Operation Complete Victory, a five-nation allied force comprising 100,000 men, launched the biggest drive of the war to clean up Communist forces in the 11 provinces around Saigon, but failed to make contact with an estimated force of 18,000-20,000 believed to be there. Heavy B-52 raids commenced near the Cambodian border.

The Israeli army reported that a few dozen Israeli soldiers in helicopters had crossed 18 miles into Jordan to pursue and kill "about half a dozen" Arab infiltrators. The Israelis also destroyed a house used as a base by the terrorists, described as members of the Egyptian 141st Commando Battalion. A Jordanian note to the United Nations Security Council accused Israel of "new acts of aggression," while an Israeli note, admitting the incursion, explained that it was "in pursuit of saboteurs."

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (Lowry's Song)--Brian and Michael
#1 single in the U.S.A.: Night Fever--Bee Gees (4th week at #1)

World events
In the Philippines, the People’s Force party, opponents of the government of President Ferdinand Marcos, charged that hundreds of its poll watchers had been forced away from the polling places during the national elections the day before.

Michael Townley, a 35-year-old American, was extradited from Chile to the United States as a suspect in the 1976 murder in Washington, D.C. of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States.

Economics and finance
The heads of state of the European Community concluded their two-day annual meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark with a decision to formulate an economic recovery plan independently of the United States. The plan called for closer coordination of the members’ currencies to protect them from the dollar’s weakness. The West German mark, already linked with the Belgian, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian currencies, would also be linked with the British pound and the French franc. The Europeans also rejected the American demand for a new nuclear fuel supply treaty.

Hockey
In the national Hockey Night in Canada game, the Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Bob Miller scored his 20th goal of the season into an empty net in the final seconds, giving the Bruins 11 players with 20 or more goals for the season, an NHL record. The other Bruins in that club were: Peter McNab (41); Terry O’Reilly (29); Stan Jonathan (27); Bobby Schmautz (27); Rick Middleton (25); Jean Ratelle (25); Wayne Cashman (24); Gregg Sheppard (23); and Don Marcotte (20). Larry Hopkins, wearing #12, played his first NHL game for the Maple Leafs.

Died on this date
Ford Frick, 83 . U.S. baseball executive. Mr. Frick was president of the National League from 1934-1951, and Commissioner of Baseball from 1951-1965. His most controversial decision as baseball commissioner was the ruling that the single season home run records of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris should be listed separately because Mr. Ruth’s season was 8 games shorter. It was later revealed that Mr. Frick had served as a ghostwriter for Mr. Ruth earlier in his career. He was also one of the last people to see the Babe alive; he visited him in the hospital the day before the Babe died. Mr. Frick was also accused by some of favouring the National League in his decisions as Commissioner, such as how expansion teams in the 1960s were to be stocked.

As National League president, Mr. Frick enforced the lowering of the colour bar, and threatened to suspend any players who planned to protest the presence of Jackie Robinson in the league.
Before becoming a baseball executive, Ford Frick was a sportswriter, first in the midwest, then in New York. He also appeared on radio, and pioneered the daily radio sportscast. Mr. Frick was hired by the National League as its publicity director in 1934; he became NL president later that year.

25 years ago
1983

Diplomacy
The United States announced that it would seek to halt Israeli settlements on the West Bank if Jordan entered the peace process.

20 years ago
1988

Scandal
The Assemblies of God defrocked Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, and Mr. Swaggart resigned from the church. After Mr. Swaggart had been caught in adultery, the AoG had suspended him from preaching for a year, but Mr. Swaggart had refused to accept the punishment, arguing that it would cripple his ministry and his Bible college. Obviously, Mr. Swaggart didn’t think that the standards laid down in the Bible applied to him, so he took his balls and went home.

World events
800 U.S. Marines arrived in Panama for a planned jungle training program, while President Ronald Reagan invoked the 1977 Emergency Economic Powers Act that forbade U.S. companies and individuals to make any payments to the Panamanian government. The action blocked all Panamanian government assets in the United States.