March 5, 2009

470 years ago
1539

Died on this date
Nuno da Cunha, 52 (?). Portuguese politician. Nuno was Governor of Portuguese possessions in India from 1528-1538. Forced to return to Portugal as a result of court intrigues, he drowned in a shipwreck at the Cape of Good Hope.

160 years ago
1849

Politics and government
Zachary Taylor was inaugurated as the 12th President of the United States; Millard Fillmore was inaugurated as Vice President. The inauguration was held on March 5 because March 4, the usual inauguration date, fell on a Sunday in 1849. In his inaugural address, Mr. Taylor urged Congress to work for conciliation of sectional controversies, and offered a program of friendly relations in foreign affairs, an efficient army and navy, and encouragement of agriculture, commerce, and manufacture.

120 years ago
1889

Music
Edward MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2 received its premiere performance at Chickering Hall in New York City. The concert also featured the American premiere of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

80 years ago
1929

Died on this date
David Dunbar Buick, 74. U.K.-born U.S. automobile executive. Mr. Buick, a native of Scotland, moved to Detroit with his family at the age of 2. He founded Buick Manufacturing Company in 1902, and sold it in 1906, two years before it became part of General Motors. Mr. Buick lost money in bad investments in later years, and died in poverty.

70 years ago
1939

Hockey
IIHF World Championships
Bronze medal playoff @ Basel, Switzerland
Switzerland 2 Czechoslovakia 0

Switzerland and Czechoslovakia had finished the final round of competition with identical records of 0-2-1, and had played to a 0-0 tie after 3 periods of extra time in the final game on February 12. They agreed to a playoff to decide not only the bronze medal, but the European championship. The Swiss scored in each of the 2nd and 3rd periods to win the game and the medal.

60 years ago
1949

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Buttons and Bows--Dinah Shore and the Happy Valley Boys; Gene Autry (9th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard) (Best Seller): A Little Bird Told Me--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters (7th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 A Little Bird Told Me--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters (5th week at #1)
2 Far Away Places--Bing Crosby
--Perry Como
--Margaret Whiting and the Crew Chiefs
3 Powder Your Face with Sunshine (Smile! Smile! Smile!)--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters
--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
4 Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
--Dinah Shore
5 I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm--Les Brown and his Orchestra
--The Mills Brothers
6 Red Roses for a Blue Lady--Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra
--Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians
7 Down by the Station--Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra
--Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians
8 Cruising Down the River--Blue Barron and his Orchestra
--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra
--Jack Smith and the Clark Sisters
9 The Pussy Cat Song (Nyow! Nyot Nyow!)--Patty Andrews and Bob Crosby
--Perry Como with the Fontane Sisters
10 Galway Bay--Bing Crosby

Singles entering the chart were Lady of Spain by Ray Noble and his Orchestra (#34) and Lemon Drop by Gene Krupa and his Orchestra (#35).

On the radio
Tales of Fatima, starring Basil Rathbone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Cry for a Cat

At the movies
The Walking Hills, directed by John Sturges, and starring Randolph Scott, Ella Raines, William Bishop, and Edgar Buchanan, opened in theatres.



World events
The Bulgarian trial of 15 Protestant ministers ended as defendants made final pleas for mercy all but one admitting the charges against them.

A court in Budapest handed down prison sentences for 13 small businessmen and church officials accused of complicity in the alleged black market dealings of Josef Cardinal Mindszenty.

Defense
U.S. President Harry Truman urged Congress to increase the defense secretary's authority over the three services, and created the post of permanent chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to reduce inter-service rivalries.

Piasecki Helicopter Corporation announced the development of the world's fastest helicopter, the XHJP-1, on a U.S. Navy contract.

Oil
Pemex, Mexico's government-owned monopoly, signed a 12-year drilling contract with a U.S. group headed by Edwin Pauley.

Economics and finance
The Jewish National Fund ended a six-day meeting in New York after revealing plans to reclaim 25,000 acres of neglected Arab-owned land in Israel during the next three years.

50 years ago
1959

Defense
The U.S.A. signed agreements with Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran, fulfilling earlier pledges to aid Baghdad Pact nations against aggression without committing the United States to full membership.

World events
The government of Nyasaland claimed to have discovered "evidence of a carefully prepared African National Congress plan...to disrupt government services" and cause "widespread violence directed against property and lives."

Vittorio Mussolini, son of the late Italian Duce Benito Mussolini, returned to Italy from exile in Argentina to seek the reversal of a 1951 conviction for desertion from the Italian Air Force.

Economics and finance
The Indonesian Economic Stabilization Ministry announced the nationalization of 270 Dutch-owned enterprises, mostly rubber, tea, coffee, and sugar plantations.

Disasters
21 boys were killed when fire destroyed the dormitory of the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School, a reform school near Little Rock.

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?--Peter Sarstedt (2nd week at #1)

Australia's top 10 (Go-Set)
1 Lily the Pink--The Scaffold (4th week at #1)
2 Build Me Up Buttercup--The Foundations
3 I Started a Joke/Kilburn Towers--The Bee Gees
4 Edge of Reality/If I Can Dream--Elvis Presley
5 Eloise--Barry Ryan
6 Star Crossed Lovers--Neil Sedaka
7 Son-of-a Preacher Man--Dusty Springfield
8 Going Up the Country--Canned Heat
9 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da/While My Guitar Gently Weeps--The Beatles
10 Fox on the Run--Manfred Mann

Singles entering the chart were Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da/While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Dizzy by Tommy Roe (#39).

Space
Apollo 9 Commander Jim McDivitt and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart spent nine hours in the lunar module Spider, creeping into it by means of a 32-inch tunnel. A live 7-minute telecast to earth showed their activities in the LM (or LEM, for Lunar Excursion Module) clearly, but most of their conversation was blanked out. Their tests of Spider's descent rockets were successful.

War
U.S. Army Spec. 4 Edwin C. Arnett was found guilty of desertion by a court martial in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Spec. Arnett, who had fled Vietnam war duty to asylum in Sweden in February 1968, was the first soldier to be court-martialled for fleeing Vietnam to a foreign country.

Politics and government
West German Federal Electors met in Berlin, defying Communist attempts to thwart holding elections there, and elected Justice Minister Gustav Heinemann President of the Federal Republic.

Disasters
All 19 aboard a Puerto Rican airliner were killed when it crashed into a mountain forest east of San Juan.

Boxing
Oscar Bonavena (39-5) knocked out Luis Pires (11-3) in a heavyweight bout in Mar del Plata, Argentina when Mr. Pires retired after the 8th round.

30 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Le Freak-Chic (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Hero (Hero ni Naru Toki, Sore wa Ima)--Kai Band (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?--Rod Stewart

Died on this date
Alan Crofoot, 49. Canadian singer and actor. Mr. Crofoot, a native of Toronto, was a tenor who made his Canadian Opera Company debut in 1956, and made numerous performances with the COC into the 1970s. He also appeared with the New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Denver, and Boston operas. He's perhaps best remembered as the host of the children's television series Mr. Piper, which aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1963-1964. Mr. Crofoot signed a contract with the Metropolitan Opera in 1978. He made his debut there as the Circus Master in a new production of Smetana's The Bartered Bride, and also appeared in the telecast of that production. Mr. Crofoot was in Dayton, Ohio preparing to direct a production of Salome when he committed suicide by jumping out of his hotel room window. It has been suggested that his action may have resulted from combining beer with medicine he was taking for blood pressure.

Space
The Soviet probes Venera 11 and Venera 12 and the German-American solar satellite Helios II were all hit by "off the scale" gamma rays, leading to the discovery of soft gamma repeaters.

Canadiana
17-year-old Jody Lynn Trammel, a student at Crofton House High School in Vancouver, was chosen Miss Teen Canada for 1979. Runner-ups, in order, were Danielle Kirby, 16, Montreal; Coleen Brown, 17, Cape Breton; and Tracy Johnson, 17, Victoria. Yellowknife was represented by Cheryl McLean.

War
China declared that it had begun withdrawing troops from Vietnam, stating that she had gained all her objectives in the 17-day invasion.

The White House announced that U.S. President Jimmy Carter would fly to the Middle East in a personal effort to negotiate the final terms of an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

Law
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 that state laws requiring only men to pay alimony violated the equal protection statutes of the Constitution.

Education
A study of Chicago's public school system revealed that a $35 million "access to excellence" desegregation program had failed to significantly alter previous racial patterns in the city's 600 schools.

25 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Love Is a Battlefield--Pat Benatar (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Thriller--Michael Jackson (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
William Powell, 91. U.S. actor. Mr. Powell was one of the most popular leading men in movies in the 1930s. He was romantically teamed with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the six movies in the Thin Man series (1934-1947). Mr. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Thin Man (1934); My Man Godfrey (1936); and Life with Father (1947). He also played fictional detective Philo Vance in five films, including The Canary Murder Case (1929) and The Kennel Murder Case (1933). Mr. Powell retired from acting after Mr. Roberts (1955). In addition to his movies, Mr. Powell put his fine speaking voice to good use in radio dramas, including several episodes of Suspense. When Don Adams starred in the television comedy series Get Smart (1965-1970), he used an exaggerated imitation of Mr. Powell's voice for the voice of Maxwell Smart.

Canadiana
Miss Swift Current, 14-year-old Karen MacBean, was chosen Miss Teen Canada 1984. Runner-ups, in order, were Tracey Clements, 17, Richmond Hill; Lisa Iuga, 17, Burlington; and Barbara Kimmitt, 16, Calgary. Miss Teen Edmonton, Carla Betton, a student at Paul Kane High School in St. Albert, made the semi-finals in the pageant, which was telecast on CTV.

Diplomacy
The Lebanese cabinet formally abrogated the May 17, 1983 troop withdrawal agreement with Israel. The agreement for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon had been worked out with the help of U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, but Syria had never agreed to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, and Israeli forces remained in southern Lebanon. The Israeli government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir called the abrogation the "death sentence for Lebanese independence and sovereignty."

War
The U.S. State Department said that "available evidence" indicated that Iraq was using "lethal chemical weapons" in her war against Iran. The New York Times reported that a U.S. administration official believed that Iraq was using mustard gas, which blisters any tissue exposed to it. Both Iraq and Iran had signed the 1925 Geneva Protocol barring the use of such weapons.

Labour
6,000 miners in the United Kingdom began their strike at Cortonwood Colliery in Yorkshire. National Coal Board chairman Ian MacGregor had announced that 20 mines, including Cortonwood, would be closed, putting 20,000 miners out of work.

Business
Standard Oil Company of California (Socal) and Gulf Corporation reached an agreement by which Socal would purchase Gulf for $80 per share. The merger would be the largest in U.S. history at $13.3 billion, topping the $10.1-billion purchase of Getty Oil by Texaco, Inc. earlier in 1984. The agreement was subject to the approval of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

20 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): She Drives Me Crazy--Fine Young Cannibals

#1 single in Switzerland: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart--Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney

Protest
13 Buddhist monks and nuns led 2,000 Tibetans in a march in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in support of Tibetan independence from China. Police checked the demonstration with gunfire, and Chinese authorities reported that a policeman and 10 protesters and onloookers had been killed. The march began three days of violent protest.