July 11, 2008

Born on this date
Happy birthday, Lois Morrow!

320 years ago
1688

Died on this date
Narai, 55. King of Siam, 1656-1688. Narai succeeded Suthamarracha as king. His reign was characterized by contact with foreign nations, especially France under King Louis XIV. Naria died after several months of illness and was succeeded by Phetracha.

210 years ago
1798

Defense
The United States Marine Corps was re-established by an act of Congress; the Marines had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.

160 years ago
1848

Transportation
London Waterloo station, Britain's busiest railway station by passenger usage, was opened by the London and South Western Railway.

100 years ago
1908

Olympics
Walter Ewing of Canada won the gold medal in the individual trap shooting competition at the Summer Olympic Games in London.

80 years ago
1928

Died on this date
M.M. Titterington. U.S. engineer. Mr. Titterington, an inventor of airplane instruments, and Miss Bernice Andrews were killed when their plane hit the side of a mountain in a storm near Snyders, Pennsylvania.

World events
Former Greek dictator General Theo Pangalos was freed from prison in Athens, where he had been since 1926. He was not tried.

Politics and government
The U.S. Farmer-Labor National Convention nominated U.S. Senator George Norris (Republican--Nebraska) as its 1928 candidate for President of the United States, but Mr. Norris declined the nomination. Will Vereen, a cotton mill owner from Moultrie, Georgia, was nominated as the party's vice presidential candidate.

Economics and finance
Tight money and boosted interest rates on call loans caused a decline on Wall Street in New York of an average of 4.41 in 25 rail and 25 industrial stocks. It was the greatest drop since an average decline of 4.65 on July 30, 1914.

70 years ago
1938

Boxing
Johnny Paychek (20-3-1) scored a technical knockout of King Levinsky (74-34-7) in the 3rd round of their heavyweight bout at Riverview Park in Des Moines, Iowa.

60 years ago
1948

Died on this date
Franz Weidenreich, 75. German anthropologist. Dr. Weidenreich pioneered the polycentric (multiregional) hypothesis, which proposed that human populations have evolved independently in the Old World from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens sapiens, while at the same time there was gene flow between the various populations. He believed that Piltdown Man was a chimera-- a composite between two unrelated species--rather than the hoax it was ultimately revealed to be, and arrived at his polycentric hypothesis after examining the fossils of Peking Man, which has also been the subject of controversy as to its legitimacy.

King Baggot, 68. U.S. actor and film director. Mr. Baggot began his career on stage before moving into films in 1909. He was the first leading man in movies in the United States to be publicly identified, starring in movies such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1913). Mr. Baggot directed and starred in Ivanhoe (1913), and achieved his greatest success as a director in the 1920s with films such as Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman and Tumbleweeds (1925). Heavy drinking and disputes with studio executives ruined Mr. Baggot's directing career, and he was reduced to minor acting roles until his death from a stroke at a sanatorium.

Politics and government
General Norton de Matos announced his candidacy for President of Portugal against incumbent President Oscar de Fregoso Carmona, a supporter of Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.

50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): All I Have to Do is Dream--The Everly Brothers (2nd week at #1)

Defense
Peking radio announced that six Chinese divisions totalling 100,000 men would be withdrawn from North Korea in the following month, leaving an estimated 170,000 Chinese troops there.

The government of Switzerland announced that it would equip its army with tactical nuclear weapons.

Politics and government
The U.S. Senate passed a compromise bill making the Small Business Administration a permanent federal agency.

Economics and finance
Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker told the House of Commons that U.S. Presidnet Dwight D. Eisenhower had agreed not to bar Canadian subsidiaries of American companies from selling to the People's Republic of China.

40 years ago
1968

Space
The U.S. Air Force launched the satellites OV-1-15 and OV-1-16 together. OV-1-15 carried nine experiments to study the density of the atmosphere, as well as radiation and other factors which affect it. OV-1-16 was the densest satellite yet launched, a 23-inch sphere weighing 600 pounds; the density was intended to make it resistant to atmospheric disturbances and currents as it also made density measurements.

Protest
40 Canadian university presidents met in Ottawa to discuss campus unrest.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Calgary (1-0-1) 15 @ Ottawa (0-0-1) 15

30 years ago
1978

Disasters
A truck carrying liquid gas crashed and exploded at the coastal campsite in Alcanar, near Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists.

Football
CFL
Montreal (0-1) 10 @ Ottawa (1-0) 17
Winnipeg (0-1) 14 @ British Columbia (1-0) 30

The defending Grey Cup champion Alouettes' loss to the Rough Riders at Lansdowne Park marked an unsuccessful debut for Joe Scannella as Montreal head coach, replacing Marv Levy,who had taken the job as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League.

Larry Key rushed for 184 yards in his first CFL game to lead the Lions over the Blue Bombers at Empire Stadium in Vancouver. Dieter Brock started at quarterback for the Blue Bombers, but was eventually replaced by Harry Knight. The game marked an unsuccessful debut for Ray Jauch as Winnipeg's head coach.

Baseball
Major League All-Star Game @ San Diego Stadium
National League 7 American League 3

Steve Garvey of the Los Angeles Dodgers singled home 2 runs in the 4th inning and tripled to spark a 4-run 8th inning as the NL defeated the AL before 51,549 fans.



20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Got to Be Certain--Kylie Minogue (2nd week at #1)

Diplomacy
The Sandanista government of Nicaragua expelled eight U.S. diplomats, including Ambassador Richard Huntington Melton, accusing them of inciting rebellion against the regime.