January 9, 2009

660 years ago
1349

Abominations
The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, was rounded up and incinerated.

210 years ago
1799

Economics and finance
British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduced an income tax of two shillings to the pound to raise funds for Great Britain's war effort in the Napoleonic Wars.

190 years ago
1819

Born on this date
James Francis. U.K.-born Australian politician. Mr. Francis, a native of London, moved to Van Diemen's Land in 1847 and to Victoria in 1853, achieving success as a banker and being elected to the state legislature in 1859. He served as Premier of Victoria from 1872-1874, and was a minister without portfolio in 1880. Mr. Francis died on January 25, 1884, 16 days after his 65th birthday.

170 years ago
1839

Born on this date
John Knowles Paine. U.S. composer. Mr. Paine was the first American composer to gain fame for large-scale orchestral music, and was the senior member of a group known as the Boston Six. He served as director of the New England Conservatory of Music and taught at Harvard University for many years. Mr. Paine wrote two symphonies and numerous pieces for chorus and orchestra, and for organ. My favourite piece of Mr. Paine's music is the Prelude to his music for a production of Oedipus Tyrannus at Harvard (1881)--and it's a great piece of music. Mr. Paine died on April 25, 1906 at the age of 67.

War
The State of Maine prepared for war with New Brunswick, as Colonel Jarvis and 800 Maine volunteers occupied the disputed territory of Aroostook.

Technology
The French Academy of Sciences announced the invention of the Daguerreotype photography process.

150 years ago
1859

Born on this date
Carrie Chapman Catt. U.S. activist. Mrs. Catt was one of the most prominent suffragettes of the early 20th century; she was president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and was the founder of the League of Women Voters and the International Alliance of Women. Mrs. Catt died of a heart attack on March 9, 1947 at the age of 88.

120 years ago
1889

Disasters
The Niagara Suspension Bridge collapsed at Queenston, Ontario during a winter storm.

110 years ago
1899

Academia
The Collège Sacré-Coeur was opened in Caraquet, New Brunswick by the Eudist Fathers.

Weather
Manitobans suffered under a record low temperature of - 52.8 Celsius (- 63 Fahrenheit).

100 years ago
1909

Born on this date
Anthony Mamo. 1st President of Malta, 1974-1976; Governor General of Malta, 1971-1974. Sir Anthony was Malta's Chief Justice from 1957-1971, when he was appointed the country's last Governor General before it became a republic. He died on May 1, 2008 at the age of 99.

Exploration
Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, planted the British flag 97 nautical miles (112 miles) from the South Pole, the farthest anyone had ever reached at that time.

90 years ago
1919

World events
Three days after Communist shock troops had occupied the German Chancellery in Berlin, regular troops commanded by War Minister Gustav Noske counterattacked with howitzers and machine guns.

75 years ago
1934

Died on this date
Perry Werden, 68 or 72. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Werden, whose birth year is recorded as 1861 in some sources and 1865 in others, began his career as a pitcher, breaking into the major leagues with the St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association in 1884. He posted a 12-1 record with a 1.97 earned run average in 16 games, leading the UA in winning percentage and helping the Maroons win the pennant in the league's only season. An arm injury forced Mr. Werden to move to first base, where he played with the Washington Nationals (1888); Toledo Maumees (1890); Baltimore Orioles (1891); St. Louis Browns (1892-1893); and Louisville Colonels (1897), batting .282 with 26 home runs and 439 runs batted in in 693 major league games. He led the National League in 1893 with 29 triples. Mr. Werden played at least 1,100 games in 18 minor league seasons from 1884-1908. His greatest success and popularity came with the Minneapolis Millers of the Western League (1894-1896, 1899); American League (1900); and American Association (1902). Mr. Werden led the WL with 43 home runs in 1894 and 45 in 1895; his totals were aided by short distances to the outfield walls of Athletic Park in Minneapolis, but his 1895 total stood as a professional baseball record for a single season until Babe Ruth hit 54 homers for the New York Yankees in 1920. Mr. Werden tied for the American League lead in home runs (9) in the AL's only season as a minor league. He was a master of the hidden ball trick and was one of the most colourful and entertaining players of his day, although his hot temper sometimes got the better of him. After years of heaping abuse on umpires as a player, Mr. Werden became an umpire in the American Association (1906-1907); Northern League (1913); and Dakota League (1920-1921). He died of a heart attack.

70 years ago
1939

Died on this date
Johann Strauss III, 72. Austrian composer and conductor. Mr. Strauss, the son of composer Eduard Strauss, nephew of composers Josef Strauss and Johann Strauss II, and grandson of composer Johan Strauss I, wrote operettas and dance music, but was better known as a conductor.

60 years ago
1949

Died on this date
William Kelley, 79. U.S. inventor. Mr. Kelley invented the automatic printing press.

War
The United Kingdom put her Mediterranean forces on alert and threatend to take action against Israel to prevent further downings of Royal Air Force planes in the Negev desert.

50 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): It's Only Make Believe--Conway Twitty (4th week at #1)

War
North Vietnamese troops were reported to have crossed the Laotian border and established posts 12 miles inside Laos.

Diplomacy
The United States refused to recognize Panama's extension of her territorial waters to a 12-mile limit.

Canada returned to Poland Polish treasures taken during World War II.

Defense
The East German Foreign Ministry indicated that it would accept the presence of Western troops in Berlin if they were there under United Nations auspices to guarantee the security of a "free city" of West Berlin.

Politics and government
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his State of the Union address to Congress. Rejecting the idea of a "Fortress America," he said that the United States "can and must" help nations "that want to defend their freedom but cannot fully do so from their own means." He also claimed that "a healthy and vigorous [economic] recovery has been under way since last May."



The U.S. Senate voted 60-36 to defeat a bipartisan effort to impose strict limitations on Senate filibusters.

Major Camilo Cienfuegos, commander of Havana Province, legalized the Cuban Communist Party.

Algerian deputies in the French National Assembly demanded "integral fusion" of Algeria with metropolitan France.

Americana
U.S. Senator James Murray (Democrat--Montana) and 51 co-signers introduced a bill in the Senate to admit Hawaii to statehood.

40 years ago
1969

On television tonight
Dragnet 1969, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Homicide: DR-22



Disasters
Two days of bush fires in the Australian state of Victoria killed 15 people and destroyed 209 homes.

Seven fishermen drowned when their boat sank outside the port of Chimbote, Peru.

30 years ago
1979

Protest
Anti-government riots in Tehran resulted in four deaths.

Hockey
NHL-U.S.S.R. exhibition
Super Series '79
Soviet Wings 4 @ Boston 1

25 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): All Night Long (All Night)--Lionel Richie (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Karma Chameleon--Culture Club (4th week at #1)

Politics and government
On the call of King Hussein, the Jordanian parliament convened. Because the parliament included representatives of the West Bank Palestinians, the move was seen as a means of getting Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat to negotiate with Jordan on a Palestinian settlement.

Economics and finance
Dun & Bradstreet Corporation reported that 31,334 businesses in the United States had failed in 1983, up 24% from 1982, and the highest total since 1932.

Scandal
Rita Lavelle, a former official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $10,000 after being convicted on December 1, 1983 of four counts of perjury and obstructing a Congressional investigation. Ms. Lavelle, head of the EPA's toxic waste program until her dismissal on February 7, 1983, had given sworn testimony at Congressional hearings that she had not known that her former employer, Aerojet-General Corp., had dumped hazardous wastes at a California disposal site. She had also testified that she had not dealt with the cleanup of the California site after learning that Aerojet was involved. Witnesses at the trial contradicted her testimony. Ms. Lavelle had also been convicted of perjury for claiming that cleanup projects in three states had not been influenced by political considerations.

20 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Kokomo--The Beach Boys (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Smooth Criminal--Michael Jackson

Died on this date
Bill Terry, 90. U.S. baseball player and manager. Mr. Terry was a first baseman with the New York Giants from 1923-1936 and managed the Giants from 1932-1941. He batted .341 with 154 home runs and 1,078 runs batted in in 1,721 games. He was the last National League player to hit .400, leading the NL with a .401 average in 1930. As a manager, Mr. Terry led the Giants to the World Series championship in 1933, and National League pennants in 1936 and 1937, compiling a record of 823-661 (.555). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a player in 1954.

Economics and finance
Outgoing U.S. President Ronald Reagan submitted his final budget--for fiscal 1990--to the United States Congress. He proposed to spend $1.15 trillion, with a deficit of $92.5 billion. Defense spending would grow 2% faster than inflation. More money was targeted for AIDS, rescuing insolvent savings and loan institutions, and cleaning up contaminated nuclear weapons facilities. The President also proposed elimination of 82 federal programs. All of this hardly mattered, since Vice President George Bush would be replacing Mr. Reagan as President eleven days hence.

10 years ago
1999

Personal
This blogger put in an appearance at the Blue Carbuncle/Sherlock Holmes birthday dinner of the CPR Stockholders of Edmonton at the Faculty Club on the University of Alberta campus.

Crime
Canadian diamond driller Norbert Reinhart was released after 94 days by Colombian leftist rebels after a U.S.$70,000 ransom was paid.

Football
NFL
NFC Divisional Playoff
San Francisco 18 @ Atlanta 20

Jamal Anderson rushed for touchdowns of 2 and 34 yards in the 1st half and Morten Andersen kicked field goals of 29 and 32 yards in the 2nd half to provide the winning margin as the Falcons held on to edge the 49ers before 70,262 fans in the first playoff game ever played at the Georgia Dome. With 2:57 remaining in regulation time and the Falcons leading 20-10, San Francisco quarterback Steve Young rushed 8 yards for a touchdown and backup quarterback Ty Detmer, holding for the placekicks, fumbled the snap on the convert, but completed a pass to Greg Clark for a 2-point convert. The game ended with Mr. Young throwing an interception to William White at midfield.

AFC Divisional Playoff
Miami 3 @ Denver 38

Terrell Davis rushed for touchdowns of 1 and 20 yards in the 1st quarter as the Broncos opened an early lead and coasted to a rout of the Dolphins before 75,729 fans at Mile High Stadium.