May 3, 2008

250 years ago
1758

Died on this date
Benedict XIV, 83. Roman Catholic Pope, 1740-1758. Benedict XIV, born Prospero L. Lambertini, was succeeded by Clement XIII.

200 years ago
1808

War
The invading forces of Napoleon Bonaparte executed captured Spaniards on the Príncipe Pío, a hill just outside Madrid, inspiring Francisco Goya’s famous painting Executions of the Third of May, 1808, which he painted in 1814-1815.

140 years ago
1868

Died on this date
Olof Wilhelm Udden, 68. Composer. I don’t know who he was, but I do know this...

110 years ago
1898

Baseball
Jimmy Sheckard of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms hit a home run, two triples, and a single in a 9-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. The eleven total bases by Sheckard was the season's best for a single game.

80 years ago
1928

Born on this date
James Brown. U. S. musician. "Soul Brother #1" was born in Augusta, Georgia. The "Godfather of Soul" serves as an excellent barometer of racial differences in the United States. He had dozens of hits on the rhythm and blues chart; in fact, more than any other black artist in history. White people, on the other hand, tended to regard Mr. Brown as something of a cartoon character, with his criminal record and distinctive hairstyle. Few white people can remember or name more than a handful of Mr. Brown’s hits. James Brown died on Christmas Day, 2006. He was scheduled to perform at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton on January 9, 2007, but this was one date that the "hardest-working man in show business" was unable to keep.

War
It was reported that many Japanese soldiers and civilians had been killed in civil war at Tsinan, China, which the South Nationalists had captured.

Diplomacy
King Amanullah Khan of Afghanistan and Queen Surrayya arrived at Moscow, from Warsaw.

Adventure
Japanese traveller Ryvkichi Matsui arrived in New York City, 7 days after leaving London, and 27 days after leaving Tokyo to circle the globe heading westward. His friend Toichio Araki had departed Tokyo the same day, heading eastward around the world.

Aviation
The dirigible Italia, under General Emberto Nobile, left Stolp, Germany for Spitzbergen, Norway.

75 years ago
1933

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Aristocratic Model

Economics and finance
Former Wyoming Governor Nellie Tayloe Ross took office as the first female director of the United States Mint.

70 years ago
1938

Abominations
The Nazi concentration camp at Flossenburg went into use. Located near Floss and Namering, the Flossenburg camp was the fourth Nazi concentration camp established in Germany. It ended up being supervised by 800 SS troops.

Diplomacy
The Vatican recognized the Spanish regime of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The Spanish Civil War was still going after two years.

Baseball
Boston Red Sox pitcher Lefty Grove defeated the Detroit Tigers 4-3 for the first of a record 20 consecutive wins at his home field, Fenway Park; he didn't lose there until May 12, 1941.

60 years ago
1948

Literature
James A. Michener was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for Tales of the South Pacific, while the Pulitzer Prize for drama was awarded to Tennessee Williams for A Streetcar Named Desire.

50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Catch a Falling Star--Perry Como (5th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): March from the River Kwai and Colonel Bogey--Mitch Miller and his Orchestra (4th week at #1)

#1 single in France (IFOP): Hello, le soleil brille--Annie Cordy (8th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): Whole Lotta Woman--Marvin Rainwater (3rd week at #1)

U.S. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Twilight Time--The Platters
2 Witch Doctor--David Seville
3 He's Got the Whole World (In His Hands)--Laurie London
4 Wear My Ring Around Your Neck--Elvis Presley
5 All I Have to Do is Dream--The Everly Brothers
6 Return to Me--Dean Martin
7 Chanson d'Amour--Art and Dotty Todd
8 Tequila--The Champs
9 Book of Love--The Monotones
10 Lollipop--The Chordettes
--Ronald and Ruby

Singles entering the chart were Padre by Toni Arden (#48); I'm Sorry I Made You Cry by Connie Francis (#49); Jacqueline by Bobby Helms (#50); Make Me a Miracle (#54)/Secretly (#58) by Jimmie Rodgers; Sugar Moon (#57)/Cherie, I Love You (#60) by Pat Boone; Endless Sleep, with versions by Jody Reynolds, and Gene Ross (#59); and Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Nu Nu by Dicky Doo and the Don'ts (also #60).

Radio
The New York station WINS suspended disc jockey Alan Freed for causing a riot in Boston; he then quit the station.

Horse racing
Tim Tam, with Ismael Valenzuela up, won the 84th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville in a time of 2:05. Lincoln Road placed second, and Noureddin finished third.





40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
Edmonton’s top 10 (CJCA)
1 Love is All Around--The Troggs
2 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly--Hugo Montenegro, his Orchestra, and Chorus
3 Honey--Bobby Goldsboro
4 Take Time to Know Her--Percy Sledge
5 Lady Madonna--The Beatles
6 Call Me Lightning--The Who
7 Jennifer Eccles--The Hollies
8 The Unknown Soldier--The Doors
9 Me, the Peaceful Heart--Lulu
10 Delilah--Tom Jones
Pick of the week: Chain Around the Flowers--The Lewis and Clarke Expedition
New this week: The River is Wide--Bobby Rydell
If You Loved Me--Peggy March
If I were a Carpenter--Four Tops
Love in Every Room--Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra

If I Were a Carpenter was the Four Tops’ second hit (Walk Away Renee was the first) after the departure of the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland from the Motown corporation. They wrote many Motown hits in the 1960s, particularly for the Supremes and the Four Tops, and the Four Tops’ chart performance declined noticeably after H-D-H left. The B-side of If I Were a Carpenter was a catchy Smokey Robinson composition called Wonderful Baby.

Another recording of If I Were a Carpenter that was out at the same time as the Four Tops' version was that of Raymond Lefevre and his Orchestra, an instrumental B-side of Soul Coaxing (Ame Caline). Soul Coaxing was the second French instrumental to become a top 40 hit in North America in the early months of 1968; Love is Blue by Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra had been a #1 hit, one of the year’s biggest. Soul Coaxing is a great tune, but it wasn’t as big a hit as Love is Blue. You may not recognize the title, but you’ve probably heard the music before. I heard the song years before I found out what the title was (and even then I was slightly mistaken), and many more years before I found out who the artist was. I never hear it on oldies stations.

Died on this date
Leonid Leonidovich Sabaneyev, 86. Russian music critic and composer.

Margaret Young. U.S. musician. I don't know who she was, but I do know this...

War
After a 34-day delay in selecting a site for preliminary peace negotiations, the United States and North Vietnam agreed on Paris.

Israeli authorities reported that their troops had killed 17 Arab guerrillas in three separate clashes from April 30-May 2.

Protest
Protests by 1,000 students at the 715-year-old Sorbonne, heart of the University of Paris, led to its closing after pitched battles with police and precipitated 10 days of fierce Latin Quarter street fighting, with students behind barricades of burned cars tossing paving stones and gasoline bombs. The bloody fighting won the sympathy of France overnight, and thousands of students also took to the streets in provincial cities, fired by the deep discontent permeating the country’s overcrowded, inadequate, and archaic university system. The young people of France in 1968 were certainly different from those of a similar age 25 years earlier, who were less than enthusiastic about fighting the Nazis.

At Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Negro students seized the business office for 36 hours, demanding separate housing, more scholarships for Negroes, more Negro faculty, and more Negro art and literature taught by teachers that they approved. Typical of the cowardice that so characterizes university administrators, the school agreed to the demands.

Politics and government
At Kent State University, a small group of students walked out of a speech by U.S. Vice President and Democratic Party presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey. Republican Party candidate Richard Nixon, speaking in Fort Wayne, Indiana, stressed the need for a "moratorium" on Vietnam discussion, adding: "Let’s not destroy the chance for peace with a mouthful of words from some irresponsible candidate."

A bill to abolish parliamentary representation for South Africa’s coloured (mixed-race) population was passed in the House of Assembly. The measure, one of three designed to reinforce the government’s Apartheid policy, ended coloured representation by four white deputies at the end of the current parliament in 1971.

Medicine
Britain's first heart transplant was successfully carried out by a team of 18 doctors and nurses at the National Heart Hospital in Marylebone, London. The operation, which was led by South African-born surgeon Donald Ross, was undertaken on an unnamed 45-year-old man, and took more than seven hours to complete. The donor, Patrick Ryan, a 26-year-old labourer, was transferred from King's College Hospital and his heart removed immediately after his death. The British operation was the tenth heart transplant to be undertaken in the world since Dr. Christiaan Barnard carried out the first one in Cape Town, South Africa, the previous December. Britain's first heart transplant patient, who was later named Frederick West, died 46 days after receiving the donor heart; the hospital said he died from an "overwhelming infection" which he had been fighting for nine days. He had been given a series of drugs to encourage the acceptance of the new heart but this lowered his resistance to infection and ultimately led to his death. Mr. West had also been suffering from kidney complications before he died. After that, British surgeons adopted a cautious approach to heart surgery, and only six more transplants were carried out in the U.K. over the next decade. It wasn't until the 1980s that heart transplants became more common. Today around 300 heart transplant operations are carried out in the U.K. every year.

Disasters
A Braniff International 4-engine turboprop crashed during a lightning storm near Dawson, Texas, killing all 85 aboard. I flew in an Electra a few times in the '70s, and it was the worst plane I've ever been on.

A coal mine explosion near St. Etienne, France killed six.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
Minnesota 1 @ St. Louis 2 (2OT) (St. Louis won best-of-seven series 4-3)

Ron Schock scored at 2:50 of the 2nd overtime period to give the Blues their win over the North Stars at St. Louis Arena.

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Night Fever--Bee Gees (3rd week at #1)

War
The French UNIFIL commander called off patrols in the Tyre area of Lebanon. In view of the clashes between United Nations forces and Palestinian guerrillas, the UN voted to increase the UNIFIL force from 4,000 to 6,000 men.

Environment
It was International Sun Day, with events being held in various locations to promote solar energy. Not only did the sun not come out in Calgary, it actually snowed a little.

Technology
The first unsolicited bulk commercial email--later known as "spam"--was sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.

Hockey
WHA
Avco World Trophy
Semi-Finals
New England 5 @ Quebec 4 (New England led best-of-seven series 2-1)

Basketball
NBA
Eastern Conference
Finals
Washington 104 @ Philadelphia 110 (Best-of-seven series tied 1-1)

Western Conference
Semi-Finals
Milwaukee 110 @ Denver 116 (Denver won best-of-seven series 4-3)

25 years ago
1983

Defense
Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Yuri Andropov proposed to reduce the number of Soviet warheads deployed in Europe to the level maintained by Britain and France together. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization would also have to refrain from the planned deployment of 572 new U.S. missiles in Europe. Britain and France had a combined total of 162 missiles carrying a total of 290 warheads. Soviet warheads in Europe had been estimated at 1,100. The U.S. State Department said that the U.S.S.R. would not be granted the right to maintain as many missiles as all other nations combined.

In the United States, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, reversing itself for the second time, approved an amended pastoral letter that condemned the nuclear arms race. Passed overwhelmingly at a special meeting in Chicago, the document reflected a shift back to a more outspoken position. The final draft dropped the word "curb" and called for a "halt" to the development, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons.

Politics and government
The United States House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, voting along party lines, approved a bill barring U.S. covert operations in Nicaragua.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Prince of Wales Conference Finals
Boston 3 @ New York Islanders 8 (New York led best-of-seven series 3-1)

Clarence S. Campbell Conference Finals
Edmonton 6 @ Chicago 3 (Edmonton won best-of-seven series 4-0)

Jaroslav Pouzar, playing his only game of the 1983 playoffs, scored 2 goals to lead the Oilers to a completion of their sweep of the Black Hawks at Chicago Stadium.

20 years ago
1988

Politics and government
In the contest for the U.S. presidential nomination for the Democratic Party, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis won primaries in Ohio and Indiana, while his now-distant rival, Rev. Jesse Jackson, won in the District of Columbia.

Protest
Anti-government protesters clashed with police in several Polish cities, including Warsaw.

Crime
4,200 kilograms of Colombian cocaine were seized at Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Clarence S. Campbell Conference
Finals
Detroit 1 @ Edmonton 4 (Edmonton led best-of-seven series 1-0)

Basketball
NBA
Playoffs
Eastern Conference
First Round
Chicago 102 @ Cleveland 110 (Chicago led best-of-five series 2-1)

Western Conference
First Round
Dallas 93 @ Houston 92 (Houston led best-of-five series 2-1)
Denver 125 @ Seattle 114 (Denver led best-of-five series 2-1)
Los Angeles Lakers 109 @ San Antonio 107 (Los Angeles won best-of-five series 3-0)

10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Gene Raymond, 89. U.S. actor. Mr. Raymond, born Raymond Guion, appeared in movies such as Red Dust (1932); Sadie McKee (1934); Smilin’ Through (1941)--in which he starred with his wife, Jeanette McDonald; and Million Dollar Weekend (1948)--his only directorial effort. Mr. Raymond appeared in many live television dramas in the 1950s.

Space
The U.S. space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center with live and dead animals aboard after two weeks of laboratory work that advanced brain research.

Economics and finance
The European Union nations agreed on a single currency. A monetary plan for all nations was approved at a conference in Brussels after France and Germany resolved a dispute over the choice of a candidate to head the central bank.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Eastern Conference
Quarter-Finals
Pittsburgh 0 @ Montreal 3 (Montreal won best-of-seven series 4-2)
Washington 3 @ Boston 2 (OT) (Washington won best-of-seven series 4-2)

Western Conference
Quarter-Finals
Detroit 5 @ Phoenix 2 (Detroit won best-of-seven series 4-2)

Brian Bellows scored for the Capitals at 15:24 of the 1st overtime period as they eliminated the Bruins at Fleet Center.

Basketball
NBA
Playoffs
Eastern Conference
First Round
New York 98 @ Miami 81 (New York won best-of-five series 3-2)

Semi-Finals
Charlotte 70 @ Chicago 83 (Chicago led best-of-seven series 1-0)

Western Conference
First Round
Houston 70 @ Utah 84 (Utah won best-of-five series 3-2)

Baseball
Dan Wilson of the Seattle Mariners, in a game at the Kingdome against the Detroit Tigers, hit the first inside-the-park grand slam in the franchise's history.