February 8, 2011

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Maria Nastas!

1,590 years ago
421

Politics and government
Constantius III was appointed co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire by Emperor Honorius.

720 years ago
1291

Born on this date
Afonso IV. King of Portugal, 1325-1357. Afonso IV "the Brave" was the only legitimate son of King Denis and Elizabeth of Aragon, and acceded to the throne upon the death of his father. His reign was mostly peaceful, with the exception of a four-year war against Castile. The latter part of King Afonso's reign was characterized by political intrigue, much of it resulting from his son and heir Pedro's affair with Inês de Castro, his wife's lady-in-waiting. King Afonso IV died on May 28, 1357 at the age of 66, and was succeeded by his son Pedro I.

420 years ago
1591

Born on this date
Guercino. Italian artist. Guercino, whose real name was Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, was a Baroque painter and draftsman who produced over 140 paintings and numerous drawings. He painted and drew landscapes, genre subjects, and caricatures. Guercino died on December 22, 1666 at the age of 75.

410 years ago
1601

World events
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, led a rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I and the court faction led by Sir Robert Cecil in order to gain further influence at court. Lord Essex, the Earl of Southampton, and other followers surrendered that night.

380 years ago
1631

Britannica
King Charles I granted Cape Breton Island to Robert Gordon of Lochinvar and his son Robert.

Politics and government
King Louis XIII of France named Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour as Lieutenant General and Governor of Acadia.

270 years ago
1741

Born on this date
André Grétry. Belgian-born French composer. Mr. Grétry moved to France in 1767 after years of study in Rome. He wrote 50 operas, and was known for his opéras comiques, many of them influenced by the great events he witnessed. Mr. Grétry died on September 24, 1813 at the age of 72.

150 years ago
1861

Politics and government
42 delegates from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida concluded their convention in Montgomery, Alabama by creating the Confederate States of America. A provisional constitution was adopted, similar to that of the United States of America, the Union from which they were attempting to secede. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected provisional President of the C.S.A., with Alexander Stephens of Georgia as provisional Vice President.

90 years ago
1921

Died on this date
George Formby Sr., 45. U.K. entertainer. Mr. Formby, born James Lawler Booth, was one of Britain's most popular music hall and revue singers and comedians in the first two decades of the 20th century. He created numerous characters, one of which influenced Charlie Chaplin's character The Little Tramp. Mr. Formby long suffered from poor health, and he died from pulmonary tuberculosis. His son George Hoy Booth also performed under the name George Formby, and became more famous than his father.

Economics and finance
Quebec's caisses populaires (credit unions) set up a Propaganda Committee to promote their interests.

80 years ago
1931

Politics and government
Three days of voting in the Guatemalan general election concluded as General Jorge Ubico Castañeda, the candidate of the Progressive Liberal Party and the only candidate on the ballot, was elected President. The PLP took all 69 seats in the Congress.

Disasters
All three people aboard a Dominion Airlines Desoutter died when it crashed near Wairoa in northern Hawke’s Bay in the first fatal accident involving a scheduled passenger air service in New Zealand.

Hockey
IIHF World Championships @ Krynica-Zdrój, Poland
Final round
Austria (2-3) 1 Sweden (1-3-1) 0
Poland (1-3-1) 0 Czechoslovakia (1-3-1) 0
Canada (4-0-1) 2 U.S.A. (4-1) 0

The University of Manitoba Grads, representing Canada, shut out the Americans to win Canada's fifth world championship. Austria edged Sweden to become European champions.

75 years ago
1936

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Harry West, on MBS
Tonight’s episode: The Red Headed League

Died on this date
Charles Curtis, 76. 31st Vice President of the United States, 1929-1933. Mr. Curtis, a Republican, was partly of Kaw Indian ancestry, and grew up on a reservation in Kansas. He represented his state in the United States House of Representatives from 1893-1907 and in the Senate from 1907-1913 and 1915-1929, when he took office as Vice President under President Herbert Hoover. Mr. Curtis was Mr. Hoover's running mate again in 1932, but the administration was unpopular because of its perceived inability to deal with the Depression, and the ticket was soundly defeated. Mr. Curtis then retired from politics and practiced law until his death from a heart attack, two weeks after his 76th birthday.

Football
NFL
The National Football League held its first draft of college players. Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago, winner of the 1935 Downtown Athletic Trophy--soon to be renamed the Heisman Trophy--as the nation’s outstanding college player, was the first player selected, by the Philadelphia Eagles. The other Pennsylvania team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, took as their first selection a back named William Shakespeare.

70 years ago
1941

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Frenesi--Artie Shaw and his Orchestra (8th week at #1)

War
German and Bulgarian general staffs reached a secret agreement for permitting passage of German troops to attack Greece. The Greek government asked for British aid in the case of attack by German forces.

Defense
The United States House of Representatives passed the Lend-Lease bill by a vote of 260-165 after rejecting 13 additional amendments. A Gallup Poll reported that 54% of American voters questioned in a recent survey supported the Lend-Lease bill, with 22% opposed.

U.S. National Education Association President Dr. Donald DuShane proposed formation of a teachers' defense commission to prevent threatened attacks on public schools.

Diplomacy
Malcolm MacDonald was appointed British High Commissioner to Canada.

Harry Hopkins, personal representative of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, had his last meeting with Mr. Churchill at Chequers, the private prime ministerial retreat.

Politics and government
The French government reported that former Prime Minister Pierre Laval had rejected Prime Minister Marshal Philippe Petain's offer to be readmitted to the Vichy cabinet as a minister of state; Mr. Laval reportedly demanded the prime ministership with a cabinet of his own choosing.

Economics and finance
Brazilian President Getulio Vargas decreed that export permits would be required for Brazilian raw materials, chemical products, machinery, and tools to all countries outside the Americas.

Labour
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ordered International Harvester Company to abolish company-dominated unions in its six Midwestern plants.

60 years ago
1951

Died on this date
Fritz Thyssen, 77. German industrialist. Mr. Thyssen took over his father's mining and steel companies in 1926, forming United Steelworks (Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG) and becoming one of the most influential businessmen in Germany. He began supporting the Nazi Party in 1923, but didn't join the party in 1933, when he was elected to the Reichstag. Mr. Thyssen, a Roman Catholic, began criticizing Nazi persecution of Catholics in the late 1930s, and increasingly opposed the party. He opposed the German cause at the beginning of World War II, resulting in his expulsion from the Nazi Party and the Reichstag. Mr. Thyssen fled to France, but was caught up in the German invasion, and ended up spending most of the war in German custody, first in a sanatorium and then in two concentration camps. He was declared a lesser offender by a denazification tribunal in 1948, and paid 500,000 Deutschmarks in compensation to those who had been harmed by his actions. In 1950, Mr. Thyssen and his wife moved to Argentina, where he died.

War
U.S. tanks and artillery shelled Seoul in the U.S. "kill Communists" offensive.

Politics and government
The Convention People's Party, led by Kwame Nkrumah, won 34 of 38 elected seats in the Assembly in the Gold Coast general election. Mr. Nkrumah was elected in Accra Central despite being in prison at the time; he was soon released. Most seats in the Assembly were held by appointed members.



Crime
In New York City, U.S. Federal Judge Gregory Noonan sentenced former U.S. Commerce Department economist William Remington to five years in prison and a $2,000 fine, the day after being convicted of perjury for telling a grand jury in May 1950 that he had never been a member of the Communist Party.

Medicine
Mrs. Dorothy Stevens, 23, recovered in a Chicago hospital after being found frozen in an alley with a body temperature of 64 F., the lowest for any recorded recovery.

Economics and finance
The British government raised the pay and allowances of the royal family by 10%, assuming about £40,000 in household expenses.

Labour
On the orders of U.S. President Harry Truman, the U.S. Army directed 120,000 striking railroad workers to return to work by February 10 or lose their jobs. President Truman's order also granted a temporary, immediate pay raise of 12½c for yard men and 5c per hour for road men.

Baseball
Boston Red Sox' left fielder Ted Williams signed his 1951 contract with the team for about $125,000, making him the sport's highest-paid player. He batted .317 with 28 home runs and 97 runs batted in in 89 games in a 1950 season that was interrupted by a broken elbow suffered in the major league All-Star Game.

50 years ago
1961

Defense
At a press conference, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, addressing the issue of a "missile gap" in favour of the U.S.S.R., said that administration "studies are not complete and therefore it would be premature to reach a judgement as to whether there is a gap or not a gap."



40 years ago
1971

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): My Sweet Lord--George Harrison (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Bōkyō--Shinichi Mori (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Te Quiero, Te Quiero--Nino Bravo (8th week at #1)

War
Operation Dewey Canyon II, an invasion of Laos by 21,000 South Vietnamese troops supported by heavy U.S. airpower and artillery fire, began. It was the first day of a 44-day assault on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong’s 300-mile infiltration network from Hanoi into South Vietnam and Cambodia.

World events
Cambodian Premier Lon Nol suffered a paralyzing stroke.

Protest
600 U.S. National Guardsmen were ordered into Wilmington, North Carolina to restore order after four days of racial violence in which two people had been shot to death.

Economics and finance
NASDAQ, the world's first electronic stock exchange, held its first trading day.

30 years ago
1981

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Shaddap You Face--Joe Dolce Music Theatre (8th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: (Just Like) Starting Over--John Lennon (4th week at #1)

Health
A report from the Overseas Development Council announced that death rates in backward nations had been increasing. The chief factors cited were a slowdown in economic development and the advances in controlling diseases, which meant that the people were being attacked by diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections, and malnutrition.

Disasters
A fire in a circus tent in Bangalore, India killed 66 people and injured 500.

21 people were crushed to death in a stampede after a soccer match at Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens.

Figure Skating
Scott Hamilton of Bowling Green, Ohio received two perfect 6.0 marks in winning his first U.S. men’s championship.

Hockey
NHL
Calgary 10 @ Edmonton 4

25 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Diamond--Via Verdi

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Nikita--Elton John (8th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): A Good Heart--Feargal Sharkey (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Only Love--Nana Mouskouri

#1 single in the U.K.: The Sun Always Shines on T.V.--A-Ha (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): That’s What Friends are For--Dionne and Friends (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder) (4th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 That’s What Friends are For--Dionne and Friends (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder) (3rd week at #1)
2 Burning Heart--Survivor
3 I’m Your Man--Wham!
4 Talk to Me--Stevie Nicks
5 When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going--Billy Ocean
6 Say You, Say Me--Lionel Richie
7 My Hometown--Bruce Springsteen
8 How Will I Know--Whitney Houston
9 Kyrie--Mr. Mister
10 Spies Like Us--Paul McCartney

Singles entering the chart were Rock Me Amadeus by Falcon (#76); Tender Love by Force M.D.’s (#79); Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer (#83); Life's What You Make It by Talk Talk (#88); Lying by Peter Frampton (#89); and Jimmy Mack by Sheena Easton (#90). Tender Love was from the movie Krush Groove (1985).

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 I Miss You--Klymaxx
2 That’s What Friends are For--Dionne and Friends (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder)
3 Rock Me Amadeus--Falco
4 Party All the Time--Eddie Murphy
5 When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going--Billy Ocean
6 Say You, Say Me--Lionel Richie
7 I’m Your Man--Wham!
8 Conga--Miami Sound Machine
9 Tarzan Boy--Baltimora
10 Talk to Me--Stevie Nicks

Singles entering the chart were Eurasian Eyes by Corey Hart (#78); Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone by Glass Tiger (#82); Another Night by Aretha Franklin (#90); Night Moves by Marilyn Martin (#94); A Good Heart by Feargal Sharkey (#95); Vienna Calling by Falco (#97); and The Power of Love by Jennifer Rush (#98).

Died on this date
Diane Elsroth. U.S. crime victim. Ms. Elsroth, a resident of Peekskill, New York, died after taking a Tylenol capsule that contained potassium cyanide. The bottle containing the deadly capsule had been purchased at an A&P supermarket in Bronxville, New York. Ms. Elsroth's death was reminiscent of the deaths of seven people in 1982 from the same cause; those murders have never been solved. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized thousands of packages of Tylenol capsules in the Bronxville area.

Disasters
In Alberta’s worst train crash, 23 people were killed and 95 injured in a collision between a Via Rail Supercontinental passenger train and a Canadian National Railways freight train near Hinton. The freight train passed warning lights and a stop light before jumping a closed switch into the path of the oncoming passenger train.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 4 @ Washington 5 (OT)
St. Louis 2 @ Toronto 3 (OT)

20 years ago
1991

War
U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Saudi Arabia to review the progress of the war against Iraq.

10 years ago
2001

Died on this date
Ivo Caprino, 80. Norwegian director and screenwriter. Mr. Caprino was known for his stop-motion puppet films, especially Flåklypa Grand Prix (Pinchcliffe Grand Prix) (1975). He died of cancer, nine days before his 81st birthday.

Diplomacy
Colombian President Andres Pastrana began two days of talks with Manuel Marulanda, leader of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a rebel group that had been fighting the Colombian government since the 1960s.

Politics and government
Lorne Calvert was sworn in as Premier of Saskatchewan, replacing Roy Romanow as head of the province's New Democratic Party government.

Economics and finance
U.S. President George W. Bush submitted a proposal to Congress to lower federal taxes.