July 9, 2009

1,140 years ago
869

Disasters
An earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the area around Sendai, Japan, resulting in about 1,000 casualties and leaving sand deposits up to 2.5 miles inland.

400 years ago
1609

Religion
Bohemia was granted freedom of religion through the Letter of Majesty by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II.

220 years ago
1789

Politics and government
In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstituted itself as the National Constituent Assembly and began preparations for a French constitution.

190 years ago
1819

Born on this date
Elias Howe. U.S. inventor. Mr. Howe invented the first practical sewing machine, which he patented on September 10, 1846. He died at the age of 48 on October 3, 1867.

175 years ago
1834

Born on this date
Jan Neruda. Bohemian writer. Mr. Neruda was a Czech nationalist who wrote short stories and poetry, but was primarily known as a journalist, writing about Prague life and society. He died on August 22, 1891 at the age of 57, from an inflammation of his digestive tract caused by intestinal cancer.

130 years ago
1879

Born on this date
Ottorino Respighi. Italian composer. Mr. Respighi wrote several operas and ballets, and numerous orchestral and choral works, but was best known for the orchestral tone poems Fountains of Rome (1916); Pines of Rome (1924); and Roman Festivals (1928). He died of endocarditis on April 18, 1936 at the age of 56.

120 years ago
1889

Born on this date
Léo Dandurand. U.S.-born Canadian sports executive. Mr. Dandurand, a native of Illinois, moved with his family to Canada at the age of 16. He was a referee in the National Hockey Association and owned the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League from 1921-1935. Mr. Dandurand coached the team from 1921-26 and 1934-35, winning the Stanley Cup in 1924. He was one of the founders of the Montreal Alouettes of the Interprovincial Provincial Football Union in 1946, and the team won the Grey Cup in 1949. Mr. Dandurand also owned a number of horse racing tracks. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963. Mr. Dandurand died on June 26, 1964, 13 days before his 75th birthday.

100 years ago
1909

Born on this date
Basil Wolverton. U.S. cartoonist. Mr. Wolverton was known for his grotesque caricatures. His work appeared in such magazines as Life in the 1940s and Mad in the 1950s. Mr. Wolverton was an elder in Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God from 1943 until his death on December 31, 1978 at the age of 69.

80 years ago
1929

Died on this date
Cack Henley, 44 or 45. U.S. baseball pitcher. Clarence T. Henley played with the San Francisco Seals (1905-1913) and Venice/Vernon Tigers (1914-1915) of the Pacific Coast League, and the Pueblo Indians (1906) of the Western League, compiling a record of 225-178 in 484 games, all but 13 of which were played in the PCL. In 1909 he was 31-10 with an earned run average of 1.56 as he helped the Seals win the PCL pennant, and in 1910 was 34-19 with a 1.76 ERA while setting a PCL record with 33 consecutive complete games. Mr. Henley had three other seasons with 20 or more wins. On June 8, 1909, he pitched a 24-inning 1-0 shutout over the Oakland Oaks, allowing just 9 hits and 1 base on balls. He was inducted into the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame in 2003.

60 years ago
1949

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): The Pussy Cat Song (Nyow! Nyot Nyow!)--Patty Andrews and Bob Crosby

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard) (Best Seller): Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)--Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra (9th week at #1)

U.S. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)--Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra (6th week at #1)
--Burl Ives
2 Again--Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra
--Mel Torme
--Vic Damone
--Doris Day and the Mellomen
3 Some Enchanted Evening--Perry Como
--Bing Crosby
4 Baby, it's Cold Outside--Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer
--Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark
--Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five
--Don Cornell and Laura Leslie
5 Forever and Ever--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra
--Perry Como
6 "A" You're Adorable (The Alphabet Song)--Perry Como with the Fontane Sisters
--Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae
7 I Don't See Me in Your Eyes Anymore--The Stardusters with Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra
--Perry Como
8 Bali Ha'i--Perry Como
--Bing Crosby
9 Careless Hands--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
--Bing Crosby
--Mel Torme
10 A Wonderful Guy--Margaret Whiting

The only single entering the chart was You're Breaking My Heart by Vic Damone (#35).

On the radio
Tales of Fatima, starring Basil Rathbone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Sleeping Dog

Died on this date
Fritz Hart, 75. U.K.-born composer and conductor. Mr. Hart wrote 23 operas and 514 songs, as well as a symphony and other works. He conducted the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1928-1937) and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra (1937-1949). Mr. Hart died of a cardiac disorder.

Diplomacy
John Cabot, U.S. Consul General in Shanghai, charged the Communists with arresting and severely beating Deputy Consul William Olive.

Crime
An Alabama grand jury investigating Ku Klux Klan terrorism indicted 17 men, including Police Chief Elmer Brock of Brookside, Alabama, for participating in or aiding illegal KKK activities.

Education
The U.S. National Education Association ended a seven-day meeting in Boston after voting overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution urging the elimination of all Communists from the teaching profession.

Labour
Honolulu police arrested 100 striking longshoremen for violating a newly-enacted ordinance banning interference with workers going to their jobs.

Golf
Bobby Locke shot a 9-under-par 135 to finish 12 strokes ahead of Harry Bradshaw in a 36-hole playoff to win the British Open at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England. First prize money was £300. It was the first of four Open championships for Mr. Locke.



50 years ago
1959

Divorced on this date
U.S. actress Debbie Reynolds was divorced from U.K. actor and television producer Anthony Bartley in Santa Monica, California.

Politics and government
Irish Prime Minister Sean Lemass offered Northern Ireland federation in a united Irish state with the right to retain "a separate parliament with local powers."

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): Something in the Air--Thunderclap Newman (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Herbert Hoover, Jr., 65. U.K.-born U.S. bureaucrat. Mr. Hoover, the eldest son of former U.S. President Herbert Hoover, was born in London while his father was working there as an engineer. Mr. Hoover, Jr. was a communications executive and an adviser to foreign governments before serving as U.S. Undersecretary of State from 1954-1957. He died three days after suffering a stroke, and 26 days before his 66th birthday.

War
The first troops came home to the United States as part of U.S. President Richard Nixon's program of gradual withdrawal from Vietnam.

Education
The United States Department of Justice intensified its school desegregation efforts by accusing the board of education of Chicago and the state board in Georgia of segregation. The department contended that Chicago practiced faculty segregation and that Georgia maintained an unconstitutional dual system.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Hamilton (1-0) 22 @ Edmonton (0-1) 21

Baseball
Tom Seaver improved his 1969 record to 14-3 and came within 2 outs of a perfect game as the New York Mets blanked the Chicago Cubs 4-0 before 50,709 fans at Shea Stadium in New York for their second straight victory in a crucial series of games. Obscure rookie outfielder Jimmy Qualls hit a single with one out in the 9th inning to ruin Mr. Seaver’s bid for perfection.

Richie Hebner led off the bottom of the 10th inning with a triple and scored on a single by Jose Martinez to give the Pittsburgh Pirates a 4-3 win over the Montreal Expos in the first game of a doubleheader before 9,372 fans at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Don Bosch entered the game for Montreal in the 8th inning as a pinch runner and remained in center field, batting 0 for 1 with a run and a putout in the 146th and last game of his 4-year major league career. In the second game, Fred Patek singled with 2 out and nobody on base in the bottom of the 8th, and pinch hitter Willie Stargell doubled him home to break a 2-2 tie as the Pirates won 3-2 to complete the sweep. The Expos had runners on second and third bases with none out in the 9th, but Mack Jones lined into a double play and Bob Bailey grounded out to end the game.

Joe Coleman pitched a 3-hitter and struck out 11 batters as the Washington Senators shut out the Cleveland Indians 3-0 before 10,667 fans at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. U.S. President Richard Nixon was at the game; it was the fourth game he’d been to at RFK Stadium that year, and the first one that the Senators had won.

Bobby Murcer's error after a double by Brooks Robinson with 1 out in the bottom of the 10th inning allowed Boog Powell to score the winning run as the Baltimore Orioles edged the New York Yankees 6-5 before 19,793 fans at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

Pete Ward's 3-run home run with 1 out in the bottom of the 8th inning enabled the Chicago White Sox to defeat the Oakland Athletics 6-5 before 6,464 fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Bill McNulty started in left field for Oakland and batted 0 for 3, making 2 putouts and an assist in his first major league game.

30 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Pop Muzik--M

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Kimi no Asa--Satoshi Kishida (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Born to Be Alive--Patrick Hernández (5th week at #1)

Died on this date
Cornelia Otis Skinner, 80. U.S. actress and writer. Miss Skinner was best known for her one-woman stage performances, often based on her own writings. Her best-known book was Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1942), co-written with Emily Kimbrough, and based on their European tour after college.

World events
In Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini declared a general amnesty for "offenses committed under the past regime," except for murder and torture. The decree affected about 3,000 political prisoners.

Defense
The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee opened hearings on the SALT-II (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) treaty. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance testified, "The issue we face is not whether does everything we would like it to do, either from an arms control or security perspective. The issue is whether we are better served with this treaty or without it. I think the answer to that is clear." He also said, "We cannot expect to shift the bargain more to our favor." Defense Secretary Harold Brown, under questioning by Republican Senator Howard Baker, said that it was "probably true" that under the treaty the explosive power contained in Soviet land-based intercontinental missiles would rise from a present level of about twice that of U.S. land missiles to three or four times by 1985, when the treaty expired.

Oil
After receiving personal assurances from Saudi Deputy Premier Prince Fahd, the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced that Saudi Arabia was "substantially" increasing its production of crude oil. Officials close to the Saudis said that the increase would be one million barrels per day for at least three months. The increase was considered sufficient to eliminate most of the world’s oil shortage for a few months.

25 years ago
1984

Politics and government
After just nine days in office, Canadian Prime Minister John Turner called a federal election for September 4. Mr. Turner’s last act before calling the election was to make a number of patronage appointments to various positions, a task that Mr. Turner claimed to have been forced upon him by outgoing Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Protest
In Nicaragua,Miguel Obando y Bravo, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Managua, led a church-sponsored march to show support for Rev. Luis Amado Pena, a priest arrested in June and charged with a plot against the Sandanista government. About 27 priests and 300 other people joined the procession. Later, the government ordered 10 foreign priests who had participated in the march to leave Nicaragua.

Disasters
York Minster cathedral in England was badly damaged by fire. Eyewitnesses reported that a strange cloud had hung over the building for hours, before fire fell from heaven in the wee hours--not mere lightning but a spectacular electrical storm. On Friday, July 6, David Jenkins had been consecrated as Bishop of Durham despite publicly expressing heretical beliefs. On Saturday, the General Synod of the Church of England, meeting at York, declined to take any action. In his Sunday morning sermon in the Minster, Archbishop Habgood did not rebuke Mr. Jenkins. That night God decided to make His own comment.

20 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): If You Don't Know Me by Now--Simply Red (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: The Look--Roxette (7th week at #1)

Diplomacy
U.S. President George Bush arrived in Warsaw to begin his first visit to eastern Europe since becoming President.

Horse racing
With Approval, with Don Seymour up, won the 130th running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine Race Track in Toronto in a time of 2:03.

10 years ago
1999

Died on this date
James Farmer, 79. U.S. social activist and politician. Mr. Farmer co-founded the organization that became known as the Congress of Racial Equality, serving as its first national director (1942-1966). He promoted nonviolent action to oppose racial segregation, and organized the first Freedom Ride in the southern United States in 1961. Mr. Farmer was Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon (1969-1970), but quit the position in frustration with Washington bureaucracy. He died from complications of diabetes.

Robert de Cotret, 55. Canadian politician. Mr. de Cotret, a native of Ottawa, was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Conference Board of Canada from 1976-1978 before entering federal politics as a Progressive Conservative. After winning a by-election in Ottawa Centre in October 1978 he was defeated in the 1979 federal election, but was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Joe Clark, who put him in the cabinet as Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce. Mr. de Cotret resigned from the Senate to run in the 1980 federal election, but was defeated again. He was elected in 1984 and re-elected in 1988, and held various posts in the cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Protest
Days of student protests began after Iranian police and hardliners attacked a student dormitory at the University of Tehran.

Law
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that children could not sue their mothers for injuries suffered while in the womb. The ruling was on a 1993 case brought by Gerald Price on behalf of his grandson, injured in a car crash.

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that Canada's immigration officers must consider children's best interests before deporting their illegal immigrant parents.

Football
CFL
British Columbia (1-0) 25 @ Edmonton (0-1) 13

The Lions' win over the Eskimos before 33,404 fans at Commonwealth Stadium ended the Eskimos’ season-opening winning streak at 21 games. The Eskimos’ last previous loss in a season opener had been against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Clarke Stadium on July 18, 1977, when Elvis Presley was still alive. The game marked the regular season debut of Don Matthews as head coach of the Eskimos, whose only touchdown was scored by Marcus Crandell, who relieved Nealon Greene (making his Eskimo debut) at quarterback in the second half. Matt Kellett, playing his first CFL game, kicked 2 field goals and a convert for the Eskimos’ other points. Robert Drummond scored 2 touchdowns, and Rocky Henry another, for the Lions. Troy Mills rushed 12 times for 74 yards for the Eskimos, but left with a leg injury in the third quarter, and was lost for several weeks. This blogger assisted the TSN broadcast crew in the press box for this game.