March 4, 2010

220 years ago
1790

Franciana
France was divided into 83 départements, cutting across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on ownership of land by the nobility.

130 years ago
1880

Born on this date
Channing Pollock. U.S. playwright. Mr. Pollock wrote for the stage--including books and lyrics for musicals--from the 1900s through the early 1930s. His works included The Pit (1904); In the Bishop's Carriage (1907); and Ziegfeld Follies of 1911, 1915, and 1921. Mr. Pollock wrote screenplays for The Pit (1914); The Final Curtain (1916); and The Evil Thereof (1916). He died on August 17, 1946 at the age of 66.

125 years ago
1885

Politics and government
Grover Cleveland was inaugurated as the 22nd President of the United States of America.

120 years ago
1890

Born on this date
Norman Bethune. Canadian physician. Dr. Bethune, a native of Gravenhurst, Ontario, was a thoracic surgeon who joined the Communist Party of Canada after visiting the U.S.S.R. in 1935. He aided the Loyalist forces in the Spanish Civil War in 1936-1937, where he pioneered a mobile blood transfusion service. Dr. Bethune went to China in 1938, where he aided the forces of Communist leader Mao Zedong. He died of blood poisoning at the age of 49 on November 12, 1939, after cutting his finger while operating on a soldier.

Transportation
The longest bridge in Great Britain, the Forth Bridge in Scotland, a railway bridge measuring 1,710 feet (520 metres) long and connecting Edinburgh to Fife over the Firth of Forth, was opened by the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.

110 years ago
1900

Born on this date
Herbert Biberman, 71. U.S. director and screenwriter. Mr. Biberman directed movies such as Meet Nero Wolfe (1936); When Tomorrow Comes (1939); and The Master Race (1954), writing the screenplay for the latter. He was one of the Hollywood Ten directors and screenwriters who were cited for contempt of Congress in 1947 for their refusal to answer questions regarding their involvement with the Communist Party, and were blacklisted by Hollywood as a result. Mr. Biberman directed Salt of the Earth (1954), which was filmed independently in Mexico, employing other blacklistees. He died of bone cancer on June 30, 1971 at the age of 71.

100 years ago
1910

Born on this date
Tancredo Neves. Prime Minister of Brazil, 1961-1962; President-elect of Brazil, 1985. Mr. Neves was a member of several political parties and held several cabinet posts. He was elected President on January 15, 1985, but took ill and died on April 21 at the age of 75, before he could take office.

70 years ago
1940

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Beryl Coronet

Died on this date
Hamlin Garland, 79. U.S. writer. Mr. Garland wrote fiction and non-fiction, and was best known for novels and short stories--often influenced by the single-tax theories of economic reformer Henry George--about Midwestern farmers. He published the biography Ulysses S. Grant: His Life and Character (1898), and was awarded the 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for A Daughter of the Middle West. Mr. Garland moved to Hollywood, California in 1929, and spent his last years researching psychic phenomena.

War
Soviet troops crossed Viborg Bay on the ice to the Finnish mainland west of Viborg, virtually completing the capture of the city.

Diplomacy
Italy protested British orders to seize coal-laden ships leaving German ports.

The Romanian government rejected the Italian offer to join the Anti-Comintern Pact.

Protest
Meeting in Jerusalem, the National Council of Palestinian Jews adopted a resolution stating that it could not accept the new British regulations limiting Jewish land purchases in agricultural areas of Palestine.

Economics and finance
A Gallup Poll reported that 55% of Americans favoured lending the U.K. and France money for arms an supplies should it appear that Germany was going to win the European war.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill extending provisions of the Bankruptcy Act for farmers until March 4, 1944.

New Zealand acting Prime Minister Peter Fraser announced that a $5-million loan by the Bank of New Zealand to the government for war purposes would be interest-free for the war's duration.

Agriculture
H.L. Mitchell of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union declared that nearly one million families had been displaced from southern cotton farms in the United States since 1930 because of mechanization.

Disasters
An ice storm from eastern Pennsylvania to Boston caused greater damage than the 1938 hurricane.

Basketball
NCAA
Purdue University defeated the University of Illinois to win the Big Ten championship.

60 years ago
1950

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Forever And Ever--Perry Como; Russ Morgan and his Orchestra

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy--Red Foley (Best Seller--3rd week at #1; Disc Jockey--2nd week at #1; Jukebox--4th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy--Red Foley (2nd week at #1)
--Bing Crosby
2 Rag Mop--The Ames Brothers
--Ralph Flanagan and his Orchestra
--Lionel Hampton and his Orchestra
--Johnnie Lee Wills and his Boys
3 There’s No Tomorrow--Tony Martin
4 Music! Music! Music!--Teresa Brewer with the Dixieland All Stars
5 Dear Hearts and Gentle People--Bing Crosby
--Dinah Shore
6 Johnson Rag--Jimmy Dorsey and his Original "Dorseyland" Jazz Band
--Jack Teter Trio
--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra
7 I Can Dream, Can’t I?--The Andrews Sisters
8 I Said My Pajamas (and Put on My Pray’rs)--Tony Martin and Fran Warren
9 The Cry of the Wild Goose--Frankie Laine
10 Daddy’s Little Girl--Dick Todd
--The Mills Brothers

Singles entering the chart were "The Third Man" Theme, with versions by Anton Karas; and Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians (#25); My Foolish Heart, with versions by Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra; and Billy Eckstine (#30); Open Door--Open Arms, with versions by the Andrews Sisters; and Jo Stafford (#32); God's Country, with versions by Frank Sinatra; and Vic Damone (#32); and The Kid's a Dreamer by Rosemary Clooney (#34).

Radio
Voice of America director Foy Kohler announced the construction of new and stronger transmitters in Europe to break through Soviet jamming.

Politics and government
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-1 in favour of a bill to require Communist Party members to register with the Justice Department.

Health
The Communist Chinese government reported outbreaks of bubonic plague, smallpox, diphtheria, and meningitis in China.

Agriculture
The governments of Canada and the United States announced plans to ship 100 million bushels of wheat per year to Germany and Japan when the latter two countries joined the International Wheat Agreement.

Economics and finance
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) in Japan General Douglas MacArthur ordered Japanese shipping returned to private ownership, beginning April 1, 1950.

Business
The French wine industry, with the support of the Communist Party, sued the French distributor of Coca-Cola for misrepresentation of merchandise, charging that the product contained phosphoric acid.

Cycling
Severino Rigoni and Fernando Terruzzi of Italy won the six-day, 2,082-mile international race in New York City.

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Poor Me--Adam Faith

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, starring Claude Akins, Jack Weston, and Ben Erway

This episode, where space aliens tinker with a neighbourhood’s electricity and end up turning neighbours against each other, is a classic depiction of mob psychology and one of my favourite episodes of the series.

Died on this date
Herbert O'Conor, 63. U.S. politician. Mr. O'Conor, a Democrat, was Attorney General of Maryland (1935-1939) and Governor of Maryland (1939-1947) before representing Maryland in the United States Senate (1947-1953).

Leonard Warren, 48. U.S. singer. Mr. Warren, born Leonard Warenoff, was an operatic baritone who began performing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1938, and enjoyed a performing and recording career through the 1950s. He was best known for performing the works of Giuseppe Verdi, especially Rigoletto. Mr. Warren was in the middle of a performance of La forza del destino when he collapsed with a heart attack and died on stage.

Disasters
The French freighter La Coubre exploded in Havana Harbor while unloading 76 tons of Belgian grenades and munitions, killing as many as 100 people, and injuring about 200. Unloading explosive ordnance directly onto the dock in Havana was against port regulations, and the next day, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro accused the United States of an act of sabotage, which the U.S. denied.





40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Wand'rin' Star--Lee Marvin

Wand'rin Star was from the movie Paint Your Wagon (1969).

On television today
Information Premiere Tele Midi, on ORTF

Today's newscast led off with the return of President Pompidou from his visit to the United States.



Then Came Bronson, starring Michael Parks, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Forest Primeval

Diplomacy
French President Georges Pompidou arrived back in France after an eight-day visit to the United States.

Defense
The United States Defense Department announced that, due to Congressional budget cuts of more than $4 billion for fiscal 1970, 371 military bases would be shut down or cut back to save $914 million, thus removing 58,600 civilians 35,300 military personnel from the defense payroll.

World events
Yugoslavian writer Mihajlo Mihajlov walked out of prison at Sremski Mitrovica after serving a 3½-year sentence for "hostile propaganda" against his country. He said he spent most of his time in prison writing, and told newsmen that he had not changed the beliefs that had put him there.

Health
It was reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a highly unusual move, had begun taking steps to require a federally-written warning of hazards on each package of birth control pills.

Disasters
The Eurydice, an 850-ton French submarine carrying 57 men, disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea during a practice dive. French officials reported a violent explosion at sea and floating debris, and considered the craft lost.

30 years ago
1980

War
A rebel report said that insurgents in the province of Kumar had been routed by the Soviet and Afghan attack that had begun three days earlier. A spokesman representing the Mujahedeen Moslem Fighters of Kunar and Nuristan said, "There is no one left in the Kunar Valley now except Russian soldiers and Afghan troops." He estimated civilian and insurgent casualties at more than 1,000 killed, and attributed many of the casualties to several days of artillery and air strikes that had levelled several villages between Chagasarei and Asmar prior to the attack. The spokesman accused Soviet troops of having used napalm, incendiary devices, and poison gas. Thousands of villagers reportedly fled the area, crossing the mountains into Pakistan.

Abominations
Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) party won 57 of 80 Negro seats (with 62.9% of the popular vote) to become Prime Minister in Zimbabwe’s first election under Negro majority rule. The total was enough to give Mr. Mugabe a majority even when the 20 seats reserved for whites were taken into account. Mr. Mugabe said that his government would include representatives of his rival Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) party, which took 20 seats. As Winston Churchill said about Negro African politics: "One man, one vote, one time."

Politics and government
Democratic and Republican Party primaries in the contest for the 1980 U.S. presidential nominations were held in Massachusetts and Vermont. U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy won the Democratic primary in his home state of Massachusetts with 65% of the vote and 77 delegates to 26% and 34 delegates for President Jimmy Carter. In Vermont, Mr. Carter took 74% to 26% for Sen. Kennedy. George Bush won the Republican primary in Massachusetts with 31% of the vote and 14 delegates. Right behind him was Congressman John Anderson with 31% and 13 delegates. Ronald Reagan was third with 29% and 13 delegates, followed by Sen. Howard Baker with 5% and 2 delegates. Mr. Reagan won Vermont with 31% to 30% for Rep. Anderson, 23% for Mr. Bush, and 13% for Sen. Baker.

Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance accepted the blame for the "failure in communication" that had resulted in President Jimmy Carter’s disavowal the day before of the U.S.A.’s vote on March 1 in favour of a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to dismantle its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

20 years ago
1990

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): All or Nothing--Milli Vanilli

#1 single in Switzerland: Nothing Compares 2 U--Sinéad O'Connor (2nd week at #1)

Austria's Top 10 (Ö3)
1 Nothing Compares 2 U--Sinéad O'Connor
2 Bakerman--Laid Back
3 Sit and Wait--Sydney Youngblood
4 Get Up! (Before the Night is Over)--Technotronic
5 Got to Get--Rob 'n' Raz featuring Leila K.
6 All Around the World--Lisa Stansfield
7 Don't Know Much--Linda Ronstadt (featuring Aaron Neville)
8 Another Day in Paradise--Phil Collins
9 Rich in Paradise "Going Back to My Roots"--F.P.I. Project
10 The Message is Love--Arthur Baker and the Backbeat Disciples featuring Al Green

Singles entering the chart were Touch Me by the 49ers (#16) and I Don't Wanna Lose You by Tina Turner (#29).

Died on this date
Hank Gathers, 23. U.S. basketball player. Mr. Gathers, a center with Loyola Marymount University, had led the National Collegiate Athletic Association in scoring and rebounding the previous season as a junior, and was averaging 28.8 points in 1989-90, leading the West Coast Conference. He was projected to be a first-round choice in the 1990 National Basketball Association draft. Mr. Gathers, who had collapsed during a game because of a heart arrythmia three months earlier, collapsed again during the 1st half of his team’s game in Los Angeles against Portland. He was rushed to hospital, and died 1 hour and 41 minutes later, three weeks after his 23rd birthday.



World events
Negro nationalists believed to be sympathetic to the African National Congress overthrew the president of the South African "homeland" of Ciskei.

10 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Michael Noonan, 78. N.Z.-born Australian author and screenwriter. Mr. Noonan wrote novels and radio scripts in a career spanning about 50 years from the mid-1940s through the mid-'90s. He wrote the six-novel Flying Doctor series (1961-1969), and created the television series Riptide (1969).

Politics and government
U.S. President Bill Clinton blamed the National Rifle Association for thwarting legislation that required background checks on gun buyers at gun shows; child safety locks on guns; and a ban on importation of large ammunition clips.

Golf
Karrie Webb of Australia defeated Annika Sorenstam of Sweden in a sudden-death playoff to win the Takefuji Classic in Hawaii. It was Miss Webb’s fourth win in as many tournaments in 2000.