December 26, 2009

520 years ago
1489

War
The forces of the Roman Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella took control of Almería from the Nasrid ruler of Granada, Muhammad XIII.

190 years ago
1819

Born on this date
E.D.E.N. Southworth. U.S. authoress. Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth wrote more than 60 novels, and was the most popular novelist in the United States in the last half of the 19th century. Her novels, which included The Hidden Hand (1859) and Ishmael (1876), featured heroines who used their wits to get out of difficult situations. Mrs. Southworth died on June 30, 1899 at the age of 79.

150 years ago
1859

Born on this date
William Stephens. U.S. politician. Mr. Stephens represented California's 7th District in the United States House of Representatives from 1911-1913 and California's 10th District from 1913-1916. He was a Republican when he was first elected, but joined the Progressive Party, led by former President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1912. Mr. Stephens rejoined the Republican Party in 1916 and served as Governor of California from 1917-1923. He died on April 25, 1944 at the age of 84.

100 years ago
1909

Died on this date
Frederic Remington, 48. U.S. artist. Mr. Remington was a painter, illustrator, and sculptor of the Hudson River School of Romantic landscape painters, but became known for depicting scenes of the American Old West. He weighed nearly 300 pounds and suffered from chronic appendicitis, which contributed to his death from peritonitis after an emergency appendectomy.

90 years ago
1919

Baseball
The Boston Red Sox sold outfielder-pitcher Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $100,000. Mr. Ruth had become the game's biggest star in 1919, batting .322 with 29 home runs--then a major league record for a single season--and 113 runs batted in in 130 games, leading the American League in runs (103); home runs; RBIs; on base percentage (.456); and slugging (.657), while compiling a pitching record of 9-5 with an earned run average of 2.97 and 1 save in 17 games. The deal wasn't completed until January 3, 1920.

60 years ago
1949

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Man Who Couldn't Lose, starring Dean Harens and Alfreda Wallace

Diplomacy
Egypt accused Jordan and Iraq of interfering in Syrian politics with the aim of establishing a Jordanian-Iraqi-Syrian union.

Energy
Columbia University physicist John Dunning reported the development of a new Method of producing uranium which drastically reduced the cost of nuclear energy.

Economics and finance
The United Kingdom and Yugoslavia signed a five-year, $616-million commercial agreement, Yugoslavia's largest post-World War II trade pact with a Western nation.

50 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Joey's Song/Ooh! Look-a-There, Ain't She Pretty?--Bill Haley and his Comets (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: Arrivederci--Don Marino Barreto, Jr. (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Unter fremden Sternen--Freddy Quinn (6th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): What Do You Want?--Adam Faith (4th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Heartaches by the Number--Guy Mitchell (2nd week at #1)
2 Why--Frankie Avalon
3 The Big Hurt--Miss Toni Fisher
4 Uh! Oh!--The Nutty Squirrels
5 Mack the Knife--Bobby Darin
6 We Got Love--Bobby Rydell
7 El Paso--Marty Robbins
8 It's Time to Cry--Paul Anka
9 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Freddie Cannon
10 Oh! Carol--Neil Sedaka

Singles entering the chart were Where or When by Dion and the Belmonts (#66); Little Coco Palm by Jerry Wallace (#88); I Don't Know What it Is by the Bluenotes (#93); Teen Angel by Mark Dinning (#94); This Time of the Year by Brook Benton (#96); Down by the Station by the Four Preps (#97); Baciare Baciare (Kissing Kissing) by Dorothy Collins (#98); Handy Man by Jimmy Jones (#99); I Can't Say Goodbye by the Fireflies (#100); and Nuttin' for Christmas by Kenny and Corky (also #100).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 Running Bear--Johnny Preston
2 Hound Dog Man--Fabian
3 First Name Initial--Annette with the Afterbeats
4 That's All Right--Ray Smith
5 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Freddie Cannon
6 Oh! Carol--Neil Sedaka
7 Boom Boom Baby--Crash Craddock
8 This Friendly World--Fabian
9 Why--Frankie Avalon
10 It's Time to Cry--Paul Anka

Singles entering the chart were Bonnie Came Back by Duane Eddy and the Rebels (#24); Smokie--Part 2 by Bill Black's Combo (#30); Why Do I Love You So by Johnny Tillotson (#32); It Might Have Been by Joe London (#33); Cat Walk by Don Costa, Orchestra and Chorus (#35); Down by the Station by the Four Preps (#37); What About Us by the Coasters (#39); and Little Coco Palm by Jerry Wallace (#40). Cat Walk was the B-side of I'll Walk the Line, which charted at #40 on December 5 for one week.

Politics and government
African delegates in Leopoldville approved resolutions calling for talks with Belgium beginning on "ways and means to pass over power to the Congolese government."

Saying that his recent trips through the United States "have made it clear...that the great majority of those who control the Republican convention stand opposed to any contest for the nomination," New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller withdrew from the campaign for the 1960 Republican Party U.S. presidential nomination.

Medicine
William and Francis Fry of the University of Illinois biophysical laboratory in Champaign reported experimental development of a battery-powered pump capable of replacing the heart to maintain blood circulation of a normally active person.

Labour
Minnesota Governor Orville Freeman ended martial law in Albert Lea, but kept 100 National Guardsmen on duty to prevent renewed violence at the Swift and Company meat packing plant.

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Come Together--The Beatles

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris

Edmonton’s Top 10 (CJCA)
1 Come Together/Something--The Beatles (8th week at #1)
2 One Tin Soldier--The Original Caste
3 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
4 Don’t Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
5 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
6 Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head--B.J. Thomas
7 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
8 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
9 Take a Letter Maria--R.B. Greaves
10 Midnight Cowboy--Ferrante & Teicher

John Barry’s original version of Midnight Cowboy, from the movie, had been released as a single in the summer of 1969 but had failed to chart. The B-side of Mr. Barry’s version, another song from the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack called Fun City, was used as the theme for a Ralph Lauren TV commercial almost 25 years later.

At the movies
The Meadowlark Cinerama opened in Edmonton; the first movie shown was Krakatoa, East of Java (1969).

Diplomacy
U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew left Washington for a 23-day goodwill trip to 11 Asian countries, taking with him samples of moon rocks as gifts for his hosts.

Disasters
11 were killed and many others injured when fire swept through a 16th Century hotel in Saffron Walden, England.

A snowstorm began in southern Quebec, which resulted in 70 centimetres of snow and 15 deaths from December 26-28.

30 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)--Pink Floyd (2nd week at #1)

War
The U.S.S.R. airlifted at least 5,000 troops to Kabul, Afghanistan in an effort to shore up that country’s Marxist government against increasingly effective Islamic resistance, beginning a war that was to last almost a decade.

96 Patriotic Front guerrillas were flown in from Lusaka, Zambia to join 1,500 peacekeepers from across the Commonwealth, as well as government soldiers from the Rhodesia Security Force, to monitor the cease-fire due to start at midnight on December 28.

Energy
A group investigating the accident earlier in the year at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, tentatively recommending that serious consideration be given to closing any reactor whose operator was unable to develop plans to evacuate everybody living within a 30-mile radius of the reactor.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 4 Colorado 3

20 years ago
1989

Died on this date
Lennox Berkeley, 86. U.K. composer. Sir Lennox composed choral, chamber, instrumental, and choral works, including several operas and four symphonies.

Doug Harvey, 65. Canadian hockey player. Mr. Harvey was a defenceman with the Montreal Canadiens (1947-61); New York Rangers (1961-64); Detroit Red Wings (1967); and St. Louis Blues (1968-69), scoring 88 goals and 452 assists in 1,113 regular season games and 8 goals and 64 assists in 137 playoff games. He won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the National Hockey League's best defenceman seven times, played on six Stanley Cup championship teams, and was unanimously elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973. Mr. Harvey was also a halfback with the Montreal Hornets of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in 1945, scoring 1 point in a 6-game season. As well, Mr. Harvey played baseball in the Boston Braves' organization with the Class C Ottawa Senators and Nationals of the Border League from 1947-1950, batting .344 with 18 home runs in 238 games. He drank himself to death a week after his 65th birthday.

World events
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev used the word "illegitimate" to describe the Lithuanian Communist Party’s declaration of its independence from the Soviet party on December 20, and ruled out secession by any of the U.S.S.R.’s 15 republics.

Politics and government
The day after the execution of Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena, Ion Iliescu, a former party official, was named interim President.

10 years ago
1999

Died on this date
Shankar Dayal Sharma, 81. 9th President of India, 1992-1997; Vice President of India, 1987-1992. Mr. Sharma, a member of the Indian National Congress Party, was president of the party from 1972-1974, held various cabinet posts, and was Governor of the states of Andhra Pradesh (1984-1985); Punjab (1985-1986); and Maharashtra (1986-1987). He was elected President in 1992, taking 66% of the vote, but declined to run for a second term.

Curtis Mayfield, 57. U.S. musician. Mr. Mayfield was the lead singer, songwriter and producer for the Impressions in the 1960s and '70s. His best-known compositions for the group included Gypsy Woman (1961); It's All Right (1963); People Get Ready (1965); and We're a Winner (1968). He also wrote hits for artists such as Major Lance (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um (1964)) and Jan Bradley (Mama Didn't Lie (1963)), and worked with the Impressions' original lead singer, Jerry Butler, after Mr. Butler left to pursue a solo career in the early 1960s. Mr. Mayfield left the Impressions to pursue his own solo career in the early 1970s, founded his own label--Curtom--and struck gold with the soundtrack for the 1972 movie Super Fly. Mr. Mayfield didn't like the movie's apparent pro-drug message, and wrote lyrics for the song (originally an instrumental) Freddie's Dead to reflect his views. Freddie's Dead and Super Fly both reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Mr. Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down in a freak accident in 1990 when he was performing outdoors at an oldies show in Brooklyn, and a gust of wind blew a light standard down on top of him. He recorded the vocals to his last album, New World Order, while lying on his back in his hospital bed. The album, released in 1997, is well worth listening to. Mr. Mayfield died from complications of diabetes.

Disasters
Cyclone Lothar, with winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (137.5 miles per hour), swept across Central Europe, killing 137 people--60 in France--and causing U.S.$1.3 billion in damage.

Football
NFL
Arizona (6-9) 14 @ Atlanta (4-11) 37
Cincinnati (4-11) 0 @ Baltimore (8-7) 22
Buffalo (10-5) 13 @ New England (7-8) 10
Carolina (7-8) 20 @ Pittsburgh (6-9) 30
Chicago (6-9) 12 @ St. Louis (13-2) 34
Indianapolis (13-2) 29 @ Cleveland (2-14) 28
Green Bay (7-8) 10 @ Tampa Bay (10-5) 29
Jacksonville (13-2) 14 @ Tennessee (12-3) 41
Kansas City (9-6) 14 @ Seattle (9-6) 23
Minnesota (9-6) 34 @ New York Giants (7-8) 17
Oakland (7-8) 20 @ San Diego (7-8) 23
Washington (9-6) 26 @ San Francisco (4-11) 20 (OT)