May 21, 2008

130 years ago
1878

Horse racing
Day Star, with Jimmy Carter up, won the 4th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville in a then-record time of 2:37 1/4. Himyar placed second and Leveler finished third in the nine-horse field.

Baseball
Ed "The Only" Nolan of the Indianapolis Hoosiers set the Milwaukee Grays down with just 2 hits‚ but he barely won the game 6-5 because of 11 errors and passed balls by his team.

100 years ago
1908

Baseball
Bill Burns of the Washington Nationals had a no-hitter broken up with 2 outs in the 9th inning. "Sleepy Bill" became a figure in the fix of the 1919 World Series.

Pitching for Kansas City in the Western Association, Smoky Joe Wood hurled a 1-0 no-hitter against Milwaukee.

90 years ago
1918

Abominations
The United States House of Representatives passed an amendment allowing women to vote.

80 years ago
1928

Died on this date
Hideyo Noguchi, 50. Japanese scientist. Professor Noguchi, a bacteriologist with the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, died in Accra, Gold Coast from yellow fever which he contracted during a laboratory experiment. Prof. Noguchi had arrived in Accra in November to investigate the disease.

Religion
The Methodist Episcopal Church General Conference at Kansas City went on record against compulsory military training in colleges, and against all military training in high schools. Later, it voted to recognize divorces granted by the state, to receive divorced persons into the Church, and to trust the decision of their ministers on eligibility of divorced persons to be remarried. The Discipline was amended to read: "A minister shall not solemnize a marriage of a divorced person whose husband or wife is still living, except for the innocent person, when it is clearly established in his own mind that the true cause of divorce is adultery, or its moral equivalent."

Europeana
The Turkish parliament passed a law, effective June 1, 1929, to complete the adoption of Arabic numerals, already in use on postage stamps.

70 years ago
1938

Died on this date
Silver King, 70. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. King, born Charles Frederick Koenig, played with seven teams in a 10-year major league career from 1886-1893 and 1896-1897, compiling a record of 203-154 with an earned run average of 3.18 in 397 games, and batted .198 with 4 home runs and 135 runs batted in in 419 games. He was one of the first pitchers to use a sidearm delivery. Mr. King's best season was 1888, when he won 45 and lost 21 with the pennant-winning St. Louis Browns of the American Association, leading the league in games (66), innings pitched (585), wins, and earned run average (1.64). With the Chicago Pirates of the Players’ League in 1890, he tied for the league lead in wins (32), and led outright in ERA (2.69) and shutouts (4).

Baseball
The New York Yankees gave little support to pitcher Spud Chandler, but he hit a home run in the 8th inning to gain a 1-0 victory over Thornton Lee and the Chicago White Sox.

60 years ago
1948

War
Greek government forces reported defeating a 2,000-man guerrilla army northeast of Salonika afte a two-day battle.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Harry Truman named Henry Grady to succeed Lincoln MacVeagh as U.S. Ambassador to Greece and administrator of the U.S. aid program there.

Defense
U.S. President Truman signed the $3.2-billion Air Force and Navy procurement bill.

Politics and government
A U.S. district court in Washington convicted screenwriters John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo of contempt of Congress and imposed $1,000 fines and one-year prison sentences on both for refusing to tell the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities whether they were Communists.

The British Labour Party ended its six-day convention in Scarborough by endorsing eventual European unification and rejecting proposals to condemn the Marshall Plan as an "imperialistic" plot.

New York Governor Thomas Dewey won the Oregon Republican Party U.S. presidential primary over Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, taking another 12 convention delegates. President Truman was unopposed in the state's Democratic Party primary.

U.S. President Truman urged Congress to make Alaska a state, and outlined a program for settlement and economic development of the territory, emphasizing its "strategic importance."

Religion
Speaking before the International College of Surgeons in Rome, Pope Pius XII declared that sterilization, birth control, and childbirth operations in which the mother's life was saved at the expense of the child's were not permissible for Roman Catholics.

Economics and finance
Brazil signed a $400-million one-year trade agreement with the United Kingdom.

Business
The Yugoslavian government nationalized all retail stores in Belgrade except cafes, pharmacies, and shops producing their own goods.

Labour
The Congress of Industrial Organizations United Packinghouse Workers ended their 67-day strike against all meatpacking firms except Wilson & Co., as workers accepted a 9c hourly wage increase.

Contract discussions in the U.S. railroad industry broke down in Washington.

Baseball
Third baseman Frankie Gustine batted 5 for 5 to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to an 8-4 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Chicago Cubs beat the New York Giants 8-3 at the Polo Grounds. New York rookie Les Layton‚ in his first major league at bat‚ hit a pinch homer in the 9th inning off Johnny Schmitz. Mr. Layton hit just one more career home run.

50 years ago
1958

At the movies
Hot Spell, directed by Daniel Mann, and starring Shirley Booth, Anthony Quinn, Shirley MacLaine, and Earl Holliman, received its premiere screening in New Orleans.



War
Indonesian paratroopers reconquered Morotai Island. The U.S. State Department disclosed that it had granted licenses for the export to Indonesia of $14,600 worth of small arms and nearly $1 million worth of aircraft and radio parts.

Defense
The United States performed an atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island.

Communications
U.K. Postmaster General Ernest Marples announced that the introduction of automatic trunk dialling would make telephone calls easier and cheaper.

Baseball
Willie Mays belted a 10th-inning home run off Hal Jeffcoat to give the San Francisco Giants a 5-4 win over the Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade): Delilah--Tom Jones (5th week at #1)

Died on this date
Doris Lloyd, 71. U.K.-born U.S. actress. Miss Lloyd appeared in many radio and television shows (including a number of episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour), and more than 150 movies from 1920 to 1967. Her movies included Waterloo Bridge (1931); Tarzan the Ape Man (1932); A Study in Scarlet (1933); Tovarich (1937); The Letter (1940); The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942); The House of Fear (1945); Three Strangers (1946); and The Sound of Music (1965).

Diplomacy
A United Nations Security Council resolution opposed Israel’s administrative unification of the Jordanian and Israeli sections of Jerusalem, and declared invalid all Israeli actions in Jerusalem since the capture of the Jordanian area of the city in the June 1967 war. 13 of the 15 member nations of the Security Council approved the resolution; the United States and Canada abstained.

Defense
The U.S.S.R. performed an underground nuclear test.

Politics and government
Shneon Zalman Lazar, re-elected in March, was inaugurated into his second five-year term as President of Israel.

Disasters
In Edmonton, a gas leak in the Dunston Apartments, on Stony Plain Road near 127th Street, caused an explosion that morning that left the old red brick walkup a pile of rubble, and knocked out the windows of Pioneer Automotive next door. Amazingly, no one was killed. I was at home on 133 St., getting ready to go to Glenora School, when I heard a loud bang; I found out what it was when I came home for lunch.

Baseball
The Chicago Cubs climbed above the .500 mark the first time all season with a 6-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies before 4,422 fans at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Chicago's Billy Williams set a record for outfielders by playing his 695th straight game, and scored the winning run with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th inning when Cookie Rojas, who had hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 9th to climax a 4-run Philadelphia rally to tie the game and had then moved to catcher, allowed a passed ball. Rich Nye allowed 11 hits and 5 earned runs in pitching a complete came victory.

Bob Bailey hit a home run and 2 singles, driving in 5 runs, as the Los Angeles Dodgers, in a rare offensive outburst, beat the St. Louis Cardinals 9-2 before 13,633 fans at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

Tommie Agee hit a 2-run home run in the 2nd inning and led off the bottom of the 17th inning with a single and came around to score the winning run on an error by second baseman Chuck Hiller as the New York Mets edged the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 before 8,188 fans at Shea Stadium in New York.

Andy Kosco led off the top of the 9th inning with a home run to break a 1-1 tie as the New York Yankees edged the Washington Senators 2-1 before 7,685 fans at District of Columbia Stadium, with Mel Stottlemyre winning the pitchers' duel over Joe Coleman, Jr.



Ken Berry singled to lead off the top of the 12th inning and came around to score on a single by Jerry McNertney to break a 1-1 tie as the Chicago White Sox edged the Baltimore Orioles 2-1 before 7,612 fans at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Oriole had runners on first and second bases with 2 out in the bottom of the 12th, but Hoyt Wilhelm entered the game and induced Brooks Robinson to ground into a force play to end the game.

Rich Rollins singled home Rod Carew and Tony Oliva with 2 out in the bottom of the 8th inning to break a 1-1 tie as the Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 3-1 before 9,024 fans at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, with Dean Chance pitching a 4-hitter to win the pitchers' duel over Joe Sparma.

Jose Cardenal led off the top of the 11th inning with a home run for the only scoring as the Cleveland Indians edged the Oakland Athletics 1-0 before 8,342 fans at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Sam McDowell pitched a 4-hitter and struck out 12 batters to win the pitchers' duel over Chuck Dobson, who allowed 4 hits and struck out 7. Blue Moon Odom pitched a 7-hit shutout to win the pitchers' duel over Luis Tiant, who allowed 7 hits and 1 earned run, as the Athletics won the second game 2-0.

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Wuthering Heights--Kate Bush (3rd week at #1)

Politics and government
A nationwide referendum in Egypt overwhelmingly endorsed President Anwar Sadat’s plan to curb political opposition from both left and right. President Sadat promised, however, that the restrictions would not lead to a return to the sometimes repressive measures used by his predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Religion
118 Unification church (Moonie) couples participated in a mass wedding in England.

Golf
Jim Simons won the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio with a score of 284. First prize money was $50,000.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Finals
Montreal 3 @ Boston 4 (OT) (Best-of-seven series tied 2-2)

Bobby Schmautz scored at 6:22 of the 1st overtime period to give the Bruins the win over the Canadiens at the Boston Garden. A 3rd-period fight was a highlight, with Stan Jonathan of the Bruins beating up the much taller Pierre Bouchard.





Basketball
NBA
Finals
Washington 102 @ Seattle 106 (Seattle led best-of-seven series 1-0)

Fred Brown came off the bench to score 30 points to lead the SuperSonics over the Bullets at Seattle Center Coliseum. Kevin Grevey led the Bullets with 27 points and Elvin Hayes added 21.



25 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Let’s Dance--David Bowie

One of the ‘80s’ most annoying songs, Bang the Drum All Day by Todd Rundgren, reached #63 on the Billboard Hot 100. I don’t remember hearing it at the time, only in later years. For some reason, disc jockeys never identify the artist when they play that song.

World events
The Fatah central committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), under the control of Yasser Arafat, dismissed Col. Abu Masa, leader of an anti-Arafat PLO faction, and four other officers from their commands.

Horse racing
Deputed Testamony, with Donald Miller aboard, won the 108th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore in 1:55 2/5. Desert Wine placed second.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): I'm Not Scared--Eighth Wonder (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Gimme Hope Jo'anna--Eddy Grant (6th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Yé ké yé ké--Mory Kanté (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in France (SNEP): N'importe quoi--Florent Pagny (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): With a Little Help from My Friends--Wet Wet Wet/She's Leaving Home--Billy Bragg featuring Cara Tivey

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): With a Little Help from My Friends--Wet Wet Wet/She's Leaving Home--Billy Bragg featuring Cara Tivey

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Anything for You--Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Anything for You--Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine (2nd week at #1)
2 One More Try--George Michael
3 Wishing Well--Terence Trent D'Arby
4 Shattered Dreams--Johnny Hates Jazz
5 Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)--Samantha Fox
6 Angel--Aerosmith
7 Always on My Mind--Pet Shop Boys
8 Pink Cadillac--Natalie Cole
9 I Don't Want to Live Without You--Foreigner
10 Electric Blue--Icehouse

Singles entering the chart were Hold On to the Nights by Richard Marx (#80); Make Me Lose Control by Eric Carmen (#83); Tomorrow People by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers (#88); Black and Blue by Van Halen (#90); and Like the Weather by 10,000 Maniacs (#91).

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 Always on My Mind--Pet Shop Boys
2 Wishing Well--Terence Trent D'Arby
3 Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car--Billy Ocean
4 I'm Still Searching--Glass Tiger
5 Beds are Burning--Midnight Oil
6 Where Do Broken Hearts Go--Whitney Houston
7 Devil Inside--INXS
8 Push It--Salt-N-Pepa
9 Pink Cadillac--Natalie Cole
10 Shattered Dreams--Johnny Hates Jazz

Singles entering the chart included Alphabet St. by Prince (#76); Tall Cool One by Robert Plant (#87); and Far from Over by Blvd. (#94).

Died on this date
Dino Grandi, 92. Italian politician. Mr. Grandi joined Benito Mussolini’s Fascist movement in 1920, and served in Mr. Mussolini’s government in various positions, including Minister of Foreign Affairs (1929-1932). Mr. Grandi was one of the members of the Fascist Grand Council who voted to remove Mr. Mussolini from office in 1943. Mr. Grandi fled the country, but returned to Italy many years later.

Sammy Davis, Sr., 87. U.S. dancer. Mr. Davis, his young son, Sammy, Jr., and Will Mastin comprised the Will Mastin Trio.

Pino Romualdi, 74. Italian politician. Mr. Romualdi was Deputy Secretary of the Fascist Republican Party during World War II, and was one of the founders, in 1946, of the Italian Social Movement (MSI). He remained involved in politics until his death.

Weather
It was a beautiful day in Edmonton, hitting 82 F.

Art
The National Gallery of Canada opened in Ottawa.

Defense
The United States performed a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

Horse racing
Risen Star, with Eddie Delahoussaye aboard, won the 113th running of the Preakness Stakes before 88,654 fans at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The winning time was 1:56 2/5, the slowest Preakness in 13 years. Brian's Time placed second, 1 1/4 lengths behind, with Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors finishing third in the nine-horse field.



Basketball
NBA
Western Conference
Semi-Finals
Utah 98 @ Los Angeles Lakers 109 (Los Angeles won best-of-seven series 4-3)

10 years ago
1998

Politics and government
Indonesian President Suharto resigned under pressure after an economic crisis, and following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
In a televised address, he apologized for mistakes made during 32 years in power. Suharto was succeeded in office by Vice President B.J. Habibie.