December 5, 2009

260 years ago
1749

Died on this date
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, 64. Canadian explorer. Sr. La Vérendrye, a native of Trois-Rivières, New France, went on expeditions with his sons in the 1730s and '40s, exploring and establishing trading posts west of Lake Superior. He was the first European known to have reached North Dakota and the upper Missouri River in what is now the United States. Two of Sr. La Vérendrye's sons reached as far west as Wyoming, and were the first Europeans to see the Rocky Mountains north of New Mexico. Sr. La Vérendrye was planning an expedition up the Saskatchewan River at the time of his death, 18 days after his 64th birthday.

180 years ago
1829

Born on this date
Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière. French-born Canadian politician. Sir Henri, who added "de Lotbinière" to his surname in 1888, was a Liberal who represented Lotbinière in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from 1861-1867. He represented Lotbinière in the Quebec Legislative Assembly from 1867-1885, while also representing Lotbinière in the federal House of Commons from 1867-1874. Sir Henri was Premier of Quebec from 1878-1879. He returned to politics by representing Portneuf in the House of Commons from 1896-1900, and served as Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia from 1900-1906. Sir Henri died on November 16, 1908, 19 days before his 79th birthday.

170 years ago
1839

Born on this date
George Armstrong Custer. U.S. military officer. Brevet Major General Custer was a cavalry commander with the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War and the United States Army in wars against the Indians. He was best remembered for the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana on June 25, 1876, when he and his men were routed by Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians. Gen. Custer was among those killed; he was 36.

150 years ago
1859

Born on this date
John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe. U.K. military officer and politician. Admiral Jellicoe served with the Royal Navy in the Anglo-Egyptian War (1882) and the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901), but was best known for commanding the Grand Fleet in the Battle of Jutland (1916), the most significant naval engagement of World War I. He was criticized for being too cautious in allowing the German High Seas Fleet to return to port, but was appointed First Sea Lord in November 1916. Adm. Jellicoe was dismissed as First Sea Lord in December 1917 and promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1919. He served as Governor General of New Zealand from 1920-1924, and was created Earl Jellicoe and Viscount Brocas of Southampton in 1925, sitting in the House of Lords until his death from pneumonia on November 20, 1935, 15 days before his 76th birthday.

140 years ago
1869

Born on this date
Ellis Parker Butler. U.S. author. Mr. Butler wrote more than 30 books and more than 2,000 short stories and essays. He was best known for the short story Pigs is Pigs (1905). Mr. Butler died on September 13, 1937 at the age of 67.

110 years ago
1899

Politics and government
U.S. President William McKinley delivered his State of the Union message to Congress.

80 years ago
1939

Economics and finance
The Canadian Wartime Prices and Trade Board was given more control over prices and supply by the government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, with investigative, price-fixing and licensing powers.

60 years ago
1949

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Something in the Wind, starring Doug Chandler and John Graham

Defense
West German Chancellor indicated his willingness to form a West German military if necessary to maintain Western European security against the U.S.S.R.

Former U.S. Army Major George Jordan testified before a U.S. House of Representatives Un-American Activities subcommittee that Harry Hopkins, an aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, had ordered him to expedite uranium shipments to the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Radio commentator Fulton Lewis, Jr. told reporters that former Vice President Henry Wallace, as Board of Economic Warfare director, had ordered a wartime shipment of uranium compounds and heavy water to the Soviet Union over the objections of General Leslie Groves.

Politics and government
Connecticut Governor Chester Bowles appointed former State Secretary William Benton (Democrat) to fill the remainder of the U.S. Senate term of Raymond Baldwin, who had resigned 18 days earlier to serve on the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Literature
France's top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, was awarded to Robert Merle for his first novel, Week-end à Zuydcoote (Week-end at Zuydcoote).

Aviation
The U.S. National Aeronautics Association presented the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy to Charles Lindbergh.

Business
The U.S. Justice Department filed a civil antitrust suit in New York against the Celanese Corporation for purchasing Tubize Rayon Corp., its chief rival in the rayon warp-knit fabric industry.

Labour
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arkansas statute forbidding the use of force by striking workers to keep non-strikers from their jobs.

Boxing
Ike Williams (106-12-4) retained his world lightweight title with a 15-round unanimous decision over Freddie Dawson (70-8-4) before 10,389 fans at Convention Hall in Philadelphia.

50 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Oh Yeah Uh Huh--Col Joye and the Joy Boys (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: Arrivederci--Don Marino Barreto, Jr.

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Unter fremden Sternen--Freddy Quinn (3rd week at #1)

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

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Don't You Know--Della Reese (2nd week at #1)
2 Mack the Knife--Bobby Darin
3 Heartaches by the Number--Guy Mitchell
4 Mr. Blue--The Fleetwoods
5 So Many Ways--Brook Benton
6 We Got Love--Bobby Rydell
7 In the Mood--Ernie Fields Orchestra
8 Oh! Carol--Neil Sedaka
9 Danny Boy--Conway Twitty
10 Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Back Seat--Paul Evans

Singles entering the chart were Go, Jimmy, Go by Jimmy Clanton (#75); CooCoo-U by the Kingston Trio (#78); Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko-Ko-Bop by Little Anthony and the Imperials (#93); Say Man, Back Again by Bo Diddley (#94); and The Happy Reindeer by Dancer, Prancer and Nervous (#96).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 First Name Initial--Annette with the Afterbeats
2 Danny Boy--Conway Twitty
3 Hound Dog Man--Fabian
4 Believe Me--The Royal Teens
5 In the Mood--Ernie Fields Orchestra
6 This Friendly World--Fabian
7 Oh! Carol--Neil Sedaka
8 Woo-Hoo--The Rock-A-Teens
9 The Big Hurt--Miss Toni Fisher
10 That's All Right--Ray Smith

Singles entering the chart were Why by Frankie Avalon (#29); Way Down Yonder in New Orleans by Freddie Cannon (#39); I'll Walk the Line by Don Costa, his Orchestra and Chorus (#40); Be My Guest by Fats Domino (#41, charting with its other side, I've Been Around); I'm Movin' On by Don Gibson (#44); Smooth Operator by Sarah Mitchell (#47); Marina by Rocco Granata and the International Quintet (#48); Running Bear by Johnny Preston (#49); and Above and Beyond by Wynn Stewart (#50).

Defense
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a report prepared by Johns Hopkins University analysts warning against U.S.S.R. Premier Nikita Khrushchev's plan for total disarmament as "not synonymous with maximum stablity."

Politics and government
Hungary's Communist Party Congress approved a new 71-member Central Committee, headed by First Secretary Janos Kadar.

African nationalist groups boycotted nominations for forthcoming Belgian Congo local elections.

Ceylonese Governor Sir Oliver Goonetilleke dissolved Parliament in preparation for general elections.

The U.S. Democratic Advisory Council, meeting in New York to formulate policy for the 1960 election campaign, proposed that a "National Peace Agency" be created to help solve such world problems as disarmament and "overpopulation, including acceptable methods of dealing with...over-rapid population expansion."

Oil
French officials opened a 375-mile pipeline from the Hassi-Messaoud oil fields in the Sahara Desert to the Algerian port of Bougie.

40 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Don't Forget to Remember--The Bee Gees

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Sugar Sugar--The Archies (4th week at #1)

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 One Tin Soldier--The Original Caste
2 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
3 Down on the Corner/Fortunate Son--Creedence Clearwater Revival
4 I Still Believe in Tomorrow--John and Anne Ryder
5 Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye--Steam
6 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head--B.J. Thomas
7 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
8 Up on Cripple Creek--The Band
9 Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday--Stevie Wonder
10 Heaven Knows--The Grass Roots

Singles entering the chart were That's Where I Went Wrong by the Poppy Family (#26); Don't Cry Daddy by Elvis Presley (#27); Midnight Cowboy by Ferrante & Teicher (#29); and No Time by the Guess Who (#30).

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 Something/Come Together--The Beatles (5th week at #1)
2 Take a Letter Maria--R.B. Greaves
3 Cherry Hill Park--Billy Joe Royal
4 Jesus is a Soul Man--Lawrence Reynolds
5 Smile a Little Smile for Me--The Flying Machine
6 And When I Die--Blood, Sweat & Tears
7 Suite: Judy Blue Eyes--Crosby, Stills & Nash
8 Eli's Coming--Three Dog Night
9 Down on the Corner--Creedence Clearwater Revival
10 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary

Died on this date
Claude Dornier, 85. German aviation engineer and executive. Mr. Dornier founded the aircraft manufacturing firm Dornier Metallbau (later Dornier Flugzeugwerke) in 1914. His designs included the 12-engine Dornier Do X flying boat, which was the world's largest plane upon its completion in 1929. Mr. Dornier was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1987.

Alice of Battenberg, 84. U.K. royal family member. Princess Alice, a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark in 1903, and became known as Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark. The youngest of their five children, Prince Philip, married the future Queen Elizabeth II in 1947. Princess Andrew, raised as an Anglican, converted to Greek Orthodoxy in 1928. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1930, and was institutionalized for several years. Princess Andrew and her husband never lived together again, and she much of her remaining life in charitable activities in Greece. She hid Jews from occupying Nazi troops during World War II, and started a Greek Orthodox order of nuns in 1949. When a military coup seized power in Greece in 1967 and toppled the monarchy, Princess Andrew was invited to live with her son and daughter-in-law at Buckingham Palace, where she died. Her remains were returned to Greece in 1988.

Diplomacy
Two Israeli civilians who had been held in El Mazah prison in Damascus for 98 days after hijacking an American airliner to Syria were returned to Israel in exchange for 13 Syrian officials.

30 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman--Dr. Hook (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
Jesse Pearson, 49. U.S. actor. Mr. Pearson starred as Conrad Birdie in the national tour of the musical Bye Bye Birdie in the early 1960s, and reprised his role in the movie (1963). He appeared in several television programs, but was perhaps most successful in narrating several albums of writings by Rod McKuen in the late 1960s and early '70s. Mr. Pearson died of cancer.

Protest
Violence began erupting in Iran's provinces of Kurdistan and Azerbaijan several days after a nationwide plebiscite had approved a new Islamic constitution.

Defense
In a "peace offensive," a Soviet tank unit consisting of 18 T-62 tanks and 150 soldiers left East Germany for the U.S.S.R. as part of a unilateral withdrawal from eastern Europe announced on October 6.

20 years ago
1989

Scandal
Former East German leader Erich Honecker and some former aides were put under house arrest, three days after a committee reported to parliament about the extent of Mr. Honecker’s lavish lifestyle and billions of dollars kept in Swiss bank accounts.

Politics and government
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher survived a challenge to her leadership of the Conservative Party, defeating MP Sir Anthony Meyer 314-33 with 27 abstentions or spoiled ballots. Mrs. Thatcher was beginning to face opposition within her own party because of her anti-Europe stand.

10 years ago
1999

Died on this date
Bobby Marchan, 69. U.S. singer. Mr. Marchan, born Oscar James Gibson, began his career as a female impersonator before joining the rhythm and blues group the Clowns in 1957, often substituting for leader Huey "Piano" Smith when Mr. Smith was too busy to go on tour. Mr. Marchan left the group in 1959 to pursue a solo career; his most successful record was the single There's Something on Your Mind Parts 1 and 2 (1960), which reached #31 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and #1 on the rhythm and blues chart. Mr. Marchan died of liver cancer.

Politics and government
Eight days after the general election, Labour Party leader Helen Clark was sworn in as Prime Minister of New Zealand as head of a coalition government, becoming the second woman to hold the post and the first to be elected to the role.