February 11, 2011

70 years ago
1941

Defense
1940 Republican Party U.S. presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, who had just returned from a visit to the United Kingdom, testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in favour of the Lend-Lease bill, predicting war if Britain fell.

Politics and government
The Vichy French regime published a constitutional act announcing the appointment of Admiral Darlan as next in line of succession to Marshal Philippe Petain as chief of state.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend the Committee on Un-American Activities' probing for 15 months.

The United States Secret Service began fingerprinting and photographing reporters and other people who regularly visited the White House.

Economics and finance
The Paraguayan government took control of the foreign exchange held in the Bank of the Republic.

Labour
The American Federation of Labor executive council denounced all anti-strike legislation now before the United States Congress.

60 years ago
1951

War
South Korean troops pushed north of the 38th Parallel for the first time since the previous fall's withdrawal in the face of Chinese intervention.

World events
More than 200 refugees from 10 Soviet-bloc countries met at Independence Hall in Philadelphia and endorsed a "Declaration of the Aims and Principles of Liberation of the Central and Eastern European Peoples." The group also advocated a European federation modelled after the United States.

Sport
Hjalmar Andersen of Norway won the men's world speed skating championship in Davos, Switzerland, clinching his triumph by winning the 10,000-metre race, the last event on the two-day program.

50 years ago
1961

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Wonderland by Night--Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: 24.000 baci--Adriano Celentano

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Ramona--Blue Diamonds (7th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (Dutch Top 40): Save the Last Dance for Me--The Drifters (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): Are You Lonesome To-night?--Elvis Presley (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Calcutta--Lawrence Welk and his Orchestra
2 Will You Love Me Tomorrow--The Shirelles
3 Shop Around--The Miracles
4 Exodus--Ferrante and Teicher
--[Mantovani & his Orchestra]
5 Calendar Girl--Neil Sedaka
6 Emotions--Brenda Lee
7 There's a Moon Out Tonight--The Capris
8 Wonderland By Night--Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra
--[Louis Prima]
--[Anita Bryant]
9 Angel Baby--Rosie and the Originals
10 Wheels--The String-A-Longs
--[Billy Vaughn and his Orchestra]

Singles entering the chart were Think Twice by Brook Benton (#68); Lazy River by Bobby Darin (#71); I Don't Want to Cry by Chuck Jackson (#85); A Texan and a Girl from Mexico by Anita Bryant (#90); Please Love Me Forever by Cathy Jean and the Roommates (#94); The Touchables by Dickie Goodman (#95); I Pity the Fool by Bobby Bland (#96); Asia Minor by Kokomo (#98); Charlena by the Sevilles (#99); Cerveza by Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra (#100); and The Misfits by Don Costa, his Orchestra & Chorus (also #100). The Misfits was a version of the theme from the movie.

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 Where the Boys Are--Connie Francis
2 Ebony Eyes--The Everly Brothers
3 Baby Sittin' Boogie--Buzz Clifford
4 Apache--Jorgen Ingmann and his Guitar
5 Oh Joan--The Beau-Marks
6 Valley of Love--Johnny Ferguson
7 Wheels--The String-A-Longs
8 Shop Around--The Miracles
9 Good Time Baby--Bobby Rydell
10 There's a Moon Out Tonight--The Capris

Singles entering the chart were Three Wheels on My Wagon by Dick Van Dyke (#31); Happy Birthday Blues by Kathy Young with the Innocents (#34); Surrender by Elvis Presley (#36); I'm Tired by Ray Peterson (#37); Top Forty, News, Weather and Sports by Mark Dinning (#41); Little Miss Stuck-Up by the Playmates (#42); Stormy (Came to Town) by Donnie Owens (#44); Asia Minor by Kokomo (#45); Ram-Bunk-Shush by the Ventures (#47); Utopia by Frank Gari (#48); Think Twice by Brook Benton (#49); and Lazy River by Bobby Darin (#50).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKWX)
1 Ebony Eyes--The Everly Brothers
2 Baby Sittin' Boogie--Buzz Clifford
3 Where the Boys Are--Connie Francis
4 Calendar Girl--Neil Sedaka
5 Wheels--The String-A-Longs
6 Shop Around--The Miracles
7 Oh Joan--The Beau-Marks
8 Apache--Jorgen Ingmann and his Guitar
9 The Exodus Song--Pat Boone
10 A Scottish Soldier (Green Hills of Tyrol)--Andy Stewart

Singles entering the chart were Surrender by Elvis Presley (#24); Battle of Gettysburg by Fred Darian (#33); Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson (#36); A Texan and a Girl from Mexico by Anita Bryant (#37); Lazy River by Bobby Darin (#38); Don't Worry by Marty Robbins (#39); and You Can Have Her by Roy Hamilton (#40).

On television tonight
The Roaring 20's, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Black Saturday

Space
The mission of the Discoverer 5 capsule that had been launched by the United States on August 13, 1959 ended.

World events
Officials in the rebel Congolese province of Katanga said that the car from which deposed Congolese Premier Patrice Lumumba and two fellow prisoners had escaped two days earlier had been found overturned in a ditch about 45 miles north of the farmhouse where the men had been kept prisoner, but that there was no trace of the fugitives. The official story from Katanga was that the men had escaped police custody while being transported from one place of confinement to another, and that this account of events was not a cover-up for an assassination.

40 years ago
1971

Hit parade
#1 single in France (IFOP): My Sweet Lord--George Harrison (5th week at #1)

Defense
At ceremonies in Washington, London, and Moscow, representatives of 63 nations signed a treaty prohibiting installation of nuclear weapons on the seabed beyond any nation’s 12-mile coastal zone.

Hockey
NHL
Minnesota 2 @ Montreal 6

Jean Beliveau scored 3 goals, including the 500th of his NHL career, to help the Canadiens defeat the North Stars at the Montreal Forum. Phil Roberto and Frank Mahovlich assisted on Mr. Beliveau's 500th goal.



30 years ago
1981

Hit parade
Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 9 to 5--Dolly Parton
2 The Tide is High--Blondie
3 (Just Like) Starting Over--John Lennon
4 The Winner Takes it All--ABBA
5 Celebration--Kool & The Gang
6 I Love a Rainy Night--Eddie Rabbitt
7 Keep on Loving You--REO Speedwagon
8 Looking for Clues--Robert Palmer
9 Turn Me Loose--Loverboy
10 Woman--John Lennon

The only single entering the chart was Giving it Up for Your Love by Delbert McClinton (#18).

Diplomacy
In response to a U.S. charge that Nicaragua was permitting Cuba to use its territory for shipment of arms to El Salvador, the Sandanista government of Nicaragua urged the Salvadoran rebels to seek a political settlement with the Salvadoran government of President Jose Napoleon Duarte.

American freelance journalist Cynthia Dwyer was on her way home to Buffalo after being freed by Iran after 10 months in captivity. She had gone to Iran in April 1980 to write articles about the situation there, but had been arrested on May 5 and charged with spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

War
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe vowed to take action against warring Negro guerrilla troops in his country.

Edmontonia
Beatrix Bohm was chosen Miss Teen Edmonton 1981. This blogger picked her at the beginning of the show, which was televised on CFRN.

25 years ago
1986

Diplomacy
Anatoli Shcharansky, who had been in prison for eight years after being convicted of espionage, was one of four Soviet dissidents released by the U.S.S.R. and East Germany in exchange for five convicted of espionage who were released by the U.S.A. and West Germany. Mr. Shcharansky flew to Israel to be reunited with is wife Avital, from whom he had been separated for 12 years.

War
Iran captured Fao, once the site of Iraq’s biggest oil export terminal. Although it was no longer being used for this purpose, Fao lay within sight of Kuwait.

Disasters
Former NASA budget analyst Richard Cook, testifying before U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s commission into the January 28 space shuttle Challenger explosion, talked about a memo he had written in July 1985 warning that "the charring of seals" from recent shuttle flights presented "a potentially major problem." Lawrence Mulloy, NASA’s project manager for the booster rockets, testified that in no previous instance had both the primary and the backup seals failed.

20 years ago
1991

Hit parade
#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Ai wa Katsu--(愛は勝つ)--Kan (8th week at #1)

#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter--Iron Maiden (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Beinhart--Torfrock (3rd week at #1)

Defense
U.S.S.R. President Mikhail Gorbachev notified the Warsaw Pact that the military side of the alliance would disband on April 1. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria had already indicated that they would withdraw from the alliance if it did not disband.

War
Allied officials reported that 39 Iraqi planes had been shot down and that 142 had now flown to Iran.

10 years ago
2001

Americana
Three Rivers Stadium, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Steelers since 1970, was imploded, with thousands of people watching from several locations.