May 2, 2008

750 years ago
1258

Politics and government
The English Parliament was summoned by King Henry III at Westminster. At this time a scarcity of provisions, combined with the growing weakness and misgovernment of the king, had disposed the people to desperate measures. The barons, who had formed a new confederacy, went to Westminster Hall in complete armour. "As the king entered, there was a rattling of swords: his eye glanced timidly along the mailed ranks; and he said, with a faltering voice, `What means this? Am I a prisoner?' `Not so,' replied Roger Bigod; `but your foreign favourites and your own extravagance have involved this realm in great wretchedness; wherefore we demand that the powers of government be entrusted and made over to a committee of bishops and barons, that the same may root up abuses and exact good laws.' The king could do nothing else than give an unconditional assent to the demands of the barons; and with promises on their part to help him pay his debts, and prosecute the claims of his son in Italy, the Parliament was dissolved, to meet again at an early date at Oxford.
(from Walter Thornbury, Old and New London: A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources.: Volume 3--go to http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2000.01.0004&query=head%3D%2362)

440 years ago
1568

World events
Mary, Queen of Scots escaped from Loch Leven Castle.

410 years ago
1598

War
The Peace of Vervins was signed between the representatives of Henry IV of France and Philip II of Spain, practically ending France’s Wars of Religion. Philip recognized the formerly Protestant Henry as King of France and withdrew his forces from the French territory they still occupied, thus withdrawing his support from the remnants of the Catholic League of France.

340 years ago
1668

War
The first peace of Aachen (also known as the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle) ended the War of Devolution, the French-Spanish war in the Netherlands.

200 years ago
1808

War
The people of Madrid rose up in rebellion against French occupation, beginning the Peninsular War.

190 years ago
1818

Died on this date
Herman W. Daendels, 55. Dutch politician. Mr. Daendels was the 36th Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1808-1811, and the Governor-General of the Dutch Gold Coast (now Ghana) from 1815-1818. He died from malaria.

175 years ago
1833

World events
Czar Nicholas I of Russia banned the public sale of serfs.

130 years ago
1878

Economics and finance
The United States stopped minting the 20-cent piece after just three years. It was one of the few coins to be minted at the Carson City Mint branch of the U.S. Mint in Carson City, Nevada.

100 years ago
1908

Died on this date
Prafulla Chaki, 19. Indian terrorist. Mr. Chaki was associated with the Jugantar group of revolutionaries in Bengal who carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence. Mr. Chaki and Khudiram Bose attempted to assassinate District Judge Kingsford by throwing a bomb at his carriage, but Judge Kingsford wasn't there, and the bomb killed two innocent women. Mr. Chaki fatally shot himself as he was about to be arrested.

90 years ago
1918

Business
General Motors acquired the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware.

80 years ago
1928

Radio
KPQ-AM in Wenatchee, Washington began transmissions.

Aviation
At a White House ceremony, U.S. President Calvin Coolidge awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross to the crew of the German Junker Bremen, who had been rescued from Greenly Island (near Newfoundland) on April 27, where they had been stranded after a transatlantic flight from Dublin. The honourees were Captain Herman Koehl, Commandant James E. Fitzmaurice, and Baron Gunther von Huenefeld.

Transportation
A Federal Statutory Court panel, sitting in New York City, granted the Interborough Rapid Transit Company’s application for permission to charge a 7-cent fare on the subway and elevated lines, pending the fixing of a permanent fare.

75 years ago
1933

Labour
In Germany, Chancellor Adolf Hitler banned the free and diverse labour unions that had existed under the Weimar Republic.

70 years ago
1938

Music
Ella Fitzgerald recorded A-Tisket, A-Tasket.

Writing
The Pulitzer prize for drama was awarded to Thornton Wilder for Our Town.

60 years ago
1948

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on MBS, starring John Stanley and Alfred Shirley
Tonight's episode: The Sinister Crate of Cabbages

50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Whole Lotta Woman--Marvin Rainwater (2nd week at #1)

On television tonight
Harbor Command, starring Wendell Corey
Tonight's episode: Shore Patrol

Business
The New York Yankees threatened to broadcast their games nationwide if the National League went ahead with plans to broadcast games into New York City. With the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants having moved to California, New York no longer had a National League team.

40 years ago
1968

Died on this date
Donald A. Hall, 69. U.S. aircraft designer. Mr. Hall designed Spirit of St. Louis, the plane in which Charles Lindbergh made his solo transatlantic flight in May 1927.

Music
The 8th Symphony of American composer Roger Sessions received its premiere performance.

Television
Israeli television began broadcasting.

War
Israeli troops fought Arab guerrillas at the southern end of the Dead Sea. One Israeli soldier and 12 Arabs were killed. Later, two Israeli soldiers and a civilian were killed when their jeeps ran over mines apparently planted by the slain commandos.

Defense
Israel marked its 20th anniversary with a military parade, the biggest in its history, through Jerusalem, despite Arab protests and terrorist threats. The parade, featuring equipment captured in the June 1967 war with Egypt, was criticized by the United Nations Security Council. Protest demonstrations were held in Damascus, Beirut, and Jordan. Of course, if the Arabs had won the war, there would have been no occasion for protest.

Protest
A protest by six New Left student militants at the University of Nanterre mushroomed into a movement of civil and economic disobedience by 10 million Frenchmen, and threatened to bring down the 10-year-old regime of President Charles de Gaulle’s Fifth Republic. Led by 23-year-old Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the youthful militants’ (i.e. spoiled brats’) protest against "imperialism" caused officials to close the suburban campus of the University of Paris.

Poor people’s caravans from all over the United States began converging on Washington, where volunteers put up temporary shelters on a 16-acre site known as Resurrection City, U.S.A. in West Potomac park. The campaign was sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and had been planned by Martin Luther King, Jr. to prod Congress and the Lyndon Johnson administration to take action on behalf of more than 29 million Americans, i.e., it was an attempt to shake down white taxpayers and politicians to give socialist welfare state handouts to Negroes. Rev. Ralph Abernathy, "Dr." King’s successor as SCLC president, was leading the march.

Politics and government
U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, in his first week as a presidential candidate, told 5,000 delegates to the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s quadrennial session in Philadelphia that he would strive for "a new and complete national commitment to human rights."

In a radio address, former Vice President and current Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon detailed a program for tax incentives and guaranteed loans to bring businesses to urban slums. New York Governor and U.S. presidential candidate Nelson Rockefeller, speaking at the University of Iowa, urged lowering the voting age to 18 and called for a draft lottery to end the "inequitable" draft laws.

Economics and finance
Gold reached a then-record high ($39.35 per ounce) in London.

Basketball
NBA
Finals
Boston 124 @ Los Angeles 109 (Boston won best-of-seven series 4-2)

John Havlicek scored 40 points and Bailey Howell added 30 as the Celtics took a 20-point halftime lead and coasted to victory over the Lakers at the Forum in Inglewood, California to win their 10th National Basketball Association championship in the past 12 years, and their first under playing coach Bill Russell, who scored 12 points and grabbed 19 rebounds. Elgin Baylor led Los Angeles with 28 points and Jerry West added 22.



30 years ago
1978

On television tonight
Family, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Fear of Shadows

War
Three French United Nations soldiers were killed and seven wounded when gunmen attacked UNIFIL troops near Tyre, the Lebanese port city controlled by Palestinians.

Politics and government
Rhodesia legalized Zimbabwe African People’s Union and Zimbabwe African National Union, the Patriotic Front terrorist parties led by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, respectively. The interim government of Ian Smith and three black nationalist leaders removed the bans imposed on ZAPU in 1962 and ZANU in 1964, and promised to release all political prisoners in Rhodesia. The moves were immediately dismissed by the guerrillas, who vowed to continue their armed opposition to the government.

Academia
The faculty of Harvard University voted to replace the current "general education" program with a stiffer "core curriculum." The new program, to be instituted gradually and to apply in full to the class of 1986, would require students to choose about one quarter of their courses from a list of 80 to 100 "core" courses. The change reflected a new attitude in favour of stricter curriculum requirements at American colleges and universities, in contrast to the 1960s when, under pressure from students, many curriculum requirements were dropped.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
Toronto 3 @ Montreal 5 (Montreal led best-of-seven series 1-0)
Philadelphia 2 @ Boston 3 (OT) (Boston led best-of-seven series 1-0)

Rick Middleton scored at 1:43 of the 1st overtime period to give the Bruins their win over the Flyers at Boston Garden.

25 years ago
1983

Defense
Leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States Senate and House of Representatives wrote letters to President Ronald Reagan urging him to support recommendations of the Scowcroft commission on MX missiles, including one to count nuclear warheads, not missiles, in talks with the Soviets. The members of Congress also endorsed the commission's recommendation for development of a single-warhead intercontinental missile.

Disasters
The strongest earthquake to hit California in 12 years--between 6.1 and 6.5 on the Richter scale--shook the central part of the state. The town of Coalinga, population 7,000, was closest to the quake’s epicentre. 47 were injured, mostly within Coalinga’s 8-block downtown business section, which was levelled; half of the town’s residents were forced from their homes. Total damage was put at $31 million, and California Governor George Deukmejian declared Fresno County a disaster area.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car--Billy Ocean (2nd week at #1)

War
Israeli forces, responding to Palestinian guerrilla raids into Israel, entered southern Lebanon in pursuit of the guerrillas.

Labour
About 7,000 workers, demanding more pay and recognition of Solidarity, the independent labour federation, struck the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, pleading ill health, played only a secondary role in the protest.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Prince of Wales Conference
Finals
New Jersey 3 @ Boston 5 (Boston led best-of-seven series 1-0)

Basketball
NBA
Playoffs
Eastern Conference
First Round
Detroit 106 @ Washington 114 (Detroit led best-of-five series 2-1)

Baseball
The Baltimore Orioles released pitchers Scott McGregor and Bill Scherrer. Mr. McGregor was 0-3 with an 8.83 earned run average in 4 games with Baltimore in 1988, while Mr. Scherrer was 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA in 4 games.

National League President Bart Giamatti suspended Cincinnati Reds’ manager Pete Rose for 30 days for pushing umpire Dave Pallone during a dispute in a game on April 30.

Cincinnati Reds' pitcher Ron Robinson was one strike away from a perfect game against the Montreal Expos and leading 3-0 when pinch hitter Wallace Johnson hit a 2-2 pitch for a single and Tim Raines followed with a home run. John Franco relieved Mr. Robinson and preserved the 3-2 win for the Reds before 15,107 fans at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

Greg Swindell pitched a 2-hitter to improve his 1988 record to 6-0 as the Cleveland Indians shut out the California Angels 3-0 before 8,121 fans at Cleveland Stadium.

The Kansas City Royals scored 2 runs in the top of the 1st inning, and Floyd Bannister and three relief pitchers combined for an 8-hit shutout as the Kansas City Royals blanked the Boston Red Sox 2-0 before 20,400 fans at Fenway Park in Boston.

The Baltimore Orioles scored 5 runs in the 4th inning and 3 in the 6th to defeat the Texas Rangers 9-4 before 50,402 fans at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore for their first win at home in 1988, improving their record for the season to 2-23.

Ron Hassey doubled home Jose Canseco and Rickey Henderson with 2 out in the top of the 10th inning to break a 2-2 tie as the Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers 4-2 before 15,856 fans at Tiger Stadium.

The New York Yankees scored 2 runs in the top of the 12th inning to break a 4-4 tie and defeat the Chicago White Sox 6-4 before 14,786 fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Johnny Grodzicki, 81. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Grodzicki played with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1941 and 1946-1947, compiling a record of 2-2 with an earned run average of 4.43 in 24 games (23 in relief). He missed the 1942-1945 seasons while serving in World War II, and suffered shrapnel wounds to both legs in 1945. Mr. Grodzicki played 11 seasons in the minor leagues from 1936-1941 and 1948-1952, compiling a record of 108-83 in 365 games. His best season was 1941, when he was 19-5 with a 2.58 ERA in 32 games with the Columbus Red Birds of the AA American Association, and then 2-1 with a 4.73 ERA in 5 games with the Cardinals.

Justin Fashanu, 37. U.K. soccer player. Mr. Fashanu was a forward with numerous teams in a professional career spanning the years 1978-1997, including the English Under 21 national team (1980-1982) and the Edmonton Brickmen (1989), Hamilton Steelers (1990), and Toronto Blizzard (1991) of the Canadian Soccer League. Mr. Fashanu came out of the closet as a sodomite in 1990; shortly after moving to the United States in 1998, a 17-year-old youth claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Mr. Fashanu after a night of drinking. Fearing arrest, Mr. Fashanu fled to England, and hanged himself; in his suicide note, he claimed the sex was consensual, and he believed he would not get a fair trial.

Politics and government
Camille Thériault became leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party, succeeding retiring Premier Frank McKenna. Mr. Thériault took office as Premier on May 14.

Economics and finance
The European Central Bank was founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy.

Horse racing
Real Quiet, with Kent Desormeaux up, won the 124th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville in a time of 2:02.38. Victory Gallop placed second, and Indian Charlie finished third in a 15-horse field.



Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Eastern Conference
Quarter-Finals
New Jersey 1 @ Ottawa 3 (Ottawa won best-of-seven series 4-2)

Western Conference
Quarter-Finals
Dallas 3 @ San Jose 2 (OT) (Dallas won best-of-seven series 4-2)
Colorado 0 @ Edmonton 2 (Best-of-seven series tied 3-3)

Mike Keane scored a shorthanded goal for the Stars at 16:04 of the 2nd period to tie the score and then scored the winner at 3:43 of the 1st overtime period as they eliminated the Sharks at San Jose Arena.

Basketball
NBA
Playoffs
Western Conference
First Round
Minnesota 84 @ Seattle 97 (Seattle won best-of-five series 3-2)

Baseball
Toronto Blue Jays' pitchers Roger Clemens (7 innings) and Paul Quantrill (2 innings) combined to pitch a 1-hitter as the Blue Jays shut out the Oakland Athletics 7-0 before 10,729 fans at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Oakland's only hit was a single by rookie Ben Grieve to lead off the 7th inning.

Ron Coomer hit a solo home run with 1 out in the top of the 11th inning to break a 1-1 tie as the Minnesota Twins edged the Baltimore Orioles 8-7 before 45,237 fans at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Ellis Burks hit a grand slam with 2 out in the top of the 9th inning to break a 3-3 tie as the Colorado Rockies beat the New York Mets 7-3 before 19,968 fans at Shea Stadium in New York.

Ryan McGuire singled home Rondell White with 2 out in the bottom of the 12th inning to give the Montreal Expos a 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks before 8,026 fans at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

Mark Grace singled with 2 out and nobody on base in the bottom of the 11th inning, and Sammy Sosa followed with a double to score him with the winning run as the Chicago Cubs edged the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3 before 38,430 fans at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Pinch hitter Curtis Pride drew a base on balls, stole second base, and scored on a single by Keith Lockhart with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Atlanta Braves a 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants before 46,597 fans at Turner Field in Atlanta.