February 18, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Paul Jelley and Ezra Levant!

210 years ago
1800

Law
The Supreme Court of New Brunswick announced a split decision on the legality of slavery. A Negro woman, Nancy Morton, had challenged her enslavement to Caleb Jones, a York County Loyalist.

150 years ago
1860

Born on this date
Anders Zorn. Swedish artist. Mr. Zorn was a painter, sculptor, and etcher who was best known for his portraits. His subjects included King Oscar II of Sweden and U.S. Presidents Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft. Mr. Zorn died from abdominal blood poisoning on August 22, 1920 at the age of 60.

125 years ago
1885

Literature
Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published.

110 years ago
1900

War
British and Canadian forces suffered their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg in South Africa. The Imperial forces suffered 1,100 casualties, with 280 dead; Canadian casualties were 18 dead and 60 wounded. The Boer forces suffered 100 dead.

100 years ago
1910

Born on this date
Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. U.K. aviator. Mr. de Havilland, the son of the founder of de Havilland Aircraft Company, was the company's chief test pilot. He was killed on September 27, 1946 at the age of 36 while carrying out high speed tests in the de Havilland DH.108 TG306, which broke up over the Thames River estuary.

Died on this date
Lucy Stanton, 78. U.S. social activist. Miss Stanton, born free in Ohio, completed a Ladies Literary Course from Oberlin College in 1850, becoming the first Negro woman in the United States to complete a four-year course of a study at a college or university. She worked for the abolition of slavery, and aided free slaves.

80 years ago
1930

Space
Clyde Tombaugh, a 23-year-old astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, discovered a possible moving object on photographic plates taken on January 23 and 29. A lesser-quality photograph from January 21 helped to confirm the movement. What Mr. Tombaugh had discovered was a body that came to be known as Pluto. Pluto was regarded as the ninth planet in the solar system, but was demoted to the status of dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. It is now officially designated as 134340 Pluto.

Aviation
Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft, and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft, as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis.

70 years ago
1940

Died on this date
Rudy Widoeft, 47. U.S. musician. Mr. Widoeft was a jazz saxophonist who was popular in the 1910s and '20s, and made over 300 recordings. His ragtime-influenced style waned in popularity in the 1930s, and he almost completely stopped performing in the mid-1930s. Mr. Widoeft was a heavy drinker, and died from cirrhosis of the liver.

War
Shanghai authorities reported the landing of Japanese forces at Haiteng and on the Luchow Peninsula in southern China.

Politics and government
A Gallup Poll reported that Democratic Party voters favoured President Franklin D. Roosevelt over Vice President John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner by a 7-1 margin as the party's nominee for President of the United States in the November 1940 election.

Economics and finance
The British Treasury took control of 60 American stocks held by British subjects.

60 years ago
1950

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): "A" You're Adorable--Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters; Tony Pastor (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy--Red Foley (Best Seller--1st week at #1; Jukebox--2nd week at #1); Rag Mop--The Ames Brothers (Disc Jockey--2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Dear Hearts and Gentle People--Bing Crosby
--Dinah Shore
2 I Can Dream, Can't I--The Andrews Sisters
3 Johnson Rag--Jack Teter Trio
--Jimmy Dorsey and his Original "Dorseyland" Jazz band
--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra
4 Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy--Red Foley
5 Rag Mop--The Ames Brothers
--Ralph Flanagan and his Orchestra
--Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra
--Johnnie Lee Wills and his Boys
6 There's No Tomorrow--Tony Martin
7 The Old Master Painter--Dick Haymes
--Richard Hayes
--Phil Harris and his Orchestra
8 A Dreamer's Holiday--Perry Como
--Buddy Clark and the Girl Friends
9 I Said My Pajamas ( And Put on My Pray'rs)--Tony Martin and Fran Warren
10 Music! Music! Music!--Teresa Brewer with the Dixieland All Stars

Singles entering the chart were The Cry of the Wild Goose by Frankie Laine (#23) and Broken Down Merry-Go-Round by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely (#37).

Energy
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission announced the completion of an "atomic apothecary" at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, stocking radioisitopes for medical research.

Economics and research
Yugoslavian Premier Marshal Josip Broz Tito charged in a speech that the United States was blocking new international loans to Yugoslavia with the aim of forcing him into the Western bloc. He said that his country would not "beg" the U.S.A. for loans more than it would 'bow to the Soviets."

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Er du glad i meg ennå, Karl Johan?--Nora Brockstedt (2nd week at #1)

On television tonight
The Untouchables, starring Robert Stack, on ABC
Tonight's episode: The Big Squeeze, with guest stars John Hoyt, Dodie Heath, and Dan O'Herlihy

Olympics
U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon officially declared the Winter Olympic Games open in Squaw Valley, California.





40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)--Edison Lighthouse (3rd week at #1)

On television tonight
Then Came Bronson, starring Michael Parks, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Mountain

Crime
After five days of deliberation, a U.S. federal grand jury found the defendants in the "Chicago Seven" trial not guilty of conspiring to incite riots during the Democratic National Convention in 1968, but convicted five of the seven of crossing state lines with intent to incite riots. University professors John Froines and Lee Weiner, both 30, were acquitted of both counts against them, but guilty verdicts on the intent-to-incite-riots charge were returned against David Dellinger, 53, and Rennie Davis, 29, leaders of the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam; Abbie Hoffman, 32, and Jerry Rubin, 31, Youth International Party leaders; and Tom Hayden, 29, a co-organizer of Students for a Democratic Society. U.S. District Court Judge Julius Hoffman denied bail to the defendants and returned them to Cook County jail to await appeal on the contempt charges that he had convicted them of several days earlier.

Diplomacy
In a talk launching what the United Nations General Assembly had resolved should be a "disarmament decade," UN Secretary-General U Thant, at a special session of the Geneva disarmament conference, urged the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. to discuss a moratorium on further testing and deployment of nuclear weapons during their resumption of strategic arms limitation talks in Vienna on April 16.

Politics and government
In a document transmitted to Congress, U.S. President Richard Nixon outlined the fundamentals of his administration’s foreign policy. The document, which was expected to become an annual State of the World message, committed the United States to continue its major role in world affairs, but with America’s allies carrying more of the burden.

Protest
The United States embassy in Manila was attacked by rampaging youths hurling stones and flaming objects, and shouting "Imperialist pigs!" Most of the windows and furniture on the embassy’s first floor were broken before the U.S. Marine security force, lobbing tear-gas bombs, turned back the demonstrators. Then the Manila Hilton Hotel, other buildings, cars, and passersby were attacked.

Negro protesters from five colleges in the area left after a 14-hour occupation of four Amherst College buildings to spotlight their dissatisfaction with the black studies program, admissions, and financial aid policies.

Education
The United States Senate voted 56-36 to approve an amendment sponsored by John Stennis (Democrat--Mississippi) calling for a cutoff of federal funds to all school districts that failed to integrate, even if the racial imbalance was a product of residential patterns. The real intention of the move, which the administration of President Richard Nixon indicated that it favoured, was seen as a lessening of desegregation pressures on the South rather than their intensification elsewhere.

Economics and finance
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced that his government would adhere to a price restriction policy in order to combat inflation. In addition, he asked Crown corporations to join the voluntary restriction program.

30 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Please Don't Go--KC & the Sunshine Band (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Daitokai--Crystal King (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Man Gave Names to All the Animals--Bob Dylan (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)--Pink Floyd (3rd week at #1)

Abominations
The Liberal Party, under Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was restored to power with a majority government in the Canadian federal election. The Liberals took 147 of 282 seats in the House of Commons; the Progressive Conservatives, who had held power under Prime Minister Joe Clark for just nine months after forming a minority government after the 1979 election, dropped from 136 seats to 103. The New Democratic Party increased from 27 seats to 32, while Social Credit lost all 5 of its seats. Voter turnout topped 70%. The election was called after Finance Minister John Crosbie’s budget, which included an 18c per gallon excise tax on gasoline, was defeated in the House of Commons on December 13, 1979. The results didn’t bode well for national unity, since the Liberals took just one seat west of Manitoba (Art Phillips in Vancouver). For Social Credit, whose MPs had abstained from voting instead of voting against a budget that didn’t satisfy them, the result meant oblivion--never again did they come close to electing anyone to the House of Commons. This was also the first election in which this blogger voted. I voted for incumbent MP Doug Roche because I didn’t want to vote Liberal or NDP. Mr. Roche was, and is, about as left-wing and unconservative as you can get, but in those days I was willing to settle for voting for the lesser of evils. I’ve since changed my mind; if I don’t like any of the parties or candidates (and that’s been the case in the last couple of federal elections), I won’t vote for any of them.

20 years ago
1990

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Welcome to Our World--John Grenell (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Get Up! (Before the Night is Over)--Technotronic

Austria's Top 10 (Ö3)
1 Bakerman--Laid Back
2 Sit and Wait--Sydney Youngblood
3 Another Day in Paradise--Phil Collins
4 All Around the World--Lisa Stansfield
5 Don't Know Much--Linda Ronstadt (featuring Aaron Neville)
6 Got to Get--Rob 'n' Raz featuring Leila K.
7 Leave a Light On--Belinda Carlisle
8 Get a Life--Soul II Soul
9 Ride on Time--Black Box
10 Rich in Paradise "Going Back to My Roots"--F.P.I. Project

Singles entering the chart were Got to Get; Scandalous! by Prince (#27); Get Up! (Before the Night is Over) by Technotronic (#28); and La Luna by Belinda Carlisle (#29).

Died on this date
Joe Erskine, 56. U.K. boxer. Mr. Erskine, a native of Wales, was a heavyweight who compiled a record of 45-8-1 in a professional career from 1954-1964. He was British (1956-1958) and British Empire (1957-1958) heavyweight champion, recording two wins each against Henry Cooper and Dick Richardson, and also beating Joe Bygraves, Willie Pastrano, George Chuvalo, and Jack Bodell. Mr. Erskine died 23 days after his 56th birthday.

Richard de Zoysa, 31. Sri Lankan journalist. Mr. de Zoysa was fluent in English and was a Sri Lanka correspondent for Interpre News Service. He had signed a contract to run the Interpre News Service in Lisbon when he as abducted from his home and murdered by an armed squad, apparently in reaction to his reporting on Sri Lankan government death squads. The government was later blamed for Mr. de Zoysa's murder.

Politics and government
The Liberal Democratic Party won a decisive victory in elections to the lower house of the Diet in Japan. The LDs’ long rule had appeared threatened by the Recruit Company scandal, in which the conglomerate had given millions of dollars (actually yen, I suppose) in cash and stocks to leading politicians. However, the party lost only a few seats and held a majority in the lower house. The Socialist Party, the principal opposition, gained ground, but mostly at the expense of smaller parties. The results appeared to strengthen the position of Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu.

Diplomacy
Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Havel began a trip to North American with a visit to Ottawa, where he met with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Sheldon Turcott, 63 or 64. Canadian newscaster. Mr. Turcott, a native of Toronto, anchored CBC-TV’s Midday from 1985-1995, and also produced The National.

Politics and government
In first-round elections in Iran, moderate reformers won control of the Majlis (parliament) from the religious conservatives who had dominated the body. The results were a victory for Iran’s reform-minded President, Mohammad Khatami. Conservatives had previously held 120 seats, the reformers 80, and independents 70. Returns showed that in the new body the moderates would have 141 seats, the conservatives 44, and independents 10. Runoff elections were to be held in April in districts where no candidate had received 25% of the vote.