December 31, 2010

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Mike Matson!

1,140 years ago
870

War
West Saxon forces led by Æthelwulf, Ealdorman of Berkshire defeated invading Vikings in the Battle of Englefield. The Vikings were driven back to Reading, East Anglia, and many Danes were killed.

500 years ago
1510

Died on this date
Bianca Maria Sforza, 38. Holy Roman Empress, 1508-1510. Bianca Maria, the daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan, became Queen consort of Germany and Archduchess upon her marriage to King Maximilian I of Germany in 1494, and became Empress consort upon his election in 1508. The marriage was unhappy, and Bianca Maria lived with her own court in the Tyrol until her death in Innsbruck.

410 years ago
1600

Business
The British East India Company was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I.

350 years ago
1660

Franciana
King James II of England was named Duke of Normandy by King Louis XIV of France.

340 years ago
1670

World events
The English naval expedition of Rear-Admiral Sir John Narborough left Corral Bay, Chile, having surveyed the coast and lost four hostages to the Spanish.

290 years ago
1720

Born on this date
Charles Edward Stuart. Scottish claimant to the throne of England. "Bonnie Prince Charlie," the grandson of King James II of England (King James VII of Scotland), was born in Rome, where his father Jame Stuart, pretender to the throne, had a residence. Charles led a French-backed uprising in 1745 to establish his father on the throne of England, but was defeated in the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and fled to the Isle of Skye and eventually to continental Europe, where he spent the rest of his life, except for a secret visit to London in 1750, where he apparently converted from Roman Catholicism to Anglicanism by taking Anglican communion, thus indicating his willingness to reign as a Protestant. After James Stuart's death on January 1, 1766, Charles became the claimant to the English throne as Charles III. He died of a stroke on January 30, 1788, 30 days after his 67th birthday.

220 years ago
1790

Journalism
Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues still survive, was published for the first time.

180 years ago
1830

Born on this date
Isma'il Pasha. Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, 1863-1879. Isma'il Pasha, the grandson of Ottoman Governor of Egypt Muhammad Ali Pasha, succeeded his uncle Said I, and secured Ottoman and international recognition for his title of Khedive (Viceroy) in preference to Wāli (Governor), which had been used by his predecessors. Khedive Isma'il Pasha initiated political, economic, and educational reforms in an attempt to modernize Egypt into a European rather than an African state. He established an assembly of delegates, oversaw construction of the Egyptian portion of the Suez Canal, and conducted an unsuccessful war against Ethiopia. In 1879, Khedive Isma'il Pasha gave into a nationalist uprising led by Colonel Ahmed Urabi, and dissolved the government. Britain and France insisted on the restoration fo their ministers to office, and were successful in pressuring Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II to depose the Khedive; he was replaced by his son Tewfik Pasha. Isma'il Pasha went into exile in Italy, but was eventually allowed by Sultan Abdülhamid to retire to his Palace of Emirgan, where he remained virtually a state prisoner until his death on March 2, 1895 at the age of 64, which reportedly resulted from trying to guzzle two bottles of champagne in one draft.

150 years ago
1860

Born on this date
Joseph S. Cullinan. U.S. oil magnate. Mr. Cullinan worked with Standard Oil for 13 years before founding the J.S. Cullinan Company in Texas in 1900. He co-founded The Texas Company in 1902, serving until 1913 as president of the company, which became Texaco Incorporated in 1959. Mr. Cullinan died on March 11, 1937 at the age of 66.

Transportation
Canada's first railway tunnel opened in Brockville, Canada West with the passage of a wood-burning locomotive and two coaches; engineered by Samuel Keefer in 1854, the tunnel connected the harbour with the Grand Trunk Railway station.

140 years ago
1870

Born on this date
Tommy Connolly. U.K.-born U.S. baseball umpire. Mr. Connolly, a native of Manchester, emigrated to the United States with his family in 1885, and soon became interested in baseball. He umpired in the New England League (1894-1897) and moved up to the National League in 1898. Unhappy with NL President Nicholas Young's reluctance to back up the league's umpires, Mr. Connolly resigned early in the 1900 season, and joined the American League when the AL began operating as a major league in 1901. He worked in the AL for the next 30 years, establishing a reputation as the league's best umpire. Mr. Connolly was removed from field duty in June 1931 by American League President Will Harridge, who was concerned about the quality of the league's umpires. Mr. Connolly was made the AL's supervisor of umpires, holding that position in 1954, coming out of retirement to work in one game in 1932. He worked 4,770 regular season major league games in 35 yers (1898-1932), and 45 World Series games in 8 years. Mr. Connolly was inducted into the Honor Rolls of Baseball in 1946; with Bill Klem of the National League, he was one of the first two umpires inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953. Mr. Connolly died on April 28, 1961 at the age of 90.

130 years ago
1880

Born on this date
George Marshall. U.S. military officer and politician. General of the Army Marshall was Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1939-1945 under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and was largely responsible for organizing the U.S. military buildup and coordinating Allied activities in Europe and the Pacific during World War II. He served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Truman from 1947-1949, and became known for the Marshall Plan, a program of economic aid to Western European countries that has been credited with preventing the recipients from turning to Communism, and led to Gen. Marshall being awarded the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize. Gen. Marshall served as Secretary of Defense under President Truman from 1950-1951. He died on October 16, 1959 at the age of 78.

100 years ago
1910

Born on this date
Carl Dudley. U.S. film director and producer. Mr. Dudley was known for directing and producing short travelogues from 1943-1963, including the 30-film series This World of Ours (1950-1955) and the Cinerama feature South Seas Adventure (1958). He died in Hong Kong on September 2, 1973 at the age of 62.

Died on this date
John Moisant, 42. U.S. aviator. Mr. Moisant, the son of French-Canadian parents who had emigrated to the United States, moved with his brothers to El Salvador in 1896 and bought sugarcane plantations, using the income to lead his future aviation adventures and two failed revolutions and coup attempts against Salvadoran President General Fernando Figueroa in 1907 and 1909. Mr. Moisant began designing airplanes in France in 1909 and flying in 1910, returning to the United States to become the 13th registered pilot in the U.S.A. He participated in several competitive events, including the 1910 Michelin Cup near Harahan, Louisiana, in which he was killed when he was thrown from his plane when it was hit by a gust of wind, fell 25 feet to the ground, and landed on his head, breaking his neck.

Arch Hoxsey, 26. U.S. aviator. Mr. Hoxsey studied at the Wright Brothers' school and began flying in 1910. On October 11, he took former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as a passenger at St. Louis, making Mr. Roosevelt the first American President to fly in a plane. Mr. Hoxsey set an altitude record of 11,474 feet on December 26, 1910, but was killed in Los Angeles in a crash from 7,000 feet while trying to break his record.

70 years ago
1940

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): The Woodpecker Song--Kate Smith; Glenn Miller and his Orchestra (2nd month at #1)

Married on this date
U.S. actress Bette Davis and Boston businessman Arthur Farnsworth were married at a ranch in Rimrock, Arizona.

War
In his New Year's proclamation to the German armed forces, German Fuehrer Adolf Hitler declared: "The year 1941 will bring consummation of the greatest victory in our history."

Politics and government
In contrast to Mr. Hitler's message, New Year's messages from the Japanese government were gloomy. Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka said, "I fear the coming year will prove most tragic and unfortunate for all mankind."

Defense
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt characterized as "silly" a suggestion that the United States accept British islands in the Atlantic Ocean in exchange for material aid.

Scandal
Howard Hopson, 58, who had obtained control of Associated Gas and Electric Company in 1922 for $48,000 and had built it into a billion-dollar utilities empire, was convicted by a U.S. federal jury in New York on 17 counts of defrauding investors of nearly $20 million.

Labour
Ford Motor Company appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court from a lower court ruling upholding a National Labor Relations Board order that the company cease "unfair" labour practices. Ford accused the board of "bias and prejudice."

60 years ago
1950

Died on this date
Karl Renner, 80. Chancellor of Austria, 1918-1920, 1945; President of Austria, 1945-1950. Mr. Renner, a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party, sat in the Reichsrat from 1896 until its dissolution in November 1918. He became known as the "Father of the Republic" for leading the first government of German-Austria and the First Austrian Republic after World War I. Mr. Renner was President of the National Council from 1931-1933, but his party was outlawed under the Fascist regime of Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. Mr. Renner welcomed the Anschsluss by Nazi Germany in 1938, but his offer to help the regime was declined, and he stayed out of politics during World War II. He served as Chancellor of a Soviet-installed provisional government from April 27-December 20, 1945, but Western Allies regarded it as a Soviet puppet government. Mr. Renner took office as President on December 20, 1945, and was in office when he died, 17 days after his 80th birthday. He was succeeded as President by Theodor Körner.

Literature
The New York Herald Tribune listed Joy Street by Francis Parkinson Keyes as the best-selling fiction book, and Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl as the best-selling non-fiction book.

War
A heavy Chinese Communist artillery barrage north of Seoul broke a New Year's Eve calm on the Korean front.

Defense
Joseph and Stewart Alsop reported in the New York Herald Tribune that "official" estimates claimed that the U.S.S.R. had an atomic bomb stockpile of about 24 bombs, would have nearly 50 in another year, and "well over 100" at the end of two years. They said that current Soviet A-bomb output was about two per month.

Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Command General Douglas MacArthur said that Japan may have to rearm against the threat of "international lawlessness."

50 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Are You Lonesome To-night?/I Gotta Know--Elvis Presley (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: What a Sky (Su nel cielo)--Nico Fidenco

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Ramona--Blue Diamonds

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): It’s Now or Never--Elvis Presley (9th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Are You Lonesome To-night?--Elvis Presley (6th week at #1)
2 Wonderland by Night--Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra
--Louis Prima
--Anita Bryant
3 Exodus--Ferrante and Teicher
--Mantovani and his Orchestra
4 Last Date--Floyd Cramer
5 Will You Love Me Tomorrow--The Shirelles
6 A Thousand Stars--Kathy Young with the Innocents
7 North to Alaska--Johnny Horton
8 Rubber Ball--Bobby Vee
9 You're Sixteen--Johnny Burnette
10 Many Tears Ago--Connie Francis

Singles entering the chart were All in My Mind by Maxine Brown (#85); Utopia by Frank Gari (#89); Oh, How I Miss You Tonight by Jeanne Black (#90); Willie by Bill Black's Combo (#92); Stand by Me by Little Junior Parker (#93); There's a Moon Out Tonight by the Capris (#94); Please Come Home for Christmas by Charles Brown (#96); Looking Back by Dinah Washington (#97); Is There Something on Your Mind by Jack Scott (#99); Gee Baby by Joe & Ann (#100); C'est Si Bon (It's So Good) by Conway Twitty (also #100); and How to Handle a Woman by Johnny Mathis (also #100). Looking Back was the other side of We Have Love, charting at #74.

#1 single in Vancouver (CFUN): Calendar Girl--Neil Sedaka (2nd week at #1)

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKWX)
1 Wonderland by Night--Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra
(3rd week at #1) --Anita Bryant
2 Calendar Girl--Neil Sedaka
3 Are You Lonesome To-night?--Elvis Presley
4 Doll House--Donnie Brooks
5 Lonely Teenager--Dion
6 Rubber Ball--Bobby Vee
7 North to Alaska/The Mansion You Stole--Johnny Horton
8 Corinna, Corinna--Ray Peterson
9 Lovey Dovey--Buddy Knox
10 Flamingo Express--The Royaltones

Singles entering the chart were The Mansion You Stole; Calcutta by Lawrence Welk and his Orchestra (#21); Your Other Love by the Flamingos (#35); Cool Operator by Sandy Nelson (#38); and (Ghost) Riders in the Sky by the Ramrods (#40).

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Carleton Hobbs and Norman Shelley, on BBC Home Service
Tonight’s episode: The Valley of Fear

Died on this date
C.D. Howe, 74. U.S.-born Canadian politician. Clarence Decatur Howe, a native of Waltham, Massachusetts, moved to Halifax as a young man to become a professor at Dalhousie University. He then became wealthy as an engineer, and settled in Port Arthur, Ontario, where he was elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party in 1935. Prime Minister Mackenzie King named him to the cabinet as Minister of Railways and Canals and Minister of Marine; eventually, Mr. Howe became Minister of Transport. Upon the beginning of World War II and the re-election of the Liberal government in 1940, Mr. King named Mr. Howe Minister of Munitions and Supply, with the job of mobilizing all Canadian resources toward the war effort. It was in this portfolio that Mr. Howe spearheaded the transformation of the basis of Canada’s economy from agriculture to industry; he’s been credited with paving the way for Canada to have one of the world’s highest standards of living. As the war moved toward its conclusion, Prime Minister King, afraid that Mr. Howe might decide to leave politics, named him Minister of Reconstruction and Supply. When the government, now led by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, decided in 1951 that Canada needed to rearm while participating in the Korean War, Mr. Howe was given a new portfolio, and became Minister of Defence Production. A bitter debate in Parliament in 1955 and 1956 over building a pipeline to transport natural gas from Alberta to the United States turned many people against the Liberals, and they were narrowly defeated in the federal election of 1957. Mr. Howe was among the defeated, losing his seat in Port Arthur to Co-operative Commonwealth Federation candidate Douglas Fisher. He died of a heart attack, 15 days before his 75th birthday.

Defense
In a statement issued with President Dwight Eisenhower’s approval, the U.S. State Department warned that the United States "would take the most serious view of any intervention in Laos by the Chinese Communists or Viet Minh (North Vietnam) armed forces or others in support of the Communist Pathet Lao, who are in rebellion against the Royal Laotian government." The statement said that the U.S. was consulting its South East Asia Treaty Organization allies about the Laos situation.

40 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in France (IFOP): J'habite en France--Michel Sardou

Edmonton's top 10 (CJCA)
1 My Sweet Lord/Isn’t it a Pity--George Harrison (2nd week at #1)
2 Knock Three Times--Dawn
3 I Think I Love You--The Partridge Family
4 Sing High, Sing Low--Anne Murray
5 If You Could Read My Mind--Gordon Lightfoot
6 Rose Garden--Lynn Anderson
7 Most of All--B.J. Thomas
8 Domino--Van Morrison
9 For the Good Times--Ray Price
10 Black Magic Woman--Santana

Died on this date
Cyril Scott, 91. U.K. poet and composer. Mr. Scott was a highly-regarded pianist who composed about 400 works, including two symphonies, three operas, three piano concertos, and numerous orchestral, vocal, and chamber works. He was an occultist who wrote prose and poetry advocating alternative diet and medical practices.

World events
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation reduced the death sentences of two Soviet Jews--who had been convicted of plotting to hijack a plane to escape to Israel--to 15 years in a labour camp. The court reduced the prison sentences of three of the other nine convicted conspirators.

Disasters
All 90 aboard were reported dead after a Soviet Aeroflot airliner crashed on takeoff from Leningrad.

A chartered French plane carrying 30 members of an Algerian soccer team to Mahon, Spain was lost after sending distress signals 65 miles off Algeria in the Mediterranean Sea.

30 years ago
1980

Died on this date
Raoul Walsh, 93. U.S. actor and director. Mr. Walsh, born Albert Edward Walsh, acted in silent movies in the 1910s and '20s, and began his directing career while still acting. His best-known performance was as John Wilkes Booth in The Birth of a Nation (1915). Mr. Walsh directed The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and other silent films, and was supposed to direct and act in In Old Arizona (1928), but lost his right eye in a car accident while driving on location, ending his acting career. He continued his career as a director with movies such as The Big Trail (1930), and numerous films for Warner Brothers Pictures starring Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Errol Flynn, such as The Roaring Twenties (1939); They Died with Their Boots On (1941); and White Heat (1949). Mr. Walsh died of a heart attack.

Marshall McLuhan, 69. Canadian media scholar. Born in Edmonton, raised in Winnipeg, and resident in Toronto, Dr. McLuhan coined the term "global village" and became famous for his phrase "The medium is the message" and variations thereof. His best-known book was Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964). Dr. McLuhan made a memorable cameo appearance as himself in the movie Annie Hall (1977). He died in Toronto, 15 months after suffering a stroke.

Politics and government
Connecticut Lieutenant Governor William O’Neill was sworn in as the state’s Governor, replacing Ella Grasso, who had been the first woman elected governor of a state without having a politician-husband as predecessor. Ms. Grasso had decided to resign after being diagnosed with liver cancer.

25 years ago
1985

Died on this date
Sam Spiegel, 84. Austro-Hungarian-born U.S. movie producer. Mr. Spiegel worked in Germany before emigrating to Mexico in 1933 and the United States in 1938. He was an independent movie producer, using the alias S.P. Eagle until 1954, and winning Academy Awards for Best Picture for On the Waterfront (1954); The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957); and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Mr. Spiegel was a notorious sexual degenerate.

Rick Nelson, 45. U.S. musician. The son of bandleader Ozzie Nelson and his wife Harriet Hilliard Nelson, Eric Hilliard Nelson began acting on his parents’ radio show at the age of 9 and remained with the program when it moved to television in 1952. He had his first hit record, the two-sided hit I’m Walkin’/A Teenager’s Romance in 1957. Poor Little Fool reached #1 on the Billboard Best Seller and Hot 100 charts in 1958, and Travelin’ Man (1961) hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. From 1957-1964 Mr. Nelson had 26 top-40 hits on the Billboard pop chart, 17 of which reached the top 10. 11 of his singles were records that had both sides in the top 40. He also showed promise as an actor with fine performances in the movies Rio Bravo (1959) and The Wackiest Ship in the Army (1960). After the hits diminished, Mr. Nelson began writing and performing his own songs, and was a pioneer in the genre known as country-rock with albums such as Bright Lights and Country Music (1966). He returned to the top 40 singles chart in late 1969-early 1970 with She Belongs To Me, and had a major comeback hit with Garden Party, which reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in the RPM 100 Singles chart in Canada in the fall of 1972. Mr. Nelson was on his way to a New Year’s Eve engagement in Dallas when a fire began in the cabin of the vintage DC-3 carrying him and his band, and the plane crashed while making a forced landing in DeKalb, Texas. Mr. Nelson, his fiancee, and five members of his band were killed.

Radio
Springbok Radio, South Africa’s first commercial radio station, went off the air for the last time, ending more than 35 years of broadcasting.

Economics and finance
The failure of a bank in Brooklyn, New York brought the number of bank failures for the year in the United States to 120.

The U.S. dollar ended 1985 well below the record levels set in March. The decline against other currencies had been slow during the summer and greater in the fall.

20 years ago
1990

Hit parade
#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Ai wa Katsu (愛は勝つ)--Kan (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Justify My Love--Madonna (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Sadeness Part I--Enigma (8th week at #1)

Died on this date
George Allen, 72. U.S. football coach. After years in the college ranks, Mr. Allen joined the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League as an assistant coach in 1957, moving on to the Chicago Bears in 1958 under head coach George Halas. Mr. Allen masterminded the defense that gave up an average of 10 points per game as the Bears won the NFL championship in 1963. He became head coach of the Los Angeles Rams in 1966; from 1966-1970 the Rams compiled a regular season record of 49-17-4, but were unable to get past the first round of the playoffs. Mr. Allen was fired after the 1970 season and was promptly hired to be the head coach of the Washington Redskins, where he served from 1971-1977. Mr. Allen’s teams in Washington were known as the "Over-the-Hill Gang" because of his habit of trading away draft choices for proven veterans. The Redskins’ best season under Mr. Allen was 1972, when they led the National Football Conference with a record of 11-3, and won the NFC championship, only to lose 14-7 to the undefeated Miami Dolphins in the 1973 Super Bowl. Mr. Allen rejoined the Rams as head coach in 1978, but was fired after just two pre-season games. He joined CBS as a commentator on football telecasts. Mr. Allen joined the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League as general manager after the 1981 season, but departed after just a few weeks in which he accomplished nothing except large long-distance telephone bills. In 1983 Mr. Allen was head coach of the Chicago Blitz in the first season of the United States Football League, where he compiled a 12-6 record before losing in the first round of the playoffs. In 1984 he became head coach of the Arizona Wranglers when the owners of the Wranglers and the Blitz swapped the two franchises almost completely. In 1984 the Wranglers were 10-8, and won two playoff games to become Western Conference champions before losing 23-3 to the Philadelphia Stars in the USFL championship game. Mr. Allen left coaching after that, but returned in 1990 as head coach at California State University, Long Beach. He led CSULB to its first winning record in many years, but died six weeks after the last game. CSULB won the game and the players awarded Mr. Allen a Gatorade shower, but he procrastinated in changing out of wet clothes, and his health declined until he died of ventricular fibrillation. According to his son George, the heart arryhtmia, and not the Gatorade shower, was the cause of death.

Vasily Lazarev, 62. U.S.S.R. physician and cosmonaut. Dr. Lazarev became a military physician upon graduating from high school in 1951, qualified as a fighter pilot in 1954, participated in stratospheric balloon flights in 1962, and became a cosmonaut in 1966. He commanded the two-man Soyuz 12 mission in 1973 and the aborted Soyuz 18a mission in 1975, suffering injuries in the hard landing of the latter from which he never fully recovered, leading to his dismissal from military service and the cosmonaut corps on medical grounds in 1985.

Economics and finance
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1990 at 2,633.66, down 119.54 points, or 4.3%, for 1990.

Chess
Gary Kasparov of the U.S.S.R. retained his world championship against countryman and former world champion Anatoly Karpov. Mr. Kasparov won 4 games to Mr. Karpov’s 3, with 17 draws. The final score of the match was 12.5-11.5 for Mr. Kasparov. Mr. Kasparov’s victory earned him U.S.$1.7 million and a diamond-studded sculpture valued at $1 million. Mr. Karpov took home $1.3 million.



20 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Alan Cranston, 86. U.S. politician. Mr. Cranston, a Democrat, represented California in the United States Senate (1969-1993), serving as his party's whip (1977-1991) and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (1977-1981, 1987-1983).

José Greco, 82. Italian-born U.S. dancer and choreographer. Mr. Greco, born Costanzo Greco Bucci, moved to New York City with his family at the age of 10. He popularized flamenco dancing on stage and screen in the 1940s and '50s, and died eight days after his 82nd birthday.

Football
NFL
AFC Wild Card Playoff
Denver 3 @ Baltimore 21



NFC Wild Card Playoff
Tampa Bay 3 @ Philadelphia 21