February 9, 2009

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Heather Blacklock!

240 years ago
1769

Born on this date
George W. Campbell. U.K.-born U.S. politician. Mr. Campbell, a native of Scotland, moved with his family to North Carolina in 1772. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he represented Tennessee in the House of Representatives from 1803-1809, chairing the House Ways and Means Committee from 1807-1809, and represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate from 1811-1814 and 1815-1818, chairing the Senate Finance Committee from 1815-1818. Mr. Campbell was U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from February-October 1814 in the administration of President James Madison, and served as U.S. Minister to Russia from 1819-1820. He died on February 17, 1848, eight days after his 79th birthday.

220 years ago
1789

Born on this date
Franz Xaver Gabelsberger. German engineer. Mr. Gabelsberger, a typist with the Bavarian government, invented the Gabelsberger shorthand system. He died on January 4, 1849 at the age of 59.

210 years ago
1799

War
The USS Constellation captured the French Insurgente in a single-ship action in the Caribbean Sea.

170 years ago
1839

Born on this date
Silas Adams. U.S. politician. Mr. Adams, a lawyer from Lexington, Kentucky, was a Republican Party politician who represented Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives from 1893-1895. He died on May 5, 1896 at the age of 57.

160 years ago
1849

Italiana
The new Roman Republic was declared.

140 years ago
1869

Born on this date
Harry Pulliam. U.S. baseball executive. Mr. Pulliam was a journalist who became secretary and then president of the Louisville Colonels in the 1890s, moving on to become president of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1899. He was unanimously elected President of the National League in December 1902, and oversaw the peace between the National and American Leagues. Mr. Pulliam eventually became convinced that team owners were conspiring against him, and suffered a nervous breakdown in February 1909 at a banquet for National League owners. He was granted an indefinite leave of absence, and returned to work on June 28. On July 28, 1909, Mr. Pulliam got up from the dinner table at the New York Athletic Club, walked up to his room on the third floor, stripped to his underwear, laid down on a sofa, and shot himself in the head. He was found alive, but was too severely wounded to be moved to a hospital, and died later that night at the age of 40.

130 years ago
1879

Transportation
The North Shore Railroad opened from Montréal to Québec.

120 years ago
1889

Born on this date
Larry Semon. U.S. actor and film director. Mr. Semon was a major figure in silent movie comedy, beginning his career in 1915. He eventually directed and produced his films, often at high cost, leading to his financial ruin. Mr. Semon is best known today for The Wizard of Oz (1925). He suffered a nervous breakdown while performing on the vaudeville circuit and was sent to a sanatorium in Victorville, California, where he reportedly died of pneumonia and tuberculosis on October 8, 1928 at the age of 39.

Politics and government
U.S. President Grover Cleveland signed a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a cabinet-level agency.

100 years ago
1909

Born on this date
Carmen Miranda. Portuguese-born Brazilian actress and singer. Miss Miranda moved to Brazil with her family when she was an infant. She became a hugely popular recording artist in Brazil in the 1930s, helping to popularize the samba. Miss Miranda attracted the attention of a Broadway producer and began performing in the United States in 1939. She became famous as "The Brazilian Bombshell" in movies such as Down Argentine Way (1940) and The Gang's All Here (1943), and was especially known for her trademark fruit hat. However, Brazilians and other South Americans thought Miss Miranda was portraying a Hollywood caricature of a South American rather than a true image of their culture. Her popularity declined in the late 1940s, but she was still active in show business at the time of her death, which occurred at the age of 46 on August 5, 1955, several hours after filming a musical sequence for the television program The Jimmy Durante Show. Miss Miranda dropped to her knees briefly and claimed to be out of breath, but finished the number; early the next morning, she died of a heart attack. Mark Steyn has provided detailed information about Miss Miranda.

Dean Rusk. U.S. politician. Mr. Rusk was U.S. Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from 1961-1969, serving during the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War. He died on December 20, 1994 at the age of 85.

60 years ago
1949

Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson attacked the Budapest trial of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty as a "conscienceless attack upon religious and personal freedom," while the Hungarian government expelled Robin Steussy, U.S. deputy consul in Budapest, for helping Hungarians to flee the country. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the State Department to take the Mindszenty case before the United Nations.

Israel announced the completion of negotiations with five Eastern European states for the immigration of 60,000-80,000 Jews to Palestine.

Defense
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission announced plans to sponsor Westinghouse in the construction of an experimental nuclear engine for warships.

Politics and government
The U.S. House of Representatives voted the Committee on Un-American Activities $200,000 for its 1949 operations.

Scandal
U.S. actor Robert Mitchum received a 60-day prison sentence after pleading no contest in Los Angeles to a charge of possession of marijuana.

Economics and finance
U.S. congressional leaders cited falling food prices as justification for delaying action on President Harry Truman's request for a tax increase.

50 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Como Antes (Come Prima)--Los 5 Latinos (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 Stagger Lee--Lloyd Price
2 16 Candles--The Crests
3 Donna--Ritchie Valens
4 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes--The Platters
5 The All American Boy--Bill Parsons
6 My Happiness--Connie Francis
7 Lonely Teardrops--Jackie Wilson
8 Gotta Travel On--Billy Grammer
9 Goodbye Baby--Jack Scott
10 Manhattan Spiritual--Reg Owen and his Orchestra

Singles entering the chart were Nola by the Morgan Brothers (#88); Sea Cruise by Frankie Ford (#89); Jupiter-C by Pat and the Satellites (#94); (Night Time Is) The Right Time by Ray Charles (#95); Blah, Blah, Blah by Nicola Paone (#96); Midnight Oil by Charlie Blackwell (#97); Are You Lonesome Tonight by Jaye P. Morgan (#98); Venus by Frankie Avalon (#99); and Moonlight Serenade by the Rivieras (#100).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKWX)
1 The All American Boy--Bill Parsons
2 Gotta Travel On--Billy Grammer
3 Goodbye Baby--Jack Scott
4 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes--The Platters
5 Stagger Lee--Lloyd Price
6 My Happiness--Connie Francis
7 The Children's Marching Song (Nick Nack Paddy Whack)--Cyril Stapleton and his Orchestra
--Mitch Miller and his Orchestra
8 Petite Fleur (Little Flower)--Chris Barber's Jazz Band
9 Manhattan Spiritual--Reg Owen and his Orchestra
10 16 Candles--The Crests

Singles entering the chart were Raw-Hide by Link Wray and the Wraymen (#45); Tragedy by Thomas Wayne with the DeLons (#50); Here I Stand by Wade Flemons (#52); Madrid/Give Me Your Love by Nat "King" Cole (#56); Venus by Frankie Avalon (#57); and Anthony Boy by Chuck Berry (#60).

War
Honduran Army troops retook Santa Barbara from Nationalist Party rebels, taking 138 prisoners.

Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, denying reports of a Western rift over Germany, said that his talks in Europe had resulted in substantial agreement on policies to be followed if the U.S.S.R. carried out its threat to turn its Berlin occupation functions over to the East German government.

Defense
The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, became operational at Plesetsk, U.S.S.R.

Politics and government
Saying that he would devote himself to rebuilding his United Malay National Organization, Prince Abdul Rahman resigned as Malayan Prime Minister and named Defense Minister Dato Abdul Razak bin Hussein to succeed him.

The Thai National Assembly unanimously approved Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat as Prime Minister.

Jeered as a "traitor" at war memorial ceremonies in Algiers, French Prime Minister Michel Debre denounced the "contemptible minds" who doubted President Charles de Gaulle's pledge that "there will be no political negotiations" with Algerian nationalists.

U.S. Secretary of State Dulles asked President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a short leave of absence to enable him to undergo surgery "for a recently developed hernia." Mr. Dulles requested that Undersecretary of State Christian Herter assume his duties.

The U.S. Subversive Activities Control Board reaffirmed its findings that the Communist Party USA was dominated by the Soviet government and should be required to register with the U.S. Justice Department.

Disasters
The Newfoundland trawlers Blue Wave and Julie capsized in heavy seas, drowning all 47 men aboard.

Auto racing
Marshall Teague drove a reconfigured championship car for a lap at Daytona International Speedway at 148 miles per hour, a record for an American track. He was killed two days later while attempting to break the record at the same track.

40 years ago
1969

Died on this date
Gabby Hayes, 83. U.S. actor and singer. George Hayes was a character actor who was known for appearing in numerous low-budget Western movies from the 1930s through the 1950s, usually as the comic sidekick of the cowboy star. He was the sidekick to such stars as William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), Roy Rogers, John Wayne, and Randolph Scott. Mr. Hayes starred in the television Western series The Gabby Hayes Show (1950-1954, 1956) before retiring. He died of cardiovascular disease.

Space
Tactical Communications Satellite (Tacomsat), the world's largest communications satellite, was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

Aviation
The Boeing 747 made its first flight, which was cut short by a "minor problem." Test pilots Jack Waddell and Brien Wygle called the $21.4-million plane a "pilot's dream."

World events
The government of East Germany issued new travel restrictions, effective February 15 and lasting until further notice, barring all members of the West German Federal Assembly from travelling to West Berlin across East Germany to participate in the federal presidential election In March, and also banning all West German army personnel from crossing East Germany to reach the city. The West German government said that it intended to go ahead with the presidential election as it had in 1954, 1959, and 1964. France, Great Britain, and the United States said that there was "no justification" for the East German travel ban.

Defense
U.S. Defense Secretary Melvin Laird stated in a television interview that the U.S.S.R. ha spent 3.7 times as much as the United States on anti-missile systems over the past two years.

Politics and government
A new round of a Canadian constitutional conference highlighted differences in the division of powers between the levels of government and a possible charter of human rights. During the discussions, Québec Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand had the opportunity to discuss his conception of the division of powers and jurisdictions between the provinces and the federal government with Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The two men openly expressed their differences, with Mr. Bertrand declaring to the press, "In Canada, there are two communities, two peoples, two nations...We need a new understanding on the essential things."

Terrorism
FLQ terrorists exploded a bomb inside a federal government building in Montréal.

Boxing
Shozo Saijo (19-5-2) retained his World Boxing Association world featherweight title with a 15-round unanimous decision over Pedro Gomez (24-2-2) at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.



Golf
Billy Casper won the Bob Hope Desert Classic, with a top prize of $20,000.

30 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Y.M.C.A.--Village People

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Y.M.C.A.--Village People (9th week at #1)

#1 single in France (IFOP): Tragedy--Bee Gees (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Allen Tate, 79. U.S. writer. Mr. Tate was a literary critic and poet from the 1920s through the 1970s. He was Poet Laureate of the United States from 1943-1944. Mr. Tate died after suffering from emphysema for several years.

Dennis Gabor, 78. Austro-Hungarian-born U.K. electrical engineer and physicist. Dr. Gabor, born Günszberg Dénes in Budapest, concluded his education and began his career in Berlin, but fled to the United Kingdom in 1933 after the Nazis took power in Germany. He worked for the British Thomson-Houston company in Rugby, Warwickshire, where he invented holography in 1947. Dr. Gabor was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his invention and development of the holographic method." He was also a futurist, and was famous for saying "the future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented."

War
Three days of fighting between factions supporting the Iranian government of Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar and those supporting recently-returned Shi'ite Muslim leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini began.

Scandal
The U.S. Justice Department began an inquiry into possible jury tampering in the failure of a jury to agree on a verdict in the trial of U.S. Representative Daniel Flood (Democrat--Pennsylvania) on 11 charges of bribery, conspiracy, and perjury. On February 7 The New York Times had reported that a juror who had held out for acquittal on 8 of the counts, when the other 11 jurors had voted for conviction, had disclosed information in the deliberations that had not been presented in the trial, but was similar to a statement given by a witness against Rep. Flood to the Federal Bureau of Investigation a year earlier.

Crime
In the first major theft in the 110-year history of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a 2,500-year-old Greek marble head valued at $150,000 was taken from its pedestal. It was recovered five days later in a locker at Grand Central Terminal, after an anonymous telephone tip to police. When recovered, the sculpture had a small Valentine-like heart tattooed over its right eye; according to a museum official, "It matched a graffiti heart that had been carved over its left eye before we acquired it."

Economics and finance
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the producer price index--the wholesale measure of goods ready to be sold to retailers--had risen by 1.3% in January, the largest increase in four years; the price increase was in several sectors of the economy. The unemployment rate declined to 5.8% in January, while productivity in 1978 had risen just 0.4%, the smallest increase since the recession year of 1974.

Labour
British Leyland's 100,000 workers rejected a call for a strike, two days after 19,000 had walked out of one plant.

Soccer
The English club Nottingham Forest signed forward Trevor Francis for £1,180,000 after eight seasons with Birmingham City, in Britain's first £1-million transfer deal.

25 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Jenseits von Eden--Nino de Angelo (7th week at #1)

Died on this date
Yuri Andropov, 69. U.S.S.R. leader, 1982-1984. Mr. Andropov led the KGB (Soviet secret police force) from 1967-1982, and succeeded Leonid Brezhnev as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union upon Mr. Brezhnev's death in November 1982. Soviet disinformation fed to Western journalists depicted Mr. Andropov as a "closet liberal" who liked the music of Glenn Miller. During his time as Soviet leader, Mr. Andropov attempted to reform the economy and root out corruption. He dismissed 18 ministers and 37 other first secretaries within the Soviet Communist Party. Declining health forced Mr. Andropov into hospital in August 1983, and he governed by means of notes handed to officials who visited him. Mr. Andropov's death wasn't revealed until February 10, when it was said he had "suffered nephritis, nephrosclerosis, secondary hypertension and sugar diabetes, which were worsened by chronic kidney insufficiency." The bulletin announcing his death said that Mr. Andropov had been receiving dialysis for a year.

Space
As part of the STS-41-B mission aboard the U.S. space shuttle Challenger, astronauts Bruce McCandless and Robert Stewart made their second untethered space walks using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), practicing capture procedures for the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) satellite retrieval and repair operation, which was planned for the next mission, STS-41-C The five-man crew received a telephone call from U.S. President Ronald Reagan.



War
U.S. ships concluded two days of artillery barrages against Syrian positions in Lebanon.

Politics and government
Leftist opponents of the government of El Salvador said that they would boycott, but not interfere militarily with elections called for March, and also called for a broad-based provisional government. The rebels said there would be room for "private ownership and foreign investments" under the government they envisioned.

Olympics
Men's hockey
Group A
U.S.S.R. (2-0) 5 Italy (0-2) 1
Poland (0-2) 5 West Germany (2-0) 8
Yugoslavia (0-2) 0 Sweden (2-0) 11

Group B
Canada (2-0) 8 Austria (0-2) 1
C.S.S.R. (2-0) 4 U.S.A. (0-2) 1
Finland (2-0) 16 Norway (0-2) 2

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 3 @ Philadelphia 4

10 years ago
1999

Politics and government
Premier Brian Tobin led his Liberal Party to another victory in the Newfoundland provincial election. The Liberals won 32 of 48 seats in the House of Assembly, a decrease of 5 from the most recent election in 1996. The Progressive Conservatives, led by Ed Byrne, won 14 seats--an increase of 5 from 1996--and the New Democratic Party, led by Jack Harris, took the other 2 seats, an increase of 1 over their 1996 total.

At the impeachment trial of U.S. President Bill Clinton, the Senate began deliberations behind closed doors.

Scandal
A panel of independent investigators working on the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee issued its report on the Winter Olympics bribery scandal. The report placed most of the blame on the three members of the Salt Lake City committee that had successfully sought to obtain the 2002 Winter Olympics. The three members had resigned. The report said that committee members gave members of the International Olympic Committee cash and other gifts without notifying other Salt lake committee members. The report said that nobody was suspected of actual illegal actions.