August 24, 2008

400 years ago
1608

Diplomacy
The first official English representative to India landed in Surat.

325 years ago
1683

Died on this date
John Owen, 66 or 67. English theologian. Mr. Owen was one of the leading Calvinist scholars of his day, and became a good friend of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. His writings are still in print today.

190 years ago
1818

Died on this date
James Carr, 40. U.S. politician. Mr. Carr, a Federalist, represented the District of Maine in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1806-1811 and represented Massachusetts' 17th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1815-1817. He drowned in the Ohio River when he dove in to rescue his daughter Mary, 9, who had fallen off the steamboat they were riding on. Neither body was recovered.

130 years ago
1878

Music
Charles-Marie Widor premiered his Symphony for Organ No. 6 for the inauguration of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Palais du Trocadéro as part of the Paris World Exhibition.

110 years ago
1898

Diplomacy
Russian Foreign Minister Count Muravyov presented a rescript that convoked the First Hague Peace Conference.

100 years ago
1908

Boxing
Tommy Burns (41-2-8) retained his world heavyweight title with a knockout of Bill Squires (21-6) in the 13th round at Sydney Stadium. It was Mr. Burns' third successful title defense against Mr. Squires.

80 years ago
1928

Disasters
11 passengers were killed outright, 6 died later, and over 150 were injured in New York City at 5:13 P.M. when a switch derailed the ninth car of a 10-car West side Interurban Rail Transit express just after it had left the Seventh Avenue Times Square station, speeding downtown, jammed to the doors with rush-hour traffic. The rear end of the car swung around and it crashed against a concrete partition and it broke into two pieces, spilling dead and injured passengers onto the tracks. The tenth car, brought to a halt, was partly telescoped.

In Baltimore, 16 Brazilian stowaways in the hold of the U.S. steamship Steel Inventor were trapped under battened hatches in fumes of hydrocyanic acid gas used to fumigate the ship at quarantine. Seven died and seven more were hospitalized in serious condition.

60 years ago
1948

War
The Philippine government reported a new outbreak of Hukbalahap guerrilla attacks in central Luzon.

Diplomacy
U.S.S.R. and U.S. authorities in Berlin agreed to inform one another before making anti-black market raids, ending a series of arrests and counter-arrests of Allied personnel.

The princely state of Hyderabad formally petitioned the United Nations Security Council to coonsider its demand for continued independence from India.

Defense
U.S. Army General John Hodge and South Korean President Syngman Rhee signed an agreement in Seoul for providing for continued training of South Korean troops by the United States.

U.S. Navy Secretary John Sullivan announced plans to deactivate the battleship USS Iowa, leaving USS Missouri as the only dreadnought in active service.

Politics and government
The Communist Party of Trieste ended a special congress of resolving to support the Cominform against Yugoslavia and to oppose the Marshall Plan through the city's labour unions.

In a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities, former State Department employee Alger Hiss accused committee members of prejudging his guilt, and offered the names of several prominent officials as references, including Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Arthur Vandenberg (Republican--Michigan) and Republican foreign affairs adviser John Foster Dulles. Former Communist editor Louis Budenz testified at a secret session of the Un-American Activities Committee that he regarded Mr. Hiss as the "equivalent to" a Communist Party member.

Progressive Party U.S. presidential candidate Henry Wallace denied in Cincinnati that he had ever been a Communist or that Communists dominated his campaign. His statement was intended to retain the support of former Puerto Rico Governor Rexford G. Tugwell, anti-Communist former co-chairman of the Wallace for President Committee.

Labour
Congress of Industrial Organizations Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Samual Wolchok announced the suspension of officers and executive boards of four leftist New York department store locals for refusing to file affidavits required by the Taft-Hartley Act.

50 years ago
1958

Died on this date
Johannes Strijdom, 65. Prime Minister of South Africa, 1954-1958. Mr. Strijdom, a member of the National Party, was first elected to the House of Assembly in 1929. After the National Party came to power in 1948, Mr. Strijdom served as Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation before succeeding Daniel Malan as Prime Minister. He championed white supremacy, moving "Coloured" voters from the common voters roll to a separate voters roll, and also supported South Africa becoming a republic. Mr. Strijdom died in office, apparently of cancer, and was succeeded as Prime Minister by Hendrik Verwoerd.

Richard D. Butler, 41. Canadian politician. Mr. Butler, a native of Edmonton, was the deputy fire chief of Jasper Place, then an Edmonton suburb, and had served on the town's council since its incorporation in 1950. He was fatally shot by James Alix, 65 (?), who lived in a boxcar home across from Mr. Butler. Jasper Place Fire Chief Barney Weygood, 41, was shot in the stomach as he attempted to subdue Mr. Alix with a fire hose, but survived.

Space
The U.S. Army launched the satellite Explorer 5 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, but it failed to achieve Earth orbit after the Juno I rocket's first stage collided with the second stage after separation, causing the upper stage firing angle to be off.

Defense
The U.S. 7th Fleet was ordered to take "normal precautionary measures" in Far Eastern waters as a result of "the increased activity" in the Formosa Strait.

Protest
Eight people were hospitalized and scores injured in rioting between an estimated 200 whites and Negroes in Nottingham, England. The unrest was atrributed to tension caused by heavy West Indian immigration into the British Midlands.

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): MacArthur Park--Richard Harris

#1 single in France: Rain and Tears--Aphrodite's Child (11th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): La nostra favola--Jimmy Fontana (4th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Du sollst nicht weinen--Heintje (3rd week at #1)

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

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Mony Mony--Tommy James and the Shondells (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): People Got to Be Free--The Rascals (2nd week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 Ich Bau' Dir Ein Schloss--Heintje (9th week at #1)
2 Times were When--The Cats
3 Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong--Golden Earrings
4 Callow-La-Vita--Raymond Froggatt
5 Abergavenny--Marty Wilde
6 Do it Again--The Beach Boys
7 Fire--The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
8 Help Yourself--Tom Jones
--Dans Met Mij--Ben Cramer
9 Angel of the Morning--Merrilee Rush
10 Camp--Sir Henry and his Butlers

Singles entering the chart were I've Gotta Get a Message to You by the Bee Gees (#14); Get Ready by Blues Dimension (#35); Yesterday Has Gone by Cupids Inspiration (#36); Alouette by Gilles Dreu (#37); Watergdrager by Boudewijn De Groot (#38); and Alice Long (You're Still My Favorite Girlfriend) by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart (#39).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 People Got to Be Free--The Rascals
2 Born to Be Wild--Steppenwolf
3 Light My Fire--Jose Feliciano
4 Hello, I Love You--The Doors
5 Turn Around, Look at Me--The Vogues
6 Classical Gas--Mason Williams
7 Sunshine of Your Love--Cream
8 Stoned Soul Picnic--The 5th Dimension
9 Hurdy Gurdy Man--Donovan
10 Dream a Little Dream of Me--Mama Cass

Singles entering the chart were Harper Valley P.T.A. by Jeannie C. Riley (#47); Who is Gonna Love Me? (#60)/(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me (#94) by Dionne Warwick; Six Man Band by the Association (#62); Naturally Stoned by Avant-Garde (#71); If Love is in Your Heart by Friend and Lover (#72); That Kind of Woman by Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts (#73); Midnight Confessions by the Grass Roots (#76); In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly (#77); (The Lament of the Cherokee) Indian Reservation by Don Fardon (#81); My Way of Life by Frank Sinatra (#83); Time Has Come Today by the Chambers Brothers (#88); Little Green Apples by O.C. Smith (#89); Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye by Eddy Arnold (#90); Break Your Promise by the Delfonics (#99); and Love Heals by Colours (#100).

Calgary's Top 10 (Glenn's Music)
1 Hello, I Love You--The Doors (2nd week at #1)
2 1,2,3, Red Light--1910 Fruitgum Company
3 Girl from the North Country--Tom Northcott
4 Lady Willpower--Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
5 Do it Again--The Beach Boys
6 You Keep Me Hangin' On--The Vanilla Fudge
7 Born to Be Wild--Steppenwolf
8 Indian Lake--The Cowsills
9 Hurdy Gurdy Man--Donovan
10 Mr. Bojangles--Jerry Jeff Walker
Pick hit of the week: My Name is Jack--Manfred Mann

Defense
France became the world's fifth thermonuclear power, with the explosion of a fusion bomb suspended from a balloon 1/3 of a mile above its Mururoa Atoll test site. The explosion, after eight years and 15 atmospheric tests of fission devices, released energy equal to that produced by the blast of 2 million tons of TNT, according to a report from Paris.

Football
NFL
Pre-season
Green Bay (1-2) 31 @ Dallas (2-1) 27

The Packers scored 2 touchdowns in the 3rd quarter and held off a 2-touchdown Dallas rally in the 4th quarter to defeat the Cowboys before 72,014 fans at the Cotton Bowl in a rematch of the teams from the 1966 and 1967 National Football League championship games (see video).

30 years ago
1978

Died on this date
Louis Prima, 67. U.S. musician. Mr. Prima was a cornetist, singer, and bandleader who performed from the 1920s through the mid-1970s in various genres of music, including jazz and rhythm and blues. He's perhaps best remembered for his performances and recordings from the 1950s with then-wife Keely Smith as vocalist. Mr. Prima never recovered from a cerebral hemorrhage following surgery for a brain tumour in 1975.

War
Two days after seizing the Nicaraguan National Palace in Managua, 23 Sandanista guerrillas released their 1,500 hostages after Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle paid the $500,000 ransom and released 59 political prisoners.

Scandal
Hancho C. Kim, a South Korean businessman involved in buying influence with U.S. politicians, pled guilty to a charge of tax evasion stemming from investigations by the House of Representatives Ethics Committee. Mr. Kim denied guilt and said that he had entered the guilty plea only to protect his family. He was fined $10,000 and given a suspended sentence in exchange for the government's promise to drop tax charges against his wife.

25 years ago
1983

Died on this date
Scott Nearing, 100. U.S. scholar and political and social activist. A pacifist and socialist, Mr. Nearing opposed American involvement in both World Wars, and was willing to pay the price of losing employment for taking such positions. He travelled to various countries with socialist and Communist governments and wrote about his experiences. In the 1950s Mr. Nearing and his second wife Helen adopted a self-sufficient agrarian lifestyle in Maine, presaging the "back to the land" movement that started to ecome popular a decade later. Mr. Nearing died 18 days after his 100th birthday as the result of a self-imposed fast.

Crime
Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos named five judges known to be friendly to him to investigate the August 21 assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Superstitious--Europe (3rd week at #1)

Music
Bob Dylan performed in Edmonton for the first time, appearing at Northlands Coliseum with Tracy Chapman as the opening act. Doug Sahm of Sir Douglas Quintet fame joined Mr. Dylan and Miss Chapman for an encore, performing She's About a Mover. This blogger was in attendance, and I paid $26.75 for my ticket.

Crime
In Toronto, Minnesota North Stars' hockey player Dino Ciccarelli was sentenced to 24 hours in jail and fined $1,000 for assault for hitting Luke Richardson of the Toronto Maple Leafs over the head twice with a hockey stick during a game. Mr. Ciccarelli was released after two hours, becoming the first NHL player to be jailed for a penalty on the ice.

Football
CFL
Winnipeg (3-4) 12 @ Calgary (2-5) 11

10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
E. G. Marshall, 84. U.S. actor. Mr. Marshall, born Everett Eugene Grunz, appeared in movies such as 12 Angry Men (1957) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), but was better known for his starring roles in the television series The Defenders (1961-1965) and The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1969-1973), winning Emmy Awards in 1962 and 1963. He hosted the CBS Radio Mystery Theater (1974-1982) for all but the final nine months of the series' run. Mr. Marshall died of lung cancer.

Technology
The first radio-frequency identification (RFID) human implantation was tested in the United Kingdom by professor of cybernetics Kevin Warwick who had an RFID chip implanted in his arm by his general practitioner Dr. George Boulos.