June 20, 2008

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Dale Hein!

140 years ago
1868

Canadiana
Governor General Lord Monck proclaimed a celebration by all Her Majesty's loving subjects throughout Canada of the anniversary of the formation of the union of the British North America provinces in a federation under the name of Canada on July 1, 1867.

120 years ago
1888

Politics and government
The North-West Territories held its first general election. 22 members of the Legislative Assembly were elected; all were independents, since there was no party politics.

100 years ago
1908

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Billy Werber!. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Werber played third base with the New York Yankees (1930, 1933); Boston Red Sox (1933-1936); Philadelphia Athletics (1937-1938); Cincinnati Reds (1939-1941); and New York Giants (1942), batting .271 with 78 home runs and 539 runs batted in in 1,295 games. He led the American League in stolen bases in 1934, 1935, and 1937, and led the National League in runs in 1939 and in fielding percentage for third basemen in 1940. Mr. Werber took over the insurance agency founded by his father, and ran it until his retirement in the 1970s. Mr. Werber is the last surviving teammate of Babe Ruth, and the last surviving member of the Reds' NL championship teams of 1939-1940, and the World Series championship team of 1940.

80 years ago
1928

Died on this date
Đuro Basariček, 44; Pavle Radić. Croatian politicians. Dr. Basariček, Vice President of the Croatian Peasant Party, and Mr. Pavle Radić, nephew of Peasant Party President Stjepan Radić, were assassinated in the Chamber of Deputies in Belgrade by Puniša Račić, a member of People's Radical Party from Montenegro. Stjepan Radić was shot in the stomach and died on August 8; Peasant Party Seceretary Ivan Pernar and Deputy Ivan Granđa were wounded in the attack.

Robert Powell. U.S. accused criminal. Mr. Powell, a young Negro, had killed Detective A.W. Davis in an exchange of bullets in Houston on June 17, and had been seriously wounded. He was taken from his cot in Jefferson Davis Hospital and lynched.

Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellogg issued a call to 21 nations for a Pan American Conference on conciliation and arbitration, to meet in Washington on December 10, 1928.

The Danish-American treaty of friendship and commerce was signed in Copenhagen.

Politics and government
General Chang Hsueh-liang succeededhis father as Manchurian dictator and Governor of Fengtien.

Crime
George Remus of Cincinnati, who had killed his wife Imogene in October 1927 and had been committed to the State Hospital for Criminal Insane, obtained his freedom when the Ohio Supreme Court voted 4-3 to affirm the decison of the Court of Appeals ordering his immediate release.

Scandal
Chicago Mayor William H. Thompson and six of his political associates were convicted of entering into a conspiracy to defraud the city of $1,732,279.23 in real estate expert fees to finance Mr. Thompson's political machine and for their private benefit. The finding, in a circuit court in Chicago, was the culmination of a taxpayer's suit instituted seven years earlier by the Chicago Tribune, and was accompanied by an order to the defendants to make complete restitution.

60 years ago
1948

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

This was the last episode of the season, and the last for Mr. Shirley as Dr. Watson. The adaptation of the A. Conan Doyle story was also the last Sherlock Holmes radio script written by Edith Meiser, who had written her first in 1930.

On television tonight
Toast of the Town, hosted by Ed Sullivan, on CBS

This was the first broadcast of the variety program, which was retitled The Ed Sullivan Show in September 1955. The guests on the first show included the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis; singer Monica Lewis; and composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who previewed the score to the musical South Pacific, which didn't open until 1949.

World events
The United States halted movement of rail freight from western Germany to Berlin rather than grant Soviet demands for inspection of transports. The U.S.S.R. responded by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.

Politics and government
The Rhode Island Democratic Party convention gave its 12 delegate votes to President Harry Truman.

Economics and finance
The Deutsche Mark was introduced in western Allied-occupied Germany.

Tennis
Jack Kramer defeated Bobby Riggs to win the men's singles title at the U.S. professional championships in Forest Hills, New York. Mr. Kramer and Pancho Segura defeated Mr. Riggs and Don Budge to win the men's doubles title.

50 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Who's Sorry Now--Connie Francis (6th week at #1)

On the radio
The Blue Carbuncle, read by Noel Johnson, on BBC Home Service

On television tonight
Harbor Command, starring Wendell Corey
Tonight's episode: The Psychiatrist

Died on this date
Kurt Alder, 55. Polish-born German chemist. Dr. Alder and Otto Diehls shared the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for their discovery and development of the diene synthesis." The cause of Dr. Alder's death is unknown, but his corpse had been rotting for two weeks when discovered in his apartment by his niece.

Diplomacy
Philippine President Carlos Garcia and U.S. President Dwiht D. Eisenhower signed a joint communique in Washington renewing mutual security pledges and promising new U.S. loans totalling $125 million.

Politics and government
Following a four-day meeting in Tunis, representatives of the Tunisian and Moroccan governments and the Algerian FLN issued a communique condemning French Prime Minister Charles de Gaulle's plans for the integration of Algeria within France.

Greek Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios rejected the new British plan for Cyprus, claiming that it would abridge "the fundamental and inalienable rights...[of Cypriots] to self-determination."

Track and field
AAU championships @ Bakersfield, California

Harold Connolly, with a hammer throw of 225 feet 4 inches, and Glenn Davis, with a time of 49.9 seconds in the 440-yard hurdles, set unofficial world records.

30 years ago
1978

Died on this date
Bill Dietrich, 68. U.S. baseball pitcher. Nicknamed "Bullfrog Bill" because he was slightly pop-eyed (back in the good old days before political correctness), Mr. Dietrich compiled a record of 108-128 and an earned run average of 4.48 in 366 games with the Philadelphia Athletics (1933-1936; 1947-1948); Washington Nationals (1936); and Chicago White Sox (1936-1946), batting .150 with 5 home runs and 43 runs batted in in 368 games. His best season was probably 1943, when he was 12-10 with an earned run average of 2.80. Mr. Dietrich pitched a no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns on June 1, 1937.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Calgary (1-1) 12 @ Montreal (1-1) 14

25 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Total Eclipse of the Heart--Bonnie Tyler (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
Walter Jackson, 45. U.S. singer. Mr. Jackson was a soul singer who achieved several hit singles on the rhythm and blues charts in the 1960s and '70s, including Suddenly I'm All Alone (1965); Welcome Home (1965); It's An Uphill Climb to the Bottom (1966); and Feelings (1976). He died from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Politics and government
A Salvadoran commission said that it had finished a draft of a new constitution, but that land reform and the means of transition to an elected government were unresolved issues.

American Negro leaders meeting in Chicago approved the creation of a Negro coalition for the 1984 U.S. elections, and endorsed the idea of a Negro candidate for the Democratic party presidential nomination.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that personal income of Americans had risen 1.2% in May and consumer spending had increased 1.4%.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): What a Wonderful World--Louis Armstrong

World events
Lieutenant General Henri Namphy seized control of Haiti and declared himself President, while deposed President Leslie Manigat went into exile in the Dominican Republic.

Diplomacy
A communique issued by the summit of the world's seven leading industrial nations, meeting in Toronto, called for more East-West trade and a continuation of arms-reduction efforts. It also endorsed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts at reform, and noted interest in East bloc countries at "ending their economic isolation."

Politics and government
Lucien Bouchard won a Canadian federal by-election for Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Progessive Conservatives in the Quebec riding of Lac St.-Jean.