July 5, 2009

180 years ago
1829

Born on this date
Ignacio Mariscal. Mexican politician. Mr. Mariscal was Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the administrations of Presidents Benito Juárez (1871-1872) and Porfirio Diaz (1880-1883, 1885-1910). He died in office on April 17, 1910 at the age of 80.

130 years ago
1879

Born on this date
Dwight F. Davis. American tennis player and politician. Mr. Davis was a star amateur tennis player in the late 1890s and early 1900s, and founded the Davis Cup competition. He was a Republican who served as Assistant U.S. Secretary of War (1923-1925) and Secretary of War (1925-1929) in the administration of President Calvin Coolidge, and then as Governor-General of the Philippines from 1929-1932. Mr. Davis died on November 28, 1945 at the age of 66.

120 years ago
1889

Born on this date
Jean Cocteau. French author and film director. Mr. Cocteau was known for novels such as Les Enfants Terribles (1929) and films such as Blood of a Poet (1930); Beauty and the Beast (1946); and Orpheus (1949). He died on October 11, 1963 at the age of 74.

Died on this date
John Norquay, 48. Canadian politician. Mr. Norquay, of Anglo-Métis ancestry, was born near St. Andrews in Red River Colony, which became the province of Manitoba in 1870. A Conservative, he sat in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly from 1870 until his death, holding various cabinet posts, and serving as Premier from 1878-1887. Mr. Norquay died after a period of declining health. Mount Norquay in Banff National Park in Alberta was named in his honour in 1904.

110 years ago
1909

Canadiana
Parliament adopted the Act to Incorporate the Society for the Advancement of Science, Humanities and Arts of Canada.

Transportation
The first streetcars rolled through Calgary.

75 years ago
1934

At the movies
I Can't Escape, directed by Otto Brower, and starring Onslow Stevens, Lila Lee, and Russell Gleason, opened in theatres.



Protest
On what became known as "Bloody Thursday," police opened fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco, killing Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise.

Baseball
Lou Gehrig hit an inside-the-park grand slam to help the New York Yankees to an 8-3 win over the Washington Nationals. It was Mr. Gehrig’s 17th career major league grand slam, breaking Babe Ruth’s record. Mr. Gehrig added another home run and two singles, driving in 7 runs.

60 years ago
1949

On the radio
Philo Vance, starring Jackson Beck
Tonight’s episode: The White Murder Case

Died on this date
Luther Hilton Foster, 61. U.S. academic. Mr. Foster was President of Virginia State College and head of the Association of Negro Land Grant Colleges. His son Luther, Jr. was President of Tuskegee University from 1953-1981.

Diplomacy
The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of Washington hostess Pearl Mesta as U.S. Minister to Luxembourg.

Defense
The Argentine government announced defense expenditures totalling more than one-quarter of its 4.87-billion peso 1950 budget.

Politics and government
The U.S.A., U.S.S.R., U.K., and France ordered their Berlin military commanders to begin negotiations for renewal of joint four-power rule of the city.

Crime
The trial of Iva Toguri, accused of treason for wartime propaganda radio broadcasts in Japan as "Tokyo Rose," began in San Francisco.

Law
The Texas legislature passed a law providing penalties ranging from imprisonment to death for members of lynch mobs.

Science
The William Warner Company in New York announced the development of a new method for synthesizing Vitamin A on a commercial scale.

Disasters
Two plagues of locusts moved through Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana through the past two days, stripping cattle ranches and prairies.

Baseball
The New York Giants bought their first Negro players--outfielder Monte Irvin and third baseman Hank Thompson--from the Jersey City Giants of the International League.

50 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in France (IFOP): Ce serait dommage--Sacha Distel (4th week at #1)

Germanica
Reunification of the Saar with West Germany was completed with the reintegration of the state within the West German economy.

Politics and government
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned after members of his cabinet opposed him in a confidence vote on the sale of Israeli arms to West Germany.

Indonesian President Sukarno issued decrees dissolving the Constituent Assembly and replacing the 1950 provisional constitution with the 1945 charter.

Diplomacy
Italy rejected U.S.S.R. Premier Nikita Khrushchev's Balkan peace zone plan.

Oil
A U.S.-Canadian consortium announced an agreement for joint exploitation of untested oil and gas lands in the Northwest Territories.

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Hair--The Cowsills (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Rhodesia (Lyons Maid): In the Ghetto--Elvis Presley

#1 single in France: Oh Happy Day--The Edwin Hawkins Singers (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Pensando a te--Al Bano

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Israelites--Desmond Dekker and the Aces (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): The Ballad of John and Yoko--The Beatles (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): The Ballad of John and Yoko--The Beatles

Australia's top 10 (Go-Set)
1 Get Back/Don't Let Me Down--The Beatles with Billy Preston (5th week at #1)
2 Hair--The Cowsills
3 Israelites--Desmond Dekker and the Aces
4 The Real Thing--Russell Morris
5 Bad Moon Rising/Lodi--Creedence Clearwater Revival
6 Gitarzan--Ray Stevens
7 Love Me Tonight--Tom Jones
8 Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)--The 5th Dimension
9 Dear Prudence--Doug Parkinson in Focus
10 Goodbye--Mary Hopkin

Singles entering the chart were The Ballad of John and Yoko/Old Brown Shoe by the Beatles (#25); My Old Man's a Groovy Old Man by the Valentines (#37); Love is All I Have to Give by the Checkmates, Ltd. (#38); Come Back and Shake Me by Clodagh Rodgers (#39); and Frozen Orange Juice by Peter Sarstedt (#40).

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 The Ballad of John and Yoko--The Beatles (3rd week at #1)
2 Je t'aime...mon non plus--Jane Birkin avec Serge Gainsbourg
3 Tomorrow Tomorrow--The Bee Gees
4 A Salty Dog--Procol Harum
5 Big Bamboo--The Merrymen
6 I Want to Live--Aphrodite's Child
7 Oh Happy Day--The Edwin Hawkins Singers
8 Time is Tight--Booker T. & the M.G.'s
9 Pretty Belinda--Chris Andrews
10 Stop the Machine--Swinging Soul Machine

Singles entering the chart were I'm a Gambler by Lace (#27); Celebration of the Year by the Fortunes (#31); Blowin' in the Wind by the Hollies (#36); Once on a Sunday Morning by the Tremeloes (#38); and Behind a Painted Smile by the Isley Brothers (#39).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet--Henry Mancini, his Orchestra and Chorus (2nd week at #1)
2 Spinning Wheel--Blood, Sweat & Tears
3 Bad Moon Rising--Creedence Clearwater Revival
4 Good Morning Starshine--Oliver
5 One--Three Dog Night
6 Get Back--The Beatles with Billy Preston
7 Crystal Blue Persuasion--Tommy James and the Shondells
8 In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)--Zager & Evans
9 Color Him Father--The Winstons
10 Too Busy Thinking About My Baby--Marvin Gaye

Singles entering the chart were Abraham, Martin and John by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (#73); I'd Wait a Million Years by the Grass Roots (#85); Polk Salad Annie by Tony Joe White (#86); Clean Up Your Own Back Yard by Elvis Presley (#90); Did You See Her Eyes by the Illusion (#92); Break Away by the Beach Boys (#93); Soul Deep by the Box Tops (#94); I'll Never Fall in Love Again by Burt Bacharach (#98); Nothing Can Take the Place of You by Brook Benton (#99); and My Little Chickadee by the Foundations (#100). Clean Up Your Own Back Yard was from the movie The Trouble with Girls (and How to Get into It) (1969).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet--Henry Mancini, his Orchestra and Chorus
2 One--Three Dog Night
3 In the Ghetto--Elvis Presley
4 Good Morning Starshine--Oliver
5 Spinning Wheel--Blood, Sweat & Tears
6 Bad Moon Rising--Creedence Clearwater Revival
7 In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)--Zager & Evans
8 Israelites--Desmond Dekker and the Aces
9 Love Me Tonight--Tom Jones
10 The Ballad of John and Yoko--The Beatles

Singles entering the chart were Clean Up Your Own Back Yard by Elvis Presley (#66); Soul Deep by the Box Tops (#68); Hey Joe by Wilson Pickett (#73); Polk Salad Annie by Tony Joe White (#77); Muddy River by Johnny Rivers (#83); Willie and Laura Mae Jones by Dusty Springfield (#84); Abergavenny by Shannon (#86); That's the Way by Joe Tex (#89); On Campus by Dickie Goodman (#90); Sunshine, Red Wine by Crazy Elephant (#95); You Made a Believer (Out of Me) by Ruby Andrews (#96); Take Your Love (And Shove It) by Kane's Cousins (#98); Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On) by Lee Dorsey (#99); and Pass the Apple Eve by B.J. Thomas (#100). Shannon was better known as Marty Wilde, and Abergavenny had been a hit under his usual name in Europe and Australia a year earlier.

Calgary's Top 10 (Glenn's Music)
1 The Ballad of John and Yoko--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)
2 In the Ghetto--Elvis Presley
3 Bad Moon Rising--Creedence Clearwater Revival
4 Get Back--The Beatles with Billy Preston
5 Medicine Man (Part I)--Buchanan Brothers
6 One--Three Dog Night
7 Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet--Henry Mancini, his Orchestra and Chorus
8 Let Me--Paul Revere and the Raiders
9 Love (Can Make You Happy)--Mercy
10 See--The Rascals
Pick hit of the week: Tarnished Silver--Young Calicos

Died on this date
Leo McCarey, 70. U.S. movie director. Mr. McCarey won Academy Awards for The Awful Truth (1937) and Going My Way (1944). His other movies included Duck Soup (1933) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). Mr. McCarey died of emphysema.

Tom Mboya, 38. Kenyan politician. Mr. Mboya, Kenya’s Economic Planning Commissioner and secretary-general of the governing Kenya African National Union (KANU), was assassinated by a gunman in Nairobi. He was regarded as the third-most powerful person in the government behind the president and vice-president. Mr. Mboya was a member of the Luos, Kenya’s second-largest tribe. Many Luos believed that he had been assassinated to prevent his accession to the top post, and many tribal clashes broke out, endangering the multi-tribal government built by Mr. Mboya and President Jomo Kenyatta.

Music
The Rolling Stones and other acts performed before 250,000-500,000 fans at a free festival in Hyde Park, London, two days after the death of founder Brian Jones.

War
U.S. battle deaths in Vietnam dropped to their lowest level in nine months, with 153 killed and 1,584 wounded for he week ending July 5. South Vietnamese losses--247 killed and 586 wounded--were the lowest since May 10. Communist losses were down, with 2,381 killed, the lowest figure since mid-January. Military sources said that infiltration from North Vietnam had also dropped sharply in the week, coinciding with the pullback of about 18,000 Communist troops into rear base camps.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Ottawa (1-0) 26 @ Montreal (0-1) 20

30 years ago
1979

Diplomacy
American envoys in Nicaragua obtained Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza’s promise to resign. The United States also sought to assure a moderate role for a future Sandanista-backed government.

Law
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation for $2 million on the charge that the FBI was responsible for the 1965 murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, who had been shot to death during a car chase in Alabama by members of the Ku Klux Klan. The suit charged that the FBI had obtained information from state and local police agencies and from Gary Rowe, Jr., a paid informer of the FBI, that violence could be expected against Mrs. Liuzzo. Mr. Rowe was in the KKK car at the time of the shooting. Howard Simon of the ACLU said that he considered the suit pioneering since it would contend that the FBI was responsible for the actions of its informers.

25 years ago
1984

Crime
Umaru Dikko, a former transport and aviation minister in the Nigerian government who had fled to England after a military coup in December 1983 and was wanted in Nigeria on charges of corruption, was kidnapped in London. British police broke into a crate at Stansted Airport, 30 miles north of London, and found Mr. Dikko, who had been drugged. A man with drugs and syringes also occupied the crate; two more men were found I another crate. The crates had been marked "diplomatic baggage." The British authorities held the aricraft that was to have flown the crates to Nigeria.

World events
Lebanese troops began to dismantle the "green line," a barricade of rubble and burned-out cars that had separated the Christian and Muslim halves of Beirut. An army brigade composed of both Christians and Muslims was to be deployed between the halves of the city.

20 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Minä olen muistanut--Kim Lönnholm (8th week at #1)

#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Eternal Flame--Bangles (6th week at #1)

On television tonight
The Seinfeld Chronicles, on NBC

This was the pilot for the comedy series Seinfeld (1990-1999).

Diplomacy
Two days of talks in France between U.S.S.R. President Mikhail Gorbachev and French President Francois Mitterand concluded with the nations signing 21 accords. The leaders also issued a declaration calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and an end to the arming of the various factions there. Mr. Gorbachev told reporters that he was prepared to develop normal relations with Solidarity leaders in Poland, but he also called U.S. President George Bush’s appeal for a Soviet troop withdrawal from Poland "propaganda."

Politics and government
South African President Pieter Botha met secretly in his office with Negro nationalist leader Nelson Mandela, who had been in prison since 1962. After the meeting became publicly known, the government gave no indication that it planned to free Mr. Mandela.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir agreed to demands by hard-liners in his own Likud party as follows: elections in the occupied territories would not take place until the Palestinian uprising ended; Arabs in East Jerusalem could not run for office or vote; Jewish settlement of the territories would continue; and no Palestinian state would ever be established. Labour Party leader Shimon Peres, a partner of Mr. Shamir in the coalition government, said that Mr. Shamir’s concessions had jeopardized the peace process. The Palestine Liberation Organization denounced Mr. Shamir’s concessions.

Florida Governor Bob Martinez said that he would call a special session of the state legislature to consider controls on abortion.

Scandal
Former White House aide Oliver North received a three-year suspended prison sentence, two years’ probation, 1,200 hours of community service, and a $150,000 fine after being convicted on 3 of 12 charges in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal (the sale of arms to Iran, resulting in money going to support the opposition Contras in Nicaragua), which broke in 1986. Mr. North was convicted of aiding and abetting an obstruction of Congress (somebody else’s obstruction, not his own); shredding documents; and accepting an illegal gratuity (an electric fence around his house to protect him from terrorist Abu Nidal). Contrary to popular belief, Mr. North was found not guilty on the charge of lying to Congress. The sentence was handed down by Judge Gerhard Gesell in U.S. District Court in Washington. The guilty verdicts were later overturned on appeal.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Hamilton (2-0) 23 @ Winnipeg (0-3) 16
Calgary (0-2) 10 @ Edmonton (1-1) 41

Rookie receivers Keith Wright and Tony Hunter each returned a punt for a touchdown, and Cornelius Redick also contributed some fine returns in an entertaining game before 37,000 at Commonwealth Stadium. A fight broke out in the fourth quarter when Calgary head coach Lary Kuharich sent his team across the field to mix things up; Stampeders’ rookie defensive lineman Joe March was ejected.

10 years ago
1999

War
NATO representatives and Russian officials concluded two days of talks in Moscow to work out details of the deployment of 3,600 Russian soldiers in the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Bill Clinton imposed trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.