September 11, 2008

300 years ago
1708

War
King Charles XII of Sweden stopped his march to conquer Moscow outside Smolensk, marking the turning point in the Great Northern War. His army was defeated nine months later in the Battle of Poltava, and the Swedish Empire ceased to be a major power.

250 years ago
1758

War
France repelled an invasion attempt by British forces in the Battle of Saint Cast.

120 years ago
1888

Died on this date
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, 77. 7th President of Argentina, 1868-1874. Mr. Sarmiento was a member of a group of Argentine intellectuals known as the Generation of 1837, who had a tremendous influence on the country. He became famous for his book Facundo: Civilización y Barbarie (Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism) (1845), a critique of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas. Mr. Sarmiento was a Liberal who, as President, modernized Argentina's educational, postal, and train systems. He died of a heart attack in Asunción, Paraguay.

Technology
Canadian Governor General Lord Stanley recorded an address to U.S. President Grover Cleveland onto an Edison phonograph at Toronto's Industrial Exhibition; it remains one of the oldest recordings in existence.



110 years ago
1898

Disasters
Fanned by high winds, a fire that had started at 11:00 P.M. the night before in a hay warehouse on Front Street in New Westminster, British Columbia ignites three stern wheeled steamers: Gladys; Edgar; and Bon Accord, which drifted along the docks, setting fire to all the wharves and warehouses on the waterfront, spreading to the Sinclair and Western Fisheries salmon canneries. By afternoon, much of the town lay in ashes, from Royal Avenue to the waterfront, and the lower westerly portion known as the Swamp (Chinatown). The fire loss was assessed at $2.5 million.

90 years ago
1918

Baseball
World Series
Chicago Cubs 1 @ Boston Red Sox 2 (Boston won best-of-seven series 4-2)

An error by Chicago right fielder Max Flack on a line drive hit by George Whiteman with 2 out in the bottom of the 3rd inning allowed Carl Mays and Dave Shean to score the game's first 2 runs as the Red Sox edged the Cubs before just 15,238 fans at Fenway Park. Mr. Flack led off the 4th with a single and came around to score, but Mr. Mays pitched a 3-hit complete game for his second win of the Series. Mr. Whiteman made a shoestring catch of pinch hitter Turner Barber's line drive leading off the 8th inning, but injured his neck when he somersaulted after making the catch, and was relieved by Babe Ruth one batter later. It was the last play of Mr. Whiteman's 3-year major league career. For the Red Sox, it was their fourth World Series championship in the past six years, and their last until 2004.



80 years ago
1928

On television tonight
The Queen's Messenger, on W2XCW (WGY Television)

This radio drama by J. Hartley Manners, adapted for television, directed by Mortimer Stewart, and starring Izetta Jewel, was the first drama presented on television. It was received on six sets connected by closed circuit in the studio for press observers, and several sets placed in various locations in Schenectady, New York.



Died on this date
Jere Brosman. U.S. policeman. Mr. Brosman was on duty in the prison ward of Fordham Hospital in New York City at 3 A.M. when he was shot to death by three men who invaded the ward. On October 8, 1928, police caught Ed Ryan, who, with James Nannery, had escaped Sing Sing Prison on July 15. On October 12, John Hennessy, identified as the actual murderer, was assassinated in the Bronx.

World events
Numerous arrests took place in Madrid and other Spanish cities after discovery by police of a plot against the government.

Crime
Ranchers in the northwestern corner of South Australia were reported to be taking the law into their own hands in reaction to outbreaks of crime by Aborigines. 17 Aborigines were killed as a sequel to the murder of gold prospector William Brookes, who had been clubbed to death by natives.

Paul Jaworski, who had escaped from prison in Pittsburgh, was wounded and captured in Cleveland after he had killed two policemen.

Disasters
66 Hindu pilgrims from Lahore, India perished in a snowstorm on their way back from the Amarnarth Sacred Cave in Kashmir.

Tornadoes killed 11 people in northeastern Nebraska and four in South Dakota.

Le Manoir Richelieu hotel in La Malbaie, Quebec was destroyed by fire.

60 years ago
1948

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard) (Best Seller): Twelfth Street Rag--Pee Wee Hunt and his Orchestra (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 A Tree in the Meadow--Margaret Whiting
2 My Happiness--The Pied Pipers
--Jon and Sondra Steele
--Ella Fitzgerald
3 You Call Everybody Darlin'--Al Trace and the Revelers
--Anne Vincent
--Jack Smith and the Clark Sisters
--The Andrews Sisters
4 It's Magic--Doris Day
--Dick Haymes and Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra
--Tony Martin
--Gordon MacRae
5 Twelfth Street Rag--Pee Wee Hunt and his Orchestra
6 Love Somebody--Doris Day and Buddy Clark
7 You Can't Be True, Dear--Ken Griffin
8 Hair of Gold, Eyes of Blue--Gordon MacRae and the Starlighters
--Jerry Murad's Harmonicats
--Jack Emerson
9 Maybe You'll Be There--Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra
10 Cool Water--Vaughn Monroe and the Sons of the Pioneers

The only single entering the chart was Ring, Telephone, Ring by the Ink Spots (#29).

Died on this date
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, 71. Governor-General of Pakistan, 1947-1948. Mr. Jinnah was the founder of modern Pakistan. He led the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until Pakistan's independence in 1947, and served not only as Pakistan's Governor-General, but as President of the Constituent Assembly and Speaker of the National Assembly. Mr. Jinnah was a heavy smoker, and died after suffering from tuberculosis for many years. He remains regarded as Pakistan's greatest leader.

Americana
BeBe Shopp, representing Minnesota, was named Miss America 1948 at the annual pageant at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.



Politics and government
Kim Il-Sung became Prime Minister in a North Korean cabinet claiming sovereignty over the entire country.

The Congress of World Government Federalist Movements completed a meeting in Luxembourg by adopting a declaration that only a world government could avoid a catastrophic war.

Economics and finance
The Organization for European Economic Cooperation Council, meeting in Paris, agreed on division of Marshall Plan aid for the coming year, increasing funds for Germany at the expense of French, Italian, and Dutch aid.

Football
IRFU
Montreal (1-2) 11 @ Ottawa (2-1) 8
Hamilton (0-3) 13 @ Toronto (3-0) 25

WIFU
Winnipeg (2-3) 16 @ Saskatchewan (1-4) 13

ORFU
Windsor (0-1) 1 @ Hamilton (1-0) 60
Toronto (1-0) 8 @ Sarnia (0-1) 2

M. Bergson, Bud Irving, and Bob Sandberg scored touchdowns for the Blue Bombers as they defeated the Roughriders at Taylor Field in Regina. Sully Glasser and Gabe Patterson scored Saskatchewan touchdowns.

Frank Filchock completed 5 touchdown passes--3 to Jack Stewart--and Jack Harper added 2 touchdowns as the Tigers routed the Rockets before 3,000 fans at Civic Stadium. It was the Tigers' first game in the Ontario Rugby Football Union since 1906; they had joined the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in 1907, but a dispute over sharing gate receipts led them to split with the IRFU, so they rejoined the IRFU, with the Hamilton Wildcats leaving the ORFU to replace the Tigers in the IRFU.

Johnny Lake recovered Bobby Porter's onside kick in the Sarnia end zone in the 3rd quarter for the game's only touchdown as the Beaches Indians beat the Imperials in Sarnia.

Baseball
Philadelphia Phillies' center fielder Richie Ashburn was named major league Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News, which didn't wait until the season was over before making its choice.

50 years ago
1958

Died on this date
Robert W. Service, 84. U.K.-born Canadian poet. Mr. Service was a bank clerk who wrote poetry on the side. He moved to British Columbia in 1895, and to the Yukon in 1904, where he wrote his most famous poems, The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee, which were collected in his best-selling book Songs of a Sourdough (1907). Mr. Service was later a journalist and novelist who spent his later years in Monaco and France, but he remains best known for his earlier works.

Camillien Houde, 69. Canadian politician. Mr. Houde served in the Quebec National Assembly as a member of the Conservative Party from 1923-1927 and 1928-1931, leading the party from 1929-1932. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as an independent candidate in 1949, and represented the Quebec riding of Papineau until 1953. Mr. Houde's involvement in provincial and federal politics didn't prevent him from running for civic office at the same time, and he served as mayor of Montreal from 1928-1932; 1934-1936; 1938-1940; and 1944-1954. He spent the years 1940-1944 interned at Camp Petawawa, Ontario for his opposition to conscription during World War II and his openly Fascist sympathies.

Diplomacy
India and Pakistan announced that respective Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Malik Firoz Khan Noon had settled most border disputes between the countries in talks in New Delhi that had ended the previous day.

Chess
Mikhail Tal of the U.S.S.R. won the Candidates Tournament in Portoroz, Yugoslavia. U.S. champion Bobby Fischer, 15, finished fifth, and became the youngest player to earn international grand master rating.

40 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): Hey Jude--The Beatles

Australia's top 10 (Go-Set)
1 Dream a Little Dream of Me--Mama Cass (2nd week at #1)
2 Help Yourself--Tom Jones
3 MacArthur Park--Richard Harris
4 Indian Lake--The Cowsills
5 Do it Again--The Beach Boys
6 The Orange and the Green/(The Puppet Song) Whiskey on a Sunday--The Irish Rovers
7 Angel of the Morning--Merrilee Rush
8 I Don't Want to Love You/Jamie--Johnny Farnham
9 Abergavenny--Marty Wilde
10 Classical Gas--Mason Williams

Singles entering the chart were 1,2,3, Red Light by the 1910 Fruitgum Company (#28); Mr. Businessman by Ray Stevens (#35); and Don't Give Up by Petula Clark (#37).

Died on this date
Tommy Armour, 71. U.K.-born U.S. golfer. Mr. Armour, "The Silver Scot," was wounded during service with the British Army during World War I, and moved to the United States in 1920. He played as an amateur until turning professional in 1924. Mr. Armour won 27 professional tournaments, including the 1927 U.S. Open; 1930 PGA Championship; and 1931 British Open, as well as winning the Canadian Open three times. He retired as a full-time touring pro after the 1935 season, competing occasionally in big-name events in later years. Mr. Armour died 13 days before his 72nd birthday, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976.

Terrorism
In the first airplane hijacking in Canada, Charles Lavern Beasley gave himself up at a refueling stop at Dorval Airport in Montreal after ordering an Air Canada Viscount en route from Moncton to Toronto to fly to Cuba. Mr. Beasley, a Texan, described himself as an American black-power militant sought by the Central Intelligence Agency. He was sentenced to six years in prison.

Disasters
Air France Flight 1611, a Caravelle en route from Corsica to Nice, crashed off Nice, killing all 89 passengers and 6 crew members. It has been alleged that the crash was caused by a missile that was misfired during a French Army test.

Football
CFL
Ottawa (4-2) 20 @ Edmonton (4-4-1) 25

Charlie Fulton played the best game of his Canadian Football League career, completing 14 of 18 passes, including an 86-yard touchdown to Larry Plancke, to lead the Eskimos to victory over the Rough Riders at Clarke Stadium. John Hankinson dressed as the backup quarterback to Mr. Fulton for the second straight game, and the second and last game of his CFL career. It was the first CFL game for Edmonton guard Ed Marcontell.

30 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): You're the One that I Want--John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Kimi no Hitomi wa 10,000 Volt--Takao Horiuchi

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Rivers of Babylon--Boney M. (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Mike Gazella, 82. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Gazella was an infielder with the New York Yankees (1923, 1926-1928), batting .241 with no home runs and 32 runs batted in in 160 games. He was with the Yankees when they won the World Series in 1923, 1927, and 1928, but the only World Series game he played in was in 1926, when he played third base in the bottom of the 9th inning of game 5, making a putout and 2 assists to help preserve the Yankees' 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in a series that the Yankees lost in seven games. Mr. Gazella played at least 10 years in the minor leagues, including 1930-1934 in the Pacific Coast League.

Georgi Markov, 49. Bulgarian writer and broadcaster. Mr. Markov was a novelist and playwright in his own country who defected to Italy and then the United Kingdom in 1971. He worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Free Europe, expressing harsh criticism of Bulgaria's Communist regime. Mr. Markov died four days after being injected by a poison pellet from an umbrella being carried by an agent of the Soviet secret police force KGB while Mr. Markov was waiting for a bus in London.

Janet Parker, 40. U.K. photographer. Mrs. Parker, a medical photographer, was accidentally exposed to a strain of smallpox virus that had been grown in a research laboratory on the floor below her workplace at the University of Birmingham Medical School, falling ill on August 11 and becoming the last recorded person to die from smallpox, leading to a debate on whether the virus should be preserved.

Ronnie Peterson, 34. Swedish auto racing driver. Mr. Peterson entered 123 Formula One races from 1970-1978, with 10 wins and 26 podium finishes. He was runner-up for the world driving championship in 1970 and 1978. Mr. Peterson suffered severe fractures to both legs in a crash at the start of the Italian Grand Prix, and developed a fat embolism in the hospital that led to renal failure and death the morning after the accident. There was controversy surrounding Mr. Peterson's medical treatment, and suggestions that he need not have died.

25 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland: Moonlight Shadow--Mike Oldfield (2nd week at #1)

Protest
Several days of demonstrations in Chile to mark the 10th anniversary of the military coup that had deposed President Salvador Allende concluded with at least 10 deaths.

At the opening rally of a civil disobedience campaign in the Philippines, Agapito Aquino, brother of recently-slain political opposition leader Benigno Aquino, warned that U.S. President Ronald Reagan would be in danger if he visited the country in November as planned.

Tennis
Jimmy Connors defeated Ivan Lendl to win the men's singles title at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Football
CFL
Hamilton (4-5) 21 @ Edmonton (5-4) 50

Four days after the Eskimos had fired head coach Pete Kettela and replaced him with former legendary player Jackie Parker, the Eskimos fell behind 20-8 but came roaring back to defeat the Tiger-Cats before 51,428 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. Edmonton running back Scott Stauch rushed 1 yard for his first CFL touchdown in the 1st quarter, but it was their second TD that began their comeback. In the 2nd quarter, Warren Moon completed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Tom Scott; it was Mr. Scott's 81st career touchdown reception, breaking Terry Evanshen's record. Mr. Moon threw to Waddell Smith for a 14-yard touchdown with 1:25 remaining in the 1st half, and after the Eskimo defense held, Mr. Moon rushed 1 yard on a bootleg play on the last play of the half. He threw 2 touchdown passes to Brian Kelly in the 4th quarter to put the game away. Mr. Moon completed 36 of 49 passes for 522 yards and rushed 9 times for 69 yards. Mr. Kelly caught 9 passes for 192, while Mr. Scott caught 9 for 134. The Eskimos set a CFL record for a single game with 44 first downs, while the Tiger-Cats made just 12. The Eskimos rushed for 170 yards and passed for 544, amassing 709 yards in net offense to 223 for Hamilton. Hamilton quarterback Tom Clements completed touchdown passes to Johnny Shepherd, Ron Johnson, and Mark Bragagnolo. The Eskimos outscored the Tiger-Cats 42-1 over the last 40 minutes and 46 seconds.

20 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Doctorin' the TARDIS--Timelords (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: The Twist (Yo, Twist!)--The Fat Boys with Stupid Def Vocals by Chubby Checker (6th week at #1)

Died on this date
John Sylvester White, 68. U.S. actor. Mr. White played Mr. Woodman, the assistant principal, in the television comedy series Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-1979). He died of pancreatic cancer.

Weather
Hurricane Gilbert passed Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Terrorism
Unidentified armed men shot to death 13-50 people and wounded about 80 in a three-hour assault on Saint-Jean Bosco church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The church, packed with 1,000 people for Mass, was the parish of liberation theology proponent and future Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Mr. Aristide was evacuated from the church into a residence inside the church compound.

Football
CFL
British Columbia (5-5) 8 @ Winnipeg (5-5) 34
Hamilton (6-4) 13 @ Edmonton (7-3) 37

Henry "Gizmo" Williams returned a punt 100 yards for a touchdown to help the Eskimos beat the Tiger-Cats before 29,984 fans at Commonwealth Stadium.



10 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Dane Clark, 86 (?). U.S. actor. Mr. Clark, born Bernard Zanville, appeared in numerous plays, movies, and television programs, usually in a supporting role. He starred in the Academy Award-winning short film I Won't Play (1944), and was one of the stars of the television program Wire Service (1956-1957).

Scandal
The United States Congress released independent counsel Kenneth Starr's report, which offered graphic details of President Bill Clinton's alleged sexual misconduct, and levelled accusations of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Football
CFL
Calgary (8-3) 30 @ Edmonton (6-5) 23

Jeff Garcia passed for a touchdown and rushed for another as the Stampeders outscored the Eskimos 24-3 in the 4th quarter before 50,856 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. David Archer rushed 1 yard for an Edmonton touchdown and passed 40 yards to C.J. Williams for the other, while Sean Fleming added 2 converts and 3 field goals. Troy Mills led the Edmonton rushing attack with 19 carries for 101 yards.