May 27, 2009

810 years ago
1199

Brittanica
John was crowned King of England at Westminster.

210 years ago
1799

War
Austrian forces defeated French forces at Winterthur, Switzerland.

190 years ago
1819

Born on this date
Julia Ward Howe. U.S. poetess and songwriter. Mrs. Howe, raised an Episcopalian and a convert to Unitarianism, supported the abolition of slavery, and was best known for writing The Battle Hymn of the Republic, written late in 1861 and first published early in 1862 during the American Civil War. She supported feminist causes such as female suffrage, and died on October 17, 1910 at the age of 91.

170 years ago
1839

Born on this date
Alfred Horatio Belo. U.S. journalist. Mr. Belo founded The Dallas Morning News in 1885. He died on April 19, 1901 at the age of 61.

140 years ago
1869

Baseball
Lip Pike hit 4 home runs as the Brooklyn Atlantics beat the Olympics 89-7.

130 years ago
1879

Born on this date
Hans Lammers. German politician. Mr. Lammers joined the Nazi Party in 1932, and served as Chief of the Reich Chancellery (1933-1945); Reich Minister Without Portfolio (1937-1945); and President of the Reich Cabinet (1943-1945). He was convicted in the 1949 Nuremberg trials of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The sentence was subsequently commuted to 10 years, and he was freed in December 1951. Mr. Lammers died on January 4, 1962 at the age of 82.s

Karl Bühler. German-born U.S. linguist and psychologist. Dr. Bühler was known for his work in gestalt psychology, and was one of the founders of the Würzburg School of psychology. In linguistics, he was known for his organon model of communication and his treatment of deixis as a linguistic phenomenon. Dr. Bühler fled to London in 1940, and eventually settled in the United States as a professor at the University of Minnesota (1940-1945) and University of Southern California (1945-1955). He died on October 24, 1963 at the age of 84.

100 years ago
1909

Born on this date
W.W. Hansen. U.S. physicist. Dr. William Webster Hansen was one of the founders of microwave electronics, including the development of radar. On May 23, 1949, four days before his 40th birthday, Dr. Hansen died of berylliosis and fibrosis of the lungs, caused by inhaling the beryllium used in his research.

Mike "Pinky" Higgins. U.S. baseball player and manager. Mr. Higgins played third base with the Philadelphia Athletics (1930, 1933-1936); Boston Red Sox (1937-1938, 1946); and Detroit Tigers (1939-1944, 1946), batting .292 with 140 home runs and 1,075 runs batted in in 1,802 games. He played in the 1940 and 1946 World Series, batting .271 with 1 home run and 8 RBIs in 14 games. Mr. Higgins managed the Red Sox from 1955-1962 (with brief interruptions in 1959 and 1960), compiling a record of 560-556. He was the Red Sox' supervisor of player personnel from 1961-1962, and general manager from 1962-1965, and has often been labelled a racist for continuing the club's long-standing reluctance to employ Negro players. On February 27, 1968, Mr. Higgins was driving drunk when he killed Louisiana transportation official George Killen; Mr. Higgins pled guilty to driving while intoxicated, and suffered two heart attacks between conviction and sentencing. He began serving a four-year prison sentence in January 1969, was paroled on March 20, and suffered a fatal heart attack the next day at the age of 59.

Baseball
Addie Joss pitched a 7-hitter to win the pitchers' duel over Charlie Pelty as the Cleveland Naps beat the St. Louis Browns 5-2 before 2,700 fans at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Each team recorded 22 assists; the combined total of 44 set an American League record.

90 years ago
1919

Aviation
U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read, in his Curtiss NC-4 flying boat, arrived in Lisbon en route for Plymouth, England, 11 days after leaving Trepassey Harbour in Newfoundland on the first successful transatlantic flight.

Baseball
Tris Speaker hit 2 doubles as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Boston Red Sox 6-4 at Dunn Field in Cleveland. Babe Ruth hit a long triple for the Red Sox, the first ball ever to be hit off the center field screen at Dunn Field.

75 years ago
1934

Baseball
The St. Louis Browns scored 8 runs in the 4th inning and right fielder Bruce Campbell hit a grand slam as the St. Louis Browns beat the New York Yankees 16-7 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Winning pitcher Bobo Newsom walked 11 batters. Red Ruffing took the loss as the Yankees dropped out of first place in the American League behind the Cleveland Indians.

Schoolboy Rowe pitched a complete game as the Detroit Tigers defeated the Boston Red Sox 9-2.

70 years ago
1939

Died on this date
Joseph Roth, 44. Austro-Hungarian born writer. Mr. Roth, a Jewish native of Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was a journalist before becoming better known for his novels Job (1930) and Radetzky's March (1932). He worked in Berlin and Paris after World War I, and his writing expressed a nostalgia for life in Europe before World War I. Mr. Roth fled Germany when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and settled in Paris; he continued to write despite heavy drinking, which led to his death.

Baseball
Joe Vosmik hit a 3-run home run in the first game and led off the bottom of the 9th inning with a home run to give the Boston Red Sox a 7-6 win in the second game and a sweep of their doubleheader against the Washington Nationals before 12,000 fans at Fenway Park in Boston. Lefty Grove pitched an 11-hit complete game 11-4 victory in the first game, singled in 2 runs, and scored another, while losing pitcher Jimmie DeShong pitched a complete game despite allowing 11 hits, 6 bases on balls, and 10 earned runs. Boston right fielder Ted Williams batted 3 for 4 with a triple, home run, and 4 runs batted in in the second game.

The New York Yankees scored 6 runs in the 1st inning and 2 in the 2nd as they coasted to an 8-2 win over the Philadelphia Athletics in the first game of a doubleheader before 30,358 fans at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees parlayed 5 bases on balls and a single into 5 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning as they overcame an early 5-0 deficit to win the second game 11-9 to complete the sweep. New York George Selkirk drove in 3 runs with a pair of home runs in the second game.

Charlie Gehringer hit for the cycle, scoring 2 runs and driving in 5, to help the Detroit Tigers defeat the St. Louis Browns 12-5 before 17,345 fans at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. Mr. Gehringer became the first major league player to hit for the cycle in order (single; double; triple; home run).

The Cincinnati Reds set a team record with their 12th straight win as Lee Grissom pitched them to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals before 6,022 fans at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis in a game that was called after 8 innings because of rain.

60 years ago
1949

On television tonight
Your Show Time, hosted and narrated by Arthur Shields, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Birthday of the Infants, starring Gloria Holden, Gene Reynolds, and Frank Wilcox

Died on this date
Robert Ripley, 59. U.S. journalist. Mr. Ripley was a sportswriter and cartoonist who, in December 1918, began a cartoon feature called Champs and Chumps, which soon became known as Ripley's Believe it or Not!, a collection of unusual facts gleaned from around the world. Ripley's Believe it or Not! became internationally popular as a newspaper feature, as well through books, radio programs, short films, and as a program in the early days of television. Mr. Ripley showed signs of declining health, and during the live broadcast of the 13th episode of the Ripley's Believe it or Not! television program on May 24, 1949, appeared to experience a brief mental blackout. He checked into a New York hospital two days later, was diagnosed with a bad heart, and suffered a fatal heart attack the next day. Ripley's Believe it or Not! continued in print and briefly on television, and remains a franchise today.

Married on this date
U.S. actress Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan, son of Indian Muslim leader Aga Khan, were married on the French Riviera.

War
The U.S. Navy withdrew all fleet and shore units from Tsingtao in northern China, while Communist forces ended fighting around Shanghai by taking the Yangtze River port of Woosung with the surrender of 50,000 Nationalist soldiers.

World events
Soviet authorities again halted freight traffic from West Germany to Berlin.

Diplomacy
A London court rejected a U.S. request for the extradition of accused Soviet spy Gerhart Eisler, ruling that he had committed no crime recognized by British law.

Politics and government
The Liberal Party, led by Premier Joey Smallwood, won 22 of 28 seats in the House of Assembly in the first Newfoundland provincial election since the province's admission to Canada on March 31. The Progressive Conservatives, led by Harry Mews, won 5 seats, and Mr. Mews was defeated in St. John's West. Independent candidate Peter Cashin, an opponent of Confederatino and the son of former Newfoundland Prime Minister Sir Michael Cashin, was elected in Ferryland. It was the first Newfoundland election to include voters in Labrador.

The U.S. Senate passed and sent to House of Representatives conference a bill expanding the powers of the Central Intelligence Agency and the secrecy of its activities, personnel, and expenditures.

Academia
The American Academy of Arts and Letters presented its gold medal to Frederick Law Olmsted, the first landscape architect to win the award.

Crime
A U.S. federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Australian native and International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union President Harry Bridges for perjury, accusing him of falsely denying Communist Party membership at the time of his U.S. naturalization in 1945.

Labour
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board unanimously voided the United Mine Workers of America's union shop contract with coal mines owned by steel companies.

50 years ago
1959

Politics and government
King Mahendra of Nepal installed B.P. Koirala of the Nepalese Congress Party as head of an eight-member cabinet, Nepal's first elected government.

South African Justice Minister Charles Swart banned African National Congress President Albert Luthuli from addressing or attending any political meetings for five years, and banished him to his home district in Lower Tugela, Natal.

World events
The six-month U.S.S.R. ultimatum for dissolution of the Allied occupation government in Berlin expired without any other Soviet attempt to force Western troops from the city or to close Western military access routes to Berlin.

Cuban armed forces commander Raul Castro and some other officers were rescued after their plane was forced down for lack of fuel in the Cienaga de Zapata, a 1,000-square-mile marsh.

Baseball
National League President Warren Giles ruled that the final score of the Harvey Haddix perfect game the previous night should be amended to 1-0 for the Milwaukee Braves over the Pittsburgh Pirates‚ since runners Henry Aaron and Joe Adcock were both ruled out--Mr. Aaron for leaving the field‚ and Mr. Adcock for passing him in the basepath. Mr. Adcock was credited with a double and not a home run.

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade): Get Back/Don't Let Me Down--The Beatles with Billy Preston (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
Jeffrey Hunter, 43. U.S. actor. Mr. Hunter, born Henry Herman McKinnies, Jr., was best known for his roles in the movies The Searchers (1956) and King of Kings (1961). He played Captain Christopher Pike in The Cage (1965), the original pilot for the television series Star Trek. Mr. Hunter died when he suffered a brain hemorrhage and fell down a short flight of stairs at his home, fracturing his skull when he hit his head on a banister.

Lou Jackson, 33. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Jackson was an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs (1958-1959) and Baltimore Orioles (1964), batting .213 with 1 home run and 7 runs batted in in 34 games. He played in the minor leagues from 1957-1965, batting .289 with 151 homers and 590 RBIs in 1,110 games. Mr. Jackson was one of the first Americans to play in Japan, playing with the Sankei Atoms of the Japanese Central League from 1966-1968, batting .257 with 68 home runs and 181 RBIs in 329 games. He died of a reported pancreatic infection.

Space
Apollo 10 astronauts Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young returned to Houston, one day after the end of their 8-day lunar reconnaissance mission.

Politics and government
Democratic Mayor Sam Yorty won his third term in office, defeating city councilman Tom Bradley, his Negro challenger, in a runoff election. Mr. Bradley, also a Democrat, had led Mr. Yorty by more than 100,000 votes in the indecisive April 1 election. In the runoff, Mr. Yorty won 53% of the vote to Mr. Bradley's 47%. Mr. Yorty's victory was attributed by many to the injection of racial fear into the campaign. Voter turnout for the runoff election was 80%, a record.

30 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Heart of Glass--Blondie (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Music Box Dancer--Frank Mills (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Ahmed Ould Bouceif, 45. Prime Minister of Mauritania, 1979. Lieutenant Colonel Bouceif seized power in a coup d'état together with Colonel Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah and other officers, ousting Col. Mustafa Ould Salek. Lt. Col. Bouceif and 11 others were killed in an airplane crash off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, at which point Col. Haidallah emerged as the regime's main strongman.

Diplomacy
The border between Israel and Egypt was opened by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, enabling citizens of the former enemies to visit each other.

Auto racing
Rick Mears won the Indianapolis 500, his first victory in that race, at an average speed of 158.899 miles per hour. Because of controversy over the new Championship Auto Racing Teams series, a special qualifying session was held the day before the race to allow certain cars to attempt to qualify who had been prevented from doing so before. Only 2 of the 10 cars that ran that day achieved the required speed, and they were added to the field. The field of 35 cars was the largest in the Indianapolis 500 since 1933.



Basketball
NBA
Finals
Washington 95 @ Seattle 105 (Seattle led best-of-seven series 2-1)

Gus Williams scored 31 points and Jack Sikma added 21 points and 17 rebounds for the SuperSonics as they beat the Bullets before 35,928 fans at the Kingdome. Bobby Dandridge led Washington scorers with 28 points and Wes Unseld added 23.

25 years ago
1984

Auto racing
Rick Mears won the Indianapolis 500 for the second time.

20 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Like a Prayer--Madonna (7th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Eternal Flame--Bangles (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Eternal Flame--Bangles (7th week at #1)

#1 single in France (SNEP): Megamix--Boney M. (6th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Ferry 'Cross the Mersey--The Christians, Holly Johnson, Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden and Stock Aitken Waterman (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 Forever Your Girl--Paula Abdul (2nd week at #1)
2 Real Love--Jody Watley
3 Rock On--Michael Damian
4 Soldier of Love--Donny Osmond
5 Patience--Guns n' Roses
6 Wind Beneath My Wings--Bette Midler
7 I'll Be Loving You (Forever)--New Kids on the Block
8 Every Little Step--Bobby Brown
9 I'll Be There for You--Bon Jovi
10 Close My Eyes Forever--Lita Ford (Duet with Ozzy Osbourne)

Singles entering the chart were My Brave Face by Paul McCartney (#72); Dressed for Success by Roxette (#80); Secret Rendezvous by Karyn White (#83); Fire Woman by the Cult (#84); In My Eyes by Stevie B (#87); Joy and Pain by Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock (#90); and Praying to a New God by Wang Chung (#93).

U.S.A. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Real Love--Jody Watley (2nd week at #1)
2 Forever Your Girl--Paula Abdul
3 Rock On--Michael Damian
4 Soldier of Love--Donny Osmond
5 I'll Be There for You--Bon Jovi
6 Patience--Guns N' Roses
7 After All--Cher and Peter Cetera
8 Wind Beneath My Wings--Bette Midler
9 Electric Youth--Debbie Gibson
10 Like a Prayer--Madonna

Singles entering the chart were My Brave Face by Paul McCartney (#60); Dressed for Success by Roxette (#69); Fascination Street by the Cure (#78); Praying to a New God by Wang Chung (#83); Secret Rendezvous by Karyn White (#90); and Everything Counts by Depeche Mode (#94).

Politics and government
The new Soviet parliament, the Congress of People's Deputies, chose from their ranks 542 members of the Supreme Soviet, which would be in session most of the year and deal directly with legislation. Reformers were virtually shut out in this selection, and some 10,000 supporters of reformer Boris Yeltsin gathered to protest.

10 years ago
1999

Space
The U.S. space shuttle Discovery, with a seven-member crew commanded by Kent Rominger and including Canadian Mission Specialist Julie Payette, blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin the 10-day mission STS-96. It was the first shuttle flight to dock with the International Space Station.

War
Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal investigating the Yugoslav conflict, announced that Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic had been indicted for murder and other war crimes. Four other Serbian leaders were indicted on similar charges; none were in custody.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Eastern Conference Finals
Buffalo 4 Toronto 2

Basketball
NBA
Western Conference Finals
Portland 92 Utah 80

Baseball
Designated hitter Luis Polonia, who had been called up from the minor leagues the day before, batted 5 for 5 with 2 doubles, 4 runs, and a run batted in to help the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox 10-5 before 13,465 fans at Tiger Stadium. Chicago third baseman Greg Norton drove in 4 runs with a pair of home runs.

Eric Davis tripled with 1 out in the bottom of the 12th inning and scored on a wild pitch by Jerry Spradlin to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 3-2 win over the San Francisco Giants before 47,829 fans at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.